HoundBlog

This may fall under the TMI heading (too much information).

I had a dentist appointment yesterday afternoon. While in and of itself, that’s nothing unusual, they’ve been threatening to send me to a periodontist because of the horrible plaque buildup I’ve been experiencing lately. Well, I found a toothbrush that has made a significant difference in the plaque so have averted the periodontist for now.  It’s all thanks to the Colgate Motion battery powered whitening toothbrush. The first time I used it, I could already feel the difference in how smooth my teeth felt. I never would have thought a toothbrush alone could make that much difference in the plaque build up on your teeth.

While I was strapped in the dentists chair, they thoughtfully had Oprah on for my viewing pleasure. I’m telling you, she has some of the dumbest people on her show. Yesterday’s show was a makeover show. She had these 3 fashion consultants who worked with all these women to update their wardrobes. While the women’s wardrobes were in definite need of updating, these so-called (and probably self-proclaimed) fashion consultants just made most of them look really stupid. And I can’t believe Oprah allowed these fashion consultants to degrade these women the way they did! One of them said "And so-and-so only had ONE bra in her wardrobe and that was a sports bra!" Then she went on to say "so we got her fitted in a new bra and now her "girls" really stand up!" — whaaaatt??? GIRLS ??? Excuse me, but they are my BREASTS. To top it off, she then had the lady (who looked ready to crawl under the floor in embarrassment) turn around so she could show the audience her "booty". And Oprah is echoing these terms! How humiliating for the women on display! I’m quite sure they never would have bought into this make over if they had known they were going to be paraded in front of the masses and have their body parts referred to in such degrading manner. I sure hope their new wardrobes (there was only one outfit out of all of the ones shown that I even remotely liked) was worth the humiliation.

Well, I’ve made it to Thursday without having a nervous breakdown. It remains to be seen if I can hold out until Sunday when we leave for Las Vegas. I’m still terrified I’ll forget something really important. Like my camera or something. My list of stuff to pack seems unending and I’m wondering if I can get everything into the suitcases. I’m further wondering if it will all pass airport security. Surely other people travel with cameras and laptops, batteries and shampoo a tripod and several pairs of shoes.  I feel the hairs on my head turning gray. I need a valium…

I suppose what I need to do this minute is get back to my JOB before I’m fired.

Love to all,

Margaret

Working from home today as I try to get this dratted report done! It’s a report that has a sub report associated with it. I’ve done one of these before, but it was a simpler sub report and works really well. This one on the other hand is proving to be a royal PITA.

I WILL get it done, though. I’m determined.

Got Frances’ email last night that she’s accepted the buy out offer from her job and will finish up her 44 years with Y-12 next week. I know she has to be both excited and scared as this is going to be so different! I hope she does some things she’s never done before. Lets her hair down and goes a little crazy for a bit.

You’ll notice I made a new header image for the blog. I’m going to try to change them out periodically in order to make it a bit more interesting. Most of them will be of photos I’ve taken, but some might be other photos I find on the web. This is one of the grape hyacinths that grow under the oak tree in the front yard taken last year.  I’m a bit surprised the they aren’t up yet this year as they usually sprout and bloom fairly early and we’ve had enough warm days to encourage them, but not just yet.

I’m also trying to get a few things done in preparation for our being gone a week. I’ve deep cleaned all but one of the bird cages and will get that one done before Ken gets home tonight.  It would have been easier to do if the pressure washer wasn’t broken, but it is and Ken decided Sunday not to buy another just yet. All laundry is done and the kitchen is clean. Of course there will be more to do before we leave Sunday.

I think we’re meeting Ken’s brother, Edward and his wife Madeline in Charlotte Sunday for dinner. That will be nice. We haven’t seen them since Inez died, so the two brothers will have some catching up to do.

Well, this isn’t getting anything done.

Love to all,

Margaret

My drive in this morning was eerily quiet.

It seems most of the world overslept and is going to be late for work — either that or once again, I didn’t get the e-mail telling me that work hours were changed so as to minimize the effects of Daylight Savings. Traffic was very light and for once, I didn’t get stuck behind the school bus I’ve been getting behind every morning for the last two weeks. While it only makes a couple of stops before turning off my path, the driver has a tendency to converse for way too many minutes with parents seeing their kids off to school.

I had to remind myself several times this morning to put the dress in the car. If I don’t get it to the alterations lady this week I am toast. I also drove by the shop to make sure I remembered where it was. I’ll drop it off this afternoon on my way home. She told me when I called Friday that she could have it ready for me the next day, so I should be OK.

Despite having a raft of check marks on the to-do list, I’m still worried that I will forget something of great importance before we leave next Monday. Please bear with me while I have a nervous breakdown.

Well,  the coffee is ready and I suppose I should get a cup and get to work. It’s time to push vacation out of my head for awhile.

Love to all,

Margaret

Yesterday was quite a day! The wind we had blew a tree down across the power line that crosses the driveway just below our house. This in turn split 4 other poles back up the driveway and across the blacktop road leading to the house! They almost wouldn’t let me come back home yesterday! While the line itself didn’t break, and only the one pole actually snapped in two, the others were split, so had to be replaced as well and the utility truck didn’t have that many on it when it got here. The man said he had to send for another truck and they had been busy all day replacing split and broken poles!

All in all, it took them 4 hours to replace all the poles, re-hang the power line and get us back "live". Let me tell you, it got COLD in this house! Everyone was huddled up in little piles everywhere. I suppose it could have been worse — they could have taken hours to get here in the first place, but were actually on the issue pretty quickly after it was reported by one of the neighbors.

This morning, Ken and I slept until 9:00 am and then we went to breakfast and to do the last of  the shopping before we leave a week from tomorrow. He needed some jeans and long sleeved shirts and I needed a strapless bra and shoes to go with the dress. It took us until 2:00pm, but we are back home with all the required purchases in hand. It didn’t help that some of the stores didn’t open until 1:00pm, and I kept saying we didn’t have to wait that I could get these items in town during the week next week, but he distracted me long enough to let the stores open and get our errands done. We also stopped at the vets office to make sure that if Judy needs to take one of the animals to the vet, they’ll treat it without requiring anything from her money-wise. So, that’s all set up and I feel much better about going off and leaving a house full of critters with her.

So, at least those things are crossed off the to-do list and other than getting the dress altered, those were the big items. I’ll pack Saturday and then we’re going to Charlotte on Sunday to spend the night in a hotel before flying out Monday morning at the crack of dawn. I’m taking the laptop with me, so will post from the hotel there in Vegas so you won’t miss any of our fun

Dryer is buzzing —

Love to all,

Margaret

Sorry for missing yesterday — it was a day!

This morning has started off really busy. Ken woke me up kissing me goodbye as he left for work, but just as I settled in to go back to sleep, I heard this beep-beep-beeping noise. I thought the alarm had gone off and somehow got switched over to the beep from the radio, but punching the shut-up button didn’t work. I made it out the door just in time to see Ken driving down the driveway with the mysterious noise abated.

I called him on the cell (I had realized that I had forgotten to make coffee for him last night and wanted to apologize for that oversight) and asked him what the noise was. He had accidentally hit the panic button on the key when he put it in the ignition, then couldn’t get it to turn off as he randomly punched buttons. Hitting the panic button again did the trick, but by then the whole neighborhood was up

So I got up and started my day a lot earlier than I had originally planned to!

March has built up it’s roar and is really in full throat today! I had planned to bleach the kennel runs and the plan was to bring the dogs in while I did it so they wouldn’t get bleach on their feet or anything. With the wind and the rapidly dropping temperatures, they came in early and I froze while doing the clean up. I don’t know what the temp is right now, but with that wind, it’s got to be on down there. I’ve got to leave here in a minute to run down to Greenwood — there are some things I need to pick up at Walmart. Although Ken and I are going shopping tomorrow to finish up buying things we need for the trip, I’ve been needing shampoo and the like for several days now, so will make this run into town to take care of that chore.

Well, this isn’t getting me down the road.

Love to all,

Margaret

Sorry to be posting so late in the day. I had a doctor’s appointment today with the orthopedist about my knees. He FINALLY mentioned replacement as an option! I’m in total shock as I thought for sure I would have to wait 4 more years before he would even think about it.

I wussied out though and elected to do the chicken shots again. When I got them in my left knee, they helped with pain although not much with flexibility. The ones they tried to give me in my right knee before he decided OOPS! he should do an MRI to see just what might be wrong were flushed out when he did the scope, so Dr. Folk has given me two cortisone injections prior to this both of which lasted no time to speak of (this last set lasted 10 days), so that’s why he’s upping the ante treatment wise. We’ll see how these do — I guess I really am better off waiting on surgery as long as I can. Part of me does and part of me says if it’s going to happen, better to get it done and over with than to wait, but I’m truly ambivalent about it now. Once I was absolutely positive that was the best solution and the one that would ultimately make me the most comfortable and happy. Now I don’t know….sigh..I need a crystal ball. Anyone got one I can borrow?

Enough of my bellyaching already! I’m going to have everyone crying in a minute — geez!

I’ll bet Frances is glad right now she’s not the purchasing agent for the Air Force I truly have mixed feelings over their recent contract with France’s Air Bus. I understand it but then again, I understand how all the American workers must feel about it, too when we are in the economic straits we are now. It’s one of those catch 22 situations. No winners are going to come out of this one.

Work today has been work. Still trying to sort out the fallout from last Friday’s hard drive melt down at Eservice and hoping it’s all finally worked out. I’m also fighting some email situations where I don’t think I’m getting some I should be.

So, I suppose that means I should get back with the program and do something to earn my salary.

Love to all,

Margaret

Man! Was it ever windy last night! We had tornado warnings along with severe thunderstorm warnings and warnings about hail and you name it! We DID get wind and rain, but no hail

(thank goodness) and no tornadoes (double thank goodness!) . There was an outstanding sunset last night, but because I was in the car driving to the meeting, I had no camera, so wasn’t able to capture it. I’m going to have to start carrying the camera with me everywhere as I’m missing all these great photo ops! Anyway, it was something like this one, but weirder.

Came in this morning to a couple of emails that set my teeth on edge just by the way they were worded (sarcastically), but I took a deep breath, went for a cup of coffee and pushed the irritation down and answered them civilly. One issue I fixed – hopefully, but probably not – to the complainer’s satisfaction. The other issue is beyond my control and I’ve referred it to the people who can handle it. That’s the best I can do, but that probably won’t be good enough either. It’s going to be a WONDERFUL day – NOT!

Despite wanting to and working hard to get finished yesterday in a timely manner, it was still 4:30 before I signed out of the computer and got on with my chores. I was able to get those done in record time although I did cut a corner or two. Then, picked up the mail on the way out only to have to turn around because Ken pitched a hissy that he wouldn’t have the mail to look through when he got home — it was all junk mail anyway, so don’t understand what the big deal is, but like the dutiful wife I am, I made the sacrifice for happiness and marital tranquility.

I called Judy (pet sitter Judy, not sister Judy) last night just to make sure she is still on board to take care of the animals week after next. If I don’t hear from her today, I’ll call her at work tomorrow. 

That leaves the stupid shoes that I don’t have to match the dress I’m planning on wearing on the 18th and the question of what clothes to pack for the week. I’m not going to be ready I can tell…

Well, I need to get back to the job at hand.

Love to all,

Margaret

It’s work from home Tuesday and I have been busily slaving away over a hot laptop all morning. I had to get that report for the boss that he asked for yesterday. It’s in his hot little hands, although there’s more data he’s now decided he has to have, so I have to tweak it some. That’s the norm for reports, though, so I’m not surprised.

It’s raining cats and dogs here. Although the morning started off warm, I think the temperature is dropping as the day goes by. I have a meeting tonight in Greenville, so hope the storms abate some before I have to leave.

  The rain doesn’t bother these guys. They’re hungry and making no notice of the rain pelting down on them! Tried to catch a blue jay in the yard this morning, but he was just too shy.

Guess I should cut this short as I have a lot to do before the day is over and I really want to shut down a little early tonight so as to get the dog chores done, shower and change clothes before going to Greenville.

Love to all,

Margaret

Good morning and a Happy Monday to you! I hope you had beautiful weather this weekend — we did! Unfortunately, I didn’t get to spend much time out in it since work called me at 8:00 am Saturday morning with problems to solve. I still have one issue that I never did get resolved, which reminds me I need to try again to get that one call fixed.

My lady came over Saturday and my house was a disaster. Thanks to the above mentioned call from my boss, I wasn’t able to vacuum or mop before she got there, so she got to see it in all it’s dusty glory. She liked Maggie and Maggie seemed to like her, so we will proceed with the next step which is to take Maggie over to her house to see how she and Hannah (the lady’s 15 year old Whippet) get along.

I did manage to get the house vacuumed, dishes done and laundry done by Sunday. Poor Ken worked the whole weekend, so by the time he got home Sunday afternoon, he was exhausted. Then to further ruin his weekend, his guy got wrecked 3 laps from the end of the race and he was in the lead when that happened. What a bummer. However, I am not allowed to mention Jeff Gordon’s name in Ken’s presence for the rest of the week since that’s who caused the wreck. Oh well, it gave Junior a much needed win which I’m sure made Frances happy.

Guess I should get my butt back to work since my day is loaded up.

I have the happy task of updating some security and since it’s not part of advanced security, it gets to be done one person at a time. I think I have about 30 to adjust — fun!

Love to all,

Margaret