Some random impressions

1) Yesterday, on my way out of the house to work, Bella gave me two huge hugs, then walked me to the door, opened it for me, walked me out to the stairs, and stood waving as I drove away. I almost drove off the road with tears - she was so sweet. I was very happy to be able to help her go to bed last night reading stories and telling tales of when I was young. I might have revved her back up with a detailed story of climbing Long's Peak... she got pretty excited.

This morning, I was out of the house at 5:45 and didn't come back between the workout and going to work. Apparently Bella was a bit sad around the house.

2) Isaac remains ornery about being fed: Pamela was trying sweet potatoes, and took a 2 minute video of the refusenik in action: He was not particularly mad, he was just plain NOT HAVING ANY OF IT. Mouth locked shut, skillful parries of the spoon. More than once, he grabbed the spoon... now if you're thinking "oh, he'll feed himself then?" HAH. No, he holds the spoon with one hand, wipes all of the food off of it with the other, THEN puts it in his mouth. Spoons are for chewing, not for eating. Silly parents.

3) With Pamela better, I'm back to my 6am workouts: I had written a "top five reasons to work out a t 6am" letter which was sent to the whole health club, and since then, "my" 6am class has had 8-9 people, which is twice what we used to get... so my 6am won't be canceled, and they'll probably add back in a Thursday 6am! Hooray!

4) Some success at work: Our dress rehearsal for July 8 went very well today - no technical glitches. We have some rough edges, but we'll be able to iron them out without too much trouble. I did have a FULL SCALE REBELLION on my hands with the team on something: A different team handles reporting - they never came to my meetings, they wouldn't be managed by me, they were autonomous. Then a month before golive they asked for our help in "proofing" their work, just a final look at it.

We started looking, and realized that they were less than half done, and hadn't even mildly tested that half. And they started asking for us to help them "prioritize" their work, and let them know what wasn't working (basically to the FIRST level of testing, not the final review). I asked the team what they thought: A lot of times, they'll take a hit to make sure the product is ok for the customers... they'll do the extra work. But I wanted their input.

Well, they said no, this isn't their job, and this is too typical for that team. SO I got to tell my boss and my bosses boss that our team was too busy and this was the reason. I went to bat for them. And my team was amazed... that's not something people have done for them, and they said they're REALLY going to miss me.

Anyway, that's work geekness... but when people ask me what I do all day, I advocate for people. I represent.

5) A food post? WHAT? I was starving at lunch and ran off to Key's restaurant in Fridley... and horror of horrors, they were OUT OF CARAMEL ROLLS. Fortunately they still had some eggs, hash browns, bacon, coffee, and rye toast, so it wasn't a total loss.