Spring is Still Springing

I increased the size of the font, this template seems to have small print.  The pictures don't post well either.  I love the daisies this template has, so I'll leave it for a few more weeks.  I'll probably will change the template again before summer arrives.

My birthday last Sunday was awesome.  John bought me a new laptop (of my choice), an HP with a 17 inch screen.  The graphics are amazing.  It has fingerprint recognition for access, which he thinks (so do I) is really cool.  It has a fast processor, an i7.  The operating system is Windows 7, no more Windows Vista, which was on my old laptop, I didn't like it.  We bought and loaded the Microsoft Office 2010.  This is what they're using at work.  MS Office 2007 version is the most recent I've used.  They moved the commands around again in the 2010 version.  I figure I'd better relearn it at home, not at work.  This laptop is amazing, I love it!  We also went to dinner, very nice.  Time marches on, I bought a new wrinkle cream too, couldn't hurt.

We've had beautiful weather these past couple of weeks.  Unfortunately, with the good comes a little bad, a rainy weekend here.  All the better for the grasses and the flowers.  I can't get over how fast everything has grown in a few short weeks.  On my way to work this past week, I noticed some trees in full bloom.

At work, there is a picnic area across from the building and the parking lot.  I haven't used it yet, but I'm thinking about it.

On my way home from work this week, I pulled over a couple of times just to take these shots.

Once home, in just a matter of days, my hostas started popping quickly and the Dogwood tree is popping with bloom too.  I just love spring, best season of all, I have to share it with you!

Other than enjoying this beautiful season (even with allergy sniffling and sneezing it is worth it), there's nothing really new.

I continue to work out after work on elliptical.  I know I won't get results unless I use it.  I've extended my time again this week.  Getting use to the extra time has been a workout.  I'm going to stay at this level until I get use to the longer time.  Pushing myself without getting use to this new level wouldn't be good for my knee.  I'll increase my time again once this level becomes easier.  I do work up a good sweat and my appetite decreases too, that's a good thing.  I haven't lost any more weight, it seems to have plateaued. I need to make some changes.  I haven't been snacking like I'm suppose to.  I'll begin the suggested mid-morning and mid-afternoon snacks at 10:30 and 2:30, which are suppose to be about 200 calories each or less.  I was including these calories in my lunch instead.  Now, I'll reduce my lunch calories.  Hope the change up makes a difference.  I use to have a sandwich, two fruits and some SmartPop popcorn for lunch (between 400-500 calories).  I'll switch one of the fruit and the SmartPop popcorn to snacks, see if that makes a difference.  Since I moved away from home in my early 20s, I never ate breakfast.  I'm now following the suggestion to eat about an hour after wakeup.  A 100 calorie fiber english muffin is about all I can get down.  My calories are usually under 1800 a day, should I go lower?

What changes have you made recently?

It's That Time Again - Spring!

Wow, we've had some wonderful weather here in the Mid-Atlantic area, record temperatures.  This past week, as you locals know.  We had three days over 80 degrees - amazing for the second (full) week of March.  One day, Thursday, the 15th was a record breaker at 84 degrees.  The Cherry Blossoms (big annual tourist attraction in Washington DC each spring) had their bloom date pushed FORWARD TWICE, now scheduled for Sunday.

I communicate regularly with my cousin in Newfoundland, Canada.  I'm counting my blessings, they are still up to their knees (or almost) in snow.  It is beautiful to look at (in pictures), a bit too cold for me, especially after our weather this week.  My cousin's view faces the bay.  It's a gorgeous view.  Here's her view on March 14th.

Here's what she makes her way through on her daily walks.

I'm thankful for our short and mild winter.  As I turned the corner heading into work, a smile grows on my face.  It would on yours too seeing this, right?

Spring is my favorite season, everything becomes brand new and beautiful...again.  Just a quick tour of Spring in my neighborhood.

John took a few days off this week.  He spent Wednesday mulching and was rewarded with a sunburn.

And of course, the Daffodils are here!

The worse part of Spring is allergies for those of us bothered by the blooms.  The whirlie birds falling from the trees (also called helicopters or leaf seedlings?), are still to come, scattering yards and cars for about two week timeframe.  I also hear we're in for a bad B-U-G season due to our mild winter.  All the creepy crawlers are suppose to show up early this year, especially ants and spiders.  I suppose we have to take the bad with the good.

I am still busy at the job, for the most part.  When it gets slow, I ask for work - I know, I'm crazy.  Better busy than bored I always say.  I continue to learn new processes and systems and still lack the access to the two databases that contain payroll information.  This access is granted from the National Finance Center in New Orleans.  Supposedly, after my first payday (today), I will drop into the National Finance system, which will trigger the request for my access.  Until I get that access, I am unable to enter new hires into the system and/or make any employee payroll changes.  Right now, I'm learning through my team members who do have the access, but no hands on experience for me yet.

In closing, I'm another year older Sunday.  Growing up, I always celebrated my birthday on St. Patrick's Day.  All the party people were too pooped to party the day after.  I now know 6 other people I share the same birthday with.  Two are from my high school home room class (Happy Birthday Kit!).  Amazing how these years creep up so quickly.  I was just 25, I remember it.  I remember turning 40 then the big 50.  Sunday, begins my 56th year on this planet and I born in 1956 (maybe it's a magical year for those of us born that year?).  I'm grateful daily that I'm on this side of the grass.  I've lost so many dear friends and some people who I had known and lost touch with and heard of their passing, all but one younger than I.  Four people in the last 16 months passing from Cancer.  Yes, I will start my 56th year, blessed to be somewhat healthy, happy to be employed again and still walking, literally!  Since my knee surgery steps are difficult, and no ladders anymore for me.  That's okay, I'm not fond of climbing ladders anyway.

I'm continue my lifestyle change of developing good eating habits and exercising more - moving more.  Both John and I are using the elliptical (aka the monster) daily.  I'm increasing my elliptical time weekly, giving myself time to adjust for endurance not exhaustion.  I've lost 14 pounds since February 1st.  It's a slow go, I remind myself to be patient.  It's one of the hardest thing to do after a day at work is come home, change clothes and start on the elliptical.  I tell myself by doing so will extend my life (yes Dr. Oz, I listened).  I've made it a habit and no longer a hatred.  My daily elliptical exercising is now a part of my daily routine.  Instead of getting into bed at night, I fall into it and straight to sleep.  I'm getting use to the early mornings too, now ending my third week of work.  I'm not friends with my alarm clock.  I'm not a morning person.  I'll never get use to the loud buzzing noise at 5am although I'm happy for it every payday.

Hope Spring is springing where you are.  If not, be patient, it's coming and worth the wait.  Oh yeah, Easter is three weeks away - yikes!

Busy

Spring is almost here - time for a new template!  :)

Daffodils are budding!

Busy, that's what it has been at work, the days just fly by.  Better busy than bored, right?  I love being busy!  All Government jobs are published on the website USAJOBS.com.  I got a peek from the Staffing Department what the applications look like.  There is a self-assessment set up by the Government to qualify the applicant based on how the applicant answers the self-assessment questions.....very interesting.

The other process I continued to learn more about from last week is the  document tracker system.  I'm still trying to put the pieces of the puzzle together on this.  The purpose of the document tracker is to obvious, to show what steps have been completed to process each particular document (which is a minimum of three steps and can be more depending on the action required).  Each document has at least one action assigned to it.  For example, resignation is an action.  Because our group handles mostly "on call" or what is referred to as "intermittent" employees, the action I see most is to either extend an employee's assignment so they can continue to be paid until their work is done at the disaster site OR to move an employee to an inactive status because they have completed their job at the disaster site.  I have processed a few transfers, mostly the workload is deactivating employees who have completed their assignment.  What I'm finding out is some of our team members use the document tracker differently.  My goal is to find the "right way" to use the document tracker.  I found out my team leader who is training me doesn't use the document tracker much.  The steps I've been taught by the team leader are not A-Z instructions.  Rather than stir the pot immediately, I'll follow the steps I've been shown, I know there's more to it.  Next week, start of my third week, I'll probably ask more about it.

Most importantly, payday!  Now that I've completed my second week and paydays are bi-weekly, I was hoping for my first paycheck.  I find out it takes a week to process payroll after the pay period ends.  Therefore, payday is next Friday (3/16).  My benefit deductions won't happen this payday, it will be my second payday for those deductions.  I am surprised the Government (one of the largest employers) have such antiquated systems.  I saw one computer program they're using running on DOS operating system (about 20 years old).  Most programs are using at least Windows operating system.  Our Government is not using money to update their systems.  I've come to learn over the years working for some different employers, that old technology will slow the process of work.

Enough about work.  Know that I'm happy, I like the people I work with, and the commute (15-20 minutes), I can't beat it with a stick - it's the best.  One of the most difficult things is coming home and disciplining myself to get on the elliptical.  Working out in general is something most of us have to make a conscious effort to do.  It is exhausting after a day of work (I know, poor me, right? :)

I've been good and sticking with the elliptical workout daily, giving myself weekends off.  I've increased my time on the machine slowly.  Initially, I didn't think my knee was going to manage the elliptical.  I suppose it just took a little getting use to, it's all good now - so far.  When the weather warms up, I'll spend a Saturday or Sunday doing some walking.  I continue to journal my food, tracking it.  Weigh loss is at 14 pounds since February 1st.  Last weekend I spent my weekend doing the chores that I use to do during the week (laundry, grocery shopping, cleaning).  I plan to do the grocery shopping after work early in next week, as I attended a family event yesterday. 

One of my nieces (my only brother has twin girls), Danielle, got engaged on New Years.  My brother and sister-in-law hosted an Engagement Party yesterday.  I'd never heard of an Engagement Party.  A wedding shower, requiring a gift - yes.  A wedding, requiring a gift - yes.  But an Engagement Party - hummm??  Thankfully, my cousin, who I'm close to, informed me that a gift was not required for an Engagement Party - it is completely optional.  Since I have a two gift giving events ahead of me (shower and wedding), I opted out of gift giving for this event.  

The Toast

Danielle and Tony have their wedding date set for October 19, 2013.  Danielle graduates from Virginia Tech in May and Tony is in the Marine Corps, his duty ends this November, he is not reenlisting.  For some reason, this template makes the pictures very large.  Below is after the toast at yesterday's celebration.  My sister-in-law, Tony, Danielle and my brother.

At the Marine Corps Ball, November 2011

As I said my goodbyes to everyone and headed home last evening, I was surprised to see how much cheaper gas was in the country than the city.  I had filled up earlier in the week ($3.77/gallon).  I at 3/4 tank full leaving my brother's home.  I decided to swing in and top off at this price ($3.61 Regular and $3.99 Supreme, thankfully my car uses Regular gas).

Clocks have been changed to reflect "SPRING AHEAD".  Hope your weekend was a good one, thanks for visiting, hope to see you next time.

Week One Done

First week on the new job went fast...after Tuesday.  Monday morning, bundled with nerves, I arrived a few minutes early.  My hours are 8am to 4:30 with 30 minutes for lunch.  I was given a one-on-one orientation, where a member of the staffing team went over my new hire paperwork (tax forms, dress code, office hours, basic policies and procedures, etc.).  I was taken around the office by the same member of the staffing team and introduced to approximately 50 people from the Payroll Department, Administrative Department and my department, the Documents and Processing Department.  I spent the remainder of the day completing the forms and reading over the material given to me, each minute ticked away.

My Cubicle

Tuesday, the Director, who I met on Monday had asked me to her office.  I thought "it's only my second day and I'm going to the Director's office?", kinda like going to the Principal's office when I was in school.  She talked about her background and how she's moved up in the Government over the years.  She stated she was new to the position of Director, less than one year.  I knew she was looking for information about me, since it was apparent she had not seen my resume.  I went over my background of where I had worked, what I did, how long at each job, and mentioned this was my first Federal job.  She welcomed me again, and said that if I had any problems or questions, to use the chain of command, her door was always open.  I was out of there in about fifteen minutes, whew, nerve racking for my second day.  I met with the Benefits Specialist, Robert, at 1pm.  I spent about 45 minutes with him as he went over the many benefits (medical, dental, vision, two types of retirement accounts, flexible spending account, life insurance and long term care insurance, that's a lot of benefits).


I returned to my desk to find a nice lady, Hazel from the IT Department, at my desk, using my computer to get my email working.  There were some minor problems.  By Wednesday my email was running, and I had access to two of the four databases that I need to access to do the job.  Hazel worked her magic.  I will gain access to the other two databases from another agency, since these are shared databases.  I'm told it takes "awhile" for that access to come through.  There are two teams of four people on each time.  I am the fourth member on my team.  After I gained access to the two databases, two people from my team and one person from the other four member team came to me with work that needed to be entered.  It seems with the absence of a fourth member (until I arrived), the workload has been behind.  Obviously, in the HR Department, we deal with payroll records.  This week I have seen transfers, promotions, and terminations.  Each person on my team has the responsibility to enter their piece of information into the database.  My job is quality review/control.  I received some training from my team leader on how to review and make corrections, when necessary.


Because it is the Office of Disaster at the Small Business Administration, the goal is to grant loans to get people and businesses back on their feet when disasters occur.  Employees known as "intermittent employees" are in an "on call status" and activated when a disaster occurs.  These are loan officers, attorneys, computer professionals, all types of people are sent into the field to help the disaster survivors, similar to FEMA and the Red Cross.  These activated employees do not receive benefits but are paid hourly for their time of service during the disaster.  Some of these folks are retired military and retired Government employees.  I wonder if the SBA will be involved in the tornado disaster that happened last week in the towns of Henryville and Maryville, Indiana?  So very sad to see those people lose everything and yet they're still grateful to be alive, scary.


I spent Thursday and Friday entering the paperwork given to me.  I won't find out how I did on my quality review until the reports are run tomorrow, Monday.  The goal is to have a minimum of a 93% non-error rate.  One member of my team has a 99.1% non-error rate.  I finished up my paperwork at 4:20 on Friday, timing couldn't be more perfect.  We had a nasty rainstorm Friday, traffic wasn't pretty this Friday afternoon, it was practically stopped.  My 20 minute drive was extended by 15 minutes due to the traffic conditions created by the weather.  Oh well, glad I made it home safely.


I never thought I would see it but it happened.  The elliptical was delivered last week.  What a monster (size) of a machine.

I was using the elliptical Saturday for about 15 minutes after quick instructions from John.  I will have to work at my endurance.  I have never used one before.  I thought it was similar to a treadmill.  It is nothing like walking, more like climbing.  It does indeed give the body a workout.  It has a plug for an iPod to play music through speakers, it has workout programs if you wish to use those for routines, and most importantly, it has a fan that blows cool air!





I spent this weekend doing the things I use to do during the week, laundry, cleaning and grocery shopping.  The weekend is gone and I didn't get to enjoy too much of it.  All things considered, I think I'm going to like the new job.  It sure makes a week go by fast!