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Barbara
Fritchman Thompson Diary
Week
of 13 November 2006
Latest Update: Sunday, 19 November 2006 12:00 p.m.
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Monday,
13
November
2006
I
hauled off a trooper load of flatten cardboard boxes yesterday
afternoon then made another trip to the nearby Goodwill trailer. By
late yesterday afternoon I was pretty much used up from all the
cleaning and dealing with the stuff in Bob's office and his work room.
I still have a pile of stuff of deal with in the unfinished area of the
basement as time permits.
I finished up the Anne Perry and started the newest Ayelet Waldman,
Bye, Bye Black Sheep. You really must read this series. In addition to
being a great writer with great characters she is so funny. Her main
character Juliet Applebaum left her job as a public defender to be a
stay-at-home mom after her first child was born. It lasted all of two
days before she was bored out of her gourd. But, she was determined to
make it work. In the meantime she met up with an ex-cop who started his
own private investigation business out of his garage. He hired Juliet
to work part time. Up until this book, the business has been loosing
money. Things have now turned around after a couple of lucrative
clients plus the determination of her partners wife to set fees that
will actually help them make a profit.
While Juliet copes with under cover operations and solving crimes she
must deal with being the mom of three children. Between driving the two
of them to school, play dates, etc plus caring for her toddler, she
hardly has time to sleep let alone get any work done. Her husband works
all night writing screen plays and sleeps during the day. Her current
case has her trying to discover who killed a prostitute, a crime which
the local police did not even make an attempt to solve. In doing so she
uncovered a serial killer who had been out on the streets killing
prostitutes while another man was being help in jail for their murders.
Unfortunately he did not kill this one.
Despite a long day, I did go to the gym. Stephanie just call to see if
I wanted to walk. I think getting out and walking might help to
actually make me feel better.
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Tuesday,
14 November 2006
I worked through lunch yesterday, today, and
will have to tomorrow to make up for leaving at 2 today. I arrived at
the mechanics right at 2:30 to get the oil changed and new tires put
on. I actually enjoyed just sitting there reading for an hour and half.
I got home with enough time to change and check the snail mail before
loading Malcolm in the car for his vet appointment. He had his yearly
check up and shots. All is well.
Last night I finished reading the Ayelet Waldman. Today, while waiting
on the car, I started a new Cynthia
Riggs, Indian Pipes. She names her novels after plants. Set in
Martha's Vineyard, 92 year old Victoria Trumbull is actually a sworn
deputy police officer for her small town due to her cunning ability to
outwit criminals. She lives with her divorced granddaughter. When a
nearby neighbor who is also an engineer is found dead on the side of a
cliff Victoria suspects murder rather than accident. Her investigation
turns up a dispute between the local Indian Tribe and the town over
bringing in a casino of which the engineer was testing the soil for the
casino septic system. Add to the mix a group of motorcycle riders who
have arrived for a rally and things start to heat up.
Riggs provides nice descriptions of the Vineyard area, the local flora
and fauna and a good set of characters. Riggs actually runs and B&B
on the island for authors and poets. Perhaps I will see it next year
when I am on vacation. Martha's Vineyard / Cape Cod is our scheduled
family trip for next year.
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Wednesday,
15 November 2006
No update.
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Thursday,
16 November 2006
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Week]
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I went to the gym last night and picked up
take out on the way home. We had just come back in from walking the
dogs when Stephanie called to see if I wanted to walk. I quickly
checked my mail but did not take time to put up a post.
We had our Thanksgiving luncheon at work today. The Firm caters the
turkey both roasted and deep fried, mashed potatoes, ham, green beans,
rolls, and tea. Everyone else either brings a dish/dessert or puts in
money. The food was delicious and of course there was an entire row of
desserts to choose from.
It has been a long and tedious week at work. I am looking forward to
tomorrow being Friday. I plan to take all three days off next week
before the Thursday and Friday Thanksgiving Holiday. I really need some
time off.
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Friday,
17 November 2006
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No update.
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Saturday,
18 November
2006
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By the time I made a library and grocery
store stop last night I was not up to reading my mail or doing a post
after dinner. It was a very long and stressful week at work. I am
looking forward to relaxing next week along with getting some errands
other things done at a more leisurely pace.
This morning I met Frances and my folks at the annual Festival of Trees
Celebration benefiting Brenner's Children's Hospital. As I mentioned
last year, our Firm always buys one of the trees. Various people and
organizations around town decorate the trees then individuals,
businesses, etc. go to bid on the trees. In addition to the decorated
trees which are done in all kinds of themes, they have crafts, food,
jewelry, etc. They also have Santa there for the kids and a very large
craft area in the back for the kids to make stuff. Local groups perform
on the stage. All for a very good cause.
I have finished the weekly house cleaning. If the weather holds we may
get to go observing tonight but will have to wait and see how things
look. With next week off I can save the yard work for tomorrow or next
week.
Taking a break from mystery books I am reading the latest by Ivan Doig. I have mentioned some
of his earlier books, all set in the state of Montana. This one is a
stand alone from his Two Medicine Country series. He has also written a
couple of non-fiction works. In The
Whistling Season, Paul, the middle son of three narrates the
story going back to his early life as a teenager living in Marias
Coulee, Montana with his brothers and recently widowed father. Paul,
now fifty years later works as a superintendent for rural school houses
in Montana. He must go back home to give them the bad news they will
have to shut down. While waiting on the meeting to start he starts his
recalls those wonderful years on living in Rural Montana. As usual,
Doig presents wonderful characters along with telling a great story
while painting a picture of what it was like to live in that part of
the country. In addition to the three sons and their father there are
two other major characters in the book. Rose and her brother Morris.
Paul's father answers an ad in the Montana paper and hires a widow
looking for a position in Montana as a house keeper. She shows up with
her brother in tow, both of whom are very eccentric yet wonderful
people.
Doig throws in a little unexpected humor at all the right moments via
dialog and/or actions as Paul narrates what life was like on their
prairie homestead.
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Sunday,
19 November 2006
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We left around 2:30 yesterday afternoon to
drive up to the cabin at Fancy Gap. The weather had been iffy all week
for both Friday and Saturday nights. Friday was still a wash out in
terms of clouds but the forecast for last night was looking good
yesterday morning.
Indeed, we did have a good night. The weather was not too cold nor was
it windy. A large bank of white clouds looked like they were coming in
from the west around 9:30 but they gradually disappeared. Other than a
few trips inside to warm up or fix something to drink we observed from
7 until 12. The Leonid meteor shower was too weak and too far north for
us but we did a couple of low shooters every once in a while. Bob and I
managed to check off a couple of really hard objects we needed for our
list that were almost impossible even at our new site.
One funny story. I was wearing my cell phone in the clip on my sweat
suit pants. Late last night I realized it seemed to be missing among
the 10" eyepiece I had in one pants pocket and the wireless mouse for
the notebook in the other. I thought maybe it fell off one of the times
I went up to the house and I did not notice (we keep the house lights
off in order not to loose our night vision if we go inside and to keep
from washing out the observing area all of which makes it a little
tricky going to the bathroom with just our little red lights we use for
observing).
Instead of going back up to hunt around in the dark we first dialed the
number to see if I dropped it on the ground. The phone rang near where
I was standing and had previously been sitting so I started hunting
around on the ground in that area. No phone. We called the number a
second time to make it ring. No, it was not in my pocket. It had come
loose from my sweat pants band and fallen down in my pants at my boot
top. Since I was wearing another pair of pants over those for warmth I
did not notice it was there when we finally traced where the ringing
was coming from. I will never live it down with our observing
friends about the night my pants were ringing.
We got in bed around 1 and up about 7. After a quick clean up and
packing the truck we took off for home. The dogs of course missed us.
The neighbors let them out last night and this morning. Not sure what
we plan on doing this afternoon.
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Copyright
© 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006 by
Barbara
Fritchman
Thompson. All Rights Reserved.