March 28, 2010

We are well into March madness and you can decide for yourself if that is the NCAA tournament or the weather.  All of my favorite teams have already lost in the basketball tournament so I'm routing for underdogs from here on out.  I have managed to catch a fair number of the games although have missed a few I wanted to see since many of the games don't start until 9:30 at night in the east - and you know me and my bedtime.  On the weather, we had another wet soaker this week and predictions are for more to come.  So far for March we have received over 7 inches (normal is 4 inches) with another 2 to 5 inches supposed to fall Monday and Tuesday.  Basements across the area have flooded but fortunately we have not had a repeat of the water entering the living/dining room ceiling.  For those in the more rain challenged areas who read this - that is 7 inches of rain for one month with more to come!  Now you know why there aren't a lot of flat roofs in the northeast. 

Work wise, my job remains fairly quiet with still no boss announced and apparently not one to come for several more weeks.  I've kept busy cleaning up some old items that I had put aside since they weren't absolutely critical and working through the files - electronic and paper - that have accumulated to decide what needs to be kept.  Jo was home for most of the week with only one quick trip to NY for the day on Wednesday.  Nothing too exciting on the home front during this week, we needed to take our Toyota hybrid in for the recall fix in which they worked on the gas pedal and floor mat.  We haven't had any problem, but I'm still not completely convinced that Toyota knows what is causing the problems in some of the cars.  While the car was in the shop, the mechanic (or technician as they are now called) noticed the water pump was leaking so that was changed as well.  Seems wierd for a water pump to go in only two years, but everyone at the repair shop seemed like it was no big deal - does make one wonder about Toyota's attention to quality though.  Also had to take the Jeep in due to a slow air loss in one of the tires.  So this was the week for car repairs.

Over the weekend, we begin to gather up the fallen wood for our annual chipping event to be held in a few weeks.  It is always a lot of fun to generate a big pile of wood chips and there is something fascinating about watching the wood chipper eat through big pieces of wood.  Unfortunately to enjoy that, we first must gather up all the fallen wood which consists of dragging large branches through the forest (again, for the water challenged readers, a forest is where there is enough rain - say 7-12 inches a month - to allow a large number of trees - large plants with trunks and leaves - to grow).  Made a pretty good start but the next few weekends will consist of dragging more.  Also worked a little in the garden, raking leaves out of the strawberries and blueberry bushes.  Couldn't do too much as the ground was pretty water-logged (see the rain comments above if you didn't figure out why).  Was hoping to rototill this weekend, but that will have to wait another week or so.  All of this left my repaired shoulder somewhat sore as I probably overdid it on how much weight I'm supposed to allow the should to bear.  But then, I never was particularly good about sitting back and letting things heal like they should.

On Saturday, or last night depending on how you want to track time, we went over to Bruno and Sheri's to celebrate Bruno's birthday.  Had a nice surprise as Sheri's mom, Diane, was visiting unexpectedly.  Had a great time and Bruno got to enjoy gifts from China due to Jo's recent visit.  As you can see from the photo, Bruno along with one of his cats enjoyed receiving the deep wisdom of Chairman Mao as found in his little red book - unfortunately, some of the English translations rival the translation found on the sign in last week's posting. 

That's all for the week.  Nothing too exciting planned for this week - except trying to figure out what to constructive value I can deliver to Pfizer and Jo heading to New York for a couple of days.

March 22, 2010

I was lazy yesterday so the post this week is a little late.  Pretty calm week for me except for the weather over last weekend causing a few water leaks which meant I spent four days repainting the ceiling in the living room and dining room.  Fortunately, it all looks as good as new and I spent a few hours caulking around the outside to try to keep it from happening again.  Although, I wasn't able to find any large gaping holes in which water was obviously seeping into the house so who knows if I was successful.

I spent the week continuing to clean up old items from my last job as I wait for my new boss to be identified.  It may be another couple of weeks so I'm going to be scrambling some to find useful things to do for Pfizer.  Whereas Jo had no problem finding useful things to do as she was off to China for the week to meet with her Asian HR team.  She had a great set of meetings and got to enjoy the local culture, a few tourist sites (which contributed to our photo montage this week - Jo standing in Tiananmen Square, the great wall - yes it was cold in China - and you just got to love the sign), and the food.  She also got to experience the heavy smog in Beijing as she described most days as hazy - even when the sun was shining.

My evenings were spent watching some college basketball and working on rehabbing my shoulder.  Which is coming along nicely although it still doesn't like to be rolled onto when I sleep which I have found over the last 3 weeks I do a lot (another fun fact I have learned, apparently I always roll over clockwise - don't ask me how I discovered that fun fact, but it has a lot to do with waking up repeatedly when I roll around).  The weekend provided glorious weather which I used to do the above mentioned caulking along with continuing prep work in the garden - and yes, you are about to hear 4 months of blogs on the trials and tribulations of our garden, so just get prepared.  Joann arrived home late Saturday night so we spent Sunday around the house with Jo and I catching up on some much needed sleep.  Then it was off to prepare for another week of work.

March 14, 2010

Let March Madness begin. The NCAA posting are up, so it is basketball watching for the next few weeks. Unfortunately, only one of my two alma maters appears to have made the final 64.

We had quite the eventful week this week so it is hard to know where to start.  Last Sunday, after working in the garden Jo and I walked around the back 40 just to check on what winter did to our property.  While coming back in Jo spied a small bottle sticking out of the ground - a little digging later and you can see our treasure trove.  We have found lots of bottles over the years from where previous owners must have thrown their trash.  Always fun to see what you can dig up - especially since many of the bottle seem to date to the 1930's or so.  I'm not absolutely sure as yet, but I think the pistol looking thing is a toy cap gun.  Although it is awfully heavy for a toy.  Need to check some more on that. 

For work, the change in my position was finally announced this week. I'm moving into a new role in Pfizer.  in the "Technology and Sourcing" group.  This is a new group within my old organization so it will be exciting defining what we do for a living.  The only problem, my new boss has yet to be announced/decided.  So I'm in a bit of limbo until that little detail is worked out.  In the meantime, I'm getting my office and email all dealt with and cleaned out.  Nice to finally get to a some of the items that have been lagging for a while.  I must admit though I'm sad to be leaving the group I've worked with for over four years.  Jo was in town for much of the week, which is always a nice change, although that just makes up for her being gone all this week.  She is off to Beijing to meet with her Asian team along with visits to the Great Wall and the Forbidden City. 

The other fun this week was that I finally got to start physical therapy.  Fortunately, my shoulder has healed quite smoothly so I'm much further along than would be normally anticipated.  This means that the initial round of physical therapy didn't really hurt too much - especially given some of the scare stories folks have been telling me around how much pain therapy can cause.  I'm still forbidden from lifting weights, but I also hit the road this week to get some running in.  I won't say my shoulder never hurt during the runs, but it was manageable and didn't seem to cause any lasting problems.  Plus the great stress relief running provides really helps me get through work - I hadn't appreciated how much I rely on my daily run to handle that.

The last piece of weekly excitement was the torrential rain storm we had on Saturday.  It rained all day and all night along with 60 mph winds.  Our little creek was a raging river this morning and there was a lovely waterfall cascading over the stonewall in the back.  During the course of the storm we experienced some small leaks into the living and dining rooms (the bay windows that are in each room appeared to be the culprit).  The fun thing is when it is the middle of the night, pouring down rain, and gusting with high winds - there isn't much you can do to fix a leak.  So I put out some towels and went to bed.  Fortunately the leaks stayed fairly minor, although some painting will be required inside and caulking on the outside.  Always something to fix on a house. 

March 7, 2010

We are enjoying a nice break from the winter this weekend as the temperatures have soared up into the 50's for the first time since November last year.  We took advantage of the thaw and went out shopping yesterday at a local outlet mall.  We were both successful in finding some shirts and pants to augment our current collection.  Mostly it was just a beautiful day to be outside walking around.  We were also planning to then go see the movie Avatar but unfortunately the theater we selected no longer was showing it in 3D and since the whole point of the movie was the new 3D technology it didn't seem worth it to see it in 2D.  So we quickly modified our plans to enjoy renting a movie and seeing it at home.

This last week has consisted of the usual work mix for both - Jo was off to Puerto Rico for two days and I was in CT for the entire time.  However, it didn't consist of our usual evening workout routine as I'm still constrained from running - more on that later - and lifting.  So I'm hitting the exercise bike every evening which while I get a sweat up isn't as peaceful and mentally restorative to me as running.  My shoulder continues to get more mobile every day with a lot less pain than I was expecting - except when I use it in a direction it doesn't like then it promptly reminds me that is still fixing itself.  Sleeping is probably the hardest since I roll around a lot when I sleep and everytime I roll onto my right shoulder it wakes me up to remind me to stop doing that.  Friday I went to the doctor to have the bandage removed - which was fantastic since my skin underneath was getting really itchy - and the stitches pulled out.  I can now see what was done - I have five holes, four sort in a line from the front of my chest up and over the top of my shoulder and the fifth hole located over where I assume my rotator cuff would be.  The good news is that the doctor gave me permission to start running again as long as it doesn't bother me although lifting is still out.  I decided to wait until the middle of next week to give it a little more time, then I'm heading back to the road.  I also need to begin physical therapy which, from what everyone tells me, is brutal.  Seems the whole point is to move your shoulder in a direction that really hurts and then move past that point until you almost pass out from the pain.  Sounds like fun. 

Today's temperature are looking like a repeat of yesterdays, so we thought we would begin to clean and straighten the garden up.  Mostly as an excuse to enjoy the great weather.  Will probably find time for a nice walk in the neighborhood.  Then it is time to tackle another week of work.