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Barbara Fritchman Thompson Diary

Week of 30 June 2003

Latest Update:Sunday, 06 July 2003 20:49

Monday, 30 June 2003

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Well, the first full day of work went well. We had a little covered dish luncheon for all the part time/full time members of the team who last day was today. As a final parting gift, to me for not leaving, all the other data researchers from the team handed over their incomplete companies that needed cleaned. Job security abounds!

I have been having two computer problems so Bob worked on those today. My system has been running really slow, very often clunking away as some very simple things I needed it to do. And, I could not sync my Sony CLIE Palm after he switched me over to Mozilla mail. This morning when I went to check my Palm for something I noticed the batteries needed to be changed. I e-mailed Bob and told him we needed to see if we could get something worked out this evening so I could sync before changing the batteries.

As soon as I got home I started on doing a quick vacuuming of the house since I missed my house cleaning day yesterday. Bob cleaned the bathroom counters, sinks, and toilets for me this afternoon. While I got started he opened up my PC case to check to see how much memory I had. The case and insides was so nasty we took it out to the kitchen table to give it a good cleaning. While he installed more memory I vacuumed. 

After he powered up my machine we checked it for speed by firing up Mozilla, which loads slow anyway. We then tried the sync again and it worked. All problems solved for now.

I had a call coming at 5 pm from one of my contract clients so I delayed fixing dinner until after he called around 5:10. After dinner, fries and shrimp, we walked the dogs between rain showers. Looks like tropical storm Bill is on its way right towards us. The outlying bands of storms and showers are already getting to us this evening.

Guess I better wrap this up and take the remainder of the evening off to read and play with my dogs. I am still reading Carolyn Hart, The Christie Caper.

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Tuesday, 1 July 2003

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While I changed clothes Bob fired up the grill. I barbecued pork ribs and fixed rolls to go along with the potatoes. After dinner I made a quick visit over to visit Lenore since I missed last night.

After checking mail and getting this post up it will time to hit the couch for some reading and ball playing with the dogs.

We are having on again/off again showers with the rain bands starting to move in from Bill. I think the majority of the front is supposed to move through here tonight and tomorrow.

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Wednesday, 2 July 2003

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Once I get this schedule into some sort of routine I will not feel as frazzled as I do right now. So glad I have a short work week at Womble and a long weekend at home to get things caught up.

Ol' Bill continues to dump more rain upon our already drenched heads. Hopefully it will clear up enough this weekend to give me a chance to mow and put out some fertilizer. 

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Thursday, 3 July 2003

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I just got through mowing the lawn, 7:30 pm, and it is hot and humid. It looks like the skies are going to clear up this evening. I think we are planning to head up to Bullington to get in some observing.

Well, the first week of full time work went well. By the time I get home I feel like I have mush for brains. With my contract work picking up I will have to get some "mental" rest in from coming home time to after dinner. My game plan is to do my contract work at night after dinner rather than try to start up as soon as I get home.

I have a laundry list of things I want to get done this weekend both inside and out. 

For my American readers have a safe and happy 4th of July weekend if you are traveling anywhere. 

Last night I finished up the Carolyn Hart. My next read will be a reserve from the library, a new Barbara Delinsky. Her books are somewhat of a cross between general fiction, a little romance, and some mystery. She  writes very well. Hopefully I will not be disappointed in her latest effort.

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Friday, 4 July 2003

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I got up a little after 7 am. We had a very heavy dew last night which is what I wanted so I could put out my weed and feed this morning. After I finished up with that I mixed up some extra strength weed/grass killer for the natural areas. I have hundreds of those little oak seeds sprouting under my pine tree plus a wide assortment of other weeds. I sprayed that area, the cracks in the driveway and along the landscape timbers. It was not hot but very humid. By the time I finished up I was soaking wet. 

After coming in for a cool drink I went back outside to sweep up the driveway of leaves and sticks. Malcolm kept trying to attack the push broom to the point where I finally had to put him inside so I could get the sweeping finished.

The next project was painting the wings on dad's wooden whirligig duck. He has had it for a long time in the garden. When the wind blows the ducks wings blow making it look like it is flying. The wings finally rotted off from the elements and he had to find someone who could repair it. However, they only put on the new wings but did not paint them. After putting one coat on while it was drying I finished up a few more things outside before it got much hotter.

After a quick shower and lunch I came back to check my mail and clean up my cluttered desk/office floor. Around 2 pm we all settled down in different parts of the house for a nap. I woke up about 45 minutes later, took the dogs out, and came back to my office. 

Around 4 I walked around the block to a small party with some of my previous co-workers. One of the library staff employees has moved into a house on the street behind us one block over. We ran into her last night while walking the dogs before going up to Bullington and invited us over. 

While I visited with them Bob took dinner over and ate with Lenore. She has a very bad cold and is not doing very well. 

Last night at Bullington was a bust. The only thing we did not have was rain and heavy clouds. The haze, fog, and other atmospheric clutter make conditions awful. I did view the moon until it went down but that was about all. We packed up around 11:30 and came home.

It has been a fun day. I really enjoyed being outdoors puttering around in the yard without being rushed. What a nice change to tire out physically and let the brain cells have a day off.

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Saturday, 5 July 2003

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I spent most of the afternoon working on contract work, checking e-mail, etc. I closed up shop around 4 pm to go out and watch the Women's Open Golf match. We ate salads for dinner. The temperatures are staying right around 89, 90 degrees but with the humidity the heat index was up into the mid-nineties this afternoon. Not a good day to be outdoors doing anything.

After getting this post up I am going back out to the den to watch the Pepsi 400 from Daytona, the premier race of Winston Cup. I used to watch this race on ABC growing up when it was called the Firecracker 400. Back then, they only covered the big races on TV.

As I said, I am just enjoying my long weekend. Last night was rough on the guys. I went to bed about 9:30 to read. The kids in the neighborhood were shooting off everything from firecrackers to those whining things which is what really scares the dogs. After much pacing on Duncan's part and barking on Malcolm's part they both ended up on the bed with me in the middle.

When Bob came back to bed Malcolm went into defensive mode and attacked Duncan. They got into it right over top of me. I was yelling at Bob to get them off of me since 110 pounds of dog on top of you fighting can cause serious damage. Luckily I got out with just a bad scratch on the back of one leg. 

We crated Malcolm to settle him down  and eventually peace was restored. I think I will get some ear muffs for the dogs for the next 4th of July holiday.

I did get several chapters read on the Barbara Delinsky book. So far, it is very good. 

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Sunday, 6 July 2003

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The day started out hot and humid. After the first storms came through the temperatures dropped from the high 80's down to 72. 

We started off this morning sleeping in until 8, late for us. At nine I started watching the men's tennis final from Wimbledon then left around 9:45 to visit with Lenore and watch it with her. I left the Brian Center about 11 to have lunch at my parents house and visit with them and Frances. 

I guess I left there sometime after 1pm, came home checked my mail, paid some bills, and started working on an article for a client. The first storms started rolling in a little after 3. I closed up shop and went out to the den to comfort the dogs and watch the women's U.S. Golf Open. After Bob left about 4:15 to go over and visit Lenore I came back and worked for another hour before stopping to fix dinner. The golf match ended with a three way tie for the lead with two of the contenders being young golfers who had to qualify to get into the tournament. The third lady is a seasoned tour player. An 18 hole playoff will take place tomorrow.

Bob came home just as the pizza's were coming out of the oven. Fortunately we got a lull in storms for the dogs to get a quick out after dinner. As I write this we are getting another one. Guess we will have to dodge the storms to get them a last time out.

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