sick...Sick...SICK! of the Rain

It has been raining non-stop for days.  Hard rain.  Rain that wakes you up in the night.

We discovered some plumbing problems last weekend (the water line that goes from the road to the house was leaking) so Hub and I were outside quite a bit last Saturday and Sunday.  Of course it rained the hardest when we were outside...It was miserable.  My hands got so cold and wet they felt like claws.  We ended up turning off the water until we could get it fixed, only turning it on briefly to take a shower in the morning and do dishes at night.  Turning it off and on of course entailed being out in the rain again. (We were fortunate that we finally did get the line replaced mid-week.)

Then Wednesday morning I needed to change the license plates on my car.  There was some confusion at Licensing, so the plates didn't actually arrive until last Friday.   The plates on my car had actually expired at the end of February, but I had been waiting for a lull in the rain to change them.  Well, I waited and waited, until I started to get nervous about driving with expired plates.  So I finally changed them before I left for work...of course it was raining hard so I got soaked.  I had to go to work looking like a drowned rat.

Wednesday evening, Hub and I were getting ready to go to church for Ash Wednesday.  I was waiting for him and as I stood in the hallway, I could hear the rain beating hard on the roof.  All of a sudden, I just got overwhelmed and I blurted out loud "I'M SO FUCKING SICK OF THIS RAIN!"

Yes, I was on my way to church and I was cursing the weather (sorry, Lord).   

When I woke up this morning, I saw our dock and our neighbors' docks were either under or almost under water. 

 

Plus, we had apparently "acquired" another "floating" dock!  It must have broken loose from somewhere down the lake and had floated up to our beach.  (I'm sure someone will come looking for it when the weather gets better.)

Yesterday was nice for about 6 hours, but it has been raining non-stop again and is expected to rain through tomorrow night.  There are flood warnings all over western Washington.  Right now it's raining so hard that Buster is hiding under the bed.  He howls and barks when he's scared, and I can hear him in the bedroom barking away.  (I'm thinking of putting him in his Thundershirt, it does help calm him down.)   
 
Okay, I shall stop whining now!  On the bright side...it's not SNOW!  Daylight Savings Time starts tomorrow!  And I know Spring is on its way!

 

 

 

This Meme Says It...

I spent the last 2 (miserable) days in a class on designing interactive forms...the fact that I didn't get much out of it was NOT the fault of the instructor.  I'm not going to name the company, but here is a description of the class: 

...(this) software helps you easily author form and document templates that combine high-fidelity dynamic presentation with sophisticated XML data handling. (This software) lets you create form templates that can output to paper, PDF, and HTML5 without having to write scripts. Advanced layout capabilities let you preserve the appearance of imported PDF documents, while spell-check and customizable user dictionaries reduce the chance of errors.     

Hahaha...Yeah, right.

I know my limitations, and I simply DO NOT have an affinity, talent...or interest...for or in this stuff.  

But...We use a lot of forms in my department, and most are just print-them-out-and-fax-them-in.  We are trying to move into the 21st century.  In spite of the fact that am not good at this AT ALL, I'm still the person MOST qualified in our department to take on this task.  Scary, huh?  I'll still need to have our IT staff do the majority of the form design, because I don't want to wreak havoc on our website with misbehaving forms.  

We're a bit short staffed this week.  It's not my normal gig anymore, but I'm going to be out doing some inspections tomorrow.  I haven't done inspections for several years, so I'm actually looking forward to that after being cooped up in front of a computer for 2 days.  Should be fun...it will be nice to spend a day doing something I know how to do, or at least USED to know...I hope I remember what I'm supposed to be looking for! (*lol*)

BTW, do a Google image search on "computer meme."  There are some hilarious ones...  
    

Quiet Birthday Day

Today is my birthday, and so far I've done almost nothing.  I'm actually pretty tired from yesterday, so I took B to the park and now I'm watching the Olympics.  It's a rainy dreary day, so it feels good to just be cozy on the couch.   

We celebrated my birthday last night, with 3 other couples (was supposed to be 4, but one of the fourth couple woke up Saturday with a bad stomach bug).  One couple we had not seen for almost 2 years, so it was great to see them and catch up. 

We started with champagne at our house, then off to a local Chinese seafood restaurant.  We go there a lot, and we love the people who own it.

Hub had chosen the menu in advance so when we got there, our table was prepared beautifully with a lovely centerpiece and napkins folded in the shape of a crane.  We ordered drinks, and the first course came out...lobster salad, made with celery, apples, and some other fruit I couldn't identify.  Whatever was in it...it was just wonderful. 

 An amazing display...and delicious! 

The rest of the dinner was excellent...honey walnut prawns, sesame beef, fried chicken stuffed with shrimp meat, scallops in black bean sauce, stir fried string beans, and for dessert...mango pudding shaped like a fish (in China, the fish symbolizes long life and good fortune).

Hub also brought in a red velvet cake from California Pizza Kitchen.   By the time we got to the cake, everyone was stuffed from the dinner, so our friends each took their cake home.  There were 4 pieces left, which Hub offered to our wait staff.  They had never had red velvet cake before, so they were excited to try it.  I had about half my piece left, which I'm going to eat tonight.  (I'm glad the rest is gone! If it were still in the house, I'd be obsessing over it.)     

My 61st birthday celebration wonderful evening and I was made to feel very special. I'm so fortunate to have good health, a wonderful husband, a sweet dog, a nice home, and a job I love.  I'm looking forward to a great year.