Maximo

I found Max on Christmas Eve morning. He was laying where he always lays, at the threshold of my bedroom. Keeping watch.
Max came to me when my friend moved to Hawaii. He was about 6 months old and had no discipline. I had never owned a dog except as a small child so I didn't know what the heck I was doing. My coworker, Yvonne, was also given a dog, Chewy, and was starting from zero too. We spent a long time talking about what the heck to do with these little creatures. She watched a lot of Cesar Milan and went in that direction. Me, not so much, although I tried.
He chewed everything. I only own one pair of shoes from his puppyhood because he ate all of them. He ate a feather pillow, I woke up coughing in the middle of the night and stepped onto a very fluffy floor. He was very proud of himself and I couldn't blame the guy, it had fallen from the bed so it was fair game. I learned a lot about picking up after myself. I'm not a neat and tidy person but I do pick up if I don't want something destroyed.
He ate paperback books off the shelf. and I once came home to a cat litter beach. It had been sitting there for a really long time and all of a sudden it was interesting! He loved cardboard all his life, Coca-Cola cartons, paper towels, towel rolls...
Since I didn't know he needed an Alpha, he became the Alpha and protector. He rarely sat facing me. he always kept his back to me. I found out it's a protective measure for dogs. That's why he slept at the threshold of my door.
When he was young, he would lay down in the bed with me and then, when he felt I was safe or asleep, he would go eat his food and patrol the house. I would put his food down as soon as I finished his walk after work, but he wouldn't touch it until night time. I still don't understand why. Eventually, he would eat dinner at dinner time.
At the same time period, he would hear my alarm and jump on to the bed. I'd snooze the alarm and we'd snuggle. When I would fall back to sleep, he would sit, with this butt in my face, watching the alarm clock for the next 10 minutes until it went off again.
I loved to lay down with him at that time. He would lay in the crook of my arm and put his paw in my hand. It was lovely. I cherished those moments. I knew I'd never get a picture of that moment.
I'm crying. I'm stopping. for now.

Bullet Journal - 1 work planner/journal

A little over a year ago i was looking for a new Planner for work. something with a calendar and a writing space. That's when I stumbled onto the new concept of Bullet Journaling.
It's a really simple concept if you go to www.bulletjournal.com but on Pinterest...HOLY COW!
It's some new crafty thing with people painting and organizing all kinds of stuff. It was fun to look at, but crap, I ain't got time for that?! It ended up stressing me out a little. Every week or Month I needed to create new pages and draw things and measure. Well, I need to measure so that the week is even. I don't like uneven stuff.
I digress...I have these great graph notebooks that i've used for work for years. I pick up the 300 page thing for about $10 bucks at Barnes&Noble. It's a brand from Spain - Miquelrius. I have several just put away ready for use. I kind of hoard them. I used the same notebook for almost 2 years when arriving at this company. It was covered in stickers from here and there all related work work - name tags, gimme stickers...stickers from fruit...whatever. I made sure to take pictures and it's still somewhere at home as a keepsake. It took almost 3 years to fill up that one. I felt very accomplished, like using a pen until the ink runs out.
So...anywho...I decided to use that since it was too late in the year to get a 2015 planner. I'd try the Bullet Journal system to get to the new year and either buy something new or continue with this.
well...drawing the weekly calendar was a chore. Especially since I'd need to draw it before the week started and Monday's are a hairy day for me to tell people, "Just a sec, i need to draw this week" and I don't mess with that kind of thing on the weekend. I pretty much compartmentalize work and home.
My solution was to get a Moleskine Weekly for work. I can keep notes and lists on the right side and the weekly calendar is on the left side so a calendar is always right in front of me. I've really adapted to having a calendar right under my nose. I do have to carry another Moleskine for notes but what I carry is still rather small. I sometimes lay them out in front of me in meetings but people only mind themselves so I don't think I've even had to address it. People work the way that's best for them.
I can take a laptop to a meeting, but I don't feel productive or engaged that way. Pen to paper is good for me.

I ADAPTED Bullet Journal ideas to suit my needs, which is kind of why it exists. It's more a guide than rules.
1. First, I bought a book with the dates already in there. cuz...I'm not doing that again.
2. In my non-dated book, I put the Index/Table of Contents in the BACK...this way, I don't have to guess how much space I need at the beginning. I opened up and started writing in a new notebook and forgot to add the index once. So it makes sense to write to my heart's content and then my notebook finishes when it meets up with the index/TOC.  And I tend to have to find time to add to the TOC when I'm at my desk and reviewing my notes. I play catch up throughout the week to keep things clean and my notes on track.
3. You'll see on Pinterest that books are full of great images and fancy scrollwork and artistic writing and I am sooo far from that! I love art and still consider myself a pretty talented person with a pen but Dayum! I'll stick to my doodling - There is work to be done!
4. I don't work on the notebooks at home. I have a separate notebook for that. and I do not draw in that one either.

Isn't multitasking praised?

http://i.imgur.com/0GbvGCK.jpg

Happy 2015

How I spent my first day of 2015:

I am Primary on call this week. We have a lot of processing that begin on 1-1. ...So far, we're ahead of schedule.  So far.

Coffee?

The other day I was walking into work and passed the Landing, our cafeteria. There is a Starbucks near the entry and I saw a line of about 10 people patiently waiting to order their coffee.   2 steps later, I passed the break room...which has coffee...free.  
So how wrong would it be to take a carafe of coffee and some paper cups and offer coffee to the people waiting in line for coffee?

Someone is gonna be in DEEP trouble when mom sees this!

Torn from CNN's photo pages.