Update on my LEAK.

WELCOME to Ms. Fiddlesticks! (Love that name!)  Another "over 50 mom and Grammy" solo woman planning to RV full-time in the future. Like me and Katie.  Ms. Fiddlesticks, I enjoyed reading your blogs and will continue to follow along with your adventures.  I've always said, "If you want it bad enough, you'll do it!"  And we will.  Hope to meet you on the road someday. : )

Update on the LEAK - not good news.

My Homeowners Association has hired a contractor, Art, to act as project manager, and per his request, he is hiring third party companies to do the repairs and testing.  He really seems to know what he's doing.

Last weekend there were two roofers fixing leaks in my and my neighbor's roof (adjoining).  He said there were three areas that needed to be fixed.  The way my neighbor's roof was configured, any rain runoff in one area was going directly into our common wall, and probably has been for years and years.  Finally it came through the wallboard and I saw the water stain.

After a week of beautiful weather, it just started raining, and I'm sure glad the roof is okay now.

I came home from work on Wednesday, and Art had opened up a square in the wall of my bedroom.  He said they pulled it back, and it tilted back the baseboard.  He saw black and green mold on the inside of the baseboard, and the inner wall area was infested with ants, spiders and termites.  He said he put his screwdriver into the supporting beam, and it went right in. So they put the cutout back and sealed it off.  They sealed off a portion of the room from the end of my bed to the wall, put in zippers so they can move from the outer plastic wall, inside and through the next one to the wall.  There was a large hepa filter fan running.

 The dark blue strip is the zipper and the behind the sheet on the left with the red tape is the cut out area. They did take out the piece of wall Friday and sealed it with plastic.

When I mentioned I was having a tight chest for the last year and my doctor has me on an inhaler twice a day, Art said to make an appointment right away to get a chest x-ray and be tested for mold. He immediately had the worker seal my entire bedroom off from the rest of the house.  They removed all my bedding and took it to my laundry room, then took the mattress into my office/craft room, where Katie and I are now sleeping on the floor.  They covered the rest of my bedroom furniture with plastic. 
 

 Furniture covered with plastic sheeting

This thick plastic sheet covers another sheet 

that blocks off the entrance to the room 

I was able to see a doctor Thursday afternoon, they took a chest x-ray (which was the same as last year's so that was a relief), and I went down the hall for a blood test to check for mold, the results will be available Tuesday or Wednesday. While I was there I also had my flu shot, so I felt like I accomplished a lot in that one visit.  I have Kaiser, and I've always been happy with them.  I'm feeling hopeful that the mold was contained inside the wall and won't cause me any problems.

When I got home from my doctor's appt on Thursday, Art came by and said the company that is going to do the repairs inspected the area that day, and probably Monday another company is coming to test the air quality.  Once all the construction/repairs are done, the testing company will come back to make sure my condo is completely safe.

What a deal.  Hopefully in two or three weeks all the work will be done and things will be back to normal.  I've been taking Katie to work with me, and she loves it.  The first day I kept her in her little carrying crate until the weather outside warmed up, then I put her in the car which I park right in front of our office.  She can see me through the window and I can see her.  She kept barking, so I finally brought her back in.  She just curls into a tiny ball and sleeps in the crate.  I take her out for a few walks during the day.  I'm surprised she is so content in that little crate all day, but that seems to be her preference.

 Katie in her crate at work

 Sound asleep

It's been a quiet weekend for me and Katie - just staying in and taking it easy.  I'm actually looking forward to work next week, especially since I am taking Katie with me.

From Me and My Dog, have a nice Sunday evening, everyone!  : )

Birthday cake and cheer competition

This goes under the "better late than never" tab:

Sunday, January 16, was my eldest grand daughter, Kennedy's, 8th birthday.  She also had a Cheer Competition on Sunday, the only one in the San Diego area, and I had planned to attend.  It was in the arena at San Diego State University.  My kids were out of town, so I met up with Kennedy and her teammates at the arena that morning.  Kennedy had a sleepover with a teammate, and the friend's mom did Kennedy's make-up and hair and got her into her uniform and drove them down earlier that morning.  (It's quite a process!)

It was a great performance - everyone on Kennedy's team did a great job, no falls or flubs. 

Kennedy is the little cutie with the blond pony tail, back left.

 Kennedy on the left.  She smiled throughout the entire routine.  So cute. 

The poor girl being raised up is really getting manhandled, but they did it!

 The Finale!  Cheers and Applause!

Aren't they just the cutest little things?  Kennedy turned 8 on this day, and I'd guess the rest of the girls are around the same age.

And here she is - their second First Place Trophy. This is the trophy that will be in the display case where they have their cheer/gymnastic classes.  All the participants got a white participant ribbon, and the winners got a pin.

All the participants also got a "goodie bag," similar to what they give you at 5Ks, etc.  It was funny when these younger girls were opening theirs:  I think they got a headband, probably some foodie type things, then one by one they pulled out a "woman's" deodorant.  They were all saying, What's this?, turning it over, then reading it.  Kind of embarrassing for some of them.  I thought it was kind of funny. One of "those" moments. There were lots of older teams, too, and I'm sure they were the teams being targeted by the manufacturer.

There was also a team of handicapped kids - they were in wheelchairs, on crutches, in walkers, blind, deaf, mentally challenged, etc.  Each team member had a spotter helping them depending on their needs.  It was the coolest thing to see, they did a fantastic job, and you can imagine the applause when they finished.  Still brings tears to my eyes thinking about it.  They also won a First Place Trophy, and it was definitely earned.

After the awards ceremony, we drove back to my house to bake Kennedy's birthday cake.  For the first time she made the entire cake - read the directions, helped me fill the measuring cup with the water and oil, cracked the eggs, etc. 

 Pouring in the eggs.

Kennedy even handled the mixer for the first time, but I helped her keep it steady.

 Pouring cake batter into the baking pan.

I have a new frying pan that can be put in the oven, and we decided to try it out with our cake, so we made a large one-layer cake, an upside-down-cake, but with chocolate batter.

 

I had some white frosting, so we divided it into three and made pink, purple and blue frosting with food coloring drops.  Believe me, this cake was a creation entirely out of an 8-year-old's creative brain!  She made three circles, one of each color, outside, middle and inside.
 

Then Kennedy used the "writing" frosting tubes I keep in the cupboard for these events.  First circles outlining the inside two colors, then four purple dots on the pink, and finally her initials in the center:

OMG!  What a beautiful cake!

All kinds of sprinkles later, with "princess" sugar decorations and candles, and we're done.    We put it in the back of the car to take home with her, and headed out to Hometown Buffet, Kennedy's choice for our Birthday Dinner Out.

 Birthday Girl with her Dinner

Poor Kennedy, her parents were out of town all weekend, and she had a sleepover for two nights, Friday and Saturday, then the Cheer Competition and coming to my house for our birthday celebration together.  She was so tired at dinner, I'm surprised she stayed awake, but she was asleep in the car on the way to her house.   A really fun day from beginning to end.

Have a great Thursday evening from Me and My Dog, Katie! :)

Virus is gone, this and that

WELCOME to our new followers, Keven and Ruth (and Whiskey) who are full-timers, and are in Mexico. They've been blogging since 2008. Thank you both for signing on to follow me and my dog, Katie as we make our preparations to full-time in our yet-to-be purchased Class C RV.

WELCOME also to Aracelis - it doesn't look like you have a blog, so I can't show it here. But I appreciate you coming on board to follow us on our future RVing adventures. Hopefully it won't be long before we're on the road.

I have my laptop back and everything is working fine. Thank goodness! Thank you for your comments, too. They were helpful. I DID change my AOL e-mail password, which was suggested by Susan and also by Tim, our IT man at work. He said to do it immediately, so I changed it before he took my laptop with him to his shop.

I had to laugh, I had a comment from The Midlife Cruizer that looked weird - she explained in her message that two keys on her keyboard weren't working. Can you imagine typing without a T or a Y? I could easily read it, though, and it made me laugh. Check out her blog and you'll see. : )

Rick, it WAS a Trojan - I thought that was a virus, but maybe it's something different?

A couple of people commented about Norton Anti-Virus. I do have a current copy installed, which may have made this episode easier. They are not 100%, new viruses are always floating around trying to get in, but having a good anti-virus is a big help if one DOES get in.

Okay, enough about that subject! 

One thing that was nice about being computerless was that I had an entire evening with no blog reading or writing, no web browsing, computer games, or e-mail.  I spent the evening reading my Kindle, then went to bed, fluffed up a bunch of pillows, got comfortable and continued to read.  I haven't done that in a long time, and it was a nice change.

Thursday I woke up with a bad headache - I don't get many headaches - but I went to work anyway thinking it'd go away.  It did, a little, but then I just didn't feel well.  I think I had the flu, so I packed up and went home.  By late afternoon I was feeling better, thank goodness.

This morning I had the oil changed in my car, filled up the gas tank, and went grocery shopping.  A handyman came over late morning to do some work around the house for two hours, and I got lots of little things fixed that were bugging me and that needed to be done before I lease the condo.

Then the appraiser from my condo insurance policy came by to look at the rain damage to my wall and carpet, took some photos and was on his way.  My HOA is starting work on the damage, the contractor and one of his workers was here yesterday and today checking things out in my bedroom, on the roof, and the outside walls.  They will start the work, I think, on Tuesday.  They are going to put up two plastic barriers from wall to wall with a "zip" (?) passage between the two just in case there is something toxic when they open up the wall.  There was a mold issue with another unit, so they are being very careful. The contractor seems to know what he is doing.

I put together a fabulous fruit salad for my lunch, along with a grilled cheese sandwich.   It had fresh Costco pineapple, super SWEET, raspberries, blackberries and blueberries.  They were all really sweet, and I have half left over for tomorrow.  Great salad - it felt like a summer day, the sun was shining and I was eating a fresh fruit salad!

I cleaned out my stuck/clogged shredder, organized some files, did a little cooking, vacuumed, balanced my checkbook, ate my dinner and now I'm done.  It was a busy day, but now my weekend is clear.  I got so much done today, I think being home from work yesterday and doing nothing gave me extra energy today.

Nothing photo worthy to post for the day.  Sunday was my grand daughter's birthday and I attended her cheer competition at San Diego State University.  I'll report on that and have some photos next time.

From Me and My Dog, have a great Friday evening, everyone! : )

Virus - part 2

Afternoon:

Our IT guy, Tim, took my laptop to his shop and will work on it for me.  He said I do have a virus, but since I have Norton it may not have "imbedded."  We'll see. 

An e-mail went to one of the woman at work and she clicked on the link in the virus e-mail.  Tim checked her computer and it was okay, so I'm hoping if anyone else did that they will be okay, too.  He checked my work computer also and it was fine. 

We're pretty careful at work about the websites we visit, and I asked Tim if it was okay for me to read blogs on the company computer.  He said they are text documents and are no problem.  If they have a link, though, be careful unless you know where the link goes.

I've tried to contact everyone I knew was sent the phony e-mails, and heard a lot of stories about recent virus attacks, so I guess something is going around that is particularly bad.  Face book goes into your e-mail accounts, too, to reach the e-mails of people you might want to friend.  So that's concerning me now, too.

I was SOOO glad blogs are not a problem and that I won't have to worry about following all of you on your adventures.  Whew!

I think we can assume Tim will kill that virus and everything will be okay.  If there is anything to report I'll let you know. In the meantime, delete any e-mails you get from me in the next couple of days. 

From me and Katie, who has no clue what a computer virus is, have a great Tuesday afternoon! : )

VIRUS?

I received two e-mails at work from my home e-mail account this morning that I DID NOT SEND, and the e-mail had copies to various e-mail addresses from my computer, a couple of them were bloggers who had sent me e-mails.

I also have an e-mail from rveducation101 . com requiring confirmation of my subscription, and also has an opt-out link.  Also one from meetup.com and craigslist.  Something is going on, but I don't know what.  I NEVER click on links from e-mails, but go directly to the website myself by entering their website address.

I am assuming I have a virus that tried to attack my laptop at home.  I don't know where it came from - possibly a computer of a friend or blogger that is infected with a virus.  I have NORTON running on my laptop and I've just run a scan, and it shows that my laptop has no viruses.  It is active and functional and set to scan on a regular basis. 

If you get an e-mail from me:

Barbara De****   sm9****@aol.com

please do not open it or click on the link. Or anyone else.  If you get an e-mail with a link, key in their website address yourself to get to their site - do not follow their link.

I know this has happened before to others who have blogs, I've seen the postings back and forth, but have not been involved before. 

I'm not sure what to do at this point, except to warn you all.  I have e-mailed our IT person here at work to see if he has any ideas, and he e-mailed back that he will check my laptop.  Luckily I brought it to work today, so maybe he will able to check it today.

If I have any information wrong, or if  you have any suggestions, please comment - I'll add your comment to this post. 

I'm sorry if this affects you in any way.  Please be careful, I'll let you know what happens and what I can find out.