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Barbara Fritchman Thompson Diary
Week of
14 March 2005
Latest Update: Sunday, 20 March 2005 5:45 p.m.
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Monday, 14 March
2005
Not
the way to start your Monday! My alarm clock did not go off this
morning. I know I set it last night before I went to bed. Malcolm woke
me at 7am licking my face. I was dead sound asleep. At first I thought
it was still the weekend then realized it was Monday morning. Bob was
getting ready to take the dogs out. I jumped in the shower, fixed a
quick breakfast, dressed and was out the door at my usual time.
It took me about an hour to wake up fully once I was at work!
Anyway. I will have to investigate things tonight and see what happened
to the alarm.
To make matters worse, we were slammed with tickets this morning,
almost 1000, mostly from one person's contact list. It will take most
of the week to clear those out.
I had a hair cut appointment at 4pm. We had a quick dinner to allow me
to get to the gym. I just worked out on the cardio and weight machines
rather than try to make a class.
Over the weekend I read a current Irish mystery by Ann Fallon, Potter's Field, written in 1992.
Her amateur sleuth, James Fleming is a solicitor in Dublin. This is
fourth book in the series but the first of only two of the six the
library has. She has not written one since 2000. It was fair. She goes
into a lot of descriptive detail of her characters and places. The book
was a little slow at first but improved as I got further into it. James
goes to a small artist community to discover why a potter, who had
recently moved to Dublin, was murdered. He finds some very strange
things going on in the community including the church rector's wife who
tends to have control over most everyone's lives who live there.
Well, I mentioned that warm weather we had yesterday. Last night we had
a couple of thunderstorms come through which caused the temperature to
drop. It was cool and rainy this morning though the sun came out this
afternoon and warmed things up a little.
It is to turn cold by the middle of the week.
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Tuesday, 15 March
2005
My alarm clock worked fine this morning. It
has two alarms. I set both just in case the first one was
malfunctioning. I am not sure what happened when I set it Sunday
evening but the first alarm went off as usual.
I am reading the latest book in the Jane Austen mystery series by
Stephanie Barron, Jane and His
Lordship's Legacy. Jane is left a trunk full of papers and
diaries of her Rogue gentleman secret agent Lord Harold Trowbridge who
killed at the end of the previous book. Jane has been willed this
legacy, much to the dismay of his family, in order to write a
posthumous tribute of his life and work. Jane, her mother, sister, and
family friend as now residing in Chawton Cottage which is owned by her
brother. The cottage and grounds were given to her brother by a wealthy
relation. On the same day Jane and her mother move into the cottage
Jane discovers the body of a laborer in the cellar. As Jane works to
solve the murder she must continue to fight the objections of the Lord
Trowbridge's family over inheritance of the trunk.
Not much else in the way of news. The weather folks seem to think we
will get some sort of falling precipitation starting tonight in the
form of rain/ice/snow.
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Wednesday, 16 March 2005
We have a rain, snow, and sleet off and on
for most of the day. It was too warm for anything to stick on the
ground. More of the same predicted for tomorrow.
I am still slammed at work. Much to do not enough time. This morning I
had my six month dental cleaning and exam. All is fine. I made it work
by 9:15. I left at 3:45 to get home with enough time to fix dinner and
make it to the 5:30 step class.
I made up part of my time yesterday and will make up the remaining time
tomorrow and Friday.
Have a great evening.
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Thursday, 17 March
2005
[Last
Week]
[Monday] [Tuesday]
[Wednesday] [Thursday] [Friday]
[Saturday]
[Sunday] [Next Week]
Happy St. Patrick's Day. Like my friend Marcia, I too am
Orange Irish rather than Catholic green.
We woke up to not quite a winter wonderland but we had some wet snow on
the lawn and roof tops. The roads were wet with some slush. While the
temperatures hovered all day above freezing the wind was wicked.
By the time I had left work at 3:30 most of the precipitation had
stopped and what was on the ground had melted. I made the weekly
library and grocery store run on the way home.
Guess that is about all the news for tonight.
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Friday, 18 March
2005
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Week]
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[Wednesday] [Thursday]
[Friday]
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Week]
After yesterday's cold weather today warmed
nicely into the mid-50's. I picked Bob up after work to head out for
dinner at the little diner then make a trip to Wal-Mart. Bob sat in the
car and read while I went in to pick up a few things.
I did not feel like battling rush hour traffic between 4:30 and 5:30
out to Wal-Mart directly from work.
I am still reading the Jane Austen. This one is pretty good. I have
just been too tired and sleepy at night to stay up very late to read.
An update on my mom. She is still not doing very well despite a change
in medication and out patient therapy.
Have a great weekend.
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Saturday, 19 March 2005
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Week]
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Week]
Greetings on a lovely Saturday afternoon. I
was up and off to the gym at 8:20. Back home, I took the dogs out for a
quick walk that turned into an hour and a half neighborhood visit.
As we walked down the street I talked with our neighbor who has a
relative in the hospital. On the way back we stopped to chat with our
next door neighbor on one side. In a few minutes Paula from across the
street came over with her dog Max so we stood around and talked. As we
were heading in the other next door neighbor came out with her two
little ones who like to see the dogs. As we were standing and talking
Mimi and Sean came over. We moved to Mimi's back driveway area so I
could put Duncan and Malcolm in the fence with Emma and the puppy Oscar.
We stood around and chatted while the kids played around us and the
dogs entertained themselves inside the fence. Malcolm's leg is getting
better but I do not want him to play ball outside and risk skidding on
his leg. We are doing some light ball playing in the house but not as
much as usual.
I decided it was time to bring my dogs home for a rest and some water.
Our neighborhood is making somewhat of a comeback. When we first moved
in 17 years ago our street and the surrounding ones included older
couples with grown children as well as a lot of families with small to
young adult age.
As time passed a lot of the older folks moved out as well as some of
the couples our age who moved on for various reasons. Like the house
next door which sat empty for several years except for the brief time
it was rented by the Wake students, many houses were being purchased by
folks not keeping them in good repair or they sat empty.
Now we have the nice young couple next door with two small kids plus
Steve and Mimi with their little boy. Down the street is an older lady
but her daughter and grand daughter live with her.
It is nice now to be able to go out and visit with the neighbors again
and get to know everyone.
Before starting the usual house cleaning chores I fixed lunch first. It
was about 2pm when I finally sat down here at my desk. As usual, I have
piled stuff on top all week that now needs sorting as well as
e-newsletters, etc. Some bill paying and check book balancing are in
the works for later this afternoon or early evening.
Last night I stayed up until I finished the Jane Austen. Jane and His Lordship's Legacy was
one of her better efforts in the series.
It is warm, mid-fifties with some light clouds moving in. I think we
have a small chance of a shower this afternoon and tonight.
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Sunday, 20 March
2005
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Week]
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[Wednesday] [Thursday]
[Friday]
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Week]
Lazy spring day! We usually have two types of
weather on the first day of spring. It will either be really cold with
falling precipitation or really warm with highs in the 60's. Today we
had the latter. Dad and I played golf this morning. It was a little
cool on the front side since we teed off about 7:30 but it warmed up on
the back nine although the wind picked up a bit.
After lunch and a visit I came home with very good intentions of
spending my afternoon here getting some work done. You know the old
saying about good intentions...!
After my shower I put the towels in to wash then sat down to read the
paper and watch the basketball game. NC State was playing in the first
game. While Bob went back to rest and read on the bed I flipped back
and forth between the game and the NASCAR race. State won which was
followed by the UNC game. At that point I was switching between the
race, the game, and golf. I lost interest in the race but flipped back
and forth between the game and golf.
At least while I was "watching" I was also reading my Bark magazine. I fixed a light
dinner while we watched the first part of the Duke game which is in the
first half now.
While I really needed to work this afternoon I think I needed the
afternoon of rest and mind numbing sports just to relax both brain and
body.
Last night I started a new author for me, encouraged by Bob, Peter
Robinson's Chief Inspector Alan Banks series. Having read
through about half of the second book in the series but the first one
available in the library, A
Dedicated Man, I surmised this series will be very similar to
Dorothy Simpson's Luke Thanet. Set in the small town in Yorkshire,
England, Banks has left his job in the big city of London to take the
Chief Inspector job and to enjoy the supposedly quiet life of the
country.
However, he is finding murder happens even in the quiet hills of
Yorkshire. Banks has to solve the murder of a local historian found
buried under a wall in the town of Swainsdale. Known for his gentle and
kind nature Banks has to look hard at his list of suspects for a reason
to kill such a well like man. Local teen Sally Lumb, at sixteen, finds
murder investigations something of a thrill and decides she will solve
the case on her own perhaps putter herself in line to be the next
victim.
If you like British cozy mysteries I will go ahead and recommend this
series based on this first book I am now reading.
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Copyright
© 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005 by Barbara
Fritchman
Thompson. All Rights Reserved.