Monday, It's Inevitable

David and Ray went out to breakfast as what is currently being referred to as the "New New Place" down the road - it changes owners constantly, therefore it's always new. When Ray was here a couple of months ago we ate there, or tried to. Every time you ordered, they were out of it. Spinach omelet - no. cheese - no. Orange juice - no - oddly enough he went out of business.  We hung about for a few hours and then went to the early movie of The Watchmen which was very good and despite being a DC Comic is not for children.  There were an inordinate number of bodies and one of the main characters costume was nothing.  It was a pretty long movie too, over 2 hours I think so we did a pit stop at home and then headed out for dinner. Now, Ray and I were in favor of the italian place but David wanted to try this place Harry liked. I was not in favor as I am not crazy about french food (it tends to involved snails and overboiled things) but we try anything new. So we drove and drove a bit more - it was down a dirt road, WAY down a dirt road. Past trees and trailers, there on the left were two stone monuments and a very fancy sign for the French Manor, a bed and breakfast with Fine Dining. I refused to get out of the truck because we were not dressed for it at all  and I was right, tie and dress required. They did get menus - holy crow!, $25 for the privilege of eating snails floating in goo, no thank you! And I have to get dressed up for that??? If you wish to stay in the  suite, it's $340 a night but I have to say it would be worth it, they have a spectacular view and if the brochure does the rooms justice they are very fancy. But we were not looking for that so off we went to the place in town where there are no snails, just plenty of pasta and wine.

Ray is heading back this morning unless it rains hard, then he'll have to stay until it clears up enough for him to safely get home.  I have to get up and start getting ready for work, sometimes Monday comes a little too fast.

Running Around With Ray

We had a busy day yesterday - Ray arrived about 10 and after slugging down coffee, off we went. We had a house we wanted to look at so we put it in the GPS and pointed the truck in that general direction.  Heading down the backroads you never know what you might find and the first find was a dam dated from 1863 - I'll post more pictures in the coming days. There was a beautiful lake behind it so we stopped there. Then we came across one of my favorites - a graveyard with big creepy statues so out of the car again. There was a house right in between the two graveyards and I secretly envied those people with all my heart. At this point we realized the house we wanted to look at was a bit further than we had anticipated so David (thought) he rerouted the GPS - he did not. After a few wrong turns we went back on the (wrong) route so by the time we realized we were heading to the house that was too far, we might as well look at it. It sucked. It was then over 20 miles back to where we were headed so by the time we got to lunch (dinner) I was a (little) cross. I'm not good at house hunting which is why I tend not to get involved except for the part where I drive to it, and really since I'm out of the house for about 50 hours a week now, sitting in a truck for 6 or 7 hours on my day off is a bit beyond me. But the day ended up great, we ate an Irish pub that had been a bank at the turn of the century so we got to sit in the vault! The food was great and we had a nice long lunch. In town there's a used book store that Ray likes and David said the owner was peevish, that was being kind in my opinion. I found an old crafts book and brought it to the counter. The guy did everything but sigh and roll his eyes since I was obviously breaking his routine of doing the crossword and ignoring the general public.  

He put down his pencil and pulled out a ledger first, writing the purchase carefully(as slowly as humanly possible) then rang me up, getting annoyed about having to make change, rummaged around for a bag, pushed it towards me while simultaneously picking up the crossword and promptly ignoring me as apparently, we were done.  Ray likes him - I have no idea why except for maybe the same reason I love old graveyards so much, it's just a strange little thing in the middle of your day. Anyhoo, then we shot over to AC Moores where I was a little disappointed as out of all the yarn on sale none of it was the sock yarn - I did have a coupon so got a deal on size 19 rosewood needles so I didn't walk away empty handed. Then to Borders as I had printed up a coupon for both Ray and I and we did good there too. 
We headed back to home after that, everyone full and tired - we didn't get in until almost 7 pm. Pearl was beside herself but since that's her general state of being no one found that upsetting except for Pearl. Vincent survived his afternoon outside by himself and was ready for dinner and bed. After everyone got settled Ray and I watched a movie, David headed out to Roman's as he has a friend that needs some work done. I turned in around 9, David didn't get back until midnight. It's raining today so I think it will be a good day for a movie and dinner, don't you?

How it's Going So Far

Ray will be here in a few hours, I think we'll go shopping and stuff today and maybe the movies tomorrow. He had said he'd like to see the Watchmen so maybe that will be on the boards today. Things are moving along in some areas, stalled in others. Although my job is overwhelming at times I'm very excited about it and can't wait until the office is opened officially - I'll still be going back and forth between the two for awhile as we don't have  a lot of patients up there yet, but that's ok. Finding another house has not been going overly well - there's plenty for sale but so far nothing that is either affordable or likable. David and Harry were out for most of the day looking and the two that he liked on the internet - one was right on the road and the other was next to high tension wires. So back to the drawing board.  What we'd like is a fixer upper out in the country, if we can sell this place I figure that way we could live where we wanted and have enough left over to do a renovation so we could make a place we were happy with.  But we are not going to hurry, I can commute - I always end up commuting anyhow and even when I lived on Long Island I was driving close to a hundred miles round trip to work.  And of course a major renovation is nothing fun to live through as we discovered from the WV house. I love the movie Under The Tuscan Sun because THAT is how I would like a renovation to go - vineyards and parties, wine and fountains. Not mice hiding in my stereo and cockroaches wiggling out of the stove (there's an image burned in my memory forever!!), frogs and property buried in thorns.  David has finished fixing the bathroom up and will be ordering the carpet next week, in between that he's getting ready to look for a job. I've suggested for now he either go part time or per diem if we're planning on selling the house this summer, if it doesn't sell by August then we'll have to come with another game plan. Harry doesn't think it will be too hard as long as we keep the price reasonable since David has finished the remodel here - he told David a lot of the problem with selling it the last time was the colors the owners had painted it, that a lot of people that looked just couldn't get past the Retina Burning Green. Bubble Gum Pink and of course the aforementioned carpeting. But we have other fish to fry today, don't we?

I'm Awake. That's As Far As I've Gotten.

It's Friday, finally - although I have to say the weeks seem to fly by lately, Thursday was a big shocker because I couldn't believe it was Thursday already. Yesterday I spent part of the day in my office, seeing a couple of our patients with the RN up there.  I took the turnpike up and a few backroads back, still looking for a suitable house. I try to take the meandering routes as we want to live off the road but you have to go back there to see anything.  We'll probably order the carpet next week - Harry has delayed putting our house on the market until we get that done and yes, it IS that awful. Aside from the hideous green the stains are permenent, you can see exactly where the matching recliners were by the matching stains. Ray will be here in the morning,  I think it's a bit early in the year for art fairs but I might poke around a bit to see if there's any museums or exhibits about. Pearl is finally getting to the end of being in heat, thank goodness. I think a couple more go arounds on that end and then that's it - it's too much work. We have old blankets we toss on everything and wash constantly and other dogs are not a problem as I've mentioned before - but it's just one more thing to deal with.  On the knitting front I'm 3/4 of the way through the second sleeve, after that the whole mess gets sewn up and then I start on the hood - then it's done. And I will NEVER do a sweater with that much cabling again.

Thursday

The office is having a big audit so things have been a bit tense - every surface is piled and I go over discharges in my sleep.  And I'm currently communting between the two offices daily, the turnpike and I are good friends. The company does self audits every quarter which makes more sense, even though it's stressful it keeps everything up to date so when the big guns show up (aka The Medicare Ladies) every I is dotted and every T is crossed. We still have not found a physical therapist, I think I ask everyone I come across.  Jackson called last night on his own phone, still grumbling a bit because you know he now has A BILL to pay.  That bill will apparently hang over his head like an albatross, looming on the horizon month after month. I pointed out what he would have to pay to Aunt Janet in overage most likely would far exceed and with his new plan he does admit he can call 5 people for free anytime so he no longer has to wait until the wee hours or the weekend, so it works out his in favor. Sigh - I wish I had ONE BILL to pay! We are still holding off on the carpet we paid for - we're waiting until Pearl is out of heat which cannot happen fast enough. We also found out that having her hips xrayed was not enough, they have to be sent in and registered. Ray is coming out this weekend so we're looking foward to that, I didn't really get to see him the last time he was out. 

Get On The Bus!

That picture of Bret Michaels turned out to pretty wee, didn't it? Well, you'll have to squint if you're that interested I suppose. Last night for lack of anything else to watch I put on The Rock Of Love Bus, season 3 as Bret has still not found the girl that Will Rock His World. The show is silly, it appears to be populated by the usual reality TV cast - the pretty one, the mean one, the emotional one, the funny one, etc.... but it's so strange it's addicting. I think it's the 80's jargon that gets me, Bret's always yammering about Taking It To The Next Level, the girls are loudly claiming That Special Connection and I have to agree with Ashly that Taya is a real diva when she gets her pass. That's what they get - if you're still in the running Bret asks you to stay on the tour and rock his world AND you get a backstage pass with your picture on it. Ashly and Brittanya were both told their tour was ended last night so it's down to four. Stay tuned.  I put the picture of Vincent up because, well, I actually think more of him than I do of Bret Michaels I have to admit so you may gaze upon him if that's how you feel too. I'm off to work again today, I've had trouble sleeping two nights in a row and I am not liking it one bit. The Two AM Girl has been starting in early and she's been quite relentless, bringing up all sorts of things that leave me wide eyed until the early hours.  I just hate that because I feel half awake all day.

Graveyard Groupie

There is nothing more fun than a graveyard in spring -  well, it has to be an old and an interesting one of course - this monument is great, isn't it? And it was just as big as it looks. if you look in the left hand corner you'll see an Indian hiding in the trees with an arrow nocked at the boy and the man.  Anyhoo, David and I were out and about again yesterday, we found an area that is not only affordable but what we're looking for and  within driving distance of my new job.  Then we went exploring, we had lunch at Ruby Tuesdays and we found the Borders where I got a sweet deal on a couple of books. There was a Kathy Reichs book I'd wanted but I've found that if you wait a couple of months the $30 hardcover will land on the bargain table for $5 and that I don't mind spending.  I'm still pricing yarn swifts, they're surprisingly expensive and can run as high as $80. If it was something I was going to use all the time it would be one thing but I don't have that much that needs to be sorted so I'll continue to look. Speaking of yarn as we were going home I was told NOT to shriek suddenly even if I did see a whole flock of sheep conveniently located near my house and we don't need to start with THAT right now, do we? Sigh - maybe not, maybe not. 

I'm almost done with the second sleeve but I've been so busy doing everything else it's slow going these days. One thing I'd love to do is join the Knitting Guild and become a master but the requirements are fairly time consuming and given that I'm used to living inside it's not time to give up day job quite yet.  On the home front Pearl is in heat, we have spoken with the breeder but she suggested we wait until we figure out where we're living which makes sense so we will wait. Around here people don't let their dogs run loose so Pearl has had only one suitor, a very old man of a dog which had David laughing - and he wasn't even here that long. About 20 minutes after he arrived a car pulled up and took him home so he apparently has concerned owners and won't be hanging around that much. I heard from Jackson, he has the virus so he's been pretty under the weather all week. His big news  is Aunt Janet is shutting down his phone next month which we discussed in detail - my view being that since he's an adult living on his own it's not unreasonable for him to have his own phone. He's disgruntled as it will ruin his perfect record of never having to pay his own bills!! I told him all good things must come to an end - and given that his medical, dental, food, housing, heat, water, electric, laundry, are being covered by the Navy I'm not feeling too sympathetic these days!

Where Is Spring?

Ok, I admit it's not AS COLD as it was, the down coat only comes out for the first dog walk of the morning and I have been wearing a sweater to work, but it's certainly no where near the spring I want. I have two flower carpets ready to go but with the cold temps at night I hesitate to put them out. I would love to have a garden but with the house up in the air and my lack of time it's just not a good idea right now.  In other news - David passed his CNA yesterday despite running fevers and a running nose, so he's officially certified to work. He was pretty relieved, the time between the end of the course and the certification by the Red Cross gave everyone that much time to worry - and like most people, he just wanted it over. He has no fever this morning but his sinuses are hurting so if  they don't feel better by Monday he'll have to make an appointment with the doctor.  This week he also got the driveway done, he ordered gravel as the previous owners had only put a tiny bit near the garage and our yard was quickly turning into a mud pit from our turning the cars around. The carpet is coming in the next week or two and then the house will pretty much be done. We're still looking but we're taking our time this time as can't keep moving every ten minutes. I'm old you know.

Happy Anniversary!

Today is our 27th Wedding Anniversary, how strange is that! David woke me up with flowers and jewelry despite his being Desperately Ill And So Forth. It's amazing that I've been with him since I was a teenager (I was 19 when I met him) and here  were are, 2 kids and 5 houses later still doing shopping trips and mucking about together. He has his test today, he can take it again if need be as he was still running a fever last night but he's going ahead and doing it anyhow. You're probably wondering about the pictures by now - those are of our neighbor across the road. The other night they were I think burning a brush pile. I noticed some of the grass was starting to burn but didn't think anything of it, they were out there and didn't seem alarmed. Actually, we thought they meant to burn off the dry grass but then one of them started sort of patting the edges and as you can see from the pictures it got a bit beyond the Patting It Out stage. But no one was getting too excited, a car with a light appeared and the fire chief sort of stood there peering at it for a bit. Then the rest of the fire dept showed up - in a small town these sort of things are big events, everyone has to at least get a look. They brought water backpacks instead of a big truck and had it out in no time. They managed to burn about an acre and a half and it looks quite spanky, doesn't it? We don't have any big plans for the weekend, not sure what we'll be doing. I was up in Stroudsburg yesterday afternoon dropping off something and finally found the AC Moores, there's also a Borders and a mall so when we do move my life will not be lacking.

Grand Opening

Well, the open house was not quite as sucessful as we had hoped, we got more applications for RNs but no OT or PT which had been the originial target. But I did get to see my new office and my desk and I got my name tag so it was a good day for me again. We had someone from the governer's office come in to say Hi and welecome to the neighborhood and they're hooked up with the local radio station. It was a long day, I left here at 7:30 am, then came back again for the fruit salad I'd left in the fridge, then got turned around again because of a road closing so it was tough going! The ride out there was beautiful, I had left early so I could stop and take some pictures but after all of that I ended up just driving straight through. Holly and I had to get the balloons - did you ever notice when you're getting balloons the wind picks up immdiately? Oh, they also cleared up the paycheck thing and I got 3 weeks all in one shot, boy I make a lot of money! I didn't get home until 8:30 or so, poor David is still coughing and blowing his nose every 5 seconds, but claims he feels better. I brought home a plate for him and of course cake and everyone slept well last night. Vincent has been for the past few months tucking himself up next to me at night and purring us to sleep but with the warmer weather coming I'm sure I'll be abandoned. He's a bit of a foul weather friend I suppose! I'll be back to the other office today, since we still have a small patient population there's not much for me to do yet and they're overwhelmed at the home office so I'll be dividing my time between the two for a while yet. 

Open House

It's such a time for me of new things - some of it's scary but I do it and it usually turns out not to be so bad at all.  I did my two interviews yesterday and how odd it was to be sitting on the other side of the desk! It never occurred to me not to hire them, they came with impeccable resumes, one had experience and the other had the drive and they both wanted to work the days I need to fill - hired! We're taking all sorts of applications today at the open house so if the new hires don't work out there's plenty of others to choose from. How different this is from the last agency I worked at where they ran an ad for two months and didn't get a single response.  I made a big fruit salad as my cooking skills leave a lot to be desired and had a hard time not picking as it was full of pineapple and kiwi and the last thing I need is hives today.  David is really sick so I don't think he'll be going anywhere, he's been coughing and hacking and running a fever so it's Couch City for him. He got his truck back yesterday $600 later but hopefully I'll be getting paid today. There was a mixup with my checks, the mixup being they've been sitting in the head office for 2 weeks, now 3 this week. I finally noticed I hadn't been paid on Friday so yesterday I followed it up and they're being delivered to the office today. That will make a fun weekend!

Nothing lasts Forever

The shoe is finally dropping - I'm a big believer in the power of 3 so when things start going south I start counting. David was doing the shopping yesterday, he got as far as town and his truck just conked out. So he called Roman to get him and they got the truck to the repair shop and then headed out to Sam's Club. On the way back they stopped at the grocery in town and when they went to leave Roman's car wouldn't start.  Off they went limping to the repair shop again - the final tally was minor repair for Roman, new fuel pump for David which hopefully will done today. They went to Roman's to finish the drop ceiling and David was invited to dinner which seemed to consist of homemade mushroom soup and copious amounts of brandy. Nadja drove him home so that was ok. I'm heading off up to the new office this morning, I didn't sleep much last night - I've got to do two interviews today and that has me a bit wracked. I have never interviewed anyone, so it's very daunting, both of the positions are per diem and applicants look great on paper but I'm not familar with the process, I guess I'll figure it out. Our open house is tomorrow so I'll be busy doing that too. David and I are having our 27th anniversary this week, hard to believe isn't it? It's funny how all of the sudden you get to a point in your life that time just seems incredible - my oldest son will be 30 in 5 years, I'll be 50 in 2. I work with people that were not alive when I got married, are younger than my own kids. Strange days indeed.

Back From The Party

Yes, I know the pictures suck but it's not easy taking pictures inside at night in a crowd and quite honestly, I was too busy most of the evening to play around with the camera. I went with Tracy and Ellen, it only took 2 hours and after Tracy dropped off the center pieces we had to go to Walmart because I had forgotten to pack pajamas. It worked out as Tracy needed to get her nails done so she went off to do that and Ellen and I braved Walmart - I say braved because I don't think it was in a very good part of town and the staff was, hmm, well, rather aggressive looking as were the customers. We also browsed next door where they sold nurse uniforms and hip hop wear.  The party started at 6 - there were about 130 people there, they fly in from all over and I got to meet the president of the company Mark Bayada who was very nice. As you can see from the few pictures it was a beautiful place - it's an old estate on a lake. They had a cocktail hour, dinner and dancing - I did dance a little but didn't enjoy that. I cannot dance and have no problem watching others do it, I always wish I could. But I have resolved that I'm going to be brave and do new things  even if they scare me so I gave it a go. For those of you that think it's not a big deal it is if you can't dance and you're very self concious - ask the others wall flowers if you don't believe me.  I am proud of the fact I even went - all of these women not only work together but have been friends for a long time and I've only been with Bayada for a week and a half so it was hard for me being the odd man out.  I shared a room with Tracy and Ellen because if you share, Bayada picks up the tab! but even that was difficult for me - people talk about places and things you don't know about - they don't do it on purpose of course - but I end up looking at my feet or out the window and that makes me more self concious. But I did it! We went to Franklin Mills on the way back for an hour which was alright but not really enough time to buy anything. I need a spring coat but the problem with buying something like that is you'd better be sure as you can't return it. When I got here David and Ray were still out and about so I got my suitcase unpacked and the wash started not to mention the hour long Greeting Session from Miss Pants. We just went out to the little italian restaurant downtown as I was way too tired to do anymore traveling. I was tempted to go to AC Moores as I have a coupon but I'll be in the new office on Tuesday and Knit and Purls is open late that day! Whoo Hoo!

Counting Down

Well Well Well. I have no idea how I'm going to follow that up, I just wanted to say that. It's the sort of thing you say when you catch someone out, with your arms crossed and your toe tapping - and then you wait. Love that. Anyhoo, I did find a pair of shoes at the mall so you can all sleep tonight, safe in the knowledge that I will be properly shod this weekend. Haven't quite figured out the rest of the outfit, but the shoes are found.  David called Ray this morning and he'll be coming out for the weekend so they can have a boys night out so the guestroom is being De-catted, right down to the mattress.  I'm not bringing lunch tomorrow - it's Friday and we all know what that means - all the Helushka and Pirogi you can eat. It assures attendance at work, at least until Easter.  We're preparing for the open house next week - I'm bringing a fruit salad as I actually make a good one, I just can't eat it. Bastards.

Rolling Rolling Rolling

The annual company party is this weekend - for some reason I thought it was next weekend so I'll have to go after work today on a quick shoe finding mission. I'll have to ask Ellen what we're wearing as this is a little more than a potluck during lunch party. It's actually a stay over night in Philadelphia party as  I think it's ALL the east coast offices. This is getting a little nerve wracking as I tend to be a bit hermit like but as they say, in for a penny in for a pound. I'm also going to be sharing a room - they've reserved two doublerooms and that should be fun. I'm slowly but surely getting on top of the paperwork, I managed to do my payroll correctly and with the exception of the shoe problem things are going alright. The weather I wish was just a tad warmer, it's too warm for a heavy coat but not quite warm enough to go without. But I look silly with my thermals sticking out from under my spring outfits and I hate throwing a big sweater over the top of them so dressing at the moment is a challenge. The rain continues off and on and the yard is a mire as far and the eye can see, David's not rearranging the driveway but is adding more gravel so we can turn the cars around without leaving deep tracks all over the place. The carpet is ordered and he's replacing the prison shower downstairs much to my dismay. I LOVE the prison shower but David says it's a big selling point and since that's the direction we're heading in - it's gone. He's finally caught up with Harry and they're off again today to scout around. hopefully we can come with something everyone is happy with

Is The Dead Boy's Room The Only One You've Got

That's a line out of out the movie I'm currently watching - Ginger Snaps Back, The Beginning. It's the Werewolf Marathon on the Chiller channel today, so everyone is either shrieking, bleeding biting or growing hair in every nook and cranny - sometimes all at the same time - the cat is much less interested than you would think he would be. I always adore the fact that at least one villager is not only well versed in werewolf lore, but also knows all the rules and counter rules. The morning started off warm and sunny but the clouds moved in by ten and that was the ed of that. David and I did a brief run to Stroudburg to look at the house he likes, the property is beautiful, the house is so-so and the aboveground pool in the back just hollers Yee ha White Trash and Bring Your Own Budweiser so its on the boards but not my first choice. We did the outlets, I got a couple more things from Coldwater Creek and also got some more Eddie Bauer Outlet - it is so uber-cheap you feel like running to your car. I'm also on the prowl for shoes and having absolutely no luck whatsover. It's either flats which give my feet a charming Paddleboat Appearance or the 4 inch heels that cause me to lurch about in a Hot and Sexy Way. The ones I REALLY hate are the ones with the long pointy toes, whoever came up with those babies must be drunk most of the day - I mean if the shoe size is an 8 1/2 what braniac thinks I need to ADD a couple of inches to my feet??? So I'll have to keep looking as most of my shoes have Timberline written down the side and they are not compatible with dresses, at least none that qualify as office wear.

Perfection Is Fleeting

There are times in your life when everything is going right - everything you try on fits, you don't get lost, the day you decide to shop is the day of the big clearance sale, the sun shines and the birds sing. But it's a little nerve wracking too, how long will this last - and how bad will it get? I've gotten in a couple of perfect weeks though, my job is still running along quite well, our finances are in order, the dog even behaves once in awhile (she has to sleep sometime). David finished his course with a 95 and the Red Cross test is in a couple of weeks for his official certification but he did much better than he thought he could - I'm really proud of him. It takes a lot to change your career and it's quite a change too, isn't it? The weather was lovely this morning and I can see from the comments on Facebook other people were enjoying similar sunny mornings. I took Pearl and a good book out - the cats were hanging out on the deck soaking up the rays. David and I did a brief run of Dickson City since it is Saturday and I do have a coupon for AC Moores and yes, I did buy some yarn, thank you for asking. I swiped that picture of the bus off the internet - talk about a stash buster!! That bus is what we knitters only dream of - I mean here  I am complaining half the time about how long it will take me to finish that sweater,  I wonder how long it took to finish that bus....Tomorrow we might run up to Stroudsburg to the outlets to see if there are any more sales and maybe scout out a few more houses. David has asked me 

what exactly I want to do - sigh.  I guess I DO want to move, it makes sense as we like that area better, we would only be talking less than 60 miles, I would be much closer to work when the office officially opens, and I would be right on top of the cheesecake factory. But there is the selling and buying, packing, sorting,etc... The end result would be worth it though - but we're still a little ways away from all of that and in this economy there's no guarantee we could even sell this house.  It could be worse I suppose - all those poor people that bought RE in Florida are losing their shirts now, we've heard you can't give it away down there.  So we shall continue to mull and stew, after all there's no hurry, is there?

Hello To The Helushka!

So, what is Helushka you are wondering. I'm probably not spelling it right, but it's very good. Very good indeed. Around here during the season of Lent the local church ladies are a busy group indeed because this is their money making season. You have to add in that most of the churches here are either Polish or Russian so what they are cooking is nothing short of amazing. Hand made pirogi - you have no idea. No really you have NO idea how great they are. Anyhoo, what they do is serve lunch every Friday and you can order as much stuff as you like, so last week I had pirogi and this week everyone was eating the above mentioned Helushka. It is buttered noodles, fried in onions and a few spices and is probably not as good for you as you'd like it to be. I was also informed the polish church down the road makes some sort of potato pancake and there are other assorted high fat, high starch and Free For All Foods you can slob down at various religious institutes. And this goes on until Easter believe it or not. So work is still good, thank you for asking! 

Yes It's Still Cold. Thank You For Asking.

I'm sorry - yes it IS Vincent and a piece of knitting again, but I love them both and so should you. Cats and yarn just seem to go together, like chicken and rice, pork and beans, me and any knitting books from Amazon.  The weather has warmed up to a balmy 28 degrees today, ARRGH is all I have to say on that - I am super tired of the cold cold cold. And this time of year it's the worst because in your head - it's spring. It's March, bring on the birds the grass the sunshine, bring on the Easter baskets - where is everyone??!! But the snow sticks around and my car starts with  that whackingly awful noise it does when it's this cold - nothing serious just something frozen.  The cats continue to peer out the windows in hopes of seeing something alive and edible, ARRRGHH. Work was good again today, my office has it's open house scheduled and I already have the outfit picked out, I just need a blouse to go with it. And shoes. And some other stuff.  But the invitations and the press release will be sent out this week and there is catering involved - what's not to love?  We are heading out tomorrow to finish up a round of admissions, the flu has been decimating the staff all week and it seems to be an especially nasty bug, hanging in there for days on end.  I'm hoping I don't catch it and feel very sorry for those that have.  Anyhoo in knitting news I have started the second sleeve but am considering stopping for a bit and quicky knitting a pair of socks. Now we all know Im not one for having any UFO's hanging around the place but when I started this sweater I thought it was awesome that it was cabled all over - do you have any idea how LONG all that cabling is taking? I'm what, a month or more into it and I still have not only the second sleeve but a hood to do? So I may break my rule, I'm thinking about it.

Being Perfect Is A Little Harder Than I Thought

That's the problem with a new job, you're not as good as you'd like to be - even though you know in your head it's going to take time you tend to beat yourself up for every little thing. I did a couple of admissions yesterday which I've done hundreds of times. But their paperwork is much different than what I'm used to and I couldn't find a few things no matter how hard I looked. I know it's not a big deal but it's something I'd like to have down - NOW. I've been impressing them at the office with my $3 wardrobe - people tend to be more impressed with how little you can spend as opposed to how much you can. We can all find a $100 raw silk shirt, but only the Few and the Cheap can find the same thing for $10 and get two of them for the price of one to boot. David is on his last week of clinical and although he finds it intimidating at times he's enjoyed it far more than even he expected. We of course have a lot of irons in the fire at all times, he and Harry looked at some possibilities last week - there are lots of houses for sale but around here finding a suitable one is hard. This is a resort area so a good amount of houses were originally built as vacation homes so they tend to smaller, less well built and not well kept up so you are truly looking for a needle in a haystack. And we would have to sell this place so the whole thing hinges on how much energy we have. 

Enough With The Snow Already

Ok I am officially sick of snow. Yuck. Eww. Phooey.  We didn't even get that much, maybe two or three inches, but a mild dusting would've been too much at that point. Jeezy Pete, it's March! There should be a cut off date for this crap. And it's not even the snow, it's the wind and ear biting temps that is really doing me in today. That wind just cuts right through me, Pearl can't go to the bathroom fast enough to suit me and if I yell OH FOR CRYING OUT LOUD JUST GO she gets all freaked out and I end up out there twice as long while she dithers around to scared to go now. Sigh here. Work was crazy - thank goodness I'm still on orientation - one nurse hit a pole (damage to the car and not the nurse thank goodness) another was out sick with a flu, another one went down at the patient's house with the flu and the other manager had to go get her she was so sick and then one nurse just didn't.  So they were busy moving everything around and impressively enough got everything covered.  I audited charts with another nurse today, I was busy but I do like my job - it's so much more organized and people want to work there, what more can you want?

Same Blog Different Entry

I thought I'd blog now instead of tomorrow morning as we all know what Monday looks like around here.  David is having his first day solo and I'm back in the groove, taking notes and hoping I'll be as good as a manager as I've always wanted to work for. We were up and about early this morning, even Kirsten was up around 8 am (possibly encouraged by a Pouncing Hostess who also insisted on deeply snuffling her blankets) - we did pancakes all around as it was Sunday. We headed out to Dickson City, I took them to Sugarman's Indoor Flea Market - you name it, it's there. We poked through used books, old clothes, DVDs,jewelry. We didn't find anything but it was fun and we got some roasted cashews on the way out. Then we did AC Moores, coupons in hand - I got a couple of skeins of sock yarn and Liz bought yarn to start an afghan for  Kirsten, it was lovely, burgundy and best of all on sale.  Then the high light of any trip to the Lester Abode  - WEGMAN'S!! They roamed the hallowed aisles of cheese, organic, the lawn furniture (yes they do sell furniture at Wegman's, thank you for asking) - because you know I would have never been able to sleep at night knowing I had deprived them of the Wegman's Experience.  They left after lunch and made very good time getting home. It was a good weekend, wasn't it?

Vacationing in The Poconos

Liz and Kirsten arrived here a little after 9 am with Kirsten surprising everyone by being conscious (she is a teenager after all).  After a few cups of coffee and getting settled in, the 3 of us headed off with Knit and Pearls as our target destination. Our first stop was a kitschy souvenir shop which had nothing with Kirsten's name but plenty of other things - there were "native american" collections (all from China and made out of Native American Plastic), coffee cups, license plates, key rings, etc... - there was a ruler display with a lot of Hispanic names so Kirsten now has the Ruler Of Jesus. Then off to the Pocono Cheesecake Factory, we each got a slice to horse down in the parking lot and half a cheesecake for dessert - it's one of my favorite places that I stay far away from, they have about 40 different types of cheesecake with candy, cookies and cannolli to back it up and yes, there is always a line. I hadn't been sure if we would do the outlets but as we were zooming by Kirsten spotted her favorite shop - this was impressive as there are over 120 stores and we were going at least 70. She gets that from MY side of the family.  After we perused the sneakers we went to Coldwater Creek that was having a huge clearance sale - I got 3 pairs of pants, 4 blouses and a jacket for $24!! all suitable for the office. Whoo hoo!! Then off to the yarn shop, I got a few things and we meandered back home stopping at a candle shop, a grave yard and a Colonial Flea Market that is Always Open. She should have opened the flue too as there was a roaring wood stove and a haze of smoke but we had a great time poking around, there was a little bit of everything.  Kirsten found a display of old skeleton keys so she got a couple to make a necklace out of. We went out to the local Italian restaurant and the waitress took our picture, I wanted to do gang signs but was vetoed by the highschooler so we had to do the Vulcan thing instead. At home it was PJ's and cheesecake (pecan caramel picked out by the aforementioned high schooler) and we watched the Venture Brothers which if you've never seen that series go get it. It's politically incorrect, amazingly weird and just really funny - Adam bought it for me for Christmas and I never tire of seeing it. This morning we don't have a lot planned, they're taking off around 1 as Monday is looming but we'll try to squeeze something in.