Shave and a haircut, two bits.

Tuesday, December 27, 2005
Well come in after a (long) weekend, and it’s freezing in here again…But this time it’s because the clinic was broken into…again.  This is the third time in as many years.  When I showed up this morning, there was a clandestine looking government vehicle parked noticeably askew across three parking spots.  Almost every light in the clinic was on and when I walked in, it was colder inside than out, and Julie said we’d been ‘hit’ again.  They came in through the treadmill room window.  There was a crime lab detective dusting for prints on Bill’s pharmacy counter.  He was robbed last year and so the barrier and windows had been reinstalled super extra better and reinforced on top of that.  So, it was a very unsuccessful burglary attempt.  They only succeeded at breaking and entering; no burglaring took place.  – We had a pleasant holiday weekend.  Saturday we went to Patty’s for Christmas get together.  It was good to see Colleen and her brood also.  She told the story of what happened with Joseph, it sounds as thought even though he committed a crime and perhaps didn’t have the best solution, he is still a family hero.  John LaMarsh is a jerk.  We’ve all known that for years, but only Colleen and her kids new how much of one he was.  Joseph saw John hold a gun to his mom’s head when he was only nine years old.  He spent years watching John abuse his mom and sisters.  John’s issues have caused Joe not to be able to see his son, and almost loose his girlfriend.  Yes, he snapped and had had enough.  He held the gun to his dad’s head and said he saw him do it to his mom when he was nine, and how did it feel.  He made him go out to the freezer and cook him a steak, then he threw it on the ground, said it was crap, and made him cook another, much as I’m sure he’d seen John treat his mom throughout his life.  – Anywho… Sunday Mom and Dad came over and we opened Christmas presents.  We had Mexican take out for Christmas dinner.  Yesterday Mom came over with Aunt Chris, Jason, Maggie, and Kiara.  They spent a couple hours and we watched the kids play. – Last night we did some post holiday housecleaning, and we moved Thumper out of Lexie’s room.  This was a brilliant idea Frank had Saturday.  I had wanted Lexie’s room back to being her room, but couldn’t figure out how, and Frank came up with the idea of cleaning out the entry way coat closet, taking off the doors, since one has always been broken, and putting his kennel in there.  We measured and it was a great fit.  I had wanted to have it done by next weekend, but since Frank was super cleaning the bedroom, I figured, why wait?   So, now Thumper has his own room and Lexie gets hers back.


Word(s) of the day:  

Lexie log:  Now that her room is hers again, our next project is to re-organize and slightly remodel it.  We’re going to take off the closet doors and turn the closet into a combination shelving, drawer unit for clothes and toys.  Also, we want to add a nice set of floor to ceiling shelves to store books and toys on, hang a couple stuffed animal hammocks, and eventually get bunk beds.  – Saturday Lexie spent a good portion of the time at Patty’s in Johnny’s room with the other younger kids watching the cartoon network and playing some game with Marissa.  This was the first Christmas where she spent more time with the other kids than sitting on my lap or me holding her.  I’m already getting melancholy and she’s only three!  Sunday she kept saying birthday over and over, she associates wrapped gifts with that word.  She played with her toys; pom poms, princess tiara and jewelry, baby doll she name Dora, and ate lots and lots of Christmas cookies.  She spent gobs of time sitting on Grandpa’s lap drawing.  I have tons of pictures that I’ve downloaded, but not sorted.  Eventually they’ll make it to the blog.  – Monday we went to Petco and Lexie played on the cat toys as we spent our gift card.  She watched Thumper get his nails professionally trimmed, so we could learn how to do it.  Both Kiara and Lex basically had a two-minute nap before Jason, Maggie, Chris and her showed up.  In fact, Lexie had fallen asleep and was on her bed when they got there.  I woke her up and after a little shyness, they played.  They are both so adorable.  They had a few disagreements, mostly due to hunger and lack of sleep, but I thought it was wonderful to watch them play.  It’s one of the first times I can remember her playing with someone younger than her.  Jason brought over Kiara’s sit-n-spin because Kiara hadn’t gotten the swing of using it and Lexie can spent hours on hers.  So, Lexie showed Kiara how to do it.  It took Lexie over a week to figure hers out so I’m sure Kiara will pick it up soon enough.  The only part that made me sad was that Lexie was so incredibly excited about having another little girl to spin at the same time with, she kept asking Kiara to sit on hers, it made me want to get one and join her.  Long weekends always leave me wanting to play with her ever more.  – Oh!  I almost forgot, I’m finally finished with transferring the tapes to DVD.  Now all I need to do is make a couple spare copies, one for Grammy, one for backup, and then keep up with the tapes as we tape them.

Today I’m grateful for Frank and Lexie, Mom and Dad, relatives and gatherings, my new hand held sewing machine, gift cards, weekends, short weeks, and life.