Dr. D's Adventures (Random Tuesday)

(Because some people like Blogger and some like WordPress, i am putting the same content at both.  If you would prefer to read this on the other site, it is linked here.)

Time for a Random Tuesday post, linking up with Stacy's Random Thoughts at Stacy Uncorked.  

Oh, dear.  Where to start?

Last week i didn't have much to write about.  This week, well, Dr. D happened.  She can get into more trouble in a week than most people do in a lifetime.

Yesterday i put in 10 hours with her, and we still never did get to the sheets.  Her laundry is done and the dishes are clean, though.

The morning started with a call from the library telling her she had books overdue.  When we headed out to run errands, we stopped at the library and i went upstairs to give the people at the reference desk a thank you note from her.  (She writes thank you notes to everyone, including sending them to her doctor and dentist when she makes a payment.  It's probably the reason they let her come back.)

While up there, i asked about her overdue books.  The nice gentleman was able to tell me that yes, she had them overdue, but he could not renew them.  Back downstairs to the circulation desk i went. 

The circulation desk could not help me because the nice man at the reference desk hadn't gotten out of her account, and they can only open your account from one computer at a time.  Back upstairs to ask them to please get out of her account, back downstairs to find out that all of the books have been re-checked out the maximum number of times and she has to bring them in.

We got her new-to-her truck registered, and she had me put the license tag on with a beat up penny she found in the parking lot as a screwdriver.  It worked.  When it came time to put the steering wheel knob she got when we stopped at the auto parts store on, though, i am glad it came with the allen key.

After errands to doctor and dentist and lawyer (she gave her lawyer a change jar that counts your change for you; when i dropped it off, he said it was just what he'd always wanted, but then, he knows Dr. D) and the bookstore that is also a local publisher (where i dropped off a TENS unit and a plastic piggy bank -- they now know when they see me that whatever it is, it's from Dr. D, and they know to expect the unexpected), we took some stuff to her storage unit.

Her house is a storage unit in itself, as it never got finished being rebuilt after the fire because she got busy with the lawsuit, and it's a long story that's not over yet because she is talking about taking over the business herself.  If she decides to do it, the woman who earned a doctorate in economics, taught behind the Iron Curtain, and  managed to get on the last train out of an area where the Chernobyl fallout was heading after the accident will see it through, even if she is nearly 80.

We only ever found two of the overdue books, and we found the WWII book she'd been looking for in the bathtub, along with Cicero and Marcus Aurelius.  Why in the tub?  Because that's where she'd put the pillows until she could put the new pillow slips on, and the books were on the bed by the pillows and next to the cancelled checks and unopened mail.  (Yes, her house is seriously cluttered.  It's okay, we managed to find the three phones somehow, although we still don't know where the new package of checks ended up.  We can't call them, after all.)

While i was in the dollar store getting cat litter, she mentioned wanting to go into a thrift store "just to look around," but i managed to talk her off of that ledge.

Working there is an adventure, and this week i will be cat sitting again.  Josephine the Persian doesn't mind me so much, but C Trois the Himalayan is very shy.  Dr. D is going back to her doctors in Houston, and then will stop at the family property in the country (a plantation -- she's got some stories, i tell you).

In other news, Little Girl tried her hand at my home made banana pudding recipe.  She found out just how much work it is, but i think it turned out perfectly.                                                                                                                                                                                                                        ***********************************

Today is:

Aspirin Day -- Bayer received its US patent for the medicine on this day in 1900

Day of Selene -- Ancient Greek Calendar (goddess of the moon, date approximate)

Equirria -- Ancient Roman Calendar (Cavalry Horse Festival)

Feast of St. Gabriel of Our Lady of Sorrows/Gabriel Possenti (Patron of clerics, students, young people; Abruzzi, Italy; Catholic Action)

Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo -- Houston, TX, US (since 1932, great rodeo action and top-name entertainment; through Mar. 18)

Independence Day -- Dominican Republic(1844)

Majuba Day -- South Africa (celebration of the Boers victory at Majuba Hill)

National Kahlua Day

National Strawberry Day -- no, i don't know why this isn't in June, when the berries are best; maybe the person who put it here had too much Kahlua

No Brainer Day - this day is for me! created by Adrienne Sioux Koopersmith, "America's Premier Eventologist"

Polar Bear Day -- as declared by Polar Bears International

Read Five Pages in the Dictionary Day -- internet generated, and am i the only one who likes the idea?

Runic Half Month Tyr commences (cosmic pillar)

Single-Tasking Day -- encouraging you to do one thing at a time, and not feel guilty; begun by Theresa Gabriel, who claims multitasking is inefficient and hurts your brain! she suggests it be on the 4th Tuesday of the month, although other sites list other dates

Spay Day USA -- sponsored by the HSUS; Sit! Stay! Spay! Good Owner! 

St. Galmier of Lyon's Day (Patron of locksmiths)

The Hop -- Fairy Calendar

Threepenny Day -- Eton College, England (By the last will of two Provosts in the 16th century, each boy receives a threepenny piece on this day -- enough to buy half a sheep back then.)

World Spay Day -- don't let your pets litter!   

Anniversary Today:

African Burial Ground National Monument is established, 2006

Birthdays Today:

Josh Groban, 1981

Chelsea Clinton, 1980

Rozanda "Chilli" Thomas, 1971

Grant Show, 1963

Adam Baldwin, 1962

Michael Bolton, 1953

Alan Guth, 1947

Mary Fran, 1943

Charlayne Hunter-Gault, 1942

Howard Hesseman, 1940

Ralph Nadar, 1934

Elizabeth Taylor, 1932

Joanne Woodward, 1930

Ariel Sharon, 1928

John Connally, 1917

James Thomas Farrell, 1904

John Steinbeck, 1902

Gene Sarazen, 1902

Marian Anderson, 1897

David Sarnoff, 1891

Hugo La Fayette Black, 1886

Alice Hamilton, 1869

Ellen Terry, 1847

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, 1807

Constantine I, 272

Debuting/Premiering Today:

"What Makes Sammy Run?"(Musical), 1964

Road to Utopia(Film), 1946

Today in History:

The first Russian Embassy arrives in London, 1557

The Treaty of Berwick, which would expel the French from Scotland, is signed by England and the Congregation of Scotland, 1560

Yuan Chonghuan is appointed Governor of Liaodong, after he led the Chinese into a great victory against the Manchurians under Nurhaci, 1626

Jews are expelled from Austria by order of Leopold I, 1670

The Pacific island of New Britain is discovered, 1700

Poet Lord Byron gives his first address as a member of the House of Lords, in defense of Luddite violence against Industrialism in his home county of Nottinghamshire, 1812

The Dominican Republic gains independence from Haiti, 1844

Composer Robert Schumann is saved from a suicide attempt in Rhine, 1854

Russians shoot at Poles protesting Russian rule of Poland, 1861

The current flag of Japan is first adopted as the national flag for Japanese merchant ships, 1870

Charlotte E. Ray becomes the first African American woman to earn a law degree, from Howard University, 1872

Lord Kitchener opens Khartoum-El Obeid (Nyala) railway, 1912

Martin Kamen and Sam Ruben discover carbon-14, 1940

The government of Italy asks for help to keep the Leaning Tower of Pisa from toppling over, 1964

The American Indian Movement occupies Wounded Knee, South Dakota, 1973

People magazine is published for the first time, 1974

U.S. President George H. W. Bush announces that "Kuwait is liberated", 1991

A Muslim mob kills 59 Hindu pilgrims returning from Ayodhya, 2002

The Shanghai Stock Exchange falls 9%, the largest drop in 10 years, 2007

Central Chile is hit with an 8.8 magnitude earthquake, 2010

Wikileaks begins releasing 5 million emails from Stratfor, a private intelligence company, 2012

At Vatican City, Pope Benedict XVI delivers his farewell address, 2013