What A Week

I know my blogging has been lacking lately. I hate it, because this is such a good release for me, but life has just kicked my ass. Even when I have time to blog, the last thing I want to do is get on a computer.

Work is busier than ever, but not in a bad way. It's a fine line we walk in work force management - you want to answer the phones/complete the work in a timely manner but also not be overstaffed where the work is done too quickly. In a phone queue, it's a matter of seconds - our goal is to answer 80% of our calls within 20 seconds, but when it gets to answering 90% of the calls, we're considered overstaffed. Go figure. So, we have to figure out what to do with the excess staff - projects, trainings, etc. and still be able to respond if the service level drops below 80%. It's a lot of hands-on management, and a lot of constant watching what's going on that can make for a tiring day.

Now that Don is done with training camp, I'm hoping to get back to a regular workout schedule. I've really missed it, but I have other responsibilities other than myself sometimes. I'm also trying to get back to a more healthy way of cooking. Sometimes it's easier to go with what's easy which isn't always the most healthy.

I have tomorrow off, so I hope to get caught up on laundry, ironing and general house cleaning. We should take the dogs for a long hike, although they got some good playtime yesterday with our neighbor's lab puppy (twice).

Off to try and get dinner ready, although I'm not all that motivated right now. Here's to 3-day weekends!

I'm Still Here

I just needed to take a short hiatus and rest my brain for a few weeks. Work is taking a lot of energy right now, and I was getting through some family/emotional stuff. Things are better now, and I'm feeling a bit more like myself.

We have a busy social agenda - I went to a Lynx game (WBNA) last night; we are going to a Twins game tonight; I'm going to the Albertville Outlet Mall tomorrow and then hanging with my friend Jen on Sunday. I do need a manicure in a bad way. Don and I just cleaned out the garage - ugh, what a dirty job. It did go a lot faster with the two of us moving and sweeping.

I am going through a bit of a general feeling of detox/cleansing - physically, emotionally, etc. I've been in a cleaning frenzy both at home and at work. I've been researching doing a detox/cleanse diet for a few days. I think part of the general feeling of malaise is the time of year - the end of summer, knowing winter is around the corner, the shortened days, the fact Don is back covering the Vikings. The good news is that he's done covering camp, so no more daily commutes to Mankato (about 90 minutes from us). The weather is better, too - it's cooler and not nearly as humid. WE finally got some rain, so things are looking more lush and less shriveled up and dried out.

In fact, we had two big storms - the first and worst hit around 3:00 AM Saturday (after Don had gotten home after midnight from covering the Vike's preseason game). We got 2 inches of rain in an hour, 70 MPH straight line winds, hail, constant thunder and lightening. We were pretty lucky - only one chair blew off our deck onto our lawn, our BBQ blew over and our large table flipped (but the glass top didn't break). Our one "loss" was our purple kiddie pool that was under the deck. We never found it - and we have a fenced yard! A few neighbors got hit worse - siding blown off, trees blown down, roof damage. The second storm wasn't as bad but we still got hit with rain and wind.

Anyway, that's the less-than-exciting update. I'm off to check in with everyone...

Time to Check In

Work continues to be very busy. There seems to be a lot of changes about to happen, some will be pretty dramatic. My boss keeps telling me our department shouldn't be affected, but I'm not so sure about that.

Tuesday was a bit of a jolt for us here in the Twin Cities. The 35W bridge collapse was very dramatic and chaotic. For work, we implemented our calling trees to make sure all were accounted for. Luckily, I believe everyone has been accounted for. There were some pretty near-misses - just about to cross the bridge or just over it. The amazing thing is that it could have been so much worse. I know there are still many missing and the death toll is expected to rise, and my thoughts go out to all the families still waiting for some answers.

I have tomorrow off as an errand/appointment/chore day. The weekend has been wet, grey and cool which isn't totally a bad thing. I have some personal calls to make and figure I have a ton of vacation still to use before the end of the year. Don will be off covering training camp, but it should be an early day for him. I'm hoping to get a lot done, plus have a little time left over for some reading.

Nothing else much is going on right now - kind of the dogs days of summer. We have laundry in and the dishwasher needs unloading. We've already taken the dogs for a hike and I went through a stack of catalogs that have been sitting here since we got back from California. It's been a pretty lazy weekend. We did go see "Harry Potter" yesterday before Don had to drive to River Falls, WI to cover the Vikings practice. I know, exciting stuff.

Better get to those dishes...