White Things

There is a new white thing in my house. And some white stuff outside, too!

We got another snow Wednesday afternoon. Looks beautiful, but people in the greater Seattle area still do not know how to drive!!! In the business complex that I work, people were not able to get out of the parking lot, because the main street wasn't moving. And, when it did move, the inconsiderate fools wouldn't leave the intersection full, which meant that no one could get out anyway! I had to wait an extra hour just to get out of my parking lot, but, once out, it only took about 10 minutes extra to get home. Largely because I won't follow the crowd, and took the biggest hills home. No one else wanted to, so I had a clear route.



But, I have to tell you - other than the traffic, the snow was beautiful!!! The white covered all the hills, trees, and fields, and it truly was a wonderfully beautiful day. I love the snow!



The white thing we have at home, is a cousin for Cody. Crackers is working his way into our family. Crackers is another American Eskimo, which we got from my mother-in-law. They were no longer able to keep Crackers in thier apartment complex, and didn't know what to do with him, since he has a history of some, umm, behavioral issues. At first, we weren't sure that we would be able to handle Crackers and Cody, but Crackers is gradually falling into place.

There have been some significant struggles for domination, but we believe that they are being worked out. We are trying to work out some food aggression now as well. Crackers has been very possesive of the food and water, so we are feeding them seperatly right now, and working on gradually integrating them back together. Unfortunatly, I would have prefered to have them meet seperatly, and bring them together gradually. That was just not a possibility in this situation. So, we are doing the best we can. Fortunatley, this week Yvette has been able to stay home with them most of the time, and has been able to work with them much more than we normally would have been able to do in a week.

Interesting Tool

I just discovered "Joe's Goals" (http://www.joesgoals.com/) - a free, simple, online goal tracking system. Very easy to use, and you can share your goals with friends, so that they can track with you to help keep you accountable. Take a look at it, and see if it will help you with your New Year's Resolutions.

One of the favorite goals for the guy that created Joe's Goals is to "Bless Others". What a neat idea! How would your life change if you adopted that as one of your goals?

But, I'm sure that this isn't the only cool tool that you've found or know about. So, give me some suggestions of other sites or items that you know about. I'd love to take a look at them.

New Year, New Surroundings?

The New Year is here. With it comes a sense of the new. In our case, new jobs come close to coinciding. I recently started a new job, working as a Field Service Technician/System Administrator for a large "contract employee" company. It's been an interesting transition. Working at M$, had a much different sense of "team". I think that we created that feeling ourselves, rather than there being any inherently default teamness there. We were a new group of "Orange Badgers" creating a new team, and we pulled together to help each other out. I don't get the same feeling here. Some of that has to do with the environment. We are spread out much thinner, and across a much larger distance. Instead of walking down the hall and grabbing someone to help lift that 85 pound server, or troubleshoot that pesky hardware problem, we are not just in different buildings, we are in different cities much of the time. In fact, there are members of the team that I have never met, save on the phone. That just doesn't provide the same sense of "team" that I have been exposed to in recent years. I've only been there a while, so I expect things to change, but that's where I am right now.

Yvette is also changing jobs. She was recently asked to come on board as a staffer for Overlake Hospital. She will be interacting with the charge nurses on each floor, then calling staffing agencies to supply the nursing staff that is needed. This is an exciting opportunity for her with a large (and growing, if you've been past recently) company that is firmly established. Right now, she will be part-time, with about 20-25 hours per week, but that is expected to change rapidly. Her biggest challenge with this is going to be the change in hours, as she will, on occasion, need to be at work by 4 am. So, be praying for her.