Odd little observations on getting older

First - I hate it.  Well, not all of it.  I love not caring at all what other people think.  That's wonderful.  But other parts of it - not so much.  One of the things is hair.  As in, grey hair.  So you get your hair highlighted to start with and when that's not doing it you move on to all over color.  And that works fine but having dark hair I notice that the roots are more noticeable and rather quickly at that.  What's the next move?  You have two - you can chose to go natural and therefore grey.  Or you can lighten your hair color so that the roots are not quite as noticeable.  That's where I went.  Rather than just having face framing foils I had my new hairdresser do my foils all over my head.  So now I'm lighter - not blond exactly but not all brown either.  It will take a bit of getting used to, but I like the change just to shake things up.

I dearly wanted to sleep in Saturday but there was too much going on.  Tink got her hairdo, I got mine and then time to pick her up and me to change clothes and it was off to Frank and Shannon's.  I was hoping it wouldn't go long but that was not the case and there was no time left for tomato picking or anything much at all but watching some college football.  I also had some work to do.  The final exam was on Friday but a few students failed so I couldn't post the grades until Saturday afternoon.  And today we have a re-exam for three students so I'll be home late again.  And Monday Night Football is the Seahawks.  It's recording.

I was hoping the nightmares would be done now that the class is done, but that's not the case and I had another screaming nightmare Saturday night and another, though not screaming, last night.  Do I need a relaxing day?  Oh yes.  A relaxing week is more like it, but not in the cards right now.  I don't think it would be so bad if I hadn't gotten another cold -- which by the way is hanging on still.  I so want to start running again this week but not until the cough is gone. 

We are having an incredible Indian Summer!  It was positively hot yesterday so rather than bring in the outdoor furniture and winterize I enjoyed the weather for as long as I could.  I even knit outside for a while until the late game was on.  I nearly won my fantasy this weekend - nearly.  I am disappointed because it was so close.  I won the close one last week though. 

Well -- I must dig in and get an exam ready.  It's going to be nice today at least.

Thursday night football

In the past the NFL games were only on Sunday and Monday until Thanksgiving, but this year we're having Thursday night games all season long.  Last night my fantasy QB and a receiver plus the defense of the other team played.  Well, my QB is Aaron Rogers and the Packers just killed the Vikings.  They were so far ahead that they pulled Aaron Rogers and put in the backup for the last quarter.  Of course then my defense got no points to speak of but Aaron Rogers and Jordy Nelson got me nearly 30 points.  That's a good start.  I'd like to win a second in a row and move up a little more in the standings. 

The Seahawks don't play until Monday night which means that Sunday is a little more open than it would typically be.  I set up Tink's annual vet appointment for Sunday morning.  I can move my hair salon, but I don't want to change vets at this late stage.  She's been going there since she was a puppy and we don't go many times a year, so we'll keep her vet.

It's going to be a busy weekend.  I've got to drop Tink at the groomers first thing Saturday morning, and then I've got a hair appointment at 9:45 and after that a family gathering at 1 o'clock.  Hopefully it won't go too long.  I'd really like to do some serious knitting this weekend.  I did get a couple rows done last night, but I've a long ways to go with this beaded shawl and I've got two new knitting books coming today plus the yarn from YarnBox is really calling my name.  I am going to make "Brown Eyed Susan" from Juju's Loops and I actually was going to have someone check the book out of the library for me to copy the pattern, since it's the only one out of the book I want.  However, the book is published in London and it's not in our library system!  Therefore I had to fork out $30 for one pattern.  I know ... but I really really like it!  And I think it'll be perfect for the yarn I got.  I should take pictures -- the blue is absolutely the most gorgeous peacock blue ever.  It reminds me of the ink I used when I used to write with a nibbed pen.  The ink came in cartridges rather than a bottle.  I thought it was so elegant and romantic to write with an ink pen, but my teachers didn't think so. 

I got my appointment at the spa all set for Friday and got the day off on the calendar at work.  Oh joy!  I'm to get to the spa at 11 am to soak in the tubs for an hour before my body scrub, and then I'm having a body moisturizing as well.  That is just SO relaxing.  And they put this fresh green mask on your face while you're getting lotion massaged into your freshly exfoliated body.  You come out of there as soft as a baby all over.  Then I'm going shopping and I'm going to buy myself something really nice.  I haven't had any new work clothes and I deserve it.

Also on the agenda for the weekend is to take the cushions off the outdoor chairs, put the umbrella down, take the cloth off the round table ... winterize, in other words.  And I'm going to get the last of the tomatoes in and make sauce.  I tried it last weekend and it was okay in the slow cooker, but I didn't care all that much for the recipe.  I will do it in a big pot this time instead and I will not use nearly as much olive oil as that other recipe called for.  Fun weekend ahead.

Fat rabbits

Poor Tinkerbell.  She will NEVER get a rabbit and it is driving her absolutely stark raving mad.  The one time she got away from me this early spring was to chase the rabbits, which got away thank goodness.  And now I swear they taunt her.  There is one big one, or perhaps they all look the same at this time of year, that seems to be in the same spot every morning when we go out for our walk.  It sits and sits until we get up rather close and then darts away, but not ALL the way away.  Just away enough to watch and drive my poor dog crazy.   I love watching them, especially the little tiny babies.  But I will be glad when they are gone, because I don't like to see Tink all worked up like that.  Part of me really wants to let her go and have a good chase, but I would feel just awful if she actually caught it and killed it.

Two more days of this insanity at work.  I am just about tearing my hair out.  I did absolutely nothing last night -- well, I did my hair and cooked a lovely curry for dinner.  Other than that though, I just watched "Inside the NFL" and relaxed.  I am feeling better.  I still sound bad, but I am feeling better.  I long for a day just to myself to sleep and shop and that's what I'm going to do next Friday.  I'm going to take a vacation day and go to the spa and go shopping and just pamper myself.  I can't wait.

Flu shots

Generally, I avoid them.  I don't know when is the last time that I've actually had the flu.  Oh I get colds, bad colds.  But flu?  However, since I am now enjoying my second cold since July, I am most definitely getting a flu shot this year.  Absolutely.

It took me a while to get home, but after a late bus and a quick stop at the store for necessities, I was in bed and asleep (again) by 3 and slept for two solid hours.  Then I got up and got a few things sorted out in the kitchen.  I was feeling better!  Yay!  I had picked up comfort food at the store - chicken pot pies.  Something easy to heat up and warm and nice.  I had some hot whiskey, watched some silly TV and went to bed early.  I slept pretty well except having to get up once to take more cough medicine.  And here I am today, on time and ready to go.  And it's Wednesday, so there's knitting to look forward to at lunchtime.  I'll be a little late, but no matter.  I should be able to get 40 minutes in at the least.

I was hoping to be able to start back up running this week, but that went down the drain.  I'll have to shoot for next week then.  And start off slow since it's been since the first cold that I've run - actually since my trip in July!  Twelve weeks.  I suspect it'll take me at least two weeks to get my wind back up.  That's fine.  I know I'll feel much better once I can get running again.  Things won't be so busy at work either, for at least a few weeks.

Have you noticed how dark it is in the morning now?  I am looking forward to turning the clocks, but it won't be until the end of the month.  I almost turned the porch light on to walk Tink this morning.  I guess I'd better find a flashlight to take with us soon. 

I just had to go

I couldn't NOT go to the football game on Saturday.  It was a beautiful day and I was super excited to go to the new stadium.  It wasn't the best idea, considering the state of my cold - bad.  But it was a wonderful day even if the Huskies stunk up the place.  Granted, it was a tough team but still ... if their defense hadn't been so stout we wouldn't have had the 13 points we ended up with.  We lost.  To Stanford.  But all in all, a wonderful day. 

Sunday I spent entirely in bed.  All day.  My cold had morphed from throat to entirely in my head and I was a mess.  I had no choice, I had to come in Monday so I thought spending the day in bed would do it.  Well, it didn't.  Monday morning the cold was in my chest and I was miserable, but got myself up and out and got my meetings done, quiz done, small groups set up .... and got home and back into bed by around 2.  I was hoping to be able to stay in bed today and work from home, but there was a problem with the quiz and then I got an email at 6 this morning that one of my faculty couldn't make an afternoon session, so that means re-scheduling 155 students. 

So -- I let myself sleep until seven-ish, showered, walked Tink and headed to the Transit Center at 8 o'clock.  I thought it would be easier than 7 but oh no, that's when the little kids are getting to school.  If anything Avondale Road was even MORE crowded than at 7!  I stopped in for a coffee and a muffin at Starbucks and kept on going, bumper to bumper to the Transit Center, intending to catch the last Greenlake Express.  I got to the parking garage and it was filled.  I went to the tippy top and not a spot to be found!  Now what am I going to do?  I sure didn't want to drive, but as luck would have it I found a spot on the ground floor.  Whew!  I made the 9:09 545 Seattle Express and walked to work from Montlake.  What a slog when you're sick. 

It's around 1 now and I've got all of the fires put out, everyone tucked up nicely and my boss told me to go home as soon as I could.  Now would be good.  And tomorrow I'll be just fine and dandy.  Yes, yes I will.

Squeaky steps

It's raining again, and almost every time someone walks by the office suite I can tell because of the squeaking of rubber soles.  I don't know if it's the coating or wax that makes this floor so noisy, but it's always been like that for all the years I've been here.  More people wear sport shoes now so it's even more pronounced.

I made it through the day yesterday but I was oh so tired.  I left my iPad at work (I know!) and even though I have Kindle on both my iPhone and iPad, it's not so comfortable to read on my phone, so I watched an episode of Outlander after the football game and early to bed.  I slept like a rock until the rain woke me up around 5.  It was pouring down and it's still so nice and warm that I can keep the window wide open.  I love the sound of rain when I am all snug in bed.  Not so much when I have to get up though.

Big plans for the weekend - football!!  I get to see a game in the new stadium and I'm very excited about it.  I flew through it in a helicopter when they had put the grass in -- oh, about two years ago I think -- but it's going to be exciting to actually get in there and sit down.  I think they're pretty good seats, too.

I had to cancel all of my appointments with my hairdresser at Derby.  I feel terrible about it.  I've been going to her for ages, but it is just too inconvenient now that I have moved to Woodinville.  I can't go on a weekday night because of the buses and it seems every Saturday I've got something on and I can't take four hours out of the middle of my day.  I was pleased with the job they did for me at the little salon near my new place, so I have to let Derby go.  I think I'll write her a nice card, since the last time I had my hair done she opened the salon on a Monday just for me! 

Oh I wish I could wake up!

Another cold!

I can't believe I have yet another cold!  I am here at work - as I said, I can't miss work at this time of year.  I would much rather be in bed, I can tell you that for sure.  But I don't have a fever and no cough and my throat is much better, so here I sit.  I slept the day yesterday so I suppose that's what I needed.  I kept myself dosed up with Nyquil, would work for a few hours, then snooze.  I got everything done that needed to be done.  I have to say though, it was not easy getting out of bed, especially since it was pouring rain.

I didn't block my shawl.  I didn't do anything except heat up some soup and let Tink outside a few times.  I watched the recording of "Inside the NFL" and made myself a sandwich and more tea and honey, then crawled into bed and read.  Boring, but effective.  I mean at least I'm up!

My boss is giving me tickets to the Husky game this Saturday.  I haven't yet been in the new stadium so I'm pretty excited about that.  We're playing Stanford - not a pushover team by any means - and our first conference game.  The Seahawks have a bye this week, so Sunday will be chore day.

Well, the students won't leave me alone so I'd better get on with the day.

Pouring rain and a sore throat

I came home last night, drew a nice hot bath, made some tea with honey and settled in to get better.  I put some eucalyptus oil in the bath, which was nice.  My throat is SO sore.  So annoying.  I took some Nyquil and hopped into bed with another cup of tea, watched a minute of TV and read for an hour or so before falling asleep to the sound of rain.  This morning is is pouring and I am working from home.  I had the good sense to bring my MacBook home with me last night.  It's a lot easier to type on this than on my iPad plus I can do real work.  And it's so nice and light.  I hate to miss noon knitting but I have got to get this gone.  I can't be down like I was in July.

The weather is still nice and warm, but oh so wet.  More like spring than autumn although the trees are finally starting to look like they mean business.  

Another YarnBox is on its way.  As if I need any more yarn.  But I forgot to discontinue the subscription in time.  And pretty soon it'll be cold enough for my heavier scarves and wraps.  I still haven't blocked the Venomous Tentacula.  I need to find my box of blocking mats, although I think I might have enough of the smaller ones to do this shawl.  Maybe if I'm feeling nearly normal this afternoon I'll give it a go.

In the meantime, time for another snooze.

Moving on up

I did win my match up this week!  I've moved up to 6th place, which is awesome.  I have a tough opponent coming up though, so I will need a lot of luck to beat him.

I am not feeling so hot today.  I woke up a couple of times last night with a dry spot on my throat and coughing.  This is terrible terrible timing.  It is not a good time to be sick.  I'll ignore it and may it'll go away.

After some good knitting this weekend, I didn't even pick it up last night.  The beaded shawl is slow going, but it is going to be very pretty and when I do pick it up I usually get a lot done.  On Sunday I got four pattern repeats done.  I have to work late today so maybe I'll do a little knitting later this afternoon while I am waiting for small groups to finish. 

I watched a little football, watched an episode of The Outlander and then read for a little while before falling asleep.  I have so many good books on my iPad right now -- three, in fact.  I'm reading the latest by Martha Grimes right now and listening to another mystery on my audiobooks app.  Both British but entirely different types.  The narrator in the audiobook leaves something to be desired though.  He's not so great with accents.  He was trying to do a man with a Jamaican accent and at times he sounded Norwegian.  That's a little off putting, you know?

I have too much to do.  I've got to dig in.

Misty morning

It wasn't supposed to be rainy today but the ground was wet when I left and it was misting quite a bit by the time I got to the bus.  And me with no umbrella.  But it is also quite warm so I don't mind. 

What a nice weekend I had.  I did indeed sleep in Saturday AND Sunday and it was gorgeous and everything I wanted it to be.  I did a little running around Saturday, a little shopping.  I found a very cute top to wear Saturday night and finally found a warm bathrobe.  Last week I downloaded the latest software for my iPhone and Saturday started the update for my iPad when I took a little nap before getting ready to go out.  But I noticed that the iPad got stuck and wanted me to plug it into iTunes.  Really?  So there went the nap -- I got up and turned on my laptop, having forgotten that the PC laptop has outdated software because I hadn't been using it.  As soon as this course is done I'm going to take my MacBook Air home to use as my work-from-home computer, but in the meantime I've got this clunky PC to deal with.  It was a frustrating hour and I finally gave it up and got ready to go out.

Dinner was at an Italian restaurant and I had some of the best linquine Puttanesca I have had in a long long time.  It had a little heat, just enough anchovy and it was yummy!  And some nice Chianti to go with.  As I suspected, the jazz wasn't jazz at all, but a very good guitar player with an impressive synthesizer so that his guitar could sound like any instrument, and then recorded background bass and drums.  It was fun and the company was nice.

Sunday I tackled the iPad update again, after setting up a new DVD Blu-Ray player with internet connection.   I got Amazon Prime and Netflix and HuluPlus all up and running.  Nice.  Anyway, after innumerable updates I finally got the iTunes to recognize the iPad and then it was wiped clean and couldn't find any of the backup.  Good heavens.  At least I remembered what had happened with my iPhone and plugged it into a wall socket rather than my computer and got it restored.  It took hours and hours but I have everything back finally, as it was.

The Husky game on Saturday was good, and the won.  The Seahawks also won - it was a rematch of the Superbowl and it went into overtime.  A nail biter.  And it looks like I'm going to win my matchup this week as well.  Woohoo!  My opponent has one guy, but that guy has to get more than 30 points and it is rather unlikely.  Not impossible, but unlikely.  Fingers crossed.

And another week starts.  I didn't get home until after 7 on Friday.  This week will be easier.

I am truly happy it is Friday

I am beyond exhausted.  I could not believe it when the alarm went off this morning and even though I had slept like a rock last night, I could barely drag myself out of that bed!  All I can think about is crawling back into it, but there is a long long day ahead of me.

I have been driving to the transit center to catch the bus across the lake to work, rather than taking a bus from home to the transit center.  This is better for a couple of reasons - mostly because I don't have to wait for a second bus on my way home.  Yes, I have to drive in traffic, but at least I'm moving and I know it's going to be really worth it when the weather changes.  This morning as I was pulling into the parking garage a woman zoomed toward me and turned left into the parking garage right in front of me!  And then had the audacity and bad manners to flip me off!  She cut me off!  Of course at that time of the morning the only spots available are on the top of the garage and I knew I would be able to see who she was.  Indeed I did and she works here at the U.  I don't know what department, but she's been here nearly as long as I and always nods and smiles when we meet.  Obviously she didn't know it was me.  And now I am really pissed.  Not the way I want to start this day.  This long long day.

My proctoring doesn't start until 1:30, and then when the exam finishes at 4:30 I have to wait for the grades to come from the lab exam so that I can enter them into my spreadsheet and the boss can know who is in trouble in the class for the weekend.  I will be lucky to get on a bus before six.  Ah well.  I'm sleeping in tomorrow, that's for sure.  And tomorrow night it's out to hear some jazz.  I have mixed feelings about that because I don't think the band is going to be any good.  But it's always nice to get out.

I swear there was steam coming out of my ears!!

Nobody likes to lose their temper, especially not at work.  But I lost it yesterday for sure.  Lucky for me my boss seems to think it's especially hilarious when people make me angry.  Here's what happened - there is a young man who works in the Dean's Office as a receptionist.  His other job is to reconfigure the small group rooms that are used by first and second year medical school courses.  He needs to consult his spreadsheet and get to the rooms between sessions to open or close the dividers and move the tables around.  When I got the imaging faculty upstairs and set up in their rooms I could plainly see that the dividers had not been closed nor had the tables been moved to a classroom set up.  On top of that, two of the four projectors were not working, and that's a different department.  I called Classroom Services to get someone to come up to fix the projectors and then I called Sean, the person in charge of reconfiguring the rooms.  And instead of apologizing and saying he'd come right up, he started arguing with me that there were no small group sessions happening!  I said, "Don't argue with me Sean.  We can deal with your spreadsheet later.  Are you going to help me or not?" and what did he say?  He said no, that he didn't think he could help me right now!  Are you kidding me???  I asked him where the gadget was to close the walls and he said there might be one in the ICM office (an office on my floor).  Seriously?  By this time I was beside myself with anger.  I called the woman in charge of the spreadsheet, a lovely girl, and she said of course she could help and she ran right upstairs with the gadget and got the dividers closed.  She said Sean had disappeared.  I told her what he had said and that I was fed up with him.  She is going to report his conduct to the Dean.  I don't suppose he'll cross me again.  And I'm going to make sure he doesn't have any question about when my next small group sessions occur.  Little jerk.

When I got home I was in a state so I took a nice walk with Tink, then a calming shower, made a cocktail and watched football and knit.  In a couple of hours I was fine.  But it still makes me mad when I write about it. 

Tomorrow will be a long day.  I've got to stay late.  I am SO looking forward to my weekend.

The $100 door stop

I finally got my accounting from the apartment yesterday.  I was expecting all of my deposits to be refunded because I left that place in great shape.  At one point, however, I did manage to snap off the spring door stopper at the bottom of the front door.  I should have super glued it back on I suppose, because they deducted $100 for baseboard repair.  Well, one can't expect any less.  I am happy to get back what I did.  So I promptly spent a great portion of it on a pair of winter shoes or should I call them booties?  They're like oxfords but have a bit of a heel and good non-slip soles and will be good in the rain and snow.  Also a new DVD player that will stream Amazon Prime and Netflix.  That took a bite of out it.  I'm happy.

Tink was in rare form when I got home last night and after a nice long walk wanted to play and play and play!  I guess she was under the weather there for a couple of days, but back in good form now.  I wanted to get her a nice haircut this weekend, but they can't fit me in until the first Saturday of October so I guess I'll have to bathe her this weekend and give her a nice brushing and hope that'll do for a few weeks.

Crazy days -- it's Noon Knitting today but I've got to get the imaging faculty set up so I am going to miss part of it.  And Friday is the second exam.  Then only two more weeks of anatomy to go.  I know it's hard on the students, but it's no picnic for me either!  I am so exhausted all the time I can hardly manage to do anything after work but cook and read.  I didn't even knit last night and barely read a page before I was out.  Tonight I will watch Inside the NFL before I sleep, I hope.  Adrian Peterson is again off the team until his court date.  My fantasy opponent for this week's match up was frantically trying to get a trade going with me last night.  My back up QB is out, but I'm not worried about that.  My QB doesn't have a bye week until week 10, so I've got time (fingers crossed Aaron Rogers doesn't get hurt!!) to get a backup if RGIII doesn't get back in the game. 

The weather has stayed fine and warm.  It's going to be hot again this weekend too.  I love September!

Not last!

Hah!  I am not in last place!  The two guys in my fantasy league who are the biggest talkers and, in fact, the winner last year, are last.  Both of them trying to make trades with me too.  I'm holding steady.  I get Adrian Peterson back for next week and I have a couple of other guys who are warming up, as it were.  I should be in pretty good shape for next week.  Hopefully.  I would like to win - duh. 

What a cruel subconscious I have!  I was so tired yesterday and did get to bed rather early.  I read for about a minute and then conked out.  I woke up sometime in the middle of the night because Tink wanted off the bed for a drink of water - thankfully NOT a trip outside.  And as I was laying there going back to sleep I somehow calculated that it was Friday night.  It didn't take me long to figure out I was wrong though and it was Monday night instead.  It's going to be a long week.

Tink is feeling better this morning, thankfully.  I put a little olive oil into her food last night and she ate, and ate again this morning and her digestive tract is back in working order.  It's hard when one's dog is sick because, obviously, they can't tell you what's wrong.  That's the problem a woman at work is having with her Westie.  He's in the vet hospital, not eating and they can't figure out what's wrong with him!  That's scary.

My hand is feeling better after that marathon knitting session so I am hoping to get some knitting done tonight.  Last night I was just too tired.    I've been thinking I should start getting caught up with Ravelry.  I haven't posted anything on there for more than a year!  When things calm down here I'll have plenty of time, I suspect.

Practically perfect

As predicted Saturday was a very busy day, ending with an impromptu card party that, thankfully, didn't last too long into the night.  Saturday morning I got my eyes checked, this time with a new doctor.  I use two different contact lenses, mono vision.  One eye corrects for distance, one for close up and together they're good.  He suggested we correct the astigmatism in my near vision eye, which the other doctor hadn't done.  I didn't have any change in my prescription other than changing this one contact and I'm trying it now.  I like it, especially for computer work.  I also picked out a new pair of frames and I am really looking forward to them.  I am sick of my current ones, although that's probably because I've had to wear them a lot since August.   I didn't want to order 90 days worth of contact lenses if I was going to have a changed prescription.

The rest of Saturday was spent rearranging the kitchen and unpacking the rest of my kitchen boxes.  The last things to do are the hall bathroom and then hang the pictures, but that's going to have to wait for this coming weekend.  While we were working we watched the Huskies kick some football behind.  They are 3 and 0, all non conference games.  But that's a great start with a new coach.  All of the teams were decent, no push overs.

Sunday I slept in!  It was gorgeous! I caught up with my sleep, staying in bed until after 9.  Ahhhhhhh ..... perfection.  And the rest of the day was football and knitting.  I knit so much that my hand was sore at the end of the day.  Unfortunately the Seahawks lost. They were simply outplayed and it was not fun to watch.  My fantasy team did okay, although I lost my best guy - the first pick in the draft - due to him supposedly spanking his son with a switch.  I have one player tonight, but so does my opponent so I'm probably going to lose again.  I made a switch on Sunday so hopefully I can get a few more points next week.

Sunday night - bad.  B-A-D.  Tinkerbell had a stomach issue, which means I was up with her not once, not twice, but three separate times.  In between, when I got back to bed and to sleep I had nightmares.  Terrible ones  I feel like a zombie today.  Not only do nothing Monday, but go to bed early Monday!

Thank goodness for web searches

My main concern with my iPhone yesterday was my pictures.  The fact that they hadn't shown up when I synced with iTunes on my laptop had me a little scared, so I did some searching and found a person who had a similar experience and followed her instructions on how she fixed it.  Basically I had to reset it again (scary), then plug it into the wall (rather than through iTunes) and once you go through a few hoops you can choose to restore to the last backup.  And that, my friends, give you everything back the way it was, even the apps!  Yay!  It took a long time to get all of the photos reinstalled but now everything is back to the way it was and I'm happy I didn't lose any of my precious pictures.

Check out this flower.  I saw it when I was out for a little walk at lunchtime yesterday.  Does anyone know what it is?  It was on a shrub and there were lots of them.  It's about two or three inches across, and no obvious scent.  I just thought it was so pretty.

The sun is out again today but it was quite chilly this morning.  I know we're supposed to get back into the 80s for this next weekend and into next week, but the mornings and evenings are definitely starting to feel colder.  The leaves are taking their time turning, but I noticed these two last night, out of the entire tree.  In the picture, right in the center.  In fact, all the trees around - these are the only two starting to turn. It's not a very good picture.  I had to take it with my iPad since my iPhone was busy being restored.  The quality isn't good enough to blow up.  Maybe I can get another one tonight that's better.  See that dark hole in the middle?  That's where I saw seven deer come through early this spring.  Seven!

I have a big weekend planned.  First - sleep.  Well, no first I have an eye appointment Saturday at 9 am.  But Sunday I swear, I am sleeping in for as long as I want.  I am still sleep deprived after last weekend!  Maybe I'll have a nap tomorrow, because after the eye appointment it is going to be time to finish unpacking.  There are still kitchen and bathroom boxes to put away.  And knitting during football on Sunday.  Sounds like a perfect weekend to me!

Simple? Not hardly.

I hopped on the bus yesterday morning at 10 to make my appointment at the Genius Bar at the University Village Apple Store, which by the way was packed.  And even though I had made it clear on my appointment request, I had to leave my phone and come back in the afternoon to pick it up.  Hardly convenient but what could I do?  The instructions on the website for getting your battery changed say that you should back up everything to the Cloud, which I do, and then reset everything, virtually taking it back to new.   Then when you're done you just reinstall everything from the Cloud.  All well and good but when I picked up my phone they had started it rather than letting me restore from the Cloud.  So there I was with no contacts, no nothing on my phone and I had to go home and restore using my laptop.

Now here's the thing -- yes you get all of your contacts back, but all of your music and things like that are still in the Cloud.  I have to get on line and do some searching to find out how to get all my photos back.  Thank goodness they are on my iPad but it's not obvious how to get them back on my phone!  I rarely plug my phone into my iTunes on my laptop any more so I'm not up on all the changes there.  And the Apps -- you have to reload them one by one.  The good news is that you can see what you purchased and then just put the ones back that you actually use.   But all of your setting are wiped out there so you've got to re-sign in and/or enter all the info, like with my checking account, since I didn't pay for a backup service.  And my Audiobooks, well I am hoping it will sync up to the last position, like Kindle does.  It's just so very time consuming, trying to get everything back like it was.

Well I didn't even bother going back to work, since it was nearly three by the time I was out of the Apple store for the second time.  My idea was to go home and have a little nap, but then I had to plug my phone into my laptop and that started another mess.  My laptop is saying that my Windows is not a valid version, even though I've had this laptop (second hand from a faculty person who left) for over a year and used it for work.  I didn't bother bringing it in, but I will check with the IT guy about it.  I think when the course is over I'll just take my Macbook home with me and use that.  I love it and it's a much better thing than the PC laptop I have for home.

The sunshine came back but it was definitely chilly this morning.  I even got cold at night.  It will be hot this weekend but I'll bet it's the last of that.

Confusion reigns

Let's pull out all of the cliches, shall we?  Too many cooks spoil the broth. The left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing.  What else?  I completely understand how it happens but that doesn't lessen the frustration on my part.  The last two weeks of the course are still in disarray and I am unable to fix it because I cannot do what needs to be done.  I can't re-write the study guide chapters myself.  And if I'm not cc'd on the important emails I cannot make the changes to the schedule.  Am I to intuit that a guest lecturer wishes to move her lecture up a week?   So the students are confused and I'm frustrated.  It makes me unhappy.

What makes me happy though is that I get a new battery for my phone today.  Hoorah!  I've got an appointment at the Genius Bar at 10:20 this morning.  I'd better find the email that tells me how to prepare my phone. 

A little rain this morning.  I sure hope the sun comes out later today.  I need my sunshine today.  Really I do.

The road back to good humor

Sleep deprivation does terrible things to me.  I am much better this morning thanks to a decent night's sleep.  Truth be told, I could easily have slept another couple of hours, but I'm doing okay.  There were two Monday night games on last night, but I only watched the early one, where my player was playing (badly).  I lost but I am 8th overall and that's NOT last.  And as I said, plenty of time left to work my way up the ladder. 

I really should start back up running.  Now that the weather is beginning to cool off.  It's still pretty darned busy work-wise but maybe next week I can get my routine going again.  It will help my state of mind as well.

Tomorrow I'm going to get my new phone battery.  Woohoo!  I am going to be happy to leave the big battery case at home.  I am expecting miracles.

I started exploring options for a weekend in Portland, Oregon.  I love getting on the train and riding down the coast.  It's a nice little city and very walkable.   I've decided on the week of October 26 so I think I'll buy the train tickets and wait a bit on the hotel.  I found a few but they are boutique and a little pricey.  I just mostly want someplace walking distance from the train station, and cute.  Yes, that usually means pricey too. 

It was raining this morning.  It's funny how rain sounds much different in the country.  Well, not funny.  Logical I guess.  The rain drops hitting leaves makes it sound like it is raining harder than it actually is.  The rest of the week we're  back to sunshine.  The tomatoes are loving it!

I was right about one thing

Yes, the weather.  It was stunning.  Hot, actually.  But a nice rest?  No.  Not even close.  Late nights and WAY too early awake both Saturday and Sunday.  WAY too early.  I did buy the last bottle of a Joseph Drouhin Macon Villages 2006 that the local boutique/wine shop had.  I wish I had thought to buy all of the stock last time I was there and I was going to do that -- well, I did.  But one was all they had left.  I enjoyed it.

What else?  Visited a very lame Farmer's Market in Shelton.  Got some knitting time in, but it was so bloody hot. 

The weekend did not get off to a very good start because of a horrible mess up with the grades.  Not my mess up, mind you.  And there I was stuck on the freeway and not able to do anything about it.  Extremely frustrating. 

The Huskies won their game this weekend.  They had their regular QB.  I am doing okay with my fantasy team (new name this year -- Victorious Secret) but my opponent has 3 players left for tonight and I've only got one so .... I probably will lose this weekend.  Plenty of games left.

I am in a terrible TERRIBLE mood today.  There are just so many things going on at work and I feel like I've got a dozen balls in the air.  And if one more person gets a smug look on their face and tells me I haven't done something when I most certainly HAVE done it, I'm going to scream.  Perhaps even lash out.  You never know.  I'm that close.  I'm going to start planning a weekend away in Portland for October.  I need something to look forward to besides work and unpacking.