New Feature

I've added this nifty feature to the bottom of my blog. But, you have to scroll to the bottom of my blog to see it. (Unless someone better with HTML can figure out how to make my margins big enough to fit both it and my musings in the same space)

Stealing from jessica

I stole this blog topic from Jessica because I think it's important.

The Washington Post did a little experiment. They set up world famous violinist Joshua Bell as a street performer at a major subway stop in Washington DC. There point wasn't to see if anyone would recognize him, but to see if anyone would stop and enjoy the gorgeous classical music he was performing.

He played for 45 minutes. Pieces of music made for a concert violinist. He was playing on a Stradivari violin made in 1713. (considered the finest violin in the WORLD and worth over 3 million dollars)

Over 1,000 people walked by him in the 45 minutes he was playing. It's all on hidden camera. Only SEVEN PEOPLE stopped to listen to the gorgeous music. The most important part to me: in all of the video... CHILDREN are the ones who are drawn to the music, ask their parents to stop to listen, and are hastily shoved on the way to wherever people are rushing off to at 8am.

The article is kind of long, but worth the read. Pearls before Breakfast The music he played is listed there and is available as a streaming video file. It's gorgeous! I've been listening in my office all day. There is also video of people/workers clearly ignoring him.

Take the time, this week in particular after all the tragedies, to stop and listen to the music. Enjoy being alive. Expose your children to beautiful music, dance, art, theater. It really can change your life.

I love real weekends

I finally had a real weekend off ! Three whole days!! Granted, it was busy and not super relaxing, but it was great to not be at work for three days in a row.

I flew to Chicago on Friday afternoon to meet up with G. He had been in Chicago since Thursday for a training seminar for work. It worked out pretty well, since his seminar ended, he took the shuttle back to O'Hare and got there as I was in baggage claim. We spent Friday night visiting with the family at my Aunt's house. Then, we headed with my cousin and her husband back to their house to spend the night. My cousin bought a house about four years ago in a historic neighborhood to try and renovate it. They are still in the renovation stages, but they've made a lot of progress on the house! I love what they're doing with the full bathroom downstairs. Apparently, the house used to belong to the town optometrist who did exams in the front room downstairs. How cool and old school is that ?! We really enjoyed staying with them, getting to know their son Henry (who's almost 2) and playing with their American Water Spaniel, Maggie. Saturday was spent at a nice lunch with the entire family. We went to this really old restaurant in Kenosha. The food wasn't that great, but it was nice to all be together. My grandmother liked the scarf I knitted for her. It seemed like almost everyone got her chocolate. (My grandmother is well known for her sweet tooth) After lunch, we spent a VERY long time socializing at my Aunt's house. I felt kinda bad for G. There weren't really any other activities other than watching the two babies and there's only so much of that G can handle. (when it's not your kid it's really not as entertaining) When my cousin headed home about 8pm to put Henry to bed, we all followed behind. We ended up staying up fairly late drinking beer, going over pictures of the house renovations, and chatting. In fact, I think we did that both nights, Friday and Saturday.

Sunday ended up being more of the same. Lunch at my Aunt's house, more socializing, more frisbee with maggie, more babies.. and then the trip back to the airport. I finally got to meet my cousin Steve's wife, Sarah. She seems like a total sweetheart. I'm very glad I got to meet her and see him. (hi Steve!) G and I had flights only 30 minutes apart (supposedly). His was going back to Houston for work and I was flying back to Tampa. G took off on time.. I didn't. My flight was an hour late. But, I arrived home safely to a VERY happy doggie. (one of my co-workers had agreed to doggie sit for me)

Overall, a very enjoyable weekend. I was a little bummed I didn't get to spend more alone time with G. But, we were just happy to be together. He's flying home on Wednesday this week and taking Thursday and Friday off. YAY! I won't be off work, but at least he'll be home.

Ready to go

I'm heading to Wisconsin this weekend and I'm SO READY to get out of town. I've been working way too much and my mental health needs me to get more than one day off in a row. This upcoming weekend will be my first weekend off in three weeks.

It's been in the low 60s and raining here for the last two days. It's definitely not helping my mood. After two weeks of sunny and low 80s, much running, tennis and general outdoorsy-ness the chilly rain is a downer.

I finally finished my grandmother's present. I knitted her a scarf. It's not the best looking thing, but it's the first thing I've ever knitted so hopefully she'll like it. (she's my grandma.. she has to, right?) My next project is to make an afghan for the living room. The one we have on the back of the couch now does nothing for our room. It doesn't match in the slightest. Kate found me a great pattern in colors that match my living room. I just have to order supplies or make the drive to Jo Anns or the LYS. I'd love to go to the LYS but they're open the same exact hours I work.

The Tennis connection finally returned my call yesterday. I emailed them two weeks ago about ladies classes on Monday morning. I hadn't been progressing at the last place I had been taking lessons. After 20 hours of lessons I should be able to move beyond my forehand in a stationary position. But, every time I tried to say I wanted to work on something else they'd tell me no. Now, I've been off tennis almost five months because I got discouraged and my forehand, again, looks like crap. I need to get to a point where I can actually rally with G. (definitely not as his power level, but at least get a few back and forth, no?) I'll try to call them today about setting something up. We'll see how this place works out. It's at the JCC and not as big, but maybe that's what I need.

Updating.. finally

Yes, I've been feeling very un-blogworthy lately. Is that a word ?

Our kickball season is officially over. We ended up 3-6-1. We definitely still have room for improvement. They scheduled kickball playoffs for April 14th, which we're all rather pissed about. We play regular league games on Tuesday -- clearly Tuesday is the day that's good for everyone. So why schedule playoffs on a Saturday and only give us two weeks notice to plan. Half of our team can't make it. We'll probably have to forfeit the entire playoff. It's just wrong. Had we known going into the season that they were doing this on a Saturday we could have planned appropriately. Personally, I'm going to be in Wisconsin for my grandmother's 95th birthday so I won't be attending. I'd much rather see my grandma and assorted cousins. I also get to see my brother, sister in law, and nephew. YAY!! I can't wait to see how much he's grown.

Yes, I'm still working six days a week, which is probably why I'm not blogging. There's really not much to talk about when you have no life outside of work. Right now, I have work and I have kickball. I run after work or go to the gym, but that's pretty much all there is to my life right now.

Dr W might have a new doctor for St Pete. They've interviewed and he's working a test run this week. I'm crossing my fingers he likes it so I can stop working six day weeks. They're killing me.

And just for fun: Here's a picture of St Patricks Day week when we played kickball in kilts. (not me, I didn't own one at the time and couldn't find one long enough to play in on short notice)