and we nailed it today!!!!
Super Bowl champions, babe!!!!
By the way, this picture was not taken by me, as I’m there, somewhere at the serif of number 2.
SEAHAWKS!!!!!
Category Archives: Moments
Weekly Writing Challenge: Lunch Posts – Friday
Internet and network are down at the building.
Email still works, but with no network, there’s not much to do.
On the way to cafeteria everyone seems happy and relaxed.
We get several hi’s accompanied by big smiles.
We sit down by the window, catching the sun that’s again shining bright outside, and we eat and we talk with no hurry.
Unconnected Friday!
Written in response to the Weekly Writing Challenge: Lunch Posts
Weekly Writing Challenge: Lunch Posts – Thursday
Met a friend to go for a walk and then have lunch together.
The walk was on the short side for my own standards (I’m a walker), but longer than what my friend thought she could make: 1,5 miles, going around ours and some nearby buildings.
By the end of it she was feeling great and empowered for having done more than expected.
Back at the building for lunch, cafeteria was full.
We share the table with 2 other girls we know from work, but we don’t really join them on the conversation.
For someone eavesdropping from the outside it must have been an interesting mix of sounds, as from our end of the table they’d get Portuguese, and from the other girls they’d get Korean.
Written in response to the Weekly Writing Challenge: Lunch Posts
Weekly Writing Challenge: Lunch Posts – Wednesday
Wednesday the day was though, I barely had time to go potty. Had lunch at my desk working like crazy.
But for 1 hour, from 12:00 to 1:00, I attended an event a team I’m part of was organizing.
We realized employee satisfaction is not great and one of the points that scores low in our org was feeling like a team.
So we decided to make some fun events to build team spirit.
Yesterday was the first one and we did a board game fun, playing Apples to Apples.
I was so tired, there was so much on my mind with the job I had to finish afterwards, that I did’t observe much.
But the game still made me find out some interesting things about some of the people I work with.
E.O. is a good story teller.
J.R. thinks flight attendants are cute.
M.K. likes feminism, although I guess he was confused with the words and thinking more about femininity.
P.J. thinks The Godfather is cute?????
Anyway, fun lunch with nice people.
Too bad I was too worried about other stuff.
But at least I can say I did had a fun break during the day yesterday… Even if brief… ;o)
Written in response to the Weekly Writing Challenge: Lunch Posts
Weekly Writing Challenge: Lunch Posts – Tuesday
Just before noon, I’m annoyed by a task I need to do at work.
I decide to use lunch time to go for a walk and refresh my mind and mood.
It’s cold. I see I’m not the only one who used lunch time to keep moving, although there are less people than when the weather is warmer.
There are other walkers. Fast and slow.
Some people are in their bikes.
Some are running. On shorts, even!
At the soccer field, people play soccer. Most are not only in shorts but also on t-shirts. But they seem all warm and fine.
I come back refreshed, and stop at the cafeteria to grab something to bring to the office, but again, I decide to sit down and eat at the café’s tables.
The cafeteria is empty.
A few people sit alone, like me.
There are several groups of 2 people.
The only big group leaves right after I sit down.
On a table nearby 2 guys seem to be talking about work.
Then I notice the younger guy is doing most of the talk. He seems very passionate about what he’s saying.
The other guy just sits and listens without showing any reaction or emotion.
The young guy has a visitor’s badge; the other one is an employee.
Is the boy trying to sell a product?
An idea?
Is he being interviewed for a job?
It looked a lot like a job interview, but reality is that the answer to this question is something I’ll most likely never get to know.
They leave.
I finish my food and come back to the office.
After all, I still have an annoying task to do today…
ASAP!
Written in response to the Weekly Writing Challenge: Lunch Posts
Weekly Writing Challenge: Lunch Posts – Monday
Got late to work.
Won’t be able to leave late.
Rush to lunch, ask to go so can eat at the desk.
While waiting, notice the sun shining bright outside after so many cloudy days.
Take the to go box, sit on a table by the window, facing the sun, pull up sleeves to soak up more rays, and eat happily with closed eyes.
Written in response to the Weekly Writing Challenge: Lunch Posts
Happy Birthday to Me!!!
39!
I’m typically a pretty low profile person, who likes to talk to people, is very social, but who at the same time hates to be the center of the attention.
That is during 364 days of the year. Because on my birthday I AM the center of attention. At least of MY attention. 😉
So this morning I changed my profile picture in facebook to be a “Happy Birthday to Me” image.
And the I got some back from my friends.
These are some of the images I received on Facebook and email so far to wish me happy birthday.
From myself 😉
From Sherwette
From Marcella
From Bianca
From Elena
Not a card but a real flower from Nik
(this post may get updated with new images until the end of the day… )
Yay!!! Thanks to all my friends, who sent me picture, text messages, calls, emails, etc, etc…
Love you all.
Copyrights are owned by the pictures owners, who I must confess I don’t know who they are.
A sick child, a speeding ticket, some nasty emails at work and an injury
The title above can summarize my day so far, and it’s only 2:00 PM.
My 2 daughters have a cough that’s been going on for a couple weeks now. So earlier this week we called the doctor and scheduled a visit for both of them to happen today afternoon. But last night the little one started feeling too much of it. She coughed so much that ended up throwing up. And had a bit of fever. That equals to neither her, myself or my husband having had a good night of sleep.
Then in the morning, hubby volunteers to stay home with them and I leave home feeling a bit of a nice sense of freedom for not having to drop them off in school, so I put some nice music, louder than I would if I had them with me, and start going downhill… But the thing is that sense of freedom, loud music and driving downhill are not really compatible, and the combination of them made me distracted enough not to notice my own speed. And right today, just because there is a law called Murphy’s, there was a policeman controlling the speed people were going down the hill… 😦
Then at work, some emails are sent around that I see as nasty and that sort of put me on the spot a little bit. I didn’t really do anything wrong, and it was clarified in the end, but I still didn’t feel happy about the ‘somewhat accusatory’ emails.
Then, to forget it all and get some endorphin into my system I decide to go for a longer and brisker walk. Note that today is also a warmer day. It worked to made me relax, but I felt really dehydrated and now my poor plantar-fasciitis-suffering-feet hurts like crazy.
Oh boy… one of those days…
Just hope the afternoon and evening will be better and my feet will stop hurting! ;o)
From the “my firsts” series: My first zipline experience as an adult
Today I went ziplinig for the first time since I was 10.
At 10, we went on a field trip to a military bootcamp sortof thingy and they allowed us to play on the obstacle course (just like the Survivor challenges) and finish it up with a zipline.
I remember I loved it, but never did it again.
Lately, in the past couple of years, I’ve been trying to find a bit more excitement and adventure in life, so I starting wishing to do it again, but either didn’t have the opportunity, or else I chickened out when the opportunity was there.
Until today.
Today we had a party to celebrate the release of our product, and the party was a huge outdoor event with all sort of activities, including a zipline.
It was tiny. The line to get our turn was HUGE.
I still decided I was doing it.
Waited in line forever. At least 1 hour, if not more.
Then 10 seconds of fun.
But it was fun!
My friend who waited with me is afraid of heights, so he didn’t dare to do it himself. Not even after I tried to challenge his fears, explaining that it would be for just a couple of seconds, and then how would be not at heights anymore. Didn’t work, he still didn’t even consider.
So off I went.
I must say that when the guy opened the little door at the top of the tower for me to jump, I understood that my friend would indeed not do it, regardless of all the lame arguments I presented him with.
Not me, though.
I jumped and it was cool. Short, but very cool!
Next time will be on a bigger one, maybe on a forest or something.
And I promise I won’t chicken out.
My first MLS game ever
Yeah, yeah… I know soccer is not the strongest sport here in the US, but it is on my country of origin, so, it’s in my blood to enjoy watching a match.
So yesterday, with the excuse of my sister and my soccer-crazy brother-in-law visit, I took them and my dad for a home match of our local team, the Seattle Sounders.
The match was awesome!
We won 4-0 against LA Galaxy, with 4 beautiful goals.
All on a beautiful sunny and hot afternoon, that ended with a gorgeous sunset after the game.
On top of that, the field was packed with people. We had an attendance of 60,000+, of very warm supporters, who were chanting, and dancing, and raising scarves, and waving flags, and throwing a nice green rain of paper strips.
The supporters, by the way, are incredible! I heard that Seattle is one of the toughest places to play on an away game because of the power of its supporters who can really break the attention of the visitors.
I absolutely loved the experience!
Not only for being able to watch soccer again in the stadium, but especially for being part of the big event and party that the match was.
It all started with some sky divers jumping from an airplane, wearing the green jersey, to land right at the field.
Then the players came and the National Anthem was sung.
And the ball was kicked!
I didn’t know the chants, but I tried to follow.
I threw my green paper strips.
I wore the green logo t-shirt.
I raised a scarf borrowed from a friend who has many of them.
I celebrated the goals.
I complained when they did something wrong.
I danced at the sound of the band after the match.
I root!
I loved it!
Planning to start attending those sometimes.
With 2 kids and a husband that does not care about American soccer, it won’t be too often, but I’ll try to at least go to a few per season.
Need to choose which one will be next.
Go Sounders!!!!!
Some pictures:
And some news on the match:
http://www.mlssoccer.com/news/article/2012/08/06/sounders-make-big-statement-4-0-thrashing-galaxy
Always nice to hear nice things about ourselves
Today the day started sort of stressfull.
- Hubby a bit grumpy for a little silly fight last night (and so was I);
- kids not really willing to leave home for school…
you know… typical crazy morning of those days that start off bad.
Then, I left home, drop off the kids in school, went for my Chiropractor adjustment (loooove it!), then to the office.
I have 2 temporary contractors in my team helping me with the project. Next Friday will be the last day for one of them. But before she leaves, she wants to make sure she registers how much she appreciates the team. So she writes that very nice email about me, saying more wonderfull things than I would myself think of (although I don’t really deny them ;o) and shows to me, saying she’s about to share with with our manger and manager’s manager (our skip level).
This is sooo awsome!!!
Made me feel so much better.
Lova ya, dear friend! And will miss ya like hell after you’re gone!
Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!!
Now, here is the contents with the Email, with names deleted for privacy:
Hi <manager>,
During my short contract period, I worked closely with several great IPEs on this team. But “<myself>“ really stands out as the best team player and the most positive, and flexible
Her technical and problem solving skills are really great. I experienced that she never fails to find answers to problems that are put on her plate. When there are obstacles, she usually researches hard to find the right information to solve the problem.
<myself> is a real Collaborator and team player! She always finds the time to support other people on the team by offering positive feedback, or providing knowledgeable, candid help when needed. By doing that she is usually able to take advantage of the group’s collective energy and help the team accomplish much more in less time. She always strives to bring out the best in people around her in a non-self-promoting manner. During the period I spend in the team I saw her always offering unconditioned help to <contractor-1-who-was-the-first-to-leave>, <contractor-2-who-will-stay-a-couple-more-months> and my(her)self. This in turn, helped us ramp up much faster, and be more efficient.
Finally, she is very reliable in meeting deadlines. Nevertheless, she never panics. She is always calm, collected, flexible and positive. This in turn helps others around her stay focused and be more productive.
It was great working on this team and it was great having such skillful support from <myself>!
Thank you,
Snicky wine
Today we went to our first party since our second baby was born.
It was a 2-year-old party of the daughter of some friends. And those friends are the kind of people who really appreciates a good glass of wine, so there’s always good wine on their parties.
I’m not a heavy drinker and wine is not even my favorite drink, but I have been avoiding it for so long (pregnancy + breastfeeding) that today I decided to have a little bit. Less than half a glass which I was sure would do absolutely no harm to baby through the milk, but would be enough for me to drink something.
The problem is that both my husband and my mom were there and I’m pretty sure they would have given me a hard time if they saw.
So at some point, I took the chance when everyone was on the living room and I went to the kitchen for something else, and then I saw the bottle of wine and the unused glasses and couldn’t resist. I had 1/3 of the glass of wine! It’s true that it would have felt better if it was a drink a care more about, but it was still good to have some drink.
Maybe next time…
Are they being mean or what?
Toddler has estomatitis, which means it hurts to eat so, although feeling hungry, there is not much eating going on. We talked to 2 doctors and both said we should not worry too much about the not eating, and just make sure there are plenty of drinking to avoid dehydration.
Breakfast table out of town. Me, toddler, spouse and in-laws at the table, eating breakfast and the way spouse and in-laws find to try to convince toddler to eat a bit is to eat in front of the poor little one making yummy noises. Hummm… Yummy….. this is sooo good….
I was just watching and I could see the desperation in the face of the poor kid who is hungry but afraid of eating.
WHAT WAS THAT ABOUT???? YOU GUYS WERE JUST BEING MEAN. VERY MEAN!!! CAN’T YOU SEE THAT???!!!
AAARRRGGGHHHH!
First glimpse of the baby
Today we went for the first ultra sound exam. Mommy is over 35, so a US at 6-7 weeks is advised to see if there is a heart beat.
And there is!
Baby is 1 cm long, looks more like a tiny peanut, but it’s our baby.
Toddler’s little sibling!
So in regards to previous post (To tell or not to tell), we decided to let grandparents know about pregnancy today. Ideally we would like to wait until 12 weeks (we’re 7 weeks and 1 day) but it’s hard to hide when they are living with us.
Mommy is already putting up some weight, boobs are bit bigger, tummy is getting rounded… plus the lack of freedom to talk about it even at home is getting to my nerves already. Not that we would be talking a lot about it, but even a quick silly comment is not possible if we’re trying to hide…
Let’s see how they’ll react. I can bet there will be lots of tears rolling out of their faces… and mommy will start beeing more pampared then she would like (not the kind of person who likes to be too extremelly pampared – go figure!).
Well. That’s it for now. If I can get a hold of a scanner, I might scan the pictures and post here.
We are!!!
Based on the pee-on-the-stick test performed yesterday morning.
A second child is on the way!
Sleepy but in peace
Since yesterday I’m performing a task that’s totally and completely mind-numbing.
I’m supposed to finish by EOD today, but not so sure if I’ll make it, since it’s taking longer than I though…
Regardless, it’s the kind of taks that makes me feel sooo sleepy.
But I’m fine.
Sometimes it’s good to have a task like this so we can get stuff done without thinking too much!
Kinda relaxing.
Are we expecting a second one?
Don’t know yet. But it’s possible. A couple more days before things are confirmed as late and test is performed…
We were thinking about it. We wanted it to happen sometime soon (we? or was it mostly me?). We played a bit on the days when playing can have consequences, but wasn’t really counting on it. Don’t know why to be honest. Some people has a hard time, right?
But now the days are approaching when we would get some confirmation. Kinda of nervous a bit.
2 kids?!
Fun, but a lot of work. Are we ready? Sometimes I think we are, somtimes I think we’re not.
But I guess that’s natural feeling, right? I remember having the same question when we were expecting our first…
Let’s see in the next couple of days. I’ll keep you posted!
Silence…
Toddler napping.
Spouse running some errands.
I guess I’ll be allowed a brief moment of silence.
Hopefully a full hour?
Oh boy. It does feel good!
Creative Busyness 