A little tour...

Two days down, three to go (until the weekend!!). Yep, as usual, I am quite looking forward to a weekend of sleeping in and trying to play catch-up with some of my magazines (I must have eight Fitness and Shape magazines on my coffee table... I really have to work my way through those...).

But in the meantime, I thought I'd give you all a little tour of where I spend my time when I'm NOT sleeping or trying to fit in some reading time. I can't take credit for this idea, by the way -- that goes to my friend George over at Cedar's Mountain, who has, in the past, posted pictorial tours of his neighborhood and workplace. I always thought that was a cool idea, but I kept forgetting to bring a camera to work with me. Well, I finally remembered, so now you can awe at the splendor that is my office... enjoy!

Actually, let's start on highway 360, which I think is one of the prettiest highways in Austin -- this is where our "hill country" designation really starts to become apparent. Much of Austin is rather flat, but certain parts of the city, like 360, have these great rolling hills -- this makes 360 a very popular road for hard core cyclists (think Lance Armstrong). Seriously, the people who bike on 360 are insane... Fortunately, I just have to work in an office building on 360 and I get to leave my bike at home.

UNfortunately, however, I really didn't get any good shots of the highway, as I never seemed to encounter a red light (sure, the ONE day I bring a camera, every light is green -- that never happens), so I hastily snapped a picture while I was driving:

I also hastily snapped a picture of the 360 bridge as I was crossing:

Um, I think I'll call this one "Rear View Mirror and Toll Tag with Slight Suggestion of Bridge." (I wish I could've gotten a better picture of the bridge -- it's a cool bridge...)

And right after the bridge, I end up here:

And here is my first view when I arrive -- the parking garage. (Yes, I get to work early, hence the lack of cars -- but that means I pretty much get my pick of spaces...)

The long climb up the slightly blurry stairs (okay, the climb isn't THAT long... just four floors from the garage... and the stairs aren't blurry in person...)

And here it is -- my own little space for a third of the day. This is my new office -- in the old one, the desk was facing the door, but in this office, the cords on the computer wouldn't quite reach far enough for me to position my desk that way. And I HATE sitting with my back to the door, so I decided to improvise, and voila -- desk on the diagonal. I kinda like it, actually. When I'm sitting at the desk, I sort of feel cocooned into the corner between the desk and the shelves behind me...

Remember when I was talking about all the binders I had to move? Well, here are a few...

And a few more...

And some empty binders... (Why do I have so many binders in my office???)

The most important part of my day...

What I wish I was doing at 7 in the morning...

The two books I refer to most frequently (for some reason I decided to go all film noir with this one and take it in black and white)...

And, I have to show you the amazing view outside my door, because it is just so awe-inspiring:

Wow. There are no words.


So that's about it -- I hope everyone is having a good week! :)