Athaclena

Let's see..... Litter boxes cleaned, trash loaded and taken to the dump. The oven (lower oven that we use) had Easy Off No Fume sprayed on, waited about 3 hours and rinsed\wiped (the door needs another treatment - another day satan.... another day) and then heated up to 500 Convection with hood fan running to make sure all fumes are gone before we cook in it again. Since the Dishwasher was actually empty, ran some power wash clean\sanitizer through it this morning. Got mom's Talbots return put together and sent off. Swung by Walmart for Mom's meds and a couple of things we can't get at Aldi's tomorrow. Found Mom's Ear/Nose/Throat specialist and marked it for a drive by tomorrow so she'll know where it is and can go Tuesday by herself. I think that's enough adulting for one day LOL.

I'm trying to figure out how I missed your thread - but it has been crazy 'round here so I shouldn't be too surprised - but I wanted to weigh in a bit on your potential career switch. 3 decades of IT Experience here - in my career I've done corporate help desk, DBA, full stack developer (mainly web apps - not the fancy graphics but doing the "meaty" back end), System Administration (that + DBA made me a much, much better dev), IT Consulting Services and am now a Solution Architect in Pre-Sales meaning I understand how the bits interact in large, complex software stacks so I help with all of the fiddly bits and crazy technical questions potential customers ask around the details of the super complex application stack my company builds\sells (and spend a fair amount of time questioning the sanity of Product\Engineering for spending dev time on "shiny new X" when we really need to spend time on fixing that thing they didn't build back into the product when they re-wrote it 10 years ago and I will beat that dead horse until it's back in, I've moved on or I'm dead - so stop asking what else we need to add to the product - ahem). Knowing everything I know now...... I probably wouldn't have gone into IT. There are parts that are..... soul crushing, especially as a strong-willed woman. And I've done as WELL as I have because of that strong will and refusing to be paid less like my female co-workers - but there are many aspects of IT that are soul crushing because management treats you like a widget most of the time. I've changed jobs numerous times only to be pigeon-holed - because I'm too good at that full-stack dev gig and I was just..... done. Would that have happened if I'd gone another direction? Maybe, maybe not. Would I have made less $$? Probably - I've been pretty good with my career moves to at least make above median (after finding out HOW underpaid I was at that first corporate gig). But if I'd become a Pharmacist (one of my serious considerations).... the pay would actually have been somewhat on par and I would have been able to skip the years I averaged 80 hours a week because management could get away with it. Also - at the time it was a 2-year degree unlike it is today. Hindsight is 20/20 or better..... If you have a particular passion (such as wanting to help make translation\speech conversion applications better) - as a few others have state, you do not need a degree. Heck - I don't have a degree - although I did get in several years at GA Tech majoring in Computer Science and minor in I/O Psychology of all things Will it make getting into IT in general easier? Sure. But the programs and areas you want to help with, I actually don't think anything you'd learn in a school setting in Information Technology would even help. I'd go directly to those companies and try to wiggle my in through User Groups and whatnot and try to get to the folks developing those areas and find out what skills they need to make those improvements. What you find may surprise you - for instance the physics of sound, how the mouth forms the sounds and other nuances that are completely outside of IT may be where the needed expertise lies ..... so with your shiny new degree, your skillset isn't what's needed to help in that area at all. All of that aside, one thing that is greatly missing are good IT Trainers - people that can both develop and deliver classes AND understand IT. I did this for a bit - teaching how to use the software my employer makes - and I loved it (one of the few things in my old role that I miss). So if teaching is also your thing (but are burned out on what you're teaching) - it's not a bad thing.

Today marks 5 days in a row I was up by 8:30a - and 4 days in a row that I've gotten a morning walk in. I've hit my little step goal every day. I'm going to try to increase my morning walk over next week and perhaps increase my step goal a smidge - but I don't want to get too ahead of myself because it's not like I've not been here before LOL.

Following - glad to see you back! I don't plant (at least on purpose) hot peppers because they will cross pollinate and give you ALL hot peppers LOL. We've harvested exactly 1 cucumber. I'm pretty sure we're feeding wildlife with the veggie plants. The basil plants mom picked up from a local nursery, however, have made some AMAZING pesto! I think next year I'm going to NOT start with seed and just pick up plants from there (after April 15).

Another nice walk with the pooch - this time with an actual leash I mean, she doesn't pull so I could go back to the string .... but it's a bit safer. There were several cars so I was able to make sure she was safe from darting out which gives me piece of mind even if she's smart enough to stay out of the road. But walking ALSO encourages her to do her business so it's win, win, win in my book. Of course she calmly lets me unhook the leash once we're back in our yard and she bolts to run, because that's really what she's made for. We need to try to make a space for chickens this fall so we can do that and she can herd them next year LOL.

Update: Roomie had found her leash and let me know where he put it - so dog walks will be happening more regularly (at a minimum this week - hope to keep them up long term). Also - I need a nap. And a vacation. And million $$ wouldn't hurt....

Roomie 1 is in DC for the last week of support for those finals and tear down (back next Monday) so we're dogsitting. I actually went for a walk this morning and took her with me. She's such a sweetie. We've been unable to find her leash (we usually just let her on supervised runs on the property) so I grabbed a long piece of paracord and did a slipnot on her collar. Yes, I walked her on a piece of string LOL. I got in a walk, she pooped in new places and we were both happy LOL. Got back to our property (just where we call her back to keep her from the road) told her she was a such a good dog and released the slip knot and she got her run in around the front yard LOL. I'm going to order a leash today so later this week I can give her a bit more range on the walk and I'm not in fear of rope burn if she sees a deer and forgets that there's a limit..... I need to keep up the walking because at the end of this month there will be TONS at DragonCon so I need to build up my tolerance for it..... And it's not like even when roomie is here I can't walk her - its good for both of us (she's half chocolate lab and half Australian Shepherd, unfortunately I have nothing for her to herd except my cats that have NONE of that nonsense LOL).

Nothing like glancing outside to see the sheriff knocking on my door. Court summons for roomie (about an unpaid CC) *sigh*.

Didn't get the Canada gig. One the one hand, business we didn't get. On the other, we can enjoy the pre-planned vacation it conflicted with. We'll see if a bunch of DJ's can pull off the back end network for a national Expo......

Even if he were, he knows hubby aren't the kind of people that will let that slide.... We're laid back but we have limits and taking care of your pets is a BIG one....

Ugh. I refuse to feel bad. Dude that we've taken in - which was supposed to be about 6 months while he "got back on his feet" - had a dog when he came that we were ASSURED was house broken and trained. Turns out, truthfully, he was neither. Sweet pup (husky) but wouldn't come when called and thought our sun porch was where he was to do his business. He ran off after being here about a month and never found. I felt a sigh of relief in some respects and hope he was picked up by a good family because *I* was tired of cleaning up pi$$\poop on my sun porch (because it would happen about 2 minutes after roommate left the house and I was NOT going to leave it for hours) and while I love animals, I didn't have the time to work with the dog to make sure he was trained. That was a year ago..... Today, this morning, he comes up and tells me he found a dog he likes. Well my friend, you're barely paying your bills (didn't mention that he had yet to pay a single dime of rent - I shouldn't have to - he told us JUST 2 WEEKS ago he felt bad for not meeting the obligations he promised), can't afford healthcare, even WITH food stamps (which he's contributed a bit to food with - but that was to be on top of a token rent), you can't afford a dog. You can't use food stamps for his food or pay vet bills (I didn't even go into his inability to make sure the dog is actually trained), you have to be able to take care of yourself first before making a home for a pet. That's just how I feel, I can't support you having a dog here. He dropped several hints about dogs needing to be rescued from kill shelters over the last couple of months - but apparently hints that we aren't able to take in dogs even temporarily aren't enough. I do, truly get the mental health angle - but how worse is it going to be when something happens, you can't afford the vet bill and neither can I? Yes, this is a nice house and we eat well but it is a stretch even on my salary (especially until hubby's company is making $$ not consuming $$). Gah. I'm even making a birthday cake for your pseudo-girlfriend who is here visiting and couldn't afford a hotel (because she is sheltered, never traveled and apparently didn't understand that flight cost changes and goes up the closer to your travel dates you get). So.... AITA? No.... no I'm not...... Anyway, the cakes are out of the oven and cooling and smell amazing. Red velvet is one of my favorites too (well, chocolate with cream cheese icing, I don't have food coloring in the house). Just had to rant a bit....

Update on Canadian gig - no news today but expect an update Monday at noon. I still can't believe I've been crashing between 9 & 10 and up at like 7:30 so I can walk. I even have time to take LONGER walks if I can keep that up. It's supposed to cool off a bit next week which will help that. More walking is really good if I can keep that up this month because D*Con as Labor Day Weekend (8/31 - 9/4) and there will be LOTS of walking then..... In other news, I've been fussing with invisible walls and such with the updated Robot Vacuum App ( have a RoboRock S6 named "Rosie") and I now have a couple of areas scheduled for her to vacuum DAILY to help keep up with a better base level clean in the common areas. I started with the laundry room \ back pantry where we ALSO have the litter boxes to keep the litter tracking down. Now I've sectioned off where I keep the cat food so she won't go in that area of the kitchen so I've ALSO now added the kitchen, dining room and main pantry (and main entranceway\hall). If I can work out a solution for Teal'c's favorite catbed to get it off the floor and manage the cables for the heating pad I can do ALL of the main areas daily and then just worry about occasionally scheduling my office and bedroom\bathroom..... I love my bathmat but Rosie would TOTALLY get stuck on it and I never know hubby's sleep schedule..... but the main areas being cleaned more regularly will really help my sanity. I've gotten accustomed to a cleaner home and I really want to keep it that way!

Congrats Tank! No need to waste the expensive stuff on me as I don't appreciate it correctly. Use the cheap stuff for my whiskey sour LOL.

I think today is the 3rd day I got up early and went for a walk. Dropping from sheer exhaustion at 9p seemingly has an upside LOL. Updated quote for emergency last minute job in Canada is in. We'll probably know today or Monday - then we get to whirlwind test the systems we plan to send and pack it up leaving space for the stuff that will come back from the DC gig in a week and get it all to the client before hubby and friend head to Quakcon (and rush back to fly to Canada LOL). It's kinda crazy ATM.

Re-org going on at the day job. I've put a bug in the my soon to be former boss's ear who will see if we're actually building that other team, she agrees I'm likely the best to lead\build it and we'll see how that goes. My "new" boss post re-org is the boss I had all last year - who I like so the re-org for me is almost ho hum in a way. Working still on landing the other business for hubby's company that dropped in our lap. I've confirmed our biz insurance covers us for liability in Canada so we're good there too. Just lots of stuff. Mom is willing to step up and handle some of the minor tasks at the homestead (like - Mom - here's something we need, can you call these 4 companies and get quotes or setup 30 min calls with me in this time frame or visits here, etc. Basically minor "personal assistant" stuff. We'll see if they bite on the quote - I looked at the other company that is bidding that we know of - they're a DJ service that can support streaming (like for weddings). To put on a digital expo? Get the F outta here. I know we're going to be higher on the quote but FFS we actually know what we're doing. Stuff has been stagnant for so long.... I'm in WTF mode LOL. But this is how my life happens. Hurry up and wait or OMG DO ALL THE THINGS RIGHT NOW. I wish I could be bored and pay our bills LOL.

I got my steps in today going back and forth to the workshop\warehouse. We may have a new client that is putting on a big 18 day event that starts in 3 weeks.... in Canada..... that just had their sponsor that was going to build the network backout. In the middle of this is teardown of the months long event in DC, hubby and the main cable guy (who is also a close friend and roommate even at this point) go to QuakeCon - and the end of the event coincides with my (and hubby's) yearly pilgrimage to DragonCon. I've been expecting hubby's company to finally take off, yesterdays meeting was good so I was thinking next year was the year and holy shizzballs it may not be next year but literally today LOL.

OMG @Severine I haven't seen you in a hot minute! I think we may still be "friends" on Fitbit - maybe not Long story short - we finally moved to the TN mountains, are 100% remote, Mom moved in with us in Feb (really long family BS Drama resolution) and we have 2 roomates (one works with us on our side gig and wanted to help more and get out of TX, the other was helping someone in a bad situation). We're looking at small cabins we can drop on the property for Mom to have her own space, roomie\sometimes employee is slated to be here about 2 years and the other guy needs to get on his feet and find somewhere else Yesterday's meeting went..... extremely well I think. I'm pretty sure we're about to actually get solid, consistent work which is partially exciting because roommate that moved in to help with the company has been taking unpaid leave from a job he HATES to work our events may be busy enough he can tell that job to shove it. We're still going to have to pour every "not paying resources and overhead" penny into additional R&D, making the warehouse better, etc. for a bit, but we may be very, very busy starting..... now as we wrap up a long term project, have essentially partnered with a production firm to do their networks for their larger events and are working to take over the network for a..... large eSports franchise because they've had consistent issues with their current provider for their large events..... So I'm gonna have 2 full time jobs for a bit it looks like. On my day job front, I'm having a bit of a "come to <<insert deity>>" moment around..... we really need to have a TAM (technical account manager) program and someone needs to own it and as I look around, there's really exactly 1 person qualified to do it and I'm going to talk to my boss today if that's something we can work toward and what that would look like. it's a BIG gulp because I want less than nothing to do with the HR side (performance reviews, etc.) but we really need one. It's also somewhere for the really good customer services Services folks to move to. When it rains.... it pours..... If only that translated into accelerated house payoff so I can retire as planned in 9 years..... And challengewise, I got my steps in yesterday. Huzzah!

Yep. I'm still trying to walk. My one goal is drag my sorry a$$ out of bed in the morning and walk. That's it. That's the challenge. We're working to lock down some new stuff with hubby's company so we're busy AF. Business meeting about an event later this year tomorrow and working a takeout for another series of events where their current network vendor has not been doing a good job so we're working our contacts on their next big event and helping some coordination and some other sticks in the fire may catch so fingers crossed 2024 is "the year" to actually get his company off the ground and running.....

OMG - someone else with an adhesive allergy! I have yet to figure out what adhesive I'm allergic to. I've never had a single solitary problem with band aids or medical tape from the store, but I had a SEVERE reaction once to whatever adhesive they used on my IV at the hospital when I was young. I just won't know until I stick something to my skin and end up with a rash.....

Present. Still not giving up LOL.

I've.... still not been walking, but I'm working on tweaking my waking hours a tad earlier. This week I should be able to pull that off. Also - I let my sourdough go a bit too much, but still wanted good waffles while I revive it and get it up to snuff. I found and like this recipe for Overnight Yeasted Waffles and they are darn tasty - with a couple of minor tweaks now that I've made them twice. First, up the Baking Soda the next day to a full teaspoon to achieve GBD Waffles (that's Golden, Brown, Delicious). If you WANT them pale while still crunchy, just leave it out. It's the Baking Soda that helps the browning. Also - for the love of all that's holy, add 2 tsp of vanilla extract when you're doing your final mix the morning of making the waffles. You'll thank me later LOL. OK - on to the next challenge where I (again) try to start getting walking regularly back on track.

I've been..... busy. Niece and nephew came for a visit. Another friend is here until Wed. A friend of one of our rommates has a guest coming in 2 weeks. Hubby has Blizzcon coming up. I've had big clients being needy. We're planning to go look at Mennonite built cabins this weekend (less expensive than site built or mobile home) to perhaps drop one on the property for Mom. Had to replace the A/C at the shop. Just.... stuff. I haven't been doing as much walking as I'd planned. Still can't get to sleep at a decent hour and get up and walk before it's too damn hot. *sigh* But we're eating well. I'll keep plugging away at it.....

I've..... gotten better about just getting up and walking away. Oh.... I say my peace first because I'm an extroverted introvert - but once I've done so I gotta go. Peace out. I have learned the power of a sternly worded letter/email/post though. I've changed stupid corporate policies even - especially when they're applied incorrectly to groups where the financial impact is negative instead of positive. The group is actually sponsored by a company - but it's also extremely active with 123k members so they can't catch everything (and neither do I) - but I find gatekeeping in general stupid. Whether it's a fandom (really? we're all fans can we not get along?) or out and out bigotry of any kind, it infuriates me. And so I've had a base level of anger due to the current US political situation and I may be touchier than usual.

Long story short - there's a "legal" definition for what can be called "Pure Vanilla Extract". But in essence all you REALLY need are some vanilla beans, at least 70 proof alcohol (but probably not over 90 proof) and time. The beans should be covered by the alcohol so they don't mold. The rest impacts time to get a good extract. If you want to extract fancy 13" long beans and keep them intact - you'll want a tall\thin jar to get them covered and leave them on a shelf for 2 years. Me? I cut them up and get a good extract in 9 months. I only buy fair trade beans - and I source them through Indri Vanilla in Utah. They buy the FULL harvest from their farmers and pay a fair wage - so if you want Hawaiin beans, they're much more expensive. They have a retail site (which is the link) but you can also get in on "group buys" which can be significant savings and are limited by time and sometimes quantities if it's a small harvest or particularly popular. I've bought several batches of beans through them. Since I'm making it for me and I don't need pretty whole beans, I don't buy Grade A - I get in on the "extract" beans which may be mixed varieties and not the gorgeous 13" beans.

TFW you're in an argument on a Vanilla board about how you really, truly do not need to stress much over the bean to alcohol ratio making extracts - and that the fact that I have never seen "Single Fold, Double Fold, Triple Fold" verbiage on a bottle of vanilla in a store does not mean that it doesn't exist. It just means that most people who are not pastry chefs or professional bakers truly don't know - and if you insist on gatekeeping making a vanilla extract "the right way" I will continue to call you out for your gatekeeping and stupidity. 1 oz of beans in an 8 oz container topped with 70-80 proof alcohol exceeds the "legal" requirements to be called Vanilla Extract - the rest is f'ing semantics and I WILL fight you about it because some people will not even start in the hobby if they think they truly need to measure out with a ratio of .1 oz of beans per 1 fl oz of 70 proof alcohol (so .8 oz of beans to 8 oz). I'm a hobbyist, not selling (although I could) and 1.25 fold is just fine for me - and I'd sell it as Pure Vanilla Extract because it meets the legal definition - and I get a usable extract in 9 months by slicing\cutting the beans and shaking well every day for the first couple of weeks to really get the vanillan out of the beans. I don't care how much I'm told "but it HAS to be 12 months" - MF no it doesn't. If you prefer to wait another 3 months ( and there are those that INSIST on 18 or 24 months) - knock yourself out - but after 9 months in Capt. Morgan White rum I have better vanilla than anything I've tried commercially (which of course doesn't mean I CAN'T find a superior commercial product - just that I haven't found one and since I can make a half gallon of vanilla for about what the REALLY GOOD stuff costs for 8 oz - GTFO). In other news - I went for a walk LOL.