Email Barbara

Barbara Fritchman Thompson Diary

Week of 21 October 2000 (Week 43)

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, 21 October 2000

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

Well, it was just one of those weeks that seemed to go on for fourteen days instead of seven. By yesterday I was just really tired from a busy week. On Thursday while out front playing with the dogs I had yet another nasty encounter with a neighbor over the dogs. Bob was sick yesterday, so we had to cancel our plans to run some errands in the morning.

I did go to the gym to try to get in at least a 40 minute workout and to see if it would make me feel better, which sometimes it does. I had to go out anyway and get Lenore's prescription since we were not going out. I came home and decided I just did not want to spend the day indoors. I had not mowed or blown leaves for well over a week and they were pretty thick. Bob blew the roof and gutters off and I mowed and blew leaves off the drive. That took about two hours. 

Afterward, I came in and showered and decided I was done for the day. Bob went to bed and I took control of the couch so I could watch the President's Cup and finish reading my book. Unless you are a golf fan you may not know about this event which features the top United States golfers on the PGA Tour against the top golfers from the European tour. In other words, it is us against the world. We had a commanding lead after Thursday of 5-0. We won all our matches. When I turned it on yesterday it 6-4. We had won one match in the morning and they had won 4. When the afternoon matches were over it was 10-5, the US winning four to one. I napped, read, and watched the golf until dinner time.

At five o'clock Bob was still asleep. I fixed Lenore a sandwich and me some soup and a salad. I cleaned up the kitchen, loaded the dish washer and walked the dogs. Bob got up around 6:30 and fixed the remaining soup and a sandwich for his dinner.

We spent the remaining of the evening reading and listening to a classical music CD. 

Today I am going to work on one of my chapters that we have formatted and start moving text around. I will take breaks periodically to watch the third round of the golf and maybe the Busch race from Rockingham.

Sunday, 22 October 2000

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

Yes, Marcia, we could read your page. Man, between you and Leah talking about doing Christmas preparations and purchases, I better get on the stick. I have just had too much else going on this fall to even thing about it. 

Poor Benson, Lynne and Bob Walder's lab. He has to stay quiet for several weeks and no walks. He is all upset. People who do not have dogs don't understand that when you change a dog's routine it upsets them very much. And, unlike humans, it is hard to explain to them what is going on. 

He and Kerry can compare shave jobs. Kerry had the same huge bald spot except it was located on his entire side instead of the shoulder and leg. I do hope Benson gets to feeling better. Kerry's bald spot has grown some hair but it is still several inches shorter than his other fur especially since Kerry is rather long haired and has a very thick undercoat. He had to be kept quiet after his surgery because he had stitches. He would not eat, threw up, and cried when we kept him confined in a large penned off area. I know how difficult it is for the Walder's. 

The United States kicked butt in the President's Cup yesterday. If you read my post yesterday morning you know that they started the day 10 - 5 after two days of play.

Today they played five teams in four ball and won 4 to 1 making their overall score 14 - 6. Oddly enough the only team to lose was Tiger Woods' match. Today they play twelve singles matches head to head. It looks pretty good for the US at this point.

Clean house this morning, watch the race this afternoon from Rockingham. If Bobby Labonte can get past the next four races without any major mishap he will win his first Winston Cup championship. He and his brother Terry will also be the first brothers to ever win a Winston Cup championship. I have always liked his car owner, Joe Gibbs when he coached the Washington Redskins to several Super Bowl victories. I still think NASCAR is too controlling over the entire sport and will start pissing off fans eventually. 

I got a lot of work done yesterday on the book. We are making a lot of progress.

Monday, 23 October 2000

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

Whew. Exciting day yesterday in the sports world. Of course the US won the President's Cup by an astounding margin. I flipped between that and the race just to see how the singles matches were going.

The Winston Cup race turned out to be an afternoon of good racing and lots of excitement. Kevin Lapage wrecked up near the wall. He got out of his car and was sitting up by the wall to wait on the safety crew when his car started rolling backwards down the track. Rookie Kurt Busch  took out several good drivers when he drove too close and hit them from behind one of them being Dale Earnhardt, Jr. When Jr. finally got his car fixed good enough to come back out he played a little cat and mouse game with Busch for a few laps. 

Bobby dogged a big bullet in the points race. Late in the race he had to make a pit stop out of sequence for a tire going down. Two laps later the caution came out for a fire on pit road. This put Bobby a lap down running in 20th. Earnhardt came into the pits running tenth. They had been running in the top ten together all day up until this point. I noticed Bobby kept Dale out front of him most of the time just to be safe.

When Dale came back out he had a bad set of tires and quickly dropped to 18th. Instead of Dale gaining fifty points on Bobby he only gained nine. And the reverse, had Bobby not had a problem, he may have been able to pad his lead by fifty points. Check out the race day summary for more news on the race.

Weird monitor?

For the last several weeks I noticed my monitor had a reddish tint to it when the screen was blank. It seemed to be getting progressively worse, so I called it to Bob's attention yesterday. This morning it was red instead of gray or green, so he gave me one of the monitors off his desk. He fired mine up in his office and yep, it is going south. I guess Bob will have to order him another one. The one he gave me is a Dell and for some reason seem to think it is clearer and I can see better. Or maybe it is because my other one was going belly up.

Off to the gym this morning. I have several errands to run and then back home to work on the book some more. I need to get the leaves up but it is supposed to be windy this afternoon, so there is not point as more will just blow down and what is down will be blowing around. Maybe tomorrow afternoon.

Tuesday, 24 October 2000

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

After the late start yesterday due to having to swap out my monitor, I did not get to the gym until 9:30. After I finished up there I ran out to my old branch library to find some books for the CD ROM project. After a quick stop at Wal-Mart, Hallmark, and the drugstore, I still did not get home until after 12:00. 

I fixed a quick sandwich, took the dogs out and got started. I worked most of the afternoon except to take dog breaks.  I got a lot done and at least feel like I am going somewhere instead of floundering around trying to get the structure organized.

We had Hamburger Helper for dinner, one of Bob's favorites. As far as taste go, they are actually not too bad and are low in fat. But, if you have to watch your salt, they are all pretty high in sodium. Fortunately for us, we do not have to worry about that.

I got this message from Marcia about Malcolm, " Malcolm's growing up? Rats!! I so enjoyed his juvenile delinquent stories!!"

I have a new picture up on my border collie page. Malcolm is still very much a puppy and will continue to do things to get into trouble. That picture is one of the few times they lay that close together. They are still getting into some snarls over who will be boss dog, but no bloodshed at this point.

I am having lunch with a friend from the library today and then it is home to get the hundred bushels of leaves of the lawn. 

Wednesday, 25 October 2000

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

Be sure to check out our article on the O'Reilly web site  Coaster-Free Burning with IDE CD Writers Part 1: The Preliminaries.

Bob helped me get the leaves up yesterday. He blew the front yard to the street while I worked on mowing the back. Then I mowed the front. It took two hours with his help. By myself it would have been close to four.

And, just when Marcia thought there were no more Malcolm antics to share, he provided another Kodak moment yesterday morning. We had them penned up in the foyer so Hannah, Lenore's aide could walk back and forth freely without stumbling over baby gates. Bob and I were working away in our respective offices and Malcolm got bored.

He was standing up and pulling the plastic grocery bags out of the bottom of one of those handmade cloth dispensers and had a great time shredding them, as you can see. I use them for poop bags when I walk the dogs. At one year old he is still very much a puppy and getting into things.

Malcolm claims that Duncan did it, but Duncan denies it.

Here's where Malcolm found the treasure trove.

Thursday, 26 October 2000

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

Yesterday was not a particularly exciting day. I went to the gym in the morning and the store. I worked on the book when I got home until it was time to take Lenore to the doctor. By the time I got back it was time for Bob and me to head on over to the library and dinner. I worked some more after we got back and then settled down to watch my favorite show West Wing.

I was looking at Marcia's tangled mess of wires on her desk in her new digs at work. I did not realize the the MIS department from Forsyth County, NC was working in California too!!!.  The one here is a major joke and is the primary reason our library system is so far behind others in technology and on-line services. If you think I am exaggerating, ask Bob, he used to work there. As a matter of fact, it pretty much represents how our entire county is run from the County Manager on down with some real boneheads for department managers.

I am off this morning to my dad's to help him with some yard projects. The construction materials dump is on his side of town which I need to make a visit. When we worked on the deck we tore off the plastic awning-like material that was attached to the underneath portion of one side. It served to keep the rain off the French door entrance to Lenore's area and we never got around to putting it up all the way across. Now I am glad we didn't.  I busted it up into two huge barrels full of pieces which now has to be hauled off. I think dad has some stuff that need to go too.

Friday, 27 October 2000

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

Another week come and gone and another month almost gone. I cannot believe it is already the end of the year, again. Seems like it gets here faster every year.

We got a very nice review on PC Hardware in a Nutshell on the Barnes and Noble web site. 

Not much else to report today. I worked most of yesterday on the book and will do so again today. I will hit the gym this morning and stop at the bank for Lenore. 

Almost 30 days with not rain and none in site. The leaves are dry and dropping fast.

Have a nice weekend everybody. 

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