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If the falling rain
was coffee instead, I still
wouldn’t have enough.

As you may have gathered from the subject matter of today’s haiku, life here at Casa de Bedlam has been interesting and not-quite-as-expected, recently.  It seems I’m a glutton for punishment, or at least for booking my time 100% full.  For example, here’s some of the things I’m currently involved in:

• I’m taking the Fundamentals of Engineering exam this fall (October 29th, to be exact) and a quick review of the exam topics proved without a doubt that I was in no way, shape, or form ready to take such an exam without serious prep-work.  Since it covers topics that I only briefly learned about (if at all) in school such as Thermodynamics, Fluid Mechanics, Biology, Engineering Economics, Probability and Statistics, etc., I decided that I definitely needed to have some sort of “refresher” course.  I signed up for an online review course through UNCC, which provides videos of narrated PowerPoint slides as well as forums and an instructor for questions, while you follow along at home with reference materials, handbooks, and sample tests.  So far so good, but I’m basically devoting 2-3 hours a night to reviewing this material, and plan to continue to do so until just before the exam in October.  Definitely puts a crimp on my free time, as I’m helping put the girls to bed around 8pm and then retiring upstairs to a desk to cram material that I didn’t learn 10-15 years ago and haven’t needed to know as a professional engineer since then.
• As if that wasn’t enough, I’m also in the process of training to participate in the Thunder Road (Amica Insurance) Half Marathon here in Charlotte in November (I did say I was a glutton for punishment, right?)  This will be my first half-marathon, ever, and I’m trying to train correctly for it, which means I’ve invested in an “official” training plan from Runner’s World, and although I’m not quite always following it to the letter, I’m doing my best to make sure I’m in shape and have the necessary base mileage training to finish the race, if not meet a time goal.  During the summer, this has meant getting up extra-early to get the runs in before work – I hope as the weather cools off, though, I can move my workouts back more towards lunch-hour, as I tend to enjoy those a little more, and have the chance to run some of these workouts with coworkers when I can join them at lunchtime.
• Work’s also taking a toll, as I’m transitioning back from a support role on other peoples’ projects to doing lead-type work on some prospective future projects that I might head up on the electrical side.
• I’m still the website admin for our neighborhood HOA, which hasn’t taken much time recently, other than the fact that the Board (of which I’m now the 5th and tiebreak member) has decided to allow the website to include advertising from 3rd parties, so I’ve had to put on my “lawyer hat” and put together a quasi-legal contract for people to fill out and sign prior to purchasing ad space on the website.  (I put my foot down at actually managing the ad contracts, but I’m at least getting the framework in place for someone else to do it.)
• There’s also some other things on the horizon – we signed both of the girls up for soccer this fall, so my Saturday mornings are going to be tied up for the foreseeable future, and of course the CP starts Sunday School (religious school) as of mid-September, so that’s another 4-hour block of my weekend blown away right there.
• Between work, my “extracurricular activities”, and spending at least a little time with the family, I barely have time to eat, let alone blog on a regular basis.  I am hoping this eases up after the end of October, when the biggest non-work commitment on my time is completed, but I have a feeling I need to just start trying to get by on a little less sleep, and invoke the 80% rule on my efforts more often, or else I’m going to be seriously overwhelmed in the upcoming months.

How about you all – have you ever taken on more than you can handle?  What did you do to manage it all? Did something finally give, or did you overcome all the obstacles and triumph like a superhero?

It is amazing
how kids suck up your free time.
Just like Google+.

Yes, it seems this week I’ve traded one time-suck for another. My wife took the kids to go visit my folks in PA this week, but I unfortunately had to remain behind because of some work commitments.

Basically, I’m home alone all this week, which would ideally put me on the side of productivity, including such gems as mowing the lawn, cleaning the bathrooms, straightening the garage, etc. In reality, it means I’ve spent all my free time checking out the new social media powerhouse that is Google+. I managed to snag an invite near the end of last week from one of the early-early adopters, and within the first 3 days of using it, have decided it is most definitely my preferred social media network. The privacy settings are everything Facebook/WordPress/Tumblr lack, the integration with existing Google services is fantastic, and I can’t help but think that it is only a matter of time before I mothball/delete my Facebook account and switch over 100% to Google+.

If you’re not yet on Google+, invitations open periodically and I’d be happy to invite you so you can see what all the fuss is about. Just let me know what your email address is so I can send the invitation your way. And if you’re already a G+ flunky, you can find me and add me to your circles at http://gplus.to/rossruns . Catch you over there!

I’m really not sure what the deal is, but I’m moving in slow motion this morning.  Everything is taking about twice as long as it should.  If I didn’t have this important project to finish up, I’d seriously consider climbing under my desk, George Costanza-style, taking a nap, and trying to reboot the workday.  I still may do it if I don’t “wake up” and get moving in the next hour or so…

Don your vorpal blade -
Monday is the Jabberwock.
Can you slay it? Please?

How in the blazes is it Monday already?  Did I step into a time warp?  Did I spend the entire weekend talking to The Silence? Or did I “fritter” away the time with my family, IKEA, yardwork, Netflix, beer, and books? (Yes, the last seems most likely.)

Oh well, whatever the circumstances, I’m back here at work again, the kids are back in school, and everything’s pretty much normal again.  Hooray for the weekends – may I have a second helping please?