Wednesday Catch Up, and Oil Oil Everywhere

What  happened to me?

It seems like meetings and events all happen in waves at work so I have a couple of weeks to recover before the next wave hits! 

Two weeks ago we had a whole slew of folks in town from some of our new stores for training, so that week was a beast and last week we had an offsite meeting at the Oregon coast!  I'm definitely not complaining because we lucked out and got some fantastic weather and it's way better than being in my office all week (although, I have a pretty nice office so I can't complain there either).

Last week one of my groups traveled to Cannon Beach where we had 3 days of meetings and stayed at the Surfsand Resort and Hotel.  Here is the view from my hotel-room front porch (really, it was more like a little apartment than a hotel room).

It looks a little gray, but it was every morning and it always brightened up just after breakfast.


After our meetings were done, I stayed on the coast and BF brought Rudy and we went camping at Cape Lookout.  I was too occupied trying to fit my work stuff AND camping stuff in the car and forgot to bring my good camera, so I only took a few pics with my phone.  Total fail, but next time I'll bring it!

We met down at Cape Lookout State Park on Friday afternoon and set up camp.  When I arrived (BF beat me because I got stuck in Hwy 101 construction traffic) BF and Rudy were sitting in the sun reading (and Rudy was napping, of course) and poor BF was red as a lobster.  1 hour in the sun and he was burnt!  Lesson learned; BF needs sunscreen before he goes outside.  Anyway, we set up camp and grilled some burgers before we took a leisurely walk on the beach. My parents met us there as well and camped a couple spots down the way from us and it was so nice to have them there!

Saturday BF and I woke up early and had some breakfast, and then climbed right back into the tent and slept some more.  It was so nice to not have to do anything.  When we did finally wake up we decided to walk some of the trails in the state park.  We walked down the North Trail of Cape Lookout SP which is about 2.5 miles up this ridge, about halfway to the tip of the cape.  Part way up the ridge we saw what looked to be a paraglider coming right for us.  Really he wasn't, but he was so close just drifting next to the ridge... it was so cool.  We used BF's phone to snap a couple pics that I'll have to get and post.  The rest of the day was really laid back and we just hung around the campsite and ate. I highly recommend it.

Sunday we had to pack up and head home since I had work on Monday and BF is working at a week-long school camp as a teacher.  I forgot how exhausting camping can be!   All I wanted to do was nap when we got home, but really we cleaned and did laundry and went grocery shopping, then gave our stinky beach dog a bath.  We didn't get too all of our chores, but by 9pm we didn't have the energy to finish anything else.

This week I've been playing catch-up at work and also working on plans for a few upcoming meetings.

We have one meeting in August that will be in Las Vegas.  BF has never been to Vegas, so I'm hoping to fly him out after the meeting is over and we can spend a day or two there just exploring and experiencing it.  It's going to be HOT, but luckily Nevada is all about AC.

I am also starting plans for a meeting this fall in Victoria, BC!  I LOVE Canada and am so excited to be able to (hopefully) go there for a few days with work.  I think we'll only be there 2.5 days, but still.  Awesome.


Besides all of that I have to figure out how to get olive oil out of my carpet.  Ugh.  Can I just say that I'm not really a fan of carpet outside of the bedroom anyway?  If I had my way the whole house would have wood and tile floors (when BF and I get a house it will have wood and tile floors... and if it doesn't, it will quickly be remedied). 

Anyway, last night BF came home with a migraine and took a nap and then went to bed.  Since I knew we weren't going to be hanging out, I used the time to get some errands taken care of and some home stuff done.  I ran to Home Depot and bought myself an awesome Ryobi 12V electric cordless drill/driver.  It's freaking awesome.  I've been asking for power tools for years now for Christmas and my birthday but I don't think people were taking me seriously, so in the midst of trying to install our window AC unit, I realized I needed a bracket and also a DRILL!  I came home and was finishing up all of my little projects and then decided around 10pm that I should call it a day and go to bed.  I went into the kitchen to put some things away and when I reached into our pantry to put the huge bag of baking soda back where it belongs I accidentally knocked a completely FULL, new bottle of olive oil off the shelf and onto the carpet.  At first I didn't think much of it because... CARPET!  Is SOFT!  Right?  No, that bottle shattered and sent tiny glass shards not only all over the carpet in the dining room but into the kitchen as well.  Trying not to impale myself on any of them, I jumped over the mess to grab some shoes before I started cleaning up. 

We were on our LAST roll of paper towels (I've vowed to try and be as paperless as possible) so I used that to blot up as much of the oil as possible from the carpet.  I was lucky that about half of the bottle spilled into the kitchen where there is laminate flooring, not carpet so only about 1/2 of the bottle went into the carpet.  I went about blotting and picking out pieces of glass for about 30 minutes.  Once I got up as much oil as I could I Googled "How to clean olive oil out of carpet effectively" and the advice I got was to blot up as much as possible with paper products (newspaper, paper bags, etc), then use corn starch to absorb what I couldn't get, and then use dawn dish soap and warm water to scrub the area and blot until I got it all up.

I'm still at the "blot it up with paper stage". I blotted and blotted and blotted (we always save our paper bags to reuse, so that was lucky as well) and finally went to bed around 11pm with the last of the paper towels and paper bags in layers over the area with a heavy box on top to help it absorb oil.  I changed the papers twice before leaving for work this morning and I'm sure I'll be blotting more when I get home.  Then I'll have to dish soap it (but I have to go buy dish soap since BF and I use castile soap and soaps made from veggie oils and essential oils that don't always cut through greasey, oily messes) and blot it until I feel I can let it go.  This may be the ONE case in which I regret buying something in a glass container!  The upside is that my hands are so soft today!

Happy End of June!  It's almost July 4th!

How To Be Good At Life

1.  Be Organized.
2.  Be Honest
3.  Be Punctual
4.  Be Polite
5.  Work Hard
6.  Play Hard


I'm going to go back to school and get a PhD and teach college courses on how to not fail at life. 

I think this needs to happen.  If you've had the week I've had (and it's only Tuesday) you may experience that about 50%* of Americans aren't very good at life and I don't know how they survive.

I'll explain later.


*I made that statistic up, but it's my opinion.

... And We'll Travel the Countryside and Sing in a Family Band...

OOOOHHHHH my goodness, I've found a television show that I now am so completely addicted to it's insane- and I'm not much of an avid TV watcher.  I sometimes like the news on for background noise in the morning so I can hear the weather and traffic, but I get a little antsy sitting too long in front of the TV.


Anyway, last night BF and I were just exhausted.  He's in the last few days of teaching 1st grade and the end of the school year is hectic.  I've had busy times at work and things are just ramping up as we continue through June.  We didn't feel very motivated to get out and do much or go to the gym, so we ran our necessary errands and plopped down on the couch with the dog to veg out.

Flipping through the channels I saw a word that caught my eye and without reading the rest of the title or any of the show info I selected it.  That word was "Gypsy" and if you've been living under a rock like I have (or just not a big television watcher) you may have missed a little show called "My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding".  It's a show from the UK and it's enthralling.

I cannot even describe to you what happens in this show because it SO MUCH MORE than wedding stuff.  It's a peek into the lives of a group of people I didn't even know existed in the world anymore.  There's really no politically correct way to explain them, so here's my attempt at describing this show and this group - my apologies if anyone is offended, NOT my intentions at all.

Here in the United States we are familiar with "white trash".  We are also familiar with all of the culturally diverse groups that have immigrated here over the years.  Then we have a phenomenon in which older, usually retired couples purchase RV's and travel around the USA staying in State Parks and campgrounds.  Take all these groups, put them in a blender, add some hard to decipher accents and you've got this show.  At first glance, the "travellers" remind me of what some may call "white trash"; they have flashy, not always matching taste in clothing, cars, hairstyles, furniture yet they don't live in traditional home.  Most live in trailers and RV's or mobile homes but I don't really understand the land-ownership thing.  Some say they own the land they live on, but then it's confusing because how can the towns/villages/cities kick them off of land that they rightfully own?  There may be zoning laws, etc that I have no idea about that are involved... sorry for the sidetrack.  To summarize, a lot of the "Travellers" or "Gypsy" settlements get buldozed down if the people don't vacate them.  They (the travellers) say it's because they aren't liked and understood... I didn't hear any reasoning from the other side...

Anyway, so you have these folks running around with prom dresses and mullets and neon high heels on in hot pink limosines but the surprising thing about them is how religiously/morally conservative they are.  A lot them are Catholic in some respect and they don't curse (one girl on the show was adamant that she would NEVER  EVER curse in front of a man because it was so vulgar), they don't believe in pre-marital sex or living together before marriage, they take part in first communion, they reference prayer and the like in most conversations, etc.  It feels a little bipolar- what I mean is that I find it odd that they take part in first communion and then all of the little girls are dressed up in bright, flashy, sometimes and revealing dresses at age 6 or 8 and have a party the likes of a rave, dancing around like adult pop stars.  Not that I'm judging... just trying to paint a picture for you.

Apart from all of the big weddings, parties, etc (they do EVERYTHING big, like Texas) I was really interested in their actual day to day activities.  The men work, usually very hard in trade work and the likes and the women usually stay home and keep house.  Most of the living spaces were immaculately kept and the amount of effort they put into things was amazing- you could see that they truly cared about their kids, family and community. 

I was most excited by one wedding in particular where the Bride and Groom hired an owl handler to have his owl swoop down during the ceremony and deliver the rings!  You now know what I'm going to do because it was SO AWESOME.

So we watched this show for a few hours (thank you TV marathons) learning about this community of people and the way they live.  I'll definitely be watching more.

Friday Last...