Friday, July 22nd

Friday is here! Yay! And my work day is almost over.

Today has been far less stressful on the work front than the past few days. My review presentation went through my project manager successfully, and is now going through the client's project manager and word is that she is very happy with it so far. Whew! Now of course, what I should really do is go over and work on one of my despised tasks. Ha, fat chance.

I had a project meeting this morning. I went over with the project manager, a good friend of mine, Cari, about the meeting I will be attending on Monday for her. Her parents arrive in town and she has the day off. So since I am manager of the other task on the project, she is sending me. I am very nervous about this for some reason. Main reason is that I find the LDRD lead to be a very intimidating man. He is my division director, so my bosses boss. I shouldn't find him so intimidating, he is always so nice to me, talks to me, encourages me in different directions, and he was the one who ticked my former post-doc mentor off by hiring me, without consulting him. (Thank you, thank you, thank you.) Nonetheless I always feel intimidated in his presence. He is quick on his feet, ultra-smart, and speaks his mind. I am about the total opposite on all fronts. Ok, I am smart, but I feel as though my knowledge and quickness with my knowledge pales in comparison.

After our project meeting, and my extensive note taking in some vain effort to prepare myself for the meeting on Monday, I went to a brown bag seminar. Our brown bag seminar lunches aren't so "brown bag". My manager orders pizza. It was down at one of the other sites, the site that houses 1/3 of the staff in my new group. It was nice though, I found the room and walked in and two guys I know waved me over to sit with them. I feel as though I am finally getting to know people in my group. The transition hasn't been especially easy.

I have been here just over three years and have had three, very different managers. This one is THE most hands off, do your own thing manager I have ever had. Seriously I feel as though I work for myself, oh and my project managers. Consequently, with my lack of interaction with her, I also find her very intimidating. The vast majority of my section of my group, the people in my building who I followed to the new group, are extremely concerned with her "hands off" nature. My mentor admited this feeling yesterday, and he is a level 5 scientist. We seem to have fallen through the cracks. We have no admin support still, we come in and do our thing and manager has no idea if we are even here or not. Of course, I complained of my last manager about his micromanaging anal-ness. The grass is always greener.

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Today, the 22nd was my due date last year. I remember on my due date being told I was "green as a gourd", as in not ripe for delivery. I also remember not being surprised. I think back to this time last year and how unprepared I was for how my life was going to change, all for the better. I knew I was having a baby, but the concept of what a little individual he would become so quickly really escaped me. I can't believe my baby is almost one. In one instance the time has flown by, in another I can't even remember life without Leif. They say from 12-18 months is the most dangerous... the time when you realize your baby is not so much a baby and you miss that and want another. Umm, yeah. I see that coming down the pipe pretty soon here. Although my desire to actually BE pregnant isn't really there yet. But it will be soon I am sure.

This weekend is going to be crazy busy. I have made lists in about 15 different areas. So here I am going to make an attempt at consolidation.

Target:
Leif's birthday stuff:
-decorations
-plates, napkins, plasticware
-Water table for Leif
-price slides and wonder if he really needs one or am I just contributing to overindulgence...
-wrapping paper and lots of ribbon
Look at chairs for Leif
Pillow for Leif, I have given in, he LOVES sleeping on a pillow.
Baby Advil, damn teeth

Grocery store:
To fill our empty cabinets

Costco:
Diapers
Zinfandel (because you can't have ribs with no zin - red that is...)
Oh yeah, umm Ribs
Artichoke dip stuff
Pita chips
Books (because my unread stack is apparently not large enough yet...)
Carter's one piece outfits
Order prescription sunglasses (mine are now officially 7 years old. Can we say "dated"?)

Bank:
Because the above stuff will need to be paid for.

AND I must buy gifts and cards for my MIL and my mom's birthdays.

Chores:
Weed the front gardens
Put the bark mulch IN the front garden that I bought back in May. (Does no good in garage.)
Deadhead and trim back brown iris and tulip remnants (this is getting embarrassing...)
Weed back gardens.
Harvest basil and make pesto or something (gone to seed)
CLEAN the back porch (now the state of that porch is embarrassing).

Which begs the question, does anyone's husband put away the tools he uses? I am sure there is a good reason the weed whacker that was used weeks ago is still out back along with a shovel (used months ago) and a saw (?!?! used who knows when). I suppose when they get ruined it gives Hans a chance to buy the new version or the version that he *really* wanted instead of the one we could afford at the time.

Oh well!

Have a super weekend everyone!