Believe it or not, I'm not dead. My typing/blogging hands were not amputated. I haven't relocated to a part of the world that is computer-less. My computer hasn't even imploded.

I've been busy.

Busy traveling.

Yuk.

Here you go...

Monday, Nov. 5 - Wednesday, Nov. 7 - Hubby and I went to Atlantic City for "Strategic Planning Sessions." These sessions were supposed to keep him busy for part of the three days so that I could lose the $83.60 I'd saved to lose at the casino. The trip was sponsored (paid for) by the credit union; he's a director on the Board. Well, I did lose the $83.60. I won $100 while I was playing with the $83.60, then I put the $100 back in, and for good measure, I lost another $40, just to be sure I was on a real losing streak, not just fooled into thinking I was losing 'cause I was out the $83.60 and the $100... How's this for bending the truth a bit??? I'm only down $40. Here's how I figured this out: The $83.60 was change in a coffe cup that I'd been saving specifically to lose in A.C., so it wasn't taken out of my children's mouths, or from the rent money, so I don't count that as a loss, even though I didn't come home with it. And the $100 I won with that $83.60? It wasn't mine to begin with; it was the casino's money and if I chose to throw that back into the slot machine, well, it wasn't mine anyway! Now, the $40? I took that out of my wallet, so that's really money that was earmarked for lunch or shoes or the electric bill, so that's the amount I'm really down.

Can you spell J-U-S-T-I-F-I-C-A-T-I-O-N??? (Needless to say, it's a good thing I don't go to a casino very often - although I don't play the slots to win big. I just truly enjoy them for some unknown, unexplainable reason. If they had machines I could play with tokens, I'd be just as happy!!!)

Thursday, Nov. 8 - Friday, Nov. 9 - I worked. I had 100+ emails at work and 100+ emails on my personal account. That's too many darn emails! I deleted jokes, ads and stuff that didn't look all that important, so if you're waiting for a response and it doesn't come, you might want to send that email along again...

Saturday, Nov. 10 - Sunday, Nov. 11 - We painted. We painted the whole first floor of the lake house Cottage White, except for the dining room which we painted Melted Butter. I originally wanted Spiced Pumpkin for the dining room, but the nice man at the Home Depot told me that other customers who had used that color likened it to living inside or next to a school bus! He recommended Melted Butter, and we're very happy with the way it turned out! (Pictures next week, since I didn't bring my cable to download them today!) I also put up some lace curtains in the dining room; don't really like seeing the curtain rod when they're open so I'll be buying some floral garlands to loop along the rod.

Monday, Nov. 12 - Wednesday, Nov. 14 - I was traveling in Alexandria, VA, and Arlington, VA, with my boss, on business. We had 5 meetings over three days, not too much, probably not really enough, but I had reserved some time for another account I'd hoped to meet with and they bailed at the last minute. And another one had to cancel a dinner meeting...

Here's a great one... One of our editors was supposed to meet us at a meeting on Monday afternoon. He never showed up. After the meeting, I called his home office (in Alexandria!) and left a message saying we'd missed him, that I hoped he hadn't confused the Monday meeting with the Tuesday dinner (with the same account). On Tuesday, we had a morning meeting in Arlington, and an afternoon one in the same city. I was able to move the afternoon one up so that we didn't have to hang around town for 4 hours (thanks, Julie!). We went back to the hotel. My boss said he was going to check phone messages, then go to Starbucks to use the wireless internet and return some emails. I went to the hotel gym. (Get up off the floor - I really did!) While I was walking and sweating on the treadmill, my cell phone rang and I answered it. It was X, the editor, apologizing for missing the meeting. "We've had 14 years together, and they were great years," I heard. "She had seizures yesterday and I had to take her to the hospital, " I heard. "She's at a meeting now and we have an appointment with an oncologist at 4pm today; I don't think I'll be able to make dinner."

Of course I responded appropriately: "Don't even think of dinner. Just stay home, do what you have to do. You don't need to come out to some boring business dinner..." At dinner that night, they asked about X and I told them what had happened.

When I got back to the office on Thursday of last week, I dropped X and email, asking how the oncologist's meeting went. Here's his response: "Hi Krys, well, she's riddled with cancer and there's not much we can do about it. She had surgery to remove some tumors last year about this time and a few sessions of chemo, but she won't be able to handle that again. We'll have her for a little longer, trying to make her comfortable, making sure she's not in pain (tough to do with cats). Thanks so much for asking and again I'm really sorry to flake on the SHRM meetings this year. How'd it go anyway? Warm regards...mcds"

Stop laughing at me.