He's there and we're here

Right now Ian is probably somewhere at a base station preparing for his hike to the peak of Mt Whitney beginning at 4:30am west coast time tomorrow. If I understand correctly by leaving at that time he and his companions will return to the camp by days end. We hope to hear from him the next day. In the meantime my days off this week have been pretty much what I'd hoped for. Casual long breakfasts, worked out at the fitness center Monday and Wednesday mornings. Tuesday afternoon Carol and I went to a movie for the first time since Avatar came out. This time it was Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, which I liked much more the first one. Today we went to LL Beans where I bought a new winter jacket, on sale. Afterwords we stopped at the The Cafe at Freeport Inn for lunch or breakfast if you please as Carol ordered brown sugar and maple French toast and myself with a hot Italian sausage and scrambled egg wrap, both meals very tasty, from the specials board. Spent most of the remainder of the afternoon shredding outdated financial documents. Been doing some reading, not as much as I'd like, mainly Harry Potter and the Deadly Hallows. Also on my Kindle app I'm reading Quarter Share by Nathan Lowell and on the side so to speak More Than One Universe: the collected short stores of Arthur C. Clark. I expect to finish the first two before retuning to work Tuesday. Another workout in the morning then more cleanup of stuff we don't need. Monday will be Christmas Part 3 of 3 with my sibling's families at Mom's.

Christmas Part 2 of 3 - There's no place like home

As in years past we become homebodies for Christmas Day, our gift exchange after breakfast, having lunch and supper buffet style and for the last couple of years a bit of a movie marathon. This year it was the Bourne series; The Bourne Identity before lunch followed by The Bourne Supremacy then after a coffee/snack break we snuck in The Bourne Ultimatum before supper. Previously the third movie was viewed after supper but this year the Green Bay Packers were on in the evening so that was must see TV last night. They won clinching home field advantage through the playoffs, Yeah! A little tie-in with that, one of my presents was one share of Green Bay Packers public stock from a recent offering of the only publicly held American major professional team given to me by Carol, Ian and Alie. So now I am part owner in my favorite team. Though it is a non-voting share I am entitled to attend annual stockholder meetings, definitely on my future things to do list.

From Carol's wish list a larger crock pot with a clamping lid, benefits - helps keeps me well fed.

Ian working his way through gift opening.

At the end of a terrific holiday together.

This morning Ian left for his Dover, NH residence to prepare to leave early tomorrow for a trip to California where he and some friends will hike up Mt. Whitney the tallest peak in the contiguous United States. He'll be back in Dover on Tuesday January 3rd.

Christmas season is underway

Welcome to Christmas 2011. We began with Carol's side of the family's get together last Sunday at Lois and Jim's for brunch and gift giving, also there were Ian and Alie, Elaine and Steve and Mark and Megan with their kids Brock and Lydia. Ian was put to work cooking Swedish pancakes and his cousin Mark cooked up a ton of bacon. Lois had made breaded cinnamon scrambled egg dish and other goodies. Elaine did a fruit soup and Megan brought her baked cheesy hash browns with corn flakes crumbled across the top made with lots of butter, mmmmm. None of us were watching our calories.

Ian and Alie with Lydia



Carol shows off one of her gifts, a sign that says "Welcome, where we don't keep things bottled up" next to a bottle of wine.

My sis-in-law Elaine and I imbibing glögg.

Coming up - Christmas at home, then Christmas with my side of the family on Monday, January 2nd, the earliest all my siblings could get together. The nieces and nephews with be hit and miss so we'll make do having whoever can make to my mother's house that day.

Change of address

Finally this small piece of turmoil is over - moved into my new cubicle location late yesterday afternoon. The partition crew was in early dismantling any cube who's occupant had left for the day.

My cube neighbor, Michelle, exposed trying to get some work done as the crew took down the three cubicles preceding hers.

My cube all cleaned out and ready to disappear once the crew gets to Michelle's.

Everything pretty much tossed in to the new digs. I'd tidied it up some and hooked up my computer before leaving for the weekend. More changes to come as my new neighbors begin to arrive.

Moving on... over

It's time to move to another cubicle. With all the changes in the office the row of window cubicles I'm located in are being taken down to be replaced by walled offices of which I am not invited to occupy. Most everybody on this side of the floor are moving up two stories but me. I'll move around to the other side of a walled corner office that in the near future will be occupied by my manager. Here's the trick, I cannot move until the present occupant finishes packing tomorrow (Friday) afternoon maybe by 4pm when everyone but me has to vacate the building as the work crew arrive to move people's stuff to their new location and then start taking down the cubes to use elsewhere while I in some haste move my stuff across to the the new space. As I wrote last December I was quite happy with the renovations of the cubes spaces then and of course I liked my particular location and view of strange things that happen out that side of the building.

Packing crates were delivered at the first of the week, one wise guy rolled the a stack in front of his manager's office, while he was in it. It wasn't a problem since he didn't want to be disturbed anyway. I'll be moving from the cube on the left to the cube on the right. Another window, another view. I'll share it next week.

Life marching on

Work
The company I work for which was acquired by a large global company is still going through a heavy duty integration, locally and nationally. At my location we are combining with two smaller offices that were already part of the global company as a buyout a couple of years ago. After adding an additional floor to our lease they are moving into our building later this month. This will almost double the size of the staff here and we have gradually been involving each other in projects and proposals. The same is going on in many offices across the country that have redundant offices because of the acquisition. So far no layoffs and nothing to indicate that there may be some planned. We’ve been rolled into other benefit and retirements plans beginning January 1st and we get a steady flow of company news updates from all regions and countries we’re located in. It’s been interesting and also a bit overwhelming. Besides the drama during the changes in the office in the last couple of months my workload has increased both in project and intensity. Doesn’t leave me with much energy by the end of a day or a weekend to write a blog now and then.

House Renovation
Part of what we’ve been doing with a financial advisor was refinancing our debt at lower interest and shorter terms. This included money for some home improvement work. We started with having the roof cleaned of lichen, moss and mold. Quite the salad. Looks almost like new.

We followed that up with re-siding the house with vinyl. Excellent job by the contractor. With the remaining funds we’re looking at how we can remodel the main bathroom next.
Holiday
Thanksgiving Day dinner at my brother’s was a great time. My sister-in-law Debbie worked on the dinner beginning the previous day and it showed. All the fixings, appetizers, pies and other assorted goodies. A good turnout on both sides of the families. Bonus, watched the Green Bay Packers beat the Detroit Lions handily.
Ikea
Last weekend Carol and I made the trip south of Boston to Ikea. Had lunch, picked up a few items and looked at things we’d like to use for remodeling the bathroom. Nice to get away on a sunny warm day for a drive.