The worst part of my day, is, by a large margin, the moments after my alarm goes off each morning, and I have to spend the next few minutes working up the gumption to get up and start my day. It usually gets better, but those first few minutes are the worst. This week, anyway, […]

I greet you, the reader, from the beginning of the new public sector fiscal year. It appears that my section of things will be spared shutdowns at least, though other parts aren’t quite so lucky. This is the world we live in. I am reminded of this, because it seemed that the contracting shop didn’t […]

It is, at least the last time I looked at a calendar (for today,not 1982). Just checked the lower right corner of the computer screen. Yep, Friday. Anyway, yesterday was strangely emotional for me. I was moved by Blasey Ford’s testimony (I was tearing up at her reading her opening statement), and I actually had […]

It’s that day, it seems, for everyone. I’m back to “work” work after spending a month in academia, plus the kids are back to school today. Such fun. We shall all manage, and persevere; it’s the nature of life. That said, it was a decent, relatively quiet weekend, after I nailed the last “celebration of […]

By the time this posts (time delay is kind of awesome, isn’t it?), I will ideally be on my way home after a month living in this damned hotel room. It’s all done except for the last exam, and to pass this course and earn my certification, I need to earn 30 of 125 available […]

So this afternoon, we lost the old man of the house. Montana came into our lives, in all honesty, because I felt a little guilty about buying a guitar amp. I’d just wrapped up the purchase and put it in the car, and found my family in the pet store nearby the music shop, where […]

A little late this year, but I think the kid forgives me (never mind, I fudged the dates!).

It’s Sunday evening, and I’m back at my August home-away-from-home here in northeastern MD quickly making a trip to celebrate the kid’s birthday a few days early. Colleen went all-out putting together a Harry Potter-themed party, with floating candles hanging from the ceiling, turning the front door into Platform 9¾ picking out wands, sorting into […]

As I write this, I’ve spent a few hours studying for the first “Celebration of Knowledge” (I swear, I wanna hurt the person at the Department training organization who came up with that particular euphemism) scheduled for tomorrow morning, and am hitting consistent 100% scores on the practice tests that some kind soul put up […]

Another week, another pile o’ drama. Par for the course. Work has been ridiculously stressful, the weather’s been awful, kids have been extra twitchy lately, and the tension is bouncing back and forth amongst everyone in the tiny Parker household (including the cats who deign to stay) and everyone is on edge. Yay. I did […]