obama's teleprompter has a blog...

Obama's teleprompter tells us like it is.

Posted by jennj at 08:52 PM | Comments (0)

nbh is the bestest husband in the world!

For my 4.0 birthday his gift to me is flying my sister and bro-in-law out!!! Yay!!

Posted by jennj at 09:18 AM | Comments (1)

so, um, yeah

Yesterday afternoon I bumped into a friend at the grocery store. Turns out his wife's (also a friend) brother has liver cancer and it's not good. She's down there now.

As I drove home from the grocery store, I thought about the post I had made earlier in the day. I thought about how things could be worse. And that really, perspective is important.

I'm not minimizing my pain, that's absurd. I'm just pointing out that sometimes we need a reminder to put things in perspective.

That said, my family is in remarkable shape and weathering the economic crisis fairly ok. *knocks on wood*. The only bad family thing going on is NBH's father has Parkinson's. He was doing well when we saw him at Thanksgiving, but it's not something one can worry about. Parkinson's sucks. There's no cure. There's really no treatment except to try to limit the shaking, but even then, it's not really 100%.

That said, at least I have a job to complain about.

That said, I'm loved by many friends, family, NBH and the kitties. And in the end, that's really the important thing!!!

Posted by jennj at 07:44 PM | Comments (0)

hmm...wonder how long i'll keep this blog...

Man, it's been ten days since I wrote anything here. I actually started a post about AIG, saved it as a draft and then never got back to it. I seem to be spending more and more time on Twitter or facebook than I do here. Lately I've been so sucked up into work, Twitter/facebook are about all the attention span I can deal with. I don't really feel like I've been reflective lately, either, which is usually where I'd find inspiration for posts. Or, I'll be reflective, but then just not post. Heh. And I sure don't have enough bandwidth to focus on the big issues. Which is pathetic because I should. I should care and know more about the financial crisis than I do. My knowledge is superficial. Or maybe I'm just getting to be uninteresting. Ha. I used to think of this place as a place where I would rant and rave about things. But now I don't feel really inspired to rant and rave.

I'm going to have a stressful year. At some point, I'll have a new boss. He/she will be inserted between me and my current boss. I've worked for my current boss for the past seven years. I've got him trained. Heh. He's a really great boss, so the new one will have a lot to live up to. So, in preparation for this change, I've been keeping an open mind, recognizing that I'll just be building a new relationship and I've done that before (and will do it again), and really, I'm glad that my boss is looking for someone with PMO startup and PM experience because that will open up a whole new avenue of mentoring that my current boss just can't do. That excites me. But there's only so much I can prepare emotionally for until it happens. And when it does, it'll suck. But hey, it's just a part of the letting go and moving on process.

Added on top of that, the current PM environment that I'm now in is a freakin' disaster and I feel like I'm back where we were with EDC when I started. So, there's a lot of work to be done this year PLUS I've got projects that need to be managed. This PM staff has a really bad reputation and I keep hearing that they've been understaffed so some things slipped through the cracks, but now there's two more of us so this should help. But then I get handed a lot of projects and I wonder, "WTF? Are you going to set me up for failure too because there's still too much to do?" (YES, I have expressed all of this to my boss - I'm not someone who doesn't speak up). Basically, I'm stressing. And with the current financial crisis, how do I balance work/life but also make sure I'm putting my best foot forward with work so I don't lose my job. No, I don't really feel like I'm going to lose my job, it's just there's so much work to do and I'm overwhelmed that it magnifies everything and I'm melodramatic in general. :-)

And I took the past year off from school and I've got to get back to it. It's really hard to work full time and then take classes. I end up not being able to see friends as much, do social things, etc. That sucks. And I sometimes feel some of my friends don't understand that.

And mix that with a good friend who will be moving to Switzerland by the end of the year, various other activities going on that will require taking time off (but they're good things) - which then adds to the work stress and how the hell am I going to get shit done, feeling disconnected from my family in L.A......well, I'm overwhelmed and really don't think about blogging much.

So there you go. :-)

Posted by jennj at 12:25 PM | Comments (2)

workin' on this old house

Boy have I been neglecting this blog.

Anyway, we've been working on updating things on our 1880's house. Last Novemberish we updated all the electrical wiring in the house and garage. No more knob and tube. This has had a profound affect on our house insurance. When we bought the house, our existing insurance carrier would not cover house insurance for us as they didn't cover old houses with knob and tube wiring (even though we weren't 100% knob and tube). So we had to go with a different company. Now that it's all updated, we can use one insurer for auto/house. This more than halved our insurance costs. Something like 60% less. It'll pay itself off in ten years.

So after letting the sticker shock of that wear off a bit, we decided the next thing to tackle is the insulation (lack thereof) and new windows. That work started last week. They are more than halfway done with the insulation. The windows have been ordered (double hung - that's what she said) and will probably be installed the week of my birthday. I'm looking forward to having heat stay contained within the house.

Next up: Not quite sure....need a moment to get over the insulation/window sticker shock. The reality is, we could now go through the house and get rid of all the wallpaper, patch some walls and then paint. And also, re-sand all the wood floors. However, I wouldn't mind turning the back room into a laundry room, create a mud room where the washer/dryer are now, put a shower in the downstairs bathroom and redo the kitchen. HA.

Posted by jennj at 01:26 PM | Comments (1)

my tattoo artist rocks

I got a new tattoo yesterday. Liked the design so much and he made time for me that I had him do it. I will post pictures in a week or so (want it to heal). In the meantime, what's not to like about a tattoo artist who teaches Latin to high school students during the week, loves Settlers of Catan and is a big Star Wars fan? And he's got mad tattoo artist skillz to boot! We discussed a lot while he worked his magic, and I especially liked the conversation we had about virtual reality. (special thanks to snowboardbunny for finding him!)

Posted by jennj at 07:52 AM | Comments (0)

it's bonus time....

Boss: "Well, J, here's your bonus letter."
Me: "Wow. That's a lot!!!"
Boss: "Um, J, remember that promotion you got last year? At the time I said it put you in a higher bonus percentage."
Me: "Oh yeah! I like promotions!"

Posted by jennj at 02:43 PM | Comments (0)

just trying to help

I helped a friend move on Saturday. She had hired movers, we were just helping with the last minute stuff you put in cars. We also helped her unpack her kitchen. At one point her brother and his son came over. Adrian is a cute little kid. He's about four years old. He was running around asking if he could help, so we'd give him little things to do. Anyway, at one point I accidentally dropped something and he turned to me in his best Trump look and said, "You're fired!" I almost peed myself laughing. Kids crack me up sometimes.

Posted by jennj at 10:04 AM | Comments (0)