OK, you are all in for a real treat.  A friend told me about this one - and sure 'nuff, its on the web.  I won't explain, you'll have to look yourself - enjoy!

http://www.mit.edu:8001/people/dinoriki/phliez/work-well-together.html

Another blogger's reflection on this: http://www.aprilkelly.com/rambles/Wildblue.htm

   :-)

 

Weekends are good.  Winter has once again returned, albeit in a rather mild way - lot of wind.  I'm afraid nothing much happened today - it was a day of rest, at least for me (G has been studying furiously in Nutrition, trying to finish as much of her course as possible before classes begin - taken 3 "weekly" tests this week, with more to come.).  I hung out, took a walk, and went skating (late night - 10 - 11 pm) - it was nice to get back on skates and remind my leg muscles what they are about.  The good news is that at least I still remember how to do it, although I certainly won no gold medals.  Even had one good fall, but I am still in one piece.

Tomorrow (well, looking at the time, 12:30 am, I guess "later today") G gets a well deserved break and we are going to go to the zoo!

Anya says Hi!

 

Well, I'm beginning to feel a bit guilty about our strange weather here now that NW Russia is having such a cold spell - maybe our turn will come soon.  But here it is -- +13 degrees, and once again, people are not wearing jackets to work. It is a repeat of this time last week - last Thursday we had the same.  After that, it had indeed turned back to winter, with some reasonable temperatures more in the -8 range.  And it snowed, and the world once again turned white - it actually made sense to wake up and look outside.  January should have snow.  But then Tuesday it rained and the world once again turned green.  And now its warm.  Lunchtime walk, I think.  We'll see.

My sister had been visiting my Mom in Florida, and left yesterday to go back home in Canada.  She is in for a rude surprise, as Florida was in the mid-twenties temperature wise, and it is now -14 back at home, with -21C forecast for tomorrow.

. . . Almost like St. Petersburg, at least at the moment!

The last two nights I have been making an incremental dinner - there has been no time to cook, so after getting back from the gyn at 10:20 I start to cook.  Two days ago I did chopping, and last night I cooked.  A stir fry dish that if nothing else is pretty.  Hope is tastes ok.  Here is a picture:

Wonderful sunrise this morning.  Motivated me to get out of bed (to take a picture of it).

And it is going to be WARM today (about 15 degrees).  To celebrate, I am not going to wear a jacket to work! :-)

Yesterday was a great relief.  Work has been, well, "highly variable" in the motivation and general esprit du corps areas.  So disappearing in the mid afternoon was fun.  I did several things.  First, because I just wanted to MOVE, I went running aside the canal.  I started at the Lyndon rd., ran along the canal until I got to Fairport park, then ran back again.  10+ km, but not really a great problem - it was just so nice being outdoors without a jacket, and I didn't run fast anyways. Sure enough, there were many other walkers and runners out, so I was in good company.  I then walked for a bit, listened to the birds, stretched, and went home. 

After dinner I played volleyball.  I SUCKED big time for some reason (maybe it is because my legs finally decided to go on strike), but still had fun.  I slept well.

Eleven degrees (C) and sunny outside.  There is NO WAY I am staying at work.  What is vacation for?

I'm outta here!

This has been a strange sort of winter, and especially a strange January so far.  The middle of January is on average the coldest time of the year, average temperature wise.  Well, so far, this has not been the case.  It has not been exactly balmy, but not very cold either.  If I think about a typical day the high would be about 0 and the low perhaps -5.  Ok, for one day it probably got down to -11, but that was unusual.  Today it was about +5, and this Thursday it is supposed to get up to +10, or so they say.  If it does, maybe I'll take several hours of vacation and, I don't know, ride a bike or something....

Snow wise less than normal also.  So far average wise we are about 20 cm of snow below average.  Outside?  Green grass, no even very much mud.  Perfect weather for early April.

... Boy, I expect we are in for a rude awakening sometime soon...  I can see it now - some day I will wake up to a meter of snow and -15C temperatures... brrr...

New Years was pretty uneventful.  I started writing a "New Year's" blog entry, but then, in classic style never finished it.  Well, that opportunity was lost - I will have to wait another year for that...

Let's see, time for an obsession rundown for G and me:

Chuck's obsessions - fewer than normal

• Getting exercise: doing reasonably well here.  Ok, my motivation is not very pure - the more I exercise the more I can eat.  And I LOVE to eat...  But either way, I am managing to get some sort of exercise most days, either at the gym, walking, or (weather permitting) running outside.  At the gym I am mostly doing stairmaster and treadmill (running, not walking), and stretching (still my major weakness).  Overall goal by spring - 166 lbs (76 kg), which is about 8 lbs (ok, maybe even 9) below where I am.  But I give myself until June 1 to get there, so it should be pretty easy.  <Of course, I have said that the last 2 years and failed...>


• UML: This is a work thing.  I need to learn and understand UML 2.0, since knowing this is the bread and butter of my job, and I will never have time to get it right at work.  I don't do this stuff that often, but mid-winter is a good time.


• UML tool evaluation: part work, part play.  Evaluating demo versions of SW development tools that really do cost $13,000 a copy!  Better my company than me buying it.  Makes MS Office Pro look cheap!


• Budget: We don't really have one, and we need one.  Slowly working towards getting one set up.  At least all of our past year expenses are categorized now, so we know what we have spent before.  (We are actually doing pretty well).


• Oboe: Unfortunately, NOT an obsession at the moment, and needs to be.  Well, someday.

Gwendolyn's obsessions - few, but intense...

• Classwork: Anatomy done (A+), now working Nutrution, as well as Human Growth and Development.  She is trying to complete two one-semester courses over Christmas break.  May even succeed.  Unfortunately almost killing her at the same time.  Everyone keep your fingers crossed and think kind thoughts.


• More classwork


• And more classwork yet


• Blockbuster Online DVD club: Hey, you have to do something besides study.  So G has a continuous stream of DVDs coming to her.  This was a familiar experience when Masha was here, but...  G averages about 3 DVDs per week it seems.


• Sewing: obsession in remission.  But always there if the going gets tough!

Gee, what else is there?  Well, the living room roof replacement is now completed, but a new spot has shown up on the "flat spot" on our roof.  From what we understand, not a roof failure, but a siding failure.  But SOME DAY we will have the house fixed up.  Then we can work on getting the water damage to the drywall fixed.  It never ends.

Well, that's all for now...