Only a few more days until we drive east! I’m pretty darned excited for a change in location, if not an actual vacation. I’ll have to work (the deadline’s so tight that my team leader canceled her vacation), but dangit! I wanna visit family. I wanna go to the beach.

Starting to get my life back under control… or at least that’s how I feel right this moment. Come back in 5 minutes and I’ll be quietly panicking.

Today’s accomplishments:

• I got my email inbox down to 98 current personal/client emails (down from 240-some). It’s been months and months since I’ve been below 100 – and that’s with filters set up so that many emails skip the inbox entirely! This is what happens when you try to keep in touch with people and keep up with a web business in addition to volunteering.
• I’ve finally made contact with Beth, the woman fostering a Ridgeback we are thinking of adopting. We started planning a meet-n-greet in… June? But there was tonsillitis (Beth, not the dog), then natural disaster – she lives in Cedar Rapids, IA with all the flooding, then family crises, then a month of family reunions for us, then VBS, then vacation… I think we’ll finally get to meet in August. Maybe. Hopefully.
• I’ve finally got my Tekyn stuff together – I’m up-to-date with all of our clients, and have even picked up a new one over the weekend. That one will be fun – he knows his stuff, and knows what he wants while still being willing to listen to my suggestions. Refreshing. =) I got the go-ahead to start building a framework today.

All that despite working a full day and nursing a very ill (bronchitis, folks, mixed with some acid reflux) husband to sleep (not to health – his body has to do that). I’m feeling pretty good. =)

Last night, there was this amazing storm. It rolled through after we went to bed, so I wasn’t ever awake enough to think about recording a few seconds of it – and now that I want to share it with Leah, I’m kicking myself.

It was riotous – lightning never more than a second apart, and more often than not, 3-4 bolts PER second. Thunder crashing constantly – never silence or the sound of rain, just some very loud crashes amidst a dull, rolling roar. (This is the first time I’ve ever understood the phrase “rolling thunder”.) It was intense – an awesome display of power.

But I had other things to think about. The street was flooded – a river that ran almost up onto the sidewalks. The water was rushing – we had to check the backyard and the basement for flooding (after the big flood a couple of years ago, we always do a check before we enjoy the storm).

And there was the dog. Who was hysterical. Accompanying the constant roar of thunder (for at least two hours), we heard the constant whine of a scared dog, punctuated with little (and big) yelps when big crashes came.

This is something we’re not sure about. He’s very frightened of thunder and fireworks (and gunfire). In the past, we’ve tried staying up with him downstairs (he’s not allowed upstairs). We’ve tried bringing him upstairs to sleep in our room (didn’t work, so he’s still not allowed upstairs). We’ve tried leaving him in his crate and draping it. We’ve tried ignoring him. NOTHING calms him down.

Aside from the dog’s misery, we were pretty happy – I love storms like that. Everything about them. The sound, the blinding light, the charge in the air before it breaks, the smell of the rain on a hot street, the lightness of the air after the storm has passed…

We didn’t get much sleep last night. But man, what a show! Wish you were here, Leah.

.. back to life, back to reality… isn’t that from a song from the early 90’s? Well, whenever it’s from, it’s stuck in my head.

We’re back from another action-packed weekend. Another weekend, another reunion, another bout of illness from these Aukerfolk. Dave’s ill and I’ve been experiencing stomach distress. Enough distress that while I DID participate in and lose the Schrader classic [mini-golf game] as is my tradition, I did NOT ride the carousel or join the cousins at the batting cages this year. Instead, I took pictures and then crashed on a picnic table bench.

Fun reunion photos are here.

Also, it’s VBS week at Woodruff Place Baptist. I may post a few funny pics, but I probably won’t blog too much this week. Maybe.

We’ve been reunioning this month.

Weekend #1: Dave’s dad’s dad’s family (Aukermans)
Weekend #2: Dave’s mom’s mom’s family (Schraders) <- this weekend
Weekend #3: Dave’s mom’s dad’s family (Funks) which we’re missing for…
Weekend #3: Dave’s 10-yr high school friends reunion

David has a lot of people to reunite with… =) I enjoy these reunions, though. This is something my fam doesn’t do.

I’ll take some pics this weekend and post ‘em so you can join in the reunion festivities (now that I’ve figured out why my photos weren’t transferring from my camera and fixed the issue).

So, I use iTunes almost exclusively as my media player. I also have an HP laptop (a dv6000) that has QuickPlay buttons. These buttons work to control media players from my keyboard (instead of having to find the application window and use the play controls from there).

The catch: these buttons only work with software that comes installed on a new HP. Not with iTunes (unless iTunes is the active – on-top – window). Such a pain!!

So, after a day of searching, I found what I was looking for – an iTunes plugin that allows you to use your Quick Launch/QuickPlay buttons as play controls!

Most of you don’t care, but for the few folks as ANNOYED as I have been, I present to you the easiest solution:

mmkeys.dll

Voila!!

I can’t believe it’s been three years!

My husband is so sweet – makes me feel like a mush (and those of you who know me know what an accomplishment that is…). On our first anniversary, David gave me a red rose and a white rose. Red for the year we’d been married, white for the year to come. He told me he’d do the same thing for as long as we lived. =) This year was the three red roses year.

I love you, D.

I’m looking forward to spending this next year with you. =)

Today, our watercooler developed a personality:

It was so funny to see my boss cracking up… he’s been stressed lately, and doesn’t eye-smile a lot. This, however, had him rollin’. (Different strokes…)

So, lately I’ve been digging Beatles covers. I got, from three different friends, “you have to listen to this!” CDs.� So, I’ve been listening to:

the i am sam soundtrack

the Across the Universe soundtrack

George Martin's tribute to the Beatles

Goodbye, CC. Have fun hitting!