Merry Christmas!

Well, I finally finished the back of the sweater I'm knitting on Try Number Two, far more sucessful than Try Number One. Adam has been here for a couple of days, the day he flew in the weather was uber-crappy so they kept delaying his flight from Philly. He was supposed to get here around 2:30 and didn't arrive until 7 pm. That worked out well because I didn't get home until almost 6 due to the fact we are down a nurse at work and they keep dividing her patients amongst the staff so we are running all day. David went to get him and I had dinner ready when they got here so all was well. It's been a very quiet visit for Adam, I'm either working or on call and when I'm not I'm too tired to do anything. We're so short at work I leave here most days around 7:15, I eat lunch driving and am lucky to be home by 5:30. But it's nice to have him here and since we don't see him that often I dont' feel bad about holding him hostage.

Christmas Eve was another runner, I was actually making good time until the last visit and then got bolluxed up. They let us go home early - it had rained and froze which made the secondary roads a delight. I had someone following me closely - in a mercedes no less!! - when I braked for the stop sign I noticed she could not - and was sitting sideways by the time she did. Given the fact you could see the entire road was a sheet of ice I didn't feel the least bit sorry for her. I got home by 3:30, called my patients for Friday and then turned on my beeper. I thought I'd dodged that bullet but it went off at 9:45 - arrgh. The patient got a nurse a little step above pajamas, but not much. But it was a dressing that couldn't wait and I think they felt worse about it than I did, I came back home at midnight, just in time for Christmas

Adam's gift was the plane ticket home but I did get him a copy of 10,000 BC which is a family joke, I also sent Jackson a copy. David hadn't wanted anything and he bought me a little heater which is what I asked for. We haven't really exchanged presents on Christmas in years, we usually just do little things and a couple of weeks after we spend a day shopping and getting what we want. It saves on returning things and we spend a day together and go out to lunch and stuff, just the two of us (when the kids were home we would wait until they were back in school). Adam bought me The Venture Brothers second season so we sat and watched that most of the day while shoving our gobs full of candy and doughnuts.

We're making Christmas dinner at home, around here the whole town shuts down for Christmas so we no longer do the restaurant thing. The last time we did it ended up being a sad affair in a dreary diner - it's more fun to do it at home. Adam is having a good time I think and we are planning an overnight stay at my Mom's - it will be a super quick run through but it will be fun and she's inviting David's parents so we'll get to see them too. After that it's back to the salt mines, I'm still on the fence as to what I'll be doing employment wise in the coming year. I've been loyal to Interim Home Health Care for almost 4 years now, but the office here is so higgledy-piggedly it's hard to work there. I was asked the other day why I hadn't filled in a space in the paperwork and I told manager #1 because I had been told we are not to do that. Then the next day I was asked again why I hadn't filled it out by manager #2 and I told her because YOU told me not to do that. And so it goes. But I got Christmas off so I can't complain( too much), Merry Christmas everyone 1

The Longest Day Of The Year.

We woke up to a grand tempeture of one. And that was without factoring the wind chill factor. It was a bit frosty for our morning constitutional but Pearl is never one to shy away from a challenge, is she? But the time I chiseled out my car it was a balmy seven, not quite shorts weather but a bit closer. I left a little after 7 am to get a jump on the day. My first patient did not answer the door or the phone, so much for jumping. I went back to the office and found we were down a nurse which meant we were up some patients. I got my marching orders and back out I went. The whole day is a blur as the patient made an appearance later in the day and all of my people were here and there so instead of heading back home at 4:30, I was still sitting on the highway at 5 pm.

During this time I was playing phone tag with number one son who was bravely trying to get out here. His plane got held up in Philly and after the second delay he told David to go home. David did go home and of course, the plane then took off. Good thing the airport is only 40 miles from here so it's not much of a jaunt. David would've preferred the daytime though as there's a lot of truck activity around here at night and it's been snowing and blowing of course.

Adam just got here, he looks great so I wont' be too much longer. Jackson called at the same time, he's still sick and the rest of his mod has gone home for the holidays so I think he's feeling a bit down. He'll be home later on in the month so it's not forever, but what a way to spend your first Christmas away from home. Pearl is over joyed at the prospect of a Guest ("hostage") to entertain and convince to take her outside, whoo hoo. Vincent went bolting but I'm sure he'll be back.

Oh well, I guess I'd better go finish my paperwork and socializing with The House Monkey - I am glad he's home but I wish Jackson could be here too.

Snow. Again. Whoopee.

It's snowing again this morning, so Pearl and I were out early this morning trying to keep up on the shoveling. Well, I was keeping up with the shoveling, Pearl was just twirling and fetching her toy - being her usual Arctic Pest self. But we have to finish the shopping today, I have absolutely no other time to do it and Adam is due in tomorrow afternoon. We decided to bite the bullet and fly him in, it's more expensive than we had anticipated, but there are times when there's nothing else you can do. I'm taking a break from exercising this morning, I think I overdid it yesterday - betweem that and all the shoveling I do these days I am aching.

I spoke to Jackson last night, his leave date has been delayed and I feel bad about that, had I known he was going to be there past that date I would have sent him something. He has a pretty bad cold and just about everyone has left for the holidays except those that had to stay - your first time away from home for the holidays is rough on everyone. I'm sure they must do something for them for Christmas, I hope so at least.

I'm looking at out the french doors - hmm. I guess I'd better go check the weather report to see how bad this is going to get.

Christmas Is Zipping Closer

Well, my weight is finally starting to come off , with a crowbar-like slowness, but I'll take what I can get. I make myself get up and exercise every morning, even if I just have time to do a little - it's so hard to get into a routine and so easy to get out of it, isn't it? But it is paying off, I can get into my jeans and breath at the same time so I'm getting there. I'm trying to make sure the house is full of fruit and vegetables instead of Crap and Stuff - with the holidays coming up it's a little hard to stem the tide. Someone gave me a box of candy at work but it was peanut butter so I handed it off to David - I'll open the maple sugar candy at Christmas (thanks Dad!!) and horse it down then when Adam is here to help out. Adam will be arriving Monday - after going back and forth and wondering if it's too late to give him up for adoption we finally got things straightened out. He called last night around TEN PM to let me know he had leave and no way to get here. I know they don't know if they'll have leave or not until the last minute but that doesn't mean you can't at least investigate if there's a flight available or a greyhound bus with a reasonable time schedule - AARRGH is all I have to say. So his christmas present will be a plane ticket. David and I have to go out shopping tomorrow to pick up Crap and Stuff for the Sea Monkey - I may not want it but I'm sure he does. It will be a quiet visit whether he wants it to be or not, I'm working everyday but Christmas and I'm oncall christmas eve and the day after. But there's stuff to do here and the Hostess With The Mostess will be giving it her Holiday All as she hasn't had a visitor in a few weeks to entertain.

I had to do one call this morning, I meant to get out a bit earlier, but it took me quite a while to dig my car out - thank goodness I had the foresight to park near the road or I would still be digging! I got there in good time and out - I drove over to where we'd gotten our haircut the last time we lived here - and it was a takeout food joint. Hmm. So I headed for the mall - MasterCuts was double timing it so I went across the hall, that place was equally as busy. I thought I'd ask and good thing I did - her 10:00 appointment was a no show so I didn't even have to wait, we just went straight back! I love my new haircut, she did a great job and yes I can say that without being a show off. Due to my thin hair I've been subjected to a variety of bad haircuts so believe me, I can tell when I got a good one. I did a little bit of shopping but by then it was heading towards noon and the place was getting packed , so I headed home

David and I will go early tomorrow and finish up once and for all. Pearl has been out several hundred times, the snow never seems to lose it's appeal to her. I left a message for Jackson, we haven't heard from him in a week or so, he's been pretty busy and so have we. I have his christmas stuff here waiting for him, I hope he gets home before he ships out. I ordered a new set of knitting needles for me - good thing they're in stock or Pearl would have to die a VERY painful death. I was cabling the other night and put one needle down on the arm of the couch at the exact time Miss Pants decided to chase the cat and she - I don't even know if I can relive this-

jumped right on the needle and snapped it in half! And yes it was one of my new Harmony Wood needles from Knitpicks - I could have torn her heart right out, but that would have been over reacting I suppose. So I just yelled at her and she went and hid under the bed for a few minutes while I re-ordered. And then since I was online I ordered a couple of skeins of yarn, a couple of books and reserved another.....so one pair of knitting needles are costing about $80...Happy Holidays!

I had to leave work early today, I finished my three visits and called the office and they said just to head back home. We're expecting about a foot of snow and I'm on call tonight - whoopee is all I have to say. The drive home was awful, I have to get new windshield wipers as my filled up with ice as fast as I could remove it so I had to pull over repeatedly just so I could see out the windshield. We're having a Christmas party at work on Tuesday - I'm making an apple pie - I'm tempted to try something new and exciting but A) this is Pennsylvania, not Easthampton and B) your first time out of the box it's best to stick with what you know works than to be crying at 10 pm with something flat, stinky and unfixable. If nothing else, age has taught me that. We're almost ready for Christmas, Adam has decided he'll be coming home on Greyhound so we're back and forth with him. I love him dearly but he'll always pick the ticket that lands him in the bad part of town at midnight (80 miles away) and then not understand why you're so upset. It took me awhile to get over the flight he booked in a city 4 hours away from where we were living - at SIX AM THE DAY AFTER CHRISTMAS. Didn't think that one through I guess. Jackson will definately not be home for Christmas and we can't send him anything because he'll ship out before anything arrives there. That sucks - I wish he could have come home but Im sure he does too. When I talk to him he sounds fine, he's bored but he's made some friends to hang around with which I'm glad about. We had wanted Ray to come out, but with this large amount of snow I know that isn't going to happen so I had David mail his present out today - I know he waits for it and I would hate for it not to be there for him. We can't do too much for Christmas as I'm oncall the day before and the day after, but we will be going to my mom's the Saturday after and then leaving Sunday morning. It will literally be just dinner at Mom's but it'll be enough for now.

Vincent is not happy with the current surroundings, since he's FROM here you would think he'd be acclimated and all of that, but no, he is not. Do you like his crabby face? He went out for about 17 seconds and then I made him sit there for an additional 6 so I could take his picture - some days it's a good thing he doesn't speak english. One of the bright spots today is I found an asian market - they have bodegas here but no asian places, or so I thought. I just caught the sign as I was going down South Main and I had a little time. It's hilarious how they're all the same where ever I go - fish in buckets, suspicious refrigeration, things piled and bare bones decorating - but the prices were good and I found everything I missed so much - whoo hoo. And the owner happily pointed out everything I needed - they had taro root, baby bok choy, the works.

I'm of course still working on my sweater, I have about 10 more rows and the back is done. It seems to be taking a long time but it's a lot of cabling - I enjoy it so I'm not complaining. I'm still exercising, I'm a pound off what I'm supposed to weigh, ten off what I'd like to weigh. Since I didn't gain it in a week I suppose I won't lose it in a week and I'm trying not to weigh myself more than 2 or 3 times a week. I find when I weigh myself I either get discouraged if I gain even a pound and if I lose I think I can eat what I want which leads to being discouraged. I have to work a little again tomorrow - the nurse oncall is swamped so I volunteered to do my own patient. I'm not crazy about doing it but if you don't help out, you don't get helped.

I have to run out to my car and get some paperwork, eeww - I parked near the road so I won't have to dig that far. Our driveway here is pretty small compared to WV, there's a benefit. David is busy tiling the kitchen floor and will be doing near the front door, the carpet stays until Summer I think. It's obnoxious, but not hurting anything. But I'm glad to say good bye to the carpet in the kitchen - it was astro-turf green and stained all over with pulled threads just to give it that je nois se quoi effect - it certainly set off the banged up oven. Sigh. Pearl is whining to go out again, I swear she's part husky - we go out and she eats the snow, rolls in it, snuffles it, and you have to make her come back in.

Winter Has Come. Again.

As you can see from the pictures, it's not raining anymore. The temp is now a balmy 19 degrees but with the bad comes the good and along route 247 it's amazing. All the trees are covered with ice from top to bottom - the pictures don't do it justice. I was out early this morning, I had a visit and got to use my PT/INR machine again -it's my new favorite toy. If you take coumadin, which is a blood thinner you have to have the blood levels drawn - and I have a machine that does the same thing but it's just a little finger stick for a drop of blood. My patients with poor veins are loving it and so am I as I get the results instantly and it requires no trip to the lab. We have started to decorate the house for Christmas, we are missing some stuff I think. David brought up the fake tree from the basement that had been left by the previous owners. He set it up and we stood back - then I asked if it was possible for a Christmas tree to have a bad hair day, because this one certainly was!! David tried bending the thingys but that only made us laugh harder and the tree look worse so it's now residing on the side of road with a "Free" sign on it, we've had no takers so far, but I'll let you know. We really wanted a real tree anyhow. David is going to take over the christmas shopping next week, I just can't do it. Work has picked up as it always does in the weeks leading up to Christmas, the patients want to be home and the doctors want them to be home and out of thier hair.

My stupid pager has been going off all day so between that and Pearline whining to go out, I'm a wee bit stressed. I did get some sleep last night, I think I was so tired there was no other option possible. David bought a used woodstove and has that set up, it's nice to have one even if it is in the basement. He had to reblack it and get new pins for the door, but all in all it worked out very nicely. He's been busy making rooms downstairs and it looks very nice. He hasn't fixed the shower in the prison bathroom and thinks I'm crazy for wanting to use it - I think since I own a prison shower I should use it at least once, don't you? And since it's in my house I don't have to worry about dropping the soap.

So there is my day - I think everyone has that sort of thing going on now. Nothing really major but you feel like you're just running all the time without a break. I do try to knit a little each night and I've gotten much better about exercising, I'm not all the way back into my routine but I'm certainly making progress. I just wish the pounds came off as fast as they went on.

Soaked To The Skin

All of my coats are draped over various pieces of furniture - the rain continues, on and on with no end in sight. You could just sink down to China in the yard it's so soft and squishy, I feel like I'm playing Giant Step all the time when I walk Pearl in an attempt to avoid puddles and mud slicks. We heard from Jackson last night, he has finally gotten his orders and will be shipping out to San Diego California in the beginning of January - he's been having a little bit of trouble finishing up in A school so hopefully we'll get to see him before he goes. Of course him calling at 11 last night didn't help my insomnia, I just can't seem to sleep through the night anymore. This was not helped by Vincent visiting - if he was quiet it would be one thing but he insists on purring quite loudly and parading around the bed, taking over where our Mr. Lee left off. THEN we got up around 6 am - so we thought - the electric must've gone out at some point during the night so I'm not sure what time it was, just that we had been up for quite awhile before we realized it wasn't even 5 am. Arrgh. I'm on call all weekend and it looks like I'll be running the entire time, but the extra money will come in handy this time of year. I'm hoping to get some stuff done with the decorating end of it and will at least get the christmas cards out. David has been busy with the basement renovation, he has used up all that discounted sheetrock from Home Depot which he's still gloating about and has been happily rewiring the whole shabang. We haven't heard anything from Adam as to whether he's coming home or not, I guess that will just be a big surprise to us all.

Today's Forecast: Snowrainsleetsunwindcoldwarm

The wind picked back up again last night, but so did the temp so we now have driving rain. Lovely. Pearl is harrassing me to go out (I don't think so) Vincent was harrassing everyone to let him back in - typical morning around here. The Two AM Girl has been visiting me quite often these days, there's not much going on so it gives me plenty of time to stress out about this and that. I know I should try to find something to do, in WV I had my yard, my pool, the walking trails, a few friends but here I have none of that and winter is not the time to do it. I'm on call all weekend so that should give me something to do. A lot of this is just transistional, I know that we've had a lot of changes in the past 6 months and it will probably take that long - if not a little longer - to figure out what we want to do.

I don't know if staying in WV would have been the answer, like anything else in hindsight you tend to forget the bad and overstate the good but I don't know if here is the right place for me. Of course after the last move I don't think I want to repeat that experience again! My stomach just goes in a knot thinking about it. ARRGH! So I will be sitting back for a while, eating tofu and rice and mulling over my life in general. In other news I haven't gotten any further with the christmas shopping, I'll just muddle around a bit more and then everyone will get gift certificates. I still haven't gotten any decorations up, we have a neighbor down the road that puts everyone to shame - from the lighted candy canes lining BOTH sides of the driveway to the Santa and Sleigh, plus outlining his entire house in lights we are in sorry shape indeed. But there's always one in every neighborhood, isn't there?

I'm making wonderful progress on my sweater this time around, the sleeve binding is right, the cables are uniform and since I weeded through the yard it's entirely one shade of green. Sometimes you can fix that - I made a lavender sweater that happened with but the off color was right near the bottom so it had Subtle Striping throughout - I just added the striping as I went along and it ended up looking like I meant to do that. I work on it a little each night and then after that I will be trying to use up my stash, setting the world record for knitting I suppose. Maybe I can make a House cozy......

Hmm. A Bit Of Chill In The Air.

Pearl has spent most of the day whining gently in my ear, she wants to go out all the time. I don't mind the cold (I have a full length down coat good for up to minus 50 so quite naturally, I don't mind the cold) - I do, however, mind the wind and it was whipping big time today. And standing in a wide open field with Miss Pants frolicking about gives new meaning to Wind Chill Factor. However on the upside if you throw the rubber chicken in the direction of the wind you could probably qualify for a spot on the NFL. This morning we set out fairly early about 8:30 to beat the weekend shoppers, we had a few errands to do and some christmas shopping to do so I hit AC Moore's first just to peek around. Then off to the bookstore, Best Buy and then grocery shopping. That has gotten interesting, it seemed like we spent a lot today because we also hit Sam's Club but as David pointed out we now go to Sam's once every 4 - 6 weeks instead of weekly and the supermarket, if the bill is over $70, it's a lot these days.

I bought a lot of fruits and vegetables, since we moved I had slid right back into bad habits and hadn't been exercising at all and am well on my way to gaining it all back. That is upsetting given I've kept the weight off for a few years and as I get older it gets harder and harder to get back to ground zero. I have been good and have lost a few pounds, I know I'll go off the wagon due to the holidays but if you're dieting and exercising to begin with you won't at least, gain as much. That's my story and I'm sticking to it. I did find the christmas decorations in the basement, some are a bit more worse for the wear, some seem fairly new, but I think we have enough to make it through the holidays.

I'm back to work tomorrow with the rest of hoi poloi, bastards. My back tire is no longer self deflating so that should make it a bit easier to cruise around. David had a good time with Roman and the vodka - Roman is better at it than he is and can ingest a fair bit. When David refused a 3 (or 4rth shot) because he told Roman he didn't want to drive home drunk Roman kindly offered to drink him home. David felt that since Roman had started before him that would be sort of like the pot driving the kettle back (haha). Anyhoo, my mother is still residing in Mather Hospital waiting for her INR to go up so she can go home, but she sounds fine and is using the time wisely by knitting and watching TV (she probably feels like she's in Pennsylvania.....)

Brrrr! Pennsylvania is NOT called the "sunshine state" for a good reason. It should be called the "Freeze Your Butt Off" state - I am eternally glad I'll never have to use the outhouse, two seater or not. I gave it one more good sweep and then propped the door shut to keep future snow and rain out of it. I think I'd like to keep the outside as is and then do the inside. It appears to have been subjected to occasional attempts at fixing it over the years (unless that's Colonial Plywood I'm looking at!) so I can't hurt the historic value. Anyhoo, outhouses and ice aside, my car made it's weekly visit to the car shop, this time for an oil change and for another repair to the tire but the Yellow Light issue has been resolved for now. David and I did a quick trip to Honesdale which is a little town down the road from here -they have cool little stores including a health food store, a bookstore that specializes in used and out of print books, knick knacky things, a gun shop, stuff like that.

We did a little walking around and poking here and there, nothing to write home about. We hit Home Depot on the way back - I bought a big planter as I have a plant that desperately needed to be repotted. David went back in for something and came out with a cart - slightly damaged sheetrock, the entire cart for $12.03 - it was about a dozen sheets and the 'damage" was a little bend at a corner here, a little paper off there - but since it usually cost about $8 a sheet David felt he could live with it. He's currently finishing our basement in his spare time so it was, as Martha would say, A good thing. We have to go shopping tomorrow and get what gifts we're buying bought now so we can send them off. I don't think we'll be seeing Ray for awhile as he doesn't like the cold weather at all and refuses to travel in it. I called my mom today at the hospital, she's currently in Mather with DVT and isn't enjoying it at all. Hopefully she'll be back at home soon appreciating the unique knitting opportunity a blood clot can present.

David's off visiting Roman who called to tell him that they are friends and David owes him a visit so they can have a drink together. Roman is funny because 7 minutes after he initially called he called again wanting to know whair my friend Davie is, I have bean waiting and waiting. I am just sitting and he is not here(you would have to hear it with the heavy russian accent to truly appreciate the conversation) - so there is someone with less patience than me apparently. But since I haven't recieved any more calls about someone's friend Davie I'm assuming he got there and they're complaining about politics, the economy and other assorted indigities. I'm just relaxing, I'm on call all next week so I take the time when I can and we all know what channel I'm watching (can you hear the screaming??)

All Is Quiet On The Eastern Front.

Ah yes, winter arrives. And leaves. And arrives again and then leaves. Again. I finally bought a winter coat with a hood, my red coat is too big and the wool overcoat needs to be relined and of course some stranger is enjoying my leather coat so I went and bought a new one. It's ok. I heard from Jackson - he probably won't be home for awhile, he still hasn't finished his studies and hasn't recieved any orders so we are no longer looking to see him on the 10th. I'm calling him this weekend as that leave a problem as to where to send his christmas and birthday gifts. On the other side Adam is thinking he may be able to come home after all but has no definates yet - it doesn't matter to me as I'm on call randomly so I can't go anywhere anyhow. I'm doing Christmas cards this weekend, I can't believe it will be here in less that three weeks, can you? I have to root through all of our decorations to what we have, I think we have enough not to look like Jehovah Witnesses and the rest I'll pick up on clearance after the holidays. Why pay full price when I can get 75% off in a month and store it for next year? David is finishing up a job in the Hideout which I think he's glad as it was a basement and that is a bit nippy this time of year. He and Pearl attempted to hunt and all I have to say is it's no West Virginia around here! David went to the state land and said it looked like it had been napalmed - they actually LOGGED the game land!

As you can see all is quiet on the eastern front, winter is indeed settling in and the snow is flying this morning. I'm not on call this weekend but my car is back in the shop AGAIN that stupid tire is still leaking, it gets tiresome as we have to pick it up by noon and that pretty much shoots the whole day. Bah. Humbug.

Quick! Get The Ark!

Yesterday, we got that delightful weather where it rains, then freezes turning your entire enviroment into a Winter Wonderland. That is until you take one step and go winging into the underbrush. David and I had started heading out but decided to head back and shop a little closer to home. We got the Sunday paper but it had no funnies, no employement section (yes I am fully aware I am employed, but the day they post my dream job - "Wanted, middle aged woman needed to lay around and knit while watching horror movies, starting salary $50,000, full benefits and 6 weeks paid vacation to the Bahamas" - I don't want to miss it., and stupidly enough full of Black Friday coupons that were super good and super expired - I wonder who the braniac is that though to do that.

It went back to raining so we got a few groceries and headed home. The trucks were out most of the night thank goodness as I had to leave a little after 7 am. My patients were the usual Monday batch, nothing new, nothing new. During that time it started sprinkling and now we're back to full out rain for the night I suppose. I keep seeing Christmas decorations in the store (although I've been seeing Christmas decorations in the store since August) but I don't know how much decorating I'm doing this year. It's most likely just me and David and Pearl the Destroyer and I'm not sure how many ornaments is safe for her to ingest. I continue to work on my sweater, it's all one color this time around which is a fun thing.

I'm oncall tomorrow night, I was oncall tonight but traded with one of the other nurses as her son has a basketball game - but that's alright as I got home early due to the fact I started early this morning and my last patient was near my house. I doubt that will ever happen again.

Pinnochio's Revenge

I spent yesterday just doing stuff I wanted to do, I sorted out my entire stash to see what I had - amusingly everything has a project attached to it, I just have to get to it. I did a bit of cleaning to make myself feel useful and then I parked it on the couch to watch my favorite channel. There were no clowns involved but it was sort of puppet day - they're right behind clowns on my list of things that creep me out big time(a clown puppet would probably put me right over the edge). First Tales From The Crypt was on with a ventriloquist theme followed by Pinnochio's Revenge which had a hilariously cheesy plot (puppet buried with a murder victim is somehow given to a little girl) - it was such an incredibly ugly puppet I can't imagine giving it to ANYONE let alone a small child. Oh well - mayhem ensued of course, the puppet would just sort of scary appear out of nowhere and I especially enjoyed when it was whapping the nanny with a poker - you have no idea. The best was when it got ahold of a rather large knife - I can't imagine the terror of being chased by a knife-wielding psycho puppet with big cartoon hands - I so love that stuff! I got a lot done on my sweater too. David brought my car down and the light do-hicky is nothing serious they said - we are still starting to look for something though. I think we'll wait until after the holidays as January is the best time to shop for a car I think, there's a Honda dealership about 20 miles from here so I'll scout that out first. I just want to make it past the holidays with no more excitement, I've had enough for the year.

Black Friday Is Over, The Countdown Begins

I guess we start the countdown, after all that's what Thanksgiving if for, isn't it? I went to stop at AC Moores yesterday before going to my last visit and then remembered(as I was sitting in traffic) that it was Black Friday. Sometimes I think we share more with Pavlov's dogs than we care to admit. We will most likely do gift certificates and cash for the boys again this year, as we get older it gets harder and harder to buy actual gifts and the distance makes returns much more difficult. We might do a bit of shopping today, I do need a new coat, something a little

more practical than my wool trench coat. I'm looking for something with a hood I think since I don't wear a hat. Ray was going to come out this weekend but due to the lousy weather forecast (rain, snow, sleet) he opted to stay in NJ. My car is making a short visit to the repair shop, they're going to put it on the computer to see why that little yellow light keeps coming on, I'm hoping it's nothing or at least something small and easily fixed. Given the way my life is running these days that's long shot, sigh sigh sigh. We have given up looking for a car on the internet, there's so much scamming and it's so much money it's a scary thing indeed - all the things they warn about (person claims they can ship the car for free, they want a money gram, etc...) has been demanded by both people David emailed. And when asked for more information they disappear into the mist.

Well, Happy Thanksgiving everyone, it will be a quiet one this year. We've never been ones for tradition however, so it's pretty par for the course. I spoke with the boys, they're both spending it with friends and pizzas - I think I would like that too!

The weather is very cold here, there's snow on the ground - but the wind has died and the sun is out so it's not bad at all. Vincent remains a spectator, if you drive by my house you'll see him sitting in the front window doing the house cat thing for now. He makes a much better house cat than he did a stray - he wasn't good at the stray thing at all and will freely admit it. I am alternately knitting and working, I start on call next week - they do it a bit differently here as you do days oncall as opposed to a straight week. I was a bit disconcerted at first, but I'll give it a go before I have an opinion. I think it might be more managable and certainly less stressful! David got his hunting license a couple of weeks ago but has yet to go, he's a little unsure of where and how - if Ray doesn't come out this weekend I think he'll go look and see what's what. His friend Tommy called from WV this morning, he's been his taking his Vizsla hunting where David used to go all the time. I'm sure the game lands here are just as good. We have started slowly looking for a car, mine is still running, but it's getting close to the 200,000 mile mark. David found some deals on EBay - but I think we'll poke around here first - there's such a potential for disaster and the couple he's looked into seem a bit too good to be true. I just get nervous, I need to see it first and even though you can undo it if the car isn't what you want, let's face it, it's not like shipping a sweater back. And we did get our phone fixed so we are accepting phone calls. When I called Tuesday around 1:45 David reported the service guy had JUST gotten there - I said I thought they'd promised to be at our house between 9 am and noon. David started laughing - he said it took them three days to get here, would you like me to run outside and piss him off now?? - hmm, that would be a No.

We Are Waiting For Santa And Verizon - Whoever Shows Up First

Yes, it did snow last night - not a lot, but enough to partially put out the Direct TV and for Pearl to dart around in this morning. Vincent went out, we have no idea why - all he does is runs around to the front of the house so he can huddle on the porch where all the neighbors can see him so we look like bad owners. It's still snowing so I'll probably leave a bit early this morning, the snow plows have been running all night and I'm hoping the roads won't be too bad. David has to stay home for half the day as Verizon is supposed to make a Special Guest Star Appearance. We had tried to get them here yesterday, David called before he left for work and they told him they couldn't. Then they call my cell phone to tell me they have a cancellation so I asked what time so I could call David and let him know. Well, there was no time - just "sometime today". I asked the Customer Rep if that meant David needed to run home at 10 am and then proceed to sit there ALL day until someone showed up - what time was the appointment that was cancelled? The Rep stated that information was not shared with them - I just told them to leave the appointment where it was. The only funny thing was when I got home I saw 3 missed calls - all from Verizon on the phone that doesn't work and that they KNOW it doesn't work since they're supposed to come repair it. I'm not even sure breathing is a requirement to work there.......

Verizon Customer Service??

We had a pretty good weekend, Grace and Kim arrived Friday afternoon and we just did some shopping and stuff. It was sort of a last minute sort of thing and I didn't have time to make plans, so we went out to dinner and the local indoor fleamarket. We did a quick tour of Honesdale and I got a 1947 copy of Goodhouse Keeping Crafts which includes instructions on how to make your own hammock, weaving a rug and other assorted handiworks since you know how women enjoy those sorts of things. I told Kim and Grace if they come out when it's warmer we can go to the Poconos - the temps have remained in the teens and it's a bit frosty to be taking the garden tour of the mountains. Pearl of course enjoyed herself immensely since they love dogs and she loves them and Vincent even got in on the action. David and I are just hanging out, watching the Chiller Channel ( The People Under The Stairs was on!) and doing laundry. We're also having problems with Verizon and thier customer service has not improved since the last go around we had with them, which would have been about 7 weeks ago in which it took us about a month to get phone service. Now the phone rings and I can hear you, but you can't hear me. David called last night and finally asked to speak to supervisor - he was put on hold. He gave me the cell phone and I sat on hold while he got ready to go out. Then he held the phone while I got ready to go out and I sat on hold while we drove to the restaurant. My phone finally conked out right before the waitress came - so when I called back this morning I asked the customer rep why we'd been put on hold for over half an hour and she said the supervisors aren't really around on the weekend and since they're in another location the reps don't know how long I would be hold for. I was going to ask why that hadn't been mentioned BEFORE I was on hold but I figured since the only requirement to working as a Verizon "customer service rep" is the ability to breath and say more than three words at a time I would be wasting my time and what ever little brain function was on the other end of the line. Now we aren't going to see a repairman until Tuesday (despite the fact they're located two miles down the road) and David has to stay home for half a day waiting. I love Verizon, don't you??