Canopy Tour

We made it back to snowy MN on Saturday night. We were both sad to see the sun and beach go away but as an insightful travel companion said.... "All good things must come to an end, otherwise they wouldn't be good, they would be normal". One of the highlights of the trip was the canopy tour we took. We got on a bus and drove about 45 minutes to what they called the Jamaican Jungle. We got all harnessed up and put on our helmets and gloves. and started the first hike.
We luckily didn't have to hook ourselves up to any cables, the employees did that for us! We got to sit back and enjoy the ride. We went over streams and valleys and at the fastest speed got up to about 40mph. It was quite exhilarating!

We were able to pic some oranges right off of the trees and try those, they were juicy and delicious.

New Year's resolutions....

I just have to share one of my accomplishments with you. As long as I can remember, I have made new year's resolutions and then broke them within 2 weeks. I didn't really feel guilty, I think that I was making them for the sake of making them. I am happy to say that I, for the first time, am still going with my new year's resolutions.

What is it you ask? I made 2 goals.....

1. Try a new recipe one time a week. I have scoured the internet for new things to try. Some have been good, others not so much. Good thing that I have a garbage disposal for a husband. He eats anything. Funny story relating to a new recipe: I was going to try these sweet potato fries that I had found. They were seasoned well and I was baking them. The instructions said to broil them until crispy. Boy, did I ever! I had set them to broil, closed the oven door (my first mistake so I'm told) and walked away (my second mistake). Fairly soon after, I noticed smoke rolling out of the oven (just smoke, no fire). I quickly removed them from the oven, and Brian went to wave a towel in front of the smoke alarm that was blaring! Needless to say the fries were inedible. Anyone have any tips on broiling?

2. Work out 4-5 times a week. I have been going to lifetime fitness consistently the past month. Prior to January, it had been a hit and miss thing. I have tried and LOVED a studio cycle class, a kickboxing class, and a yoga class. I am trying a water aerobics class on Sunday. Only 2 more days and I have made it a full month! Don't they say 21 days makes a habit?

General Update

Well we survived the freezing cold weather last week. I think Brian really liked having -25 degree temperatures as he got to watch it from inside. They called off school for last Thursday and Friday. I really didn't think that they would call it off on Friday so I didn't check the internet while I was at work. The only way that I knew was that I got a little text message... it said "I hear it's cold out but would not know", talk about rubbing it in. I do have to say that he was a good little husband and did lots of dishes, laundry and shoveling. I really can't complain!

On Wednesday we are having our new patio door and a few new windows installed. It is probably going to be the nicest weather we have had in weeks, so we were lucky with our timing. Hopefully that will make our heating bill go down a bit. I thought that we were going to have a flood by our patio door when all of the ice and frost melted from the inside of our door.
I'll post some before and after pictures when it is completed.

Brian is busy coaching Junior Olympic volleyball. He practices 2 nights a week from 7-9pm and then has tournaments roughly every other weekend. They don't always coincide with my weekends to work, so we are quite busy these next few months.

My work is going well. I am officially trained in Microbiology now. I am enjoying it and my first day on my own was today. I got everything done, but still had to ask tons of questions. I (and everyone else) expected that. I just found out through the grapevine that the lab has to cut $120,000 from it's operating budget for this year. They are meeting this week to determine the what can be done. I am a little bit fearful for my job, but I know they are really trying not to eliminate people. It makes me really glad that I trained in Micro as it makes me a little more versatile.

Ok- enough for my book. I will try and not wait so long for my next post!

In da back room......

No, the title isn't a typo, it was the location of our New Year's eve celebration. And by "da back room", I mean it was September 26th, 1929 in da back room at the S.P. Keasy, where we uncovered multiple murder plots and ultimately discovered a murderer!

Our cast was complete with a lounge singer (Tourchy, aka Heidi), a corrupt DA (Harrow, aka Brian), flappers, a baseball player, club owners, and a bootlegger.

We had a great time and didn't end up arriving home until after 3 AM.

Today has been a great day of lounging. We slept until 11AM (I know all of you with kids are very jealous), I made pancakes for lunch and we have spent the day doing absolutely nothing! We just finished eating pizza and I am going to knit some before going to bed. Overall a very non-productive yet enjoyable day. Back to real life..... tomorrow!

One more picture to show you...... doesn't Brian look good in his new suit?

Christmas

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

On my way to work....

On my way to work this evening, the wind was blowing, the roads snow and ice packed, and me white knuckled..... I guess I am lucky that I only had to drive 13 miles going 25 miles an hour verses 50 miles as one of the evening employees did on her way home. I do really wish I could have been one of the people that got to watch it from the comforts of their homes. Ahh, the evils of health care, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week!

I didn't see too many accidents, but there are many schools 2 hours late. I will be hoping for Brian to be at least 2 hours late, as I know he was checking the TV every time the B's came around!

Safe driving to all!

More information on layoffs

I have some more information on the layoffs at North Memorial that I would like to share with you. Many of them are non-patient care, but some are nurses. North Memorial had an employee fitness center that was staffed by 3 personal trainers for 12 hours a day. That will no longer be staffed. One of the food areas (there were 2) is reducing the hours that it is open. Housekeeping and some of the nurses are being let go. This is by no means an all inclusive list, this is just what I have heard.

Some of the reasons that patient care should be affected minimally is that our census is down. People can't afford elective surgeries or to be sick.... they are just avoiding hospitals at all costs. Our total loss for people that could not pay their bills or their co-pays used to be 1 million a year. In the recent months it is 1 million a month...... 12 times higher. Hard to imagine.

As for my status: I have 4 people under me. If we were to go through another round of cutoffs and the lab was affected, it would have to be pretty deep to hit me. On the other hand, it could happen that I would have to switch shifts. I would not enjoy that, but at least I would have a job. We currently have 10 open positions in the lab in which they are not allowing us to hire. Right now we are pretty busy as we are short staffed. The lab also has measurable productivity. It works in our favor.

Hopefully that clears up some of the questions that have been posted.