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Week of -3 January 2010

Latest Update: Sunday, 3 January 2010 3:00 p.m.


Monday, -3 January 2010

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My condolences to our friends Brian and Marcia who lost their beloved fur friend Lucy today. Having just gone through this not long ago I can feel their pain. 

I worked today but am off the rest of the week using up the last of my paid days off. It was not as busy as I expected it to be for a Monday after the long holiday weekend. All lot of people were off doing the same thing I am. The Firm will be closed Friday for the 1st.

It was really cold this morning with wind chills down in the 20's. Even with the sun it had not warmed up much by lunchtime when I walked to the bank and then took a couple of turns around the block. 

As promised I drove Bob's Trooper to work today. His in car radio does not have a output jack to plug in my MP3 player but his CD player does work. I played the new Bruce Springsteen CD Bob bought me for Christmas, Working On A Dream. 

Yesterday when I was putting the kitchen back together Bob suggested turning the kitchen table lengthwise along the den wall instead if having it run parallel to the dinning room. Since we never use both sides of the table/benches unless we have company would could slid the table and bench up against the wall giving us more floor room. Works like a charm. If we do need to use both sides we have plenty of room to pull the table out allowing for easy access to the back bench.


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Tuesday, -2 January 2010

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I spent all day taking down the Christmas decorations. I spent the morning doing the tree and pulling the stuff out of the den and kitchen. This afternoon I did the table stuff in the living room and dinning room, and my village. Everything is now packed away and hauled back downstairs.  Bob washed my work load and the towel load and helped with the hauling of boxes. The city will pick up the tree to grind up for mulch. Bob the penguin will stay out front until after the New Year.

Malcolm has worked hard too. I took a mid-morning break for playtime out back before the yard thawed. Otherwise he has run up and down the stairs a dozen times. He will lay down if I take a break but as soon as I get up or move from one room to the other he is right behind me, or in front of me trying to see what I will be doing next.

It's was cold and windy this morning with wind chills in the 20's. Things have warmed up some with the temperature and wind chill now into the 30's. The last couple of nights have been very clear and cold with more of the same for tonight.


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Wednesday, -1 January 2010

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This morning I had errands to run; the pet store to pick up dog food, Lowe's, and the library to pick up some reserve books. I also dropped off a load of stuff at the Goodwill trailer and packing materials at the UPS store.

Before taking a lunch break I packed up the wrapping paper and boxes from the work room and hauled a few more odds and ends of Christmas stuff down to the basement.

At Lowe's I had picked up a new coat rack bar to replace the one currently in the foyer behind the front door. The one we have had six pegs that moved allowing them to be spaced as needed. We had outgrown the six pegs having to double hang jackets and coats that were constantly falling on the floor. The new one has six, two pronged hooks giving us more hanging places and better designed to hold our coats and jackets. I helped Bob get that up on the wall. The old one we can move down to the wall in the basement to give me more room to hang yard hats and jackets.

I had a 2:50 appointment for my annual mammogram. I left early to stop by Orthopedic Specialists, which is just around the corner form the Breast Clinic, to see if Mike could take a look at my brace. In addition to some of the pads being worn the knee brace itself needed adjusted to be more snug at the knee area where the pressure dial is located. The opposite pad was not staying against my knee. He was able to made some adjustments and gave me the name of the Berg rep to call about getting new pads.

Last night we watched Life On Mars about a present day detective who gets sent back to the 1970's after a car accident. Bob's friend had sent us Ashes to Ashes which is sort of a sequel to this show. We decided to give this show a try first. 


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Thursday, 0 January 2010

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Rain overnight and off and on today. Thankfully we did not get much if any of the freezing rain/sleet predicted for early this morning. Would not have mattered for me since I did not have to go anywhere. We had a break between rain showers around noon. I had Malcolm out to play. He hates having his paws wiped but he was not tracking mud back onto my clean floors.

Today was den cleaning day. I do move the sofa and love seat a couple of times during the year since we live in that room. Today I moved everything off the tables to give them a good cleaning with lemon oil I moved Bob's table out to clean and vacuum behind it, took the sofa and love seat apart to clean them real good. Took down the pictures, wiped down the walls, etc.

When I moved the love seat I saw what I thought was a small compact ball of dog fur. Open further investigation I saw this fur ball had very tiny ears. No, this time I did not scream eek! and yell for Bob but instead calmly asked Bob to come into the den. Sure enough it was a little dead mouse. I am thinking he may have been in some of the Christmas boxes we brought up or he got in from either the basement or when we had the back door open. I told Bob I kept smelling something the last week or so but could not find the odor.

With the worst of the work done I mopped the floor and took a shower while it dried.

This afternoon I did the fireplace and hearth, the tv stand, and the windows looking out over the deck and mopped the hall floor to dry while I am taking another break. I still have the corner cabinet and bookcase plus put all the stuff back but am otherwise finished with another room. I am making good progress getting rooms crossed off my list.


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Friday 1 January 2010

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A very Happy New Year to everyone.

Last night we watched the pilot episode of New Tricks. Sort of a comedy/drama about three retired male cops from the 80's who come back to work for a female superintendent who gets put on a cold case squad for botching a hostage rescue. We liked it well enough to go for the first season. We also knocked off another season of Dexter. When we walked Malcolm for last time about 9:45 the bangs and booms had already started. I gave him a whole calming  pill when we came in to keep him from getting so frantic at midnight. He started out as usual, lying on top of me in the bed for comfort but eventually went to the foot of the bed. He jumped up and down but was still a lot calmer then he usual is with the fireworks going off. He finally settled down on the floor beside Bob staying there for the night. Usually he moves from under the window to his crate and the bedroom door. He was still a bit out of it this morning when we got up but perked up as the day went on.

Today I started on the foyer, living room, and dining room. I mopped those floors and cleaned all the furniture except the three big bookcases in the living room.  I did not get all the stuff that goes back on the tables cleaned and dusted yet but that can wait until tomorrow. It always takes me longer because I always rearrange the way I put things back out.

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Saturday, 2 January 2010

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The living room and dinning room are finished. The big project for this morning was moving our big upright freezer from Bob's lab to the unfinished area of the basement. We used the hand truck with me tilting the freezer up for Bob to do the rolling while I held onto the other side pulling and guiding. There was not enough room to swing it from the kitchen into the little hallway. By rolling it out and setting it back down we could turned it enough to get it back on the hand hand truck to roll it across the finished area. We hit another snag at the door out to the basement. The frame was wide enough but the door itself was in the way. Bob was stuck behind the freezer between the door, wall, and the stairs. Once I removed the hinges and took the door down it was clear sailing out into the basement. I vacuumed and mopped where the freezer sat then we moved the old microwave cabinet into his lab. He set up his mom's old small microwave and convection oven for lab use.

Having the freezer out in the basement area will make it more convenient for putting away our frozen foods when we go to Costco and when I need to defrost.

While were down there working I put all the Christmas decorations back in the closet and put the blankets, pillows, sleeping bag and air mattress away. I still need to move a few pieces of furniture around from the Bilbrey visit and swap out the old lamps with the ones from up here.

It is very cold today with wind chills down into the teens and single digits tonight. I had Malcolm out briefly while we were downstairs. Not only is it too cold to be out but with the 15 to 20 mph winds it is too dangerous to be under the trees.

I've finished the Maiden's Tale and started another Margaret Maron, Storm Track.



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Sunday, 3 January 2010

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I tackled the last room on my list, my office. I took everything off my desk to give it a good furniture polish then reorganized things as I put them back. I've done my end of year/beginning of the year chores; creating new files for physical receipts, etc. while pulling last years to go with the tax stuff and setting up new spreadsheets. I did not dust all the books and shelves right now. Depending on what I have going on later this month or in February I may paint my office. It is one of the first rooms we repainted when we moved in and has not been done since. If I don't I will tackle that project. With that in mind I've created my winter list of inside projects to keep me busy until spring.

It is another cold and windy day. Time to relax on the couch to read. Maron has set the plot of Storm Track around the 1996 hurricane season when Fran came ashore at Cape Fear before moving inland over Raleigh doing a lot of damage. Maron actually had to do her writing of this book at the library while her power was out due to the storm. One of the high school kids in the book is tracking hurricanes for his science project for the entire hurricane season. Being a weather junkie, I am enjoying the tie in.



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