Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Recovery

My first day off since February 1 and Mom, bless her heart, wanted me to come into see her today. But I am taking a me day. I finished at two-thirty yesterday afternoon. It was to late to go to a movie. So I ran Mom errands and checked out the boarding and parking situation for a cruise I am going on Saturday. The firm picked The Portland Spirit Lunch cruise for their end of the tax season party. It boards at 11:30 AM and the cruise is from 12 to 2. Food and drinks are on the firm:

http://www.portlandspirit.com/cruises.php

Not going to a movie yesterday turned out to be a good thing thanks to my cousin/sister Dixie who sent me some nice gift cards. Red Robin, Wendy's, & Regal Cinemas. Three of my favorites. Waiting to go to a movie now means it is free!!

One thing that was a gigantic mixed emotion incident happened a couple of weeks ago. I am the executor of Mark's estate. He sent me his will and his letter of instruction. He gave me five percent of his estate. Which is a good chunk of change. Although I am overwhelmed that he would mention me and tell me that is was what his wife wanted I hope I never see a penny of it. That would mean he outlived me.

At work, the word is official a 23.5% increase over last year in my output. It is amazing how much I can do when there isn't someone bugging me several times a day like last year. I ended up doing as much alone as S (the doofus) and I did together last year. Overall the firm did more work this year than last with two less people. Best staff since I've been there.

On the agenda today is a car wash, a haircut, a little work on my own tax return (I filed an extension) and a movie.

Now on to today's post and a couple of articles. I will be drinking a lot of coffee today so the first article interest me a bit:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/05/best-instant-coffee_n_1405887.html?icid=maing-grid10%7Chtmlws-main-nb%7Cdl8%7Csec1_lnk2%26pLid%3D149937

And I will start connecting with friends that I have ignored for the past few months:

http://www.aol.com/video/neighbors-celebrate-50-years-together/517328522/?icid=maing-grid10%7Chtmlws-sb-nb%7Cdl15%7Csec1_lnk2%26pLid%3D150714

Comment Away.

4 comments:

Pat said...

The cruise looks wonderful. Good choice by the firm. Can't wait for a report on it.

I have to disagree completely about instant coffee. I always know the difference between it and the real thing, no matter the brand. Maybe if you put lots of milk and sugar into it, you can't tell the difference. Of the few I've tried, Starbucks Via is by far the best. I even use the decaf version late at night when I don't dare have the real thing, but even with Via, I add milk to mask that "instant" flavor.

Same problem as last time with the AOL video. Wouldn't go past the "Loading" message. Too bad they don't give a little text description so I'd know what I was missing.

Lady DR said...

The cruise looks wonderful. I'm drooling over the shrimp cocktail and the crab offering. Have a wonderful time!

I'm with Pat on the instant coffee. Just doesn't do it for me. Then again, neither does coffee that's been on the burner for any period of time. We have an "instant hot" faucet (the first thing we install when moving into a new house) and the single cup molita coffee things. Put in a filter, run the boiling water over it, it "brews" in about 30 seconds and it's fresh brewed coffee with every cup.

Enjoyed the video. Nice to know there are still neighborhoods like that. Sounds much like the one in which I spent the last of my high school years, the one where the younger sibs grew up. We were fortunate to live in similar neighborhoods in FL - maybe not the fifty years, but neighbors cared and shared. I love our acre on the mountain, but neighbors are distant enough, space wise, that there isn't the cozy neighborly shared bbqs and the like, although everyone does tend to look out for each other and Tim, who's been here 20-30 years, kind of keeps track of the others. We're the "new kids" on the block, with only 12 years, but Tim watches out for us and, before Clarissa got bad and passed and Tom went to the nursing home, we did a fair amount of back-fence chatting and sharing. Obviously, we're all curious as to what will happen with Tom & Clarissa's house, as it looks doubtful Tom will be able to ever come back home.

William J. said...

Hi Pat

What works for me sometimes if the video is taking to much time loading is to shut it down and try a second time then it loads really fast. Or at least faster.

The cruise was actually my idea!

I actually agree with you about the coffee, I much prefer regular and I can tell the difference.

Bill

William J. said...

Hi DR

I've been on the cruise before and it is a lot of fun. You get to see Portland in a different light. And I just checked, 72 and sunny Saturday.

That makes three of us that prefer the real coffee. Love the way you make coffee!

I remember growing everyone new everyone. All the Mom's were everyone's mom. All the dad's were everyone's dad. We also lived on a farm where the neighbors physically were far about but were close and always rallied when some needed help. We also had a person that checked on everyone.

Sad about Tom & Clarissa's.

Bill