Ho, Ho, Ho

I’d been having a problem with a clogged ear.  It felt like wax build up, but after a week or so of intermittent clog, non-clog, I decided to go and get it cleaned out.  Sure enough—ear wax.

It was a relief, this week, that all the deadlines for the spec assignments from bootcamp have passed.  DONE!  It was a relief to have those all finished… or beyond the time frame to do.  I’ve followed up with a few.  They are reviewing and will let me know.

However, my inspirational coach is wanting me to do about 3 blogs a week—with a few other assignments thrown in.  And I picked up another Elance job when this accountant asked me to submit a proposal.  He wanted a Dan Kennedy style copywriter and I’d taken a course from Dan.

I had planned on converting part of my IRA into a Roth IRA this year… and it seemed like I really needed to do it.  I started mid November, but I needed to get certified valuations.  Then I wanted to move some houses into that IRA and had to get new deeds done up… and signed.  That turned out to be another hassle.  And my slum duplex in St. Louis is supposed to be closing, but …  Apparently even though we bought and paid for title insurance, the insurance company really didn’t clear the title.  Now as it’s ready to be sold, we have to go back to old banks and get them to release their claims to money they’ll never get from the property.  I have learned that who you use as a title company can be very important!

Tuesday I went and worked on clay with Marian for a good part of the day.  It is astonishing how time passes!  We ended up eating lunch about 2:30!  I was working with slabs and getting better with that and Marian was throwing mugs.  Err.  That’s not tossing them across the room, it’s creating them on a potter’s wheel.  It looks like magic!  So when I go out this Tuesday, I’m going to learn to use the potter’s wheel.  You get your hands really icky.  Now I know why they call watery clay “slip.”   It’s because it’s slippery and you need your hands to slip across the clay to have it workable on the wheel.

Thursday Tom went to the temple with our ward.  The Kansas City temple is closed for cleaning, so they went to St. Louis.  They were greeted as long lost friends.   It was a good feeling to be wanted and needed.

Friday Tom and I drove the missionaries to Branson for a meeting.  While they met, we shopped.  It was fun.  We mostly had a list and we shopped to the list. We didn’t have a lot of time, so we made decisions quickly.  We had lunch at a little family restaurant with great blackberry cobbler and cherry pies (oh and good soup and salad, too.)

When we got back, we visited two friends in the hospital.  We came home to learn that a third friend was also in the hospital.  Man, this getting old is hard work!  Two are getting better.  The third has a systemic MRSA infection and is 90 years old.  She is such a sweet valiant lady and I worry for her.

Saturday Tom spent 4 hours on the mower beating the leaves into submission.  The yard looks fantastic!  We bought lumber for a new project for Barb.  And we searched for a stupid chicken.  We had one fly the coop earlier in the week.  We thought we spotted it on Saturday.  No.  It was the last silly chicken who had escaped!  If it’s not done in by wild things in the next day or two, I’ll try to catch it and take it to a new home.  One, non-laying hen is not an asset.  I had put up the Christmas tree last week, and finally got lights on and got is mostly trimmed.  There are still more things to put out to make it truly festive.

Saturday night, Tom woke up with a bad stomach ache. Being his daughter’s father, he refused to throw up… but he spent a lot of time sitting on the pot and is much washed out today.  He stayed home from church and slept most of the day.  This evening he is eating and keeping things down, although his stomach still bothers him some.  We had good meetings at church and later Tom’s two counselors came over and gave him a blessing.