It's all right...
Sep. 8th, 2008 11:51 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
manyraMe: recouping very nicely at home. Finally getting a moment for a nice rambling update.
Recent Adventures:Two weeks ago I was...getting ready for conference. I managed to pack early which left me free for a lovely Friday night dinner with the boy and a relaxing Saturday morning having coffee on the back porch before heading off to S'toon. Paul drove out from the hat to pick me up, adding some time to his driving but saving me a trip and finding a place to park - the lovely boy. We actually saved more time avoiding the hat, driving through Ralston, up and over to the 41 - apparently through snake country. We arrived in town about 4pm and after picking up Halladottir, we stopped into MR so I could drop off some ARCs for the kids manager and take some pics of the store for my presentation. Not all work though - I did find a lovely but inexpensive book on Celtic artwork for they boy's b-day. Afterward we stopped in at Moxies for dinner (& mojitos) and headed back to the manor for G's going away. P & I got a quick nap in while T set up food so we were raring to go by the time guests started to arrive. It was a perfect night for a fire, lots of people showed up including many of my faves (still pouting K& L weren't there but Chris was very surprised to me!) and it was a wonderful time. We stayed up very, very, very late. The morning came too early but we still managed get our act together and hit a quick, tasty brunch. Then it was off to the airport for me.
I landed in TO and made it to the hotel by 7pm. OK. Let me tell you. It's waaaaayyyyyyy better to arrive early & have a good night's sleep before conference. Who knew!! Anyway. I'll touch on conference below but suffice to say it was all good and possibly less stressfull than any so far (good thing given it's my, what, 12th? with this company.)
After conference, I spent an extra night in the hotel - time to myself really. I also wanted to hit the ROM on Thursday so I arranged with a friend for pickup afterwards. Enjoyed the ROM as usual (still believe the front lobby under the crystal feels like unfinished drywall) and they had a wonderful Wedgwood exhibit. This is kinda a sideline interest for me stemming from an interest in the Classical pottery motifs. It was so nice to see different examples of the work beyond the blue and white. Then it was time to shop. Picked up a book on Japanese armour, a t-shirt and a netsuke. Which!! in a wonderful moment of stupidity I promptly left in the cab. Didn't notice 'till a while after & don't know the cab company. So I do pout.
But that was quickly overshadowed when I hooked up with Paul & Sue who came to take me to Guelph so we could all hike it up north on Friday for Baron's Howe. I was tres excited!! Another weekend with more of my favourite people. The event was very laid back - only made it out of camp once for court and even that wasn't a long trek. Here's the highlights - Just hanging out with new & old friends, Haskel entertaining the masses, not too much royalty stuff happening so I really got to visit with Ron & Rusti (it helped that Ron had limited mobility - poor guy), Joining team Rusti for Beer Pong, winning cool stuff in the raffle (and the breakables made it home unbroken), all the really cute, happy nice kids running around (it's been a good summer for this), etc, etc. The bad - visit too short (I cried a few times while leaving), Gann & I didn't get our late night drunken chat (possibly for the best) and it was all very tired making. By the time I made it back to the hotel Monday I wanted to sleep for a week, in my own bed. But I still had 2 days on the road left.
My flight out to Calgary wasn't until 6pm. I spent the morning at Sherwood Gardens shopping (some great bargins at Jones New York), quickly got bored and headed to the airport about 2pm - taking the extra time to finally finish Mistresses. Arriving back on Cowtown about 9pm, my cab driver entertained me with his upbeat rants on how Canadians don't love one another - comments triggered by me expressing the desire to get home & see my dog before I mentioned my husband. On the other hand he did say his wife and mother in law wouldn't allow a dog so how what he know.
When I got to my grandmother's I was happy to find out the water had been turned back on (there had been a water main break earlier) but not so happy to see Grandma has left for her holidays early (because of no water). I was sleeping alone...in a somewhat strange house. I was actually fine in the hotels but this... this I was not so sure about. So lights on, ears braced for the slightest noise, I tried to sleep. AND?? I did. There was a panic over what I now figure was the tree scraping across the roof outside my window but that passed. Every night is a bit of a victory.
So I was up bright in early to go for coffee with Bazz. My first thought the night before upon hearing the water problems & that I was to sleep alone was to cancel coffee. Give me some time to sleep and possibly not shower before heading back to the airport to pick up the shuttle. Thankfully, I didn't cancel. Bazz has some way of grounding me (which is not the same as saying he's a grounded person. and I mean that in the best way.) It's hard to explain but I seem to come away from our visits focused. Which unfortunately at this time, meant I wanted to go home NOW!!!!!
But....I still had a 3 hour shuttle to the hat, a shire business meeting and an hour drive home. Thankfully time passed quickly. Soon I was hugging my dog, skritching the kittens, crawling into my own bed, mentally writing my to do list (laundry!!!) for the next four days.
The Farm: In desperate need of a clean up when I got home. Inside - sweeping , dishes, filing papers, vacuuming, laundry & bathrooms. Outside - boy, is this a task or two. Many of the tomatoes are ripe & picked but I shall have to cover the remaining soon. There is still a bit of corn and beans to be picked (the boy even made corn meal!! too much effort for such a small amount) and the pumpkins/squash are doing fine (6 pumpkins, 5 acorns, etc....) The potatoes aren't quite done yet (not for storage) but I dug some for Sunday dinner - to go with the lamb, along with the corn, beans & the homemade mint sauce. This weekend we tried in part to do some of the following: haul away the excess branches the pines we cut down last year (dump run), fix the irrigation pipes to the ditches to water the trees before BRID shuts off our water, take cuttings of annuals, dig out the flower garden from the septic take to the house so we can replace the plumbing (I already called before I dug to get the nasty gas lines marked so it has to be done now!!), work on the lawn tractor and get mower working, and watch baseball and spruce meadows jumping.
The Farm Animals: Cute & cuddly. They missed me. Cats are finding new places to sleep now that my side of the bed is occupied. The boy is still mad at the puppy but we're working on making her a happy traveler.
Reading, Listening, Watching: Discoverers, Brad Turner Quartet & Piece of Cake. While I was in the hat at the Esplanade, the boy took me around the Heights of Fashion Exhibit from the Bata Shoe Museum - 500 years of shoes. Very cool and highly recommended.
SCA: Ticking along fine. I pulled out my editor's/marketer's hat at the meeting on Wednesday. Someone brought a poster they wanted to hang around town that was created by another member who is reportedly a graphic designer. Even seeing it from across the room I cringed. No white space, too many fonts, too much text and repeated sentences. Sentences over top of artwork! Granted the art work was nice but man, I felt like a heel for tearing it apart. But honestly the poster would not have worked at all. Hopefully he won't take the edits too personally. I'm assured he will.
Work: In addition to previewing the Spring 09 titles at conference, I also received my year end review and bonus!! All good stuff!! Every year the review becomes more and more formal, looking at accomplishments & future goals. My five year milestone is coming up in November. Feeling pretty stable at this point. It will be better once I get my sales report done.
Thinking On: Yard work.
Upcoming: Lunch &Yard work. :-)
Recent Adventures:Two weeks ago I was...getting ready for conference. I managed to pack early which left me free for a lovely Friday night dinner with the boy and a relaxing Saturday morning having coffee on the back porch before heading off to S'toon. Paul drove out from the hat to pick me up, adding some time to his driving but saving me a trip and finding a place to park - the lovely boy. We actually saved more time avoiding the hat, driving through Ralston, up and over to the 41 - apparently through snake country. We arrived in town about 4pm and after picking up Halladottir, we stopped into MR so I could drop off some ARCs for the kids manager and take some pics of the store for my presentation. Not all work though - I did find a lovely but inexpensive book on Celtic artwork for they boy's b-day. Afterward we stopped in at Moxies for dinner (& mojitos) and headed back to the manor for G's going away. P & I got a quick nap in while T set up food so we were raring to go by the time guests started to arrive. It was a perfect night for a fire, lots of people showed up including many of my faves (still pouting K& L weren't there but Chris was very surprised to me!) and it was a wonderful time. We stayed up very, very, very late. The morning came too early but we still managed get our act together and hit a quick, tasty brunch. Then it was off to the airport for me.
I landed in TO and made it to the hotel by 7pm. OK. Let me tell you. It's waaaaayyyyyyy better to arrive early & have a good night's sleep before conference. Who knew!! Anyway. I'll touch on conference below but suffice to say it was all good and possibly less stressfull than any so far (good thing given it's my, what, 12th? with this company.)
After conference, I spent an extra night in the hotel - time to myself really. I also wanted to hit the ROM on Thursday so I arranged with a friend for pickup afterwards. Enjoyed the ROM as usual (still believe the front lobby under the crystal feels like unfinished drywall) and they had a wonderful Wedgwood exhibit. This is kinda a sideline interest for me stemming from an interest in the Classical pottery motifs. It was so nice to see different examples of the work beyond the blue and white. Then it was time to shop. Picked up a book on Japanese armour, a t-shirt and a netsuke. Which!! in a wonderful moment of stupidity I promptly left in the cab. Didn't notice 'till a while after & don't know the cab company. So I do pout.
But that was quickly overshadowed when I hooked up with Paul & Sue who came to take me to Guelph so we could all hike it up north on Friday for Baron's Howe. I was tres excited!! Another weekend with more of my favourite people. The event was very laid back - only made it out of camp once for court and even that wasn't a long trek. Here's the highlights - Just hanging out with new & old friends, Haskel entertaining the masses, not too much royalty stuff happening so I really got to visit with Ron & Rusti (it helped that Ron had limited mobility - poor guy), Joining team Rusti for Beer Pong, winning cool stuff in the raffle (and the breakables made it home unbroken), all the really cute, happy nice kids running around (it's been a good summer for this), etc, etc. The bad - visit too short (I cried a few times while leaving), Gann & I didn't get our late night drunken chat (possibly for the best) and it was all very tired making. By the time I made it back to the hotel Monday I wanted to sleep for a week, in my own bed. But I still had 2 days on the road left.
My flight out to Calgary wasn't until 6pm. I spent the morning at Sherwood Gardens shopping (some great bargins at Jones New York), quickly got bored and headed to the airport about 2pm - taking the extra time to finally finish Mistresses. Arriving back on Cowtown about 9pm, my cab driver entertained me with his upbeat rants on how Canadians don't love one another - comments triggered by me expressing the desire to get home & see my dog before I mentioned my husband. On the other hand he did say his wife and mother in law wouldn't allow a dog so how what he know.
When I got to my grandmother's I was happy to find out the water had been turned back on (there had been a water main break earlier) but not so happy to see Grandma has left for her holidays early (because of no water). I was sleeping alone...in a somewhat strange house. I was actually fine in the hotels but this... this I was not so sure about. So lights on, ears braced for the slightest noise, I tried to sleep. AND?? I did. There was a panic over what I now figure was the tree scraping across the roof outside my window but that passed. Every night is a bit of a victory.
So I was up bright in early to go for coffee with Bazz. My first thought the night before upon hearing the water problems & that I was to sleep alone was to cancel coffee. Give me some time to sleep and possibly not shower before heading back to the airport to pick up the shuttle. Thankfully, I didn't cancel. Bazz has some way of grounding me (which is not the same as saying he's a grounded person. and I mean that in the best way.) It's hard to explain but I seem to come away from our visits focused. Which unfortunately at this time, meant I wanted to go home NOW!!!!!
But....I still had a 3 hour shuttle to the hat, a shire business meeting and an hour drive home. Thankfully time passed quickly. Soon I was hugging my dog, skritching the kittens, crawling into my own bed, mentally writing my to do list (laundry!!!) for the next four days.
The Farm: In desperate need of a clean up when I got home. Inside - sweeping , dishes, filing papers, vacuuming, laundry & bathrooms. Outside - boy, is this a task or two. Many of the tomatoes are ripe & picked but I shall have to cover the remaining soon. There is still a bit of corn and beans to be picked (the boy even made corn meal!! too much effort for such a small amount) and the pumpkins/squash are doing fine (6 pumpkins, 5 acorns, etc....) The potatoes aren't quite done yet (not for storage) but I dug some for Sunday dinner - to go with the lamb, along with the corn, beans & the homemade mint sauce. This weekend we tried in part to do some of the following: haul away the excess branches the pines we cut down last year (dump run), fix the irrigation pipes to the ditches to water the trees before BRID shuts off our water, take cuttings of annuals, dig out the flower garden from the septic take to the house so we can replace the plumbing (I already called before I dug to get the nasty gas lines marked so it has to be done now!!), work on the lawn tractor and get mower working, and watch baseball and spruce meadows jumping.
The Farm Animals: Cute & cuddly. They missed me. Cats are finding new places to sleep now that my side of the bed is occupied. The boy is still mad at the puppy but we're working on making her a happy traveler.
Reading, Listening, Watching: Discoverers, Brad Turner Quartet & Piece of Cake. While I was in the hat at the Esplanade, the boy took me around the Heights of Fashion Exhibit from the Bata Shoe Museum - 500 years of shoes. Very cool and highly recommended.
SCA: Ticking along fine. I pulled out my editor's/marketer's hat at the meeting on Wednesday. Someone brought a poster they wanted to hang around town that was created by another member who is reportedly a graphic designer. Even seeing it from across the room I cringed. No white space, too many fonts, too much text and repeated sentences. Sentences over top of artwork! Granted the art work was nice but man, I felt like a heel for tearing it apart. But honestly the poster would not have worked at all. Hopefully he won't take the edits too personally. I'm assured he will.
Work: In addition to previewing the Spring 09 titles at conference, I also received my year end review and bonus!! All good stuff!! Every year the review becomes more and more formal, looking at accomplishments & future goals. My five year milestone is coming up in November. Feeling pretty stable at this point. It will be better once I get my sales report done.
Thinking On: Yard work.
Upcoming: Lunch &Yard work. :-)
