Ready for home!

Bella turns EIGHT tomorrow, and I'm catching an early flight home to meet her at the bus and have Taco Night... and maybe just maybe start Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. It has been a busy busy week: I was at the office for 12 hours - 7:30 to 7:30, and I was neither the first person there, nor the last to leave. People are just killing themselves on this project, and there's 9 months to go before our first golive. That said, I'm still hoping to be in a "reduced role" by Thanksgiving.

I also had a kickoff meeting for the work in Allentown today: A bit of a rough start to the call: I thought it was an executive steering committee and I'd field a few questions. It wound up being a clinical work team and they were right out the gate with tough questions, and my "high level presentation" was useless. This was SUPPOSED to be for coordination for the actual project start in 3 weeks. Sigh. Add to this, my project sponsor was on PTO today, so I had no backup in the room. By the end, it was all smiles, however. At least I think they were smiling - I was on the phone.

For lunch, I made Mother Earth cry: I got a peanut butter sandwich from the deli downstairs. The bread was wrapped in cellophane. The peanut butter and jelly were in small plastic containers. There was a plastic knife for spreading, and the whole thing was in a plastic clamshell container. Seriously, a ghost pelican swooped down on me.

Actually - if you remember my story about my pet Turkey Vulture outside my window... there a new visitor: A blue jay likes to drop by and peck on the window until I notice, then cock his head and fly away. He's done it for a few days now. I think he's trying to tell me something.

By 3pm, the PBJ was not holding the hunger back, and strangely, a coworker started sending a series of emails talking about wanting/needing a Whopper. After 30 minutes of these strange messages (including google maps of the closest BK), he burst in and declared he needed a Whopper RIGHT NOW and did I want him to bring me one? Swept up in the madness, I shouted YES YES YES I want a Whopper!!!

20 minutes later I halfheartedly choked down a Whopper. Damn, those are terrible sandwiches.

Final note for the night: Rick and Kari, parents of Bailey and Ty are empty nesting in the most wonderful way: They now have a new iMac and TWO iPads. They're emailing me from coffee shops and talking about App Store apps. The kids going to college has, in their words "turned their brains and wallets to mush". I think they should just keep on having fun. I just think "wow, that's me and Pamela in 14 years!"

And it's off to bed - early morning tomorrow - want to get a lot done at "the office" before heading home to see the family I love.