It's been a busy summer week here. Hot and humid in OK. M and I flew the plane home last night and it was so hot. I was a sweat ball by the time we got the plane put up and got back in the a/c. I could have let M fly and gone myself to pick him up at the hangar, but I wanted to fly so we had to ask M's brother and his wife to pick us up. They were glad to and we went out to eat at Texas Roadhouse afterward.
Tonight I am trying to get laundry and weekend chores done so we can go to the lake for the weekend. Laundry is very irritating. It never ends. Just when you think you have it caught up, there it is again.
I got our hotel reservations made today for Appleton, WI for last week of July. We go up there for a week-long gigantic airshow in Oshkosh by the EAA. (www.eaa.org) It is great fun but the hotels book up quickly. This Comfort Inn we like to stay in in Appleton is $170 night during the show and has a 5 night minimum. We are supposed to book our rooms the year before when are there for the next year but we forgot or lazily postponed it and then panicked because we didn't have any reservations. We were looking at having to go into Green Bay to get rooms. Some friends of ours go every year for the whole week and they stay at this same hotel and we usually share a rental car, etc. I called the hotel manager today and since we had rooms last night, he managed to find us something. I was very happy. It was even a non-smoking King bed room. Very nice. I am happy again.
Last night when we came home from airport and dinner, we saw a raccoon in the yard. I laughed at him scurrying around and didn't think much of it. This morning M was soooo mad. That sorry ol' raccoon ate all the peaches off the peach tree in the side yard. They were getting pretty big too. Tree is still pretty little and not very nice shaped and now it is in a strange location thanks to the add-on part of the house. M said if we can't get fruit off it, he is going to pull it up. We have lost peaches the last three years.
Today is M's nephew's birthday. He is 19, the youngest "kid" we got left. We are going to have his birthday party at the lake this weekend since we will all be there. He is a good kid. We really like him. He is just about the only person who I can remember when they were born that is related to me. I have two cousins younger than me but I really don't see them much. I can remember them as babies though. R though is the only one I really watched grow up. He means a lot to me.
Thursday, June 26, 2008
Korea
Just got off the phone with D. M is talking to him now. He has a wonderful yahoo phone thing that lets him call all over for free through his computer. It shows up on caller ID as a stateside phone number. I don't try to understand it. I just enjoy it.
It is Thursday 8:00 pm here and Friday 10:00 am there. He just got off work from the night shift and was going to do some shopping then go to bed. It's hard to believe he is going to be 27 this year. I still find it hard to believe. He mentioned he was going shopping for some groceries and toilet paper and I caught myself thinking "since when do you think about necessities" but good grief, he's been in the Air Force for four years now. Hard to believe.
He likes it very well. He is a little bored right with the job they have him doing. He will be back in his field in November. He took the test for Staff Sergeant in May. He will get the results this summer sometime.
He acts like he is going to come home for L's wedding. (The wedding is an entire blog of its own that I am not ready to write). D says the wedding is in March. We didn't even realize that she had set a specific date. I do not think he will really make it home for it. The flight over here is over $1500.
It is good to hear from D. He doesn't have much news to tell us and we never have much new to tell him, but we still catch up on the little things.
It is Thursday 8:00 pm here and Friday 10:00 am there. He just got off work from the night shift and was going to do some shopping then go to bed. It's hard to believe he is going to be 27 this year. I still find it hard to believe. He mentioned he was going shopping for some groceries and toilet paper and I caught myself thinking "since when do you think about necessities" but good grief, he's been in the Air Force for four years now. Hard to believe.
He likes it very well. He is a little bored right with the job they have him doing. He will be back in his field in November. He took the test for Staff Sergeant in May. He will get the results this summer sometime.
He acts like he is going to come home for L's wedding. (The wedding is an entire blog of its own that I am not ready to write). D says the wedding is in March. We didn't even realize that she had set a specific date. I do not think he will really make it home for it. The flight over here is over $1500.
It is good to hear from D. He doesn't have much news to tell us and we never have much new to tell him, but we still catch up on the little things.
Sunday, June 22, 2008
Unsub
It has happened again. I can't even remember how many times I have learned a new word and then I hear it all the time.
This time it was Unsub. I was reading a Tess Garritson book today and she used unsub a lot. I was half way through the book before I realized it was short for unknown subject. I read mysteries all the time and I never heard this before.
I finished the book about 8:45 and at 9:00 turned on Criminal Minds and they used unsub!! I have watched this show before and don't remember hearing it.
As I said before this happens to me all the time. I always wonder if I really never heard/saw the word before or did I just ignore it because I wasn't familiar with it. I am sure I never read unsub before but surely I had heard it on TV.
I wish I could remember other words this has happened with. Curmudgeon is one of them, but there have been lots of others. Not just words I didn't know but places or history events that I learn about and then suddenly I see them referenced other places.
I just can't help but wonder how much we miss because it falls outside our sphere of knowledge.
This time it was Unsub. I was reading a Tess Garritson book today and she used unsub a lot. I was half way through the book before I realized it was short for unknown subject. I read mysteries all the time and I never heard this before.
I finished the book about 8:45 and at 9:00 turned on Criminal Minds and they used unsub!! I have watched this show before and don't remember hearing it.
As I said before this happens to me all the time. I always wonder if I really never heard/saw the word before or did I just ignore it because I wasn't familiar with it. I am sure I never read unsub before but surely I had heard it on TV.
I wish I could remember other words this has happened with. Curmudgeon is one of them, but there have been lots of others. Not just words I didn't know but places or history events that I learn about and then suddenly I see them referenced other places.
I just can't help but wonder how much we miss because it falls outside our sphere of knowledge.
Weekend
The weekend is almost over and we actually got most of what we had planned accomplished. We have emptied out the study. All that is left is the old computer and desk that L is taking. Our stuff is all upstairs and I have to say it is a mess. I have a big stack of books from the shelves I emptied and then the boxes from the desk I emptied. Computer and wireless network is all set up. I am downloading printer software now and it should be working soon.
I also finished all of the laundry completely. That hasn't happened since lake season started. I have been doing a load here and there, here and there, when I really would rather get it all done at once. (Don't think I get to escape laundry completely at the lake. We have to do constant washing to keep up with all the towels, sheets, bathing suits, and clothes.) We also took our two old old computers to Staples for recycling. We are donating the monitors to a local charity. They weren't open today so I will have to make another trip through town this week.
Feels strange to have the computer upstairs but I love having the living room and dining room back to normal. The clutter was getting to me. We did a sample space on the study wall of a paint color and we really like it. I think it will work.
I've got a few things left to do to get ready for the work week to start again. Weekends never seem to last long enough.
I also finished all of the laundry completely. That hasn't happened since lake season started. I have been doing a load here and there, here and there, when I really would rather get it all done at once. (Don't think I get to escape laundry completely at the lake. We have to do constant washing to keep up with all the towels, sheets, bathing suits, and clothes.) We also took our two old old computers to Staples for recycling. We are donating the monitors to a local charity. They weren't open today so I will have to make another trip through town this week.
Feels strange to have the computer upstairs but I love having the living room and dining room back to normal. The clutter was getting to me. We did a sample space on the study wall of a paint color and we really like it. I think it will work.
I've got a few things left to do to get ready for the work week to start again. Weekends never seem to last long enough.
June
I am not sure where June has gone. It has been fast. We have spent three weekends at the lake which takes up all my free time because I lose the whole weekend plus I spend the four weeknights trying to get ready to go back out of town and doing all the household chores. It is exhausting. We stayed home from the lake this weekend to possible attend a wedding for a co-worker. We ended up not going. I know that sounds terrible, but I just couldn't get ant enthusiasm up for it. It was at 2:00 Saturday which messes up the whole day, I am not very close to the person, M wanted to go flying and it would have been hard to make it back in time, etc., etc. I know it sounds awful but there was a whole bru-ha-ha over it too at work. The bride's actual co-workers did not receive invitations even though some had been invited to not one but two showers for her. This seemed very wrong to me. You should not be invited to gift someone once or twice and then not get invited to the wedding. I am not even in her department and got an invitation, her boss got an invitation, her boss's boss got an invitation, and so on up the chain. Her co-workers felt like it was a showing off, trying to impress thing for people higher than her. She doesn't really answer to me but a possible re-organization could put her in my department, so I guess that is why I was included. Needless to say, office politics makes me sick and I decided all things considered that I would not go. Her boss said she was expecting 150 people and he was the only one I would know so I don't feel too bad about it.
Saturday morning we flew up to Grand Lake to meet a friend of M's who just bought a new place up there. He took us around showing us Monkey Island and the old Shangri-La area. We ate lunch at a little marina cafe and flew home that afternoon. M changed the oil in the plane then came home and did yardwork. I got a lot of the downstairs housework done. Housework really takes a hit with us going to the lake every weekend. We aren't here to notice how dusty stuff is getting and we aren't here to clean it so it gets pretty bad.
My arms and chest are still bothering me a lot so M is still having to haul the laundry baskets up and down the stairs for me. I appreciate his help, but I really notice how often I would get a load started before he got home or while he was out running errands. Now I have to pre-plan the laundry times.
We had big plans to get a lot done around the house this weekend but it just doesn't seem to be happening. M went with a friend to get his truck from the airport. We moved plane to friend's hangar yesterday for oil change and now we are waiting on a new stall horn alarm to be ordered so M's truck was still out at our airport. We are wanting to move the rest of the study/computer stuff upstairs. New computer is still on dining room table which we hate, but I refuse to move it twice so I don't want to set it up in the study just to move it upstairs when he is finally ready to. L moved most of the study stuff upstairs already but there are a few boxes left I have been working out of plus the old computer it still set up in there connected to the printer. One of the painters at his Seminole job gave him a sample of red paint we are going to try in the study to see if it is what we are wanting. We plan to paint the walls in there a deep red with a brown or black stain on it. We are also taking out the carpet and putting in a distressed wood floor.
All of the remodel work has stalled with our trips to the lake. The outside is almost completely done except we are still waiting for the wrought iron gate. M went by and told them what color we wanted it so hopefully it will be done soon. Inside work hasn't progressed at all except M did a major clean up in there plus finished the electrical work.
A few weeks ago we went to furniture store and bought a new bedroom set for the lake. It looks great and there were lots of kids down that weekend to help carry it all upstairs. I am not a shopper anyway but furniture stores are terrible. I hate being stalked. I know they are trying to make a living but it is nauseating to have them wait for you at the front door and lurk around stalking you through the store. Creepy.
Work has been going great. I passed a few extremely time-consuming tasks on to my secretary and clerk. The first few weeks I was helping them more often than not but they are really getting the hang of it now. It is going well and I have been able to get several very old project type things done. This week was rough in a different way. We let four salaried people go for different reasons. Stupid reasons. Makes me so mad when people do wrong and jeopardize their jobs and their families' livelihoods. I can't go into details about the reasons but three of them just made dumb choices, made not just once but many times, repeatedly. The fourth fell asleep and turned a truck over. Luckily, he was not injured and no one else was involved in the accident.
I have been lazing around since M left, drinking coffee, straightening the kitchen, browsing the web, reading a Guidepost, it is time for me to jump in the shower and get the day going.
Saturday morning we flew up to Grand Lake to meet a friend of M's who just bought a new place up there. He took us around showing us Monkey Island and the old Shangri-La area. We ate lunch at a little marina cafe and flew home that afternoon. M changed the oil in the plane then came home and did yardwork. I got a lot of the downstairs housework done. Housework really takes a hit with us going to the lake every weekend. We aren't here to notice how dusty stuff is getting and we aren't here to clean it so it gets pretty bad.
My arms and chest are still bothering me a lot so M is still having to haul the laundry baskets up and down the stairs for me. I appreciate his help, but I really notice how often I would get a load started before he got home or while he was out running errands. Now I have to pre-plan the laundry times.
We had big plans to get a lot done around the house this weekend but it just doesn't seem to be happening. M went with a friend to get his truck from the airport. We moved plane to friend's hangar yesterday for oil change and now we are waiting on a new stall horn alarm to be ordered so M's truck was still out at our airport. We are wanting to move the rest of the study/computer stuff upstairs. New computer is still on dining room table which we hate, but I refuse to move it twice so I don't want to set it up in the study just to move it upstairs when he is finally ready to. L moved most of the study stuff upstairs already but there are a few boxes left I have been working out of plus the old computer it still set up in there connected to the printer. One of the painters at his Seminole job gave him a sample of red paint we are going to try in the study to see if it is what we are wanting. We plan to paint the walls in there a deep red with a brown or black stain on it. We are also taking out the carpet and putting in a distressed wood floor.
All of the remodel work has stalled with our trips to the lake. The outside is almost completely done except we are still waiting for the wrought iron gate. M went by and told them what color we wanted it so hopefully it will be done soon. Inside work hasn't progressed at all except M did a major clean up in there plus finished the electrical work.
A few weeks ago we went to furniture store and bought a new bedroom set for the lake. It looks great and there were lots of kids down that weekend to help carry it all upstairs. I am not a shopper anyway but furniture stores are terrible. I hate being stalked. I know they are trying to make a living but it is nauseating to have them wait for you at the front door and lurk around stalking you through the store. Creepy.
Work has been going great. I passed a few extremely time-consuming tasks on to my secretary and clerk. The first few weeks I was helping them more often than not but they are really getting the hang of it now. It is going well and I have been able to get several very old project type things done. This week was rough in a different way. We let four salaried people go for different reasons. Stupid reasons. Makes me so mad when people do wrong and jeopardize their jobs and their families' livelihoods. I can't go into details about the reasons but three of them just made dumb choices, made not just once but many times, repeatedly. The fourth fell asleep and turned a truck over. Luckily, he was not injured and no one else was involved in the accident.
I have been lazing around since M left, drinking coffee, straightening the kitchen, browsing the web, reading a Guidepost, it is time for me to jump in the shower and get the day going.
Wednesday, June 4, 2008
Jeff-fuh-fuh
Saturday night a group of us had tickets to see Jeff Dunham at one of the casinos about 40 miles away. If you have never seen Jeff Dunham, check him out on youtube, he is hysterical. The shows and concerts at the casinos usually sell out very quickly to locals and gold club gamblers. M has been driving past this casino on his way to work lately and saw the advertisement on the marquis months ago or we would never have been able to get tickets.
The show was at 5:00 but they told us to arrive by 3:00 to get a line pass that would decide when we got to get into the room to get the best seats since it was general admission. We arrived at 2:40 and got line pass C. They were almost to D. I guess they started passing them out early. Some of our party got there right at 3:00 and the line passes were already gone. They were told they just had to wait for everyone else to be seated then they could go in and find a seat.
We gambled for awhile and they called line pass C about 4:10. We were able to save seats for the rest of our party by pretending they were in the bathroom or away getting beer, etc. The show was two hours and it was great. He was funny, his opening act "Guitar Guy" was funny, the puppets were funny. All and all a good time.
Some of us had made reservations for a nice steakhouse in the casino for after the show. It ended up just being us adults. The "kids" decided they couldn't afford it. Part of me wanted to just pay for them but I didn't. It is part of growing up. They are learning that they can't do everything all the time. They pick and choose and have fun anyway. Two of them are expecting a baby so they definitely need to learn about budgeting and picking their splurges.
Our daughter was with M when he saw the advertisement and called me to get tickets. She said she didn't want a ticket but got one for her boyfriend. She was too worried about money. Just like I knew would happen, once she found out how many people were going, she wished that she had a ticket too. Since it was open seating, she could have just called and ordered a ticket for herself but she didn't. Two times she asked her dad if he thought I would call and get her a ticket. He told her she could ask me, but she could also just call and order her own with her debit card. She never asked but I was not going to do it. There is nothing wrong with her ability to call and order the ticket. I did get her boyfriend's and three other family memebers' tickets when I called to get M's and mine and she could have been included in that. It felt a little petty of me but there are just times where they have to deal with the problems they create on their own. They of course didn't have the money to pay me back for the ticket until the last minute and I think if I hadn't asked, they never would have offered. I like to help them financially with things sometimes but because I want to not because I am expected to.
It has been hard for all the "kids" when it comes to entertainment activities because they think that they should get to do all the things we do. They don't remember that we worked hard to get where we are and they are going to have to do the same thing. This gets into entitlement issues of the younger generation that is a whole blog of its own.
The show was at 5:00 but they told us to arrive by 3:00 to get a line pass that would decide when we got to get into the room to get the best seats since it was general admission. We arrived at 2:40 and got line pass C. They were almost to D. I guess they started passing them out early. Some of our party got there right at 3:00 and the line passes were already gone. They were told they just had to wait for everyone else to be seated then they could go in and find a seat.
We gambled for awhile and they called line pass C about 4:10. We were able to save seats for the rest of our party by pretending they were in the bathroom or away getting beer, etc. The show was two hours and it was great. He was funny, his opening act "Guitar Guy" was funny, the puppets were funny. All and all a good time.
Some of us had made reservations for a nice steakhouse in the casino for after the show. It ended up just being us adults. The "kids" decided they couldn't afford it. Part of me wanted to just pay for them but I didn't. It is part of growing up. They are learning that they can't do everything all the time. They pick and choose and have fun anyway. Two of them are expecting a baby so they definitely need to learn about budgeting and picking their splurges.
Our daughter was with M when he saw the advertisement and called me to get tickets. She said she didn't want a ticket but got one for her boyfriend. She was too worried about money. Just like I knew would happen, once she found out how many people were going, she wished that she had a ticket too. Since it was open seating, she could have just called and ordered a ticket for herself but she didn't. Two times she asked her dad if he thought I would call and get her a ticket. He told her she could ask me, but she could also just call and order her own with her debit card. She never asked but I was not going to do it. There is nothing wrong with her ability to call and order the ticket. I did get her boyfriend's and three other family memebers' tickets when I called to get M's and mine and she could have been included in that. It felt a little petty of me but there are just times where they have to deal with the problems they create on their own. They of course didn't have the money to pay me back for the ticket until the last minute and I think if I hadn't asked, they never would have offered. I like to help them financially with things sometimes but because I want to not because I am expected to.
It has been hard for all the "kids" when it comes to entertainment activities because they think that they should get to do all the things we do. They don't remember that we worked hard to get where we are and they are going to have to do the same thing. This gets into entitlement issues of the younger generation that is a whole blog of its own.
Fuel, Cont'd
Last Friday, the day after my whining about fuel prices blog, M came home wanting to go flying. We did. He has been working out of town and met someone who wanted to fly so we flew to Seminole to get them, flew them around a bit, then flew back home. It was fun. Good night for it. Weather was nice.
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