180º

For the past two days, there has been an Executive Council meeting for about 200 of the senior management of the company I work for (purposely unnamed here).  I was very involved with the off-site safety/security assessment, securing the facility, non-disclosure agreements, staffing, etc.  Busy couple of days but fun.  Today I parked in the exact same parking garage, in the exact same parking space, that I parked in for years when I worked for my old company.  But today was different.  VERY different.   Here are a few examples:

• I wore a suit but that was unusual and not the norm
• My beard was "on"
• I went in early and liked it
• The team I was working with was using the latest technology and equipment
• Independent thinking and creativity was encouraged
• I paid for my parking with a corporate credit card
• Lunch was provided
• The CEO was motivating and positive and encouraged thinking outside of the box
• New bonus and pension plans were announced which represented a major investment in the employees and future of the company
• My boss left me to run the security program and didn't micro-manage me
• At the end of the program, the #2 in the company invited the "cast" to the stage.  This included all of the behind-the-scenes people who set up and coordinated the event.  We were honestly appreciated and received a huge round of applause (that was not prompted).

Who would have guessed that I would be where I am today?!  Certainly not me.  All those days that I parked in that spot, I never imagined the culture and atmosphere and position I am in today.  God is good.

Hard Driving

Another busy but not really notable week.  During last week's Office update on Lucie's computer, I saw she was just about out of hard drive space.  I took it to the local PC place figuring they could slap in a new drive and "Ghost" over the contents of her old one quicker and more efficiently than I could.  And indeed they could - for $200!  Um, no thanks.  So I bought a new drive from Dell ($65) and Ghosted it myself.  (Norton Ghost is a program that makes an exact duplicate of your hard drive that you can store like on an external drive in case your hard drive crashes.  Buy a new hard drive, copy the duplicate back onto it, and you are back and running without having to reinstall everything.  I "Ghost" our hard drives every month and save the copy just in case...).  Worked out really well and she now has 10x more free space than she did last week at this time.

Getting pretty cool at night and the leaves are dropping.  I have to consider closing down the pool but I hate to do it.  And Mocha swims in it every day.  Maybe in a couple of weeks.

Ashleigh has started her field hockey season.  Her final one I guess.  I have a link to her schedule and scores on my web page.

I went to my doctor yesterday and was declared stone free.  No recommendations or advice on how to avoid them going forward as nothing is really proven to be the cause.  So I will go back in a year for a check up and see if I am creating any new pearls.

Nothing really planned for the weekend.  Of course today is a day of remembrance.  Seems like just yesterday we were sitting around the TV watching those images over and over.  Still hard to believe.

Office At Home

Not too much happening since my last post.  Work has been going great.  I love the perks and incentives and special things they do for us there.  Really having a good time.  They offer an Associates discount on the new Office 2010 suite of programs - $9.95 for the whole thing (versus $499 buying it at Staples).  So this weekend I installed it on the home computers.  Upgraded us from version 2002.  So I guess it was time...  It went well and everyone seems to like it.

I have been getting back into the swing of basketball after missing so many weeks.  I am still the oldest, fattest, slowest and with the least amount of skills but its my program (and my ball!).  I have the most fun out there too.

Today we took the dogs for a walk at the park.  They had a great time.  Mocha carries the water for everyone but it doesn't bother her in the slightest.  Everyone we pass comments on her ("what a beautiful dog," "she looks like a bear...").  The weather has been great the past few days and we have had some good grillin' and walkin'.

This week I go back for an x-ray and 6 week follow up on my kidney stone removal.  I hope they find absolutely nothing.  I've been feeling fine except for phlebitis in my hand where the IV was.  But the veins are not as rock hard any more and not as sore.  Getting there...

No big plans for the weekend.  Nothing wrong with that...