So our power was out for another day to start off the week. I took my shower at the YMCA in the morning before heading to work Monday. Scott was off to school-they had power at the High School. Allison was back at Salisbury for class-she never lost her power.  Tom was off to work-Northrop had power. We had the generator running all day to keep the fridges going at home. Power was restored after 6pm Monday night. Yeah!  Scott went to work after school-they had power too.  But the county continued to work in the neighborhood-cutting up trees and running power lines as well as restoring telephone poles. We had been without power for 4 days, but other parts of our neighborhood were still out.

Allison stayed at school at the end of the week. She was supposed to participate in a frisbee tournament in Virginia Beach over the weekend, but it was cancelled. She was actually pretty happy with the news. She had caught a cold in New Jersey the weekend before. Must have been all the sneezing and coughing from girls in the hotel room with her along with running around outside in freezing temperatures. And while she was fighting a cold, she was also studying for her upcoming finals. She had 2 finals and 1 midterm presentation. She was a bit worried about her Finance final exam. During midterms the prof allowed the students to utilize the Excel computer program to solve problems, which Allison was comfortable with and did well on the exam.  However, now the prof decided some of the students were not comfortable with Excel and he wanted the final to be completed with a Finance calculator. Allison did not know how to use one nor did she own one! So Tom sent her a Finance calculator and she oriented herself to it with online videos and support from fellow students and the prof. She was quite comfortable with her Midterm Marketing presentation which was a power point with 4 other group members. The group had been struggling the whole semester though. A few of the students did not speak clear english which made it difficult to write a group paper. And she was a bit concerned about the final in her 3rd class, Info Systems. But she was getting lots of study time. This has been her hardest term. Wish her luck!

Tom  also had to FedEx her passport during the week as Northrop asked her to complete her fingerprinting background check. She had already had the drug testing done, and Tom has been helping her fill out all the background check online(lots of names, addresses and dates). So we had to get her passport to her overnight. She went to the Salisbury U police station for fingerprinting, but did not have the Northrop form. The HR people were all in a meeting and did not get back to her in time. So she sent in the only basic form they had at the station and it turned out to be fine. Now she just has to wait several months while they process all her info for top secret level! I also sent her a St Paddy's Day goodie box to help her get through Finals week. Scott and I picked up some items while shopping at Target over the weekend when the power was out. We got her a stress relieving pillow, some St Patrick Day decorations and lots of healthy snacks to keep her going.

When Friday rolled around I had to take Cookie back to the vet. Naturally she got an ear infection(she had to wait two weeks after her last check up so I could spend more money on a vet visit!). I also had another Assisted Living Facility visit scheduled for the afternoon. Tom decided to come with me on this visit. We had been to Harmony Hall for an Estate planning presentation last year at this facility which is just across the street from Mom's current apartment building. We thought it was a bit too big at the time, but it has a built in alarm system-wanderguard system-which consists of a bracelet you wear that sets off an alarm and locks the elevators and outside doors/front door if someone tries to access it. We are hoping Mom could move to this facility which would hopefully allow her more freedom with the safety of keeping her from leaving. So far I have not yet found any other facility in the area that offers this program. Just locked units. So we met with the marketing team and went on a tour and put down a deposit. Now Mom's doctor has to fill out paperwork and the facility nurse has to assess mom and we should be able to move in!

Wouldn't you know someone backed into my van when Tom and I were leaving Burger King right before our appointment. We stopped in for a quick fish sandwich and someone just happened to back into my van. We exchanged info, but to Tom's surprise, there was not even a scratch on my van. Much to the relief of the guy that backed into me. And we were still on time for our appointment. After our appointment,  I dropped Tom back at home and went to have fish dinner with my mom on her floor.  I also stopped into her apartment to pack up a few more items. And I chatted with the marketing rep at Sunrise on our moving plans. Of course they are very interested in having mom's apartment to rent out to new residents. I don't blame them-it was a very nice and large apartment in a great location on the 2nd floor. They can move in two residents and make more money. I hope we can find something as nice for mom at the new facility. I also got the name of a moving company, so we should be set when the paperwork is all completed! Meanwhile, they have been telling mom that her old apartment needed some work done. I don't think she notices. She is very adaptable-except when it comes to wanting to go back to Michigan!

I could not stay too long with mom after dinner. I had to get back to attend Scott's Film Presentation ceremony at our library.  Scott and his classmates produced a short Drama film through his Television class and submitted it to the Howard County Film Festival. Their high school teacher encouraged the boys to submit their work and he also attended the ceremony. It was held at our local library after hours. There were a few other groups from his school as well that participated, however, much to our surprise, the boys film won a Judge's Choice award(Top 5 out of 30 submissions)! They each won an awesome trophy and 1 tshirt to share amongst each other!  Very cool. Their story was based on a robbery and a faulty Alexa computer system. We got to see a quick clip of all the student's videos, and then they played the full videos of the top 5. The big winner was an anime cartoon-no words, just black and white chalk drawings. Seems to be the up and coming thing.

It seemed to be the Weekend of Scott! He also received a scholarship from Western for the Manufacturing Engineering program! Way to Go Scott! He was feeling a bit disappointed since Allison had earned several scholarships after high school graduation and he had not been as successful. But now he has a scholarship from Western! And we are still working on a few more from high school. He was asked to submit a resume for a Senior scholarship from the school's Booster club. It doesn't hurt to fill out the paperwork! He did skip his Robotics team's first tournament. They traveled to Alexandria, VA for the day. A very long day. The bus left the school parking lot at 7am and returned at 9pm. Scott would have gone if he could have driven himself(and left early), but we did not want him to tackle the DC beltway on his own just yet(new driver and all). The Robotics team was back at it on Sunday, but it sounds like their robot had some issues. They will have another local tournament in 2 weeks. Scott is hoping they do enough to head to the State Tournament at Uof Md. He really enjoys that event since they have lots of computer vendors in attendance. He really does not get to do much during the tournaments since he really only helped design and build the robot, not program or operate. And even then, the coach brought back his sons from college to help out and Scott felt that they did not get to do as much as the guys took over the design plans.

When the weekend rolled around, Tom asked if we could drive up to the Towson mall to pick up an item for our neighbors. Our good friend Dan Z lost his Dad the weekend before. He was 93 and living at home with his wife, Dan's mom, in Ohio. His Dad had been struggling the last few years of his life with medical problems, macular degeneration(limited vision) and loss of hearing which made it impossible for him to manage by himself even though he was very alert. Dan had been out to visit the week before he passed. Tom was looking for a special gift to send them and I recommended he purchase an item from Things Remembered. I had sent a picture frame to my friend Beth for her mother's memorial, and Tom found a beautiful whiskey decanter and had his Dad's name engraved on the outside. It was ready for pick up at the store, so Tom, Scott and I headed over to pick it up. We decided to stop in and have an early dinner at World of Beer and catch a movie(we tried to see Black Panther-again sold out!). And Scott had seen it, so we opted for Death Wish. Tom was not too excited since it was a remake of the Charles Bronson movie with a twist. Bruce Willis plays a surgeon who attempts to avenge the death of his wife and his daughter's assault by going after criminals. Scott and I enjoyed the remake and the popcorn. I did not however enjoy Spring Ahead. I could have used an extra hour of sleep!

On Sunday we tried to have Dan and Gloria over for dinner and to pick up their gift. Gloria was fighting a cold, so Dan opted to drop by for drinks and dessert in the evening. I picked up my mom for a steak dinner at our house before Dan stopped over. Turns out it became a guys night as another neighbor just happened to stop by while walking his dog. I decided to turn in early with The Walking Dead. Another very long and busy week! At least we finally got our power back on!

Spring is certainly coming in like a Lion!  We haven't even made it to the official first day of Spring, but we are getting a taste with a lovely Nor'Easter. We were warned that the wind would be very strong and to expect power outages. I woke up around 3am on Friday morning to the sound of the creaking house and howling windows.  Cookie was not a happy camper. Also the power was flickering. It managed to stay on though, so I had a cup of coffee and caught the morning show early  since I am off on Fridays and Cookie and I could not sleep. I did however have an appointment that afternoon to tour a new Assisted Living facility for my mom.

Turns out Mom B decided to walk out of her facility on Tuesday that week which got her a Fast Pass to the locked unit in her building. I was not very happy to hear that. They put her up with another resident since they did not have any open apartments. Also not happy to hear that. The locked unit worked fine for my Dad-he really had no concept of what was going on. But Mom still participates in many activities, including outings and trips, so I really don't want her world to be limited on a locked unit. Not to mention most of the other residents on the locked unit need more assistance, or wander in and out of the rooms, or take items out of the rooms. So now I am left with having to move Mom out of her large, 2 room apt and pack up all her belongings. And look for another facility to that allows for more freedom with safety so she can't wander out. Great.

So on Friday afternoon I spent all my time visiting two facilities and speaking to the Marketing reps. One facility reported being secure, but that only meant at night. It also had a locked unit like the one Mom is staying on, so never mind that place. But I liked their apartments and it was close to home. The next facility was beautiful, but very expensive and farther away and I hated their apartments. And it had a locked unit too, but it was quite large. I was just amazed that this brand new facility had design issues. The strong wind outside was blowing open their doors that lead out to the balcony. They actually had to prop heavy trash cans in front of them to keep them shut. So I did not make much headway all afternoon and I came home to find that our power was out.

Scott was home for the day. They had cancelled school since they figured it was going to be a bad storm. And it was. We did not have much snow or ice, but a lot of trees and branches came down all over Baltimore and power was out for nearly 400,000 homes and businesses. It got dark pretty quick, so Scott and I pulled out the lanterns and flashlights. Mom had power at her place, and so did Allison at school. Not that it mattered, as she was off to New Jersey for a frisbee tournament.

Besides dark and still very windy, it was quite cold. Scott and I kept warm with our gas fireplace. Other neighbors headed to hotels. We decided to head out to dinner and were surprised to see all the businesses and street lights out on our main road, Rt 40. So we went to dinner near Gma's place at the mall since they had power. Afterwards, we tried to see a movie-The Black Panther. Again, sold out. So we headed home to sit in the dark. Scott had gotten most of his homework done in the morning and was able to send it via email on his phone to his teachers. He decided to entertain me by introducing me to a few video games on his cell phone. That is how desperate we were for entertainment! He pulled out his Nintendo switch control which you hold in one or two hands and he  showed me how to play Tetris(which I always hated and suck at-nothing changed). And then he introduced me to Mario Kart. Mostly he beat me, but I did manage to beat him on the last game while dodging buses with my Mario Kart! It made for a terribly funny end to a long day!

Meanwhile, Tom was supposed to be coming home from his business trip to Scotland. Wouldn't you know, Europe had the biggest snow storm they'd seen in 10 years! Scotland was snowed under. Tom said none of the buses or trains could run. He had to walk everywhere. And his flight was delayed by 1 day. No matter-we had lots of cancelled flights here in Maryland. So he made it home on Saturday night instead of Friday. He had hoped our power would have come on by then. Not likely. Scott and I were out and about on Saturday assessing the damage. Whole trees came down bringing whole telephone poles with them in our neighborhood, so we figured it would be awhile before we got up and running again.

I borrowed Scott on Saturday and we picked up coffee and plastic containers at Target and headed to my Mom's place to start the packing. Of course we ran into half of our neighborhood in one of the few places with power and stopped to chat a bit before going to see my mom. Scott and I managed to get quite a bit of packing done and then took mom out to lunch. Afterwards we spent a few more hours packing and hauled a few things out to the car and then dropped it off at her storage unit. On Sunday, Tom pulled out our generator and got it running for the fridges and one power strip for a lamp and to charge our phones. Also we have been practicing using our portable chargers for our cell phones. The chargers have been coming in handy. I also took advantage of the hot showers at the Y. And naturally I ran into most of our neighborhood. I spent some time catching up with the neighbors while drying my hair on the status of our power outage, and even ran into a few people I haven't seen for many years. I skipped my Girl Scout choir practice and headed over to pack up some more of mom's items. Plus move a few items into her temporary room, like clothes. I took her to church in the afternoon-just in time for the return of their power! And then we went out to dinner at Boston Market. Tom was visiting the library to get his homework done for his new class since our power was still out, and Scott finally made reservations to go see The Black Panther with his friend from school. After all that, he did not like the film.

So I was getting behind in laundry and dishes since I could not run anything with the power outage. I also had the added bonus of finding a leak under our kitchen sink during the week. Turns out Tom installed a filter for our garbage disposal with an easy access pipe connection. And the connection decided to come apart and leak under the kitchen sink. Long enough to fill up a drip tray that Tom conveniently left under the sink in case it leaked. I knew I kept hearing water dripping, but thought it was the coffee maker. No. So Tom also spent Saturday refitting the plumbing. However, it did not really matter since I could not run the dishwasher.

What a lovely week I had.

Wrapping up the end of February! Took awhile since we were out of power for 4 days recently with a strong Nor'Easter. First, a Happy Birthday shout out to Caroline and Clayton Bozyk who celebrated Feb 20!

 Allison came home for the weekend to collect some paperwork for Northrop, including her summer job tax forms and High School and College diplomas. I was very happy to have her home(as usual). She had a short visit however, coming home on Friday afternoon and returning to school Sunday afternoon. She has classes from Monday to Weds, and then likes to play Ultimate Frisbee on Thursdays. She went with me to the vets for a cat checkup for Pika. Now that she is getting much older(18), the vet likes to keep an eye on her weight. Happily she gained a bit since December. She actually has an amazing appetite, but the pancreatitis keeps her from gaining too much weight. And she never was a very big kitty anyway. Under 5lbs. So I guess I will keep feeding her chicken(her favorite besides cheese).

I also enjoyed having Allison home since she joined Tom and I at our friend's house for dinner on Saturday night. We were celebrating our friend Beth's birthday and they invited us over for a crab cake and filet mignon dinner(very tasty) and of course cake! I contributed ice cream and made some chocolate dipped strawberries. Plus I picked up some sushi as an appetizer(everything went fast it was so good!). After dinner we tried out a new game(new to us). Fibbage-an interactive tv/computer game that you play with your cell phone! It flashes questions on the tv screen and each person takes a turn filling in the blank by typing your response and voting on your phone. (Sad that we all had our phones.) You can try to answer with a real response or make up something silly. Then everyone votes for the best answer. So if you make something up and everyone votes for your answer, you earn more points!  And if you guess the right answer, you earn the most points. It was terribly funny and we had a wonderful time playing(Allison had the sneakiest answers!).

Scott missed our outing unfortunately. But he had a good reason. He was invited to his old Cub Scout Pack Blue and Gold Dinner as a guest speaker. One of the Pack Leaders saw him at work in school and asked him to come speak to the younger kids about his experience of becoming an Eagle scout. So he gave a 5 minute speech, and then was asked to judge the cake contest. He loved that the best! And I ran into the scout leader at church the next morning, and she said Scott did an awesome job.And Scott was a bit surprised to see that the Cub Scouts have already started to incorporate girls into the program(1 lone girl). Still not quite happy with the change. I think it cheats on  the Girl Scout organization.

I was busy with the Girl Scout choir program on Saturday afternoon. We were asked to sing for an opening ceremony at Girl Scout Thinking Day(a day set aside to celebrate Girl Scouts around the country and around the world). So no long program-just one song. But it gave us all the chance to practice some songs for the upcoming musical. I need the practice!

On Sunday afternoon it was just Scott and I. Tom had returned from San Diego late Friday night and was now on a plane for Scotland! He had to finish up his work from the last visit overseas when everyone left due to the Government shutdown.  He was really looking forward to returning and doing a little more sightseeing in Glasgow. He is not so crazy about visiting San Diego. He decided to stop into the zoo one afternoon when he had some extra time and was shocked to see the ticket prices are now almost $100!  Glad we visited in the past with the kids. Allison was headed back to school. So I picked up my mom and we stopped into a new store that opened on the corner called Tuesday Morning. It is a chain store and sells discount home and garden items. I actually bought two spring wreaths. I think Mom enjoyed looking at all the items, but wore herself out walking up and down the aisles. I was just filling time until dinner was ready-I had put some chicken parm in the oven before I left. We had my mom over for pasta night the weekend before. It certainly is easy to fix! And I was back on track with The Walking Dead Sunday night. Yeah!

Scott had a pretty quick week with school closed on President's Day. He enjoyed getting his homework done and spending time playing video games with his friends and going out to lunch on his day off.