Funky Kim

First Friday in Fall

Dwaine's gone hunting for the weekend.  Because Jeff is still considered a child, he not only gets to hunt during the rifle hunt in October, he can also hunt the muzzleloader hunt which is going on right now.  So that's where they are for the weekend.  It's supposed to be just a lovely weekend, weather wise.  I hope they have a great time!

I'm taking Sarah with me to the football game tomorrow.  The University of Utah Utes are playing the Weber State University Wildcats.  The Utes should win handily.  Interesting side notes here:  we've had season tickets for Ute football for years; I went to Weber State back in the day; and Dwaine goes to Weber State now.  GO UTES!

Redskins football on Sunday.  I'll have it on as background noise since the major fans will be hunting.  They're playing the Cowboys.

The Dodgers are in the playoffs!!!  This little family pocket of Dodger fans in Utah is thrilled!

I need to start cleaning up the yard in preparation for fall.  Leaves have slowly started to fall.  Apples are falling like crazy.  And I'd like to get an earlier start so I'm not still out there, clearing stuff in the snow.

And that's how my weekend's shaping up!

Authentic Self

40 days until the election.  An election that is filling me with so much emotion and angst.  And one of my biggest angst fillers is that I really don't like sharing my views on things such as who should win each election and what religion fills me with joy.  Those things are just ripe for starting a mostly unwinnable argument.  Everyone has their viewpoints and for the most part, those won't ever change.  Or, if they do change, it's very slowly over time. 

My angst is that most people I hang out with have a differing viewpoint on this election then I do.  Mainly the presidential one.  (or vice-presidential election, it seems!)  And they're not shy at all about expressing how they feel about this.  About how stupid the people are who don't agree with them.  About how they're idiots. 

No, I don't tell them that they're calling me an idiot.  That would be sharing my viewpoint and an informal invitation to a debate.

I do have my viewpoint blog that I share what I think about hot topics from time to time.  It's very hard for me to do that even on a blog where I'm just putting the stuff out there and I don't feel it's necessary to respond to any comments left on my blog, whereas on message boards and especially in person I feel like I must respond.

So I'm really looking forward to November 5th.  The day I can feel like I'm being my authentic self again.

Time management

So many of my friends and family are getting back into the school routine.  Setting up new schedules and figuring out different time management techniques.  There is no one at  my house going back to school.  Dwaine's in school, but it's during the day, in the middle of his work time.  Katie's at school, but her school works on 8 week time periods, so I'm never feeling the go back to school vibe that September used to bring.

My biggest time management issue is working 4 ten hour days instead of 5 eight hour days a week.  Three day weekends all the time are a big plus.  Being gone from home for a little over 11 hours a day when I work is a serious draw back. 

My biggest tool that's helping me manage is my DVR.  I am a television junkie.  Love watching it.  Love it.  And the ability to tell my DVR what my favorite shows are and have it figure out when and where they are on is a seriously big bonus.  I want to only watch an hour or so of television a day.  And with that DVR, my hour can be whenever I want it to be.   What's working right now is my hour of television is right when I get home from work.  I like the unwind time and Dwaine's generally cooking dinner at that moment.

Of course, that leads to my biggest time sucker - continuing to watch television after dinner instead of doing all the other stuff that needs to be done.  Dwaine is a bigger television watcher than I've ever even thought of being.  And he watches some good stuff.  And some OK stuff.  And some stuff that's questionable.  And I'm sucked in to everything but the questionable.  And that's a bad thing.

I need to work on kicking myself in my ass and getting up and doing before I'm sucked in to that comfy couch of mine.  I'd like to go for a walk each night.  And sew every night, so it's not such a panic time when the gift giving time is upon me and the gift is only half done.  And laying out my clothes the night before is a habit I'd like to develop.  I also remember reading for pleasure.  I need to find out how to do that again.

Maybe if I put this out on my blog, I'll be more motivated to change for the better.  It could happen!

Breast Cancer Prevention Research

"The key to ending breast cancer is to learn how to stop it before it starts." - Dr Susan Love

Be one in a million. Join the Army of Women.
Participate in the medical research that will help us understand
what causes breast cancer — and how to stop it.

Army of Women

The Sacred and the Profane

Heidi asked me to post something sacred and something profane from my life.

The sacred:

The profane:

I'm just so NOT a fan of a mohawk!

Seven Years

Seven years.  It's a significant period of time.  Supposedly, it takes seven years for each and every cell in my body to renew.  So I'm a completely different person than I was just seven years ago.

Unless you're living under a rock, you are aware that today is the 7th anniversary of the attack on America by Al Qadea.  Seven years since the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York City have stood tall.  Seven years since the loss of so many people on our soil.  Seven years since inspiring stories of heroism were being lived.

I've been asked over and over again by speakers I listened to this morning at a memorial service and by different media sources to remember where I was when I first heard the news.  And as I flash back to September 11, 2001, I marvel at how much my life has changed in the past 7 years.

September 11, 2001 started out at 5 am, waking up, waking the girls up, throwing on junk clothes, picking up our piles of newspapers to deliver, making those deliveries.  Have those paper routes was the perfect second job for me, a single mom.  The girls would get up and help deliver the papers and then we'd get home in plenty of time to get ready for work and school.  As we were rushing around getting ready for the day, the radio played in the background.  An all news station.  We could tell what time it was by what stories were being read, so that station helped keep us on track in the mornings.  The broadcaster told us about the plane that had hit the World Trade Center in NYC.  I turned on the television so I could see the pictures.  Ended up watching the second plane hit the other tower. 

Felt numb.

Drove the girls to school.  Drove to work.  Internet news sites were running very slow.  We hauled in a television.  Very poor reception in our building with only rabbit ears for antenna.  Our accountant was annoyed that no one was working very much.  We were annoyed that our accountant had no heart. 

Felt numb for days.

I'm grateful for the safety that my family and I enjoy.  I'm grateful for the freedoms we enjoy.  I'm grateful for all the people who work hard to keep us safe and free.

Just in case you weren't aware

I have another blog where I post my views on world, national and local events as I feel the urge.  So if you're itching to know these things, the link is right over there on the left side of this blog.

Or, I could just post a link.  Heh.

Too much sadness in the world

There are way too many stories about small children being hurt or killed by their parents in the news lately.  Yesterday there were three that I tripped over while trying to do other things.  These stories break my heart.

I understand that everyone's patience level with small children is different.  Truly I do.  That's why there are all these laws in place that allow parents to take their children to safe places and drop them off.  Police officers and paramedics would much rather deal with children running amok around the office then have to deal with investigating the abuse of a child.

I had a quilt class last night.  Mainly it was a time to sew without Vincent's help and get a lot done with expert assistance close by.  When I finally got home from that, Vincent met me at the door with great excitement that I was finally home!  It was just the balm that my soul needed.

That lucky boy got to cuddle in bed with grandma and grandpa and watch the Dodgers baseball game until almost 10 pm.  Grandma needed the snuggle time.  And there's nothing more fun that a 2 year old doing play by play. 

I wish I could heal the world.  Really, that would be my biggest wish.  All I can do is make sure my corner of the world is safe and secure.  And be on the lookout for any parents who look a wee bit frazzled and try and help them out the best I can.

If they only had a brain

I've had three phone calls today from people who use their caller ID as their answering machine.  Or they are people who don't trust their voice mail to faithfully record each and every message.  So they call me up, here at work, and ask me why I called them.

Truthfully, I didn't call them.  Don't know who called them.  And really don't care.

Our phone system has 7 or 8 lines that feed into the system.  The all ring at the front desk and are answered most of the time by me, some of the time by our receptionist.  And then we can transfer those calls to over 60 extensions.  And all of those extensions make outside phone calls if they first hit the outgoing button and get hooked up with one of our 7 or 8 lines.  The problem with using your caller ID to call back is that your call will ring here in the front office, even if the person who called you was almost a mile away in our maintenance bay.  And they don't clear their phone calls with us, just in case you call them back.  So when you call me to find out who called you, I will have no freaking clue.  Coulda been at least 80 different people.  Maybe even more, depending on the day and the staffing we have at that moment.

So, my advice to you if you have a phone number on your caller ID that you don't know and you don't have a message to go with it is to just delete the number on the caller ID.  The person who called either didn't want to talk to you bad enough to leave you a message or they accidentally dialed a wrong number.  If they really want to talk with you, they'll call back.

On a related note, my voice mail at home identifies our family by our last name.  My voice mail on my cell phone tells you that you're talking to Kim's voice mail.  If you are wanting to leave a message to Amy or Mary or Bob, I'd find a voice mail that says it belongs to Amy or Mary or Bob and not just leave a random message on Kim's voice mail.

My Thursday Thirteen

I must do this because my thoughts have become unrelated bullets.

1. My half-square triangle quilting life has been transformed by Thangles
2. I counted quilt blocks that I have almost completed for the quilt I'm making for a Christmas gift.  I need 80 blocks.  I have 32.  *sigh*
3. I am more excited and invigorated by this year's presidential election than I have ever been.
4. I've learned that personal accountability is vital to me.  And if you don't have it, you've probably lost me as a friend.
5. I still love my haircut and it's been two weeks since I had it cut.  It's a winner for sure!
6. I require a paper planner to organize my days and my life.  Electronic planner did not work well for me at all!
7. Hamburger Helper's Philly Cheesesteak is pretty darn good.
8. Christmas is coming and I've got my list made.  It even has a couple of check marks!!!
9. I miss World Crossing and my message boards desperately.  I hold out hope that all will be well soon.
10. I'm not allowed to drive my Acura any more.  It's developing more issues and my husband has decided it's time to sell it to someone who has mechanical abilities.  It turned 20 this month.  I'll miss it.
11. The weather has turned cooler.  Fall is approaching.  I love fall.  Except that part where it announces the coming of winter.
12. Tonight's the opening game for the NFL season and the Redskins are playing the Giants.  I'm wearing a Redskin jersey at work today.  Go Skins !!!
13. First tailgate of the season this Saturday.  University of Utah hosts UNLV.  It's an evening game.  Go Utes !