I Really Do Like Being Employed

This week our company is doing our annual employee reviews. We've been asked to think about a few questions in preparation for our time in the hot seat. Number One on the list is "Why are you here?" Now, once I'd moved past my inclination to always give the most smart-aleck answer possible ("it's my annual review, and I was told I had to be here"), the question really did get me thinking.

The problem with the annual review being this time of year is that, every year at about this time, I start to get kind of burned out on my job. Part of it, I think, may be that the workload does slow somewhat when summer starts, and part of it may be akin to spring fever. Whatever the reason, it oftentimes happens in May that I would gladly do any job in the world that doesn't require the use of a computer (hence the dramatic decrease in May blog posts, incidentally). I'd rather be outside, or at least in an office with a window, or at a job where I can leave at 5 and go play with my kids. I long for a real two-week vacation that doesn't result in a panic attack from not having earned enough this month.

The thing is, it's just the time of year. For pretty much the other 11 months I'm completely in love with my job. I get to work with some great guys who are actually my friends. I get to help solve problems for my clients so that they can do the important jobs that they do. I even get to drive around town during the day to visit clients on occasion. And, I'm paid very well (by my standards, anyway) to do it. It really is a great job, and most of the time, I love it.

Just not at review time, for some reason.

Greatness

My wife makes the world's best squash casserole. I'm fighting the urge to eat the entire pan right now. It's really good to have my family back!

Random Late-Night Thoughts

I had intended to share some thoughts on my week earlier tonight, but getting the house ready for my family's return took longer than I thought, so I have a feeling whatever I say now will be pretty random. Still, I feel it's important that I share the following:

• I'm so excited about seeing Angie, Daniel, and Maggie tomorrow that I'm about to burst!
• Our neighbors are awesome! They are very generous to us, and they always let us borrow their riding mower. Our push mower takes between 3.5 and 5 hours to mow the lawn. I got the front and back completely done in just over an hour and a half!
• Watching Lord of the Rings special features tonight:
  
• I like the stories, but I'm not crazy or anything. There's a guy being interviewed on the Two Towers DVD whose job title is something like Tolkien Language Translator. I mean, really, that's just too far, in my opinion. (Incidentally, if you were to judge by appearance alone, you'd still be able to guess that was his job.)
• I wonder what on earth Mrs. Tolkien thought of her husband's (and later, their son's) literary pursuits.
• This stuff must have taken a lifetime to come up with.
• These folks worked REALLY HARD on these movies.
  
• Never let it be said that my family is holding me back. With a week to myself, not only have I not written songs or stories, I haven't even read much.
• It seems like almost everything I do takes "longer than I thought"
• I've been over-using bullet points lately

That's all I've got. Goodnight!

Independence

This week, Angie and the kids are away visiting family, and, as usual, I'm at home not taking particularly good care of myself. I feel like Tony has talked about this phenomenon before, but I can't find the post to save my life, and it's getting late, so I'm not looking anymore. My goals for the week included mowing the lawn, reading a few books, getting the laundry done, returning the library videos, and posting to my blogs. My accomplishments so far include:

• beating Guitar Hero II on the Hard level (score!)
• reading a few pages of one of the books
  
• watching too much TV
• eating too much ice cream
  
• umm... oh, and tonight I returned the videos!

That's it. Oh, well, I guess this counts as a blog post, but it's not exactly what I had in mind. I guess all this is just to say that I love my family, I miss them, and I really don't function properly without them.

Sweet

The kids and I got the chance to go strawberry pickin' at Washington Farms the other day. There is really nothing like eating ripe strawberries right off the vine. Of course Daniel has never experienced this joy since he is allergic to them, but he was still happy to help pick them. He was especially interested in helping because once we filled our bucket he knew we were going to play at their little play area, so he did his best to speed the whole process up. Thankfully I lathered us up in sunscreen because I feel confident we would all be sunburnt since we went at 3:30 (still peak burning time). Such is the life of the pigmentally challenged. Anyway, a good time was had by all, and the results were pretty sweet.

Bath Time Education

There's been a lot of talk on a friend's blog recently about public school, private school, and home school. This post wouldn't have much to do with that at all, except that we are currently home schooling Daniel. I often realize that his education is happening right in front of me, at the most unusual times. Tonight, for instance, I overheard Angie broadening his cerebral horizons while giving him a bath. "Superman was born a super-hero," she said. "Batman trained to be a super-hero. Spider-Man was bitten by a radioactive spider, and that's how he got his super powers." I've got to say, I am a huge fan of this curriculum. All the basics are covered during the times that are most conducive to learning. I understand that during the regular school hours, they only work on things like reading, writing, and math.

A Cotton Pickin' Minute

Saturday, the Hipps family headed to beautiful downtown Gay, GA for the annual Cotton Pickin' Fair.

My sister-in-law, Lynley, is a part of the Chattahoochee Valley Cloggers, who were performing at the end of the day.
We left the house at around 1 PM, imagining we'd arrive between 2:30 and 3, but not really having much of an idea of how long it would take. It took a LONG time. It was a significantly longer drive than we had realized, for one thing. And, once we got off the Interstate, traffic was particularly stop-and-go as at least 15 out of every 16 houses was having a yard sale, right on the side of the highway. I think we finally arrived about 3:45, but my brain was suffering a yard-sale induced overload by that time, so it could have been days later.

Upon arrival, we met up with my folks. Maggie went almost immediately to the pony rides, while Daniel opted for the more expensive Super-Tramp bungee trampoline. This was followed by a train ride for just the two of them, wherein someone with a clear financial interest in the event took the kids on a tour of all the various craft tents while, presumably, subtly suggesting to them that what they really want most in life is something from every one. All I know for sure is that, as soon as the ride was over, Maggie wanted to make a bracelet and Daniel wanted to buy a sword.

Finally, it was time for the clogging to begin. I'd never known what clogging is, really. My initial impression was that it's sort of a cross between tap dancing and country line dancing, with the tap aspects being much more prominent. It was actually a pretty cool performance (Maggie especially seemed to enjoy it; Daniel stood next to the seating area quietly putting his sword into the back of his shirt and quickly bringing it out again in a heroic manner), and it was great to see my relatively new sister-in-law in action. The clogging ended at 5, as did the rest of the fair, and man, when they called time that place cleared out. I guess sitting or standing around all the live-long day had taken its toll on folks, because the parking lot was almost empty by the time we realized everyone was leaving. Crazy.

One final note: on the way home, we got to stop at one of the Chick-fil-A Dwarf House restaurants. I don't think they've told the cows about these restaurants; I base this on the greatly expanded menu available, including burgers and outright steak. The kids loved the cool door, and I got to try the new Coffee Caramel milkshake (available only for a limited time! Act now!). The End.

Playground thoughts

Daniel (heretofore largely ignored by the younger kids): Hey guys, I have a plan to save the world!
Maggie (the undisputed leader of the group): Hey guys, let's listen to his world-saving plan!

And just like that, everyone is having fun. Pretty sweet.

Picture of hair

Here is a picture in response to Kristen's request for one. Debi dried my hair with a diffuser
and then used a curling iron to make some loose curls over my tight curls. Of course it has been 6 hours since she did my hair so it isn't as polished as it was when I walked out of the salon. My six year old son took the picture (he's a brilliant little guy). Enjoy!

Got the Hairs Cut Today

Thanks to my dear friend, Kim, I was able to go get my hair trimmed today. It has been since early January that I had my last trim so I was beginning to look a little ragged. Daniel and Maggie had a fabulous time playing over at the Borgs while I got pampered by my hairstylist, Debi. Debi goes to my church and she is one neat lady. It has been such a pleasure to hang out with her while getting my hair done. I have been blessed by both of these women so I just wanted to send my thanks out into blogdom. You ladies are awesome!