Books actual Books

(Sung to the tune of Food Glorious Food) Books Actual Books - Big pages of Writing...

Yes, I got two books from the library. Now all I have to do is actually read them. I would much rather listen to them. Reading seems like so much work. (I am 68 pages into the first.)

I have been up for a couple of hours and just don't feel like doing anything. True, I did do one Smith thing - might do more if the mood strikes - ended up doing a few Smith things. Huzzuh.

Sleepy now, so I am going to pack it in for this very short post. Hopefully more tomorrow, though one never knows, does one?

I like Pebbles

The other day, Newegg.com sent me an email as they do on a weekly basis. Usually they go right into the trash. This time, something caught my eye. A pair of JBL Pebbles speakers. For $29 dollars. The speakers are for laptops and they rock! (Oh, I made a funny. Or JBL did...)

Up and at 'em! I need to work on fixing up the slide show for the Smith. It is a little weird working on the slide show remotely. Some strange behaviors that I am still trying to figure out. I do need to go into the Smith to do a few things - test a couple of movies, set up the speakers for tonight, bleed the furnace...then this afternoon, a doctor's appointment with mom. That'll be fun, for sure. It looks like I will get to all the calling and such that I am supposed to be doing on her behalf tomorrow. And maybe laundry tomorrow too. Gee, isn't it great fun, reading about my day and my plans?

The doctor wasn't all that much help. He suggested upping mom's dosage of her sertraline (sp?) as that might help with mom's anxiety. I just don't want her to be a drooler. Didn't do anything about her knee - because, well, we didn't really want to get into the whole thing at this point since it is functional still.

My right wrist is twanging for some reason. Maybe I am typing too much? Or working on the puzzle too much? I am at that point now (way past where today's picture shows) where I think that there aren't enough pieces left and that I am missing four or five. I did find two of three edge pieces that had eluded me for a long time. Huzzuh!

Is it sad that I look forward to taking mom to the doctor's because I get to interact with people who don't have dementia and at the same time don't need to worry that mom is ok?

A shirt I ought to like

There is one shirt in my closet that I really, really ought to like. But I don't. Each time I get it out, I think "Wow, this is a cool shirt!" I put it on and think "Eww, I just don't like the way this shirt fits." Do I get rid of the cool rooster shirt? I mean, I wear it despite the "eww" factor. And it is a cool shirt. Dilemmas. Some people say life is too short and to send the shirt on its way. Others say that there are enough reasons to keep the shirt. Decisions, decisions...

And now I am wearing a shirt I probably haven't worn in two or three years. In the past I always thought "This shirt's material is so skimpy." But today it feels substantial enough. Weird.

I am desperately seeking a landline (named Susan?) so that I can plug in mom's "call only Augustus" phone. If anyone reading this has a landline, I can (if they are too far away) mail the phone to them, teach them how to program it and then pay for it to be shipped back. Yes, that is how desperate I am.

Oh, the painting that our handyman did was good - but the rust bled right through again. I am afeared that we will best needs to replace all of the tiles that are rust/water stained at all...

I woke up this morning, did some work on Smith stuff and then took a nap. Yay.

My patience is running out much more quickly recently and I don't know why. What set me off just now was mom whining that her eyes didn't work. Of course they didn't - they were closed. Sigh.

Killing the easy bits of the new puzzle. I will get a picture up today. My biggest problem is that the border doesn't have an orientation (well, top and bottom) that is easy to determine. I am sure I will figure it out eventually.

Fuzzy Puzzy Pic - Just wait till tomorrows!

It's a start

Yesterday, all my troubles...no, that's not it. Yesterday, was the first day of the rest of my...nope. Hmm. Anyway, the good news is, it has started. Well, restarted. Started again. Decluttering the house, that is. A kind person came and worked for a couple of hours in the red room (linen closet room) to try and figure out what was going on in there - it had become sort of jumbled and pile-y over the past few months - a year maybe? - since last someone made use of the room as a place to sleep. Now if only the kind person will continue to help and I don't piss them off somehow...

Puzzle progress - getting there - I am at a different point where I am sure I am missing at least one piece. That almost never happens, but there is this one piece...

One piece eludes me there on the middle left (the bottom left I am sure will turn up)

The rest of the day yesterday was spent Smithing - a looooong and productive meeting with Kelly, then a quick look see at a rug remnant that we might use for our upcoming Oscars event and then some more meeting with Kelly - over a beer at Lake Drum. Happily Victor isn't sick of me. Yet.

Just let those expectations go

My expectations got the better of me this morning. I thought I was going to watch SpaceX try to land its reusable first stage on a teeny barge in the middle of the ocean. Instead, I just got to watch a launch - which is still cool, but...finally read that the first stage hit the platform - but not sure if it will be reusable or not - it or the platform. I will have to wait to hear more, I guess.

Today is Saturday. A day of rest. Gotta figure out what we are having for dinner. I do have a few leftovers, so it will probably be mostly made up of those. Yippee!

Puzzle update - please note that I am one day behind in my puzzle picture updates:

Day four?

You can, if you squint, see the two moose making out! Just wait until you see how far I got last night! Yippee and huzzuh! Seriously, though, the rest only gets harder as it seems to be all shades of green with no straight lines anywhere. Poo.

I just read an article that reinforced my belief that love is more of a choice than it is anything else:
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/11/fashion/modern-love-to-fall-in-love-with-anyone-do-this.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=mini-moth&region=top-stories-below&WT.nav=top-stories-below&_r=2

And the actual questions: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/11/fashion/no-37-big-wedding-or-small.html

Now I just need to find someone with whom I have an interest in trying this. I have at least one idea, but she doesn't seem all that interested in going down this road with me. Just keep waiting, that's what I'll get to do. Huzzuh and yippee.

Short post for now - we will see what the day brings.

Quite a Day

Most of the day was spent on Smith stuff - lots and lots of Smith stuff - meetings, meetings everywhere. When I wasn't meeting at the Smith I was working at home on Smith stuff. Yay?

Right now, I am working on trying to figure out who has the domestic theatrical rights to Arsenic and Old Lace. My contact at Warner Bros. was not very helpful. She told me that they have the rights to Arsenic and Old Lace for Canada and that's it. I asked who has the rights domestically and have not received an answer. I have tried a variety of other sources and so far, no go. I wish there was someplace one could go to find out who has what rights to which movie - a nice big database somewhere that was searchable - then when you found who had the rights, their contact information - phone number, email and snail mail address - would be right there. Wouldn't that be nice? So, I have some more phone numbers to try tomorrow. I wish I knew someone who knew the answer to these questions. Sigh city.

So, that was a large part of my day. Oh, and meetings. I had three meetings yesterday, one of which was about Arsenic and Old Lace. One was the monthly Film Committee meeting. And one was the Programming Committee Meeting. Gotta love good meetings.

In between, I kept coming back to the house. Mom actually asked to have a shower! That is weird. But good. Though she has been complaining all day that her aide washed her with especially drying soap. Sigh. I am thinking of trying a new lunch - maybe grilled cheese sandwiches with soup. Though she is eating the lunches she has currently well enough. For some reason, I get the impression that mom doesn't like grilled cheese. Does anyone know?

Dinner was from Cams. I have been jonesing for pizza for a long time. Ever since mom announced that she didn't like pizza (who the hello (sic) doesn't like pizza?) I haven't served it to her. I have eaten a little here and there, but it is infrequent. Last night, I ordered stuffed shells with meatballs (which mom ate decently) onion rings (cams onion rings are great!)(who knew?) and two slices of pizza. I ate too much and was basically immobilized for the rest of the evening. I sat in the living room and worked on the puzzle while I put things on for mom. Through two movies! One was Pat and Mike with Spencer Tracy and Katherine Hepburn. Um, no. Not a movie I am going to look forward to watching again any time soon (or in this lifetime). Not terrible, but not worth my time. The second movie was the 1,263rd playing (in this house) of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers in Follow the Fleet.

Here is a picture of the change in the alcove so far:

Finally Finished

And about time, too! I am glad to be finished with the opera. Not that I didn't have fun. I did. It just was mentally draining and it took a lot of time away from mom. The last little opera bit was accomplished early in the morning. For some reason, I didn't sleep early or enough. I woke up a little after 6 and didn't go back to sleep. I like sleep. The morning is nice and everything, but I do prefer the night, generally. Anyway, I was dragging most of the day. I did get to the theatre early, only to find that people were already there. Which was good, as we got a large part done quickly - moving the big pieces of furniture. Yay. Soon, the others arrived - not many others - in fact fewer than I had anticipated - but enough. We got Al's (the director's) car packed up - almost as full as last year. And the electronic keyboard got back to Trinity. Yippee!

My next mission was to get the car registered. So, I walked to the insurance agent's office. Who had moved. Added an extra ten minutes to my walk. Still, it was good to be out and moving. And I got to walk some places I haven't walked in a while. The insurance card was waiting for me, so I picked it up and headed to the DMV.

Not too many people there, just enough so that I could fill out my paperwork while waiting. Sadly, I couldn't do my my driver's license. NYS requires one to have their social security card. What? Why? Why isn't a passport enough? Glarg. Whatever. The registration process went smoothly enough. Got my plates and everything. Why does NYS, though, require front and back plates? Silly and wastefully expensive. Why have two when one is good enough. Whatever. Not my problem. As I walked home, I called the mechanic's office and asked if they could inspect the car. But they couldn't. So tomorrow (today - which I will write about tomorrow - which will then be today and today will be yesterday) I will get the car inspected. Now, fingers crossed that the two tickets really were fix-it tickets and will just go away on the 16th. Please!

What else exciting happened on Monday? Mom and I went food shopping. She bought five more yogurts after swearing that she had eaten all of the ones in the fridge. She was close. There were only three left in the fridge. Yogurt has a long shelf life, doesn't it? I got a blog feed from one of the few blogs that I skim - and she had cooked patty melts. Yum! So I decided that was what we were going to have for dinner. And home made french fries. And coleslaw. And corn on the cob. Great dinner! I haven't really been in the kitchen to cook much since coming back from the trip. Or at least it seems that way for some reason. Everything turned out well, though the fries weren't as crisp as I would have liked. What is the secret to crisp fries? Hmm...

Morning over Scenic Lake Seneca

Starting to fill Al's Car

Finally reached Amy's Office

Pretty flower seen on the walk

newly plated

Delicious dinner (if I must say so myself)