Too early

Well it was way too early to plant our seedlings - I knew it but also knew that there was so much going on coming up that it may be worth it. It wasn't...we will have to do it all over again on Memorial Day weekend.

Today was a glorious day. Bright blue skies, warm sunshine. Washed my car - finished up some chores at my house and RB's house. Drove to Fly Creek - wonderful day for a drive - thank goodness for better gas mileage.

Heading to California for a vacation - will put lots of pictures up and Georgie and Vera will once again be blogged about. In case you are wondering who they are - well you'll just have to wait and see who they are. They have both traveled quite extensively - Vera a bit more than Georgie - but they have stories!

Camping trip is planned too! And time up at camp on the Creek - woo hooo! I'm ready for summer! Cookouts, clams, fish, burgers, beer! Awesome stuff and always comes with good company.

Good May Morning

RB and I planted our seedlings in the garden yesterday, it's too early most likely but hopefully it will make it, worse comes to worse we'll grow more inside and start over. We planted cherry tomatoes, straight neck yellow squash, radishes, beats, Swiss Chard and peas! Looking forward to the fresh veggies! We've been working on two rooms in RB's house. Gutted to the studs - removed the ceiling - so open to the rafters. Awesome - RB is so smart when it comes to this stuff and he thinks about it very carefully before he goes nuts and just tears stuff out. And he's putting in a bathroom and laundry room on the second floor! It's a woman's dream for laundry! :)

I've already put close to 2500 miles on my Kia - I love that little car! It is fun and comfortable to drive and good on gas! My new job (3 months already!!) is wonderful. I'm learning so much and figuring out the whys and wherefores. It's been crazy busy but so much more fulfilling.

Today is cleaning and washing day....good stuff...Willy Wonka is on TV - have it blasting so I can clean and listen to it. Best movie! I'm talking about the original - not Johnny Depp's oddity.

One of my favorite parts! - Fizzy Lifting Drink...."I'm a bird!","I'm a plane!", "Ya gotta burp, it's the only way!!!"

"A little nonsense now and then, is relished by the wisest men!" - Willy Wonka

I'm a little distracted this morning - but wanted to check in. The Tour de Cure is in four weeks. I'm signed up for 40 miles - my knee is a little upset with me at this time, but hopefully it will feel better by then. I've only ridden inside so far - need to spend some time on the road soon.

A list...

So many things going on! It's a good thing, but it means that I'm a little scattered and a lot of thoughts.

• Heading to California for a visit with my best friend from high school. Disneyland and a bike ride are on the agenda as well as dinner with her and friends of hers that I've met before! Exciting!
• Possibly a second trip to California for a conference. THNC - Tribal Health NextGen Consortium. Could be a huge learning experience and I really hope that I can go. 
• Camping - of course - what would summer be without some trips to the north country and Stillwater Reservoir.
• Working with RB to get his second floor back in shape! LOL - it will take some work it's down to the studs and it's one big room that will hopefully be a bathroom and laundry room when it's done. Exciting! A blank slate!
• Bike riding! 6 weeks before the 40 mile Tour de Cure - and it's sad, but haven't been on my bike yet. Weather on the weekends and just plain not thinking about it when I should be.
• Work  - sorry it's on my mind! I've got a lot of data scrubbing to do - and I have to do it in an archaic system that is difficult at best.
• Bus Announcements! LOL - where I work they have bus announcements for the employees to get the news of what is going on - a person gets a chance to record the announcements for an entire week. Well - on my second day in orientation I said that I wanted to do it. And now I get my chance! 
• The garden! RB and I planted seeds on Saturday and had growth on Sunday! Holy cow! they are growing so fast - we planted a lot! and it's too cold to put it out yet - so it will be moved to pots and then to the ground in mid to late may! 
• And of course the most important thing is spending time with my RB! That's the best thing out there. The adventures and excitement - even in the mundane and messy stuff!

Just a few things that are going on!

Martha Anne's photostream

Martha Anne's photostream on Flickr.

Some pictures I've taken over time...just thought that I would share.

Oh Boy!

Well I did it. I have finally bought a new car - my Ford Focus wagon has done very well for me...it's 9 years old and has 120,000 miles on it and has been to Texas two times and Nebraska at least once. Not to mention all the camping trips, Left Turn/Right turn trips, the "lets find covered bridges" trips, the Quilt Shop Hops, so many memories, both good and bad but it has been a good car.

I was really pretty sure I was going to get a Fiesta - I test drove one - it was okay but I was happy with my Focus so I thought that it would be a good idea. But then I went to Driver's Village in Syracuse - it's a huge auto mall of many different dealerships. I had thought that I wanted to test drive a Nissan Cube and was pretty sure that the Kia Soul would be okay - but didn't really like the looks of it on the outside. We parked near the Kia area and walked over to the Rio's and some of the other cars and then the Souls were there too. Dylan (the salesman) came out and asked if we needed help  -I said yes! I test drove the Kia Soul + and the plain jane Soul - the biggest difference is a 2.0 Liter engine versus a 1.6 Liter on the basic Soul. The both drove great - the Soul + was just a little better. Then I wanted to check out the Nissan Cube - my friend Mel has had Nissan's for years and speaks highly of them - well the Cube is a sad statement. It was like a saltine box and drove loud and rough - no get up and go and not attractive inside at all.

So...I bought the Kia Soul +. It looks small but it has a lot of room inside - it's comfortable and everything works well for the driver. It has ECO Boost and people get mileage up to 40MPG - WOW! I got the Shadow color - and am excited! It's not silver! LOL I've had a silver car for years!

Stress and Surprise!

We are in crunch time at the office. Lots of work and it has to be done by Friday. And we have a lot to go. The good thing about it is that the day flies and I really love what I'm doing and it's awesome. I also had to fix some things for people and do some queries of our system and get reports out. I love every bit of it but I think that today was a little stressful - just for some background - last week was in the 80's - today it was in the 30's and very windy. And because of the wind and the pollen I didn't walk at lunch and that is my stress breaker. So on my way home - I have to admit that I just wanted to cry - (a crabby co-worker didn't help) it's all good - it happens - but after the rest of the day and no exercise I was at my wits end...

That all being said - I got home - after a quick stop to pick up a laptop - (that in itself is funny) I'm surrounded by laptops - 5 of them right now - 4 dells and my mac!  And when I got home I was on the phone with my mom, bouncing around - freezing - and came into the living room to turn on the heat and turned around to find a red rose, a pink rose and a yellow rose in a blue vase and a card underneath them. My RB had stopped by and left them, as he told me later, running in and out so fast that he didn't notice that it was freezing in here LOL! He didn't want to get caught in the act!

So I'm smiling now - loving my roses and card and feeling blessed. I'm incredibly thankful that my life is so full and wonderful, God is good.

To RB

Tomorrow is a milestone...2 years. I'm so very happy to have you in my life. Your heart is so big and you show me in so many ways how much you care. I know that you are in my corner when I'm fighting my demons and it gives me hope and faith. I remember the first time we met like it was just yesterday. I was so nervous, that you wouldn't like me...that I wouldn't like you - via email you were awesome - just so afraid of reality. But reality gave me a really nice love bite instead of what I expected. Wow - you were way more than I expected and it was wonderful. We've had a busy two years - time camping, traveling, exploring, visiting, holidays with your family, alone. I'm looking forward to so many more!
I love you RJB! From the tips of my toes!
And writing this post reminded me of another post I wrote to you about a year and a half ago...http://upstatenystuff.blogspot.com/2010/09/to-rb-story.html - It just made me tear up now - it still holds true and I am so very thankful.

spring, summer, spring???

Well we have had a ridiculously nice winter. I only shoveled a few times and while the Snow blower did come out and work a couple of times, it wasn't a necessity. And then we had the storm on Feb 29, March 1 and last week it was in the 80's every day. Of course, being an upstate NY'r I do realize that if I wait long enough the weather will change and it has again. It was maybe mid 50's today - and it won't be going far from there but I'm okay with that. My forsythia has already bloomed - it's way too early for that. Everything is about 6 weeks ahead and the problem is that reality is supposed to strike next week with very cold over night temps that could possibly freeze some of the buds. I've been to two cook outs in the last couple of weeks and we've been swarmed by mosquitoes too! WoW! in March! Unheard of! My daffodils have bloomed already as well as the pretty blue flowers that go every year in my front and back yards, way too early - they will be dead in two days if the frost hits.

And the other issue that has hit early is that my car doesn't have AC - it died a few years ago and the fix is quite pricey and with the advent of 80 degree weather I realized it was too hot for me. So now I'm car shopping. UGH! I've got some self imposed rules. That is definitely not helping me at all. The Ford Fiesta is winning right now because of this and RB is wonderful because he is helping me to look at other options - and in fact we will be doing exactly that next week in Syracuse. One of my self imposed rules means I won't deal with the biggest Auto Group in the area. Only Steet-Ponte is worthwhile in my book for the Utica Area. So...we will go to Syracuse on Saturday and see what we can find.

The cars that have caught my eye so far....the list is long - but they are all in the low to mid 20K range - high MPG. Nissan Cube, Hyundai Accent, Ford Fiesta, Ford Focus, VW Gulf, VW Jetta, Honda Civic Coupe, and I'm sure that there are others - but have to admit that the Ford is in the lead at this point - I test drove the Fiesta today - not a fan of the 6 speed steptronic transmission but stick shift is a definite option. It felt good and familiar - I've been driving a Focus for 9 years. So...we will see but I want a new vehicle sooner rather than later.

Just saw the ending seconds of the SU v Ohio game - ugh - they lost. Too bad, they played well.

Fastest round trip I've ever made!

On Tuesday morning I woke up at 3:15 - no help from the alarm clock either - I knew I had to be up so that was it. I took a shower and finished packing - got in the car by 4:15 and went to the Syracuse Airport. Got there about 5:05 - parked on the roof and headed in, figuring that there wouldn't be anyone in line for security - it was the crack of dawn. Took the elevator to the Bridge level and stepped out to a line! My first thought - and the words out of my mouth were "What THE?!?!?!" - everyone laughed as I made my way down the bridge only to turn back towards the elevator because the line was that fracking long! Really?!?!?!

I made people chuckle as we stood in line - when I'm nervous and over tired apparently I can be quite funny too! Well - to people who are just as sleep deprived, caffeine deprived and excited about a trip! As we were waiting and I was getting knots in my tummy - I kept asking God to please make this flight thing work for me because my layover in Chicago was all of 45 minutes - maybe and I was starting to sweat! The TSA people at Syracuse were very good - we got through quite quickly and I was the second to the last one on the plane and they put my bag in the under plane storage because they had no more room in the overhead storage. I had a decent seat - not too far back and a window to boot so was able to catch a few z's - very few actually, but I tried. My adrenal was still a little high.  As we got closer to Chicago I looked at my connecting flight info and the time 7:35am stuck in my head. We landed at 7:10 - I got off the plane by 7:20 - and of course even though my bag was the last put in underneath, it was also the last to come out and by this time I'm thinking that I'm going to have to take off my shoes and do the O.J. sprint through the airport as my next plane was 30 gates away! I did run - and curse a little as the people who got on the people mover things just stood - didn't move to the right and I quickly realized that I had to be my own people mover. So I walked as fast as I could - talking to God and hoping that I hadn't messed up meeting my next plane. I finally made it to the gate and found all of these people standing there - I went up to a nice lady and asked her what was going on and she said they hadn't started boarding yet. Confusion set in my tired brain and I asked when it was supposed to leave - she said 8:10 - I pulled out my boarding pass and found that the 7:35 was the boarding start time. I chuckled and said "Good - well now I can pee!" and of course I said it out loud and the nice lady and her husband laughed.

I waited as long as I could before I boarded - I was in the second to the last row on the plane and didn't want to be there any longer than necessary. It was fortunate though that there was an empty seat between me and my row mate - I had the aisle but I wasn't dealt too many blows. It was an uneventful flight to Portland, Oregon until we hit some turbulence that had the lady in front of me sharing her coffee with everyone in the row next to and in front of her. I held on to my ice water with my hand over the top - without our seatbelts on we would have hit the ceiling - my hand looked like it wasn't connected to anything with the way it kept going up and down. I admit - I was scared! But we made it there at 10:40 with just a few more bumps and jolts as we landed. My meeting took place in the airport (PDX) and was 3 hours away, the conference center was all set for us as well as the presenter and hostess for this meeting. I was able to leave my stuff there and walk around a bit, buy RB a couple of souvenirs and get an awesome vanilla latte and check out the stores. PDX is really nice - prices are reasonable and I'm thinking that there is something in the water in Oregon because everyone was extraordinarily nice! Beyond my comprehension nice! The meeting started at 1:30 - lasted till almost 4:15 and then I made my way to the shuttle bus area for my hotel shuttle. Got there about 2 minutes before it did and had a fellow traveler with me - she was a flight attendant with Alaskan Air - very nice lady as well!

I checked into the hotel - The Shilo Inn! - awesome rooms! wowo! I had a jr. King Suite - for a whopping 95.00 including tax. The front desk people were wonderful - friendly - engaging. That counts for something - so if you are reading this and you work with people - be friendly - engaging - smile with your mouth and your eyes - it make such a huge difference!!!! I had a great dinner at the Shilo Inn Restaurant - accompanied by an Oregon Porter - I can't remember the name of it! The dinner was scallops and risotto with wild mushrooms! It was so well done. The scallops were cooked to perfection and tasted really good!

My night was short - by that time I figured I'd been up since midnight Oregon time and it was almost 9pm and my brain was short circuiting. I crashed - and my bed was so comfortable! I slept well but for the fact I kept waking up! I drink a lot of water when I travel because the planes are so dry! Well - with the beer I guess all that water had to come out...over about 4 trips. I finally fell asleep hard around 3 and my alarm was a rude reminder at 430 that I had to get up and get back on a plane and head back to NY!

It was yet another morning of weirdness... I had to pick up my boarding passes at PDX, but the machine told me I needed "special help" - I received excellent help but it took a little while. Then the security line was also quite long there and I thought about panicking and realized it didn't really matter because I didn't have a meeting to get to - just my car waiting for me at SYR. So - I watched people, went through the screening and had plenty of time to get to my gate (PDX is tiny compared to Chicago). I again had the second to last seat on this plane - so waited patiently till there were few people left. My bag stayed in the passenger area with me this time so that was good - but there were three of us in our row - and I was the aisle person again! but either I gained 100 pounds over night or this plane shrunk - turns out that the Continental (now United) planes are narrower - they carry the same number of people, but the seats and center aisle are narrower - by the time we got off that plane I was ready to elbow anyone who came near me. My arm, shoulder, and head were bumped into almost constantly - being near the only two restrooms for 90% of the passengers does that to you! I tried to sleep and the few times that I did, I awoke to realize that my mouth was wide open and I thought for sure I had probably snored, but everyone was polite enough to leave me be!

We landed in Newark (after what seemed to be a week on that plane) and I made my way to the next gate. It was about 80 degrees in the gate areas - it has been unseasonably warm lately and I'm guessing that they still had the heat on - and God forbid they should ever open some windows or something! I got to my gate - parked myself and realize that this was the first time in 3 flights that I was actually a little early! Woo HOOOOOO! well that whole party was short lived as I then found out that our plane didn't have a crew and it was looking like a late start at 5 instead of 4pm - and then it was 5:20....5:30 and finally 5:45, but I was very fortunate to meet a nice lady who I spent about 2 hours with - Karen. She and I walked and talked and covered for each other so we didn't have to bring all of our crap into the restrooms and deal with all of that. It was a pleasure to meet her and I pray that her daughter gets home from Afghanistan soon - Karen was going to see her grandchildren and son in law and hopefully get to stay to see her daughter come home too!

When we did get on the plane I was bummed that I didn't have a window seat, but I soon found out that my seatmate was a nice and funny man. He and I talked the whole trip. I learned some things from him and didn't get scared out of my mind that we were on one of those propeller planes. Egads! A puddle jumper indeed. Brian was a blessing! I'm trying to find him a good website person in Syracuse. He has a very good business and needs a better internet presence!

The long of the short of it was that I was in Portland, Oregon for about 19 hours...but it was a very good trip and I learned a lot to help me in my job!

My quickest ever trip across the country and back again!

Eventful morning

I slept like a log last night - actually it's two nights in a row where I slept soundly and didn't wake up 3 or 4 times. And I've been waking up at 5:10 or so - 30 minutes before my alarm goes off. It was a good thing this morning because my cat Henry was communing with the skunks again and man did he ever take a hit. The smell rolled off of him like he had just been sprayed minutes before. UGH - especially first thing in the morning - so being a good mom I got the peroxide, palmolive dish soap and baking soda (and yes I do have a supply of it as this is not my first skunky cat rodeo). Poor Henry - he hates getting a bath - but lucky me, I got him in a great position not to lose any blood or get nasty scratches. He smells a little better - I must have missed a really concentrated spot on his face but have to be careful with that concoction. He is now walking around the house trying to get the water off of him. I've cranked up the heat and put his favorite blanket on my bed - I can't keep them off my bed - so might as well put something there I can wash easily! Einstein keeps chasing him...LOL it's funny but not.

And the new job is even better than I could have hoped. Traveling to Portland, OR for a 2 hour focus group meeting - leave here at 4am - fly to Portland - 2 hours later have the meeting and then sleep and get up and fly home at 6am. I haven't done anything this crazy travel wise in a long time. Usually I'll drive insane miles and then turn around and come home - I think this tops it! I'll also be traveling for training in the new software we will be using and possibly to another Tribal Heath Center to see the new software in action - and that's down in Florida. It's so nice to have the freedom to do this stuff. And especially have people believe in me and respect my work!

I think that's it for now - time to take a shower and get ready for the day!