Eastering

Well the post holiday weekend update starts here. The weekend could be described as full if not relaxing. There were the tasks of pick up and delivery of various offspring beginning with almost midnight Thursday, then Friday afternoon, Sunday and Monday afternoon. In between there was the care and feeding of various combinations of children and guests including a family supper for 10 on Friday evening, loaning of vehicles, meals, laundry etc. with assistance from various family members. These sorts of logistics require a four-day weekend to fulfill. And yes, to settle the suspense the oven performed admirably after its Wednesday midnight installation baking a ham, chocolate cookies and two pies on Fri/Sat. There apparently was a piece of trim missing, which is being negotiated with GE for free replacement. Daughter # 1 and I finished up the weekend festivities by scrapbooking last evening as I did the cover page for my cruise album. Remembering it all over again a year later is still fun. She’s sorting through her materials as she packs for Calgary with an April 10th departure date.

On the negative side the first email of the day was from a nursing school classmate who I’d contacted about the planned get-together to catch up with the visiting classmate. She advised that one of the local classmates had surgery a few weeks ago for breast cancer (the day after her mother was buried) and was awaiting news on treatment plans. I remembered I had to drop the car at the garage when I was well past it and had to backtrack before even making it in to work and that doesn’t speak to the bill to retrieve on the return trip in the afternoon. The saga of the stomach bug continues, although I am trying to convince myself it is slowing down using the power of positive thinking. The workmen are encroaching on the hallway, stairs etc. outside my office door which has become an asbestos remediation zone. I need to go to the district facility and was hoping to do that tomorrow but…another storm is predicted so it’ll have to be Thursday. Sigh.

On the positive side I managed to snag a set of Samsonite luggage for $40 – used twice and cost over $400 new from a ‘childless by choice so disposable income colleague’ posted on the intranet bulletin board – for those days you feel like running away. My computer nerd friend who doesn’t give up fought with the DVD of my presentation and managed after an hours struggle to copy it for me. Let’s face it….great art should be preserved. I had a message from a friend saying her son had been granted a $21,000 per yr. award until he finishes his PhD – she’ll soon be able to say “my son the lawyer and my son the doctor” Can you just imagine how proud you’d be?

Not sure whether it’s negative or positive but daughter # 1 locked the keys in her car an hour away at WalMart while she was taking two teenagers to a movie. So…her father met her brother on the highway with the keys and gave him the gas card (don’t tell the secretary at the plant) to replace having to deliver them himself. It’s not as if we haven’t all done something like that – himself included.

And finally can you believe the story of the hoax the poor man in Jacksonville, Oregon suffered at the hands of a Craigslist posting? What a nightmare:

http://www.kgw.com/news-local/stories/kgw_032408_news_craigslist_hoax.1ffb2c9c.html