Email Barbara

Barbara Fritchman Thompson Diary

Week of 16 September 2000 (Week 38)

wpoison

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, 16 September 2000

[Last Week] [Saturday] [Sunday] [Monday] [Tuesday] [Wednesday] [Thursday] [Friday] [Next Week]

Today will be a riding day as we get closer to home. Our stop tonight is King of Prussia, PA. They have one of the largest malls in the United States. We are free that evening to dine and cruise the mall as we wish.

We stopped here two years ago on our trip back from Nova Scotia. After a week of action packed travel and sight seeing, it is nice to have an evening to relax.

Sunday, 17 September 2000

[Last Week] [Saturday] [Sunday] [Monday] [Tuesday] [Wednesday] [Thursday] [Friday] [Next Week]

Homeward bound. After a quick bus tour through Washington, DC, we head for home.

Monday, 18 September 2000

[Last Week] [Saturday] [Sunday] [Monday] [Tuesday] [Wednesday] [Thursday] [Friday] [Next Week]

Hi everyone. It is nice to be back home and sleep in your own bed. After dropping off Mom and Dad at their house and Frances at hers, I got home around 7:30 pm. I parked up front to make it easier to unload. Bob let the dogs out the front door and man did I get a greeting.

Duncan and Malcolm raced around the yard barking which is their very happy way of greeting people they have not seen for a long time. Kerry waddled up for a hug and the other two just kept bouncing and running all around the yard. Bob did his little welcome home dance too!

Everything was in relatively good order. As always, when I am away there are a few unexpected things that happen but nothing serious. Today I will start getting things back to normal. Since we are awaiting the arrival of Hurricane or tropical storm Gordon now that it is over land, mowing the yard will be out of the question for today.

Instead, I will go to the gym, store, drugstore to drop off film, and come home and clean the house. Bob did his laundry and the towels, so I will do the bushel I brought home with me.

The trip was wonderful. I will be working on the trip narrative and get it posted as soon as I get the pictures sorted that I plan to post. 

Needless to say seeing Billy Ray Cyrus at our first night stop, Jamboree, USA, was not the highlight of the trip. He has no talent but he puts on a good show for the fans, which comprises mostly of turning his back to the audience and shaking his butt, taking off his shirt, and...well, you get the picture. More on that later.

Niagara Falls is was beyond words, I went up in the highest tower in the world in Toronto, loved Kingston and Montreal and thoroughly enjoyed Quebec City. We had bus trouble the entire trip including before we left Level Cross last Saturday morning. If you did not know that pigs could fly, they can, I had pigs wings for one meal. 

Well, I better get started. Bob did a great job of holding down the fort. Updates to follow during the week. 

Tuesday, 19 September 2000

[Last Week] [Saturday] [Sunday] [Monday] [Tuesday] [Wednesday] [Thursday] [Friday] [Next Week]

Things are slowly getting back to a normal routine. After today I will be pretty much caught up on everything. I have to finish sorting the mail and doing office type stuff.

After I get back from some errands this morning, I will mow the yard. Then I can spend the remainder of the day doing the other stuff. First priority is getting the trip page up. I pick up the pictures this morning. There is still one roll of film in the camera I need to finish up. 

I need to resume the packing and work on getting the living room back to normal. I also need to tackle my office. I hope this weekend we can get most of the outdoor stuff close to finished so I can start on the basement. I would like to have as much of this done before we leave in two weeks for NH.

Bob is working furiously on the Hardware Guys website and I need to get back to working on the CD ROM book. Between the house and the move, I am not getting much of anything else done at this point except treading water. 

While I was gone we went from having a three inch deficit in rain for the year to being over an inch above. After last nights rain from the remnants of Gordon, we will be well above the average. We apparently had a pretty bad storm last Thursday night that dumped quite a lot of rain in the area.

Guess I better get going, lots to do.

Wednesday, 20 September 2000

[Last Week] [Saturday] [Sunday] [Monday] [Tuesday] [Wednesday] [Thursday] [Friday] [Next Week]

I have started working on the trip narrative. It is a slow process with adding the links to the various sights and cities and checking my travel guide for exact information on the places we visited. I picked the pictures up yesterday. I was a little disappointed in them. Between the weather and my camera acting up, I did not get as many good ones as I have on previous trips. But I bought a lot of post cards which I can put in my trip album. I think I have enough good ones to scan for the trip report. 

I want to let Marcia know that I did not expect Bob to do the vacuuming too, while I was gone. I was very happy he kept the kitchen and hall bathroom neat and tidy while I was away. That is about all he can manage with everything else and get any work done. 

I was telling her in an e-mail that I had a lot of vacuuming of dirt and hair to do on Monday to get the house clean again.  With three dogs up here now the hair accumulation is unbelievable. They need brushed too, which I have not had time to lately. That helps to keep the shedding down some.

I worked on the trip stuff yesterday while waiting on the grass and the ground to dry. We had a lot of rain Monday night from Gordon and while the grass was dry by mid-day the ground was still pretty soggy. I went out about 3:30 and it cut pretty easy being as high as it was. The leaves are already falling.

Today is gym day and then I am going to work on the living room to finish getting it packed and cleaned up. The weather does not look very promising for this weekend to get more of the outside painting done. I may slap a quick coat on the side window to finish that project up so we can put the storm window back in.

Bob said we are getting mail to our Hardware Guys web site already. 

Thursday, 21 September 2000

[Last Week] [Saturday] [Sunday] [Monday] [Tuesday] [Wednesday] [Thursday] [Friday] [Next Week]

Happy anniversary to Tom and Leah Syroid and many, many more.

I am almost finished with the trip report. I will sort pictures for scanning and hopefully have it up by tomorrow. I helped my dad put out his seed and fertilizer yesterday afternoon, so did not work on the packing projects. I am glad we put it out since it is raining this morning. I was not going to play golf anyway, since I have so many projects to work on.

I started the new Colleen McCullough book, Morgan's Run this week. But, I am not getting very far. By the time I get to bed at 10:00 to read I am so tired I have not managed to get past more than five or six pages. It is very good and if I can get far enough along will post a review on my favorites page.

While I was on my trip I read a paperback, The House on Olive Street by Robin Carr. I picked it up somewhere awhile back and was saving it to take on the bus trip. I knew it would be light reading but good for the bus and in the room. It turned out to be pretty good. I ended up finishing it on Saturday and needed something to read on the long ride home on Sunday. On our last night's stop, we were across the street from a large mall and walked over to find some dinner. I stopped in the bookstore and purchases a paperback of one of Bill Bryson's books that I don't think I had read, at least recently anyway. I mention him on my favorites page when I review his latest book, In a Sunburned Country. In Neither Here nor There he is recounting his travels through Europe. I like this one but have found his other books to be a lot better. I got about half way through on the way home. I will finish it as soon as I get the McCullough book read so I can return it to the library.

I found a used book store, a real book store with books piled all over the floor and the shelves crammed with books and hand labeled, in Kingston, Ontario. I told my folks to go on walking about the town and to come back and get me in an hour. I could have stayed all day. Anyway, I bought four books, one of which is a first edition history of Kingston written by a professor from the local college. They will, of course, go up on my "to be read" shelf. I look forward to reading them.

Friday, 22 September 2000

[Last Week] [Saturday] [Sunday] [Monday] [Tuesday] [Wednesday] [Thursday] [Friday] [Next Week]

No trip report. It will be first of next week. I am taking the last roll of film to be developed this weekend. I spent most of yesterday and last in bed with either the flu or a sinus infection. It feels like a sinus infection and I have had so many I can usually tell. Unfortunately that is the price I pay every year when I travel. Constantly changing climates and weather conditions give me a fit plus sleeping in motel rooms with varying types of AC cause me to have them. I have now learned to suffer through them and not bother with doctor's and antibiotics. It will clear itself up in a few days time. I am hardly ever sick but will usually have one or two of these things every year to put me off my feet.

So, I did get the narrative finished and the pictures sorted. Now all I have to do is put it all together. I going to work on it this weekend and get it ready for Monday.

Malcolm, the little thief, was pretty good yesterday. He did not get much of a play time with me in bed all day. If we lose or misplace something, you can bet he will find it, especially if it is something he can eat or tear up. He can find more ways to get into things. It reminds me of Leah Syroid's Landon. I will be glad when he outgrows the thieving off the counters and tables and out of trash cans.

I hope everyone has a great weekend.

[Last Week] [Saturday] [Sunday] [Monday] [Tuesday] [Wednesday] [Thursday] [Friday] [Next Week]