It was a very LONG day at the festival office. I'm beat tonight. And pretty brain dead, to be honest.

Sister Sue suzy_qp drove me to work this morning. I (finally) gave her the laptop Marilyn and I had for her, and also gave her a dress she can hopefully wear to Savannah's wedding next fall. She took me to Starbucks on our way to the office.

I started the day with three meetings in a row -- all were good. I got to do orientation for Morgan (and get her computer set up) -- very cool. Then we had our Communications meeting and finally Staff meeting.

Apparently I was supposed to be in the joint Events/Marketing meeting, but I didn't notice it in my schedule until too late to attend. Oh well. Marilyn mistressmarilyn can catch me up on what I missed. (grin)

Kris came in and did more equipment stuff. He also solved an issue regarding exporting email folders from one user account to another. Very handy!

I had some website stuff (including tutorials, again) today -- and a lot of IT. I helped Rich set up a Yahoo email that will appear to be sent from the festival office. We're already preparing for sending out Court results during the next office move (when the Server will be down).

I fixed dinner when we got home. Roast beef hash with string beans cooked in, yellow hominy and cottage cheese. It hit the spot! And Marilyn split a light lime beer between us with Clamato. (yum)

That tiny bit of beer made me sleepy. Of course, being tired from a long work day probably helps, too.

Marilyn and I did take a ride for lunch today -- it was SUNNY, dry and lovely! (woo hoo) We stopped and got a bite to eat before heading back to work. Nice.

I'm looking forward to reading, petting my cats and having a nap. Off I go!

It was a HUGELY busy day (yes, again). I did festival work from home and set up our (very complicated) DVD Recorder in our family room (where we have the DVR). I tested it and it's working GREAT, which is the good news! It took me two hours to do it (lifting the heavy, old TV and so on), but I was super-happy when it was done!

I also picked up the living room in preparation for Amanda coming to give Marilyn mistressmarilyn a much-needed (and long overdue) massage. (This is her physical therapy for her bad shoulder, so it's about time!) Amanda shared photos of her twins (a boy and a girl), who are around four months old now -- and darling! (smile)

I got the three tutorials done today for tomorrow (training during Staff meeting). And did IT-related work, some social networking stuff (festival-related), tested some software applications we're considering and on and on.

I stuck the oil today. We have around 120 gallons, so it's time to order more! I didn't get to that today, but need to soon.

I let the cats out for a bit (Colin was moaning terribly trying to get up a hair ball that wouldn't come). I figured the fresh air and chewing some grass would be good for them. I got some air, too, and swept a bit along with filling the hummingbird feeder.

Sister Sue suzy_qp is taking me to work tomorrow morning. I have an 8:30 a.m. orientation meeting with Morgan (our new receptionist).

Then I have a 9:30 Communications meeting.

After that is Staff meeting at 10:00 a.m.

And Kris is supposed to be to work on IT at some point (not sure when).

I have a bunch of website stuff to code (that probably won't happen while in the office). And we need to focus on some of the last equipment matters. It's getting close to done now, happily!

Anyway, I'm BEAT. Physically tired and brain dead. It's time for a nap, if not just to go to bed...

Tomorrow will be a busy day. And I need to get going on another eBulletin due out this week, plus a related News item. No rest for the weary!

I am soooooooooooo looking forward to the upcoming three-day weekend!

As I mentioned several times, this past Saturday night was the 2010 Royal Rosarian Auction. They always call it the Hearts & Roses Benefit Auction, but this year they had 'Tickled Pink' in honor of their first-ever female Prime Minister, who is a breast cancer survivor. So the idea was for everyone to wear pink, which was a lot of fun!

The goal of such auctions (just like the one we hold each autumn) is to raise money, and one of the things being supported by the Rosarian auction is our Living History Program that features re-created historical characters Mayor Harry Lane and Georgiana Pittock.

Marilyn mistressmarilyn and I both got pink manicures and pedicures for the occasion -- and a bunch of new pink jewelry, too! Plus some small pink purses (I used mine to carry my camera to the event).

Anyway, how about a photo share, as I have quite a few! (smile) There are many, but they're all small, so I'm going to skip cutting -- hope you don't mind...

The cover of the program.


Our table -- pretty flowers!


Me, Meredith, Arthur, Leslie and Marilyn.


We didn't know this woman, but she took the above photo for us so
I could be in it! She made that scarf she's wearing.


President Robert and wife Janie.


E.D. Jeff (right) and his wife Alicia.


Marilyn looked fabulous!


Queen Rachel


Leslie, Rachel and me.


I'm holding up the program to show MY graphic that they put in their
program (gacked from the website, of course). (heh)


Kristen and Marilyn.


Prime Minister Sue and President-Elect Sue.


William (left), Meredith and Arthur (right) -- William and Arthur
are life partners and just two of the sweetest men I know!


The lovely cake for dessert. Marilyn took this photo. I didn't
have success trying and Kristen said her favorite quote of
the evening was when I said, "Cake is not photogenic." (grin)


This bag (which is actually black and red) had our goodies inside!


Marilyn and I actually WON several bids (!!!),
including a set of three purses covered in roses.
(We'll probably donate them to our own auction for this year.)


I bid on this set of necklace with earrings, never
guessing I'd get it!


The same was true for this lithograph, "Rolling Fields."
(By artist Fanch.)

The Hallmark Channel has been having an "I Love Lucy" marathon. Gotta love it! (smile)

So Marilyn mistressmarilyn and I have been watching and enjoying a bunch of the shows we grew up watching.

As ridiculous as some of the episodes can be, they're still great fun to see.

Getting ready to go to the auction. I already colored my hair around noon-ish, so thankfully that's done! (sigh) Yes, I really hate the process of coloring my hair... But, YES, it's essential! (smile)

I just took a bath and shaved my legs, as they'll be hanging out there in my cocktail-length dress. (Also why I did a mystic tan.) I had to have Marilyn mistressmarilyn check to see I got all the hairs, as it's distance that's hard for me to see with my mono-vision contacts.

So all I need to do is actually get dressed (which includes picking out jewelry), put on my makeup and do my hair.

This is MUCH EASIER than our own auction, of course, as we're merely attending and participating, but not WORKING the event! It still means a lot of mingling and so on (and I might take along my camera, too), of course. But that's true of any social situation like this.

It still falls somewhat in the area of work, because of our working relationship with the Rosarians. But it should be FUN, too! (smile)

I wonder if they'll have anything I want to bid on? I wonder if I'll actually be able to win a bid?

Well, off to finish getting ready!

How can it be 11:30 already? Wow, time flies when you're working hard...

Today was another furiously busy day. Marilyn mistressmarilyn and I did actually take a half hour lunch, though. We went to the place across the street and had burgers (but talked work while there). We had to hurry back, as Marilyn had another meeting (one of many today).

I had IT stuff, including Kris being there. I don't envy his miserable day one jot. It took hours to get Jeff's phone to work. Ashley's MAC? Let's not even go there. (sigh) Poor bastard.

I had a great meeting that had YouTube elements and was really exciting. We'll see where that goes.

And I did work-related Tweets (most of my Tweets ARE work-related) at one point, which I happen to enjoy.

It sounds like things are going GREAT with the new building, from what Jeff shared with Marilyn and me. I'm excited to hear it!

As for the equipment I'm working on, I'm only down one computer tower right now. And Laura's tower for on-site at WFV will be amazing. As good as her festival office machine, I think! (Kris got us a donation from one of his other clients.)

Now I need some monitors (???), mice (optical, please) and a few speakers (if possible), and we'll be good to go. No extra equipment, granted, but whatever! I'll just be glad to have that monkey off my back. We're THIS CLOSE to being done getting equipment ready for the 2010 season! (woo hoo)

It was a lovely, non-rainy day today. And Sunday looks to be FABULOUS. (I'm hoping it won't be raining tomorrow night when we go to the auction...) We might string together a few nice days, depending on which weatherman you listen to. (smile)

I have some work I need to do over the weekend. I'll probably be skipping the Court judging tomorrow (Marilyn has to go), so I can color my hair then. I didn't get it done tonight, as I was just too damn tired when we finally got home. (I couldn't even read a full page in my book.)

I'm glad I got some work done in my bedroom this week, as I haven't had time to touch it since. It does make it nice for working out, anyway, even if there's tons more to do...

I'm LOVING my pink-tips manicure -- it's so pretty! I'm glad tomorrow night has that pink theme, so that I gave it a try. Here's a quick shot of how they look:



Not the best photo ever, but you get the idea, anyway!

Getting READY to go out for a social event is WORK. Seriously.

We did our manicures and pedicures (I NEED to share photos -- so pink and pretty), and now we've gone to tan (again). I did my first mystic tan in forever (a whole new machine!), which meant I couldn't come home and color my hair (you can't shower right after doing a mystic tan). So I need to color my hair after work tomorrow night.

Neither Marilyn mistressmarilyn nor I are getting new clothes for the event (the Rosarian auction), but we had to wait to tan (a bunch of people in line before us) -- so we went shopping and got some pink jewelry to wear. (Couldn't find a pink handbag or SCARVES, so whatever.)

I'm sure we'll have enough pink, anyway... (smile)

Marilyn had her specialist appointment today and wrote about it HERE -- and she was HILARIOUS. I laughed and laughed while reading! (She is far, far more witty than I could ever be...) Interesting outcome, too, I thought! (I admired a doctor who would admit they don't know what causes her issue and that there's really NO treatment for it...)

We both worked from home today. The main thing I got done was sending out the eNewsletter that I stayed up late 'finishing' last night. All morning it was going back and forth to get the final 'tweaks' before sending. Happily it turned out nicely, and I was really pleased with the result. (Go, me.)

Website and IT took up much of the remaining work hours.

Tomorrow should be another busy day in the festival office.

And, yes, the rumors are true: I've finally started working out again. (Yes, it's about time.) So I'm sore and tired and a little cranky. (grin)

Marilyn is working on a blog entry for the website blog (go, her). She's really good at the image manipulation now, which is awesome! :: confetti ::

And that's my day, pretty much...

I've been BUSY today! (surprise) Yes, I know I say that frequently... (grin)

I (finally) got the Clown Corps page updated/corrected. That was no small task. I have no clue how many times I tweaked it, but it took hours. Anyway, the GOOD news is that it's DONE -- and I'm happy with it. (Well, to be honest, I'd like to do a new slideshow and add some new photos, but whatever...)

I've cleaned the cat boxes (it's Wednesday -- Hello, Dad!), so that's a start on garbage and recycling. And I might work out now (I actually feel like it). I'm thinking I'll break workouts into 10 or 15 minute chunks during the day. We'll see how it goes!

I need to work on the eNewsletter that needs to go out, do News for the website, contact our phone people about some concerns (rather major ones), finish the garbage and recycling (!!!) and put a load of dishes to wash. I'd also love to work in my bedroom (!!!) and do some other cleaning. PLUS, I should do LAUNDRY.

So how can I get that all done?

Beats me! (heh)

Seriously, it's unlikely it will all happen, so whatever... I'll go with the flow.

Happily I'm also home tomorrow -- and not back in the office until Friday. So far I have two meetings slated for that day, plus I'm supposed to have Kris in for IT. I'm sure it's going to be slammed as is usually true when I'm in the festival office... (Like it's so easy for me when I'm here at home...)

Marilyn mistressmarilyn actually TOOK A BREAK and went next door to get meatloaf, if you can imagine that. (She called me from there on her cell.) She didn't take long, as she had a 2:00 meeting to go to -- but a break is still a break. I'm glad she managed it.

Jeff has replaced his lost cellphone, so hopefully we can get the new one set up (again) this coming Friday. (fingers crossed)

On that note, I'm back to work!

Yikes!!!

I totally missed my friend neo_prodigy's birthday, which was February 1.

(my bad)

Better late than never! (smile)

The speaker at Willamette Writers tonight was Ellen Urbani Hiltebrand, the author of "When I Was Elena." What an AMAZING woman -- and what an AMAZING book!

Listening to her speak, I both laughed and cried (tears were running down my cheeks). And when she finished reading from her book for the first time, I happily started clapping when no one else did -- and soon the entire room was clapping loudly (which is only what she deserved).

We bought a copy of her book, needless to say. It was a pleasure to speak to her and tell her how moving her work is. I began reading when we got home and am already on page 24. (smile)

If you need a book to read, get this one!

Clearly I'm in the middle of a number of books -- which is life the way I like it. (grin)

Ellen was such an inspiration.

We couldn't get any other members of our Writing Circle to attend, so it was just Marilyn mistressmarilyn, Angel and me. Too bad for the rest -- they really missed something SPECIAL tonight!

In other news, we had lunch with the Living History people (Mary and David) today. It was Marilyn, Angel, Ashley, Mary, David and me. Very nice. It was a working lunch, so the program was discussed.

I had my 9:00 a.m. meeting with Karen, our new festival Staff member. She's impressive! The computer orientation went very well.

Hailey and I met to discuss the phones. We're trying to get a better handle on the back end (Administrative) side of things. I created my first Admin 'How To' page for us to reference at the website -- it turned out cool.

Today was Staff meeting (every Tuesday), and we covered some interesting things, including the new Membership Club (which used to be the old membership program years back). I look forward to getting the website part of this in place.

In other work, I got some website changes done, Tweeted some website-related stuff, helped Rich mess with his festival Twitter account and the usual stuff.

I have a TON of work to get done this week (!!!), but will hopefully have no trouble keeping my nose to the grindstone.

Kris had issues with his 84-year-old mom today, so couldn't come in until late. I saw him briefly when we had to run back to the office after attending Willamette Writers -- he was working on equipment and hanging in. (Planning to head home to care for his mother after finishing up...)

Poor Jeff LOST his cell phone and had to go replace it (!!!) -- which means Kris will need to set it up. Again. (My poor IT budget...) I hope I get to replace my own cell one of these days...

Well, that's it for today! I think I'll go READ!

So, we needed to mail some bills, right? And I had some of the 'Forever' stamps (with the Liberty Bell on them). But I went to the website of the United States Postal Service and searched on 'forever stamp,' I couldn't find out anything. (sigh)

I had to go to Google and search 'forever stamp' to find THIS info.

That was AFTER I decided to just put two stamps on all the bills, of course.

Well, when it comes to sending payments on bills, it's always better safe than sorry! So who cares about wasting a few extra stamps, really?

It's just amusing, you know? In this case, FOREVER really does mean forever! Who'd have guessed? And we just don't expect that from the post office, now do we? (grin)

Marilyn mistressmarilyn bought some books from Writer's Digest, including being kind enough to get me a book on how to write young adult novels.

On Friday these books were on her desk (she had them mailed to Angel's to avoid our neighborhood thief), so I grabbed my copy of Writing & Selling the YA Novel by author K.L. Going. I've started it and am already enjoying it.

While at the book store today, I picked up one of the books she mentioned, the award-winning "The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume I: The Pox Party" by Matthew Tobin Anderson. I took it with me to read before napping (as I frequently do), and could barely put it down, it's so captivating! Let's just say it's no wonder at all that this has won tons of awards. And it's certainly a sign that ADULTS can read so-called 'Young Adult' novels, as this book is CERTAINLY as well-written as anything I've ever read!

That's one of the points K.L. Going makes about YA books -- it's difficult to pin down what makes a book fall into this category! I'd recommend the book to anyone who enjoys historical novels (it's set in the Revolutionary America time period).

I also bought a new paperback copy of "The Count of Monte Cristo" by Alexandre Dumas. I've read it several times during my life, but when I recently wanted to re-read it, I couldn't find my copy. (sigh) Having recently watched the Kevin Reynolds version of the movie (from 2002) featuring actor James Caviezel, I thought it would be fun to revisit an old favorite...

I'm glad we've been able to get some (much-needed) REST recently, as nap time is when I most often find time to READ. And reading is such an important part of my life!

In other news, Marilyn and I got our manicures and pedicures today, preparing for the 'Hearts and Roses Auction' we're attending next weekend. It has a 'pink' theme (Prime Minister Sue is a breast cancer survivor), so we both did pink for toes and fingers. (smile) I need to take and share a photo of mine, as I did pink TIPS, which turned out very cool, I think!

Our cats (Colin and Henry) are upstairs doing SOMETHING wild and noisy (!!!) -- we keep hearing them. Good heavens! I suppose I should go check, but I'm almost afraid to. (grin) We're both on our laptops in the family room. I'm grateful I can manage to connect, as the spot where I sit rarely seems able to locate our WiFi. (Right now it's telling me my signal is 'low.' What's that about???) I'd probably use it more down here if not for that...

A repeat of "The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien" is on -- and I'm certainly sorry that the man won't be staying with that show! Hopefully he'll have the LAST LAUGH, though! We have it muted at the moment while we type, but he's standing in a pair of red spike high heels, and seeing that makes me grin. What a talented guy!

I forgot to mention that we dropped some bags by cousin Linda's place today. We had scarves and hats for winter, pants and other clothes, some hair products and so on. Hopefully stuff she can use. She actually phoned me while we were getting our pedicures and was happy to here we'd been by. (She was working until 6:00 tonight.)

Marilyn mistressmarilyn and I went to tan, then took a drive here to the Starbucks in Hood River, Oregon. We slept in this morning (delightful) after staying up really late to see the Australian Open tennis Men's Finals (yes, Roger won).

Cool thing? I have PHOTOS to share:











We tried to hook up with sister Sue suzy_qp and Candy, who were in The Dalles (close by) visiting friends Bob and Sue, but they decided no. Okay, then.

What a lovely, lovely, LOVELY day here in the Gorge! Check out all that blue sky! I'm so glad we came!

What's the deal, Murray? Come on!

(Look, I think Federer is a fabulous player -- and a stunningly attractive man. I frequently pull for him. It's not about that -- I just happen to be pulling for Murray... and he's letting me down!)

Murray had chances in the first set...

(sigh)

Today is my sister Sue's suzy_qp birthday (we attended her Poker Party Saturday evening -- right now it's only 2:00 a.m. on January 31... I'm up watching tennis...).

Sue is ten years older than me, by the way. Actually I was supposed to be born around the same day she was, but I was a preemie. (smile) Anyway, time for a greeting for Sue!

Today is Christian Bale's birthday -- and I couldn't let it go by unnoticed!

But my sister Marilyn mistressmarilyn said it best in her entry HERE -- so Bale fans should go and read! (smile)

Christian? Gotta LOVE that man! (Gotta LOVE those characters of his, too...)

Marilyn mistressmarilyn just came up here dying, telling me she thought KOIN TV (our local channel 6) had shown my 'blend.'

We both headed down and she turned on the DVR and showed me.

Sure enough -- I'd made a blend image of this year's official rose, with a photo of the woman who won the contest to name it -- and they showed her during a story on her!

We were both cracking up. It wasn't the best blend ever, but I'd already used the photo of the rose in a different news item, so I decided to add the winner for the new rose-related news item.

We just laughed and laughed. And Marilyn said that she loves it when they put my stuff on TV, whatever the circumstances. I said that somewhere around the globe they're doing that right now... (heh) I can't tell you how often I'll visit a website or whatever and find my work there. Marilyn and I were trying to imagine the people from KOIN TV going to the website and finding that blend, then deciding to use it.

How perfectly weird -- but cool, too, I guess.

(My art teacher Gertrude must be smiling down from heaven every time this happens. Little did either of us know how easily my stuff would be 'out there' for people to see.)

What a wacky world we live in! Gotta love it!

Marilyn mistressmarilyn and I got home from work at 8:00 p.m. (yes, we were the last in the office -- again). Marilyn had EIGHT meetings today (!!!), which is practically a record, I think!

I don't think I need to say it was another HUGELY busy day for both of us.

Kris came in, but wasn't able to get the computer I wanted cloned finished. So I used a different one to set up for Karen (who starts on Monday), and will use the one that's yet-to-be-finished for the Marketing Intern. (Basically I swapped the two computers -- or I should say that Kris did.)

I didn't get a chance to set up Karen's computer until around 6:30, as I was so busy with other things. Then her damn MS Word wouldn't work (!!!), so I had to reinstall it. (I upgraded to 2003, as I didn't want to mess around with issues. And while I was at it, I did the same for her PowerPoint.) I've NEVER seen Word do this before. It would open, but everything was grayed out! Weird. (I did a search on it to see what I can find. It's happened to some people, but nobody seemed to have a decent answer as to WHY! Microsoft, gotta love it...)

Anyway, I opened her MS applications and set them up and got her signatures ready in Outlook. Then I changed some settings on the computer. So it should all be good to go! I hadn't done this for anyone since Pam started back in early November. It's not like I forget how, exactly -- but things you do more frequently are always easier. I work from notes, but I suppose I should do 'new employee' notes that skip unnecessary details. Obviously I have to add the user to the server (so they have a username and email), set up the user's phone and then set up the user's computer. It's probably more work then it sounds like -- but nothing horrible. When it works, that is!

When I end up with computer issues, then it's more difficult. And I'm still getting used to the new phone system (the back end administrative stuff, I mean), so it's more complicated currently. It should end up being a piece of cake in the long run. Even though the Comdial phone system was old, I was really used to the admin side. And I wasn't bothered by the DOS aspects at all (as I learned computers back in the DOS days).

I also updated my computer inventory spreadsheet in Excel and did a total list of parts we need for Kris to rebuild equipment for me. I still need six more computers for interns. It looks like I'll have enough, happily, when we buy more RAM and hard drives and install them.

It's going to be a load off my mind when I've got all the equipment squared away.

I helped Marilyn code the invoices from Kris tonight. Not the usual coding I do! (grin) The IT budget is toast this year, but it is what it is. We'll manage somehow. We're basically scraping by on secondhand computers (and computer parts), but it is what it is. I just want things to be decent enough for people to be able to get their work done. Sooner or later we're going to need some better equipment, but I don't know when we'll be able to afford it... (sigh)

Today was another IT day, obviously -- so I did little toward working on the website or the eNewsletter due out next week. Oh well. Until more is DONE, I'll just have to muddle along.

Tomorrow night is sister Sue's suzy_qp Poker Party to celebrate her birthday (which is Sunday). It's literally been YEARS since I sat and played poker. In fact, it's been years since I played Let It Ride (which I didn't have to deal). I hope I'm not too big an idiot during it. I'd have loved to have time to 'brush up' before the big game (smile), but we've just been too damn busy for that...

( In other news... )

On that note, a nap is in order! Boy, do I need it...

Marilyn mistressmarilyn and I did make it home by around 7:30 p.m. tonight. What a busy, busy day,

Our day started by going to the doctor for Marilyn's appointment. After that, we came home and did work here up until 1:30, when we packed up and headed to the office downtown.

Crazy, crazy work day for me. I had to get two webpages done, and was trying to do an eNewsletter. Marilyn suggested I turn it into an eBulletin, instead, thankfully -- which I did.

Meanwhile she had back to back to back meetings all afternoon long.

When I had finally sent out the eBulletin, I started working on getting the computer station for new employee Karen ready. It wasn't too be, I'm afraid. There's something B.A.D. happening with the tower that was previously Carol's. (sigh) I was pleased I'd done my part well, but it was wasted time.

I DID get Karen's phone set up, at least. So that's a good thing.

Kris will come in to 'sanitize' her computer tomorrow. So I need to figure out if I'm going in with Marilyn first thing in the morning (sigh) so I can do the setup I didn't get done today. What a pain, but that's how it goes. The remaining stations are pretty crappy equipment, I'm afraid... We'll do the best we can.

Considering it usually takes me a day JUST to do an eBulletin, I'm proud of all I got done today. Now I'm tired and ready for a nap, that's for sure.

Marilyn did another blog entry for the festival blog today -- and it's excellent! I'm so glad she's taken over the blog. (And I helped by showing her how to easily frame/resize images to include, a trick I now use all the time. It cuts out a lot of steps I used to use, so it's a dandy thing... (I'll need to put it up at the 'How To' area at some point...)

My blood sugar was lower again this morning -- I guess that's a sign my infection is under control (again). Good thing, as all these antibiotics are KILLING me. (I get stomach aches from them, but I guess it's better than having the infection...)

Marilyn needs to set up the appointment to go get her shot in her (poor) shoulder, then start seeing Amanda again for massages as therapy. The sooner the better, as the shoulder is practically frozen and gives her tons of pain. Thankfully Amanda is back to giving massages again.

Well, I guess I'd better try to sleep now!

I just finished up the garbage and recycling for another week. (woo hoo)

Guess what???

I'm DONE with work for today (counting this as Wednesday, just so you know).

So I'm off to bed -- and it's ONLY (only???) 3:00 a.m. (smile)

Go, ME!

And Murray has picked up his game, so...