Cinematheraphy

Watched "Must Love Dogs" and "Sky High" tonight. Pretty relaxing and funny movies to wind down a jam packed week.

Vacation - Day 2

Woke up this morning and fought the urge to look at my blackberry. Success. Pulled out my yoga mat and did stretching exercises - doctor's orders. Then, spent the next 30 min for some pilates and yoga. Not bad for a start but not good - need more exercise in my life. I need it and I am listening to my body. Woke munchkin up for school - she's already late! Compromised with some Inuyasha before we left. Nice day - 40 deg, gloomy but not very cold. Spent some time with the teachers and found out their secret with daughters' potty training. Is that why she's sitting in the potty longer?? Anyway, she will be graduating to the "threes" in a couple of weeks. How exciting for her. Good for the bank too as it shaves off $40/week! Time well spent, put a smile on my face. Came home, cleared the trash and had breakfast - something I do not do at all. Put up some of daughter's artwork and more pictures. She loves it when we appreciate her work and loves to see her pictures. This one was from Chuckee Cheese's. What next? Yes, back to work but not for long, there's more decluttering to do.

What vacation??

Have a few days off. Kinda forced since these are personal days - use it or lose it deal. Unlike our actual vacation days that we "banked" and accrues up til 1.5x your allowed vacation. Have 4 weeks of vacation banked, mostly saved for our trip to Malaysia which never happened.

Made a mistake yesterday and worked a little. It's a long story and can't talk about it. Throughout the entire day, I was worked up about these few things and I can sense my neck tensing, then my back and then the stomach. Ugh, hate that feeling. Had to go to hubby to prioritize what I should do with the work. You laugh but sometimes you need an uninvolved 3rd party to "set you straight" because YOU ARE TOO CLOSE TO THE PROBLEM! Anyway, it worked.

Took munckin to see some friends at work. Spent a couple of hours chatting and munchkin collected some candy and gifts for the visit. 5 min after we left, she was out. Kinda nice. Came home and worked some more. Had to, took care of a few problems and called it the day.

What did I do on my day off? I 6S! Ever looked in your pantry? Well, I did and out everything goes, well almost everything. We get this supply of M'sian spices from our folks when they visit and never use them all. As of yesterday, I S.P.A.C them - sorted all the spices together, purged those that expired (it's debatable whether there is an expiration on spices), assigned them by frequent of use and containerized them. Thanks Julie Morgenstern! I now have a pantry I can see and more space for our next shipment of Chinese spices my brother is going to send. All our spices are now in one area. Even had extra cabinet space for other stuff.

Oh, and the night before, we had some unexpected house guests and it forced me to clean up munchkin's room as well as the living room. We love our house now but there's more to be done to "Mission Declutter" this week.

More happy pills

I strained my right arm this Fall after the last golf game of the season. Since then, I further injured it in one of travels, trying to fit my carry-on into the overhead compartments. BTW, where is the chivalry these days?? I felt more intense pain this month in my elbow and then my shoulder. After many days of intolerable pain and kind nudging from my colleagues, I gave in and made an appointment. It turned out that I may have a slight inflammation of the joint caused by the old injury as well as stress. The doc pressed my neck and it hurt. I read about this a few weeks ago that your shoulder pains could be "referred pain" i.e. pain by somewhere else, i.e. the neck. Prescription = 800mg ibuprofen, muscle relaxant and vicodin. Yah!!!!! I did not take the vicodin but the combination of ibuprofen and muscle relaxant was enough to slow me down to much needed afternoon naps. What a way to spend Christmas - drugged, pain free and completely useless to enjoy it all.

More Word games

Check this site out http://www.wordplays.com/p/index

I recommend the Words in a Word and Word Morph. Have fun...

Tis' the season

Christmas is just another day to us. Lately, people at work kept asking "Are you going to celebrate it for the sake of your daughter?". I always smile and tried to change the subject. I realize Christmas is more gift giving these days but she is showered by gifts all the time. Some would say it's not the same. When asked how so, no one can really answer it. Anyway, daughter received some gifts from her cousins in NY and she was estatic. 2 days later, the gifts are all over the living room which pisses hubby off to no end. I don't mind getting my nieces gifts because I think their mom and family are all Christians, so they would celebrate Christmas. So, off to the Internet...every year I look for some cool gifts for them but always end back up at babysrus aka amazon.com. This year, they have a little of everything...something plush to hug, something educational to learn and something playful just to play. I have not seen them except in pictures, so each year, buying them gifts increases in difficulty. Not knowing what they like or have, I just take a best guess. Wished I could see their expressions when they open the gifts. If it's any reaction close to daughters', we've succeeded....till next year.

Provoleta

Since my first (and probably last) trip to Argentina, I've been thinking about this simple cheese appetizer. We had it on our last night celebrating our early closure of the audit at an Italian restaurant. After the first bite, I was hooked. I am not a cheese fan but don't mind it so much since the birth of our daughter. It's a 2cm thick provolone cheese, grilled and served on a plate. What's so special about it? The grilling itself defies science but done correctly, you get melted inside with a crispy brown grilled yumminess on the outside. Tried to make it myself with the waffle maker - don't! While the taste is the same, it's not pretty and quite messy cleanup. Hubby found this link which explains how it's made. Check these links out ... http://www.asadoargentina.com/provoleta-grilled-provolone-cheese/
http://www.dvo.com/recipe_pages/grilln/Grilled_Provolone_-_Provolone_Asado.html

Sleepless in Seattle Part Deux

Blast, being up for 4 hrs and still awake. Tons of work waiting in the office but have a feeling will get temp relief in a few hours if I am still awake. As usual, nothing TIVO and a hot cup of cocoa cannot solve. Ever watched Boston Legal? I highly recommend it. William Shatner and James Spader are a pair to watch. They are quirky, intelligent and sometime down right ridiculous. Then again, I love David E. Kelly's shows. These last 2 weeks have been hell. Ask hubby and he'll probably say, "what's new?". But really, it's been hell. Everything that can go wrong went wrong. Everything bad that I never thought could happen to me, did. Every opportunity you wanted in a job is right in front me, if only I have the time. It's bad enough with 10 hr days + blackberry + accessible VPN from home. Feel kinda bad as I keep hearing myself, the stress is only because of this and that project. Maybe I am not cut out to be a PM but process improvements are my passion, I know it now, recognized and known for it. Used to think I can be objective enough to stay unbiased and fix things. Well, self doubt kicks in. Fine timing. Finally called out for help and vented. This time it did not do the trick. Let's reassess the positive of the last 2 weeks. My dreadful cold/flu is leaving, finally have an appetite to "taste" food, kitchen is clean, don't have to travel during the holidays and daughter's school pics turned out great. Still laughing at everyone's jokes, have not sweared at a customer (yet), no bitterness towards all living beings that can spell 'cell phone' and home at night to tuck daughter in safe and sound. I guess my mentor was right, "It's not like someone's going to die.....". We usually end the sentence with something you are supposed to get done with. Puts things into perspective, at least for those who still love our jobs....What do you think???