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Barbara Fritchman Thompson Diary

Week of 22 January 2000 (Week 4)

Monday, 28 April 2003 07:02

Sporadic reflections that recount the events of my life

wpoison

Saturday, 22 January 2000

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Yesterday we took all three dogs to the vet. Kerry for his last Adequin shot, Malcolm for his last puppy shots and Duncan for some scratching problems. That took two hours. After we returned I ate a quick lunch, took a quick shower and headed on over to the library to volunteer for a couple of hours. The gift book room is my on going project. I finally got it in fairly decent shape, sorting good ones for possible addition to the collection, boxing others for the book sale room and tossing a lot that were just junk. They get so many gifts that one person could have a full time job just handling and processing gifts. As it is, I can at least get the books to the processing stage where other volunteers and pages can finish the processing part. By the time I return next week, the room will be full again.

I started a new book last night that I had bought at the bookstore a while back. It is by a North Carolina author from the Asheville area. The Blue Bottle Club falls into that category of sweet story that you can recommend to anyone who likes a nice, clean book. The plot up to this point is a little contrived, but I will see where it is going. Good, clean fiction is very hard to find these days for librarians to recommend to readers of all ages looking for this genre. 

Today was a nice Saturday. During the winter I do not have yard work to worry about, so unless I have client work, I can work on my own projects. After doing the morning dog stuff, I worked on organizing  more of my genealogy paperwork and files. The dogs and I went over after lunch and picked up the big greyhound sized crate that one of our other foster families was using. When not needed by rescuers, I have been using it as a playpen for Malcolm downstairs. 

We are finally getting the promised additional snow event. The forecast has changed from 4" to 2" and more frozen rain and sleet than snow. So, again we will see what tomorrow brings.  

Sunday, 23 January 2000

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Today is house cleaning/laundry day. Bob usually does the laundry in between working on what ever he is working on. I do my weekly clean the bathrooms, vacuuming and dusting. With two dogs I could vacuum everyday, but I don't. With the bad weather we are having, I also do not try to mop the floors until it dries up outside a little. At least with the hardwood and ceramic tile bathroom floor, I can damp mop pretty easily and the dirt and hair does not show too bad in between.

Once cleaning and lunch is over, Sunday is my day to watch golf or racing or both. Right now racing hasn't started and golf coverage is sporadic. So, I read or work on projects, nap, or help Bob. 

I have talked about books, now I will talk about music. I love to listen to a wide variety of music. In  my office working or sitting in the den reading, I prefer classical/Celtic instrumental. I had a portable CD player on my desk hooked to the PC speakers. When Bob built my new system he gave me a Plextor CD. The MVP 2000 software goes out and looks for the CD I am playing and provides me with titles and song lengths. I can skip or replay songs, etc. 

Right now I am listening to one of the few soundtracks that I own, Braveheart. Even if you did or did not like the movie, you will love the soundtrack. Another good soundtrack CD is Mark Knopfler's Screenplaying. He has music from four movies: Cal, Last Exit to Brooklyn, The Princess Bride, and Local Hero.

I have many Celtic CD's ranging from compilations of artists on hammer dulcimer to cittern and fiddle. Bob has hooked me onto Bach, Telemann, and Mozart. I discovered Debussy, though I do not like all of his works and some Beethoven and Schubert. In the car I prefer more "70's rock and folk CD's. The radio is pretty lousy down here, so if I have it on I do listen to WFDD, our local college classical station.

Well, it is a good day to stay indoors. We still have something falling from snow to freezing rain. The dogs and Bob are napping while I write this.  

I finished reading The Blue Bottle Club early this evening. I reviewed in on my favorites page. It was a nice story, but a little too sugar coated for my taste.

Monday, 24 January 2000

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No news.

Tuesday, 25 January 2000

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After another brief blast of the white stuff on Sunday, I got out yesterday morning since the roads were clear of ice. I hit the gym and did spinning class and decided to do the weekly grocery shopping while I was out. The Harris Teeter is on the other corner of the strip mall where the gym is located. I shop there every few weeks and go to Lowe's, which is in the other nearby shopping center, the other weeks.

I had to stop at the drugstore and then made a quick dog supplies stop. While in there I hit them up for some free food for our CBCR rescue foster families. They have almost expired and torn bags that cannot be sold or returned to the company. Our foster folks spend up to $200 dollars a week to feed our rescues until they get adopted. They use the food so fast, it does not matter if it has just expired or almost expired. For those of you who do not own dogs, feeding a dog cheap food only results in poor coats and scooping it out of your yard. Better quality food results in less poop and better health for the dog. They also do not need to fed as much of the good stuff, so you save money all the way around. I have been feeding my dogs pet store food for years now and I can tell a big difference. There are some fairly decent grocery store brands, but I just prefer the results of the better quality food.

I worked on some stuff yesterday afternoon, but spend a lot of time with the dogs and doing some e-mail stuff for CBCR. I have started a new book. This one is non-fiction about a couple that lives on a remote island off the coast of Alaska. My book shelves are full of these types of works by authors such as Bradford Angier and Henry Beston who go off and live in the wilds somewhere. Hum, my Walter Mitty I suppose.

With another shot of the white stuff on the ground this morning, I will stay in and work on my genealogy stuff and marketing my business. I need to work harder this year at getting more clients, though I do not think cold calls and letters are the answer. Bob is very busy with his Nutshell Book right now and does not have time to hold my hand in developing our other web site. I hope to move my business pages to that site eventually. In the meantime, I need to get busy and drum up some business. I try to help Bob with his chapters, but like the web site, I have not learned how to create something I have not started in my own head. Once I have an idea, I can run with it. Or, if I have a structure to work around, I can fill in the details. 

I will take the dogs out to play and get some fresh air, but otherwise I am enjoying being wintered in for a few days at a time.  My folks are fine, though my dad does not like to be kept indoors for long periods of time, He does not have any indoor hobbies and is not much of a reader. 

Wednesday, 26 January 2000

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No update

Thursday, 27 January 2000

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Last few days have been busy.  I ran errands in the morning and worked on mail in the afternoon. It was one of those days where I was making too many mental errors, so I finally gave up about 4:00 p.m. and watched the tape of one of my television shows. We have to tape everything at night that comes on between 8:00 and 11:00 p.m. because of Malcolm in his puppy stage. Never know when we will get interrupted for a potty emergency in house or out or he decides to go on one of his demon tears around the house. 

Right now he is just like a child going through the terrible two's.  He is teething and it makes him whiny, break house training and goes into demon mode.

This is the big crate that someone donated to me for rescue use. It belonged to a librarian that has a greyhound. As you can see, it is large enough for me and two dogs. I crawled in to look for one of Malcolm's toys and look who followed me in?

In case you are wondering Bob did not shut the door to the cage after he took the picture.

Today I had to drive up to Reidsville to deliver some free dog food to one of our foster people. My dad is going pretty stir crazy being stuck in the house with all the cold and snow. So, he rode along with me. While I was there I had to take some pictures of some new rescues with the digital camera. Dad enjoyed playing with their little girl, while Rebecca and I shot three or four pictures of each dog. It was a very pretty drive up through the country and they had about one to two feet of snow on the ground. The roads were pretty clear except in spots.

I got back in time to mop the hall after Malcolm had peed on the floor not once, but twice. The beauty of hard wood floors. Bob had already cleaned up numerous other poops and pee while I was gone.

We had not gone out for dinner in two weeks.  I venture to say Bob has not left the house except to go out with the dogs in two weeks. I insisted he take a break and go out for dinner at one of the nearby little home cooking type restaurants.  

Malcolm seems to have settled down some and I am getting caught up on mail and my diary. Hope everyone has a great weekend.

Friday, 28 January 2000

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