September 20, 2010

Ahhh, breakfast at work.  This time the birthday breakfast was a little different.  Two people brought in waffle makers so we had fresh waffles.  In addition to that there was a cheesy potato casserole, an egg casserole, fresh fruit, cupcakes, milk and cereal (cheerios), bacon and sausage.  Quite yummy all the way around.

I also bought a new coffee mug when I got back.  Couldn't resist it.

September 19, 2010

Family reunion day.  It is also the first day back for me to see mom.  I didn't see mom at breakfast since I had to run to Walmart to get the chicken for the reunion as well as macaroni salad.  That took care of what mom and I would bring.  I ran into Tony there picking up his stuff.  He always gets a sandwich tray and brings the soda and ice.  So I told him I'd meet him at mom's but I wasn't going to wait for him.  I had to give mom a couple of presents that I brought back for her.

I made it to the nursing home in good time and went into mom's room.  I figured I had a couple of minutes before going back to the car and getting the food out.  She was laying down and told me she was being punished.  Being over 90 and being punished was interesting so I asked her why.  She couldn't remember.  I asked a nurses aide who was coming into her room and it appeared that mom had tried to get in and out of her wheel chair by herself again.  That is when she is most vulnerable to falling so they don't want her to do it by herself.  Mom appeared to like the stuffed Northern Cardinal that I brought back for her from the Bird Refuge in Utah.  If you press it's stomach and back it will chirp.  I don't think she has enough strength to make it chirp but she also can't hear it chirp so that is a minor point.  I'm not sure if her hearing aids need new batteries or what.  She doesn't like anybody else to touch them besides Kerm and Kerm won't be seeing her for a bit.

I rolled mom down to the room which was reserved for us.  She couldn't remember being there before even though it was the same room as last year.  Her memory is fading fast and she does not have much interest in things lately.  Tony arrived shortly after that so there was somebody else to talk to.  MaryAnn, Ken and Betty Lou arrived about 10 minutes later.  It was a nice surprise to see Ken.  He doesn't come to our gatherings very often so that was a special treat.  No sooner had everybody said Hi to mom, then Matthew, Julie, and Gwen.

Notice that mom is actually smiling in that picture.  I also took a picture of Ken.  He was watching a slideshow of my pictures from Utah.  I had a nice conversation with him about Utah.  He had been to Salt Lake City and the Salt Lake.  A place one does not want to roll down the windows at.  :)

I think that everybody had a good time.  Mom got tired and didn't want to eat anything so I took her back to her room around 1:30.  She also had some of the food on a plate for when she wanted it later.  Just some cheese and fruit but it will be good.  I went back to the others after making sure she got to lay down.  I will see her on Wednesday again and back to the normal schedule.

I had plenty of left overs.  Chicken strips and fruit mostly.  We split up the food so everybody took some stuff home.  That means I won't have to cook for the next day or two.  Tomorrow is the September breakfast gathering at work so I don't need to eat breakfast before work.  I already have my contribution at work so I don't have to worry about it.  I am furnishing diet syrup for the waffles that might be made.  Normally I bring more but after the vacation it is all that I have.

It's time to stop writing and get to bed.  Until next time....

September 18, 2010

Saturday!  It's here!  No work, no worries about work.  That is the theme for the day.

I have my food ordered for tomorrow's family reunion so no worries on that.  I am getting the oil changed on my vehicle today.  I have a $10 off coupon for Bockman's so that will help. It came to a total close to $27 after they applied the $10 off.  I remember that I had walmart change the oil one time and it too was around $30 so I guess it is a toss up of which does it.  They also filled up the rest of the fluids as well as made sure I had the proper amount of air in the tires.  I know that the tires needed air and this way I didn't have to do anything.

While I was waiting for the oil to be changed, I worked a little bit on what I would be doing in the Traveller game at Mike's tonight.  It was good to have something to do since I'm not used to waiting.  I managed to map out what we had covered up to that point and where I wanted them to be by the end of the evening.  Didn't get that far since everybody was really tired and we spent a lot of time talking about my trip.  Still had a good time.  They finally made it to the Dog's Paw.  That was a bar run by a Vargr.  The PCs, or travellers as Mongoose Traveller and Richard like to call them, heard that somebody else was also looking for the same person they were.  It was proposed that they share information in order to find the woman.  They suspected that something was up since they are smart.  They got the Vargr owner, named Ralph (he never gave his last name or proper Vargr name), to admit that he too did not have intentions on hurting the woman.  He readily agreed since that was true.  HE didn't have any intention of hurting the woman.  His client, on the other hand, might be a different manner.   Ralph is neutral.  It shall be interesting to see where they go now with this information.  They called it an early night from gaming.  I think they wanted time to think about it.

That's about it.  Got back home and caught up on facebook as well as had a nice chat with Sally on IM.

Tomorrow is the reunion and I must get to bed.

September 17, 2010

Kerm's birthday today.  HAPPY BIRTHDAY Bro.

I managed to call him to find out how he is doing.  He will be coming back home on Monday for a trial run with his therapists so they can see how he fares.  If everything goes right, he should be coming home on Wednesday.

Lyndon is out of the office today so that will give me time to catch up on some of the stuff like Tuition Waivers.  It appears that most of my phone calls today was either about Fellowship stipend checks or tuition waivers.  Stipend checks will be issued but we have to wait for Financial Aide to enter them into the system so they can be cut.  The tuition waivers will be taken care of but everybody assumes they submitted the forms correctly and, of course, that isn't always true.  I will get caught up.  Just need a couple more days.

Tonight is my off night for gaming which is good since George's server is down.  If it isn't up by this coming Friday, I might be gaming via IM.  Have done it before but it's not always the best way.  The next time we play Salvage, it should be the inspection of the ship.  They will probably also have to carry on the mission in a different ship.  We'll see.

Also need to catch up on posting in the PBeMs.  Not sure if I'll get to that this weekend or not with everything else on my plate.

September 16, 2010

Today is the first day back at work.  Wow, time went quickly and now I get to face the consequences.  Two weeks of mail and phone messages.

Lyndon was also in the office today so that meant I didn't get much done.  I was constantly being interrupted with people asking me how my vacation was.  I didn't mind that though since I loved to talk about it.  :) 

I was more than ready to close the office doors and turn off the computer and get back home.  That was about it today....surviving the first day back from vacation.

September 15, 2010

Pay bills, do laundry, check mail, get groceries....Yep, vacation is over.

Today was weird.  Getting used to Illinois again and having meals with friends.  Going to Bobbie's place to check up on my brother Kerm's progress....he's still recovering but managed to walk up 4 stairs.  I know he is in a lot of pain but it does show progress.  I did chuckle when Bobbie said that he needed a hair cut because he was starting to look a little shaggy.

I am spending the night catching up on the blog as well as watching TV.  There is a new Jimmy Smits show so I will watch that.  I won't write about America's Got Talent in case Shelley hasn't seen the finale yet.  :)

Today I bought a five cup coffee maker, a small (big enough for a sandwich) electric skillet and a new iron.  They all came in the same box and Walmart had them for $10.  I can always use another iron and the coffeemaker although I'm not sure on the mini skillet yet.  I'll see what I can use it for.

Oh...surprise surprise.  When I got up this morning I weighed myself and I had LOST weight while on vacation.  Totally shocking but I'll take it.  To celebrate I went to Great Clips and had them shampoo and trim my hair.  It somehow seemed like a good way to end the vacation.

Tomorrow is the first day back to work so I will be up to my eyeballs in emails and phone messages probably asking about tuition waivers.  That is usually what happens at this time of year. 

Until next time.....

September 14, 2010

Shel took me to the airport early.  I like the SLC airport.  it's small enough to find things easily.  I was glad that I arrived early.  I walked up to the check in counter and asked for help.  I've found it to be the easier way to get checked in.  The lady was very nice and accommodating but her supervisor stepped up afterward.  The look on her face said that she wondered why but he soon explained.  He had seen my NIU t-shirt and had gone to NIU for two years on a sport scholarship. They had discontinued that scholarship though so he had to finish at DePaul.  We had a nice chat about DeKalb and Sycamore.  He even said that he still comes out for a game each year. 

After that I went through security and had the person ahead of me AND behind me pulled over.  When they left the line, they also took my tray so I had to go and claim it.  They wanted to make sure that the tray was mine which was actually easy to do.  Not sure which convinced them more, the fact that I was wearing a NIU t-shirt and I had all my ID's , including my NIU ID, in there or the fact that I fit into the shoes whereas the two senior ladies didn't.  Either way it didn't take long and finally I was settled in the gate area.  At least I didn't have to move to different gates this time.  I was also happy to have my HP Mini charged up.  There wasn't an available outlet to plug it in.  While I waited, I did manage to check emails and text messages.  It took up my time nicely and soon I was boarding the plane.

There was some confusion on which seat to sit in since the plane was United Express and not as wide across as the regular ones.  That translates as some people had seats "f" and there wasn't any "f".  Eventually everybody found a seat.  Then, before taxiing it was noticed that we had empty seats towards the front of the plane so the flight attendant was asking eople if they would move forward more.  I was in 8D so I didn't move.  The person next to me stayed also and I had a nice chat with her.  She was flying out to PA but she had a couple of hours layover in Chicago.  The people in the seat behind me carried on a conversation about where the women was travelling to.  She was on her way back to Ireland and the man was asking questions about her visit.  Evidentally she had visited Yellowstone and his daughter lived in that area.  He jokingly said he should have asked her if she had Guiness in her carry on and her reply was "No Guiness, just whiskey".  :)

If I had to write down everything that I enjoyed while on vacation, I'd simply say.....EVERYTHING.  I really enjoyed listening to all the Gardner's play their musical instruments and see the girls artwork as well as watching them do their creative assignments from school.  I thoroughly enjoyed chatting with Shel when she was quilting and her sewing section gave me a few ideas of how to change mine.  I enjoyed meeting Joe and also seeing Stephen's new iPAD.  I truly felt welcome and like part of the family which made it kind of sad to have to say good bye.  Of course this does not mean that we cannot keep in touch.  There is IM, Facebook and email and letters. Shel has a couple of projects she is doing which I am looking forward to seeing the end results. It was also fun to watch John GM a Traveller game in person.  It was totally cool to meet so many of my internet gaming and sewing friends, namely George, Michele and Sadee.

soo, as I write out this rough draft on the plane home (I'll type it up once I'm home), I come away from one of the best vacations I've ever had.  Thank you all who helped make it so...whether or not you contributed funds for the trip, contributed to the transportation, or approved me taking off of work. 

Now it is time to think about next years vacation.  I know it is a full year away but when you live paycheck to paycheck you have to think well in advance.  I've been to CA and met a gaming friend there and his wonderful family.  Now I've met my gaming friends in Utah.  That still leaves the Dakota's or Southern route in the US to visit.  I doubt I'd do two weeks but perhaps one might be doable.

Monday, September 13, 2010

Today is the last day of vacation.  It has been a wonderful experience meeting friends, being lazy, and looking at beautiful scenery.  Of course I also was treated to music throughout the vacation.  If it wasn't the girls playing one of the many instruments that they are learning, it was John playing the hammered dulcimer.  LOVE the sound of that! 

Then there was the food.  Oh yeah - the food.  Shel is a good cook and between her and John grilling out, I over ate.  For those of you who know me--that is not new.  What is new is that I have only had soda three times in this two week period.  Just don't count how much coffee I have had.  I actually have been drinking mostly water.  It will be interesting to see how much water I drink once I'm back home. 

Sunday September 12, 2010

Before I talk about my Sunday, I want to mention Redmond Salt that Shel picked up for me.  According to a google search/website for them (this came from:  http://www.thenaturalstore.com/products/prod.asp?pid=262203&catid=167963&trx=PLST-0-SEARCH&trxp1=167963&trxp2=262203&trxp3=1&trxp4=0&btrx=BUY-PLST-0-SEARCH&aid=338565&aparam=redmond_salt&scinit1=redmond_salt)

Millions of years ago, the salt in this pouch was part of a pristine sea...Long before the earth knew pollutants of any kind, a huge, ancient sea covered what is now North America.  Pure, natural salt was the main ingredient of this sea, and over millions of years, the water in the sea evaporated, leaving the salt in undisturbed deposits.  At some point during the earth's Jurassic era, a range of volcanoes erupted around the ancient sea bed, sealing salt with layers of thick volcanic ash, protecting these precious deposits against the pollution that man would eventually introduce into the environment.  Near the small town of Redmond, in south central Utah, we carefully extract this salt from the deep within the earth, and bring it to you in its pure, natural state-without additives, chemicals, or heat processing of any kind.  This is RealSalt® full of flavor and natural goodness - the way salt was meant to be savored!
The difference in Salt-
Did you know there is a vast difference in the quality and content of table salts on the market today?  Unlike most table salts, RealSalt is not bleached, kiln dried, heated, or altered with chemicals or pollutants.  RealSalt also has a full complement of beneficial trace minerals.  RealSalt comes to you in its natural form, with nothing added.  The result is a delicate "sweet salt" flavor that you may not have experienced before.
Sodium Chloride  98.32%
Calcium  .40%
Potassium  .12%
Sulphur  .11%
Magnesium  .10%
Iron  .06%
Phosphorus  .05%
Iodine  .002%
Manganese  .0015%
Copper  .001%
Zinc  .0006%
RealSalt also contains numerous other trace minerals in minute quantities

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N ow on to my Sunday.  It is in italics because I am too tired to figure out how to get rid of them.  I might be able to fix this before most of you read it.  My Sunday started with allergies.  I woke up but it was almost as if I hadn't.  I had my allergy pills with me so I took some immediately but, of course, they can make me sleepy.


Meepers woke up before me so it was only us for about an hour when Em woke up around 9 a.m.  Meepers also was nice enough to make me scrambled eggs with turkey cubes in it.  I cut up some tomatoes to add to it and it was pretty good. 

I had "How to Train Your Dragon" on my mini so after breakfast we watched it.  Then, as a thank you for giving her a copy, Em drew me a picture from it.

Eventually everybody woke up but it appeared that we all were sleepy and suffering today.  John and Joe, who had stayed over since they gamed so late, were the last to wake up.  Food today was left overs and that was very nice so nobody had to work hard for it.


Today then was a stay at home, take naps, and eat leftover day.  Pretty good way to spend the day if you ask me.

Saturday, September 11, 2010

Today was a busy day.  We went to the Farmer's Market which was very nice.  Their Farmer's Market is a combination of market and craft fair.  Since it was 9-11, they also had a remembrance ceremony and the Ogden Symphony was playing.  We went to that because Meepers violin teacher is in it.  It seems that they are trying to get the Symphony started up but when they couldn't get the proper funding, they just decided to do it on their own.  Hopefully by playing here it will bring awareness to their efforts and goal.

They also have painted horses on every street similar to the idea of NIU's huskie dogs.

 They also had nice picnic tables in the park area there.

 Saturday was a busy day since after we got home and had lunch, we called George and Michele over.  Since they were coming over as well as Shel giving Sadee a ride home from work, it was decided to have their Traveller game on Saturday if everybody could make it.  A quick call to Joe and taking Sadee home to pick up her character sheet sealed the deal.

Before the game though, Em had to work on her video for a class project.  She filmed various actions and then would put them in reverse.  She filmed writing with crayons on the wall and being caught by mom, her sister rolling on the bean bag, rolling marbles, and a couple of other things.  It's not done yet but it looks pretty good so far.

They tried to have a fire affect but it didn't work out right but it was fun watching John and Em trying to get it to turn out.

Don't worry.  Em didn't actually play with or light the matches.

It was fun to hear George (standing) and John ltalking about John's computer.

Then they started to work on it and Meepers took a break with helping Em film to check out what they were doing.

Gaming was fun and I played a brief but memorable spot appearance.  John had Honest Al being a person who the group was negotiating with for selling things they had salvaged from a downed Solomani ship.  When they returned with their haul, they had called Honest Al, if that really was his name, who was very tired and grumpy from being woken up in the middle of the night.  He yelled to his wife, Ethel, "Put a pot of coffee on Ethel" (or words to similar effect) when he heard what they wanted to sell him.  Before anybody could say anything, I piped up with "Get it yourself, I'm in bed."  Everybody burst out laughing at the voice I had used and it took them a bit to get back in game.  John said I "derailed his game" for a little bit but the worst part was that he couldn't give me any experience points for it since I was not "officially" in his game. Jo, who plays the most aggressive and 'blow them up' kind of doctor I have ever seen, as well as Stephen who plays one of the children of the Captain (Shel) was able to test out Battledress which they found when they looted...excuse me...salvaged some things off the ship.  There were huge dire wolves, over 10 feet long, that loved to attack things out in the open and it proved to be a good test for the battle dress.  Firing weapons on it didn't do satisfactory (ie, quick enough) damage but they found out that they could punch the wolves and flatten them out in a hurry.  The closest thing that I can relate to it goes back to the RPG called Rifts and SDC damage vs. MDC damage.  It was a fun night though and I think everybody had fun.

September 10, 2010

Cancelled my mIRC gaming for tonight.  Thought I might have gotten used to see George and Michele but then it turned out I won't see them until tomorrow (Saturday).  It was nice to have a day where we didn't do too much.  Well I didn't do too much to do.  John and Shel was busy picking up and taking children to and from school.  With one boy at the University, one girl in high school, and one girl in junior high, it keeps them busy.

I did manage to catch Dan online later in the evening and got some writing done with him.  That was a good ending to the day.