Weekend Wrap-Up

Is it Monday already? The weekend was the perfect mix of activity and not. The highlights:

• Enjoyed a night at home alone on Friday night trying to get rid of a headache that had been annoying me since Thursday night. I tried to get to bed early which didn't work out thanks to the crazy wind storm.
• Speaking of weather, I hoped that we would get snow since the weather wonks had predicted it but it never happened.
• Worked for 5-hours on Saturday which helped me finish some of the tasks that have been lingering a bit too long on my to-do list.
• Had my car serviced and specifically asked that they replace my burned out headlight. When they were all done the guy helping me told me that there was nothing wrong with my headlight and so they didn't replace it. Upon getting to my car I immediately checked it out and sure enough, it was working. It hasn't worked in over a month so I was shocked! It stopped working 3 blocks later.
• Watched the 4th quarter of the Seahawks game which was definitely action packed!
  
• Had a yummy dinner with Don at the Hi-Life in Ballard. I ordered the Pumpkin Ravioli which was so good.
• Finished uploading all of the pictures I took during our Disney World vacation last month to Flickr.
• Speaking of Flickr, someone marked one of my pictures as a favorite and I got a my first comment this weekend. :-)
• Completed a bunch of household chores and began the process of un-Christmasing the house.
• Inspired by the cool weather and the fact that my mother was making one, I made Pot Roast for dinner on Sunday that was "STUPID good" according to Don.

How was your weekend?

My Nerd Type

What Be Your Nerd Type? Your Result: Science/Math Nerd (Absolute Insane Laughter as you pour toxic chemicals into a foaming tub of death!) Well, maybe you aren't this extreme, but you're in league with the crazy scientists/mathmeticians of today. Very few people have the talent of math and science is something takes a lot of brains as well. Thank whosever God you worship, or don't worship, so thank no deity whatsoever in your case, for you people! Most of us would have died off without your help.
Literature Nerd
Artistic Nerd
Musician
Social Nerd
Gamer/Computer Nerd
Anime Nerd
Drama Nerd
What Be Your Nerd Type? Quizzes for MySpace

Legs

One of the charming features of the Hi-Life where Don and I had dinner tonight.

Friday Randomness

The work week has seemed extremely long this week even though it's only be a total of 3 1/2 days. Monday was a breeze and the day flew by. Wednesday through Friday have been a different story and have been extremely frustrating. I have been unbelievably busy but my task list has only grown as I keep getting pulled from my regular tasks to deal with emergent and difficult customer situations and deals that need closing. Don't get me wrong, I love to close deals but not when everything else just piles up.

I have been working on some *behind the scenes* improvements to my site this week as I menitoned in my post last week and I have some exciting news. Inspired by Don's Tumbld site, I have created one of my own called Jewells in Brief. The site consists of links that I have posted to del.icio.us, random ideas and thoughts that I have posted to Twitter, photos that I have posted to Flickr and then posts from this blog. I feeds update every hour and don't pay attention to the time on the postings as it is never accurate.

I have been busy this week uploading pictures to Flickr. While doing so noticed that you could activate statistics to monitor the activity (views, favorites etc) related to your photos, so I did. My statistics are depressing. According to the Flickr world my pics aren't interesting, they are rarely viewed and no one considers them "favs." :-( I am going to continue to upload the remainder of the pictures from our recent vacation to Florida and hopefully someone will find those interesting.

UPDATE: 01/05/08 10:58 p.m.
I just checked my Flickr stats for the past 24 hours and I have 227 views in the last 24 hours. I guess I should whine on my blog about my unpopularity more often. ;-)

Uptown Girl

You Are Uptown

You are classy, cultured, and well educated. You are an expert on the finer things in live. Your city girl persona loves all of the opportunities a city offers. But only in the best neighborhoods.

Are You An Uptown Girl or Downtown Girl?

Optimist or Pessimist?

You Are a Realist

You don't see the glass as half empty or half full. You see what's exactly in the glass. You never try to make a bad situation seem better than it is... But you also never sabotage any good things you have going on. You are brutally honest in your assessments of situations - and this always seems to help you cope.

Are You An Optimist or Pessimist?

Yesterday, Today & Tomorrow

This has been sitting in my draft folder for so long that I don't even remember where I originally saw it but I'm sure it came from one of the Blogs that I read on a regular basis. If you are reading this and recognize it as something from your site, please let me know so that I can credit you. Now onto the important stuff a glimpse at Jewells from yesterday, today and tomorrow.

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Where were you in 1987? In school? Working? Single? Married? Attached? What was important to you? What were you doing creatively? Tell us a bit about your life then.
1987 found me in the 8th and 9th grade and Churchill Junior High School in Salt Lake City, Utah. I was in the midst of the awkward *ugly duckling* stage of my adolescence complete with braces, glasses and zits. I liked school and got good grades and was involved in numerous extra-curricular activities including competitive swimming, girl scouts and church youth group. I loved being a "big sister" so when my mother asked me to do extra chores around the house like assisting my brothers with their homework and preparing family meals, I was thrilled. Some immediate things come to mind when I think about 1987, in no particular order they include:

• My bedtime was 8:30 p.m., yet I was desperately trying to convince my parents that it should be later.
• My hero was Janet Evans who broke numerous world records that year.
• I had my first kiss with the boy next door that summer.
• I went to Girl Scout camp for a total of 4 weeks that summer including a 2-week Mariner camp. My camp name was Fruitchew.
• I wore red glasses.
• I got my first CD player for Christmas and the first CD I owned was Phil Collins No Jacket Required.

Where were you in 1997? What would you like to share about the nineties?
In 1997 I was living in Salt Lake City, Utah and working as Business Manager for my mother's Speech Pathology private practice. I had been back in Salt Lake (from Oregon) for a little over a year and remember being frustrated in finding the right group of friends. In February, my parents ended their 29 year relationship in a bitter and ugly divorce that I was far more involved in that I would have like to. I March, my maternal grandmother passed away after years of living in a nursing home. Some random things about 1997 include:

• My salary was $18,000 a year.
• My car was a 1992 Honda Civic with TONS of miles on it.
• My Mom and I celebrated Mother's Day by exploring Gardner Village for the first time. It was a day I will never forget.
• I got my first set of golf clubs and lessons.

Where did you plan to be or think you'd be in 2007? Have you realized your goals? What is one thing about your present life you love and one you'd like to change?
I guess it depends of when the question was posed. When I was younger I always thought that my thirties would be the time in my life devoted to starting and raising a family but I have learned that life doesn't always turn out the way you plan it. But even though my life may not have turned out like I pictured it many years ago, in many ways I think it's better and really can't imagine being in any other place than I am right now. Some things that I love about my life right now:

• My career has gone in a direction that I would have never picked but am really pretty good at.
• I absolutely love Seattle and feel that I have finally found "my home" here.
• I am blessed with wonderful people in my life who support me, love me and encourage me more than I imagined possible.
• I have concurred cancer and will soon reach the 5-year milestone which seems so far away, not so long ago.

Some things that I would like to change:

• Identify my passion and work towards a career doing it.
• Lose some weight, get in shape and be more healthy.

How do you see your life in 2017? Do you have any goals or dreams for your future?
Life in 2017 seems really far away, yet it will be here before we know it. Some things I know that I want for the future:

• To be healthy and cancer-free.
• To be working in a job/field that I am truly passionate about so that work is pure joy in my life.
• To have a home that is nurturing to my soul and a place to share with others.

Weekend Wrap-Up

I had a relaxing weekend which is just what I needed after the holiday craziness of last week. The highlights:

• Played pool with Don and watched the OSU Beavers finish their season with a win over Maryland in the Emerald Bowl.
• Put all of my Christmas gifts away in their new homes.
• Did 3 loads of laundry.
• Enjoyed what will likely be my final Egg Nog Latte of the season.
• Saw the movie Juno (a recommendation of my little brother Jimmy) which I thoroughly enjoyed for it's witty writing and classic one liners. Allison Janney's performance was awesome as no one can deliver shocking and hysterical lines with the finesse that she can.
• Cleared the rest of the cheesy holiday movies off my TiVo.
• Slept, a lot!

I make the weather!

This has been one of my favorite quotes since I heard it for the first time a few years ago. Enjoy!

I have come to the frightening conclusion that I am the decisive element. It is my personal approach that creates the climate. It is my daily mood that makes the weather.

I possess tremendous power to make a life miserable or joyous. I can be a tool of torture or an instrument of inspiration. I can humiliate or humor, hurt or heal. In all situations, it is my response that decides whether a crisis will be escalated or de-escalated and a person humanized or dehumanized.

If we treat people as they are, we make them worse. If we treat people as they ought to be, we help them become what they are capable of becoming.

–Goethe

Please excuse my mess

I am in the process of making some changes and much need updates to my blog/website. However, in order to do so I need to clean up the many items that have accumulated in my "draft/ideas" folder over the last couple of years so you may see so somewhat random things appearing in the next few weeks.

Stay tuned for more news on the upcoming changes as I will be ready to tell you all about it in the next couple of weeks.