Java

I made coffee this morning. Let me repeat that. I made coffee this morning. 

There was a need in the office, and I filled that need. I brewed coffee on a brand new machine. I brewed it like it was hot. And it was. And the best part? It was delicious. 

But let's start at the beginning.

I'm not a fan of new technology. In general, manuals and set-up, troubleshooting and experimentation: Not my strong-suit. I can rise to the challenge when absolutely necessary (and, since my life has proven to be a string of incidents like printer jams, virus alerts, or error messages I have had to do that more often than I would like.) 

What can I say? I have a special connection with flip phones, good old fashioned hot water kettles, and using a cookbook instead of an app. I'm not what you would call a "trailblazer" or a "trail follower". If I were on a trail I would have stopped at the first river because figuring out how to ford the river would have been too much of a hassle. But I digress..

Here in our office we have quite a few professors, researchers, and even an occasional IT guy who need a good cup of coffee, especially on those cold rainy Georgia days. So, I thought to myself this morning, "Today, I will learn how to work the coffee maker, and we WILL have fresh coffee this Autumn". I quietly made my way into the break room, read the directions 3 times for clarity, and 

~ BOOM!

Ten minutes later (only ten minutes!!) a lovely smell came out. Roasted coffee beans. Just the right strength. Add a little french vanilla creamer, and you've got yourself a morning cup o' jo. De-licious.

Who knew modern technology could be so easy? ;) Next up, I tackle the touch screen.

Attack of the Vacuum

I started to Vacuum the living room tonight, and the sweet scent of pine filled the room. "This is great!" I thought - we haven't had the room smelling like a Christmas Tree since we, in fact, had a Christmas tree in the house. So, I kept vacumming and all was well.

Or so I thought.

After a few pleasant minutes of cleaning, the vacuum decided to absolutely shut down. Didn't work on one setting, and the other (stronger) setting sounded just awful. With that, the investigation began.

Step 1) Clean out the floor brush. 3 Girls' worth of hair is not a good thing for a small vacuum. Poor suffocating roll brush...

Step 2) Clean out the cup and filter. No problems there. In fact, there weren't any pine needles in it at all, which after the Christmas clean up it should have been absolutely FILLED with needles.

*Lightbulb*

Step 3) Spend the next 40 minutes alternately digging into the back of the vacuum with a spoon and tipping it over, delivering piles and piles of pine needles.

It was slow going, but eventually our little Eureka sucker guy was able to breathe again, and Christmas clean up is officially behind us!

The Centennial State

One of the first highlights of this year, and a fun step for me professionally was my first real-live, on my own business trip! I got to venture out to Boulder, Colorado for 2 days while participating in "CampMinder Camp". More on what we did at "Camp" later, but for now a bit about the place! 

This beautiful spot on the map, affectionately and appropriately called "Colorful Colorado" is one of my new favorites. The weather was stunning and warm, the mountains clear and beautiful! I had so much fun even just looking out the window each day.

Here is a view of Boulder from above.

And the Flatirons - These were amazing to look at each morning!

...and here's the cute little hotel ("Golden Buff") where I stayed.

 

You might think it was "just" a best-western, but I had a great time. They had a hot tub and spa, a little putt-putt area, and the staff were so nice there. Now if only they would provide heated blankets in the rooms...!

 *Disclaimer - I forgot my camera, so none of these pics are mine. Had to resort to Google images :) Better pictures next time!* 

So, the idea of CampMinder camp is to gather as many of the camps who use CampMinder as their main registration and tracking system and 1) teach the ins and outs of the system so we can better utilize it as a resource, and 2) brainstorm for a few days on how to improve the system as a whole. As far as learning the system, the time this week confirmed again for me that I know it well and helped me feel confident in that. The brainstorming was encouraging, as many of the things that camps need and want are already becoming available this year, or soon after. But by far my favorite part of the two days had to be meeting other camp professionals, being able to "talk shop", and meeting the great CampMinder staff who have helped us to much this year already. It was so fun and encouraging to realize that YSSC is part of a much bigger community, and we all share many of the same struggles and successes! I hope that not only I get to go next year, but that others will be able to join me! 

All in all, a great event to attend, and I plan on visiting Colorful Colorado on my own again soon!

Success!

I have a heated blanket! I cannot wait to go to bed tonight! Boy, that sounds lame, doesn't it? But you know what? I just don't care - I am going to be toasty warm all night! Turns out the are fairly cheap, and available all over the place. All I had to choose was my preferred color. 

I chose Olive Green :)