A butterfly in a conservatory
Happy St. Patty’s Day to all who are Irish, even for the day! I didn’t have green to wear this year (or last even) as for some reason I’ve phased out green from my wardrobe over the years. Funny, it used to be my favorite color- now red is. Go figure! I have Irish, Scandinavian and German roots in my family tree. My Grandmother has been working for years on tracing back my paternal family tree and what an interesting tree it is. She’s got a collection of old black and white photos, aged documents, and interesting facts about some of our ancestors. It’s quite fascinating and I am glad that she is doing it. There is no shame in being proud of one’s history and culture, especially within one’s family. Of course there’s the proverbial crazy family member no one wants to talk about (and we won’t go there here either! 🙂 )
Anyway… I didn’t intend to post on that, but it’s not a bad thing to reflect on one’s heritage. I’m grateful it’s Friday night and that me and my loved ones are safe, warm, and fed. We’re a week out from Japan’s earthquake/tsunami event and it’s still on-going with the nuclear meltdown scare as we all watch daily. We also hear of the recovery efforts being slow. I can only imagine! Thankfully, since my last post, there have been several stories of hope and the miraculous. If you haven’t seen them, check out a few here: http://brandonsuyeoka.wordpress.com/2011/03/18/a-collection-of-hope-stories-of-survival-warmth-from-japan/
Last evening, while I was working from home for an additional two hours for my “day job”, the President of the company I work for sent out an email to the global workforce saying the company was donating $10,000 to the American Red Cross fund for this particular disaster and that the company would match up to an additional $10K for employee contributions to the same fund. So there’s a potential that the company I work for combined with its employees could donate up to $30,000 to help those in need in Japan. I hope other companies in the US and around the world are stepping up to the plate to help financially. I think it’s a wonderful thing.
On a few notes closer to home, I am finalizing my paperwork to give to an accountant to do my personal and business taxes for 2010. I was referred by networking to this person. I hope he’s able to complete the taxes quickly as getting the refund I’m expecting would be nice… (*giggle* My husband’s singing to me just now as I am typing, he’s so awesome! Sorry for the interruption in my train of thought!). After I began to pull together my paperwork, I realized I didn’t do the best job of keeping good documents. So I have resolved to do better this year. Part of the problem is keeping those small, thin receipts while out on the road. Normally I stuff them in my purse or in a pocket in the hopes of sorting them out “later.” Now I have a portable scanner to use with my business netbook that is easy to transport and easy to scan with. So when I am on a business luncheon, I can just scan the receipt right then and there and not worry about the physical receipt. I had heard about a product called “NeatReceipts” and looked it up. I was going to go ahead and buy it right away, but then I decided to check out the reviews on it thru Amazon.
I’m glad I did. The reviews on it were very mixed and I read several. Of course, Amazon being as thorough as it is, had alternatives to the NeatReceipts product and I reviewed those as well. Between the NeatReceipts, a Brother scanner, and a Fujitsu portable scanner; I chose the Fujitsu ScanSnap S1100 product. So far, it’s living up to its good reviews and I’m playing with it tonight, scanning receipts in for 2011 and developing my own electronic filing system that makes sense to me.
In addition, the temperatures have finally begun to warm up! Today was just about 60 degrees and sunny! Oh what a pleasant day it was! I am grateful that Spring is just around the corner. Its right about this time of year I begin to watch for the trees to bud which means GREEN leaves are soon to come! Just like flowers, I need sunlight and warmth to grow! 🙂 I’m feeling better all around and I’m looking forward to my two projects I’m working on simultaneously: getting my treadmill and training under way for my half marathon in November; and researching for a presentation I will do on health, degenerative disease and treatments thereof. I’m learning so much and I feel a need to share with others the vital information I am reading about today. I hope to get both projects off the ground real soon!
Currently I am reading the book, Death By Prescription by Dr. Ray Strand, M.D. His is an easy-to-follow read and is very informative and from a doctor’s point of view. He’s well rounded and honest. I recommend this book and his other: What Your Doctor Doesn’t Know About Nutritional Medicine May Be Killing You.
Tomorrow I retrieve my treadmill out of storage and I begin in earnest to train for the half marathon in November. I will begin with a modest program put out by “Couch to 5K” from Facebook. They have a beginner’s program to get couch potato-ers up and running for a 5k race. Fortunately I have experience with 5Ks, but I’ve been out of the running scene for too long and need to start back in slowly. This would appear to be a good way to do so. I hope to keep all informed on my progress; which means I need to get new batteries in my GPS runner’s watch so I can keep track of my time and “speed” (or lack thereof! LOL)!
Happy Friday everyone and have a most awesome weekend!
Steph signing out!
UnleashYourEnergy! 