June 2010 Archives

Doing the laundry isn't my favorite chore to do, but it's also not my least favorite.  I guess it falls somewhere in the middle.  I have been doing my own laundry for 14 years but have never really given it much thought or energy.  Luckily I don't tend to get stains on my clothing because I'm not very good about trying to get them out/treat them before I throw the load in.  :)

Right now I am in the midst of doing 4 loads (yikes!) of laundry.  I usually pretty much just wash everything together and wash everything on cold (to conserve energy).  This isn't what my mother taught me, except for the cold part.  She taught me to wash sheets, separate from towels, separate from whites, separate from darks.  I grew up in a family of six so there was always a plethora of laundry to be done so it made sense to separate things out since there was plenty of each type of load to be done.  For just one person, this seemed a little ridiculous to me.  I'd be doing tons of tiny loads which seemed like a big waste.  So occassionally I'd separate things out, but most of the time I'd throw in whatever needed to be washed and call it a load.  I'd do about 2 loads a week.

Today I piled up so much stuff I decided I'd try doing laudry the correct way, or at least more like the way my momma taught me.  So I thought I'd actually do a little research and find out the best settings for each of these different types of loads.  What did I find?  Lots of conflicting information.  For example, I found one site that said cold, another that said warm, and yet another that said hot -- all just for towels.  So I'm going to just kind of wing it.  I am going to try washing whites on cold (to conserve energy), towels and sheets on hot (to kill any bacteria, mildew, mites, etc), and darks on cold (to reduce fading).

What is your usual laundry routine?  Are you good about separating out different types of loads?  Do you use different settings for each type? 

I started an herb garden a couple of weeks ago.  This is my very first attempt at such an adventure.  Unfortunately I don't really know what I'm doing and am afraid I may be failing.  The cilantro and basil aren't looking so hot.  I keep saying we need to find some recipes for the herbs (before I kill them all) and use them in some new dishes.  I've done some really quick searching but so far haven't really come up with anything.  We made taco burgers the other night (my boyfriend makes awesome taco burgers) and we were going to use the cilantro, but of course we forgot. 

So, anyone have any great recipes that use cilantro, basil, or oregano?  Anyone have any tips for me on how to keep these suckers alive?

Tonight my boyfriend and I went to Pizza Hut for dinner.  I had a pretty tough day at work and I felt like comfort food.  Pizza is my go-to comfort food.  My boyfriend really dislikes Pizza Hut but he was willing to go with me since I needed a lift. 

We walk in and about 3/4 of the tables were filled with remnants of the previous diner's dinners.  It's nearly 90 degrees outside, but I start shivering almost as soon as we walk in because the air conditioning is on so high.  We were seated and put in our relatively simple order -- 1 diet pepsi, 1 regular pepsi, an order of breadsticks, and 1 large pizza with pepperoni, peppers, and onions.  The waitress informs us it will be about 15-20 minutes.  Probably 10 minutes or so later she comes back and asks us again what we wanted on the pizza because she had forgotten.  Then she brings the sodas, which she had correct, but she had no idea which was the diet and which was the regular.  Then we wait about an hour and then finally get our pizza.  It's what we ordered, but it was cold.  Not warm, COLD.  And there were no breadsticks.  She says she'll put in an order for them (since she forgot originally).  Then a little while later another woman comes by and asks if everything is ok.  I tell her we were missing our order of breadsticks.  She says she'll go get them.  Then, a little while later the original waitress comes by and I ask again about the breadsticks.  She says she'll put them in and they'll be free for all the trouble.  We finish the pizza and still no breadsticks.  And we overhear someone tell a family that's just coming in that the restaurant is now closed because the air conditioner is leaking all over the place.  We manage to get a box for the leftovers, wade through some water to get to the cash register to pay, and then get the heck out of there.

I think it had probably been about two years since the last time we went.  It will probably be at least another two before we go again.

What's your worst dining experience ever?

I spent Father's Day at the lake visiting with my dad (and mom, and sister, and my sister's boyfriend).  I spent most of the day Sunday helping my dad with the landscaping.  For various reasons my parents haven't been able to get out to the lake the last few weekends so they were a little behind in getting all the flowers planted.  We also had a wonderful steak dinner that Dad cooked to perfection out on the grill.  We had a wonderful weekend, and I hope you did too.

Back on the 29th of May I took a bunch of pictures of the vegetable garden I had just started.  I wasn't really sure much was happening in the side garden over the last three weeks until I took some pictures today and compared them.  There was a fairly significant difference.  Enough to make me pretty happy.  It's amazing when it's such a gradual difference, and you keep an eye on it daily, that you barely register the changes.

Overall, so far so good, I just hope things continue to do well throughout the rest of the summer. 

Sorry about the almost obnoxious number of pictures below.  I just couldn't help myself.  I may post about my small herb garden, and a bunch of spring flower pics I took a little bit ago, later on, but for now I'll spare you.

Then:

Now:

Late Sunday afternoon I was parked on the loveseat with my laptop.  My boyfriend was parked on the couch with his laptop.  It was a kind of dreary morning weather-wise, but the afternoon was showing promise.  My boyfriend lifted his head from the computer screen and asked if I want to go to the park for a hike.  Without hesitation I said yes.  I used to do a lot of hiking a few years ago, but not much in recent history.  I quickly changed into some hiking clothes and we were off. 

The park is really large with several parking areas and several different trails.  We got a little lost but eventually found our way.  We started on the "green" trail, which was the most challenging in terms of hills, and 4.7 miles long.  We quickly were greeted with a couple of surprises.  The first was a great, big, huge, pile of horse crap.  And then more horse crap.  And then some more.  I think it would have been more aptly named/colored the "brown" trail.  We also began being attacked my lots and lots of bugs.  Not so nice.  Next time we'll remember the bug spray.  Luckily neither of us ended up with any bites.

Despite those two issues, we actually ended up really enjoying ourselves.  It's so nice to be out in nature and doing some sort of physical activity.  It does a mind and body good.  We ended up hiking for a little under 1.5 hours.  During that time, in addition to the crap and the bugs, we saw guys running up hills that we were barely able to walk up without getting slightly out of breath.  And we saw a whole bunch of deer.  Just chillin'.  We were really close but they didn't seem worried about us in the least. 

I'd like to try this trail again in the fall.  I'm pretty sure it will have some pretty amazing fall foliage.

As of yesterday, I have been at my current place of employment for 10 years.  I am not sure why this is significant to me, but it kind of is.  This is the first (and only) "real" job I have ever had.  To me it's almost as though I've grown up at this company.  It's a small company, and I believe I was something like employee number 52 when I was hired.  The company had only been around for 4 years at the time I was hired.  Many of the people I work with I consider close friends.  We frequently hang out outside of work -- going out to dinner or meeting for a movie, etc.  I've attended several co-worker's weddings and was even a part of the wedding party for one co-worker friend.

I believe I got incredibly lucky in many ways.  At the end of January of my last semester at college I had my second interview and within hours had a job offer.  I believe I actually had an email with an offer waiting for me by the time I was done with the 40 minute trip back home from the interview.  I completed my last semester already knowing where I was going to go after I graduated, which was a huge relief.  I feel luckly that the people interviewing me saw through my poor interviewing skills to my engineering skills and good work ethic.  I am fortunate that the culture/work environment was such a good fit for me.  The company I work for now is the only place I interviewed.  I received an acceptable offer for a position in my chosen field that was exactly what I wanted to do, and that was that.

I graduated college on May 20th, 2000 and started work a little over two weeks later on June 5th.  I was barely legal to drink when I first walked through the doors for my first day of work.  I had been 21 for about 8 months.  Still a child, really.  When I look back, both personally and professionally, I feel like I've come such a long way.   Back in that first summer I was naive, a little scared, and very ready to work.  I was very timid and was insecure in my work.  I have since been promoted to "Senior Engineer".  I conduct interviews, train new employees, and am included on many crucial company initiatives.  I have a great deal more confidence, both in myself as a person as well as in my workplace abilities.  I respectfully speak my opinion rather than just assume that the ideas/thoughts of others are better or more important.

Reflecting like this kind of makes me think... where will my career take me in the next 10 years?  Will I still be working at the same company?  Will I even be working at all or will I be staying at home with kids?

What has your job/work experience been like? Are you doing what you expected when you finished school?  Have you changed careers or gone back to school for something else?