Happy New Year's Eve!

I still haven't made any resolutions. I'm considering making very big ones - since I'm going to break them all in January why not go for the gold? I can resolve to be taller, devote my life to world peace, to outdo Donald Trump, to look more like Christy Brinkly and less like Courtney Love pre-rehab, to be kinder to Claw and stop hoping a bear gets her and to stop being so sarcastic all the time. I feel better, don't you? And I might as well cut to the chase and not do any of those things. Glad that's over with. Anywhoo, those things in the first picture that I posted awhile ago - I was talking to a nurse that was born and raised in that area and she told me what they were. They're charcoal ovens -you make charcoal in them! They were built the early 1900's and they used them to make the charcoal for fuel for the trains that were going long distances so they didn't run out of fuel. The retired coalminers worked them and dragged the wood from the surrounding forest in to make the charcoal. She said the poor, especially around the time of depression would bring rocks and pile them on top to heat them, then bring them back to thier house to use for heat. I have to admit, I never would've guessed. She said if I ever get back to that area and want to look at them closer to make sure I wear boots because over the years the ground has gotten marshy. I'm getting new tires today, not looking foward to the bill but it's got to be done. I have to say when I get my next car it'll probably be another CRV, sometimes I'm amazed at the places it can go. I had to get up a driveway yesterday - straight up and covered in ice, I can't imagine it in January. We went slinging the other day on Jackson's birthday, I took our road  too fast and fishtailed at the top of hill. Jackson was a little upset and announced he would like to be older than 16 someday. Honestly, even though I pointed out it wasn't much of a drop off by WV standards, he still told his father. Rat fink.

Cruising

Well, the year is winding down, I suppose it's resolution time. I try not to make them, first of all if you're going to lose weight, take a college course, be nicer to the dog, stop hanging out in bars and picking up strange men, etc - either you're going to do it or not and swearing  to it on the first of the year is just silly. And more importantly, it just makes me look bad in January anyhow. But from force of habit I tend to do it despite knowing better. We aren't doing anything per se, out of all the holidays this one is my least favorite. When I go out I wish I was home and when I'm home I think I'm missing something. So I just go to bed and that solves the whole thing. The temp here has warmed up - it was in the 40's yesterday which made the outlying area just lovely. Slogging up a hill on ice is bad enough, but at least if you fall it's just water. Now it's mud, and not just any mud, oh no. It's Special West Virginia Mud. Anyone who lives in a clay-based area knows what I'm talking about. When the water hits this stuff it has the consistancy of pig poo and is twice as slick as ice. Having fallen in it once this year I'm not eager to do it again and I'm much better at keeping my balance, even in the most precarious of yards. One of the other nurses (who grew up here) told me when it's wet, NEVER walk in the driveway, walk next to it (the grass and rocks give you traction). And that advice has served me well, not to mention the fear of getting covered in that crap again. The other interesting thing about this area is because of the mountains, every town gets different weather. We got rain for instance yesterday but when I called to schedule an appointment with a patient 20 miles away she said she hoped I had four wheel drive because of all the snow! I'm getting new tires on Saturday, mine are a few years old and with all the driving I do I can't afford to let them go too long. Sigh, I'd better get started I suppose.

Birthday!

Yep, my youngest is 16 today, how strange is that? He doesn't seem 16 nor does he appear old enough to graduate in a couple of years. He has decided not to do the laser tag thing, we'll be doing the tradition mall and dinner thing. Becky is having a party from what I understand for her birthday in a couple of weeks and when I pointed out he could've had one he shook his head NO, didn't think he would like that. Whatever, it's his birthday and this is what he wants. He's actually very social, but things like birthdays and holidays he just likes it quiet so I'll leave him alone. I'm off again today and Kevin said yesterday we are off AGAIN on Monday for New Year - I think they're trying to kill me. I farmed out some of my jobs yesterday, there's only so much that can be done in 8 hours. David took down all the decorations yesterday, the tree we had was very nice but dried out very quickly. If you touched it the branches snapped and since the cats spent most of thier free time touching it, there was quite a mess going on. Not to mention the fire hazard part of it. I just find the decorations a bit sad after the holidays so we usually have them down pretty quick. Our computer seems to be working ok today. David got that Vonage phone system they advertise on TV for $9.95 a month since we all know the wars we've waged with Frontier Phone Company who's slogan should be Go Ahead, Make A Long Distance Call, We Dare You. In case you're wondering - Vonage sucks. You don't just hook it up and that's it. Nope. You need a wireless router. And another phone since it's just long distance.Then you need to register and download thier software. When David tried to register it, it refused to take it. You can't call them. So he emailed. And emailed. And emailed. The registration number on the bottom was wrong so they registered him from their end. Then it STILL didn't work. Then we lost our internet connection so I removed everyone and thier brother's program and we still didn't have a connection. Jackson went in and manually restored the settings, so everything seems alright and all the equipment is sitting in a pile at the moment, waiting to be repackaged and returned. Good Riddance!

Guess Who's Almost 16

And he's not sure what he wants to do for his birthday. Becky has suggested Laser Tag, but he's torn between that and what he usually does which is go shopping to spend some of his Christmas and birthday money, dinner out and a cake at home. Being born right after Xmas and right before New Years can be rather tough - no one's around for your birthday and if they are, they're usually busy. So he's gotten used to having small quiet birthdays. And then we get into what am I going to get him. Shopping for him is a pro and con deal - everything is on sale, but there's not much left to chose from. I went to Hot Topic that was having a 50% off sale on thier pants, but it was fairly picked over and what was left was either XS or XXL.  Some of the things he asked for aren't out yet video game wise (I already have to return one), so he'll just end up with more money. At least I'm off for it. Work is going to rough this week - they gave me yesterday off, but didn't reduce my patient load, so I'm going to be running for the rest of the week. AND I think next week I get another day "off" for the New Year. Eek.

Dog In Blue Poncho

So, how was everyone's holiday? Ours was good, but quiet. Everyone got what they wanted pretty much, with the exception of Dante's Inferno for Jackson. I should've looked at it a little closer but just glanced at the cover before I bought it. After all, Dante's Inferno is Dante's Inferno, right? Wrong. Apparently two surfers from California can rewrite the above said classic, set it in modern day Los Angeles, change the main character into a teenager from the wrong side of the tracks, turn the whole thing into a mess and peddle it as the real deal. Fortunately, Beuwolf and The Merchants Of Venice were what they were suppposed to be. But Jackson's birthday is on Wednesday and the good thing about that is whatever he didn't get for Christmas we can get him for his birthday. I'm off today, but have about 3 hours of paperwork to catch up on, yuck. And we also have to go shopping for the birthday on Wednesday which I'm also off for. I finally finished the poncho and will ship it off when I get a chance. I think for the next few projects they will be small - hats, etc. I have a pattern for a Japanese war helmet that you can knit which is hilarious and I think Jackson would like so that might be next on the boards. I also am going to try to make a dog coat for a friend of mine. The weather here has cooled off a bit and it looks like it'll rain again. It rained all Christmas morning and then the sun came out big time. We ended up eating at a chinese restaurant for Christmas as we usually do, but everyone has thier traditions, don't they?

Whoo Hoo! It's Finally Here!

As you can see, Vincent doesn't even try to pretend to be good - I've chased him and Mr. Lee off of the tree several times, but they either don't get it or simply don't care. I'm fairly certain they don't care. Yesterday was very warm - in the 60's so I spent a portion of Christmas Eve cleaning out my car and then David and I washed them both. David and I took Jackson shopping yesterday, Becky gave him an extra present which made it necessary for him to buy her one and he also had to buy for her parents. We had told Jackson he could go over Becky's since we usually don't do too much for Christmas Eve and he had been invited. I had David stop at McDonalds, Jackson is on hyperdrive again and I didn't want him to scare anyone. He supposed he could eat "something" and ordered a 10 piece, large shake, large fries, asked if he could have TWO ten piece (NO) and then ate David's fries too. When he got to Becky's her brother Bobby took them out for lunch at Garfield's so he got ANOTHER lunch which he said was ok since he was still hungry. We're going out for early dinner today and Jackson might go over Becky's again, her parents like him and said he can come over all weekend. He's been on a roll lately - full of theory and conversation. A few days ago he was telling me about some calendar that says the apocolypse is going to occur in 2012 and when I said someone is always predicting the end of the world he then said this calendar had predicted the death of a religious leader and the pope had indeed died that year. I told him given the amount of religious leaders in the world that prediction was like shooting fish in a barrel then he said well, it said a CHRISTIAN leader. I then demanded he produce the above said calendar and even went so far to say I thought it didn't exist. At which he threw his hands up in the air and said "Fine! Go to hell then and see if I care!". In other words, while I'm sitting in the firey underworld I am NOT to come crying to Jackson about it! LOL, on that note, Merry Christmas everyone.

We got a call from Adam this morning for Christmas. He's got tons of stuff going on as usual so it was nice to hear from him, but he's a bit down. I think a lot of it can be attributed to The Christmas Curse, which has been our usual for years. I don't think it's a true curse that everything goes ka-fluie all December, but with holidays adding to the mix it gets a bit more magnified. David and I have developed a sense of humor about it and just laugh and go on, knowing it will all resolve itself in January. I'm off for Monday, but paid for it all week. With the holidays the doctors were discharging patients home that probably should've waited a few more days, so as you can see from the pictures I've posted today, I did quite a bit of driving yesterday. My GPS has become a part of my life, I don't know if I could do the job as well without it. And my boss has come to rely on it too - since I have one I think I can zip around faster since I never have to use a map and hunt for anyone, so I think I've given the impression  no address is a problem . Which it's not - I'm sometimes amazed at what it can find! Jackson had a good time with Becky's family and it was her Dads family he went to see. So he was able to meet Becky's aunts and Uncles. We have a little bit of shopping to do and will be heading out early - David said the roads were all backed up yesterday with last minute shoppers.

TGIAC!!

That would stand for Thank Goodness It's Almost Christmas! I'm currently  way behind on my christmasy stuff to do, but I still have a little time. Vincent has not only been attacking the tree, but has taught Mr. Lee the fine art of Ornament Smacking - who says you can't teach an old cat new tricks? My schedule at work continues to seesaw back and forth, yesterday I started off with one job. When I got there my phone rang and another patient was having a problem so I needed to see her - the fortunate part was she lives very close to patient #1 so I was able to zip over there and get her straight. Then I had a late job and was pottering around the office doing paper work, plotting to leave a little early and hightail it to Michaels AND BUY ALL THE CLEARANCE YARN FOR MYSELF - and got an admission. So I was running then since I didn't want to be late for the job I already had scheduled and on my way back got today changed about 3 times. All compounded by the fact the doctors will tell the patients things that I will be doing and won't say anything to me which means me back at the office playing phone tag to verify exactly what the doctor said. Yikes! Jackson is off from school today and is going with Becky's family to Beckly which is about 150 miles from here. The reason being is Becky' family meets there as a halfway mark and they all exchange presents and have lunch - that's kind of a neat idea, isn't it? The weather is supposed to warm up into the 40's today as per the Crack Weather Team. I especially loved them this week - they predicted warmer temps so I put my down coat to the dry cleaners as it was rather filthy - the temps immediately dropped so there I was, in the outlands of WV in a wool dress coat. The moment I got it back of course the tempetures started to rise. I should get moving, I'm dropping Jackson off in Sabraton at 7:30 and then zipping off to No Man's Land for a bit to get my 1st job in early so I can get to Michaels' and you know......

All Is Well In The Kingdom Again

It took a couple of days, but I am over What Ever It Was, thank goodness. David and I are still trying to get Christmas shopping done, we're going out to a restaurant for the big day as we always have - probably chinese. We had Jackson's list with us, the usual video games as is every year. The only problem I have with video games is they're so expensive and even if you buy a couple hundred dollars worth, it sort of looks like a big nothing under the tree. When the boys were little it was so much easier to look impressive. All thier gifts were entirely constructed of lightweight plastic and most on a rather grand scale - anyone remember the Thunder Cat Lair that you could sit in? Or the Tiny Tikes Pedal Helicopter?Now I spend 4 times as much and you can fit thier  entire christmas list in a milkcrate with room to spare. Jackson also had a book on the list, Dante's Inferno which in case you need a copy is located in the poetry section and not fiction and literature. After we picked up Jackson from school we went to exit 7 to do a bit more shopping and I popped into Michaels and bought 10 skeins of Tutu yarn in winter white BECAUSE it was on clearance ($2.09 from  $6.99 - yes we need a cart over here!!). I only bought 10 because The Yarn Hater was with me with his sidekick The Tattletale (DAD! SHE HAS YARN IN THAT BAG, DAD!!!.....)so I had to resist laying waste to the shelves before someone else noticed the clearance signs. I have a couple of jobs over that way on Friday but I have to weigh whether I can quick shop for yarn with labs in the car. Hmm. The temp has stayed in the 20's all day, the Crack Weather Team DID say it would go up to the 40's tomorrow, but they were announcing Sunny Skies as the snowflakes were blowing by the windows today so my faith in their abilities is not a lot.

Oh No, The Queen Is Sick!

Yes, it's true. I am sick. I came down with Whatever It Is yesterday, did a brief stint of denial as we were on our way to church and I had clothes on and everything, but we did have to turn back. I spent the day in bed being just miserable but being of the medical profession I'm only allowed to suffer in bed until 6 am Monday. Then I can suffer at work. I'm not throwing up or anything - just a bad head cold I suppose and I'm tired and achy. Jackson is over Becky's - he's back on schedule for the restricted visitation. David overbought on the coldcuts last week so he told Jackson to have some for lunch. Jackson informed me Sunday afternoon we were completely out - there'd been about 4lbs  in there, so "lunch" apparently was an extended engagement. David questioned if it was possible for anyone to eat that many coldcuts (not to mention the loaf of bread was almost gone,) but if there's a 15 year old boy around, entire herds can disappear. Jackson mention the roast beef was especially good, it must've been because there had been a pound and a half of it!! He did leave a sad bit of pastrami hiding in the corner so we had just enough to cover lunch today at school. He does have a lunch card which I think is nifty - you're not allowed to use cash to buy your lunch as school which cuts down on having money stolen or the temptation to remove it from your smaller classmates - but refuses to use it because he likes sandwiches from home. Lucky me.

Eight More Days!!

If I hear one more stupid news show do an interview on holiday depression I will run down to the station and go postal all over thier weenie asses. They actually had a "checklist" this morning with questions such as "Do you feel devoid of joy?" I felt like calling them and asking if they all felt devoid of brains. This was of course followed by amazingly stupid advice from a leading psychiatrist who apparently specializes in Holiday Disorders.  This can only be outdone by the local stations giving Cold Weather Tips such as "wear a hat" and "warm up your car", all delivered with the same gravity as a report on the War On Terror.  ANYWHOO, we got the presents mailed off today so that's done. I have most of the Christmas cards done too, but ran short so I'll have to pick up more tomorrow. While we were at Barnes and Noble's I found a couple of knitting books so David bought them for me for a present. When we got home I went up and sat on my bed MINDING MY OWN BUSINESS paging through the above said books when David (aka The Grinch) came in and took the books away stating they were for Christmas purposes only. I have to admit I did indeed feel devoid of joy, but he took them away anyhow. I personally felt that since I wasn't knitting anything out of  either of the books it didn't count but some people can be very unreasonable. I'm making good progress on the poncho which turned out to be a major bonus. Since I'm knitting it in the round it didnt fit too well on my circular needles so when we went to Sam's Club we stopped at the Nest which is a very high end knitting shop. I can't even afford to look at the yarn in there - things such as chinese ribbon silk ($19 a skein) or hand dyed Alpaca ($24.95) but I can afford to look at some of the needles. But not the Lantern Moon hand made from Cambodia ($22 a pair). So I bought TWO pairs of Addi Turbo circular needles, they're like a Porshe version of knitting needles and they had the sets with the 40" cord span, Bonus!! They're german stainless steel which means the yarn just slides right off them as you go so you can knit faster. That would be the Turbo part. David's going to move the birdfeeder tomorrow to the french door in the living room. Ever since Vincent saw the birds sitting in it he's been parking himself on the sill right below it which as you can imagine, defeats the purpose entirely. Not to mention it's supposed to be a Birdfeeder, not a Catfeeder.

On The Road Again

As you can see, I was a travelling girl today! I probably did over 100 miles for 4 patients, I think I average about 60 to 80 a day easily. I've learned to turn down cups of coffee, I know what bears do in the woods but nurses should not!! I actually enjoy all the driving, most of my travels take me down the back roads and no matter how many times I drive it, there's something new to see every day. The thing that frustrates me is not being about to take all the pictures I'd love to, I drive by dozens of great pictures and there's no where to safely stop. Most of these roads aren't too well travelled, but that in itself is a problem since everyone flies down them. And the names! I've REALLY been on Easy Street, it's right next to Nice St. There's Burnt Cabin, Mouse Run, Sugar Run Road, Breezy Ridge (VERY aptly named I might add), Bloody Run, Turkey Knob, and of course tons of Runs and Hollows. Too bad I have all those patients inbetween! My patient that had surgery came out alright, I went to see him today and he looks great. I was so relieved to see him sitting up and his family will be having a great Christmas I'm sure. I'm still trying to finish up for Christmas, but enough is enough. Saturday everything I bought gets packed and sent  and if anyone doesn't like what I sent them they can come here and take it up with me. If you need my address - Go straight to the middle of nowhere.  Turn right at the Boondocks driving straight through the town you can spit across. I'm on the left.

The Gift That Keeps On Giving

David took this picture today, apparently we had a visitor to the birdfeeder, it will probably be the last. David said Vincent jumped up on the chaise, crouched and then flung his entire body at the birdfeeder - David said it was hilarious watching him slide down the glass, but I think it might put the local bird population off. The weather has been back and forth, the Crack Weather Team has yet to get it right - but I'm sure if they keep changing the forecast enough times they'll be correct eventually. I had a hairy day at work, my patient's port broke so I spent a fair amount of time in the ER with them. I'm insanely grateful I caught it in time - the whole thing could've been far worse than it was. As it is, I'm just hoping he makes it through the surgery alright. We're getting on top of the Christmas stuff - I can't believe it's only ten days away! Vincent has been bothering the tree already, the other two could care less. Jackson is at BECKY'S again, bet everyone is surprised. Apparently she has WAY better parents than he does.

Snow Watch Advisory In Effect For Your Area

David has cancelled his trip to NJ this week, the weather reports are predicting snowstorms for the rest of this week into next week and with it getting close to Christmas he didn't want to take any chances. I think Ray would prefer doing his kitchen in the spring too, although I'm sure he's a bit disappointed about not seeing David. Jackson and Becky will be keeping thier increased time for the week since it was already promised and quite frankly, I just can't listen to it. I'm doing Christmas cards today and will be starting to get everything ready to be sent off - but things are easier without the class hanging over my head. Work has been getting better - I actually got complimented on my paperwork and Tammy has been busy farming out my visits so there have been no more late nights. I think most of my jobs are closer in for the rest of the week and I seem to be working mostly PA lately. We put up the Christmas tree this week, I was so excited and it is really nice. Vincent has been leaving it alone so far, as have the other two cats. David bought them a birdfeeder for Christmas and put it on the window in the computer room, but so far no takers. Of course it would probably help if the cats stopped parading right below it.

Bah Humbug On The Snow

Vincent completely HATES the snow, I let him out yesterday and he sat on the sidewalk, ears back and fur up as if he was being attacked. He came back in after about 3 minutes,out of sorts and sat on the windowsill looking disgusted at the white stuff. It's going to be a long winter for the cat. We didn't go to church yesterday, it had started snowing and no one was in the mood so we did some christmas shopping instead. I made turkey and mashed potatoes for dinner. David put a half teaspoon of cranberry sauce on Jackson's plate and he responded by acting like David had put a dead bug on it. David made him keep it "for decoration" and Jackson came back a few minutes later looking for more. He refused to admit he liked it, it was "ok he guessed" and proceeded to eat the rest of the it. I'm still working on the poncho, Copper did his modeling duites but it's alway a dangerous thing when it's halfway done. He sat for the pictures and then went to lay down which stretched it out and almost pulling it off the needles (I'm knitting it in the round as opposed to two sections). Jackson had to hold the needles while I peeled him out of it. That made him so excited he stole David's hat and bounced around the livingroom play growling to get David to chase him. I have a full week ahead of me at work - the snow on Friday pushed some patients into this week, and I had an infusion that didn't get her medication last week so I have to do it this week. At least I'm done with class.

Let The Wait Begin

I took my final Saturday - and it DID take almost 5 hours. I finished in 4 hours and 45 minutes and when I left, more than half of the class was still there. I was a bit surprised, usually they give you alot of excess time and by a couple of hours usually most of the class is done. But this one not only did they give 5 hours, but if you took a break they would tack that time onto the end. I didn't take any, I just wanted it done. As to how I did I honestly don't think I passed, the past month I've barely had time to breath, let alone study - not to mention this test is broken down into 3 sections and if you don't pass all of them you fail. I won't hear the results for 4 - 6 weeks which in this day and age I think is ridiculous,even the nursing boards you get the results in a week or so. But the good thing is I can take the exam over again without having to repeat the class or pay again and in the meantime, I'm employed. David got our funace working again, the repairman had called back Friday night and told Jackson if he came he didn't have the parts, it would cost A HUNDRED DOLLARS just for him to show up,etc...so Jacks cancelled him since he didn't want someone who would cost over a month of allowances to show up and do nothing. Of course then Jackson called me a little panicked since he usually isn't in charge of these decisons (David had been out buying a kerosene heater) but I told him he made the right one. David couldn't get ahold of the repairman the next morning so he called the plumbing and heating store and they told him that it was probably just the ignitor and they happened to have that part. So instead of it costing us hundreds of dollars in emergency call, it ended up costing us $38. Now I have to catch up on paperwork, housework, christmas shopping, and of course knitting. David is heading off for NJ this week to help Ray build a kitchen so Jackson and I will be on our own.

Here's Mud In Your Eye

One of my patients owns a llama and I occasionally try to take pictures of it. However, it would like to spit at me so getting a good picture is fairly impossible. It's one of the things I probably don't want for Christmas. I have my final today and very small chance of passing it - I've had no time to study at all - last night was another late night at work with me arriving exausted at 6:30pm. And to add to it, the furnace decided to quit (perfect timing - Friday evening) so David has the shop propane and we used a kerosene heater for the night. The tempeture is co-operating by dropping into the 20's overnight. Hopefully we can find someone to come this weekend. David thinks it might be the igniter that's malfunctioning. Needless to say I didn't even bother trying to study, that may sound fatalistic but I don't think at this point an extra hour is going to make a difference one way or the other. We get the results in 4 to 6 weeks and I can retake it without having to pay an extra fee so whatever. I'm fending them off from work - they were after me all day yesterday to work the weekend but I told them NO, even the patients that live near me. I fail to see where proximetry makes a client my sole responsibility. I've been running daily scans on our computer - that virus thing has me a bit freaked out, just the idea that someone can invade your computer and take your personal information is more than a bit creepy.

On The First Day Of Christmas My True Love Gave To Me...

A lit up squirrel in a locust tree is what your true love would give you in WV. Doesn't the squirrel look nice though? The cats are fighting this morning which is very annoying. It's really just one cat (Vincent) harrassing another (Claw), he's been trapping her under various objects and furniture all morning and she retalitates by growling and hissing until I can't even stand it anymore. I spent 4 hours yesterday studying - this just seems to drag on and on. Tuesday was a disaster, the class I missed last week was the one where they went over information for the final exam that I didn't know we were having since I missed that class. So I went in thinking we would be doing a review for the big certification test on Saturday and instead ended up taking a 3 hour final cold. Work is starting to straighten out a little bit, they got an LPN per diem to work Preston county which helps me a lot so now work is simply overwhelming instead of drowning. Jackson is flunking again, I'm getting very tired of this and we're trying to figure out what to do. Taking things away doesn't seem to help and unless I call all of his teachers daily, I have no idea what work he's not doing. I think he's just going to have to do an hour mandatory at the kitchen table and I don't care if he stares at his feet and hums. We've got so much going on I just don't have time to fool around with him anymore. I heard from Adam, he will definately not be coming home this winter and might try for the spring. I'm pretty disappointed but there's not much I can do. I"m sending off his christmas present today, it proabaly won't get there in time, but I just haven't had time to do anything. The house is a disaster and the decorating very sporadic. Bah. Humbug.

I Smell Winter

Around here the snow  is a very strange and selective thing - you can get a foot in one area and a dusting in another, Preston county ALWAYS gets whomped no matter what what. We just have a little snow left here in Maidsville, the ice is far more annoying in my opinion. I finally got some studying in on Sunday, I got up early and studied for a few hours while Jackson was still asleep and David was elsewhere. We went to church on Sunday - the first time in a few weeks - and when I went out to start the car I found it encased in ice so I ended up spending a bit of time chipping it free. After that we went to Sam's Club and when we got back I got back to the books. Today was run,run,run - I started at 7:30 am and finished at 5pm so I'm a bit too spent to concentrate. My boss reduced my workload for tomorrow and Wednesday I'm hitting the books again. I will be so glad when this whole thing is over.Our computer still works well, it actually works better but now we are Paranoid Bunnies. Some security warning keeps coming up that an unidentified publisher would like to run lo31.exe from C:/WINDOWS/system32 and we keep hitting cancel on it since A)we don't know what it is and B)system 32 is the file that was modified that caused all the problems in the first place.

Sunset Brought To You Courtesy Of West Virginia

Doesn't that look really tropical? It sort of was, give or take 70 degrees or so ( mostly on the "take" side of things). ANYWHOO, the temp has plummeted into the 20's and we've discovered the house doesn't heat very evenly, especially Jackson's Dungeon Abode but he insists on hanging in there. I've made up the two guest rooms just in case he finds it difficult to break ice some evening, worst comes to worst he'll just be a very Hardy And Hale person by spring. We're trying to talk Big Dave into a space heater but he's being Cheap and a bit Surly, even pulling out the old "When I was young..." routine which is pure nonsense. His mother tends to keep her house between "sauna" and "lightly sauteed" all of the time,even occasionally turning on the heat in June which has left him with the constitution of a dandalion. Things here are not great - I have my certification test next Saturday and everything's still crazy at work, just constant running topped off with all the paperwork I have to catch up on. I managed to finish alot of my paper work and then a patient who lives about 3 miles from me had a crisis. I'm not on call but strangely all the on call nurses seem to be aware of my proximetry to the patient as this is the second time it's happened. At least the nurse on call this weekend was nice enough to ask instead of like the other one who faked a visit so the agency would call me. But even though the patient is close it was still almost 3 hours out of my day plus the paper work. I did get some studying in but right now I'm totally done for the day and any attempt at studying just bounces right off. Everyone's present will probably be late, I did a little bit of decorating (i.e. The Squirrel) but other than that I'm not bothering til after this test. David's work has been picking up, sigh, of course!! at the MOST inconvienient time!(He's been out working all day as a matter of fact)

Back In Business

Arrgh! We were told by Best Buy our computer would probably be done by Monday - "worst case scenario Thursday" - worst case scenario it is. When I called on Tuesday they'd finished some of it but I was told that "now we have to battle spyware and viruses and it depends on how much of fight they give us" as if we were talking knights and dragons, I guess they're not called the "geek squad" for nothing. So here are the belated Thanksgiving pictures and the last one is of Copper modeling the latest project I've started. It's another poncho since I'm on a sweater break. The zoo did ok while we were gone, they seemed to be fine with the free-range kennel concept except Charger apparently didn't do well at night and ended up sleeping in the owner's Aunt's bed. She also came and fed the cats while we were gone so everyone was was a little upset, but nothing too bad. Kim, Stephen, Celia, Lorenzo and Loki the dog arrived on Saturday to visit. Loki is supposed to be an italian greyhound but is more like a mix between a pirhana and Collin Farrell (he kept insisting on humping everyone's butt). Eventually he calmed down much to Copper's relief. I made two stews for dinner, vegetarian and beef and we had a really good - but way too short time - visiting and catching up. And no, I didn't get any pictures, I meant to but never got around to it.  They left for Boston at 4:30 the next morning and after that we just did stuff. Work continues to get crazy - we've been picking up new patients right and left. I ended up missing class last night - I had an admission who's address is about 3 miles from me so I should have been done early. I got no answer at her house so I finally called the place that had discharged her and - oops! - did they forget to tell me she was staying with her brother - 40 MILES AWAY? They also sort of forgot to tell me she needed labs which meant I had to drive all the way back to Morgantown to drop them off. Consequently I didn't get home til 6:30 and there was no way I was going to drive to Fairmont and be almost 2 hours late for a 3 hour class. I hope this straightens out soon is all I can say.