August Recap
Aug. 31st, 2008 07:55 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bunchofgrapes"It's a Pterodactyl Out of a Gay Jurassic Park." Oh, Tim Gunn, how you make me laugh.
This is going to be one of those majorly long catch-up posts about all kinds of random stuff. Seriously. I have a list.
First of all, I know I've missed birthdays and I think I've missed some going back a couple of months. Let's see, I know there was![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
crusherbevdr back on 1 July and lasairfhiona on 3 July and wiccagirl24 on 4 August. So happy belated birthday to you and anyone else I may have missed.
I also missed some hugs forvr_trakowski, snowydragon1776, and lasairfhiona. **BIG HUGS to you all!**
It finally rained here. The temps have been fairly cool this month but as usual, we haven't gotten any rain--until Thursday and Friday. You know how some people get depressed by rain? Well, I get depressed when it doesn't rain. That's why I hate August so much. Everything turns brown and crunches and dies and it makes me depressed. We didn't get a lot of rain but it was enough to give my grass a green tint. There's a chance TS Hanna will give us more rain by next weekend. That would make me ecstatic.
Last Saturday one of my former co-workers invited a handful of us down to his lake house on Lake Anna. I've never been down there before and to be honest, I really wasn't looking forward to losing an entire Saturday (it's a 2 hour drive down) but once I got there, it was so much fun that we didn't leave until 9:30 at night. Jim, the former co-worker, and his wife have a house that sits on maybe an acre. It's almost right on the water, with a little sandy beach and a very nice dock. Lake Anna is divided into two parts, north and south. It's separated by a nuclear power plant. The north side water is warm. The south side is cool. Jim lives on the south side. He took us out in his boat and we went all over the lake, past the power plant, along some of the coves. It was awesome! Lake Anna isn't at all what I expected. It's actually kind of small--compared to what I'm used to in Oklahoma. Anyway, I was impressed.
So we had most of our finance team in town this past week for business management bonding and in order to promote peace, love and understanding, the boss took us all 16 of us to a Washington Nationals baseball game. I'm a Red Sox fan but since the Nationals are an NL team, I could get into it. Besides, the Nationals mostly suck. It couldn't have been a more perfect night, with no humidity and temps in the 60's after dark. And the Nationals actually won. We had pretty decent seats along the 3rd base line in left field. And since we were playing the Dodgers, Manny Ramirez was right there so I snapped this picture for one oftos_lover's daughters who used to like Manny when he was still with Boston. I took it with my Blackberry so the quality isn't the best and I swear he was much larger in person. But not by much.
We are in the midst of yet another realignment. We do this about once every 18 months but this was a big one as it involved several other groups. My Operating Unit mostly got ripped apart this time with our work going all over the place but my boss and I survived. We work as a team so where she goes, I go. We're losing work in such dynamic vacation hot spots as Sierra Vista, AZ, Dayton, OH and Orlando, FL for work in New Orleans (if it's still there in a couple of days) and the UK. The UK work is going to be a major pain in the ass but I'll get to make a trip or two over next year so I'm looking forward to that. Also, we doubled the amount of revenue we'll have. Previous number was $275M. New number is $500M. Yeah, it's kind of exciting to say I'm financially responsible for a half a billion dollar organization but OMG, the headaches. They've already started for my boss.
My boss and I went to lunch on Thursday and to celebrate our surviving something like the 6th realignment in our careers, we bought ourselves jewelry from Na Hoku. Actually, I talked her into buying something really expensive and then she called my bluff when I found a necklace and earrings I liked. I think mine ended up being more. Stupid me. But I love the necklace and earrings and damn it, these realignments are hell on the stress level.
Monday night the boss took the business managers (there are four of us) to dinner. Because of the realignment, we'll be going in different directions next year plus one of us is leaving so it was our last time together. The great thing (and sad thing) is that all of us get along fabulously so we were probably obnoxiously loud. Luckily, the restaurant isn't one of those foofy quiet places so we blended in. We went to Central Michel Richard off Pennsylvania Ave in DC. It's pricey and you need a reservation but if you're in the area and want to check out the James Beard winner - Best New Restaurant, I highly recommend it. I had the cherry tomato and burrata mozzarella appetizer and the lobster burger and both were amazing. The appetizer was especially yummy! I haven't had tomato and mozzarella that good since Milan.
So I often hear people say that there aren't enough good Brass fics out there but when a couple show up, no one reviews. So, I'm here pimp a couple of good Brass fics. Both pair Brass with an OFC but both are well-written and no hints of flaming Mary Sue tendencies. They also have casefiles but the first fic, By Design, seems to be moving a little faster. It also has a great Brass/Sofia friendship and excellent dialog. The fics aren't perfect--there are some typos here and there, but nothing that detracts from the story. Check them out and if you like them, please let the writer know. **I forgot to add that both these fics are GSR friendly.**
By Design
Improvisation
Oh, and can I just say that even if I weren't already on the Obama bandwagon, I would be just because McCain's ads annoy me to no end. I won't even comment on his VP selection of Sarah Palin.
This is going to be one of those majorly long catch-up posts about all kinds of random stuff. Seriously. I have a list.
First of all, I know I've missed birthdays and I think I've missed some going back a couple of months. Let's see, I know there was
crusherbevdr back on 1 July and lasairfhiona on 3 July and wiccagirl24 on 4 August. So happy belated birthday to you and anyone else I may have missed. I also missed some hugs for
vr_trakowski, snowydragon1776, and lasairfhiona. **BIG HUGS to you all!** It finally rained here. The temps have been fairly cool this month but as usual, we haven't gotten any rain--until Thursday and Friday. You know how some people get depressed by rain? Well, I get depressed when it doesn't rain. That's why I hate August so much. Everything turns brown and crunches and dies and it makes me depressed. We didn't get a lot of rain but it was enough to give my grass a green tint. There's a chance TS Hanna will give us more rain by next weekend. That would make me ecstatic.
Last Saturday one of my former co-workers invited a handful of us down to his lake house on Lake Anna. I've never been down there before and to be honest, I really wasn't looking forward to losing an entire Saturday (it's a 2 hour drive down) but once I got there, it was so much fun that we didn't leave until 9:30 at night. Jim, the former co-worker, and his wife have a house that sits on maybe an acre. It's almost right on the water, with a little sandy beach and a very nice dock. Lake Anna is divided into two parts, north and south. It's separated by a nuclear power plant. The north side water is warm. The south side is cool. Jim lives on the south side. He took us out in his boat and we went all over the lake, past the power plant, along some of the coves. It was awesome! Lake Anna isn't at all what I expected. It's actually kind of small--compared to what I'm used to in Oklahoma. Anyway, I was impressed.
So we had most of our finance team in town this past week for business management bonding and in order to promote peace, love and understanding, the boss took us all 16 of us to a Washington Nationals baseball game. I'm a Red Sox fan but since the Nationals are an NL team, I could get into it. Besides, the Nationals mostly suck. It couldn't have been a more perfect night, with no humidity and temps in the 60's after dark. And the Nationals actually won. We had pretty decent seats along the 3rd base line in left field. And since we were playing the Dodgers, Manny Ramirez was right there so I snapped this picture for one of
tos_lover's daughters who used to like Manny when he was still with Boston. I took it with my Blackberry so the quality isn't the best and I swear he was much larger in person. But not by much.We are in the midst of yet another realignment. We do this about once every 18 months but this was a big one as it involved several other groups. My Operating Unit mostly got ripped apart this time with our work going all over the place but my boss and I survived. We work as a team so where she goes, I go. We're losing work in such dynamic vacation hot spots as Sierra Vista, AZ, Dayton, OH and Orlando, FL for work in New Orleans (if it's still there in a couple of days) and the UK. The UK work is going to be a major pain in the ass but I'll get to make a trip or two over next year so I'm looking forward to that. Also, we doubled the amount of revenue we'll have. Previous number was $275M. New number is $500M. Yeah, it's kind of exciting to say I'm financially responsible for a half a billion dollar organization but OMG, the headaches. They've already started for my boss.
My boss and I went to lunch on Thursday and to celebrate our surviving something like the 6th realignment in our careers, we bought ourselves jewelry from Na Hoku. Actually, I talked her into buying something really expensive and then she called my bluff when I found a necklace and earrings I liked. I think mine ended up being more. Stupid me. But I love the necklace and earrings and damn it, these realignments are hell on the stress level.
Monday night the boss took the business managers (there are four of us) to dinner. Because of the realignment, we'll be going in different directions next year plus one of us is leaving so it was our last time together. The great thing (and sad thing) is that all of us get along fabulously so we were probably obnoxiously loud. Luckily, the restaurant isn't one of those foofy quiet places so we blended in. We went to Central Michel Richard off Pennsylvania Ave in DC. It's pricey and you need a reservation but if you're in the area and want to check out the James Beard winner - Best New Restaurant, I highly recommend it. I had the cherry tomato and burrata mozzarella appetizer and the lobster burger and both were amazing. The appetizer was especially yummy! I haven't had tomato and mozzarella that good since Milan.
So I often hear people say that there aren't enough good Brass fics out there but when a couple show up, no one reviews. So, I'm here pimp a couple of good Brass fics. Both pair Brass with an OFC but both are well-written and no hints of flaming Mary Sue tendencies. They also have casefiles but the first fic, By Design, seems to be moving a little faster. It also has a great Brass/Sofia friendship and excellent dialog. The fics aren't perfect--there are some typos here and there, but nothing that detracts from the story. Check them out and if you like them, please let the writer know. **I forgot to add that both these fics are GSR friendly.**
By Design
Improvisation
Oh, and can I just say that even if I weren't already on the Obama bandwagon, I would be just because McCain's ads annoy me to no end. I won't even comment on his VP selection of Sarah Palin.
