Busy weekend is what I had.
Company Friday night. The Holts (Rush and Annie) came Friday night. I stopped at Ken's for a visit and a drink, and to drop off a quart of SoCo, something he asked me to get in Plattsburgh, where it's cheaper. Holts arrived at 9:30 and stayed at my house for the night, as they have no power in their camp right now due to construction project. They got up early (6:30) Sat. morning, I slept until 8. It was 5 degrees during the night but my house is warm. Rush went down to build a fire and get their camp warm so they could spend the day there and set up for the weekend. I had planned to spend the day cleaning my house in prep. for the real estate appraiser's visit on Monday morning. Got distracted, got very sad. Talked to Liza, had a nice visit with her but we talked about Christmas and I just have a very difficult time thinking about Christmas. Henry really liked Christmas, it was pure joy for him to give people presents. He loved shopping by himself in RI, exploring, then returning to his favorite stores each year. We had such nice Christmas mornings together, so peaceful and loving. He was so playful and great to be with. I just will miss that a lot this year. I already see things that I would like to get for him this year, which is what I did when Spaulding died too. But you have to keep on doing the things that you do, don't you. Anyway, I spent the afternoon crying and feeling very, very sad. Not productive but cathartic. Saturday night the Holts and I went out to dinner and had a really nice time. They are very comforting and supportive and are good friends. We talked about my going to Washington for Rush's swearing in ceremony on Jan. 4th and having Annie and me spend a few days there seeing the sights. That would be really nice but I'll just be getting back from RI and I don't know about taking more time off, leaving my house, etc. We'll see.

Sunday I slept really late, not having slept well during the night. Still have sleep issues. Sunday dinner was a lot of fun, two of my favorite campers were there. They always come for a weekend in November for what they call Extreme Work Weekend. They don't get that much work done but they have a lot of fun together. They're very boyish and cute. One of them, Duncan, is everyone's favorite. He's handsome, charming and every woman adores him. We all feel his wife is not nearly worthy of him, of course. He lives in Minn. So anyway I got to be with Duncan and Dave, which was fun. They make me laugh. After dinner I went to show Rush and Annie my friends the Guckers' house, because the Holts are starting to design their house here and are looking at different elements. I knew they'd be interested in the Guckers', since it's really a beautiful house that they designed themselves and has lots of interesting elements. It was great to see Peter and Robin, we used to spend so much time together. Their kids are now 9 and 12 so it was fun to see them too. They're building a cabin right on the water and it's beautiful, simple but really nice. Peter and Robin seem really happy, which is nice--there were some times when they were not happy together so I like it that they've worked things out. Rush & Annie really liked their house and it was nice of P & R to show it off. It was a beautiful day, warm and sunny.

I went home and watched Mean Girls, a funny movie I'd wanted to see because it was written by a Saturday Night Live woman. It's a teen flick but was good. I'm watching lots of DVD's because I joined the Blockbuster DVD club so I get them in the mail. It's like Netflix. I'm not sure why I did it but it seems to be working out. We'll see how long I do this for. All those channels on tv didn't seem to be enough, I guess. All the HBO shows are on hiatus and there are too many reality shows on the networks.

This morning I had the real estate appraiser come at 7:00. The dogs were obnoxious but he was fine because he has 2 bull mastiffs (yuck) and a pug. He could almost control my dogs. He only took 15 minutes, measured the house with a laser thing, then walked through all the rooms. I sat in the living room and left him alone. He asked a couple of questions then left. I have no idea what he thought. The house was tidy but messy, the usual clutter. Vacuumed, dusted, surfaces cleaned but stuff all over the place. Books on the stairs, basket making stuff all over. Made me think I really need to live my life differently. But then I've had that thought many times before. Now that he's come and gone I can move my bed onto to the floor upstairs. First I have to Tess-proof the hallway. That's no small task.

And now I'm at work. Today I have to go to Elizabethtown with the director to a 50th birthday party for the system. Someone else was supposed to go with us but she's sick so it'll be just the two of us. ick. This afternoon I have an appointment with the chiropractor. My sciatica has been bothering me a lot even though I'm walking often. Too much sitting. Tomorrow I do round two of data base searching training. My training on Friday didn't work out very well because the part of the data base I wanted to use wasn't accessible. The attendees were good, though, and I made do with what was accessible. Hopefully tomorrow's session will be better. There are more people signed up. It's in E'town, so back I'll go.

Supposed to be 50 today. Good day to do work at home. While I was away from home yesterday someone moved a load of wood into my wood shed and cleaned up the piles outside. I think it was Rush because we had talked about my need to do that, but I'm not sure it was him. I have good friends. He must have done it while I was at Sunday dinner. I can't call him to thank him because their phone isn't working. I'll have to wait until they get back to NJ to thank him. I'll send an email in the meantime.