Archive for the 'Daily Notes' Category

Sep 22 2008

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Daily Dose 09/22/2008

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Well we are home from Atlanta and tired, but happy.

Tigger made the cut every day but one and was 2nd in his class on the day of the AWC specialty out of a class of 17. We thought that was pretty good.

Everyone was ecstatic to see us when we got home including the birds.

We (or at least I) have a busy month coming up. We have shows the next two weekends in a row plus I am going to try to put in an appearance at the Responsible Dog Owner Day in Greenville next Saturday. Then on the 11th, I am supposed to attend a SQL Code Camp and on the 18th, I’m supposed to judge a match.ย  WHEW! Just thinking about it makes me tired! I should have another Sharepoint class coming up the 15th – 17th also.

Can you believe all this going on with the financial markets? I read somewhere that if you divided out what the government is proposing to spend to cover these bad debts that it will cost each American somewhere around $2,150 each. Since that includes children not of income producing age as well as people on fixed incomes, welfare, etc you can probably double that for each WORKING American.ย  While I don’t want us to go through another Depression, I can’t help but wonder if there is a better way that keeps people employed without “rewarding” the financial institutions that threw common sense to the winds when they encouraged and/or actually wrote mortgages for people who would not have qualified under even the most reasonable/generous of terms that still kept overall risk to an acceptable level. I will probably never understand the whole complex issue and still keep trying to reduce it to simple and understandable terms.

I am thankful that we still have our jobs, that our health is relatively good and that we didn’t succumb to the lure of a 100% mortgage. Yes we have debts, but they are not so much that we aren’t keeping up with them.

I hope all the rest of you are in the same boat with us.

Well, my boss is calling and I need to discuss stuff with him since I’ve been out of the office for 3 days, so I suppose I had best close this out and attend to business. I do need to keep this job ๐Ÿ˜‰

Love to all,

Margaret

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Sep 15 2008

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Daily Dose 09/15/2008

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Gosh! It’s hard to believe that September is halfway over. This year is flying by! Usually I have at least some Christmas shopping done by now, but not this year. I’m afraid it’s going to be a rush at the end of the year if I don’t get a move on.

We leave Wednesday for Atlanta. I sure hope the gas prices are on the way down by then. They are ridiculous right now! I’m glad I filled up Friday before it got so out of hand! We HOPE we have the spot we requested for our reservation, but all they sent us was a spot name and no map, so we have no idea where our spot is. The whole reason for assigning spots was so they didn’t have to spend so much time taking people around to an open one, but without a map of the hookup locations, we certainly won’t be able to just drive right to it. Crazy!

We have guests at work today, so we were asked to dress nicely. I wore a skirt and blouse. I think we’re supposed to dress up tomorrow too, but I will work from home, so that will not be an issue for me.

Did you all see Judy’s spider and praying mantis photos? She did a great job taking them! I haven’t seen any praying mantises on our property since we moved there which is a shame since they are such helpful insects. I wonder if I can order praying mantis eggs online or something like that so we could have some. We get way too many June bugs and they would help control that population I’m thinking.

I’ve had a LOT of wasps this year. Both the red ones as well as the black ones. One kind builds the mud nest and the other builds the papery nest. I don’t like either kind to tell you the truth. At least I haven’t seen any yellow jackets which build their nests underground. The mud kind built a nest in the window casement of my office. I’ve noticed quite a bit of activity from them the last few days. I don’t know how to get them out of there — those are double windows and if I open the one, I’ll end up with wasps in the house which would be very bad. ICK! It’s also close to my hummingbird feeder and the wasps are competing with the hummingbirds for the nectar. I notice the birds are very wary of the wasps, so they are probably susceptible to their stings.

Well I suppose I should get back to work. Lunch time is over.

Love to all,

Margaret

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Sep 13 2008

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Daily Dose 09/13/2008

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Hi everyone! I hope you didn’t miss me too much!

I had a class Thursday and Friday and so was out of pocket.ย  Ken’s working today and I’m doing regular homebody stuff. Ho hum how boring.

I did finish reading a book this moring — Phillip Margolin’s Wild Justice and have another I want to start soon called City of Shadows by Ariana Franklin. For some reason Wild Justice seemed very familiar, but not exactly as it was. I don’t know if I read an early version of it at some time or if someone is plagiarizing. Not my deal though. It was a pretty good book. Unfortunately, I have to return it to the lady I borrowed it from, so can’t send it on to any of you. I would if I could it was that good.

Next week, Ken and I are taking 3 days off from work to go to Atlanta for the Southern Specialty. We’ve only entered Tigger,ย  so I don’t know exactly what I’ll be doing other than cooking and scooping poop. Then the weekend after that is Columbia where I have Butterfly entered and then the next weekend is Augusta which is a one day show. If Butterfly finishes in Columbia, I’ll probably skip Augusta although Ken has Tigger entered. I sure hope the gas prices have dropped back down by then.

I think it’s criminal the way the gas companies can go up on prices at the drop of a hat this way. I know the storms may cause problems with refineries and off shore wells, but geez louise! To jump up over 60ยข per gallon in one day seems outrageously exhorbitant.ย  Our little local station is also out of gas which means the big chains don’t have anyone to keep them in check, so their prices are through the roof just like everyone elses’. I did top off the cars yesterday before the big jump, but that’s only going to see us through the next few days. Ken filled the truck up with diesel on Friday, too, so it’s all ready to go and diesel had dropped down to $3.99 per gallon from $4.57, so he did pretty good there. That will get us to Atlanta and MAYBE by next weekend things will be back to normal.

Well, there goes the dryer buzzer. Gotta run!

Love to all,

Margaret

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Sep 08 2008

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Daily Dose 09/08/2008

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I hope you had as nice a weekend as we did. Ken and I just kind of lazed the weekend away. We did normal chores and stuff, but we had no firm plans to do anything and resisted making very many. I think we both needed the down time from stuff. I know I did!

I took him to Grits N Groceries for breakfast Saturday morning. He didn’t order anything off the brunch menu — I don’t think he even glanced at it much and thought the waitress was joking with him when she suggested frog legs. He remarked later that “she would have been surprised if I had actually ordered frog legs!” to which I replied “no — they were on the menu, so if you had ordered them, you would have gotten them.” — You should have seen the look on his face ๐Ÿ˜†

I haven’t had frog legs since I was a teenager and Judy and RB made them. I remember them being pretty good, but then again, I remember squirrel being pretty good too. No sheep’s eyes, though — that was GROSS!

I hope Mama had a good Sunday. I think this was the Sunday she was going to EJ’s church. I’m hoping she had such a good time that she’ll go back again in the coming weeks. She needs to get out some.

It was muggy and hot this weekend — guess the fall-out from Hannah. We didn’t get any rain though which surprised me. I’m glad she was pretty petered out by the time she hit NC & VA. I’m sure they were too!

I talked to Eddie Friday and Yvonne has bronchitis. He was at the hospital with her getting prescriptions filled and the connection was terrible. Then we IM’ed each other some Saturday and I IM’ed Chrystalyn, too. She said she was enjoying her new school and had some potential BFF’s (best forever friend in case you didn’t know). I had ordered her some books and she got one of them Friday and was pretty excited about it. I have others on order for her, but it will be towards the end of the month before they get here.

I talked to Pam earlier in the week and they all seem to be doing well. Patrick has a new truck after he crashed his other one. BeBe is doing well in school and at dance and her mom and dad are about the same. I learned that Pam has gone to college to get her teaching degree. I can’t say how proud I am of her! I think that’s wonderful and that she will be a great teacher.

Well, that should catch you all up with us. I hope you have a great week and that this heat wave breaks real soon! I thought we had seen the last of 90+ weather, but apparently not.

Love to all,

Margaret

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Sep 03 2008

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Daily Dose 09/03/2008

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I hope everyone had a wonderful Labor Day weekend. Ours went by too fast, but it was nice sleeping in 3 days in a row! We drove to Raleigh Sunday afternoon, had dinner with Gail and Chuck Sunday night, watched Tigger show to a 3rd place Monday morning, then came home. The rest of the afternoon was spent doing little things around the house and resting. I think Ken mostly watched t.v.

There are no plans ready for this weekend. Next week (Thursday and Friday) I’m in a Sharepoint class. Then I have another class in October to take on Sharepoint along with one on Dynamics, so I’ll be smart one of these days ๐Ÿ˜†

I haven’t seen our buck all week this week. I sure hope he’s OK and hasn’t gotten hit by a car or anything, I guess it’s dove season as I’ve heard shotguns going off quite a bit this week. The doves that come to our feeder are certainly nice and fat….probably from all the birdseed I’ve gone through this summer ๐Ÿ˜› !

Well, that’s about it for us. I think you’re all caught up now.

Love to all,

Margaret

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Aug 28 2008

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Daily Dose 08/28/2008

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I took Tigger to Raleigh (well, really Apex) Tuesday and drove through that awful rain/tornadoes/hail/thunderstorms. I was really tired when I got home Tuesday night, but all in all it wasn’t too bad really. The little car did really well. Got fairly good mileage and wasn’ta at all intimidated by the big hulking trucks that kept cutting us off. It was nimble and sure-footed despite the water standing on the road.

Tigger showed today and got Reserve. We were hoping for better, but there are 4 more days of shows, so keep your fingers crossed for him. Saturday is a major if all the dogs show up. That’s the one we really want to get if at all possible.

Ken’s not working this weekend after all. He said they called for only re-workers to work Saturday, and no one volunteered, so he’ll have a nice long 3 day weekend as will I. We’re planning on driving up to Raleigh Sunday night so we can watch Tigger Monday morning and bring him home after the show. After all the rain, he needs to mow the grass and I have laundry out the wazoo since I didn’t get any done Tuesday. As always seems to be the case, my dust bunnies are having dust bunnies, so I have to get the vacuum going.

That’s about it for me. Ya’ll take care.

Love to all,
Margaret

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Aug 24 2008

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Daily Dose 08/24/2008

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Yesterday I went to the Hobby Lobby in Spartanburg for a painting class.

No, not to learn how to paint walls, but where you paint a picture. Yesterday’s subject was a lighthouse.

almostfinished The lady teaching the class uses the Bob Ross method. I had never heard of him before, but he used to have a t.v. show on Saturdays. Anyway, it was a fun class and my painting turned out OK – I think — at least you can tell what everything in it is even if my clouds suck.

I wish I had had a photo of a lighthouse to refer to. I just could not for the life of me remember exactly what the top should look like. This one is all wrong, but the lady teaching the class had her top more rounded, but still not what a lighthouse should look like IMO.

I also think I should have made the lighthouse sit on top of the bank instead of halfway down it — I’m pretty sure they all sit up high. Oh well, I can always do another one some day.

I may take another class from her depending on what she’s going to paint. She said she was going to do a poinsettia with a candle close to Christmas, but I wasn’t too impressed with her example. She had a beach sunset that looked pretty and a Macaw that I liked. I think the next one she’s going to do is a woods scene.

I have a full start-to-finish of the class written at the other blog.

Well, we got nothing from Fay. It did rain some Friday, but we are so dry despite what we got. I think we’re going to have an early fall as I’m already starting to see some leaves change color. Really deep reds.  It’s real overcast here now, but nothing coming out of the sky. It’ supposed to rain, but you know how the forecasters are. Wrong as often as right.

Ken and I went to Greenville this morning for breakfast at Perkins and a trip to Sam’s Club. We took garbage to the dump and I washed a load of clothes. That’s about all we’ve done today. I did cook supper — found some beef ribs marked down at the store, and I tossed on some barbecue sauce and baked them for an hour. I had originally intended to cook them in the crock pot, but it was too small. The dogs are enjoying the bones.

Well, there goes the dryer buzzer.

Love to all,

Margaret

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Aug 21 2008

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Daily Dose 08/21/2008

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Well, the weather forecast called for wind today and we sure have had it. Not terribly hard, but persistent and constant. It’s a bit gloomy outside although I don’t think it’s rained anywhere today.

I don’t know about Judy, but I’ve sure seen some odd creatures at my hummingbird feeders. Wasps, honey bees, butterflies and green anoles.ย  Still hummingbirds of course, but the wasps are vicious and chase them off.

No big plans for this weekend. Ken’s working Saturday (I think for sure) and taking Sunday off, so we’ll probably do something Sunday based on whether the race is an afternnoon race or a night race.

Well, y’all stay tied down if you’ve got any of this wind!

Love to all,

Margaret

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Aug 15 2008

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Daily Dose 08/15/2008

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Nothing at all to tell you about the upcoming weekend. I have zero plans – no projects, no long list of chores (just the normal ones) and Ken’s working. I have a couple of books I want to read.

This is not to say there aren’t about a dozen projects I *could* do. It’s best, however, that I don’t jinx myself by saying I’m going to do xyz — I’ll just blog about what I did or didn’t do on Monday. ๐Ÿ˜›

For example, I was reading a blog today that had outlined how to prepare your flower beds for fall planting. Since mine is a dismal failure this year, I really could (and SHOULD!) do that. It was a great article, too. It told me exactly how deep to put everything which is something none of the other articles I’ve ever read have done (that I can remember at any rate). Most just say a layer of this and a layer of that, but don’t tell you how deep those layers really need to be consequently, mine have not been nearly deep enough. I bought some lovely bulbs at the Jackson Perkins outlet store in Greenwood a few months back that do need to be planted. Hey Judy — do you need some bulbs? They had some really awesome looking ones the last time I was there for really CHEAP prices (like $1 a package).

I also really need to clean out the office. I’ve accumulated way too much club stuff that can be dumped. I was the recording secretary for GKC for 15 years, so have all those minutes that can be tossed (they’re all transcribed so it’s not like if I throw away the handwritten copies, I’ll be losing anything). I also have a bunch of old pedigrees of dogs and such that can be tossed as most of those are in a database now. Old dog vet records — dogs are dead and have been for years, so those can go. Well, I think you’re getting the picture…

There always seems to be no end of stuff that should be taken to the thrift store for recycling. Everything from books to tupperware is just junking up the closets, bookshelves and cabinets.

Gosh! Just thinking about all these need-to-dos has made me tired! I think I’ll just read this weekend…

Yeah, that’s a great plan!

I hope you have a great weekend, too!

Love to all,

Margaret

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Aug 13 2008

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Daily Dose 08/13/2008

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Woke up to rain this morning. A nice steady, soaking rain that also produced some wispy, smoke-like fog as I drove in to work. No thunder or lighting that I could tell and the roof was not leaking, so all in all, a nice morning. We do need the rain and having it come in this fashion is very beneficial to the entire region.

Ken says he’s working all weekend this weekend. I have tentative plans to update some of my websites and do some photo editing on the dozens on photos I’ve taken this week. Mostly of deer. We have a 4 point buck that’s very bold — he comes almost all the way up to the front porch to eat my canna lilies and nibble on my one remaining rosebush. He’s usually accompanied by that group in my header, but last night he was all alone. They came up later but he held sole reign over the cannas. Ken’s worried that they won’t come up next year, but unless he’s pulling up the rhizomes, they will be fine. They didn’t do a whole lot this year anyway — guess two years of dry weather has taken it’s toll even on the cannas.

It looks like my azaleas are getting ready to bloom again. I don’t remember if they bloomed last fall or not. These are those Encore Azaleas, the ones that are supposed to bloom more than once during the year. When I bought them, they were nearly dead and so I got them rather cheaply. It took them 3 years to get to the point where they would bloom at all. I think this year is only the second or third year they’ve produced any flowers at all. There should be photos from this spring on Webshots. All-in-all, there have been very few blooming plants this year. My Irises didn’t produced but 2 or 3 blooms and the day lilies were also not very prolific. I did get one gladiolia stalk of pure white — it was so very pretty. I have some bulbs to plant a little later this fall to come up next spring. Dahlias, glads and some other sun-loving flowers. I need to completely dig up and re-do my front flower bed or create an entirely new one as it’s been taken over by the bermuda grass which I just can’t keep up with.

Hope you’re having a great day today!

Love to all,

Margaret

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