Finnally Friday...

For some reason this has been a strange week...but its winding down. Monday this office had a class in it with 10 people from the new Lowes so it was a tad bit crowded and impossible to get any work done..unfortunately I had an Armed Forces Emergency Call to deal with too! Tuesday night was the big announcement from national that we no longer had a President for the ARC.
That made for interesting Wednesday, as well as some "irritable" shall we say people at the service center, who thought my lunch needed to be cut short. Thursday was meeting and appointment day and came home to Ty not being in a very happy mood. Don was also over night at a meeting...So Finnally Friday!!!!!!

Had hoped to have a few people for dinner on Saturday, that didn't work out, but then one of the guests, turned the table and we are going there...Jill's birthday is Saturday and she decided to throw herself a dinner. Which means Paul and I get to "spar" a little. He called the other night and when I said I had alot to tell him it had been awhile, he said then have me over, for a drink, right now (this guy needs a real job! grammy award winning musician for all of you who don't know him)...I said Paul, the guys arent even home yet from Basketball..they haven't had dinner...Henry his son is off to Milton Academy this year..
he of course said...Gretch do you ever wonder why Don does all these things outside of the home?? Ha Ha...He is convinced his wife and I are evil twins seperated at birth, ready to devour poor, innocent men! I told him I had a new friend who remarked about my "persistent whining" Me?
I mean really!!...Paul said "Gotta meet him...compare notes! That sounds like a fun evening.

Caroline called last night. Had taken in her first performance at the Kennedy center. She was in the stratosphere somewhere. It was basically a one woman show, an actress from London who is also in alot of the Harry Potter movies. The day before, her advisor and Chair of GW's theatre Dept got to do a TV interview from a small theater at the Kennedy and the students from GW got to attend. Caroline tried to get tickets to the show at Leslies reccomendation but was unable. The tickets were pretty steep, so she decided not to go when one of her friends mother, bought two seats for her daughter and a friend as a birthday gift. Caroline said it was so inspiring after seeing the interview with the actress. She was filled with renewed excitement at being a theater student.

So trying to stay off Ginnys list.. trying to avoid shelter surveys, but look like I'm still working.
Suzan and Pat are cutting out paper for Canadian tourists and Hillary is listening to Muzak at the mall and stealing wireless from Ruby Tuesdays, and Ginny and Lynn are Christmas shopping...lot of work going on today at ARC...Have a good one.

ARC girl...unhappy with ARC boy!

If you have been living under a rock and didn't hear the news last evening..as Brian Williams so eloquently put it "the embattled American Red Cross" took another hit yesterday when it's president of 6months..yep SIX months got caught with another red crosser! Charming!
Or as my friend and owner of the local news and radio station emailed me..quote.."ouch!"
What unfortunately Joe Q public does not know is that "we" little guys send money to those "big guys" in DC and we get NO money from them to serve our public...no matter how many families we take care of..unless it becomes a disaster of certain proportions. One of the other qualities one must have to work for this organization is thick skin! Our dirty laundry is always public.

In other news, Thanksgiving was a whirlwind of travel and family. But alot of fun. Caroline was home for a short but intense time and I think she enjoyed herself as she got to see so many people.

Phone call yesterday from my "cancer free" little sister in law!!!!!!! YIPEEEE! of course this means five years of ct scans, and then you can really say that. But we will take anything at this point!!!!

And in the making a mark on the world category..Tyler sat down with Don B. principal of Sedgwick School and asked if he could do a large mural on a hallway wall for his eighth grade project. He showed Don his sketches and they were approved!! Now he has to do a scale drawing with the art teacher, figure out types of paints and he may have to go before the school board. He is thrilled.

So back to work for the worlds largest charitible organization...ARC Girl

It was Fantastik!

You knew you would all have to hear about it!! I had a wonderful trip to DC this weekend, I am exhausted! (coffee by IV would be nice) but I am so glad I went down. The part was a perfect Caroline part. Louisa was a young girl in love, a little ditzy, well maybe a lot ditzy! Actually "touched" would be a better description! And so her timing and lines were just perfect. The vocal portion was an extremely challenging part. She had numerous songs as well as just vocalizations during songs, it was almost exhausting. I saw the play both Friday and Saturday at 7pm but they also did a 10 pm show..so by Sat night I am not sure what her voice was like for the last show. A very talented cast, they all seemed to enjoy the piece. I couldnt believe how many kids relatives came in for the show. It was really nice.
These students are from all over the country and Thanksgiving is this week..so it was quite something.

Caroline and I spent the day together Saturday, went to Georgetown for Brunch..she didnt get in until 3am or so..and we had to call the front desk to get someone to turn off a tv that had been left on in another room! So after letting her sleep in a little we headed out. Wandered the shops afterwards, then took her to Trader Joes so she could get some grocerys on her mother! Went back to the dorm, where she g0t ready for another show. Boyfriend Alex went to both of the Saturday night shows, as well as her roomates. So most of the weekend was centered around the play, but it was just so good.

Lectured her about getting to the airport EARLY on Wednesday! It is going to be crazy. Luckily she has a direct flight. So hopefully no issues. She is going to take a cab and avoid the metro too. When I arrived at Union Station from the Baltimore Airport...AmTrak was a complete zoo. People were jammed everywhere trying to get to trains, I almost had to backtrack through all the lines when some amtrack person got the bright idea to close one of the corridors! I said I'm not trying to get in I'm trying to get out! My flights were both full and I had to go through Manchester, as the flights through Portland were too high, as it was close to the Holiday. So I am tired from all the driving. "planes trains and automobiles"
It was so worth it though!

Well I should attempt some work today...Happy Monday..short week! Yippee! Happy Turkey Day...maybe I will find appetizer recipes on line! (Of course my boss is reading this!)

The Girls

Vamps really! My daughter (on right) and her roomates, Halloween! Thats who I am hanging with this weekend!! Caroline has the lead in the Fantastiks and I am leaving for DC on Friday.

Its really close to her Thanksgiving break but I am not going to miss her in a leading role!

Lets see what else is going on...looks like the roof is done. The flat roof/ and leaky door too. Only thing left is the clean up and the relining of the chimney. Considering the gas and oil prices that needs to happen soon. I am being very careful about turning up the heat.

One week until Thanksgiving..spending that in Portland after we pick up Caroline at the airport.

We will bring her home on Friday for a couple of nights with friends. Then back to Portland on Sunday. She is home again for Christmas on the 19th. /a new beau will be joining us at some point for the holidays. Never a dull moment and never a Christmas with out a cast of thousands! I have been toying with taking out only half of my decorations this year going with the 'subdued look'. We shall see.

Back to work.

Under construction...continued.

The Saga continues....the Mainly vinyl people come over with my husband to reinspect flat roof.
The one with new high tech roofing material (not the one with the fancy shingles mind you!) Now they say they have to tear out the glass doors and put the new material under the door frame!!! So my chimney is not working...have to special order new liner because liner did not work that they tried on MOnday...Staging is up for shingles and we are tearing out a door!
Its NOVEMBER!!!!! If I ignore this it might all go away...you know click my heels.......theres no place like home..there's no place like home....its not working......

In other news, Red Cross hero's breakfast was this morning. Always awe inspiring to hear the stories. And Suzan makes us feel good about working for this organization. Other than Micky 0bsessing over flower vases it was very nice. Got in early so I am going home early today too.
Not much else going on...ARC girl.

Under construction..

My house that is...that's what it feels like right now. There is staging up against the back side where Don is shingling the roof. The chimney for the wood stove is being relined because the tiles are cracked from some "incident" and the flat roof off the computer room has been reroofed but is leaking..terribly! I'm thinking how did we get here??? Well, we have this old house 1870's colonial which has "character". We try to do at least one maintenance project and one
"new" project a year. By new I mean something that shows...you know like new cabinets, remodels, stuff like that.

So the Flat roof which is off the computer room has sliders out to it all it needs is a deck. This would finish off the look of the back of the house! (my definition of new project) but the roofing material needed to be replaced. So Mainly vinyl came over stripped off the tar and whatever was flecking off on to the deck below and put this high tech stuff on so we could perhaps put a deck up there...It now leaks ...no pours into the kitchen! I came home yesterday to two inches in a bucket!

In the mean time the chimney cleaner came and said the chimney had some kind of thermal incident the tiles were severly cracked and the whole thing needed to be relined!!! Has anyone priced oil this year?? Has anyone thought of going without an alternative heat source?? Do you know how much it costs to have a chimney relined? Oh and by the way they came the other day to do it and they now have to use an alternative method because the tiles can not be removed.

At some point during all this my husband gets the grand idea that he needs to reshingle the roof.
Yep, 50 year old man who's main job in life is "driving a LMD....Large mahogany desk...is going to reshingle the roof of a 3 story colonial. HMhhhmm. Tyler calls the guys "old men roofers".
Now one night at dinner I whined (an art I have perfected) about the fact that all our house money this year is going to maintence instead of asthetics. When he said well, (now that he is the general manager of this high end building co.) I ordered top of the line shingles. These are the kind that go on million dollar homes! "They have a layered feathered look".
Now my roof is three stories up there...I can't see those shingles!!!! What I can see is staging, roofing paper blowing thru my rose bushes and....no new carpeting for my staircase.

Unfortunately all that time spent on the ladders and staging and he has decided to order cedar shingles (pre stained...yippee!) for the back side of the house. There goes my second floor deck and the small bluestone patio I had hoped for next summers projects........

You are all probably wondering why does she own this place....its location location location! I have so many dreams for the place, and I can always see beyond the current mess to the view,
it doesnt have closets, at least for people who have actual wardrobes, and the bathrooms are the size for when people bathed on Sundays, but "she has beautiful bones" and one heck of a view.
Its home.

Hey I did it.

Papelbon..a la Tyler O'Grady! For my sister who missed it all while in Italy! He even danced for people when he went Trick or treating! And its his sister who has the theater scholarship!

So we all survived hurricane Noel...I got out of it really good. Everyone around me lost power and apparently is still out! There were trucks everywhere when I went to work today (two days post storm!) Rockland office has an entire "very needy" group of people who are out of an apartment building due to flooding. They kept calling here wondering where their lunch was!

Hmmmm.

My LB called yesterday from the airport wondering where "the mother was" and did I have her itinerary. I t old him if she got out of JFK on Sat night she was due in Bangor at 2:30. She apparently gave him her departure time as her arrival time. He was headed back to the bar.

Well other than cleaning the office today, and answering everyone elses phones I have not much else to report. (I did paint a bathroom and part of the computer area this weekend. So I have accomplished something.) Also moved a cabinet around in here to give myself some more space for "stuff"...anything to avoid the inevitable shelter work that I will eventually get back to.

Happy Monday all.