By Popular Demand

Actually only a request - or maybe hint - to update my blog. I do this little (nearly) daily update just for myself so when I'm old(er) I'll remember that I had a life, as mundane as it is. Things simply haven't been happening the past few days. Normally that doesn't stop me from writing, but I have been pretty occupied. I called Mike during lunch to tell him a piece of mail he had been expecting had arrived, and he was kind of busy - busy as in the kind of busy where you hear noise and laughter and clattering silverware in the background. He said, "How are you? You haven't been web logging lately." So this has taken the place of phone calls and emails. It's a one way street though. He knows everything about me, and I know nothing about him. On second thought, nothing's changed there.

I can't even remember anything interesting to mention. Every spare minute has been spent fighting with that little quilt. I found I had cut 16 of the little strips 1/2-inch too short and had to go looking through my remnants to see if I had any leftovers of that particular fabric. I did, thank goodness, but barely. Hope I don't find any more surprises. It's not really getting easier to square things up, but I think it may be because the sunroom where I sew is chilly. Maybe I'll bring the sewing machine to the kitchen table. The light is better in that bay window, and it's warmer. I don't like this cold at all.

Today was the first day of our official "punching in" at work. Getting ready to work at 8 a.m., I pulled up the web site for the clock and saw "Time Started 7:30 a.m. Hours worked on this shift 30,829." Wow, I should get a good paycheck this month. There are some more glitches (obviously) to be worked out, but I think I like it. It keeps me focused to know I have this little time frame to get my work done. I pretty much doubled my line count, although getting lots of dictation from my favorite doctor who says, "Use, the ENT normal. Use the cardiovascular normal. Use the pulmonary normal. Etc." helped tremendously. That means with just a few keystrokes I get a whole page of typing. I get happy when I see her name come up.

Mama is taking it seriously and says she will answer the phone and the doorbell and not come tell me who died in Andalusia until after work. Trouble is, I get most of my calls on the cell phone, and no one has gotten it through to the cats that things are different. Stella still rings the bell several times a morning for no apparent reason except to see me get up and open the door, just to scratch to get back in 10 minutes later. She know with her weapon of carpet-shredding claws, I'm her slave. Threatening to have her de-clawed hasn't seemed to make a difference.

Still waiting to hear from Emily about the actual wedding date. Something about pulling up sod and planting new grass at her friends' house where the wedding will be. They're having an open house or photo shoot or something the end of April and are putting down some kind of grass just for that, but I guess it's not what they want to grow there permanently. It looks like we're at the mercy of their landscaper as to when the wedding will be. Emily graduates the 9th of May and wants a couple of weeks to relax and get things done, so I hope it can stay the 30th.

Looks like I had a lot to say about nothing. Let me look for some interesting picture that has nothing at all to do with what I was saying. How about this one from a couple of years ago - the plumeria that came from Hawaii from Gray and Steph's honeymoon. It started out as a 2-inch-long stick. It's a big stick now with 2 branches, but pretty soon the leaves will come out, and it'll bloom again.