So this happened!

It was a lovely ceremony, all two and a half hours! I think there were close to 300 graduates in attendance - associates, bachelors, masters, doctorates and certificates. Only 8 from our class of 15 attended - I'm so glad I didn't skip this milestone ritual. Three of our instructors are also in this photo - the one with the velvet beret and blue "scarf" has a PhD - I think I want one ;)

Life Lately

I have been drowning in school work and work work lately (plus hubby stuff). I love my job and am excited to see light at the end of the school tunnel (November thesis presentation and December graduation dates are on the calendar!), but let's face it ... I'd rather be cooking.

Joining a CSA has really challenged me to eat more veggies (and herbs & melons!). I love that the farm provides links to recipes every week that relate to exactly what's in that week's box. This week was arugula, parsley, kale, tomatoes, peppers, cabbage, cauliflower, radishes, celery root (celeriac) and jester winter (aka carnival) squash.

For supper tonight we're having Sauerbraten (German-style pot roast), mashed potatoes/celeriac, roasted maple walnut squash, savoy salad with apple and walnut (and bonus radishes), and nutty cardamom bundt cake with bourbon glaze! I'll get at least two work lunches of squash + salad (and cake!) out of this as well.

And make these if you want the taste of summer to last a bit longer, they were winners with my picky family -

Veggie Tacos

Strawberry Lemonade bars

On My Mind Lately

Is it Donut or Doughnut?!

I am tempted to stop at my favorite cupcake shop which has Simpson's Duff Beer Donut Cupcakes for today only, but I just can't rationalize fighting the already late Friday afternoon going-to-the-cabin traffic plus cupcake line to do it.

Summer
It's unoffically summer! Yesterday was my baby's last day of his first year of high school :( I reminded Chunky of that all week as I dropped him off ... it's the first day of the last week of your first year of high school ... and he was pretty ready for me to be done with that on day two. I know now how quickly time passes - seems like just yesterday was the last day of Sassy's first year of high school, yet it's already been six years. 6 YEARS! Stop and rewind please. While I love the independence that comes with my kids' getting older, I miss the excitement for little things and actually wanting to spend time with me. sigh, I need a donut

School
I finished my proposal class and the actual proposal EARLY on May 20th. I'm pretty damn proud of myself as it was a *beech* to get through. Now I just have to wait for approval, conduct my research (interviews), write up my findings, make a presentation and take a final class to graduate in December. Piece of cake donut.

Speaking of school, some of these senior quotes are pretty funny.

American Pharoah
Tomorrow is the Belmont Stakes, the last race in the Triple Crown, and this horse is poised to be the first in 37 years to take the Crown. BTW, the correct spelling is Pharaoh but obviously people take liberties with names (I'm looking at you Keira Knightley's parents).

Weather
It's been raining a lot here in the arctic. I miss the sun and beach from my vacation last week (separate post on that), but I do not miss the humidity - not great for good hair days. The rain however is good for my plants and so I am thankful.

Faith
I was raised with a specific religious faith and I've raised my kids the same, but I've fallen away in recent years. I tend to align with Spinozism - God is nature and we live, die and are recycled in the universe. I still feel dissonance however. This story by my favorite TV fixer uppers was inspirational. One of my favorite bloggers has just released a bible study so I'm considering it to see if I can connect on a deeper level with the roots of my Christian upbringing.

That's all folks. Make it a great first Friday of the 6th month of the year 2015!

No Foolin'

I turned in the first draft of my research proposal four days ago (last Friday). I sat at the school library for seven and a half hours until I got it done. Well not all done, but as done as I could without going blind - went home and cooked dinner for my peeps then put on the finishing touches. Whew that felt good but I was concerned that it wasn't good enough - I really lost steam towards the end. I got feedback today and you could have knocked me over with a feather. "Bravo!" to quote the instructor. I was so shocked - thank goodness it's not April Fool's Day! I might make it through this afterall.

 

My research will focus on effective ways that leaders learn abut the organization they are transitioning to from their employees. I really wanted to address how new leaders "fit" into a new company and believe there is a significant gap in engaging direct reports to learn about the organizational culture. 

 

Here's a piece of my proposal intro -

I recall sitting with two executives with whom I was having a finalist interview several years ago. Though I was willing to leave a company and people I loved for a growth opportunity, it was important for me to assess how I would fit in at the new company. I asked the executives to describe their organization’s culture. One said ‘dynamic’ and the other nodded emphatically in agreement. My interpretation of the term was positive, that the company must be progressive and I was in the market for something new. I made the move and reflecting on my tenure with that company, I would definitely call it dynamic. In nine years I experienced six bosses, five job titles, three chief executive officers and associated executive level changes, as well as countless restructuring and mid-level personnel adjustments. It was a culture of constant change with a revolving door of new leaders at every level. And quite honestly I never felt like I fit in.

Back to School

This has been a pretty good summer by my standards. Most just whiz by ... you wake up one day after school let's out and it's 4th of July and the next thing you know it's Labor Day. Not sure how I managed to get the most out of this one ... I'd like to repeat that each and every year.

Chunky's first day of high school (9th grade) is the day after tomorrow and Sassy's first day of her junior of college is the day after. How did that happen?! Chunky had orientation earlier this week and when I dropped him off I felt as if I had just brought him to the first day of Kindergarten last week.

I've decided to sit this semester out of grad school - I've been going non-stop for two years and was hoping to graduate next May but I think I need a break. My job is still fabulous, but we're about to enter the busiest time of year (open enrollment) and hubby has a surgery in three weeks where he'll be hospitalized for three weeks after and then bedridden at home an additional three weeks after that.

If you need a little humor while contemplating how you feel about back to school season, check out this awesome post by Scary Mommy.

I hope it's a great school year for everyone at my house and yours.

Here I go again

I have a long history of procrastination (see any post with "grad school" label) and I'm living up to my own expectations again. I took Friday off from work so I could really dig in and get most of my Ethical Leadership research paper done. This is Sunday and I'm maybe 50% done. Really?! It's due this Friday by Noon. Today is going to be a productive day though, I can feel it.

While I should be focused on my paper, I have been processing in the back of my brain what to do with a cruddy looking crate of strawberries in the fridge. This time of year is challenging for berries ... they taste great, but are only fresh for about two days after bringing home. Conversely, the berries available in winter stay fresh forever, yet have no taste. I came across this recipe for Strawberry Basil Tart and it seems to be a perfect way to use the strawberries as well as the abundance of tiny leaf basil growing in my herb container.

Wish me luck - with the paper and tart!

The Long Way 'Round

My 10-12 page ethical leadership research paper is due in 12 days. I only landed on my research question last night. I'm trying to decide if I should panic or not. I'm leaning towards not ... I have today, a few light work days, another entire weekend and a few weeknights before then. Just think what all went down in the 12 days of Christmas! I'm sure I can pull it off. Now I'm not so daft that I had absolutely no clue what I wanted to write about, but it has not been easy for me to come up with the ONE thing for which I want to create an argument with rational connections to theories presented in the course as well as counter-arguments. That may prove to be the easy part. I've got 12 pages of notes and counting (read three books on the topic- one enormous at 1000+ pages and two at 100 pages each - as well as four scholarly journals). The reference to "scholarly" is intentional - the instructor emphasized repeatedly that web resources and opinions alone are no-nos. 

Are you ready for it? Drum roll ...............................

How Does Consensus Building Demonstrate Ethical Leadership?

Dilemma

Read and watch movies for fun or for grad school?

These are the two movies for school - good but not light.

These are the books - all six of them! Definitely not light.

Cosmopolitanism: Ethics in a World of Strangers by Kwame Anthony Appiah
Meeting the Ethical Challenges of Leadership by Craig E. Johnson
Practicing Relational Ethics in Organizations by Gitte Haslebo and Maja Loua Haslebo
Relational Being: Beyond Self and Community by Kenneth J. Gergen
Leadership: Theory and Practice by Peter G. Northouse
What Money Can't Buy: The Moral Limits of Markets by Michael J. Sandel

And there's more! This doesn't include reading for reasearch paper. What have I gotten myself into?!

Summer reading / viewing just isn't the same.

Help Me Rhonda

The original title for this post was "Fruity". I had a detailed description of the trials and tribulations of planning 8th grade graduation at Chunky's school over the past few weeks and specifically this past weekend (7th grade families are responsible for hosting). Then I accidentally deleted everything and Blooger doesn't have an "undo" button. The short story: herding cats, diverse interpretation of the term 'responsibility' amongst 15 7th grade families and I cut up 100 lbs of fruit for 200+ people. My main task was food (shocking I know) and I couldn't have pulled it off without Sassy's help. She artfully arranged cookies and cupcakes, washed dishes and helped load/unload a carful of food at midnight following a wedding reception in the space adjacent to the next day's blessed event. I treated us to mani/pedis yesterday and it was the best money I've ever paid. Needless to say I'm over my alternative career dream of catering ala Martha Stewart.

I start my summer grad school course tomorrow. Lord willing I make it through the next two months. I will savor every moment of August. I got an A- in Marketing and am so over my perfectionist complex it's not even funny. That class was HARD! There was not a lot of synergy between actually working in Marketing (Product), going through Pragmatic Marketing training (required at work) and this class. I've OD'd on Marketing. Oy! My summer course is Professional and Organizational Ethics. I just turned in my first assignment moments ago - commentary on this article. Interesting read!

Hyperinflation

I just completed my final exam for International Trade. Now I'm super hyper ... not sure if it was the coma-inducing studying for exam, running back and forth to Chunky's basketball games for a tournament, or helping with snow related activies*, but I have a major second wind going on. The exam was online with a time limit of 3 hours - I completed in 2 hours, flipping back and forth in my textbook and once a question was answered there was no looking back. My score is 88% (44 out of 50) and I am perfectly happy with that. Exchange rates and purchasing power parity are not my forté. I figure with 30% weight of exam and 100% on everything else (for which I'm reasonably on track) I could still get an A at 96%. It will all be finished after one more class and group paper/presentation on Turkey.

* kids did shoveling/snow throwing - thank you! - I moved to-be-fixed snowthrower from back shed to garage uphill and delivered occasional help to Hubby while he supervised activities from the garage

Side rant - we are currently experiencing Winter Storm "Caesar" according to the media. When did they start naming snow storms?! Is there a competition with naming hurricanes with which I am unfamiliar? This perplexes me greatly.

Let's Talk Turkey

I am thankful for friendship and leftovers this day after Thanksgiving. I had lunch with my BFF whom I haven't seen in almost six months and love that we are always able to pick up where we left off without skipping a beat. Hubby wanted straight up leftovers for dinner but I couldn't do it so made PDub's turkey and swiss panini with a couple of modifications ... no fig jam, spicy brown mustard instead of Dijon and walnut halves instead of pecans. Fabulous!

I only have three assignments left for my International Business course and one of them is a group paper on a country (the other two are short paper on international expansion and a 50 question exam). Guess which country my group selected? You got it, Turkey! Each of us is researching a separate topic and we'll conclude with how to do business in Turkey. I am researching the country's government and legal & political systems (the other topics are culture and the economy). I found a website with information on Country Commerical Guides prepared by the Department of Commerce. All I had to do was email the Turkish representative and he sent the entire PDF ... score!

As the world’s fastest growing economy during the first quarter of 2011, Turkey represents a market with great potential. Turkey has been designated as a priority market under President Obama’s National Export Initiative and has, as a result, been the focus of sustained International Trade Administration and U.S. Government efforts, including targeted trade promotion. U.S.-Turkish trade grew by 34 percent last year, reaching a record high of almost $20 billion. Furthermore, U.S. exports to Turkey rose 38 percent, totaling $14.6 billion and making Turkey one of the top 25 U.S. export markets.

Fun facts:
• The Republic of Turkey is at the "crossroads" of Europe and Asia
• Depending on how you define continents, Turkey is either part of Eurasia or part in southeastern Europe and part in western Asia
• The part of Turkey in Europe is called ‘Thrace’ while the part in Asia is called ‘Anatolia’
• Turkey was the center of the Ottoman Empire with Constantinople as its capital (now Istanbul)
• If you subscribe to the seven-continent definition, Istanbul is the only city in the world located on two continents
• 98% Muslim - Turkey is the only secular Muslim country amongst all the Muslim countries in the world (separation of church and state)
• The Turks introduced coffee to Europe and tulips to the Dutch
• St. Nicholas (aka Santa Claus) was born in Patara and became the bishop of Demre, on Turkey’s Mediterranean Coast
• Noah’s Ark landed on Mount Ararat in Eastern Turkey
• It is only 577.36 miles or 929.15 kilometers from Istanbul to Sochi, Russia - the site of the 2014 Winter Olympics (only 440 days away!!!)

Second Guessing

I'm in a bit of a funk today so decided to hang out at home. Maybe I'll log in to work later, maybe I won't. Attended second of eight grad classes this past weekend. Critical analysis papers are due each class (every other week) based on the chapters read and I was so nervous about the two due first day of class. I worried that maybe I had taken on too much, that I'm in over my head on so many levels. It felt so validating to see As on both of those papers. Of course there were two papers due this past weekend as well ... in true fashion I cram a couple of days before, get up early the morning of and write two papers in 4-5 hours. Haven't decided if this is just the way I am ... perform under pressure ... or am in need of a major overhaul. We'll see soon enough as two more papers are due in 12 days. I watched maybe a total of 30 minutes of the Emmys last night ... enough to see that 'Homeland' and 'Modern Family' were the big winners. 'Modern Family' has been on for a couple of years and others have told me how great it is. It may be our TV obsession via Netflix this winter. My mom recently told me how good 'Homeland' is and since I'm home today and have Showtime On Demand I decided to try it out and make it my escape for the day if I like it. I'm only halfway through episode 2 and am hooked.

Here I go again

Happy Friday the 13th! I may have mentioned my fondness for the day here and here :)

I've decided to get back in the saddle and resume my graduate course. My fall class will be International Trade and the Global Economy. Very relevant given the current state of many foreign economies as well as our own. I'm excited and nervous. I pray it's better than Finance because if not, this may be my last class.

Drop out

After much soul searching and a weekend of insanity, I have decided to drop my Marketing course. It was just too much. I had a 9 page paper due tonight (one week ago was first class) and that was only the tip of the iceberg. Also, the course ran until the first week of July. Yuck! I'm not dropping out of grad school, just taking the Spring term off. I've come to terms with the fact that I can't be all things to all people. I need to get my work life in order and take a breather. ahhhhhhhhh A huge weight has been lifted from my shoulders. I have a feeling I will sleep very well tonight. zzzzzzzzzz

3.933

Ba-bye 4.0. I got an A- in Finance - better than a B and definitely better than I thought I did. Nonetheless it breaks my 4.0 streak for the previous four classes. Excuse me while I cry in my beer and pizza while writing my Marketing paper due in three days.

Real Housewives of the Arctic

Chunky had a Dr appt yesterday and I planned on taking only a half day off of work. But it was so beautiful out and with all the craziness going on up in that place the past couple of months I decided to take the whole day off. Decadence I was a carefree, no job, all the money in the world, real housewife for a day. It was totally awesome. With Chunky at his appt, I took myself to breakfast at Cupcake. I had the Caremelized Onion and Gouda scramble with rosemary potatoes and purchased four cupcakes to go. Surprisingly two are MIA After I took Chunky to school, denying his requests for McDonald's at 11am, I went to Barnes & N0ble and Macy's at the local mall. No. one. was. there. Heaven I purchased two gardening magazines for back yard landscaping inspiration and a sun dress. Then I went to the post office. Unfortunately it was almost 1:00 so there were lots of people there on their lunch break - I didn't plan that one very well. Then I went to my home away from home - Target. They missed me - I hadn't been since yesterday afternoon. I fully expect them to yell my name like Norm from Cheers one of these days I returned home and continued living the life of the rich & famous by taking a nap. I am not a napper but it felt fantastic to recharge for an hour before going to a 3 hr class I greeted my cherubs home from school with a cupcake and a smile. Then I left for grad school where I met a friend from our very first class nearly two years ago for dinner in the cafeteria before we started the fun that is Marketing. The class was awesome - a far cry from Finance. Though I have a 9 page paper due next week. This is why I eat cupcakes :) No scandals, no botox - just a carefree day in the thawing arctic.

Crêperie

I was welcomed home from work last night with Sassy making crêpes. And not just plain, ordinary ones - these were filled with bananas and Nutella. Mmmmmmm. That trip to France comes with excellent fringe benefits. I am still working on my NAFTA paper for Finance. Merde The darn thing is due by end of day today and I'm only feeling confident about 50% of it. I think I will be taking part of the day off from work to finish. Thankfully, Sassy has offered to make me more crêpes for motivation!

Remember when?

In my NAFTA research I came across the Al Gore/Ross Perot Debate in November 1993 -
http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,2037290_2037294_2037329,00.html

Which lead me to the OJ Car Chase of June 1994 -
http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,2037290_2037294_2037252,00.html

How time flies!

I think I can

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

I am this close to being done with Finance. Good riddance! Though my pride would like to maintain a 4.0 GPA, I am totally fine with skating by on a 'B' in this class. It's kicking my a**! I turned in my last assignment yesterday. The final paper is due either the 25th, 28th or somewhere in between. The joy of NAFTA. I really want to get it done by the 25th or super close so I'm only putting on final touches at the last minute (for which I am notorious). Sassy has a volleyball tournament about 90 minutes north-west on the 27th so we (not sure if it will be just she and I or me plus cherubs or whole fam) will be driving up and staying overnight the 26th. There will be too many distractions for me to focus on the paper, hence I better knock it out this weekend. Great way to spend the first day of spring (March 20th - yeah!).

Oracle of Omaha

I now know more than I ever wanted to about Warren Buffett. I've made 28 postings on the Discussion Board and I'm tapped out. Interesting facts -

Charles Munger is his partner and appears to take a back seat to Warren. I find Charlie fascinating and don't think you have to be front and center to be an effective leader.

Charlie and Warren are in it for the long haul (literally and figuratively), believing slow and steady wins the race. While reading I was reminded of one of my favorite authors, Malcolm Gladwell. A favorite Gladwell quote is "Success is not a function of individual talent, it is the steady accumulation of advantages." I had the pleasure of hearing Gladwell speak at a conference in 2007 and he used the analogy of Fleetwood Mac's experimental, trial-and-error road to success as the way we should be innovating in business over the current culture of instant gratification and gambling everything on one supposed sure thing. From what I gather Charlie feels the same - try different ideas, test them out and stay in it for the long haul.

"Warren and I have not made our way in life by making successful macroeconomic predictions and betting on our conclusions. Our system is to swim as competently as we can and sometimes the tide will be with us and sometimes it will be against us. But by and large we don't much bother with trying to predict the tides because we plan to play the game for a long time. I recommend to all of you exactly the same attitude. It's kind of a snare and a delusion to outguess macroeconomic cycles...very few people do it successfully and some of them do it by accident. When the game is that tough why not adopt the other system of swimming as competently as you can and figuring that over a long life you'll have your share of good tides and bad tides?"
Berkshire Hathaway was an east coast textile company Buffett purchased out of spite - he called it his greatest folly. http://www.marketfolly.com/2010/10/warren-buffetts-worst-trade-biggest.html.

Buffett spoke of tech industry greed (he's never been a tech fan) at a 1999 Sun Valley executive retreat with many tech execs in the audience. He predicted then the stock market would not /could not continue its fantastic run based on history (34 yr comparison).