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Barbara
Fritchman Thompson Diary
Week
of 11 August 2008
Latest Update: Sunday, 17 August 2008 3:10 p.m.
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Monday, 11
August 2008
I'm
back from the Windy City. Learned and saw a lot in the short time we
were there. I will have pictures up sometime this week. The weather was
perfect for our full day of sight seeing. Low 80's, low humidity. I
guess I brought it home with me. It is currently 78 degrees, no
humidity to speak of, and a low tonight of 60. Very unAugust like
weather. It is very dry. The flowers looked pretty droopy. The Bermuda
grass has grown as had some of the other from the rains we had last
week. Most of the yard is still somewhat green with some brown areas.
While on my trip I read another Ann Purser, Weeping on Wednesday and started a book in a new author and series for me. Laura Childs
writes three mystery series, a tea shop, scrapbooking, and cackleberry
club. I decided to try the tea shop series. Theodosia Browning
runs the Indigo Tea Shop in downtown historic Charleston, SC. The first
book in the series is Death by Darjeeling. Since I am enjoying the herb
and tea shop mysteries by Susan Albert I thought I might like these.
Bob did four loads of laundry for us today. I now have to go put it all
away. He did the usual three loads of darks, whites, and towels, plus
my special work load. I came home and mowed then watered everything
real good. Some of the bushes in the front are starting to look a
little brown. The lantana is like the Bermuda grass, it loves hot, dry
weather.
The first day back at work was not too bad. Hopefully I will get caught up by the middle of the week.
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Tuesday, 12 August 2008
No update
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Wednesday, 13 August 2008
Of the 100 plus pictures I took in Chicago I
narrowed the field down to 8. On Thursday night when we arrived we
checked into our hotel, The Hampton Inn Majestic.
Located in downtown Chicago, the ground floor of the building houses a
theater. The hotel is on the 1st floor via elevator. The rooms start on
the 6th up to 21st. We were on the 21st. If you have time, look at the
website. The outside of the building is beautiful as are the rooms.
We had about two hours between arriving and boarding the bus again for the short trip to Tommy Gun's Garage
show. As you can guess from the name, the show offers a 1920's
speakeasy with music, comedy, and dinner. We ordered ahead when we made
our reservations with several choices between meat, chicken, and pasta.
The two ladies standing were part of the show. Everyone in the show
also works as wait staff. They take orders, serve, etc while taking a
break to go on stage to do a performance either individually or as a
group. The MC also chooses people from the audience to participate in
some of the skits. The talent was excellent, the show wonderful as was
the food. The 2 hour show was over at 9pm. We did not have the place to
ourselves, other tourists also came in. They order when they arrive.
With full bus loads of people they take our orders ahead of time. If
you go to Chicago you might want to take this show in.
On Friday we had a picture perfect day
as you will see from the pictures. In the morning we had a step on
guide take us on a two hour bus trip taking us by the sites such as
Wrigley Field, the lake front beaches, Harpo Studios (Oprah), the
Vietnam Memorial, etc. After the bus tour they let us out on Michigan Avenue along what is known as
The Magnificent Mile. They gave us two hours to shop and sightsee. Our family chose the
Grand Lux Cafe as our place to eat lunch. From there we walked a couple of blocks over to the waterfront for the
Wendella Sightseeing Boat Tour.
As the link indicates, we took the architectural tour. They point
out the buildings, what they are, etc. The round building on the
right was one of my favorites. The apartments are on top above
the space where the columns are. Below that is the parking
garage.
Another pretty skyline.
I loved this building. Sorry I can't remember the name.
After the boat tour we went back to the hotel. For those who wanted to go, the bus took us down to the
Navy Pier for more shopping and/or to eat dinner. The Pier is like an amusement park with shops and restaurants. Lots to do and see.
When the boat tour first leaves the dock they take us out to Lake
Michigan to see the skyline from the water. In order to come and go
from the river to the lake boats must pass through a lock system since
the river is lower. This is a picture looking back from the boat after
we went through the lock going out.
The Chicago skyline and Navy Pier from the boat.
Saturday morning before we left Chicago to head home we went to the 103 floor of the Sears Tower called the Skydeck.
This is one of the many views. The morning was cloudy with rain showers
but this picture turned out pretty good through the window.
As you can see from these few photos, Chicago is a beautiful city. Very
clean, lots to do and see. I want to go back and do the museums. We
stayed over night in Kentucky going up and back.
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Thursday, 14 August 2008
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No update.
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Friday, 15 August 2008
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Friday finally got here. It was a very long
and tiring week catching up from being off last week. I did make it to
the gym Tuesday and last night but did very light workouts both nights.
We had a little rain shower yesterday and another one this afternoon. About 1/2 an inch total.
I am now reading the most recent J.A. Jance, Joanna Brady mystery,
Damage Control. It has been two years since her last book in this
series. Bob and I also read her J.P. Beaumont series. She has two other
series but I have not read those.
Sheriff Brady and husband Butch are busy as usual. They have an infant
son to care for as well as Joanna's teen very grown up teen age
daughter. The book opens with a short four or five page intro story
that I will be interested to see how it fits in with the plot of the
book. She has an elderly couple driving over a cliff, two bodies
in plastic bags washed into the valley after a severe rain storm, and a
possible suicide/burning down of a mobile home with the victim being a
handicapped man in a wheelchair. All this happens in one weekend as
Butch is trying to get is second manuscript off to the publisher and
has been asked to go on a book promotion tour for his first one.
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Saturday, 16 August
2008
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Bob and the dogs let me sleep in until 9am.
After spending a leisurely half hour reading the paper and having
breakfast I started on the house. It took well over an hour to get
things picked up and put away. This includes all my stuff from the trip
that I just dumped last Sunday night either on the kitchen table or in
my office. If you are wondering about the kitchen table, we only use it
to store things temporarily, as a workbench for Bob, and where I eat
breakfast. On some occasions we use it for dinner when we have company
otherwise Bob and I eat on the This End Up tables that attach to the
arms of the sofa/love seat.
While the cleaning upstairs was going on I washed a load of my work
cloths. After I finally got everything organized I took the dogs out
back to play, switched my load to the dryer and put the sheets in to
wash. It took almost as long to do the vacuuming. Two weeks of dog hair
and debris brought in from outside. That is why I prefer to clean every
week. It makes it much easier.
The only thing left is my desk, piled high with stuff to sort & file, and ironing.
We are still having very unseasonable like August weather. Today's high
is 82 with only 47% humidity. Normally this time of year it should be
well up into the high 80's or 90's. Not that I am complaining.
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Sunday, 17 August
2008
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Late yesterday afternoon we took a disc of 49
of the 100 pictures I took in Chicago to Walgreens for printing. While
did the transfer I did some shopping while waiting on a prescription to
be filled. The pictures would be another 20 minutes so we left to go
eat across the street at Coppola's. They were closed for vacation so we
drove to a new Greek restaurant open the first of year in the place of
another one that closed. Bob was skeptical since we ate at the last
place when the food was awful. To our delight we discovered a true
Greek menu with lots of choices. The food and service was excellent.
After we ate we drove back over to pick up the pictures. Last night we
tried out the first season of Weeds. Sort of cross between Wonderfalls,
which l liked; and Californication, which I did not like the first 10
minutes of the pilot. The writing and jokes were good in Weeds and at
least the raunchy parts were funny and part of the plot.
We had a very weird storm early this morning. I woke up around 1:30
when the room lit up with a flash. I thought perhaps it was car since I
did not hear thunder. I finally fell back asleep to wake up again
around 2:30 with the room being lit up constantly with flashes. Still
no thunder. It was very weird. Finally, Malcolm started barking and
growling. I guess he could hear the thunder. I got up to check the
radar online. We were under severe storm warning. The storm went just
north and east of us. Where it was skirting us we were seeing the sheet
lightening but not getting much in the way of thunder or rain. It
finally rained very lighting sometime later that morning.
Despite not sleeping well I still was awake at 7:30 and could not go
back to sleep. Bob has just gotten up with dogs. After I read the paper
I did some work on the computer until time to take off for my folks
house for a visit. On the way I did a cardboard drop at the fire
station. I had planned on doing some outside projects this afternoon.
The morning and early afternoon was still cloudy, cool, and overcast.
The yard is not really high enough to mow but I had some other things
to do. By the time I left the folks, stopped by Frances' on the way
home, and got here it was 2:30. Too late in the day to start yard
project plus I was not in the mood. Instead, I put the towels in to
wash and took the dogs outside to play.
I have some bills to pay and a letter to write for mom. The hospital,
in their internal investigation, of course found nothing wrong with her
care at the emergency room. They wrote a letter for follow -up that
resembled nothing in the reporting of the true facts. I have an
independent source also going to investigate. I need to get some
paperwork and letter out to them tomorrow.
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Copyright © 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002,
2003,
2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008
by
Barbara
Fritchman
Thompson. All Rights Reserved.
