9/29/10

1. Getting to office in time for avocado bagel before phone shift at 9.
2. BH coming to my rescue when I was stuck in the stairwell without my badge.
3. Sushi for lunch but also this good cider brined turkey and doughnut.
4. My buddy coming along quite quickly and nicely. Hurrah!
5. Finally getting some headway on my peer reviews. Just an outline so far for some of them...but it's a start.
6. Grabbing dinner with MG and getting more advice on how to phrase things for those peer reviews.

9/28/10

1. Dragging myself out of bed finally to get a run (~2 miles) in in the morning.
2. Finding the second half of a roundtable discussion of social networking and advertising to be quite lively and interesting. Smart people with different perspectives and backgrounds.
3. Feedback session with my former buddy going quickly and professionally.
4. Solving my first mobile issue through testing. Pretty pleased with myself with figuring out that one.
5. First sewing class, an intermediate skirt class, and not feeling out of my depth. The instructor was very patient and informative and there wasn't too much interaction with the bitter owner.
6. Getting home earlier than expected since I finished my muslin with time to spare in the class.

9/27/10

1. Getting compliments on my blue dress with white flower pattern and ruffles around the neck.
2. Lunch to catch up with MG/AJ/SN.
3. Picking up 2 bar stools for only $30. They're a pretty nice style, too, even if they are from Walmart originally.
4. Dan coming out in the drizzle to help me carry the stools back.
5. Finishing making cheese pumpkin pudding.
6. Watching the end of Groundhog Day for the first time.

9/26/10

1. Salvation Army still having drop off bins even though the thrift store itself was closed.
2. Getting back to the apartment just in time for Dan's football game, despite traffic and returning things at the stores.
3. Dan helping me move the painted sewing desk into its place!
4. Biking over to Bed Bath & Beyond and getting a few things I'd been wanting for awhile, including a new shower curtain liner. Ugh the old one had gotten so gross.
5. Making applesauce.
6. Going for another ~45 minute run, around 4.4km.

9/25/10

1. Waking up naturally at 8:30, pretty early for me (and good for catching the reported issue that came in the night that didn't wake me up without too much further delay).
2. Cleaning up the apartment.
3. Getting to some quick mending projects that had been sitting around for a bit.
4. Finishing painting the sewing desk an apple green and Dan liking the color.
5. Dan picking up dinner of Thai food for me.
6. Watching the Swedish The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo over Netflix.

9/24/10

1. Cheesy grits at breakfast.
2. Sync meeting ending early enough to be able to grab lunch before getting back on a phone shift.
3. Reunion over VC with my starting class
4. Others acknowledging the ridiculousness of an email we received of someone announcing their own assumption of a newly created role.
5. Resisting the urge to get Korean fried chicken for dinner and went on my first long almost 5K run.
6. Falling asleep really quickly since I was so tired from the week. Working on the waking up earlier consistently goal right now, but mostly it's been waking up earlier and going to bed around the same time = less sleep.

9/23/10

1. Attending a compensation roadshow that explained a lot about how much work goes into determining target compensation.
2. Lunch with MG, BB, and AQ.
3. Finally getting some time with SL this week to finish up the dashboard project. Hurrah!
4. Finishing up all vital work just in time for the dinner plans.
5. Spinach gnocci in a creamy gorgonzola sauce at Malatesta.
6. Fun dinner overall with AQ & bf & friend, MG, AM, and Dan. Outnumbered enough not to talk about work the whole time.

9/22/10

1. Getting up for a run early enough to get it in before Dan left for the day, so he could let me back into the apartment.
2. Finding the extra bike lock key so I could bike back after the run and then bike over again after showering.
3. Getting to the office early enough to have time for a sit-down breakfast before TAing a training class.
4. 2nd anniversary of working!
5. Getting dinner with ES and DK after finally getting some work done on a project.
6. Making it back with most of this week's CSA box, including a pumpkin, with just my backpack and using the giant rubber band to strap my purse to the backpack on the outside.

9/21/10

1. Being reminded that while I don't always agree with Miss Manners' responses, I do enjoy her arch tone and wittiness.
2. Getting in a chair massage.
3. Having my computer to continue work while a meeting was delayed for 20 minutes from technical difficulties.
4. Grabbing dinner with MG, where there was this beef thing that was really delicious.
5. Wrapping up finishing my self-assessment before it was too ridiculously late.
6. Wearing comfortable shoes that I could walk home in after forgetting the key to my bike (and the apartment) at the office.

9/20/10

1. NE running into me in the cafe and reminding me of our ping pong match in the morning.
2. Making a good run of it in the ping pong match even though I lost.
3. Finishing Breaking Dawn during lunch.
4. Client being ok with me getting back to her later after the internet crapped out.
5. Picking up Miss Manners' Guide to a Surprisingly Dignified Wedding from the library.
6. Getting mostly caught up on personal email.

9/19/10

1. Slow morning, plenty of time to wake into it slowly even though it was our last day in Michigan.
2. Mama G insisting on running a load of laundry for us before leaving.
3. MG being able to pack my various liquids and "dangerous" tools in with her bag to be checked for free.
4. Getting to sleep a bit on the flight back.
5. Dan meeting me at Union Square to help with my bag and getting home in an hour and a half after landing.
6. Buying Breaking Dawn as an ebook from Barnes&Noble. More trash reading.

9/18/10

1. Making breakfast for the Gs, with home fries and eggs.
2. Finishing Never Let Me Go and really enjoying the whole read.
3. Going for a run, actually making use of the running apparel I'd brought along.
4. Going for a walk with the whole fam.
5. Making test tissue paper pompoms with Mama G.
6. Pulling Twilight from MG's sister's bookshelf a little trash reading before bed.

9/17/10

1. Almost finishing cleaning up the rest of the hotlists.
2. Just one hiccup in technical issues from dialing in to the weekly meeting.
3. Discovering a great, well-organized, big vintage shop and scoring 4 dresses and a belt. Employees were really helpful and honest.
4. Getting to the Franklin Cider Mill and picking up a few more gifts for people plus tasting their amazing apple cider and fresh doughnuts.
5. Having a great time at dinner with MG's aunts, very warm and welcoming and fun.
6. Finding MG's copy of and starting Never Let Me Go.

9/16/10

1. Getting to the office just in time for the 2nd buddy session.
2. Having lunch with DM.
3. Working steadily in the afternoon, having discovered the massage chair.
4. Dinner at the famous Zingerman's with DM and MG.
5. Spending at least an hour going through Zingerman's wares, including candies and olive oil and honey sampling from the enthusiastic samples guy. Everyone seems to genuinely care about what they do.
6. Watching home videos of MG as a young terrorizer of her sister.

9/15/10

1. Making it in just in time to swoop up breakfast and get on the first 9am shift I'd had in awhile.
2. Discussing podding strategy with IS and getting confirmation from him that the OKR was complete.
3. Weekly sync meeting running for less than half an hour, giving me time to clean up some other things before leaving the office.
4. Discovering that the new healthy microkitchens have baked chips in them.
5. Making to LaGuardia in plenty of time.
6. Mama G's welcome basket for me, with various hotel-sized soaps and things but also a little ornament in the shape of Michigan!

9/14/10

1. Went on second-to-last official C25K run. Made just about 2 miles.
2. First official buddy session with EM going pretty well.
3. Working with SL further on the FCR dashboard...looks pretty good!
4. Finally getting to attend the new support meeting with the phone shift schedule change.
5. Getting JVC to sit down and clean up some hotlists.
6. Going out for dinner (tapas) and drinks with SL/BB/MG/DF/NE.

9/13/10

1. Remembering to text my sister happy birthday in the morning.
2. Working code session with SL in which he teaches me various things about SQL and PHP and then we end up deciding to redo the whole project.
3. Meeting AM's sister, first day of work for her.
4. Very detailed measuring for a skirt pattern for the Sew Fast Sew Easy class I'm taking.
5. Caught up with EN a bit over the phone.
6. Finished cutting sufficient foamcore boards to organize fabric stash, reorganized Dan's bookshelf and board games, and cleaned up the rest of the craft bookshelf a bit. Pretty productive for a worknight evening. Now I just need big glass containers for the yarn stash.

9/12/10

1. Running errands in less than an hour in the morning.
2. Getting together the energy to clean up all the mess from yesterday and the apartment in general.
3. Cutting up more foamcore to organize fabric. Looking good.
4. Doing a couple large loads of laundry.
5. Finally selling the brown desk, WOOHOO!!!
6. Starting Week 9 of C25K with a 30 minute run. Felt pretty strong at the end.

9/11/10

1. Getting a 10% discount on the cost of alterations to Dan's suit because they didn't have it ready last night.
2. Getting to the makeup trial right on time, despite having to go pick up the suit first.
3. Makeup trial included false eyelashes, hooray! They felt rather strange at first but I loved the look.
4. Having a great time at the engagement shoot with Kelly, who did a great job of directing us. I brought too many props and there was a random NJTransit cop that stopped us from taking more photos in the train terminal, I'm sad we missed out on the big stairs, but I think we got a lot of other good ones in. Fingers crossed especially fo the bubble ones.
5. Dan making dinner for me because I suddenly felt entirely exhausted by the day's activities.
6. Just hanging around for the rest of the night, leaving a mess around to be dealt with later.

9/10/10

1. Having a sense of when this morning's 28 minute run was completed even though the C25K seemed to have miscounted the time elapsed.
2. Re-reading Ella Enchanted.
3. A long-scheduled client call finishing up rather quickly and not resulting in anything for me to do, really.
4. Catching MG and AJ before they left the office as the attempt to pick up Dan's suit from the tailor fell through.
5. Getting dinner at Frankie's 457 with MG and AJ. Mmmm fresh homemade gnocchi and wine.
6. Relaxing at home watching random TV while waiting for Dan to get back.

9/9/10

1. Lunch meeting got moved up to the morning so I was able to go pick up my new bike helmet.
2. Good meeting with my boss' boss about career development.
3. Making it to Maxwell's juuust before they closed to buy the pearl drop earrings I saw over the weekend and wanted for the engagement shoot.
4. Peddling over to Unique Nails on Newark St. to get a mani-pedi after finding Madison Nails closed.
5. Surprising Dan with a pumpkin donut from Dunkin Donuts.
6. Dan surprising me with a set of Scrabble that he picked up from Target for the photo shoot.

9/8/10

1. Getting to the office in time to grab breakfast and sit down in the cafe to enjoy most of it before rushing off to class.
2. Morning spent in the 2nd level presentation skills class, which was really helpful! Full of interactive exercises to drive home the points (no slides from the instructor at all, actually), feedback on things I should focus on improving for myself (like finishing my sentences, letting loose with the hand gestures and body language a bit more, etc.)
3. Relatively short line for sushi.
4. Pretty good haul from the CSA this week, corn and yellow squash.
5. Dinner of lettuce wraps with quinoa from last night plus slices of CSA tomato.
6. Starting to organize my fabric stash with foamcore boards (6.5"x9"), inspired by this Flickr photo. It looks so much neater already!

9/7/10

1. Quieter day than I thought, having come back from a long weekend.
2. Acquiring white foamcore from a nearby Utrecht art supplies store for a project on organizing my fabric stash that I have in mind.
3. Getting my eyebrows threaded a bit sooner than I usually do it for the official engagement shoot this weekend and feeling less pain. Alas, the same cannot be said for the upper lip.
4. Being right over Dan of the forecast changing to allow for the possibility of rain, based on how the wind felt on my way back from the PATH station (big piece of foamcore in tow, of course).
5. Having a pretty easy time in the second 28 minute run for C25K.
6. Feeling really organized after putting together a spreadsheet of all the apartment projects I want to do and ranking and categorizing them.

9/6/10

1. Waking up refreshed at 9:30.
2. Breakfast of scrambled eggs, cherry tomatoes, and half an avocado.
3. Fitting all the paint supplies I bought at Home Depot into my backpack to bike back.
4. Putting down a deposit on the band for the wedding.
5. Breaking out the mouse sander my dad gave me to rough up the surfaces for the laminate furniture I want to paint and to do some more sanding on the round side table.
6. Not making too much of a mess of priming what will be my sewing desk as well as a nightstand for me.

9/5/10

1. Finding out that the ferry to Governor's Island from Manhattan runs every 30 minutes, so when we missed the 11am by a few minutes, it wasn't too long to wait until the next one, which incidentally also left early.
2. Discovering a Bao Bing (Taiwanese shaved ice) stand at the Food Truck Fest. Mine had red beans, grass jelly, watermelon, and a scoop of green tea ice cream. Really hit the spot.
3. Talking Dan into renting a tandem bike for the two of us and not falling over at any point.
4. Beautiful, perfect clear and sunny (but not too warm) day for biking and swing sets and sitting around talking ourselves into wanting Kindles more. Wonderful time with MG/AM/AJ/MT.
5. Making sandwiches with the leftover chicken, plus avocado and tomato, on ciabatta rolls.
6. Starting week 8 of C25K (28 minute runs) and finding a potential nightstand for my side of the bed.

9/4/10

1. Getting a ton of wedding blogging done, quite a few posts scheduled now.
2. Neighbors not knocking on our door to complain about me setting off the fire alarm like 10 times while roasting a chicken for dinner.
3. Opening the peach wine Dan brought back for me from Georgia and loving the taste of it.
4. Dinner for Dan, his sister, and his sister's boyfriend turning really well overall, though I didn't have time to make the peach dessert I was thinking of.
5. Having a great time in the evening, playing Wits and Wagers.
6. Discovering that Austin and Santino of previous Project Runway seasons have a show together. And it is amazing.

9/3/10

1. Waking up feel much better than I did yesterday, not overly tired or dehydrated or with a headache.
2. Finishing week 7 of C25K with a run set to Wait Wait Don't Tell Me on EN's recommendation, using thew C25K Android app I found.
3. EF coming in a bit early so I could join BB/MG/AJ for the end of lunch after all.
4. Pretty productive live ticket session with the newbies, where I realized something that had eluded me earlier in the day.
5. My French pear martini.
6. Checking out B.D. Lenz at the Salt Creek Grille in Princeton and getting a chance to talk to him during their break.

9/2/10

1. Getting myself to work despite not feeling great right after waking.
2. Continuation of yesterday's class containing more exercises to practice different skills. More lively in general.
3. Beer battered onion rings at TGIAF. First time I've liked onion rings, these were so crispy and the onion rings inside were fully cooked (I'm not a huge fan of raw onion).
4. Stopping in at the Housing Works thrift and book stores in SoHo.
5. Buying Dan a slim fit dress shirt from Uniqlo for the engagement shoot. How novel, a shirt that didn't billow everywhere from the extra fabric!
6. Reading The Dark is Rising, picked up from Housing Works.

9/1/10

1. Getting up for the second 25 minute run in week 7 of C25K.
2. Nothing urgent coming in and being able to cancel an afternoon meeting.
3. Attending to attend an internal training on project management. It was all right, not life shattering but a good basis to start off of.
4. In general a productive but not busy day at work, after getting that presentation done yesterday.
5. Bringing Dan's gray suit to the tailor's and finding that they can do a significant amount of trimming off the mounds of excess fabric without it being too expensive.
6. Finding that the new Trader Joe's does in fact sell whole chickens. Procured one to prep for Saturday's dinner.

8/31/10

1. Informative training session by SL on new troubleshooting techniques.
2. Client call going as smoothly as could be hoped for, really.
3. Coming up with an idea to make a project of cleaning up documentation a bit easier.
4. Presentation to managers (on podding) being pretty well-received, I think.
5. Catching the tail end of a happy hour for JB leaving.
6. Dan already having the AC in the apartment at a comfortable level when I got home, very nice welcome to the 90 degree weather even though it was already 9:30pm.