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September 26, 2005
Busy busy..
Guess I left you all hanging on the edges of your seats last week. So what did happened all week long?
*Well.....As Cori pointed out, I had only ditched myself at the Grand Union this time so I had the car hauled off to the Foreign Car Fixit shop. Yeah...some 3 in one gadget that had something to do with my ignition, distributor and wires etc burned out so for a mere $499.22 I got my car back by Wednesday Morning.
*Since I had all the supplies I needed for painting before the car died, I spend most of the week out on the porch painting doors and woodwork ..several coats worth and it looks so much better. I also argued with Leo and his talk radio and we also finally settled on some plans for Phase III of our renovations...the sunroom off the living room. I'm really going to like my gas fireplace and window seats and cubbies. Oh yeah...we have steps off the porch now and I suspect the screens will be in by the time we get home.
*The City Assoessor guy came by last week as well. He wanted to do an inside assessment this time...the collection of vacuum coffee pots distracted him from the changes in the kitchen I think. My impression is he really was looking for new rooms or bathrooms with which to charge us extra tax.
*Friday, Liz and I had going out to breakfast plans after dropping her car off for maintenance...I like getting an early start too but why can't stores oblige? My goodness...we had to resort to Brooks Drug Store to start our entertainment sinc eit was the only place open! Yeah yeah...I needed Shampoo anyway and we got cool Halloween Candy.
*Sunday we drove back down to CT..no incidents to speak off but then again, I nodded off a few times while listening to the audio book. Thank Goodness we solved that problem with my not driving while we listen to audio books. Falling into the middle of the car console hurts though...;-D
*Hmmm....I've heard some talk about a dog named Dixie joining the family..tap tap tap...waiting to hear for sure. We'll need photos of course...
*Well, it did seem as though I was busy last week but maybe not, I'm certainly not too busy this week in Wallingford/New Haven. Guess I'll catch up with friends and some reading.
Have a good week all...
*
Posted by frani at 09:57 AM | Comments (1)
September 22, 2005
Applause......
I continue to be impressed with jetBlue. Kudos to the crew of this flight. I can't imagine watching my own plight being played on on inflight satellite TV though...willies.
Posted by frani at 07:12 AM | Comments (1)
September 21, 2005
This and that....
*My car died yesterday. How can it just do that? One minute it starts and takes me to the hardware store and the next it won't take me home. I was annoyed..more annoyed with myself for not having my cell phone and not wearing appropriate walking shoes AND having only my own car at my disposal for the week. I smelled an electrical burn when I opened the hood...of course I opened the hood...so that didn't bode well for it being something simple! I do know enough to check out crud build up on the battery terminals but I also know observation is key to solving a lot of issues.
*Early birds...the geese are starting to fly south for the winter. A little early I think...especially when they are making all sorts of honking noise at 4:30AM!
*It's best to paint with adequate light so you can actually see the drips before it dries. Oh well, a second coat was in order anyway.
*I realized I only really need to go somewhere when I don't have a car available to me...whew...Thank you Lizzie for the offer of your car today, now I really don't need to go anywhere.
Later..........
*Oh - MY - God! Ya know how sometimes people who have been married a long time tend to blend? Ya well, I was out there painting the door this morning and Leo had some fool Talk Radio on and I was talking back to it...I sounded just like LEO!! ACK!
************Shivers************
*Have a good day all........
Posted by frani at 07:19 AM | Comments (2)
September 20, 2005
Huge Sale..Act now while supplies last!
Well here's an opportunity that doesn't' come along everyday! I could have an elephant, in fact I would take very good care of an elephant. Of course there is that pesky issue of one costing $48,300 and the stipulation of having $243,300 in the bank. Must be one needs to show they can afford to feed the critters for more than a week. Baby elephants are just so cute; I spent more time watching the baby elephant at the National Zoo than I did the Pandas. Speaking of which, I wonder how the new baby Panda is doing..anyone know? Doing well! I just looked it up...how I love Google
Speaking of animals....my brother (Hi Rog)had an occasion to visit the old homestead last weekend as the new owners of our house were having a yard sale. My parent's bought that house in 1940-41 I believe..we were all raised there. The point is with all the renovations over the last 50+ years, the bunny rabbit decals that adorned my bedroom door are still there. They may have bugged me some when I was a teenager but now I'm really pleased to hear they are still there. sigh.......
..and speaking of which..I painted 3 doors yesterday in our on going home improvement series. I wasn't real thrilled with waking up this morning to the den door being wide open though. Since it was still a little on the tacky side last night, I didn't shut it well so the wind blew it open. yes, that is what I'm going to believe, it was the wind. Not burglars, not skunks, not anything else...wind. Of course Knoel took it as an opportunity to slip out into the night and cavort with the bad element. He appears to be okay this morning but he did eat a large breakfast. hrumph.
Have a good day, All.......
Posted by frani at 07:02 AM | Comments (2)
September 16, 2005
Progress....
Not much new on the home front; however on the home back we have some openings for storage doors, shingles and more windows that will have screens. Maybe next week we'll get steps.
Posted by frani at 12:26 PM | Comments (4)
September 10, 2005
Home again...
We drive a lot. The drive home yesterday was pretty uneventful except for the usual left hand lane huggers, but traffic was reasonably moderate. I was beginning to think we could make it all the way home without witnessing some bizarre incident...wrong.
Generally I dislike the drive home. Interstate I-91 to White River Jct VT is just plain boring. I do get a chuckle every time we pass the sign for "Chester Ludlow" though...snort...DIL Lori had said she wanted a monkey and wanted to name it Chester Ludlow. Ok, it's the little things that get me. I-89 isn't all that bad to drive, besides being the last third of the trip, there is this one section I have always liked. It's a very long S curve around Royalton; one with the road woman here likes the feel of the car hugging the road as we cruise along and the scene below is typical New England with trees and the little village with white spired church.
See Google satellite view of Royalton (you will probably need to download Google Earth first but it's a fun application)
So there we were coming around the last part of the S..I will now forever "see" the bicycle flying through the air off the white SUV nearly colliding with the blue SUV and landing on the left side of the interstate. Hmmm...I suspect someone won't be enjoying that bicycle ride through the Green Mountains this weekend. The good news is, no one was hurt.
I think the beginning of Autumn has arrived with it's wild fluctuation of temperatures. Comfy cozy sleeping temperatures with blankets and everything, warm bathrobe and slippers upon waking, slacks and long sleeve shirts and maybe even a sweater to start the day...take off sweater..change shirt to short sleeves...maybe get those shorts back out...rummage through the pile of discarded clothes in the evening for those slacks, shirt and sweater. Repeat the next day.
Have a nice weekend all........
Posted by frani at 07:51 AM | Comments (1)
September 08, 2005
Running amok.........
I've always said that One does, what one does best. Again, I have managed to connect with a "long lost" friend to harass while hanging out in foreign territories. Ok, So CT isn't all that foreign nor exotic, but we've moved to another hotel in another section that needs exploring. So on that note, Leslie and I ran amok yesterday...not too badly, mind you, but enough to ascertain that I have another willing accomplice along my path.
Poor Leslie had to clean yesterday (yeah right, *I* can teach her how to deal with that) BUT she did think she needed a lunch and errand running break. I was all too willing to go along. Five hours later, I was leaving her house and it was just the way she'd left it around noon. How did that happen? Peshaw...it wasn't even all that messed up! So I took her to a few places she'd never been and she took me to a few places I'd yet to discover and I'm slowly learning how to get from one fun place to another around here.
Oh yes, we also had a mission to accomplish, very important. We both have Palm LifeDrives and we both know how to deal with some of it's features but we both have a lot to learn still. I think if we pool our knowledge, we just might be able to pull off using a good 75% of the functionality of the device! Hey, wouldn't that be a neat trick? Of course we'd have to stop talking about other stuff...I even forgot to check if I could even see her home wifi on my Lifedrive when I was there...oh duh..wasn't that one of the things we were going to do?
Sooo many things...so little time...I can't wait to start over today! Have a good one all.
Posted by frani at 08:49 AM | Comments (0)
September 06, 2005
Fool of the Day Report
The Scene: I-91 South between Exits 9 & 8.
Four lanes of traffic, I am in lane 2 ( second from far right )
There are very few cars behind me with a few around me.
Bozo in White SUV speeds up beside me and behind car in front of him in 3rd lane.
Bozo decides the half car length in front of me is preferable to the 1/4 mile behind me so he tries to weazle in there while I am occupying half of the room he needs to safely make the lane switch.
*I* don't think so.
Bozo thinks better of his plan..moves over to lane four, passes several cars moves into lane 3 ( causing brake lights)..then lane 2 ( causing brake lights)and finally into lane 1 and then gets off at Exit 8.
There is still plenty of room behind/around me as I witness all of this while passing exit 8 myself.
I'm so pleased he got there all of 5 seconds sooner than if he had pulled in behind me.
I think I will try to learn to Love the interstates...I will learn to look at them as blog fodder and not the highways and byways frequented by fools and maniacs who have death wishes or look for vehicles with hash marks on their bumpers for every 50+ year old woman in a VT Saab they "get".
Why to I hear the Theme from Rocky everytime I get on the entrance ramp for I-91?
Posted by frani at 08:16 AM | Comments (1)
September 04, 2005
the good , the bad and the smelly....
My friend Irene brought me some maple cotton candy from the fair on Friday. What a friend! ( ahem..it would have cost me $15 just for parking and entry to get my $2.75 bag of cotton candy!)
I've been overwhelmed by the news coming out of New Orleans. I was horrified by the effects of the natural disaster and I'm just plain disgusted by the events of the man made disaster. There is plenty of blame to go around including the media who rarely reported anything positive. ...and I KNOW there has been a lot of positive things going on as well as thousands of people outside New Orleans who's plight is just as bad but maybe not quite as sensational. As usual, reality isn't all that simple, my heart goes out to most of those people, I've opened my wallet and I probably will again a few months from now, and I hope we all learn a few lessons from this disaster. At the very least, I hope other cities with citzens of limited resources recognize what it would take to help themselves under similar circumstances.
..to add insult to injury, Chief Justice Rehnquist died. It's just not going to be pretty out there in months to come.
I checked several of our local gas stations yesterday while I was out and about, a 3 clump and a 2 clump along the mile stretch of road. The big brands, Mobil, Texaco, Exxon ranged in the $3.27to 3.37 for regular to $3.49 to $3.57 for Premium. However, our no name brand (Maverick) had interesting prices. cheap gas was "average" at $3.29, the premium was the highest at $3.59 but their medium grade was the least expensive of all at $3.39; the others ranged from $3.41 to $3.47. Of course that was yesterday..who knows what today will bring. All I know is we will be paying big bucks to drive to CT on Monday.
Jasmine, the big old lovable doggie next door, has defended us all yet again from the evil invasion of skunks. This time she killed and mauled a very large skunk, but not before the skunk had an opportunity to unload it's wrath on the neighborhood as well as Jasmine. The stench the other night was so bad it woke me up, I was coughing and gagging, trying to breathe with the sheet over my nose and I got heartburn. I did some heavy duty sauteeing of garlic, tomato, onion, peppers thursday morning just to finish getting the residual skunk smell out of the house. It didn't taste bad either! Jasmine has been receiving daily baths but she still stinks and I really really don't like those north easterly breezes. PPPPPPPP-UUUUUU!
Our old tenant Aaron is all moved in and set up a direct deposit of his rent check. heheheh I like that in a tenant.
Leo is making progress on the porch and even cleaned out under it for me...I like that too. He's still a character though ... our styles mesh very well.
Enjoy your Labor Day weekend, I can hardly wait to join the hoards of people traveling south tomorrow...eeewww, willies.
Posted by frani at 07:55 AM | Comments (1)