I am still here

Not much of an update. Stan is still not working. He officially filed for unemployment. I worked over the three-day weekend. (Though we did take time out on Monday to do a picnic on the beach for lunch; I got a sunburn in the part of my hairline.) If I got OT, we'd be doing fine!

I took off early today (of course, I worked 12 hours yesterday and went in half an hour early this morning). I still have to finish up a big report, but I think I'll have time to work on it tomorrow. Planning to take Saturday off this weekend (at least from my regular job; I've agreed to volunteer at the church rummage sale starting at 7:30 in the morning).

Had a bit of a meltdown last night. Sometimes it seems like I work so hard and we're not gaining any ground. Of course, when I look at it over a 10-year period instead of one year, I know that's not true. Stan is getting to devote a lot more of his energy to things he really enjoys, and I've got a reasonably successful career going. Just have to reorient my focus away from all the things I haven't achieved.

Sometimes you just have to go to Oregon

We are living in (relative) poverty at the moment. The Husband has been telecommuting since we left the Bay Area, but the company he works for is going through an unusually dry spell at the moment, so he hasn't been getting a full paycheck. He applied for something else, but didn't get it. He has been moping.

We were supposed to go to Portland next weekend to visit some friends over Memorial weekend, but given our dearth of excess funds and my impending trip for the nephew's nuptials (he and his bride-to-be are registered at Wal-mart, BTW), there is no way that's going to happen. So when I got a windfall in the mail today (reimbursement from my flex spending account for some past medical co-pays), I suggested we head up the coast.

We made the two-hour drive to the Oregon border and bought a Powerball ticket and some groceries. Then we stopped at Wal-mart on the way back, but their computer for printing out registry lists was broken. We also stopped at FOUR Indian casinos. One was smoky, but I won $7.50. One was so packed we couldn't even find a parking space. One was so vacant we weren't even sure it was open. And then of course I lost my $7.50 at the last one.

All in all, it was a good day trip. Got Stan out of the house and out of his funk. Got to see three whales playing in the mouth of a river. Got to watch the sunset over the ocean. Reminded ourselves why we love this area.

Gosh, has it been two weeks already?

Well, this is my busy time of year at work. So 1) I have no time for extraneous tasks like watching our Netflix rentals, filling out online surveys, or blogging, and 2) that also means I have no time to do anything interesting enough to blog about, but 3) time flies by so it doesn't seem like two weeks between posts.

Actually, 2) is not entirely true. Part of the reason I've been so busy at work the last two weeks is because I didn't go into the office over the weekend because... we went into the City! We saw a ballet and had a very nice dinner with friends, then stopped at Trader Joe's on the way home, but it was pretty unspectacular for a trip to a metropolitan area.

I did manage to book a trip home for my nephew's wedding. Oh, and the AI electorate picked the right final four. I was disappointed to see LaKisha go home, but Melinda is the best singer, Jordin has the youth factor and Blake has instant marketability. Don't really care which of them wins at this point.