Happy Christmas!!

This is husband's kitty collection, today added a half dozen more collectibles, three of them are worthy of a giggle or two this trio all possess large whiskers with a bulb on the end.  I found three blue delft like porcelain kitty's playing with balls, all slightly different, found those in a downtown spot.  There are also several very nice three dimensional birthday cards featuring cats.  Go ahead click on picture to make BIG and take a closer look, please ignore the dust.

Also a couple somber discoveries, my brother in law brought his computer tool kit to look over my two aging computers.  The tower was pronounced dead as a doornail, the sound card and video card are dead, dead, DEAD.  He recommended getting a newer cheaper computer rather than try to find the OLDER MORE EXPENSIVE dead sound and video cards.  Huh, how about that!?

Also the lap top is glacially slow, only has a gig of memory, 50% of which is dedicated to programs I need to run, need more memory,  again the recommendation is that I invest in a newer cheaper computer.  Oh well tax refunds are coming in March.  Along with the unexpected expenses of getting the bathroom leak fixed.  If it ain't one thing, it's another, thanks Del.

SEASON'S GREETINGS, ETC.

Happy Holidays!

Happy Birthday tomorrow, Brother James!

We are expecting visitors today, so am baking turkey today rather than tomorrow, have already prepared golden potato casserole, dressing, pumpkin pie, various condiments and a green salad of slaw.  Yummy. 

AND we have been visited by the Ghost of Plumbers past.  Husband noticed something and called me to witness.....
a drip over the kitchen sink and then directing ones eye upward, I seen clearly where it is dripping, I estimate the drip to come from the upstairs bathroom somewhere beneath the damn bathtub.  Hello?  Bateman Plumbing would you......

Decorating, etc.

We finally decided to decorate our department wreath in honor of Judy.  On a more criminal note, the kitchen's wreath consisted of a Nativity scene.  Someone kidnapped baby Jesus, no ransom note, nothing.  A plea to return baby Jesus was posted on the wreath.  The kitchen supervisor threatened damnation because the Nativity set was a personal item belonging to one of the chefs.  Eventually the mystery was solved, the kidnapper had stolen baby Jesus, wrapped it a Christmas gift under the employee tree in the dining room addressed to last year's baby Jesus kidnapper when the same crime was committed against the Nativity set from the surgery crew.  Cooler minds intervened, unwrapped baby Jesus, returned him to his rightful owner and re-wrapped the box and returned the gift to the tree.  Er, demented Gift of the Magi by O. Brother.

The sum total of my season's decorations. Done! Done! Done!

Little dance in the end zone done!

Oooh Picture windows....

The glaziers/construction crews got around to installing windows on the front upper level.  This will be the entrance for patients coming for laboratory tests and radiology examinations. 

This week has seen the Christmas decorations go up,  we are once again faced with decorating an artificial Christmas wreath. 

It lay around for well over a week while departments smartly hung their finished products.  This morning I suddenly thought that it might be nice if we decorated the wreath as a memorial wreath for Judy Kollen.  Everyone else fell in with the idea as no one else had had time to even think about the project. So, I went to the flower shop and the lady cheerfully gave me three yards each of wide black ribbon and thin red ribbon. There was also a nice fabric "window" with a lacy angel to hang in the middle.  I also had some red ornaments.  I went to the hospital and dragged home the wreath and the embossing machine.  I embossed three strips In Memoriam Judy Kollen 1939/2011, those all had peel and stick backing that went on the lace window very well.  The ribbons wrapped around the wreath and I used five or six shiny red plain ornaments to fill in the voids between the ribbon and voila, our finished wreath.  Housekeeping loaned us on those magic decoration hanging devices.  I will take a picture Sunday.

On a slightly different season note I have made two batches of fruit cake this year.  The first batch involved dragging out the various packets of dried fruit I had squirreled away and soaking the fruit in rum over night.  I found dried mangoes, raisins, dried cranberries, apricots, apples, pears, peaches, candied pineapple and cherries.  I also found pecans, cashews, Brazil nuts and walnuts.  Since this was a biggish batch I doubled the recipe and got 8 loaf pans.

I made a second non alcoholic batch the next day with dried dates, raisins, cherry flavored cranberries, golden raisins, dried applies and walnuts.  House smelled pretty good.  Do be careful when you bite down, some of that fruit is a little on the crunchy side.

My inheiritance

Today Judy's son, Don, called to say that he was going to bring over some books that Judy wanted me to have.  Okay......

The back of his truck was FULL. OF. BOXES.

Sixteen of them.  Husband and I helped bring them inside.  I thanked Don and he left promising MORE BOXES.  That cleaned out the bedroom.  He said there were more books hidden way. Oh, dear.

My, God I had no idea she had collected so many books.  I will have to drag my laptop down stairs with the book collection program and the bar code scanner.  No idea how many individual books there are but I'm think close to a 1000, makes that used book store look better and better.  Need more shelves, need a very cheap rental downtown somewhere for a store front, either that or I start selling like crazy online.  

IT HAS BEEN A WHILE

This a variety of task chairs on display for testing and voting by the employees.  That first one looks hideously uncomfortable but rides surprisingly well.  

I like this one it is mesh material, very comfy and quite spendy,
I have great taste.

And how for something on a sad note.  Last Wednesday 11-23 my first boss lady here was killed in a car accident.  I will miss her, she retired a few years ago and got to enjoy a few years of fishing on the Coquille during the steel head and salmon runs.  I actually called her one day in 1999, husband and I had purchased the house here and since Y2K was looming, it seemed to be the better part of caution to relocate before the computers refused to work.  And my aren't we glad that worked out well.  Anyway husband was already here, I called CVH to see what if anything was available.  I networked with Judy.  She called me back a couple months later to say there would be a transcriptionist position open soon, was I interested, yeah, anything to pay the bills.   So I made arrangements to leave the frozen north and move to lovely rainy Southern Oregon Coast.  By the time I got here, late December, Judy was off with a bad sprained ankle or some darn thing.   I interviewed with the hospital administrator and the business office manager who hired me and I begged for a little vacation and started January 2000.  As it turned out I became acting manager almost immediately and sort of fell into the job.  Thank you, Judy, I hope there is a fishing stream and good book with your name on it.

On an electronic note; I opted to purchase the Kindle Fire.
It is much more than I hoped for.  I can access my books, I can access my email and I can access my blog.  Still have to edit blog at home but I am astounded by this little tech marvel.   The screen is lit, I. CAN. READ. IN. THE. DARK!!!!!