Wrist Injury-Using Dragon software finally

For those of you who don't know Monday I fell up our patio stairs and broke my wrist. I just move too fast. I come by this honestly since my mom is as impulsive as I am. She recently had an injury as well to her hand. The cast right now is a great reminder to just slow down but going forward I need other reminders. I need to not have my head in the clouds, I need to look down and watch for the potholes, I need to just not move so fast!

One idea I have is just have a padded spacesuit around me I wear at all times to protect me from my falls. I could carry my hiking sticks that I bought myself in July after a fall up the same stairs.

I am actually amazed that I reached the ripe middle age of 58 before I broke a bone. I guess I spoke too soon as I gloated and said I have never broken a bone. My wrist surgeon showed me the break and showed me where my radial bone is not holding the rest of the wrist bones on top of it correctly.

Friday I go in for plates and pins surgery. I am actually looking forward to the surgery since the pain I'm feeling is probably because the bones are not in alignment. I never take pain medication but Percocet is my friend right now. I know it is easy to get addicted to it but for now I look forward to that every six hours little white pill.

I am accident prone, I am clumsy and for now the cast is a reminder to slow down look down and maybe I will carry those hiking sticks. BTW I'm using voice recognition software for blogging and as an extrovert, you will now hear way more than you need to know about my life.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Whatever gives you hope!

Friday morning, at 6:30am I got a call from Bee, that Shakes had escaped from her third floor apartment in Somerville.  Shakes, the Wonder Cat, has mobility issues since his mother had distemper in her last trimester.  The vision of him getting down the three stories of stairs, boggles the mind, since the two stairs outside our house are a challenge to him.

As soon as I was awake enough, my mothering instinct kicked in and I got dressed and drove into Somerville.  It actually took a request from Bee, that she would like it if I came in, to jump start my mothering instinct.

We walked around the block, and looked under cars, porches and inside bushes and the Wonder Cat was no where to be found.  I had very little hope of seeing him alive, and probably conveyed a bit of that to Bee.

We got coffee and a bagel, and she went off to work and I came home.  In the middle of the day, she accepted by text, my offer to come search for him after work.  I arrived and starting circling her apartment, asking everyone if they had seen a cat.  The side benefit, is that I know a lot more about her neighborhood and neighbors.

As dusk set in, and as 2 room mates, her boyfriend and Rod, joined our search Bee made a poster and she went off to get photo copies made.

The back story, is that when we first moved to Lexington we lost her stuffed elephant on a trip back from the play ground.  We made a poster at that time as well, and again, I thought there was very little chance of finding him.  Someone did call and we raced over to retrieve him with the reward in hand.  He now wears and ID tag with telephone information in case he gets lost again, and that was 19 years ago.

As she made the poster on Friday night, I though about hope.  Putting them up on every telephone post and sign, gave me a little bit of hope, but not a lot.  It seemed like an activity to keep us occupied as darkness settled in, and the temperatures reached freezing.

Saturday morning, I received this text "City cat just ate a whole cup of food, little rascal! He is fed and happy, but dirty."  PHEW!

So even though I proclaim myself a Pollyanna and eternal optimist, I did not have a lot of hope of finding the Wonder Cat.  Making the posters was a shot in the dark, and an activity.  Shakes just spent one of his lives by being outside for 36 hours out on an adventure in the city.  His return renews my faith a bit that things do work out in the end, even though we were prepared for the worst.

When Offering Help be specific

I have been thinking about this a lot lately as I hear about news from people in our community who are experiencing difficulty in their lives.  I often want to reach out to them but don't know what to say or what to offer.  This topic of asking for help, offering help and receiving help is an interesting one.  In my conversations with people, some of us have trouble asking for help, while others have no problem at all with this.

I for one have trouble receiving help.  When someone offers help it often ends with me saying out loud or to myself "I can do that myself".  I think my daughter has inherited this from me.  The best example is that we only were able to show her once how to tie her shoes.  It might take her 30 minutes but she was going to tie them herself after that one demonstration.  We waited patiently or impatiently while she tied them, and she still is like that most of the time.  She is quite an independent adult.

Lately, when I offer help, rather than a generic "What do you need?", I try to guess what might be helpful.  Do you need me to get something for you?  Do you need me to watch your kid?  Do you want a copy of the daily newspaper?  etc.  They can always say" NO, I need you to do this", but it opens the conversation and allows them to think about what might be helpful.

I am trying to get better at receiving help from others, and asking for help when I need it.  I guess if I did NOT see it as a weakness or ineptitude it might be easier to ask for and receive help.  It is so easy for me to offer and so difficult to receive.  I am working on it, and in the meantime I try to be as specific as possible when I offer help to others.

Working in the middle column

During my review two weeks ago my manager help me connect some dots that before were just that, dots hanging out in space.

2 months ago we had a career discussion where I shared my strengths from a profile from strength finder. Here is a picture of my strengths.





We had a great conversation in May and an even better one two weeks ago during my year end review.

Today, during our 1-1 we revisited the review by way of "What did I learn during the review and what will I commit to for this year?"

There are very few people who can hold up the mirror for me the way she does. It is a gift for both of us that she can be honest with me AND I can be open to hear, process and modify my behavior.

The essence of our conversation was the balance of work between strategic HR work and tactical HR work. My natural inclination is the strategic. That is the way I think and is confirmed by strengths in the strength finder. I often seen things as binary so I was dividing the work into two buckets and did not see that they were connected. In fact I bragged that on my white board the blue pen indicated strategic and the red was tactical. I further bragged that I glanced at the board to make sure that I was working enough in the strategic.

My manager's insight, and observation, which she helped me to understand by physically connecting the dots is that the HR Business Partner work is not one or the other. She actually listed the strategic in a column, the tactical in another and in the middle of these two she drew some circular scribbles to indicate that this is where the work is. That is the middle column work and is where we should be working. Her challenge for me into figure out how to operate and work there.

In the past two weeks I have felt myself irritated with the tactical UNTIL I can catch myself and reframe my mindset and approach. After a few of times catching myself I actually believe that working in the middle column is "the work". I don't get as irritated and I have started to enjoy my whole job. This does not mean that I don't slip back and get irritated. Behavior change is hard but I have been able to reframe my approach most of the time.

We have a code word now of the "middle column work".

We both agreed that my review was a very intense conversation. This may sound trite but I believe that feedback is a gift. Taking it to the next level of rewiring my mindset and reframing my work will be hard work but well worth the effort. I am beginning to like working in the middle column.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Hertz is more random than I am

On this trip I have had the opportunity to rent from Hertz three times.

The first time in Salt Lake City they gave me a huge SUV, and I could barely get into the cab it was so tall.  I went back and asked for a smaller car.  There was another gentleman in front of me, who did the same thing.  I also did not want to pay for gas for a SUV.

In San Jose, I got a hybrid.  It took me a bit to figure out how to start it, but I did finally figure that out.  I was only driving it for the day, so I did not really need the hybrid part.

On Sunday, I picked up my last car of the trip.  I don't even know the brand, but there are no electric locks, windows etc.  When was the last time you rolled up a window with a winding knob?

When I mentioned this to someone at dinner last night they said "Is is all random."  I am a Hertz Gold Member which means I don't have to wait in the huge long line and can walk straight to my car.  Don't you think they would give the best cars to the Gold Card Members?  I know they had lots of cars because I walked through them at the Hertz parking lot at SFO.

What is really interesting to me is I refused to drive the SUV, but I did not refuse to drive the untechnical car.  It sounds like a tin can and I have to walk around to each door to lock it, and wind up and down the window myself, but I am a lot more comfortable in this car than the SUV.

Grief - one year later

Just a year ago, Autumn broke his leg and we had to put him down. For about a week prior to today, I have been thinking of today and wondering how I would feel. Too bad that a happy day like St. Patrick's Day is now tainted by memories from a year ago.

As usual with the passage of time, the year has gone quickly, a lot of water over the dam AND it feels like it just happened yesterday. I will never forget how helpless and hopeless I felt that day. I had never seen my daughter or my husband so stricken with grief. There was nothing I could do but cover people with blankets and make sure there was food in front of us.

Bee is so far away this year, and I cannot look in her eyes to see how she is doing, but I have to assume that she is handling it the way she has handled tough things all her life. Not the way I do by wearing it on my sleeve but in her own private, contemplative, appropriate way.

There has been a faint dark cloud following me around most of today. Another year, and another passage of deep felt grief.

Surprises on our Trip to Thailand and Cambodia

Right when we returned from our trip I made a list of things that surprised me on the trip. In no particular order here they are:

You can use the American dollar in Cambodia, in fact it is preferred I think. You get Cambodian notes for change though.

Thailand really does have an incredible service culture. The hands together, Y-ing, gesture is so genuine and is such a part of their culture. In Bangkok, a group of Thais met each other at the luggage carousel, and I could not believe how ingrained it was to greet each other with the Y-ing. Everyone who served us had to have this as a greeting and a departure gesture. They truly, genuinely want to serve you.

I was surprised at how much of the food was accessible to us, in that we did not really have to search for something to eat. As I said in a prior post, we did not follow all the rules of the travel clinic, but even at the road side stand that we stopped at during our tours of Siem Reap, the food was very accessible.

There were guards at the hotel in Bangkok, right at the end of the drive. My first reaction was "Why do there need to be guards?" I am still wondering.

The drivers in Siem Reap are crazy. There is no yielding or merging or even slowing down to get into traffic. Because the other drivers expect this, it does not seem to be a problem. Traffic can be coming at you on either side because someone is getting into traffic, or leaving traffic on the other side of the road.

The only negative of the trip was the scam at the Grand Palace. In the end, we did not get scammed but they tried really hard. We were told by an official looking ARMY person that the temple was closed for the Thais to pray for the New Year. It being December 30th, this seemed possible. The Palace was open though, just two gates down the road. We had a long conversation about this, that night at dinnner. Bee's point, that "He was able to feed his child by participating in this scam, really got me." I hate to be taken advantage of, or for someone to behave in what in my mind is "unethical". I guess the GRAND PALACE SCAMS are such a part of their culture, that they might not even be unethical.

The Siem Reap airport is so casual. We walked across the tarmac into the immigration area with no noticeable guards. It was a peek into prior to 911 airports.

Temples - in Chiang Mai, I did not expect that the temples we were visiting would be "working" temples. Practicing buddhists were stopping by on their way to work, at lunch, or way home from work to give their merits or their alms to the monks. They are old buildings and are museum quality, AND they are practicing temples.

Tipping really is not done in either country. The paradox for me here is, in the US, where the cost of living is so much higher and in many cases the service employees make 100 times more than in Thailand or Cambodia, tipping is expected. In Thailand and Cambodia, they do not expect to be tipped and it is a minimal tip if any. My Western mind is still dealing with this paradox.

Those were the big surprises or the front of mind surprises. These western eyes took in a lot of the Asian culture that we experienced and I am sure I missed a lot too because of my Western lenses.

Qammi stories - so sad - I have the memories

Today Qammi took her last breathe and it is a very very sad day. We have had her for 9.5 years and she has been a wonderful dog. She spent her first week sitting on Bee's lap and spent every night possible after that sleeping on her bed. She was a pretty spoiled dog. Many guests were surprised that she was allowed to sit on our couches and she often would crawl up beside one of them on the couch and lean her chin on their knee. Looking at them with those chocolate lab eyes as if to say "What, I spend more time on this couch than you do, and in fact you are sitting in my spot."

Last winter she really thought we had lost our minds when we participated in an event in North Hero called The Great Ice which is a 2 mile walk to Knight island over the frozen lake and then 2 miles back. Once we arrived on the Island she was pretty confused that we would venture back over the ice. It took a leash and lots of encouragement for her to do the return trip, until she could see the mainland again.

She loved to roll on her back whether in the spring grass, the fall leaves or the winter snow. In fact, in the early hours of her last day, she rolled in the new snow.

She loved water, and swimming. At my brother and sister-in-law's house in VT, she would be in the pond the entire day if we let her. She would chase a tennis ball as many times as someone would throw it to the point of over exhaustion.

At another brother and sister-in-law's house in VT she was chased by a cow once and did a sommersault over an electric wire as she tried to get away from the cow. We left Qammi with them one time and she got a cut above her eye from some metal on their truck. They took her to their vet for stitches, and we arrived home shortly after their return from the vet.

She was a bit of a chicken, never the top dog. At her favorite place to walk in Willard's Woods in Lex, if there was an agressive dog ahead she would make a big semi-circle around them to avoid the conflict.

We were on a morning schedule for walking her, I got M and W and the weekends, Murg got T TH and F. Qammi could tell by our morning actions, which one of us was walking her.

Almost every day of her life she would follow me into the bathroom and drink water from my bath. This morning she would not drink which is when I knew she was really not well.

There are lots more stories, which I will remember over the next few months. I am really going to miss those eyes, and that wagging tail. I am going to miss being greeted every time I open the front door, and her peeking through the window to see who is arriving home. I might even miss her barking at the dog walking in front of our house.

I am going to miss those morning and early evening walks on the bike path.

Life is so precious and fragile and when those that we love have taken their last breathe, we are left with the memories and the stories and the pictures of them.

Yoga the next phase

My friend K recommended the Book "Breakfast with Buddha". I am 3/4 of the way through it and really love it. Last night I was reading about a yoga class that the 2 main characters in the book participated in. The non-yogi explained a feeling lying in corpse pose, which is the final meditative part of a yoga practice. In a discussion the yogi explained that he is in that state, almost all the time. Maybe, all the time. I cannot remember those details.

So, it got me thinking about 2 things. 1) I need to meditate in small doses. 5 minutes in our covenant group, every other week, and 5 minutes in yoga class twice a week. In a 4 week month that is 50 minutes. My friend Laura said once "I don't do math in public." but per that last sentence, I guess I do. I am going to try to put more meditation in my months.

The second thing I have been thinking about is the non-violence training that I went through a few weeks ago with 300 other Lexingtonians. Our training helped us take spewing foul language for 45 minutes, and to not react. This has helped me not react to others as well. It has really helped me realize what my baggage is, and what others' baggage is. With the WBC, it was very clear that their spewing was their baggage and it was easy to leave it in the middle or Worthen Road. With this new skill, I can NOT react to situations whereas in the past I might have reacted is a not very healthy way.

Both of these thoughts are very cleansing to me.

Who is my wart hog?

This may be complicated but this is how the conversation went with A today:

S "Consider her a gift and not a wart."
A "She is my warthog.(laughter follows from both of us)"
S "I wonder who my warthog is?"

So for some background, we were talking about someone who triggers A. Her name starts with E (the triggerer that is).

So I was saying to A, use this as an opportunity to figure out yourself, and not E. Hence the gift not wart statement above.

When someone triggers us, it is usually about us and not them. So, just 30 minutes after this conversation someone triggered me, and I DID NOT take my own advice. This person can trigger me by just walking toward me, with that attitude. Maybe I am their warthog and maybe they are mine.

Oh well, so there are people who trigger me, and I need to figure out me and not them.

Thanks A for the conversation and for the warthog image, it is a really great thought.

So, who is my warthog, as if they would be reading my blog and even if they are, would they raise their hand anyway?

Change and reflecting

On one of our VERY cold walks yesterday at Burlington, VT first night we had yet another Myers Briggs conversation. I don't like to spend much time alone, in fact in my extreme state of mind I would say NO TIME ALONE. As I sit here on New Year's Day and no one is up yet I thought about this time I often have when no one is up yet. A part of me is waiting for someone to get up to talk to. A part of me cleans up loose ends to start the day and a very little tiny part of me, sits back and enjoys this time alone. Mostly, I wait for someone to stir and get up.

With the New Year, I thought of changing the appearance of my blog, but why change something that works and is recognizable. I added a new quote today but only because the old quote was just that OLD and it is New Years Day after all.

So today I make the resolution to use a mug for coffee and drinks rather than use throw away stuff. I might need a belt clip to put my travel mug on or a camping one that collapses put in my handbag.

Last night was interesting. I needed to connect with our family traveling in Egypt and I did that via text. Rod was late connecting with England 2:45 am their time, CLS called just as he and Meg were going into Grace Potter and Mom called me at 10pm as we were leaving Burlington VT to go home and watch the fireworks from our very warm loft. Lots of extended family were touched in one way or another and some of the rest are helping us continue our First Foot tradition at Coniston. Only Ted and Margaret will need a phone call later today.

I did not write this yet but it is a true Sallyism. Tuesday night as I needed to kill some time before I picked Miss Amy up, I went to the Library. Truth be told, I needed to use their bathroom, but while I was there I decided to browse the recent returned fiction. That is the closest section to the bathroom. In that section was "Death on the Nile" and I grabbed it. What you need to know is that our traveling family got on a cruise of the Nile today their time. Why was that book there? Why did I chose to use the bathroom and browse for 30 seconds the recently returned fiction books? Why did I grab the book and think is some way that someone put that book there for me? I have never read it, so what an opportunity.

Typical blog, typical early morning basking in the recently appearing sun over Camel's Hump. Onto mugs and sub zero winter days in Vermont.

Nearly Perfect Christmas

Yesterday was nearly perfect. Why not perfect? Well, maybe it was perfect after all. George asked me yesterday if there is anything about my job at Intuit that I don't like. "It is not in Vermont." was my answer.

What made it perfect. Having family around, even though it was only part of our family. Perfection for this extravert would have been ALL of our extended family, Russells and Lowes and Moores and Mayos and a Swartzbaugh, and a partridge in a pear tree.

The breakfast of eggs benedict is a must. George did the eggs which is always the hardest part for me. Judy made the hollandaise sauce and our friend Marilin did the english muffins. Bethany did the ham, and what did I do? Orchestrated . . . What did I do now that I think of it?

Our stockings were hung on the hearth with care and were stuffed. I love the stocking part of Christmas the best. There were very few presents under the tree and the tree is perfect this year. We had enough time to make some presents this year. Only one was a WIP. George wondered why I Santa gave him a partially finished pair of socks in his stocking.

The theme this year was Smart Wool socks. At least 3 if not 4 of the Santas in our house were giving them and no duplicates. Our feet were very warm.

We ventured out for a 6:30 showing of Doubt. It was very good, back to hot cider and a game of Settlers with a new twist, a fishy thing that George gave us as an addition.

BTW, George also gave us a travel version of Settlers that is going on a wonderful trip to Egypt and Greece with George, Judy, Frances, Grady and Bee.

So, yes Virginia, there is a Santa Claus and the perfect Christmas is not on the TV screen or in the ads in the newspaper. It is in your heart and with the love of your family and friends. It is a day to pause and count your blessings and to have family and chosen family around. It is a carrying on of traditions and the making of new ones.

What do I want for Christmas next year, Peace on Earth and Obama administration success. I can help out on both of those in a small but powerful way.

Electronic presents

A few days ago I was thinking that more than the past years, there will be treasures that people share in various social media sites. It started this morning when I discovered that my sister and I posted similar youtubes of a musical group "Straight No Chaser". That is on my Facebook profile now.

I just read a colleagues blog and there is a wonderful joke and I am sure these will continue over the next few days. Social networking has grown so much in the last year and there has to be a limit to how much time we spend on those sites. Part of the reason I blog is for myself, so that I can go back a year and see what I was up to. Also, I store important urls here, in case I forget them. A few times, I have emailed a link to someone because of something in my blog.

Yesterday I got an emailed Christmas letter from my cousin which confirms my earlier post, that next year we are going electronic.

OK, off to finish a few things at work, head home and make some more Christmas . . .

I have kept over the years a hard copy of 12 letters responding to the gifts of the 12 days of Christmas. I think I could find that online and recycle my hard copy.

You can find almost anything online.

One Year Notice

OK, so this will really only be effective for my blog readers and in that case I am preaching to the choir. Next year, I am going to make an attempt to go GREEN with our Christmas letter routine. I know, the USPS may go out of business eventually if more people like me do this.

Working for a technology company where we talk a lot about social networking, I think web is the way to send this out next year. If you really think about it, my BLOG readers, I love you guys!, have way more information already than our letter. The letter is very cathartic for us to realize what we did in a year, or in the case of the current letter, the last 2 years. That is another story.

So maybe I will experiment this year and post our picture collage and letter here, and you guys can give me feedback on the experiment. Spenser if you read this, you are a key person to input into this decision, because you will have to direct your Mom and 2 Aunts to this blog next year. What do you think? I guess we could print a few out for those who just won't come here. I will discuss with Rod and Bee and Crick and Meg and see what the consensus is.

Happy Winter (I see now, why she is named Winter Lola)!!!!!

Candle Extinguished

I guess I knew it could not last forever, but one can hope that it will. What the hell am I talking about?

Our Christmas Eve service ends with all of us lighting candles, after we have put on our coats, and we walk out of the church with lit candles, singing carols.

OK, so it is very dangerous, all that flame and hair and jackets and close proximity to the same BUT for me it is the magic of Christmas. To look at all those people I love and some who I barely know. To see the candle flame reflected in their eyes, and to see the children for who this is even more magical than it is to this 54 year old sap.

So, this year we will extinguish our candles before we go outside. Part of the challenge at FPLEX is to get home with your candle still lit. Silly, but yes many of us try to do this every year.

This year George and Judy are coming for Christmas and I was really looking forward to sharing this experience with them. SO, I guess we will bring matches and light our candles once we are out of the 150+ wooden building.

It makes sense, but are we going to end up in a society where we are so cautious about everything that we don't take chances to experience magic? NO, I don't like change when it is done to me and affects my favorite 10 minutes of the church year. Rev Bill also changed the Christmas Eve service in a year when Bethany and the Senior High always lit the candles in the service, and his first year, other younger kids and adults lit the candles. I was crushed about that one as well.

Some of my thoughts last night were:

• Shall we just leave our candles lit
• Go to another church, Bethany talked me off the wall on that one
• Sit in the balcony, where you have to extinguish them anyway before you come down
• Try to get it changed.

In the end, it will not be changed, and I should not expect to have it changed. It would have been great to know this a few months ago when it was decided so I had some time to absorb it, but we don't communicate the tenuous stuff well do we?

I will get over it and no one can extinguish my candle forever, just temporarily until I get outside.

In the end I emailed the Minister and Board Chair asking if there is anything I can do to get this changed.

My virtual candle will be lit, and I will still make eye contact without the most important part of the lit candle. It will not be the same. I cannot control everything especially when I have been so detached anyway. Just remember that I am often the canary in the coal mine. I am not the only one feeling this way, just one of those who expresses it.

Taking things for Granted

While talking to several employees who have been without power for 5 days now, I quickly started counting my blessings. Somehow the problems with our toilet at Coniston seems less drastic; it flushes. The wind that I wrote about last, was incredible but we did not lose power. And if we do lose power, we have a wood stove which can heat the house and I guess we could cook on the wood stove.

Again, Intuit is a fabulous company. I am running a meeting at 2:30 today to brainstorm how we can help those employees who don't have power. I am offering showers and laundry and a hot dish brought to your house. People are going to lend generators and get batteries, or large quantities of water in containers to use for flushing. There is no doubt but all of us would offer these things. Mountain View is getting involved as well, by publishing on the corporate intranet that employees can donate with matching funds to the Red Cross.

Yes, at this time of year, I am counting my blessings and reaching out when I can to help others. This after all is the message that Jesus taught us all.

December 1st - RABBIT RABBIT

When we were growing up, on the first day of any month there was a very strict routine. You woke up, did not speak and jumped over the end of your bed and said "Rabbit, Rabbit!" The early birds in the house would always tried to catch those who don't wake up as quickly and get them to talk before they said it. Weren't we mean? I think you were supposed to have good luck for the rest of the month. I think our birthday month was a really important one to do the Rabbit Rabbit thing.


I say there were strict rules because you could not jump over the side of the bed it had to be the end. You could not whisper. The spell was broken if you said anything. The entire family did this.

While on my walk this morning, I remembered that it was the 1st, so I said "Rabbit, Rabbit!" Qammi said "Where?" in her dog way. I have given myself a lot of slack as I grow older and this one on my walk counted.

I have met a few people who have this routine and understand me when I say "Rabbit, Rabbit!" but just a few.

So big birthdays today are Carlton Warren is 100, and brother Ted and friend Liz turn less than 100 today.

Coming home for Thanksgiving

In talking with college age parents, and a lot of first years, everyone is exicted that their kids are coming home. I am one of those who is excited that my kid is coming home for Thanksgiving; a second year.

It brought me back to when I came home from College, all 17 miles. By Thanksgiving I had just gotten into a pattern and a groove. The trip home disrupted that pattern although I was glad to be going home. I had a lot of studying to do, so I took books home and with all good intentions tried to study, but too many distractions. My younger siblings were really glad to see me, and I was glad to see them. My parents were also glad to see me, the house was full again.

Some years we traveled to MacLean to visit Mama, but most years we stayed in Brandon. It was usually a really nice break before the sprint to the end of exams.

Thanksgiving is a pretty uncharged holiday. The spirit of gratitude and thanksgiving prevail.

We are "coming" home for Thanksgiving, meaning we are sitting tight in Lexington. We have an invitation to join a family for THE MEAL, which means we don't have to do a ton of work.

A few years ago, we had a family reunion at Stowe Flake and most of the family was there. Meg first met a lot of the family during that weekend. That was a great Thanksgiving memory, along with the others from prior years.

I am glad to be "coming" home for Thanksgiving, and glad she is coming home.

My blogging has changed

OK, when I started this blog, it was my only social media, it was the only way I was communicating to anyone who happened upon this url, about what I was thinking and what I was doing. It was the only place I posted "public" pictures.

Then, I discovered Facebook. Yeah, Yeah, it is almost 2 years since I discovered Facebook but only in the last 5-6 months have I really been using it a lot. Go to my facebook account, friend me and see how much I have posted. If you really want to know what I am up to in small bites, Facebook is the source. If you want to know what I am thinking about more deeply my blog is the source.

It is funny to talk to adults about Facebook. Some look at me like I have 2 heads, when I tell them I have a facebook account. Others shyly say "me too".

OK, so about 6 months ago, Twitter entered my computer. I can update my Facebook status from Twitter. I can use my mobile phone to update twitter and Facebook. I just discovered that Plaxo has my facebook updates. So I have resisted using Twitter a lot, since I really want one place to update but I have 2 now. So for the immediate future, Facebook for small sound bites, my blog for longer maybe not deeper thoughts.

I am contemplating not having a Holiday letter and picture collage for the second year in a row. If you want to know what I have been up to for the last year, read this blog and go to my Facebook account. Maybe we will do a picture collage and post it here and there.

Change is hard, maybe Twitter will become indispensable to me . . . but not today. Go to Facebook for now.

Some days I just Plow through

WOW, it is 3:40 EDT and I cannot believe how much I have gotten done so far. No need to detail all of that, but as I was finishing a few tasks just now I realized how today was really good and very different than other days. It might be the alignment of the moon and stars, it might be conquering procrastination, it might be pressure, it might be a lot of other things. I have had a pile of papers to file at the office for WEEKS, no MONTHS. Part of what stood in the way was how much time I estimated this task would take. This morning, and it was not planned, I arrived at 7:30 and by 9:30 I was done. I also had some meetings on my calendar which I needed to change the occurrence of. Please don't ask me why I was procrastinating on this tiny little task, but I was. It took me all of 3 minutes to make the change.

What I am thankful for is that there are days like this BUT not all days are like this. I would be a wreck if I worked at this pace every day. OK back to work to take advantage of this focus and energy