Elevenses

I remember when the turn of the century seemed far in the future. I was going to be all of 46 when that happened! And here we are into the second decade of the 21st century, and I just turned 57. We still don't have transporters or replicators like Star Trek or flying cars like The Jetsons, but there's certainly a lot of other stuff we never imagined a few decades ago.

This year will bring more school. My next course starts on the 12th. I'm taking only one this term. My tech writing program requires that I take one computer elective, so I'm going to learn to use Word 2010. I've always been kind of a hack Word user. I guess that's not unusual, but I'd like to know how to get more out of the program and maybe even learn to do fancier things. I imagine it will be required for other courses. The course will go a lot better if I can find a laptop I want before it starts. I could always upgrade my desktop system, currently running Windows XP and Office 2003, but for the amount I would spend on buying Windows 7 and Office 2010, I would rather get a laptop. I'm feeling the need for more portability.

I would like to have a laptop to take with me on my first trip into the office in four and a half years. I telecommute to an office in suburban Detroit, and we haven't had the travel budget to bring the remote team in from the cold. Or in to the cold, more likely. It feels chilly to me here at 0°C, but they have real winter in Michigan. I like my boss and the people I work with, so I think it will be a good trip. More and more products are being migrated from the legacy servers I maintain to our new system, so part of this trip will be to discuss our future. Whether that's with the company or not, I don't know, but I don't think they're flying us for layoff notices. We shall see.

I don't know what kind of trips Sweetie and I will be taking this year. Perhaps not Maui like last April. I'm sure there will be a road trip to Portland—or two, or three, or more. We'd like to visit the west coast of Vancouver Island finally, one of the many places in British Columbia where we've never been. Sweetie's sister and her wife live in New Brunswick, so maybe that will be a summer destination. I will be making a trip to New England at some point, although that will probably be solo. And it's been too long since we've been to San Francisco. There's also a remote friend I'd like to meet farther south in California.

I have a new year's resolution, which I generally don't make. But this one is to put my garden back into shape. That means cleaning up the (mostly) native perennial garden, ordering and laying down a lot of mulch to keep it nice, ordering in some more garden soil to fill the raised beds, and planting vegetables at the right time. The pesto supply in the freezer is dangerously low! We can't have another year without enough basil. This project will also entail trimming back the large maple tree that is current casting too much shade on the vegetable garden. And that will mean either me on a ladder, which I'm not crazy about, or hiring some tree people.

I hope my schedule will allow me to work at Girls Rock Camp again. I haven't yet signed up for spring Ladies Rock Camp in Portland. I'm not sure if there is still space, although I imagine there is. If I don't go in spring, I would like to go back in the autumn. And no matter what, I am going to be practising on my drum kit. Maybe there will be musical possibilities in 2011.

School, garden, and music are probably enough to keep me busy. I imagine there will be more happening that I'm not thinking of right now. Whatever happens, I know I'll be writing.

Hope your 2011 is a good one!