Fall into Reading Wrap-up

I wrapped up my first phase of Fall in Treading 2008 here Now for the second phase - more books from the library!

• Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers (re-read) - loved it again.....might need to add this one to my library permanently!
• Kissing in Technicolor by Jane Mendle - interesting, but nothing too great. probably won't seek out any more of this author 
• Multiple Choices by Claire Cook - light, easy, quick read (actually not quite done, but will finish this weekend)
• "B" is for Burglar by Sue Grafton - ok.  not sure I want to follow through the whole alphabet
• A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini - wonderful.  it was a little slow to get into, but not as slow as Kite Runner because I already knew the author's style
• Quicksand by Iris Johansen - excellent! will be reading more of her works
• How to Be Single by Liz Tuccillo - easy ready, but bizarre and unbelievable story line. again, not seeking any more of her works
• Hold Tight by Harlan Coben - excellent. a co-worker turned me on to this author and I have enjoyed everything I've read by him

I'm on vacation for the next two weeks....might be reading some, but probably not.  

Fog

It has been VERY foggy here the past few days.....here is a view from my office window on Tuesday.

and out my window yesterday morning.....can't even see the AA Center at all!!! It was rather creepy driving to work with no visual landmarks!

New York bound

So, my family and I are headed to NYC for Christmas this year. I’ve been to the city 5 or 6 times, my parents and sis have been once (in recent years anyway), my bro-in-law never.



For any of my readers that are NYC residents, any tips/tricks/ideas for us on things that are special/different at Christmastime? We will be there 4 full days, plus the afternoon of the day we arrive. We have tickets to the Radio City Rockettes show and to a Knicks game…..everything else is pretty much up in the air at this point. My niece is 6 months old, so her schedule may dictate a bit, but we are prepared to drag her all over!

My new office.....aka where I blog part 2

Welcome to my new office! Only 15 floors up, rather than 28. West facing window which hopefully won't be too terribly horribly hot in the summer. I only have the one little window, most folks have that whole wall of windows.

Large desk unit with LOTS of storage space. Just getting still trying to figure out where I put everything!!

and this is what I see when you hear from me and the timestamp on the post is midday!

Frosty Morning

on the way to work this morning.....as seen in my car



















a cool fountain.....with ice floes!























and the view out my window......





















Brrrrr.....guess it is preparing me for New York City next week!

Party Update

Well, it was another successful party! My friends Sarah and Deen, perusing the spread......




















many friends enjoying the food and companionable conversation
























and my crazy friend Randy in his twisty Santa hat.....kinda fits his personality! he is a big fan of my sausage balls (to the point that he even told his mother that mine are better than hers! yikes!!) so he usually gets to go home either with leftovers or with a special bag marked out for him ahead of time.

Even with the inclement weather (temp around 30 degrees with light wintry precipitation) there were still 41 folks in my home! Several new families including our missionaries just returned from Togo were able to come and several friends who had only see my home in photos were able to make it this year. It was wild and crazy chaos for a while with little boys scampering around, but I am very happy to report that nothing was broken and everyone had their fill of yummy treats and fun.

Welcome to my home!

Thanks to BooMama for hosting her holiday home tour!

a 3 hour tour.....er.....nap

The first several hours of the sale were fast and furious today.  There were folks waiting about 7:50 and we didn't open until 8:30.  When the doors were open, it was literally a mad rush.  Folks had scoped out what they wanted and ran.  There were several tense moments as some tried to snake stuff from other people.  Our rules were, until it was paid for, it wasn't yours, so that led to some sneakiness.  The crazy thing is, most of these folks work together!

Things slowed enough by 11:00 or so that we were able to breathe and enjoy sandwiches from Pot Belly across the street.  Then at 2:00 we officially closed up shop, though if someone came late and the last couple of people were there, anything was still fair game.  Very few prices were adjusted, mostly just on larger ticket times.  And we brought in fairly good money.

I literally crashed when I got home.  Intended to only rest for about 45 minutes, it was almost 3 hours later before I was able to pull myself up and off the couch.  Now I'm just puttering around, straightening and putting extraneous things away.  I'll go clear and set the table in a few minutes and call it a day.

So tired.....

It has been a whirlwind week.  Started at the new office last Monday. Spent the week putting out fires and trying to get settled.  It was one of our busier weeks of the month, so that didn't help.

With the move, we are having a big sale tomorrow of lots of old furniture, art, lamps, etc that aren't being used in the new space.  While many of the items are a steal compared to their original price, I can say there is NOTHING that would tempt me to spend the prices that are marked.  I had to go over on Thursday and help price -- one of the armoires was priced at $40,000.  Guess that one will have to go to some auction house....can't imagine any of our employees plunking down that kind of cash.

Speaking of the sale, I get to (read: have to) work it as well.  So, no sleeping in for me tomorrow.  That has added all kinds of stress to my brain in trying to get ready for my open house on Monday night.  When you completely lose a Saturday, it gets tricky to squeeze in all the cooking, cleaning and setting up into the weeknights.

That being said, I think I am just about done for Monday night.  All that is left to make is the apple berry salsa (a new addition this year) - and it is best made day before, so that will be Sunday.  Tomorrow after I get home from the auction I plan on straightening the house and getting the table situated.  It is working out that my cleaning lady is coming on Monday, so at least I don't have to stress about the bathrooms being clean for my guests!!  Hoping that I will be able to pretty much have a Sabbath on Sunday.....I NEED IT!

 

Weekend Recap

So, I had just written out a long post recapping the weekend.....and my browser ate it.  So, here is the bullet point list instead:

*last thurs had a half day of work because we got all packed up in a hurry!!

*spent thurs afternoon grocery shopping for upcoming party

*friday, scheduled day off due to the move - plumber came to fix drippy guest bath tub faucet & I did some party prep

*parents came in friday for some one-on-one time with me.....amazing how much I still need that at age 32!!

*went to Stars game friday night -- they won!

*lots of running on Saturday - REI (new warm things for the upcoming NYC trip), Target, lunch with my aunt & uncle, Sam's, Hobby Lobby, cinema to see the new James Bond

*church - showing off our new family life center

*yummy lunch at Fuddrucker's.....with some NYC trip planning mixed in

*up to the new office after waving bye to m&d.....

*3+ hours of unpacking/settling

*ALL boxes and crates out of my new office!!!! :-)

Now I'm crashing for a bit to relax before heading to bed.  T-16 days to NYC!!!

Last Day

Tomorrow is our last day in the current office.  It is starting to look really bare.  It is a bit overwhelming to make sure that every.single.thing is in a crate.  Even more overwhelming is that ALL crates must be unpacked by 5 pm on Monday.  Yikes.  Even though we are not required to come in over the weekend, I think (I hope!) a lot of people will be coming in.  

I spent the morning today over at the new office, directing the unloading of our file room.  We have LOTS more space than before.  Very nice to not have to cram files onto our shelves.  The finish out of our space is not quite complete, but hopefully they will be able to wrap up the major stuff before we arrive to open up shop.....