The week in review

• Monday - I work at one of those places that goes through the motions of annual reviews.  These are also known as "self assessments".  But first, one has to define one's goals, aka MBOs (manage by objective).  Besides the usual project-related goals, the company assigns a corporate level one.  This year's corporate goal is to SIMPLIFY - we each are supposed to come up with something we personally can drive to help simplify the company.  The employees view this as a joke, of course.  HOWEVER, in my spare time, I have been rewriting an application I support, in MS Access.  If I can pull this off, it definitely would count toward simplification.
• Tuesday - My SO and I went to see Garrison Keillor at The Embassy.  What a great storyteller!  If you listen to "A Prairie Home Companion," you are familiar with his "News from Lake Wobegone" segment.  This was like that but instead of 10 minutes, he rattled on for TWO HOURS.  And two hours of Garrison is equal to two hours of laughter.  My SO and I were at the lower end of the age demographic of the audience, but close enough.
• Wednesday - Even though we were not out late Tuesday night, I scheduled this day as a vacation day, just in case.  Started with a massage; while the therapist was working my back, she asked, "Have you had this checked out?"  What?  She thinks I have a lipoma, aka "fatty tumor".  This aging thing is not really working for me.
• Thursday - My SO left for New Mexico, to visit his son and family.  So now I am off boy friend duty for a week or so.  I am really glad he is in my life, but sometimes I need a little alone time.
• Friday - Earlier this week, I purchased a book at Barnes & Noble (40% off and I had a gift card).  Today I stopped at Borders to buy Moleskines.  Once upon a time, I wanted to own a bookstore, but today's reality is I rarely visit them.  In fact, thanks to a great local library system and a small house, I rarely buy books at all.
• Saturday - The usual - laundry, vacuuming, soup making (Red Lentil and Squash from Love Soup) - plus grandbaby sitting.  See video clips below, if you dare.  One is from last week, one from last night.
• Sunday - Nada de particular.  I have been doing a little furniture rearranging (which is a good way to motivate myself to also do a little spring cleaning) and hope to complete the West Wing today.  When I work from home, I like to sit in the West Wing, at the bistro table by the windows, but the afternoon glare can be brutal.  Plus the bistro table was so cluttered with work and computer crap, I could not use it for other activities.  So I moved my desk from the family room, positioning it behind the love seat, just to see how that works.  I can now avoid the afternoon glare but still keep an eye on the bird feeders and bird bath; I can also eat my lunch at the bistro table.  Now I just need to put an area rug under my chair and put away the crap that seems to erupt whenever I attempt any cleaning that goes beyond vacuuming.