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Week of 12 November 2001 Latest
Update: Tuesday, 14 May 2002 18:03 |
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Monday, 12 November 2001 [Last Week] [Monday] [Tuesday] [Wednesday] [Thursday] [Friday] [Saturday] [Sunday] [Next Week] |
| If you like Billy Joel and you missed his special on A
& E last night, In His Own Words, I highly recommend
catching the rerun if it airs again. His performance was more of a
question answer type show giving insight on how he writes his material,
etc. He was also promoting his new classical album Fantasies and
Delusions. He wrote the music for the CD but had a classical pianist,
who also makes an appearance on this show, play his works.
An unusually busy Sunday. Normally I take Sunday afternoon off to watch a race and take a nap. However, with all this yard stuff hanging over my head I decided to get some work done while the weather continues to be pleasant. I finished cleaning house about 11 and fixed Bob and I lunch. Then went out back and used the blower to get the leaves up. Instead of trying to blow them up the drive to the street I decided to just blow them over to the big natural area under the tree and then use dad's old mulching mower that I keep on hand to just mulch them down. The game plan was to blow the leaves then come in and watch the race. Tomorrow I was going to mow the lawn then put down the seed and fertilizer. It only took me about an hour to get the leaves up revealing the grass underneath. It was not really high enough to need cut so I decided to go ahead and do the seeding and fertilizer. The neighbors behind us had out of town company plus their daughter and her family all enjoying a nice afternoon out on their patio. I really hated to make more dust and noise by mulching the leaves so I left that for tomorrow. While I babysat the lawn sprinkler--it needs moved every ten minutes or so to another part of the yard--I did some more work on the basement area. I moved a book case we had been storing into the finished area and dragged out the small desk we had stored also. I am offering it to my friend Nancy if she wants it. I am trying to get the downstairs reorganized and hopefully next week go ahead and vacuum it for the year. I am also trying to reorganize my office. The big desk adjacent to my computer desk is really only there so I can have drawers for storing envelopes and stuff. A lot of the other things I have in the drawers could really be stored in the filing cabinet or filing boxes. I want to remove the desk and replace it with something that takes up less room and will give me more floor space in my office. I have some ideas brewing and should make some final decisions on that in the next day or so. I am reading a mystery by D. R. Meredith, Murder in Volume. This is the first one I have read by her. It is good. Not one of the best I have ever read but not horrible. The main character, Megan Clark, is a part time reference librarian, former archeologist, and paleopathologist. (FrontPage gives the correct spelling for this word as pale pathologist). She is also an avid mystery reader. She signs up her best friend, Professor Ryan Steven, for the local mystery reading club, Murder by the Yard, at the local bookshop, Time and Again. Suddenly Megan finds herself the prime suspect in a murder that has strong ties to the bookshop, the mystery club, a well-known local mystery writer, and a visitor from out of town. The subplot of the book occurs between Ryan, who is considerably older than Megan, finding himself having romantic feelings toward Megan and is not sure how to deal with them. He is always getting into some kind of accident or mishap when he participates in some of Megan's schemes. Murder in Volume is the first in a new series of mysteries by D. R. Meredith. I have the other two, By Hook or by Book and Murder Past Due which I intend to read. She has written some other series which I have not read. Give this one or one of the others in the series a try and let me know what you think. Speaking of books and reviews, many of you know that I usually post a brief review of what I am reading and then a longer, full review on my favorites page. I am so busy and have so many different projects going on that I am temporarily giving up the full reviews and instead just continue writing about books in my daily journal pages. I still have some yard work to finish up today. Last night after the cleaning house and the yard work I was just too tired to fix dinner. Bob and Lenore had scrambled eggs and hash browns and I heated up a Pasta Anytime. I hope your week gets off to a great start and thanks for stopping by for a visit. [Top] |
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Tuesday, 13 November 2001 [Last Week] [Monday] [Tuesday] [Wednesday] [Thursday] [Friday] [Saturday] [Sunday] [Next Week] |
| I was still feeling tired and run down yesterday which is
very unusual for me. I decided I must have picked up a bug over the
weekend but was not really sick enough to be laid too low. I bagged going
to the gym and doing the yard work to make sure I made a complete recovery
and instead puttered around working on my office.
Bob wanted to go back to Computer and Software Outlet to get a monitor for his system in the den like the one he bought me last week. Just as we were getting ready to leave the airline crash happened in New York. I really feel sorry for the residents of New York right now. No one deserves that much pain and suffering at one time. While out purchasing Bob's monitor we also stopped at the local camera store. Bob wanted to get a cable release for the camera to use Saturday night so he could take pictures of the meteor shower. By the time we got back I was getting hungry. That was a good sign right there. My appetite had been a little off which is another sigh that I am not feeling very well. After lunch I unloaded the stuff from the desk drawers than Bob helped me move the desk to the basement. It is so large we had to take it out the front door and around the back through the French doors to get it into the finished area. I really did not have that much stuff in the drawers themselves, mainly using the top to store my CD's or pile papers on. One drawer was actually full of our high school and college diplomas, Bob's certifications from NEC, and other "official" type documents. I can put those back in the desk drawers downstairs. The other drawer held all the paperwork from the house. A lot of those are legal size and do fit in my letter size file cabinet. I put those in one of the drawers of the small chest. Some of the other stuff I don't use very often or at all and it too can be stored back in the desk. The worst drawer was the middle one. It had an accumulation of years of small "junk" being tossed in. I dumped all that stuff in a big bucket and will sort through it later. The chest is a small, three drawer wood cabinet that belonged to Lenore. It is a perfect size and gives me a place to store stationary and banking supplies. The bookshelf we were storing downstairs. It is just the right size to fit under my window. With the big desk gone I can turn the printer facing out straight on my computer desk and make more surface room. With the printer positioned the way it was I did not have much room on that end of my desk. With the big desk sitting there we had to angle it out to be able to reach the copies. This arrangement works much better. By late afternoon I was feeling much more like my old self. I fixed pork tenderloin and mashed potatoes for dinner. I worked in my office a little more than played with the dogs until time to watch Angel. This morning I am off to Wal-Mart and SciWorks. This afternoon I need to move the sprinklers around the yard some more. I want to have an early dinner and go to my gym class.
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Wednesday, 14 November 2001 [Last Week] [Monday] [Tuesday] [Wednesday] [Thursday] [Friday] [Saturday] [Sunday] [Next Week] |
| Gym class/spinning went very well last night. When I
returned home about 7:30 as I was pulling into the basement garage I
noticed something sitting on the deck stair railing about three risers up
from the ground. In order to pull into the basement I have to come around
the corner of the house and back up before I can pull in. The car beam
lights just caught a brief glimpse of an owl. I know we have some owls who
nest in the trees around the neighborhood.
After I pulled into the garage I left the door up and crept back out to peak around the corner to see if it was still there but Mr. Owl had already flown away. I will have to check with the neighbor and see if a new family has moved in. As many of you know I often get tired of reading fiction and periodically switch to non-fiction. Last month at the library conference exhibits I picked up a book on sale from Blair Publishers based here in Winston. Hatteras Journal by Jan Deblieu offers the authors experiences in the late 1980's after moving to the Island. The title interested me since I have just returned from a trip to the Outer Banks and have very little knowledge of the natural life there. She writes about her observances of the local wildlife, flora, and fauna from wandering around the dunes and seashore as well as a little history of how the island was founded. If you enjoy nature writing and/or have an interest in the Outer Banks, particularly Hatteras, Jan's book is light and easy to read yet informative. I am off this morning on Wednesday errands. Post office, bank, and grocery store. I also need to pick up my poster of the light houses along the Outer Banks from the frame shop. This afternoon I need to make a quick stop at Nancy's to pick up the CBCR stuff. Not sure how the remainder of the day will play out. Perhaps dinner and the library? Who knows. [Top] |
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Thursday, 15 November 2001 [Last Week] [Monday] [Tuesday] [Wednesday] [Thursday] [Friday] [Saturday] [Sunday] [Next Week] |
| Off playing golf this morning with my dad. Bob has an
interview with the local news weather lady out at SciWorks about the big
meteor shower this weekend. I am not sure if I will ride along or not.
Depends on when I get home, etc.
Otherwise not much happening in the way of anything exciting at the Thompson Techno Grotto. We had a new instructor Tuesday night for the Buns and Thighs class and my legs really knew it all day yesterday. I even went to the gym yesterday morning just to work out some of the stiffness which usually helps. All the instructors teach different which I like because the variety means you work those same muscles in different ways. Much like the spinning instructors. [Top] |
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Friday, 16 November 2001 [Last Week] [Monday] [Tuesday] [Wednesday] [Thursday] [Friday] [Saturday] [Sunday] [Next Week] |
| Bob's television interview with Channel 11 about the meteor
storm was good. We taped both the early and late news just in case they
aired it twice or used a different version on the late news.
I am off this morning to sell CBCR merchandise at a local Border Collie shepherding trial. The trial is being held just west of Winston-Salem. I will go out and set up for a couple of hours and then be back home this afternoon. I need to do some more work in my office this afternoon on the reorganization project.
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[Last Week] [Monday] [Tuesday] [Wednesday] [Thursday] [Friday] [Saturday] [Sunday] [Next Week] |
| Well I did not get anything much done yesterday afternoon.
It was almost three by the time I got back from the dog trial. I played
with the dogs, checked my mail, and then jumped in the shower.
I decided I should go ahead and water the lawn again so I started the sprinkler's going while I puttered around in the kitchen. We had home made pizza for dinner. Afterwards I tried to do some work at my desk but was just too tired and sleepy to concentrate. This morning I will head back out to the sheep dog trial. I sold right much stuff yesterday. Today will be the handlers who run the more advanced runs and there will be a larger crowd of people. Bob will leave about four to go up to Bullington to get set up. Once I get back from the trial I will unload the CBCR stuff and reload with the camping stuff for Bullington; blankets, pillows, camp stove and pots, etc. I will fix dinner for Lenore and me. Around 8:30 I will begin getting ready to go up to Bullington by making the hot tea for the thermoses, packing the food, walking the dogs, and getting Lenore settled. I plan to leave sometime between 9:30 and 10:00 myself. So far the weather reports are predicting good seeing conditions. I certainly hope so. Thus far we have a pretty good crowd showing up either early to stay all night or coming in early Sunday morning for the big show. I am not sure when we will do a post for Sunday since we have no idea when we will get home and when we will get to bed and back up again. Mostly likely around daylight, walk the dogs, and then try to get some sleep. I may find out just how old I am by Sunday morning after spending all night either staying up or napping in the back of a truck in the middle of a tobacco field to watch the meteor shower. Should be very interesting. [Top] |
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Sunday, 18 November 2001 [Last Week] [Monday] [Tuesday] [Wednesday] [Thursday] [Friday] [Saturday] [Sunday] [Next Week] |
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