I'm Peyton Manning

John and I went to the Colts game yesterday. For those of you who aren't up on your American football, Indy has done quite well the last few years with our star quarterback, Peyton Manning. Of course, we always seem to choke in the playoffs which is why we don't have any superbowls to our name yet, but I digress. Anyway, Peyton is really great, and my fun thing to say on Sundays is that I am Peyton Manning. It winds John up because he knows it means I'm the best, and he likes to think that he is the best. And I proved that I am the best again yesterday by having a great win against the Jacksonville Jaguars. It was a good game, there was even a punt return touchdown, which we hardly ever see the Colts do.

I got stuck at the airport on Friday. I hate when that happens. My flight was already delayed, then some storms came through and it eventually got cancelled (after I'd already been at the airport around five hours). I could have been put in a hotel overnight and gotten a flight in the morning (as some of my colleagues had to do), but it would have taken a lot to keep me in Chicago. I rented a car, drove through some storms, and got home about four or five hours late. We were surmising at work today that the weather is always great on Mondays and flights are never late, and Fridays when we are trying to get home is when get held up. We think it's a conspiracy. I'm not sure who is responsible, my guess is the Republicans, but I'm going to have to start looking into it.

By the way, while I'm thinking about it, John has a new blog of observations in his new land. The link is over in the left margin.

As for the rest of the weekend, Saturday was more house hunting. We saw a couple that we really liked. One is a great bargain but needs lots of updates, the other doesn't need updates but will need some personal touches as far as wallpaper removal, painting, etc. But that could come in due time, nothing that needs to be done straight away. So we might making some progress in the shelter area soon. I shall keep everyone informed if there is anything to tell.

In true Kara style, I will jump back to Thursday because chronological order is so overrated. In the evening I met Reena for her birthday. We went to the Cheesecake Factory, mmmm. It was great to see her, it had been maybe a month or so since we'd gotten together. I was hoping I would be able to see her more with my project being in Chicago, but it has been so busy the last few weeks that there is not much time in the evenings for getting together. I feel like it is going to start slowing down again so maybe I can see her bi-weekly or something. We had a daft waiter. He was just young I guess, but he was odd. I ordered this salmon roll appetizer thing, which he told me they were out of. They have three sushi type appetizers, and as I was looking for the other ones on the menu he was saying 'would you like to try our corn tamalies?' It really threw me, as my brain was trying to connect how corn tamalies were any type of substitue for a salmon roll, when it hit me that he was just throwing out any old thing that came to mind instead of really trying to be useful. 'No, sorry we're out of salmon rolls but could I interest you in a hot fudge sundae? Or an apple martini? How about some oatmeal?'

So let's see, what else has been going on... I guess the only other thing that we did this weekend was meet my mom and Jim for breakfast on Sunday before the game. We were all sporting out Colts gear, John and I in our matching Peyton Manning jerseys and mom in her blue sweather and blue and white beads. And of course Jim, the long time season ticket holder, was not wearing a stitch of Colts gear. I think he might have even been wearing green or something!

I guess that's everything then! I hope to have news someday that we are houseful, we shall see. Hope everyone is doing well. Ten four.

Jobby job

John got a job! He started today at a company that does car auctions called Adesa. He is doing Business Intelligence work, which is what he was doing at Lilly. It's a new area for Adesa with a group that is just starting to develop, so he's getting in at the start of things. He only got the offer last week so it's all happened pretty quickly.

We had a nice weekend. Friday night when I got into town I took John out to dinner to celebrate his job. We went to a restaurant called Rick's Cafe Boatyard, which is situated on a reservoir which made for a nice setting since it was such a beautiful night.

Our realtor was on holiday this weekend so we couldn't see many houses, but we did manage to see one on Saturday that is being sold by a friend of his (our realtor) who let us have a look around. It was a nice house but we still haven't made any decisions. That night we went to Tom and Tracy's house. They have a little fire pit in their backyard, so they lit a fire and we had s'mores. John had never had one before so we enjoyed watching an adult have their first s'more. For any Brits who may happen upon this post, a s'more is an American campfire tradition. You toast a marshmallow and put it in a 'sandwich' of chocolate and graham crackers. The hot marshmallow melts the chocolate. They are called s'mores because you always want 'some more'. I haven't had a s'more since I was a kid, so I enjoyed it!

Sunday we went to the Colts game, where they beat the Houston Texans by quite a lot. My boss is from Houston, so I thought I would taunt her a bit from the game to tell her I was there and that they were not off to a good start, but instead of texting that I was at the 'Colts/Texans' game I texted that I was at the 'Colts/Oilers' game. It wasn't until quite a ways into the first quarter that I realized they were now called the Texans, which seemed vaguely familiar but still not as natural as the Oilers. I guess they've been called the Texans for about four years now, so I blame my ignorance on being away since they changed! Anyway, I don't think my taunting went very far considering I couldn't even get the team right!

Unfortunately I had leave for Chicago on Sunday this week. :-( Our workshops started at 8:00 on Monday this week. But the good news is I found out yesterday that I don't have to be a part of any other workshops after this one is over, which is tomorrow. I was supposed to fly home on Friday night, but since I don't have to be in the Thurs/Fri workshops I changed my flight to the regular time. So I will be home roughly the time John gets home from work, assuming everything is on time. And that also means that in a couple of weeks I won't need to get here on Sunday as I would have to if I would be a part of that workshop. I'm also glad I will finally get some time to work on some of the deliverables of the previous workshops that I've had no time to work on!

There's not too much else new. We have a few things coming up which are quite exciting. We got tickets to see Kasabian in Cincinnati in a couple of weeks. It will be really cool to see a British band over here and it seems like a fairly small venue which is always fun for seeing bands. That same weekend Emily is in town, so we have plans to see her on the Friday. Then in a little under a month Rich is visiting, and we're both really excited to have one of our closest friends from England over. He's coming for work but he'll be here over a weekend so he and John will spend time golfing and catching up, which means lots of football talk no doubt!

Never a dull moment

It has been a strange day. Last night I started to get a little nervous about flying to a big city on the 5th anniversary of 9/11. I felt kind of sick about it, even though I've known about the flight for a while and it hasn't bothered me before. And thankfully (if not obviously) there was nothing to worry about, apart from my plane being STRUCK BY LIGHTNING. Seriously! It was a little shocking (ha!). Actually it wasn't as bad as it sounds, but doesn't that sound dramatic? Let's all just take a moment and bask in the drama. Lightning! Striking my plane! It all happened very fast -- there was a bright flash and a bit of a surge through the floor and some turbulence. But no impact on the electrics or anything like that. I'm sure it happens all the time but I haven't found anyone yet who it has happened to, which is strange since I work with people who fly every week.

Also today I was driven to the airport by someone who is either very paranoid or is being stalked by a gang of taxi drivers. We're talking phone tapping and all sorts. At first I tried to be polite and humor the guy but he got more and more crazy (I mean, if this is true why are you telling me about it anyway??) so I was trying to give the signals that I was done talking (not responding much, looking out the window). When that didn't work I called my mom, and we talked for a few minutes but I'd only just seen her yesterday so we didn't have too much to talk about. As soon as I hung up he picked right up where we left off. I hope he didn't hear me mutter 'See ya, Crazy' once he dropped me off.

And when I got to the airport (the Indy airport - sorry my timelines are a bit all over the place) I ran into my old boss from when I worked for Lilly in Indy. He was a terrible boss and we've always been polite to each other (pretty much) but it's always been obvious neither of us like each other. Anyway, we had a polite catch up but after the taxi ride I'd just had I felt that I was in for a bad day when I saw him.

Luckily those three things rounded up all the drama for my day and the rest of it was pretty boring!

I had a good weekend. Yesterday we went to my mom's and my brother and his family were there. And the most exciting thing of all... drumroll... Robby took his first steps! And I was helping him! I saw his first steps, and I was actually a part of it. I smile every time I think about it. I was helping him stand a little way from Tami (his mom), and he took a few steps and I let go and he took 2 or 3 steps to her on his own! It was so cool.

Then in the evening John and I watched the Colts game. It was good that the Colts won, but I can't help but think it was less that they actually 'won' and more that NY beat themselves with their penalties and mistakes. They were stronger than us. I hope we get better as the season progresses!

Saturday we looked at some more houses. We found one that we both like, so we are going to look into that more this week to get some more information on it and hopefully John can see it again to get a sense for if we would really, REALLY like it.

More workshops this week, but I don't have to present very much. I think I'm on for about an hour tomorrow and hopefully that will be it.

Pictures from the United States of America

I haven't posted any pictures in a long while I feel. John has gotten all the ones we've taken since he's gotten to the US online now, so here are some piccie catch-ups.






Kitty pictures

The weekend we were in Chicago for Faith's baby shower and stayed with Reena on the Friday night.

Labor Day weekend at my Dad's condo on Lake Monroe.

Apartment pics (these were taken before the stuff we shipped over arrived, and before we got the desk for the computer. It looks a little different now.)

This weekend at my mom's, with my brother's family.

Presentations, weekends, etc

Helloooo! I think my last proper entry said something about closing the loop on what I had been up to that weekend. And now another weekend has passed since and I've been slack. Let's see how far I get on updates this time, considering it's getting close to bedtime.

Firstly, the presentations went really well. Many thanks to everyone who sent their good luck messages - they worked! I presented on Thurs and Fri and got really good 'reviews' from not only my colleagues at IBM but also the participants and even the project folks on the client side. I don't know how much I have talked about this here, so forgive me if I am repeating myself, but the client is... let's say... tough. They are not easy to please and many times find fault with things you would have to look closely at to find fault. But they gave me rave reviews and the project sponsor (on the client side) even said in front of the entire IBM and client team that my workshop should be the model for all workshops going forward on how to present and work with their company. These sorts of things do not happen often to me professionally (saying that, would it ever happen personally?) so I am going to take the time to put aside humbleness and bask in my success. Because, not to be a pessimist, but these moments can be fleeting as we all know!

So anyway, I was very pumped on Friday that the presentations were over. No matter how good they went, I had spent most of the week waiting for them to be finished. I was really looking forward to getting home to John and the cats and maybe having some wine to celebrate (I seem to remember writing a couple of weeks ago that I would get drunk to celebrate them once they were through!), and wouldn't you know my flight was cancelled after waiting in the airport for about 3 hours. So I drove home and didn't get in until 1:30 am. And just as a note, what kind of a city has bumper-to-bumper traffic at 10:30 pm? Reena, sort it out!

Saturday John and I had an appointment with a realtor that had arranged to show us some houses from 9 am. It makes me tired just thinking of it! We saw about 8 houses in about 4 or 14 hours. Even though I was tired I must admit it was fun looking around the different places and narrowing some down. While I'm on the subject here is a tip from me: eight houses is a lot to see in one day. We have some more to see this weekend. John has been a star getting all these appointments for us and he's been going around and seeing them from the outside first in case any are easily weeded out by location, etc.

Sunday we went down to Lake Monroe to my dad's condo. That was a lot of fun. We went out on the boat (it was actually a nice day even though I don't think it was predicted to be), then sat on their porch overlooking the lake for the evening. They made a wonderful dinner and we sat and talked until bedtime. Very relaxing.

Monday was Labor Day and even consultants don't have to work on Labor Day (at least we didn't, anyway). So John and I came back from Bloomington and had the day to ourselves. We tried out this Mexican place down the road from us that was really good.

And to tie out my update on the weekend before last, we had my nephew Jesse's third birthday party on the Saturday. Can you believe he's three? He's so cute. It was a bowling party and he had lots of friends and family there. My mom was cracking me up because she brought her bowling ball (my guess is she was a Pink Lady), which she hadn't used for so long that the zipper to her bag was stuck (molded into place?) so she had to cut the bag open. She was so ready to bowl that she even brought some baby powder to put on the bottoms of her shoes to make them slide (or keep them from sliding? Something like that). My mom is not the competitive type. She's very good natured and laid back. So I wasn't ready to see how fired up she gets about bowling! She came to her grandson's birthday party to kick arse and take names! That was funny enough, but the funniest thing was the fact that she has completely lost her technique! She threw gutter ball after gutter ball. The woman who brought her own ball! I think she was still in single digits on the third frame. Bless her. She figured out that she had to let go of the ball all the way on the far right-hand corner of her lane in order to try to not get her mastered gutter-ball-down-via-left-gutter, and even then she could only knock a couple of them down each time. All of this added up to lots of entertainment for me, because she was getting annoyed about it all (in a joking way of course). And incidentally I got the high score in my group, woo hoo! Man, I am so humble in this blog entry! I don't know if I've mentioned this before, but I am really, really humble. I mean, I don't like to brag, but I am like SUPER humble. Probably a lot more humble than you. But that should humble you, so don't worry, you'll get there.

Isabella Lowne

Oh my gosh, seriously how cute is Jon and Marianne's baby!!! Don't you just want to squish those little cheeks. I don't think I would be able to get anything done besides Isabella-cheek-squeezing if I was within 100 miles of this sweetie.