The Owl

My mom is good at finding interesting things online... :) The most recent one she passed along was this website:

http://www.ustream.tv/theowlbox

It is a live feed of a barn owl nest which already has 4 baby owls and one more egg waiting to hatch. It is addicting. Hence I was planning to go to bed 35 min ago, and here I am, but oh well. At this moment it has over 10,000 viewers. The power of the internet is amazing (and crazy!).

You can buy this mousepad below at http://www.transferit.com/theowlbox/

Come on Spring!

Last weekend was beautiful! And I mean beautiful! It makes me so excited for spring!!

On Saturday, it was super windy, but that didn't stop us from taking a trip up to Estes Park to celebrate my Dad's birthday. It was really beautiful weather up there too -- and as we were sitting by the back patio eating some guacamole, some elk wandered into the field. This was the view from the patio -- pretty nice entertainment!

We weren't the only ones who thought it was quite entertaining! Eve was fascinated and watched them intently through the glass.... Eve says, "Please Mom, I'll be good, I just want to play with them!"

Bailey didn't quite see what all the fuss was about, but he decided to check it out too....

On Sunday we went on a hike by Twin Owls. The trial was muddy and icy, but the views were beautiful!

On Sunday I came home and enjoyed sitting in the sun for a few minutes, before taking in some sunshine and actually physically running to Target! It was so nice we even aired out our house for a while! Yeah for sunshine!

Photoshop Actions

I am trying to make a poster of Eve... in the process I learned about Photoshop Actions, where you can download certain effects to pictures. Here is one I've been playing with today....Eve always gets excited when the doorbell rings --- sometimes she barks, even though she shouldn't. Our leader said that somehow that is usually built into dogs persona.... I think Eve just secretly hopes that it is someone to visit her! Of course everyone who comes to our house comes to visit Eve, not us!

P.S. It was Rob at the door!

The Eve Eval

Yesterday Eve got evaluated by our regional coordinator for Guide Dogs. Our evaluation was at 6 pm, so I had all day to make Eve tired (and hence well behaved) and to clean her up. I gave her a bath and then let her play outside.

Eve did awesome at her evaluation. It wasn't anything like I thought it would be -- it was very basic. We did some checks to see if the dogs were scared, such as walking over a cardbord box or walking by a dumpster when the leader was banging the lid closed. All the dogs did great. There was nothing Eve couldn't handle :)

These are a few of the snapshots that I took with a portrait lens of a semi-wet dog...

I like to think of Eve as a speed skater in this picture -- look at that angle of her body!

Who Moved My Cheese

This weekend I read the quick little story, "Who Moved My Cheese" by Spencer Johnson. It is a quick little book (both Rob and I read it in under 1 hour) about adapting to change, because change is always going to happen whether you want it to or not.

Recently our work did layoffs, and one of the young guys who was laid off wrote the key themes of the book on his whiteboard before he left -- I'll post it here, but it really makes more sense if you read the book--

Change Happens

They Keep Moving The Cheese

Anticipate Change

Get Ready For The Cheese To Move

Monitor Change

Smell The Cheese Often So You Know When It Is Getting Old

Adapt To Change Quickly

The Quicker You Let Go Of Old Cheese, The Sooner You Can Enjoy New Cheese

Change

Move With The Cheese

Enjoy Change!

Savor The Adventure And Enjoy The Taste Of New Cheese!

Be Ready To Change Quickly And Enjoy It Again & Again

They Keep Moving The Cheese.

I think my generation especially has not had to deal a lot with change -- we haven't really had any big wars which people have been drafted for or which the general population has had to suffer for (although I thank the millitary for their service!), and we really haven't had any big disasters. We've had disasters which seem devastating at the time, but didn't affect the majority of Americans a few years later (not like WW2 or the Depression). Anyways, I think change is hard for me, and many of my friends. But, now is as good as a time of any to embrace change and enjoy it! So go seize the day!!!

Happy St. Patrick's Day (almost!)

As part of our cookie decorating extravaganza, we made a lot of St. Patrick's day cookies.

Thanks Mom for making all the cookies for us to decorate!



Some of the chocolate candy melts used on top of the cookies...

Cookie Time!

This weekend I went home to spend some time with my parents -- my mom had a special treat ready -- a whole bunch of cookies ready to be decorated!

We spent a good portion of the weekend decorating cookies -- boy, if I do say so myself, they turned out quite nicely!

Here are some of the Easter cookies we decorated.... complete with chocolate bunnies, bunny shaped cookies, Easter eggs, Easter baskets, flowers, and carrots! I think the carrots were my favorite!

I'm Back!

Wow, where in the world did February go? I mean really, I knew it had been a little while since I had signed online, but I did not think it had been THAT long! Well regardless, I am back on the blogosphere and back in business!

I think one of the reasons I haven't been blogging is because I've been swamped at work.... completely, super, busy! Right as I left for CES, I heard of a new opportunity in a partner lab of ours. The opportunity was to do program management for 50% of the time. I've been thinking about program management a lot, and so I decided to jump on that opportunity. I spoke to my manager, and after a few weeks, I got the job! So for the last 1 1/2 months (the time I haven't been blogging), I've been doing 2 roles -- one as an engineer and one as a program manager. It is really the best of both worlds -- I get exposure and experience as a program manager and yet I didn't have to leave my old team behind, as I was getting some neat development areas there as well. (getting to design RTL code, which is pretty hard to get that opportunity in my lab).

So, although I am really enjoying both jobs, and I *should* be working the same as 50%-50% on each, it is turning out to be 60%-60% each, as they both have deadlines, they are both behind, etc, etc.

And, to make things even more busy, I am on a committee for the Grace Hopper Conference for Women In Computing. Each member has to have a proposal due for a panel by Friday! So I've been coordinating people from across the industry and academia to put together a panel on new assistive technology. I just finished that last weekend, so now I can take a breath!

Well, I feel like I could keep writing, but maybe I better stop there for now... don't worry, it won't be another 2 months!