Home again, home again

Well, we survived and the trip was actually pretty good, aside from the fact that I am now even more tired than I was before I left. I have now reached the level of tired floppiness that requires large paint scrapers to get me up off the sofa. I did sleep quite a bit last night, so hopefully I will catch up in a few days. Ben discovered the moving sidewalks at the airport, which are apparently the best ever, and elevators, which are equally exciting. Luckily the airport wasn't very crowded, so he ran to his heart's content. The plane rides were short, which was nice, but the last leg was on a small Dash 8 which I really don't care for. You always feel like your teeth are going to shake out of your head. I did get some nice shots of Ben at the airport on the way home, the light was too good to resist.

Yesterday at the office was a bit of a disaster. I should have just put a sign on my door saying "Brain out today, ask tomorrow". Ben's getting back into his routine. He was so happy to get home on Monday, he kept running around and touching things and grinning like a madman. The weather's really springy and gorgeous today, I should go outside for a wander around the block. See ya!

Attack of the zombie lady

I am fatigue girl. For the past two weeks, Ben has woken up at 3 most nights and stayed awake until 5. He's not unhappy, he's babbling and singing and whooping it up and it gets louder and louder until we go and get him and bring him in for some milk and cuddles. When we put him back in his crib, he continues the partying. Steve falls back to sleep quite quickly, but I stay awake and usually fall back to sleep sometime just before I have to get up. I've become one of those walking zombie people, the kind that I curse when I'm trying to get somewhere and they're sitting in their cars at green lights not moving. It's a hazy existence, somewhat unreal. All I really need is a long weekend like the one coming to rest and recharge. Oh wait, who else is navigating through aviation hell this weekend taking a toddler on two planes and a stopover at a large airport? Raise your hands? Crap, I thought there would be more of us. The last time we took Ben on planes, he was crawling and cruising, not exactly the running man he's become today. You put him down anywhere now and he bolts. He loves running at full tilt through open spaces, without a thought to where he's going or if we're following. This is fine at home and the park, but in a crowded airport, the thought makes my heart do running leaps at my throat. My only hope is that we can anchor him to something heavy, that will at least slow his progress. If you see me on Tuesday with my head on my drool-covered desk, cover me with a blanket and let me sleep for a week, preferably with pay.

Chalk mug

Why didn't I think of this? It's so simple and combines my two favorite things: coffee and the need to doodle. Get two so that you can have conversations with a colleague during long meetings.
(via Gizmodo, via RedFerretJournal)

I'm a real employee!

My employer has finally relented and made me a permanent employee. Until now, I have been what they call a "temp", full-time, but on contract, with no contractor benefits or employee benefits (other than being able to receive EI if I got laid off). Temps at this company spawn from the hiring freeze instituted several years ago which has since been lifted, but they figured out that there was quite a bit of money to be saved by using temps. They owed this to me big time. I am pretty happy with this, especially because Steve just got laid off and we lost his benefits. I celebrated by getting goodies for the department and having a little party in my office.
When I start new jobs, I often think about what I expect to achieve and gain. My idea of what a job is has changed over the years. My first jobs were all part-time stints, summers, weekends, evenings after school. My first real job (also while at school) cured me of the "my job is my life" thing that everyone seems to go through. After that experience, I became much more mercenary. When I decided to pursue tech writing, I employed myself and found that very enjoyable until the market dropped. Then, I chose jobs that were very challenging, in companies that were fast-paced and I worked late and put a lot of effort into building my skills and proving myself. This last jump has been for my family. The company is stable and I am comfortable with the routine and the people and I don't work late or push myself. I look forward to going home and my son running into my arms for a well-earned hug. He's my primary and favorite job :-)

Tell a woman to proof her writing

Update: I called the folks at L'Oreal and sent an email with corrections (lots on the link page as well, including "Internationnal" on all their e-cards). This morning I noticed that everything was fixed. Good for them!

Neat thing

Turn your gmail account into storage space:
http://www.softpedia.com/progDownload/GMail-Drive-shell-extension-Download-15944.html

What a weekend! Friday night we went with Bill to see Bride and Prejudice. What a fun movie! People walking down the street suddenly burst into a song and dance number. Some bits were kinda bad, and the American guy they cast was kinda the male Andy McDowell, but very entertaining. Saturday was Steve's party, in the afternoon, Steve's mom and I went out and I got my haircut and then we had lunch. We went to the Java U at Marche de l'Ouest and had yummy sandwiches and belgian french fries with flavored mayo - tasty! The party was great, lots of food and friends and laughs. On Sunday we were supposed to go out for breakfast, but we were way too tired, so we vegged and then went out and did some shopping in the afternoon. We found a new large skillet on sale.

It's all in the way you look at people

A couple of weeks ago, I was walking down the sidewalk running an errand. I was about to cross in front of a car that was pulling out of a grocery store parking lot, when the car didn't stop. He was almost at the street when he noticed me and braked. I gave him my patented look of death and continued down the sidewalk. A few minutes later, this guy comes running down the sidewalk at me. It was the guy from the attempted killer car. He ran down the street to apologize profusely for not stopping. When does that happen? Obviously my look of death has taken on new levels. I'm thinking that I should tone it down to a glance of damnation, or a squint of head trauma.