We Are Griling Fools

I suppose I could have taken a picture of our Spanky New BBQ - I will when the stinkin rain stops. For now you'll have to gaze upon the picture I took a couple of weeks ago when we went to Milford with Ray. We've been BBQ-less since we left WV. We had the smallest,cheapest barbecue that was ever grilled upon. We bought it the first time we moved, Big Lots, Walmart, one of those. It was an after thought, on clearance, $50 and it was ours. It was a no frills model - it didn't start off that way, it was just so cheap all the bells and whistles fell off as fast as you could get them on, we were just glad if it didn't list too much. But after years of service and we used it constantly - it finally became too dangerous to use and out it went. The entire summer I've been wanting a new one so David picked one up the other day, $150 - triple the cost but it stands straight and everything it came with, it still has. There is nothing like grilled food, is there? I have grilled sundried tomato polenta, Boca burgers, zucchini with olive oil and a little Mrs. Dash, it takes less time and tastes so much better. It's the only summer thing we have done so far, the weather is constantly grey and dreary, I cannot believe it will be August next week and we have literally not had a week of anything approaching Hot and Sunny. The air has been on sporadically and only for a few hours at a time. We have been turning it on at night because lately there has been a Yahoo in the neighborhood that insists on riding his Non muffled vehicle up and down the road when the cops are in bed. There's always one, isn't there?

Not Perfect, But Pretty Darn Close.

David has been on LI most of the week, he's been helping his brother fix up the rental house he owns, so me and the Posse have been on our own. Thank Goodness for the petsitter so I don't have to mad dash it home - I have been managing. Work's been super busy, we're starting to pick up steam big time, By next week everyone's dance cards will be full - I'm starting to have to chase THEM around instead of the other way around! So today I was looking forward to laying around in bed but I forgot to set the coffee pot for later. The coffee brewing doesn't wake me up but Pearl knows when she hears it perking it's time to go OUT so I had to take the whiney bag out at the usual time. Today was my weigh in day for Weight Watchers, I'm now down to 147 - I haven't been able to do that in quite awhile, the diet's not too hard to stick to but I did celebrate with a Whoopie Pie I bought at Wegmans, but I had more than enough points left over for that. Love a Whoopie Pie, who doesn't! I went to replace the ink in the Dell printer and discovered David had bought the wrong one. So I made a stop at Staples and got my $27 refunded - they didn't have another one so I thought I would just see if maybe Best Buy would have one. I didn't expect them to - but believe it or not the ONLY one they had was the one I needed and it was on clearance for $8 - so I bought 4. I got everything I wanted on sale today, the supermarket had everything, gas is down. I spent the rest of the day quietly reading in the yard, under the deck when it got too hot and sunny. We love under the deck - I've dragged a few old deck chairs there and the cats occupy them, there's a ladder on it's side that I use as a coffee table and Pearl is content to lay in the grass and chew sticks. It overlooks the propane tanks and the underside of the stairs but we like it and that's what counts. So today with the exception of a few minor blips has been pretty good. David is due back tomorrow, we will be glad to see him.

Rain. How Novel.

It started raining before we even got up this morning - this has got to be the wettest, dreariest coldest summer ever. There have even been a few mornings that we've turned on the heat - it will be fall before you know it. Work was a bit busy, what else is new - but my office set it's first billing record which is super sweet, isn't it? I met my new co-worker today too, on Tuesday I drive to the main office to drop off paperwork, discuss anything new that comes up and go over the schedule with the main office. My co-worker is being trained up there, I'll be glad when there's another body in the office though. It's not too bad - peds comes over to say hi and I get invited to any shindigs they're having. The phone calls are all forwarded to the main office as I can only wear so many hats. AND what I love is Knit and Pearls is right on the way to the turnpike so every Tuesday I get to stop in and what's good. You may do a little, quiet "hoo hoo" right here along with me. We had a very nice weekend with Ray, quiet but that's OK once in awhile.  He is now looking for a photo deck and has been lurking around the computer section so who knows - Ray may very well run into the 20th century head on.

My Feet Are Up, All Of You Be Quiet

I haven't been blogging a whole lot - just a lack of time I guess. Work is really starting to pick up, it's getting harder and harder to keep things under control but I'm managing so far. We have picked up more patients this week than we ever had before and thank goodness the nurses are rolling right along. We got another patient today so I spent a lot of time on the phone getting that set up but it's done (at least I hope it is....) We're going to be starting meetings soon and that I'm really excited about because it means we've gotten big enough to HAVE meetings!! I'm of course working on the shawl, the pattern I'm doing is fairly easy but interesting and can be picked up and put down without losing count. My diet is moving along, I've been losing about 3 pounds a week, so it's 6 pounds so far which isn't bad. Ray is out this weekend so I have to figure out what I can eat in a restaurant (a wee little selection) as opposed to what I cannot (most of the menu) - however, being a card carrying vegetarian I'm used to that it just makes it more difficult for everyone around me. Not only am I a vegetarian, but I'm a vegetarian on a diet - you try to feed me! We went out to Milford today to an art show and I got to stop in Jilldeal fine yarns - I got a skein of Australian sock yarn which is already wound and ready to rock.  We ate at a small place called Muggs - the food was really good and there was actually a lot on the menu I could have, We're back home now and everyone is just relaxing, my favorite activity.

Busy Bees

We've been off and running since we came back on Sunday - nothing headline, but busy. Work is picking up - we got some admissions this week. I've been orientating the new nurse and running the office,  I even got to hold a guinea pig - it had a little towel to sit on and it just sat there and let me pet it. It was super cool! I am starting meeting next week which I'm excited about as it means we're moving along - I'll be getting a new associate soon and that will be a great relief as our patient load grows it gets more and more difficult to keep it all straight. David and I are planning on taking a vacation, we're going to see Adam down in Norfolk and we'll also get to see John, Carleen and the kids. The RE was here again tonight (yes, I know what I said about that the last time they showed up after work, but this guy was on time). Miss Pants got to eyeball them before we headed out to the back field where she was busy harassing the avian population . The shawl is getting bigger daily, it's an easy pattern once you get it down pat yet looks impressive. The Weight Watchers is going along alright, I'm enjoying it and have lost about 4 pounds so far so everything is alright in my universe at the moment. 

Party!

David dropped Miss Pants at the local Dog Prison on Friday so we could leave right off on Saturday. Which we did.  We hit no traffic at that early hour and made it to my mom's by 10 am, early enough for David to dump me off and head off to see his parents before going to Amy and Jim's We arrived at the party on time, the birthday boys were so cute! But it's hard to be anything else when you're one and three.  I admired them from across the table - babies are not overly fond of me, well, that isn't always true. In WV I took care of plenty of babies, but most of them had feeding  tubes, permanent IV accesses into their chests, ostomies, etc - but I find it hard to meet babies with a lot of people around. They tend to be overly stimulated before I get there and can very rarely handle yet another stranger, so I wave at them  and we're all pretty happy with the arrangement. Janet and Diane arrived late due to terrible traffic, the same EXACT traffic we hit on the way home - just for the record I am a Terrible Passenger, especially in traffic in which I will sigh, kick the seats, slump, demand that the driver get out and find out what the hell is going on up there, etc.... ah yes, a joyous experience for all. Anyhoo, the party was great, I managed not to over do it and kept on my diet. The nice thing about Weight Watchers is you can save up and have cake once in awhile - or go to a party. Matthew and his brother Alex spent most of their free time horsing down Goldfish so I'm thinking they are not on Weight Watchers.  I saw Mom and Fred in the morning, David picked me up around 10:30 and off we went. Or so we thought until we hit 4 miles before the Throgs Neck Bridge and there we sat for about 2 hours. We didn't get home until 4:30 so there went most of the day. The only good thing is I got quite a jump on the shawl I'm knitting.  I finally got it started on the way to LI - starting a shawl is a massive pain - you use size 10 double point needles and it's 2 stitches to a needle, then you start increasing. If you knit you KNOW what I'm talking about, if you don't suffice to say it's terribly awkward and you end up starting it about 900 times.  But when you're sitting in the truck with nothing better to do it's easier to concentrate and get it going. I did most of the knitting on the way back home since I HOURS to waste - during this time I handled a few calls from work and called and set up the dog sitter for next week. In other news my leg is looking WAY better - the antibiotics are really doing the job, that big lump is just about gone and my leg is a Pinkie color, not an Amazing Red anymore which is a relief. I have no time to be sick as work is on Monday and I have to say, it's so nice to have a job again that I WANT to go!!

End Of The Week.

I have to stop watching Ripley's Believe It Or Not in the morning - it's an entire hour of people acting stupid, yet it stops me in my tracks repeatedly. I'm trying to get dressed and the TV set cheerily shrieks "this man was born with BACKWARDS KNEES and has never walked upright!". I'm brushing my teeth and leaning to see because "This woman went shopping WITH A TWELVE INCH SERRATED KNIFE IN HER NECK and she didn't even know it!" and we don't even want to talk about the man who Makes Thousands by vomiting paint on canvases.... who can resist? Work was fun this afternoon, Robert and Case are getting married in a couple of weeks so they were throwing an engagement party and I got an invite. I did have cake but worked it into my Weight Watchers plan so it was ok. It was a super cool cake - it looked like a tiny little wedding cake and they did manage to surprise Robert(Case hid in my office).  David and I are heading for an overnight stay on LI in the am, Amy's crew is turning 1 and 3 so we're making a short trip there and back. Of course my leg decided it would be fun to look Worse This Morning so I decided to find somewhere to have it looked at. They have a walk in clinic....in the supermarket. Yes they do. My leg is infected and I have a sweet case of cellulitis, nothing to write home about and nothing a short course of antibiotics can't cure. The wait was awful, but I survived. No it really was, I was there waiting for a hour or so - but it's the only game in town so what can you do? Pearl is incarcerated - David dropped her off at 4 and then he got new tires for the truck. Whoo hoo living large.  We are a bit short on visits at work but its alright, every agency I've ever worked for hits a lull here and there and it was nice to have a little breathing room. For now.

ACK! What Is That!

I have some sort of big, red, nasty, thingy on the back of my leg - it might be some sort of spider bite.  It's very red a good 8 cm in diameter, a bit swollen and ITCHY - every time I scratch it it gets a little worse so Grouchy Dave came over and stuffed an ice bag under my leg. I refuse to admit it is making it feel better whatever it is. The only other thing it could be is a zombie bite. Maybe I was sleeping and a odoriferous decaying zombie quietly shambled in and tried to take a big drippy bite out of my leg - someone turned the light on and it shambled away, foiled again. Hmm. Oh well. In other news continue with  Weight Watchers Online and it's Super Cool - I have been using the point tracker and stuff and have lost a few pounds already, if anyone says it's water weight I will smack them, it is not. At work we are working on marketing this week, I love that Bayada has a communications dept to run ideas by and they brainstorm and come up with some too. Actually they have a dept for pretty much everything I think - you get very involved with them I think.  On the home front the RE brought clients by, I was fairly annoyed. They were supposed to be here at 6:30 and didn't show up until 7 pm. This would not be a big deal on the weekend but during the week after an 11 hour day and I haven't eaten yet - he's lucky I didn't whip the door open, pull his still beating heart out of his chest and grind it into the cement with my good work heels. Instead I was a wee bit rude (he said "oh, I guess I'm late" and I said "Yes, you are") - and went outside with David and Pearl The Wonder Dog. They looked a bit yahoo-like and quite honestly, I've given up for the summer. By the time it gets sold I won't want to move

Faith, Hope, Love, Knitting - NOT

That knitting book stinks big time! I threw in the towel last night.  I had   printed out the corrections - they were either incomprehensible or still didn't work - don't know, don't care. The whole business is frogged - I knit to relax, not to add stress. I have a different pattern ready to go, the yarn is too busy for anything super complicated and this is a perfect design - except of course I don't own one pair of size 10 DPNs, what else is new. So today I stopped in at Knit and Pearls
and they were having a 35 to 60% off sale - who's your daddy now!! I got two great skeins of wool/mohair 100 yards and $6 apiece (marked down from $15) and even the DPNs were on sale so I was Whoo-Hooing my way down to Pittston.  In other news I did join Weight Watchers Online, totally thrilled with it. No, I am not very overweight, actually according to the weight charts I fall in the parameters - but my weight has been drifting up over the past year and this job is not helping. I had gained weight back and was back at 150 (that's my usual weight for the past 15, 20 years or so)but I got on the scale and it read 154 - I like me best at about 140, 145 - that's the weight I don't have to fight and my clothes fit. That is also the weight my last two physicians picked, I am not a wee little person despite what I would like.  So I saw they were having a promotional on the website and figured if I don't like it after a few months I can cancel it. It's actually pretty cool - you do everything by points and you can still eat your own recipes - they have a Recipe Builder and you just put all the ingredients in - you can tweak it so it fits in your daily allowance. I've lost a pound so far so I'll keep you posted. 

Happy 4rth Of July (weekend!!)

Yesterday was great - the weather was sunny but cool and we got an early start. Here there is plenty of holiday traffic on the weekends - not as bad as the Hamptons, but it can get busy. We did a ton of grocery shopping, we haven't really been in 3 or 4 weeks - with our schedules we've been doing it all at once every couple of weeks. We went to AC Moores, Borders, Sam's, Wegmans and Gander Mountain. Our bank account is looking good, the house is no longer sucking the life out of our finances and with both of us on the payroll these days we are back on solid ground. Friday at work things FINALLY calmed  down  - this week was much better with the staff back and my boss had designated a staff member from the other office to help me out with the referrals and scheduling. During the week it got better and by Friday I was able to go through all the papers left behind by the person that left and finish organizing. I work closely with our home office via phones and email so it's not like I've been left to drown - Bayada actually practices what they preach which is everyone works together - this experience was not a bad one  by any stretch of the imagination. It was scary and stressful at times but I have a better view of what needs to be done and better yet, I CAN do it if need be. Anyhoo, for the rest of yesterday David and I just watched TV, played in the yard and I started the second part of the shawl which will be completely frogged this morning, that's right it gets ripped out and restarted. Because I was using the shawl pattern out of Faith, Hope, Love and Knitting  - when I started the first row I thought it looked, well, not quite right. By the 3rd row I realized there must've been a major error in the directions because there was no way it would ever add up correctly or even be workable. This morning I found the author's website in which the corrected directions (delete the first FOURTEEN ROWS to start!!) were available to print out. At least I didn't get that far. There wasn't much in the way of fireworks last night, the farm down the road had some which were fun to watch - Pearl and Vincent didn't like them at all and insisted on gluing themselves to me in bed making it a little difficult to sleep. But they stopped before ten and then everyone slept well - I think I'll be ready for work on Monday. 

Rain Again. How Unusual Is That.

Things have finally slowed a bit a work, since I am no longer performing all functions it makes life a little easier. We got a medical director yesterday, the new nurse is doing a few visits on her own and the paperwork is all in and caught up. And I got a bonus. AND a raise! Not bad for being there not quite 4 months, is it? I was pretty surprised (still am) but it's nice to work for a company that rewards your hard work, isn't it? If I wasn't a Bayada Girl before, I certainly am now! I also got half a day off yesterday too - due to all the work I've been putting plenty of things off  and just needed a few hours to catch up. I got my hair cut again - its very short now. Maybe a wee little bit too short - but that's alright, I asked for it and it will grow back. I hope. I got home early after running all my errands and hung out in the yard with a cup of coffee and magazine. My shawl is coming along nicely, I have ten rows left for the base part and then can start on the actual lacework. We have nothing (hopefully) going on for the 4rth, after the past 3 weeks I just want to sleep and hide - that will be a celebration for me!