Efficiency

I get more done before breakfast.....

I exchanged one of the pair of jeans at K Mart, I ordered the flowers for Dennis, I picked up a wedding card for tomorrow and I filled up my gas tank. Filling up the gas tank wasn't on my "things to do" list but when I went out of the complex the gas station I go to most often which has been at $1.69 for months was at $1.79. Then, a relatively new station at the corner of Ford and Wayne was (and I still don't understand this) at $2.45. No kidding, $2.45 Regular, $2.55 and $2.65 higher grades. So when I passed a station that was still at $1.65 I grabbed it.

Ringing in the New Year

I thought I would update my blog from Erika's house but it turns out I have a hard time typing on her laptop, especially with little Jackson happy fingers wanting his turn.

I had a great Holliday with everybody around and then spending a few days at Erikas. Besides all the good Jackson time, we did get out to the Casino and went to see The Aviator yesterday.
I left early this morning to avoid all the rain and thundershowers that were predicted and I did avoid them. They were supposed to start here in Westland about noon but there's nothing yet.

I got home to three package deliveries inside my screen door. Even the one that said "Adult Signature Required". Not that I mind. It saved me a trip to Romulus to pick it up at the DHL depot. The first package (3 scripts) which had been sent "overnight" on the 22nd was delivered on the 28th according to their email notification. Express-scripts tried to charge me an $18.00 delivery charge but I called them this morning and they are taking it off. One of the packages (2 scripts) was delivered by USPS and in it one of the caps had broken and the pills were all over the bottom of the package. Only two capsules were actually broken but did it make a mess.

Our weather is on a roller coaster. We were below 0 last weekend and are expecting the 50s tomorrow.

Best Laid Plans

When I returned from shopping early this morning my plans were well laid. I planned not to leave the house until after Christmas. They predict 6 inches of snow tonight.

The purpose of my annual doctor visit is to refill prescriptions. I get my prescriptions by mail order and going to the doctor on 12/9 and then mailing the scripts in was cutting it pretty close. I had almost enough of my 4 maintenance meds to get through tomorrow (one of them ran out yesterday). I got a call from Express Scripts on the 14th saying they had received my order and were processing it. I figured no problem. Today I got a call from them saying that the prescriptions hadn't been filled out properly and they hadn't been able to verify everything with the doctor so they were sending out the 3 (of 6) that were ok and had to void the other 3 and were returning them to me. WHAT? WHICH 3? I had to give her a secret password before she would give me any further information.

She told me which ones, some of them didn't even have the name of the drug on them. I asked if I could get the doctor to call today could it be fixed. Well, she said, the ones that were voided would have to be rewritten. Couldn't they be called in, I asked. She didn't know but gave me the confirmation number to have the doctor ask for when he called in. I got in the car and drove to the doctor's office. I had no hope that my doctor would be in but its the office girls that do everything anyways.

They put me in touch with the girl (don't know if she was a nurse or not) that could help me, and she pulled my file and said that the pharmacy had faxed all 6 prescriptions back to the office and she personally had fixed them and faxed them back the same day, on the 14th. I asked if she would call them while I was there and tell me what they said. She was on the phone for a long time (I love her) and finally told me that all 6 prescriptions were being processed and I should receive them in 3 to 6 business days.

We have a lot of days coming up that are not business days, so she called Meijers for me and ordered a 14 day supply of the maintenance drugs. Then an hour long trip to Meijers (the street traffic, the parking lot traffic and the foot traffic in the store) and I'm all set for a couple of weeks.

The upshot is that there was a message from Express Scripts when I got home saying that this was a courtesy call to let me know that they had received my order on the 15th and it was being processed.

Aaargh

Frozen Mess

Remember when the temperature was 2? I had two 8/packs of plastic bottles and 2 12/packs of canned Diet Pepsi in my trunk. Now I have two 8/packs of frozen pepsi bottles and a big mess of frozen and broken cans all over the trunk. I couldn't figure out what the funny looking thing at the back of the trunk was. It looked like a small gas cap. It was the top of a pepsi can that had come clean off.

From this morning's shopping I left the chips and the crackers. At least they won't burst if they freeze.

Wayward Chocolate

Last night, in the spirit of not making too many trips, I brought three Hershey Kisses back to my chair with me as I came back from the kitchen. I like to unwrap them and line them up on my end table. then I bite off all of their peaks before I let each bottom half melt in my mouth.

Sounds good, right? Well, as I was unwrapping the third one, the chocolate morsel slipped off my lap. Just then the phone rang so I didn't follow its progress with my eyes. After conversing with Rita about her heat going off, and if the repair people didn't come out right away, of course, she should come to mine, I decided to go after the wayward chocolate (title bit).

I never found it.

I went out early this morning. The temperature was 2. I parked in the best space and had the store to myself.. No glittery top but KMart had twill pants on sale. I like their pants, they come in petite and all have pockets. I bought two pair in the spring (navy and white) and although they were comfortable when I tried them on, they fit better standing up than sitting around all day. The blue ones anyways. The white ones still have the tags on them. So I tried on a size bigger in black and beige. They were very baggy and dragged on the ground. So I ended up with two pair of Chic jeans (dark denim and black) that I like very much.

Then I went to Windsor Casino today and tomorrow. The bus arrived at the casino at about 2:00 and by 3:10 my money was all gone. All of my money and the $25.00 they gave me. I sat in the lobby for about 20 minutes contemplating how long the day was going to be without a TV or even a book.

Then I decided to act as tho it were tomorrow and I went to the bank machine and took out another $40.00. (I keep a canadian bank account for gambling purposes). Then I went and played downstairs and things started looking up. I was actually getting money back once in a while and almost holding my own.

The bad news is that downstairs the machines are still all coin and not ticket. So to avoid carrying so many coins I started playing quarters. I did OK on them and ended up at the poker machines. Tomorrow's money dwindled at a much slower pace and near the end of it, I hit 4 aces (which pays $40.00). I cashed in my coins and went back to the lobby for the last half hour to wait for the bus.

Now, I don't even have to leave the house tomorrow and I'm $5.00 ahead.

Baby its cold outside

I decided it was time that I bought a new glittery dressy top. The 14 day South American cruise has 4 or 5 formal nights and I haven't had anything new for years. Plus I am going to a wedding on January 1st for Nicole Beauregard (daughter of Paul who is son of John Robert) and I could wear it then. I went to Catherine's a couple days ago, armed with a 30% coupon and found nothing I liked. I planned to go to the Mall this morning (early before it got crowded) but like the title says, baby it was cold outside.

So I sat and dozed in my comfy chair and am now contemplating venturing out assuming most people are having dinner at this hour and it shouldn't be too crowded. Its still really cold and my shopping strategy is that I drive up to the store, and if there is no really close parking I move on to the next until I park really close or I come back home.

It would be a shame to venture out there just to drive around and come right back home. I'd better wait until tomorrow morning.

Finishing touches

Gretchen and Gordon just left here. She had a job interview and my guess is that now they are headed for a meeting before going back home. They put some finishing touches on my basement cleanup. Adrienne did the rough work while she was here. I haven't been down there to see how it looks yet but I did check that the lights are out. Something I failed to do before Adrienne left last week.

Gretchen said they broke down the boxes but left them stacked into two boxes pending my intended move. She also checked into old typewriters on ebay and all those advertised had been refurbished and none of us wants to bother getting a refurbisher.

As for the inexplicable crying. I remember periods of my life when crying was the most fun I had all day. It stops when its no fun anymore. Unfortunately that point comes for the bystander way before it does for the cryer.

New Dog in the Neighborhood

My next door neighbor, Carol, has a new dog. I haven't seen such a cute dog since Baily. He reminds me of Baily except his hair is short and curly. He's an all white, squirmy, little ball of fur. He reminds me of Cookie across the alley. I asked what kind he was and Carol said he is a special breed called Daisy (dog's name is Casey) bred for people with allergies. The breeder is in Grand Rapids and has a web site called daisydogs.com. Carol is going to be a very good mom.

The Holliday Park policy is no pets for new move-ins but if you had a pet and it dies you have a specific amount of time to replace it. I drove security Wednesday night with a lady that had only been here for 2 years and was getting a kitten. I had no plans to turn her in or anything but she continued with the explanation that she had been so depressed since her husband died last October that her doctor has written a prescription for a kitten and our board of directors is processing it. She is very excited and can't wait to get it. I'm happy to know there is a loophole for people who need it. I thought the no-pet policy was kind of harsh.

I'm Healthy

I had my annual doctor visit today and he said my tests were all excellent. I was able to answer no to all the questions about irregularities and allergies, they took bloodwork (those results in a few days) and an ekg and chest exray. I got to the exray place and it goes like this:

Are you having chest pains
No
Any caughing or congestion'
no
Do you smoke
no
Did you ever smoke
No
So why are you having the chest exray today
I figure its because I have Medicare

The facts that I can't stand more than 2 minutes, or walk more than 10 feet without sitting down, or the pain in my neck (which is almost all gone). Those are things that just happen.

So if my bloodwork is ok, he'll see me next year.

Haunted Pictures

One of the pictures on my picture totem must be haunted. This is the third day in a row that the thing has fallen down. I picked it up on Monday and yesterday Gretchen was here to set it back up. Today I picked it up, left it folded in thirds and leaned it up against the wall. I can see that one of the pictures has come loose from its frame but its between the folds and I don't know which one. This time, also, one of the hinges came apart and I picked up a couple of loose screws.

There is a carpet cleaning guy working next door and going back and forth to his truck and he is wearing only a t-shirt and shorts. It wasn't that warm when I went out this morning.

In case I forget, if anyone tries to use my Catch Phrase game and can't make it work, I have turned one of the batteries backwards because it kept going off by mistake.

Normality

Whatever that is, I am close to achieving it. From the time I dropped Adrienne at the airport, I didn't leave the house until yesterday afternoon. And I went to a Mall. As soon as I got home I crawled back into my chair and dozed the rest of the day. Now today, I've been up and out to the store and I even had breakfast. I fixed toast. That's the most complicated thing I've fixed for days.

The Flight of Time

We were having fun and time flew. The same airport that gave her to me two weeks ago swallowed her up again this morning. I thought I would come home and sleep for a week but so far not.

I am catching up on tapes I'm up to Boston Legal from 11/21. And speaking of tapes, I had forgotten one of the hazards of a cleaning person is that the aerials on the non-cable TVs gets moved around in the cleaning process so when I tried to tape The Apprentice last night I got staticy stuff with no sound. Lucky for me, the Apprentice is repeated tonight at 10 on CNBC.

The drive to the airport this morning was achieved at half-speed since the roads were coated with a thin layer of ice. But the sun is shining now.

Stephanie fixed Lasagna for dinner last night. I ate Lasagna for the first time in my life and it was way better than I would have expected. She told me her ingredients and I was fine with them. I would still never order it out though. After dinner we had a good game of Trivial Pursuit (20th Century) and me and Steph were being soundly defeated by Adrienne and Arn until I started listening to Steph more and accepting her answers, then we caught up. We still lost tho. Arn and Steph on a team together would have been pretty near unbeatable.

BTW I caught a Wave yesterday at Motor City to the tune of $80.00.

St. Vincent de Who

I will never give anything to those people again. They picked through all the stuff and left a big pile of garbage on my front lawn. They took only the things that looked like new and were still in the boxes. It was already almost dark when we got home and the task of cleaning all that up looked overwhelming. I called Jeff first because he has a truck. He wasn't home so I called Kelly. He wasn't home so I called Arnie. Arnie came to the rescue. Adrienne put what she could into my car and took it up to Salvation Army. There were some pretty big things (bed frame, table leafs etc) left that she didn't think would fit in the car. She was hoping Arnie would have an idea how to transport them. Before she got back, I was in the kitchen and there was a knock on the door. It was Arnie. He said, "Its all loaded up, where am I taking it". What a guy. We love him.