General Information
Bonus and Connie’s Cash
February and March
First Digital Camera
Volunteer Dinner
Paying Off The House
Bass Pro Shop
Sparkill
Mammogram Gone Bad
General Information
Dinner With Friends
Lizzie and Dave
April’s Good News For Our Friends
Peaches
Home Improvements and Brother’s Visit
Home Improvements Continued
Peaches Shots
The Rest of 2003
2002
General Information
I have calendars from 2001 for about the next 10 years that Connie was using so it gives me a little more information about what was going on during those years. I also have some pictures that I started taking with a new Kodak digital camera that will help jog some memories. Even with all that, I am sure that the wrote up for this year is going to be much less than previous years.
Some general things I notice in review my accounting in Quicken and Connie’s calendar, I will write about here.
I noticed, I still had a lot of EDS stock, and we were getting a nice quarterly dividend from it. I notice that was a significant increase in our donations to charity overall, but the biggest jump was to our parish St. Jude, I am not sure why. This year was also one of my highest earning years during my career at EDS. I am not sure what I sent the money on, but I spent a little over $1500, on computer software that year. I have racked my brain and have no idea what kind of software, I bought that year that cost so much. Some of the places we visited most that year to eat were Bennigan’s. La Finca and Mr. G’s. Of course, we were still going to Pizza Inn in McKinney on Thursday night as they had their fifty’s night.
Bonus and Connie’s Cash
In January I received a bonus of $5,000 but am not sure why. We renewed our membership to Sam’s club, and I took a course at the Allen High School. I noticed in looking at my quicken accounting, that at this point in time, I was not using my credit cards as much as I started doing in later years. I noticed this month that I did an ATM withdrawal for $560, and most of that was probably cash for Connie. Connie, always want to make sure she had cash on hand in case she needed it. You can read in “Stories” about our tradition of giving her cash.
February and March
I noticed in February we were still supporting Sister Philomena the nun we had decided to provide for as we made a generous donation to her convent. It was also time to get the carpet cleaned and we had Dal-Worth clean them during this month. In the house we were living in at this time the water pipes would clog every few years. I noticed that we had plum perfection out this month, and they ran that snake wire into the pipes to clear them. I also noticed that Connie had breakfast with Flo on the morning of the 26th.
Since I was still working, we usually met with our financial advisor in the evening. I noticed that on March 5th, we met with our financial advisor Todd Bloom. We also had the Orkin people come that week. Connie went back to see Dr. Jaffe, this month. Dr. Jaffe was her OBY/GN.
First Digital Camera
April was mostly filled with doctor visits as Connie, or I had four doctor visits this month. I also bought my first digital camera. I bought my first digital camera that month. It was a Kodak camera and I spent $389.59 on it. I bought it on Sunday night the 14th, of April. I remember buying it on a Sunday night from Staples’s right before the store closed. The store closed at 6 pm. I know it was the night of the 14thm because it hit my credit card the next day on the 15th. I remember getting home and was mad because I was supposed to have gotten a free camera case, bag, and other free items with it, When I got home, I did not have any of those things, and may sure I stop by there on my way home from work. The good thing is they gave me all the free extras I should have gotten. I got a lot of use out of that camera and took a lot of pictures with it.
Toward the end of April, we went to visit a place called Robinson Ranch, a community for 55+, on the other side of Denton. We really enjoyed the homes they were building there but after a couple of more visits, we just did not want to move that far away from where we currently lived. We took a lot of pictures for ideas to uses when we built our home in Hot Springs Village.
Volunteer Dinner
In May we had dinner with Doug and Flo, and I have one of the first pictures I took with the new camera. On Friday, May the 10th, we attended a dinner at St. Jude for all the people that had volunteered at the church that year. Connie and I had volunteered to help during RICA, we were also helping to count the money after the 8:30 morning mass, and sometimes we helped to sell donuts after the mass. I am not sure if it was at this volunteer dinner or another remarkably similar one, but we were given little gifts. I remember being called up and Jeanie handed me a little box. They had all several different kinds of boxes. When I came back to where we were sitting Connie, said I did not want that one see if you can trade for another shaped box that Connie thought had something in it that she wanted more. I said no, we are going to keep what they gave us. When we open it, she was thrilled because it was better than the one, she wanted. I then started teasing her that I would see if someone would exchange gifts with us, but now she did not want to do that. Connie was so easy to make happy as I still recall the day, we bought laundry baskets and how happy that made her. I cannot believe how often I bought new glasses as I got new ones from Pearle vision this month.
Paying off Our House
June was a monumental month for us because we paid off our house, we had sold our first house and moved after being in it for only four years. So, this was the first time we had paid off a house. We celebrate by taking another trip to Hot Springs Village.
Connie and Foot Problems
In July Connie saw a new doctor because she was having trouble with her feet. I remember us going to a special shoe store to purchase her some new shoes. If I remember she only saw her twice and never did see her again. If I remember the reason was that she was going through a divorce and the second time Connie, went she felt the doctor was sharing too much of her personal life. That made Connie uncomfortable, but I remember telling Connie that she probably just needed someone to talk to. I also received a check for almost $500 of money that was in escrow to paid property taxes from the mortgage company.
During August we had some major expenditure on one or both of our cars, I am just not sure which. I was surprised to find this as the Chevy Blazer was only 3 years old and our Impala was less than 2 years old, but we spent almost $1,000 on car repairs this month.
Bass Pro Shop
Not too much happened in September. Connie had gone out with a couple of friends that month. She had lunch at Mr. G with Dolores which was a neat place to go because if you did not like your sandwich, they would kiss a pig. Now it was not a real pig but a big plastic one they kept on the counter where you ordered. They must have offered over 75 different sandwiches. She also had breakfast later in the month with Mary. One of the places we use to enjoy going to was Bass Pro Shop. It was near a big outlet mall called Grapevine. It was a fun store to look around and Connie always enjoyed looking at all the animals that had been mounted and were on the walls around there. We were always looking at boats, especially the pontoon ones as we had planned on buying one when we retired to Hot Springs Village. It was about this time that I found some shorts there that I liked, and there was an animal embroidered on the bottle of the shorts. I wore these shorts until they were completely worn out and could never find them again.
Here was not much going on in October as Connie, had breakfast or lunch out with a couple of people and I saw Dr. Jones to makes sure the hip revision was still doing ok.
Sparkill
In November we went to see Connie’s mother in Sparkill. We had really gotten to know our way around the area and enjoyed going for a ride up to WestPoint. There was one trip where I left my credit card at the restaurant on a Sunday afternoon and did not know it was missing till the next day when we were at the airport heading home. I called the restaurant and they had it. I told them to just toss it as I was going to cancel it and have the company send me a new card since there was no way I could get back there to get it.
At his point in time, we always got our flu shot early in November and we got them about this time that year. We met Flo and Doug for dinner again this month. I also started purchasing EDS stock from the stock repurchase plan offered by the company.
The Mammogram Gone Bad
December is a month that I will not forget because of what happened to Connie. She had gone in for a mammogram on Tuesday the 3rd, and they thought they had found something, so she had to go back on Friday the 6th, at 1 pm. She did not want me to go because she figured it was nothing as she had several false readings before this. The doctor that she saw that day, decided it was just a piece of fatty tissue so he was going to put a tag on it so that they would know when they did future exams that this area had already been cleared. It did not go well as the doctor nick a blood vessel in her breast, and they could not get the bleeding to stop. Connie was there for over 3 hours while they tried to get the bleeding to stop, and they thought they finally did. I was appalled and mad that night when I saw what they had done to her, her breast where they had nicked the blood vessel was so black it was almost unbelievable. The rest of her chest was extremely dark. I took pictures because I thought there may be future complications and medical procedures and we might have to take action against them that how bad it looked. Connie’s good friend Lizzie came over that night after she heard about it, and she could not believe what they had done either.
The place where Connie had her mammogram done called earlier the next week and apologized and said that doctor was no longer there. I am not sure what happened, but I always thought they let him go. After a few days of pain, Connie started to get better but it took several months for the breast and chest area to return to normal. The good thing to come from this was the next time that she had a mammogram, the tag was in there to identify that area as not a problem.
2003
General Information
I noticed that our contributions to charities increased again this year with most of the increase going to the parish. I had started back in the stock purchase plan last year and continued it throughout all of 2003. We had Dalworth out to clean the carpet this month. But by looking at the old calendars Connie had kept, I saw that we went to a place on Friday, January 31st called Leonardo’s, with Doug and Flo. Leonardo was an Italian place in the next town west of us called Frisco.
I remember it well as it was run by people from Brooklyn and the New Yorkers that had moved to Texas felt it was a great representation of the Italian food you could find in New York. I remember I had got home early so we could meet up at Doug and Flo’s house because we were all going in their car. It was not a cold night but being this time of year, it was already dark and Doug took the back roads. I also remember the music he had on the radio which was from the 50s, as it probably was the first time I was in a car where they had satellite radio. We heard some great old songs on the way over and back.
Dinner With Friends.
On the 2nd, Sunday in February we had dinner with Gary and Carol, which is surprising because we usually did not go out to dinner on Sundays with other people. Our routine was to go to early mass, then go with a group of people to McDonald’s for a small breakfast and then we go out together for dinner at a nice restaurant. Jay came to do some home repairs that month. As I look back over things, I cannot imagine how much money we paid Jay for home repairs over the 15 to 20 years that he did repairs for us. That Friday on Valentine’s Day we celebrate with Marty and Randy.
Lizzie and Dave
The next evening, the 15th, we had Lizzie, Dave, Matthew, and Lindsey over. While we had known them for a few years and we always sit together at church, it was the first time we had them over for dinner. Right away, we had made a mistake, Connie had made a salad and had put almonds in it, but we then found Dave is very allergic to almonds. Connie made Lasagna that evening, and it was not too bad. We then had a lot of fun playing a game with them and the kids called Aggravation. You move marble around=d the table and if you land on someone else space you can send them all the way back to home. We found out Lindsey was very competitive but in a friendly way. She loved to win. Over the years we played many games with them and with Lindsey and it was always fun. She brought out the competitors in all of us and made the games even more fun. After that dinner, the friendship took off even more, and it is one that Connie and I treasured. Lizzie was with her through her last year and it meant so much to her to have that support.
At the end of 2002, when they had messed Connie up because of the mammogram, Lizzie rushed right over when she heard about it. She was so kind and caring that it just touched our hearts. It was a trait that we always admired about her. We finished out the month by meeting Randy and Marty at Scotty P’s a nice hamburger place and finished up by having dinner with Doug and Flo.
During March, Connie and I bought a freezer from Rodenbaugh a local store herein Allen, that has been here for a long time. It is owned by a family that attends St. Jude’s. We kept it in the garage. I am not sure why we waited so long to buy one. We still had our annual inspection for termites and the Orkin man came. On Saturday, the 8th of March, Lizzie and Dave had us over for dinner. I still have not forgotten what she served that night. They were chicken enchilada and to this day they are the best chicken enchilada, I have ever had. We had a great time and ended up playing a bother game with them and their children, it was a lot like charades. It was the guys against the girls and the girls won.
Not much else happened during March.
April’s Good News for our Friends
April’s Good News for Our Friends
I am not sure why but I switch from paying my home insurance yearly to monthly. We got Connie a new email address for some reason and it is the one used from then on. It was squeaky0226@usa.net. The name came from her elementary school days, where the teachers would tell her to speak up and to enunciate. Anyway, I guess maybe some of the kids call her that I am not sure about that. Our friend Marty had knee surgery in mid-April. The main thing that happened that month was Lizzie and Dave sold their house. They had been having a new one built but needed to sell this one to close. Lizzie had been worried because they were supposed to close on the new one in May but they had not had any offers on their current house. We attended the Easter Vigil on Saturday night the 19th, and if you are Catholic you know it may last about 3 hours. Lizzie and Dave and their kids were there also. We had just gotten home and it was close to midnight when Lizzie called Connie and said they had two offers on their home. On Tuesday the 22nd, and Thursday the 24th, Connie met Lizzie for coffee, I guess to celebrate the good news. We met Mary and Randy for dinner on the 24th and had them at the house for dinner on the 30th.
I receive a nice refund from the IRS this year of about $1,500 and it came in May. On the 7th of May, we met Mike and Brenda for dinner. We had known Mike and Brenda for a few years as they attending the 8:30 morning mass on Sunday and we would talk to them after mass, but this is the first time we had gone out to diner with them. The very next evening we met Doug and Flo at Mexi-Go. We also had dinner with Lizzie and Dave earlier in the month. We had gone to Posado, a local Mexican food place in Plano. After we followed them to the new house they were building. Their son Matthew rode with us to make sure we did not get lost. It was a beautiful home they were having built and we have spent many wonderful visits in that house over the years.
Peaches
It was during this month that Peaches had gotten away from me and almost tan into a car. The car did not hit her but she started limping after that and Connie took her to see Dr. Reeves after she did not seem to get better. They scheduled surgery for the next week. Connie also went back for a mammogram as they want to make sure the tag was still in place and to make sure everything was ok from the incident at the end of 2002. It took about 3 months for all the blood to clear up from her chest area. The good news was that the tag was in place and everything was ok.
June started with Peaches having surgery, I made have written about it in another year because I thought it happened earlier than this, but according to the calendars, Connie kept her surgery was on June 2nd. I am not sure why I remember that the surgery was done on a Monday, and I remember how hard that evening was for Peaches as she whimpered most of the night. I felt so bad for her. Then she had to wear that collar around her neck so she could not tear out the stitches. That was a rough two weeks for her.
Home Improvements and My Brother’s Visit
Home Improvements and My Brother’s Visit
The next morning on the 3rd, we had Rodenbaugh come out and measure the kitchen and hallway floor as we were going to have it replaced. We also spend some money at Binswanger Glass. I think we probably purchase a mirror made but am not sure. We had them do a dining room mirror when we first moved into the house. After about 10 days we return to the vet and they removed Peaches stitches and thank goodness we no longer had to use the collar around her neck. The surgery for Peaches was $842.55.
My brother Douglas came for a visit during this month if I remember correctly, he came on a Thursday and left on a Sunday. That Friday night we attended a minor league baseball game in Frisco, the local team was the Rough Riders. I do remember taking him to the airport on Sunday. I am not sure if his flight was delayed or what was going on, but we had some extra time and we went to a large computer store where he ended up buying some things to upgrade his machine. The reason I remember it, he had to holler at me as I almost pull out in front of a fast-moving vehicle. Thank goodness he saw it.
On the 14th, we had Gary and Carol over for dinner and I remember it very well. I usually did not grill out that much when we had company just usually just for the two of us. I had gone to Kroger’s that morning and bought some exceptionally nice steaks. Gary and Carol had gotten to our house about 6 that evening and after visiting for a while I put the steaks on. About 15 minutes before the steaks were done, we lost power but luckily Connie had all of her stuff already prepared. It was not too bad at first because there was still some daylight but our house did not let in much light so we ate by candlelight. To this day I think it is the best steaks I have ever prepared. The power stayed off till after midnight as I remember walking Gary and Carol out to their car with a flashlight. It was a fun evening that we both enjoyed.
Rodenbaugh installed the new kitchen floor on the 17th, while I do not remember much about it, our kitchen was not that large so we must have gotten some pretty good flooring as the cost was $1,000. I am not sure what we bought at Bass Pro shop that month but we spent over $160 and we never hardly ever spent over $50.
Home Improvements Continued
July is a little confusing as we spent a lot of money on the house either new appliances or repairs. I know we spent $1,000 toward the kitchen floor in June but I also see we pay Rodenbaugh’s another $997 in July, but I am not sure what that was for. The only thing I can think of is we bought a new oven around 2002 or 2003 and it may have been for the new oven. It had a setting to cook by convection. The more I think about it, that must have been it, because I do remember when we moved the next year the oven was only about a year old. We also purchase a new washer and dryer from the Maytag store in Frisco. I am not sure why, but we paid for one in July and for the other one in August. It made have been because we had to wait while they ordered the other one, I am not sure which one we got first but the total for a new washer and dryer was about $750. I remember I mention that in June we had bought a mirror from Binswanger, we must have had it made as they deliver it this month. We also spent almost $200 on the air conditioner.
Peaches Shots
After Connie, dental visit at the end of July we started August by taking Peaches to the vet every Friday, starting on the 8th of August and continuing through every Friday in August. Connie was taking her in to get shots in her knee and I think it was the knee that had been operated on. She also took her back the Mondays following those Friday’s shots for the doctor to examine her again and to make sure the shots were helping. I also bought new tires that month and we paid Jay about $200 for doing some home repairs. That was about the extent of what was going on in August.
We had a couple of more followed appointments for Peaches during September, and we made what was next to our last trip to Hot Spring Village during this month. and the only thing I see that we did in September was that we started our diets on Wednesday, September 17th. We spent almost another $900 at Rodenbaugh this month and I have no clue what that was for.
The rest of this year was filled with a lot of different things going on. During October, Peaches got another shot in her knee and I think that is the last shot that she had for her knee. We ended up buying her a brace for her knee which cost almost $300. The brace was hard to put on and she did not enjoy wearing it. We used it for a couple of months, but her knee seemed to get better, so we stopped using it and never had anything else done to that knee. She did fine on it for the rest of her life.
The Rest of 2003
We went to Grapevine Mills mall this month to the Mikasa store and if I am correct this is when we bought the current set of dishes we are using. I must say they are still looking very nice and new. We also had dinner out with our friends Doug and Flo early in the month and later that month we had dinner with Gary and Carol. We also got out Flu shots this month.
We had a major expense in November as we paid over $2,500 to get our air conditioner fixed. Not much happened in December. Connie went back for a mammogram on the 1st of December and things went great not like they had the year before. We also had the carpet cleaned on the 18th, but cannot remember what we did for Christmas that year.