Christy’s Ramblings

Only modern technology would allow us to be able to work from anywhere securely…even during our off hours! This is a macro of the key FOB that was issued by work to keep me able to work outside of the office, while still being able to access all systems and my own work PC.  (The numbers change every 60 seconds.) I hate being “on call” 24/7, though it is handy to be able to work from home rather than having to drive in to the office in the middle of the night or stay late to do necessary off-hours work.  And luckily it doesn’t happen often.  I spent 2 hours working from home tonight to implement some change that had to be done off hours, thus deemed this appropriate!

Since I’ve been quite busy with work this week I thought this to be appropriate. Funny how someone in the digital age still takes so many hand written notes. Most of them are things I think of while out and about or at work that I need to remember for when I get home to work on search engine optimization client sites. ( Shameless Webfoo.net plug. )

My home work station:

Intel Quad-Core i7 running Ubuntu (Linux
23″ Samsung SyncMaster 2343 Primary Monitor
22″ Samsung SyncMaster 2243 Second Monitor
20″ Samsung SyncMaster 205BW Third Monitor

I couldn’t stand it any longer and had to clean and organize my desk this morning.  Now it’s much better and less cluttered.  Afterall,  ’a cluttered desk is a sign of a cluttered mind’.

Today ends my week in San Jose, California.  I fly back home tomorrow morning after a very cool week of California sight seeing and an awesome SEO Conference hosted by Search Engine Strategies.  This was the first SEO conference I have attended and it was well worth it!  While a lot of the presentations were entry level, the ones that weren’t were awesome!  I’ve learned a lot that I will be going home and applying to various sites I deal with on a daily basis.

On Monday we arrived with the whole day to go sight seeing.  Luckily for me, the co-worker I came here with used to live in San Jose and knew his way around and all the cool places to go.  Monday we spent the afternoon in San Francisco.  Tuesday evening we went to Santa Cruz to see the tide pools on the ocean front - what a cool place!  And tonight we drove into the Silcon Valley to see the Google complex and Apple corporate headquarters.  I know it’s just a bunch of buildings, but it was too cool!

The week has flown by and has been exhausting.  I look forward to getting home to Jason and Portia and my pups, all of whom I have missed a lot!  And I can’t wait to come back to California again when I have more time to really sight see and have Jason with me.

Here are some of my favorite photos from the week:

It’s been a very busy month and the next two months aren’t going to be any better, so I figured I’d get a post in now while I can.  So what have I been up to - let’s see.  Working, working, and uh, working.  Wedding and camping last weekend, wedding this weekend, 4th of July party next weekend, huge family birthday bash at Mom’s the weekend after that.  Five days later leave for Holden Beach, North Carolina (yay!).  Home for a  week,  training class at work for a week after that, then off to San Jose, California for an SEO conference for work for a week.  My head is spinning!  The only thing keeping me in check is my excitement for both of my upcoming trips.  I get to see my long time friend, Ginny, and her sister Katie for the first time in 15 years and I’m so excited!  Beach bumming like the good ol’ days when we used to do beach vacations with our families every summer.

And I’m really looking forward to my California trip!  I’ve never been and Jason is going with me.  We have a few days after the conference to do the touristy stuff so we’re heading to San Francisco to see all the sites.  And we should have plenty of time in the evenings to see some of San Jose as well.  There will definitely be lots of photos generated from both trips!  If anyone knows of any sites or places we should visit let me know!

In other news, the fish pond is looking great now that we have it landscaped.  Just trying to rid of the algea problem.  We’re attracting a lot of new birds and dragonflies - it rocks!  Poor Lois Lane, my jack russel mix, had a siezure on Friday.  She’s done fine since, but we’re waiting on blood work to come back this week to see what’s going on.  And we’re watching her closely to see if it happens again.  I hope I don’t have an epileptic dog and hoping it was just a fluke…we’ll see.  Luckily my brother-in-law will be staying at the house while we are away on our trips so he’ll be able to keep an eye on her as well.

Sadly, that’s about it for any updates.  So now I’ll leave you with some photos (of course).

Mocha, Mom’s 12 year old chocolate lab:

Backyard pond lily:

Baby mockingbird:

Obligatory Blue photo - accompanied by Hardy & Lois Lane:

Thank goodness for March 31 to have arrived and gone!  Now my work schedule can get back to normal again.  The last two months have been a frenzy at work to complete our new web site and get it up and running properly.  After working a lot of overtime lately it was nice to actually come home on time today!  The work is not near over as Phase 2 starts immediately with enhancements and further functionality, however at least the pace has slowed down.  Now I can focus more on my own work again. And as a reward I get Friday off without taking a vacation day - woot!  Long weekend!

I’m also starting a new photography project this weekend.  Last year I participated in Project 52 on Flickr and had considered doing it again, but wanted to switch things up a bit this year.  Lucky for me I found just the thing - a Flickr Photography Scavenger Hunt!  The new list is available this weekend, perfect timing for me to start up with it.  It looks like a fun group and will get me out and about and looking for the items on the list to photograph, hopefully with an interesting aspect and not just a snapshot of each item.  It’s an open group for anyone in the world, so if anyone is interested in taking the challenge with me join here!

Not much other news right now.  Family is healthy - human and critters alike.  Spring is on the way, which I am very grateful for since it also means camping season is upon us!  Jason started planting the garden today and the fish pond is starting to shape up with some new bamboo we planted behind it.  In a couple of weeks the five new fish will be added to the eight that are in there now and we’ll work on the landscaping around the pond some more.  And then once it starts staying warm the pond plants go in.  I’m very eager to get it all done and see how it looks. 

This is me lately.  This is also Jason lately.  Once I have some more time I’ll try to post something of interest!

Wow, it’s been a busy week.  Work has been hectic, stressful and crazy for the last week with no end in sight.  I’m reaching major deadlines for my day job and for my side business and it’s really keeping me on my toes.  We’ve gone into mandatory overtime for the next two months for a project implementation at work  and I’m struggling to catch up with another deadline for one of the Mesker side business projects.  On top of that I have two agency visits this week to Eastern Kentucky, which means another over night trip (had one the week before last, also).  But at least it should be interesting - it’s a part of the state I’ve never been to before and I plan to take my camera with me for some sight seeing opportunities!

Luckily we got to go hang out with some good friends last night.  It’s amazing how a few hours with good company can de-stress the body!  I love my friends!

On a side note, we just launched another blog project this week…sort of a pet project (no pun intended!) call PetResearch.net.  This is a joint effort between Jason and I to publish some of the research we’ve done over the many years each of us have had animals and pets.  It will range anywhere from the average household of dogs and cats and span out to pocket pets (rats, mice, gerbils, etc) and also going into wildlife rehabilitation and capture and release tips.  It’s still work, but it’s a break from the everyday work that both of us do, to an extent, in that we really have a passion for it and enjoy it.

And on that note…it’s back to work for me!

Can you tell I’m looking forward to vacation? I think my brain is already halfway there. It’s been a hell of a week. Work has been crazy, both at my “real” job (Job 1) as well as my “side” job (Job 2). I think I’ve put in about 50 hours so far this week in a matter of three days…yes, I need my vacation. I just have to get through 8 hours of training at Job 1 today and do some finishing touches and wrap-ups on Job 2 stuff once I get home and I’ll be good to go.

Friday is only a half day at Job 1 and I go straight to the state fair after that to wander around before my booth shift starts at 3:00. But the fair is fun so I don’t really consider that work. If anyone happens to be there Friday night stop by the Kentucky Farm Bureau booth in the South A wing and say hi! I’ll give you a cool KFB notebook and yellow school bus bag and you can test your skills on Kentucky history.

In five days I will officially be on vacation for a week and I am so ready for it. I haven’t had a real vacation since July of last year and now have accumulated 6 weeks of vacation time that is itching to be used. So it is time! We decided it would be nice to have an “at home” vacation. So we plan to spend some time at Dog Woods for our first camping trip there. We’re also planning on hitting the zoo one day for some photography and maybe another small day trip. But mostly we want to have a week to loaf around. I’m taking off the entire week, including both weekends, from both of my jobs so that it will be a true vacation.

Technically my freedom begins at 11:45am on Friday, but since the Kentucky state fair begins this week that means Friday night I’ll be working our KFB booth that evening. That earns me another day off so it’s all good. Plus I get a few hours before to enjoy the fair myself. I always buy something for myself each year at the fair and this year I’m looking for a novelty plate for the front of my truck, though I’m not sure exactly what yet.

So…let the vacation count down begin!