No Comparison

Last night as I left work I walked out with our Director of IT. I walked to the Mom Mobile and he walked over and climbed into his Corvette. As I pulled away I thought it must be nice to have a nice car and then I remembered how much we paid for the Mom Mobile. Wheelchair vans are not cheap. So I went home and looked on Vehix.com for a car that was about the same age and price. Here is what I could be driving:

But you know what, there is no comparison, hands down I would rather have the Mom Mobile for right now. Could you see me getting my mom and her wheelchair into a Vet?

So What Changed?

At work we are busy getting ready to launch an update to our software so we all have been working extra to work out all the details and to make sure what we deliver is going to meet expectations. This has involved a number 12+hour days due mostly to the fact that our development is partly in Rostov Russia and they are 11 hours ahead of us.

We even had a teleconference meeting this past Saturday because we had to review a list of open issues and determine if they needed to be fixed before we launched it. As a team we all interrupted our day on Saturday and slogged through the list, making a decision on each and every one. We ended up with a list of 20+ items that were labeled MAJOR issues and needed to be fixed before we launched the product.

I come into the office early on Monday morning and find an email from my boss asking if we could just defer all of those issues. SO WHAT CHANGED? I carved out time from my personal life to run through that list that was so critical. I sacrificed a good hour and a half of yard work out in the sunshine to work on the list of issues. SO WHAT CHANGED?

What changed was we heard back from the developers that it would delay the launch for at least a week, probably two. My boss asked me what I thought and here is what I replied to him in an email:

We went through the list and determined that things needed to be fixed, so what changed? I say we slip to the 12th. I feel we have too many issues to force a release on the 5th.

My boss comes into the office and has a conversation with his boss about the release and he tells the President of the company that Karen doesn’t think we should do it. SO WHAT CHANGED? On Saturday it was my boss and one of the other guys that were adamant that we had to fix a few of these issues before we launched. There was no grey area about it, they must be fixed. But now everyone is willing to fold and accept less. SO WHAT CHANGED?

So on the 3rd of May we will launch the new release and the reality is that no one will notice the issues. I wasn’t the one in the first place that felt they had to be fixed now.

SO WHAT CHANGED? The others didn’t have the conviction to stand up for what they believed to be important. If you believe in something are you willing to back it up or do you just take the easy way out? How much do you really believe in it?

Which Side?

I started reading a novel based on the Battle of Antetam, the bloodiest single day battle in American History. It starts out with a couple of the generals praying, praying for their own wants and desires, praying for what they believed to be the will of God, praying for God to answer them.

So which side did God choose? Did God choose?

Downed Lines of Communication

So apparently someone with a backhoe was out digging where they didn’t belong and they cut through the fiber optic cable that connects our main office with the internet. No problem except we are a ‘Software as a Service’ company which means we do all of our business including customer support via the internet. We have three locations the largest office being Cincinnati, OH and of course where the little mishap occurred. For the other offices in Costa Mesa California and Bellevue Washington the only problem was that our Outlook email server couldn’t connect so we had to use Web Mail. But for the Cincy office it was disaster plus including the fact that the phones are VoIP so they couldn’t even take a call. Disaster recovery plan: Send everyone home to work. You see it was only the connection from the office that was broken, they could get to the internet from their homes, the call were rerouted and we were back up and running in about 45 minutes, good thing the commute traffic in Cincy isn’t like it is in Bellevue.

It made me think about how we sometimes get our cables cut when we are communicating with God. We leave the local church because we are offended or we get too busy and we are no longer plugged in. To get back up and running again we need to “go home” to our local church and be accountable and involved. That is the only way to keep the lines of communication open.

Western Conference Semi-Finals

Detroit vs. Colorado

Thursday, April 24: Colorado at Detroit, 7:30 p.m.
Saturday, April 26: Colorado at Detroit, 3 p.m.
Tuesday, April 29: Detroit at Colorado, 10 p.m.
Thursday, May 1: Detroit at Colorado, 10 p.m.
Saturday, May 3: Colorado at Detroit, 1 p.m., if necessary
Monday, May 5: Detroit at Colorado, 10 p.m., if necessary
Wednesday, May 7: Colorado at Detroit, TBD, if necessary

Memory Lane Detour

So as I last posted about how I am on the ANTI-Clutter campaign and it starts with me I can be the worst offender. Last night I dug into a box of stuff that I hadn’t touched since we moved last which was 4 years ago. What an amazing find that was some of the stuff was from back in high school. Here’s a partial list:
- A news paper clipping where I was Honorable mention for the year in the High School Basketball
- One of my sports letters from High School
- My collage ID card with me in a full on Afro and Bib Overalls
- My High School and College Diplomas.
- The medals I won ski racing
- An article I had published in a College Text Book
- An article I had published in a magazine – totally forgot about that.
- The note from a friend that came with the Bible she me the day after I accepted Jesus as my Lord and Savior – didn’t remember it.
- Some pressed lilacs that were sent to my 18 years ago after I had moved to Washington

What a trip. It was fun to share some of that stuff with Kyle for the first time and just to reflect. I have many disappointments, failures and heartaches in my past, but it is the little things like these that I keep stored up that make it all worth living.

No More Clutter

Ok I have had it I have the need to get rid of all the clutter that has accumulated. It either needs to find a home, get stored away properly or get tossed. We all accumulate stuff through out the year especially over the winter. But come spring we are ready to do a thorough cleaning. Windows get washed, walls get a fresh coat of paint, carpets are scrubbed and the clutter must go.

With all the clutter we don’t get a chance to see all the good stuff that is still there and yet to be used. When things are out of place it just seems to be messy. When we hold on to stuff that is just plain trash, what does that bring us?

I realized that this is very similar to what the birds do. It is this time of the year that they clean out their nest preparing for new eggs to be laid and new chicks to be raised. Is that what we do, want to bring in new eggs to nurture? New thoughts, new goals and dreams making room for them is what it’s about.

Now back to sorting the clutter.

All a Twitter

So you may have noticed a slight change in my blog format, I now have a Twitter window. So what is Twitter? Twitter is social networking or micro-blogging service that allows users to post and receive messages to be viewed by anyone or by a restricted group. Here's Twitter's self-description: "A global community of friends and strangers answering one simple question: What are you doing?" Like cell phones, email, and blackberries, Twitter is a tool that can either add value to your working life or become the perfect interruption machine.

Some of the uses for these micro-blogging sites are keeping up with the presidential candidates, getting media alerts from CNN, The New York Times, and the BBC. I’m sure if we search we would find one for ESPN and FoxSports. Who know soon we might be able to get WADOT updates via twitter.

As I observe the people that are using twitter, I have noticed that there are folks out there that just trying to see how many people they can be linked too. I have a few following me that are following over 30,000 different people. Now talk about obsessive. I see where the Snohomish paper is following me, possibly because of my name but probably just because I listed Monroe in my profile and they want me to subscribe to updates from them via twitter. CNN is in the top 10 of the most followers. Yes there is a site that tracks the top 100. What a distinction check out the Twitterholics .

As for my own experience, I am enjoying it but then again I enjoy communication and I am making new friends along the way. I have downloaded a neat application twhirl on to my desktop that is like an IM window that allows me to track everyone that I follow and easily create post. So checkout it out it just might be fun.

Blessed are they who can laugh at themselves,

for they shall never cease to be amused.
- Anonymous

Last night I was on the phone with a friend and I was telling her about my new job and how well it is going. I told her how I had to make myself not work in the evenings when I go home and said, “you know I just might be a bit obsessive”, she busted out laughing and then backed tracked a little and said she wasn’t laughing at me, but with me. Of course she was laughing with me I was making a joke anyone that knows me knows that I am a lot obsessive that is why I said it, to be funny.

Later in the evening I was watching Biggest Loser and one of the contestants made a comment that when he was fat he always made fun of himself because he thought it better if he did it than to have someone else do it to him.

As I have been thinking about why we make fun of ourselves I know for me in context of last night I was just having fun, besides if I use myself as an example I am less likely to offend someone else. I also know about feeling so bad about who I am that I hide behind humor of mocking myself to mask the pain. Teasing and jesting can be fun for a while but I know that I can push it too far at times and need to be aware of the other people involved as well as the outside observers.

So for now I continue to be obsessive, dragging my knuckles on the ground because I have ‘gorilla’ arms and I say hockey funny so if you want we can share a laugh about that and enjoy the rest of the day.

To Logo or Not To Logo?

It’s all about the bag isn’t it, but what if the bag is only a cover? I know more than one small business owner that carries money to the bank in a brown lunch bag so as not to look obvious.

When you carry a bag with a logo on it, we all assume that you have something of value in it. I also know some women that carry their lunch in a Tiffany’s bag.

Is it the same thing with the logo’s on our cloths? Are we trying to make others think that there is something of value inside? Trust me if you hand a Gucci bag to someone that is hungry and hasn’t eaten in days they would prefer the sandwich.

New Job - 43 Things I want to do

So I guess I can cross this one off my list. In January 08 I started my job. As I told my peers at the old company, now I get to be what I always wanted to be when I grow up. I am doing a job that I like, a job that is satisfies, a job that I look forward to each day. In fact I am enjoying my job so much I need to watch how many hours I am putting in.

I noticed on my Moral-o-Meter that since taking this job my moral is up, my caffeine consumption is down and in general I am much happier.

It was a long 13 months in the search but has been such a blessing.

See more progress on: Find a new employer

Total Saturation

Saturation-

• A condition in which a quantity no longer responds to some external influence
• The condition of being full to or beyond satisfaction
• The condition at which a component of a communication system has reached its maximum traffic-handling capacity.
  

I have achieved Total Technology SATURATION: 2 laptops, 3 cell phones, a house phone, twitter, twhirl, blogs, and separate simultaneous IM sessions with Russia, Costa Mesa and Cincinnati. This week of going in to the office early, coming home and working until 9pm or later each of the last 3 nights, WebEx sessions, conference calls, calls to customers, call from sales people, calls to support people; I’m done.

I long for a walk on a deserted beach, a hike in the mountains or a few round of golf with all the technology locked away for at least day. Would the world stop rotating? Would a Super Power collapse? Would someone die? I think not. I’m just not that important. So why do I do it to myself?

Nesting Osprey

As I twittered – is twittered a verb? – yesterday there is the LARGE nest on top of the light pole in the softball park here in Bellevue. I noticed this nest a couple of months ago when I started working here. I try and take a brisk 20 minute walk in the afternoons just to give myself a break and some fresh air. I finally saw a bird using the nest. After some research I figured out that it is an Osprey (Pandion haliaetus). Here are some osprey facts:

- The osprey is the most widespread raptor in the world. They can be found on every continent except Antarctica. Like most raptors, ospreys are migratory.

- Ospreys are particularly suited to catch fish, their primary food source. They possess a reversible fourth toe which allows them to grasp fish more securely by positioning two toes forward and two toes back. Also, the undersides of an osprey’s feet are covered in spiny spicules which prevent fish from wriggling free. They plunge feet first into the water to seize prey and may even submerge completely. A little known adaptation that facilitates these dives is the bird’s ability to close its nostrils.

- Ospreys are only slightly smaller than eagles. The female osprey is larger than the male and may be distinguished by her brown spotted necklace.

This large, long-winged bird of prey cuts a striking figure, its name is derived from the Latin word ossifragus, meaning “a bone breaker.” osprey may also be referred to as fish hawk, fish eagle or Seahawk. A fitting name for a football team indeed!

Playoff Time

Detroit vs. Nashville

Thursday, April 10: Nashville at Detroit. 7 p.m., VERSUS

Saturday, April 12: Nashville at Detroit, 2 p.m., NBC

Monday, April 14: Detroit at Nashville, TBD, VERSUS

Wednesday, April 16: Detroit at Nashville, TBD, VERSUS

Friday, April 18: Nashville at Detroit, 7:30 p.m., VERSUS, if necessary

Sunday, April 20: Detroit at Nashville, 3 p.m., NBC, if necessary

Tuesday, April 22: Nashville at Detroit, TBD, if necessary

A Unique One

As I wrote about a couple of weeks ago our youngest son moved back in with his 3 month old puppy and because of that we have “puppy papers” strategically placed around the house. The puppy gets locked behind a baby gate in the kitchen when we all leave for work in the morning and we had a puppy paper in the kitchen for him. On Saturday we found the puppy paper out in the dinning room next to the fireplace. None of the humans in the house know how it got there. It has been a mystery, until this afternoon. In the picture above notice what Bonita is napping on, yep, the puppy paper.

Bonita is the most unique cat I have ever had. Some of her most interesting characteristics are:
* She has one ear clipped.
* She is our clepto cat – I can’t leave any thing shinny lying around or she will take it. She is always trying to bite the diamond off of my engagement ring.
* She has a fascination with Pens or Pencils. I use to do the crossword puzzle in the paper and she would jump up on the couch next to me and try and take it out of my hand. I have seen this cat sit up on her back legs and hold a pen in her two paws like she was going to write.
* She has a crush on one of the interns that lives here and is jealous of his girlfriend.
* She loves to have her stomach rubbed and rubbed hard.
* She loves to be brushed, if you pick up the cat brush she comes running or she will bring it over to you.
* She loves to have a massage with the electric hand massager. I got Kyle one so I could massage his neck and if you turn it on the can flies over to it so you use it on her.
* She has conversations with Kyle. I sometimes wonder if she really doesn’t understand everything we are saying.

I know that if this cat had opposing thumbs we could be in trouble. Bonita is very Unique.

sacred cow slayer

I spent my day today slaying sacred cows. What is a sacred cow? TheFreeDictionary.com defines it as: a belief or system that is treated with much respect and is not usually criticized. As I have written about before the company I work for is made up of three companies that are having a little trouble letting go of the “old way” of doing things. As I told someone today we are suffering from “takeover-itis”. It is where people from an old company can’t let go and grasp the new way of doing things. Each person deep in their hearts believes that what they did for the old company is the only right way of doing things.

Now I am not immune to sacred cows. They just don’t seem to be in the area of work probably because I have worked for three different companies in the last four years. Now granted I was laid of from the first and I had been there for 11 years and I have only been at the current one for 2 months. For me my sacred cows come in other areas, like pizza; No Foo Foo Pizza.

We don’t recognize the sacred cows in our lives until we are confronted with them. It is never easy to slay a sacred cow and it is always messy, but usually there are many benefits; who doesn’t enjoy a good steak?

Bar Room or Board Room?

Last night a group of us were having a discussion about not judging people. We as Christians are supposed to love people and hat e the sin. We talked about the people that we deem unlovable, the prostitutes, the addicts, and the murderers. There was a discussion about if Jesus walked the earth today where would he hang out. Most in the room said the bars.

But what about the people in the Board Room, where do they fit? It is in the Board Room where many men and woman prostitute themselves from one company to another just to get a step higher on the corporate ladder. Or how about those that are addicted to money and power? And as for murder; there is so much back stabbing and under cutting that more than one man’s career was killed

Pastor Bill made a statement and I can’t remember now if it was his or something the Pastor Jeff said but here it is, we tend to judge horizontally and rank sin and sinners, but to Jesus it is a horizontal field and sin and sinners are all the same.

Being in the corporate world does not exclude us from the unlovable, they just wear nicer cloths.

Just 15 Pages A Day

Have you ever wanted to read the Bible though? Do you start out strong in January and by the end of February you have bogged down in Chronicles and end up falling away? It only takes Just 15 Pages A Day.

I have just finished reading the Bible through for the first time this year. Yes, I said the first time. In 2008 I expect to read the Bible through at least 4 times. Now before you quit reading let me finish. You too can read the Bible through more than once. I learned this method/technique/ system and if you take a large print Bible and read at least 15 pages a day you will read it through 3 times. If you read 20 pages you will it will equal 4 times.

Now why would you read it that many times? I didn’t say study, I said read it through. Read it for the sake of getting the big picture, read it with the intent of trying to grasp the fullness, not a specific topic. I have been reading the Bible this way for about 20 years and I still get something new out of it every single time.

I challenge you, get a large print Bible and set aside 20 minutes a day to start at page 1 and read just 15 pages a day. Don’t worry if you can’t pronounce the names, don’t worry about all the details, just read to get the feeling and the flow of the entire book. I recommend having a notepad and pen with you so that is something jumps out you can note it and then go back later and study that out, but continue reading until you see that in about 4 months you will not only have read the Bible through but you will have a whole new perspective.

Let me know what you think.

Passport Memories

I am sitting here looking at the pages of my old passport as it is time to put this one away becaue I just received my new one. This one has seen a lot of use and holds the stamps from many interesting trips. There is a stamp from my first trip to Puerto Vallarta Mexico in 1998 where I lost my heart to a nation and a people. I have been back to PV many times too bad the officials in Mexico don’t stamp your passport every time you enter.

There are the stamps from several trips to Taipei where my last trip in 2004 I was able to visit some of the historical sites with one of my peers who had been born in Taiwan and whose father was part of Taiwan’s succession from China and even to this day, he is considered an enemy of the country of China.

I have a couple of trips to Japan documented, one in 2001 where on my 1st wedding anniversary I walked along the shore of the Pacific Ocean picking up a small shell that looked just like the one that just one week prior I had picked up from along the Washington coast where my husband and I had walked the beach an ocean away.

In 2000 just a couple of weeks after I was married I took my passport with me where I spent almost two weeks in Hong Kong and China. It was really hard to give up my US Passport in Hong Kong so that I could get a Visa to go into China. I was really relieved the day I picked up my passport that still has my name in Chinese stuck to the front of it.

I even have a stamp from my trip into Calgary Canada in 2004. It was a trip to Lake Louise where my friend Denie and I spent 10 days hiking in the Canadian Rockies. It was the last trip the two of us have taken together. She lives in Illinois and I live out here in Washington and yet the distance is never an issue for our friendship. It was on one our hiking trips that I ended up breaking my foot and then hiking for 4 more days before I had it checked and put in a cast. I just couldn’t let her down.

2004 was another land mark trip with a friend. I had to go to Warsaw Poland for a business meeting and I took my friend Mary with me. Mary and I met on that 1st trip to PV in 1998. Today she and I are friends that are closer than sisters. On our trip to Poland we walked in places that some of the worst crimes against humanity happened in Auschwitz and Birkenau and we also walked in places of great beauty like the park dedicated to Mozart.

The last country stamp is from a trip to Dublin Ireland that Kyle and I took in 2005. Again I had to go for a few days of meetings and then we took time just to visit this country of my ancestors; a country that captured the heart of my husband and a trip full of delightful memories for us both.

On the very last page of this passport is where it was amended after I was married. With this passport being expired it is the last official document that bore my maiden name, Husband. Who knows maybe I need to write on what it was like to grow up being a Husband, but now that I’m a wife does it really matter?