Nasty Rainy Day

It's 11:30 in the morning here - and it looks like it's 9:00 at night outside.

It's a nasty rainy day and I'm stuck here at work. That SUCKS! I'd much rather be at home in my sun room listening to the rain, watching some Tee Vee, and doing some needle point.

But I'm at work, I have yoga (yes I'm going again today) at 5.15 then I have Pet Patrol at 6.30.

http://www.thepetpatrol.org/

Pet Patrol is one of the greatest things EVER! I found them a few years ago when I was at the Pride Parade here in Houston.

They provide food and vet care for the animals of the elderly or chronically ill. When I found out what they did it astonished me.

Why do you ask?

Because - I never thought about what I would do if I became unable to care for my furbabies due to illness. If I had to let them go I truly believe it would literally kill me. Or kill my will to live - which is the same thing.

So I volunteer, I pack the food one Friday a month then deliver the month's food on one Saturday a month. I also started to get involved with fund raising.

I love delivering and talking to my clients, meeting their furbabies, and feeling like I'm doing something worthwhile.

My husband helps me pack which is nice too because we hang out with the other volunteers and have a good time.

Oh - I just heard that there is a tornado warning - gotta go!

Ciao

Seattle is Nice

I'm in Seattle.

I've never stayed overnight here before - I've always just flown through.

It's pretty nice - I had dinner at Anthony's on the sound last night.  http://www.anthonys.com/home.html

The food was o.k. - but I've had better.

The thing that I loved about the night was...it was a "school" night and I went out.

I didn't stay in.

I made a point to see the pier and have dinner at a locally recommended restaurant.

Can I get a Whoop! Whoop!

I'm trying to break out of the "it's a week night, I don't want to stay out late (aka 9pm!)" mode.

Baby steps!

Team Building Texas Style!

I started a new job - a fact which I'm sure all my non-existent readers are aware.

And during the second week of this job there was a conference, a kick off meeting for the new year.

And I was invited, I stayed at the Houstonian - which by the way is NOT as nice a its reputation would lead you to believe - I've stayed at nicer hotels in Switzerland, Spain, Austria etc...

But it was nice to be included and able to stay with everyone else so I could "bond" with the team.

Anyway, during this conference there were team building activities that we could participate in, and I picked Golf with a Gun.

Only in Texas would shooting be considered an acceptable activity to bring co-workers closer together, fostering better work relationships.

Here I am working on my working relationship with my co-workers...

We shot 50 rounds, I'd never shot a shotgun before so I was quite surprised at the kick when I pulled the trigger.  I ended up with a bruise on my shoulder from the kick.  Who knew shooting was such an active sport.

Anyway, out of 50 shots I hit 7.  Well, that's what the rifle range guy and the others on my team said.  I think they fudged the numbers.  I think I only actually hit 5.  But I'll take it, it meant that I was 3rd from bottom - 18 out of 20.

Even if I only hit 5 then I wouldn't have been last - I would have been19th out of 20.  Not bad for my first time shooting.

Go Team Building!!! 

I have A LOT of catching up to do!

I'm not keeping up with the life commentary like I should be.

I'm sucking at it quite frankly right now.

I'm going to work on it and here is my first attempt to catch you up...

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First I've started my new job - so far so good.  I really like it, but there's this one thing that happened...

I was invited to the 2011 kick off conference and during dinner, before the awards ceremony, I got a little freaked out.

They said Grace before dinner.

Yes I said Grace.

And while the guy was saying Grace, I did the expected.  I clasped my hands and bowed my head, but I had these frantic thoughts rolling through my mind...

Is he serious?  Grace?!

Oh Lord, he is serious....

That guy is really saying Grace...a real Grace...

One that is asking God to help specific people - not just a generic Grace for a good year...

Isn't this illegal?!  Can we be fined for this?  Or sued?

Lord knows someone in this group will most likely complain and sue...

Oh wait - it's a private company - I think they can do this....

Oh, Amen.

The girl next to me, who is also new, cut her eyes my way and asked me if I was religious.

I said not really, then she asked me if this was common in America (she's not from here), I said nope.

And we left it at that.

Interesting.

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Second.

Gracie is going to daycare.

Yep - daycare.  She needed more human interaction with me back at work and the dog walker, well lets just say I don't think Gracie was getting what I was paying for.  I'm not sure they were even coming in to walk her.

So doggie daycare.

So far so good, she seems to like it, and lord knows they adore her.

Everyone seems to adore Gracie - she's such a lovable, klutzy, puppy!

I need to take a new photo of her - she's getting really, really, big.

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Third.

I've been having some really weird dreams.  I'm not really remembering them all but there's one that's burned into my mind...

I was a man, a King.

Blond hair, blue eyes, with one of those pointy beards like back in the middle ages.  And I had two brothers.

Identical.  We were triplets.

One brother knew he was my brother, the other one had been taken at birth (how cheezy right?!) and we were trying to convince him that he was a King too.

We had all been separated at birth and given to different people to raise because the "evil" uncle, minister, whatever, wanted to kill us so he could stay in power.

We (one brother and I) knew who we were but the third had been "lost" and we had just found him.

I guess looking just like the two of us wasn't enough because we were having problems convincing him we were brothers.

Then I showed him the crown that was crusted over with barnacle looking growths that were stone in my dream.  There were really pretty, delicate, blue birds and pearls on the points of the crown.

And for some reason the crown convinced him what we were saying was true.

Oh, and we were immortal.

Cool dream huh?

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I'm trying to remember the other things I wanted to blog about, but of course I've forgotten them.

I'm starting to get back on a regular schedule so I should be back to blogging more often soon.

And exercising (fingers crossed).

And cooking healthier food.

And keeping up with my friends.

And....well you get the idea,

It usually takes me a bit of time to get back into the swing of things when I make an international move.

It's pretty disruptive.

Anyhoo - bear with me there will be more to come!