Delegated Authority

     So, Adam peaks my interest by mentioning this in his side blog…”(NOT) WAITING ON THE WORLD TO CHANGE - ENTRY NO. 1″  by [the] John Mayer– (make sure you read THAT{dtd. April 26, 2007} entry!! it is, after all, a blog….)

….go ahead… click on it and read John’s entry… I’ll  wait….

Done?  okay…now then… 

     I can’t help but agree with John Mayer… Just THINK of the possibilities if each household makes just 1 change to better our environment!  WOW!  The possibilities!

     Thus, I have been moved to participate in his “light green” experiment.  I have 2 ideas… I’ve started buying a few reusable shopping bags offered at Giant, will purchase more as I go along, and will use them when I shop, instead of getting more and more plastic to throw away.

     Between what Mr. Mayer said and a show I saw on the Discovery Channel the other day, I admit to feeling quite guilty about the amount of plastic we send to the landfill.  We, as a family, drink a LOT of bottled water. Because we are also seemingly always on the move, and/or just really like the convenience of the bottled water, for now, I dont think we are ready to give up the bottles just yet. 

…..Our County doesnt offer curbside recycling so we dont recycle like we should, because if we do keep the plastic or cans or whatever around, it never seems to make it to the recycling station, and just junks up whatever room we have it in, or the garage, or whatever.  So my goal is to start recycling the plastic and the cans.  Make the little bit of effort that it will take to get them to a recycling station on occasion.  (Not to mention, find out WHY curbside recycling cannot be offered in our County)

    I’ll let you know how well I do!ÂÅ

I can’t believe it!  I let April 21 go by without official commemoration of the birth of our eldest…

HAPPY 25th BIRTHDAY ADAM!

(sorry I’m late )  forgive me?)

…In my pitiful defense, I was sick at the end of the week and got my days all mixed up… but I DID call him and wish him a happy day!

Yesterday the fire alarm went off in our office.  Generally they tell us ahead of time when we are going to have a drill (day and time- which i find totally purpose defeating, by the way), and we had heard nothing… needless to say, we were all a bit surprised, assuming this might actually “be the real thing”, we left the office in a swift and orderly manner!

On our way down the 6 flights of stairs we realized the stairway wasn’t very crowded for a 12 story building being evacuated…and when we met at the designated place in McPherson Park down the street and counted heads, again we realized, OUR FLOOR (OFFICE) was the only group of people from our building who had evacuated!  WHAT?

There were NO fire engines, no police or emergency vehicles.  The concierge of the building had no idea our alarm had gone off!  (that one scares me)

Obviously, with no smoke, flames or other obvious emergency appearing, we left the beautiful outdoors and headed back into our office and back to work.

Recess was over.  Shucks.

:) Happy Birthday Megan!! :)

Okay.  So its Tuesday.  I’m bored.

Law = Boredom interrupted by Panic.  Today (the last 3 days, actually) have been in the BOREDOM phase.  Ugh.  However, Congress is back in session and we have Tribes testifying up “on the Hill” before the Appropriations Committee, so things will be gearing up for us this week.  We have clients in today and for the rest of the week.  (Actually had to dress up like honest-to-goodness-professionals- normally we have a “business casual” standard, until clients come, then we have to wear suits)

The storms “racing through” here, if you haven’t heard, are not exactly racing through; they decided to spend a little time vacationing on the coast… which means my sinuses are attacking with a vengence.  The storms were supposed to be gone by 2am yesterday morning, and we still have remnants.  For the most part, the rain was done on Sunday (we got about 4 inches) but the clouds and pressure changes are flopping around like fish out of water.  They’re saying maybe tomorrow we will be out of the grip… I hope so. 

The wind makes it especially interesting to cross the bay bridge.  Its 186 feet above the water westbound and 215 feet above the water eastbound…. We’ve had wind warnings since Friday.  They dont let high profile (i.e. box trucks, “eighteen wheelers”, and cargo trucks) that are empty cross in winds exceeding about 50 mph.  So far we’ve had steady winds at 35-40mph, gusts up to 50+, I think… so its pretty much “cross at your own risk”…  Lots of fun in a greyhound bus!  We wiggle and weave across with the best of them!  I think the bus drivers must be true hardline teamsters, tho- nothing seems to phase them.  The passengers, tho, we tend to hold our breath for the 4.3 miles until we are back on terra firma.

Its horrifying to hear what happened at Virginia Tech.  I have 2 brothers and 2 nieces who went to school there, and thankfully, they arent attending now.  They still live in the Blacksburg area, tho, and I’m tempted to check in and make sure they are okay… something tells me, tho, that their lives will be forever changed by what happened, whether they were on campus or not.  What is our world coming to?  How can we stop ourselves from self-destructing?  My heart goes out to those students, parents and loved ones.  Its downright chilling.

 On a positive note:  Jared and I made a quick trip to Dad & Paula’s on Sunday.  It was great to see them, of course.  Its never a long enough visit, and its never often enough, but we take what we can get.  Paula made some of her fantabulous spaghetti and sent the leftovers home :)  They both look good and seem to feel good, and that makes me very happy!

On exercise:  Yes, I did work out yesterday- I think I’ve got the whole elliptical boogey-man figured out :P  Even tho I was not in the mood to work out, with a book in hand, I was able to withstand 11 1/2 minutes of torture, in addition to my regular treadmill and crunches.  YAY ME. :)  Today was just my regular workout.  I sure hope I can keep this up!!

This coming weekend Dennis is providing sound for the “Pork-in-the-Park” (BBQ) Festival in Salisbury.  Jared will go help him set up the stage and equipment and hang out with him for the weekend, and when Justin isnt working, he’ll be down there helping out, too.  They have bands playing all weekend, Friday night through Sunday evening.  You can check out Dennis’ little “side business” at www.riffhouse.com .  He’s really good at it, and has several jobs a year through the Wicomico County tourism board (Pork is one, the annual wine festival is another).  If you are in town, stop by!  Its at Winterplace Park in Salisbury, Friday, Saturday and Sunday.  Its not even supposed to rain!

~toodles~

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I have slayed the dragon!

I did it!  I managed 15 minutes and 38 seconds on the elliptical this morning!!  YAY!  I found a secret:  If I read while I’m on it, time goes much faster, and I dont notice the pain as much :)  I should have known that from the start, avid reader that I am, that reading would be the answer to my woes.  I finished up the workout on the treadmill with renewed energy to step up the pace with a considerable incline!  Then it was off to my 30 crunches and stretches.  Not too bad for an old lady!

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Seriously!  Go AWAY!  Enough already! 

Between the wet (rain/snow) and the cold (below average temps most of March and April), I’m sick and tired (literally) of winter/spring.  I’ve had it!  What happened to warm weather?  We ARE supposed to be in a temperate area… we arent “north” for petes sake!  We’ve had nothing but below average temperatures for the past maybe 6 weeks (except for 2 glorious freak accident days at the beginning of April, where we had 2 days in the 80s, MAN was that nice!), and they said we will be finishing up April with more below average temps.  I’m not talking 3 degrees below average, I’m talking 15-20 degrees below average.  Ugh.

I spent about 6 years of my childhood in Michigan (maybe more?).  My Dad describes Michigan seasons as: “July, August, and Winter”.  I know cold.  I know snow.  I love outdoor cold weather sports.  My brother Frank and I built ice and snow forts out of 10 foot piles of snow and even tried to build an igloo at our grandparents house…I ice skate, I ski, sled, etc., But I DONT want to live in that weather!!  I moved SOUTH! When I want to play in the snow, I go visit the snow… I dont want to live in it!! The rest of my life has been spent either in the temperate “middle” zone of the US or in the south.  We even lived in the Mojave Desert for a few years.  How I long for those days of sunshine and HEAT. 

Mother Natures nectar!

I’m a self-proclaimed lizard.  When its warm and the sun is shining, you can find me outside, sitting, (most likely reading) in the sun.  I gather all my energy and health from the sun.  I can feel my batteries “recharge” when I sit outside.  I schedule my weekends around the time I want to spend sitting outside :)  It actually changes my mood and energy level.  I dont think I could live without it. It brings sanity and rightness to my world.

Fortunately, and yet another perk of my job, is that the building roof has a patio on it, with tables, chairs, etc. and quite a view of the District.  I can see the Washington Monument and the Capitol quite nicely :)  (In case you didnt know, no buildings are allowed to be higher than the Capitol, so nothing is more than 12-13 stories).  Our “patio” is on the “13th” floor, so, on the nice days, I head to the roof for lunch, and, yep, you guessed it, soak up the sunshine with a good book and a pb&j.  It doesnt get any better!  The best hour of my day!

Today I was soaked from torrential rains, just walking from my car to the bus.  Just for good measure, the bus driver thought he would be funny and have cold air blowing most of the ride in, just in case we were hot (NOT). (Do they ever use their brains?)  Good thing I changed clothes when I got into work.

3 more weeks of cold and wet… will she survive?  That is the question.

Happy Birthday Steve!!

p.s. workout update:  1.64 miles on treadmill, (30 min) and 30 crunches today

Adam put a link to this most awesome webblog on his webpage (www.tuttletree.com) and then very kindly indicated that maybe I would want to update it every now and then, or else he’d take the link off :)  LOL.  Fair enough!

Maybe I can use this as a tool to keep me working out.  I get to work at least an hour early every day, simply because that is the way the commuter bus runs.  If I want the luxury of not driving into the district, being able to sleep that extra hour (on the ride in) and not have to deal with the frustrating traffic, then I get to work early.  That’s just the way it is.  The last bus leaving my area headed for DC gets me to work at 8am, traffic gods permitting.  My work day begins at 9. 

    I have another luxury.  The building my office is in offers a state of the art gym with everything you can probably think of in it, FREE, together with private showers and locker rooms (not to mention shampoo, soap, hair dryers, etc!)  All there for the taking.

     Unfortunately, I tried going to the gym with the bus coming in at 8am, but the traffic gods were against me, and the bus was not consistent enough, and more days than not I ended up coming in and showering and heading for the office, so I quit.  I recently discovered, tho, that if I left the house 25 minutes earlier (I dont have to get up any earlier, just move more efficiently) I could catch an earlier bus, get to work at 715 and have plenty of time to work out :)  Even better, the 2 weeks I’ve been doing this, the bus hasn’t been late!  I guess that is because we beat the bulk of the traffic in, and it doesnt have a chance to build.

     So, this being my 2nd week, I’ve been coming in and working out for about 45 minutes.  All of last week I took it pretty easy.  I didnt want to hurt myself or give myself any reason to quit.  I walked on the treadmill for 30 minutes.  (I can’t run anymore.  I have old lady knee’s.  They just can’t take it.  So instead, I adjust the incline to whatever my mood is, and walk uphill as much as I can stand it.)  Then I do crunches…as many as I can… right now I’m doing 20-25. (don’t laugh!) and then I have a few back and neck exercises my chiropractor taught me to keep my back and neck moving that I do every day.   All together it takes me about 45 minutes. 

     Monday I got brave and tried the elliptical.  I’ve always wanted to work out on one.  They seem to really give a good workout and are great for the legs and butt :)  Let me tell you!  I thought I was gonna die after only 10 minutes!  I was sore all day long!  But it was a “good pain”, and I felt like I accomplished something.  I finished my 30 minutes on the treadmill and did the rest of my routine.  Tuesday I did my regular routine, and today (Wednesday) I got brave again and did the elliptical again!  I had planned to exceed my 10 minutes this time, after all, it can’t be THAT hard the 2nd time, right? LOL! Well, I DID go faster!  But after about 2.5 minutes, I was dying. Literally!  Good thing I had Kenny Chesney to keep me going.  I hunkered down and concentrated on the music and tried not to look at the digital read outs.  Next thing I knew 5 minutes had passed!  YAY!  Garth Brook and our Friends in Low Places kept me pushing through and finally I was 9 and a half minutes…I was NOT going to quit with only 30 seconds to go, but you can believe I did not go 10 minutes and 1 second!  I crawled off the elliptical and over to the treadmill to stroll to a measely 3mph flat pace until I could breathe and feel my legs again…. and was able to pick up the pace just a few minutes before my time was up!

      The elliptical is killer.  We shall meet again on Friday.