Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Weekends and Work

It's been a busy two weeks for me.  Mostly work stuff.  Ok, about 99% work stuff.
Let's see here, last time I posted I was "complaining" about having start-itus and having lots of projects in the works.
I'm happy to report that Boo's Halloween costume is done and ready for the big day.  I have also finished one of the blankets.  I thought the deadline for that one was the beginning of next month, but no, I needed it done by Monday.  You see, it was for my good friend at work Cynthia.  She's pregnant and due with her first baby, a girl, at the beginning of January.  This has been a very, very rough pregnancy and she's been working from home a lot.  Her doctors are strongly suggesting that she work from home all the time.  Her husband agrees.  So, instead of having her baby shower at the beginning of November, we decided to push it up to this week, whichever day she was able to come in.  It was a total surprise for her.  I was the one who ended up doing most of the planning, purchasing and coordinating in general.  Mostly because everyone kept asking me when we were doing something, or to let them know about what we were doing.  Therefore, I took the reigns and ran with it.  I have to tell you, the people in my office are very generous and caring people.  I don't think I've spent that much at BabiesRUs in one fell swoop, including when I was buying stuff before Boo was born.  Well, maybe I did... I know I spent well more than that there over the course of my pregnancy, just not all at once.
We held the party on Tuesday and Cynthia was very surprised and loved it all.  Her husband was equally surprised.  She received two hand made blankies (mine and one from Ellen, who also made Boo one before he was born).  She received all kinds of goodies I picked up for her as well as some that others picked up on their own.  Over all, it was a wonderful excuse for a little break from work.

This reporting month has been one of the most stressful we've had in several years.  There was a regulations change that took affect at the end of last month.  This required software changes both on our end and on the EPA's end.  Oh, and did I mention that the customers had to supply a bunch of information?  Well, we've been at reporting month levels (and higher) for the last 6-8 weeks.  The good news is, we've been keeping up and even excelling with the work load.  The bad news is that everyone's tempers are getting a little frayed and we're all feeling the pressure.

But, that's work.  And thankfully I have weekends.

This past weekend Gak had the suggestion of going to a corn maze.  He'd found one that looked kinda neat and only about a half hour away in Berks county.  Fortunately or unfortunately as the case may be, we ended up at the big maze across the street from the one we thought we were going to, even though it was run by the same farm. So, instead of the kid friendly playground and small corn maze, we end up at this neat big one that's three actual mazes, including one that had a "Clue" like game of F.S.I..  In each of the three mazes there were 6 "checkpoints" (I'd call them controls thanks to my orienteering background...).  The short maze also had 7 other posts with a picture of a "scene" at the farm.  This let you eliminate a location, suspect and weapon from the list of possibilities, just like with the game Clue.  We all had fun wandering through the maze and finding the signs.  We only did the short part of the maze because Gak's knee wasn't happy with the uneven ground and Boo was done walking (and I didn't have the pack...).
Anyhow, we found the other area across the street, but was not about to spend another $5 or more when I'd just spent $17 on the other side.  I did get a few pumpkin shots of Boo and Trey.
We then headed back towards home, got a mile or two up the road and found a big farm stand (where I picked up some very yummy pumpkin bread and a lot of apples waiting to be turned into sauce...) and a yummy dinner for some lunch.  (Don't remind me about the totally delicious peanut butter chocolate pie the three of us shared for desert...)  Anyhow, it was a nice drive home along the back roads.  Boo never did nap and we got a nice, if short and very windy ride in and had a good day over all.

Hopefully this weekend we're catching up with Michelle down in Baltimore on Sunday.

Anyhow, enjoy the pictures.

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