Busy busy

The last few weeks have been crazy busy! I finally got an evaluator for my project at work, which means we have at long last been able to start designing our methods for gathering visitor feedback. This has meant some late evenings. Also, in my efforts to be a team player, I have been trading Saturdays for working Sundays, which means my two "weekend days off" are split, so only one day off at a time. I hadn't realized how exhausting that would be. My "free time" after Penny goes to sleep has been spent on taxes. I hate taxes! If the IRS has all this info on me anyway, why can't they just accurately calculate my tax? They did it that way in England.

I don't usually rant about work, but the past couple of weeks has been fairly ridiculous. I am already working significant overtime (at no charge, mind you) and my boss just added a huge project to my plate that supposedly supercedes anything else I'm working on because it will bring big bucks into the museum. Though I totally understand the importance of the project, I don't physically have the time to do it. My entire department is taxed to the breaking point, so I can't shunt responsibilities to them. I inquired about offloading something to another department and my boss got totally defensive about me asking others for help. I don't have more hours in the day to dedicate to this - as it is, I get home just in time to put Penny to bed. My boss generally has trouble understanding logistics, let alone the specific logistics and number of hours necessary to pull off this new project. What am I supposed to do?!

So that's why so few updates of late. I hope to get some good time off this weekend, so maybe there will be more adventures with Penny to share soon.

posted from Bloggeroid

Old Stomping Grounds

This weekend, Dan, Penny and I toured our old stomping grounds in DC. Dan was enjoying a conference while I endeavored to find enough fun to keep Penny occupied for three whole days. It's not easy when the only children's museum is closwd for construction. First, we visited the National Building Museum, which appears to have installed a pre-school section, which was ridiculously popular. We took a break for lunch, then couldn't stand the line to get back in. We headed back to the hotel, where I hoped to enjoy the pool, but Penny would have none of it. We enjoyed some jumping on the bed, then dinner with friends.

For day two, I contemplated heading out to Girl Scout Day at the National Air and Space Museum, which was conveniently scheduled for this weekend. But with really nothing for folks Penny's age, I figured that was an expensive recipe for disaster. Penny seemed excited to see animals, so we headed off to the National Zoo. Once there, we had only to decide which animals to see. Apparently, Penny was just dying to see a cow. Not my first pick, especially since that is all the way at the bottom of the ravine, but hey, she really wanted to see it, right?

I hadn't realized that was really all she was interested in seeing. I tried to stop at monkeys, big cats, any number of other critters and she put up all kinds of a fight. Finally, we made it to the cow and she reiterated her request to"Go home!" In no uncertain terms. Though the zoo is free, I didn't want to waste a trip/day, so we headed to amazonia, one exhibit I had never seen before. Though it was a struggle to get her out of the stroller, we ventured in and she was fascinated by the fish. She recognized a number of the critters from "Go Diego" and was pretty excited. Then we got to the cage free rainforest. She could care less about the animals, but splashing in puddles appeared to be the most fun activity she'd seen all day.

Once thoroughly soaked, we headed back uphill. Oh, what a long and arduous trek that was. I kept trying to take little breaks by stopping to see animals, but somehow that always led us back downhill a bit. The hungry Penny was really starting to protest, so we made a beeline for the fast food just outside the gate.

posted from Bloggeroid