So glad it is Friday! - originally posted 2/20/09

Some or all of you may already have read about yesterday's events, but I will tell them again here. It all started about 12:30 pm when a young man carrying 2 handguns entered a law office about a block away from where I work. Story goes that it was the office that his ex-wife works at, but today's paper also mentioned this lawyer had represented him in some troubles a while back. As coincidence would have it, this young man is a former classmate of D, my oldest daughter. She says she just spoke with him a couple weeks or so ago. He had also recently been mentioned in the newspaper as being charged for having tried to get his dog(s) to attack police officers when they had responded to a call about yelling at his house.

Anyway, R (my boss) had stumbled into it when she tried to walk 2 blocks to a deli for lunch with a friend. Police told her to get back, etc. She came back into the office with her face all red and called her dh, S - who has an office on the floor above us - to tell him about things. I think the police had let her know what was happening when they told her to go back.

A bit later, S - who hasn't been feeling well - decided to go home & he was rushed into his car & told to leave. He called back to tell us that the police had told him the 5 hostages that had originally been in the building when this guy entered, had been let go and that the gunman was out of the building. A bit after that, I went to our back door and looked out just as a man who I believe to have been a sharpshooter, was standing behind a Durango by our back door and he was messing with what looked to me like it was a gun case. They did move the Durango on down the alley after a little while. But every time R would kind of stick her head out the back door - she was told to get back. Finally, she asked them if we could leave (by this time we were cordoned off with police tape) & they told her as long as we did it quickly, that we could. So we left everything - didn't hang up my headset or my mouse, didn't exit out of programs on my computer - didn't even take time to turn off the radio we had turned on to try to see what was happening out there. We just left. My van did have the tape tangled in it a bit & I thought I was going to break the tape before it came loose from my van - but decided it wouldn't be good to try to stop & get it loose if they wanted us out of there quickly and that if I broke it, they could just put more up since they were the ones to kind of include my van in it when they put it up.

About 7 pm or so, after they shot tear gas in, he came out & was to have his 1st appearance today. I don't know what the outcome of that was yet.

I had tickets to take the granddaughters to see the play Beauty & the Beast last night, but wasn't 100% sure it would still be put on or even if we should try to go, it was only about 3 blocks from the excitement! But it went on without a hitch. I did go to Nickerson (about 13 miles from us) to pick up the girls & since they hadn't eaten yet, I was a bit upset that I didn't have time to feed them before the play started, but D had brought T to town to do some shopping & take him to dinner & they were still hanging around after the play, so I met her at McDonald's and got the girls back to her & bought them dinner. I had hoped that the concession stand would have some hot dogs at least, but all they had was popcorn & cotton candy - so I did get the girls a popcorn each & let them split a cotton candy & that held them until time to leave.

Good news is that I finished the prayer shawl last night before I went to get the girls. Put it in the washer on gentle and blocked it. I now have it in a gift bag waiting on M to return from Kansas City (they went to see their daughter & grandson) so that I can give it to her. I like it.

I am breaking my diet a bit tonight, but feel like I just need to relax. I bought some margaritas a bit ago & am getting them cold, then will have one. I plan to relax this weekend for the most part. I didn't get a walk really today - was planning to go to the cardio kickboxing class, but the instructor has tonsillitis, so it was cancelled, but because I had forgotten to take my phone off vibrate, I didn't get the text from E until I pulled up at the gym & by then it was too dark to try to go walking. So guess I will just have to take a longer one tomorrow. I do plan to take Ginger to get her micro-chipped tomorrow afternoon, but other than that, I think my walking will be about my only activity outside the house until Sunday afternoon. I plan to see if I can work out my raglan sleeves for the sweater I am designing for myself. I am pretty sure D will probably take off for the library like he usually does when he has some time off, so I might even have some time alone.

Wednesday (guess I am off by a day!) - originally posted 2/18/09

It's still early, but not much going on yet. I did see a pattern book last night at Wal-Mart on prayer shawls, so out of curiosity, I looked through it to see how close I came to the measurements that they suggest. It seemed they ranged from about 17" to about 42" wide by about 70" long. I measured mine this morning & it is about 27" wide and right now about 57" long. So probably about a foot shy of being long enough still. So might possibly have to break into another skein.

I worked some more on the sweater that I am making for myself while I was at the gym last night - but again, I got distracted & made an error - so had to take a couple rows out. I will try to get a picture with the phone of it to give you an idea of what it looks like so far. I started with a vest pattern for + sized women. But decided to make it a cardigan. Also wanted to try to eliminate the side seams - so figure out now many stitches I needed total, placed markers at the side seams so that when I start the sleeves, I will know where to start working my decreases. Then I decided that I liked the elbow length sleeves on a recently bought sweater for wearing to work - so decided I will make the sleeves elbow length & in a raglan design since that design fits my shoulders better. So we will see if I can do this. This is my first real experience with designing my own knitted pattern like this. I have done things like this sewing - Audrey's wedding dress, for instance, was a combination of about 3-4 different patterns, including the veil pattern to cut the train by.

I was so pleased this morning to get on the scale & see that most of the increase over the last week is gone! Tonight I will hopefully be able to go to my cardio kickboxing class. That does depend though on how busy things are at the desk when the time comes.

Don has spring fever! He called me here at work yesterday to let me know that he had decided it was so nice out that he opened a bunch of windows. Only bad thing was that 1. It looked like it might rain 2. the wind was blowing from the south & most of our windows are on the south & there is a field on our south - dust! 3. Ever since I fell on concrete at my former job, my left knee aches when it is cool in the house - so with the sun not out, windows open & it breezy, my knee was kicking a fit!

Don isn't the only one with spring fever though - I have daffodils that are about 4" tall or so & I was right, they have a bloom on them! I also see tufts of grass coming up. Hope it isn't all happening so early that a late frost or cold snap kills them!

Well, probably should get back to inventory. Still haven't totalled last Friday's numbers.

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