And yet again I say...

... I suck at blogging/journalling/stuff like this.

So... let's see if I can capture the highlights of the past couple of weeks.

My aunt (well, one of them... one of the twins) came over from Ireland. She was going to some liturgical musicians' conference that Dad was going to, so they (along with Mom and the director of the group I sing with at church) all drove down together. Much fun was had by all accounts. And when they got back, I showed off our still-relatively-new-to-us home. Much oooh-ing and aaaah-ing :)

I decided as a belated birthday present for my Mom that I'd go get some gooseberries at our local pick-your-own farm and make her some gooseberry jam. She grew up with gooseberry bushes in the bottom of the garden and her mom used to make jam every year, so there's a nostalgia aspect. So... 2.5 hours, 4 mosquito bites, a dozen or so bad scratches (those things have inch-long spikes on the stems!), and many sore muscles later, I had two small baskets of berries. Then began the "topping and tailing" of them... taking off the stems and the extra bit at the bottom. Talk about time consuming! But it's for Mom, so I'm happy to do it. And today.... today I finally made the jam. Well, the first batch, anyway. The recipe I've got makes a batch using about 1/3 of the berries, so I've got another 2 batches to go. I will say this, though... I tried a berry on it's own... not a big fan, but the jam's quite tasty!

We had a shake-up at work. Figures. Less than 6 months on the job and we go through a re-org. Not just a re-org, though, a re-org that has myself, my team-mate (W) and our boss (J) moving to work for another manager. Indeed, one that has our team dissolved so that neither W nor I report to J any more. So, after 2 weeks of wondering who I work for, or even what I do, I found out on Monday that I'm actually not going to the other senior manager with W and J. I'm staying put in a new role that doesn't have a title or a mandate as of yet, reporting to someone who hasn't been hired yet. So, I still don't know who I report to or what I do, but at least I don't have to pack my desk *laugh*.

I must say, I'm looking forward to handing off a few of the things I've got on the go... one in particular is causing me unnecessary angst and I won't be sorry to see it go to someone else. My concern (because of my warped sense of responsibility) is that it's a fairly large campaign that's going to be a rush job (for various reasons) and it's set to launch either August 31st or September 4th (long weekend). So I really need to keep working on that until I know who'll be taking it over. Annoying. My other projects are less urgent, but I'd like to hand them off soon rather than get sucked too far into them. So here's hoping that the new org chart comes out today.

Dad had his 60th birthday while they were away... so when they got back we had a big dinner out. 10 people total. Fancy schmancy restaurant (Duncan House, if you know it).

Been hitting Shannon's Tuesday Night Distraction Club with decent regularity. It's good for some laughs with a great group of gals... and it gets me out of the house. Last night 3 of us had dinner at La Papillon... yummy crepes!

My primary chat forum is doing a 'secret girlfriend' exchange. Everyone's got an assignement and we send 2 cards and 1 'gift' per month. We're in month #2 now... I'm having a blast sending stuff to my gal. Just sent my second package to her yesterday, and Canada Post tell me she should get it tomorrow. Yay! In return I've gotten.... nothing yet. Not a card, even. That kinda sucks. I mean, I understand that life gets in the way sometimes and packages might not get sent (or might get sent with the wrong address, apparently)... but it takes 5 minutes to write a card and shove it in a mailbox. :( So, in order to assure I get something in the mail that's not a bill or junk, I've also arranged a few pen-pals ;) Should be fun.

Nik came over on Sunday for a few hours. Saw the new place. Met Chloe. Oddly, Chloe and Grimm seemed to switch roles for her visit. Grimm was very social with her (even gave her some "kisses").... while Chloe wanted nothing to do with her! Very odd.

Our other little project has hit a fairly significant snag, so it's on hold for a month or so while we figure out how we want to deal with that.

We've finally got all the dead stuff cleared out of the sun-room... and we bought a hibiscus to plant in the one spot that still needs clearing (some funky palm-type thing that's just gone crazy... it grew horizontal before I started to go vertical, and as a result, it's taking up entirely too much space and really can't be 'fixed'... so it's going to get chucked).

And that's about it. Next up... BJ's birthday party this Sunday, then a surprise party not too far distant to prep for and a baby shower in August. Plus D's birthday and my own (which I'd happily ignore if I was allowed *laugh*)

So... I think that's it... caught up. Now if only I could remember to update a bit more often it might be more entertaining... and maybe, just maybe people would read the damn thing! *laugh*