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’.

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!

Woohoo! Lookie what I get to go to in May!

And better yet, my company is paying for it so it’s free!!! I love photoshop and have dabbled with it for many, many years. This will be the first time I get some formal training for the advanced levels and I’m stoked!

We had no luck finding Scooter’s “owners” so he is trying out his new adoptive family with our good friend Mykel. Raving feedback from Mykel after two days indicated that “he has successfully peed everywhere”. Doh! We have since heard that Scooter is learning to control himself and is settling in well. Hopefully this will lead to a forever home for Scoot.

Before Scooter was re-homed we took another camping trip a couple of weeks ago to Park City, Kentucky to visit Diamond Caverns. Campers included me, Jason, Portia, the rabbit and the four dogs…what a feat that was! Though it was an awesome trip and a great way to wrap up camping season for the year. We were able to choose our own campsite and managed to pick one with no one else around and facing the woods, so lots of seclusion. So much, in fact, that we were awakened by the yips of coyotes on both nights! It really is an eerie sound to hear so close! While we were there we took the Diamond Caverns tour, which was very cool, literally and figuratively. It was a worthwhile tour, though a bit overpriced in my opinion for what it is. One of those things you’ll do once and probably never again. Lots of photos from the campsite and the tour are here.

In other news, not much going on. Work has finally slowed down to a manageable speed and I’m trying to catch up on everything I can before next week when I’m out for four days due to an out-patient surgery. Nothing major…but hopefully something that will give me some of my freedom of life back. Jason, the awesome hubby he is, is taking off work all week to look after me during my recovery and keep me entertained. Luckily for him a few movies, a good book and my laptop with an internet connection will do just fine. I’m sure I’ll be adding extra entries that week out of sheer boredom.

And on a final note, we’re back on our property hunt. We were house hunting for a while, but after realizing we’re not going to find the combination house and land we want in our price range we decided to swap back to the property search with a bit different criteria. So we’re awaiting information on a 38 acre farm, a 15 acre mini-farm and a 17 acre wooded tract and hoping they will meet enough of our criteria to go out and look at in person. We’re really hoping the 38 acre farm works out…how cool would that be! We would later build a house to our specifications on the property along with a barn and a pond. Sweet bliss!

So things have been a little hectic lately and I haven’t had much time (or desire) to update my blog. Work has been crazy with a million tasks due at once, a million problems without answers and a million meetings to keep me from resolving my million issues. It’s a horrendous cycle that never ends. Today I finally feel like I’m pulling ahead, for the first time in a month, thus am in a pretty content mood. Plus Survivor comes on tonight…I’m a hopeless Survivor addict.

To add to the above chaos, I’ve been having issues with my knees. I’ve always had knee problems (popping, aching, pain after physical activity, etc), but after buying a mountain bike earlier this summer it has become 10 times worse. So after 3 months of doctors appointments, 2 months of physical therapy and many months of knee pain, we finally know what is wrong with my right knee. I’ve been officially diagnosed with chondromalacea and patellar tendinitis. In English, this means that my knee cap sits at an angle, causing it not to track straight and thus slowly rubbing away the cartilage in my knee. Luckily it does not require surgery (yet) and some home physical therapy and a lovely knee brace should do the trick. So I’ve been starting out with some walking around the neighborhood (which the dogs are loving) and trying to keep my activities to a minimum to let the knee heal and begin to track correctly…so probably no more biking until next spring. Luckily camping is easy on the knees and we’re planning our next trip…one that will be a four day event in mid-October.

We don’t have much planned for the weekend. The company I work for closes at noon each Friday, which makes for a nice extended weekend or a nice time to play catch-up from the week. This Friday afternoon is the company’s first annual cornhole tournament with all proceeds benefiting Metro United Way. Being a fun event and a good cause I signed up to play in the double-elimination tourny and will also be taking photos of the festivities. The rest of the weekend at home so far entails sealing our back deck/porch and doing some more yard work and landscaping before winter sets in. Fridays and Saturdays this time of year are usually spent hanging out on the back porch and enjoying the nice weather. It’s not unusual for a friend or two or more to stop by and hang out with us, and I don’t expect this weekend to be any different. After all, it’s the perfect time of year for porch sitting and having a good time…and we have a great porch for it! This weekend might even be a good one for a small bonfire in the back yard.

So I finally decided it was time to enter the lovely world of blogging. I love reading friends blogs, and even some techy blogs, so why not?

A little about me to start things off. I’m currently 31 years old and live in Kentucky with my husband, Jason, and my daughter, Portia. We have 3 dogs (Hardy, Blue & Lois Lane), one cat (Big Worm) and one rabbit (Oreo, aka: Bunn). I used to have pet rats up until a couple of months ago. Great little pets, but it was time for a rat break after 12 years and too much heartache.

I work for a local insurance company as a web developer/web focus admin/programmer. I also have my own business in web development. I named my company after my dog, Blue. In my spare time I love to try out new crafts and hobbies and improve on others, namely scrapbooking, glass etching, rubber stamping and photography.

One of the big reasons I wanted to start blogging is to capture our soon to come camping expeditions. We recently purchased a travel trailer so we can go camping with our family, friends and furry critters.

Much more blogging and photography to come!