Category: latent childhood

For the birds

This being a grown up thing is really for the birds.

I mean, sure, being an adult has its benefits. Cookies and ice cream and beer for dinner, for example. Yeah.

I don’t have to ask permission to buy a candy in the checkout line.

Disposable income.

I can tie my own shoes.

No homework.

Yeah.

But being a grown up means getting up every morning to go to work.

Trying hard to “get ahead”. Get that better job. Be a better employee. Get paid more. More respect.

Sleepless nights worrying about getting that project done, or the political implications of a decision.

No summer vacation. Of if you get one, it’s just a week long. Ugh.

The reason for my lament today is that we’ve entered the performance review stage at work. Meaning I have to write up and rate my team for the year.

Now, this isn’t my first rodeo. I’ve done this for many years, but it never gets any easier. To reduce the sum total of another human’s work for the year to a percentage number and a couple paragraphs is an agonizing process for me.

Part of what makes me a good manager is the depth of my compassion. But it’s also one of my biggest limitations.

Our company gives out paltry merit raises, and it’s hard to hand out a tiny raise for a hard year’s work. This year, I have a pretty good boss who is helping me fight the good fight for rate increases. But I still go home a little bit demoralized.

Good thing I can have all those cookies and beer for dinner.

Image via.

All Hail The Crafty Chica!

Big celebrations and fiestas abound as the unstoppable Kathy Cano-Murillo is releasing her new Crafty Chica product line into Michael’s stores beginning tomorrow.

I admitted my crush on The Crafty Chica here and it just continues growing.

I got a sneak peek at some of the products at the local Maker Faire back in May and have been dancing like a caffeinated chihuahua ever since waiting to get my hands on the stuff.

For me, the highlight of the product line is her custom-mixed glitter. I look at the glitter in your average craft store and while it does well in basic colors, when you want that extra oomph, it’s just not there. Kathy is bringing the oomph. Like this one for example, Bollywood Blue. Delicious.

Kathy detailed in her blog about the process she took to hand mix colors to get the depth. Love it! Someone who actually cares about quality!

I got to meet Kathy back in May and was geeked out by her generosity. I get to “stalk” her again next month when she makes an in-store appearance in San Jose. W00t!

BTW, if you were to, say, visit her blog and scroll down a bit, you might find a photo of yours truly and some of my own Crafty Chica inspired creations….(I look SO exhausted in that photo….)

Here’s a photo of one of the first stores to get her stuff on the shelves. I’ve been manically visiting my local stores but they seem to be waiting for the “official” release date of August 1.

I. Can’t. Take. It. Anymore!

When the Cat’s away the Mice will…

Blog.

The Boss Lady is on vacation today and tomorrow. So w00t!

She got on a plane this morning headed for Indiana, so, having made that agonizing, exhausting, necessary journey before, I figure except for a few iPhone email check-ins, she’ll pretty much have no idea what I’m up to today.

I cc’d her on a few emails this morning, just for good measure, but other than that… I’m pretty much value subtracted to the company today.

So that means I have plenty of time to blog.

Wonder what I should write about?

: tap tap tap :

Hmm.

: ponder, ponder :

Maybe I’ll just pop over to TMZ.com to see what’s doing.

berightback

Strategy.

Yes, planning session. Must have.

Approach. Direction. Map out the route. Implement. Execute.

Yup. Vital.

Necessary.

What’s that? Work? No, no, I’m not talking about work.

Food. At the baseball game. Tonight. Yup. The Good Man and I are currently engaged in a lengthy instant message conversation planning this out.

What needs to be consumed. Where it’s located. How to obtain efficiently.

Nice.

BTW, I learned this blitz strategy from my Mom. Attending the NM State Fair.

“Ok, we start out in the Spanish Village for a burrito…then across the way to the Native American Village for fry bread and honey…Mom needs a corndog…Karen wants funnel cake…”

You know the drill.

Hey, I learned from the best.

Dreaming of a Cha-Cha bowl now (bless you Orlando Cepeda!)…

Photo source.

So…what did YOU do for the Fourth?

How was your holiday? Didja do something nice? Fun? Cool as heck?

Yeah, how did that bbqpoolkidsfamilymomanddadhotdogsfireworksinthebackyard turn out?

Good? Great, happy to hear it!

My Fourth? Well.

The day was mostly quiet. As the sun was setting, that’s when it got interesting.

The evening kicked off, well, here:

That’s the, uh, San Carlos Airport.

And those there are, uh, you know, your standard issue Cessna type aeroplanes.

See…our next-door neighbor is a pilot. He started in the military then had a career piloting the “vomit comet” for NASA.

These days he’s semi-retired, making money by piloting incredibly expensive Gulf Stream and Eclipse jets for the Bay Area wealthy.

So an offer was made to The Good Man and me…see, he’d rented a plane for the evening…wanna go see fireworks from up there?

Yes! YES WE DO!

And we did!

Our original course was the big show in San Francisco.

However, San Francisco being what it is…this is what it looked like up there.

Gorgeous sunset. But miles and miles of fog. Not so swell for watching fireworks.

We headed down the peninsula, intent on taking in the fireworks near the much clearer San Jose, at the Great America amusement park.

Problem is, Great America is in the San Jose Airport airspace, and they don’t think weekend fireworks cruisers are all that interesting. Humorless, they are, as they keep busy landing and taking off a near steady stream of commercial airliners.

So we headed back up to mid-peninsula in took in the smaller shows in Redwood City and Foster City.

You ain’t never seen fireworks until you’ve seen them from up there.

Wow.

Can’t offer much in the way of fireworks photos. Between it being dark and the motion of the plane, none turned out. But damn…it’s amazing to see!

Oh, and the ol’ “vomit comet” pilot showed us what just two G’s feels like (fighter pilots get up to 9).

Feels like getting out of the damn plane and walking around on the ground again, please!

Yeah, I’m pretty sure I had a cooler Fourth of July than you did….:)