Productivity Groove

Last year, I would "sweep" the living room every night, picking up toys, putting the pillows back where they belong, stacking coasters, whatever. But, each night by the time we went to bed, the living room was clean. By the time Christmas rolled around, I had also started including the foyer and upper stairs and had almost gotten to that stage with the dining room. But... then the Christmas season hit and things kind of fell apart. I'm really pleased that the living room is all clean again. In time, I'll recapture the stairs and foyer and dining room (which right now looks like a bulldozer shoved Christmas in there) and Lori's decided to fight the kitchen.

And I have to keep telling myself one day the kids will be able/expected to help as well. You don't want to see Rachel's room. It looks like a toy store exploded in there and then there was a tornado and then a child was let loose to play and play and play.

Where's George?

I rarely have cash and I don't always remember to mark them, but for the first time ever, one of the bills I marked (am I admitting to an illegal act*?) and entered into WheresGeorge.com actually got re-entered. I'm bummed to see it traveled at a speed of 0.14 miles per day over the past year and a half (I could have walked there faster), but it really makes me wish I had more money to mark and release.

WheresGeorge.com is a fun little site. You create an account, and then you enter in the serial number of all your bills. Then you write "www.wheresgeorge.com" on them. And then you spend them. Other people go to the site, enter in the serial numbers and you can start to see where your money goes.

I have entered 31 bills worth $971, surprised no others have shown up.

(*No. It's only illegal if it makes the bill unusable or is done in attempt to fraudlently gain from it.)

Momma Trauma

Well, today's been a day. Not for me, really, any sort of day. But for others, yeah. Started the day going to help a colleague whose car had died in Auburn. And at the same time, getting word that the m-i-l was asking Lori to call the cops (second time in two days) because now the m-i-l's landlord was putting her stuff out of the house. (As we heard it, out in the yard, computers in mud puddles, etc. In reality, on a covered porch. Had locked her out the night before. As it were, told Lori she should have thanked the woman for helping with the packing by moving everything out of the house.) Anyhow, Rachel and Taco Bell got dropped off here and Rachel and I sat at the table in my cube and had lunch and then she accompanied me to a 90 minute meeting. She did very well for more than an hour of it. I am so proud of her. Lori, meanwhile, was helping pack and move stuff to the Senior Center where it was going to be stored with the hope/belief that tomorrow she'd be able to move into a senior apartment she'd applied for. (Update: She did, moves in after work.) Biggest upside, Lori and her two brothers are communicating like crazy, being brought really close together in all this. Downside, Lori is walking around saying she's going to develop ulcers. Upside, we now have independent third-party proof that there is something wrong with m-i-l and Lori is now steeling herself to have a conversation to recommend counseling and possibly seeing a doctor for diagnosis/prescription. But, we know also that the landlord was a whackjob herself. And giving a serious black eye to Christians.

So... yeah... ummmm... yeah... TPS reports. The end.

Office Hours

I maintain "office hours" - I'm not a college professor - but when I held this position before, people working with me complained that I was always away from my desk, they could never find me. Yeah, I was in meetings and drowning in the mail at the same time.

So this time around, I decided I would have "office hours" - certain periods each time where I would work my hardest to be at my desk. It would allow people to know they could find me, eliminate unnecessary scheduled meetings (when really quick ones suffice) and allow me to try to do a better job at being caught up with my email.

It's been working really well.

Except in cases today where someone drops by 30 minutes before the "office hours" and stays for over an hour until I finally kick them out. And what do I get for all that? One actual action item. Grrrr.

Calm

This was a good weekend. Yesterday we worked a lot on the house. The holidays really messed it up. It's not back to normal - not even close - but it felt like a productive weekend. The dining room is still dumping grounds for all things holiday collected from the around the house, but the tree is down (and packed away in its box and its box a few feet away from storage). The furniture is back to mostly normal in the living room. The kitchen is in really good shape. And Rachel and I even spent time in front of the fire last night reading books. Last night was not good as far as sleep went, so we stayed in bed and went to the 11 am service. And we had pledged not to go out to eat today until everyone started saying we should go out to eat. So we had a nice meal at The Commons. (There's some definite improvement there. I'm almost ready to let people start calling it a "mall" again.) Then this afternoon it was a mix of calm, quiet and some work, but also more reading. And even now as I ride the exercise bike I haven't bothered to turn the TV on and after I post this, turn away from the computer and back to my book. We used iTunes Genius a lot today to get calm music that all flowed toghether. I'm surprised at how well that works, overall. Earlier this week I was wondering who would be friend #350 on Facebook and somehow I've now got 364. I find that strange, but I'm certainly not going to unfriend anyone for a hamburger. What a dumb promotion by a dumb fast food restaurant. Anyhow, back to my book which I'm really enjoying. (I think Alicia, Kevin and Allison would enjoy. Possibly Lori.) Oh, Ben may have said his first word, and if so, it's not a word that many babies utter first and one that would bring any dad to tears.

McBummer

Drat. Forgot that I need to fast for 12 hours for the last part of my physical, a blood draw. I was thinking that I would go by Starbucks for a 3M and then McDonalds for a McGriddle when I was done. (Part of my new diet, of course.) And so here I am snacking on Ritz crackers because I left them down here next to the exercise bike last night. Had turned TV on but not tuned to anything. It was on Comedy Central and sure enough, before long, the comic starts talking about how great the McGriddle is and how lame they are for not serving it after 10:30 am. He didn't even really have a joke, except to complain that it's apparently called McGriddles even though you don't go in and ask for a Big Macs or a Filet O' Fishes.) So, guess I'll have to settle for just Starbucks tomorrow.

Nothing On

I remember when I got my first TV, sometime I think in high school. Whenever I turned on the TV, there was always something on. And by college, I had two TVs on almost non-stop. (One was usually muted on CNN.) Wish I could still do that. I went to the trouble of drilling a hole through the wall and running a cable so that I could watch the DVR on the small TV in the laundry room.

I looked at my parents, who rarely watched TV. I didn't get it. Why didn't they watch TV?

I get it. Or, at least now I have one of those "transition" theories. Here goes... they used to watch a lot of TV (probably not) but over time, the networks showed showed fewer and fewer shows that they liked. And eventually, they stopped bothering to turn the TV on. And now I'm worried that I'm headed down that same route.

(That said, I hadn't planned to watch this season of Scrubs and just finished watching what might have been the best epsiode ever. Right up there with Brendan Fraser's final episode. Also envious of them sitting there on the roof of the hospital on Riverside with Burbank in the background. I miss those really warm southern California nights.)