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Barbara
Fritchman Thompson Diary
Week
of 20 August 2007
Latest Update: Sunday, 26 August 2007 3:00 p.m.
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Monday, 20
August 2007
I
saw the cutest dog food commercial while at the gym this evening. The
scene opens up with a little boy play water tag with him lab puppy. In
case you don't know what that is, Malcolm loves to play water tag. I
turn on the hose and he chases the water trying to catch it. The bad
part about that is you cannot have him outside with you while trying to
water or wash anything because he thinks he should be chasing the water.
Anyway. Next scene, puppy runs in to his food bowl. Next scene.
Puppy has grown to full size and is now eating the same brand of food
for dogs rather than puppies. Last scene. Dog has hose in his mouth and
is chasing the now older boy with the hose. I do not want Malcolm to
see that commercial. He may get ideas in his head.
I finally finished the Dana Cameron and started the most recent Donna
Andrews, The Penguin Who Knew Too Much. A nice, light and funny mystery
after the more serious Cameron although Donna mentions Dana in her
preface of authors to thank. Dana left some things hanging in the this
second book that I am sure she will address in the next one. This
Andrews is a library book. I also have a couple of Perry's and Jance's
to read before going back to my TBR pile.
I noticed a lot of discussion lately on the DL mystery list about Kate
Ellis. Bob and I had read a couple of her earlier works but have not
been able to find her more recent ones in the US. I may have mentioned
I bought one or two at Malice from a Canadian vendor. Maybe next year I
can get the others in her series.
We are rapidly approaching the end of the Midsomer Murders available on
DVD. I think we only have two left. Time to go through my TBW (to be
watched) list to find some of the movies I asked Bob to order that we
have not watched yet.
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Tuesday, 21 August 2007
I usually check the Weather Channel on line
late in the afternoon since we have no windows to look out. A very long
line of thunderstorms looked like they were heading our way. Sure
enough we were under severe thunderstorm watch until 5 pm.
When Drew and I leave from work we go up the elevator to the first
floor and walk out the front of the building. When we turned the corner
off the elevator lo and behold what did we see...dark skies and pouring
rain. I had brought my little umbrella from desk drawer just in case
but it was not big enough to get me and Drew under. The wind was
blowing so hard all it managed to do was to keep my head and upper body
dry. My pants and shoes got soaked. We got about half an inch of rain
here at home. That is enough to make the plants and bushes happy. We
may get another light shower this evening but otherwise the worst of
the weather has cleared on out.
We are watching some of the Brother Cadfael mysteries. We only have a
few left we have not seen. They did not make all that many of them
compared with the number of books written in the series.
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Wednesday, 22 August 2007
My sister called last night to discuss some
things. It came up in the conversation about where I was going for
dinner tomorrow night. I paused then said I had dinner out last
Wednesday night. Hum! Turns out Bob forgot to publish my page on
Monday. He has to publish for me on Mondays then I can do it the rest
of the week. I usually tell him on Monday night when I come out to the
den. He forgot and, I forgot to check it last night after I published.
Oh well. I did have lunch today with my friend Bonnie.
We had another whopper of a storm this afternoon. Fortunately this one
passed through downtown by the time we got off work. Right now there is
a very strong one on my folks side of town. We can hear the
thunder but it is south of us and moving east so I doubt we will get
anything from this one.
Obviously we need more rain than these brief downpours but at least
they are helping to get some moisture back into the ground and help to
fill us lakes and streams.
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Thursday, 23 August 2007
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I left work at 12:30 to pick up mom and dad.
Dad had a 1:30 appointment to have a laser treatment on him eye that
has the implant. We were at the hospital until 3pm when they turned him
loose. Hopefully by tomorrow he will have somewhat better vision in
that eye.
From the hospital we went to the drugstore so they could do some
shopping and pick up a couple of prescriptions. It just so happens I
had some drugstore shopping to myself so that worked out well.
It was just a little after 4 when we finished up there. We decided to
go ahead out to Henry James diner for an early dinner. After I dropped
them off I headed back across town for a pet and grocery store stop.
The weather right now is brutal. 89 degrees, feels like 96. Yep, hot
and muggy. The yard has greened up a little from the rain we had the
last two days but is still pretty sad looking. I have had about enough
of this hot and muggy crap. Flooding in Ohio and Texas, drought in the
Midwest and southeast.
The trash has been rounded up and taken out. I still have recycling to gather and put out.
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Friday, 24 August 2007
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No update.
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Saturday, 25 August 2007
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I was so glad to see 5 pm Friday roll around.
It was a very long and tiring week. I did not even come back to check
my mail last night.
Another brutal day. With no golf this weekend due to a tournament at
the course I had a laundry list of chores inside and out. I slept in to
about 8:15, read the paper, and headed outside for yard chores by 9:30.
I had the dogs out for ten minutes before I put them back inside. I
trimmed all the dead flowers from the zinnias, cut the dead hosta
back and did some general plant maintenance in the front. Then I fired
up the hedge trimmer to do the forsythia along the driveway. I had lots
of big limbs down from the storm the other night. I picked all those up
then mowed. Most the yard including the Bermuda was high enough to mow
after those short rain showers we had earlier in the week. I finished
up by noon just as it was getting really, really hot. In two hours I
went through two bottles of Gatorade and three small bottles of water.
Oh, I had also trimmed some of the dead flowers from the butterfly bush
and some of the branches with dead leaves from the drought. In doing so
I had trimmed a couple of the blossoms (this is a pink one) still
alive. I had thrown them in the top of the yard waste cart and walked
away to get a broom to sweep the drive. When I came back a butterfly
was perched on the blossom in the cart. I bent down very close and
watched it drink from each little flower of the blossom. It was pretty
cool to watch.
I finished the Donna Andrews and started another Anne Perry, Ashworth
Hall. Thomas and Charlotte are spending the weekend at her sister
Emily's house. Thomas is on assignment undercover to keep an eye on a
summit meeting concerning the "Irish Problem". Homeland rule being the
topic of political unrest for the book. Emily's second husband has made
a name for himself in the government and has agreed to host the event.
Just prior to leaving for this event Thomas had just started to
investigate the death of a local policeman who had been working
undercover for the government as a member of a local Irish sympathetic
group. One of the politicians attending the conference has already
received several death threats. Pitt hopes to prevent the threats from
becoming a reality.
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Sunday, 26 August 2007
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It has been a very exciting Sunday. This
morning I did the usual house cleaning chores. I also started the
downstairs freezer defrosting. It really does not get all that bad but
I like to do it before it does. Since I need to do a food order next
month I wanted to have it cleaned up and ready.
After lunch I started on the unfinished side of downstairs. I
filled the back of the Trooper with a load of card board which helped.
Bob had started the white load washing. The freezer was finished doing
its thing. I pulled out the wet towels, wiped it down, and put what
little food is left back in. My intentions was to drive over to the
fire station to drop off the card board then stop at the gas station
for gas.
When I went to crank the car it was dead, just like a couple of weeks
ago at Holiday Tours. I called Bob to come over and give me a jump. He
hooked the cables up and...nothing. Not even juice to the instrument
panel. We called a wrecker which took about 40 minutes. Bob rode with
him and I followed out to Tim's. Just so happens Tim's wife was at the
garage, they live next door in a big farm house. I had planned to go
out this Friday and have the battery and cables replaced. Guess I can
go ahead and mark that errand from my list of things to do.
Fortunately it happened today and not tomorrow while I was in the
parking deck after work. Also, thankfully it is a little cooler today
since we had to stand around and wait for the wrecker though we did
stand inside the Quality Mart at the Shell for awhile. Right now we
have a pretty nasty storm going on. It is pouring down rain in buckets.
Not really what we need with the ground so hard and dry but I guess we
will take what we can get.
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Copyright
© 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007
by
Barbara
Fritchman
Thompson. All Rights Reserved.