Posts Tagged work

My work team has been so busy we have not done a nice offsite since August 2005 when we went overnight to the Sonoma Mission Inn, which was very nice & very fun. I saw a Rachel Ray Tasty Travels recently that highlighted the two Sonoma restaurants where we ate! After rescheduling many times since March, they finally could get our now almost 20 strong entire group to come out from Wednesday through Friday last week with only one person in Colorado unable to join us. Many came from the East Coast, one from London & one from Hong Kong, so for everyone to be there was quite a feat. Thursday was all day presentations, mostly very interesting since we had guest speakers instead of just ourselves, but the rest was good food, good wine, and good times. I did come back with 4 bottles of wine and promptly refrigerated them since my house was 94F INSIDE on Friday evening…ugh!

Wednesday lunch at Bistro Don Giovanni and wine tasting at Miner, Peju & Alpha Omega

I’m off for my work team offsite in Napa until Friday with only my Treo, no computer…until then!

It’s taken awhile but I finally have my new cube with a view clean enough to show the whole thing. The weekend before Easter, there was a garage sale around the corner from my house, so I got the cute velvet upholstered chair for $10. It doesn’t match the bean bag, but it’s still purple, which is my second favorite color.

Compare my cluttered toy collection on the shelf behind me in my old cube, to what has now been edited down to my absolute favorites, positioned where I can actually see them instead of behind me, plus the first framed photo of Ebony & Onyx.

My Christmas box, a couple boxes of files, and the rest of my toys all boxed up are hiding behind the Initech sign. There are more photos in my gallery if you’re curious. Yes that is an Initech mousepad as well, since my Equinix ones are ratty with 5 years of use. Initech is the company in the hilarious movie Office Space – “So you’ve been missing work lately?” “I can’t say I’ve been missing it, Bob!” No, I didn’t get one of the red staplers though.

We’ll see how long this “clean grownup look” lasts, since I’ve already put up a bunch of travel photos to remind me of fun times, edited from the previous entire wall of photos I had. I have a feeling I’ll end up succumbing to having more fun stuff around me, since that’s the stuff that makes me smile. At least since enough stuff is blooming in my yard at home, I’ve been able to bring in fresh flowers for 2 weeks now – last week quince blossoms and calla lilies, this time more calla lilies, lavender lilac, and pink false heather, so that’s nice.

TGIF tomorrow again…hope everyone has had a good week!

Another frantic busy week at work, then evenings were going home & crashing, except Wednesday, when co-workers got together for a little impromptu cocktail party for our East Coaster being in town. Good wine, blood orange cosmos (yum!), tasty nibbles, including my manchego with homemade quince preserves, then Rock Band on XBox while my boss barely tolerated the noise…heehee…

I have been dubious about Rock Band, but…

Friday was such an exhausting day of travel to get back home, I just did my trip laundry & tried to unwind with my kitties, then slept in Saturday. Ebony must be upset with me since Cyd verified no more accidents happened while I was gone, but as soon as I got home, Ebony peed on the down comforter again, then again Saturday morning on a replacement comforter after we got up, then after a one-hour afternoon shopping trip for groceries, she peed on my velvet bedspread and my sheets! *sigh* My “relaxing” day was doing many loads of laundry instead of organizing photos and writing up my trip. I did go to the Jack Conway Trio’s gig Saturday night, and thankfully no more accidents that evening or today, so maybe my “punishment” is over. I’ve been re-reading the book my old roommate gave me many years ago “Is Your Cat Crazy” of case studies by an animal behaviorist/cat therapist, in case that gives me any clues. So far it doesn’t seem to have a situation that fits Ebony, but I’ll keep reading.

Enough of kitty messes, and back to my trip recap! I have now posted my photos in my gallery, and you can keep reading below for more details. The weather was absolutely gorgeous, very very nice to get away from the cold & rain at home, I successfully paced my drinking & partying so I remember everything and was tired but not hungover, my small part of our group presentation went well on Thursday morning, with people actually laughing at my jokes, and my favorite quote was this:

“How old are you, Britta?”
“How old do you think I am?”
“You have no wrinkles at all – you could be twelve!”

Hahaha…even though I know he’d already had plenty to drink and had ulterior motives, it was still nice to hear.

Sunday – Miami South Beach