Had a nice day; quiet and in the company of my Bill, then my Bill and my Steve, and then also with Dan when he got home from work. Best sort of day you can have, spent with loved ones!
And I got to hear the owl again a few moments ago when I let the dog outside for his bedtime pee.
Tomorrow is Dan's birthday. I will make him his favorite kind of cake - yellow with chocolate frosting - and we are hoping to go visit the Ann Arbor Tortilla Factory. Dan has always preferred low key birthdays.
Got some surprises today.
The weather forecast was all wrong again. They have really been blowing it a lot all winter long - even more than usual. Tonight we were supposed to have a chance of scattered snow showers. Well, we are getting some accumulation, and it has been snowing slowly but steadily for hours. And since it was not forecast, no road crews are out tonight. People will have an ugly surprise for their morning commute! Since I work second shift, I could drive slowly home on the country roads...
When I got home, another surprise! Yes -this is another in addition to the piles of dog poop all over (though dog poop is never really a surprise anymore, but rather a horrible daily task as the dog gets more and more infirm in his old age) - Bill's truck is here!
I think he must have come home for the weekend for his father's birthday on Saturday. They are all asleep, so I cannot ask.
Even though he is probably skipping classes tomorrow, I am glad he drove home tonight rather than tomorrow. Tomorrow northern Indiana and Ohio are supposed to be getting a nasty ice storm...and I am glad he will not be trying to drive home through that!!
It is always great to see Bill!!!!
I love my children. It is good to share life with them.
And a three day weekend starting tomorrow! And Dan's birthday! I am looking forward to everything over the next three days (other than dog messes, that is).
It has reached the time where I am sick of winter, though, with another month or so to go...I am ready for green grass and flowers and Tigers baseball!!!!
Today was much better. No dog mess. No flat tire. Work was pretty quiet.
I got to see bits of the lunar eclipse through the windows as I walked around the hospital.
Given how cold it is outside tonight (low teens Fahrenheit), that was probably the better way to see it!
I remember going outside for house one night last winter with Steven to watch for the northern lights (which never appeared). It was warm for Michigan in the winter - up to about freezing - and we sat outside for hours in lawn chairs, drinking hot chocolate and watching for shooting stars and laughing. It was a lot of fun. God, I am so blessed in my children!!!!!!!
When I got home, there was a huge owl in the yard. His hooting was as loud as a German shepherd's barking. LOL!!! It was a beautiful thing to hear!!!!!!!! It echoed through the trees.
And life is good - my finger is much better!!!
What a remarkably annoying day, complete with a flat tire and dog diarrhea.
Wish I could be down in Lakeland watching Tigers spring training.
I had forgotten to talk about the car trouble last week.
Dan had borrowed my Jeep one morning, and came back asking how long the engine malfunction light had been on. Well, of course, it had not been on previously at all.
I dropped the Jeep off at the dealer at midnight that night after work, and Dan met me there and brought me home.
They did the work (to the tune of around $1000) the next day. Dan was supposed to pick me up at midnight to take me back to the dealer so I could pick up the Jeep and get home. But the two inches of snow we were supposed to get turned into a whole lot more than that, with a good layer of ice under the snow. Man, was that ever a nightmare drive home...only time I've ever slipped around in four wheel drive.
Today we woke up to life in a skating rink. There had been an ice storm during the night. Miraculously, we did not lose our power. Later in the day it got warmer and rained, so the ice melted. I got to work on wet, but not slippery, roads. It is a holiday weekend Sunday, so it was very quiet. I took some vacation time and came home early to spend time alone with Dan (Bill is at school, and Steven at a friend's house for the night, so we have the house to ourselves). We ate dinner, and had some quality private time together. In fact, I need to go upstairs for some more cuddling right now.
I can hear the wind roaring...
This was a busy week...
On Thursday Valentine's Day happened.
Now, last year I was much too sick and hurt to celebrate, and Dan and I both feel bad about that.
This year, despite Dan and I working opposite shifts, we made sure to spend time together.
We went out to a very good lunch at the Brecon Grill in Saline, then had an appointment with a financial planner. After I got to work, Dan had a teddy bear and some skin lotion and candy delivered there. That was very sweet of him!
lunch:
mild chili made with bison meat
salad garnished with all sorts of dried fruits grown in Michigan
chicken quesadillas
On Friday he took the afternoon off, and we went to my work for the service recognition ceremony. I got my twenty year pin. Then we went tea at Panera. We then went to downtown Ann Arbor and ate a wonderful dinner at a great Indian restaurant that we both love, the Raja Rani.
dinner:
drinks: strawberries and yogurt
appetizers: lamb samosas
crisped bread with various dips
bread: sort of like pita with spicy vegetables baked inside
entrees:
rice with vegetables
cheese cubes in a flavorful but not hot sauce
curried shrimp
dessert:
vanilla ice cream
We then walked to the big Borders store downtown. It is the flagship store of the chain, and a very well run and stocked store, indeed!
All day I had not been feeling very well, and it really hit me at the store. While I normally love Borders as much as a hog loves feeding time, I sat listlessly. When Dan asked me what was wrong, I showed him my finger. It is the same finger that was infected so badly last October. While it is not weeping puss like it was last fall, it is very swollen and discolored. And it hurts to bend it. **SIGH**
We then walked to the Michigan League to see a production of Shakespeare's As You Like It. Now, that is one of my favorite Shakespearean comedies, but my heart wasn't in it last night. I asked to leave at intermission. This is the first time in my life that either Dan or I can remember me wanting to leave a play early. But I just wasn't feeling well. Dan did not mind, as it turns out he ate too much at dinner, and his tummy was upset as a result! So he wasn't feeling well, either!
Today I have spent the day quietly at home, doing laundry and housework and cruising the internet. The finger is nearly black colored on the palm side from the knuckle to the tip, and I have been soaking it in Epsom salts to get the swelling down. I plan on calling the doctor first thing on Monday.
This is a holiday weekend, but I am schedule to work on Sunday and Monday. Given that the infection might be coming back, I do wish I had taken a long weekend...
...and there is supposed to be an ice storm tomorrow as some frosting on the unhappy cake.
Well, when I got home from work on Tuesday night, Dan was sick. So on Wednesday, I got sick. It was bad diarrhea and high fever. I missed a day of work. As soon as Dan got better from the runs, he came down with an evil cold. He gave me that, too. Yuck.
Looking forward to celebrating Valentine's Day next weekend, though. That is keeping me going!
I know this is whining, especially in the face of the terrible tornadoes in the south - but last night's drive home sucked.
We had the snow melt a couple of days ago, then rain, then torrential rain most of the night.
One of the roads, Huron Parkway, was so flooded with water so deep that I only made it through because I drive a high clearance vehicle. Even then the Jeep did lose contact with the pavement and floated for a few terrifying seconds. It was dark and raining, and you could not see what was coming until suddenly you were in a foot of water.
I called the Ann Arbor police on my cell phone and told then to get a squad car out there to put down some warning flares or barricades before someone got killed. I hope they did that!
We are currently having an ice storm. I hope the power stays on, as it is starting to get really cold out there. And later we are supposed to get a couple of inches of snow.
Dan was sick when I got home last night. I am not feeling the greatest right now, either. I will try to make it in to work tonight, though. heaven knows how many people will be able to make it in for either afternoons or midnights tonight on the icy roads.
What a busy night at work!
Then I had to drive home in a pea soup fog. It has warmed up, and the snow from the last cycle of storms is melting tonight, leading to fog so thick you couldn't drive much above 20 MPH. On top of the fog, there was a thunderstorm, so you had this thick creepy fog with lightning flashes running through it and heavy bursts of rain.
I am glad to be home, safe and warm.
In the morning Steven will see the neurologist at UM hospital.
Well, as usual, I worked on the evening of Super Bowl Sunday. However, like almost everyone I know, I was elated that the Cheatriots were finally brought down to Earth with a big thud on the most important and biggest stage of all. Life is good sometimes.
However, I am also horrified at the thought of the guaranteed extreme onslaught of television ads starring the "Manning Brothers - Back to Back Super Bowl MVP's". It is enough to make me throw up in my mouth.
It is a bit over four years since my father passed away. Three years since things got bad with Mr. Grinch and nearly two years since I tried to permanently rid my life of him and his lying lies. I always seem to get down at about this time of year. About this time last year I blew out my knee and got horribly sick for over a month. At least this year I am healthy. I wonder if I am going to feel down about this time of year every year for the rest of my life? Will grief for my father and for a lost friend (even if it did turn out he was never really my friend at all) ever get better?
There was a snowstorm on Friday so Steven and I had a Band of Brothers marathon. Today we had an extended edition Lord of the Rings marathon.
Work has been very busy, as it often is in the winter time.
I have been keeping myself very busy cataloguing my books at www.librarything.com and I think I have about half of the books entered. I might not get to some of them until next time bill is home with his laptop. That will make life a lot easier to type in the ones in my bedroom, for example. But having this to do takes my mind off of things, like my father's death. It is always better for me to stay busy than to brood and be all emo.
To see my book catalog, you can go to http://www.librarything.com/catalog/krobinett
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