Holiday Weekends

My philosophy on holiday weekends is unencumbered. I don't mind of there are planned activities or none at all. I take advantage of both kinds.

Planned activities can be fun. Not having planned activities is equally fun, although in a different sort of way. There are always a multitude of things that I never have time to do (so it seems) so having unplanned time means I can tackle one of those things. Or maybe even several.

If it is a holiday, I do try to work in something that is unusual. The unusual thing for me is reading a book. Not listening to a book on tape, but reading one the old fashioned way. My entire life being considered, it is unusual for me that reading a book would be unusual. We're talking about the girl who used to inhale books at the rate of 6-8 per day. And those are days when I could only read in the evenings and here and there a bit in between! The library shuttered when it saw our family coming. My family would limit me to 50 books and split the other 50 of our family limit between the rest of them. Happily we visited the library every 3 weeks to get new reading material.

Those days are long past. Now I have gone months without reading anything but my Bible and devotional materials (book-wise). I also find that I enjoy a more moderate pace when reading, instead of the headlong dash I used to enjoy. Of course, it may also be a reflection of the heavier reading material I tend to tackle, although I still enjoy "children's" stories from time to time.

This holiday weekend I have some of everything in mind. There is the unplanned time for tackling piles of paperwork, our video library cataloging project I started last weekend, and maybe even a book or two. We will be having some family over for Labor Day. And I am looking forward to whatever else it brings.

In Memory of Louise

Below is a "memorial" written by Louise's caretaker of many years. I want to share it with you in memory of the dear lady who was once a faithful volunteer at EFF. I will miss her.

This picture was taken in May, 2004, when Louise moved away and was no longer able to volunteer regularly.

Our dearest, sweetest, Louise was ushered quietly to Heaven on Wednesday, August 29, 2007, at approx. 9:00 pm.

She was independent to the moment. I was able to be at her side and remind her of the love of her many friends here...this side of Heaven.

Louise has never forgotten her friends at EFF -- thank you for all the memories you gave her -- and for allowing her to make her contribution in her way.

She and I would argue about just when she came into contact with this band of political friends. Well, it looks like I get to have the last word on the subject! For once!

Louise began her illustrious journey early in the days of Bob's gubernatorial campaign. Those were the days when mailing lists were still compiled and sorted by hand -- and weeks before we had our first office computer. I had contacted Louise to see if she wouldn't mind comparing some mailing lists to look for duplicates. All she needed to do was cross off any she found.

I dropped off the lists at her home. And, when I returned two days later not only had she identified the duplicates -- she had retyped the entire mailing list on her little portable typewriter.

And, history was made.

I remember that anytime I called her house, I would get her answering machine, of course. And, she always stated her name the same confident way on the greeting... "Louise....T.....Moore."

My own history with Louise goes back a little further. I was in the third grade when my mother made arrangements for the Sunday School bus to pick my siblings and me up for church.

There was Louise...the greeter on the bus! And, so our lives first touched. She quickly became a friend of the family. For years my mother would take us to visit Louise and check up on her. Then, when I was on my own, I continued the tradition.

Of Louise it can truly be said, "Thank you for giving to the Lord. Mine was a life that was changed."

We appreciate your prayers and thoughts. Together, we can all rejoice with the angels -- a hero of the Faith went home today.

The Booth

While filing computer files, I ran across this picture of me with the EFF booth in June of this year. It's a bit blurry, but you get the idea.

I'm not on booth duty very often, but it was fun. This was at the King County Republican Party Convention.

Cleaning Up

I love to organize, sort, and in general clean things up. I rarely have enough time to keep up with all of the stuff in my life that needs to have the above done to it. This is especially true with regards to my office move of a couple of months ago. The amount of time I had between when I was given a firm deadline to move and when I had to be moved was so small, the only way to accomplish it was to "box-up" everything and move.

The resulting pile of boxes in my new office has been a sore spot for me. I envision myself surrounded with neatly labeled files and drawers, with a place for everything and everything in its place. Instead I found myself not knowing where anything was and without a place for anything.

Happily that situation has been slowly resolving itself. I made it through my vacation by putting boxes in out-of-the-way locations so they wouldn't get in anyone's way while I was gone. Since I have returned I have made steady (if slow) progress on digging these boxes out of their various locations, sorting through them, tossing stuff, filing stuff, and passing stuff along to the new, correct owner of that particular job. It's been fun! (At least for me.)

In addition, my new job has lots less paperwork associated with it. And no old paperwork exists! I get to start from scratch!!! What bliss!

Meet Jade

Here's a picture from our company picnic. Meet Jade.

The apron is because I was doing dishes and took a break to do a little baby holding. :-)

The Phantom of the Opera & other weekend activities

This weekend I watched the new version of "The Phantom of the Opera." It was very good. The music was outstanding. The songs are still running through my head. All of the words now make sense to me. It had a satisfying ending. However, for the record, it is way to intense for children.

My project for the weekend was to catalog all of the movies we have recorded off TV to DVD so I know which ones we have and which ones we don't. Our large VHS collection is beginning to deteriorate (physically) due to age. We might have to burn some old VHS movies directly to DVD, but we will lose a lot of quality by doing this. I'd rather just get new versions if possible. I have cable TV at my Olympia home so the quality is usually better than the old antenna recorded ones anyway.

It was rather fun seeing what (mostly) my sister had selected to record. It was mainly old movies...things like "The Thin Man" series, Abbott and Costello, very old Roy Rodgers movies, etc. There were quite a few that she couldn't remember why she recorded them and hadn't taken time yet to watch them. So I have added to my weekend project list looking up the old movies and finding out what they are about for our video library database.

My brother (bless his heart) is working on putting together an online version of the video library database so I (and others) can see what we have (and what we don't have) from anywhere. Some day we would like to let our friends view our video list online and pick out a movie to watch. Lots of fun!

Company Picnic

Yesterday we had our "company picnic." Attendees included staff, their families, volunteers and their families, and a few former employees and volunteers who have stayed in touch. It made quite a gathering!!! According to my count we had 68 people there.

The attendees ranged from our spunky 93 year old volunteer who believes in driving the speed limit (or better) to one of our employees little 3 month old daughter. We had a few teenagers and lots of little kids. There was a small pool and sandbox; water balloon toss and sack races; basketball, football, and frisbee throwing. Plus tons of great food and conversation.

Since this event was held at my Olympia home, getting ready for this event was a large part of my last two weeks. I'm still sore from yesterday's efforts. But it was worth it!

I'll see if I can get some pictures from the "official" photographer and post them sometime.

On the work front, I am nearing the end of my list of things to do to finish up the Media Studio. This morning I was able to get the projector installed and ordered the face plates for the data lines that are now happily running through the walls and attic. (Thanks Dad for helping me on Wednesday morning!) I hope I don't have to crawl through the attic again any time soon.

Camp Week 3

Camp week 3. This is the older girl's camp; although a couple of younger ones snuck in for various reasons. It was a very nice week.

Camp Week 2

Week 2 of camp. This is the week it rained from Tuesday through Friday. It was an opportunity to be creative. We did a lot of unique activities; and skipped the sleeping outdoors one.

Camp Week 1

Here are all the young ladies from week 1 of camp.

Meet Cole

Here's another adorable baby. Meet Cole.

Meet Ethan

Here's one of the adorable babies I mentioned. Meet Ethan.

Summary

I know...I haven't updated my blog for ages. But things are just now settling down to some semblance of normality. So I will try to give you a summary of what has happened since April.

First, I switched jobs (not employers). In my new role one of my first responsibilities was to set-up a Media Studio. This involved everything: remodeling a large open space we rented in the building next door into three rooms (think contractors, painters, electricians, telephone men, etc.), choosing colors, finding lighting, researching and purchasing several thousand dollars worth of equipment (think cameras, lights, microphones, mixing boards, projectors, screen, etc.), and furniture (chairs, tables, podium, linens, etc.). The room was first used at the beginning of June. That kept me more than busy for April, May and well into June.

Next, we decided to install a new server. As the former computer guru at work (we have one in-training) I had a lot of responsibility during this transition. Unfortunately, although the plan was sound, the execution had a few bumps (did I say a FEW?). If you can envision the frustration caused by an old and failing server (you never knew when it would crash next), and a new server (don't even think of upgrading to Exchange 2007 anytime soon) you can get the picture. After reinstalling the operating system several times and hiring three computer experts, we finally got the whole thing working the week before I was leaving for three weeks of vacation. (Did I mention we ended up having to create a new domain?) That blew a lot of May and June and right into July when I went on vacation from work.

For three weeks in July I volunteered as Girl's Camp Director for Camp Woodworth (www.campwoodworth.org). We had a very blessed year and it was profitable for eternity. A friend of camp donated a lovely digital camera which was well used. We got lots of great pictures. If I can ever figure out (or have time to figure out) how to post large files, I'll post the closing slide-show from camp on my blog.

My work did not get done at work while I was gone (imagine that). The day after I returned we held our first live web-casting event from the media studio. Needless to say Monday & Tuesday were very busy.

While I was gone we hired a new employee who was taking over part of my old job. Hence I needed to give her files and explain stuff to her. All while keeping up on my new job duties of course. Between one thing and another, things have been busy. However, I see light. Slowly I am divesting myself of my "old" job duties and am able to fully dedicate entire days to my new ones.

This Thursday is our staff and volunteer picnic at my Olympia home. While I might think the yard looks great and ready for a picnic, the homeowner disagrees. I can report that I got lots of exercise last week and will do so this week. Yard work is fun however, so I really don't mind.

Just to make sure my life stayed interesting, at the end of April my dear friend had her first little baby a month early. Another friend had a baby in June, one in July, and one in August. And that doesn't count the other friends and co-workers who had babies the previous 6 months! Lots of fun!!! I'll see if I can get some pictures posted.

Well that's all for now. Since I'm caught-up, maybe I won't feel quite so overwhelmed with the thought of posting something on my blog and will do it more regularly.