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July 02, 2013, 8:11 P.M.
Lots more to cover:
I've got a lot more stuff going on at work, but in a good way--the kind of stuff that means I don't have one week of crazy and one week of scrounging and begging for something to work on. Finally getting to the point where the people we're helping trust us with their stuff. I'm even getting to do some tasks that fall within my specialties OTHER than testing. Which is such a relief that it is almost a vacation in that exotic foreign land known as my comfort zone.
Mom was back in the hospital last week. She got raging D a week ago last Sunday, but because she still won't accept that she can't bull her way through stuff anymore--she didn't go to the ER for it until Thursday. So naturally they had to keep her in for a couple nights, to get her rested, balanced out, and re-hydrated. I talked to her on Saturday morning and she sounded great--but she always does when she's actually been getting taken care of.
And in a competition to see which senior citizen gives me more gray hairs...my mom is actually coming SECOND this week. I called my Auntie on Sunday, and she regaled me with tales of her last trip home from dog-sitting south of Tucson. When she hit the wheel & tire assembly from an 19-wheeler head-on while doing 80. And then proceeded to keep the Toyota upright and on the road (exept for the point where she was actually AIRBORNE, of course) until she had things under control and could pull over. Fortunately, a kind soldier stopped to help her. He cut away the parts of the car that were rubbing, checked it for any radiator leaks, and asked if she wanted him to follow her to the next exit.
But she said no, because she was just going to go on home.
200 miles.
To Phoenix.
Where her two front tires promptly went flat in her driveway.
So yeah, the red-head officially beat the blonde in giving me the grey. I had half a mind to NOT send her half of the jam! (Just kidding. You do NOT want to stiff that woman when it comes to homemade jam.)
Got a bit of a shock when I was ready to ship the jam, though. My wonderful little old-fashioned hardware store with the satellite post office where I always went to mail my packages on Sunday...has closed down. Another victim of big boxes. Farewell, my beloved Hillside True Value Hardware...you will be terribly missed!
Went over to W & T's on Friday evening to visit and deliver T's birthday present--a $25 gift card and a jar of triple-berry. I don't normally give gift cards to W or T, but we are unanimous in being pro-books, so I figured feeding her Nook would be okay. It was. She was already online shopping before I even went home!
She got a new gas grill from W for her B-day, and while I we were talking, she opened up the box and started putting it together. Well, I have been thoroughly conditioned to be helpful in such situations, so pretty soon we were both on the floor building the darned thing. And let me tell you--we were pretty chuffed when we got her done. Nothing like a little girl power! Oddly, W didn't even offer to help--which seemed weird to me because she is so like Spouse in so many ways that I figured she wouldn't be able to keep her hands off. Guess that is one way they are different--she just sat there and watched us.
I also did her a quick tech favor--they were having fits because they have over 300 photos on their digital camera, but they couldn't get them uploaded to the laptop. I offered to help, and T decided that she would have a look around for the connector cable--but I just popped the SD card out of the camers and into the computer, copied, pasted, and there you go. That had apparently never occurred to them. (In fact, I don't think they knew that you could insert an SD card into a laptop.) Nothing special or grand, but W was frigging tickled. And when I ran them all as a slideshow, she was even more happy, finally getting to see them all on a screen that was bigger than 2"x3".
So we had a nice evening--had a bottle of cider, some key lime bars (in lieu of cake) and some fun with my besties. And since they finally replaced their range, I told them that come Christmas, I'll drag the KitchenAid over there and we will kick some Christmas cookie ASS. That got them all excited! W isn't much into cooking, but she's a cookie-baking queen. (Hint for telling if your best friend isn't really a born cook: If she's excited over her new oven because it will enable her to heat up two frozen pizzas at a time!)
let's see--what else goes on? Oh, yeah. We finally broke down and bought a new patio dining set. (Wish I had the patio to go with!) After doing a little shopping around, we went to Lowes and found one we really liked, within budget, and free delivery. It came today, but Spouse wouldn't spring the measly $10 for assembly, so we'll have to put it together.
Need to get it done by Sunday, because we are having our annual summer get-together with P&E. Hoping it will be warm enough to swim--the water temp hasn't gotten over 80 yet this year, and it is a bit brisk. Not going overboard this year; just a basic cookout. Brats, coleslaw, potato salad, baked beans, and maybe some watermelon or a simple dessert.
Reading: Finishing up "Tem Tembarom", (1913) by Frances Hodgson Burnett.
Just getting ready to start a bit of non-fiction that looks interesting: a 1904 guide to hiring and managing a household maid. "The Expert Maid-Servant" (1904), by Cristine Terhune-Herrick.
Listening: Soul Asylum, The Smithereens, Cowboy Junkies, Toad the Wet Sprocket, The Verve Pipe
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