Thank you Space Shuttle Crew (all of them)

I grew up in South Florida and am a space geek.  Yes I admit it proudly.  Most launches I have run back and forth between my TV/Computer and the outside where I sometimes could catch a glimpse of the shuttle heading up into space.  I was thrilled as technology advance and I was able to feed my geekness more! 

So today let me say thank you to ALL the Space Shuttle Crew from the astronauts, scientists, engineers, cleaning crews, landscape folks & more - really everyone for a wonderful ride.  I and many others were able to peak in while you boldly went where no one has gone before!




www-pao.ksc.nasa.gov



It’s all in the timing

In today’s marketplace it is a delicate balance when material is ordered for a project, especially hardware.  I don’t want to bring it in too early and have it sit here but I want to make sure that I have time enough to tag each piece with the door number and react if something is incorrect.  The most important balance I try to achieve is to bring the material in the same month I am invoicing the customer.

Case in point: I ordered hardware for 107 openings and asked for it to be shipped on July 8^th.  Two pallets of hardware showed up on July 1 and the invoice was dated June 28^th which was the ship date.  I was not a happy camper and neither was my boss.  My vendor gets the big billing in June but we don’t.  I am not sure how to discuss it either because this particular vendor is in my top 5 “go to” vendor list.

I discussed this issue with a few cohorts and one said she absolutely picks up the phone and calls the vendor to express her displeasure.  The other was more laid back and figures it all washes out in the end.

What I ended up doing is calling my outside representative and discussing the matter with.  He offered me a 30 day extension due date which worked for me. 

Do you have a discussion with your vendors or figure it all washes out in the end?

 

Never enough….or is it?

My day job is getting a lot of my energy these days and I while I am grateful it does make it tough to keep up with the things I enjoy doing.  One of which is writing – who would have thought!  Last week I managed one blog post, I am not going to hold anyone’s interest that way!

During a conversation with a fellow blogger he mentioned he was also crazy busy with work and he was writing late at night so his sleep schedule was much shorter.  I have to give him and many other bloggers kudos to be able to write at night after a long day of work and family.  I only have the work part and my brain seems to turn off at 10:00 pm.    

Eight hours of sleep is recommended but so is a 40 hour work week.  Few Americans follow these suggestions if we are lucky enough to have jobs.   Does it hurt my quality of life? Probably.  Do I need to do a better job at balancing work, life, fun and health? Yes.

I do know I need to create more opportunity to allow my brain to relax and drift.  I remember lying on a seesaw when I was a kid watching the clouds go by and delighting when I found an animal lookalike in one.  Why was I in such a hurry to grow up!

A book club I belonged to was started to study the Artist Way by Julia Cameron.  Everyone enjoyed it and felt the suggestions were helpful to their lives.  I was working from home then and was able to dictate how my day went.  Now, not so much.

I am not complaining I am just trying to figure out how to organize my life better so I get 8 hours of sleep a night, have fun and work.  Feel free to offer what works in your life in the comments section below!  Now I am off to..zzzzzz.

Let’s Blog Off – Traditions

Every two weeks Bloggers unite for a day to write about a communal topic.  This week LetsBlogOff asks the question: What traditions do you keep?

Growing up my family didn’t have a lot of traditions.  Ours was a tiny family: mom, dad, brother who is 8 years older and me.  It got tinier when my dad left when I was 8.  My mom did her absolute best with little money to spare in giving my brother and I what we needed. 

The only tradition I remember to be honest, are the money cakes.  Each birthday my mom would bake a cake from scratch and in the cake would be money!  She would wash pennies, nickels, dimes and one quarter and carefully wrap wax paper around each one.  After she poured the cake batter into the round cake pans she dropped each coin into the batter. 

When dinner was done, the cake presented, candles blown out and Happy Birthday sung she always said to be careful biting down and swallowing, you never know what you may find in your cake!  Whoever found the quarter was always the lucky one for the night.  Of course whomever birthday it was always seem to find it ;)  It was like a treasure hunt! 

My birthday fell 6 weeks after my mom died when she was only 50 years old.  My best friend at the time had heard me tell the money cake story many times so in honor of my mom she baked one for that birthday, my 22^nd.    To this day it is one of the sweetest things anyone has ever done for me.

Below you will find all the participants in this week’s LetsBlogOff.  The list magically grows throughout the day so check back often!