3 posts tagged “busy”
Another absence. Two months, again. But it's justified future self, it's justified. Since my last post we have, more or less in order:
Picked up keys, moved out of the apartment, and moved into the house!
In a two week CADfest Wendy and I did the drawings for the remodel, submitted, got comments, resubmitted, and got our permit.
Started and finally completed our taxes, the inlaw's too.
Before the actual construction started, our drawings and the house were analyzed by a feng shui cifu.
The big design push at work was a new church project in Phoenix. My first time guiding and not doing the design.
Work started at the house.
Over a four week period, three people quit, suddenly, and with little or no notice.
On an almost daily basis Wendy and I had to solve one problem or another at the house.
Take a day off and get the first two inspections signed off. Also meet with two window replacement companies.
Berith gets hot, permit submission coming up.
Stressed, Wendy lets me get Guitar Hero III. Fun game.
Water proofing becomes an issue. Work stops for about three weeks.
During the downtime we make a decision on the kitchen cabinets, thanks to Scott at Blue Plumb design.
We also finalized our decision on the windows.
Working with consultants on Berith has been more stressful then any other part of the project.
Saw Iron Man. Best movie ever.
Tired of waiting, Wendy and I, with Jackie's help, finish routing out the concrete slab, acid etch and then apply a waterproofing compound so that work can move forward.
Work started again on Sunday, we leveled the the bedroom and master bath. I helped move over 100 bags of 80lb. concrete.
Wendy and I move into her parents' apartment until the hot water gets turned on.
As of today, Berith is printed and out the door to be submitted tomorrow.
The floor has been leveled throughout. Kitchen and bathroom upstairs have been demo'd.
Coming up:
Heading to Phoenix for meetings.
Weekends working on the house, the more we get done the sooner we move back in.
Consistent blog posts and sketches.
Chronicle the building process to date.
Explore some new creative projects and ideas (as if I have time).
Help a friend with a shadow study.
There it is, a quick look at the last eight weeks and my current state of mind.
recherche \ruh-sher-SHAY\, adjective:
1. Uncommon; exotic; rare.
2. Exquisite; choice.
3. Excessively refined; affected.
4. Pretentious; overblown.
I'm not much for exotic, exquisite, or pretentious kinds of things, so it took me the whole week to see a way to respond to this challenge. Looking at the first photo you might say what is "recherche" about that, it's a table. Well, on pretty much any given day so far this year my desk has actually looked like this:
I set out to do something about it Thursday and realized in doing so that maybe I crossed two items off the list. In the context of the everyday, this flat, clean, off white surface is exceedingly rare and perhaps pretentious in it's lack of busyness.
Unfortunately, Friday I couldn't find anything (my "organizational system" disrupted) and by the time I left the office my desk was already well on it's way back to it's normal state.
Other weekly challengers:
Finished renderings of a project (for work, but outside of work) that will hopefully be in a book later this year. I'll try to post them this week.
Two co-workers quit within a month of each other (one wasn't working out, the other has moved on to another firm).
Completed a 50+ page analysis of an existing school building for a new project.
Wendy and I made a successful bid and counter bid on a house in Daly City, we close on the 14th of this month.
Covered for the newly empty desks while interviewing replacements.
Celebrated Chinese New Year with three separate family dinners.
Broke up a domestic disturbance down the street.
Worked Super Bowl Sunday, President's Day, and three other weekend days, plus countless evenings, to meet deadlines.
Submitted a sixth round of revisions (the consultant's fault) for a project I am apparently responsible for.
Got blamed by the client for a missing drawing the consultant didn't provide.
House inspections, paper work, insurance quotes, and finalized loans for the house.
Started designing the remodel and addition for the house, definitely more of that coming.
Attended my first comicbook convention, WonderCon 2008.
Successfully submitted two major school projects to DSA for backcheck and got their approval.
Got the run around at San Francisco DBI while trying to wrap up another project I wasn't even responsible for until a couple of months ago.
Attempted to train not one but three new people.
Right now I'm looking forward to:
Finishing our taxes.
Catching up on all the work on my desk.
Writing more consistent blog entries
Closing on and moving into our new house.
Celebrating the five year anniversary of my first date with Wendy.
So there it is, a snapshot of life leading up to a Sunday afternoon.
