CliffsVic

Thanks to Monday & Tuesday having been near-12-hour workdays this week, I got to take this afternoon off! Which came in handy, given I needed to do the stuff listed in yesterday’s post Even better, because I accomplished all that, plus selected a mobile USB wireless Bluetrack Tech mouse (compatible with both Mac & my work Windows laptop), took the dogs on a long walk, AND hit two grocery stores for edibles… AND I WAS DONE BEFORE 4PM!!

‘Course, having paid for 3 car registrations and driver’s license, I waved “bye-bye” to most of this week’s paycheck…Happy Birthday (almost a month early) to me?

Brain is in fragmented mode right now. Multiple reasons, some good, some not-so-good.

Mom-in-law is in hospice, big chunk of brain power is on this… family, family, family. Wishing I could do *something*, feeling helpless. I am going thru pictures for the GG to do some creating collaging….

Daughters are in Texas and California – working their hineys off… loved having them home, but loving that they have big projects that are helping shape their futures once they finish with their grad schools.

Had my appraisal this morning… feeling good about the upcoming year. Have my “first BIG project” starting up next week… and the thing is, it’s got HUGE potential. Looking forward to the challenge. Still think that this new online appraisal thingy is crap, compared to doing a real-live written-out thing, but at least I have a boss who gives on-going feedback “live and in the moment” rather than bottling it up until appraisal time.

Ernie goes for his post-op Friday afternoon. He’s done wonderfully following his eyelid surgery (huge “cyst” removed from upper lid, 3 stitches). Remainders of dissolving sutures to be removed, his gorgeous “British eyebrow” is already growing back in to match the untouched one.

And, I get to go “in person” tomorrow to renew my driver’s license, and will also renew the registrations on the vehicles that simultaneously come due with my birthday every year… the State saying “Happy Birthday! You owe us $ for your cars!”

Yup, made the leap. Two iPhone 4S’s have been ordered. Black. 16GB. Same terms of contract as before (including the “unlimited data part”). Should have the devices in a few days!

Janet got home last night, Val arrived this evening!

Trip to DTW with Janet to retrieve Val was uneventful (excepting *someone* in the cellphone waiting lot who randomly *beeped* his carhorn…). Ok, minor event… Val called to tell us she was ready for pickup, went to the Arrivals level, and she wasn’t there?? Ooops, she was at the Departures level (didn’t have to go to Baggage Claim)… she found us in a few minutes.

Quick supper at the Pei Wei on Grand River (Farmington Hills), then home by way of a Fenton gas stop and some Xmas light-seeing along Torrey Road.

…with the beginning of kids returning home!

Janet’s flight landed safely at DTW this afternoon, and she was met by her boyfriend, Corey. They are having sushi in Spartan-Land, and tomorrow, she expects to meet up with a favorite professor or two (or three) and get a tour of the Forensic Lab and maybe a lunch….

She’ll be home in time for supper (whatever we manage to come up with, that is), and will be the official dog-snuggler when I take the Crosstour to the dealer to get a replacement foglight Saturday morning early (trying to recall the incident – likely a rock thrown up on one of my highway runs – that wound up with the lens getting destroyed!! Only discovered it today as I walked up to the car after my meeting. Ordered the replacement via “handsfree link” en route home.).

Next up? Val is arriving DTW Saturday evening! Looking forward to the “pack count being Right” for a couple of weeks!

It’s mid-December, and it gets DARK awful fast!

Got home from work, and by the time the dogz dragged me out for our walk, it was ALREADY well into darkening. A few days ago, I took the LED “headlamp” off the elastic headband, and it now resides in my jacket pocket… making it much easier to locate what the dogz deposit. (Still remembering one time, trying to locate a deposit in the dark, only to step in it… rendering the whole operation moot).

At least today it was mild temps, albeit with a constant Scotch mist in the air.

Tomorrow? Off to Owosso for a nearly-all-day meeting. Janet arrives DTW about 5PM – and will be picked up by her boyfriend and shuttled over to East Lansing to visit/have lunch with her favorite professors and get a tour of the lab facilities on Friday. Kiddo will be whomped by the time she gets here Friday evening!

Val arrives Saturday at DTW. That’s probably a 4-hour minimum round trip (and a food stop probably thrown in…). Better make sure my iPad is charged up for the wait in “cell-phone waiting lot”!!

….semi-annual time changes, SAY “AYE”!!

I go to work in the dark, leave at 4:30PM to come home and walk the dogs in the dark. OK, not “dark-dark”, but definitely fading light. I stare out the window at work at the sunny day DURING work and wonder why we work during the best part of the day…

Y’know, if we stay with JUST EST, half the year we’ll be in step with New York City; the other half, with Chicago. Not a terrible thing! (at least, until the rest of the country abolishes time changes). If we stayed with just DST, we’d be with NYC half the year, then an hour ahead of them the other half… not good.

If you have a QR Code scanner, you will see that it will take you to….

….this very website!

Used the app “QRReader” to create it!

It’s been a great & busy weekend!

Miata has officially been in storage per insurance since Halloween; finally took care of the details of storing it today (properly tucked into garage with wheels chocked and parking brake OFF, Sta-Bil in the tank, tonneau cover removed and put in trunk, windows up, top up & latched; Battery Tender® hooked up, car cover put in place).

Mowed lawn, bagging where there were leaves; cut back the foundation plantings of ornamental grasses and Russian sage (ooh, sure smelled great as I cut it back!).

Got the snowblower out, checked the oil, put some gas in the tank… one pull and it started and ran like a champ! Been well-taught in proper end-of-season put-away for these little Honda 4-cycle engines!

Ooops, the laundry-slave is beeping for me… gotta go take care of that.

So… guess I’m going to hang with the Dogz (as usual) and listen to the rain and let them in-and-out as often as necessary until bedtime. I’m gonna read from a hardcopy book, then maybe read from an iBook, then maybe even play some solitaire on one of my iPhone apps. A few emails… a little web browsing… and VOILA! time for bed (as likely announced by the smaller dog, Alf-A-Roni-the-Birch-Point-Osprey-Treat).