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Barbara Fritchman Thompson Diary Week of 17 March 2003 Latest Update:Sunday, 27 April 2003 08:37 |
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Monday, 17 March 2003 [Last Week] [Monday] [Tuesday] [Wednesday] [Thursday] [Friday] [Saturday] [Sunday] [Next Week] |
| Happy St. Patrick's Day to everyone in the
United States. I hope everyone had a great weekend as Monday is
once again upon us. Although we had a rather warm but wet one I
am a happy camper. Both the upstairs and the downstairs are neat,
tidy, and clean once again. Bob did the fireplace yesterday
morning while I was over visiting with Lenore. When I returned I
vacuumed the three rooms and the stairs along with doing a quick
dusting of the table tops.
After lunch I spent an hour and half or so cleaning/clearing up things in my office. The remainder of the afternoon was spent watching/listening/snoozing through the race which actually turned out to have quite an exciting finish. Bob visited his mom before dinner giving us the evening to relax and read. I spent about an hour right after dinner finishing up my jigsaw puzzle. I have only lacked about 100 pieces to finish for the last couple of weeks but have not had much time to sit down and work on it other than putting in a few pieces here and there. I was finally down to about thirty this evening and took the opportunity to get it completed. It will straight home from work today. I have several projects to line up along with some other things to get done. Bob has been making humming noises about building me a new PC. Sounds like a good idea to me and of course, I get to help. In the meantime, today while Bob was searching for a software program he found the old....as in twelve years old... disks for my Scrabble Game. He loaded it back on my computer and believe it or not it works. Have a great Monday! [Top] |
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Tuesday, 18 March 2003 [Last Week] [Monday] [Tuesday] [Wednesday] [Thursday] [Friday] [Saturday] [Sunday] [Next Week] |
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Yesterday was one of those interesting days. I got around 1 pm, walked the dogs, and began working on e-mail. I spent an hour or so reading and responding etc. I decided not to go to the gym for Body Pump because I do not like the instructor scheduled for tonight. Most of our instructors are great, but there are a couple I just don't like the way they teach the class. I decided instead to fix and early dinner then go over and see Lenore. While working on all this I was waiting on a 4 o'clock phone call from a potential client. He finally called about 4:45 just as I was about to close up shop and start dinner. I spent a good thirty minutes on the phone with him going over what he is looking for, etc. By the time I was off the phone with him it was going on 5:30 and I still had dinner to fix. Bob called Lenore and told him we were running late and I would not be over. As it stands now I have two or three irons in the fire all waiting to see if they come through. The most interesting part of all this is I have had three other potential clients since the first of the year. Although they did not come to fruition, those plus my recent contacts make the first part of the year at least start off promising for my business. It is 7:00 pm as I write this post. As you know I don't discuss politics nor very much in the way of current affairs on my page. However, by the time you read this today the United States may very well be at war. I remember when we started up Desert Storm. I was at work on a Wednesday night and Bob called to tell me they had started the bombing. I will not delve into the yes and no's of this issue on my page but I cannot very well not mention such a very serious issue concerning not only the United States but the entire world. On a lighter side, I finished up Don't Take Any Wooden Nickels, by Mindy Starns Clark. Very good, fast paced mystery. Not really a cozy and not really hard boiled. A little of both with a hint of romance. At this point, let me interject this point. I do not normally read Christian fiction. But, as a librarian I bought a lot of it for our collection. Having been sent the book to review I felt like I should at least give it a fair shot, which I am glad I did. Clark is a very good writer and I really like her main character Callie Webber. If you do like to read this genre of mysteries than you will enjoy reading Clark. This novel is the second one in her series. I think she has new one coming out later this year. [Top] |
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Wednesday, 19 March 2003 [Last Week] [Monday] [Tuesday] [Wednesday] [Thursday] [Friday] [Saturday] [Sunday] [Next Week] |
| Wow, it is now 9:06 pm on Tuesday evening
and I am just now getting around to writing my journal. I had
several after work errands that included the library and grocery
store. I also met my sister at the frame shop to get something
framed for them for their first wedding anniversary next month.
She has several items she wanted framed and I thought that would
make a nice gift but I wanted her to help select the matting and
framing.
By the time I got home, unloaded the groceries, walked the dogs, and settled down in front of the computer it was well after 2 o'clock. I spent about an hour checking mail before taking off for the post office and to visit Lenore. After an early dinner and walking the dogs I headed to the gym for Spinning Class which gets me home around 7:30. I played with the dogs for about twenty minutes before returning to do some more computer stuff. I updated some of the pages on Research Solutions site and worked on some e-mail stuff in regards to another possible contract. Guess I better finish this up and walk the dogs so I can get off to bed and get some reading in. I started an Aaron Elkins mystery for a change of pace. [Top] |
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Thursday, 20 March 2003 [Last Week] [Monday] [Tuesday] [Wednesday] [Thursday] [Friday] [Saturday] [Sunday] [Next Week] |
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If you enjoy reading fiction while learning about a subject you knew absolutely nothing about then I highly recommend Aaron Elkin's Twenty Blue Devils. I happen to enjoy this type of novel because I learn while just enjoying reading. In this particular novel you will learn all there is to know about coffee beans. How the berries, not beans, are picked from the tree. How they become a bean of low or high quality, how they are roasted etc. Anthropologist Gideon Oliver has arrived in Tahiti with his good friend and FBI detective John Lau to exhume Brian's body. a member of the family run coffee plantation. Upon arriving in Papeet John and Gideon find out the exhumation order has been cancelled by John's uncle for rather mysterious reasons. A long running series of accidents prior to Brian's mysterious death, ruled an accident by the Tahitian police, has John believing the accidents and subsequent death are aimed at murder. You will enjoy Elkin's sly humor and his intriguing descriptions of the coffee industry. Yesterday I spent all afternoon at my desk working on various projects. I have signed a contract to do a short term project for a guy that works at Microsoft. The project should run about six weeks. We get down to the nuts and bolts of things this afternoon on the phone. In the meantime I am still waiting to get officially hooked up with my other contract work I interviewed for down in Durham but it should be official sometime this week or next. Bob and I left around 5:45 to go by Wendy's and pick up dinner to share with Lenore. We have our FAS meeting as 7:00 pm. Rather then eating at the little diner we decided to have dinner with Lenore. The Wendy's was her pick of where she wanted us to bring food from. We will not be home much before 9:30 so I wanted to get my post out of the way early. By the time we get home and walk the dogs it will getting on toward bedtime. [Top] |
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Friday, 21 March 2003 [Last Week] [Monday] [Tuesday] [Wednesday] [Thursday] [Friday] [Saturday] [Sunday] [Next Week] |
| From ice storms to floods. It rained
steadily all day Wednesday and into the evening. Just after we
walked the dogs Wednesday night we had a heck of a storm come in
with pouring rain, bright lightning, and lots of thunder. Bob was
sitting up keeping an eye on the war news while I had gone to bed
to read. Usually by the time he comes back to bed, sometime after
10:30 I have already turned off the light. But, by that time on
Wednesday night I lacked about 40 pages to finish the Aaron
Elkins and wanted to see how it would end. Besides with the thunder
storm going on I would be awake anyway. The dogs were nervous as usual.
I finally finished up and turned off the light about 11:45. Just
as I was about to drift off the sleep there a huge crack of
thunder that I swear caused me to levitate straight off the bed.
Malcolm jumped up and started barking like crazy. It took a good
10 minutes to get everyone settled back down. Needless to say I
felt like I was sleep walking through most of yesterday.
I spent most of Thursday afternoon working on projects. We had an early dinner so I could go off to the gym and visit Lenore. When I got back we watched another episode of Midsomer Murder, a nice break from the war news. Tonight I am going to a Celtic music concert with my friend Nancy from the library and her husband. We are going to see Old Blind Dogs. I have a Celtic music CD with one of their songs on it but otherwise have not heard anything else. It should be a lot of fun. I hope you have a nice weekend. [Top] |
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Saturday, 22 March 2003 [Last Week] [Monday] [Tuesday] [Wednesday] [Thursday] [Friday] [Saturday] [Sunday] [Next Week] |
| Our area of the city had anywhere from 4 to seven
inches of rain on Wednesday night causing severe flooding. We have
a lot of streams, lakes, and flood plain areas around us. Most of
those left their banks by Thursday morning causing roads to be
closed and people to evacuate their apartment buildings. By late
yesterday afternoon a lot of the water had receded but many of the
lakes and streams are still filled almost to overflowing.
The concert last night was great! If you like Celtic/Scottish music I highly recommend Old Blind Dogs. The group consists of five guys playing guitar, fiddle, drums, and a wide variety of pipes from flutes to bagpipes. They are very entertaining on stage as well singing and playing some fine music. I got home around 10:30 last night after a long and busy day of work at both Womble and at home. This morning I am off to the Mall to sell tickets to raise money for the Friends of the Library at the Belk Charity Day. One day a year Belk Department store allows charities to sell $5 tickets that offer 15% and 10% savings on most items in their store including sale and clearance items. The charity gets the full 100% amount of ticket sales. We have been selling tickets at the library ahead of time including in the library and by board members. It really is an easy way to make a couple of hundred dollars for the library with very little effort. This afternoon I need to come home and clean house. The forecast for tomorrow looks good for golf if the course was not damaged by any flooding on that side of town. Tonight is to be clear so Bob and I have plans to go up to Bullington to get some real observing in for the first time in months. I have a busy day ahead. The weather today is to be sunny and in the high 60's. Things are getting very spring like around here. I may need to break out the lawn mower next week and give the high spots a good trim.
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[Last Week] [Monday] [Tuesday] [Wednesday] [Thursday] [Friday] [Saturday] [Sunday] [Next Week] |
| Saturday was a busy but fun day. I sold five
tickets during my two hour stint at the mall. The first part of
the time, 9:00 to 10:00 there was still not a lot of shoppers
around except for those who had bought their tickets ahead of
time. I came home and fixed lunch, cleaned house, and walked the
dogs.
From 2 to 3:30 I worked on one of contract projects. After doing some pre-planning for what I would search for in the skies at Bullington I came back to my desk to write this post. The forecast for the evening is to be excellent in terms of viewing conditions. Dad and I will be playing golf this morning. I regular course is still closed due to the flooding that occurred last week but we can play the little executive course we often play. I plan to watch the Winston Cup race from Bristol but it is a sure bet I will also take a nap after being up late and rising early two nights in a row. See you Monday with full details of how Saturday evening and Sunday progressed.
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