Outside the box

There was no wi-fi available at work today, so the sit-at-the-picnic-table plan didn't pan out. Instead I used every wired Internet capability at my disposal to escape the office for a bit. Yes, I would love to tell you I drove to the airport and got on the first available flight to a warm beach. Someday I'll pull that stunt.















But today, you see, a really big airplane was going to land at our little international airport, and after missing all the weekend's air festivities, I wanted to see something cool, anything.

So I called upon my friends Twitter and Google and hosted a little search party. Quickly I found out the approximate landing time, best observation area, where to park, hash tags for future Tweets, where the plane was going to taxi and park, and which runway it most likely would use.














Everything went as planned, and I had photos of the A380 posted to Twitpic and Facebook an hour later. Half a day later, here they are for you. Sorry, no live-blogging today.

This little social media/web project is right in line with what we're doing at work, so I'll call it a field trip. My observations:














After editing, posting, and re-posting some of the same photos, I need to look into social media integration applications. And an iPhone. Just thought I'd throw that in there.

On the other hand, the photos I picked for each outlet were specifically selected for that outlet. You don't see any photos of people on this page, but on my more-tightly controlled Facebook photo album, there are tagged faces in front of the Airbus.

Within seconds of posting to Twitpic, I had 40 views of my photos. Gotta love saved searches and hash tags.

In conclusion, I did a little research outside the box at work, got outside the walls, and finally got to see a cool airplane. Further justification: The rest of the staff was at a golf outing. Driving golf carts. Need I say more?















Don't think I can justify watching it take off tomorrow. Can I?

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Bouncing off the walls

I worked through another beautiful weekend, so by tonight, after sitting in the desk chair of power for two days, I was bouncing off the walls at home. The husband told me to go for a run. Since I don't run (I walk quickly or jog slowly) and the only shoes near the door were sandals and it was getting dark, I put on the sandals and bailed out before anyone changed their mind.

It was a quiet, still, perfect-temperature, bug-free evening. The best kind, topping off an action-packed weekend in our fine city, most of which I missed. I did catch glimpses of the Thunderbirds in the air show from my clipboard-and-walkie-talkie perch, but the rest of the household witnessed the event from a real beach. No fair. The closest I came to a beach was Saturday morning's quick walk around a glorified retention pond.
















I hope the wi-fi access is back up at work Monday. Laptop on picnic table while listening to iPod followed by mid-afternoon walks sounds like my prescription for the week.

No walls, please.

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Workin' for the weekend

Actually, I worked through the weekend, so I'll have to wait another five days to enjoy next weekend.

Despite the weekend work at my part-time gig, I did accomplish more organizational/annual-cleaning tasks around the house.

Over the Fourth of July weekend, between parades and fireworks, we tackled the "put new shelf paper in all the drawers" project: my husband, with his straightedge and razor blade, and me, washing the contents of each drawer. Fun times, lovely results. Once a decade only, please.

This weekend we moved mattresses, box springs, and dresser-drawer contents to the floors as we vacuumed out every crevice and washed everything in sight.

While all this is productive and necessary, it brings me to a bigger issue: I need a project. Something to plan, work toward, research, analyze, produce. To the best of my knowledge, I have no upcoming weddings, pregnancies, moves, or big trips to plan. What else is there?

Hmm. I could go back to school. But I always think that's a good idea when the back-to-school gear shows up at Target. Buying a new notebook usually satisfies the urge, plus July is a little late to enroll for fall. And by mid-winter, the idea disappears.

Other ideas? Plan trips I won't take? Nah. Though I'll keep my low-airfare alerts current, just in case. But not likely.

Start another blog or other writing project? Maybe, but inspiration is lacking right now.

Figure out how to get more beaches and golf carts into my life? That's obvious, but the inspiration problem floats around that one too.

My part-time gig has just 10 weeks left in the season, the child goes to "real school" in six weeks, and the other member of the household's busy season runs October through March.

What's there for me to look forward to, work on, plan? Ideas, please!

I don't have many drawers and closets left to reorganize. Please save the remaining clutter in my home from my restlessness.

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