Off to the Windy....

Wow, it has been a while. Time flies when you're working 50-60 hours a week......

Anyway, I am a much happier person now that the heat has quit and Fall is finally here!!!! The trees aren't real pretty due to the heat and dry (we are officially in a severe draught), but the cool air is Divine. I haven't turned the heat on yet....but I may have to here in the next few days. It is supposed to get down to freezing tonight....brrrrrr. I am grateful for that too...as it will finally put a screeching halt to the allergens out there.

I am on my way Sat morn to the Windy City to attend this year's PackExpo. Work is sending me so I get paid for this....way cool. I will be staying right downtown Chicago. In a big swanky hotel...I don't even have clothes nice enough to walk into the lobby! They will probably park my little Chevy way back in a corner somewhere so it won't embarrass the Benz's and Beemers. But I am sooooo looking forward to a break from the Plant.

I worked almost 60 hours this week....in 4 days. I have tomorrow off to get ready to go. We had the line down for a semi-annual maintenance break of 2.5 round the clock days of ripping and tearing equipment apart and reassembling. We filleted the packer and disemboweled the filler. I had about 8 mechanics, 2 electricians, and 4 or 5 technicians working around the clock. We did an incredible amount of work and then started everything back up yesterday. We came up pretty well.....except for the labelers....we didn't even work on the labelers and they cost us about 5 hours all together. But she is running like the cold wind outside tonight. Good .... I'm exhausted.

We have had it all this week in weather. Hot on the weekend, then we had Tornado warnings Tuesday, windy and rain yesterday and now the temp is taking a nosedive. Wheeeeeee.

Well, I better head to bed or I won't get up tomorrow. The road beckons. Later........

The Heat is On.....

And on, and on, and on......it is too hot for humans. Everyone is miserable this summer. I just paid the biggest electric bill I have ever paid since I have owned this house. Oh well..... I honestly think we are getting paybacks because last summer was so cool and nice. My grass is dead, the plants that were soooo pretty in front have succumbed, and the weeds have taken over. But I am not getting out there in this heat and pulling weeds nor am I paying for the water to keep the plants...I can replant cheaper than I can water. I sound like Scrooge.

I had a TA-DA day the other day! I got the drawings done for my multi-canvas painting that has been swimming around in my head for months! Now I just have to get brave enough to get the drawings transferred to the canvases. It will be 3 canvases, each 30" x 40". They are to go on my big "Hershey bar wall" in the family room. That wall is exactly the color of melted milk chocolate...yummmm. Anyway...I haven't put up any art work in the house since the remodel and I have had a new easel, the canvases, new water soluble oil paints, and new brushes for months. I finally got the bug. This is the first large canvas project and the first multi canvas project. I hope I don't screw it up.

I have to go to work for a couple hours this morning to catch up on some stuff while it is quiet in there. Then I have to go back to Sam's and pick up the peanut butter I forgot yesterday...jeez.
Then I come home to do laundry, clean house, etc. And tomorrow I may spend the day putting something on those canvases. I had Friday off and I have Monday off. Made myself a long weekend.

We'll see.....

It was a grand vacation.....

Well, A&T are officially Mr and Mrs now! It was a beautiful ceremony. The bride was stunning. The groom the picture of cool, calm, collected. The music was wonderful (cello). It was perfect. The reception under the tent was delightful. The food was great. All had a grand time. It was a long day, but a goodie. I can't wait to see all the pictures from the photographer.

The next couple days got us all back to normal. All the cleanup and breakdown. They came to get the tent the next day and all the tables, chairs, and buffet stuff had to be broke down and cleaned after the festivities ended on the night before. We had watched them put the tent up a couple days before the wedding and it was quite the process. It came down much easier than we thought it would considering the big jackhammer type thing they used to sink the stakes (that acutally were giant nails). They just whacked the stakes a few times with a sledge and up they came. We just happened to look out the window just as the youngest of the crew missed the stake with the sledge and took a glancing blow on his ankle. OUCH. He was fine...just a little gimpy.

The day after the day after didn't start out so good. Mo was running a very high fever and it got worse. We eventually found out on Tuesday (Monday being the holiday and the doctor wasn't in...we did talk to her tho) that she had a real bad kidney infection and as soon as she got a couple doses of the antibiotic down...she felt much, much better. But she essentially spent 2 1/2 days in bed shaking, sweating, and feeling like she had been hit by a truck. She is up and around now and feels pretty good, but is still fighting the infection and is wiped out most of the time. I hope it all goes totally away very soon.

I got home yesterday after 10 days away. Nice to be home, but I really didn't want to leave. I have to go back to the grind Monday morning. No more sleeping in till 6 or 7am. Must be up at 3:45am. yuk I did mountains of laundry today. Still have some things to put away.

I got the leak under my kitchen sink fixed today too. I called the contractor this morning and Jeff came and spent a couple hours under the sink. But I think we got it fixed for good this time. I had a leak in one of the pvc connections and because it was so damp under there, I also had ants. I got rid of the ants before I left on vacation and now the leak is fixed, so I should not see the ants return. Cross your fingers.

I need to go put the car back in the garage. I had to have the XM radio reset because I changed packages and am now not going to receive all the channels....only the music ones. So they had to reset my receiver in the car. The guy I talked to was incredibly hard to understand and didn't understand what I needed to do either. We finally got it all straight .... I hope. I will see here in a minute. I had to put the car outside to receive the signal. It doesn't work in the garage.

Well, I better get to it. And I need to get myself in the bed. I don't wanna. Later......