Since David has been away since Thursday and since I haven’t been feeling well, I’ve spent most of my free time for the last few days on the couch.  Watching Heroes. 

I resisted for an entire season, thinking I watch enough TV and that this show is complicated enough to require a religious viewing - rather than an as-I-have-a-spare-Monday-night viewing (as I could do with a sitcom).  I was right.  I do watch enough TV, especially now that shows are starting to come back on.  And this show is complicated.  But it’s fantastic.  Bethany (closest girlfriend) assured me that it would be well worth my tube time, so I dived in.

Hi.  My name is Tara.  I’m addicted to Heroes.

A couple of pictures from our family reunion, recently uploaded by Dave’s brother and his wife:

Tara, David, Randy, originally uploaded by rauke1.

Jake and Tara, originally uploaded by rauke1.

I just enjoy the first picture - I love having a big brother!  And the second photo…  Imagine that dog trembling - he was TERRIFIED of the water.  See how taut his muscles are?  He was very, very tense, and leaping about from rock to rock so he wouldn’t have to touch the water.  =)  We had a large audience up on the bank.

… are they for humans or for dogs?  Jake and I had a disagreement about that this morning.

On school days, David leaves the house earlier than I do.  Sometimes, he leaves while I’m still abed - like this morning.  He let Jake roam around, giving him the run of the backyard and house. 

Typically the dog does well on his own.  Except some times.  Those days, he smells something interesting in the trash  - there’s one can he can get into, and David and I are good about using it only for papers and mail.  Friends and family, however, don’t always remember the rules for that trash can, and then Jake has a hey day - all over our dining room.

Today, I was dozing before the alarm went off and heard a crash and a thump.  I threw on my bathrobe and ran down the stairs to see what was going on.  The box of miniwheats sitting on our counter was too much for him.  He just HAD to have some.  All over the dining room and the backyard.

At least this time I caught him in the act - you can’t correct a dog for something you don’t catch him doing, even if you know he did it.  He’ll forget within a few minutes that he did anything, so smacking him (lightly) or timing him out - even the old wives’ tale solution of rubbing his nose in it - won’t do anything but scare and confuse the dog unless you catch him in the act.  Today, Jake knew exactly why I was upset - he still had miniwheats in his mouth!

What a great weekend.  =)

• The Colts won (yeah, yeah - I know that was Thursday, but it was a good game and started my weekend off well)
• We cleaned the house.  The whole house.
• We rearranged furniture.  Throughout the entire house.
• We picked paint colors for the new closet and for the bathroom.
• I finally put our new towels and rugs in the bathroom (Mom, I’ll send pictures for Auntie soon).
• We had friends over for games and fun (we haven’t done that in ages because we’ve been away so much).
• We invited our “daughter” for dinner on Monday, and David’s parents for dinner on Thursday.  And they all accepted!
• I *finally* ordered prints from my 2007 pictures - Hawai’i trips, church things, camping trips, reunions, get-togethers, etc.
• I’ve got my music for this month’s Wind Symphony concert, AND my sax is back from the shop.
• I was relieved of a duty that was really dragging me down emotionally (no details, but it’s a HUGE weight lifted from my shoulders).

I have Skype installed on my computer.  It’s an online communication tool that allows you to either chat with (instant message) or talk to (online phone call) people over the internet. 

I’ve mainly used it to talk with family (Melissa’s in Asia, and it’s free to talk to her this way), but I use it at work occasionally to talk to coworkers who are working offsite.  So I leave it up and running at work.

I had a meeting today in which my computer was going to be attached to a projector for a demonstration of some software.  I, thoughtfully, I thought, exited all my email and communication programs so we wouldn’t be interrupted by pop-ups in the meeting, then traipsed down the hall and hooked my computer up to the projector.

45 minutes of the meeting went by without event.  Then it happened.  A chat request from Skype popped up in the center of the screen and interrupted the presenter (turns out I’d forgotten to close Skype since I rarely use it).  This chat request had an avatar - a picture - in the window.  This picture was of a naked, spread-eagle woman.  And it seemed to fill the entire projector screen.

I cannot tell you how mortified I was - I quickly explained that my name must be listed in some public directory for the application.  The guy closed the window, but all the people just kinda… stared… at me.  Thankfully, in the end, they all laughed about it.  I could have gotten into quite a bit of trouble.

I got back to my desk and immediately found the privacy settings on the application.  If you’re running Skype, and you leave it on at work, I suggest you do the same.  =)

Things, I think, are finally back to normal.

I am at home.  My husband is at home.  My dog is at home.  We have no large trips looming in the near future.  Dave’s started school again.  I’m back into the swing of things at both of my jobs.  I even found some time to do a little extra stuff today! 

And football season is started, which means I’ll be watching TV again. 

20 minutes and counting…

I LOVE packages.  If you want to make my day, my week, my month - send me a package.  I’m yours.  =)

I just came back from that long, 2-day drive to find a package in my mailbox - for ME!

Naphtali, this really neat girl who spent the summer slumming it in our ‘hood (and just moved to Chicago, much to our dismay) sent me some you’ve-gotta-hear-these CDs.  We’d been talking about music and found that our tastes are remarkably similar.  She’s more knowledgeable, though, and asked if I’d heard much Snow Patrol.  I’ve heard some and loved what I’ve heard, but don’t know much of their music.  She said that sometime she’d hook me up - and this week was the week.  =)  She sent two SP albums (Eyes Open and Final Straw), and two Reindeer Section albums (Y’all Get Scared Now and Son of Evil Reindeer).

I really dig the RS CDs - check ‘em out if you get a chance.

Time off is good.

This is the first real time off I’ve had since I started this job in last June (’06). I’ve been to Hawai’i several times, been to all sorts of eastern states.  I’ve taken a day off here and there.  We’ve been camping, reunioning, and beaching, but each time I’ve brought work and stress along.  This time, however, I’ve not been working.  As much, anyway.  A few hours here and there - urgent things tend to come up as soon as I say I’ll be away…  For the most part, though, this has been a restful experience.  Something new for us.  =)

One thing I’ve learned in this past year and a quarter - full-time work plus part-time work plus full-time visiting does not equal vacation.  Each time I’ve come home from one of these trips, I’ve been that much more exhausted instead of renewed - and relieved to get back into the “grind” because it seemed like a chance to breathe!

Hopefully, we’ll feel refreshed at the end of this trip (we have most of one more day here, and then 12 and a half hours of driving to do)…