T-8 Part 2

We had no luck on the fishing. Jess caught 5, but all were catfish. Leo caught 1, but it was a catfish too. I hooked what we think was a big redfish, but it was smart enough to head to the grass and wrap the line around some stick, and I came out with nothing. Although the fishing was no good, the time spent together was priceless. [I turned around and took a picture of the house with the sun setting in the background. Just thought you might want to share in the "moment"!]

Leo and I started the morning by talking about our goals for the next few years. Both of us have "getting the house finished" at the top of the list. Leo's next goal was to get me on the Escravos project, though I don't know how much he can affect that outcome. (Still, it was nice to hear.) My next one was to get out of Houston altogether. He liked that one a lot. I pointed out that the breathing room his working is going to give me should be enough to let me start setting some boundaries even if I do stay with ExxonMobil. I want to work as much as I can from home, and only spend two days, Tuesdays and Wednesdays, in the city. Two long days of work and one night in a hotel is perfectly acceptable to me. I'm looking forward to getting out of Houston as it has become less and less attractive to me as time goes by.

A little later in the day, Leo and I got an email request asking for help setting up a spreadsheet demonstrating some different scenarios for a 5- or 6-person team writing procedures in Escravos. I had a good time putting together the data and thinking through the analysis. After I finished and went to discuss it with Leo, he told me to "run with it" and be sure and provide full details of my analysis. He was surprised at my outcome, but when I presented my arguments, he totally agreed. The best scenario I came up with was an 8-weeks-on/3-weeks-off schedule. The data will be presented in a meeting tomorrow morning in Escravos at 9am (3am our time), and I can't wait to find out what the team decides. My favorite part of the whole thing was the last sentence of the request email. It said, "Thank you both...we will all soon be here I am sure now". That was the same thing as, "Bea...we're doing everything we can to get you here with us," which is exactly what I wanted to hear!

With only 8 days to go, I'm getting a little "clingy" with Leo, but he doesn't seem to mind. We did some shopping today for those last few items he needs for his trip. All we have left is a week of spending time together and trying to make sure everything is set for Leo's being out of the country for a month. We'll definitely keep you all posted.