Communication Failure

As an innkeeper, I say the same phrases over and over, year after year. Check in is anytime after 3. Check out is at 11. We do take pets in most rooms. Do you have an email address we can use to send a confirmation?

And then there are times when the usual phrase fails to communicate.

Me: And would you like to hold the room with an American Express, MasterCard, or Visa?
Guest: You only take American Express?
Me, more slowly: We take American Express, MasterCard, and Visa.
Guest: Well, I have a MasterCard, but it's from Citibank.

I assured her that would be fine.

Labor Day Hike

Labor Day morning, the kids and I hiked up to a popular lookout. We had planned to hike up around lunchtime and have a picnic, but the noxious odors of the spray-on insulation drove us out of the house earlier in the morning.

My hiking companions were, from left to right:

• An avid naturalist who insisted on pointing out every single fungus we saw. Twice (coming and going).
• An almost-ten-year-old drama queen who forgot to bring her sweatshirt and was therefore chilly.
• A teenager who figured that since Michael wasn't there, the position of male parent was his to fill, thus setting off the drama queen.
• A three-year-old who attempted to stomp on every fungus he saw, thus setting off the naturalist (who nevertheless continued to loudly call attention to every fungus).
  

Our time on the ledge admiring the view and petting all the dogs (quite a few valley residents and visitors also decided to do that hike on Monday), calmed everyone down, and the hike back to the car was quite pleasant. LW did the entire 2.2 miles by himself.

Here are two examples of the fungi we saw:




As you can see, we are still in the beginning of foliage season.

Chip off the Old Block

LW: Mama, guess what I'm planning.
Me: What are you planning?
LW: A trip to Disney!

Constructing the addition--End of Week 8

We have siding!




And insulation! (K and S, does this look familiar?)

First Day of School

Today was the first day of school, and the first time we've had all four kids in the public schools.

LW was very excited to get to ride the bus and go to "the big kid school." He seemed a little sad at the end of his first day. Apparently, he thought he would actually be in class with IM and NB, now that he was a big kid too. He was disappointed to discover that his classmates were all three, just like him.

Not the thanks we were expecting

I've just lived through the most anti-climactic release of my tech writing career.

For the last year, my company has been working on a large release that would update and integrate most of company's existing standalone software. I was assigned to the project in December, and I've tackled a steep learning curve in the last nine months, necessitating a shift to full time. The release date slipped, as release dates will, from June to July to August.

Everyone looked forward to the day the project would wrap up and we could breathe. Stretch. Clean out the email box. Celebrate.

Instead, just as I finished posting my doc set, my boss called a "quick update" meeting and told us that the company was laying off 60 employees, including one writer. (Not me.) More details to follow Monday.

Nothing says "thanks for the hard work" like pink slips, eh?

Now, in the company's defense, they were a bit between a rock (the slipping release date) and a hard place (needing to plan for our fiscal year, which starts October 1). Officers and managers have admitted that the timing could not have been worse for those involved in the release. And it seems they are treating the departing employees well.

Still. Not quite the release party we were expecting.

State of the Addition

Michael pointed out the other day that if I didn't update the blog I would miss the entire process. (Or rather, you would. I see it all the time.) Of course, now that we are dealing with enclosed spaces, I'm finding it hard to take pictures that show what it is like.

This is the living-room end of the main room in the addition.

This is the end that will eventually be a kitchen. I'm planning to put all the bookshelves here.

This is the front door into the addition.

These are the stairs leading up to our current space.

And this is our future closet.