Shamrocks

After a quick visit with Mom, I went over and helped Pat.  Today we finished machining the shamrocks.  I'm not that much help at this point.  But I am company in the garage and I am motivation.  Now the shamrocks will deburred and then sent to the powder coater to be made green. 
I guess our plan is while those are at the powder coaters we are going to start taking those rods the shamrocks are sitting on and making them into something. And then after that we are going to start cleaning out the room upstairs. 
While working I had commented about putting up a facebook ad for two men and a truck and trailer to take some furniture to the dump.  I want to make one trip and that is hard to do in just a pick-up when there are two couches and three chairs.  Pat reminded me that his friend Dale has a nice box trailer that dumps and he was sure that Dale would be happy to haul them to the dump for me.  That would be a major score. 

A Day at Home

Neither I nor the car went anywhere today.  I managed to fill the second garbage can.  And I filled the recycle bin.  It was my goal.  I'm trying to pull stuff out of the house that needs to go.  I really need a dump run, but until then I keep throwing stuff that fits in the cans.  I already pay the garbage bill so it isn't adding anything to my budget. 
Both Littles have called me this week.  They can video chat from the ipads and that is what they do.  They do not realize how lucky they are.  I don't video chat, but I do with them.  So the little man wanted to know if "Dumbo" was still in the theater.  When I told him no, he told me I needed to get the Disney app because the movie is really good.  And that was all he wanted.  I so love seeing his little face. 
Then the little woman called today.  She wanted to know about the eruption of Mt. St. Helen's.  She wanted to know exactly what I saw and I told her about the big dust cloud and sent her a picture of it.  No lava down here.  And no earthquake.  I will share my small earthquake experiences with her another time.  Her conversation made me realize that I am living history.  And it doesn't seem like the mountain erupting was all that long ago.  But it was before even her parents were born. So it really is history for her.  I love seeing her mind expand and her being curious about stuff. 

A Productive Day

First I got the POA thing taken care of.  The woman in membership services pulled up the POA in their system and wow, there was my name right on page one.  I wonder if the nurse was looking for my maiden name.  I don't know, but the woman in membership services was going to send a message to the nurse that the information is there and was when she talked to me.  I don't care what the snafu was, I just wanted to make sure all was clear. 
Then I got my haircut.  Now I am about two years early for that.  Susan at the Salon did a really nice job.  I got my haired shampooed and that always feels so nice.  She cut 3-4 inches off.  It should look nice as it grows out for the next three years.  She called my hair ash blond.  I don't know.  I think it is brown with lots of natural white, gray, red highlights.  Right now it still looks like highlights as the hair is changing color again.  Soon it will just look old. 
The littles were gifted a Skyzone membership for Xmas.  And we rocked that the week and a half we were able to.  The last day we were there I talked to a manager on duty about possibly cancelling the membership.  Usually there is a three month commitment to it and we knew that up front.  But we didn't know up front that the kids would be moving.  Anyway the young man said no problem, he would get it done.  I was grateful.  Well the credit card got dinged for the next month.  So I went to Skyzone and talked to a different management person.  She took care of it. Credited back my credit card.  I walked out of the place happy and I think she was also because mine was really an easy problem to solve and I wasn't irate.  I was ready to accept what came, but I was hoping for that cancellation. 
Leslie, who is the supervisor of the cashiers at work, is leaving her position to be a stay at home mom.  She is so blessed to be able to do that.  So tonight they had her going away dinner and everyone was invited.  So off to Who Song & Larry's I went.  Got to catch up with some people.  Told the ones that were there that I don't intend on going back to the bookstore.  I'm tired of manual labor and my feet are happier not being on concrete.  As well as I will be spending a long holiday in the Midwest and the bookstore would not be happy about that and tell me I could not take that much time off.  And then I would have to quit, because I am going east come summer. 

Antibiotics

Naturally Mom's infection is not gone.  Cami told me when I went to see Mom this morning.  So I got right on it.  Called and talked to someone who said she would put urgent on the request for advice.  I had commented on the last time taking five hours before I received a call and  by then we had went to urgent care.  The lady told me they have lunch from noon to one so not to expect anything until after that.  And if I had not gotten a call by 2:30 to call her back. 
1:15 the nurse from Mom's doctor called.  First she informs me there is no release of information so technically she cannot talk to me.  I say I am POA and that is in the file.  She agrees with me but tells me there is nowhere in the four pages that says I am the POA.  My name is not in there anywhere.  Methinks she is blind.  She said she even had another person look.  Okay.  We continue on though because I was with Mom for all of her appts thus far and for continuity of care.  She asked the right questions, agreed with my assessment and sent the info to a doctor to hopefully prescribe more antibiotics. 
Antibiotics were prescribed for the very first time without me having to take mom to a doctor appointment, an urgent care or the ER.  Other than the POA snafu it went the way it always should go.  It isn't like I'm trying to scam the pharmacy out of antibiotics.  If Mom needs them, she needs them.  And it becomes harder and harder to take her places.  She isn't happy and always wants to just leave.  Funny how every person I have ever taken to the doctor as a grown up wants that. 
Once I was home I got out the POA paperwork.  Yup four pages.  And my name is right on the first page.  Now I will need to go to Kaiser and make sure their copy says the same thing my copy does.  They have had it for five years and never have I been questioned about it before. 

Gofer

I played gofer some more yesterday.  Pat had a couple of things to fix on the machine.  He did that and then he tweaked the program for the shamrocks. We got it all set up and ran the first one. Found that he needed to make a small adjustment in placement.  Once that was done we ran three more shamrocks.  They all came out great.  It was getting later in the evening and Pat tries not to run the machine too late.  It makes a lot of noise and he tries to be considerate of his neighbors. 
Only 36 more small ones to make and then he will switch to the larger ones.  Once done they will go to the powder coater and become green.  :)

Finished Project

I finished my string art.  I think it turned out all right.  And I definitely want to update which part hurt most.  Turns out the threading does.  My fingertips got a bit sore after going around all the nails and holding the string on the nails. 
I don't consider myself to be crafty.  So this is a huge change for me to do something like this. 
Talking it over with Brenda and Belinda we came to the conclusion that maybe we should try some of those projects they do at craft warehouse.  Who knows, maybe we can time it so we can do it together.  Weekends are harder for Brenda though.  Guess time will tell. 

Chinese New Year

Today is the Chinese New Year.  Year of the rat.  When we were making plans we didn't plan our lunch at the Chinese Buffet to be on Chinese New Year.  But it happened anyway.  Too funny.  I met up with Brenda and Belinda at the buffet in Hazel Dell.  We spent over two hours just talking and catching up.  Brenda and I do a pretty good job of keeping up with each other.  It is harder with Belinda.  She has a funny work schedule and she does a lot of stuff with her husband (went to their wedding) and her family.  It was grand to be able to connect.
I am seeing some great benefits of being sans children.  I still miss them greatly and it knocks me right to the floor, but I also like being able to do stuff without it being complicated.
I won't be eating anymore Chinese food today, but Belinda will be.  She had already ate special treats for breakfast and they had New Years Eve last night.  They will meet as a family tonight.  Her family really does it up right when they celebrate events.  That's probably why her wedding reception was so much fun.  To this day nothing for me has topped that experience.