TIMBER!

When we first moved in the Homeowners Association gave us permission to remove the large tree in our yard.. It was about 15 feet higher than the house and dead. When Ray was here he thought we should take it down now - if we get a large storm it could fall and hit the roof, so yesterday David and Jackson took it down. They had a great time since the entire activity involved Mayhem and Destruction of An Incredibly Huge Object. They had ropes and sharp objects going,  Jackson was having an especially good time swinging the axe. They got hung up at one point - there was just a little bit left on the bottom, but that small part was like iron(#5). I suggested they give it up as it was getting dark but they refused to back down from our Enemy of Wood. After more chainsaw, ropes and pushing they managed to bring down the main trunk so now our entire backyard is a mess, branches and logs all over. David will be cutting it up for firewood, one of the other reasons we took it down now. The last picture is David and Copper relaxing, Copper being all tuckered out from supervising and barking. In other news Wayne Memorial called yesterday to arrange for me to come in for paperwork, physical and of course drug screening. I've been drug screened so much in the past year everytime I see a jar I want to pee in it. I wasn't sure I'd been hired til they called so I acted cool like I knew it all along. I've got two more weeks at Moses Taylor, two long weeks I might add. The whole thing is very nerve wracking as it's two weeks to do something Very Wrong so every shift is just one more day to get through.

Black Friday

Although most people spent Black Friday shopping, others of us spent the day relaxing. The second picture is of the sweater I just finished which is currently winging it's way to Boston. It's the size of a bathrobe(someday I will learn to gauge!)  so I thought it would be best for it to do it's duty as a sweater in the sub zero home of Kim. Not to mention the color is Boston Rose. I slept til noon and then we went off adventuring, heading out to Dingman's Ferry. When we got to the bridge David pulled over - according to him and Ray there was toll to cross the bridge. I told him if one of the big spenders in the front couldn't pony up the SEVENTY FIVE CENTS to cross the stinkin' bridge I certainly could, sigh. Dingmans' Ferry is just that. A Ferry. The rest is B-O-R-I-N-G. If  I'd known it was going to be nothing but road and a couple drugstores, I probably would've thought twice about coughing up the 75 cents and haggled it down to a quarter. We headed out to Milford which was much nicer and I'm looking foward to going back when I have more time - it's all these beautiful old historic building with lots of knick knack stores. We had a great time walking around, David and Ray had been there  when we were looking for a house. A fixer-up cost about 150,000 so it's a pretty expensive area.  We ate dinner in the italian restaurant uptown where we had dinner with Janet and Diane and then back home. I've got to call the dentist today, one of the crowns he put in last week is hurting which stinks since I have to go to work tonight and the only day off I have is Monday. I'm back to work tonight, time is just dragging of course. And Ray heads back to NJ tommorrow. The weather is really cold now, 20 degrees but no snow yet!

Friends That Bite

As you can see, Claw has no problem biting the hand that feeds her. Or any hand as a matter of fact. Stinky work just got stinkier, I got my new "Schedule Of Revenge" - you dont want to know. I completely blew off Thanksgiving, I was so stressed out I couldn't sleep so I told David, Ray and Jackson to go out without me. I thought about going, but would've spent the entire time counting down the hours I had left to sleep and how long til I had to be back at work while hurrying everyone through thier meal. We're going out again today and I'll celebrate the holiday without having to worry. Ray is here for a few days, the temp dropped big time last night! It's now in the 20's we got a dusting of snow so I think it's a prelude to the rest of the winter. David prefers to stay delusional for now. Ray's down for a few days, I was thinking we might try to shop but I don't know as it is black friday! So we may just limit ourselves to Post Thanksgiving Dinner. Jackson the Stinker is still in bed and Vincent is busy making troubles upstairs. David and Ray went out to breakfast which is traditional for them.

Working Without A Net..

I must enjoy chaos in my life since I seem to be inviting it in everytime it shows up. I quit my job this morning, handed in my resignation at 7:30 am sharp. I think I've mentioned things were not going well - from my point of view at least - and yesterday David suggested we go to Wayne Memorial in Honesdale. It's a small, rural community hospital and I've always regretted not looking at them closer. I just showed up (as is my habit) and was directed to Human Resources across the street, housed in a turn of the century home. I filled out an application and was told they would call me later. I decided to do an independent tour of the hospital and just walked right in and wandered around until I found the nursing office. I was offered a job in the ICU and Telemetry (you float between the two floors) they sent for the nurse manager and my application. They seem to be better staffed, it pays $3 more an hour, FREE parking, closer to home and I can toss the all whites. There were a few strange things - I did mention it's a rural hospital - I actually saw two nurses wearing white dresses and CAPS. The nurse manager said they've always worn the caps and it was ok with her. Quitting this morning was not easy - as much as I don't like the way they staff the floor I have become quite attached to some of the people I work with. The manager was very gracious about it but looked about this far from crying which made me feel really bad. My last day will be the 14th - RN's have to give 3 weeks notice but I think maybe I'll send everyone to NY then and can finish up while Adam and them visit. It'll work out. Right now is a stomach clencher of course because I have to wait for my references to come back, etc...and there's always room for error. Oh well, there's always the Wal-Mart Greeter job!!

Say Cheese! (Cake!)

The weekend went well - I slept not too good Friday morning - I was too excited about guests!! and was a bit nervous about the dentist. I had TWO crowns put in, I've got temporaries and the one in the way back is shiny metal so I spent most of the weekend making gang signs at Diane since I now have a rapper tooth.. Janet and Di arrived around 7 pm - just in time for the roast chicken to be done and then we sat around the fire, drinking wine, watching tv and talking. Everyone was tired so we all went to bed early and of course everyone was up at a ridiculously early time the next morning. Well, some of us. The rain started before dawn but we're hardy souls in Pennsylvania and can shop in any weather. We drove out to the Pocono Cheesecake Factory - it's very expensive but worth it. Jackson and I got chocolate (1/4) and cherry (1/2) for $25 - Janet and Di got about $50. The man behind them was ordering a HUGE amount, taking 4 cheesecakes of this, a couple of that, we should've stayed to hear what his bill was! We had lunch at the local diner - man does not live by cheesecake alone - and then off to the outlets. We did great and had so much fun shopping. We got home by three and everyone sacked out for the afternoon. We had dinner in a local italian resturant where Di and Janet told us all about thier trip to Italy. This morning we went to breakfast at the clubhouse - dinner there is outrageously pricey, but breakfast is reasonable. After breakfast we drove and around and showed them the rest of the hideout and then they left around 11:30. The animals tried to behave - but failed. At least Copper didn't have that awful gas he had the last time they visited! And Mr. Lee showed off her balancing skills on the loft. We went out this afternoon to Dixon City, I decorated the mantel over the fireplace for Christmas. We didn't buy too much as we need to look and see what we have. But we did have a very good weekend!

Bend Over And Open Wide

This is an interesting picture I took at the Coal Mining Museum - it's a pair of antique bowel forceps - I'm not sure exactly how they were used, but the ends are made of leather. Hygenically speaking I certainly wouldn't want to be the SECOND person  in line to be seen!! Antique medical equipment can usually out do any torture device known to man, most of it is scary just to look at. I'm finally off today, I've got a dentist appointment at 3:30 and then Janet and Diane are finally coming to visit us! I've got a three day weekend so I 'm really looking foward to having visitors and being awake the entire time for it. Janet said Diane isn't bringing her bowel forceps because they're in the dishwasher at the moment - I guess we'll just have to share mine. Work is not going very well, we're always understaffed and they have a strange nursing model. They use "pods" which is actually team nursing. It's me, an LPN and an aide - but they always pull the aide and even though the LPN is responsible for labs, dressings and meds if they dont' do it or miss something I'M responsible. And there's 12 patients to each pod. I might just nose around at the other hospital I considered in Honesdale and put it on the back up list for now.

We've Had Our Fill Of Roadkill

One of the things they don't do here that they do on LI is clean up road kill - ever. The most effort I've seen is the dead animal slung up on the shoulder of the road if it's blocking traffic.. Someone hit a beaver a few months ago shortly after we moved here. Beavers are NOT this size of bunnies in case you don't know - they're actually about 60 lbs. Anyhow, since it's a road we frequent we get to see it - or what's left of it - quite often. I kick myself for not getting David to skin it - free fur! But we do get the entertainment of watching it disintergrate and left to it's own devices, a body takes a very very VERY long time to disappear. First it poofed up big and then the next week even bigger. This was followed by deflation, infestation and flattened out. It's almost gone now, you can't even tell what it was. Everyday a little bit more disppears, it's just a sad little smudge on the side of the road.  And there's all sorts of roadkill here, I've seen just about every indigenous animal ka-powed on the road except for birds. And there doesn't seem to be a whole lot of birds around here anyhow, I've seen some Canadian geese and there's that annoying woodpecker that taps on  my bedroom wall at the precise moment I fall asleep, but other than that not much in the way of avian life.  Tons of deer however! And the deer hate Vincent for some reason which we find hilarious to say the least. We don't worry about Vincent being roadkill because he would have to move away from the door for that to happen. Jackson is going to be roadkill if he doenst get his grades up - he's failing both science and math - we're getting on him a little, but after having moved twice in 6months we can give him a little grace period. Just a little side note - Kim found a copy of that tape of the house of WV so she gets at least 6 Brownie Points! Thank you!

Something more Familiar....

That's Vincent with Jackson, he's come a long way, hasn't he? Jackson jokes around that he could be his "familiar" but I told him most familiars don't grunt and fart all the time. He also snorts if you pick him up which of course means we pick him up all the time. He's playing now too - much to the alarm of the dogs, his favorite thing is to sit in a kitchen chair and whap the dogs as they walk by. He still surfs the bowls but has lost that stray cat behavior of eating everything as fast as he can. He's not out  too much - we try to put him out once a day which doesn't do much good. He just sits outside the door looking peevish until we let him back in. Janet and Diane are coming to visit this week, I have a 3 day weekend but I'm paying for it ahead of time by working shift after shift with only a couple days off here and there. The weather has been good this week, in the 50's and the snow melted but I'm sure that's a temporary situation. We've been seeing more deer (I didn't think that was possible!) and even some bucks have been coming around. As you can see, not much has been going on lately - I feel like all I do is work and sleep, and knit of course! Jackson was messing around with the woodstove last night - he didn't start a fire but was putzing with the hot ashes and managed to smoke the entire house out. Instead of sleeping we were awoken around 10:30 flinging the doors open and running the fan to clear the house, another relaxing evening at the Lesters.

The Grudge

Jackson and I finally made it to the movies today - we havent been to one since July I think. Since I've always worked nights we go in the afternoon - Jackson doesn't mind and if it's a scary movie even better - the possibility of being stalked by the Undead is much less on a sunny afternoon. We went to the theater on Montage Mountain which I've mentioned before. Here we are out in the sticks and it's a complex that houses TWENTY MOVIE THEATERS. The parking lot covers at least two acres and the inside is beautiful - marble and red velvet and couldn't be cleaner. We saw The Grudge so we were scared while sitting  in our plush reclinable seats. We had a great time and will be visiting there again. It's not too bad of a price, $20 for the two of us including popcorn and so forth. David's off visiting his new friend Roman who lives here on the weekends  and is originally from Russia. The weather is very cold and is a bit bitter. I've got to work all weekend which is stinky-poo, but work wise it's not too bad since most of the Md's don't admit on the weekend. BRRR!! I think I'll put a sweater on!

A Hazy Shade Of Winter

It snowed again today with freezing rain mixed in so I'm guessing winter comes early in this neck of the woods. David's been perfecting his firebuilding skills, the woodstove thing is sort of tricky. If you don't heat the chimney first the smoke backs up - but you've got to fast heat it up. At the moment I'm squinting for all the smoke and he has the fan on, better luck next time! Work has been busy, working full times night shift  can be overwhelming at times but I've been sleeping much better and am getting used to my schedule. I'm not entirely happy with this hospital, I've recently found they like to write everyone up for everything. One patient didn't have thier compression stockings on for 48 hours and 8 nurses had to sign some silly paper including me. It doesn't amount to anything of course, but it's annoying and upsetting to say the least. But I'm not going be too hasty picking up and moving on -there isn't a whole lot of places to pick from around here and starting over at another hospital you're taking your chances that it might either be the same situation - or worse.  David has slowed down on working on the house recently and got his contractor's insurance renewed. The house next to us was sold - in under a week no less! I hope they arent going to be noisy people. The Hideout seems to be the ghetto for NY and NJ people, everyone here is from those two states. This must be where they contain us!

Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow!

Here's a picture I took of the first snow yesterday.  Actually, there were flurries on Monday but it didn't stick not to mention I was sleeping so that didn't count. It's pretty much all melted now, but the temps are supposed to be in the 30's this week so we may have a repeat. We're supposedly getting a cord of wood this morning. David had called a guy about 2 or 3 weeks ago and he said he'd call the night before he brought the wood. The guy never called so Monday David started looking for someone else and lo and behold guy #1 calls last night to tell us he'll be here in the am with the wood. I'm guessing since no one ever mentioned a time frame, no foul has been committed. I made a beef stew last night which everyone enjoyed and I made dumplings with it. Jackson didn't know what they were and brought his plate over to me so I could look at them. I did admit to putting them in his plate, he sat there and poked and prodded them like he had small animals in his dinner. He finally took a bite and then I found him in the kitchen snarfling down the extra.

BEEF STEW:

2 -3 lbs of stew meat. 8 potatoes, 1 lb baby carrots, 5 cups water, 4 beef boullion,bay leaves, 1/2 Rolling Rock Beer**, 3 tablespoons Wisteshire sauce, 1 large sweet onion, olive oil, flour, corn starch

Dredge meat in flour, brown in oil, remove. More oil, saute onion and add beef. Boil the water while you do this, add to pot and mix in everything but the vegetables. Cook on low for an hour and half, covered and stirring occasionally. When meat is cooked through, add vegtables, turn up to med low and cook til done. When done make a slurry with tsp of cornstarch and cold water, whisk in to thicken gravy. If you want dumplings buy Bisquick and follow directions. Everything here is approximate, I haven't measured in years, add or subtract according to taste.

** It's important to buy good beer because you get to drink the remaining half for lunch.

Living For The Weekend

Ray left yesterday - we had a great time. On Sunday we went to Montage Mountain and took some pictures. There was no one there but I'm sure once snow season starts it must be hopping. We also found the movie theater which for being sort of in the middle of nowhere, it's extremely huge - it's bigger than the cineplex in Brookhaven and has a parking lot that covers a couple acres. There's also a really big stadium there - there was some sort of game going on at the time. Next we went to the Anthrocite Coal Mining Museum - Rays' father was a coal miner at one point after immagrating here from Poland so he found it very interesting. You can take a tour of a real coal mine too, but we didn't since some of us have issues with being buried alive and stuff. After that we went out to dinner and then back home. I had to work that night so I went to bed right after supper and passed out for about 3 hours. The temp has dropped considerably AND it snowed last night! Not much, about half an inch, but it's snow. The dogs and I are very excited but David is being a big CrabbyPants about it which he needs to stop since we live in the SNOW BELT I'm sure it will snow at least a couple more times (haha). Maybe I'll put him on an ice floe to teach him a lesson like the eskimo's do. He's got to order a cord of wood, I love having two fireplaces. I guess I'd better go get Jackson to get out of bed, he's been fine-tuning his Bed Clinging Technique and has his apprentice with him this morning!

At The Olive Garden, You're Family!

See, EVERYONE was out to dinner last night! Did you know that's how they feed cows? I thought they just threw stuff around but apparently there is a Cow Feeding System. Ray's out for the weekend and the weather's co-operating - chilly but nice and the sky couldn't have been bluer! The second picture is us out to dinner at the Olive Garden(I prefer thier Feeding System)- we decided to go early and had dinner around 4pm. Good thing, around here on the weekends going out to dinner is big. When we left around 5:15, the line was out the door and I'm sure the wait was over an hour. We rented a couple of movies, don't rent Stuck On You - the blurb on the back is way funnier than that stupid movie will ever be. We got through about 20 minutes of it and  turned it off just in time to catch The Quiet Man - now there's a good movie. We've been watching alot of old movies lately, Jackson particularly liked Psycho and The Bad Seed. We're going exploring today, I've got to work tonight but not until 11 pm so that leaves me the day to wander about and I'll go back to bed after dinner. Adam called this morning, he has indeed secured a flight and will be leaving on the 10th. The only bad thing is his return flight is Dec. 26th out of Philly International AT SIX AM. I guess we'll figure it out. He's going to be underway again for awhile so figured he'd call before he left. He's still a Stuck On The Boat Monkey and will be for awhile. Ray will probably come out while he's home for the holidays which will be great, all of us together again. Ray's nephew has also offered to help us with the WV lawsuit thing (he's a lawyer) which makes me feel better. Are you wondering about the 3rd picture posted?? I told you we went out for dinner - and it's always a good thing to HAVE PIE FOR DESSERT. EEWWWW!!!!!

One Last Look At The Leaves....

...since they certainly don't look like that now! They were in the process of turning all brown and then for the past two days we've had rain and high winds, which subsequently stripped the trees bare instantly. It was like instant winter.  We'll be out and about today so I'll take pictures and post them . Ray's coming out again today, we'll probably do dinner and a movie today and then drive out to Montage Mountain tomorrow. I can't tell you how great it is that he's so close to be able to visit us whenever. I'm sort of off for the weekend, I'm off yesterday and today, on Sunday for an 11 - 7 and then off for two more days. The shift in the middle sucks, but I'll take it, especially since I worked the past 9 days out of 11. We haven't heard anymore from WV, but I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop. I'm figuring since they've gone to the trouble of hiring a lawyer to represent them they won't go away that easily. Does anyone have a copy of that videotape I sent out before we moved there? Has anyone looked for it?? PLEASE let me know. The animals are fine, David and I were awakened around 4:30am this morning to some frantic rattling. Mr. Lee had shut herself up in the linen closet, much to the amusement of the other two cats who were probably laughing their butts off. She tried to walk with some shread of dignity out of it, but failed. We're hoping since she's going on 15 she'll grow up this year, but remain doubtful. The temp has dropped considerably this week so we've been using our fireplaces quite a bit, Jackson likes to stoke up the woodstove on his floor to tropical temps - the cats LOVE HIM. They're calling for possible flurries this weekend which I'm looking foward to. AND I heard from the Sea Monkey, he has secured a flight on Dec. 10th and will be flying back on the 26th. So that should make the holidays better!!

I'm Looking For Something

And what I'm looking for is a copy of the videotape I made of the WV house before we moved there. Remember when we first bought the house and I made copies of a videotape I'd taken of the whole house and sent them out? IF ANYONE kept it, please let me know - there should be some shots of that back wall in question that we're being sued for.  We've been looking but I think when we moved the second time it was either lost or thrown out.  I've started working 12 hour shifts, the good thing is I work one day a week less (2 twelve's and 2 eights) but of course the downside is working 12 hours straight. I am sleeping much better though, Mr. Lee gets ix-nayed to Jackson's room with a litter pan which of course helps a great deal. David took Jackson to the supermarket since we once again have NOTHING to eat. I'm off this weekend - I only have to work one 8 hour shift in a five day stretch so I'm much looking foward to that. I think we'll be going to Montage Mountain this weekend for a look around. There's also a movie theater that I might try to take Jackson to - do you realize we haven't been out to the movies since we left WV??

Shouldn't They Call It "Fell"?

The trees are already looking quite bare and we certainly don't have to worry about anyone sneaking up on the house. We're having a lot of fun slogging around the yard ankle deep in leaves and we always know where the dogs are. . I had my first night off orientation Sunday - Halloween to  be exact and it went well with the exception of my having to infuse a total of 4 units of blood to various patients. I didn't have a problem it was just time consuming. The vampires would've gone home empty handed on my floor!  I get along with everyone but I think there's one LPN that doesn't seem to like me. I'm not sure if it's a personality thing or the fact that she's super-duper religious and she can smell a heathen in the midst. Jackson got his new glasses on Saturday, he's nearsighted and needs to wear them except when he's reading. He likes them a great deal and does indeed look rather spiffy in them. We're still working on the lawsuit thing though the novelty of it all has worn off a bit. Now we're annoyed and will soon shift gears into Pretty Mad About The Whole Stupid Thing. David's slipping into Battle Mode - anyone that's ever seen him in action would appreciate it. I've seen him win against insurance companies so this could get interesting. Animals are fine, Vincent's gotten more comfortable and now will go outside for a couple of hours, I think he's not worrying about being abandoned anymore. The only thing we've noticed is he'll come back in to use the litter box and then go back out which we wish he wouldn't do. When Vincent uses the sand box you KNOW he's been by - he could win prizes for his hair raising visits to the facilities. Oh well, such is life.