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Barbara Fritchman Thompson Diary

Week of 29 January 2000 (Week 5)

Saturday, 26 April 2003 08:52

Sporadic reflections that recount the events of my life

wpoison

Saturday, 29 January 2000

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If you have small children you understand. If don't have Border Collies you will think I am crazy. I was just telling Bob I was going to meet another rescue friend at the nearby park with Malcolm and Duncan around 11:00a.m. . However, I had to spell take and park to keep them from running to the door and pestering me right now or for the next two hours until it is time to go.

BC's have a large vocabulary and listen to every word you say. It is very hard to have a conversation and not create mad scrambling for the door by saying the wrong thing. I have learned not to tell Bob at 2:00 p.m. in the afternoon we are grilling steaks for dinner but rather talk in code by saying something like cows and fire. Can't use "on the" either, because Duncan knows that two word combination. He makes a mad rush for the door that goes to the deck where the grill is located anytime a combination of words make him think I am cooking dinner out there. 

I did my two hours at the library yesterday while Bob did the system backups. I got some work done on organizing the new web site. I am going to work on that today after I return from the park.

I have almost finished my Alaska book. A library reserve book came in for me yesterday by one of my favorite English authors. I want to start it as soon as I finish this Alaskan adventure. Bob gave me a paperback mystery to read that I got for him at the library that looks pretty good too. We are forecast to get another icy blast of snow or ice or both tonight and tomorrow, which is why I want to give the dogs a chance to have some play time outside today.

Sunday, 30 January 2000

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This picture is from the Greensboro Kennel Club show CBCR had a booth at back in early December taken by the president of CBCR.  

We are getting winter weather at its worst. Sleet, freezing rain, and ice. I am glad I do not have to go anywhere. I hope we don't loose power, but we are prepared if we do. It is very unusual for us to go a whole winter without at least one ice storm. I prefer snow to this mess and feel very fortunate that my commute to work is down the hall.

Today is Super Bowl Sunday. I used to watch this event, but alas, I lost interest because it usually ends up being a blow out by one team.  The PGA is in Phoenix this week, so I will watch golf in the desert. We may not be playing here until May with these series of weather events we keep getting. 

Yesterday while I was working and listening to a new CD my system hosed up. The CD quite working and my connection to the network was severed. Not sure what caused what. I always let Bob know when weird things go wrong since we are networked. He did a reboot and it came back up fine. I am trying the CD again today to see if happens again. This is the first time I have had a problem, so I am not sure what is going on

I actually got this update written for Sunday, but missed Bob's publishing schedule. I thought he was going to publish again today, so readers you will not see it until Monday. Oh well.

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Monday, 31 January 2000

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No Update

Tuesday, 1 February 2000

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Mother nature rearranged yesterday's schedule for me. I was supposed to get a haircut and run some errands, but with the roads iced over I stayed home instead. I played with the dogs and handled some CBCR stuff most of the day. 

I will go to the gym this morning and run out to my old library. I hope they still have an older edition of a reference book I want to use for working on the web site. I am sure Tammy, the new branch head, will let me borrow it for a few days. As I am slowly working on the site, it is starting to take some shape in my head a little more each time. I am sculpting the basic site and setting up the pages I can write. When Bob finishes his Nutshell book, he will have time to help flesh out the areas of his expertise and we can hopefully get this thing to go live. 

This is my first experience actually developing an entire site from scratch. With my current site it is, of course, part of Bob's site, but he had already done some of the pages for me. I rewrote the consulting pages and redid the backgrounds myself. Then as I got more famliar with FrontPage I added additional pages like my trips, dogs, and fiction page. Now I am doing this diary page, though Bob does most of the behind the scenes stuff for me. 

I forgot whose page of the NetWidows I read yesterday, but someone is trying to move from FrontPage to actual writing HTML code. I am not ready for that step yet, but who knows? I am gaining more confidence as I go along in developing this site even with the intimidation of working with one of the best and smartest web masters on earth. (For readers unaware this would be my husband Bob.)

My new Web Watch column on home repair is up for the February issue. 

It will appear in a slightly different looking format in the print issue, but the text remains the same. I enjoy doing those column just for the writing experience and learning to work with editors. I have also learned more about quality of web sites and ease of use that I did not recognize before I started doing the columns.

Bob likes to publish in the mornings, so I have to get my daily update done the morning of the day or write it the night before to publish the next day. I prefer writing and publishing the same day when I can get to it. I usually do it first thing right after I have read the paper and had my breakfast unless I have an unusually early appointment and cannot get to it.  I will wrap it up here, Bob is waiting on me so he can publish.

Wednesday, 2 February 2000

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No Update

Thursday, 3 February 2000

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Yesterday was somewhat hectic. I had errands to run early before my rescheduled haircut at 10:30. Then I went to the mall to Sears to buy a new vacuum cleaner. I am on my second upright in the last thirteen years we have lived here and my third since we were married. We have all hardwood floors upstairs in the main part of the house now and those uprights with the attachments are so cumbersome and noisy. My old, old upright is being used downstairs in Bob's moms area since it is mostly carpet. It is about shot anyway, so I decided to go buy a new canister and put my current upright downstairs. 

I am most likely one of the few people in the world who like to clean house. I am not neurotic about it. I only clean once a week by doing the floors, cleaning the bathrooms and dusting. With the dogs and me tracking in leaves and dirt plus dog hair it needs to be done at least once a week. Anyway, I am in love with my new Sears Kenmore Progressive vacuum cleaner. 

After the Sears trip I went on to the library to look up some stuff, get Bob some books, and meet one of the librarians for lunch. She could not go until 1:00, so I hung around doing some things. After lunch I had to do the weekly grocery shopping, so I did not get back home until 2:45. 

I had e-mail and phone calls to catch up on, but Malcolm had other ideas. He is now at the age and height where everything on tables and dressers looks inviting. He really misses me when I am gone, so I have to give him lots of attention and play with him. He was getting into everything and barking at me to play. So, I spent an hour or so with him and Duncan before I could even think of sitting down to do any work.

I guess the DayNotes and NetWidows gang saw that Bob was going to shut down his column. He is very busy right now trying to juggle two books, the web site, and being a son/husband. I just hated for all his readers not to get some posting from him even if it is brief. Since it is winter time, I can take on more because I do not have the yard work. I do need to be gone some, but I can try to make short outings several days a week and be here more, than doing the long ones like I had to do yesterday. 

I have a dentist appointment this morning but will back home afterward. Then I can be home the remainder of the day to give him some solid work time while I do dogs, mom, and general domestic type chores. That bad weather on Monday ganged up on me here at the end of the week.

Friday, 4 February 2000

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