Friday Five!

So I took your tip on the pinching off the tops of tomatoes and poof, ripe tomatoes! Then I was having a conversation with a coworker who was saying they've never had a problem but have whole plants full of green tomatoes so I passed the tip along! Hopefully it works for them too.

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So I took your tip on the pinching off the tops of tomatoes and poof, ripe tomatoes! Then I was having a conversation with a coworker who was saying they've never had a problem but have whole plants full of green tomatoes so I passed the tip along! Hopefully it works for them too.

Yay! There is nothing like the taste of a home grown tomato! 

Yay!!! I’m so glad!! Enjoy!!!

Happy Friday everyone!

1) We went down to Aviemore on Tuesday afternoon and went on a really nice walk. We’ve driven past it plenty of times on the trip between home and Glasgow but never stopped. It was gorgeous - I feel so lucky to have the Cairngorms so close.

2) My husband goes back to work on Monday for the new school year. It’s been so nice having him around during the summer holidays!

3) I haven’t been sleeping much/well at ALL this week, which is super unusual for me and I’m struggling with it. Hoping my body gets itself in order soon because I have no idea what the deal is.

4) Can’t remember the last time there was a day without rain...

5) I registered for a Mindfulness short course at the local college that starts at the end of October. I’m really looking forward to it and am hoping it’ll help ease the transition into the dark winter months. Fingers crossed!

Finally! It’s freaking Friday!!!!

This has been a super busy week and I’m beat.

1. I GOT A JOB! Start mid September 

2. Keto is going good. I’ve dropped another 2 lbs this week.

3. I get to start driving lessons next week. Ready to get them started so I can be done with the practical. The bus is cool and all but expensive.

4. Edinburgh next weekend for the Tattoo! I’ll start packing this week.

5. I’m exhausted from all the excitement this week and keep falling asleep in the floor. We need a bigger sofa ASAP 

elee27 , hopefully the course goes well
KristieP2018, yay for a job!!! Congratulations!!!

Friday!!

1.) Playing a gig up near Dornoch tomorrow, right on the coast. Hopefully the weather is okay, but not looking hopeful. 

2.) I think seasonal allergies are messing with me again (mould?, been so damp), but I can't figure out what is doing it. I have itchy eyes , rhinitis and sinus pressure.   

3.) Still doing some soul searching and job hunting. Really tough to find anything. Plenty if I want to move to the Central belt, or England or Ireland, but my life is here, so no dice.  I also worry about a recession right now.   

4.) Hopefully getting out on the bike on Sunday. Looking forward to a poodle out.   

5.) My desk at work is mingin and needs a good clean.  It's pretty bad when *I* think it needs done. 

Just getting this in quickly before I forget:

1. Sister is coming with my BIL and niece & nephew on monday!! Lots of prep work to do before they come (gotta build some ikea beds and clean like a mofo). SO excited!

2. Along with one, by COP today, I'm officially on holiday for a week. Ohhh yeah.

3. I pick up my car tomorrow!!!! I honestly cannot wait! So excited to drive something made in the last decade!

4. Were dog sitting this weekend so we have to try to balance cleaning with not getting new hair and dirt where we've cleaned. It's a delicate balance lol especially as one is a pain in the ass puppy so keeping things clean is going to be a pain. He chewed thr carpet at my Inlaws and he CANNOT do that here considering the house is being sold with intact carpets lol

5. Pizza

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elee, I hope your sleep gets back to normal soon.  Maybe it's anticipation of your husband's return to work, and the end of your lovely summer break with him.  :/

Kristie, so much good stuff!  Especially the Tattoo!  And the job!  And driving lessons!  Maybe we'll get to be excited about a bigger sofa soon...

PB, it does sound like seasonal allergies, and those suck.  It just keeps going on and if the usual meds (loratadine or cetirizine) don't do anything, you're just stuck feeling miserable.  Oh, but you could take something for the sinus pressure so you're at least not in pain.  Continued good wishes for your job hunt/soul searching.

KoD, woo holiday!  Enjoy your visit!  And woooooo!   New car!  Oh, and pizza Friday.  Good luck with the puppy. 

My Five:

1.  My husband has five days off this "weekend".  I hope I bought enough food!

2.  My inlaws are coming to visit on Sunday.  I'm not even sure why, but hopefully it'll be a pleasant visit, we'll go out for dinner, and then they'll go home.  I like my inlaws, but our house isn't suitable for entertaining.  They know this.

3.  My sister has re-committed to a visit around Christmas.  I might actually get to see her for the first time in .... hmm... possibly 10 years...?  I hadn't seen her for a while before I was home for Christmas in 2012, and she was in Japan and Skyped in for unwrapping presents.  And I definitely haven't seen her since the Skyped Christmas.  Wow.

4.  We got a new drill press this week!  Well, new to us.  It was either a ex-display or a return/refurbish from Axminster.  We got it for half price, and there's a broken knob on the handle, but they provided the replacement handle so it can be made whole/new.  Yay!

5.  We've done enough of our dust extraction system that we have a tidy workshop for the tools we have set up.  We designed and built our own blast gates to open and close dust extraction for each tool, so we can concentrate suction power where we need it.  And then my husband decided they needed decorative signs for them.  The one for the planer/thicknesser says "Plane sailing", the bandsaw says "Band on the Run", etc.

Pictured is the blast gate and sign for the table saw.  Also visible is the remote power switch we made to turn the system on and off.  (You can totally tell that our workshop used to be stables in these pics!  There was a salt lick on the wall on the right side, and it left a spot that sucks water out of the air so it always looks wet and it has a huge white stain.)

Friday. Wheee. 

1) I'm still tired. I go for my EKG next Friday morning. Still nothing on the referral to cardiology, so I'm sending a message in a few moments to check on it. I'm still not convinced it's not "the lung thing" and am hoping that the cardiologist can refer me to pulmonology if the test is ok.  (Why is it that spell-check wants to substitute pulmonology with demonology?? Is there something I should know about the NHS there?)

2) I made spiced oranges preserved in honey per the Ball Blue Book a couple of days ago. All but one little quarter-pint jar sealed, so I tried it. Not bad, but next time I will triple the spices as I can barely taste them.  https://www.freshpreserving.com/honey-orange-slices-%7C-canning-oranges-recipes---ball-fresh-preserving-br1121.html So we're basically good for orange preserves for the rest of the year. I seem to have purchased too many oranges and lemons (they were all three-for-two), so I'm going to make lemonade concentrate and bottle it up - need to go buy some frozen strawberries for that, in a bit. Will be nice in January to have strawberry lemonade!  The oranges. Hmmm. Not sure what to do with them - we have enough preserves. Maybe the freezer. Or an orange pound cake.    When I'm rested up. The preserves took most of Wednesday afternoon and I spent most of yesterday afternoon napping because it wore me out. This is getting really old. 

3) The Daughter brought home some lovely smoked salmon fillets the other night. They went straight into the freezer, but I'm looking forward to cooking them later today. With a nice side salad, and some quinoa.

4) The albino corys have taken to playing in the bubbles from the bubble wand in the little tank in my bedroom. They seem to just love it - they swim into the bubbles, which lift them up to the top, and then they swim around to do it again. For hours at a time.  Very strange behavior, but they seem happy enough. And cute to watch. Endearing little fish. Rambo is doing well out in the big tank. It's almost the size of the smallest of the "regular" cory pack, and is now schooling with them. Thankfully Big Bertha has not spawned this week. Although, now when she does the Dwarf Gourami takes care of the eggs for us. (wink, wink) So I don't have to murder them.

5) The cayenne peppers seem to have put on another crop of pods.  As have the jalapenos. I'm eyeball deep in strings of drying peppers in my kitchen. Which is good.   I have to see if I can't get some poblano peppers to grow, next year. The tomato-growing experiment was a dud. The tomatoes grew just fine, and put on tons of blossoms. But they were in the Daughter's craft room and I kept forgetting to go in there to water them. I'd forgotten what water-hogs tomato plants are. So the plants are kind of peaky, but alive. No tomatoes, no blossoms now. May trim them way back this weekend and see what they do in the spring. We regularly had tomato plants live to several years in SoCal (they are tender perennials, after all), but not sure they'll survive here in pots in the windowsill. Be interesting to see. And I'll switch the peppers to her room and put them in mine, where I'll be aware of them daily, if they live.

Oh, stop the presses! I see sunlight. I think it's sunlight. I think I remember what sunlight looks like.... 

My 5:

1. After some NHS drama last week, at least there is one good doctor at my practice. Got the meds I need and hopefully will be feeling better soon.

2. I get the house to myself this weekend. Husband is off to work on music (I'm staying home this time because of the above, my ears aren't working properly)

3. I bought a bunch of succulents to fill in a rocky area of our garden that used to be a water feature. Looking forward to planting them if the weather is cooperative!

4. Work has been a massive struggle. I've never worked for a small company before, and never somewhere that roles and duties weren't well defined. This goes against every fiber of my being, along with there not being enough hours in a part time job to do it. I'm teaching myself a new system this weekend to see if I can propose they start using it for analytics. Its affordable and more powerful than excel, and will be easier for ETL than me writing bunch of vba scripts no one else understands.

5. See my physiotherapist this afternoon and really hope he has some good suggestions for my back. Nerve pain sucks.

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FRIDAY!  Sounds like everyone is doing well!

1.  It's my "birthday weekend".  Off to Kew Gardens tomorrow as a family.  Hoping the weather improves. 

2.  Sunday we have my husband's cousin and one of her daughters over to do an Escape Room for her 50th (which was in April but it's the first weekend we've been able to find to suit everyone's crazy schedules). 

3.  My birthday is Tuesday, which sadly I have a board meeting all day.  The owner of the company also wants a "private word" with me during the meeting, which I have been told is positive.  Fingers crossed it's REALLY positive.   

4.  A friend who repatriated to the USA 2 years ago is back next week for a visit.  Yippee!!  Will be a tough week as I've got lots on, but will definitely make her a priority.

5.  Getting very close to booking a cruise for my 40th next summer.  My parents are "in".  Just need to decide which trip is right.  We've got it narrowed down to 2.  One that leaves and returns from the UK and is 14 nights.  The other leaves and returns to Barcelona and is 7 nights.  I think I'm leaning towards the UK one.  I am refusing to tell my husband how much it costs.  Let's just say I have been budgeting £10,000 for my birthday trip and that's not going to be anywhere near covering the cost.  Ooops.  KIDS ARE EXPENSIVE!  But I love them.  Shame I can't bring the cat. 

elee, I hope your sleep gets back to normal soon.  Maybe it's anticipation of your husband's return to work, and the end of your lovely summer break with him.  :/

Kristie, so much good stuff!  Especially the Tattoo!  And the job!  And driving lessons!  Maybe we'll get to be excited about a bigger sofa soon...

PB, it does sound like seasonal allergies, and those suck.  It just keeps going on and if the usual meds (loratadine or cetirizine) don't do anything, you're just stuck feeling miserable.  Oh, but you could take something for the sinus pressure so you're at least not in pain.  Continued good wishes for your job hunt/soul searching.

KoD, woo holiday!  Enjoy your visit!  And woooooo!   New car!  Oh, and pizza Friday.  Good luck with the puppy. 

My Five:

1.  My husband has five days off this "weekend".  I hope I bought enough food!

2.  My inlaws are coming to visit on Sunday.  I'm not even sure why, but hopefully it'll be a pleasant visit, we'll go out for dinner, and then they'll go home.  I like my inlaws, but our house isn't suitable for entertaining.  They know this.

3.  My sister has re-committed to a visit around Christmas.  I might actually get to see her for the first time in .... hmm... possibly 10 years...?  I hadn't seen her for a while before I was home for Christmas in 2012, and she was in Japan and Skyped in for unwrapping presents.  And I definitely haven't seen her since the Skyped Christmas.  Wow.

4.  We got a new drill press this week!  Well, new to us.  It was either a ex-display or a return/refurbish from Axminster.  We got it for half price, and there's a broken knob on the handle, but they provided the replacement handle so it can be made whole/new.  Yay!

5.  We've done enough of our dust extraction system that we have a tidy workshop for the tools we have set up.  We designed and built our own blast gates to open and close dust extraction for each tool, so we can concentrate suction power where we need it.  And then my husband decided they needed decorative signs for them.  The one for the planer/thicknesser says "Plane sailing", the bandsaw says "Band on the Run", etc.

Pictured is the blast gate and sign for the table saw.  Also visible is the remote power switch we made to turn the system on and off.  (You can totally tell that our workshop used to be stables in these pics!  There was a salt lick on the wall on the right side, and it left a spot that sucks water out of the air so it always looks wet and it has a huge white stain.)

This is great.  Like.

I'm teaching myself a new system this weekend to see if I can propose they start using it for analytics. Its affordable and more powerful than excel, and will be easier for ETL than me writing bunch of vba scripts no one else understands.

What are you learning? 

I've been using Snowflake a bit, but but doing much interesting.  My current client keeps insisting that they want to build pipelines in Java that do data warehousing and I'm just not that into it.  I'm afraid that I might not renew my next contract and I'm counting down the minutes until the end .

What are you learning? 

I've been using Snowflake a bit, but but doing much interesting.  My current client keeps insisting that they want to build pipelines in Java that do data warehousing and I'm just not that into it.  I'm afraid that I might not renew my next contract and I'm counting down the minutes until the end .

This is very very small data, but poorly organised at the moment for anything other than very basic analysis. They're always going to be excel/office 365 heavy, so for the price and features I think recommending Power BI would be appropriate. Its a small place so they'd really only need the desktop version. Need to brush up on R for that too for more advanced features. I'll be a lot happier if at least some of my time is spent actually improving their data instead of trying to fit into the box that their old analyst created that doesn't follow any standard data practices and makes it so I'm not comfortable with most of their reports, because I can't replicate anything previously done. She didn't even log the date data was added to their working "database" so it's virtually impossible to look back and get the same numbers or justify the differences. (Users input a date as they do their data entry but there's no controls on it so it can be literally anything, and we don't get the date they added it in our file from the vendor of that system. So many things that make me a very frustrated data pro!)

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Okay, this is getting ridiculous... it's Friday again!... already!

My Five:

1.  My husband works a half-day tomorrow (to make up for the five-day weekend we had last week), but then it's the rest of a bank holiday weekend, and we have actual sunshine in our forecast!  And tomorrow's supposed to be summer-like (!!!).  We'll see.  I'd like the forecast to be right, but we'll see.

2.  Visit from the inlaws went well.  They're going to Canada the day before my birthday, so they brought me a box and said, "This is half your birthday present, since we'll be away and probably won't see you again before the day..."  Half, they said.  They're giving me more than whatever's in the box!  My birthday is more than 5 weeks away.  My husband thinks it's funny to leave my half-gift here:



3.  While the inlaws were here, we went out for dinner to Las Iguanas again.  My husband surprised me by ordering wings!  Like, on the bone.  I said something about messy food... in a restaurant!, and he said, "But habanero".  I pointed out that that probably means very little, and he acknowledged that, but he had to try them.  They were messy.  But it was fun just to watch him eat them.  I did say, "It's like I don't even know you anymore!" and my inlaws looked a bit worried.  (Verdict: not at all spicy.)

4.  We're out of chicken breast.  I know you guys don't care, but this is a bizarre occurrence, because chicken breast is just one of those things I always have in the freezer in case we can't think of anything else to eat.  Meat drawer is overflowing, but there's no chicken breast in it.

5.  One of the chilis on the plant my husband's colleagues gave him for his birthday has turned red... harvesting soon!  Then we can see how hot the "hot joker chilli pepper" is.