Thursday, December 29, 2011

My Week

I haven't done too much Christmas shopping but with supporting Alan, a plumber, and furnace repair, and dentist, plus all the busy activities, I look forward to just the movie. Saturday before Christmas, Alan and I went shopping for our food for Christmas dinner. Monday evening I had our last dance practice prior to the New Years historic ball. Tuesday I went to a Chinese buffet after work with some of the friends at the Old State Capitol. There were a number of December birthdays in the group as well as a holiday to celebrate. I was so stuffed. Afterward, I picked up a chicken dinner at the VFW for my son. After my dentist appointment, I volunteered at the OSC on Wednesday after work for the Old State Capitol’s Holiday Walk. The evening was really quite pleasant and there was a long line at the Santa House. We had a special candlelight tour of the Old State Capitol and our resident “Boy in Blue” talked about his life. Many of the shops were open late. The weather was pleasant and people came out. I wore my historic costume. I went to a church discussion group Thurs evening to talk on the topic of Advent. Most of the other sessions were lunch discussions. Dinner was also served. Discussed humility. How Mary said “My soul magnifies the Lord”. Fr Harman told us about how he got his mother a poinsettia every Christmas and always seemed excited every year despite the same (and expected) gift. He said well this year he happened to go to Quincy and picked one up there instead because his schedule was so busy. As a result, she told him, the poinsettia isn’t doing too well. Then here comes the stab, “Where did you get it?” The point was that we criticize things indirectly and point the finger at others. Fr John thanked the kitchen help for the meal and introduced me to a new name for an old dish, funeral potatoes. Those are the potatoes in a casserole dish with the cornflakes on top that are served at funerals. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Funeral_potatoes




Christmas eve my furnace quit, again. Brr. I’m till trouble with my furnace that is less than 2 years old. The local guy said I needed a dealer in this model because of warranty on the circuit board. I called the yahoo brothers that installed it for a referral in the model as a distributor. I told my story to Shawn Butler (referral). He's familiar with those Yahoos and has been following their jobs around fixing them. Furnace was repaired on Tuesday after Christmas. Two contact switches were bad. He also insulated and shifted the angle of the pipe in the attic. No extra charge since I paid $250 a week ago. We had difficulty lighting the un-split log to stay warm over Christmas.


Saturday morning I got groceries and supplies for Christmas with my son at Aldi and Walmart. On the way back to the car, I asked if he had seen any of the "PEOPLE OF WALMART". He looked at me funny and I repeated, "you know". He said he was lookin at one. I put my green jeans and purple coat in the Goodwill bag when I got back home. Saturday night I went to Mass with my sons and there was some fantastic singing. Christmas day we opened our presents. Sean loved the scope I gave him for his riffle and was totally surprised. We had ham and lots of trimmings. The kitchen was a busy place. But we ate in the living room because of the cold house. Then went to see the movie “War Horse”. It's been mild so far but that's about to change. It's freezing rain and there was snow on the ground when I got up for work Tuesday which quickly melted by 8AM. Even my outdoor cat came in. Glad I took the dogs for a short walk earlier. The furnace was repaired Tuesday morning. Something about 2 contact switches that were locked up. He also did some insulating around the pipe in the attic. He said he found a cat up there. Must have been my cat, Dave. I started the motorcycles up on Christmas Day after seeing a rider go by in sunny 47 degrees. The Aero started up almost right away but the little one didn't want to start so I had the charger put on. That means the seat has to be removed. Then it quickly fired up. Hardly seems worth it to get all leathered up just to go around the block. But it is good to let it run awhile. Besides my we went to a movie at 3. Alan got some EvoraPet oral care for my dog's bad breath. Funny thing is that his pedigree name is Bentley's Titanium Kiss and his kisses smell real foul. He has fractured teeth and won't let me in to brush. This stuff seems to work and I was a skeptic. http://cooltvoffers.com/evora-pet-oral-care/ Alan saw it on TV.




Funny thing happened at work since I also filter our help desk tickets to those that can fix things. A lady in could not access her application and the one that usually handles this was off for the holidays so I sent it to Chuck, the number 2 man. He asked “Has this person ever been able to get into this application? Does this person have the correct rights? Is this a new person?” I called and she said she had gotten into the database on Friday. So Chuck, (who also has her phone number) asks me to call and ask her “what has changed?” Knowing full well I’ll get an answer “I don’t know”. I’m a middle man!!!


I got ‘free mail’ from a lady soldier through the Soldiers Angels Ladies of Liberty Team that I sent a box to on Nov 17th. Whoo Hooo!


Tuesday night I stopped by the Apple shop (not an Apple store since the nearest is in St Louis) to ask about a cable that came with my new laptop. Seems it was more like an extension cord that goes into my existing charger. I have to remove a part to plug that extension cord in so all I can see is a risk of losing that part. I stopped by the VFW, not to pick up my usual chicken dinner but to drop off some pictures that I ordered via Snap fish of the Purple Heart Viola Day fundraiser. I also discussed with Bob about the group for our post that I started on MyVFW.org. I was so exhausted that I crashed in bed by 8PM and got up at 6. My YMCA lunch time exercise sessions have been free these 2 holiday weeks.Alan has a potential interview for a human resource job in Danville, IL at the Veterans Administration.




I’m getting ready for the Historic Civil War ball. Practicing by watching the videos online and repeating the steps in my head. Here’s my dress and headpiece. I’ve had to shorten the dress between the ruffles and added black velvet puff sleeves to make the dress more conservative. Here are the dances:










Oh Susanna (easy)






Duke of Kent’s Waltz




Spanish Waltz (moderate)




Ted’s Triplet (moderate



Opera reel (moderate)



Corn Rigs (moderate)





I found a real nice dressy dress for next year’s committee party at the Hilton for only $5 at the Goodwill store. It’s just a little low cut so I got a piece for that. Also found a nice pair of shoes for dancing because the pair I had were too tight despite the correct size.
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