I took most of yesterday off - I put in a couple of hours of work yesterday, but nothing serious.  Instead, I did the shopping, cleaned the house, and tried to do a green waste run, and pick up plants for the garden, and made homemade pizza for dinner.  Both the Transfer Station and the Nursery had lines too long for me to wait in.  Alex is off next weekend, and said that even if I'm working (which - yes, I'll be working next weekend...) he'll do the run for me.  I'm going to the nursery as soon as it opens today....

I did play a little bit with my camera yesterday - my roses are so pretty!!

In this one, I was trying for the soft focus behind, which I got - but I didn't notice that brown leaves beside it....bummer!

Part of my pond/fountain project is getting the algae out without just throwing bleach in it (my usual go-to - quick, cheap, and easy...).  I have 15 Japanese snails in there now, and they are busy!  Here's one - in this photo you can see where they've been...where you can see the rock.

And here is the snail.

And here is my work-buddy......

Woohoo! A major upgrade in the home office - a new keyboard and mouse!  My old keyboard for me PC is ancient, but since I didn't type that much, it didn't really matter too much.  It is so old it wouldn't work with the laptop that the bank sent home (and it's an old laptop...), so they also sent a keyboard....that didn't work well either but was better than the laptop alone.  It at least had a nine-key on the side, even though the 0 didn't work all the time.  The Shift didn't work well, and I had to hit the A key really hard....my fingers were so tired at the end of the day!!  I sent Alex looking for a keyboard for me, and this is what I got:

Take time to smell the roses...

Yesterday, I grabbed a quick lunch break outside - the first time in over a week.  (I think Easter Sunday I quit work at 4:00 to go outside.....and last Saturday I quit at 5:00 to go mow the lawn.....)  Since we started working from home, I've been putting in 10-12+ hour days, but....we did it!  In just over 7 days, my department prepared loan documents for over $125,000,000.00 in loans through the Paycheck Protection Program.....That's a lot of zeros!  (and a lot of loans!)  We had a total of 454 loans approved by SBA, and started preparing loan docs late Monday, 4/13, and finished before noon on Tuesday 4/22.  We are just a part of large group effort - the approval process took it toll on the SBA department, and all of those loan docs had to go out for signature, come back in, get reviewed, and then get funded.  We now have the monumental task of inputting all of those loans into the computer system, so our work isn't done.  And by the way, they are signing a new bill to put more money into the program.....sigh.

The tile is in!  I like it!  One step closer to getting the pool done.

I actually took a lunch break yesterday (I've been eating at my desk all week) and went for a walk, and this time I did take the good camera.  I was able to get a decent picture of a couple of the ducks.

And then we scared them off.

I was taking wildflower pictures when...

...I had a little help....good thing she's cute!

My work buddy took a nap....curled up on the bookshelf next to me.

Another day - another walk in the field on my 'lunch hour'.  Alex was throwing rocks, so I played with the camera a bit, working on angles.  I still need a lot of work, only one photo was any good....and even that is questionable.  

It was a bit windy when we went for our walk - the grass is already high enough to wave in the wind.  (The grass in my lawn was so high it took Alex almost two hours to mow.  It usually is a 45 minute job!)

We keep disturbing the Killdeer on our walks - they are nesting everywhere, and really don't like the dogs running around (or Alex throwing rocks near the water...)  They are beautiful birds - this photo doesn't do them justice, but it's the best I've gotten so far (I really need to take the good camera on every walk.)

My water lily is blooming in the fountain (please don't pay any attention to the green water - I'm working on that, really!!  I have an order of pond supplies coming, including snails to help keep that in check.)

My new shopping outfit - just too cool for words - actually, too warm for words. I really hope we are out of this before our summer heat hits.... 

I've been trying really hard to take a walk with the dogs each day - otherwise I'm at the computer from 6:30 to 6:30 - and it's only going to get worse....I had a two hour conference call on Saturday to set up the procedures for handling the hundreds of loans headed our way due to the Payroll Protection Program.  We aren't able to keep up right now - much less adding the "hundreds" of loans to our list!  I figure by the time we actually get all the loans processed, the borrowers will start requesting 'forgiveness' of the loans, and they'll be paid off.  I love that we are putting money back in to our community for payrolls, but I really wish it wasn't so much work for everyone!

Here's a few shots of my walk on Friday:

My new work-buddy.  He'll sit in my lap if I let him -otherwise, he's at my feet.

I had to close the blinds in the computer room - Luna was hanging out with me in here, and then would start barking when she saw someone walking down the street (and a lot of people are walking nowadays!)  She kept giving me a heart attack!  Now she watches from the dining room, and she isn't right behind me when she barks - that's something at least.  

Last Tuesday we had our Credit Admin meeting - where we go around the "room" (it was a room when we could all meet together) and report on our department.  About the time Bob asked "So Deni, how's LAS going?" one of the pool contractors knocked on the door.  Luckily, everyone on the call is working from home, and all have dogs (or kids) so they all just laughed.  It took a little bit before I could finish my "report on LAS"...

Dave sent me a picture of his plum tree - he had lots of bees and butterflies...

Some of the wildflowers blooming in the field

I sent the picture below to my boss on Monday - with the caption "My new supervisor".....

I am usually surrounded by the dogs wile I'm working now - luckily not the cats so much - they tend to make me sneeze!   I now have a larger screen set up for my laptop, a separate keyboard and mouse, so except for not having two screens, it's much more like my office.  

I do miss my large desk at work - I'm a little cramped working on my sewing table....but I don't want to take my machine down completely.  Last night, by request, I made another mask - this one for Cindy that is a respite worker for Alli.  

And I missed the 'perfect shot' of a double rainbow (I had to go get the camera) but it was beautiful!

I did get outside the last couple of day!  As promised, the weather was beautiful!  The ducks are still hanging around the creek (I need to take my 'good' camera - the phone just doesn't cut it!)  

Alex and I are always looking for good skipping rocks - I think by now they are all on the other side of the creek.

We did get a bit of rain!  It took most of the day drain the pool again.  

I think the weather is supposed to be clear this week.  I hope I get to see some of, but it's not looking good, work-wise at least, for me.  I spent Saturday morning doing the essentials around  the house (vacuuming, mopping, scrubbing toilets, etc.) did a quick grocery run, and then worked from noon to 6:00.....Sunday I didn't even get much housework done - just the laundry.  I was logged on by 8:00 and logged off at 6:00.  It was a productive day, but....now it's Monday, and I get to start a whole new week.  

The best part of working from home is the lunch break!  I took the puppies for a walk on my lunch, since by that time I had been at my desk for 6 hours already and needed to MOVE.  The bad thing about working from home and being a supervisor?  I can work 12+ hour days now without leaving the comfort of my home.....

They tested the water lines to the pool, and we are good!  The water was all drained (it's raining right now....)

And my waterlily is about to bloom in my pond!

Since the CDC may change the recommendation to state that healthy people should wear masks in public, I whipped up a few more cotton fabric masks Wednesday night for people at work.  I made 4 of them in 2 1/2 hours - better than the hour for 1 from the weekend.  I'll probably make a few more this weekend too - if I'm not working the whole time....

Another 'new normal' - I'm officially working from home.  I brought home a laptop last night and it's set up in the guesthouse.  I couldn't log in last night, so there may be a few bugs still to work through.  And this comes at a time when the headlines are all....

Not a good time to not be able to log in to work.  Last night at midnight was the official opening date for the Paycheck Protection Program through SBA for employers.  It was evidently NOT the deadline for SBA to give banks the SOP for the program.  Alex said he was busier yesterday handing out applications for the program than he was as a teller - and we, as the bank, don't know how to turn those applications in.  The employers are desperate for the money, the bank really wants to get the funds out into the communities, (because, trust me - we won't make any money off of them - the rate keeps changing.  The last rate I heard was 1.0% interest on these....not going to help my profit sharing....) but...it's not looking good so far.  We also probably have more applicants than we have allocated funds for already - even before they could officially apply.  and did I mention that the SBA application site crashes even on slow days?  And the White House is saying customers can apply and gets funds on the same day......today.  Maybe it is a good time to not be able to log in to work.

Alli got up at 4:30 yesterday morning - lucky me!  I ended up having sewing time before work!  (I could have used more sleep rather than sewing time, that all I can say...)  Oh well, I did get started on the second Mondo bag.  Hopefully I can get it finished this weekend.   I spent most of Sunday afternoon fusing the fabric (192 2 1/2 fabric squares steam pressed onto the interface...)  I did watch Frozen 2, among other things, so I wasn't totally bored....

The pool work has started!  They have most of the old tile off and very large holes in the side.  I will really be glad when this is done - I hate seeing the dirty water in the pool - I've spent the last 20 years keeping it clean.  Now it looks awful!