Thursday

It has been a few days since I wrote an entry.   Had off today and I was glad.   I am really ready for three days a week.   It is as hot as August.   I find I breathe better when the A/C is on.    This Saturday my lady friends and I are going to the Phipps.   My allergist/ asthma doctor  said  the show is great.   The best time to go it at 7  pm.   You get to see the show in daylight and at night.    Maybe E and I could go later this summer at this time....

On Sunday we re going to lunch with Cs elderly aunt.   She has some pictures and I am going to give her some of the research that I have acquired. 

I guess I have a full weekend.   I am gettign behind on things.   Especially my reading.  Had to renew six books that I   hadn't gotten around to reading.

"Life is an adventure in forgiveness."
Norman Cousins
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Sometimes I'd rather smack the suckers.............Because it is illegal to kill them.......

Sunday

"A nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people."
John F. Kennedy

Guess that applies to a lot of countries in the world today.    It also applied to Governor Rendell.   There was a referendum on the latest ballot.  "Would you support an increase of 0.9% in your earned income tax in favor of a reduction in property tax?    What kind of idiots do they think we are?   The tax is now 1% and that essential raises the tax 90%.  It did not say when or how much the property tax would go down.....It would also leave it up to the school board to raise taxes when the want.

And His honor the governor said that it failed (by about 95%0  because the people of Pennsylvania "did not understand it"    WE DID UNDERSTAND IT GOVERNOR RENDELL   We the people did not want our taxes increased.   The governments answer to everything is tax increase, and we the citizens say  "live within your budget"  All the rest of have to do that.   We all are on a "fixed income"   we can't go to our employer and demand a raise.   Spend less, we do not need palacial schools and palacial sports venues for the high school teams......

I also feel that a lot of our elected officials (Hillary) for instance think we are too stupid to think for ourselves too.  Our elected officials do not do what the people want they do what the lobbiest and PACs want.   What a country, and it is one of the best !!!!!!!!!!

Sunday

Been thinking about vacation.  This year five of the six sibs have rented a beach house.    It sleep about 100 people.   Not really  I forget how many people it sleeps.   It has two (not just one) swimming pools and jacuzzis, so we can all sit with water shooting up our arses.

   w042- Corolla Whalehead Outer Banks Beach Vacation Rental Home North Carolina

The nice thing with us if someone is getting on your nerves you can jsut tell them.  We get along well.   I know some don't talk to their subs, but, ours is pretty good.   

I have to plan what to cook for one meal a week.   C suggested steaks.  To buy steaks for 17 people would be expensive,  guess he didn't know it is about $10 a pound.  Probably more at the beach.    When we make the reservations E. wanted to know if she got her own room.   Only if you are married do you get your own room..........

Thats about it for now.   Probably going to see the Pirates of the Carribean this evening.  I can stay out LATE since I don't have to go to work tomorrow.

Saturday

It has been sort of a boring day.   It was downright boring.   Got up early and went grocery shopping.   Everything gets more and more expensive.    The rules of supply and demand aren't working because the supply is an artificially created one.   Like the gas for instance.   The oil companies control the supply of oil and its production.   I am conservative in my usage.  There isn't reliable mass transit that I could take to work.  The mass transit in Allegheny County is a joke.  When I lived in New Jersey I drove 5 minutes to the train station.  Parking was free.  I waited no more than 5 to 7 minutes for the commuter train and was in Philadelphia in 30 minutes.   One block walk and I was at the hospital.   It was faster and cheaper to ride rather than drive.   It was also convenient.   We have none of that here.

Went to the farmers market and what was for sale were flats and more flats of flowers.  Mine are already planted so I didn't need them.   Also two bakeries were with all sorts of tempting sweets.  I managed to resist, but the did look might good.   Then home again.  I really got sort of tired. Maybe it was just a blah and restless day for me.  Hope tomorrow my mood will improve.

Thomas Jefferson

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be. The functionaries of every government have propensities to command at will the liberty and property of their constituents. There is no safe deposit for these but with the people themselves; nor can they be safe with them without information. Where the press is free, and every man able to read, all is safe."
Thomas Jefferson

Someone asked me one day if I could meet andyone who existed in history and have dinner with them,who would I choose.   My choice would be Thomas Jefferson.    The most common answer was Jesus Christ. 

I am going to have to go and take more pictures just so I can post them. Work was long and uneventful... Three people on vacation and three off on LOA.   One is in the Army and I don't know if I will see him again.  Especially since W talks about this summer being "bloody"  

The movie E wanted to see was in town for four days.  What kind of movie is that.  It did not even play on a weekend.    Both C and E are working tomorrow.  Don't know what I will do but I will find something.   Pirates of the Caribbean is out, but boy will it be crowded.

Thursday

I feel parched, just like this cacti.   Our limousine scavenger hunt was canceled.   He couldn't find us any one to join up with us.   I would have been fun.  I can't believe it is so hot for May.   If it is this hot, how hot will July be? 

Work is the same.   I am tired of it.   Actually, I think I have been tired of it most of my life.    My ideal job would have been taking pictures for travel magazines or brochures.   Today felt like Friday, I was disappointed to know it was Thursday.  Tomorrow is tight.  Guess I will take my lunch and be happy if I get a break to eat it.

Guess E and I will go and see a movie on Saturday.  

 

Wednesday

I do love these pictures.  Got my little article written and sent off.  I told her if it wasn't ok I would not be insulted if she didn't use it.   I have also been sending her links for the genealogy research.    Next weekend we are having lunch with my husbands elderly aunt.  She is the last one left of that generation.   I guess she is some where in her upper eighty's.   I am going to bring dessert.   Have two places in mind, either the Oakmont bakery or Christopher's Sweet Shop.

The US Open starts in a few week.  It will be in the other end of my boro.  I have decided to avoid Oakmont for the entire week.  We canceled our genealogy meeting for the month of June.   It will be a madhouse.  Some people are renting out their houses and taking a vacation that week.  I have heard that they are getting $10,000 for the week.  That fall under my categorization of having more money than brains.

I transferred some pictures to a new album, but I can't find them when I click the camera icon.   Where do they go????

 Work today.  The mental giants where I work came up with a new record.   The goal was to have the same in all the hospitals.   All they did was screw it up royally.   A simple one page record morphed into a three page, redundant quagmire.   Why on earth would a person want a chart that you need to sign three time, record the date three times and enter information three different times.   Ithas increased the turnover time by ten minutes because you need that much time trying to figure out if you missed checking a box or signing a blank.    This shows the old adage don't fix it if it is not broken.

Off tomorrow and it is my daughters birthday.   She will be 25.  Cannot believe it. 

 How did I do it???  I am to write a article for the genelogical newsletter.  Well, I guess I have enough practice writing.   Have to get started on it.   Don't think it will take too long, because it is a brief newsletter.

 

Monday

 

I really have to add some pictures to my aol album

Monday

Today was back to work.   I feel like I never left.   All in all it wasn't a bad day but I just don't want to be there.    Everyday it is new crap.    Now, a federal case is being made about the refrigerator temperatures.   And the person on call the first Sunday of the month has to clean the fridge........WTF   There is so much Mickey Mouse bull shit.

Work tomorrow and off Wednesday.........high maintenance hair appointment.   It is begining to look shabby to me.   Should have had it done last week.    Now I am looking forward to my week off in July......going to visit my friend in TN.  We always have a good time.

Still searching for my ancestors......  I talke to some peopel who have been doing this for 20 years.  I am impatient and only have been at this for 8 months.

It is really dificult to take pictures of fireworks with a camera held in your hand,.

 

Sunday

I think I may have gotten the hang of it.   Spent the day going to Ross Park Mall.  It is a drive but it is worth it.   Our local mall (Monroeville) is really on the downswing.   It is such a nice location but the demographics leave much to be desired.   A lot of unsavory denziens in the evening.   I would only go there in the mornings.   The above mentioned denziens are still at home sleeping.

This picture is also from the Phipps.

 

Sunday

Phipps

This is a picture taken at Phipps Conservatory.  I thought it would be hard to do.  But taking the picture of the fish in water turned out fairly well.    The biggest thing I would saw for amaterus is DON'T USE THE FLASH.   The water will act like a mirror and you would probably scare the fish.

I will just now have to go and take more picture of figure out how to get them here from the my pictues in windows.

Saturday

The problem is operator error.  I found the easiest way to add pictures are to  add them to your aol pictures and then send them on their way to the journal.    I have a few trips planned this year.   The first is in July when I am going to visit my friend  in TN.   The last time I was there I took a lot of really neat "old barn"  pictures.  I added them to my computer and they disappeared.   I was using the photoshop program and somehow I didn't SAVE them.  I discovered their disapperence after I deleted them from my camera.     GOOD GRIEF.    I switched I will now add them to aol and click on the option to save them into a file......  I even tried  a  *jpg search and they were truly not there.  So, lesson learned,  never eliminate the photos from your card before you actually see them in the file folder......

The experts say the way to preserve your brain is to use it and learn.  Well,  I am spending a lot of energy trying to figure out this damn computer.    I have only owned it for three years, possible it is four.    

The second trip it to the shore.   Will take a lot of pictures there.  And lastly is a trip to Williamburg VA for a professional meeting.   My brother lives there and there is lots to do.  It is in October and the scenery should be great.

This summer I would also like to resume my watercolor painting.  My daughter said I should sell them.  I told her to do that after I  am dead.  They are more valueable then.  Just look at Andy Warhol

Warhol   I live in Pittsburgh and never made it there.  May I will put it on my list of things to do.   I did better than that I just joined the Carnegie.  For two people, four museums and unlimited visits.  wow what a deal !!!!!!!!  

Now where did it go??    I add a picture and it was too large.  I then tried to delete it and got two medium.    How do I eliminate one.   I feel like Goldilocks.

How about that

I think they changed the format here.    After a lot of bitching and moaning about how to add pictures and trying to figure it out...EUREKA  the link appeared.    When I click large it was truly large.       The picture of of lilacs that I took on Tuesday when I went on an outing with my sisters.   

Going out today with the ladies.   My friend Rosemary had started a "Red Hats" group and it had about thirty people.   Well, it has dwindled to bout four regulars.   I guess we were not enough fun for the rest.   Or either we did not do enough fun things.

I am still working on genealogy and have sent contacts on a few likely candidates about (hopefully) people in the relationship.  I also found out in my search that the census records from Ireland were burn't in a fire circa 1925.  That is a bummer.  My friend Mary said I would hav to go to Ireland and search the Church records.   My sisters said they would come with me.   I hate to fly but maybe I should renew my passport.....

Friday

This is the second time I have started this damn entry.   I had three paragraphs and click on the above "allow list of selected Web site."   Somehow I got lost in updating your profile and never got to the place where you could do it.  Sometimes this is soooooooooooo aggravating.

This has been a mental health week off.   I did not do a whole hell of a lot and I am proud of it.     Monday was purchase and plant flower and herbs.   Last year I planted contained tomatoes and that damn chipmunk ate them.   When I was thinking of picking them he had already beat me to it.   I will buy them at the farmers market and I hope he/she starves.    My sister has a five foot fence around her garden and the dear leap the fence and eat her things.   I could not believe how high those deer can jump.   We find them dead all over the roads here.    There is a deer and rodent kill squad out there.  Some days all you can see are raccoons and possums dead on the road.  I would not like the job of collecting them

My daughter said one day she followed a truck who was collecting the deer carcass.   They had the bodies stacked like cord wood in the back of a truck.  It was sort of a funny macabre sight.   I bet it smelled very nice too. 

I would like to have a week off ever month.   What I would really like is a sabatical like the school teachers.   In the history of RN's there has NEVER EVER  been a sabatical in health care.   I wish my mother had told me to be teacher because i would be retired by now.

 

 

 

 

Tueday

This is the second time I have started this. I went to check the weather map and minimized this page and it disappeared.   I am OFF this week.  Yesterday I bought and planted flowers and herbs.   Today is hot and my sisters and I spent the day in Smicksberg PA.   It is an Amish community and there are a lot of craft shops.    There used to be a quilt shop too, but, alas it is gone.   The rain appears to be in Toledo OH.  I guess it will be here by midnight. We need the rain.    The farmers fields are parched and the dust is blowing.

Don't know what I will do tomorrow.   Will think of something.  I hope to improve my mental attitude.  Today that I will need a sabbatical.  I find it funny to read articles about things to do on your lunch hour.   I get a half and by the time I get from the OR to the cafeteria all I have left is 20 minutes.  In my next life I would like to have a job where I could go shopping dring that time.

cemetery perusing

Spent the morning with Chuck going to St Anthony's Cemetery and taking pictures of the ancestors graves.    This is for geneolgical purposes and not some kinky obsession.  Just really got into that within the past six months.   I think it must be something a person thinks of as they get older.   When I was younger the ancestors were not even on my radar screen.    I could have asked my grandparents but the thought never occured to me.   I guess it was when I went thru the ancient papers of my father and I wondered who these people were and where did they come from.   

What I was surprised to find out was that the ggrandmother had three children who died and were buried beside her.   At that time 1880-1900 I suppose having childred die was a common occurance.   But now you expect to bury your parents and not your children.  

Off all next week.   Haven't  decided what to do.  But, I will come up with something.

 

Frustration

Went into Oakland and had to deal with traffic moving at a snail pace.  Got to the library, at least I found a parking space.....Parking in Pittsburgh is atrocious.   An average person could not afford to drive to work and park in the town.   It would cost you about $25 a day and the Mass Transit sucks big time.   Their budget is high and most of the cost go to support the golden parachutes of the management.   It is really ludicrous that most of the public transit cost for their health care and outrageous pension.      When I retire I will be paying my own and plus government employees too.  What a crock.

So to cut cost the Port Authority of Allegheny County cut routes and layed off the peons.  Soon there will be no bus service and just fringe benefits for the elite of the PAT.    Just like where I work.   The layoff and nickel and dime the workers and then hired more administrators.     What a world.

I got nothing accomplished at the Library.    I wanted to check the birth and marriage records.   It is all on microfilm.   The screens are up above my head and you have to look up instead of straight.   I can sit like that.  My spine was hurting.    And I couldn't find what I was looking for.   Since 1880 births had to be recorded.   A person had to go in the town and record them.   Well, I guess because they were home births, the didn't get done.   SO, nothing that I was looking for was recorded.  

My next move will be to peruse the cemeteries and contact the churches.  They will do that for a fee.   Bingos must be slow.

 

Thoughts

"Let a fool hold his tongue and he will pass for a sage."
Publius Syrus

I think Mark Twain said something simlar,  I will have to look it up and paste it below.

Saturday

I am off today and the rest of the week.     I  am not going anywhere but have a few things planned.   First, today, I want to go to the Carnegie Library and look on microfilm  (they used this when the dinosaurs were here)  and see what I can find.....      I have done about all I can on the Internet and need some actual more in depth documentation like birth certificates, marriage certificated and death certificates.

I also want to go to the cemetery and take photo of the head stones and see what kind of information they have there.   I also can request research from the Diocese of Pgh to look up religious records.   At the Library they have the Western Pa Genelogical Society and now that I have some dates I can look a little more.  But, I have to be oriented to the microfilm reader.  

The next problem will be with the traffic tie ups and the eternal and ongoing repair in the state of Pennsylvania.....They are either repairing or getting ready to repair.   Makes me crazy.

Thursday

"The way to get things done is not to mind who gets the credit of doing them."
Benjamin Jowett

One of my favorite things are quotes and another are words.   If I can figure out how to connect words from work of the day I will be set.

 

Tuesday

"Bored people, unless they sleep a lot, are cruel."
Renata Adler

Maybe this is the reason that a lot of people sleep a lot and we ought to be happy about that fact.

"Sometimes the first duty of intelligent men is the restatement of the obvious."
George Orwell

Guess this is when sometimes I feel like   DUH!!!!!!! 

Went to the geneaology group.  I have to make a trip to the Carnegie Library to do some research.   A lot of peopel have traced their ancestors to he Civil  (aka The War of Norther Aggression)  and Revolutionary War but I can not do that.  I am still trying to find out the boat that they came over on........It will be easier to do now that the college is out and one will be able to find a parking space.   Maybe my trip will be on Saturday

 

 

New since Wednesday

A lot has happened since last time.    Hit a slow down with my side of Ancestory.  Decided to do Chucks side.   Found a person who was looking for people who were descendants of his ggreatmother.  This woman was also the ggrandmother her (Julie)  Have been corresponding and helping each other with and filling in the blanks with people.    She lives in NH and Chuck and I are going to the cemetery to take pictures of the grave stone.    That sounds morbid but it is documentation.    One day this summer I will go and take the pictures of my sides grave, most of them are buried in the same cemeteruy.

Also want to go to the Western Penna Geneological Society and pick their microfilm.

I can't believe it.....

Today was such a shocker.   My streetlight was out.   I called the local electric company, Duquesne Light and reported it.   The representative said it would be done by Monday.    OK.....     Well, four hours later the electric company was outside changine that dead bulb.   Service in a four hour time span.   WOW.

I am truly impressed, and it takes a lot to impress me.  

 

Wednesday

Today I am off.  Getting things done that I don't have time for or tired and unwilling to make time for.   This involves cleaning out closets and drawers.   Also, I have (maybe) decided to glean my cook books and if I haven't used them in a while, I will donate them .   This sounds better in theory that in actuality.  I like to hoard books.  A lot of them are just things I don't used anymore or had intended to make things and just didn't.   

When I look at some of them they are just so high caloric, and unhealthy  choices.    I guess I should just cull them and get rid of them while I am in the mood. 

Back to work tomorrow....booooooooo.   I wonder how many other people who have worked a long time feel the same way that I do???