Location of husband:  On the couch next to me, answering emails

Location of daughter:  At her fiance's house:  he has been very sick the last couple of days (needs prayer)

Location of cats: Marlie is curled up in the small cat condo, if front of the heater.  Not sure where the other two are.  (Allie Cat has since migrated to my lap.

Status of laundry basket:  Overflowing.  No laundry has been done since the dryer died over a week ago.

Status of bills:  Electric Bill, cell and house telephone bills all waiting to be paid...sometime this week when I get around to it.

Things accomplished this week:

Search/Nomination Committee (Episcopal Diocese of CT - 15th Diocesan Bishop) -  Good News article completed, commented on and submitted;  first two entries created on the blog (http:\\CTBishopSearch.blogspot.com).  Two hour committee meeting yesterday.  Press release completed, submitted, no home where I submitted it...not quite sure what I do next.  (I write the darned things; don't find homes for them :))

Work:  Solved problems..created task plan, made reservations for merger-related Charlotte trip April 20 to 24.

Paper work:  Pretty much ignored it!  Need income and mileage from DH's consulting business before I can do taxes.

Spiritual:  Attended third of the Lenten series of Bible Studies (7 Sins, 6 Weeks, 5 Clergy) the sin of the week was envy; also practiced with Liz Scott and DH for today's service (not exactly sure that that counts as spiritual).

Etc:  Ordered new dryer!  It arrives Tuesday.

Goals for this week:  Get a few more things off of the work "to-do" list.  Catch up on Laundry and Bills.  Get hair cut.  Do taxes?

Location of husband:  still in bed, the lazy bones

Location of daughter:  Back at school in Massachusetts

Location of cats:  Woody is "sleep waving" DH.  Marlie and Allie are chasing each other around

Status of laundry basket:  New contents, but about to be disasterous:  Dryer died on Friday and no time to shop for new one!
Status of bills:  They were ALL paid...until I went the mailbox and found the electric bill.

Things accomplished this week:

Search/Nomination Committee (Epsicopal Diocese of CT - 15th Diocesan Bishop) - drafts of three various types of news releases written and submitted for comment.  Draft of another 90% complete.  Good News Article outlined; request for information to other committee members sent. (Article due to editor on Wednesday.)

Work:  Solved problems..did research...was kinda on a tire-lull after bringing server on line.

Paper work:  Checkbook balanced, daughter's allowance transferred, bills paid (except for the dratted electric bill, which arrived "late"), documentation for various charitable expenses organized for 2008 taxes and in process of (if not already) certified by the 501(c) s involved.

Spiritual:  Attended second of the Lenten series of Bible Studies (7 Sins, 6 Weeks, 5 Clergy); also practiced with Liz Scott and DH for next Sunday (not exactly sure that that counts as spiritual).

Goals for this week:  Get a few things off of the work "to-do" list.  Finish writing all diocesan articles due. Buy new dryer (yuck!  wasn't planning on that!)

I won't call it SPRING yet....but today....we OPENED WINDOWS!!!

Location of husband:  downstairs, on the phone

Location of daughter:  Houston, TX, on Spring Break with finance

Location of cats:  Allie Cat is sitting in my lap, watching me type, others are "around" in various sun beams.

Status of litter box:  gross.  Need to change it as soon as current work thing is done.
Status of laundry basket:  overflowing
Status of the wedding:  Photographer's contract has been signed and deposit paid.

Things accomplished this week:

Long Search/Nomination Committee (Epsicopal Diocese of CT - 15th Diocesan Bishop) update written and posted to Diocesan web-site.  (Currently missing this week's committee meeting for Work-Work related stuff)

Work:  Everything necessary for this weekend's server activation completed and signed-off on...implementation currently in progress.

Paper work:  Mortgage paid, daughter's allowance transferred, daughter's taxes completed and filed, First Union and Wachovia stock certificates sent of to be converted to (way fewer) Wells Fargo shares.

Spiritual:  Attended first of the Lenten series of Bible Studies (7 Sins, 6 Weeks, 5 Clergy)

Goals for this weekend:  Costco run, get new battery for watch, laundry and paper work.

Best compliment:  When I first met my daughter's finance's Mom, she exclaimed that I looked just like my daughter.  My daughter is GORGEOUS!

...Can't say that I really wished for this.  But I did put myself up for it.

In January, volunteered to be a deanery (and by default diocesan) rep for my church.

Went to diocesan convention last month and learned that current bishop is retiring and that they are forming two committees, a nominating committee and and transition committee to work on selecting and transitioning to the next bishop.  Would each deanery please submit two lay peoples and two priests for these committees?  Not everyone will be selected.

So, silly me.  I took the nominating committee application forms and I filled them out.  There were only two lay peoples from our deanery who volunteered, so my application went in.

(Well, if you don't volunteer to have a voice, you can't really complain about who get's nominated and elected, can you?)

Got a call this morning from a member of the diocesan standing committee which was responsible for selecting the nominating and transition committee members from the applications, and they have selected me for the nominating committee.

All I can say is that it is going to be an interesting year...

Just what have I gotten myself into???

The weekend of Nov. 8th was my cousin Katie's wedding.  It was held on Cape Cod, so naturally we stayed at my Mom's in North Falmouth.  The wedding was preceded by the rehearsal dinner on Friday night, and lot's of cleaning, set up and food prep for Sunday, before leaving for the actual festivities Saturday afternoon.  Katie is basically agnostic.  Her sister and brother-in-law are Episcopal priests, and Katie wanted them to marry her, so the compromise was the basic Episcopal marriage ceremony, without communion and held at a lovely estate, where the reception was also held, rather than at a church.  The food was good.  The band very good...and boy am I out of shape!  Could only dance one extended fast dance before I was out of breath.  Sunday was a post-wedding brunch, held at my mother's house.  (Hence all of the prep the day before).  Clean up and head for home.

...But there was this phone mail message that Abbie left on my phone during the wedding ceremony:  "Mom, I found THE dress!"  

Abbie and some friends had gone to David's Bridal to look at dresses "just for fun".  She found the dress she loved at a very reasonable cost:  $499.00.  (When you consider that my dress cost $360.00 30 years ago, I call that VERY reasonable.)  And there was a sale going on until the 17th.  So I drove up the Wenham for the day last Saturday.

Long story short:  The dress is hanging from the back of the door to Abbie's room.  The veil is on-order (The veil cost about half of what my veil cost.)  She bought the dress a little bit loose and nothing will be altered (the dress is too long right now) until way-closer to the big day.  But, we have the dress!

Full house this weekend.  Abbie and Alex made it home (Abbie wanted to take Bill out to lunch for belated celebration of his birthday}.  Then this week we got an email from Judith, our first exchange student.  She's all grown-up, graduated from college and has her first real job.  And her first real job has sent her to Massachusetts for about six months to help get a pharmaceutical plant online. 

Judith called last month to let us know she was coming to the US.  She sounded lonely in her email, so we invited her to come for the weekend too.  She arrived just after Abbie and Alex did on Friday night.  A this and that weekend (normal weekend type things) ensued.  Abbie took Bill to lunch.  I got my hair done.  Judith got caught up with the mother of one of her friends and spent some quality time with Bill at Starbucks while Abbie and I (and Alex, the most patient fiance in the world) went to the mall and picked up food for a special "birthday" dinner for Bill at Trader Joe's. 

Today we all went to church, with the except ion Alex, who was suffering from the after effects of a migrain headache he had last night.  Judtih was able to catch up with some other friends at church.   Judith headed back to her hotel after a late lunch.   Abbie and Alex headed back to school around after 5:30, after Alex's laundry was done, so it's back to just us and the three cats.

Next weekend Bill and I head to Cape Cod for the wedding of one of my cousins.  Looks like the cat sitter from across the street will earn another fee next weekend.

Spent the weekend at home (sort of) for a change.  The past three weekend have been spent in Denver, attending a wedding, in Massachusetts, at our daughter's college's parent's weekend, and (last weekend), in Ohio, leading music for a Faith Alive weekend.  This weekend Bill stayed home, and I went to Hartford on Friday and Saturday for the Diocisan convention.

Sleeping in my own bed all weekend was nice.

The convention was...interesting.  More on that later....maybe.

Next week I will actually be working ALL five days, a full work week, for the first time in about a month.

James 4:13 – 15  Now listen,you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow.  What is your life?  You are a mist that appears for little while and then vanishes.  Instead you ought to say, “If it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that.”

I have not said much here on LJ for a while.  Like many, I have been pre-occupied by what is going on in the financial markets, and how they could directly affect my life, but commenting would have been an exercise in casting my personal fears in a more concrete form than that of a hopefully fleeting thought.  My HOPE must be in the Lord, and bemoaning and stating my worries for my personal future in a public forum does not bring glory to Him.

Life has been good and exciting for us.  Yes, our retirement finances looked kinda murky, even two years ago, but we could see how the Lord might be moving.  This year my daughter finishes college, with no currently outstanding loans (we will have to borrow about half of what she will need to finish up her final semester, but that is tiny compared to the loans that so many parents and students carry.)  She is getting married in June 2010.  She is our only child and we want to do her wedding up right.  And to do that we will have to borrow against our home equity.  Just a small percentage of our home equity, but still, money that will have to be paid back.  And I had this dream of being able to be well on the way to paying it back, and saving enough to “double-date” at Disney World with Abbie and Alex sometime after they get married and before they start a family.  I would love to be able to treat them and do it up the same way we did when we went for Spring Break three years ago.  And of course, Bill was going the start seminary, and there is our work with Tanzania.  (Bill had already determined that seminary should wait for at least a year, do to time commitments else where.)  All of this assumed that, or course, I would have a job.  My very nicely high-paying job.

So I really didn't want to listen when the Lord kept bringing the James 4:13 verse to mind over the last two months.  Every time I get too comfortable with my life, God seems to want to shake it up.

Then the last three weeks occurred in the financial world.  I am not going to name-names or get specific here, but anyone who has been keeping track of the financial news will be able to figure out the players involved.

Rumors were flying all through last weekend.  Then Monday we learned, via “Breaking News” on CNBC, rather than via a company memo, that the Financial institution for which I work was divesting its banking business to a gigantic NY-based financial institution.  I have been sold twice before and each time God has seen fit to let me continue working.  I do usually try to have some plan for what I would do should I loose my job (last time I thought about writing young-adult novels), but those “backup” plans have not been needed.

Fact is, when one financial institution buys another financial institution, part of what they are buying is the people.  Not everyone loses their job.  On the other hand, a lot of people do lose their jobs.  And it takes a while for the institutions to merge systems. So it wasn't like I am going to be out of work next month, should I be one of those many folks who will be made redundant.  Instead, I can look forward to a minimum of a year of two of integration activities plus I should also be on the receiving side of a “lovely parting gift” of a year-plus's salary.  But what do I do after that?  It's one thing to look with excitement on an unknown future twelve years in the future.  It's another when it's “staring you in the face.”

Thursday, I prayed that the Lord would give me a vision.  Help me find my “backup” plan, my next passion, in this situation.  And Lord work a miracle.  All is in Your hands.

So Friday morning, my husband is checking the news online to see if there is anything interesting on the vice-presidential debate (we were flying to Denver while it was being broadcast), and the head line reads that a large California-based financial institution is buying all of my large NC-based financial  institution instead of the NY-based institution.  Immediately a huge weight felt as if it was being lifted from my shoulders, as if by the hand of God.  Nothing is certain.  But the California based bank uses the same software for which I am a niche specialist.  Maybe...  I have done this twice before... I prayed for a miracle.  I never thought that the miracle might possibly involve “non-buyers remorse” and a potential different suitor.

Yesterday we saw the lovely daughter of some of our best friends marry her best friend from High School.  So funny to see how a friends-only boy-girl relationship begun on one side of the country can grow to love and then marriage in an entirely different part of the country.  The ceremony and reception were lovely, and so much Margaret's style.  It was to great to see Margaret and her brother Paul again.  We have not seen either of them since the Asheys moved to Houston.  So great to see the entire Ashey clan again.

Sitting in the Denver airport to fly back east to home.  Checking the news, I see that the large NY-based financial institution has gotten a temporary restraining order to block the sale to the large CA-based institution.  Nothing is certain.  Lord let your hand rule in this.

The continuing log of 10 days with Tanzanian House Guests...

Day 3 - Sunday, August 17th.  Baptism Day!

Frank was born January 1st in Tanzania while Daudi was attending school in Wisconsin.  Normally Tanzanian babies are baptized at two months of age, but Daudi could not come home until May and he did not want Frank to be baptized when he could not be there.  Long story short, Daudi and Olivia asked to have their fourth child baptized at St Paul's while they were visiting.

The day started earliest for Bill and Daudi who left at 7:30 for the 8:00 am service.  Olivia, Frank and I left at 9:30, for the 10:30 service.  Bill and I and Ken Perry stood up as God Parents for Frank, and Daudi celebrated communion.  After the service we had a shower for Frank.   Folks gave Frank a number of adorable winter outfits and several hundred dollars in gift cards at Target and Walmart.

Church is closer to Costco than home is, so the monthly trip to Costco was accomplished following the baby shower.  We had gone to church and Costco in two cars, so the men sent to by Daudi a digital camera (his had been stolen this summer) while Olivia and I returned home to put away the food and create some snacks.  Father Andy and Dana Buchanan were bringing their kids over for dinner and we planned to eat very early so that we could wind the evening down before the kids melted down.

Andy, Dana and their kids arrived on time and we enjoyed our time together.  Andy has been on Sabbatical this summer so we have not seen Andy and Dana in over two months.  Daudi and Olivia were able to ask Dana, who is a family physician, some baby related questions.

We enjoyed a great meal together and the Buchanans left before their kids melted down.


And it was day and night, the third day.

The continuing log of 10 days with Tanzanian House Guests...

Day 2 - Saturday, August 16th

We woke up quite early, considering how tired and late we had been the night before, but Frank,  Olivia and Daudi had not yet completely adapted to EST time.  Olivia made a porridge for Frank from a flour of rice, nuts and many other things that she had brought from home.  Frank did not really like it and complained about eating it.  Bill made bacon and I made French Toast and we all sat down to breakfast in the dining room.  (The dining room is getting much more of a workout this week than it normally does.)  Although Frank is only seven months old, he drinks from a cup, when one is held for him, and ate small pieces of french toast.

After breakfast, and watching some Olympics, Daudi and Bill took off for Danbury to shop for a replacement phone charger and a few other things that had been stolen over the summer when Daudi was speaking at a camp in Tanzania. 

After Frank had napped for a while, Olivia and I took off for Walmart to see if we could find a white shirt and some nice pants for him to wear for his baptism on Sunday.  Tanzanian babies normally just wear what ever is on hand, but Daudi and Olivia wanted Frank to have something a little nicer as he was being baptized in the U.S.  As we were driving down the tree lined street, Olivia asked if we have many snakes in our trees.  It had never occurred to me to be concerned about snakes in trees, but of course, they have to be in Western Tanzania, even though they don't have as many tall trees around as we do.

We found a nice white jersey shirt, but did not find any good pants the right size.  We looked for some baby sized spoons (feeding Frank with a normal teaspoon was not working so well) and a baby cup.  Then we went over to the stroller section and got Frank an umbrella stroller.  This made Olivia's eyes light up.  Sometimes carrying a child in a conga is not the most desirable thing.

We walked over to the Stop and Shop a purchased some Cheerios (which Frank adores!) and a bunch of fresh vegetables for lunch.

After we and the men made it back to the house we had a late lunch consisting of the left over rice and chicken from the night before sauteed together with some mushrooms and some marsela, and a vegetable medley of onions, summer squash, zucchini, mushroom, tomatoe and string beans.  I think that it was 4:30 when we finished lunch!  At that time Bill and Daudi presented Olivia with her own cell phone.  Once again, her eyes lit up!

After that I snuck out by myself for a quick trip to Kohls (20 minutes away) where I found little khaki pants for Frank, and to the mall, another 15 minutes further away.  We started cooking dinner after 8:00 pm.  This was partially put off because of our late lunch, but further delayed by Bill and Daudi trying to figure out the best plan for Olivia's phone.  It is an AT&T "Go"  (pay as you go) phone and they had to activate it on line. 

Eventually, we sat down to dinner of pan-roasted pork chops with marsela sauce that Bill prepared, fresh corn on the cob and boiled pototoes (with butter and parsley).  When Olivia mushed up some potatoes for Frank, I got milk out for her to add to the potatoes.  "What?  Not cook first?"  So we explained that milk in America is already "cooked" (pasteurized).  Again, it had not occurred to me that fresh milk in Tanzania has to be cooked.  All we drank while we were there was powdered milk that we added to our tea and coffee.

And it was day and night.  The second day.

Like so many other people this year, my major vacations have been taking the form of "Staycations".  It is not that we don't travel.  We do.  Perhaps too much.  But, with the exception of Bill's two weeks in Tanzania, back in April, most of these trips have been weekend trips.  (Since January we have been to Maine, the Milwaukee area of Wisconsin, the Houston area of Texas. And we plan a weekend trip to Denver, CO (a friend's wedding) and the Cincinnati, OH area (a Faith Alive weekend in October.  Bill will be going to Nashotah, WI the week following the Cincinnati weekend, for his in residence weekend at seminary.  With all this other travel, I have been spending my vacation time at home:  The first, a week in July, was spent painting the half bath and doing other stuff around the house.  This second week, we are hosting a Tanzanian family who are on their way to Nashotah House (a seminary) in Wisconsin.

It is currently Monday evening, the 4th of the 10 days of Tanzanians, so I will have to play catch-up.

Day 1 - Friday, August 15th.

The plane was scheduled to arrive at JFK airport at 2:15 pm, but when we checked the flight status we found that the flight had been slightly late leaving Dubai and was now due to arrive at 2:45.  We adjusted our departure for JFK accordingly.  We arrived in good time.  The flight landed slightly after 3:00 but it was after 4:30 before Daudi, his wife Olivia and 7 month old son, Frank made it out of the international arrivals complex.  Frank was strapped to Olivia's back, in a conga.

We loaded the two suitcases and duffel into the back of the car, Frank into the car seat we had picked up from Walmart earlier in the week, and took off into the rush-hour traffic.  Bill decided to abandon our usual route over the WhiteStone bridge in favor of a bridge  slightly to the east and a route with, hopefully less traffic.  Still, we experienced stretches of stop and go traffic a various spots along the way.  We also experienced some massive thunder storms.  It was almost 8:00 pm when we made it home.

A bath for Frank.  Moved the "pack-and-play"  from the office/guest room to Abbie's room (which is where Duadi and Olivia are sleeping), as Tanzanainian babies spend their first two years in their parent's room.  Daudi and Olivia washed, while Bill and I fixed dinner (Sushi Rice, barbecued chicken and sauteed green beans.  And at 11:00 or 12:00 pm we all fell into bed, absolutely exhausted.

As of yesterday, Summer has started on it's down-hill side here in the Northwestern Hills of Connecticut.

There is something about the light.  The sky still has light in it as late as 8:30, but the family room (with it's south western exposure) is darker at 5:30...the sun is angling in from a different place.

The air was suddenly much cooler.  For the first night since I cannot remember when, there were no fans running overnight.  And windows, although not shut completely, were not left wide open.

This morning I awoke at 7:00 am.  Our bedroom faces a northerly direction so it never gets direct sun, but the light, at 7:00 am was dimmer than I expected, almost as if there was an overcast.  There wasn't.  The sky, when I checked was a bright cloudless blue.  A sad change from ealier in the year when it would be quite light outside at 5:30 am, and the birds would be giving a morning concert.

Had some work-work to do today, and thought that as long as I was connected, I would copy the database to the new server we are building out.  Frustration:  for some reason, the new system will not let me copy files larger than a certain size to it.  Now I have to decide whether or not be be a nice employee and spend more uncompensated time moving other stuff to the server, or to just watch the Olympics and try to get the chores on my list done. 

So every thing that I want to keep has been removed from my office.  Everything else has either been thrown out or marked with a blue dot to be "remanded".

Most of the stuff I brought back from the office is still in the back of my car.  Gotta get that stuff cleaned out and places found in the next few days as we will be taking that car to the airport a week from tomorrow to pick up the Ndahana's for their week's visit with us on their way to Nashotah, WI from Tanzania.

All I brought in with me when I got home Tuesday evening was the docking bar, keyboard and mouse from the office.  The docking bar is going to make life MUCH easier for whenever I decide that I want  to spend the evening working down stairs.  I won't have to detach and reattach the network cable, power cord, mouse, keyboard and printer cables.  The mouse from the office is much nicer than the one I was using.  I now have an extra power supply, so I can leave the desk one in place.  Still not sure if I prefer the office keyboard or the MS keyboard I bought as a work-around after Allie Cat gagged up a hair-ball on my laptop and shorted out the laptop keyboard (husband detached bad keyboard until tech services could get me, and install a new one).

One thing I did find, that makes me very happy that I went in to clean things out was a picture Bill took of Abbie when she was just a day old.  The picture is a bit color faded, I really hope that we can find the negative and get a new copy made.  She was so beautiful!  She still is...but she's no longer my cuddly little baby girl....

Now I just have to explain to my boss, when he gets back from vacation on Monday, how I ended up without an office.  (Apparently this move happened WAY faster than anyone was expecting!)

Today, after team meeting, I travel down to Shelton to clean out my official office.  My company has long since turned the majority of the building over to another company, all except for the tiny second floor, where a small remnant continued to be housed.  It is now giving up that space as well.

This will be strange on a number of counts.

I have been basically working from home for the last three or four years.  I think that the last time that I stepped foot in the office was over a year ago when my laptop was re-imaged from Windows 2000 to Windows XP (yeah, we're a little behind the times...but at least I won't have to deal with VISTA for a real long time!)  The official office is over an hour from home.  None of my teammates, in fact no one from my division works at the office, or even lives in this state (long boring story).  Why drive an hour to telecommute now that technology gives us the same speed and security from home?  And it's much "greener".  (My company prides itself on trying to be "green").

So, in less than 90 minutes, I will be getting in my RAV-4 (which I never would have bought if I was still doing this commute, but we need one larger car for family trips and it's much better than our old super-sized Caravan!) and driving down to Shelton.  I will be packing up any personal stuff I want to keep, tossing other stuff out and getting the information needed to "remand" the ancient HP printer, fax machine and Nokia monitor that are still sitting in my work-station.

And as of Monday, I will be officially without an office, which I guess means, that I will officially be working from Home!