Sheep Guarding Llama

Medifast Status: Day 107, Down ~47lbs

It is hump day.  This week is feeling pretty rough.  Just super busy and the furlough weighs heavy on our minds.  Dominica is apt to worry about money under the best of conditions.  Getting the furlough makes it that much more stressful.  I had to make decisions today about how we are going to handle it and we start our first bit of it right away in September.  We are taking our medicine early, I guess.  Getting it out of the way.

This morning John, John and I went in to La Cima for coffee.  We hung out in the new lounge.  Both of them made a point of pointing out that they liked the seating but did not like the wall of televisions.  It is very distracting and tacky.

I came home for lunch today but did not eat.  Just did some work and headed back in to the office.  We are going out to dinner at La Cima tonight since it is pasta night and the perfect time to take the kids since it is so cheap.

It was a long day today.  I went home on the early side getting there before four thirty.  I was able to work for two hours at the house because we drove down to Las Colinas for dinner.

Tonight was Dominica’s first chance to see the new furniture.  We ate dinner in the lounge which works out well for Liesl.  With the extra space and seating arrangements it is far easier to deal with kids out there and the kids do enjoy having the televisions a little – although they always show sports and news so the material is boring.  It is a lot easier for Liesl to get down from the table and not be in peoples’ ways now.  We will likely use the lounge far more now but I will constantly be fighting to not have the televisions in my line of sight.

Dinner was good and we were pretty much the only people in the lounge all night.  I’m sure that people will be even less likely to use it now than before – and pretty much no one used it before.  After dinner we got coffee and hot chocolates and put on some ABC Family on the big screen and watched some television there since we were already there.  We decided, though, that even if what you want to do is to watch television it is not very comfortable for that.  Maybe it will be good for presentations.

Medifast Status: Day 106, Down ~47lbs

Today is the grand reopening of La Cima after their million dollar renovation project to revamp the lounge and private event rooms.  The main dining room and the Lakeside events room were untouched.  The new furniture arrived this morning.

As I was yesterday, I was in to the office at six thirty this morning.  I am trying to keep myself on this early morning schedule now that I am used to it.

I have discovered that something is up with my WordPress installation or the theme that I am using or something.  I noticed first that posts were auto-posting without my intervention.  Now I can see that someone is posting them on my behalf with extra, hidden, links in them for spam.  I’m not sure where this is coming from but I am looking into it.

For lunch today, Nicki and I went to La Cima to check it out.  We had an exterminator at the house (just doing an inspection) so Dominica and the girls were unable to join us.  So Nicki and I hung out in the newly renovated lounge which had just received its new furniture this morning.  Everything is not quite done, but it is very close.  Only the last, long “bar” table is needed and the waterfall and the new reception desk.

Nicki’s impression is that the new layout and all of the televisions make it feel like an airport waiting lounge, with which I think that I agree.  There are six big screens in there now and it feels very little like the upscale club that it used to.  I really like the new furniture and the new, large space for the lounge, but the televisions everywhere are really tacky.

I found out this evening that I am getting furloughed again this year.  This time for three weeks.  That means that I am getting a planned-duration lay off that will last for three weeks.  I don’t have the timing details yet but it will be done before the year’s end.  So we are going to be nearly a month without income at some point in the next several months and that will certainly be really rough.  It is not the end of the world, we are all doing it to save someone from losing their job entirely.  But it still hurts.

I went home and worked with Danielle for an hour or two tonight and then worked in the office until it was bedtime.  This is turning into one busy week.

Medifast Status: Day 105, Down ~47lbs

Today is the beginning of another busy week.  Today is also the final day of construction at La Cima.  So they are closed today but we are supposed to get to be able to sneak in to see the final results tomorrow which will be a soft grand opening.

I worked all day.  This whole week is going to be like this.  No spare time at all.  I came home at lunch and kept myself busy the entire time.  Just too much to do.

I spent the evening working in the office.  I haven’t really gotten a chance to see my nieces at all.

I’ve had very little time to work on SGL this week so I’m afraid that I am likely to fall a bit behind.

Medifast Status: Day 104, Down ~47lbs

Today is my day to relax some and work on web site design tasks.  The office did not need me all day so I got to stay offline and spend time working on my web projects, seeing the family some, etc.  Fortunately it was not too stressful of a day although I was quite busy and did work extensively.

The painting is all done in the kitchen today.  The green is growing on me, it is more Dutch modern looking now than I had originally envisioned.  It kind of goes with the rest of the house.  Dominica is still unsure.  But at least we don’t have the patches on the wall anymore from the construction months ago.

Medifast Status: Day 103, Down ~47lbs

I slept in this morning.  It was great.  I stayed up until eleven last night which, strangely, has become “late” for me.  This morning I slept in until seven.

To our great delete I went outside to walk Oreo and discovered that it had been raining.  Really raining.  All around the house is standing water.  This is a big deal as we have been in quite the drought.  We are so relieved to have some water.  It appears that several inches have fallen.  It will be another hot and dry week but this will give the plants some time to recover at least and refill some of the aquifers.  Many lakes and reservoirs in the area were drying up.

I decided, while working on another project, to update the look and feel of SGL today.  This is the new “Adventure” theme.  I’m not normally into this type of theme but this one was just so well done that I decided to give it a try.  I’ll need some feedback as this one is rather a significant departure.

I spent nearly the entire day doing website design work.  Not something that I do very often.  But I have some projects that need my attention so I am currently working on that.

We all spent the day just sitting around the house.  Not much going on.  Madeline and Emily are pretty bored, I think, with our lifestyle.  We don’t do very much exciting for tweens.

We watched a little Wipeout, Dominica’s new favourite show, before going to bed.  That show is pretty funny.  And family friendly.