Working Four Days a Week

With the price of oil so low (as evidenced by low gasoline prices), the oil and gas industry is really slowing down. There's not a lot of work at the moment for Engineering Consulting firms like mine. So I volunteered to go down to 80% time (32 hours a week). I miss out on some pay, but keep all the other benefits, and I get an additional day off per week.

This whole plan happened in less than a week, but Brianna and I are actually pretty pleased about it. Lincoln is smiling and giggling these days, and just about ready to roll over, so it's a great time to get to spend more hours with him.

Tomorrow (Wednesday) is my first day off. Brianna is working from home tomorrow, so Link and I can't get up to anything too crazy (aslo: my toe still hurts), but I do have a list of things lined up to tackle already. Should be an interesting day!

Brianna is Done with the PE Exam!

Brianna spent all day taking the PE exam today - four hours in the morning, and four hours in the afternoon. She came out smiling!

...and then she demanded Ethiopian food.

Baby Shower at Work

Brianna's coworkers threw her a baby shower today! (I was in attendance, too).

They really went all out: the conference room was decorated, there was a full buffet/potluck lunch, we played baby-themed games, we opened gifts and the cupcakes were freaking amazing.

Hawks at the Workplace

There are a number of hawks living on the rooftops at the business park where I work. They're a protected species, so there's not much anyone can do to move them, even though they have attacked a number of people - including me (I was lucky - I was hit from behind, but the hawk didn't draw any of my blood. Other people have gotten bloodied pretty badly).

This particular hawk has been hanging out in the parking lot lately. Doesn't seem like a good sign.