Happy New Year!

As the US prepares for the ball to drop in a couple of hours, other parts of the world have already been-there-done-that. Weird, don't you think?

I am celebrating New Year's alone in Houston. Splurged by going out to Whataburger and eating the first burger I've had in more than 3 months. It was SO good! I thought I would be lonely/sappy tonight, but that's not really the case. Leo has been in touch every day since he's been gone, and that makes all the difference. [Note: He sends everyone a big New Year's hug today!]

I've read so many messages and articles about people ready for this year to be over, but I have to say that for Leo and I, 2008 has been a very good year. We accomplished several things this year, and had some good luck as well:

• I earned my Master of Science degree from the University of Texas at Austin
• We added another grandchild (Zoe) to our growing collection
• The girls all seem to be healthy and happy
• Leo got a job that is helping us finish the house
• Gas prices are down, our savings are holding steady, and we are not losing ground financially
• I had a goal of losing 50 lbs by the end of the year and I lost 55

What more could we ask? As I said, 2008 has been a very good year for us and we are looking forward to more fun in 2009.

We do have some goals/expectations for 2009 that I will share here. I don't believe that sharing them is going to "jinx" them in any way...they are real, honest expectations:

• We expect Leo to retire [again] before the end of the year and become a real home-body
• I expect to lose another 75 lbs.
• We expect to finish the house and have a big family get-together there next Christmas
• I expect to get into a postgraduate (PhD) program somewhere
• I expect to be an active participant in a new start-up venture
• We expect the year to be fun, family-oriented, comfortable, challenging, and even better than this year

Hmm...I think that about covers it for us.

So here's hoping 2009 turns out to be everything you want it to, and that your efforts are a big part of why that turns out to be true! Stay in touch, keep dropping by here when you are bored, stay faithful and true to yourselves and to the things that you value. All our love...Leo and Bea

New Tech Tool

For those of you who have seen my laptop, you might be tempted to think it's no laptop at all. First, one of the fans in it is broken, so I have to use an external fan pad for cooling. Second, it's got a monster 17" monitor on it along with a full (numeric and all) keyboard, so it is really huge. Third, it weighs a ton. Fourth, I generally set it up with a second monitor running. Fifth, because it is such a huge machine, it has no battery life, so it must always be plugged in. Yes, it is more a portable computer than a laptop.

This week when my sister and I were at Office Depot, I was telling her about how I've been thinking of getting a mini-laptop. When we swung by the display, I saw one that I loved ($1,100) right beside one that really piqued my interest ($349). Interesting. She encouraged me to buy it right then, but I have this "rule" about impulse purchases, so I walked away from it. When I got back to the office, I put in some time researching the machine, finding out what it can and can't do, then I went back and made a purchase.

Yes, I have a brand new $349 computer now, smaller than a standard piece of paper, less than 2.5 lbs., with a minimum of programs loaded on it, but definitely a cool little machine. I am calling it my "meeting machine". It will be the one I grab out of my purse when I'm in a meeting and need to look something up on the internet, fire off a quick email, or take notes. Oh, and after the iPhone incident I definitely worry about cool gadgets, no matter how inexpensive they are; I am learning to walk around with my purse zipped closed!

I'm posting a photo here of my two laptops. The cute little guy on top is a pretty blue color, doesn't have much to it (not even a cd-rom!) but is just the right thing for my "meeting machine". The big boy in back is still my "main man".

Harmattan Has Arrived

As we make last minute preparations for Leo's leaving today, a note from a coworker indicated his trip back into Nigeria may not be as straightforward as before. The harmattan has arrived.

"For a few weeks each year, the shifting winds roil southward out of the Sahara Desert, drying out West Africa's air and darkening its skies with sandy grit. The dusty wind grounds planes, coats palm trees in yellow dust and sends inhabitants accustomed to blustery equatorial weather huddling together against an uncommon nighttime chill." (link to full article).

Leo's friend Barry sent him a note this morning warning that flights have been grounded the last few days as this annual weather phenomenon has begun in earnest. The season for the harmattan to blow lasts about 3 months, according to Leo. Although he has yet to actually experience them, even this man that grew up along the hurricane coast has heard enough to make him wary of what awaits him there.

"The harmattan, which is caused by shifting weather patterns, derives its name from the word for 'tears your breath apart' in the West African language Twi..."

Yikes! A wind called tears your breath apart? I'm guessing that's quite a wind! I'll be sure and post an update from Leo if/when I get one after he arrives.

I'm posting a few additional links here to articles I found interesting or engaging while researching the harmattan:

• The Long Harmattan Season - an often interesting blog from a Nigerian national journalist
• Scenes of Africa and Arabia - some absolutely beautiful photography from the other side of the globe
• Harmattan Haze - an article about stranded flights on Christmas Day at the airport where Leo is headed

Well, our packing continues and we are both doing a good job of keeping the tears back. I'll cry after I drop him off at the airport, I'm sure. I mean...that's now a part of my regular routine!

The Best and the Worst

It's been an incredible week, full of incredibly good times. Today, however, I'm in a poopy sad mood as we prepare for Leo's imminent departure. He leaves on Saturday.

Last Friday, Leo and I drove the 190 miles to Liberty to pick up 3 of the grandkids. We left there and drove 225 miles to Jarrell so the kids could go spend some time with their Aunt Becca and Uncle Shannon. When we discussed it later, Leo and I both agreed that the extra mileage was well worth it...we had an absolute BLAST spending time with the 3 oldest grandchildren!

Once we arrived in Jarrell, the girls were all hyped up about promises to go ice skating. [Mason kept insisting that he was going to stay home and drink hot chocolate with Uncle Shannon!] When we finally got to the right place, got the skates all laced up and the girls ready to get out on the ice (Leo and I decided to sit this little adventure out!) we had so much fun watching them try to get their bearings. Kaya is such a petite little thing, she started off without much trouble at all. Madison had a bit more trouble getting started, but was not intimidated by the ice at all. We were only there a short while before the guys showed up [long story that one] and Uncle Shannon and Mason joined the girls on the ice. By the end of the evening all the kids were whizzing about with confidence. Oh, we had so much fun! I hope this is going to be an annual tradition!

After we got back to Jarrell, Rachael, Lee and Zoe showed up. We had a lot of fun playing around a bit, but the kids were worn out enough to get to bed at a reasonable time. When morning came, after a big breakfast and some more fun and games, the kids were ready to open presents. Mom made them pick out a present and open them one at a time while the others watched. I wasn't so sure this was a good idea until about the 3rd present. Then I noticed that the kids were working together, making nice comments about each others' gifts, and taking the time to participate fully in the festivities. That's when I realized Rachael had picked the perfect method for the morning.

Later in the afternoon we all packed up and drove a few miles down the road to Dean and Andrea's place in Walburg. Andrea did a WONDERFUL job preparing for our annual Christmas gathering. We were missing our oldest, Michelle, as well as my youngest brother and his family, but had a great time anyway. Next year the celebration is going to be at my house, and I am REALLY looking forward to it!

The rest of the week was spent working on the house. I worked [from home] while the other work was going on, but it was really nice to see Leo EVERY DAY for a week. That just NEVER happens any more! The guys finished up a good portion of the ceiling before I had to order extra materials. The ceiling is a wood product from Armstrong. It was a bit of a risk since I have never actually seen the material installed in a home, but we have decided we LOVE it. Now if we can just make it "work" with all the other elements.

The absolute biggest change, however, is the flooring going in. We have it installed in the guest bedroom now and in over half of the library. When the guys come back on January 5th, they will be installing it in the master bedroom, will finish the ceilings and the library. I am hoping that by the time Leo gets home in February, there will be a LOT of good changes to the house.

I am so NOT ready for him to go this time. I thought it would get better, that it would be easier as time went by, but I was wrong. The more fun times we spend together, the harder it is to let him go. I just don't know how long we are going to be able to keep this up. Right now our goal is to have it all come to an end before next Christmas.

I hope everyone had as much Christmas fun as we did today. We just hung out with Jess, Grace, and Jess' sister Barbara. We put puzzles together, ate a lot of really good food, and spent a wonderful day enjoying each others' company. Next year will be my turn to host the festivities and I am sure we are going to have a blast, but we are going to do it in MY kitchen in 2009. Happy holidays, Merry Christmas, and best wishes to you and yours for a happy and prosperous 2009!

Finished Pouting...Moving On

In case you are wondering why I've been "silent" on the blog for a while I will admit now that it is [mainly] because I've been POUTING. My beloved iPhone was stolen from me while attending a conference in Houston. Man, I really LOVED that thing! While I was not that surprised when Leo's phone was stolen from him in the wilds of Nigeria (yes, I know that is a remark dripping with prejudice and American ignorance), I just could not believe mine was taken on an evening when we were in a "controlled" environment, celebrating the holidays, and enjoying watching the snowfall outside the window. I mean, it was a perfect Christmas time outing and it was spoiled by the fact that someone wanted to take something of mine for their very own.

And here's the oddest thing of all...the value of the phone to the thief is less than $200, while the impact to me is well over $500. You see, if you buy a new phone at ATT it costs $199. To activate all the fancy features on it costs $20/month. But to replace a stolen one is impossible...ATT is not at all interested in helping with that. They will not sell me a $199 phone, they will not sell me an "unsubsidized" phone ($599) to replace it. I can start all over, I think, by canceling my old contract ($175) and starting all over with a new iPhone ($199) but am not quite ready for that yet. So you see, the value to the thief was very little compared to the cost to me. THAT'S the part that angers me most.

But, I'm over it now. It's done. It's over. I'm ready to move on. Perhaps I'll have another phone of some kind activated by next week and will once again be "available" by phone. Off the record, however, I'm actually enjoying the phone-free world for these few interim weeks. :-)

Home Safe and Sound

Yes, Leo made it home safe and sound and I couldn't be happier! I have 3 days off with him before I go back to work, but I'm guessing we're just going to lounge around a bit and relax. If it's not too windy out, we might even get a chance to put a couple of lines in the water and try for some delicious trout or flounder.

While he was gone, I ordered some materials for a friend of his who pastors a large congregation there in Nigeria. In return for my helping out, I got a very nice "package" as a gift. I am absolutely thrilled to get a traditional African dress! I couldn't wait to try it on! I fear that the gift far outweighed the favor, but I love it so much, there is just no way I'm going to turn a gift like this down. Leo got a beautiful outfit as well and tried it on. We were both so very pleased. Hopefully I'll get a photo of the two of us together posted soon. Until then, hope you enjoy this one of me. Headed to bed now, but will sleep peacefully and have sweet dreams I know!

Leo's Flight Map - 10:09 AM

Garage Full of Flooring

My flooring arrived today, and there is a LOT of it. I just HAD to break open a box and take a look. You know how it is. You buy something after seeing photos on the internet, and a 4x4 panel of it in the store. I mean, how does that let you know what you are buying? So, Jess and I took one carton and laid some pieces out on the floor for a look-see. All I can say is "Wow!"

The floor we chose is NOT for everyone. As a matter of fact, I'm guessing that only a handful of people are even interested in the product we bought. It is engineered wood, but has enough surface thickness to allow for several sandings if necessary. It is VERY dark and has a lot of graining in it. It is a product that I would not have been interested in even a few years ago, although I would have conceded the fact that it is beautiful. But for our quirky, wacky, crazy home here on the water (I think the experts call our style "eclectic"), I think it is PERFECT! Here is a shot of the flooring we laid out from my iPhone. Remember to click on the image to see it in a larger version. Yippee! I'm guessing by late February I'll actually have floors down in my house!

BPV is Back...ARGGGHH!

I'm so excited that Leo will be home in little more than 24 hours! What I'm NOT excited about is that a mild case of my BPV returned in the night. Yuk! For those who don't know, BPV is Benign Positional Vertigo and is a lot more annoying than it is painful or dangerous. My first bout with it some 4 or 5 years ago was really bad. I experienced nausea, nystagmus (a weird sensation that Leo likes to call "evil eyes"), and it lasted more than 2 weeks. Since then, the bouts have been much less severe, lasting only a few days, and not accompanied by the "strange" symptoms.

In my case, when it flares up it generally means that when I lay down wrong (usually with my right ear on the pillow), things begin to spin. This often happens in my sleep and is a very rude awakening! When I am standing, a swift turn of my head can set it off, but I generally move a lot more carefully and have learned to minimize this. And in general, I just feel a little "off" for a few days. Then...magically [or sometimes after a lot of silly head exercises] it goes away and stays away for another year or so. Not really a big deal anymore, but still quite ANNOYING!

The good news is that I am at home in Port Lavaca today. Crazy spinning symptoms are a lot more easily managed at home than when I am on the road. I'm home today because (note: I have kept this a secret from Leo, but since he does not have internet access...again...there is no problem here) I am expecting delivery of our new wood floors! Yippee! On the down side, our contractors did not make NEARLY the progress I was expecting, so we are still WEEKS away from being ready to start laying floors. Still...it is VERY EXCITING.

Work is crazy-busy for me right now, just like I expected. I have a TON of projects needing my attention in various stages of completion. I'll try to list some of them here to give you an idea:

• Job Safety Analysis (JSA) tool - 4 to 8 hours more
• Brookhollow Preventive Maintenance (PM) database rollover - 16 to 24 hours more
• Friendswood PM database rollover - 6 to 8 hours more
• URC PM database rollover - 24 to 48 hours more
• Interim Data Warehouse (IDW) database rollover - >40 hours more
• URC Campus Improvement documentation - 40 hours more
• GREF Measures spreadsheet updates - 36 to 48 hours more

If you are keeping up with the hours you can see that I've run out of time since all but two of these (IDW and GREF Measures) need to be finished by the end of the year. The two outstanding items need to be finished by January 15. Hmm...looks like my plans to spend most of December with Leo have been derailed a bit. Oh well. C'est la vie!