Here’s another video that I love:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vr3x_RRJdd4&hl=en_US&fs=1&]

Here’s his story:  http://www.freehugscampaign.org/.

This is pretty cool: 

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zxa6P73Awcg&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&fs=1]

Last Saturday morning was one of our favorite events of the holiday season, breakfast with Santa. One of my customers puts on the breakfast each year, and it’s a wonderful morning with great food, arts and crafts, and of course, a visit from the big guy.

This year marked a turning point for us; Aliya decided that she’d rather go to her ice skating lesson and her Girl Scout meeting for the critical vote on sashes vs. vests instead of the Santa breakfast. Kind of sad but I guess she’s growing up.  (Quite a change from this: http://lockmommy.blogspot.com/2007/11/santa-claus-is-comin-to-town.html.)  Adlani is an old pro now, and Norah kept saying that she was not going to be afraid of Santa this year. She was pretty good but she needed a little encouragement when it was time to sit on Santa’s lap (see below).

Now it really feels like the holiday season has begun…and I’m not nearly ready!!!

The flu and the resulting fatigue hung on for more than a week, but I am finally back to normal with only a Kim Carnes voice to remind of my week in bed.  I thought I was fully recovered on Thursday so I went to a meeting, but on the way home I got a raging headache and was SO tired.  I got pulled over for speeding a couple of miles from home because I was in such a hurry to take some Motrin and get into bed.  I only got a warning luckily – I was going 44 in a 30 MPH zone.

Friday night I felt well enough to go to the Christmas tree lighting downtown.  There were a lot of fun activities for the kids and we saw a bunch of our friends so it was a great night.  It was my first outing with my new camera so here are a few photos of the festivities:

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For my entire career I’ve had a hard time explaining to people what I do for work.  It was especially tough when I was single, and I always longed for an instantly-recognizable job like nurse, teacher, or plumber, but I settled on the lines, “I sell doors,” or “I sell locks,” way back then.  If I tried to explain beyond that, eyes would glaze over and the chances of a second date were not good.

When I started dating Ben, I heard him on the phone telling his friend that I was a software engineer.  When I met my friend Karen I told her that I was a hardware consultant, and she said, “Really?!  I work for IBM!”  When Aliya was in preschool, she told her class that she wanted to be a “hard work insultant” when she grew up, like her mom.  I’m not even sure my mother knows what I do for a living, but I haven’t asked if I can move back in with her, so she’s ok with whatever I’m doing to pay the mortgage.

Since I started my other blog (here it is), more of my friends and family are starting to understand what I do.  And at this point in my life, I don’t have as great a need for people to understand the specifics anyway.  If I really don’t feel like explaining it and I know I’ll never see the person again, I might even make something up.  If a potential customer (architect, facility manager, hardware supplier, or security consultant) asks me what I do, I just have to say that I’m a door hardware consultant and they get it.  Easy.

Anyway, since I’m asked about my job less often, and care less whether people understand, today’s conversation with my favorite Egyptian bagel-guy caught me by surprise:

🙂