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Barbara Fritchman Thompson
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Barbara Fritchman Thompson Diary

Week of 4 October 2004

Latest Update: Sunday, October 9 2004 1:50


Monday, 4 October 2004

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The first day back at work after my vacation went smoothly. No gym tonight. I had e-mail this weekend from one of my readers advising me to make a visit to the doctor about my foot. So, I called them this morning and made a late afternoon appointment. One tetanus shot and a prescription for antibiotics later, I was home a little after five. Dr. Dalton said a nail in the foot through a tennis shoe can cause some rather nasty infections even though it did not penetrate very far. He named some kind of infection about 18 letters long. The nurse said I may have a reaction to the shot by Wednesday but I guess it is better than getting tetanus.

Below is a picture of a new addition to our household. I purchased him at the Vermont Teddy Bear Factory for Bob. They do not make these at the factory but instead was one of several Friends for Life you can select and stuff yourself with the aid of one of the staff. After stuffing him he gets a birth certificate, a red heart sewn inside before being hand stitched, and a  bow tie. I thought the black one made him look rather distinguished.

Bob has named him Tux.



 

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Tuesday, 5 October 2004

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Last night I finished up Blind Bloodhound Justice. Not sure what I will start tonight, if anything. We met Paul for dinner at the Chinese restaurant at 5pm. He had a class to teach at 6pm, we came back home. We need to leave again at 7 for our WSAL meeting. We are meeting at the new house of one of our members to see how the skies are for observing. They moved from in town out to a fairly rural area.

I have the text written up for my trip page. Once Bob get the pictures formatted for me from the digital camera I will put it all together. I messed up a couple of pictures with the digital that I have on film but Bob is having problems with the scanner.

We are having beautiful fall weather with clear skies and cool temperatures. Today it barely got out of the 60's. 

 

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Wednesday, 6 October 2004

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We declared our WSAL members house an official observing site. He has a very nice house on the far west side of the county with fairly dark skies to the west, southwest, and north. As usual, last night turned too cloudy to try out any observing. It was clear Monday night and is to be clear tonight. We need to come up with a way to fake out Mother Nature so we can get a clear night for observing!

I stopped at the library on the way home to help break down the book sale. I usually help with set up but was out of town. They two ladies who are now organizing and running the sale do a wonderful job. However, they are not comfortable with culling through the leftovers for what to keep for future sales and what should go to Goodwill. While I sorted a couple of other volunteers boxed. Another Friends volunteer called the outreach lady from the local jail. She carted out ten or fifteen boxes of fiction paperbacks and other assorted reference books for the prison library.

It was well after six by time we finished up. I picked up take out on the way home.

I was prepared for the worse but it didn't happen. When I had my tetanus shot on Monday the nurse warned me about my arm swelling, turning red, hurting, etc. Although I have had some localized soreness around the muscle and in my shoulder my arm has not swelled up or turn red. Advil and Aleve have helped with the soreness. I guess since it is now Wednesday I would have already experienced any other side effects.

I started reading another Em Hansen forensic geologist mystery by Sarah Andrews, Bone Hunter. I was pretty tired by the time we got home last night and walked the dogs but I did manage to get a couple of chapters read before turning out the light. Em has gone out to Utah for a paleontology conference as a request by an esteemed dinosaur expert who has offered her his guest room. When he turns up dead Em, is of course, the prime suspect in the case.

 

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Thursday, 7 October 2004

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 No update.

 

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Friday, 8 October 2004

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Whew! It has been a long week and I am very tired. Yesterday afternoon I left work at 2:30, made a quick grocery store run , then hauled Malcolm off to the vet for his 4 pm appointment. Back around the first of September he had started his annual scratching on the undersides of his belly and licking his legs and paws until he turns them red. This has happened in the past so I started him on Benadryl. When that didn't work I used up the remainder of an anti-itch medication I had from last year but I ran out of those and they would not refill them without seeing him first.

It turns out he has a staff infection most likely from allergies and other things he comes in contact with outside. The vet gave me antibiotics, more of the anti-itch pills, and a cortisone cream. I started him on the pills but will have to wait until tomorrow to do the cream. I have to wet him down first then let it dry on him. That should be fun!

After a quick dinner I sat down to add the digital pictures from my trip to my page. Bob had resized them all and put them on my trip page above the text. I tried cutting and pasting them but that created a major mess with the file names and locations. After that blew up Bob set my page back to where it was. I cut and pasted the text to fit the pictures then published. That blew up as well. After two hours of working on that mess I was too tired to even try to get a post up. I check my mail and called it an evening around 7:30.

Tonight is to be a fair but not great evening. We may try to get some observing done. The way the weather has been we cannot wait for perfect conditions.

I hope you have a great weekend. It will be a very busy one for me. I have a LONG list of things I need to get done. 

 

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Saturday, 9 October 2004

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Foiled again. Last night after I posted my journal page we packed up and headed out for our observing site around 5:30. We decided we would pick up dinner on the way and eat when we got there. Between 4:50 when I got and 5:30 when we pulled out of the driveway the clouds had started rolling in from the west. This was not supposed to happen until around 10pm last night. We are getting clouds from tropical depression Matthew in the gulf and streaming just west of North Carolina.

So, instead of going observing we drove over to the little diner for dinner than returned home. I put a Bach CD on, grabbed my book, and spent the evening reading. I did finish up the Em Hanson and started the final book in the bloodhound series.

I was up this morning by 7:30. By noon I had given Bob a haircut, sprayed down both dogs and put the itchy cream on, cleaned the bathrooms/vacuumed the house and mowed the lawn. This afternoon I will spend working on putting pictures in albums and doing some major cleanup of my desk.

 

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Sunday, 10 October 2004

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 My desk is almost cleared from the piles of stuffed stacked up since before my trip and being home. I worked yesterday afternoon putting mom and dad's picture album together from the trip. I will work on mine this afternoon.

Last night the weather forecast for today was cloudy and cool. HA! When I went out to get the paper at 7:40 this morning it looked pretty clear to me although it was still dark. The morning turned out to be beautiful with clear blue skies and temperatures in the low 60's. Great golf weather. I started out with a light weight jacket on but shed it on the third hole.

After a quick lunch at mom's I headed back home. We let the dogs out in the backyard for some playtime when I got home then I came up to take my shower. After reading the paper I ironed a basket load of work pants and shirts.

I need to finish up a few odds and ends of to-do things on my desk including paying some bills before I work on my pictures.

Last night I did finish the last bloodhound book, A Bloodhound to Die For. As I mentioned when I first started reading the series, Lanier died just after the last book was published. I do not want to give anything away just in case you are reading or wish to read the series but she must have been sick at the time of writing this and knew it would be her last book. She tied up a lot of loose ends with personal relationships between Jo Beth and Hank and her two best friends.

I ams still working on learning all the new software and web site design stuff. Poor Bob! While I was away my mouse stopped working. Bob installed a new large trackball mouse for me.

I have cheap track ball at work but I love them because they are easier on my hands and fingers when I mouse. Since we are running Xandros I cannot program the buttons but that does not bother me. However, since Bob uses a traditional mouse when he has to work on my system he has a horrible time doing stuff like cutting and pasting, highlighting, etc. It is a great mouse but would, of course, work much better if the right side buttons could be programed.

As usual, the weekend has flown by. I do not have the day off tomorrow. When I worked for the county it was not a holiday nor does the Firm observe it.





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