It's the weekend!

Well, Christmas is 95% put away (inside). We still have a few things to do like wash the rugs, fluff the tree skirt, etc. before Christmas 2008 is officially in the past. We also have a few lights to take down out front, but that won't take long. We worked hard today. It was exhausting, but it's nice to get it all down.

I took the dogs for a ride to pick up some movies. Dennis is home with the boys watching TV and movies and I'm at Ron & Marilyn's watching the Cardinals game. It's not much of a game so far unless you are rooting for Carolina, but it's early. We rented "Journey to the Center of the Earth" and "Babylon A. D.". The dogs enjoyed the ride.

Tomorrow we have some more work to do in the house, and then I need to focus on my 2008 performance evaluation for myself. Then I get to work on writing the ones for my direct reports. I have 5 of those to do. What a thrill!

I hope everyone had an enjoyable Saturday. Go Cardinals!

It's finally Friday!

I thought this week would never end! It sucked working 5 straight days after having 12 days off! But I made it through. I was back on the ellipse today for my 20 minutes of heavy breathing. It's a great way to start the day!

Last night, Christmas started to make its way back into the boxes and bins. We got quite a lot done (Dennis did most of it). We got the tree down (100 ornaments later) and put in its box. The village is put away and everything is off the top of the entertainment center. My goal is to get it finished this weekend to get our house back!

We put the boys outside last night as Brother Boy was acting like he needed to go out. After a while, I tried to get them to come in. They were chasing each other around the pool. Let me rephrase that. Brother Boy was chasing Drama around the pool. He's fast for a little dude! Brother Boy never did catch him. Drama's SMART, too. I must have watched them go around 8 or 9 times. It was amusing, despite the fact that they were ignoring my calls to come inside. Then all of the sudden, the expected happened - Drama fell or was pushed (not sure which) into the pool. Fortunately it was on the side closest to the patio door. I ran out to him and he was struggling. The water is very cold and it was dark. He freaked out. I'm SO glad I was watching all of this and was able to run to his rescue. There's no telling what would have happened. I then had to give him a bath because our pool water is a little stinky. Poor thing! Both him and his brother were upset for the rest of the night.

We are spending the weekend at home. We may go down to IKEA to their winter sale. We don't need much but definitely need some new slippers! Other than that, it'll be Christmas removal and stowage and maybe some wine. I hope everyone has a fabulous Friday and an awesome weekend!

Sure Happy Its Thursday

I skipped the workout today, I got wrapped up in playing with the Verizon card and my work computer. I was delighted to learn that I can use the Verizon card on my work computer and access all of the same things I can access with my wired or wireless connection.

The dogs are fighting like, well, dogs. They sound so vicious when they do that but I know it's all in brotherly love. Plus it burns some of their energy so they can calmly go into the crate when it's time for me to leave. They're currently fighting over the rope/rubber chew toy that we bought them at CVS Pharmacy in Cottonwood last weekend. I knew we should have bought 2 of them!!

I'm hoping that the bundle of motivation that I asked for from Santa shows up at work today. What I'd really like is a job opportunity that lets me work from home so that I can take off in the motor home. I sure hope this phase passes soon! I know it will, it always does.

In case you were wondering, Drama prevailed in the fight for the rope/rubber chew toy. I think Brother Boy gave up and is looking for one of the other chew toys that they have around the house. They are so neglected and spoiled. :-)

Set for the road!

We got our Verizon wireless internet card today. Works great! I'm using it now. The only thing remaining is for us to have the courage to sell everything, join the Workamper program, and hit the road in the motor home! We can do this and still stay connected. Maybe someday.............

Happy Hump Day

Well we made it. Half way through the week. After today, it should be smooth sailing to the weekend. I've consistently worked out 3 days in a row (yeah me!). And better yet, I only ate 1 of mom's cookies yesterday. Christmas is still up, it didn't take itself down like I had hoped. Maybe we'll get the energy to tackle tonight. Dennis wasn't feeling well last evening so he was in bed from about 6:30 to 8 while I watched "Eagle Eye" with Shia. Ok movie, hard to follow, unclear of the end game until - the end. Oh well. It was $1.08 at Redbox, providing I remember to take it back on my way to work this morning.

I was very efficient last night (after the movie and my nap) and made salads for lunch for both today and tomorrow and set up the coffee to brew at 5:20. This doesn't happen often, usually I'm hurrying in the morning to make lunch and brew coffee before Dennis heads out the door around 5:30 or 5:40. It was a nice feeling to hit the snooze without guilt this morning! The dogs appreciated it too.

CostCo has a great deal on a 500 GB external hard drive if you are in the market. With a $30 off coupon, it was $129.95. It's small and comes with a handy carrying case. With us taking the laptop in the motor home with us, I wanted to have something that I could take back and forth between the two computers so that we would always have our pictures - and have a back of them. It's made by Western Digital and is called "My Passport Elite". I highly recommend it based on price and capacity alone as I've done a lot of research on these things.

I talked to my sister-in-law Diane last night. She's in the hospital with a bad kidney infection. She's had lots of problems lately including kidney stones, abdominal surgery and now this. Hopefully she can get over this and get on the road to full recovery. She seemed in good spirits.

Dennis' mom is in a rehab center following her broken leg on Christmas Day and subsequent surgery surgery on the 28th. She's struggling to understand why she can't go home to her apartment. She will once she's able to get around by herself and heals from the surgery. Poor thing. It's really difficult for her. Keep her in your prayers.

That's all for now. It's time for some breakfast, a shower, then it's off to work. Have a great Wednesday, anyone who is watching!

Tuesday Morning - My Reality Check bounced

I'm trying to be better about posting regularly. Today is Tuesday and while I thought yesterday was back to reality, it was only half reality. Yes, I worked - however, I worked at home. We ordered a new laptop and it was being delivered yesterday, signature required. By the time it arrived, I could have gone in for 2 1-hour conference calls and about 2 hours of other work time. So I decided to stay at home for the rest of the day. I was on 4 hours of conference calls, got through a couple of hundred e-mail from being on vacation, and started my self-assessment performance evaluation. It was quite a busy and productive day. While doing all of this, the dogs slept right next to me on the floor on the big bed we had in the motor home. Lucky bums.

So today is day 2 of my morning aerobic workout. We have an industrial strength Nordic Track Elite ellypitical cross trainer. It's fabulous! Once I master the 20 minute aerobic workout without nearly passing out, I'll move up to something longer and more difficult. I've got to eat or throw away those delicious Christmas cookies that my mom sent to me! Sort of defeats the purpose!

No pics to post today, but am also having fun on Facebook if you want to check it out. You can ask me to be your friend using my e-mail address rodney@rodneydennis.com.

I'm still trying to find that magical work-at-home opportunity that will allow me to leave the rat race and go live wherever the motor home will take us. Any suggestions??

Today it's back to the office and whatever fun and games are in store for me there. I hope everyone has a fantastic Tuesday!

Back to Reality

Well, it's Monday morning and reality has set in. It's sad that we have to work to make a living! Vacation was wonderful. I was away from home for 10 days and 9 nights. I saw snow, sunshine, rain and frost. I wore short sleeves, long sleeves, hats, gloves and shorts. It was quite an adventure, and the doggies really loved the variety!

Here is a sampling of some of the cuteness that they displayed. Happy New Year!!

Now the real work begins - tearing down Christmas. Hopefully it'll be down by the end of January - unlike last year!