I feel way behind here. Sorry about that, life has just been going a bit faster than I can keep up. Immediately after going out to help Mom and Beth, I started my new job and since then, my life has been as sponge-girl, absorbing as much as possible.

In my third week, I went on a whirlwind two-day trip to Austin, TX and worked with folks in our offices there, to learn their systems. They have the most well oiled filing and tracking system for compliance. It is a much smaller office than the one I work in, but everyone is super nice and they kindly took me out Tuesday night for this wonderful place called the Eastside Cafe. It is in a lovely old house and in the back they have a garden where they grow many of their herbs and veggies. We had an appetizer of portebella mushrooms dumplings with a soy ginger dipping sauce. I could have had 10 of those, they were SO yummy. Then for dinner I had shrimp in a panko and almond breading, and an apricot butter dipping sauce. It tasted amazing, and I suspect it might be something I could recreate at home. 

The biggest problem of the trip was that I had to be up at 3 am to catch the shuttle to the airport for a 6:30 am flight! Then once I was in Austin, it was straight to work, then a phone conference with the California office at 6:30 pm and dinner at 7:30 pm. Dinner finished at 9:00 pm, so there was really no time to explore, just back to the hotel and collapsing in bed. Next morning I was up at 6 am (4 am CA time, which I was still really on) and back to work at 8:00. I worked till noon, then was back to the airport, dropping off my rental and back on flights home.

I was finally home by 7 pm the following night and it took me a full week of grabbing sleep when ever I could to catch up and be a human again.

This week the girls are off school for the whole week, due to Thanksgiving. They are of course very happy. We have been trying to find a Wii for them, primarily to get Megan to get more active with her computer game addiction, but they are hard to find, especially on sale. Today we scored though! Target had them on sale, starting at 8:00 am. We had been there just the day before and they didn’t have any, and the sale was for stock on hand with no rain checks. So I pulled Joe out of bed, figuring they must have put some out last night and they would be limited and we trucked over there. Yeah, we were successful! We not only got a Wii game console on sale, but we got the Wii Fit pack on sale as well (another item that has been very hard to find!)

So Joe is busy setting it up, and it will give the girls something new and fun to be doing this week, since I will still be working till Thursday.

I do have Thursday and Friday off, and I also get Monday off (due to my birthday! Yeah!), so I get a 5-day weekend! Woohoo! My employer gives you one day off the week of your birthday and this year I am luckily very close to Thanksgiving, so that all worked out very nicely. Technically my b-day is Tuesday, but I prefer a 5-day weekend to the alternative of 4 days off, one on, one off.

The girls will do Thanksgiving with us on Thursday, then Gene is going to take them for the remainder of the afternoon and Friday, as he normally has them. Joe and I are going up to the B&B in Julian that we stayed at last fall. We just loved it so much. Here are pictures of the cottage we will be staying in:

You should be able to click on it for a larger image.  They have the most amazing chef and do fantastic 4-star dinners. Last year we had rack of lamb that I can still taste when I think about it. We will also be there for the Christmas tree lighting and on Sunday we plan to go see the Wolf Reserve nearby.

I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday and takes a moment to think about all the things we have to be grateful for. I am glad for my wonderful family, my health, a job with good benefits and a cozy home to live in. So many people these days can’t count on those things.

How can we possibly be just two months away from a new year already? Wow! I apologize for my lack of posts, I have been very busy.

Shortly after my last blog, my youngest sister Beth, was admitted to the hospital again. I managed to delay my start at work by one week, so I could go out and be with her and my mom for a week, helping as I could. The biggest project was helping to clean up Beth’s house, which she has not been able to properly attend to, due to her depression. She has five cats, so I had a lot of help! While there, I got to meet mom’s cute new dog, Ranger. He is still a puppy and is busy chewing on anything and everything, but he is awful cute. I think that is what keeps him alive!  Here are a couple pictures of him:

Anyhow, we got a ton done while I was there for the week,  but I was exhausted and slept 14 hours my first night back home!

Then I had Sunday to recover and then started my new job on Monday! My first week went pretty well, but there is a lot to learn. The company I work for manufactures and sells a large range of medical products and there are a lot of safety laws in place for the protection of the consumer.  My job is working in the compliance department and working to make sure all the various laws are followed by the company and that the company would be able to pass any audits. So this week, I was busy learning laws, procedures and about a zillion new medical terms and acronyms! But I am definitely making progress and have already started to evaluate and track some of the various requests we get. My specific job is working with requests for grants for medical research, further education, etc.

Meanwhile this week, our friend Joerg from Germany visited for a couple days, before flying back home today, out of LAX. He comes out to the US every couple years and visits various friends. He also uses the opportunity to stock up on English science fiction books, which is one of his passions. He was very popular with the girls, because he brought 3 gift bags full of candy from Germany. Becca has been taking it to school and sharing with her friends, which has made her very popular.

And of course, we had Halloween yesterday. Becca decided to go as a pirate and Becca wanted to be a Japanese anime-type of character. Joe took them over to our old house in Carlsbad, and they went around with their friends there and came home with piles of candy. Meanwhile, I went to bed early, being way too exhausted after my first week at work. We didn’t get any trick-or-treaters at the Vista house, but we are off the beaten track here, and they are no longer any young kids on the short block we live on. So, in closing, here are a couple pictures of the girls in their Halloween costumes:

Megan in her kimono

Becca the pirate!