HoundBlog

Good morning everyone! I hope this finds you all well and happy!

WFH today which is a good thing. I always get so much more accomplished without the distractions of the office around me. Not that there aren’t distractions here, too, but they are less attention grabbing than someone in the next cube talking about someone downstairs I also hope to go to Grits N Groceries for lunch today and try out thier shrimp po’boy sandwich. I can’t do that from the office!

so far, I have nothing planned for the weekend, so suppose I need to get caught up on housework and correspondence. There is always club stuff to do and February will be here before you know it. That means the Health Clinic and dog show. I am thinking about organizing the clinic in a slightly different manner this time. I want to assign “jobs” to other club members so I don’t have to do it all by myself. I also have to write to all the vets and get their commitment and terms for this event. It will have to go in the premium list submission here soon.

I’m working on teaching Riley more phrases. He does phrases like “Good Morning”, “Hello”, “Good Boy”, “Skinny!”, and “Oy Chihuahua” pretty good and now I’m trying to teach him “mama mia! That’s-a spicy meatballs” and “I’m a hungry bird. May I have a peanut?”  — I know — I’m crazy :lol:, but you love me anyway. I don’t know if Taji will ever talk, but who knows – he just might start someday.

Well, I suppose I should get back to the grindstone. Ya’ll take care! Love ya!

Margaret

Happy Monday the 13th 😆 I hope a Monday the 13th is luckier than Friday the 13th. To me, they are both just another day.

The weatherman says we are headed for 100ºF again today (yuck!). Yesterday was so pleasant! The high was 89º. The airconditioner got a much needed break from the 24/7 that it was running. I am dreading my power bill. By Wednesday, we’ll be back up to 103-104ºF — I am ready for the dog days of summer to be over. I don’t do extremes of temperature very well at all.

I met my friend for lunch yesterday as planned and picked up a rescue Whippet at the same time. Bella is a 4 year old spayed white with red brindle spots girl who is decidedly unhappy with her change of life circumstances. Thankfully, I have 2 applications on file looking for a female and have also had several more people telling me they have applications also for dogs, so I won’t be keeping her very long.

It seems everyone had a quiet weekend which was a welcome relief from the past couple of weeks. I’m waiting to see what my boss says about the 26 hours overtime for this pay period :). I think he will be fine with it. He knows I worked it.

That’s about all of my stuff for now. Take care!

Love to all,

Margaret

It has been a hellish two weeks….I put in 26 hours of overtime during these last two weeks, but the project is launched and is working. There are still tweaks and adjustments to be made, but at least the major work is behind me.

I’ve learned a lot — probably more than I wanted to learn, but it will look really REALLY good on my resume 😆 Not that I’m planning on changing jobs — at least not just yet…

I did do as I promised myself I would and Thursday went to my boss and asked for a raise. He agreed that I deserved one and said it might take him a couple of weeks to get it organized, but saw nothing to prevent his request from going through. He asked how much I wanted and although I didn’t quote a specific amount, I pointed out that I am making significantly lower than what even the entry level amount for my position pays industry-wide. He said he could do better for me if I went on salary instead of staying hourly and I told him that for the right amount, I had no problem with going on salary, so we’ll see what happens.  Wish me luck!

I spent yesterday trying to rest up. While I did housecleaning and laundry, I treated myself to breakfast at a new restaurant (oh my! how tasty that was, too!), took a nap yesterday afternoon and spent most of the rest of the time reading or taking pictures of the hummingbirds and deer. Today I’m finishing up the laundry and meeting a friend for lunch later on.

I think Ma had some visitors Friday if my little birdie was correct.

Ken worked yesterday and is working today. The heat is wearing us both out and putting quite a strain on the airconditioner. It stopped for the first time in 4 days today for about 30 minutes and has cycled more like a normal air conditioner would do today. It’s very overcast today, but I don’t think we’re supposed to get any rain until later in the week.

Well, I think you’re all caught up now.

Stay cool!

Love to all,

Margaret

Happy Tuesday to everyone! I hope you are all well!

It seems that nephew Colin and Sister Judy have both gained acclamation for their photographs! Congratulations to you both!

There’s nothing new here at our house. We did go see the Harry Potter movie Sunday and neither Ken nor I could remember anything in the movie from the book, but we both read the book last year, so it’s possible that we just have old-farts memory loss going on here. I did purchase the newest book on Saturday and am about halfway through it. It’s over 700 pages, so it will take me longer than usual to finish. I’ve been reading some of it out loud to the birds. They seem to enjoy it! They all crowd to the front of their cages or, if thier door is open, get on the arm of my chair.

My project ends next week. I must say that I’m more than ready for it to end. I hope to actually take more than a stolen day here and there off as I’m ready for a vacation.

Well, got to go.

Love to all.

Margaret

Good Monday morning to you all! Sounds like the Wrights had a great weekend! Congratulations to both the photographers in that family! What talent!

My Saturday was spent working on work and sandwiching in all the other things I usually do. Of course, not everything got done. Ken worked Saturday, but relaxed for the most part Sunday. I also took some time to relax Sunday — read a book and took an afternoon nap. We had talked about going to see the new Harry Potter movie on Sunday, but never left the house except to eat breakfast and later, I went to the grocery store.

Ma — I left my cellphone at home this morning, so won’t be calling you on the way home tonight. I’ll call later in the week. Had to charge the phone and just plain forgot it as I came into work early this morning.

Haven’t heard from any of our kids this week, either. I will have to try to call them to see how everyone is.

Need to run. — Ya’ll take care now.

Love ya,

Margaret

Oh dear — Friday the 13th!!!  Good thing I’m not superstitious!

Sorry I haven’t posted in a couple of days… been busy, busy, busy here at work, but at least it’s been a kind of fun kind of busy as I’ve been creating reports and seeing just HOW creative I can be with them. I’ve amazed myself 😆 Even my boss is impressed with some of  the interactive and functional reports I’ve come up with.

I think Ken and I are going to see the new Harry Potter movie Sunday. I’m kind of excited about that — I know — I’m too easily entertained.

If you didn’t get my email, I did get pictures of the fawn the other day and posted them on Webshots, so go get it for your screensaver as it’s a cute little baby. I think I only e-mailed one photo, but there are several on WS. Also got one of a deer with a bare place on it’s side. Don’t know if that’s from an accident or from something like mange. I’ll have to research if deer ever get mange…….

I’m expecting Brian and Corinna at any minute, so I had best keep this short ’cause I know I’ll have nose-to-grindstone the rest of the day once they get here. They are such slave drivers!

Sorry this is so short!

Love to all,

Margaret

Sorry I’m late today — Brian and Clyde were here first thing, so I couldn’t write until lunch.

Ken and I have begun a 10 step program to un-clutter the house 😛 We essentially started with the closet in our bedroom as it had gotten to the point you could not put anything in it period. It took 2 hours to pull everything out of it, sort through it as to whether it was throw away or donate, bag/box that up and remove the bags/boxes to their destination. Now my trash pile is pretty large, but the closet looks GREAT!  We will work through the other 3 closets in the house over the next few weeks and then tackle the biggie — the garage.

Our garage is gargantuan. It’s a 3 bay garage, so that makes it about 30′ wide and 25′ long. It’s pretty full, too and I don’t expect it to take any 2 hours to get through that one! That will more than likely take 2 days to get through. At any rate, we’ve started and it feels pretty good to even have this much done.

Nothing much happened over the weekend. Saturday I did the usual and Sunday we did the closet and Ken mowed the yard while I did TTC work. Angela picked up Aurora Saturday and Diana got her two girls that were here to be bred, so all of our boarders are gone.

Hope your weekend was a good one.

Love to all,

Margaret

Sat on my lovely newly cleaned porch tonight with camera in hand and got some photos of birds and beasties. I’ve loaded them up at webshots, so take a gander when you have a minute.

I snagged one of two hummingbirds fighting in mid air, but my setting was off and it came out looking more like birds shadow boxing — darn it! Maybe the’ll repeat the performance tomorrow night and I can catch it with a better setting. I’m still learning the different settings.

Well, I’m off to bed — 3:30 came awfully early this morning!

Love to all,

Margaret

I hope everyone had a nice 4th!

Despite Ken’s assertation Saturday that he wanted the 4th to have zero projects, he decided that he could not stand his desk any longer, so took half the day cleaning it. It looks WONDERFUL now as does the front porch which he also cleaned off. I’m especially loving the front porch since now I can sit in the swing and watch the panorama play out in the front yard with birds, bunnies and deer. Maybe tonight I will even remember to take the camera out there with me. The only downside is dealing with the mosquitos. I am quite spotty today (and itchy! :cry:) thanks to those bloodsuckers! 💡 **reminder to self — have Ken buy some OFF at the grocery store tonight**

I vacuumed and cleaned the living room carpet and cleaned out the big parrot cage. I also worked on my project (work project, not the website project) and have created one more nice report. Now I need to move over some historical data to make sure it works like I expect it to 🙂

I did play just a little bit 😎

Got to run….

Love to all,

Margaret

Sorry for being so late today with my post. I was a tad late getting to work and really have just gotten to a stopping point for a few minutes.

Corinna is here from Acumen and we are working through the Econ jobs getting them tested and working properly and smoothly. A few headaches, but nothing too bad.

The news has been about nothing but George W’s commuting Libby’s sentence and Beverly Sills’ dying. I won’t comment on Mr. Bush’s actions — I’m too far gone over him and his tactics to comment. Ms. Sills’ passing however, gave me pause to think about what I would do if told I had terminal cancer. Not sure I would turn up my toes right away, but definitely would live my life a bit differently. I asked myself if there was anything I regretted doing or not doing. Well, there isn’t much I regret doing, but I do regret never finishing a degree.

I also asked myself how I would want to be treated by familiy and friends. Well, first off, don’t want any of you to feel sorry for me — you can feel sorry for yourselves that you are losing a wife/daughter/sister/friend, but I’ve lived a pretty good life — much better than a whole lot of other people and I’m hugely thankful to have had such special people in my life as you all are! While I don’t particuarly want to die right now, I’m not afraid of death.

All this being said, I am not sick –do not have cancer or any life threatening disease and don’t know why I thought about all this stuff nor why I felt I needed to write it out, but there you go….that’s how my mind works these days ❓

Well, I guess I need to get back to my regular programming.

Have a great day!

Love to all,

Margaret