KathySRW

Pass the chips.

Wednesday, August 22, 2007

I'm sitting in our reclining chair in our living room, on my work laptop, on our home wireless.

We got a new roof this week. The roofers even came back at 7:45 am Sunday morning to put some finishing touches on it. I felt sorry for our neighbors. We were not expecting them at all that day. I'm sure with two more hours of hammering and buzz sawing at that hour on a Sunday morning, anyone withing two block of us wanted to kill us. And if they do, I don't blame them.

A few weeks ago, we had someone look at a stain on our living room ceiling, he went on the roof and found the hole in a piece of metal up there that was allowing water through, but he also saw so much hail damage he said , with all this hail damage, you could get your insurance to pay for a whole new roof, not just fix this one tiny piece of metal. So we went for it, insurance agreed the hail damage was extensive, when thier claims person came and looked at it, so we're getting a new roof , and finally decent gutters.

Last week I went to Ukiah , California to visit a client. I didn't want to go. Weeks earlier, they had complained to several administrators that they did not feel that they were well trained on our software the first time, and that they needed a lot of help. So I was elected, and I did agree to go , but I felt that I agreed to do so, under duress. And I was especially offended when an account manager agreed she was going with me, and that she'd drive from San Francisco airport to Ukiah because she'd been there before and knew the way, and then once I had my travel plans to match hers, she rescheduled them 2 weeks in to the future, so I rescheduled mine to match hers again, and then she pulled out and told me she wasn't going with me , I'd have to fly out, rent a car, and drive myself.

Well I did, anyway. Spent two ful days at their medical clinic, met a lot of their staff, sat with them, had me explain what their needs were, showed them features they didn't know about or hadn't been using correctly. By the time I left, I was getting a lot of good feedback that they felt my visit was helpful, and I'm still hearing about it this week as well. So I guess some good came out of it. And upon my return trip through San Francisco, and old childhood friend Dani ,who ran away from home , to San Francisco, when we were 15, agreed to meet with me! I was so excited to see her. I mapquested her suggested restaurant and we met at Tommy's Joynt on Van Ness Street in San Francsico, and talked all night. I really enjoyed seeing her.

This week my 13 year old daughter is away at Japanese Language camp. They sent us an email link to their web site, and every day they post about 20 pictures from the day before, so every day we get to see pictures of her doing group activities at camp!

Sunday was the suburb of Mounds View's annual summer festival. My husband agreed to work at the Lions Club hot dog stand. I agreed to Sons of Norway that my kids and I would ride in the Viking Ship float one guy was making out of a pick up truck in his driveway. Well it poured rain outside all day. The rain stopped just long enough for the parade, but the Viking Ship never arrived. About 6 of us old ladies, the other all much older than me, stood at the point of the parade route where one guy was supposed to bring his Viking Ship float, but he never showed up. I sent the kids along to ride on this little Lions Club hay-wagon that my husband was on. I offered to the other Sons of Norway ladies we could just walk the parade route, but they almost fainted at the suggestion. It wasn't even that long. But it was more than they were up to. So we just watched the parade go by, from there.

As soon as my husband and kids pulled around again to the parade finish line, which was also its starting line, the clouds burst and it started pouring again . I took my kids home, and after only about less than 2 hours my husband called to ask me if I could come back right away and help the Lions Club take their stand down. The Weather Service had issued a severe thunderstorm warning for Ramsay County, so the City of Moundsview just shut down the festival and asked everyone to close at 4 pm. So the Lions didn't make much money, which is rough for them . And we all got soaked.

A few months ago I researched an email address for the author of a memoir I had recently enjoyed "I was a Teen Age Norwegian," wrote him, and told him how much I enjoyed reading the book. I even told him how I have even up until now refused to read the last 5 pages, so it won't be "over." And he emailed me back and asked my address. I had amost forgotten he'd done that, then, this week, he mailed me a very professionally made video tape of himself reading from the book and displaying photographs from his real experience as an exchange student to Tromsø in 1961! it's a good 1/2 hour long. It's so great. Clearly it's meant to advertise the book, so I'll be passing it around when I've seen it one or two more times. But I seriously wasn't expecting that!

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