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Barbara
Fritchman Thompson Diary
Week
of 18 June 2007
Latest Update: Sunday, 24 June 2007 3:00 p.m.
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Monday, 18
June 2007
As
usual, Frances made a delicious meal. She fixed dad's favorite, baked
spaghetti along with fruit salad and garlic bread. We watched the final
round of the U.S. Open golf tournament. Frances gave us another meal of
spaghetti for dinner tonight and it was even better than it was last
night.
Over the weekend we watched the first episode of Absolutely Fabulous
staring Jennifer Saunders and Joanna Lumley. Saunders is the partner of
Dawn French and Lumley stars in their show Clatterford we watched last
week. If you like the British version of slap stick humor in the style
of Monty Python you will like this show. As with a couple of other
British shows we have tried to watch including Father Ted, one of the
top rated shows in Britain, we did not like Fabulous. I can't remember
off the top of my head some of the other shows we gave a try to and
bagged after one episode.
Over the top with lots of shouting and confusion does not work for us.
We watched the first show on the disc than bagged the remaining
episodes. When I used to work at the library my readers would ask me
about a certain book. It would be one I had read but hated. Instead of
saying, this book was awful, don't bother I always replied with "I did
not find this book enjoyable because, blah, blah, blah, but you might
like it." Sometimes they agreed, sometimes not.
Bob used to love to watch Fawlty Towers but I could not stand it. All
they did was run around screaming at each other. But, one episode they
showed with a mouse in a cookie can or something like that had me
falling off the couch laughing.
I am almost finished reading the Mary Daheim, The Alpine Scandal. Emma
is investigating the murder of a local man killed in his chicken house.
Everyone keeps talking about what a wonderful, sweet guy he was but
someone had to hate him enough to kill him. Daheim's usual cast of
characters are all present including her former ad manager Ed, who blew
all his money and has to look for a new job, Milo the sheriff who seems
to be having some continued health issues, and her House and Home
editor.
Summer has returned with hot temperatures today. Although the air
quality index was at dangerous levels all day I still went out at lunch
for a quick walk.
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Tuesday, 19 June 2007
Paul came over for a visit and dinner with us tonight. His wife Mary
is off on her run around the world representing Dow in the Blue Planet
run. Paul picked up take out Chinese for us it being impossible to
provide a cooked meal while at work.
I walked the dogs after their dinner leaving Paul and Bob to visit. On
the way back home the skies started to turn pretty dark with a brisk
wind coming out of the south. It was not long after we got back in the
thunder started. We've had a pretty severe storm roll through dumping
1.5 plus inches of rain in about half an hour. Most of the storm has
moved on through but the rain is still coming down. We will have to
wait for break in the action before we take the dogs for last time.
Last night I finished Alpine Scandal. Today at lunch I started another
Anne Perry, Pentecost Alley. This weather system is bringing in some
cooler air for next couple of days and will at least clear the air
quality up some.
Work is steady with nothing over whelming at the moment. I continue to
work on the database pulling in mystery boxes to see what was
sent off site that was not listed in our old database. Lots of fun but
very tedious work.
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Wednesday, 20 June 2007
We are very lucky from the storm last night. Just north of us trees
were down in several neighborhoods and lightening struck an apartment
building roof setting it on fire. Fortunately no one was injured. About
5000 customers were without power in the surrounding area. I think we
ended up with about 1.69 inches of rain. I just mowed Sunday and the
grass is already high.
It was gym night. Bob ate leftover Chinese and I fixed a sandwich. We are watching the first episode of The Last Detective.
The series stars Peter Davison mostly famous for his role thirty years
ago as Tristan in the James Herriot shows. He has done a lot since
then, of course. We've watched about about twenty minutes or so before
we stopped to feed and walk the dogs. So far, I think it will be a
great show. There is a very funny chase scene in the first few minutes
of the show. Will keep you posted as we watch more.
The temperatures finally dropped into the low 80's today. It was still
pretty muggy this morning but by lunch time the 20 mph winds had blown
all that through dropping the humidity and bringing blue skies. I think
we have one more day of this before it turns hot again.
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Thursday, 21 June 2007
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Today is the first day of summer. I took
advantage of the somewhat cooler temperatures to mow the lawn this
evening. I made a pet and grocery store stop on the way home. I waited
to mow after we ate a quick dinner. It's about 81 degrees with low
humidity. With all the rain, cloudy skies, and cool temperatures the
grass was pretty high for having just mowed last Sunday. It would have
been really high by the weekend anyway. There is a threat of
thunderstorms all weekend starting tomorrow afternoon along with the
temperatures going back up into the 90's.
We watched part of the second episode of Last Detective with dinner. I
have taken the garbage and recycling out giving me the rest of the
evening free to relax and enjoy the show.
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Friday, 22 June 2007
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No update.
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Saturday, 23 March 2007
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Things that go bump in the night! I had gone
to bed at my usual 9 pm to read for awhile. Bob remains in the den
smoking his pipe, doing computer stuff, and reading. I had just turned
out the light about 10:30 when I heard Bob yell, raccoon! He had heard
a clatter on the deck. When he pulled the shade on the wood door out to
the deck up the raccoon was sitting there on the deck looking up at
him. Bob opened the wood door as I came down the hall with the dogs in
tow wondering what was going on.
I keep a metal trash can on the deck filled with bird and thistle seed.
You may remember me writing a couple of a weeks ago about finding
the lid off one day after we had rain. Half a bag of seed had been
eaten, the bag was wet and partially chewed. I thought the squirrels
had gotten in the can. Now I know who the culprit was. After I had
cleaned up the mess I put what was left of the good seed back in the
can and tied the lid down with bungee cords.
The raccoon had chewed the bungee cords in half and was part way down
inside the trash can by the time I got to the door. Bob went off in
search of something large to whack him but could not find anything. I
opened the storm door enough to shoo him off back down the stairs but
he was back in about two minutes. Bob wanted to shoot him with the 22
but I was afraid someone would report us for shooting off a firearm in
the city. Instead, we got the Raid and Bob sprayed him good. He took
off again allowing Bob to go out and put the lid back on. The tied the
two ends of the bungee cords back together to tie the lid down. We had
no sooner closed and locked the door when we heard clatter, bang,
again. He was back. Bob sprayed him again with the Raid then brought
the can inside the house.
Our next door neighbor had told me about seeing him around just after
dusk often sitting on their bird feeder. This morning when I told her
the story she said her husband swatted it with the broom one time. It
growled and ran off. I will have to keep the bird seed in the basement
from now on. Had I not been afraid he would have been hurt, I would
have sent Malcolm out after it. It is a small one, about the size of
the very large house cat.
Stephanie and Gerald put together one of those wood swing sets with a
play house attached for the kids. Before they can finish it and anchor
it to the ground the have to make a level place for it in their yard.
Last week some of Gerald's crew dug a trench around the area to make a
wall with railroad ties to hold the dirt for leveling off the yard.
Last night after dinner Stephanie was out back with the kids. They has
just thrown the sod they dug out in the area they are filling in. I ask
her if I could have it to use to try to fix a wash problem I have in
the back that runs along beside their yard. When it rains hard I get
the runoff from both their gutter down spouts and ours from the front
plus the back. I can't get grass to grown and I have a small trench
area where the dirt has washed. The dogs stayed out to help me work
about half an hour putting the sod and dirt down along the washed area.
This afternoon I finished doing the rest of the area, threw out some
seed and fertilizer and then watered it down good. Since I had the hose
out I used the spray nozzle to clean the back gutter edges and under
the eaves like I did in the front several weeks ago. This morning I did
the house cleaning, changed the sheets, and washed a load of my work
shirts and pants.
Other than getting the ironing caught up I have no other plans for the
afternoon except resting. It is a really nice day with temperatures in
the high 70's and a nice breeze. I wanted to get most of the sod down
last night because it looked like we might get some rain later in the
evening as I drove home from work. I wanted to move it before it rained
making it muddy and heavy to move. It never did rain last night nor are
we to get any rain today as they as predicted earlier in the week.
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Sunday, 24 June 2007
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No golf today. Instead I went over to the
folks house about 9 to help dad in the yard. He needed to have all his
bushes trimmed back which is something he cannot do himself. We started
with the ones along the back fence finishing those around 11. We
stopped for a lunch break before doing the ones in two beds in the
lower part of the yard and the ones along the side of the house.
We still had the long row along the front of the house. Using the
loppers to trim them back instead of just trimming them with the hedge
trimmers is much hard work. They were so overgrown some were dying the
middle. Every couple of years they need cut way back and let them start
their growth over again much like I did mine a couple of weeks ago.
Around 1 we finished all but the ones along the front of the
house. I was getting tired and dad had been out long enough so I told
him would finish up next weekend. It will only take a couple of hours.
He had a couple of other small things he wants done I can do as well.
It was over cast and cloudy this morning but very humid. As we started
the side bushes the sun had come out. It is only 82 degrees but feels
much hotter than than in the sun. That is the other reason I called it
a day. I shall do nothing else today except rest and relax.
Last night we had our neighbor Kim over for pizza. Between taking care
of Jasmine and her mom she gets very little time to herself. She stayed
until 9 then we walked her home when we took the dogs out for last
time. It was a nice evening for all of us.
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Copyright
© 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007
by
Barbara
Fritchman
Thompson. All Rights Reserved.