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Photograph of Robert Bruce Thompson Barbara Fritchman Thompson Diary

Week of 20 August 2007

Latest Update: Sunday, 26 August 2007 3:00 p.m.


Monday, 20 August 2007

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I saw the cutest dog food commercial while at the gym this evening. The scene opens up with a little boy play water tag with him lab puppy. In case you don't know what that is, Malcolm loves to play water tag. I turn on the hose and he chases the water trying to catch it. The bad part about that is you cannot have him outside with you while trying to water or wash anything because he thinks he should be chasing the water.

Anyway. Next scene, puppy runs in to his food bowl. Next scene. Puppy has grown to full size and is now eating the same brand of food for dogs rather than puppies. Last scene. Dog has hose in his mouth and is chasing the now older boy with the hose. I do not want Malcolm to see that commercial. He may get ideas in his head.

I finally finished the Dana Cameron and started the most recent Donna Andrews, The Penguin Who Knew Too Much. A nice, light and funny mystery after the more serious Cameron although Donna mentions Dana in her preface of authors to thank. Dana left some things hanging in the this second book that I am sure she will address in the next one. This Andrews is a library book. I also have a couple of Perry's and Jance's to read before going back to my TBR pile.

I noticed a lot of discussion lately on the DL mystery list about Kate Ellis. Bob and I had read a couple of her earlier works but have not been able to find her more recent ones in the US. I may have mentioned I bought one or two at Malice from a Canadian vendor. Maybe next year I can get the others in her series.

We are rapidly approaching the end of the Midsomer Murders available on DVD. I think we only have two left. Time to go through my TBW (to be watched) list to find some of the movies I asked Bob to order that we have not watched yet.



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Tuesday, 21 August 2007

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I usually check the Weather Channel on line late in the afternoon since we have no windows to look out. A very long line of thunderstorms looked like they were heading our way. Sure enough we were under severe thunderstorm watch until 5 pm.

When Drew and I leave from work we go up the elevator to the first floor and walk out the front of the building. When we turned the corner off the elevator lo and behold what did we see...dark skies and pouring rain. I had brought my little umbrella from desk drawer just in case but it was not big enough to get me and Drew under. The wind was blowing so hard all it managed to do was to keep my head and upper body dry. My pants and shoes got soaked. We got about half an inch of rain here at home. That is enough to make the plants and bushes happy. We may get another light shower this evening but otherwise the worst of the weather has cleared on out.

We are watching some of the Brother Cadfael mysteries. We only have a few left we have not seen. They did not make all that many of them compared with the number of books written in the series.


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Wednesday, 22 August 2007

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My sister called last night to discuss some things. It came up in the conversation about where I was going for dinner tomorrow night. I paused then said I had dinner out last Wednesday night. Hum!  Turns out Bob forgot to publish my page on Monday. He has to publish for me on Mondays then I can do it the rest of the week. I usually tell him on Monday night when I come out to the den. He forgot and, I forgot to check it last night after I published.

Oh well. I did have lunch today with my friend Bonnie.

We had another whopper of a storm this afternoon. Fortunately this one passed through downtown by the time we got off work. Right now there is a very strong one  on my folks side of town. We can hear the thunder but it is south of us and moving east so I doubt we will get anything from this one.

Obviously we need more rain than these brief downpours but at least they are helping to get some moisture back into the ground and help to fill us lakes and streams.



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Thursday, 23 August 2007

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I left work at 12:30 to pick up mom and dad. Dad had a 1:30 appointment to have a laser treatment on him eye that has the implant. We were at the hospital until 3pm when they turned him loose. Hopefully by tomorrow he will have somewhat better vision in that eye.

From the hospital we went to the drugstore so they could do some shopping and pick up a couple of prescriptions. It just so happens I had some drugstore shopping to myself so that worked out well.

It was just a little after 4 when we finished up there. We decided to go ahead out to Henry James diner for an early dinner. After I dropped them off I headed back across town for a pet and grocery store stop.

The weather right now is brutal. 89 degrees, feels like 96. Yep, hot and muggy. The yard has greened up a little from the rain we had the last two days but is still pretty sad looking. I have had about enough of this hot and muggy crap. Flooding in Ohio and Texas, drought in the Midwest and southeast.

The trash has been rounded up and taken out. I still have recycling to gather and put out.



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Friday, 24 August 2007

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No update.



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Saturday, 25 August 2007

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I was so glad to see 5 pm Friday roll around. It was a very long and tiring week. I did not even come back to check my mail last night.

Another brutal day. With no golf this weekend due to a tournament at the course I had a laundry list of chores inside and out. I slept in to about 8:15, read the paper, and headed outside for yard chores by 9:30. I had the dogs out for ten minutes before I put them back inside. I trimmed all the dead flowers from the zinnias, cut the dead hosta  back and did some general plant maintenance in the front. Then I fired up the hedge trimmer to do the forsythia along the driveway. I had lots of big limbs down from the storm the other night. I picked all those up then mowed. Most the yard including the Bermuda was high enough to mow after those short rain showers we had earlier in the week. I finished up by noon just as it was getting really, really hot. In two hours I went through two bottles of Gatorade and three small bottles of water.

Oh, I had also trimmed some of the dead flowers from the butterfly bush and some of the branches with dead leaves from the drought. In doing so I had trimmed a couple of the blossoms (this is a pink one) still alive. I had thrown them in the top of the yard waste cart and walked away to get a broom to sweep the drive. When I came back a butterfly was perched on the blossom in the cart. I bent down very close and watched it drink from each little flower of the blossom. It was pretty cool to watch.

I finished the Donna Andrews and started another Anne Perry, Ashworth Hall. Thomas and Charlotte are spending the weekend at her sister Emily's house. Thomas is on assignment undercover to keep an eye on a summit meeting concerning the "Irish Problem". Homeland rule being the topic of political unrest for the book. Emily's second husband has made a name for himself in the government and has agreed to host the event. Just prior to leaving for this event Thomas had just started to investigate the death of a local policeman who had been working undercover for the government as a member of a local Irish sympathetic group. One of the politicians attending the conference has already received several death threats. Pitt hopes to prevent the threats from becoming a reality.

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Sunday, 26 August 2007

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It has been a very exciting Sunday. This morning I did the usual house cleaning chores. I also started the downstairs freezer defrosting. It really does not get all that bad but I like to do it before it does. Since I need to do a food order next month I wanted to have it cleaned up and ready.

 After lunch I started on the unfinished side of downstairs. I filled the back of the Trooper with a load of card board which helped. Bob had started the white load washing. The freezer was finished doing its thing. I pulled out the wet towels, wiped it down, and put what little food is left back in. My intentions was to drive over to the fire station to drop off the card board then stop at the gas station for gas.

When I went to crank the car it was dead, just like a couple of weeks ago at Holiday Tours. I called Bob to come over and give me a jump. He hooked the cables up and...nothing. Not even juice to the instrument panel. We called a wrecker which took about 40 minutes. Bob rode with him and I followed out to Tim's. Just so happens Tim's wife was at the garage, they live next door in a big farm house. I had planned to go out this Friday and have the battery and cables replaced. Guess I can go ahead and mark that errand from my list of things to do.

Fortunately it happened today and not tomorrow while I was in the parking deck after work. Also, thankfully it is a little cooler today since we had to stand around and wait for the wrecker though we did stand inside the Quality Mart at the Shell for awhile. Right now we have a pretty nasty storm going on. It is pouring down rain in buckets. Not really what we need with the ground so hard and dry but I guess we will take what we can get.


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