Busy week this week! We finally had our hardwood floors refinished. They turned out beautifully, and are well worth the investment.

That's all our furniture on the other side of the sliding doors.

Interesting how this project brought us together as a family. We had to move all of the furniture to other places in the house (thanks Scott and Kev for the muscle), relocate to a hotel for one night where we swam, hot tubbed and did 4 loads of laundry, spent one night at the Riley’s and had wonderful gourmet food and fabulous hospitality. We treated it like a slumber party, complete with giggling late at night when we should have been sleeping.  Even Macie was relocated there for a few days while the floors dried. The poor cats got the bad end of the stick with a few days outdoors (wah) but food was made available.

With no routine and no home base, we were pretty lost. When the decision had to be made on whether to stay away another night, we all unanimously decided that we wanted our home back, fumes or no fumes! We were homeless, albiet well taken care of, but those few days had us banding together. There’s no place like home. There’s no place like home. There’s no place like home.

Sans ruby slippers

This coming October I’m really excited to be a part of the SAS Dataflux Ideas Conference!  Lots of training, networking and hopefully sunshine.  It’s in Hollywood Florida, outside of Fort Lauderdale.  Staying at the Westin Diplomat.  The best part is that because I am presenting, my trip is paid for!

Here’s the hotel (notice location next to beautiful blue ocean)

Kev is taking some time off to join me – I guess he has car contacts in Florida?  He’ll have 3 days to scour the state for parts, and 3 evenings for romance with the wife.

Anybody want a few teenagers for a few days?

Having some time coming to me and a good forcast for the week, I called Lori, who I knew to be on holidays. Help, says I. Please get me outta here! And we were off… with a last minute vacation granting (thanks boss!) and a deadline extension (thanks Editor of Haldimand Farmer’s Monthly) Donna, Lori and I hit Byng park for a little R and R…..

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One of the themes at the TRMA http://www.trmacanada.com/About.aspx conference this week… Social Media. Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, Blogging, text mining. Is text mining an invasion of privacy? I think if you put it on the net, your expectation of privacy is unreasonable.  My team did some hiring recently and actually checked out Facebook for more info on an applicant.  Lose the lip pierce before your interview, hmmmm?   Suck it up Buttercup – can’t have it all and post it too.  

Our social event was a Jays game.  Ever been in one of those executive suites? 

 W-o-w. 

Private bar, catered yummies, our own bathroom and a pool table in case (snort) the game gets boring.  Baseball is much more fun to play than it is to watch.  The Jays lost a few minutes after we left to catch a train home… oh well.   The luxury was wonderful, and you can’t beat the networking opportunity.  Drank pop.  There is safety (and career longevity) in sobriety.

I joined the office hockey playoff pool.  Its fun to be included in the trash talk, and to have an actual idea of what they are talking about.  If you can’t beat em, join em!  So now I find myself subscribing to TSN so I can watch the Washington/Montreal game.  Extra profit for Bell TV, so I suppose this might be a work expense.  (NOT!)  If you know me, you would find it wierd that I am not cheering for the Canadiens … NO… my patriotism went out the window with the 20 bucks I invested in the pool.   Go Caps Go!  Who?

I’ve been whiney lately.  I wish I could make the little voice in my head shut the hell up.  Not happy with my job.  Depressed because there is no trailer this year.  Feeling like my house is too small.   What happened to the old Leslie who counted her blessings every day?

So here I am to count my blessings.  

I have the happiest marriage.  I can’t quite convey how lucky I feel to have Kevin in my life now. 

My kids rock.  Empathy, brains, talent, healthy.  What more could a mom ask for?  I roll my eyes when I say we have 4 teens in our home, but really, they are fabulous and I wouldn’t have them any other way!

I have a great job that gives me the opportunity to have a beautiful home in Grimsby, to travel regularly and to buy a humungous TV!

I don’t smoke, and keep my weight under control as best as I  can.  I am fairly healthy…  I can see, hear and walk.  I can drive. 

I live in Canada.  Wow – I could do this all day!!    I feel better!  yay.