Kathleen's Adventures

My week-long trip began with a two day offsite team building kickoff with the new Helsinki crew (around 30 people or so) as well as a handful from the Austin office.  The itinerary I received the week before included an ice sculpting competition, sauna time (bathing suit optional), and pigeon on the dinner menu.  Needless to say, I had no idea what I was getting myself into. The ice sculpting ended up being pretty fun  - my team made a boat with a Finnish flag on the back.  Granted towards the end it ended up looking more like a toilet bowl than a boat, but I didn't have the heart to tell my team of new Finnish acquaintances this.  Sauna time ended up being split - the men went to the "sauna by the sea" and the ladies stayed back at the one inside the hotel - ie completely uneventful...and not naked.  Dinner was seven courses and I bailed for bed after #5 - it was 11:15pm.  One of those I did stay awake for was the pigeon.  I was proud of myself...

In early January, my boss held a typical meeting of his direct-reports and mentioned the possibility of putting someone in Europe over the accounting for our subs (which is currently going through Singapore).  He asked what a few of us thought about it and I thought it was a great idea.  A bit later he said "who knows - it could be someone in this room."  I looked around the room and realized (for the umpteenth time in these meetings) that one of these is not like the others.  As in the others all have 10-20 years more experience than I do.  My position in Internal Audit is unique in that it reports to the Audit Committee of the Board of Directors and "administratively" to the CFO to maintain independence.  Anyways, I looked around the room and quickly wrote off the possibility of me taking a position like that due to lack of experience compared to the others.  But then a small part of me also realized I was the only one without a family with kids in m...

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Green belt hike from Sunday.

Friday night.  One year ago.  The worst phone call I've ever been a part of.  I was in Beaumont watching TV with my parents after dinner.  I had come in for a bike ride the next day and a childhood friend's wedding Saturday night.  It was rare I was home with them.  I'm still debating whether I'm glad I was there or not.  Part of me is glad I was there for them, but the part of me that worries I will be haunted for life by that phone call selfishly wishes I had been hundreds of miles away. The phone rang and Mom said "oh, I bet it is Doug calling to complain about the Astros."  Aunt Tootsie's name popped up on the TV caller ID.  Mom answered and I could tell immediately by the tone of her voice that things weren't okay.  I heard her ask "Linda Mattingly?" as she walked down the hall.  Dad continued eating his ice cream and watching TV.  I was already sick.  Mom got off the phone and said Tootsie had said Uncle Buddy h...

Well, I made it.  Shockingly enough.  For 30 days, I ate no grains, dairy, alcohol, soy, corn, potatoes, preservatives/additives, gluten, sugar, or God knows what else.  I have cooked and cleaned more in that 30 days than ever before as well.  My absolute biggest complaint has become the damn tupperware.  Being a good green little girl (and how sure how else I would do it….), I’ve cooked and packed all my meals/leftovers/portions in tupperware for storage in the fridge or freezer and for transport to work.  Due to the higher amount of fat in the food, said tupperware cannot simply be handwashed and left to dry – it all has to go into the dishwasher.  However, my dishwasher sucks for 2 reasons.  First, it does a crappy job of washing, so I have to clean every dish that goes in completely before putting it in (but the steam/heat of the dishwasher is the only thing that fully removes the grease).  S...

Shockingly, I've made it two weeks now on the Whole30 plan.  That means I have not had one morsel of dairy, grains, sugar, alcohol, and who knows what else.  People keep asking if I feel different, and so far I definitely haven't had that "ah ha!" moment.  Perhaps I feel marginally better during the day, but definitely nothing drastic.  I also do not notice much different in my sleep as is promised with the plan.  On the other hand, though, I am not really thinking about food all the time and I still get hungry but not the omg I'm going to die hungry I used to get. I made a spaghetti squash and some ground beef last week and that with Central Market Organic Pasta Sauce was definitely my favorite meal for the week.  I also discovered Applegate Farms "little smokies" at Whole Foods that are compliant.  I'm close to heaven with those as they taste good.  So I would say scrambled eggs and little sausages was my close second favorite meal.  I'm ...