The Summer of Twenty Thirteen.......

I figured it was time for another post even if I didn’t have something compelling to write about.

The last 10 or so days we have had some STELLAR summer weather and no end in sight.  On my weather app there are nothing but suns for the second week in a row.  You have no idea how excited everyone is! The gardens are bursting into bloom, the animals are basking in the sun and peace reigns throughout the land.  With all this nice weather it kills me to go to work everyday so I’ve been taking Fridays off.  That will cease come the new fiscal year though (July) when it gets extremely busy.  I’m sure summer will be over by then anyway! 

Isn’t this the coolest idea???   (herb garden)

I decided I needed to do some thinning of some of my plants that were spreading out of control.  Last year I had given stuff to a couple coworkers so this year I cast my net wider to include the entire grants and contracts section in an email offering aforementioned starts.  Much to my surprise, I’ve had a pretty good response and it has been fun having some coworkers over that I don’t know very well to share with (the Grants part of my office is housed in a different building so I don’t know them well).  Last night one gal came over and I in the course of visiting I realized she is the sister-in-law of another gal I used to work with so later that evening SHE came over too.  I hadn’t seen her in a couple of years and it was great to catch up.  This weekend I have several others coming. 

Chris just got over a particularly horrible summer cold.  It really laid him up for a few days.  It started as a sore throat and then went into his head and then developed into a nasty cough.  He spent all day Sunday in bed.  He is the biggest baby ever when he’s sick so he usually holes up in the bedroom and doesn’t come out.  I would stick my head in and ask him if he needed a popsicle or soup and I’d get a grunt in return that apparently meant ‘No’.  His appetite is the first thing that goes when he’s sick and he literally did not eat for three days.  He’s back to his usual tricks now (i.e., driving me nuts) so I know he’s on the mend.

A friend of mine started a photo scavenger hunt for the month of June.  She has a lists prompts for each day and we post a picture that illustrates her prompt.  It’s been great fun! I didn’t think I would be interested but day one was “a favorite thing” so of course, I had to post a photo of my cats and then the second day was “something pink” so I posted a picture of some bergenia I had blooming and then, one thing has led to another and almost everyday since I’ve found something to post.

The mosquitos have been fierce here lately!! I don’t remember them being so bad.  In the evenings when I’ve been out working in the yard they have been vicious.  In the house too.  We have hole in our screen door where Timmy scratched his way out so that has been a problem.  I keep suggesting we get a new one but Chris says he’ll just do it again.  But we’d have 5-6 years before there’d be holes, I say.    Honestly, with that kind of logic we’d never get anything new.

I’ve started a new series of books.  There are four altogether, the first one is A Million Tears by Paul Henke.  Such a great book.  It’s an epic saga of a family from a small Welsh town that immigrates to America in the late 1800’s.  Now I’m on Tears of War and Peace, and then Silent Tears ending with  Tears Until Dawn.  That should take me through the summer.  Although sandwiched in I’m reading a depression era novel called Face the Winter Naked, (Bonnie Turner). 

On the job front I am FINALLY being flexed from a Grant Administrator I to a GA II. It’s been a long process, I was first told I need to pass an oral test to flex.  So I took the test and passed and then I was told I needed to do a formal solicitation for professional services so that was completed a few months ago and then I was told I needed to do an informal solicitation so now that’s done.  I addition to my leasing duties I have to manage 10-15 contracts too, so I will be busy.  It hasn’t actually happened YET but I’m told next week.  It’s a 3 range bump so it will be a nice pay raise.  Of course, it’s all going into deferred comp to help pad the old retirement fund, should that ever come to pass!

Okay, I’m sure I have captivated my readership for long enough with the exciting details of summer, 2013.  To quote a favorite blogger of mine, Carry On Warriors!