 |
Barbara Fritchman Thompson Diary
Week of 13
December 2004
Latest Update: Sunday, December 19, 2004 6:00
p.m.
|
 |
Monday, 13 December
2004
WHEEEE!
Myrtle Beach. No I have not lost my mind. This line is from one of the
skits in the show. There really is not anyway to put into words how
wonderful the show was. Two of the singers are also comedians who come
out and do one liners to a straight man who also is a performer. In one
of the skits the guy comes out dressed funny with a retractable
measuring tape clipped to his pocket. Every few minutes he pulls it way
out into the air and goes wheee! Myrtle Beach as part of the skit. The
jokes are funny but tasteful. The sets, lighting, and music was
terrific. They sang traditional Christmas carols, special ones written
for the show, some country, and some funny ones like Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer.
Friday night I managed to get most of the ornaments on Frances' tree
while she worked on putting out other decorations. We got in bed around
12:30 and back up at 4:15am. We picked mom and dad up at 5 at their
house in the bus then drove on down to Thomasville to pick up the group.
They are a remarkable group of senior citizens ranging in age from late
60's to one lady who as 91. She was as spry as any 78 year old and did
not look a day over 80. There were about 40 some from the senior center
plus three young teens, Frances, me, the tour director, and her husband.
After a breakfast stop we were in Myrtle Beach around 11:30. Our first
stop was Hamrick's where we shopped for about an hour and a half. Then
on to a new mall where we ate lunch at the food court and had time to
do shopping or just walk around. We arrived at the hotel around 3:30 to
get checked in and settled before leaving for dinner at the K&W and
then on to the show.
We got back to the hotel about 11pm. Sunday morning I slept in until
about 7:30 then went for a run on the beach. When I was growing up we
went to the beach almost every summer up until I was in college. After
attending college in the mountains of NC I fell in love with the
mountains over the coast. However, I still enjoy going to the beach and
seeing the ocean. Myrtle Beach has changed a lot since I was a little
girl. I guess it has been about 10 years since I was down there.
When I got back from my run dad came out and we walked the beach a
little before it was time to go in so I could get my shower. We had to
be on the bus by 10. First stop was the Tangier Outlet mall followed by
a second stop at another Tangier Outlet Mall. They have some of the
same stores but the second one is larger and has some stores not at the
first one.
After we had shopped until we dropped, eaten lunch, etc we boarded the
bus for home with a quick stop in Marion, SC at the Russell Stover
outlet. It was 9pm when we pulled into Thomasville. By the time we
drove to Level Cross to park the bus, load out stuff, and get on the
road home it was going on 10pm. We got to my house at 10:45.
Tomorrow night I will post some pictures I took of the outside of the
theater and on the beach. The weather down there was cool and windy.
The weather here has turned cold and windy with temperatures tonight
going down into the teens with 15 to 20mph winds.
I had mail from one of my readers about last weeks old wives tale
concerning thunder and snow. He pointed out that only happens if it is
truly winter which it will not be until December 21st. So it looks we
will not get our snowfall in 9 to 12 days following our horrendous
storm last Thursday night.
Bob was over at Paul and Mary's house this afternoon setting up some
computer stuff for them. I came home from work, started checking my
mail, fed and walked the dogs then took off for my 5:30 step class.
Afterwards I picked up a pizza order Mary had called in for us and
drove over to their house.
We stayed a visited with them until about 8:15. Guess I better wrap
this up and get a few more things done before heading off to bed.
[Top]
Tuesday, 14 December
2004
As promised, here are the pictures from my
trip. The first one I took from the balcony of our hotel room Saturday
afternoon. This pier was very close to the hotel. The middle one is the
outside of the Carolina Opry Theater where we saw our show. The third
one I took Saturday morning while on my beach run. Fortunately I did
take the camera along just in case I had a Kodak moment.
That pier way off in the distance of the first picture below is the one
I did my run to. On the way out and back I came upon this very large
flock of sea birds eating in the same place. As I ran toward them they
all scattered but had resettled by the time I came back. I slowed down
far enough back to keep from scattering them so I could get a picture.
After I finished up my run and arrived back in front of our hotel dad
came out for his short walk up the beach. One of the ladies in our tour
group happen to be out on the beach and took our picture for us.
In yesterday's post I credited the reply about my wives tale concerning
thunder and winter to "one of my readers" Well! The reader who sent the
reply just happened to be our good friend BRIAN
BILBREY.
It seems Brian took offense at the fact that I referred to him as "one
of my readers" rather than by name. While I often talk about Brian and
his wonderful wife Marcia I usually do so in the context of a visit or
event on their journal pages. As you may have noted in the past, when I
mention e-mails from my readers I refer to them as "one of my readers".
I have always felt it was respectful not to publish names of people who
send me private e-mail about my posts, etc. Brian, I shall promise to
always refer to you by name when mentioning the text of an e-mail in
relation to my journal pages. Be sure and read his post for today. He
seems to be suffering from some sort of post bowling syndrome that has
greatly reduced the mobility in his legs.
This afternoon after work I took a quick run out to Wal-Mart. We only
needed a few items from the grocery store as well as a couple of things
from the drugstore. I combined both trips to also give me a chance to
pick up another hair dryer. Mine broke last week. Early in the week the
folding handle broke requiring me to hold the drying by the main unit
while I dried my hair. As I was packing it on Friday for my trip the
handle came completely apart. I used Frances' to dry my hair on
Saturday morning and used the hotel one Sunday. We had an old one in
the cabinet downstairs which I retrieved when I got home Sunday night
to use until I could purchase a new one.
Bob install one of the new UPS's in my office this evening after
dinner. I feel much better now knowing I have some protection while
working at my PC should a storm come up.
I am reading the third book in the Cynthia Riggs mystery series
starring 92 year old sleuth Victoria Turnbull set in Martha's Vineyard,
MA. In The Cemetery Yew Victoria
assists the Island police in discovering why a coffin and a hearse
drive end up missing along with the reasons behind an empty grave.
When Bob was reading this series a couple of months ago he commented on
how difficult it was for him to imagine a 92 year old woman doing some
of the things Riggs has her do in the books like hiking around looking
for missing plants, staking out cemeteries, and assisting in crime
solving. If he had met the 91 year old woman on our bus trip this past
weekend he would have no problem imagining Victoria's activities.
It is still cold and windy. I think it is to start warming up toward
the end of the week. I have to pay some bills and organize some things
on my desk.
[Top]
Wednesday, 15 December 2004
Short post tonight. I just got back from my
6:30 class at the gym. Instead of our usual power pump with weights and
barbells we did a new hour long routine combining ab work, free small
hand weights, and stretch bands. Normally I do the 45 minute power pump
routine then leave instead of staying for the cool down and ab work to
get home by 7:30.
It was great class but I did not get home until almost 8pm.
See ya!
[Top]
Thursday, 16 December 2004
[Last
Week]
[Monday] [Tuesday]
[Wednesday] [Thursday] [Friday]
[Saturday]
[Sunday] [Next Week]
Last night I finished reading the Cynthia
Riggs. Tonight I will start another new author/series, Laurie Berenson.
Bob has read the first two or three I found on the shelf last week.
This afternoon we made a library stop before going to dinner at the
Chinese place. I reserved the remaining ones located at other
libraries. I think of the 11 in the series the system had six or seven.
The main character, Melanie Travis, works as a special education
teacher who also breed poodles.
The temperatures never did climb out of the 40's today into the
expected low 50's. Snow is still in the forecast for Sunday. Let's
see...thunder last Thursday, snow this Sunday...that would be 10 days?
My little wives tale may come true after all. Guess we will wait and
see.
Things have been very busy at work. Tonight was the Firm Christmas
party. I attended last year and was not overly thrilled with the
experience. I decided to skip it this year. My coworker who also
processes tickets will be off tomorrow. It will be all I can do to keep
up with incoming tickets by myself.
Time to go out and watch my tape of West Wing from last night. Have a
good evening.
[Top]
Friday, 17 December 2004
[Last
Week]
[Monday] [Tuesday]
[Wednesday] [Thursday]
[Friday]
[Saturday] [Sunday] [Next
Week]
It was a long and tiring day. Not only did I
have double the number of tickets to process we had a late project to
complete before I left for the day. One of the major uses of our
database right now consists of creating holiday card lists. A secretary
for one of the attorneys created the card list but forgot to check off
the box as the mailing address. At 3 o'clock she called my supervisor
who also does all of our database behind the scenes stuff to let us
know what happened. When the secretary ran the mailing list the
addresses did not print out. DUH!
With us being one short today, my supervisor and I started correcting
the mistake. Unfortunately we had to work in the Web Client rather than
the Windows client of the software where we usually work. The Web
client is not as easy to work in when doing contact editing. At 4pm,
when it was time for me to leave, I was almost finished with my half of
the alphabet so I just stayed an extra ten minutes.
Time to get some gifts wrapped. I will do some tonight and finish up
over the course of the weekend. Hope you have a good one.
[Top]
Saturday, 18 December 2004
[Last
Week]
[Monday] [Tuesday]
[Wednesday] [Thursday]
[Friday]
[Saturday] [Sunday] [Next
Week]
We slept in until 7:15 or so. I was at the
gym by 8:40 for the 9am spinning class. Just as I got back home and
upstairs dad called. We decided tomorrow was to be too nasty for golf.
The temperatures are expected to plunge during the day from the low
30's to around 17 by tomorrow night with 30 to 40 mph winds. Not
knowing when the winds and rain will get here it will better not to to.
I had some boxes I needed to take to mom so I went over for lunch and a
visit today instead.
This afternoon I finished wrapping all the gifts. At some point I will
get a couple of pictures of the tree and living room to post on my
page.
Guess we will spend the evening reading and relaxing.
[Top]
Sunday, 19 December 2004
[Last
Week]
[Monday] [Tuesday]
[Wednesday] [Thursday]
[Friday]
[Saturday] [Sunday] [Next
Week]
After sleeping in until almost 8 I had just
enough time to get the paper read and the house cleaning done before
lunch. At noon we drove over to Paul and Mary's for an afternoon of Building
the Perfect PC.
With Bob assisting and me taking pictures, Paul and Mary build the
small form factor desk top system from the chapter in the book. It took
a little longer than it would have if Bob and I had built but we had a
good time. We ran out time before Bob had a chance to load software,
etc. Paul and Mary had dinner and evening plans plus they needed some
additional supplies Paul will pick up before Bob goes back over to
finish things up. After doing the smoke test Bob tried to format the
hard drive but I think he ran into some problems but, again, did not
have time to really sort out what was going on.
We left their house around 4:30 and drove out to Subway to pick up
dinner on the way home.
After dinner I walked the dogs while Bob sorted the dried dark and
white loads and put the towels in to wash.
It did not get as cold early as predicted though some light rain did
fall this morning. However, the wind has picked up considerably since
we came home. I can hear it howling around the corner of the house in
my office.
The temperatures are to drop down to around 15 with 20 - 30 mph winds.
[Top]
Copyright
© 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004 by Barbara Fritchman
Thompson. All Rights Reserved.
