Creative Cat Behavior

Cats are very talented creatures. Each in his or her own way. Creative even.

I've been trying to get my cats to eat pills with their food. The pills are optional - they are to help with shedding, not to make them healthy or anything. I originally started this process with a liquid, but then the store stopped carrying the liquid and only carrying pills. Don't they know how hard it is to get cats to eat pills?

I started by putting a pill in each cat's food dish and mixing it in with their food. I figured that if the pill was well covered and therefore "tasted" like their food, it would convince them to eat them. When I first started doing this, the pills would disappear. So I thought all was well. The cats were not shedding any more than they had been when I had the liquid stuff, so it seemed like the pills were working.

But my cats are picky eaters. Always have been. So a couple of times, they didn't actually finish the food. And the pills were in the part that wasn't eaten. Darn!

So I decided to get more creative. I broke open the pills and put the powder directly into the food. Again, for a couple of days, the cats ate the food with the powder mixed in. So then I thought all was well.

And then a couple of days later, the cats stopped eating their food altogether. Rebellion!

Since I was more worried about the cats eating at all than about getting the optional medicine into them, I stopped putting the pills in the medicine whether they were whole or powder. And the cats started eating their food again. Not the ideal situation, but better than their not eating at all.

After a few days of no pills, tonight I put the whole pills in the food again. Well mixed in. But the cats are talented. They didn't avoid eating the food. They seem to have delicately picked the pills out. I found them beside their empty food bowls. Very creative.

Vacation!

Okay, it's not exactly a stay-cation because I am traveling. But I'm not going very far. On purpose.

This Thursday I leave for the beach. I have a 1 bedroom condo with a deck. I plan on spending a great deal of time reading and relaxing on that deck and generally getting away from the world. I will probably go to the beach some, but I'm not a big lie-on-the-beach-all-day person. For one thing, I burn. For another, I get bored. For a third, I don't think I look all that good in a bathing suit. So I will spend some time at the beach, dip my toes in the ocean, and watch the other people go by. While I'm at the beach, I'll probably do some shopping - maybe buy a new bathing suit since that's where they sell the most - right?

So I think of it as a stay-cation because I don't plan to run around much. Except running around the resort complex for exercise. And I go home whenever I want because it's only a few hours' drive.

What would make it a real stay-cation were if the cats came with me. But cats don't travel. So I'll travel the 100 miles and still feel like I'm pretty much at home.

Can't wait!

M&A

My company is in the middle of an M&A. Originally, it was supposed to be an "A". Acquisition. Us buying them. Now, "us" is a small company. Really small. Minuscule really. 6 people. "Them" is about 170. So it's a little weird that a 6-person company is buying a 170-person company, right? Not only that, but we're acquiring them. Not merging with them.

But lately, the language has changed. Now we are more on the "M" side. Perhaps this makes a bit more sense given the companies' respective sizes? On the other hand, the final company, post-M&A will use the 6-person company's name. Not the other company's name.

And now we're struggling with even that. More fun to come, I'm sure.

Is It A Matter Of Censorship? Or Respect?

Wikipedia defines censorship as "the suppression of speech or deletion of communicative material which may be considered objectionable, harmful, sensitive, or inconvenient to the government or media organizations as determined by the censor." Merriam-Webster defines censor as "to examine in order to suppress or delete anything considered objectionable."

So here's the question. Is a request not to respond negatively to a post on Facebook censorship?

Senator Edward Kennedy died last night. A friend of mine, who is a friend on Facebook, posted a status update saying "RIP" and a note of respect for Senator Kennedy, and followed up with a comment requesting that her conservative friends respect her feelings and not post anything negative in response to her post. Unfortunately, two of her "friends" were not respectful of this request and proceeded to bash Kennedy. Vehemently. A few of her friends, myself included, suggested that - out of respect for their friend - perhaps they should refrain from these kinds of statements. That if those were their opinions, they could post them on their own statuses or their own pages, and leave her post alone. Unfortunately, they argued that Facebook was a public forum, and they were entitled to say whatever they wanted. That her request was censorship.

I think that censorship isn't the issue here. I think this is a case of respect. Whether or not you are a fan of Senator Kennedy, the woman asked her friends to respect her feelings. And they didn't. And that's wrong.

And in the end, both of them ended up apologizing to her. For not respecting her request. So in fact, respect was the issue - not censorship.

On the Move

I've been thinking about moving for a while now. I looked into moving a couple of years ago, but at that time decided against it. Back then, the choice was move or remodel the kitchen. I decided that it was the smart thing to do to remodel the kitchen and stay where I was. My job was in flux. I have a sweet mortgage. And really the only thing that was bugging me about my place was not having a guest room because I had my home office in the second bedroom. In discussing the situation with a colleague, she pointed out that I could move my desk and computer downstairs to the "rec" room (re: finished basement) and then convert the second bedroom into an actual guest bedroom. So I did that, and it worked well. I've had a couple of guests use the room, and since I'm usually downstairs watching TV in the evenings, which is when I use my computer, it worked out to have the computer in the same room as the TV.

But now I'm getting the itch again. I've actually had the itch for a while - it never really went away. But I also started a new job about a year ago, with a new company. And the economy started to tank. And so it seemed like a smart time to sit still and be content with what I had - a sweet, low mortgage and a job!

Recently, things at my job have started to stabilize. While no new company is ever completely secure, we're doing okay. Certainly my job situation is not any less secure than it was with the big company where I worked previously. And I'm not completely skittish about taking on a new mortgage with the potential for job disruption because, shortly after I moved into my current home, I got laid off and I managed to pay the mortgage anyway. I know that I can do it if I have to.

So I've spent the past few weeks getting the house ready for potential sale. First, I needed to have the foster kittens moved out. Four of them got adopted, and Charley is living at the Reston PetSmart and apparently doing well. My desire for a new place was incidental to her needing to get a new home - really the problem was her disruption in my adult cats' lives - but I'll admit my desire to move was a factor. Second, I needed to get new windows on the front of the house. I had put new windows on the back of the house a few years back. But I hadn't done the front. I knew that, realistically, I couldn't sell the house with different kinds of windows. Last summer, I had upgraded the kitchen to new cabinets and granite countertops. The appliances are all EnergyStar. Last spring, I got new wall-to-wall carpet in the upstairs bedrooms - same color in both rooms and the hallway, so the whole floor looks cohesive. So about the only things that are old and possibly would need replacement by the new owner in the short term are the heat pump and the washer and dryer. Not bad. I think generally, that means I could get a decent price. Not the price perhaps that I could have gotten 1-1/2 years ago. But enough to be able to put something down on the next place.

I have an appointment with a realtor just after Labor Day. We'll see what happens. I'm kind of excited at the idea of a new place, though I'm also not looking forward to packing. A new place is fun, but getting there - not so much.

Most postings to come on this topic, I'm sure.

CDs vs. iPods

With the advent of iPods and other MP3 players, sales of CDs have apparently declined. Apparently, most people buy their music online, download it to their computer or MP3 player, and go on their merry way. I, on the other hand, still like CDs. That's what I listen to in the car. And in my house. I don't have a way to listen to music in either location any other way. While I seem to be a fairly early adopter when it comes to new music artists, I seem to be a late adopter when it comes to my music technology.

It took me a while to get on the CD train. I was perfectly happy with my LPs. And I had a ton of them, so I didn't want to expend the money to replace them all. Not to mention that some of those LPs never did come out on CD. At the time, my car also only had a tape player, so it wasn't important to get CDs to play in the car. And for working out, I had a Walkman that also played tapes. All was good.

Then one day, I decided it was time to adopt CDs. I got lots of them. I started with the 12 CDs for $.01 deal, and bought a whole bunch in a relatively short period of time. Easy when all I was doing was replacing the LPs. And then I bought a new car, and it had a CD player. So CDs became my thing. I also bought a CD Walkman for working out. And a carrier that went around my waist so that I could keep the CDs from bouncing when I ran. I burned a bunch of collection CDs, especially for working out. All was good.

And then came iPods. I didn't want to go through the hassle of putting my CDs on the computer and then onto an iPod. Plus, paying several hundred dollars for an iPod seemed completely ridiculous. But then....I found the iPod Shuffle. For $50, I have 2 GB worth of music. Easier for working out because you don't have to deal with the whole bouncing problem. Now I still did have to go through the pain of putting the CDs on the computer and then downloading the music to the iPod. But I'm over that now. In fact, I bought a second Shuffle so that I didn't have to change the music on the first one, but I didn't get bored with listening to the same songs again and again - even if there are something like 50 songs on the one Shuffle. So now I have two iPod Shuffles, and honestly I don't see myself buying a full iPod or even a Nano. And I still haven't gotten into downloading songs from iTunes. In fact, when I first for the iPod, I didn't even register with iTunes because I didn't want to give them any credit card information. All is good.

But a month ago, I bought an iPhone. And I've put my iPod music on it. And I've set up an iTunes account - because that's how you buy apps for the phone. So perhaps, just perhaps, downloading music is in my future. And maybe get an iPod player adapter for my car. And for the house. Nah! Too soon.

Cleaning Up After Kittens

Today was clean-up day. Today I finally "broke down" the kitten's room. I cleaned and put away the four extra litter boxes. I threw away the extra dry kitten food that had been sitting out since Charley's departure a week ago. I packed up the extra canned kitten food - which will either be donated or fed to the big cats. I bought a new futon to replace the one that the kittens destroyed, which will be delivered tomorrow (and the old one taken away!). All evidence of the invasion of the five foster kittens has now been either cleaned up or put away. Once the new futon is in place and the bed made up again, I'll bring out the stuffed animals that hang out on the bed. The only thing left will be to get the carpets cleaned. Whew!

Ready for next year!

Birthdays and Other Celebrations

Tonight we celebrate the two August birthdays of the family who live in the area - my stepniece and her husband. As with many families, the birthdays in my family tend to clump together. So we celebrate several birthdays at once. In this case, the two birthdays happen to be from the same immediate family - husband and wife - and happen to be about a week apart.

But getting together to celebrate the birthdays is almost incidental to getting together to celebrate being a family. Family is very important to my parents, and so we were raised to view family as very important. As is normally and hopefully the case, our family has grown with age. Though all of us kids are hardly kids - I'm the youngest at 46. My brother-in-law had a couple of kids that he brought to us when he joined our family - my stepniece and stepnephew. His mom also was a big believer in the value of family, and she became part of our family as well until she passed away a few years back. And so our family expanded that way. My brother got married several years ago too, and so we welcomed another member of the family - who herself views family as very important and is part of a big family herself. And the family expanded again. A couple of years ago, my stepniece got married, and we gained another family member. One of my cousins moved to the area, and then got married, and then his mom moved here too. And now my cousin and his wife are about to be parents. And so the family continues to grow.

This August birthday celebration is particularly important as a celebration of family. My sister-in-law lost her father about a week ago. It's always hard to lose a parent - I don't care how old you are or how much you may be expecting it. In this case, her father had been ill. But not so ill that he was expected to die quite so soon. And so it's been a shock. And so she needs the support of her family.

As readers of my blog might have seen, my father also recently had a health scare. And so we will celebrate his recovering as well. And the continued good health of both my parents.

So birthday celebrations are good, and all. But really it's the getting together that's the important part. Enjoying each other's company. Catching up on each other's lives. Letting each other know how important each of us is to the other.

That's the real celebration.

Signs of the Times

As I get older, so of course, do my parents. My parents are currently 78 and 82. My mom has had a knee replaced, but that's the most major surgery either of them has experienced for as long as I can remember. They have bad teeth, which the rest of us inherited. But that's about it. For years, we have had a family "joke" about how "young" my parents are. And really, considering their respective ages, they are in remarkably good shape.

But there are starting to be signs that they are in fact getting old. Finally.

My dad had a small stroke. He was having a problem with dizziness. He went to a neurologist. The tests showed that he had had a very, very minor stroke. According to him, it was essentially a non-event. But it was a sign.

A couple of days ago, he had an episode of diverticulitis and ended up in the emergency room having lost quite a bit of blood. In Pittsburgh. Where they had been for a funeral. (They live in Gaithersburg, Maryland.) Now, it's probably good in some ways that they were there because they were staying with a friend who is a doctor. And so he knew whether to be worried, how much, and what to do. If they had been home, it would have been my mother who had to deal with those decisions.

Still, it's another sign that Dad is getting old. That we are going to have to acknowledge that fact. At some point, you can't ignore the signs any longer.

The Skin You're In

I have very sensitive skin. I have to say that it pretty much stinks.

When I try on new clothes, which still have the preservatives used to "keep them fresh", they irritate my skin. For hours. Even after I take them off. The skin itches. Very annoying.

If I scratch my skin - just walking around and I happen to randomly scratch at my skin - not only do I get a welt so you can see on my skin exactly where I scratched, but my skin will start to itch. Again, for hours.

I can't wear wool because my skin is so sensitive. That's not just next to my skin but anywhere on my body. Unless it's very fine boiled wool. When I got my second degree black belt, one of the cool things was a "letterman" jacket with leather sleeves and a boiled wool body. I couldn't wear it. I tried. I even did it a few times, even though I was miserable the whole thing. I still have that jacket. Couldn't bear to give it away. Somehow it would be wrong for someone to wear it without having earned it.

Apparently, the acne on my face is also a result of my skin being sensitive. I now use a very expensive face cream to combat that sensitivity. So now it's not just annoying, it's costly.

So despite the tag line of the commercial, sometimes I just don't "love the skin" I'm in.

School Spirit

It's back to school time for students and parents. I haven't been a student since 2005 when I finished my last masters degree program. But every fall, I still get the itch. I like school. Always have. I like to learn. Sure, it's hard work sometimes. But if you actually got something out of it, then that's what it's all about.

This year, I'm on the other side of the table, sort of. I'm not a professor or a teacher - though I expect to be later in life. Instead, I'm involved as a member of an Advisory Board and as a possible capstone project.

I serve on the Advisory Board for the College of Health and Human Services at GMU. I'm a GMU alum, but that's almost incidental to my involvement with CHHS. Really, how I got on the board was through my last employer. The dean of CHHS, Dr. Shirley Travis, was looking for local companies to provide Advisory Board members. She pinged Northrop Grumman as a possible source, and as the marketing liaison for the Health organization within NGC, the request eventually ended up with me. I met with Shirley a couple of times to find out what was involved in being an Advisory Board member. As it turned out, NGC had all kinds of difficult rules about serving on outside boards and we decided to pass. But Shirley and I remained friends. One day, after I had left NGC, she and I were having lunch. We were talking about health IT, since it's part of both of our jobs. She asked me if I would join her board. I talked to my boss at my new company, Cognosante, and she agreed. And so I became a member of the Advisory Board. This fall, that means two things. First, I will be participating in a board meeting in October to talk about progress on some of our tasks. Second, I will be on the search committee for a nurse practioner CHHS is thinking about hiring for their health IT program. I've never done that before, though I've interviewed people for jobs, so I assume it will be much the same. We'll see.

The other academic role is that of a capstone proposer. The Executive MBA program, of which I am an alum, at GMU now includes a capstone project. A capstone project is a culminating project toward the end of the program that allows the students to apply some of their new skills in a real-world environment. We submitted a possible task for the capstone at the end of last year's academic year. On Friday, we go to present to this year's class. The class will then vote on the capstones that they want to do, which may or may not include ours. If the EMBA program doesn't choose our capstone, then the CHHS folks suggested that I talk to them. They have a practicum project, similar but for a single student. Again, applying the skills from academia in a real-world environment.

Being on this side of the academic equation is reasonably satisfying. But ultimately, I may need to go back to school again. Wonder what I'll study this time....

Grocery Shopping

I am not a fan of grocery shopping as a rule. Actually, I'm not a fan of chores. Sometimes I don't want to be a grown-up. I don't want to do the things that I'm supposed to do. I want to do what I want to do. Yes, I want to be a child and taken care of again.

Well, maybe not that far back, but I don't always like to be a grown-up either.

But lately, going to the grocery store has been less onerous. First, I found a grocery store that has fresh bagels, rather than having to buy the bags of preservative-filled ones. Second, the grocery store has fresh-baked chocolate chip cookies that rock! Big chunks of chocolate. A little soft, so that they are not hard even a few days later (of course, when stored in a plastic bag). Third, they have all my favorite brands.

But ultimately, what I really like about this particular grocery store is the self-checkout aisles. And here's why.

First, I hate the way the checkers usually pack my groceries. They almost always put all the heavy things in one bag. Making it virtually impossible to carry. And making it virtually impossible to balance the two bags when I carry them to the car. Second, I hate having to wait in long lines when I don't buy that much. I appreciate the challenge of shopping for a family, but since I'm shopping for a single person, I don't want to have to wait behind someone with a completely full cart. It's faster to use the self-checkout since I usually have more than the express lanes will let me go through with, but less than a full cart. Third, I still get to use my own bags, Fourth, while I know that the store gods still know what I bought - especially because I use my grocery card - the checker doesn't. I don't buy much that's embarrassing - perhaps some feminine products or the like - but I do prefer not to advertise what I buy. Fifth, I much prefer their checkout system over the one at their rival chain. The other chain doesn't let you pack as you go - instead all the groceries go down the aisle and then you have to pack up quickly as the next person starts checking out. It's not a nice system at all.

So as much as I'm not a fan of grocery shopping, at least with the self-checkout, it's more tolerable. Glad someone thought of it!

Random Thoughts

A collection of random thoughts today.

The last of the foster kittens was left behind in the Reston Petsmart today to play with the other kittens and hopefully get adopted from there. She and Mia, my alpha cat, were not getting along. Lots of spats, including a few nasty ones. Also, Charley was starting to get very attached to me. This way, she'll be showcased all the time, get to play with some other kittens more her age, and hopefully all will be well. In the meantime, my two cats are happy to have me back full time.

My sister-in-law's father died on Friday. He was in relatively bad health, but I don't think he was expected to pass quite this soon. Of course, it's always a shock to the system when a parent dies. Even if you think you're ready for it, I don't think you really are. It means the last vestiges of childhood are gone. My sister-in-law is also the eldest, so I think that makes her the matriarch. A role she's actually well suited for, but perhaps would have preferred not be thrust upon her in such a way. Death, as we all know, is a fact of life and part of the cycle and all that. But hard on those left behind nonetheless.

Next weekend's activities will be starting to seriously get the house in order for possible sale now that the last of the fosters is out. Need to buy a new futon for the guest room bed. Put the window bench together that's been sitting in the box it came in since May (it was in the kitten room and so safer in the box than put together). Get rid of the kitten food in the spare room and possibly get a cover for the litter box that lives in that room. Clean the closet doors in that room - they got paint on them (okay, I got paint on them!) when I painted the room last winter and just haven't gotten around to getting it off of them. Then I need to paint the master bedroom again - it's showing its age and also the new windows need their frames painted anyway. I think I'll take down the big mirror that's on the wall behind the bed while I'm at it. Which will also then mean putting up a couple of pictures or something rather than leaving that wall blank for showing. Not sure how many of these tasks I'll get done next weekend, but it'll sure be nice not to go to an adoption event for the first time since June.

Time to feed the adult cats. Not to mention myself.

Who I Am This Time?

Have you ever Googled yourself? It's interesting to see what pops up.

When I first tried to Google "Barbara Eberhard" years ago, the first entry was about Eberhard I, a graf (Duke) in Germany in the 14th century who was married to a Barbara. There is some evidence that my family may be related to that family, but really it's very hard to tell. One of my uncles has been doing a genealogical search and has the family traced to within a few generations, and those generations come from the same part of Germany. So it's entirely possible that the Barbara from the 14th century and I are related. Even so, I don't take that search as an entry related to me.

These days, when I do a Google search of my name, I find many more links that are actually me. Of the top 9 links returned, 4 are me - my bio as a member of the Advisory Board of the GMU College of Health and Human Services, my LinkedIn page, my bio on our company website, and some kind of website that seems to match bits of information together and tries to match people that way. Still, it's interesting that almost half the searches are "accurate" in the sense that they are about me.

Three of the top 13 searches when I use AOL Search are me - my LinkedIn page, my company bio, and the CHHS bio. Interesting that AOL Search did not find the spoke.com entry.

The newest search engine from Microsoft, Bing, found a bunch of links that none of the others found - my Facebook page, my contribution to Hillary Clinton's campaign from last year, my entry on Classmates.com (which I haven't looked at in years) - for 6 of the 11 links.

Part of the reason that I do these searches on myself is to see if anything bad gets posted about me. Another part of the reason is that, in this day and age, when you meet someone, they often "google" you to see what they can find out. So again, I want to make sure that what's posted about me is appropriate and actually me.

So the question is what would I do if there was a link that was about me, but was not something that I generated. The spoke.com entry is a little weird, but at least it's ultimately about me - my last job, but still it's accurate information. But what if there was some kind of negative information posted. What would I do? Honestly, I have no idea. How would I prove it was untrue, who would I contact to get it changed or removed, and really, does any information on the Web ever disappear completely? I guess I'll cross that bridge if/when it ever comes up.

In the meantime, it's interesting to see what "Barbara Eberhard" yields.

P.S. Extra points for anyone who recognizes where the title of today's blog comes from.

Just When You Think You've Got It Bad...

Someone else has it worse.

Bad things have been happening to my friends lately. Makes me appreciate how good I have it.

One friend dad's died. He had been ill for a while, but hadn't particularly worsened recently. So his death was unexpected. And I think any time a parent dies, it's traumatic. Even if you think you're ready for it.

Another friend is trying to figure out a health issue that won't go away. It may be MS. She gets spurts of numbness. Not the usual symptoms for MS, but that seems to be where the diagnosis is headed.

In the meantime, her college-age daughter dove off a cliff and seriously injured herself. She's in a body brace for a while, though thankfully it wasn't more serious than that.

Another friend had a scare with a lump in her breast. It turned out not to be anything that serious, but scary. Especially as the mother of a couple of small kids.

Today, I learned that another friend took a fairly severe spill off his bike - going 27 mph over the handlebars is not a good thing - and has to have a pin put in his collar bone.

A few months ago, another friend was in a more severe bike accident. He was out of work for quite a while - a few months - though thankfully his job was waiting for him when he got back.

So today, I'm grateful for my reasonably good health, my lack of broken bones, and my healthy family.

Namaste.

What Is It About Mondays?

A few weeks ago, I blogged about rainy days and Mondays, mostly about the problems with Mondays.

What it is about Mondays? Why are they so hard?

Another one today. As is often the case, I went to work with a plan. I had a relatively calm day planned. One proposal, due Wednesday, almost finished. Just needed a few tweaks and then it would be good to go. A few other small tasks. Get out of work on time, go work out. Good day.

But no. 10 minutes after I got to work, that particular plan was shot to smithereens. A draft of the proposal that's due tomorrow (at noon tomorrow no less) came in. In bad shape. Missing several pieces. And yet still too long. So instead of my nice calm day, I spent most of the day putting the pieces together and then editing the heck out of the thing to get it down to the required number of pages.

I'm good under deadlines. It's one of my strengths and a part of why I have the job that I do. But boy do I get tired of having to race, race, race to get stuff done. It's exhausting and stressful.

Which is also why I'm headed to bed at 9 pm. Yup. I love Mondays....

Sun, Heat, Sweat, and oh yeah, Tennis

The Legg Mason Tennis Classic lasts 9 days. End of July into August. Usually the weather is typical Washington - hot, hot, hot, humid, humid, humid.

This year, the weather was actually quite lovely. Relatively speaking. Mid-80s, relatively low humidity.

Except today. Today was the finals. And today it was nearly 100 degrees and very humid. The mens finals started at 3 pm. My dad and I met at the Metro at 2 pm to take the shuttle bus up to the Fitzgerald Tennis Center. At 2 pm, the temperature - according to my iPhone - was 95 degrees. Sitting in the sun, surrounded by a bunch of other hot people, it felt even hotter. I had thought that by 3 pm when the match would actually be starting, the sun would be going down and the temperature would be falling as well. Wrong!

Andy Roddick won the first set pretty handily - 6-3. Yea! Maybe this match will be over in a shorter period of time, and we can all get out of the hot, hot sun. My 82-year-old father couldn't take it. He had to get out of the hot, hot sun. I decided to stay. Once the first set ended, I thought, "Well, this won't be too much longer. I can do it." It was 3:48. Time to start cooling off, right.

Well, Juan Martin Del Potro won the second set 7-5. 7-5 means that they played 12 games. 7-5 is as many games as you can get in a set without having tiebreaker. Long set. And most of those games were reasonably long - though Del Potro did win a couple at love (Roddick didn't win any points). Not good. Long set. As long as they get. Still hot. Still sweating.

But the fact that Del Potro won the second set also meant that the match was going to go to three sets. Three sets, not two. Longer. Hotter. By now, it was well after 4. The sun was going down, but not fast enough for those of us sitting in the bleachers under it. Still hot. Still sweating.

So then they played the third set. 1 game to 1 game. Roddick broke Del Potro in the next game - 2-1. Yea, we were back on track. Maybe Roddick would pull this off quickly again. Then Roddick lost in the next round, and they were back to 3-3. Then 4-4. 5-5. 6-6. Now for the tiebreaker.

At least Legg Mason has a tiebreaker in the final set. The last major that these guys played was Wimbledon. Wimbledon doesn't have a tiebreaker in the final set. It was Roddick vs. Federer. And it took FOREVER. It was wonderful to watch. Amazing actually. 18-16. It's a record. But I am glad that I wasn't sitting there watching it with the temperatures in the 90s - of course, Wimbledon is in the UK. So it would have been 90 anyway. But I can't imagine sitting there for 5 sets and then having the last set go 18-16. If the temperature was 90. I would have been tempted to leave. But I was glued to the TV. Not sure I would have been glued in the heat - but probably. So I was grateful that Legg Mason only goes for three sets and no tiebreaker.

Tiebreakers for those who don't play tennis are scored 1 point at a time (unlike the rest of tennis, which goes in increments of 15 points), and the winner has to get to 7 points first. Del Potro ended up winning 8-6. That's because the winner also has to win by 2 points. In other words, you can't win 7-6. So not only did they play to three sets. They also played pretty much as many games and points as you can before you get to a winner. The tiebreaker could have gone on longer, I suppose. But 8-6 is pretty good.

The match ended about 5:20. I wasn't paying that close of attention to the time, actually. But I did notice, that even at that hour, the temperature was still pushing 90.

Hot, hot, hot. Heat, heat, heat. Sweat, sweat, sweat. And tennis, tennis, tennis.

Tennis Anyone?

I'm headed to the Legg Mason Tennis Classic tomorrow. Final day. Mens doubles finals and mens singles finals. Honestly, I don't care much about the mens doubles, but I'm looking forward to seeing Roddick vs. Del Potro. Should be really good tennis.

Thanks so much to my good friend Kevin Nordlie, who pointed out the mens SINGLES final isn't until 3 pm. So my dad and I don't have to roast in the sun from noon on. We'll probably go a little early to enjoy some of the doubles - assuming they are playing still. But at least we won't be sitting there roasting in the sun for all those hours now. Thanks, Kevin!

And go Roddick! I really hope that he wins, but either way it should be a really good match. I can't make it up to New York for the U.S. Open, so this will be the next best thing. Tennis is the only sport I watch consistently and the only one that I really care about. Mostly on the mens side (not a fan of the Williams sisters or Sharapova). But the chance to see play at that level of the game is going to be amazing.

Looking forward to it. I'll blog about play tomorrow.

A Quickie

My foster kitten doesn't like to let me type. At least not without her draping herself across the keyboard and/or over the top of the mouse. She really doesn't understand that I need those things to type, or do anything else on the computer for that matter. Her favorite thing to do, in fact, is to sit on the keyboard and hit various keys. Unfortunately, sometimes that means that she sends emails for me, plays games for me, or ends games for me. All so much fun...

My big cats have figured out this computer thing. They lie behind or besides, but not on or over the mouse. So I can function with them around. But that foster kitten - she's a challenge!

Everyone fingers crossed - maybe she'll get adopted tomorrow. She's adorable and all, but I'm ready for her to find a new forever home. And for my household to get back to normal.

Fingers crossed!

What Chore Do You Hate?

My mother hates to empty the dishwasher. I'm not sure exactly why and, being a good person, she does in fact empty it when it needs it. But she just doesn't like it.

I hate doing laundry. I love clean clothes, but I hate having to deal with getting them that way. I have a tendency to put clothes in the washer and then they stay there for a few days. Then I sometimes have to wash them again before I can dry them because they've been sitting too long. I hate to waste the energy and the water, but sometimes I just forgot that the clothes are in the washer. So sad, I know.

When I finally get the clothes in the dryer, they often sit there for quite a few days too. That's because the part of doing the laundry that I hate the most is folding the clothes! I honestly don't know why. It doesn't really take that much effort. And I absolutely hate to iron. But I just can't make myself get the clothes out of the dryer when it first finishes. Just one of those things, I guess.

In fact, there's a load in there right now. Been there for a couple of days. Maybe I should go get it.

Nah.

Proposaling

So those of us who work in proposals have invented a new verb - proposaling. It's the action of working on proposals.

Working on proposals - proposaling - is exhausting work. Tensions almost always are running high because there are tight deadlines and, almost always, people are running behind. Somehow even when the Request for Proposal (RFP) includes a reasonable delivery deadline - say a month or longer - all the work doesn't get done on time and you still end up pushing, pushing, pushing until the very end.

But more often - most of the time - the time to deliver is shorter than everyone would like. About 10 working days a lot of the time. Particularly on task order proposals. For those of you not in the business, those are proposals that are released under an existing IDIQ (indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity). The government issues IDIQs to restrict the number of eligible companies for those task order proposals. Only a company that has won a contract under the IDIQ can then bid on the subsequent task order proposals. Because the overall terms of the contract have already been set under the IDIQ, the task orders usually have shorter deadlines. In theory, companies should have a lot of the information pulled together already - whatever was pulled together for the IDIQ proposal in the first place.

Except that IDIQs go one for years. And years. And years. And companies change their focus. They have new programs that they want to emphasize. Maybe their partners have changed or need to change.

The organizations that talk about the best practices for proposals always talk about preparing early. Get your resumes together. Get your past performance citations together. There's lots of prep work you can do before the RFP actually comes out.

Well, that's all good in theory. And it's true that it helps to get some of that work prepared. But the resumes will have to be tweaked to emphasize the right qualifications. The past performance citations will have to be updated with the last contract information.

And the real truth of the matter is that the two things that take the longest in developing a proposal are the technical solution and the cost volume - specifically the staffing plan, the rates associated with those people, and getting to the magic number - the one that will win. The technical solution can be developed to some extent beforehand - if there's a draft RFP. But for those pesky task orders, there's not a draft. It's just 10 days to address the requirements.

And so those of us in proposaling are sympathetic with each other, even when we work for rival companies. We all understand the challenges of proposaling. We know the late nights, junk food dinners, skipped lunches, short tempers, and production glitches.

Proposaling is not for sissies.

Sorority Life

I am not a gamer. I was not into video or arcade games when I was younger either. My favorite arcade game - really the only one I ever played in college - was QBert and the only reason I liked that game was because it made a cool sound. I was never good enough at Pac-Man to be interested in playing it - I got killed on the first level too often. I don't really like games that take speed. I like games that require brains. Crossword puzzles, sudoku, trivia contests - those are up my alley.

But I have become fairly addicted to Sorority Life.

I have several friends who play Mafia Wars. I don't like the idea of that game - I'm not into violence, even made-up violence. So even though I've been invited to participate by a few people, I have declined.

So when another friend invited me to join Sorority Life, I thought what the heck. Here at least was a nonviolent game. I looked at the game, though, and had no idea how to play it. You get energy. You get money. There are these events you are supposed to organize. Very weird. I didn't understand.

I asked my friends who had invited me to join their house how to play. Neither of them really new. They were new to the game too. We decided to try to figure it out together. Margo was the first to figure out how to send accessories to the other sisters in the house. I still haven't figured out how to initiate that, though I have figured out how to respond and send a gift back.

Because that's the other thing you need - you need stuff. Clothes, glasses, shoes, jewelry, cars, etc. Once you have these things, then you can organize more events and earn more of these things and organize more events. There are some games to play too to earn things. One is a room packed full of things. You get a list of things to find in the room in a specific amount of time. The faster you find all the things, the more money you earn and the better accessory you earn. Today, I won Manolo Blahnik shoes. The other day I won Seychelles boots. You have to understand that these are things I would NEVER own in real life. I would never spend that much money on a pair of shoes. I've spent $120 for a pair of boots, and I think that's the most money I have ever spent on footwear. $300 or $400 or $500 for shoes. Don't be absurd.

But I'm having a good time dressing my avatar in the shoes and clothes I would never wear. Right now, I'm wearing the Blahnik shoes and a skimpy "Valentine's Day" outfit that, again, is the kind of thing I would NEVER wear in real life. Of course, I don't have the figure in real life that I do on Sorority Life either. But even if I did, no, you would not find me in a miniskirt and midriff showing shirt.

But the truly ironic thing about Sorority Life and my new obsession with it. I would NEVER have been in a sorority. Now I happen to go to a college where they had been banned in the 70s and hadn't made it back to campus yet (I was in the college in the 80s). But even if there had been that option, I am so not the sorority kind of girl. I am not that hip. Not that cool. Never was. Don't really aspire to be.

So why am I on Level 12 of Sorority Life? Darned if I know. Let's see how long it takes me to get to Level 13. :)

Summer Entertainment Choices

At this moment, here are my choices for entertainment - reruns of How I Met Your Mother or House, syndicated Bones or NCIS episodes, playing Sorority Life on Facebook, watching Atonement on a Netflix DVD, or reading a book. That's actually a pretty good selection for a weekday night during the summer. But you know what? I'm probably going to end up reading a book. Instead of watching the DVD. Or any of the TV shows.

Why? Because I really like to read. Even a book I've read before. Even though I read all day every day at work. Books are good.

Okay. Short blog today. Time to go read a book.

North vs. South

Who makes the signs on the Beltway? Or the Metro parking lots? So confusing!

This weekend, a good friend of mine was in town from California. He was flying out of BWI this afternoon, so I gave him a ride to the Greenbelt metro station so he could catch the bus to the airport.

After I dropped him off, I need to get back on the Beltway. I don't really know Greenbelt, but it's in Maryland I live in Virginia. So logically, that meant I needed to get on 495 South, right?

I followed the signs in the parking lot to get onto 495 South. They took me onto a fairly major street. Where I had to turn onto another street. And then another street. And then another. Not exactly nearby. It must have been at least a mile to the Beltway. Since I had gotten to the parking lot in much less than a mile, I was confused. But the signs kept coming and so I followed them.

When I got to the entrance to the highway, I actually had both options - 495 South and 495 North. On the sign for 495 South, the sign said Washington DC and Andrews AFB. On the sign for 495 North, the sign said Baltimore and College Park. When I saw those signs, I realized that 495 South was going to go east around the city, while 495 North would go west. Virginia is on the west side of the city. So I actually had to get on 495 NORTH? It's just so strange.

I guess sign makers have the philosophy of putting one town that relative near and one town that's further away on each sign. I personally find this confusing. College Park and Baltimore are nowhere near where I was headed. But neither are Andrews AFB or DC. If I hadn't realized that I really wanted to go west and not east, and that the South option was also going to go east, those signs wouldn't have helped. Would it have been that difficult to put NoVa on one of the signs? Or at a minimum make the sign say 495 South/East and 495 North/West. Because shortly after I got on 495 North, it split between 95 NORTH and 495 WEST. The North part was really all about Baltimore. Everything else was really West.

I vote for new signs.

Wait - Was That My Exit?

How did this happen? How did I miss my exit? I've taken this exit a million times. Okay, maybe not a million, but many hundreds of times. How did I just skip right by it? I didn't even see it. One second I was going past Route 7 on Route 66 and the next thing I knew I was at Nutley Street (Route 243). I completely - I mean, completely - missed the exit for the Beltway.

Have you ever realized as you're driving along - all of a sudden - that you haven't been paying attention at all? I know I've been driving for 30 years, but I don't take it lightly. I wear my seat belt. I check my mirrors. I think I'm a good driver.

But there are times, usually on a highway, when I just wake as if from a daze. I feel like I haven't even been looking at the road. Like my eyes have been closed for a while. I know they haven't, because when I "wake up", it's not really like waking up. It's more like just suddenly starting to pay attention again.

Sometimes it's because the car in front of me does something unexpected. When that happens, my adrenaline shoots up too because then I realize that I really haven't been paying attention and that I SHOULD be paying attention. Cars are 2,000 lbs of danger rushing at 60 or 70 mph. Not good to not be paying attention.

Other times, like today, I come out of the stupor and realize that I am not where I thought I was. No other car involved. Just me.

It happened to me driving out to Rockville the other day. In that case, I was on automatic pilot. I had planned to take the Route 28 exit and cut across to Shady Grove Road, rather than getting off at Shady Grove Road. But I worked off of Shady Grove Road for 3 years, and that's just what my brain knows how to do. So before I realized it, I was past the Route 28 exit. I remember seeing the Falls Road exit and then - somehow - I just missed the Route 28 exit. Or rather by the time I saw it, I was still on the main road, and not on the access road, and it was too late to get off. So I got off at Shady Grove Road - no harm, no foul.

But I have started wondering how and why this happens. I drive a stick shift, so it doesn't usually happen if I'm driving at slower speeds and so have to pay attention to shifting. But even then, occasionally, if I'm going somewhere I go a lot, I've noticed this same phenomenon. But when I'm on the highway is when I notice it most often. Which is really not good, since as I said, at that point, I'm usually going quite fast.

I wonder if other drivers experience this feeling too. Am I the only one? Does anyone else ever say to themselves - perhaps a little panicked - "Wait, was that my exit?"