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two weeks is too long to sum up. but here goes.
March 29, 2011, 7:50 P.M.
Went to Rockford, stayed at a nice old hotel, got bumped up to a luxury, two-story suite with two bathrooms, fireplace, & whirlpool tub, which was nice. The freshly remodeled pool, however, was SO freshly remodeled that the water was about 58 degrees, so I didn't bother with any swimming. While in Rockford, we ate good German food, good soul food BBQ, and ice cream at the Sonic. We bought my mom a birthday present at Bergners, and drove down to see her and Dad for a few hours. The weather was lovely (the last good weather we've seen), the view of the river was peaceful and relaxing, and we even found a really cool grocery store (Valli Produce) so we could do some shopping on our way home.
While in Rockford, the Rocket was in the shop. $860.00 worth of front end, and that wasn't including the brake job Spouse and his buddy did which ran another $126.00. Ugh. So long, tax check.
Spouse retrieved his precious KitchenAid from my mom, so there was cookie baking once we got back to town. I found a KA-specific recipe for chocolate chip cookies and make a batch of 5 dozen, which we managed to kill in a week. Spouse liked the recipe so much that he has forbidden me to use any other chocolate chip cookie recipe, ever again. And this past weekend, he had me convert it to M&Ms. Which made SIX dozen. So I broke his heart and packed up half of them to send to Nephew and his girlfriend in Green Bay. And the next day, I whipped up a batch of 3 dozen peanut butter cookies, and sent the whole batch to Arizona for my uncle! Poor Spouse--having to make do with a mere three dozen M&M cookies. And five packages of Girl Scout cookies. Wah.
I got a letter off to Uncle along with the cookies, and the timing was carefully orchestrated to coincide with my Aunt having to go in for a knee replacement. Which is awful enough, without her added complexities of a propensity for having strokes and a husband with mild dementia. Her surgery is scheduled for Wednesday, and I can only hold her in my heart and hope for the best. My cousin and I plotted to have the letter arrive at a time when Uncle needs distraction and occupation, and I figure the cookies would act as a bonus distraction.
What else should I include here? Well, work continues to be frustrating, and I really don't know what else to say. It's awful, I hate it, I'm totally burnt out, and if it wasn't for that whole "need a paycheck to live" thing, I'd chuck it all.
Here's something worth noting: the Officer Craig Birkholz funeral procession went right past my house on Saturday. 500 squad cars, lights flashing, along with three charter buses full of mourners and all the rest of the funeral party. I've never seen anything like it in my life. Spouse and I stood and watched for nearly an hour, as squads representing hundreds of Wisconsin municipalities and counties, as well as from Minnesota, Illinois, and Michigan, the Menominee Nation, the UW campuses, and even the forest preserves, drove slowly past. Talk about moving and heartbreaking. Especially considering that it was a troubled vet who took him down.
I think the B may have gotten Kennel Cough, and I am trying to convince Spouse that we need to take him to the vet. I guess I will just have to quit arguing and go ahead and do it myself. Spouse doesn't begrudge the dog treatment, of course--it is just the whole thing with him and his family--"stick your head in the friggin' sand and maybe it'll go away!" That drives me crazy.
Like last night. I go to let the B out, and there is a damned possum laying in the gangway by the back door. Fortunately, the B listens--I told him to get back in the house, and back he came like a trooper. I observed it for a minute, and it looked as it the thing was sick or injured. But you can't ever tell with a possum if it is...well...playing possum. So I said what the hey, and called animal control. It took them an hour to arrive, and in that time the thing managed to crawl the entire diagonal distance of the yard. It was treating itself to a feast of dog poo when the ACO finally got there, and he pulled on a glove, grabbed the critter by the tail, shook it a couple times, and dropped it into a cat carrier. He was just leaving when Spouse go home from school.
Here's the thing: Spouse would not have had a clue how to deal with the thing himself. But he never would have never called Animal Control, either. He called them once about a racoon and didn't get anywhere, so he would never have called them for this. He would have just hoped it would go away, and poor B would be denied his back yard until we were sure it was gone. As for me--problem solved. You're Welcome.
That's about it. I'm suffering from crushing fatigue--yet I'm restless. The weather is supposed to be spring, yet it's cold and snowy. everything is a contradiction.
So it goes.
Reading:Hobby--"Tracy Park" (1886) by Mary Jane Holmes. "Rainbow Hill" (1924), by Josephine Lawrence (sequel to "Rosemary")
Surfing: meh.
Listening: Florence & The Machine, REM, Sarah McLachlan.
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