Category: work

Weekly Menu FAIL

Up until last night the whole weekly-menu-thing was going pretty well. Even though I was tired by the time I got home at 8:45 pm on Tuesday from helping out with a church youth activity I sucked it up and made the roasted shrimp and broccoli dish I had planned (I know, right? SO brave.) And I really appreciated getting home from woodworking class on Wednesday night at 9:40 and being able to eat the delicious chicken cacciatore that N had made instead of Del Taco drive-thru which used to be our usual post-woodworking-class meal.

But last night, the night I was supposed to make teriyaki chicken and salad with homemade dressing (ah, such arrogance!) was the night that the menu broke down. Notice it wasn’t on one of N’s nights; even though he has a demanding job as a corporate lawyer he still managed to cook two healthy dinners this week. Nope, it was me who caved at 9:05 last night and ordered pizza.

Granted, yesterday was a really hard day: I had been working on my big quarterly presentation and they shifted some deadlines and told me yesterday morning that I needed to have a big chunk of it finished by 9:00 last night instead of on Monday like I had been expecting. Plus E has caught his 26th cold of the season (I blame preschool) and was super whiny yesterday and threw himself on the floor and cried at the drop of a hat and he only took a 30-minute nap.

I took a clear-eyed look at everything that was going on and realized that there was no way I would be able to take care of little E, get dinner over to my friend Emily’s house at a reasonable hour, and then get back home and finish my work by 9 . Yes, that’s right. I didn’t just flake on making dinner for my family, I flaked on making dinner for another family, a family who just had a new baby a couple weeks ago (oy vay!). So yesterday I spent a few minutes gathering up my courage/fighting my embarrassment and called Emily and asked if I could bring dinner over on Friday instead of Thursday. She was very nice about it but I felt like the world’s worst friend.

N was a trooper and as soon as he got home he took E off my hands so I could finish my work. I emailed my report in at 9:00 pm and ordered a pizza at 9:02 pm. N was very gracious about the whole thing. I still have a lot of work to do today on the next stage of my presentation but I’ll have enough time to make dinner tonight.

On a fairly-related note, I think I’m going to scale back the frequency of my posts here. There are several things in my life that I need to be spending more time on, mostly E and work and up-keeping my house which is threatening to reach a Hoarders-level of clutter. Once I get my crap under a bit of control I’ll probably go back to posting everyday. But as for right now it’s become a bit of a stretch to find the time to post or to think of things to post about. I still love blogging and I still thrive on structure so instead of posting on every weekday I think I’ll switch to posting on Monday/Wednesdays/Fridays and see how it goes. I hope you’ll still stick around.

No one was bowled over…

…by my mad skills. Because, um, I really stank. I guess bowling is not like riding a bicycle. I used to average about 130 back in my bowling class days, but this time I barely scored in the 80s. Oh well, at least it was better than Barack Obama did.

It was fun to see everyone from the office. A lot of people were surprised to see me and the baby, but everyone was very nice and seemed happy to see us.

And you know my boss–the one who sent me flowers a couple of weeks ago? Yeah, E. spit up on her while she was holding him–making friends! She was very sweet about it, though.

I don’t think E. has ever been in such a noisy situation before. It was pretty loud with all of the pins clattering around and so many people cheering and yelling. But he was a trooper and even fell asleep in his stroller for a while. All and all, it was a pretty fun time for me and I think a somewhat bewildering experience for E.

Dramatic results as promised

E. is continuing to recover from his infection. The results of the new medication were actually quite dramatic as the doctor said it would be. E. started on the meds on Thursday and by Saturday he looked as good as he does today. E. was so cute over the weekend. You could tell that he felt a lot better. He woke up happy as opposed to writhing around in his crib trying to scratch his face. And he was so giggly and cheerful. He’s taken lately to “talking” lately to himself or us and makes these funny groaning and cooing sounds, sometimes for 10 minutes or more. It really cracks N. and me up.

It seems like the eczema on his chin might have hit the limit of what this medication is going to do for it; today it looks a little worse than it did yesterday. I think I’m still going to take him up to Salt Lake see the dermatologist on Monday.

I stopped by my old office yesterday to pick some things up and was amazed by some of the changes. During the 5 years I was there, we didn’t have a break room where you could eat your lunch; you had to eat at your desk. But now there’s a break room AND it has air hockey and foosball tables–no fair! And it seems like they’re trying to go more team building activities now, too. They’re having an office bowling tournament tomorrow which they were nice enough to invite me to even though I’m just a contractor now. I’m a little nervous because even though I took a bowling class in college (best P.E. class ever!), I’m still pretty rusty. I think it’s been over two years since I last bowled. And I have to take E. and I didn’t know what to do with him during my turn bowling. But a couple of my friends from the office are going to go but not bowl, so they said that they would hold E. while I bowled. So he can hang out with his aunties while I embarass myself in front of my coworkers and friends.

Anyway, wish me luck. I just hope I break 100!

I don’t zinc so!

First off, E. is still crusty and uncomfortable. I’ve been scrubbing his face and applying the topical antibiotic twice a day, which is very unpleasant for both him and me. Yesterday I thought it might be improving a little, but today it’s still pretty bad. Last night he kept waking up every few hours, writhing in discomfort. I’m going to take him the to pediatrician again tomorrow. Before they said that they would want to run a blood test for a zinc deficiency if it’s lasted a week which, barring a miracle, it looks like it will. If they can’t figure it out, I just snagged an appointment with the only pediatric dermatologist in the region for the 28th. Having the appointment is reassuring because if tomorrow the pediatrician isn’t sure what it is, the dermatologist most likely figure it out. And if it goes away before the 28th, then I can cancel my appointment with no charge. So today I’m feeling less discouraged. We’ll see what the doctor says tomorrow. I want to thank everyone for their support – I really appreciate it!

Speaking of support, my boss is very understanding and has been great. She has two little kids, I think about 7 and 5, and her husband just got sent back to Iraq for another year-long tour of duty. I don’t know how she does it. She’s been very helpful and reassuring about any new-mom worries I have. Anyway, last week I was getting pretty overwhelmed by work (and E.’s condition) and then she wanted me to make a new project my top priority even though I was pretty busy with my monthly reports. It just totally overwhelmed me. I ended up talking to her about it on Thursday and she apologized for dumping too much on me when I was already busy with my reports. And then on Friday, these were delivered with a lovely note.

How sweet is that?

Tonight’s the last day of woodworking class and if all goes well, I’m going to be bringing the armoire home tonight. I first have to get it lacquered during class, though. Keep your fingers crossed for me. Pictures to follow!

Gainfully Unemployed

So on Thursday I quit my job.

I’ve worked at the same company (a software vendor from Microsoft) for about 5 years. It was my first and only serious job after college. I started as a temp and kind of bounced around a bit and when I quit I was an assistant program manager, which I really enjoyed. I got to work with a lot of neat people.

It felt pretty weird to actually type up my resignation letter and send it to them. I’ve been there for so long! I’m going to miss seeing my friends at work everyday and going to lunch with them. There are lots of good things about staying home, though, and E. and I manage to make it to lunch with the guys from work once in a while. And I also realize that I’m lucky to be in a position where I can stay home with E. while he’s so little and watch him grow up (Thanks N!), which he seems to be doing at an alarming rate.

Also, my company asked if I’d like to work part time from home, either as a part time employee (no benefits) or as a contractor. I said yes, and so I can can still keep my hand in the pot. I’ve decided to be a contractor because it’s more flexible (hello, deductible business expenses!), but I’m trying to decide if I should be self-employed under my own name or if I should set up an LLC or something. I know that you get killed with taxes when you’re self-employed and I’ve heard that there can be a slight advantage to setting up an entity, which I’m trying to verify.

Any advice?