What a busy week...

Work has been very busy lately. In anticipation of my move to supporting one area of the office full-time (starting next week!), I've already begun to receive extra work from that area. Normally this would be frowned upon but they are desparate for assistance and many are "looking the other way". I've been working with other office staff in encouraging them to use other resources for computer questions. It won't always work, but this is something that has been commented on by my future supervisors as a problem, should it continue. Our biggest problem is that there is no one to take over the duties I'm shedding...at least for a few weeks. The burden of handling that will fall to other secretaries who have plenty on their plates as it is, but....there's nothing I can do about that. The individual coming to take my place is being forced to take this position since her current position is being eliminated. She doesn't want to work in our office and is throwing up all kinds of roadblocks. Her current supervisor is creating even more roadblocks on her secretary's behalf and it's all a royal pain in the backside. Maybe it's because I've had so many forced duty changes, but I think she's being rather immature about all of this. At least she has a job to come to! I don't know. What use is it to train an employee who doesn't want to be there and will be making many efforts to find something else?

I went to visit Zander on Saturday. He's so cute! I wasn't able to see his eyes or touch him because he was in his burrito wrap, snoring away in his enclosure, but just being able to see him after four weeks was enough. I had stayed away because of a suspected cold and then an explore to mumps. I refuse to risk spreading some contagion in order to see him so I was on a self-imposed isolation mission. No signs of the mumps have appeared in our office so I'm good. Becky was looking like she felt lots better and Dave just looked tired. Dave's been back to work for several weeks but Becky starts back to work today. I wish her luck in trying to focus on her work! I'm sure she'll be calling the hospital every hour to check on him. I think both sets of grandparents are planning to take shifts during the week to "babysit" and ease her mind about leaving Zander alone. I took up my baby shower bag since we don't know when we'll be able to throw her a baby shower and let her open it early. She was thrilled with the baby quilt and some camoflauge (sp?) boots I had found. I'll put pics up on my photo page.

Yesterday I farmed all day...literally. My little darlings thought 6:00 a.m. was plenty of sleeping-in time and wouldn't let me sleep any longer. I told them it was cruel and inhuman punishment to get me up so early but they needed to potty. While they did their thing, I got on RuneScape to check my farming plots, harvest finished crops, and plant more. That took about an hour and then I was ready to go back to bed. LOL. So, the girls and I did just that and woke up around 11:00 a.m. Since I knew my plots would have matured by that time, I did some more RuneScape farming before preparing for the major work of the day....the flower beds. I yanked out a diseased rose plant from one bed. Yanked being the key work here. I tried pulling it out with a chain hooked to my truck, but the chain kept breaking. Finally I just dug and yanked until I had most of it out. One root went way too deep so I had to cut it off about 10" below ground level. Hopefully it won't sprout any new rose tendrils. I did leave the tea rose since it was okay. It's the only one that I've ever seem bloom. I planted a bleeding heart plant in its place. The next task was planting my clover plant...in the same area as the bleeding heart. the roots on it looked like it was getting ready to sprout (it's a perennial that I've had in a pot for several years) so that was encouraging news. I had to clear out a section of lily-of-the-valley in order to plant some new decorative grasses but it was a task long in coming. I'm allergic to lilies and the smell of those little flowers were irritating my sinuses. I couldn't believe how thick the root systems were! Sheesh! I'll have to finish the job this fall when I cut down the peony stalks. I didn't want to chance damaging them when they're getting ready to bloom! Got a few other flower things done - made a tower for the clematis to climb, planted some columbines since a few perennials from last year didn't make it. I waited until I knew for certain there was no growth on their roots before yanking them. I was right too. They had croaked! Finally, I mulched and watered everything before moving on to filling eight hanging baskets with annuals. I am officially DONE for the summer with plantings...at least until I decide to tackle the back of the house. Now I just have to maintain!

I woke up this morning feeling pretty good surprisingly. I thought for certain that I'd wake up moaning and groaning from unused muscles but I was okay...until I went to bed over. LOL Then came the clutching of the back and what I'll refer to forevermore as "rose pulling muscles". Apparently those are the mid-back ones that don't make their presence known until you need to use them for bending over. ;)