Friday, April 27, 2007

More bear cubs

Here are a couple of shots someone took of me earlier this month with one of the bear cubs trying to climb through my hair. Can't really tell it is me, but it is!


Tuesday, April 24, 2007

6 months!

We moved into the 6th month on Sunday. I can't believe I only have 15 more weeks. PS - pay no attention to the back fat that appears in these photos. Pete says it is the counter-balance to my growing belly.


More strange animal behavior

This morning when Pete and I were taking out the trash I saw a bird fly into the garage and sit on top of the garage door opener. Another bird was nearby but flew off around the house. When we entered the garage I told Pete what I had seen and we sat and looking at the bird. I realized that some pieces of grass were hanging over the side of the opener. The bird flew out and I told Pete to check out. He hopped up on the side of the truck and pulled off a few pieces of grass. Pete had left the garage door open yesterday and during the course of the day a robin decided this would be the ideal place to start building a nest -- secluded, out of the wind/rain, no other birds to fight, etc. We then realized that the bird was waiting for us to open the garage door so she/he could continue building the nest! I'm glad I saw the bird fly into the garage, otherwise it is likely we would have closed the door and the poor robin would have been trapped all day.

Wednesday, April 18, 2007

Tradegy Spawns Idiocy

Why, why, why must people do this?

Monday, April 16, 2007

Raising my Irish

I hope this child doesn't get my temper. It tends to get me in trouble, or almost in trouble ...like this morning when after listening to a particularly rude message from a co-worker of mine I slammed down the phone, slammed my cube door and stormed into my other co-worker's office swearing like a sailor.

I'll admit, when it comes to my work I am easily offended. I don't do this job on a whim. A little history on this situation. When I started in July we were part of another group that focused on sales. The contract administration team reported into my boss. Apparently, well before my tenure began at this lovely institution, things went sour between my boss and the contract admin team. Now, because people can be rude and downright nasty (and big scardy cats), instead of addressing their issues with my boss they are mean, rude and altogether unfriendly to me and the others who report to my boss. In September my boss and a handful of us were reorganized into another staff group, however, due to our reliant relationship with each other, our previous group is still a big part of our day-to-day activity and we work very closely with them on compliance related issues. In January, two of the members of the contract admin team were asked to take retirement packages (our entire company went through this - not just specific departments). The leader of the contract admin team was one of the people selected. Unfortunately, this person provided a good deal of contract-specific training to other employees. Since January I have been attempting to get insight into this training and have been blocked repeatedly. Today was the last straw. Regardless of his impending retirement status his boss is going to get an earful from me.

On Thursday of last week I left him a message requesting that I be allowed to attend his training session scheduled for Wednesday of this week. I explained that my desire is to glean some of the tribal knowledge he passes along in this session. This morning he left me a vmail telling me that he didn't see the value in my attendance because "since you do not work with the contracts, you will never be able to train on this topic".

I'm sorry what?

That would be like me saying (had we been on the phone) that since he isn't technically a trainer and has never had any education on training he shouldn't be training anyone. That's crap. And he clearly does not understand that in order to be an effective trainer one does not have to be the resident subject matter expert. One needs to utilize said SME's to gather information and put together the material. Does he not think about the fact that after he leaves there will be more people that need to be trained? Doesn't he get that by passing on information he is helping the future of the organization?

Maybe I should point out to him that he still holds shares in this organization and if he doesn't want the next generation of employees to have the knowledge all he is doing is potentially f'in up his retirement. Obviously, he doesn't think beyond his little bubble (which, I have to admit, is not uncommon at this place).

Nothing like an incendiary vmail on a Monday morning to get my Irish blood boiling. I haven't been this awake on a Monday morning in some time.

Thursday, April 12, 2007

High Kicks

The web has been brutally slow at work the last few days. It seriously dampened my desire to post. I don't have the patience to wait for a web page to load. Perhaps I should take this as a hint that someone is watching, eh?

I was in a meeting this morning/afternoon and baby girl went on another kicking/punching spree. This time I actually saw my shirt move she kicked/punched so hard. I have to admit I completely zoned out of the meeting at that point and just stared at my belly with my hands resting lightly waiting for the next big blow. Never arrived. Oh well, she must have disagreed with something the speaker said and was making her opinion known (not unlike her mama).

Saturday, April 07, 2007

Animals

Pete saw this earlier this week. This must be a new trend for the fowl animals in our neighborhood.



One of the cubs from last weekend.



The wolf from last weekend.

Monday, April 02, 2007

Random Monday stuff

Skepticism: I'm not sure about this one. Most of my friends with kids gained between 25-35 pounds, some even more. None of their kids are overweight. My nephews can't even hold their pants up without belts at the ages of 2 and 4 and my sister certainly gained 30+ pounds. I think it has more to do with kids being plopped in front of a television set to keep them occupied than eating habits of the mother during pregnancy. But we'll see. If this is the case, I'm in a heap of trouble as I think I have already gained 20 pounds.

Update on Tabitha: She still isn't eating all of her food. The doctor didn't find anything on the X-Rays and said we should just watch her weight for the next 2-4 weeks to see what happens. Next step would be to do an ultrasound. Times like these when I wish I would have paid for that pet insurance. I just want my baby girl to eat.

Amazing experience: I attended the TCACCC Spring Break this weekend (a photography workshop). Overall it was a good experience. I'm not at the level of most of the people who attended but it was still a positive way to spend the weekend. The most amazing thing was the opportunity to interact with and hold bear cubs. The Minnesota Wildlife Connection brought down three black bear cubs, two wolves and two foxes over the two day program. The bear cubs were by far the biggest hit. They were so cute! Two were twins born in January and the third was born two weeks after the twins. The size difference and walking ability between them was astounding. The older cubs would crawl around, bleating for their mother, crawl up on your legs (like a tree) and curl up in your lap. The smallest was like a newborn, still sleeping all the time. I had a hard time breaking away from them - when in my life will I have the chance to hold a bear cub??? I'll be sure to post pictures of the cuties later this week.