Week's beginning

I'm really hoping that slightly burned smell is coming from the new-to-me hair smoothing oil I used this morning, and not my coffee.

Happy Monday.

Ugh. It does seem to be the coffee. Must have gotten the bottom of the pot, though the McDonald's I stop at is quite busy, meaning the pots shouldn't have a long time to sit and stew. Saved it up especially for me?

Mini rant on scents and personal care items - I like to smell nice. I am willing to spend big bucks on perfume that smells good, lightens my mood and generally makes me feel happy. It's more than a bit frustrating that many of the personal care products that work the best don't come in unscented versions.

Just recently I discovered the world's best body lotion. Really. It starts out a thick crème, goes on smoothly and absorbs quickly, leaving no residue. It also instantly softens skin, with the effects often lasting through the next day's shower. Even after skipping a week, my skin (really, really rough ankles) is smooth and soft.

The one drawback? It smells like suntan lotion. At least a little - a "tropical" scent. Unfortunately, the scent does linger a bit. In the interest of not making the noses around me go crazy, I try to forgo other scented stuff when I use it.

The price we pay for smooth skin.

Anyway, it is Monday. Both my boss and the other coworker who get here ungodly early in the morning are using up vacation this week, so I'm the first one to arrive in the office. In addition to undoing three different types of locks (number pad, swipe card and traditional key lock) to get into my office, I need to remember to turn on all the lights, and possibly prop open the outer door (that I just used my swipe card on) to let the cleaning lady (who starts at two in the morning, cleaning another building before she gets to ours) in. The doors unlock automatically at seven; the cleaning lady isn't authorized to have this particular lock on her card.

She is efficient, cheerful and a hard worker; we do everything we can to keep her happy to work here.

I get to take my team out to lunch before the end of June. Apparently we have money left in the budget; all the various groups in the office have gone out. I've been waiting for my boss to say something to me, as I had heard about this from someone else in the office over two weeks ago. Why yes, I could have asked him about it, but I was curious to see how long it would take him to remember to tell me. And yes - he sent me an email after I'd left last Friday, half an hour before he left for two and a half weeks of vacation.

At least he remembered to tell what this year's merit increases are, so I can pass those along.

This two weeks will be great for getting things done without odd interruptions. Maybe I'll even clean up my office...for all that we are moving toward a truly "paperless" office, and for all my efforts at keeping scanned, rather than paper copies, the dead trees do rather pile up.

Better get to it. The door lock just clicked open - our wonderful cleaning person has been on vacation herself, taking three weeks to go back home (Serbia or Croatia, I think) so I left the door shut this morning...