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Barbara Fritchman Thompson
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Barbara Fritchman Thompson Diary

Week of 21 June 2004

Latest Update: Sunday, 27 June 2004 14:46

Monday, 21 June 2004

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Got my days mixed up. I mentioned yesterday it was the first day of summer. Oops. Today is the first day of summer. Very un-summer like weather we had for today. High in the low 70's, cloudy, and drizzly most of the day. We need the break from the hot muggy stuff to say the least.

Not much else on the news front. I did step class tonight. Between mowing and other assorted things going on I have not been making it to the gym but once a week. I hope to get back into my routine this week.

Have a great week. 

 

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Tuesday, 22 June 2004

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Not much in the way of news. We remain steadily busy at work. Been to the gym. Still reading the first Jane Bee mystery, Murder at Buckingham Palace. I should be able to finish it tonight if I can stay away long enough after I go to bed.

The temperatures remained in the low to mid 80's today but it was much more humid. I took a quick walk around the block at lunch time instead of staying in the parking deck where it is considerably cooler. 

Guess that about wraps things up for now. Have a great evening.

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Wednesday, 23 June 2004

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Just  a quick post, it is almost 9pm now. Bob invited our friend Paul over for dinner tonight because his wife Mary is out of town on business. I came home from work intending to get my mail checked and post up before he got here at 6pm. He was picking up pizza on the way.

I am doing a review of the manuscript for Tara Calishain's new book, Web Search Garage. I had the review roughed out but need to do some polishing. She mailed me this afternoon and asked if I could send it to her today for some pre-release PR stuff. I spent a some time after getting my mail read to finish up the review so I could send it off finishing up just as Paul arrived. 

We were under severe thunderstorm watch until 9pm. We had some heavy rain and storms right before and just as I got home then it seemed to pass on through. I think the worst of the front has moved off to the east. 

I did finished reading the Jane Bee mystery last night and started the new Donna Andrews, We'll Always Have Parrots. As my regular readers know Donna is one of my favorite authors. Parrots is the fourth book fifth book in her Meg Langslow, decorative blacksmith series. She also writes the series starring Turing Hopper, an Artificial Intelligence Personality. 

Gotta run. Need to walk the dogs and get to bed so I can read a couple of chapters.

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Thursday, 24 June 2004

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No update

 

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Friday, 25 June 2004

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Sorry, last night after dinner I got immersed in several projects I wanted to get complete loosing all track of time. When I realized how late it was getting I was too tired to bother trying to write a post.

Friday could not have come any sooner. It has been a long, tiring week at work in addition to some after dinner projects I have been doing here at my desk.

I am about midway through We'll Always Have Parrots. Donna has Meg and boy friend Michael at a convention for fans of a television program he appears on very much like a Star Trek convention. Part of the hotel "decorations" include monkeys and parrots who managed to escape their cages and have pretty much taken over the main lobby and meeting rooms. 

Most people, myself included, thought all parrots talked like the "Polly want a craker" type. One species of parrot, known as an African Grey, can mimic sounds and voices. It just so happens we have one that lives three houses down from us. Bernie's cage hangs on the screened in porch of the house. Sometimes his owner lets him walk around outside, supervised of course. I did not realize they had this bird. I would be outside working and hear cell phones ring and other assorted noises wondering where in the heck they were coming from. One day Bob was outside and heard him making the exact same beeping noises as a truck makes. We off course learned about the bird living there and enjoy hearing all the assorted noises that come out of his mouth. Last week we were walking the dogs and Bernie was outside on the front walk with his owner. I said hello to her and she said hello back, then she said "Bernie says HELLO" too!

I know, I digressed. Donna has the talking parrots playing a major role in the book. Last night I was reading in bed laughing my butt off with her descriptions of some of the things the birds were mocking knowing exactly how it sounds. As usual, Med finds a dead body. All the main actors/actresses from the show plus Meg are suspects. I don't want to give too much away in case you have not read it. 

This afternoon I made the bank, library, store run on the way home. We had three book waiting to be picked up one of which is the new Janet Evanovich. 

Have a great weekend. 

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Saturday, 26 June 2004

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It has been a very busy day at the Thompson Techno Grotto. Before I enlighten you with today's events let me send you over to Bob's page for detailed explanation of the various beeps and quacks we had going on over the last twelve to fourteen hours. It all started last night when Bob's UPS failed in his office and ended this morning when the router failed. It is not fun to be woken up every hour and half with loud beeping noises which went on sometime in the early morning hours.

We did sleep in this morning until 7:45. This is the first morning I have not had to be up and out of the house by 8 or 8:30 to go over to dad's. Instead I leisurely read the paper before eating breakfast then getting started on the house cleaning. After vacuuming the kitchen, den and both bathrooms I gave them a quick damp mop. 

When I finished upstairs I headed downstairs. First I used the little hand held vacuum to do the stairs and doorway area to the basement then did both vehicles and washed their windows. Bob came down and helped me get all the astro-gear loaded back into the white truck. I then backed them both out of the garage and started cleaning up down there. After removing the big stuff such as mowers I took out bags of fertilizer, buckets, odds and ends etc. Once I had all the major junk out I used the gas blower to give the floor a good blow out.

While I let the fumes from the blower dissipate I came upstairs and made lunch. After lunch Bob had to come back down and help me remove the wheel assembly on the wheel barrow. When I went to move it the tire was not only flat but had come loose from the rim on once side. It was not flat last time I moved it a week or so ago. I will take it to Sears and see what needs to be done about getting it replaced. After using the broom to knock down cob webs and sweeping from corners I started putting everything back. I always do a little reorganization when I do the cleaning part. 

I did take a ten minute break to let the dogs go down and see Emma. Mimi and Steve and Shane were out in their back yard. After a quick visit we came back home. I finished up the basement, moved the cars back in and fired up the lawn mower.

Needless to say, by the time I was finished, 4:15, I was beat. Something light and easy to fix for dinner tonight then reading on the couch until bed time. It was really a great day for working outside or inside the basement. I don't think the high's made it out of the low 80's. Last night we had real frog choker just after we got back in from last time out. Other than a few clouds early this morning the skies sort of cleared letting the sun come out but it never did get extremely hot.

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Sunday, 27 June 2004

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Weather surprise. Last night when I went to bed I set the alarm for 6:45 per usual for golf. The forecast was for partly cloudy skies with nice cool temperatures, as always a chance of a thunderstorm in the afternoon.

When the alarm went off this morning I groggily made my way to the front door with the dogs always standing in rapt anticipation of it being opened. Imagine my surprise when I opened the door and it was pouring down rain. I did not hear it raining when I woke up between the dogs making their noises and the fan running on the AC. I called dad, he said it had been raining since he got up at 6. I tried going back to bed but couldn't go to sleep so I got back up about 7:15.

After reading the paper and eating breakfast I did some ironing. I told Bob I might as well take advantage of the rain out and get my Wal-Mart list taken care of and go on over and have lunch with mom and dad anyway. I also wanted to stop by Sears and see about my wheel barrow tire.

While I was at mom's Frances called to tell me to stop by the house and pick up some yellow and zucchini squash on the way home. She gave me a huge zucchini and two really nice big yellow squash from her coworkers garden. Just so happens we are having grilled ribs for dinner tonight. I will throw those on the grill as well. At Sears the young man recommended I stop at the tire center to have the tire fixed. Turns out you need to use the high pressure air hose in order to get the tire to reinflat back onto the rim. That fixed I came back home.

The sun has been shinning off and on all afternoon. Go figure. When I checked the weather channel this morning before going back to bed they were still running the partly cloudy forecast. Later that morning it was changed to a chance of showers showing rain all day. 

Oh well, I have balanced the check book, cleaned off my desk, and taken care of some other assorted odds and ends I never seem to find time to do.

I would have finished the Donna Andrews book last night but I couldn't stay awake long enough to get through the last 50 pages. 

 

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