Cynicism...

Today the CIO of JLL is coming to visit us today! How exciting! "Welcome to our company! You're fired!" lol.

I've been trying to determine the proper music to set the tone...started off with Zombie Girl, but that didn't quite capture the mood. Currently, I'm listening to the new Blue Stone, which is a bit more soothing, but doesn't have that slight edge of tension or the overtone of cynicism that is needed. Am I obsessing about this too much?

Last night was a huge success in a very small way-We walked the dogs, ate three veggies for dinner and then I proceeded to not sleep! Two out of three isn't bad...

So Jerry and I were discussing the downturn in the economy the other night-it seems like the bad news just keeps coming...corn skyrocketing due to the flooding which will, in turn, jack up dairy, beef and chicken, the cost of iron ore doubling overnight...I know it's a bit paranoid, but I keep thinking how much nicer it would be to live in the country where we could have a bigger garden...and wider fields of fire.

I need to get out of my cynical train of thought as well. I'm going to go to the community garden tonight and bask in nature. Silly, but it actually helps.

Brief good things list: At the very least, I have almost four months worth of income and severance. I have a wonderful cast of people in my life that I love and love me. Staubach has been a wonderful experiences and will lead to better things. I get to go to the mountains soon.

Deep Blueberries

As Jeff mentioned, we went blueberry picking at a farm not too far east of Dallas. It's a summer tradition for us now, as we've been going there for several years. We loved being outside, it really wasn't too roasting hot. Very peaceful with birds chirping and the whole country bit. If you've never harvested your own food, you're really missing out. For kids, it shows them that food doesn't just come from grocery store shelves. We had a good time competing with one another as to who could find the biggest berry, the best bush (I mean that in the most G-rated sense) and fill their basket the quickest. It gets mesmerizing...you'll think you're done picking and then as you pass another plant, a branch just calls out to you...then you're sure that the sweetest, prettiest berries are on THAT plant and on and on. The farmer's picking advice to us was "when you find a good plant, look up, look down and in the middle. You'll miss good berries if you only pick at eye-level". What a metaphor for life! If you don't take the time to look around you, or to try and view a problem from another angle, you might just be missing out on the sweetest parts!

in other news, Jeff and I have renewed our quest to lead a healthier lifestyle....and of course lose weight too! We each picked a challenge for this week. Jeff's challenge for us is to get a minimum of 20 minutes of physical activity on at least 5 days this week. My challenge is for us to eat at least 3 servings of vegetables for 5 days. Daily would be better, but I want us to be realistic! the activity I think won't be too terribly hard....the vegetables is another story. I'll be scouring websites for new ideas. Feel free to send veggie recipes or serving ideas.

Weekend update

We spent Friday night with Kris and Jerry...we made fajitas and margaritas and happily got the kids to bed in a timely manner. The grownups (and i use the term loosely) went swimming and had a generally pleasant solstice-eve.
Later, when the women were ready for bed, Jerry very sneakily put in the director's cut of "Kingdom of Heaven" and that did it. I was mesmerized. What a difference adding all the details that they cut out. We made it through the first DVD, and then Jerry pretty much zonked. I took G and Micah and headed home.
Saturday afternoon we went to see "Stomp" at Fairpark. Really enjoyed it-what a fun show! Even Micah was, for the most part, enthralled. We ran into Glenn Jester and his wife (Team lead from AppDev at Staubach) there. I don't think that we've been to a "cultural" event this year that we haven't see Staubach folks there.
In keeping with an active weekend, we went to pick blueberries yesterday in East Texas. And pick blueberries we did! Two very large bags came home with us! More than we've ever picked before.
I'm still kind of fading in and out on being depressed about my job (all of IT's) ending soon. It's tres challenging to stay optimistic, but I'm trying.
Anyway, only one of my team is here, so we're hopping this morning. More later! Happy Monday...