Ok, I admit that I am a follower when it comes to new technologies and learning new things. There are some things that I am so passionate about that it’s just natural for me to want to learn more about them…then there are other things, which don’t really even make it to my radar…for whatever reason.

Take, for example, some of the things that I’ve learned working with clients in various areas of the country. Most of them are tried and true Open Source junkies who are happy to use whatever software/technology I recommend for project tracking etc. Then, there are contracts like the one I have with my newest client. They require me to A) Use Outlook (Via an exchange server) to communicate with them when I can’t B) Use Microsoft Groove to collaborate on my piece of the project with nine different teams across the world and C) Learn how to use both! LOL

I’d love to say I’m not a total dorkizoid when it comes to things like this - but the fact remains, I am - so I can’t say that. Bottom line, I’ve become used to Open Source/Free solutions, so getting involved with a project where they actually have tools, crazy connected and collaboration tools, that assist me in communicating with the various members of various teams across continents, real time - including file sharing, version control and all manner of tracking…well…it’s overwhelming.

I’m just not used to it.

I took a couple of quick Groove tutorials this morning and this evening - I feel confident that I can (and darn it I will!) do the job in front of me…but who would have thunk!? I mean seriously, I thought this type of collaboration between teams was just…well…a pipe dream.

In addition to the software, the learning curve and the nifty new client - I attended a muster this evening with the bulk of the team involved (many in the UK, India, Mexico and China) and discovered that they are DARN nice. I mean super welcoming and awesome to chat with.

This will be one of the biggest tasks I will have undertaken thus far - a true challenge of my abilities as a PM and I am super stoked to be doing it.

Ok, enough geekdom - the knee, its ok. I’m not running any foot races, but I’m not curled up in the fetal position on the floor either. Overall, I am just trying to stay off of it…the best I can.

Tomorrow is Thursday. I am excited, are you?

Please read this comment in order to bring yourself up to speed on why this blog entry even exists.

You should know, in advance, that today was hell on wheels. I didn’t even make it to the office with the immobilizer on because it was so flaming hot out, that I started to drip sweat from my leg. In addition to that lovely visual, I started getting Charlie Horses in my foot…MY EVER LOVIN FOOT. I pulled over like six times on the drive in and then, finally gave up once I got to Starbucks for the morning fix…I just took the darn thing off. Whatever, all it does is make me walk weird and make my back hurt. Stupid.

I did manage to stay at the office all day (and I got my shiny new PC today, it was delivered to the office instead of home, because I spend more time there than I do anywhere else - dual 24’s rule!) Anyway - yes, all day at the office, then I left early to go see my Orthopedist who I knew was going to be a total bone Nazi about what was going on. You see, not knowing the cause of the original injury makes me like a number one candidate for living in a padded room/bubble or something. My Dr. just can’t seem to get over the idea that I managed to somehow break my knee on a Monday night (either while walking around at a friends house or while sleeping) and woke up on a Tuesday with agonizing pain and an inability to walk. He’s mostly freaked out that I am just going to be sitting around and *poof* break something.

That’s exactly what in the H. E. Double Hockey Sticks happened. Exactly.

So, you read the comment, you know all I did was sit on my back porch when it happened.  I wasn’t driving a race car, climbing a tree, running a foot race - none of that. I was sitting. Doing nothing. Just like my Dr. was worried about.

It appears that I’ve broken off a piece of bone in the joint and now, its just kinda floating around in there doing nothing. I am now at risk for hyper-extension (totally bending my leg BACKWARDS) with every step I take.

Stupid. This is stupid.

The good news, I am taking some nice pain meds, for now. The pain is there…it’s making me sick to my stomach at times…and it hurts all the way up to my shoulder…but hopefully I’ll either acclimate or it’ll lessen over the next few days. Either way - I am really hating life right now. But mostly, I hate my knee. I hate it. Why do insurance companies have to be so stupid?

I sure have used that word a lot in this post. Oh well, I am sure you’ll understand.

You see, the start of my day is pretty much the same, regardless of what is going on. I wake up, remind Jerrett that video gaming in the AM, in your underwear, before mandatory chores are done is not allowed. Plus, I have to remind him that, at his age, he shouldn’t be running around the house in his drawers anyway. I don’t really understand it - when we had some friends staying here for a few months, he was fantastic about getting dressed before he left his room…but now, he’s reverted back to running around in his drawers all day…its really frustrating.

Anyway - so, this morning, I got up, bright eyed and bushy tailed and headed for the coffee maker. Much to my surprise, Jerrett was sitting at the kitchen table eating cereal fully clothed. After about a minute of me going through the motions of coffee prep, he says to me, “Mom, I went ahead and took my meds when I got up” then starts to name them, along with the count, just to make sure he got it right.

At this point, I’m a little spooked - but I trek on.

Coffee is brewing, Jerrett is eating and I’m checking email/random sites for daily info. Then I hear it. The sink. It’s on. He’s washing out his bowl.

That’s when I knew it’d happened!

He was washing out his bowl. He never washes out his bowl! Not only that, he was dressed, he’d taken his meds and was ready to face the day.

At this point, I’m wondering if I should check his temp or something - but I’m worried my concern might snap him out of whatever blissful condition that might be impacting him, so I don’t.

Trying to ignore everything that’s going on, rather than make a big deal out of it - I start working on a project that’s due by Friday (by the way, I am spot on for my deadline AND under budget!). I’m not really paying attention to what’s going on - I only notice that I don’t hear random gun fighting coming from the Media room, which would indicate that there is no gaming going on - a rarity in these parts really.

My concern overwhelms me and I get up to investigate. What I find is…shocking.

He’s cleaned his room. Not cleaned AT it. Not stuffed stuff under his bed. Not shoved everything in his closet. He’s actually *cleaned* his room! He even picked up the tiny Lego gear shifters, which usually end up in my vacuum collection bin. There isn’t a sign of the paper he uses to draw random stuff anywhere. All of the books: on the book shelf.

Aside from a refusal to correctly hang is shirts when laundered, the room is immaculate. It couldn’t be cleaner if I’d done it.

This is gonna be a weird day…it’s not even noon yet!

This is pathetic - totally freakin pathetic. I sit here on my couch, drinking home made Orange Julius smoothies, watching a Law & Order SVU Marathon on USA and toying with the idea of shaving my legs.

Yes, this vacation has been a spectacular display of laziness. I guess it wasn’t all lazy - Thursday (day one of the SDoL Vacation) was the last day of school here, so I did have to get up and take Jer to school - funny though, I wondered why I even had to bother, when the bus pulled up at 10:00 AM - a whopping two hours of school…thanks school district!

Friday was somewhat better - but it didn’t get really great until Saturday. You see, Friday night, I went to bed around nine - and when I woke up at 6:00 AM Saturday morning - I couldn’t hold my eyelids open - so I went back to sleep at 7:30 - only to wake up at around noon…just in time for my early afternoon nap - at 2.

My nap at 2 was a little shorter than my early morning nap…I got up at four and milled around the house for a bit - before finally, at 7, calling it a night and heading off to lala land.

Yes, that’s correct….I was up like 5 hours on Saturday…period.

What’s even more pathetic is that after going to bed at 7 PM last night, I still didn’t crawl out of bed until 8 AM this morning.

Yes, I know - that is some spectacular display of laziness.

Tomorrow is the very last day of my vacation and I plan on being just as lazy then as I am now. Except I plan on adding some Rolo’s to the mix. I love me some Rolo’s.

As I said, I am really trying to be nice. Trying not to judge. Trying to keep in mind that not everyone is like me…I really am. But I am faced with a pretty interesting situation. I read a lot of blogs - and on occasion, I’ll click on a link in someone’s blog role (or signature on a message board) and check it out. Sometimes, it’s really awesome to peek into someone else’s life and kinda see how things tick. Other times it really is kinda scary. Especially when you see something that is just…not expected.

Take, for example, the time I stumbled upon a blog by a woman who had been struggling with fertility issues for years, was doing all the treatments and trying very hard to get pregnant - yet, her blog was full of drunken debauchery and stories about how she’d gotten ’so drunk’ before her FET. Seems a little self destructive, if you ask me.

Anyway, so today, I found another blog - I’d looked at it before, it had a few pictures on it and the pictures…well…they scared me. But I figured, it was a ‘one time thing’ and surely, if I came back at another time and looked at the pictures, they’d be different…the thing that had scared me would be taken care of.

I was wrong.

This woman lives in squaller. Pure filth. Feces on the ground in one photo (I assume animal) and even one picture of her child (adopted) eating pet food out of a bowl on the floor. The child is generally filthy, wearing clothes that are far to big for her (and a little to old for her) and her hair…the poor child.

Now, if this were one or two pictures of ten, I’d say no big deal. But it’s not. Even the pictures that don’t show the filthy disgusting house or the uncared for child, show group of scantly clad (in one, breast exposed) adults, drinking beer/whatever, with kids in the background.

Now, I’m not a prude. I think it’s ok to have a drink or two with the kids around…but beyond that, I don’t think it’s ok. Having a glass of wine with dinner is way different than having a Kegger with the kids in tow.

So, the question is, blog etiquette - what do I do? Ignore it? Post a message? Do some web-sleuthing and hot line her to her state?

This poor little girl…