*Whew*

My sister's family is okay. They lost power and still didn't have power when I talked to them late yesterday afternoon, but other than lots of rain and some pretty high wind they didn't see much of Katrina, thank goodness.

My sister works in a Blockbuster. Believe it or not, customers were unhappy when they had to close the store when the power went out. "What am I going to do with these kids without videos?" Sheesh. How were they going to watch videos with no ELECTRICITY??? Cripes.

Those poor people on the coast....my thoughts and prayers are with them all and their families.

Hurricane Monday

See the yellow star over on the Mississippi-Louisiana border? That's the approximate location of Vicksburg, where my sister and her family live. That swirling ugly mass of green and yellow is Hurricane Katrina, currently wreaking havoc on the Gulf Coast.

It's 9:30 a.m., and I have my AOL Instant Messenger program open on my computer at work in case Lesa tries to reach me by instant message. When I last talked to her by instant message last night, she didn't really seem worried. She talked as if she expected to lose power, since they usually lose power during even a "normal" thunderstorm, but didn't seem particularly concerned.

Am I worried? Well, SURE I am. I wish she and her kids were as far from that frightening, swirling mass of high wind and water as I am. (Her husband is a truck driver and was in Texas when I talked to her, so he seems to be out of harm's way.)

So here I am, at work, not being particularly productive because I keep drifting back over to Weather Bug and Weather.com and keeping an eye on AIM to see if she comes online.

Where's the Pot O' Gold??

Dolly Parton: "The way I see it, if you want the rainbow you gotta be willing to put up with the rain. "

We had a relatively mild thunderstorm this evening and were rewarded with a faint rainbow. It's been a rough week so far (and this is just TUESDAY) and the rainbow was a lovely end to a rotten day.

A Rotten Week....But It's Nearly Over

I've had better weeks.....

1. Rain, heat, humidity;
2. It took Randy over 42 hours to make a run that should have taken about 27 hours;
3. It appears that idiots bombed London's underground again today; and
4. Scotty beamed up for the last time yesterday. *sigh*

At least my work week's nearly over. (18 minutes, but who's counting?) Tomorrow I'm taking Meggie to see her new veterinarian. I'm switching from the vet who's taken care of her since I bought her at 5 weeks to a vet nearer home. After that, Mom & I plan to make a run to Kingsport just to knock around in a few stores. No huge shopping trip, just an opportunity to look around at our leisure. Hopefully it won't be as hot and humid as it's been so far this week.

Is This Week EVER Going To End?

It's been a long week, and this is only Wednesday.....

Randy started driving for a different company this week. We found out last week that the new company didn't provide cell phones for their drivers, and our cellular plan wasn't national. So, I went to SunCom and gave up my old, beloved UnPlan (which worked beautifully for us until he went on the road) and upgraded to a national plan. In the switch I had to upgrade our cellphones to GSM phones, so I did get a nifty new Motorola V180. Nothing fancy, really, just smaller and nicer than my old Nokia.

I haven't blogged since my furniture installers FINALLY arrived on July 1. I love my new office furniture. Anyone who walked in and hadn't seen my old stuff probably wouldn't understand why I'm so thrilled, but it's soooooooooo much better than what I had before.

Mom and Dad are in Wilkesboro, NC camping. If it looks like Randy's not going to get home before Saturday (and so far, it doesn't look like he's going to), I might run down there Friday and visit awhile. It looks like a pretty neat place.

It's a gray, humid day here. Good day for a nap, but not good for much else. Hope Meg and I can make an early night of it tonight. :-)

Waiting, waiting, waiting.....

Waiting for the installers to arrive with my modular furniture.....can't do much but wait at this point. Everything's ready for them; as soon as they complete the installation and clear out, I have a very full day of moving things back into the office, hooking up equipment, moving files, etc. *tired just thinking about it*

The fever blister is improving. It looks terrible, but feels much better, thank goodness. It's very warm and humid here today, so that doesn't help anything.

Hey, I thought I just heard a truck go through the parking lot.....*crossing fingers*

Thursday.....Finally.....

I'm temporarily ousted from my office. My old desk has been carted away to who knows (or cares) where, and I've got everything ready for the installation of my new modular furniture tomorrow. Thank goodness. I'll be glad when they've come and gone and I can get my office life back to something resembling normalcy!

I've been battling a fever blister all week; it feels better today, which means it looks terrible. *LOL* I have all intentions of going home after work and hiding from the world as much as possible. Right now I'm pretty tired from all the packing and lugging around of stuff. I wouldn't mind having a nap, truth be known. I'll be ready for the 3-day holiday weekend by the end of tomorrow, I'm sure!

I wonder if I could talk Randy into pizza tonight? *plotting yet another night of not cooking*

I think I should try to establish FlyLady routines at the office.....turn over a new leaf to go with the new furniture. Seems to me I remember seeing office routines on her website. *going to look now*

I was right....there's an Office Control Journal, and a great essay called "Control the Chaos at your Desk". It's common sense, but it sometimes helps to have common sense spelled out for me!

I was doing really well on my mission to Fly, then backslid a bit when I started working flex time (four 10-hour days) for the summer. I've made myself an amended time schedule, though, and will make a real effort to do better. I like having everything neat and decluttered.

I tore my home office apart last Sunday and still haven't finished putting it back together. I had a good start at it, then developed the fever blister Monday and have felt rotten ever since. Hopefully I'll get that finished up Saturday or Sunday. I have to get Randy's road stuff ready, but that really shouldn't take very long. (I hope.)

A Long, Long Week

I captured this glorious webcam image from Purchase Knob this morning. I'm using it for my wallpaper. I've posted it here to test the "photo posting" feature now available in Blogger. Cool.

I'm getting new office furniture....it only took 18 years, but I'm getting new office furniture! :-) That's the good news. The only downside is that my office is in total chaos because I had some modular wall-mounted work surfaces that had to be taken down and moved to my assistant's office. I had to let our maintenance guys take them down Monday because that was a good day for them to do it, and I didn't want to be any more trouble to them than absolutely necessary.

So now a lot of my things are temporarily boxed up and tucked away until the new stuff is installed on Friday. *sigh* What a mess! And maintenance will be back sometime after lunch tomorrow to take my old decrepit desk away. Can't say I'm going to miss it a bit, but that means I'll have to shut down my computer sometime late tomorrow morning and get it disassembled and out of the way. I'm not quite sure how productive I'll be tomorrow afternoon, but it can't be helped.

I'm excited about getting the furniture, but the first day of July is probably not the best time for this to have happened. We're on a July - June fiscal year, so June and July are really busy. Oh, well....it'll all work out one way or the other.

I'm battling a fever blister. It came up Monday while I was at work, and by the time I got my Zilactin-L on Monday evening it was too late. The blister was fully formed and sore as the dickens! I put Zilactin on it all day yesterday, but it didn't seem to help much. Today I brought Orasol to work with me. It won't heal the blister, but at least it'll be numb!

I had a note on my last post to tell the tale of the Lynchburg trip. There's truly not much to tell. There was a Human Resources/Payroll conference in Lynchburg, and Deb sent my new assistant, Mary, and me to it. It was a nice trip, good informative sessions, and best of all I got to put faces with names of folks I talk to on a regular basis but never get to see. The room was nice, the food was good, and the trip was a little long, but okay.

Well, I've finally received some information from the VP that I need to work on. *drudge, drudge*

FOUR MONTHS????

It's been THAT LONG since I posted? Sheesh. Let's see now, what's happened since then??

Well, I'm on a flex schedule for the summer. I'm working 10-hour days, Monday through Thursday, with Fridays off! *YAY* I love flex schedule. I'd work it year-round if they'd let me. The 10th hour gets pretty long, but I dearly love not having to come to the office on Friday.

The first Friday of my summer was spent waiting for Randy's boss (A.K.A. the Procrastinating Jerk) to call to let him know something about his truck. I vowed that would NOT happen to me again.

On my second Friday, I went to a neat little tearoom in Kingsport all by myself for lunch, then shopped a bit and visited with Mom & Dad. That was really fun.

My third Friday (last week) was spent picking up tags for my car, visiting Mom & Dad, and shopping a bit. One of the items I shopped for was a DVD burner for my PC. I just love new toys!

I've not decided yet what to do with this Friday. In fact, I'm not sure yet whether Randy will be in town or not. He's been driving a truck for the past few weeks, but has been home for the last few days. He came in from his last run early last Saturday morning and hasn't gone back out yet.

If he's in town Friday, I may have to find him a project to keep him occupied so I can go do something with MY FRIDAY. *LOL*

Memo to self: write more tomorrow and tell the tale of last week's business trip to Lynchburg.

Why Dogs are Better Than Men

First, I'll explain why this subject came to mind for today's entry. *LOL* At 5:00 a.m. today, my phone rang. Randy's mom hasn't been well at all, so my first thought when the phone rang was that something had happened. I grabbed the phone, and sure enough, it was Randy. He asked what I was doing. I said, "It's 5:00 a.m. I was sleeping. What's wrong?"

Surprised, he said, "Nothing. I thought you get up at 5:00." Grinding my teeth I replied, "No.....I get up at SIX. What do you WANT?"

You're gonna love this. Last night I sent him out the door with a bag of trash (which he'd offered to take to the dumpster for me) and a Wal-Mart bag containing a bathmat for his apartment and 3 pounds of breakfast sausage I'd fried for him and put into individual little freezer bags so he could microwave a piece or two for himself for breakfast. Some time last night he discovered that he couldn't find the bag with the sausage and the bathmat in it. So.....being the MAN that he is.....he decided to wait until time for me to get up and call me to see if I had any idea what he did with it. Unfortunately, he'd miscalculated my wake-up time by an HOUR.

As calmly as possible, I told him that all I knew was that he left the apartment with the trash bag in one hand and the Wal-Mart bag in the other. He said it wasn't in his apartment, it wasn't in his truck, and he just didn't know WHAT he could have done with it. Taking my cue, I ground my teeth some more and said, "If you threw it in the dumpster with the trash, is there any chance I could reach it?" He was sure I could, because the dumpster was nearly full; he remembered that the trash he put in was at door level.

I put on my warm robe and my winter coat over it, yanked on mittens and a hat, grabbed a flashlight and made the trek across the parking lot in SIXTEEN DEGREE weather in the dark to see if I could find a Wal-Mart bag in the dumpster. In fact, I found several. None of them, however, contained sausage and a bathmat. Back through the darkness I trekked, making a short side trip to the parking space where his truck had been the night before to see if maybe he'd left the bag by the truck.

Back in my cozy apartment, I called him and told him I didn't find the bag and that if he'd stop on his way over tonight and buy three more pounds of sausage, we'd try again. I would NOT, however, buy him another bathmat. He apologized profusely for waking me up and asking me to go out in the cold and hoped I'd be able to go back to sleep.

Yeah......right.

So, on my way to the office, I called him from my cell phone at 7:30 to ensure that he didn't get to sleep in after waking me up. Bwahahahahahaha!

Why Dogs Are Better Than Men

1. Dogs never hog the remote control, and they never change channels when you're out of the room.
2. Dogs do not care whether you shave your legs.
3. Dogs aren't threatened if you earn more than they do.
4. Dogs don't step on the imaginary brake.
5. Middle-aged dogs don't feel the need to abandon you for a younger owner.
6. You can force a dog to take a bath.
7. Dogs think you are a culinary genius.
8. Dogs understand if some of their friends cannot come inside.
9. You can train a dog.
10. Dogs don't feel threatened by your intelligence.
11. Dogs are happy with any movie you choose to rent, because they know that the important thing is that you're together.
12. Dogs never....NEVER....accidentally throw three pounds of sausage in a dumpster then ask you to go out in the dark at 5:00 a.m. to look for it!!

A Sense of Loss

When I got out of the shower this morning and went back into my bedroom to get dressed for work, I had the terrible surprise of hearing Ed McMahon tell Katie Couric how much he would miss Johnny Carson. I pretty much gave up on late night television after Johnny retired, so I can't be objective about how his successor has fared. For me, late night television WAS Johnny Carson. Since his retirement in 1992, I've watched the occasional Top Ten list on Letterman, but that's been about it. Today I feel an odd sense of loss....but I'll bet the first monologue in heaven was a doozy. :-)

Some Weeks It Just Doesn't Pay to Get Out of Bed

In most respects, it's been a perfectly dreadful week. Monday was a holiday, but I didn't get much rest. I spent the morning doing household drudgery, then cooked a big ol' lunch for Randy. After I cleaned up the kitchen, I did manage to spend some time on the couch watching a DVD with him that we'd borrowed from Mom & Dad, so that was pretty restful.

Tuesday was back to work, and it's been just horrid all week. I got the W-2's out, so that was good to have out of the way. I'm taking a half day off tomorrow to go to the neurologist with Randy. Though spending time in a doctor's office isn't my idea of a good time, at least I'll get out of the office early!

Randy's mom has really gone downhill in the past couple of weeks. Yesterday her doctor said that it's time they sought some full-time professional care for her. No one was happy about the fact that it's time to find a nursing facility. Randy said that yesterday she didn't even seem to know what was going on around her, just staring into space. I feel so badly for her.

I must have had her on my mind last night, because I didn't rest well at all. I felt badly enough when I woke up that I toyed briefly with the idea of taking a day of sick leave. But, after I'd had a long, hot bath I felt a little better, so I dragged on in. I have to admit, though, that the thoughts of going home and having another hot bath and going to bed early is sounding REALLY good.

The weather forecast is calling for an 80% chance of snow....accumulations up to a couple of inches. Maybe, just maybe, we'll get a snow day tomorrow! *crossing fingers for luck*

This Is Getting Just Plain Weird

Yesterday I had a couple of hours leave I needed to take or lose, so I took a couple of hours of personal leave and left at lunchtime. Randy had just bought a truck he needed to register and tag, so I took him to Blountville to take care of it.

Neither of us had eaten lunch yet, so we dropped in at a Burger King near the Clerk's Office to get a bite. I was sitting there, munching and talking to Randy, and noticed something oddly familiar about a man who was sitting with his back to me about 3 booths down and one across.

Suddenly it hit me. It was my ex-boyfriend, Jimmy. I hadn't seen him in two years, and we hadn't parted well. In spite of that, I had all intentions of speaking to him as he left. After all, things had gone well when I spoke to my ex-husband Sunday, and life IS short, so why not? As it turned out, it wasn't an issue. I saw him turn halfway around once, as if to check to see if I was still there. Then when he left, he kept his eyes strictly straight forward and didn't so much as glance at me. So, since he was obviously avoiding an encounter, I didn't speak to him. I noticed he's aged a LOT in two years; I couldn't help but enjoy that just a little. *cruel, cruel me*

I told Randy, "Did you see that man who just walked past?" He said he did, and I told him who it was. He laughed and said, "Two exes in two days. Is there anybody ELSE I should be expecting? Hey, I didn't get to meet this one!"

I told him that this one was acting like he was ashamed of himself, and if he wasn't, he SHOULD be. *LOL*

Randy called me at 8:30 last night; he'd just gotten word that the life saving crew took his mother to the hospital around 6:30. He tried to reach his siblings that had gone to the hospital with her until very late last night, and never reached anyone. He spoke to two of his brothers: one of them didn't even know she'd been taken to the hospital; the other knew she'd been taken but didn't know anything further. He spoke to one of his nieces, who told him that Irene had been unable to get out of bed. When two of her sons helped her out of bed, she was unable to walk. A nurse examined her and said she was dehydrated.

The last time I talked to Randy (about 3 hours ago), he STILL hadn't reached anyone who knew anything. For a large family, they're just awful about communication. I just hope she's okay. I wondered how she could be dehydrated when someone's with her 24/7, but Randy said they make sure she HAS water, but don't necessarily watch for her to actually DRINK it. Alzheimer's is horrendously cruel.

Two Sundays in a Row

Sunday morning, I needed to put some new drawer pulls on an old chest of drawers at Randy's place. I'd bought wooden pulls at Lowe's that came with screws that were wayyyyyyyyyy too long, so I'd brought some shorter wood screws out of my toolbox. They were just a smidge too long; I told Randy that instead of buying more screws, we should get a small package of metal washers. A washer or two on the inside of the drawer would make the screws I had work like a charm.

There's a super Wal-Mart just about 2-1/2 miles from his place, so off we went. As I turned a corner in the hardware section, I nearly ran over my ex-husband and his brother. TWO SUNDAY MORNINGS IN A ROW I'VE BUMPED INTO HIM.

He apparently didn't recognize me, and I just walked past. I was about halfway down the aisle when I thought, "Oh, for crying out loud, this is nuts. We both live in Bristol, and I'm going to be running into him like this from time to time. And two Sunday mornings in a row has GOT to be some kind of a SIGN."

So, I turned around, said, "Come here a minute Randy" and went back. I extended my hand, smiled, and said, "Pardon me, but I think we used to be married." My ex looked up, surprised, shook my hand and said, "Well, yeah, I think maybe we WERE."

I made introductions, and we talked for several minutes, quite civilly. He asked about our daughter, Kris, and I filled him in. (Aside to Kris: I forgot to tell you in my e-mail, but your Uncle Don would like to hear from you.) All in all a fairly painless encounter, and now I don't have to duck if I hear him come in Shoney's or step around a corner in Wal-Mart. Life's too short to make it more complicated than it has to be.

Something I meant to put on here earlier, and just haven't taken the time: I made a cake for Christmas Eve that everyone went nuts over and it was sooooooooo simple. It reminds me a lot of a chess bar. It's not something I'd make very often because:

1. It's really, really rich, and
2. I rarely bake anything any more.

But, if you need to make something simple that tastes like you spent a lot of time on it, here's the recipe. I found it on FlyLady's website (link on the right), so all credit goes to her!

Died and Gone to Heaven Cake

For the bottom:

• 1 stick (1/2 cup) butter or margarine, melted
• 1 egg
• 1 yellow cake mix (extra moist works best)

Combine ingredients and press into a 9" x 13" cake pan (FlyLady suggested using a large sheet of waxed paper to press it into the pan, and it works like a charm).

For the top:

• 1 8-oz. package of cream cheese, softened
• 2 eggs
• 1 16-oz. box of powdered sugar

Mix together and pour over the cake mix mixture. Bake at 350 degrees until the top is golden brown. Let cool before serving.

I've not tried it, but FlyLady says it's also good with chocolate chips mixed into the top mixture, and that she knows someone who uses the same recipe with chocolate cake mix instead. *drool*

From Cinderella Back Into A Pumpkin

I was off work for the holidays from December 23 until January 3. Today is the end of my first week back at the office, and BOY am I glad it's Friday! Don't get me wrong....I adore having all that time off, but that first week back is a bear!

The time off was busy, busy, busy. But at least I didn't have to do all that work after having already put in 8 hours at the office!

I spent the 23rd getting ready for company on the 24th. Nothing big, just dusting and vacuuming and making a few last-minute goodies. On the 24th, I went to Randy's mom's for awhile in the morning, then went back home to finish up things for Christmas Eve. Randy and I had Mom & Dad and Bud & Daphene (my aunt and uncle) in for the evening. Dallas & Sue (another aunt and uncle) dropped in, too. Kris and Louise called from Australia, which was a wonderful treat!

Meggie enjoyed all the attention she received from our guests, but when 9:00 p.m. rolled by, she was ready for them to leave so she could go to BED! *LOL*

Randy and I were on the road early Christmas morning to go to North Carolina to see the grandbabies. Sky (4 years old) was really, REALLY excited for Randy to open his gift from her. She could barely contain herself, waiting for him to get the paper off it.....it was a lump of coal! I told him Santa must have told Sky he'd been a bad boy this year. *L*

While we were in North Carolina, we went by to see Sandy and Wilton (another aunt and uncle) for a little while. Wilton had made a wooden display case for my dulcimer; it's really beautiful, and I'm very happy with it.

I spent the first part of the next week getting Randy's things packed to move into his new apartment. I didn't think he had a lot of things to pack, but it turned into a JOB! The apartment was going to be ready on Wednesday, so we went Tuesday to arrange for his electrical service and such. Wednesday was a busy day, moving his things and trying to get some of his family together to move some furniture out of his mother's old house to the apartment.

They finally got part of it moved about 6:30 that night. Because it had been stored in an empty unheated house for so long, I had to wash it before I could polish it. What a mess! I worked like a demon all day Wednesday and Thursday, then made the announcement that I was taking Friday OFF. I figured I deserved at least ONE day out of my week off from work!

As it turned out, I spent most of the day Friday straightening up my apartment, cleaning up the disorder I'd caused moving Randy's things out. Right after lunch, though, I did take two hours to just sit in the recliner and watch an old Bette Davis movie. It was great to just sit there and veg out for awhile!

Friday night we baby-sat Randy's younger granddaughter, Chloe. She was just a peach....such fun!

Saturday Randy watched a ballgame while I was catching up laundry and such. Then we did some shopping for things he needed at his new place and had dinner at Applebee's (his sister and brother-in-law had given us a gift certificate). I had a few more things to do at his place Sunday, so we had breakfast at Shoney's (another gift certificate....this one from his Mom) and went to take care of that. I spent the rest of the day finishing up some things at my place while Randy was watching ballgames. Then Monday was back to.....WORK....*sigh*

I need a holiday to get over my holidays.....*LOL* Luckily, I'll have January 17 off, so that'll be a 3-day weekend. Maybe I can actually get some REST that day!

Randy, Meggie, and I are still adjusting to his living in a different apartment. It's not our first choice of living arrangements, but it's necessary. He comes to my place for dinner every night he's not staying with his mother, so it's not too bad. Just different. We'll adjust eventually.

Oh, something funny I need to put in here because Kris reads this.....*LOL* When we went to Shoney's Sunday morning, Randy wore his UT hat and a new UT t-shirt Mom & Dad gave him for Christmas, since Tennessee won BIG in Saturday's game. I was sitting in a booth with my back to the door. Randy looked up toward the door and said, "Now there's a guy with a jacket I need to go with my hat and shirt." I didn't turn around, but heard "the guy" say something to the hostess. I told Randy, "I recognize that guy's voice." Sure enough, when "the guy" walked past us, it was my ex-husband. *ROTF* He didn't look around, and I didn't do anything to draw his attention. He was there with his third wife and his brother for breakfast. Luckily, they were seated a good distance away from us. I think that's the third time Randy and I have seen my ex there.....we've got to start going to the other Shoney's in Bristol when we have breakfast out. *LOL*

The Snowman Cometh

It's rainy here today, but they say it may change to snow showers tonight. I'd love to have a little snow tomorrow, because one of my Saturday projects this week is to get all my Christmas gifts wrapped. I envision throwing a log in the fireplace, brewing a pot of peppermint tea, and wrapping gifts in front of the fire.

I hope to have a more productive weekend than I did last week. It was fun, but not very productive...*LOL* Daddy had hooked up the lights on a utility trailer for Randy, so to show our appreciation, we took Mom and Dad out to lunch. As we were eating, Daddy asked what we had planned for the afternoon. I told him I needed some new chairs to go with my kitchen table, and we were planning to look at unfinished furniture to see if we could find some like I wanted. (I wanted unfinished ladderbacks so I could stain them to match the trim on my table, a small square white-tile topped farmhouse-type table.)

Daddy said he wondered if we'd like to go see my aunt and uncle's new house (they'll be moving into it next week). So after lunch we made a couple of stops at furniture stores (no luck finding chairs) and went to see the house. There was still some work to be completed on the house, but it was all small items. It's lovely, with a HUGE "great room" or whatever they're calling it these days.

After we got back from seeing the house, Randy and I went to an unfinished furniture store in Johnson City. They only had one ladderback chair in the store; the manager said they're not able to get them any more. I found some Windsor arrow-backed chairs that I liked a lot, though. We had to go back home to get Randy's pickup to get the chairs; by the time we got them home and ate supper, it was much too late to start finishing the chairs.

I stained them early Sunday and got one coat of clearcoat on them. The weather had turned rainy and ugly by then, so they didn't dry hard enough for me to put the second coat on that day. I put the last coat on after I came home from work Monday. By that time, I was ready to get OUT of the furniture finishing business! *LOL* Actually if I had a good place to work on things like that, I'd enjoy it. However, since the only place I had to work was on cardboard in the middle of my living room, it wasn't all that much fun!

They turned out pretty well, though, considering I was a complete novice. They're much nicer than the chairs I had before, and seem very sturdy. I hope to get many years of use from them.

Speaking of "many years of use", my little 1998 Saturn SC-1 rolled over 66,666 miles on its odometer as I was driving to work this morning. It's been such a great car; I'm really enjoying it.

I can hear rain on the roof.....makes me feel all cozy and warm.....and sleepy.....*LOL*

I'm Thankful I Didn't Have to Bake a Turkey

Our Thanksgiving was small, but nice this year. Randy and I went to Mom & Dad's and it was just the four of us there for Thanksgiving dinner.

Mom baked a couple of baking hens in her rotisseries (yes, she has two of them, and the hens were just large enough not to fit in the big rotisserrie at the same time). When she took them out they were golden brown on the outside and moist and delicious on the inside. She also had mashed potatoes, green beans, rolls, coleslaw, and an interesting pumpkin dish. She said she'd just thrown the pumpkin dish together because she had all the stuff to make it. *LOL* It was pureed pumpkin mixed with brown sugar, spices and nuts, topped with crushed gingersnaps and baked. It was very rich and very good.

I took my infamous broccoli and cheese casserole (which everyone either really loves or really hates, depending on their fondness for broccoli), some stuffing with dried cranberries (yummy!), some deviled eggs (Randy's special request), and a sweet potato pie (purchased at Wal-Mart; I never HAVE been able to make a pie crust you could cut with a chain saw).

The food was all great, and we had the dishes washed and put away by 1:00 p.m. I told Mom that we were finished and ready to hit the couch by the time a lot of people were just sitting down to dinner!

It was cold and spitting snow most of the day, so it was lovely to be piled up in their living room, full of Thanksgiving dinner and warm and cozy.

It was Randy's turn to stay with his Mom Thursday night, so we took both cars to Mom and Dad's and Randy left from there late Thursday afternoon. It was a lovely, relaxed day, and I was very grateful I hadn't had to bake a turkey. :-)

Yesterday I dragged the Christmas decorations out of the closet and decked the halls. Meghan was NOT amused; she doesn't like ANYthing changed, THANK you VERY much. She followed me around, sniffing things as I took them from boxes, then looking up at me with those big brown eyes with her expression that says, "Oh, PLEASE, Mom. You're not going to hang THAT thing up again this year, are you?"

Today (Saturday) I have a thrilling day planned. Laundry. Housework. Cooking. Randy wanted me to cook a ham today, and I agreed. I'm making this blog entry while waiting for it to get late enough so that I won't disturb my downstairs neighbor too early on a Saturday morning. (Thoughtful little cuss, aren't I?)

I love early Saturday mornings. I wake up early, even if I TRY to sleep in. If I'm planning to stay home on Saturday I never set an alarm clock, but I wake up at my usual 6:00 a.m. just the same. I don't mind, though; it gives me a chance to have some undisturbed computer time. :-)

Can You Be Allergic to Work?

I have a headache. I've had a headache since 12:32 Tuesday. How do I know exactly when it started? There was a big ol' rumble in my office at exactly that time Tuesday when the new heating system kicked on for the first time since it had been installed. I heard the roar, had just enough time to think, "That smells like mold or mildew or something", and my head blocked up solid. I don't know WHAT that thing blew out into my office, but I'm allergic to whatever it is.

The HVAC guy, of course, couldn't smell anything and thinks it was just a coincidence. *yeah....right* Our maintenance supervisor told me it's hard to tell what could have been in the ductwork. I agree. And frankly don't want to think much about it.

My headache was so bad yesterday that I stayed home. Today's a little better. I guess all the "critters" will eventually be blown out of the ducts and I can quit suffering. This is just nuts.

We're going to North Carolina tomorrow; Randy's ex-mother-in-law is home from the hospital (she had colon surgery last week), and we want to go see her. Everyone says she's doing really well, and I'm glad to hear it.

We have rain today......makes me soooooooooooo sleepy! Tomorrow's supposed to be nice, though.

I've been doing some of my Christmas shopping and have intentions of being finished by Thanksgiving. Rainy cool days like today make me want to Christmas shop. I haven't a clue what to get Randy this year. He WANTS a utility trailer, but he's not getting that. *LOL*

Presidential Ponderings

Remember the good ol' days when, even in a close race, you knew who the new president was going to be by breakfast-time on the day after the election? Not any more. MSNBC's headline right now reads: "Bush's chief of staff declares victory, but Kerry not conceding." Seems Ohio is going to be to the 2004 election what Florida was to the 2000 election. *SIGH*

Did I vote? You betcha. I've voted in every presidential election since I turned 18. I figure that if I don't vote, I have no right to complain, and I want my right to COMPLAIN! *LOL*

Lots going on here. Randy's ex-mother-in-law, Wilma, is in the hospital. She's a dear lady and I just think the world of her. They had to take her to the emergency room last Friday; she was spitting up blood. After a series of tests, they determined that she has some leaky heart valves, but that wasn't the cause of some rapid drops in her blood pressure. They finally found that she had colon cancer. She had surgery yesterday; we've not talked to Theresa yet (Randy's ex-wife, who has become one of my friends as well), but when Randy talked to his daughter last night she said that Wilma's heart rate has been too fast. Otherwise, as far as she knew, surgery went okay.

My assistant here at work has had a run of bad luck, too. Monday, her husband hit a deer while he was driving her older-model Buick. $1,000 damages according to the trooper who worked the accident. Then Monday evening, just after she got home from work, her husband had an accident while working on a Bobcat at their home. Apparently, a hydraulic leak caused the Bobcat to come down on him, pinning him. MedFlight took him to the local hospital; they ran some tests and sent him home, finding no serious injury. She wasn't able to come to work yesterday; I've not heard from her yet this morning, and she's usually been here an hour by now. I hope nothing's gone wrong with her husband.

A Gathering of Roses and a Chance Encounter

I'm on vacation this week, and I swear I think I'm going to have to go back to work to get some rest! It's great, though. Even though we're not making a big trip, it's been really busy. I'm hoping the rest of the week will involve some REST!

Saturday: Last Saturday Randy and I went to Clintwood with Mom and Dad to attend a reunion of the Rose family (my maternal grandfather's family). It was wonderful to see everyone. My Pa Fred was one of twelve children; there are now seven surviving children, and six of them were there. It was such a treat to see them all, but it made me miss Pa Fred so much. When his brother Clyde came in, it took my breath away to see how much he looks like Pa Fred now. They've always resembled each other a LOT, but now that Clyde is older, the resemblance is striking. The room was filled with children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren; lots of food and lots of fun.

The reunion was held at the new community center on Main Street, which is next door to the new Ralph Stanley museum. Since we were just next door, we toured the museum when we left the reunion.

The museum is really great; lots of bluegrass history and interactive displays. It covers the history of the Stanley Brothers from the very first. Lots of touching tributes to Carter and a couple of the most beautiful Stanleytone banjos I’ve ever seen. They have a little collection of goodies from “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” that I really liked. Things like an official “Dapper Dan Man Kit”: a tin of Dapper Dan pomade, a cheap black comb, and a hairnet. They also had the notebook with the original handwritten lyrics of the “Siren Song” by Gillian Welch.

After we left the museum, Daddy asked if I’d ever been to the cemetary where Carter is buried. I hadn’t, so he took us up on a long, winding road back up on a ridge to the site where they have the big bluegrass bash on Memorial Day each year. The cemetary is right beside it; the view up there was just unbelievable. The foliage was at its peak, and we saw the most vibrant colors I’ve seen this fall.

From there, he took us out Sandy Ridge and drove us past Ralph Stanley’s home. His daughter has a house on one side of him, and his son’s house is on the other side. Ralph’s home is really nice, his daughter’s is nicer, and his son’s is unreal. In Abingdon it would be a very beautiful (and BIG) house; in Dickenson County, it’s a palace!

We came off Sandy Ridge (finally……I was NOT feeling well, having ridden in the back seat all day) and it was getting late enough that we realized we were going to have to have dinner before we got home. We stopped at Fishtales in Norton. While I was studying the menu for something I could eat, Daddy said “There he is.” I looked up at him and said, “There who is?” He motioned behind Randy and me and said, “Ralph Stanley.”

I turned around and, sure enough, Ralph and his wife were being seated at the second table behind us. Later, he walked past our table and Daddy said, “I didn’t want to interrupt your dinner, but I wanted to tell you that we went to your museum earlier today and really enjoyed it.” He was very gracious and stood there at the table and talked to us for a few minutes, telling us he appreciated our stopping by and that he hoped we’d tell our friends.

So, on one fine Saturday I saw relatives I’ve not seen in 20 years and had an unexpected encounter with a living bluegrass legend. All in all, not a bad first day of vacation, eh?

Monday: We have season passes for Dollywood, so we went to Pigeon Forge for the day. Before we got to the park, we stopped at the Muscle Car Museum in Sevierville. Randy spent a little while reliving his youth. *LOL* Dollywood was in the final days of the Harvest Celebration and the Southern Gospel Jubilee. There were lots of people there, but the crowds were moving along quite well. We saw some really great shows, had a wonderful lunch at the Backstage Restaurant (I love their fruit salad lunch!) and had a perfectly lovely day. (Even though we were both exhausted by the time we got back home!) I even bought myself a lovely little dulcimer. I've not had time to play with it much yet, but am looking forward to teaching myself a few things about it while taking a "couch day" tomorrow.

Tuesday: I had a mammogram scheduled for Tuesday morning; not a fun trip, but at least it was over with quickly, and I had a better-than-usual technician. Afterwards, we went to the Vacuum Center on State Street to get a belt for the Singer 127 treadle sewing machine I'd inherited from Granny Sweeney (by way of Daphene). Happily, the man who owns the store told me he has anything I'd ever need for my 127. I'm now really looking forward to getting the belt on it and trying it out. As we passed the display windows on our way into the store, I noticed some reconditioned vacuums on display. I've never been particularly happy with my Fantom vacuum, so I bought a reconditioned Kirby. If I was strong enough to hold it up, that thing would pull paint off the walls! I'm VERY impressed with it.

We then went to Ridgewood for the best barbeque in the world. If you've never been there, and find yourself in Bluff City, Tennessee at the right time of day, treat yourself. It's not fancy, but I've never eaten better barbeque anywhere.

We then went to Randy's mom's house to get the last of his stuff out of her garage. Most of it was junk (which we hauled to the dump), but we found some pictures, some of his kids' trophies won in grade school for cheerleading and basketball, and some clothes I think his son can use. We were so tired by then that we ordered pizza when we got home.

Wednesday: I got up and started doing household drudgery early; we were waiting for the UPS guy to bring a package he'd attempted to deliver on Tuesday (signature required), so we couldn't go anywhere until he came by. After he made his delivery (about 11:30), we made the round of errands to Wal-Mart, Lowe's, Food City, and Walgreen's. By the time we got back home, we were both pretty tired. Cooking dinner was about all I accomplished for the rest of the evening.

And now Thursday has arrived. Randy will be at his Mom's tomorrow, Saturday, Saturday night and Sunday this week. So, I'm waiting for it to get late enough (and now it IS) so I won't disturb the neighbors by running the washer and the vacuum so I can finish up the household drudgery I started yesterday morning. We need to go through the boxes of stuff we brought from Irene's garage so I can get those out of the dining area, and I need to carve my jack-o-lantern from the pumpkin I bought yesterday. I can hardly wait to see the trick-or-treaters Saturday night. They were so cute last year!

I have great hopes of getting the rest of my household chores done today so I can spend the rest of my weekend reading, learning something about my new dulcimer, and getting my Singer up and running. Now if the temperature would just drop enough that I can have a fire in the fireplace!

Now I'm off to do my household stuff.....15 minutes at a time! (Thank you, FlyLady!)