What beautiful summer weather we’re having. It was a long time coming, and of course we have the requisite winds, but the mornings and evenings are superb. Jim has been in Arizona for over a week; his fire engine and crew were sent to the Phoenix area, and, as of Father’s Day, had been more or less on vacation waiting to be called on a fire. There have been several big fires lately in that area, so I’m thinking his vacation is over. We haven’t heard from him, but I was heartened to note he has been using his debit card!
UltraDad was able to come home for 6 whole days; no mandatory overtime for his week off this time. I think he had a nice week. Saturday we had grilled salmon at brother Bill’s house at a neighborhood barbeque. Sunday we invited people over for a Father’s Day roast beef dinner, and UltraDad got to talk to all 4 of his progeny. UltraBob even called. I didn’t get to talk to him much, but it was, after all Father’s Day. I AM expecting a call on my birthday since he tells me another surprise visit is out of the question. Monday we spent in Pocatello with UltraHeather and were treated to lunch at the infamous Golden Corral (you know, one of those “all you can eat” buffets that makes you feel obliged to, well, eat all you can eat),a stop at the local fly fishing store and some fishing flies for Dad, and some fun card games at Heather’s house. The entertainment was Murphy, who kept digging out obscure cat toys from all the corners of Heather’s house. Several of them will never be the same or in any way resemble their former cat-toy selves. Tuesday, Dad went catfish fishing with neighbor Tom in his boat, and Wednesday spent recovering from said fishing trip. Thursday, back to Nevada, with fish packed in the cooler. I know what you are thinking. You assume just because he went fishing for catfish that the cooler was packed with his catch. That’s what you get for assuming! No, the fish in question were 2 painted tetras and one upsidedown catfish from my aquarium. I have been wanting to get rid of them ever since I learned that I would be moving and their filter quit working. It so happens that UltraDad’s sister and present landlord has an aquairum also, and I’m glad to report that all of the tropicals arrived safely in their new home.
So what have I been doing? At first it seemed really strange and almost, well, decadent, not to have a job to go to, but I seem to have gotten over that fairly quickly. The thing I miss is interacting with people. Not that Murphy isn’t sterling company, but, you know. OK, lets see…. Murphy and I have been on several bike rides. He really likes it now, and jumps around excitedly when I remove the black garbage-bag cover from his bicycle basket. We picked asparagus this morning and shared with several neighbors. I spent all day yesterday printing photos and making thankyou cards. It takes all day because my Microsoft Picture It, Publish It! program tends to shut down sporadically on a whim, taking with it any projects I am in the middle of perfecting. When will I learn to SAVE every 2 minutes? I also balanced numerous checkbooks and had several nice conversations with UD’s Doctor’s office trying to get his prescriptions straightened out. I mowed the lawn, have been watering the lawn nonstop and got the laundry all caught up. Led a WeightWatchers group on Wednesday and, or course, now I am writing a blog and watching “Pocahontas” on TV. What? Have I started going through stuff in the house? Hey, its not like I have nothing else to do. Ok, well it sort of is, but knowing me, I will require some sort of event or deadline to kickstart me.
Monday, Murph and I are off to Nevada to start trying to get on with our new lives, hopefully lives that will include much more of UltraDad.
UltraMom
Murphy and Proud Parents
Goin’ for a Ride
I’m too steamed to write anything intelligent about this, but check out the new york times story here: Justices, 5-4, Back Seizure of Property for Development. I have a hard time believing this even made it to the supreme court, much less that the court decided like they did.
What a day! I feel as though I had been run though a wringer! This, my friends, was my last day of work at the bank where I have been employed for almost 9 years.
I have recited this so many times, I shoud have just made a recording:
“My husband has been working in Nevada for 8 months and thinks I should join him there. No, I don’t have a house there yet. No, I don’t know if I am selling my house yet or not. I will be around off and on all summer. It will take me 5 years to go through the things in my current house (ha, ha).”
My unfortunate brother happened to be the lucky winner of the last straw question and was told “I don’t want to talk about it. I don’t know what I’m doing. Please don’t ask me any more questions.”
Yes, I know that people are interested and concerned, and I would probably be asking the same questions myself if the tides were turned. I’m not really upset with the questioners; more in turmoil myself because I have such mixed feelings and I really DON’T know what I am doing!
I DO know it was the right time to quit; in fact I gave notice over a month ago, but agreed to stay until a replacement could be found and hired. Last week, after the replacement had been hired, I had a little panic attack. “What am I doing? If I just worked for the bank for 2 more months, I could get paid for 2 more weeks of vacation! Its too late now; the new employee is halfway thru training.” I am SO wishy washy sometimes.
OKay, about today. I was totally overwhelmed by the outpouring of love and support I experienced today. Many, many people came to wish me well and express regret that I was leaving. I received a beautiful vase of flowers from a frequent customer who said she would miss me. Another customer/friend brought me a book and lovely vase and a card bearing this message: “In the theater, when they want to wish someone good luck, they say, “Break a leg.” I want to wish you a LOT of luck, so fracture an ankle! Burst an appendix! Pull a muscle! Pinch a nerve! Dislocate a toe! Get an ulcer!” Wow, she must REALLY love me!
I had told Teri, my long-term coworker and friend that I didn’t want a goodbye party; instead I wanted an early birthday party since I wouldn’t be there to celebrate my birthday in July. Well, I had balloons, some bearing the logo “Best Wishes” and others with “Happy Birthday”. I had a yummy (huge) cake that read “Happy Birthday, Kathy, and Good Luck.” and I had a birthday present; a really cute flower t-shirt and earrings. On top of that, they bought me lunch! AND I was one of the lucky winners in the Bank monthly drawing, and won $15. What a day.
Of course, it was also a very busy day for bank business, and I was hard pressed to do my job for one more day, talk to and eat cake with all the well-wishers, try to finish up the last minute projects I was trying not to leave for someone else to finish, AND clean out my stuff, which had been accumulating for 8 1/2 years. I finally gave up on sorting it out, and just lumped it in a box to haul home.
I know I will feel good about this really soon and that a whole new chapter of life is opening up before me. UltraDad is home for a few days and is excited about the prospect of having us live near each other again, and so am I. My Murphy dog is excited about the prospect of not being locked in the house all day while I’m gone to work at the bank, and so am I. UltraBob is excited about the prospect of me posting more often, and so am I!
I’m feeling a little sad and nostalgic tonight, though also very loved and appreciated, but tomorrow is a new day.
UltraMom
UltraMom at Work; Notice the cute “aliens”
I don’t care much for most of the memes that float around the blogosphere—Boy, I’m full of buzzwords this morning, I need to burp more or something—but I really liked the musical baton thing that has been going around. I had pretty much despaired of it ever reaching me, when Mayu sent it on to me. Thanks a lot Mayu (Doing it in Japanese here would require me to change the encoding of the blog, which I want to do, bu tnot now. Maybe I’ll do it on Akatombo’s Japanese pages, it needs some content)! So be it on the dying end of this meme or not, I’m doing it! Away we go:
Total volume of music files on my computer:
iTunes is burning up 24.85 Gb of space (6,642 songs) on this Powerbook. If you add in a few things that we’ve been working on in Garageband, and a few miscellaneous downloads from indy artists it probably approaches 26 or 27 Gb. I need to get an external hard drive enclosure soon, or I won’t have room for any more work stuff 
Song playing right now:
eight and black by a Japanese indy band called purr (I wonder if they are still together) from their yellow sunshine album. I think it was on the Lee V. Cleef label, but I don’t see it on the page I link to here. I discovered purr when I was doing an article on Japanese Indy artists for the ‘zine I had at the time. I haven’t heard of them since, but I bought two mini albums pressed on CD-R, and I listen to them fairly frequently.
The last CD I bought:
Does this mean the last CD I bought, or the last one I bought for me. I think I bought UltraGirl Eminem’s Encore album most recently. I think the last thing I bought for myself was The Empire Strikes First by Bad Religion. That CD makes me want to be in a band again. Anybody in Japan interested in starting a punk band?
Unlike Mayu, I can’t remember my first CD purchase, but I really wish I could. Maybe it was that Richard Marx album that I cannot for the life of me ever remember attaining. That is one album that I could understand if I was repressing the memory of buying.
Five songs(tunes) I listen to a lot, or that mean a lot to me:
Well, let’s see, songs I listen to a lot is fairly easy in iTunes although this isn’t very accurate since I haven’t had the Powerbook very long, and have been on shuffle play a lot since I’ve got so much to do:
As for song that mean a lot to me, recently I’m very troubled by the way America is going, so a lot of Anti-Bush stuff belongs in the mix. Let’s see what I can come up with off the top of my head:
Five people to whom I’m passing the baton:
Woohoo, another list!
Godspeed musical baton!
Okay, I’m not much of a CD music listener, but I’ll give it a shot. Mostly, I listen to books on tape or CD.
Total volume of music files on my computer: 704 MB
Song Playing Right Now: Shout to the Lord from Songs 4 Worship
The Last CD I bought? Uh....I guess that would be The Phantom of the Opera soundtrack from the movie
5 Tunes I listen to a lot: again, uh…
1) Who am I? from Casting Crowns
2) Music from my Walking CD: Pick up the Pace with Kathy Smith
3) Music from Phantom of the Opera
4) Michael W. Smith CD’s
5) The Carpenters CD’s
Sorry, that’s not very specific, but it took me an amazingly long time to come up with this much!
I have no energy left for passing batons.
Too busy working on a killer, all time record Bookworm game.
UltraMom
A new leaf and an adventure in Nevada. Lucky you! Think of all the fun things you’ll discover wherever you end up. I like making changes; it keeps me on my toes.
You deserve what you got and much more UltraMom!
You rock!
Really good thing I decided to read your post. I have been trying to call to see how your last day ent, and now I know. You are so loved and I hope we can have MORE time together. Love Ultra sister