Heat Wave, Shopping And Bears. We Really Do Have It All.

Here I was crowing about the end of summer, the Turning Of The Leaves, Fall Is In The Air and WHACK - you could fry an egg in just about any area of your choosing. It didn't just warm up it's wildly hot  - I BBQed for dinner  and had to sit far away, it was like a furnace. Vincent the cat couldn't trot fast enough into the house and parked himself on the end of the bed hoping I would turn on the crappy air conditioner.  When it's really hot you have to turn it on high for it to weakly waver some cold air in your general direction - but you take what you can get in these situations and Vincent just wanted it ON.  Work was good today and on the way back from a client's house I stopped at  a farm stand for the first apples of the season. I bought the last tomatoes of the season and some very nice fat peaches - you can't beat the apples around here though, really. I also bought a new humming bird feeder for David. We'd bought one earlier this season but it just slowly leaked everything out over night so we stopped using it as not to make the hummingbirds mad and vengeful.  The other day we had a little bit of excitement as Pearl decided not only were deer not allowed in the yard, bears are also excluded. I'm not kidding. I thought she was chasing deer again - I let her do that because I hate the deer all the time.  They are nature's jerks if you ask me - however, it wasn't them. Pearl was barking and running around so I went out to yell at her and then I saw a black bear dodging around with Miss Behave hot on his furry heels. Then I did YELL as I wasn't sure what would happen when the bear realized he was being pursued by a 50 lb dog who probably wasn't quite as tough as she was putting on. He left and Pearl came back thinking she was all that and a bag of chips. David had suggested I should have hit the electric collar but I didn't see the point in disabling the dog and giving the bear a free hit. So we are bear-free today but I don't think I'll let her do that again, I'm well aware that could have ended VERY badly

One Hundred Bottles Of Beer On The Wall.

For some reason I can only load one picture on my journal, oh well it will help me hone my Decision Making Skills. I had a little faux pas at work yesterday - when getting ready I noticed a shirt I hadn't worn in awhile and it matched the pants I had on. It's a nice red shirt with bass all over it - so off I went. While I was checking my email a coworker walked by and asked me if that was a beer shirt. I assured her it was a FISHING shirt but after she went into the kitchen I took another peek - oh dear. It was indeed a beer shirt - I had never read the advertisement under the fish which I thought was for fishing lures, it was actually for ale. And it was written all over. This was a bit of a pickle as I was seeing a pediatric patient and their mother that morning, I was not sure what the reaction to the new nurse in the beer shirt would be. I called David and he had not left for the Lake Ariel house yet so he was kind enough to bring me a new shirt.  Crisis averted, on with my day. The rest of the day went well, I'm still learning but I'm starting to see my patients now. I am off this weekend as I've mentioned about 300 times, I finished the main portion of the sweater so now just the sleeves and the edging and it's done.  I had started the sleeve last night but was so distracted by the TV I ended up frogging it - it was just 4 rows so it wasn't a tragic event.  We watched Arachnid the other day - it was VERY stupid. If my friend suggested we go walk in the jungle to look for giant psychotic everyone eating spiders armed only with shotguns, our wits and a bathing suit I can assure you - not only would my hand stay down, but I would be frantically looking for the way out. Or be hiding in the bathroom until they left and took their crazy friends with them.  I know my limitations. We watched Venom this morning, voodoo possessed sticky person lurching around and biting - it was very dark so it was hard to see. Why they thought they could do voodoo is beyond me. That would be another vacation destination scratched off my list.  Along with doing voodoo - if there's no yarn related activity I'm simply not interested. I don't think we're doing too much today, most likely the grocery shopping and of course cleaning. The house isn't too messy but I don't know about you, but on every flat surface around here flotsam seems to drift over and cover it. Spare chairs are sporting newspapers, shirts hung on the back of chairs, it just needs to be moved along. But that would entail getting out bed, wouldn't it? I'll let you know.

What I Feel Like Some Days

When we are not behaving, according to the World Of Pearl, what she does is hides under the bed with her feet sticking out (so you still know she's there) and she whines hysterically.  Not behaving pretty much includes any activity not involving the aforementioned party. It is only funny for about 3 minutes. Then as I race around the house looking for my shoes, making sure the cat is out and the dog is in, I yell at her as I pass by - CUT IT OUT.  She does for about 30 seconds and then starts in again - she knows I don't have time to do her in so what the hell? It's her party and she'll cry if she wants to. I have to say it's been awhile since I've had a day that made me feel like this - things are very quickly picking up at my new office and I have no doubt it will spin out of control on occasion, but for the time being I'm enjoying the challenge of it all. We went out for a goodbye dinner for the director (she's been promoted) and it was a lot of fun. It's nice to start a job where you know everyone already. Anyhow, I'm looking forward to this weekend and doing nothing - we have to catch up on cleaning the house, David has been getting the other house finished up, knitting of course, maybe a few scary movies - who knows! The possibilities are endless but I am not - too much going on and I need a real break.  Or at least a couple of low key, nothing doing days. Anyhoo, the weather has been turning sneaky colder, David is dreading winter already but I am cheering it on - good bye summer and don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out! I'm eyeballing pumpkins and thinking candy corn, I'm looking for my winter clothes and plotting out a bulky sweater to knit.  Let the leaves fall, commence the hot cocoa and the roaring fire -  Fall is on the way and I'll be raising my hot toddy and cheering it in!

Dinner With Dad

Isn't Rhee getting big? It's amazing how fast they grow, they're kindergartners and then BAM grade school.  I did my second day of training yesterday and we got out a little early so I managed to dodge rush hour right under the wire. Here the traffic is awful and although I'm looking forward to going home, I'm not to the drive - the last time I was here traffic backed up all the way home. Anyhow, I did a little shopping and then met Dad, Maryann, Rhiannon, Janet and Diane for dinner at a very nice Italian place. Food was great and it was nice to see them all again.  I got  back to my hotel room later and just hung out. Even though this has been a bit difficult doing these trips while mayhem was continuing at home, the quiet has done me good - just stretches of nothing while I get myself back on solid ground  - I'm eager to get started in my new job and get a move on. We're hopefully closing on the other house soon, I hope so because we cannot take too much more in that department. Neither of us are the landlord type - the worst part is despite the terrible time we had, other people can outdo us standing still. We hit just the tip of the iceberg with renter hell and have no desire to push our luck. The sad thing is the courts just sigh and move you along, apparently you just need to expect it will happen eventually. So that will -I am hoping very hard- conclude this terrible summer and we'll move on. As I've said before, it hasn't been all bad of course but very few events in life are, even if you have a terrible childhood or go bankrupt there are still some small shining moments you can turn your gaze on to get you through. David has become like that, while I was having heart failure over the cinder block fire pit the freeloaders constructed in our backyard, David said at least we didn't have to worry about getting rid of the brush pile. Pollyanna-ish I suppose but better than me wanting a bag of rocks. I have my last day today here and then it's back home, I will be glad to be there - and stay there for awhile!

On The Road Again..

I'm currently in the hotel with my feet up and the TV on, 400 miles on my tires in the past two days.  No mall for me today - I stopped on my way here to Trader Joes for dinner and something to eat - they have junk food but it's healthier stuff. The ride to LI Sat was great - 3 hours door to door, traffic was so light I whizzed down  the Cross Bronx at 80 miles an hour. The memorial service for Bob was perfect, I'm sure between the fire dept and the bag pipes he would've been pleased with his sendoff. I know he was pleased with his granddaughter Amy who put us all to shame - no one could have had a more devoted caretaker, Aunt Karen would have been so proud of her! The luncheon after was nice too, funerals are strange animals in that you get to see everyone - it's true that it's the few times families really get together.  I don't think we've all been in the same room since, well, the last funeral or was it Grandpa Carter's 90th? I have to say that despite the crappy summer I've seen more people this year than I have in the past 20 years. After I went to see Richard, we sat in the front yard talking for a couple of hours - we've been friends for so long the conversation seems to always pick up where it left off - even if there are a few months between here and there. Then off to see John and Tom for a little while longer. Back to visit with Mom and Fred - I can pack a lot in 24 hours when need be. I rolled off around 9 this morning - weekend traffic on Sunday afternoon from LI? No thank you! But I got caught on the NJ turnpike as they are doing construction - I could have cartwheeled there faster! So here I am, back in King Of Prussia for 3 more days at the training center, but I'm glad to have the opportunity. I'm not doing anything but watching TV, reading and eating my frozen food tonight so I'll be up and moving tomorrow morning.

Inspiration From Donna

Donna wrote a couple of weeks ago about her  grocery bill being $70 for the two of them. That made me look at our out of control grocery bill - how could two people eat enough to spend almost $200 a week?? That's insane. So for the past couple of weeks I've been really looking at what we're buying and have discovered the reason for the sky high bill - we are buying everything we can get our paws on and carefully stuffing it in the cabinets. So when I went by myself yesterday everything got looked at - was there a smaller one? Less expensive one? Did I really need four of them in the event of a nuclear holocaust? I got everything I needed for less than $100 so I'm proud of myself.  David and I are doing well, but it's silly to spend money on things we don't really need or end up throwing out because we couldn't finish it before it went bad. Work has been good, I went out on a couple of visits with another manager this week so it's easier for me to start planning what I'll do with my patients. I'm so glad I took this job. I took a personal day off yesterday - I was going to go to the Lake Ariel house and finish swamping it out but I ended up with so much to do I just stayed home. I'm off to a funeral today on Long Island and then to King Of Prussia for 3 more days of training then back home to stay for awhile. I'll once again be near the mall - thank goodness I saved all that money at the supermarket!! The sweater is moving along quite nicely - I'm almost done with the last front panel and then the sleeves, and done! But I'm leaving it home and taking the sock because it's just too big to cart around at this point. David will be in charge of the fort, hopefully he won't kill Claw. I think she's getting senile - she's gotten very bad with the howling. We have an Arch Enemy, a fuzzy black cat that comes over around THREE AM - we thought she was being killed the other morning the way she was carrying on. David let her in and 10 minutes later she started caterwauling again. Apparently the Arch Enemy was peeking in at her through the sliding doors and she was having none of it. That's OK, we don't need to sleep. She'll probably live into her 20's.

Life Is Good.

Things are still busy - but good busy. In the next week or so I'll be taking over a group of patients, a little nervous but excited. I have a funeral to attend on Saturday then shooting out to King Of Prussia on Sunday to be there to start more training on Monday. There til Wednesday then back home and off to work on Thursday. After that I am staying put for awhile. We're hopefully closing on the house the first week of Sept and that goes on the shelf and stays there - I think this will be the last time we buy a house without selling first. In retrospect it's not a bad thing - what we lose on that house we'll someday gain on this one but the landlord thing was awful - never again. I've started exercising again in the morning since I now have time for it (!!) and am slowly reducing the Junk Food Intake. In the past 6 months my diet went from good to Downright Disgusting - when you're stressed and working all the time you eat whatever gives you comfort and what ever can be prepared in under 5 minutes. I've gained a terrible amount of weight and hate it. One of the things I've been doing is starting to take Pearl for walks in the morning - it's good for both of us I think. So far we go to get the mail - it's all uphill and fits in our time frame. I go early so there's no one around, Pearl still has that aggressive behavior when she's on a leash - I have no idea how to break her of it. But walking to the mail center and back is something we can do so it's good for now. I took Friday off this week so I could not only use up some of my time (between sick days, vacation and personal days I can take off 7 weeks!) but to do a little catching up on things. Life is good right now.

Good Bye!

The rest of the weekend passed quietly - David had to qualify down at the pistol range so I had most of Sunday to myself. I didn't do much, a little more grocery shopping, a little more book shopping. Came home and napped, my faithful Napping Buddies draped around the bed(everyone around here is ALWAYS ready for a good nap). David came home with ice cream and we had that. Today David had off but headed out to the other house as the Freeloaders are gone, off to greener pastures I suppose - don't let the door hit you in the ass, good riddance to bad news. We'll finish dealing with them a little bit down the road but they're out. David said they didn't leave much of anything, including the last 3 months of rent - he changed out all the locks and I have no idea what he's going to do with the Hillbilly Fire pit (attractively constructed out of cinder blocks) but that chapter is done. I am feeling better these days, as you can tell, I will be starting with my own patient load soon but I think it will be more manageable and I'll have more support I think. The sweater is coming along really well, better than I had hoped - the main part is about 80% done, then just the sleeves and the border around the neckline. I'm debating on whether I want to restart the socks for my next trip out of town - the first attempt of course turned quickly into Mutant Wear - or just finish up the main part of the sweater and bring the sleeves with me. The sock needs frogging but I just haven't gotten to it, then I need to find all the DPNs in a size one which is way easier than trying to recalculate the stitches. The weather has returned to hot and muggy, it is just Gross. I guess I'd better get knitting.

Things To Do In Bethlehem

You can run a red light. Not realize until you're there that Musicfest is THIS weekend too and not just last weekend. You can get lost and maybe accidentally run another red light trying to get out of the city before more music lovers come barging in (Music Fest is only fun if you A) have tickets and B) have someone to hang out with - I had neither). I was there to check out The Knitters Edge - David is working today so I had all day to scamper around Pennsyltucky - it was a haul but I also went to Wegmans, Borders and The Christmas Tree Store so it was worth it. What a beautiful store the Knitters Edge is, I didn't buy much but it was fun to just browse and see what they had for future reference. They seemed to have an inordinate amount of orange yarn, they actually had it in all different weights. There is no accounting for taste. They had Namaste bags but since I already have one there's no way I could justify a second one (Namaste is to knitting as Coach is to handbags - and they're about the same price). They had a large selection of books also, but I can get most of the ones I want online at Knitpicks during the 40% off sale and I just cannot squeeze another skein into the house. Well, there's always room for one more so I did buy one sock yarn -but it was on sale which makes it Okay. Yes it does. Does too. Shut up. I also cruised by a used bookstore but the books looked seriously used - not nice used but like this far away from the dumpster used, so I kept cruising. I would have liked to explore a bit more but I could see some major traffic jams in the near future so I attempted to leave. My GPS decided to have an Alzheimer's moment ("turn left. turn right. (there is no right) make a legal U turn when possible"). I went by a yard sale and almost bought an old fashioned table top hair dryer like the one I had as a kid. The one I had was NOT the bonnet that looked like an inflated mushroom but the hard plastic one just like the beauty shops had. You would unfold the neck and it would bake your head with a continuous jet stream of very hot air - it was almost like being in the Cone Of Silence for you Get Smart fans. Kate, Jeanne and I spent an entire summer in curlers that year - given the fact there was no air conditioning I'm surprised we didn't die from dehydration (but we would have had very fancy hairdos!). We also went through about 400 gallons of Dippity Do - you could have put your eye out on some of our styles. I got home around 1:30 - today I'm trying to do nothing. Because lately the days that I truly can do "nothing" just don't happen. I noticed the leaves are turning already - early this morning I took Pearl a little into the woods. I probably shouldn't but I feel so bad for her cooped up in the house and this little yard - and there are a great deal of trees already sporting yellow leaves. The pool out front will have to wait until next year I suppose - I'd had hopes of it being rehabbed before the end of summer but due to the financial constraints we're now under (A special shout out to my Freeloading Buddy in our other house! Thanks!) there would be no point to getting it redone only to have to close it up in a few weeks. Oh well, that will hopefully all be worked out by the end of the month. The acorns are whacking the roof every time the winds blows which drives Pearl a little nuts (nuts! get it!) - she thinks we're under attack by rabid squirrels or something. So this after noon is Whack! Bark! Shut Up! Repeat as needed. The weather is noticeably cooler today, it's still warm but you know you can just feel that little bit of Autumn waiting in the background - I have to say, after all that's happened this summer, I will be waiting with open arms.

Spazzing It Out

I am a complete Spaz in unfamiliar territory - I know! I know! I'm such a picture of grace in real life, one Fluid Motion after another - but give me a GPS and a hotel room and I can't get out of my own way. Those little plastic cards I usually do upside down even though there's clearly a little arrow showing how to swipe it. So I finally made my way into the room when I arrived without any mass destruction. My biggest problem was getting the closet open - I couldn't do it. I tried turning the handles, giving it wee little tugs every time I walked by, desperate yanking. Because every hotel room I've been in has an iron and board in the closet and since it's summer and my fabric of choice was linen which had been flung into a suitcase and without an iron - I was screwed. I almost went down to the front desk but that is always a mistake. I think Jackson almost tried to get adopted after one of my trips to the front desk in which I nicely informed the manager the waitress next door told me his hotel was populated by freshly released criminals and I needed my money back. How was I supposed to know that was not true, the manager was an EX-MARINE and he very MUCH wanted to know which waitress was saying that. I picked up my skirts and ran back to my room. It was not one of my smoothest moves. Anyhow after more yanking I did manage to get the door open and released the iron so that spared me some embarrassment. Driving around was another matter - I get annoyed with the tailgaters but in their defense I'm generally eyeballing the GSP while driving 6 miles an hour looking for that yarn store. Which I did find - the yarn was a bit over priced - there was some excellent sock yarn but I would have needed two skeins to make a pair. At $18 a skein they would have been super expensive socks. It was ok. I bought pizza and brought it back to my room - I am too tired and worn out at the moment to be good company. I also watched The Unborn which is about a super creepy kid so had a bit of trouble sleeping last night. I would shut my eyes and a vision of this dead murderous child peering at me from across the room would form in my mind - that will not exactly lull you to sleep and I suppose it serves me right for watching it in the first place. But I can never resist a good horror movie.

Day Two

Janet and Diane picked me up after my day was finished - I was a little worried. The other day we were let out early, but of course the day I had actual plans they were thinking of letting us out late - how late they didn't say. But they hurried up and we got out on time. This was the first time I had see the rush hour traffic in the area - it's so funny that during the day there's hardly any cars at all but when we left the hotel - wow! Just lines and lines of cars chugging along. But we made it to the mall in good time - Kirby my niece has been staying with them so it was good to see her again. Since they live in Georgia sightings are rare and few - it was nice this worked out this way. We had dinner at the Cheesecake Factory - it was so good! I had the grilled eggplant sandwich and of course Cheesecake for dessert all around. We did some shopping after - Kirby is finishing up shopping for her first dorm room, unreal she's old enough for college, isn't it? She'll be majoring in biology. I got back to the hotel around 8 and put my feet up, this hot weather makes my ankles swell like nobody's business. I'm planning on a trip to the LYS, it closes at 5:30 so I'll be running - but it wouldn't be a trip without it! I have two more days here, they pack so much to learn in a week but I've been enjoying it - and I know it will help when I'm actually doing my new job. I'm doing a little knitting on the sock in my spare few minutes but I think it's going to come out too big and I need to downsize the needles. But I have to knit it up a little bit more to see if it will be too big or not - oh the hard life of a knitter!

King Of Prussia

I know! I know! But I left the camera in the car and am not up to wandering the hotel parking lot at this hour. I am here at King Of Prussia for the week for training. Yesterday was a short day, they had apparently rescheduled from noon to 10 am - half the class knew, the rest of us wandered in at the appointed time. Then the afternoon a speaker cancelled so I was free to roam. I didn't go straight to the mall - I hit Barnes and Noble first, Trader Joes, Jo Ann Craft and Fabrics, there's a ton of local stores around here if you have a GPS and a couple of hours on your hands. so I just explored the afternoon. The only thing I hate is driving in unfamiliar territory, you don't know the roads not to use because they back up, where you need to turn. But I did muddle through and had a pretty nice time. I had dinner with my classmates, we ate at the hotel restaurant here - the food was alright, the service was awful. They had one waitress, maybe 7 tables and she was so slow it was crazy. One table the guy sat there literally holding his check over his head in attempt to escape, then got up and started wandering around the restaurant with it, in desperate hope of being able to pay. I finally just about tripped her myself as she meandered by - I had been sitting with my meal boxed for well over a half hour (as had my dinner companions) - I'll be eating elsewhere! I do have to say though it was nice, after all these weeks of strum and drama to have a just a few hours to myself to wander around and just do a little bit of nothing. I'm sure in the coming weeks with me not being on call all the time my life will start to get back to normal. I'm sitting in my room now - I bought creamer so I could have my coffee straight away - the room is very nice and I'm looking forward to learning a lot for my new job, then I'm meeting Janet and Kirby for dinner so it will be a good day.

Be Nice To The Guest

We ended up staying in town yesterday - we briefly toyed with the idea of heading out in the direction of Bethlehem - not going to Bethlehem but touristing around the surrounding area - but given the expected crowd figured we'd simply end up sitting in traffic so we headed down to the outlets. It was a good decision as EVERYTHING is on sale this time of year. We hit the Cold Water Creek outlet - they were having all sorts of deep discounts. I got a $90 dress for $8 so there were no complaints in my world. We hit Liz Clairborne, Eddie Bauer - and of course the cooking stores. I love to browse but seldom buy - there are so many interesting things but I know I would never use them. Popcorn popper, egg cooker, taco maker - limited use with maximum storage, but fun to look at. We stopped at the supermarket to pick up a few things on the way home and we BBQed last night of course. As you can see in the picture Pearl has turned into quite a beggar - David and I started by giving her a little cheese and managed to ruin her pronto. We need to stop and retrain her, we were so careful when we first got her and it was such a relief to have a dog that went to lay down instead of staring you down through meals. We sat out after dinner and talked for hours, the weather this weekend has been great, the temps dropped down into that wonderful comfortable level and with just a little breeze to move the mosquitoes along, it was a very nice evening. After dinner I made Nancy sit through two hours of my favorite show Being Human - I cannot stop watching it! I've knitted through out the weekend but have the sock ready for my trip tomorrow. I've been so relaxed this weekend, after being on call for a year and a half just the fact that I have no phone to ring, no potential to deal with things, no surprise admissions - I am butter. It was so nice to have one weekend without the potential for interruption, you forget. I have to pack later on today or at least start, I don't have to be at the training center until after 12 so I can dawdle a bit tomorrow. Nancy leaves at 9 as she has to pick Gareth up at the airport on her way back to Southampton, it was a short visit, but a nice one.

No Bethlehem For Us Today

I was planning on taking Nancy to Bethlehem today - I've never been to downtown and it's supposed to be very historic. Nancy mentioned that she'd heard on the radio on the way here that thousands of people were also going to be there tomorrow so I goggled it this morning. There is apparently a HUGE music festival there this weekend. Of course. This would be good if we had tickets or had intended to go to a music festival but we didn't so now we'll have to head in other directions. My week at work was GREAT, it's taken a while for me to get my stress levels down and I still have some moments but the 2 AM girl has only made a couple of visits and work is enjoyable. There's so much to learn, things I'd forgotten and things I never knew, but I'm really liking it. My mentor is really great and I'll be off to training all next week so I'm a busy girl these days. And of course I leave at 5 pm every afternoon - that may be subject to change a bit, but my hours will be more regular. I got home last night around 5:30 last night, Nancy got a bit sidetracked on her way here but it only took her a couple of hours from NYC. She's been in Southampton visiting her Dad and family - it's nice to live close enough now that people can come visit me easily. I have to figure out what we're doing today, but it's a great way to end this week - it's been a long time since I've had time to actually relax.

The Snake

I posted this yesterday on Facebook for David - it's an old tale, but perfect for people with bad boyfriends, crazy relatives, looney neighbors, etc. that will occasionally make a Guest Star Appearance in your life, traumatize you and then exit Stage Left. I lifted it from Dr. Sanity's blog since he did such an excellent job retelling it

Once upon a time there was a serpent who was badly injured in a fight with another animal. It managed to slither away to safety but would have surely died if a benevolent man had not seen it suffering by the side of the road. The goodly man carefully wrapped the snake up and took it to his house, where he bestowed the kindest and gentlest care on the snake until it was healed and could return to the wild. Just as the man was releasing the serpent back into the grass, the ungrateful snake turned and bit him on the hand.

"What did you do that for?" cried the man, who knew that the bite of this particular snake was usually fatal. "Didn't I take care of you when no one else would?"

The snake shrugged (no small feat for a snake!) and replied to the benevolent--and now doomed-- man, "What did you expect? You knew I was a snake when you picked me up."

David lent money to a co-worker and now can't get his money back. It's a small amount, but you know if you've ever lent money to someone - it's galling that you were nice enough to bail them out and then they keep the money it can really make you feel taken advantage of. But I've pointed out the guy has a reputation and since you already knew that, just chalk it up to lesson learned and move on. That is where the snake comes in - I remember this story every time I'm tempted to restart bad relationships, order from a company I had a bad experience with, any time I know in my gut before I do it, I'm making a mistake.

Hotter Than Hades

Well, it couldn't last. For the past few days we've been having cooler weather - beginning of fall sort of thing which I love. I love the time of year where it's cool enough for a sweater and jeans, the time of year you can comfortably go walking. But today when I got up it was hot already and as I sit here typing out on the deck, the dog is panting up a storm and Vincent is trying to find the cool spot on the cement around the defunct pool. If I was at my house in Lake Ariel where the Freeloaders are currently residing I would have central air. There is no justice and that proves it, don't you think? I have the air on in the bedroom, David leaves tonight to work the shuttle and then is pulling a double so he won't have to work on Friday. We've been depositing all of his paychecks in our second account because since the Renter has become a Freeloader someone has to pay the bills, sigh sigh sigh. I'll be glad when this is all over. Work is getting busier but better, I'm still on orientation but I have a lot to do, after Nancy leaves on Sunday I have to hit the books and do a refresher course on Peds (it's been awhile), I'm starting to review the charts on what patients I'll be picking up - busy but I have to say much better. I was scared to make this move, but every day reinforces that I made the right decision. Speaking of which I did decide to start a sock this morning , it's just easier to to take my little sock bag with it's miniature accessories instead of dragging the Real Bag around with me. I doubt I'll be knitting all that much but I'm sure there will be some down time I'll need it with me. I cannot remember the last time I traveled without a project, it seems like I've either had a crochet hook, knitting needles or an embroidery needle in my hands my entire life, doesn't it? I can never just sit which is OK. I've made so many things and I love to give them away. I'd better get moving - one of the other things I am very much liking about my job is I leave at 8:10 and I leave work at 5 pm - I know that's subject to change in the near future but it just doesn't seem like this office keeps the long hours I've become used to - I can very much get used to that!!

First Day At Work..........

.......went well - a bit overwhelming of course, but aren't all new jobs? There's so much that's different in this job, but I'm glad I have the basics and I'm very glad I have a mentor! This part of Bayada has a mentoring program and if you need anything - for a year - you can call your mentor. I have the week with them and then next week I'm in King of Prussia for more training. David is starting with his other job this weekend, he qualified for the shooting the pistol thing and got all his new stuff so he's ready to roll. I'm knitting of course, I might start a sock to take with me to the training next week - I'm not sure if I want to drag the sweater with me or not. I usually do start a sock as it's very portable. Even when you go for a few days you end up dragging tons of stuff - your laptop, outfits, etc... I'm a pretty good packer but it's the amount of bags. The Namaste bag is great but it's large and will be one more thing I need to haul around with me. So we will see. I'm mulling over what Nancy and I will be doing Saturday, I'm thinking about the historic district of Bethlehem which is supposed to be really nice. I'm also hoping the weather stays cooled off as we all know I cannot afford airconditioning until we resolve the Freeloader Situation. David had them served yesterday - as much as I poke fun I have to say this has not been easy or fun for us. These people have children and they certainly don't deserve these parents. They are not paying the rent simply because they don't want to, not because they can't afford to but it's those children that will suffer. But there's not much we can do - as I've said before my own children are self sufficient so I am not supporting someone elses!

Found It!

Someone sent me that cartoon awhile ago - I thought it was pretty funny. I forgot my camera yesterday which very much peeved me. There are only so many pictures of the yard and surrounding woods I can take as lovely as it is. Yesterday, David and I took off for the Bethlehem area - I had a specific destination in mind. Since we've moved here I've been unable to locate an asian market - no matter where you live, there is always one. And I'm not talking about the Asian Cuisine section in Wegmans - as lovely as that is, it's not what I was looking for. So I scouted the internet and found a promising candidate located not far from mall. My last attempt led me to a run down neighborhood with an abandoned house but anything is worth a try. And there it was - dusty gods in the window, if there wasn't a sign outside you would have no idea what you were looking at. The one in WV was in the back of a building with a grey security door, a tiny sign hung above it. When you went in - it was a huge asian supermarket. This one was no different - I shopped like the nuclear war was coming. They had fresh tofu, red bean dumplings, steamed gluten, boy choy, lotus seed cake - you name it they had it. Fresh fish was piled high, fruits and vegetables galore, even the smell was what I remembered. And it's never very expensive - the nice girl behind the counter told me they go to NYC three or four times a week so if there's every anything special I need I can just let them know. After that we just went all over - I did a lot of browsing, Nancy is coming this weekend and then I'm headed off to King of Prussia so there wasn't much I wanted. We went to the Christmas Tree store as we always do well with household goods. Even the dog toys are discounted. Then back home to hang out. I start my new job today - I'm nervous but very excited. I think this will work better for me and I already know - and like - my coworkers, I can't wait!

Clean Bill Of Health

David has his colonoscopy yesterday, got a clean bill of health and will not have to return for 5 years, much to his relief. This made him feel much better than the person a few beds down being told they had a great big giant colon, in which the health care professional went on and on about it. There are some days it's good to be you. He was given his discharge instructions and told to go straight home from the hospital. He cheerfully informed the nurse he was actually going straight to Friendlys since it was time for breakfast. She pretended she didn't hear him since he was obviously going to be a renegade anyhow and I was a willing accomplice. But in my defense the Friendlys in question is actually right down the road from our house. So David did get his big breakfast, then straight home and slept most of the afternoon. We didn't do too much yesterday, my phone rang a few times, even though my last day was on Friday everyone still seems to think I'm on call - it's a transition thing I suppose. Today we are probably heading out to the Lehigh part of town for a change of pace, the yarn store isn't open but I don't need anymore yarn. I am going to order some stuff knitting related from Amazon, I still have money they will not return so after firing a few emails off to make sure how to order and actually get it, I will be doing that. They are such jerks. I'll keep you posted on whether I actually receive anything or not. And starting tomorrow - I don't have to be to work until 8:30 am - there will be occasional early mornings and late days but for the most part my new boss does not like people staying late - I'm onboard with that! In the next couple of weeks we are busy bees but it's a good busy which after this summer - I can live with that too.