Good Morning!

We have had a very nice weekend, thank you very much. The Hostess is in her glory - a guest that specifically like Vizslas - and she just happens to be one! So Pearl has been happily parking herself on the guest at every available opportunity when she's not busy scoping out the Local Bunny Population which is, growing quite prolifically I might add. Nancy arrived Friday afternoon and let herself it, Pearl being the Watch Dog sat and watched her of course. We spent the evening catching up and headed out for the outlets in the morning. We had breakfast in that restaurant that serves everything in little pans - the food is very good and fairly inexpensive. We got to the outlets a little early and walked around just talking - we shopped most of the morning and Nancy did very well.  Part way through the morning we needed to do a drop at the car as the bags were getting a bit cumbersome - hmm. The parking lot was now filled and we hadn't been paying close attention as to where we had parked. And we had taken Nancy's rental car as mine was short a gas cap. Again. Yes, it's the fourth one I've lost and you all need to be quiet as that could happen to anyone. We did  eventually locate the car and left around 2 or so, by that time the place was hopping so it was a good idea to leave. We had dinner at the Chinese buffet and then home again. Nancy flies back to London tomorrow so Pearl had better get hostessing!

Rainy Friday

It is raining AGAIN - thank goodness David mowed the lawn the other day or we'd be knee deep in grass. Nancy is scheduled to make a Special Guest Star Appearance today and of course The Hostess will be here to greet her in a warm and psychotic way. David finished and passed his weapon's training last night with a 92 so he's all set to roll, he will no longer be the only unarmed guard in the truck. I've been working up in the Stroudsburg office for the past couple of days and I have to admit it's easier to work with no one around to distract me. That is not the real world. We had someone come back to look at the house but have not heard anything - we've stopped looking for a house in Stroudsburg as with the economy the way it is there is no sense in buying a house if I can't sell this one. The economy is a scary thing these days, isn't it? And it's affecting all sorts of things - we toured a senior housing yesterday and even their census is down, a lot can't afford to live there when they can't sell their home here. Scary days ahead. And things here have gotten so expensive, gas is back up to almost $2.50 a gallon and we are getting a handle on our grocery bill, but still with just two people and a few pets it should be cheaper, shouldn't it?  Around here one of the things that's really holding us back from renting this house and buying another is the taxes, we hadn't realized in Stroudsburg they rival Long Island in that arena! 

The Week Rolls On.

Ray left yesterday morning, after a busy weekend - we shopped, sightseeing and the movies. On Monday he and David went out to dinner without me, I can only eat out so much and then that is it - my body goes into full rebellion. I guess as I get older my innards get a little less tolerant of high fat and salt.  We did end up at the movies, we saw Wolverine which was very good - Jackson and Adam had seen it before and were against what happened to Deadpool - but its a movie and they need to get over it. After the movies I dragged them to the Christmas Tree store which has a few christmas items but is actually the cha chi capital of the universe. You can buy ceramic frogs in bathing suits, little bird houses that look like beach shacks, and dog toys which is what I was after. The day back to work sucked, you always wish you could have one (ten) extra days off and then the day stretches forever since you have to make up for lost time. Nancy is coming on Friday so I have to get the guest room ready for that, we will be shopping if anyone needs us!

Bushkill Falls

Yesterday the weather decided to cooperate and we decided to proceed with the field trip to Bushkill Falls. David and Ray had gone out to breakfast early so when they got back I rousted them into the car - its a hike from here to there and since it's a holiday weekend I wanted to get there at  reasonable time. It took about an hour of travel and we passed it on the first  go around - except for the sign it doesn't look like much from the road.  It was beautiful and the pictures don't do it justice.  It's  a series of trails with hundreds of stairs going up and down - that part I had not thought about but, well, duh. We took the Popular Trail which only hits a couple of the falls and good thing we did - Ray is in good shape but the way back - and straight up - were a bit hard on him and we had to stop and rest several times. The way back is actually a series of giant staircases that are quite steep which go back to the top of the main falls - there's a set of benches located there where all us old folk go to die, I turned to Ray and said "thank goodness we didn't do this in August!" and he had to agree. One of the reasons I decided to do it yesterday despite the holiday traffic was the weather was slightly cool, I cannot imagine hiking that place in 90 degree temperatures!! I was glad we had gotten there around 11 as when we left the line to get in wound around the parking lot - and there's not a whole lot of room on those walkways.  I had wanted to go to AC Moores and we started to head down 209 - David turned around about after 20 feet of THAT - he didn't care if I had a 50% off coupon or not, we would have been in traffic for hours on that road. The GPS took us back the way we had come, down all back roads and we stopped a few times to take pictures. On the way back the rain clouds that had been holding off all day moved in and the rain started so the whole thing was perfectly timed. For once.   We went to the little Italian restaurant again for dinner, no one was in the mood to travel again. 

Memorial Day Weekend

Ray got out here in good time - I think a lot of people were traveling  on Friday night and not so much on Saturday morning. I do have to say I DON'T miss summer holidays in the Hamptons, here I think it can get a bit busy - but it's shopping and sightseeing busy, not puking in the bushes busy. Since we had the open house yesterday I put off Bushkill until today, Pearl had to be picked up by 3 so there wouldn't have been enough time to get there and back - we did Dixon City and got the grocery shopping done, plus we hit all of our favorite stores. The open house by the RE went alright, not great but at least the house got a good scrub! Harry thinks we have one interested party so keep your fingers crossed. We picked Pearl up at 2:30, she was not a happy camper and proceeded to behave as if she'd been a prisoner of war. The woman at the kennel suggested maybe some one needed some Ritalin - hmm. After letting Pearl run around the yard for a bit we headed back out and  ate early at the local Italian restaurant that Ray likes and that was pretty much it for the day. Today's activity depends on the weather, when I took The Hostess out for her morning constitutional it was rather grey and cloudy - I was glad we didn't go yesterday as we would've gotten caught in a rainstorm and since it's a hiking trail that would not have been comfortable to say the least. As Ray would say we have all summer so if it's cloudy again today we can go to the movies as  no one has seen Wolverine yet. In other news I did restart the sock and was glad I did - I did the long tail cast on but also figured out how to do the beginning of the toe correctly so there is no ridge.  I'm also using a smaller needle so I won't have to cast around looking for someone with giant feet to wear my bright green stripy socks.

It Is Done.

I looked at the sock last night  - on the surface most would say there was nothing wrong with it - but it had a few holes from accidental yarn overs, a ridge from knitting backwards on one row and of course the heel. So, I did end up frogging it and will do a better job the next time, I've knit socks before but this pair will be from the toe up instead of the traditional top down so it might take a few tries. And the yarn is too expensive for it to be a crappy pair of socks. I do have to get up and get moving - the open house is today and we have to get it cleaned up. Miss Pants will be in jail for a few hours - it's actually a different kennel and we'll see if she does better in this one as we're going to Washington in a couple of weeks and if she likes it better we'll contain her there. Ray is due out in a few hours and we have to finish getting his room de- catted, but for the most part I'm planning on a weekend to recoup my troops for a better week next week. Last week sucked, between bouts of homesickness, stress and everything going to pot it was just not a good week. And you know once you start riding that train, it's hard to get off. But I can see where I've made my mistakes and where I need to improve. Part of it is transitioning from staff to management I'm now looking at my career from the other end of things - as a visit nurse I knew not to schedule patients on a holiday, as a manager I forgot to instruct my staff not to schedule patients on a holiday. But I am learning, I just hope to be learning fast enough. 

Run Away! Run Away!

So, the weekend is FINALLY here -after two weeks of working straight through I am hoping to have some time off. Of course the moment I sat down with dinner and the lap top AND Total Recall on the tube the phone rang. From work. At least it was just a 5 minute fix - eek. We heard from Ray, he will be on his way here in the am, we may have to reconfigure our plans a bit, David was up in the Bushkill Fall area and he said it's pretty thick with New Yorkers for the weekend so we might just goof around Dixon City for the day and make a run at the falls on Sunday.  We didn't do pizza for dinner, we made the ravioli that we already have, I'm a bit out of the pizza thing anyhow. There is no Little Ceasar's near here and that's what I really like, especially the Cheesy Bread with garlic butter sauce. Very low calorie I'm sure!! The other thing that must be addressed, sadly, is the sock. Yes the sock might need to be frogged entirely - I completely screwed up the heel and I've been avoiding looking at it. I did the decreases all wrong for a few rows and even if I just frog it back past the heel I'll never figure out how to put the needles back on right. It's not that huge of a deal - a sock is a fairly wee item knitting wise and it's not like I've never had to do that before - the sweater I had to throw out the entire back because 2/3 of the way done I realized I had accidently used two different color lots and it was just not passable. And the thing with the sock is I could continue on but what's the point on making socks that no one will wear? Sigh. Rip it. Rip it.

Eat What You Have

We've been trying to eat what's in the house, as opposed to bringing yet more food in. This is not as easy as it seems. We had over the past few moves gotten rid of the things you buy - for whatever reason at the time - and then cart around even though the chances of it being eaten at some point are nil. I had a container of Greek spices - I have no idea what Greek Spices are but they smelled bad and made me glad I was not Greek and had to eat such things.  There was no chance of it ever being put on food and I could never think of anything to put it on, yet I toted that container through 3 houses as if it would become useful at it's final destination. So on the last move from Here to There out it went, along with the can of grapefruit which only made slightly more sense than the Greek Spices. Anyhoo, one of the problems with making a real dinner is it takes time and thought - I got home around 6 last night and started to reach for the pizza from the other night but stopped. Instead I made sweet potato fries, Boca Burger and spinach and actually, it only took about 20 minutes and while it cooked I fed the cats and put the dishes away - I suppose it's just a mind set.  We are getting better at shopping, we keep a list during the week so when we go we're not just buying whatever looks appealing  - and our shopping is very heavy on the fruit and vegetables these days. As the weather gets warmer that gets a bit cheaper, I'm still waiting for the blueberries to go down though - I cannot bring myself to spend $7 for a pint of those things.

Ho. Hum

Not much going on these days. Well, that's not true, there's just nothing different going on these days. The weather is going back to being warm, or at least warmer - again.  The real estate is having an open house for us this weekend, around there the housing market has tanked big time so it's very difficult to sell anything. It's even hard to buy anything, people are playing fast and loose with the financing (which is what happened with the last house we tried to buy) so the entire situation is getting discouraging. We would be able to rent our house for awhile but we have to find something to buy first, round and round we go. So for now, we will just continue to drive - I know a lot of people drive long distances to get to and from work but for us it's new and with my longer hours makes for a very long day.  Pearl is enjoying it strangely enough due to the pet sitter who comes on the days that we're both out of the house all day. David and I were laughing yesterday that we have become one of "those" people - you know, the ones that dress their dogs up in hats and use a doggy stroller. But like I said before, it just isn't fair to leave the dog locked in the house for 12 to 14 hours without a break. Oh well, time to get moving

Where Did The Weekend Go??

Well, that sucked, didn't it? I left the house at 8:30 yesterday and got back around 4 - just in time to finish scheduling everything and emailing to make sure everyone knows what everyone else is doing. And now it's Monday. I did get a bit more done on the sock last night, that's the nice thing about knitting socks is it goes pretty fast. I have to keep the whole business up on top of the entertainment system as you never know when Pearl will seek revenge for your not being here.  She can be like that sometimes. David and I both have a full week, the pet sitter will be by, she likes Pearl a great deal - and it makes it easier on us knowing the carpet will stay intact. I'm making plans to go to Bushkill Falls next weekend with Ray, we have the open house coming up too - it's just one day for a few hours, not so bad. We're planning on dumping Pearl at the kennel and then taking Ray up to the falls - that way the dog (and us) are out of the house for the day. David said Jackson called last night, he's still in Mississippi and doing well

Another Day

I'm feeling a little better today, like I said, it passes. My stomach's in a bit of knot and there is a general feeling of sadness, but it's nothing compared to yesterday.  And we have a full schedule for the next few weeks - Ray is coming out for memorial day, Nancy comes out the next weekend and the weekend after that David and I are off to Washington. That should keep my mind on other things.  Yesterday was just racing all day, I got up and cleaned the house, did the week's shopping in between the crying jags, then I got a call from the RN in Stroudsburg that patient #1 was running very late which ran into the time patient #2 needed to be admitted.  So I had to run out there and admit patient #2 and didn't get home until 7:30 and had to start calling scheduling patients for today. The rain held off until I got home - but wow is all I have to say. It was a huge thunderstorm that went for hours and hours, booming and lighting up the house all night. Pearl usually doesn't notice but this one she did, she was shaking like a leaf which was not conducive to anyone else getting any sleep. It finally let up and we slept until almost 6 am which around here is like the middle of the day.  It's very gloomy and overcast at the moment, the temps have also dropped down. I didn't schedule the first patient until 10 so I don't have to dart out the door. I have a tendency to do that in an effort to get it over with but all I end up is with another workday. Vincent is here in bed cheerfully parked against me, purring like a crazy thing - some days it pays to be Vincent. 

It Will Pass

If you've never left home, you most likely have never been homesick. It is a terrible, grieving thing that goes on for awhile - when you first leave it's constant, but later on it can blindside you. I have no idea what brought it on today - the weather, the time of year, the fact we're selling our house, the stress of my job, I don't know. All I do know is I went shopping today and as I pulled into the parking lot it was like a blow to the heart. I missed West Virginia so suddenly, so intensely - it is like an ache in your chest that swells and fills every part of your being with a want so deep that you would give anything to get back there. I missed Jackson, my house, my yard. Saturday at the University Plaza shopping at Sam's and stopping in Barnes and Nobles. Downtown, the hills, my job, Susan, Roger, Hollister's General Store which is the only place you can buy lye soap for the laundry. My pool, Kingwood, the chinese grocery store where you can't buy the rice because it comes alive after a few days. I never really felt lonely in WV like I do here sometimes, the silence never got to me. There are days here I feel like a ghost, not quite a part of anything. I know this will pass, it always does, I have admissions to do tomorrow and there's problems with the ones that need to be done today and that will distract me one way or another. But today, is not a good day.

A Change In Plans

Now I'm working all day Sunday so things have been moved around -   today I have to finish  the cleaning, shopping and vamoose at 3 in time for the house to be shown. The office in East Stroudsburg is taking off and the staff isn't keeping up so I'll be doing an open on Sunday along with a couple of visits. It's overwhelming at times but at the same time, pretty exciting.  I ended up doing an admission up in  the other office yesterday - a patient's family that lets no one in and they send me. Sigh. The reason for the sigh is that in WV if there was a difficult patient they always would ask me because for some unknown - and rather irritating reason - EVERYONE lets me in. I have no idea why  - at one point I  had doctor's offices specifically  asking to send me for some of their crankiest or resistant patients - I even had one surgical team who refused to let me discharge the most noncomplient patient in the universe -  the NP later told me I was the only one the patient would talk to and I ended up having to keep her on until I negotiate her back to the hospital.  The only problem with this is you eventually end up with a patient population that encompasses the entire spectrum of Human Oddities and Neurosis - although I have to admit I did have fun back then.  I had one little old guy that would peer through the curtain and tell me to go away, no one was home because "Carl's Mother had taken him to Union town", I would yell back "I can see you Carl, let me in" and the fight would be on.  The whole thing was pretty hilarious and I have to admit, here in Pennsylvania I don't run into the quite the patients I did in WV - there are certainly less characters here! I suppose I should get moving, I really wanted to sleep in this morning - you would think since I''m off just one day I would take advantage of it. But I woke up at 3:20 am, turned over - and remembered I hadn't set up the coffee pot, the bathroom needs to be cleaned, there's the shopping, dusting, laundry, bed making, go over some paperwork for work and finish up the schedule, need to call those patients today......... I'm up.

Sock Of Ages

Isn't that the neatest yarn? It's Online self striping - 100% super wash wool - and it's not itchy either. I used a long tail cast on which I hope I can remember long enough to do the second one. It's a fairly plain sock but with those colors you don't want to get too busy. Anyhoo, I have to be a Cleaning Girl tomorrow as the house is being shown at 3 pm, at which time Pearl and I will be cruising the neighborhood for at least an hour. David is working so it will be just us girls. Sunday we're going grocery shopping - we are now only shopping one day a week and if anything needs to be picked up, it's that item and that item alone. Our food bill was out of control because of all the shopping we were doing, you know you go for that one thing and come home with about 6 bags of stuff you suddenly needed just because you were there. Our freezer is full and the pantry doesn't need a thing so during the week I keep a list and then we just go the one day.  Food just seems to have gotten really expensive lately, we're spending as much as when Jackson was here. I had my physical yesterday, it was a run there and then a wait, but it's done. And the rain was awful yesterday too - we have a satellite for the TV and the stinky thing is if it rains really hard it goes out. Bones was on and I had been waiting all week to see it (it was the season finale) but the rain let up just in time for it  to come on so I got to see it after all. Aside from BBC there's not a whole lot of shows I actually wait for, but that one I love - the actual books are great. 

You See What You Want To See

When I was driving home the other afternoon I passed by a church with a little billboard in the front - I don't know about your area but around her and in WV the churches tend to get cute with their little sayings. But I was a little surprised when I read "You Are A Spiteful Being". I slowed down and reread it - it actually said "You Are A Spiritual Being" - the only thing I can think is the first message is for me, the other one is for the rest of you yahoos. I am a spiteful being on occasion and always will be, it's a good activity if you're bored. Pearl is also a spiteful being, I forgot something the other morning and came back, she'd already gotten the can of cat food down and was busy snacking away when I walked back in. She dropped it and ran, but it was too late, I'd seen her. Otherwise she appears to be enjoying the attentions of the pet sitter and it's working well. It's nice not to have to dash home - it's expensive but we really don't have a choice at this point. We can't leave her outside all day and having her in the house for that long a period of time would be just cruel. This weekend is going to be a bit of a trick, the RE is bringing someone so we will be cruising with the dog for at least an hour or more while the house is shown. That is the part I don't like. We still don't have a house to move into but as the weather warms up more and more houses go up for sale. With the economy everything evens out, even if we sell at a loss so will the people we buy from so it's a wash as far as we're concerned. David was over an hour late to his class last night so if it happens again he may have to put the job on hold until the end of classes as you are not allowed to miss much.  He was pretty upset as the owner of the business had told him at the start they rarely ran late and that is not what his co-workers are saying - welcome to the real world. My sock making goes well, thank you for asking. I'll post a picture this weekend, it's a very plain sock but the yarn is very cool.

Halfway Through The Week Already

It's funny that no matter how big a house you live in, there's always one spot you consider yours - and yours alone.  Mine is the loveseat, directly across from the tv with the coffee table in front of me. I can - and often do, spend many happy hours there when I'm not out running around with my knitting, tv, books and laptop. I'm often joined by the entire zoo, draped across the back and arms of the sofa, they all tend to spend a great deal of time resting up. For what, who knows - their next lives I suppose.  David is enjoying his new job and classes, Pearl is loving the pet sitter who comes by on the days we are not here. If you met her, you'd love her too, she's one of those people that is actually perfect for her job. It's a little of an expense, but it's probably cheaper than cleaning up any messes on the new carpet. Our RE wants to have an open house on Memorial Day weekend, not sure how we're going to work that. Pearl will most likely have to spend the days at the kennel and we will have to find some way to amuse ourselves for 3 days straight. And we finally got our money back from the last house that fell through - what a pain in the butt that was. David told Harry NO MORE down payments until the whole deal clears the title company, that was just ridiculous.  Harry told David that in the past 11 years the title company we use have only refused to insure 3 houses - and one of them was this one. So it's back to the drawing  board.  I have a doctor's appointment on Thursday for a physical, David is going the same day for his allergies. My real benefits are kicking in the beginning of June which will be nice - I'll still have to pay in, but half of what we are paying now.  Oh well, time to get moving.

Sock Love

Well, the sweater is all boxed up and ready to go - it just needs to make it from the house to the post office. You know what that means - New Project!! It is going to be a plain knit pair of socks but the yarn is eye popping to make up for lack of pattern. It called for a long tail cast on which after about 300 tries following the Easy To Follow Instructions, I was ready to stick that knitting needle right in my eye. But then I hit You Tube - a lot of people are not aware that you Tube is full of instructional videos. It is! I just typed in long tail cast on  and a video popped up right away and the next thing you know I was casting away. So, today was David's first day at work followed by his first night at class, he decided to work every other day as 16 hours four days in a row is a bit much. He left at 7:15 this morning and won't be home until 11 tonight so I don't know how it went. Pearl had her first day with the Dog Sitter  who left me a note and apparently they had a good time. Pearl being Ever Watchful let her in with no problem (which is why "watch dog" is not on her resume), they romped around for about an hour and then Kristin left her on the couch.  I know it sounds a bit much, but leaving her in the house for 11 or 12 hours without a break is not right - and I can't always guarantee I'll be home before 7

The Sweater Is Done!!

First off , Happy Mother's Day everyone - the weather here is uber-gross, but I'm sitting in bed with a big cup of coffee so I'm not really caring. As you can see the sweater is finally finished and I'm very pleased with the way it came out. David took the pictures very quickly - it was really warm yesterday around here and that sweater heats up pretty quick. Due to the all over cabling on it, it's a very slouchy and stretchy thing which is just what you want your sweater to be. But overall - I'm happy with it. It's going on a cross country trip to Oregon to live with Kim and her three cats. Vincent has already licked it a few times so it's no stranger to cats. Now onto my next project - I'm thinking socks but I have to find a pattern. I was looking for a plain pair to make - after all that cabling I just want something a little mindless. I have the yarn and the perfect pattern - I even did a gauge swatch on a pair of #4 straight needles. Ready to go? Nope. Of all the gazillion knitting needles I own I do NOT own one stinking pair of size 4 double point needles. Bastards. And I'm pretty sure the only knitting store that would carry them is not open on either Sunday or Monday. So I'll look for another sock pattern or I might even try doing it on two circular sets, we'll see. I have a book on how to do  that but it always looks too hard to figure out. Other than that I'll be watching the TV of course. I watched the end of the Children of The Corn Marathon followed by Hell Tunnel (sorority girls spend a night in a haunted Kentucky sanatorium, C on the plot, A on the cheesiness) - today however in the afternoon on the BBC channel is an Ab Fab marathon - if you get that channel pull up a sofa for the afternoon. Out of all the shows I love that one is the funniest thing I've ever seen, when they ended that series it was a dark day.  Speaking of English things, my friend Nancy will be spending the entire weekend at the end of May - we haven't seen each other in about 8 years so I'm very much looking forward to that.

Made To Fit

Hopefully by sometime tomorrow I will post the pictures of the finished sweater - I have only 3 more rows to go, the stitching and then it's done and on to the next project. I'm occasionally asked if I can knit something specific if the yarn and pattern are picked out. No. The reason being is first of all I have enough yarn stashed throughout my house to insulate a Scottish castle in winter so the idea of having yarn sent IN would be enough to drive the Yarn Hater off the deep end and second of all, well, Gauge.  Every project I make is a surprise to me, if it comes out the right size there are generally planet alignments and karmic interventions involved. Most  projects are subjected to public scrutiny and whoever thinks it will fit them gets it.  I believe Kim still possesses the Pink Bathrobe which was supposed to be a women's medium cardigan. I wish I could find that picture she sent of her father modeling it - please keep in mind her father is 6'4" and the sweater came to about his knees.  I have gotten better over the years and haven't produced anything gigantic in awhile, but I suppose the other part is it takes the fun out of it. I very much enjoy the process of finding a project that is new or a challenge to me, picking out the yarn and the needles - picking out who is going to get it and mailing it off.  That's not to say I don't make things with specific people in mind, I do but I get to pick the project and if at some point it no longer fits the recipient - it's no pressure. They didn't know they were getting it anyhow so it can change direction midstream and no one is the wiser and if it does work out, better yet.  I loved surprising my cousin and her husband with matching handmade blankets for both of their sons in different colors or sending a handmade shawl all the way to England - I'm sure some of projects I've given away  have been shuttled to the attic or given away, but honestly, after I'm done, it's gone and I've moved on. So Pearl and I are parked on the couch BBC is on the TV set and I'm ready to get it finished, stay tuned!

Someone's Having A Birthday

The yard is awash in all sorts of flowers - some planted, some wild. David has been avoiding mowing the backyard because it's just a carpet of these tiny purple flowers. His birthday is today, someone sent him a tin of Tastykakes and it has no return address or card, so we don't know who sent it. I don't think we're doing too much tonight but tomorrow we will celebrate everything in general. The weather is not supposed to be good but whatever.  The house we were supposed to close on fell through - our title company refused to insure it which basically means there was something hinky going on. There was a lot of protesting from the other party but when asked to send information to disprove The Hinkiness there was silence on the other side which leads me to believe we have dodged that bullet. The prices have dropped but you have to be very careful at the same time, people are hiding things and it's up to you to ferret them out, otherwise you might end up paying a lot more for that "bargain" than you intended. So David and Harry will begin hunting again, it's an annoyance as David starts works at his new job on Monday plus he has three weeks of classes at night so time is fairly limited. We have to find someone to come walk Miss Pants during the day for the next 3 weeks, with me out of the house for 11 or 12 hours and now David that's just too long of a day for her  - it's only for a few weeks so it's not a huge deal.  And most days I can't guarantee it will only be for 11 or 12 hours. The sweater is so close to being finished it's driving me crazy - 6 more rows on the right band, a little stitching here and there and DONE.  But we have so much more to do - we have to do a lot of  shopping tomorrow, there's Mother's Day (yes it will all be late, thank you for asking) and we have to do the entire week's grocery shopping as no one will have time for that stuff. Eek!

A Good Day, But Not A Good End

The expo was a bit of a stomach churner I have to admit. It was a very last minute thing and due to circumstances I ended up manning the table by myself for 7 hours.  Our display didn't make it in time and due to some sort of mix-up the sign over my area said Erb's Landscaping. I finally took it down after being asked for the 3rd time if I mowed lawns. But it was fun, I saw some people that I know and have a preliminary meeting set up for next week, I got to see the World's Biggest Comb Over which was hilarious - it was the most carefully sculpted display bordering on fascinating. I also learned not to leave the basket of giveaways unattended - they're like beavers on a wood pile, they cleaned the whole thing out!! And you would think some people had never seen a pen before the way they acted. I had one elderly gentleman impart to me he comes to these things to get stuff for his grandchild - and what little boy or girl wouldn't want a Jar Lid Opener??  The whole idea is to let people know our office is in the area - we have the table for two days but I don't have to do it again. I stayed until 7 pm and packed up my toys and left. The traffic was not too bad and as I was driving I passed a few dead deer - this time of year there are quite a few on the side of the road, along with skunks, raccoons, etc. but as I passed yet another, it registered that the deer's head was up. I have to admit, I kept driving - I was tired, wanted dinner and I have to get up early, besides someone else would certainly call. But what if they didn't? So I turned my car around and drove by just to make sure of what I'd seen - that poor creature. It was crying and trying to pull itself across the road to the woods, I can't imagine. There was a bar on the side of the road about a 100 yards down and I went in -  the bartender knew what to do, she came out with me and called 911 to give the exact location and she said they'd send the warden to put it down.  Part of you always wants to say no, it's not fair - and it's not.  But at least it wouldn't spend the night in the ditch suffering until it either succumbed to it's injuries or shock - that I couldn't live with. And I never want to get so busy I let someone else take care of it - because sometimes YOU are someone else.