Here's Hoping

Here's hoping that the cranberry juice is a miracle worker in an 8 ounce glass. Anything is possible, right?

Meanwhile, I think I may be a post behind. I can't tell anymore. Sigh.

Busy Smith day today. A meeting in a little bit - to which I will ride my bicycle. Oh, when I went in yesterday, our office manager was a little grumpy and was having a problem (well, looking for a solution to a problem) using Theatre Manager. Her desire was to print address directly onto envelopes rather than onto labels which then needed to be peeled and put on envelopes. Turns out that TM has a pretty robust label generating capability. In my capacity as an office manager years and years (and years) ago, I did a lot of playing around with label making. It is pretty amazing what you can do with a robust label making/merge file. So it wasn't all that difficult to make her a "label" that was envelope sized and to put the envelope drawer into the printer for her. Yay! She seemed much happier when I left. Maybe because I had left...

Lots of meetings - somehow I ended up with a lot of things to do. Which is actually a good thing. The stuff that I need to do will all benefit the Smith and the Smooth functioning of things in the actual theatre. Yay.

Watched The East the other night. Not a great movie - not terrible. Not something I need to see again.

She likes them!

The blueberry muffins are a hit with mom! Huzzuh and hurrah and all that sort of ballyhoo! And she says she thinks cranberry juice is delicious which is also a good thing. 

Lazy sort of day. Lots of things I could be doing and I am busy not doing any of them. Like get the room at the head of the stairs ready for a house guest. That would be a good thing to do. And look at the Serpent of Seneca movie. And sort papers. And do some Smith work. But instead, I am playing, eating, resting, etc. Yippee.

Interestingly, I haven't been feeling verbose lately. Hence the short posts. And I haven't been doing very well on correspondence either. Sigh. 

Next week is heavily meetinged I think. I hope I have them all in my computer and phone. (Good thing that they talk to each other from time to time...)(Yup, just updated my phone. Tuesday is the busy meeting day.)

Mom woke up long enough to eat some soup. Yay! But then she wasn't interested in shrimp. Boo!

April - the longest month?

Am I the only one thinking that April is dragging on forever? Yes, I know it ends tomorrow, but it can't come soon enough for me. It has been an up and down month. For me at least. 

That's four rides with the bike, so I am down to $75 a ride. Yippee! I hope to get that down to pennies a ride by the end of the bike's life. That would be nifty. It is another nice day (eeek, two in a row) so I think I will toodle down to the Smith this afternoon on my bike. I can hardly wait.

At lunch time, I am going to empty out the fridge and see what all is in there. I used up a couple of things I think - like the icky chicken casserole - ok, it wasn't icky - just not enough juice and way too many breadcrumbs. And I ate all of the ham and turkey salad - though putting it in the food processor was a great idea, I thought. It made everything a single consistency. 

I am excited to see the next water bill. I hope that the newly fixed toilet will really decrease it. That would be awesome. If I am repeating myself about this, it must mean I am really excited!!

Yay! I had a nice ride. Got everything done that I had to at the Smith, I think. I didn't have my ducks in a row and need to get a bit more organized before the next time Kelly and I meet. I set up the sound system and checked all the movie stuff. Go me!

Now, time for a car ride to get some Chinese Food for dinner. Huzzuh! It has been a while. Hopefully mom still likes it!

Mom ate a lot! Yippee!

After dinner, we watched the most recent version of Into the Woods - enjoyable though long. I love Anna Kendrick who did fine. The rest of the cast was good as well. Stephen Sondheim's music is just so chewy. But glad we watched it. Mom stayed awake through the whole thing. I keep wondering if larger TVs would be a good thing...

Cloudy Today

I like my status for yesterday's post this morning - Clouds providing lots of shade today - trying to put a cloudy day in a positive (not so scintillating) light. Yippee!

Watched Philomena last night. I enjoyed it. I kinda thought it was based on a true story before I watched it. Turns out it was. Judi Densch was great. Mom, unfortunately, slept through the whole movie.

Also started watching Daredevil on Netflix. Too absorbing. I think I watched five episodes at least before I forced myself to go to sleep. My eyeballs just about fell out of my head.

My goal for the day is to do nothing Smith related. We shall see if I can manage. I probably ought to pay some bills. And think about what I need to do next week for the Smith and for life in general. I think laundry time is creeping up on me again. Yippee. 

Yay paid a few bills. I feel so virtuous when I pay bills. I do remember a while in my life where paying them was painful beyond compare. Sigh.

Ok, so I am making a list of all the things I need to do for the Smith tomorrow - eeeeeek!

Spotify - One list (Cave)

Movie Playlists - two - Cave and Whiplash

Mail chimp - Tasting Note Send

Mail Chimp - start Mail Blast Movie May! (Even Toeprints is getting into the action)

New website - enter movies for May

Start list of movies for June

Double Check June with Kelly

Double Check May with Kelly

Update Instructions Sheet for Ticket selling

Send Email about training session for Projectionists (re box office and refresher on things)

Send email about cleaning session at the Smith

Send email about RPO on Friday

Check with Mexican Film and contact the guy

Look at Snake movie and contact them

Download Call Security’s music video

Contact Stephen Giamotti and see what is up with Young Adulterated

Contact HBO woman again

Meet with Jocelyn and do conference call

Meet with Jessica and talk about ticket selling - and scanning

Order the internet boosters (2 at least)

See if I can figure out what is wrong with the little computer and its battery

Call Damien and see if he can scrub our two laptops of viruses and such

Call Carl Blewshewke at Finger Lakes Health and see if he is doing the graduation or if somebody else is

Look through email for anything pending

There are probably more things, but I can't think of them off the top of my head - oh, wait, I did think of one - check the weather and set up heating/cooling. 

Now mom's toilet innards need replacing again. Yet mine remain fine. What is up with that? I will try to buy innards tomorrow or Tuesday.

So, I finally finished the campaign of Advanced Warfare. I really hate quicktime cut scenes and events. Which is why I like the Bethesda games so much - those only happen when in dialogue and nothing of extreme consequence happens during dialogue. Anyway, I played my first game online and went 17-18 and was second on our team, which makes me pretty happy. Playing on a map with a load out that was less than optimal and totally not understood by me, I am very pleased with that result. Yippee! Tomorrow is another day.

Haven't gone back to sleep...

So, instead of sleeping, I came up with a thought about why the problem we were having with ticket sales was occurring. I went online and fixed it. Yay me. Then I started working on a draft document that Kelly has created. I might be doing more than just editing it, though...I will do what I am doing and give it back to her. Maybe she will credit me with co-authorship if she likes the changes I am making. Maybe not.

Mom is being a real pain in the butt today. Yay.

I am exhausted again. Up at 3 and then up at 6 and then up at 8 all to help mom - then from 8 until 9 almost incessant calls from mom - where am I? Where can I go? What can you do for me? Me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me. For an hour. And now it has started again. Sigh.

I got a bit of a nap. Yay. I also did some good work on the Kelly doc. And I even went out to run some errands. Spent longer than I thought I was going to at the Smith, talking with Kelly and getting a few little things accomplished. Then a brief stop at the Public Library (I love libraries - I wonder how they will evolve in the future...) to pick up two Audio books that were being held for me. One of them I had completely forgotten I had requested. The other is the next book in the Harry Potter series - book 5 The Order of the Phoenix. Yippee! Last, a quick stop at the grocery store to pick up some corn on the cob, some of mom's pills and a few other things. Now I am back home again. And could use another nap.

I am almost finished with The Goblet of Fire. Yippee! 

I tried to watch The Boxtrolls with mom, but she was having none of it and slept through most it. It wasn't all that engaging on the small screen. It might have been better on the big screen. Or on my computer with headphones or better sound. All in all, it seemed ok, not great. Glad I rented it, though. 

Up way too early

Went to sleep at a reasonable hour, sort of, and woke up an hour later. Yay. Did a couple of work things. Then went back to sleep. Then woke up again a couple of hours later. Did another work thing. Then went to sleep again. Then woke up to hear mom in the bathroom. So I did one more work thing. Back to sleep for a third (or is it fourth?) time and suddenly the alarm was going off. Joy. Got up to find mom in a confused state (not all that much more confused than normal, but a little) and helped her out, got her a yogurt and bundled myself off to the Smith. Where I am now, typing in my sleep. Zzzzzzzzzz. 

Home again and going to take a bit of a nap. It is, after all, a time when I am normally asleep. So is it really a nap? Or just a postponed continuation of my nighttime sleep? Hmm.

I slept for a while until, you guessed it... Sigh. Mom and I got a little contentious around lunch time. She tried to kick me. Which was actually really, really funny!

Trying to get my ducks in a row for next week. Two shows that are going to be really, really easy - which scares me a little bit. When I think they are going to be easy, trouble might appear out of nowhere. We shall, of course, see.

Two more forays to the Smith today. One for the conference, one to see if the ticket person tonight wants to be trained on how to use Theatre Manager for ticketing. Fingers crossed that he does. 

I slipped out of the training! Yippee! So I made salmon balls - they weren't awesome and need more spice. But they weren't terrible. Sadly, mom did not snarf them up. Poo even. 

Just watched The Imitation Game and was sad about the ending. What a loss. People's fears suck. Yes? Fear is the mindkiller. (Thank you, Frank)

Actively Avoiding

That pile of papers in the orange room is mocking me. Every time I walk past there, it looks at me with a glint in its eyes. It knows I need to buckle down and go through what could very easily be a wild goose chase - since I probably threw away anything from creditors after the bankruptcy - but you never know. My hoarding, must save just in case mind set might have led me to save the pieces of paper. And it all could be moot - the creditors could have sent their paperwork to the Fed and actually checked the "bankruptcy" box. Anything is possible. We shall see if I can get my act together and tackle that project at some point soon. 

The library wrote and told me that my next Harry Potter book came in! Huzzuh! So, I went down and got it and did a little bit of Smith stuff. Made lunch and did more Smith work. And I get to head in to the Smith for a meeting this afternoon. All in all a pretty easy day - despite the amount of work. It is such a lovely day outside, that I think I will ride my bike downtown. Yippee!!

I did, I did, I did ride my bike downtown. Hooray!!

Tonight's movie was the Stephen Hawking Biopic The Theory of Everything. I enjoyed it. It is interesting how thoughts he was just thinking at one point longish ago are taken for seemingly granted nowadays. 

After watching the movie, I watched a couple of episodes of Fringe and then was about to go to sleep when I remembered that I had to set up a mail blast to go out Friday morning at 10:00 am. Glarp. I had most of it down, just needed to add/change some graphics, tweak verbiage and such, create links and look them up and bob's my uncle - not really. I don't have an uncle bob. More's the pity...

Up and at 'em

When I was a kid, I thought it was "Up and Atom." Yes, I like(d) science. 

I woke up around 7:30 am this morning and have been cranking away, sort of, on stuff - mostly for the Smith. Yay. I needed to get some things done before other staff members got on the machines. I know that a volunteer comes in this morning and will be on the Slide-Show computer all day. And there are often two people signed onto Theatre Manager during the day, which means that a third person can't. Sigh. That is one of the more frustrating bits about Theatre Manager. Whatever. Maybe their pricing model will change one day. Anything is possible. 

My laptop screen needs a cleaning!

Oooh, Kelly showed me yet another computer to play with - this is a teeny weeny IBM laptop - I mean maybe 10 inches across. The battery has died, which isn't the end of the world. I am going to see if I can get Theatre Manager up and running on it. If I can, I will try to use it in the Ticket Booth for movies. Since it is so small. Something to try this afternoon when I head in.

I get to show the movie tonight. I am not excited by it. The movie is fine, I just don't want to be stuck there, at the Smith, for three hours. Grrrr. No one else asked for the date and when I begged, no one responded - well, not no one - I think Darnell responded that he had other plans that evening.

And no one is responding to the SPA event. Well, two people have and they were both negatives. This will not do. If no one has responded by close of day, I will have to send out a reminder text. Really don't want to have to do that. And I really don't want to have to run the show - I would like my birthday week to be as free as possible. I know that is too much to ask, seriously. 

Uneventful movie showing in terms of things going wrong. On the other hand, I did a few hours of work - first getting the ticket system working for movies. Yay. We had a couple of little glitches - wrong ticket printer first, then not knowing to click a certain place to get receipts for credit cards and not knowing how to run a report that broke down how many people paid how. But they got worked through. I need to add some steps to my list of how to do things, but that is not a big deal. Then I got the Kiosk up and running with Time and Temp. I don't know why it glitched before, but it is working now. Or at least it was when I left. Then I worked on getting the teeny laptop up and running - still need to add printing capabilities to it - but that will be easily done tomorrow. Chatted with a man who worked at the colleges and knew my mom and knew of my father. And generally kicked movie night butt! Huzzuh!

March is ending

In case you hadn't realized, it will soon be April. Eeek! How did that happen? Hopefully, with the end of March will come the end of winter. That would be nifty. The mini-blizzard the other day and the cold temperatures really aren't as fun as they could be. 

Yesterday was a pretty long day at the Smith. I went early to finish up from the night before. Went in again to get ready for a show. Went in again to make sure that everyone was playing well together. I hope the event went well in the end. Today I need to go in and set up everything for a two showings of a movie. Yippee! 

I got mom some prunes. And some prune juice. I don't know that I have had much prune juice over the years. Worf thought it was good. Maybe mom will like it. Heaven knows she didn't like the ensure like drink that I got her. Sigh. I am hoping that her shingles will be over soon. That would be nice for us all. 

Sometimes I feel like I am that frog in the slowly heating pan of water. 

Tried to watch a movie with mom last night, but she slept through it. It was ok - The Soloist - Robert Downey Jr. and Jamie Foxx. Definitely had good music. And the story was decent. So, glad I saw it. Wish that mom had stayed awake for it. 

When it was time for sleep, mom complained that she could have gone to sleep "hours ago" which was funny to me because "hours ago" she had been asleep...

Got a lot done at the Smith in my one hour there. The legs and borders all look happy. I played a little bit of everything on the movie server and it all went ok. Now I am home where I am doing more Smith work. Yay!

I almost rode my bike to work this morning, but I chickened out when I saw the breath in front of my face. It has warmed up considerably since then, so a bike ride may just be in my near future. Yippee!

Well, crap. I just was moving my lap desk and it slipped from my hands and scraped up my laptops screen. Poo even. Oh well - this is not the end of the world. Right? Yup, I thought so.

Pinched

The gate at the head of the stairs got me finally. I guess I was just not paying attention. A little pinch on my right pointing finger. I woke up this morning and there was an actual owie there. Owie!

One of the pluses about mom's current state is that she seems to be using less tissue paper in general. Small blessings?

My brain is feeling fuzzy. Maybe it is lack of good sleep. Who knows? I do know that I am a tiny bit concerned about the shows coming up. Not in a large way. I mean, it is the theatre, right? It will all work out in the end. (What is that line from Shakespeare in Love?) And it is a finite thing, this too shall pass. Eventually it will be Sunday again and both shows will be over and done with at The Smith. So, what's to worry about? Nada. But I digress. I am also concerned about how awake my crew is going to be on Friday morning at 5:30 am. I guess I will need to be in bed around 9 in order to be at the Smith by 5 ish. Sigh. And I don't know if anyone is going to be able to stay and work the shows - besides Terren who has to since no one else on my staff (well, maybe Pablo) is able to run Greg's sound console.

Went in and fixed a problem I had created with Theatre Manager. I will get my mind around that program at some point. It is starting to make some sense to me. Not a lot, but some. Later in the day I got the ticket booth printer up and running. It helps when both ends of the cable are plugged in as they ought to be. Sigh.

Watched Birdman tonight. Not sure what I thought about it. I have never really enjoyed Michael Keaton as an actor. I like Ed Norton generally. And Emma Stone, well, I love her. Overall, I liked it. But I didn't love it.

Long day yesterday but it's a new day now

Wow, that was a long day, yesterday. The other galosh kicked me in the butt.

Today I get to do a good bit of work at the Smith. I need to print out all the documentation that two of the upcoming three events have sent me. I need to repatch the lighting for one show, look for gels and such for a second, see if I do in fact have four 6x9s for one of the them, and enough uprights for lighting trees, etc. I need to somehow get a staff for a 5:30 am load-in next week. I am tempted to threaten them with de-Smith employment if they don't come. Sigh.

Great. I downloaded the new Safari and nothing is loading. Crap, etc. Maybe it is just Facebook that is being stupid. (Ok, it's working now. Yippee.)

Oh, I am getting a new to us oven/range today. I could have gotten one of the same generation as is currently in the kitchen, but we got that probably 30 years ago! It lasted a good long time and really deserves a rest - as do any from that generation. The newer one is, of course, more expensive, but life is that way (all too frequently). (Pictures tomorrow)

It is later in the day. I have Smithed for a brief while and accomplished a good chunk of stuff. Still more to do. I had forgotten that I had a meeting this afternoon. Poo even. And yay for putting things in my calendar! Oh well, I will head out earlier than the meeting and get the two pipes I need for the weekend. Hopeful. Unless they don't have any. In which case I will have to go someplace else to get them. And if I don't get them, I think Toni (Tech Director for PUSH) will be flexible.

I did get the pipes. And I think we had a very productive Buildings and Grounds meeting. Tomorrow, Thursday, I need to do more actual work at the Smith - and laundry. Huzzuh. Yay clean clothes and sheets and things.

Oops, the pictures I had thought I was going to post, I never posted. Here they are:

This has been stained and the wood blocks have been painted. Great stuff!

I was going to ride it today, but it snowed...

My obsession with Civilization has passed. Phew! On to the next one.

Saw Source Code which was kinda like Groundhog Day. Decent but not fantastic.

We are watching the 50th AnniversaryDiane Sawyer special about the Sound of Music. Good stuff. I am hoping we are going to have a sing along movie event at some point this year at the Smith. That would be nifty.

Already did an hour of work

Here it is 8:45 am and I have already done an hour of work. I want to get a little of this blogging thing done before doing some bill stuff. Yay bill stuff!

Last night's movie (The Hundred Foot Journey) was good, not great. I was uber surprised to see that Steven Spielberg and Oprah Winfrey both put up a lot of money for it. I wonder why. It was a cute story, decently done, but certainly was not exceptional in any way. It would have been if we could have tasted all the yummy looking food. Oh well.

Damn Civilization all to hell! Grrrr. Moving on.

I hope to get some mom stuff done today. Justin is supposed to come over and get the gate up - maybe bring a new oven, etc. We shall see. And it is a Jenny day - yay! One of the things I would like to do is get some weekend coverage. Speaking of coverage, I was ok'd for respite from the Alzheimer's association. Up to 40 hours before June. Now if I could only figure out when I could use some respite - besides all the time...I could really use a massage. What? Where did that come from?

I had a minor epiphany today. Ok, it wasn't my epiphany exactly, a friend had it and I recalled it this morning. I can make calzone type food items with grands biscuits and the appropriate innards - like mozzarella, pizza sauce and pepperoni. I am so gustatorily excited!!

Today, amongst the things I did, I went to the bike store and picked up my bike. I got some things added to it, and they attached my handlebar mirror for free. Yay. Oh, another teeny epiphany, I can now get my car looked at - it is six months past due for its oil change, 'cause I have the bike to get back and forth - walking from there is too long a way in my current situation. By the way, checking the mom cams isn't very data intensive, so I can do it when I am not connected to the web.

Also, our handy guy came and put a gate up across the top of the stairs - very cool.

Ok, enough for now, I am sure there is more, but not that is getting written by me just now. Pfffffft.

Great Intentions

Isn't that the name of a book? I had some great intentions today. And who knows, maybe I will get something actually accomplished at some point. Instead I slept a lot, woke up late, didn't do anything, played xBox (Damn Civilization - it is really hard to win an economic game - I took one darn capital and suddenly the game is over. Grrrr.)

My hope was to get some correspondence written, sort my active papers pile (bills and such), do some grocery shopping and think about the coming week - we have a fairly intense show coming up at The Smith this weekend. And another couple next week. I was also hoping to get the movies picked for April. And what have I done? Nothing. I did make mom some lunch that she liked - cream of shrimp soup was the featured part. I am wondering if swallowing is difficult for her just now. One of the things I was going to get at the store was more cream soups - I know she doesn't like cream of tomato soup. Neither do I particularly. If I do get more cream soups, I will have to lay in a supply of half and half - I don't really like milk. Sigh.

Fenders! That was a word I was looking for yesterday - I bought a fender and a rear rack for the new to me bike. And toe clip pedals. And they are going to install my mirror for me for free. Yippee! I need to remember to put the bike rack in the car so that I can bring the bike back home more easily. Where I am going to keep it is anyone's guess. Part of me would like to tear down the barn and put up a new barn building for storage. Thoughts?

Justin said he would come over tomorrow with the gate for the top of the stairs and possible a new to me oven/stove. We shall, of course, see.

So, I didn't do anything after all. I made a meal of leftovers and played and now mom and I are watching a movie called The Hundred-Foot Journey. Yippee?

Took the CSA plunge

Half a share seemed enough for our household. And the price of a half share varied quite a bit. I ended up paying $300 for 18 to 20 weeks of vegetables. So about $15 a week. Not too bad, actually. My main worries are - picking the stuff up consistently and eating it all before the next delivery/pick-up. Not that I am too terribly worried about much of anything, actually.

Days always seem weird to me when I a) get little sleep or b) get up to an alarm or c) get up early. This was two out of three. I woke up at 6:47 feeling pretty wide awake, so I stayed up since one of my alarms was set for 7:02 am.

Mom and I watched The Book Thief last night. Overall I enjoyed it. There were some weird bits. I couldn't figure out what the movie wanted to be. Death as a narrator was odd. Most of the actors seemed to be doing some stylized acting. Nazi Germany is tough to present, especially now that we are, sort of, far from it. Weird mixture of German speaking, English speaking and a combination - speaking English with a German accent. I love Geoffrey Rush. Well, it did make me think a bit and that isn't a bad thing.

The movie didn't finish till about 10:45 pm and I wasn't ready for bed - so I played some Civilization on my xBox 360 - in which I got caught up and suddenly realized it was 1 in the morning! Eeek! Mom, of course, took that time to be wide awake. Sigh. I think I got her to lie down for about an hour. Then I heard her up and about in the bathroom a few times the rest of the night. This morning, she was sure some woman was watching the movie with her last night. Yes, I have long hair. And she kept telling me that she wasn't getting in the bed because she was saving it for her mother when she came to visit. Her mom died in 1967. 

Got up, futzed around a bit and then headed down to The Smith. I was pleasantly surprised that my co-worker had had the forethought to remove the film stuff. All I had to do before the traveling theatre people arrived was replace the gels in the Cyc lights - which is a teeny ordeal. The company arrived right around 8 and Terren was not far behind. I stayed a little bit and made sure they were all set, then toddled home, feeling discombobulated. Oh well.

Oops - written and not posted till after midnight. Sigh.

Haven't been writing much today

I have been doing other things - mostly, I admit, playing Civilization. It reminds me a bit of a game I used to play a lot back in the old days. I will try and think of the name. It was a build units and dominate the world sort of game as well. Hmm...

There was a good meeting of the Film Committee this morning at the Smith. Before that I did some Smith work. And then after that I did some Smith work. Tomorrow and Friday we have events. Thursday is a kids show - easy peasy apparently. They are loading-in before their morning show and loading-out after their evening show. With a big gap in between. Friday is the return of a band called The Town Pants - a celtic flavored group - in honor of St. Patrick's Day. I don't even know when St. Patty's Day is. Sigh. We have movies on Saturday and Sunday as well. So a busy weekend for The Smith. Yay!

Mom's mental impairment is starting to affect her hearing, or at least that is how it seems. Maybe it is listening comprehension. That is even more frustrating. Yippee! It also seems as if she has pretty much given up pretending to read.

The other day I saw the Veronica Mars movie. Did I mention that before? Anyway, I never watched much of the series, but I enjoyed the movie. Tonight we are watching The Book Thief. Not sure where I heard about it. It has gotten good ratings. So we shall see if I enjoy it. 

Great Purchase and an Owie

Starting with the bad news, I have a paper cut on my right hand ring finger. Owie. I probably ought to put a bandaid on it so that it doesn't catch on everything it can possibly catch on. Sigh.

My calendar was not up-to-date! I forgot to put in my appointment today with the Elder Care Attorney. She told me that the initial consultation was free - to determine if there was aught she could do for us. Thereafter it will be $250 an hour. Sigh. I haven't looked through my papers yet to see what all I have in my plastic tub. I don't know where the deed to the house is - I think it is in mom's safe deposit box. I wonder how I get access to that. Hmm. I will ask at the bank at some point. I don't think that is a crucial thing for the meeting today. I really do need to call the long term care people and see if the POA (Power of Attorney) I sent them was sufficient to grant me access to the account. We shall, of course, see.

My plan is to get my Smith stuff taken care of this morning. I need to build the two movie playlists, make the two spotify playlists, finish the Mail Chimp Weekly Email Blast and see what I can do about getting the other mail blast for PUSH closer to completion. I ought to be able to do all of that by noon. Hopefully.

Oh, the purchase of Greatness. I really like Aaron Sorkin's work. He writes really well and mostly gets good writers to continue his shows. I bought the complete Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip for $10 (including shipping)! Mom and I watched three episodes last night. Ok, mom napped during parts of them, but she was there on the sofa beside me. Yay!

Time for some work. Good morning!

Looks like mom got Shingles after all. Crap. We will head to the doctor's office tomorrow or Thursday.

Movie thoughts

I like to let my creative juices stew. I am thinking that I am going to add mostly sound effects rather than music to the movie. And I need to find a few places where I can slow down the mad rush forward - when I put in large groups of pieces. Yes, this is going to take time. It is all in the editing. Though lots of good footage (which I don't really have) helps a lot. Static camera does not a compelling project make - in my humble opinion...

I was going to get a lot accomplished today - at least that was my plan. Didn't quite work out that way. My friend from Syracuse came and spent the day, mostly hanging out with mom. She did, though, inspire me to take the Christmas tree down. Needles, needles everywhere. Luckily my friend was handy with a vacuum cleaner! And the vacuum cleaner worked (thanks to my tender ministrations a while ago). Yay.

Next step, get the compost out to the composter. Despite the warming trend and the pleasant temperatures, there was still a good amount of snow between me and the device. It took a couple of trips, but all of the stuff is in there now. It is getting really full. I wonder how to actually get dirt out of the thing. Hmm. Maybe I will wait until the weather is really warm to figure it out. Anyone out there have experience with my sort of composter?

Lunch was tuna melts - tuna salad containing mayonnaise, Dijon mustard, celery, chopped green olives, ground pepper and a little bit of garlic. I used some of mom's Jarlsberg cheese. Yum! Dinner was feta, onions, green pepper and mushroom omelettes, bacon, tater tots and frozen waffles. I think we all had too much food. I am still full at this point (it is 9:50 pm as I type this).

Now mom and I are watching PBS - Selfridges was on. I don't know what else will be. We shall see.

Toasty!

The temperature at 5:12am on Wednesday morning in Geneva, NY is a balmy 37°F. It is going to be above freezing most of the day! Huzzuh! I was just outside in a t-shirt and boots playing choochoo train in my walkways. Mom and I get to go to her dentist appointment this afternoon. Yippee! An outing! Always a reason to celebrate. This is going to be mom's first time downstairs in a few weeks. I am tempted to take her to Friendly's for dinner, but am concerned about all the issues involved in a meal out. We shall see. (They called to reschedule - seems like this is the second time that has happened...) For now, I think I will try to get a few more hours of sleep. That would be nifty...

The puzzle movie is on hold - not because I don't want to do it, but because creatively I am a little stymied just now where it is concerned. Fear not, it will get done. Eventually. I hear that patience is a virtue. Hahaha.

I took the plunge and am going to go further spelunking into the depths of software upgrades. This morning before I went back to sleep, I started the download and upgrade process for my phone - the download took 6 hours - well, it ended up actually only taking four (!) - which unfortunately was exactly when I was supposed to be getting a call from an Elder Care Lawyer. Oops. We ended up speaking on the house's landline instead. Choices and options. Huzzuh!

Tonight I think I am going to update the software on my laptop. I don't really want to, because nothing is broken on here - but life moves forward and I don't want to get too far behind the technological curve, do I?

It is so warm outside! Things are melting, slowly. I went out to clear a little of the driveway and discovered a few things: slush is heavy, my shovel is broken, and my car lost a piece of plastic that is making things tough for my right front tire. Yippee.

Shopping at Walmart is always a joy. I went to buy mom some more underpants. They had a price thing that was wrong. Hate that. It said what I was buying was $75 per hundred - when it was actually   closer to $40 per hundred. I bought myself some socks, too. One of the newest socks I had mysteriously sprouted a hole in the toe. Grrr. I liked that sock too. I had named it and everything. (Sockie, in case you were curious - or Harriet - it answered to neither.)

Nice Day!

It has been a lovely Saturday thus far, despite the lack of sleep caused by a bit of overnight mom waking action. Yay!

First, our handy guy came and tried to cover the rust on the ceiling tiles in the red room with more white paint. I think another thirty coats and they might just disappear. Maybe. He also is getting more serious about putting in a removable gate at the top of the stairs. He noticed that there had been a gate there previously. I sort of vaguely remember a gate there - does anyone else? (I know that Karl won't read this, so Juliet? Ernst?) I think it is going to be pricey! And who knows if it will be any help at all. Anyway...

Then, a friend from Syracuse came with the primary intention of spending time with mom so that I could have a little time off. Yippee! Since this was her first time here, I decided to not venture too far afield, in case they didn't get along or in case there were questions. As a great guest, she actually came bearing gifts. A bookcase (who can't use another bookcase?!)

Lovely bookcase

Nummy cookies!

and a big plate of delicious cookies! Score! She spent most of the day sitting with mom, knitting and chatting. I fed us lunch (though I made her make her own salad) and then napped a bit and then took a quick trip to the Smith and puttered there for a bit. Then headed to Wegman's to get some of the ingredients for dinner tonight. I am making a version of tacos where the filling gets put in bun dough making a sort of taco sandwich pocket thingie. I am hoping that it will be easy for mom to eat that way. Anything is possible. If not, I will, next time, go back to making beans and rice and mixing all of that together. But I do like to do a little experimenting now and again.

Turned out ok - needed more filling I think

I also broke up some ice in the front of the house. My driveway is kind of scary just now. But I did do a little work on it. Yay.

Oh, I forgot to say that I have been working, slowly, on preparing for the next step in mom care. I called the Alzheimer's Association and am getting a packet of information from them, as well as an application for Respite care for mom. For me. For both of us. If I play my cards right, I can get 80 hours of respite help this year. Oooh, that would be nifty. I also have been playing phone tag with an elder care lawyer. My big questions for her are: what questions do I need to ask an elder care lawyer; what assets can be protected; how expensive is getting that help; what happens when mom goes into a nursing home, while there is still insurance money and after the insurance money runs out; when to transfer the house into my name and how I go about doing that - etc. Lots of questions, I guess. I will try again on Monday, all things being equal. Speaking of mom, we get to go to the dentist on Wednesday. Huzzuh. I get so confused at the end of February - how suddenly it becomes March. What a difference a couple or three days make!

Tonight I am going to watch Lucy. I am not all that excited about the movie itself, just interested in watching Scarlett Johansson. Yay! Though I do generally like Luc Besson movies...

Malificent

For some reason, I added Malificent to my Netflix DVD list. It arrived yesterday. I planned to watch it with mom, but when the time came, she was asleep. And after watching a bit of the movie, I realized that she wouldn't get it, probably. Too fantastic (in the way of magic and fantasy and such). Overall, I enjoyed the movie. Yay. Anyone else seen it?

Yay, laundry is done! Well, the hardest part is done - the washing and drying - ok, not really that hard - just a bunch of lugging. And quarters. (No Mary, I still haven't bought a washer for the house, sigh). And I did some Smith work - mostly working on the slideshow and talking with Kelly about events past and future. Lots of stuff coming up in the summer. Yippee?

Tomorrow it is back to the beginning - March is replete with events. I just hope I can get some help. We shall see.