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Barbara Fritchman Thompson Diary
Week of
7 March 2005
Latest Update: Sunday, 13 March 2005 6:50 p.m.
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Monday, 7 March
2005
Last
Friday between getting off from work and meeting my family for dinner I
made a quick stop at the Barnes & Noble Bookstore. After browsing
the mystery section and not finding anything I was looking for I
wandered over to the pets section. There I found three dog books I was
looking for one of which was recommended to me by one of my readers.
This weekend I started Ella In
Europe by Michael Konik. Since I enjoy books about dogs and
travel this one looked like a good addition to my collection. Konik is
a DOG LOVER. He really loves dogs. He grew up with dogs and other than
a brief time in the early part of his adult years, has always had dogs.
When he moved from New York city to Los Angeles he rescued a cute white
lab/greyhound mix as a puppy.
In addition to teaching her tricks and certified her as a canine good
citizen and a therapy dog. When Ella turned 10 he decided to take her
on a six week tour of Europe. As you know, most European cities are
much more dog friendly allowing them in places of business and
restaurants. Here in the United States as dogs are becoming more and
more a part of the family I have seen some relaxation of the rules in
some places of business. Of course, many business owners are also dog
owners and take their pets to work.
Konick is a Libertarian...need I say more as I am married to one. He
makes a lot of valid points about places that allow screaming,
misbehaved children but not a well behaved dog. The book mentions the
places he visits, restaurants, and his travels from one country to the
next via trains. He is constantly on guard to make sure he represents
an American dog owner as a tourist in positive way following all the
rules which is more than can be said for a lot of American tourists in
other countries not traveling with dogs. If you love dogs and/or good
travel books that are not a boring rendition of a guide book you have
to add this one to your collection.
I will give you the other titles I bought later, as I read them.
It has been Monday as usual. Early dinner and gym. The temperatures
rose into the 70's today. I think we are due some rain/thunderstorms
tonight and tomorrow.
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Tuesday, 8
March 2005
As Pooh would say, "it's a very blustery
day..."! It was raining lightly when the dogs and I went out to get the
paper this morning. Just as we got back in the house it started a major
down pour.
Later in the day when I went out for my walk the skies had cleared
except for a few white, puffy clouds but the winds were howling about
38mph. After trying one circuit around the block I decided I would do
the remainder of my walk in the parking deck. Not only was it hard to
walk I was actually afraid of things blowing around. The deck has six
or seven levels up to an open deck on top. I always walk up the ramps
to each level but did not go out on the open one, again, due to the
wind. Then I work my way back down.
As I sit here working in my office I can still hear it howling around
the corner of the house. Well, I still have some things to do so I best
cut this short.
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Wednesday, 9
March 2005
Today is my parents 59th wedding anniversary.
My mom is at home but is still not doing real well. We are not sure
what the problems are but Frances and I are trying to help out as much
as possible without completely taking over. Speaking of Frances, I will
go ahead and wish her a Happy Birthday on tomorrow's page. I am certain
I will not have time to do an update tomorrow.
I have Friends meeting at 4:30. From there I am meeting everyone for
dinner either at a restaurant or takeout to celebrate her birthday. If
we do go out we will still go back to her house for cake and ice cream.
If it's not the dogs at the vet it's the car at the mechanics. This
afternoon coming home I noticed when I turned into the driveway the car
was steering very stiffly like the I had lost power to the car. I used
to drive a '66 Chrysler when I was in high school and college. It used
to cut off on me when I turned corners causing me to have to wrestle it
around a turn until I could get it fired back up.
After dinner it drove fine to the gym but half way home it started
acting up again. I called Bob to come down to the basement to let him
know what was going on. We checked the power steering fluid reservoir,
which had fluid in it but Bob filled it anyway. In the meantime I
noticed I had something dripping under the car and wet/spray on the
hoses around the battery.
Guess we will drive out to Tim's first thing in the morning to get is
checked out.
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Thursday, 10 March 2005
[Last
Week]
[Monday] [Tuesday]
[Wednesday] [Thursday] [Friday]
[Saturday]
[Sunday] [Next Week]
Happy Birthday Frances!
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Friday, 11
March 2005
[Last
Week]
[Monday] [Tuesday]
[Wednesday] [Thursday]
[Friday]
[Saturday] [Sunday] [Next
Week]
Whew! It has once again been a very long and
busy week. Last night we had a wonderful dinner at Outback then back to
Frances' for cake and gifts. I left work early, 3:30, to come by and
pick up Bob so we could run out to pick up the car. I left him to pay
while I took off for the library to make my 4:30 Friends meeting.
Tonight, I met my folks and Frances at another restaurant, The Carriage
House. My cousin and his wife are on their way back to Pennsylvania
after coming from first Florida and then Myrtle Beach. Since I was gone
last night until after 8pm, I did not go back to Frances' tonight to
visit. I hated to cut the visit short and come home but knew I had a
slew of e-mails plus I wanted to put up a post and the dogs need some
attention.
The Firm purchased pizza for everyone today to enjoy while watching the
second round of the ACC basketball tournament. A great many of the Firm
attorneys and staff attended many of the ACC schools. I don't follow
college sports any longer but I do enjoy watching some of the ACC and
NCAA games if I have time.
We have had some very crazy weather around here. This morning was
chilly but sunny. This afternoon we had rain/sleet/hail/snow showers.
It has now cleared but will be windy and cold again for the weekend.
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Saturday, 12
March 2005
[Last
Week]
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[Wednesday] [Thursday]
[Friday]
[Saturday] [Sunday] [Next
Week]
As usual, it has been another busy day around
the Thompson household. Although I was tired this morning when I got up
I decided I would go on to the gym for spin class. As with most cases,
once I got started I had more energy than I thought.
Back home, I started a small load of special items I wash separately
from the main wash. Before I started the house cleaning I took the dogs
out for a walk down the block. On the way back we discovered Mimi and
Sean were outside in their backyard with Emma and their new puppy. Bob
and I were down briefly Tuesday night to meet Oscar when they brought
him home from the breeders. Oscar is a Spinone Italiano.
If you scroll down to the picture of Holford's
The Full Monti, you will see a close resemblance to what Oscar
look like. As are most puppies, he a cute little guy running around,
stumbling all over the place with ears dragging the ground. He followed
Duncan around for a while then played some with her sister Emma.
Malcolm is rather indifferent to dogs in general. If Oscar got to close
to him he let out little warning growls but that was about all.
We stayed for half an hour or so to visit. When I got back home Bob
said he needed something from Office Depot. Since I had a short list of
items I also needed I took a quick run out there after lunch.
I then did the usual house cleaning before finally getting a shower and
sitting down to work at my desk. I took a break around 4 to take the
dogs for another quick walk after which I decided to turn on the
Duke/State game.
I fixed bacon, egg, and pancakes for dinner. Just as I sat down I
knocked a large butter tub off my table (we eat in the den on This End
Up Tables that attach to the sofa). This in turn knocked over my water
and a full sized serving cup with heated syrup all over my side table
and everything on it. I had put the syrup on the table so I would not
spill it when I moved my eating table! Yea right! It took half an hour
to clean things up enough to allow Bob to reheat his dinner in the
microwave. I was so mad at myself it took awhile for me to calm down
enough to heat up my dinner.
Afterwards I washed up the dished and mopped both the kitchen and den
floors. After repeated attempts to had wash the syrup from the table we
eventually had to take it to the sink and do a full hosing down with
hot water. This End Up tables are pine boards with tiny spaces between
the boards. The syrup ran down into those spaces. Most of the stuff on
my table was junk which could be thrown away. I managed to get the
sticky mess off a couple of important papers while the other stuff that
got just wet will dry.
I think what made me so darn mad was the fact I should have moved the
butter. Guess I am not only physically tired but mentally as well. Dad
has a cold which means no golf tomorrow. Just as well, I can spend the
morning relaxing before heading over to my folks house for my usual
Sunday visit. I still have a lot of "work" to do at my desk but I can
work on it tomorrow afternoon.
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Sunday, 13 March
2005
[Last
Week]
[Monday] [Tuesday]
[Wednesday] [Thursday]
[Friday]
[Saturday] [Sunday] [Next
Week]
Mother Nature is once again playing her dirty
tricks. March 13 in the Triad is not supposed to be shirt sleeve, 75
degree weather. Trust me, we will pay for this in late March or early
April.
I spent the early part of the morning doing a few chores here at home
including catching up on some ironing. I left around 10:30 to head on
over to my folks house. Earlier in the week I had Bob order my dad one
of those amplified telephones. He really has a hard time hearing some
people on the phone or if he gets an answering machine. The one he
ordered is pretty cool with tone and amp settings as well as very large
numbers. After I removed it from the box I realized we needed four AA
batteries and an outlet strip. Mom and dad live in a 49 year old house
which has few electrical outlets per room. The phone wall already had
the microwave and answering machine plugged in.
While Frances went off to pick up takeout for lunch I did a quick to
the nearby Office Depot for batteries and an outlet strip. I left dad
reading the instructions to see how to mount the wall bracket and
program the memory. After lunch we had everything working with the
necessary numbers programed and ready to go.
Each time you hang up the phone it cuts the amplified sound so that
someone who does not need 18 decibels of amp to hear will not be
deafened. All dad has to do is press the amplify button to resume to
the amp setting which can be changed as he talks.
I stayed for a while longer to visit. Once I got home I decided I may
as well crank up the mower, set it down a notch, and give the grass a
cut/clean up of leaves and small twigs. I picked up the big stuff blown
down from all these windy days by hand.
After I mowed I cleaned out the gas grill using a toothbrush to clean
the vent holes. We fired it up to grill some ribs to go along with some
noodles. Just as I finished cooking the gas in the old tank finally ran
out. We have a new tank full and waiting to be hooked up next time. Our
old tank has to be discarded due to the new connections they put on the
current propane tanks.
As I was cooking the clouds started to roll in. When we took the dogs
for their after dinner walk it had just started to sprinkle.
Guess that's about it for this weekend.
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Copyright
© 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005 by Barbara
Fritchman
Thompson. All Rights Reserved.