Month: May 2008

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Weekend at the Lake

This year Memorial Day comes early in the calendar year, but that doesn’t stop everyone around here from celebrating the first unofficial weekend of summer!

My parents have a little cabin on the Lake and we’re all heading down to Guntersville for the long weekend. I’m taking off work a couple hours early so I can go over to help my mom get ready. Mom and Dad and I will go down tonight and do the cleaning and set up to make ready for everyone else that’s coming tomorrow.

The cabin has been empty since Christmas, so we have to re-stock the pantry and the linen closet. We have to deep clean everything – there’s always a lot of dust and mildew to deal with. That’s what you get when you live by a lake and have the place closed up for 5 months.

My Dad will be busy cutting the little bit of grass and weeds around the yard and making the boats and motors ready for use. He also sorts out and cleans and repairs all the water toys and equipment, and all the fishing gear. We won’t see much of him until really late!

When my sister’s family arrives Friday night, we’ll have a nice big dinner and spend a couple hours down on the dock, and then Saturday we’ll all take turns driving the boats and water skiing, tubing, and fishing off the dock. I love this family tradition and it’s a great way to kick off our summer.

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Stuffed Like a Pig

Yesterday was all about food since it was my birthday.

My boss took me out to lunch and we invited his secretary and my friend in human resources to go with us. He wanted me to pick the restaurant, so I picked one that I know he likes – the Macaroni Grill. I think almost everyone likes good Italian food. We all ordered a different entre and then when it came out to our table we all shared between ourselves. That was really cool and one of the great things about working with these guys. We are a strong team and I think of several co-workers as fondly as I do my own brothers and sisters.

When we got back to the office, there was a surprise waiting for us – a birthday ice cream cake from Baskin Robbins. Everyone popped into the main conference room to wish me a happy birthday and get themselves a big piece of cake. So of course, I had to eat a slice – to hell with the diet on my birthday!

Then last night my parents wanted me to come over and I was hoping for a home cooked meal, as my mom is a great cook and there’s things she can cook that I can’t manage to have turn out any where near as good as hers. But my dad wanted to go out, so they told me to pick a restaurant. One of my favorites is an Asian Fusion restaurant, but it’s a little expensive for my budget and I would have loved to go there, but Dad doesn’t really like Asian food and he didn’t want to go there, so I just picked the Longhorn Steakhouse. My Dad is pretty much a meat and potatoes guy, and he likes just about everything on the Longhorn menu.

So I stuffed myself like a pig yesterday and had a very nice day celebrating my 30th birthday. Now, back to the diet!

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Oh My! Over the Hill Now!

Today is my birthday. The big three-oh.

I’ve always like the way my birth date writes out: 5/6/78 and if I ever have the urge to play the lottery, those are the numbers I pick. But I’ve never won anything from them – yet.

I’m smack dab in the middle of the Taurus sign, so there’s no fudging my horoscope like my sister does. She was born “on the cusp” which means on the day that the signs change from one to the next, and she reads both horoscopes each morning and believes them both. I read my horoscope once in a while for entertainment – I just don’t take that stuff very seriously.

I know the guys at work know it’s my birthday. Our human resources manager sends out an email to every on the first of every month to wish all employees with birthdays that month a collective “Happy Birthday!” My boss wants to take me out to lunch and I have to pick the restaurant. That’s kinda stresses me out, as I don’t think my favorite restaurants are the kind that he likes to go to. So I have to decide, should I go to one of my actual favorite restaurants? Or should I pick one that I know HE likes?

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Computer Games

Like half the people in America, I have a Nintendo game system at home, hooked up to the TV in my living room. I’ve thought about getting a Wii system, but to be honest, I don’t play game that much and I just can’t see spending that much money on a game system when I have other more important things to take care of with my money.

My favorite Nintendo game is Tetris. I can play that game for hours and hours, so I have to be careful that I budget my time and don’t neglect my other responsibilities in favor of a game. Usually I will play a version of Tetris on a week night if there is nothing interesting on TV. Sometimes I’ll play for a few hours on the weekend, especially if the weather is bad.

There’s something about solving the puzzles, line by line, that is very addictive to me. I keep track of my high scores on each of the different game options and never seem to get tired of it.

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Friday Lunches

Most Fridays we all get together at work and pick a restaurant to go out and eat lunch together. I really like this way of celebrating the end of the work week. I also like the way this forces some of my co-workers to get up off their duffs and go be sociable. It’s so easy to just get to work and hunker down at your desk or cubicle and not get up until 5:00. People need a certain amount of social interaction. Humans are social being by nature. It’s not good to isolate yourself from your co-workers. We are a team and it takes a little effort by everyone to keep the team spirit alive and I think you will find that everyone is more productive if they are emotionally secure. I know you can’t be best friends with everyone, but you need to make an effort to be polite and respectful and it won’t kill you to be pleasant to people that you see every day.