i made cookies

so, in spite of my horrific attitude lately - springing mostly from the jobby-job - today was quite a good day. and it was a monday to boot!!

in fact, i even got a wild hair and made some cookies. peanut butter chocolate oatmeal praline cookies, thanks for askin'.

The general disposition was most certainly helped by the fact that I worked from home today. Still productive, but didn't get my daily dose of 'life-sucked-out-of-me.'

and for that, i'm grateful. ;)

cookie, anyone??

Reading

Have I mentioned that I have been reading? ...sorry, didn't mean to shock you. I should know better than that as just last weekend I thought I'd take the 'rip the bandaid off' approach to sharing some news and was reminded that that isn't always best.

I digress. So yes: not only have I been reading something beyond a magazine, I picked up Jane Austen's "'Pride and Prejudice" (not exactly light reading) and plowed through it! Well, as much as my schedule allows for, at least.

Somewhere between Asia and France, I got a hankering to read the aforementioned and lo and behold: I was able to download it to my phone and read it on the plane, In the metro and while at the park. This past week, I've even taken to eating lunch in my car so that I can read uninterrupted for a pathetic 20 minute repreve.

And have loved it.

Noticing myself (1) using SAT words (2) having remarkably long run on sentences (3) generally fighting the urge to talk as if it is the turn of the century (19th century, that is...)

Can't decide of I'll reread it next or if I'll fall down the rabbit hole with "Alice in Wonderland". Hmmmmmmm ......

Sent from my iPhone

The art of being happy

"The art of being happy lies in the power of extracting happiness from common things."

- Henry Ward Beecher

Prepping for time travel

Getting ready for this weekends' themed soirée

Electrical Pass

Nice picture. What the h*ll is it?

It's a picture of the little tag they put on your house after you pass
inspection.

China foto

Dear Lottie, et al.:

Some pictures of my Chinese escapades for your enjoyment! I have finished sorting through China (and Leslie's new baby's portraits), but have not yet made it through Japan or Singapore. Those are up next.

For now, here are story-tellin' some favs. I will add a few more to a link here (because it is easier and quicker to load a batch than on blogger) but this will give you the inside scoop on the story behind the photo.

Tienenman Square and the front gates to The Imperial City (the Emperors palace), which is the center of town.

Proof that I was there.

L: You get through one set of gates, and there is another, and another....
R: my buddy Fabiano, the Brazilian co-worker who is 8 months in Beijing and lucky for me, loves sight-seeing and accompanied me for the day

L: the obligatory "pinch the monument" picture

R: because nothin' says love like your toddler helping you light up your ciggy.

Chinese exhibitionism at it's finest: people filled the park dancing as if they were at a WSP show. This lady was my favorite-- she was feelin' the flow...

If you aren't up for dancing, bust out some ribbons and twirl! Here, see The Pro. It was all serious business for her.

And now behold: The Novice. Bless her heart - she was having some difficulties (and somehow tied a knot in her ribbon)

"Welcome To You!" (just checking that you're paying attention)

Hiking The Great Wall
Pierre, my hiking buddy.

Yes, I hiked all of that, and then some.

Proof I was really there. And yes, that is snow.

My new best friend, Christina. Best known for forcing me to grope her belly or shrieking at me to say, "Lady, this is a joke, right? You are joking me! Come on, lady. ....Lady... I really like you."

4th anniversary

Framed

All these degrees and no office to hang them...

200!

Wow- Price Posts has 200 posts (actually 201 if you count this one).

That is a LOT of rambling.

I think it keeps me quieter at happy hour. It certainly empties my head of it's swimming thoughts and memories I cling to. Good times, good times.

Murphy strikes again & other odds and ends.

Why do things wait until you leave to break?  We returned from a magical week in Paris to a green pool.  The timer apparently slipped and instead of running 14 hours a day, it ran 1 hour a day.  Awesome.

 

So far, we've dumped enough chemicals in the pool to pay for at least one, maybe two really nice dinners (with too much wine), the robot has been running ~7 hours a day (usually 2 hours a week), the pump is on continuously, Joe has made 3 trips to warehouse supply and 2 trips to leslies, and one to wally world for chemicals and water testing.  Can't guess how long he's spent on it already and  it's only monday and it's still green.  like, can't-see-deeper-than-12-inches-into-the-pool green -- which is an improvement over Saturday's 2 inch visibility. 

 

And if I think about it, I can easily come up with several examples of simple things breaking as soon as we've left for a long weekend or vacation that turned into a massive pain.  why is that?

 

On a separate note - the electrician 'promises' (whatever that means) that he'll be here tomorrow to finish/correct all the things that made us fail inspection.  Once we pass this inspection: 3 more inspections (and subsequent trips from the subs to fix things) and on to insulation.  Woohoo.  Progress.

 

Funny thing is that I rarely think of it until someone asks me about it.  Seems there are much more pressing and/or interesting things to think of (or blog about) than the upstairs.  Isn't it odd that I have a master suite upstairs that is unfinished? 

 

Finally - my goal is to -within a week- go through my pictures from Asia and post some favorites as well as Paris pics.  Thanks for keeping on me about this one, Lottie.  Asian escapades coming up soon! 

 

Okay - going to bed.  strangely, i'm feeling VERY jet lagged.  you'd think that the 3 weeks and 12 hour difference would have been tougher than the 1 week/7 hour time difference...  go figure.

 

night, night.