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Barbara
Fritchman Thompson Diary
Week
of 3 October 2005
Latest Update: Sunday, 9 October 2005 2:00 p.m.
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Monday,
3 October
2005
Last
night after dinner we watched the movie, The Grass Harp, based loosely on
the early childhood memoirs of Truman Capote. It was sort of a chick
flick with an all star cast. If the new movie just released about him
gets good reviews I may put it on my NetFlicks list.
Earlier in the evening I came back to check my mail for one last
time. All of a sudden my cursor disappeared. I had Bob come back to
check it for me since I am now using this new cordless mouse. DUH! I
forgot to check to see if the darn thing was lit up, which it wasn't.
It needed new batteries. Now I know!
This morning after relaxing for awhile I hauled Marcia off to the gym
with
me. She works out at a Curves at home but I made her go with me to the
"big boys gym" to Golds. She did very well on the machines. Back home,
we fixed salads for lunch, showered and took off for two of the used
book stores in town.
This evening we are meeting Frances at the Dixie Classics Fair to walk
around, look at exhibits, etc. The weather is almost perfect although a
little warm for October with the low 80's but clear, blue skies.
Bob is hard at work on the book. I helped him with the laundry and
taking the dogs out to give him more time to work.
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Tuesday,
4 October 2005
Marcia and I spent today on the road. One of
the major points of interest for Marcia from out canceled New England
trip was hitting some of the major quilt/fabric stores from a book
published with all those type stores in them for the entire US.
The book is organized by state and region within each state. We headed
south for Gastonia this morning around 8 am for the first and
furtherest away from home. We arrived around 10am. The store was
located in a small strip mall, so, while Marcia shopped for fabric I
wandered around in the other stores. She and I finished up at the same
time.
Our next stop was the Cracker Barrel, one exit over. Marcia has never
eaten at a Cracker Barrel nor has she had the pleasure of eating fried
okra. She has now had that experience to add to her wonderful visit to
North Carolina.
We left Gastonia and headed for Matthews, small town just south of
Charlotte. After the Matthews store we took off for one of two stores
located on the south side of Charlotte. I missed a turn somewhere and
ended up on Tryon Street downtown. Marcia had a chance to see downtown
Charlotte, which is actually pretty nice and to drive by one of her
client's office buildings. We did get lost a couple of times but Marcia
called the store owner who managed to get us there.
After that stop we had two more planned. One, another shop close by and
the last one on the way in Mooresville. However, Marcia declared
herself shopped out for the day so we grabbed cold drinks and made a
bathroom stop before heading homeward arriving shortly after 5. As we
got in the door, Bob said Mimi had just called to see if we
wanted to bring the dogs down for a visit.
I need to go start dinner. We plan to eat in then spend a leisurely
evening at home tonight.
We had a great time at the fair last night. I think between the gym
yesterday morning and the three hours of walking the fair last night I
sort of wore Marcia out a little.
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Wednesday,
5 October 2005
Eighteen years ago today Bob and I spend out
first night in this house on the floor after closing on the purchase
that afternoon. We were so excited we brought over the sleeping bags
and slept on the den floor and of course moving in with our stuff the
next day.
Marcia and I had another fun day. I had a short list of errands I
needed to run while I was off and we were out and about. This morning
we started at AC Moore then went across to the Mall to Sears and Lane
Bryant.
Next I took her to another favorite diner the Orchard. Bob has never
eaten there because it is on my parents side of town. My folks plus my
sister and her husband Al eat there often. Back when I worked at home
dad and I used to eat lunch there on Wednesday mornings when we played
golf and mom was volunteering at the hospital.
After lunch we drove over to see the house where my folks live and I
grew up before heading on to High Point. Our intentions were to locate
a used book store Marcia found on the web but it was not at the address
listed. I stopped at the Chamber of Commerce for more information. We
determined they must be out of business but I used the yellow pages to
located another one just several blocks back down the road.
From the book store we stopped at Wal-Mart in High Point also located
on the main road heading back out of town. I needed to make a stop
anyway therefore saving me a drive out to the one here later this week.
Back home we made a grocery store stop before finally making it back
home around 4. After unloading groceries and other purchases Bob and I
unloaded white truck for its visit tomorrow to the mechanics for an oil
change and inspection.
I will fix something for dinner tonight and other wise we shall laze
around and relax. I may watch the episode of West Wing I taped Sunday
night.
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Thursday,
6 October 2005
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Week]
Tropical storm Tammy is bringing some much
needed rain to North and South Carolina. Late yesterday afternoon I
decided I should go ahead and put out my seed and fertilizer with all
this rain on the way. I spread the fertilizer and started on the seed
when I realized I did not have another bag of seed like I thought I
did. I had enough to do the front then stopped to fix some dinner.
After dinner I made a quick run to Lowe's to pick up seed and some
lime.
I quickly finished seeding the back then started putting out lime but
it got dark on me before I could do the front. I quite for the night
just parking my gardening stuff in the basement until this morning.
However, the rain had started falling by the time we were up, around
7:30. It has rained steadily all day, just what the ground and plants
need. While we are only up to 1/2 so far we have a lot more on the way.
Marcia followed me in her car out to Tim's to take the white truck in
for service. Back home, I emptied the remaining lime back in the bag,
rinsed the spreader, and put away the bags of leftover seed and
fertilizer. I can put the lime out anytime in the front and put out
some more in the back where it could use some more.
The remainder of the day we have spent relaxing, reading, and working
on a couple of craft projects I needed to complete. Marcia, being very
good at that sort of thing, is helping me with a shadow box for some
old shells I have and helped me to reframe a couple of cross stitch
pieces Lenore had did herself a long time ago. The 5 X 7 wood frames
are really nice but the backing had come loose causing the prints to
fall out of their frames.
In between, I am getting some things done here at my desk including
paying some bills, filing, and working on ordering some stuff on line.
Tonight for dinner we are taking Marcia to our favorite diner on this
side of town.
The rain did put a "damper" on our plans for golf this afternoon. Oh
well, we really need the rain and it has been nice to just spend a
relaxing rainy day at home.
I am reading another B&B mystery, A
Streetcar Named Expire.
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Friday,
7 October
2005
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As of last night we have had 2.8 inches of
rain. Today it has been mostly light to moderate drizzle. I went to the
gym this morning while Marcia stayed home.
Later in the morning we took off to find a couple of local fabric/quilt
stores making a stop for lunch at a little Italian restaurant. They had
a small lunch buffet of pasta and pizza.
This afternoon we played a couple of rousing games of Scrabble. Marcia
and I are meeting my folks and Frances for dinner at the Chinese place
on their side of town.
Bob is making the final push on the book this afternoon for the first
draft. He has two weeks to do rewrites, etc.
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Saturday,
8 October 2005
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We all slept in this morning until 8:15 which
made Marcia a little later getting off then she intended. After hugs
from humans and dogs we sent her and Miss Lucy on their way back home
around 9:30. Unlike the beautiful weather she had last Sunday to drive
down she will be driving back in all this rain moving up the east coast
from the remnants of Tammy. We had another 2" of rain overnight but it
looks like the bulk of the low has moved on north and east of us.
After Marcia left I put sheets in to wash then started on the usual
weekly house cleaning chores. My dogs are shedding their summer coats
creating masses of hair balls everywhere. After doing some minor
tidying up downstairs I came up to clean bathrooms and vacuum.
I decided I may as well take advantage of nearly 5" of rain to do some
digging projects in the yard. I dug up the four very large hostas under
the weeping cherry to split out and replant. I put four back in under
the cherry then put the others under the big maple in the front and
some others down back in my natural areas. I also dug up some liriope
from the large patch in back to plant along the side of the driveway. I
am hoping once it spreads and thickens along there it will help with
the wash problem I have with the water running off the driveway.
While I was driving Marcia around town she was very impressed with our
nice red clay we have here in NC. Well, by the time I finished up with
my planting I had about four pounds of if on my work boots. As usual I
was a nasty mess by the time I finished thus I came in and headed
straight for the shower. It has not rained today but remains very
overcast and humid.
I finished up the B&B mystery and started on Thread of Evidence by Frank Smith.
Other than heating up leftovers from our Chinese dinner last night I
have very little planed for the rest of the day.
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Sunday,
9 October
2005
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I spent the morning being somewhat lazy after
getting up around 8 reading the paper and generally relaxing. After
checking my e-mail I went through old e-mails and files in Star Office
cleaning out old stuff I no longer need to keep.
With no rain from midday yesterday through mid morning today the grass
was dry enough to mow although the yard itself was still wet but not
soggy. After mowing I put out the four bags of lime I had left from the
other night when it turned dark on me and then spread seed by hand over
the entire yard. The skies did brighten a couple of times during the
day but for the most part it has remained cloudy and cool.
A chance of rain comes back into the forecast for tonight and tomorrow.
Other than mowing and leaf vacuuming I have finished up lawn care for
awhile.
I shall watch the NASCAR race this afternoon from Kansas while reading,
relaxing, and playing ball with the dogs.
Last night Bob and I watched three of the four episodes of Foyle's War
III. This is an excellent series staring Michael Kitchen as Foyle.
While we were watching the second episode after dinner the doorbell
rang. I opened the door to see the two little girls standing side by
side, cute as ever on the walkway. Emma, the older one, told her mom
she wanted to come over for a visit.
We invited them and their mom in for a short visit. Duncan had a great
time playing with girls. The girls had a great time throwing the ball
for Malcolm and playing with his toys. Malcolm growled once in
protection mode but we got him playing ball. Fortunately he did not
scare the girls. They stayed for about twenty minutes. They are really
cute. I am glad they like to come over to visit and of course to be
comfortable around us in case Stephanie should need an emergency sitter
for some reason. It was well past ten by the time we watched the third
episode. We decided to save the last episode for tonight.
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Copyright
© 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005 by Barbara
Fritchman
Thompson. All Rights Reserved.