What to do...

So I am really unmotivated to do any work today, I don’t know why. Perhaps it’s because we are having a big jobsite lunch today, and we office people are doing the cooking. Which entails us being busy with non-work related stuff for most of the day. Or it’s because I really don’t have a whole lot to do. Or it’s because what I do have to do is not really pressing for time or important-ness. Or maybe just because I don’t care today. Whatever the case may be, I’ve been at work for 2-1/2 hours now, and accomplished nothing, but:

1. Checked for the millionth time in the last week if Lauren has decided where she’s going to play this summer. Stupid rumor-starters.
2. Read ESPN.com, and discovered that the money hungry professional sports world is suffering in this unfortunate economic downturn we are currently in. And that guys who make $10 mil a year live paycheck to paycheck. And that a guy who stands in a field for a couple hours a day during the summer, swings a wood stick a few times, and maybe actually hits something with it on occasion, can’t bring himself to sign for a measly $25 million to do this for seven months. The gall of a financially faltering business to even think of such craziness! Never mind this country has allowed this person into its boundaries to take advantage of this situation. Shall we escort him back to where he came from and remind him what the rest of the world is dealing with?
3. Contemplated the seriousness of the fact that two of our co-workers each have a husband that is going to be deployed to Afghanistan in a few months, and what this will mean to each family. And how working on a military installation brings the realities of the world front and center into one’s life.
4. Wondered what my life would be like if I quit working. I have a friend going through the same dilemma. It makes for good conversation, and deep thought. Life’s priorities and one’s health vs. not having to worry about finances as much as many people are right now and what fun stuff we get to do because we have that second income.
5. Found a friend on Facebook I haven’t seen in a while, mainly because he’s somewhere over in Iraq. It was fun to reconnect.
6. Listened and sang to some NKOTB on the way to work, just to remind myself of the fun times and make me smile. Then some Nickelback, you know, to remind me it's 2009.
7. As an all day event, I’m getting mentally ready to witness my husband speeding around a hardwood floor on roller skates this evening. As Karl says, “I’m the man on skates!” I already laugh at the thought. I’ll definitely get pictures of this.

Well, I’ve wasted 15 minutes typing this. I guess I’ll go search the internet a little more. Maybe Lauren has decided by now.

I am officially certified... in nothing.

I have gone crazy, to the point I think Karl has considered checking me into a crazy house. When asked if I could call in sick and get away with it, he said, "Don't worry, you're not lying. You need mental help."
I passed the LEED test this morning. To say this is HUGE would be an understatement. I have driven myself nuts with this test. And it means nothing to my career or my well being. Why Christine and I went to such stressful places over this we will never understand. Christine was my counterpart in this struggle. If not for her going through it with me, I would have quit a long time ago. She says the same about me. What is funny is we don't even technically work together, she works for the Corps, the customer for my project. The fact that we spent so much time studying together in her office at lunch could be detrimental to me job-wise. But I don't care. I passed the stupid test. And so did she.
So the next few days will be days of recovery, of getting my mind back. And hopefully convincing Karl I am not permanently damaged. I've literally made myself sick over this, which is ridiculous. Whatever the case may be, I am now: Kelli Dixon-Kill, LEED AP.

In my absent-mindedness, we actually did have a fun little weekend two weekends ago. My company had their annual meeting at the Tulalip Hotel & Casino, which is north of Seattle. The entire complex was bulit by my company, so I'm sure they got a good deal. We got three free nights in this place, which I must say was absolutely gorgeous. It was a nice relaxing weekend, which we both needed. Karl kept me away from the tables, which was probably a good thing. We spent a little too much money at the outlet mall, but we did manage to purchase a kettle-corn popcorn maker, which we have been searching for ever since Courtney introduced us to them (thanks Courtney!).

The best moment of the meeting was our "fancy" dinner for employees and guests. While all things are more funny in the moment, this one line made our dinner and still gets us laughing. There is a guy that works out here that is from Salt Lake, but he has this country-boy, meat and potatoes kind of attitude. He's pretty funny, and isn't shy about what he says. While eating our mixed greens salad with an allotment of assorted toppings, he and his wife were noting that we were not eating salad, we were eating weeds. And the more he talked, the more fired up he got. Finally, he yells for all to hear, "I don't want weeds. Give me some iceberg lettuce and friggin tomato!"
To that end, I say have a happy day!

Let me vent please....

I need to vent for a moment, so please bear with me. There is a group of people out there somewhere that back in the early '90's thought up of a good way to rip people off, make a ton of money, and make anyone involved in construction hate life. Perhaps they were sitting at home, unemployed from their construction or architect's job, and said, "hey, how can I annoy the living crap out of my former employer?" I'll invent a program that sounds good, but really accomplishes nothing. In the meantime, I'll make it really expensive, so I make a ton of money even though I do nothing with it. What do you have? LEED!

Yes, LEED. It is some green building idea that is a day late and a dollar short. Unless you're the one who thought of the idea, then you have plenty of dollars. For a mere $400, you can sign up to take the test to be LEED certified. For another $10k or $20k, you can register your project as LEED approved. If you have a question for the LEED people, it will only set you back a measely $500. And starting this year, to maintain your LEED certification, it costs $50 per year. All so I can put LEED AP after my name, like a doctor puts MD after theirs, and so your project can stick a piece of paper in a $5 frame from Walmart saying your building is LEED certified.

Now, you ask, what am I getting so riled up over? This concept, in theory, is great. It requires you to design and build something with the environment in mind. In reality, it is a royal pain in the #$%. You have to document everything, up to and including how many screws you used and where they came from, and design things around words like evicivity and thermotranspiration. Yes, those are real words. But Karl is a certified mechanical professional engineer, and my friend who I am taking the test with, is a certified civil professional engineer. You'd think they would have heard of these words. NO! And speaking of the test, I have to take a test to say I am LEED certified. This test can probably rival the bar, or the test architect's have to take, or, as my friend has confirmed, the professional engineer test. All so I can put LEED AP after my name at work, and know that the albedo of a surface should be around 29. Don't ask me what that means. I read it last night, but I don't remember.

So, the picture at the top of the post would be what I look like when studying to take this test. It's hard to really be motivated to study for something you think is total hogwash and a complete waste of time. But then again, when I am done, I can determine how to use recycled gray water to flush my toilets, know that green seal is for paints & coatings and green label is for carpet, or how to determine the glazing factor of a window. How many of you can do that? Hopefully, none of you. You don't need to deal with the insanity.

Thank you

I love the game of basketball. That is no secret, and no surprise to anyone who knows me. It's taken 4-1/2 years for Karl to still not understand the level of that statement. I've played it pretty much my whole life. I coached it for 4 years at the high school level. And I watch it whenever I get the chance. I've met countless other coaches, including some big name ones. I met Geno Auriemma and Roy Williams at a coaching clinic. I met Sheri Coale at a coaching clinic. If I ever have a daughter who is fortunate enough to play college basketball, I hope she chooses wherever Coach Coale is. I got to know the Stanford coaching staff while living in California. And a few years ago, I got to sit on the bench during a game between Stanford and Oregon.

I've been able to witness the growth and development of women's basketball over the years. When I was a little girl, it was common to hear other girls say they were going to be the first woman to play in the NBA. This, of course, because there was no option for women to play professionaly, unless they went overseas. Now, girls don't say, "I want to be like Michael Jordan." They say, "I want to play in the WNBA and be like Diana Taurasi". It is an amazing thing to be able to say our generation is part of this movement.

This past weekend, one of the pioneers of this movement passed away. Kay Yow coached at North Carolina State for longer than I've been alive. While she is not a coach I ever said, "I hope to meet her some day", or ran a program I followed, she is still an inspiration to any female who has ever played sports. She helped pave the way for encouraging girls and women to not only grow to be good people, but grow to be good athletes. Her efforts to make women's sports a norm, rather than a Title IX requirement, is one that should be lauded. She also helped bring to the forefront of all our attentions the battle women face in breast cancer. It is what ultimately took her life.

To Coach Yow, I say thank you for making it possible for me, my sisters, and all other women to play sports in a forum that may not have been possible without your efforts. I also say thank you for making your struggle with cancer known, so more people are aware of the disease, and understanding of how important it is that we address and cure it.

The past resurfaces....

Okay, for those of you who didn't catch this on Facebook, here's a scary picture from years gone by. Yikes! Here's our conversation when it resurfaced, courtesy of an old friend:

Karl: Nice picture. How old were you then?!
Me: Um, junior year.
Karl: Laughs and walks off.

And a story for my mom. I'm doing this in a public forum to minimize the potential backlash. The guy that is third from the left was my "interest" at the time. His name was Kenny. I was only 15, so no dating. So one night, we wanted to hang out, but I couldn't. No dating. So I came up with a plan. I said, "mom, Kenny is having a party at his house, can I go?" My parents agreed, since it was party. Minor detail, I was the only one going. His mom was there, no biggee. Anyway, we hung out for a couple hours, then I went home.

The funny part is a few months later, while doing a fund raiser for band, we got paired with Kenny's mom for our time slot. Imagine my stress on this one! Especially when they introduced themselves, and realized it was his party I went to, but there wasn't actually a party, so his mom was confused, which made my mom confused, and I was trying to change the subject, while probably looking like a I was doing the pee-pee dance becasue I was so freaked out I would get caught. All was well though, we moved on in conversation before the truth came out. I've been living with that hanging over my head all these years :-). I'm free from the guilt now. I wish that was the level of stress I still had to deal with. Ahh, life as a young'n.

Christmas

So I'm a little behind in getting my Christmas photos from my camera to my computer, but I am doing them now. I have managed to get some pretty good pictures of my nieces and nephews over the last few years, but I have to say this one is my favorite to date.

This is Jefferson wearing his Harley Davidson bib that we gave to Kara and Jason when Jefferson was born. The face mixed with the HD makes this awesome. Look out Kara and Jason, Karl and I will have your kid on a motorcycle before you know it.

Despite how this picture looks, we did have a good time.

Karl's sister's daughter, Mykalee, working the camera.

Jessie wanted a reading light for Christmas, so Karl and I thought we'd have a little fun with it and got her the one on her head.

Ada doing some painting for her mom.

Jessie texting, this is a common sight. Mom's enjoying the pretzels.

A gift from heaven

I drew my first house when I was in 9th grade. It was an assignment for my shop class at Beaumont Jr. High. I was hooked. The thought of drawing something that could one day be built into something real and big was awesome. I took an architectural drafting class in 11th grade that further whetted my appetite. While normal people doodled pictures of stick figures doing who knows what, or writing the name of their latest crush in a heart, in class, I doodled house plans. Call me weird. It was fun. My parents bought me my own drafting table and t-square. It was tucked away in a corner of my room, where I would sit for hours drawing. I still have that t-square, as a reminder.

I’ve moved on to bigger and better things. I don’t necessarily draw houses anymore. I manage commercial construction projects – a hospital, telecom building, offices, 34-story condo building, and so on. But I still remember the days of the house.

My Grandpa owned his own contracting company, Fleetwood Construction. He built buildings. And he was very successful. I didn’t get to see my Grandpa often because we lived so far away. But when we did get together, there would always be a conversation or two about building. When I drew up a house plan to be entered into a contest, he enjoyed the craziness of my plan. Too expensive to build, too many angles, too many custom features, but a nice big house. I was obviously not trained to think of how something gets built, I just wanted it to be pretty and cool. That makes a big difference in a building being cost effective and very expensive. (I now realize I was thinking like an architect. Glad I didn’t go that route, they’re crazy!)

One of the topics that we often discussed was a house he had drawn up when my Mom was young. He never got to build it, for the mere reason that life got in the way. But you could always tell how proud he was of this house, and how much he wanted to build it. Unfortunately, through time, he had lost track of the plans, though he swore he still had them. He passed away in 1995, and I never got to see the plans.

We went to Utah for Christmas this year. We did Christmas morning with Karl’s sister, then went to my parents that afternoon. As my family sat around watching us open our gifts, I opened a gift I never thought I’d see. The house plans. I immediately started to cry, along with most everyone else in the room. I couldn't believe what I was looking at. My Grandma had found them buried in a pile of papers in what was once my Grandpa's office. What I hadn’t noticed when my mom gave me the package was that it said it was from Grandpa Harmon.

In 2005, I was contracted to draw a house for the lady that sold us our wedding rings. I’ve drawn numerous home additions and remodels, but never a full-on home. This was not only a home, it was a split-level duplex that totaled 4,570 square feet. And it was actually going to be built. For someone to live in. The awesomeness of this feat was crazy!

In the title block on a drawing, the designer fills in their company name and info. Since I am my own “company”, I’ve always come up with some fun name to put there. What I don’t think anyone in my family has ever known is the name I chose for this project. Realizing the enormity of what I was doing, and the thought of who had helped get me to this point, I named my company Fleetwood Design.
If you ever make it out to Sanford, Maine, check out this house. I designed it!!!!!