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Barbara Fritchman Thompson Diary Week of 7 June 2004 Latest Update: Saturday, 12 June 2004 16:19 |
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Monday, 7 June 2004 [Last Week] [Monday] [Tuesday] [Wednesday] [Thursday] [Friday] [Saturday] [Sunday] [Next Week] |
| Between having company over Saturday night and watching two
episodes of Prime Suspect last night I was not able to finish the third
book in the Ayelet Waldman series over the weekend.
Tonight we ate an early dinner to allow me to make it to the 5:30 step aerobics class. It will be early to bed tonight for various reasons. One, to get in some reading time, two, we are getting up at 5 am in the morning. The plan is to drive up to the observing site at Bullington in order to see the transit of Venus with the sun. Conditions are unsure at this point. We really needed a rain/thunderstorm to come through this evening to wash some of the haze out of the air. This morning it was cloudy and hazy. We need to be set up by 6:30 with the culmination of the event being around 7:30. I will drive on in to work and Bob will ride back with Paul and Mary. Guess we'll see how it all turn out tomorrow night if I am still awake long enough to get a post up when I come home. [Top] |
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Tuesday, 8 June 2004 [Last Week] [Monday] [Tuesday] [Wednesday] [Thursday] [Friday] [Saturday] [Sunday] [Next Week] |
| Wash out. We got up at 4:45, took quick showers, and took
off for Bullington. All the way up the skies looked unpromising. When we
arrived at the site Steve was already there. He said he tried to call but
we had already left. The weather maps indicated we were pretty much socked
in with clouds. Paul and Mary arrived a few minutes later. Paul said he
was driving north to try to get out from under the cloud cover. I told Bob
to go ahead I wait with Steve on the off chance the clouds did break up by
the 7am. A little while later Priscilla arrived. She said she could see
the moon poking through the clouds when she left Winston and saw a brief
glimpse of the sun just as she turned off the Interstate.
However, 7am arrived and the cloud cover kept getting worse. Steve and I left to head back to town. I did check to see if the sun was going to peak through the clouds when I got on the Interstate. If it had I would have pulled over somewhere along the way for a look see. Even stopping for gas I made it to work at 7:45 my usual early time. Bob called and left a voice message on my work phone. They had hit rain halfway up and turned around for home as well. I am actually not all that sleepy. Last night at finished up the Ayelet Waldman finally. Next up, the new Rhys Bowen in her Molly Murphy series set in early 1900's New York, For the Love of Mike. It did not actually start raining until almost midday but when it did we got heavy rain along with storms. We could hear it thundering even in the basement. The yard is very soggy, a much needed drenching to say the least.
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Wednesday, 9 June 2004 [Last Week] [Monday] [Tuesday] [Wednesday] [Thursday] [Friday] [Saturday] [Sunday] [Next Week] |
| The reordered rear wheels for my lawn mower came in today
so I made a quick dash to pick those up before making the grocery store
stop. Bob put the new wheels on for me after we unloaded the grocery then
I mowed the lawn. Boy, it was like putting new tires on a car. The mower
actually mowed better and now when I turn corners on the hills the mower
actually goes forward rather than sliding backward.
Now that I have switched to mulching rather than bagging the grass for the summer I can mow in about 45 minutes. I was finished by 5:15. I fixed Bob a ham sandwich and me a couple of veggie burgers and some apples my mom had cooked for me over the weekend. For early June it was actually not too terribly hot. I read through about half of the new Rhys Bowen last night. Molly is working undercover for a garment manufacturer who thinks he has a moll stealing his designs and selling them to a rival garment house. She spends 12 hour days working as a seamstress along with the other girls who get docked 10 cents for talking, going to the bathroom too many times, and for use of the power and water. At the same time, she is trying to locate a young girl who ran away from Ireland to New York with the on of the estate hands. Readers get an inside look at the conditions of the sweatshops during the early 1900's, lower east side gangs, and general living conditions for the various immigrants who have come through Ellis Island. She is now renting a large house into which she has moved the man and his two children she met when she came over from Ireland in the first book of the series. They are down on their luck and were living with the fathers nasty sister, lazy husband, and their two children. Guess that's about all for now. Work is busy as usual. We have several new attorneys who have added their contacts to the database. Last count this afternoon we had 964 tickets to handle. Job security. [Top] |
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Thursday, 10 June 2004 [Last Week] [Monday] [Tuesday] [Wednesday] [Thursday] [Friday] [Saturday] [Sunday] [Next Week] |
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Bob posted this link http://apnews.myway.com/article/20040610/D8344JGO2.html on his page with a full account of his experience growing up with Border Collies. I will verify everything he says regarding the three I have lived with for the past 15 years. Casual conversation around our house is like trying to shield young children from adult conversations. As Bob said, we can talking and all of sudden there will be a mad dash to the front door, basement door, or deck door based on something we have said. They know what happens when we sort laundry, get out suit cases, remove certain items from cabinets, etc. It is actually very frightening...sometimes they know what I am going to do before I do myself. I had Friends of the Library meeting this afternoon at 4:30. The skies were dark as I drove from work to the library. We could hear it thundering off in the distance. Just as we adjourned, around 5:45, the bottom fell out. I had already planned to get takeout for dinner. By the time I got home, we ate, washed up, and walked the dogs it was already after 7. Not sure if we have anymore rain coming in tonight or if that brief down pour was it. Last night I sat up until after 11 so I could finish the Rhys Bowen. Not sure what I will start tonight. Glad tomorrow is Friday.
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Friday, 11 June 2004 [Last Week] [Monday] [Tuesday] [Wednesday] [Thursday] [Friday] [Saturday] [Sunday] [Next Week] |
| No update.
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[Last Week] [Monday] [Tuesday] [Wednesday] [Thursday] [Friday] [Saturday] [Sunday] [Next Week] |
| Too tired last night to put anything up. Other than do a
quick e-mail check I spent the evening reading then went to bed early,
lights out by 9:30. Slept in this morning until 7:30. I told dad I would
be over at his house by 8:30 to get started in the yard but ended up being
about 15 minutes late since I slept in.
We trimmed his azaleas way back to let them come out from the bottom, cleaned up his flower beds of weeds, and I edged. While I was putting the shrubs cuttings in the wheel barrow I got stung on the arm by a yellow jacket. I saw him land on my arm but could not get him off before he got me. It was very fortunate that I did get stung. By the time we went in the house for me to wash it off and put something on it and returned to where I was standing little baby yellow jackets were swarming all over the area. I must have been standing on the area in the ground where they nested. The only adult was the one that got me. If the little ones had continued growing in the nest and dad had stepped on it or mowed over it he may have been stung repeatedly which would not be good for an 81 year old. We sprayed the area where they were trying to get back to real good with hot shot. Some of the babies were flying around close to ground where I managed to smash them with the shovel. I told dad to go back out tonight and spray that area again real good to make sure we killed them all. Fortunately I take all daily allergy medicine which will help to keep the reaction down in my system. I put ice on it to take the swelling down around the sting site. After finishing up at dads I came home and did couple of things in my yard before calling it day. Just as I finished Mimi came down to return a book I loaned her. We took the dogs and went back down to their house to let them play with Emma while we visited for a few minutes. After my shower I went to check mail and do this post but we had no connectivity. Instead I cleaned off my desk which by the time I finished we were back up. Last night I started the fourth book in the Ayelet Waldman series, Death Gets A Time-Out. Juliet Applebaum, stay at home mom has her hands full with her now two year old and five year old. Her and partner Al are investigating the death of her good friend and actress Lilly Green's step mother supposedly killed by her step brother. Al and Juliet are out to find exculpatory evidence to help keep Jupiter Jones from getting the death penalty. We had a cold front come through today. Yesterday we were under a heat advisory with temperatures and humidity making it feel like 100. Today the high was 76 degrees. Slight chance of storms tonight. Dad has not been getting all this rain we have. That happened to us a couple of years ago. There would be rain all around us but we did not get any.
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Sunday, 13 June 2004 [Last Week] [Monday] [Tuesday] [Wednesday] [Thursday] [Friday] [Saturday] [Sunday] [Next Week] |
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