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Barbara Fritchman Thompson Diary

Week of 12 August 2000 (Week 33)

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To respond or comment on something I have written email me. I would love to hear from you.  If you have problems reaching me at the first address, I can also be reached at fritchman@triad.rr.com.

You can view the Netwidows Recipe web site for recipes from myself and the other Netwidows and Daynotes Gang.

Saturday, 12 August 2000

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I posted a review of Rosamunde Pilcher's Winter Solstice which I am now reading on my favorites page.  I spent most of Thursday night, yesterday, and last night reading it because it is due next week. I let Lenore read it first since she does not read as fast as I do and I knew I could get it read in a couple of days if I needed too.

I did work some yesterday morning but played with the dogs yesterday afternoon and read while I watched the golf. I tidied up around my desk area and researched some stuff on the Internet.

We have a busy day today. We are going to start the power washing of the house so we can paint. This is phase one of many steps we need to get the house ready to put on the market. After getting quotes from about five painters, we decided we could do what needed to be done to get it spruced up and save money that we will not get back when we sell it. 

Fortunately we are getting a huge break in the weather. It has turned cool and less humid after a week of 100 degree heat and humidity readings. We will get as much done today as we can and then do some more next week. I have other things to do tomorrow and will not have time to do the outside stuff.

And, other than that, I will be reading to finish the my book.

Sunday, 13 August 2000

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Today is house cleaning and race day. I will miss the race but I do not mind. I will going along with my parents and sister to our neighbor's 50th wedding anniversary celebration this afternoon. Ann and Gilbert have lived beside my family for over 40 years. Their children, like my parents', have all grown and moved away, but the adults still live in the same houses next to each other.

When I was very young and after my sister was born, my mom was in the hospital quite a lot for various reasons. I actually lived at their house when my sister was born. Over the years she has taken care of us like we were their own and vice versa. They are move like family than friends. 

Last night we had steak sandwiches for dinner. The recipe for the sauce is on my recipe page. However, my page is on Marcia Bilbrey 's  site and they are having server problems. Hopefully you can get to it by the first of next week.

I did finish Winter Solstice yesterday. It was very enjoyable although a bit trite. Pilcher's books are humorous and heartwarming and they all live happily every after. But, she writes well and if not for references to modern day luxuries such as faxes, computers, and microwaves; you had the feeling the book was set a hundred years earlier. 

We got the house pressure washed yesterday. We did all the wood trim, porch, and bricks. Bob also did the garage doors and the back door to the basement.  It looks real nice. I will prime the bare wood and rusted metal spots on Monday and if the weather is nice paint on Tuesday.

After showers and lunch Bob took a nap until dinner and I read and watched the golf match. The dogs even napped for a couple of hours and it was very nice and peaceful.

Poor Kerry. He has all of a sudden become very unhappy living downstairs. He started laying down there and crying. So, we have started let him stay up here most of the time now. I take him down for a few hours to get him off the hardwood floors and to keep Lenore company. But he spends the evenings with us and sleeps up here. He is much happier, but the house is quite full with three dogs upstairs in our small den.

Monday, 14 August 2000

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I mentioned yesterday that Marcia's site was not up yet to check the Netwidows Recipe page. Sorry, I was wrong. It has been up all weekend, I was just having problems accessing. 

Be sure an check out her great trip narrative and pictures  from their vacation in Michigan. The Meijer Gardens look like a place I would enjoy visiting.

Hooray, hooray. I finished my Russian novel, November 1916. I enjoyed looking at the much more detailed picture of the time leading up to the revolution of 1918. I will read his other two installments of the series as they come out.

We had a very nice time at the anniversary celebration yesterday. It was somewhat of an old neighborhood reunion. They invited a lot of the families who lived right around us growing up. I talked with people I have not seen in 25 or thirty years. 

I got back home around 4:15. Bob's brother was still here doing laundry. He was supposed to have left, but was not running a little late. He had to get back to Raleigh to go to work. So, I fixed him and Lenore toasted cheese sandwiches and Bob and I ate peanut butter and bacon sandwiches. I don't think Bob had ever had those until we were married. 

After gym this morning I will prime the bare wood and metal to get ready to paint. I may go ahead and paint the garage doors today too. 

I am not sure I will have time to work on anything else. I have started on a major project but up to this point have not said much about it. Bob and I are writing a book that will be published in CD ROM format. I am doing the gathering of information, writing and outlining the chapters, etc. It is a very exciting project and I look forward to being more a part of the actual writing and content participant in this book than I was in the PC Nutshell book.

I will continue to do the consultant jobs as I get them but the book is now the main priority for me and us.

Happy Monday everyone.

Tuesday, 15 August 2000

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I got the garage doors painted and Bob helped paint the entrance door to the basement. I started on on of the front windows but did not quite finish. Today we will start on the front of the house doing trim, eaves and the porch area. 

Since that may take most of the day we may or may not get it all finished. I need to mow this afternoon after the grass dries. There are a couple of high places I cannot reach, so Bob may paint those while I mow. Windows and shutters can be done last.

I started reading one of my little short personal adventure books that I had on the shelf. Our Summers with the Bears is a story about a couple that leave their home in Florida and go to live in a remote area of Minnesota. I must have twenty or so books like this one on my shelf that I have read over the years and that does not count all the ones I have read that were library books. I have loved reading this type of nature story since I discovered them back when I first started working at the library.

What I do now, is pick them up on sale tables or through the book clubs when they are on sale. This one chronicles the events of the couple as their home becomes a place for bears to come and dine on their back deck. I often read these types of books to take a break from fiction. I am also waiting to start one of the books off my shelf until we go to the library. I want to make sure I don't have a reserve in to read first. If not, I have plenty on my to be read shelf as always.

We had beef stroganoff for dinner last night. Easy to fix and not much to clean up. Since we are working all day on the house and yard, maybe we will go to the library and eat out tonight.   

Wednesday, 16 August 2000

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Pictures of all three of the dogs being very good laying in the den.

         Poor Kerry has to go back to the vets this morning. We took him late yesterday afternoon for Sue to check a couple of lumps I found in his side. Sue said she would have to lance them this morning so she can see what they are. I am taking him early and leaving him. He will be able to come home this afternoon.

This is Duncan crawling on me for comfort after I got home Sunday. I had only been gone in the afternoon but he, Malcolm, and Kerry had all been downstairs all day with Bob's brother Bill. He just wanted some time with me.

We got about half the front painted yesterday. Bob finished all the roof over the porch while I painted underneath and the columns. He then started the gutter going toward the driveway. We have that to finish plus the eaves going that way and the other side of the porch. I will then do windows and shutters and the trim along the eaves sometime this week or weekend. But we are making good progress.

  Michelangelo himself.      He really is working outside!

Thursday, 17 August 2000

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I have redone my Border Collie page a little. Just moved some pictures around and cleaned it up a bit. And, I added a poem at the bottom of the page about dogs as pets if you are interested. Keri, I know you have some very special four footed folks in your home, you might enjoy it.

Speaking of four footed. Poor Kerry. We picked him up from the vet a little after three. He looked pretty horrid. His entire left side was shaved and he had two big long stitches from where they removed the lumps. They sent them off to the lab and will let us know something in ten days or so.

We had to keep him confined and he HATED being in the big Malcolm crate. He just cried and cried. So, I went down and took the crate apart and used it to build a big pen. It looks like a big play pen. It is better than being in the crate and he can sleep in his usual place since I built the pen where he like to lay. 

We are taking a painting break today. I am playing golf this morning and Bob is at a stopping point in what he can paint for right now. I need to vacuum downstairs this afternoon and do a load of Lenore's laundry, so we will not paint today except I need to stop and get some black enamel so I can paint the house numbers and we can get them back up on the house.

I want to wish Marcia good luck on her dental procedure today.

Friday, 18 August 2000

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It is supposed to rain today and maybe have thunderstorms, so I am not going to paint today. Instead I will go to the gym this morning. I have to take Lenore to look at new lift chairs this afternoon. I am not sure what else I will get done today. 

I did  finish the photo album project. 

I hope everyone has a nice weekend. We will most likely be working on the deck and painting.

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