Porch Progress

Lots has happened on our front porch since my last post related to our renovation.  Greg and I have spent pretty much every weekend working on the dang thing, but at least we're making progress.  Totally worth it, right??

Here's a picture from last weekend, sometime on Saturday evening when we had finished installing roughly 60% of the deck joists (notice the nicely re-faced and re-supported piers that the framing is resting on -- those were a bear and took a lot of time, making it look like we had made no progress for several weeks).  Also, you can't see it too well here, but we also re-surfaced the exterior concrete foundation wall that is below the porch, and also replaced the window that lets us see out under the porch from our laundry room area.

Frustration

Things at work are kind of blah at the moment.  There's a lot of work going on, but I don't have a great handle on it, and every time I talk to one of my bosses, I get directed in a path that varies greatly from the one set by the boss I spoke with previously.  And, yes, I mean bosses, plural.  And, no, it's not strange that they have differing opinions.  It's just the way it is right now, and I end up being stuck in the middle, fledgling, not really understanding what I should or should not be pursuing.  Makes for very long days in the office, and time wasted trying to figure out who to talk to about what aspects of what projects I'm working on.

It all makes going to work every day not at all exciting, and, in fact, something I dread.  As I'm currently in my working prime - where I'm trying to really bolster my career and get moving in the right direction to move up in my organization, I'm lacking the support of a leader I can work with and share a vision with, who will nurture what little talent I have to make me a greater asset for them.

On a slightly more positive note, Greg and I made some great progress on our front porch renovation this weekend, as in we finished the main framing portion of the work.  It was a really tough weekend in that we moved lots of lumber and I ended up with some pretty badly bruised forearms and a sore back, but I'm proud of what we accomplished.  I wish I could stay home all the time to work on that project rather than come to actual work...if only I could figure out a way to get paid to do that.  I need to get some pictures of our progress posted here...we've taken some, but of course, I have access to none of them because downloading stuff hasn't really been a priority for me.  Maybe I'll change that.

My sister Lindsay is coming home from Kuwait this weekend, and I absolutely can't wait to see her.  She's the sister that all of my other sisters gets along with - she's genuinely non-judgemental, and is only difficult to deal with when she lacks sleep and gets an attitude - but it doesn't happen often, and I think we are all looking forward to her coming home and hanging out.  Let's hope for a short work week people!

Hooray for Hot Dogs!

Strangest thing happened to me last week...I was driving home from a half day of work and was contemplating what to have for lunch.  Unfortunately, and oddly out of character for me, the first thing that came to mind was hot dogs.  I wanted a hot dog for lunch.  How bizarre.  I never really eat hot dogs.  Even when I'm at a barbecue, I choose chicken or burgers over franks.  It's not because I don't like them, they're OK as far as food goes, but I'm not overly obsessed with them, nor have I ever once had a craving for them.  But, lo and behold, there I was, driving home, figuring out where to go to purchase some dogs.

I decided to be economical and go to the grocery store to purchase a package of hot dogs rather than find a take out place with the same, hoping to somehow control the number of calories I would be inhaling for lunch.

I ended up getting two kinds of hot dogs - one Applegate Farms "The Super Natural Beef Hotdogs", and one Oscar Mayer "Selects Turkey Hotdogs".  Both met my criteria for "Healthier" hot dogs in that they had less than 200 calories per dog, and they were free of nitrates -- as a bonus both were under 10 grams of fat per dog!  All of the other hot dog products I considered purchasing that day were full of calories - most were over 200 per frank, all had no less than 15 grams of total fat, and they were all packed full of nitrates to keep them preserved.

As usual, when I purchase more healthy options for a food I'm craving, I expected to be a bit disappointed, but satisified enough to get past my craving and move on with life.  Well...these dogs were way better than I anticipated they would be.  Seriously.  The Applegate Farms hotdog, in particular, was delicious, without having to be such a huge sacrifice calorie and fat-wise.

In fact, the hot dogs were so good that I had them for lunch on Friday then again for lunch on Saturday...and I'm even freezing the ones I haven't cooked yet to have at a later time.

So...if you find yourself in a mood for hotdogs, I fully suggest you try out either one of the hotdogs I mentioned above.  I'm not being paid for this post nor do I have any interest in either Oscar Mayer or Applegate Farms - I just love food, especially when it feels like it's such an unhealthy choice that turns out to be not so terrible after all.

I slapped some mustard, ketchup and coleslaw on top (I know, strange combo -- thanks to the preferences of my Canadian husband I'm now actually keen on coleslaw as a hotdog topping...don't judge me until you try it yourself) and had myself an awesome lunch.