ILONA ANDREWS

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Office – Finally.

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It’s cold this morning in Texas.  Austin, which is now north of us instead of south, had actual snow again.  We didn’t get snow, but we got blistering cold.  How cold did it get, you ask?

Fountain with IciclesFountain with Icicles

Fountain with IciclesThese are respectable icicles on our pool fountain. These are big enough to injure you if they fell on your head.

In more exciting news, we finally have a working office.

Office 1

Office 2View from the officeIsn’t it awesome?  For the first time in our lives, we have an actual detached office.  We can go to work, and then we can shut the doors and go home.  When you work from home, you’re always on.  But now, we can actually get away from work, which is remarkable.    And the view from the office is pretty amazing, too.  There are no books yet on the shelves, but we will get there.  One thing at a time.

Today is my birthday and also the first day of the New Year.  Someone once told me about this tradition that whatever you do on New Year’s Day, you will do through the year.  So I am trying to do a little bit of everything.  I had breakfast, I did some laundry, some cleaning, some office arranging, and now I am going to work for an hour or so, and then I’ll get to go home and play with my birthday present.  🙂  Gordon bought me a Switch.  Later kids are coming in and we’re all going to Outback nearby for dinner.

So good day planned.  How did your holiday week go?

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Comments

  6. It was lovely and low-key. Dinner was great. Today, we took the tree down and put it away. It had already had all the decorations removed, but putting it away was a couple of extra days. Now the upstairs living room/office has been returned to its original configuration. It has one recliner, my daughter’s desk with her laptop and my work desk/area, and a bookshelf. We’ll have to move all that during the great Kitchen Renovation, because the floor we’re putting in will go through the whole upstairs, except for the bedrooms and bathroom.

    I understand what you mean about having a separate work area. I work at home, too, and having a separate work space became necessary for my emotional balance. So the mostly unused living room became my ‘office.’ The ‘play’ area, meaning computer gaming, moved to the downstairs family room area. Yes, I felt silly for needing 2 computers, but it really has helped me keep things balanced and gave me the feeling of disconnecting from work.

    Oh, since I didn’t say it before, your new home looks beautiful. I hope you’re happy there for a long time to come! =)

  7. We’re in Florida, I’m pretending 52 is cold and at 1:39 I have yet to put on anything more than a robe. So if this is how my year goes I’m happy. I have also made breakfast and started dinner but dammit I’m in my robe!

  9. Happy birthday! I also believe that how you start the new year is how the year will continue. Have a blessed day and a blessed year!

  12. Happy Birthday! Cold here in Utah, but we are used to it. Not like Texas. Be careful on the roads….may be black ice. Enjoy your birthday feast. Your home is gorgeous.

  13. We got to a toasty -6 up here, but no precipitation.

    The weather is wonderful but it still is an awesome day!

    Happy New Year and especially Happy Birthday! 🙂

  15. Happy birthday! ! !

    The Switch is awesome, I love my Zelda! Did you know that some of the games through the Nintendo store have free demos you can download? Try Embers of Mirrim and Max the Curse of Brotherhood for some fun action puzzle play. ?

  17. It’s 17 where I am with supposedly a low of 10. However, when I got up this am the thermometer read 6. No icicles though. Icicles are the worst! Happy Birthday!

  20. Happy New Year and birthday! We had a good turkey dinner at my sister’s place south of the city, my other sister and I live near each other north of the city.
    We live in Nova Scotia. Don’t know if you saw the news from here. High winds knocked out power lines for a good part of the province. And the temp went down to 11 below freezing C. My heating is thermal storage, so we both stayed in my place. 9 the next morning we went to our parents in the city for tea and bathroom. No power and no well water still. Power was restored to our area while we were there.
    Still the same temps outside in the new year. Reading weather. Lol.

    • I live in Maine and isn’t the weather nuts right now? 22 below this morning – ARGGH. I waited until it hit 0 to turn the horses out. We do have power that would be the straw for me. Forecasters won’t commit on the storm that is coming in Thursday. I am thinking it could be a big one.

      It is just too cold. I looked at Ilona;s picture of the pool and thought, it is still open, things are green, ooh, warmth.

  22. Happy birthday, happy new home… dare I say happy Icicles? (I’m not Bob Ross enough for that…)

    May the new year bring you all kinds of awesome!

    Peace!

  24. Happy New Year and Happy Birthday!!!!
    That’s a gorgeous office!

    My holidays were good and bad. Half of us were really sick, fevers, head colds, all that nastiness. But, we watched movies and hung out together anyway ?

  26. So glad you have an awesome office! Yay! And ouch. We have ‘degree debt’ up here, as one person called it. But that’s something we’re supposed to have. Not Texas though 🙂 My week was good. I took time off work. Got alot of work done to world build my project. Today I am arting, going to edit, knitting, and chatting with friends. It’s a good day so far.

  27. Congratulations on the beautiful new house, what a great way to start the New Year!

    It’s clear, sunny, but a chilly 32 degrees here in Seattle, a lovely first day of what we hope will be a good new year. We’re spending it quietly, starting with sleeping very late and having no particular plan other than taking the dogs for a long walk.

    Wishing you a very Happy Birthday and all the best in the coming New Year!

  28. HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!! I am close to you in Bastrop! And yeah, it’s way too cold! Have a wonderful day!

  29. Both the pool and the office look lovely. A detached office must be a wonderful change. Lots of space, light from the windows and a pretty view – ideal. The South isn’t set up for that kind of cold – stay warm !

    Enjoy your Switch game, dinner out with the family – Happy Birthday to you 🙂

    Lots of medical issues in the family lately – we’ve been with my MIL (she’s terminal) and she now has more bad days than good. Fortunately she felt well enough to have Christmas dinner with the family. Everyone enjoyed the evening.

  33. Желаю счастья, удачи, везения
    и много лет земных счастливого течения,
    здоровья, успехов и благополучия
    в твой светлый праздник — День Рождения!

  34. I played Mario Kart on the switch last night! My son, who is 21, got it for Christmas. He worked the day shift yesterday and had to work it again today so he didn’t go out with friends. He downloaded Mario Kart and invited me to play. In 8th and 9th grade he was very sick and missed months of school. I didn’t allow him to play video games unless I was home so we played a lot of Mario Kart Double Dash in the evenings , enough that we were very, very good (think ranked). Anyways, the switch was fun. I don’t play many games. I liked the controller and the flexibility the system offered. The game was more fun once we switched off all the “safety” controls. Mario Kart isn’t fun unless you can blow things up, swear, push each other off the map and booby trap the other person.

  35. Happy Birthday and Happy New Year. The office looks amazing. The floors will mellow with time. And it will warm up!

  38. Happy Birthday!
    Your office looks amazing.
    We’ve been pretty busy as a family. Today is my mother in law’s Birthday and we have been up at the cabin (with temps below 0°, -30° to be exact) for four days now. It’s great because the lake is frozen and we are ice fishing. We got to make pickled fish last night, which was a new experience for me. All in all, pretty busy week but it’s been great to spend it with our family.

  39. Happy Birthday and Happy New Year! Have fun with the Switch. Both my mom and my brother-in-law lost heat last night. Mom’s back on and BIL has a space heater, so it isn’t life threatening, temps are way lower than normal and likely to be so for another week. Now for some New Year’s organizing…

  42. First, HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my favorite author!!! I hope you have a beautiful day! Second, your house looks so pretty! Good start to a new year.

  44. Happy birthday, and a happy new year as well. It sounds as it is starting out on a positive note.
    I live in Canada, so cold is our norm this time of year, however at the moment minus 20 is just a tad too much of a good thing. Folks are skating on the pond, and the moon tonight will be gorgeous on the snow.
    One of the few things I really miss, other than friends and family,,, is the Outback. From the bloomin’ onion to the chocolate thunder. ??

  45. Happy Birthday to you and Happy New Year to you and your family. I spent the day on a plane enroute to the
    Persian Gulf. I don’t want that to be how my year goes!

  46. Happy New Year’s Day Birthday! Mine is Christmas Day. Glad you are moved into your new home. The pictures look like you have so much more space, especially outdoors. It is 39, overcast and very windy here in north central Florida. We are forecast for several nights in the 20’s this week. I have been outside covering my pump/well and some of my more tender plants. It is very cold especially as we were recently in the 70’s. Crazy weather here.

  47. Happy birthday, and Happy New Year! It’s the 2nd in my part of the world and, if yesterday was anything to go by, my year will be full of family, friends, cycling and eating cake… There are worse ways of spending one’s year, that’s for sure!

  48. I’m in southern Ontario, adding in the wind chill and it’s 0 degrees Fahrenheit. I’ve got 9 people coming for dinner. If today predicts my year it will be tidying, reading, and entertaining friends and family. I think that’s a good thing.

  50. My family is from Georgetown (Texas – just North of Austin), so I have seen a bit of this weather. Yes, black ice is quite likely. It is not fun when you walk on it, either. I broke my arm the last time I did. A bit of a pain when you are there for a funeral and need to be back in Houston for Monday.
    I did not realize the arm was broken at first. My husband wrapped it for me thinking it was a sprain… I was not able to work until the swelling went down so the cast could go on. Be careful, please. We need you to have both hands functional so you can write.
    The house is beautiful. The floor looks great, even if it was not what you’d hoped for. You will enjoy that pool in the relentless summer heat.
    A very happy birthday to you, and many happy returns of the day.

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