Flying Home

Posted on April 9, 2017 by Frog

When we originally planned our trip, friends were meant to go with us. Our friends had a death in the family and we scrambled to cancel their plans the night before we left. It’s pretty remarkable how much you can cancel at the last minute.

We sorely missed them on our trip and kept them entertained with photos and videos–lots of we are on a road trip and it is pouring rain. It was spectacular to fly home yesterday in the sun.

Our original plan was to upgrade our seats to a business preferred status. What that actually meant on the way over was no one was assigned the middle seat and we got food and booze for free. On the way home, it basically meant first class without the fancy cutlery. I didn’t mind, at all, that we weren’t behind the first class curtain because we had the big seats:

We flew over much of Greenland this time.
Ice:

Mountains:

We got home late last night and Lucy was thrilled. She has been like glue. I woke up today around 4:30 and have been laying on the couch. She was with me all night and is now cached out with me:

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Iceland, part two

Posted on April 5, 2017 by Frog

There is a companion piece here in Akureyri to the one in Reykjavik. This one is on the Eyjafjordur (it’s a fjord):

We took a drive to Myvatn today and decided walking outside in a bathing suit was ridiculous, so we did not go into the hot springs. Instead we went to hike Hverfjall. It turns out this road was a good road:

Don’t worry that is not blue sky-it’s the polarizing on the windshield.

We didn’t actually go to the top, although there were some brave souls who did. Today is the coldest I have been. We admired the lava field and the shape of the crater.

We parked near a horse field and I presume English speakers have disrespected the rancher before because this was one sign not translated from the original Icelandic:

We stopped for lunch and enjoyed the heck out of the traditional meat soup and then headed back to Akureyri:

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Iceland, part one

Posted on April 3, 2017 by Frog

We walked around to the other side of the Reykjavik harbor and were greeted by this:

The Harpa concert hall was beautiful and immense. Coincidentally, someone from my hometown was headlining a show there that night.

A short walk led us to this fierce ship:

Last night, we had a couple of drinks in the hotel bar. When I went into the bathroom, this guy was recycling:

After driving to Akureyri, the better-half asked the front desk guy about going to see Godafoss. The weather is going to be bad tomorrow and so we hopped back in the car and saw this huge and beautiful waterfall. My photo does zero justice:

The idea of the weather being worse is a bit funny since we’ve basically had rain and harder rain…I guess snow will be different.

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Disappointment

Posted on March 21, 2017 by Frog

The person I really wanted to hire declined our offer. Our benefits package would have cost her money. Dang. The runner-up will likely say yes. I’m not as excited about that person, but you work with what you can get. I should be OK by the end of the month that it will take us to move forward. Serious background checks are serious.

I went to an information gathering session today led by the new, highly-paid HR person. He is a horrible facilitator. Like he’s never done it before. Like he didn’t tell us his name. He isn’t a green bean. He’s just a bad facilitator. What a waste of an hour.

A friend at work gave me one of these. Another woman, whom I trust and like and work very closely with, did not know what it was. Step away from Fox News, sister.

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Middle March

Posted on March 11, 2017 by Frog

I wish I could make a George Eliot joke here (re: title of post), but I got nothing. And, yes, I know how the book title is actually written.

We’ve been trying to hire someone for my team at work and there’s one promising candidate and many others that aren’t. We have one more to interview and then I hope we can make our decision. The leadership team is taking care of the interviews which is a bit different than the way we’ve done it before. It makes more sense this way. Just focus on what’s needed and not overwhelm candidates.

There are two of us at work who are transitioning into lead roles and it is a bit of a struggle. Other members of the team who think they are the smartest people in the room annoy those of us who actually are. And, when I give you feedback on something that needs to be fixed and you ignore that advice only to receive the same feedback the NEXT day from our boss, I’m extra annoyed. You could have avoided a duplicated mistake had you just paid attention to me. But, no. You are the smartest person in the room–keep up the shoddy work.

We went to a show last night with a friend and ran into an old work colleague. He ended up moving to sit with us and it was nice catching up. I think I last saw him in the late 1990s. He recognized us. I wouldn’t have paid attention had he not approached us. Sometimes Richmond is a small town and you feel like you run into the same people all the time. In his case, the exact opposite is true.

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Two Great Date Nights

Posted on March 2, 2017 by Frog

Do they count as date night if you don’t go out to dinner?

First we saw this group perform Mementos Mori.

Tonight we saw Dianne Reeves perform. I’m so happy she performed this one:

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V. Day

Posted on February 15, 2017 by Frog

We celebrated Valentine’s in pretty typical fashion at least for around here.

This year we didn’t buy cards. I made one that was basically a fancy PowerPoint slide and the better-half’s card to me was a dozen oysters and some champagne.

Then we made a clam and fennel dish:

And we watched Lucy in a box (she fired her lasers):

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Beautiful Wreck

Posted on January 31, 2017 by Frog

We went to see Shawn Mullins the other night. The opener dude was good too.

On the way home, the better-half said something about Shawn being a plumber. I had no idea what he meant and so he explained. Very talented and yet he looks like a plumber. I didn’t realize there was a type. Then the conversation moved on to the idea that some people look their age. And some look older.

Shawn, like he’s my friend and we are on a first name basis, is one month older than I am. He looks older than I do and there’s nothing specific about why that is. I don’t know if he was tired. I don’t know if it’s from all my clean living (I just cracked a rib from laughing so hard). But, I don’t look like that. Yes, my hair has pretty much kissed brown good-bye forever, but I don’t think I look as worn down.

The better-half agreed that neither of us has that beaten down look and he’s turning 50 this year so he knows from getting older. Actually, I had a terrible realization at work the other day that he was turning 50 because I am turning 49. Holy cats. The woman I was talking to was all “wha?”. She is in her forties and just assumed we were closer in age. Nope, sister, I’m on the slippery slope.

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I wore this to work today and we ate Cheetos

Posted on January 20, 2017 by Frog

This happened today.

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As If

Posted on January 14, 2017 by Frog

I just deleted a spam comment advertising a writing service. You know, we’ll write your paper for you on any topic. Um. Oh hell no. Kids, do your own work. I can also tell you that the folks who work in book stores will be judging you when you buy Cliff’s Notes or any of those other “study guides”. How about you just read the book and think your own thoughts. Especially affluent teens who have all summer to get through the book list. Don’t wait until August to hustle in and buy up the guides and then never crack the spine on the actual reading assignment. I’m pretty sure the teachers are onto you and the book store employees have your number too.

We took down our Christmas wreath today. We were basically waiting for the batteries to die in the light sets. One died a few days ago and the other was but a mere shade of itself. I took the lights off and was going to take apart the wreath to recycle the metal frame and let the wildlife have the greens. Whoever made that wreath wasn’t the fooling around type. There were so many wires holding that thing together that I dumped it in the super can.

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