This is the "Before" Picture

Tom is rebuilding our master bathroom literally from the ground up. (Sorry -- you'll have to turn your monitor; this picture looks just fine till I upload it to my blog! Grrrr!) He's basically re-built our entire house and this is just the latest project. He's slow, but he's GOOD and I'm usually willing to wait for the beautiful results of his work (see below). But this project has been hard because it's right in the middle of our refuge and our home-universe, our bedroom.

This bathroom's just one of many projects Tom's done in the house. He also re-built the other bathrooms, tiling floors and walls, as well as the showers. And he built these beautiful fireplaces and also re-floored the entire house with hardwood and tile (carpet: never again!).

Sunday Dinner

I get up at 5:30 and leave the house at 6:45 to go to work these days. And there's no point in leaving work before 6:30 because the traffic sucks until at least then, so I don't normally get home until 7:30 or so in the evening. So during the week I have about two hours to do the things that need to be done around the house -- laundry, tidying, etc. Needless to say, those home-cooked casseroles I used to make at least a few times a week have pretty much bitten the dust.

So today, after Kat and I cleaned the house top to bottom, I decided to make a home cooked meal, just like old times. Kat's a vegetarian, Elisabeth cycles through being a vegetarian, a vegan and a carnivore (and I'm not sure what she is this week), and the guys love meat, so I decided to make both a vegetarian and a meat lasagna from scratch.

Tomorrow we'll go back to the Costco purchases -- Chinese chicken salad, pizza and pre-made casseroles -- but for tonight at least, we all sat down together and enjoyed Sunday dinner together.

Geeze, you two -- get a ROOM!

My guess is that they like the new bed I bought at Costco yesterday.

Just a hunch...

To My Very Faithful Indianapolis Reader

I am rooting for the Colts today for one reason and one reason only: YOU. The least you could do to return the favor is to introduce yourself!

Go Colts! :-)

A Boy and His Toy

Can someone please explain to me why a man whose utmost exclamation of excitement is along the lines of "Oh, very nice," and who has never whooped and hollered or jumped for joy in his entire life can find a thrill to warrant this kind of excitement in, of all things, a MARSHMALLOW BLASTER?!

Still Working (But No Commute Today!)

So Bailey and I settled in to get some work done early (toooo early!) this morning, cozy on the couch with good music, a fluffy down throw, a cup of coffee, and my yummy new robe. Well, we (we... ha!) did both work and play -- I'm still trying to figure out iPhoto, and how to organize my 11,000+ photos.

I'm waking up at 4 and 5 AM these days -- even on weekends -- partly because my body is now accustomed to waking up at that time, and partly because my mind is continuously going a mile a minute. One of these days I'll relax into this job, but right now I still have a to-do list a mile long and I'm still trying to prove myself... and constantly afraid that I'm coming up short.

The learning curve for this position has been incredibly steep AND I'm working with (and hiring) brilliance, so there's lots of room for insecurity. I'm heartened when I think back on some of the most successful people I've known in my career reminding me that they're constantly worried that they'll be "found out" -- that they actually don't know everything that everyone thinks they know! I think that a little insecurity is good because it wards off the cockiness that I can't stand -- the "I know everything, but you're just a learner" attitude. I never want to manage with that attitude. I think one of the reasons that D was such a great manager is because she started years ago at the bottom of the ladder and worked her way up -- so she always remembers what it's like to be "the worker," and I think her heartfelt regular positive feedback and explicit appreciation came from that perspective. I still crave a "good job" now and then and I constantly wonder if I'm meeting expectations. I must remember that as I manage others. The need for positive feedback from higher-ups never goes away, no matter how "high-up" one goes.

I Found a Lump

...back in December, while in Hawaii. It seemed to have appeared overnight and to be honest, it scared me. Of course, my first inclination was to see a doctor immediately upon returning, but with the holidays and the snow days, it was January before I had a chance to get to it. And then I started a crazy work schedule... and my new insurance wouldn't kick in until February first... and I didn't want to dive into a deductible for insurance I'd never use (Tom's, under which I was covered between Microsoft and this new job)... and...

And I came up with just about every excuse not to make an appointment. Until I did. Because one can't very well work in health education and advocacy and not advocate for one's own health. So my appointment was this morning and I'm relived to say that the lump was (is!) a huge fluid-filled cyst. Or rather, yet another fluid-filled cyst. Seems I'm prone to them. (How many of you now know more about me than you ever cared to know?!) But with Mom's history and death from ovarian cancer -- which is linked to breast cancer -- I'm hyper-vigilant.

The doctor was surprised that the cyst was so large and we both decided that there's no reason to have it aspirated because it will eventually disappear -- only to be replaced, I'm sure, by another. (Plus, my bra size would apparently shrink substantially if I were to have the dang thing drained!)

So... carry on! :-)

Growl and Roar!

To my children (yes, you... especially you two 17-year-olds):

This is the amount of towels you go through in a week. You know how I ask that you use a towel and then hang it up again? You know how you don't... and it ends up in your room, on your floor for a week (or more)? Well, THIS is one week's worth of that miserable, expensive, time-consuming cycle. And this just might be the last you see of all these nice, clean, dry towels for a while... because if I hide all but maybe four of them, you'll have to be resourceful and figure out a way to have a towel available for your showers... something like... oh -- hanging them up again after using them!!