No Go

I'm not going to be able to take the trip over the 4th of July long weekend. Apparently we're going to get paid on July 3rd, instead of the 30th, like I thought. The reason is that the 1st is falling on a weekend, and it's the beginning of the fiscal year, so they can't pay us early. Bummer.

But! I decided to see if Peoria (about a half-hour from here, not counting travel time in Peoria) had a botanical garden, and indeed, it does. They have guided tours on Sundays for $2. I definitely want to go over the 4th of July weekend.

Peoria also has a "nature preserve" with trails.

There also is a state park in Eastern Illinois (about 1.5 hours from here) that I'd like to check out. The same area has a lake with trails.

There also are a couple of spots in the area with lakes where you can swim. I think that I can keep myself amused and destress.

My cats, however, are not amused and are stressy. Zara scratched me this morning. I was trying to put my phone on its charging cord, and apparently I was too close to Zara's head. To be fair, she warned me, but I wanted to put my phone away and then jump in the shower because I was running late for work. She broke the skin on my arm, but it didn't bleed, so I need to keep an eye on the scratches. I might have some peroxide to put on it in my linen closet.

Harlee wanted me to come in and pet her when I was home for dinner. I told her that I needed to go back to work, but that I was going to be home tomorrow. She replied, "MMMMMMEEEEEEEOOOOOOOOOOWWW" and shook her paw at me. I have no doubt that I was being told. (I told my mom that I thought that Harlee was getting more and more crotchety in her old age. My mom said, "Harlee, I know exactly how you feel. :))

Mimi is annoyed that I'm busy typing when she is HUNGRY! (Their dishes are soaking in the sink.)

I have a lot to do this weekend, so I need to make a list. I want to take a walk in the nature preserve across the road from me though. And go to the gym and work on strengthening my bad knees.

Poster Presentation

Oh, I forgot to say that I have everything ready for my poster presentation a week from Sunday. I picked up the printed poster today. It is humongous, but it looks good. I finally was able to wrestle it into the plastic tube that my boss bought to transport posters. It looks like a quiver for arrows. I hope that it won't get me in trouble on Amtrak :) I uploaded a picture of me and a voiceover to the conference Web site. All systems go!

Not Alarmed Enough

I got up with my alarm today, and did my normal morning routine (breakfast for me and the girls, and scoop litter boxes). Then I took a "short' nap and--you guessed it--slept all afternoon. Oh well.

I've just finished lunch. I did accomplish one thing, connecting my adriennerad.com domain to my professional Web site. I need to list that site in my contact information for my poster presentation. I also need to make a few more blog posts, and post my presentation from last month, but the deadline for the contact information is midnight tonight.

I'm about to go dye my hair, and then do laundry. I also need to put my veggie lasagna in the crockpot to eat later.

Progress

Dyed my hair. While my hair was processing, I set up a presentation page on my professional Web site, and added it and a link to my Linked In profile on the site menu. (I didn't think that it made sense to post a PDF of my resume when it will quickly go out of date, and I'd have to update both it and my Linked In page.) Anyway, I decided that I rocked :)

I decided to wear cheap makeup because all that I'm going to do is laundry and then go to WalMart. The whole time that I was putting it on, I was thinking, "Ugh," but actually, it doesn't look too bad.

I had a conversation with a neighbor, who asked if my air conditioning was working. I said, "Yes," and she grimaced, but then I said. "It's cooling the downstairs well, but not the upstairs." She said that she had the same problem, so she closed some vents to get the a/c to cool the upstairs, and now it's not working. That's bad because It's been in the 90s F. I hope that they fix it.

I've put a load of laundry in. I need to go work on the bedroom before I lose my momentum.

Bedlam

Oy. I accidentally stepped on Mimi's tail, and she promptly attacked Zara, and they got into a huge, yowling fight. I've got them split up now. Harlee heard me yelling, and started meowing in the middle of it.

I did start on the bedroom, and was working on emptying a chest filled with clothes that I don't wear, when my mom called. She got the weekends confused as to when I'm going to give my presentation. We hung up quickly, and will talk tomorrow.

I finished two loads of laundry, and one blog post for my professional blog.

Oh, and I've got my gym bag ready to use. I don't know where the shorts went that I wear to the gym in the summer, but I found some nylon capris that shouldn't be too hot. Now all I have to do is go there!