An Alarming Evening!

The day dawned and I knew I was going to hit the ground running and not stop. It was the sort of day created for all sorts of "unplanned events" getting in the way of what HAD to be done.

I wasn't disappointed.

This week we've been working on a major grant (with deadlines tomorrow, but a self-imposed one of today) and that was bad enough. I also had another session of the Women's Health Study I'm teaching (and this time my co-teacher was MIA - BAD stomach bug). That challenged me to talk the entire time and write on the board and move around...which frankly, as I'm still recovering from pleurisy (and I AM better!), made for quite a breathless two hours...ok, two and a half hours...

Because things never go smoothly when you want them to, every possible person under the sun who just might possibly need the accountant for the organization - well, they DID need me and right away, too! (Some of them, as you can imagine weren't very nice about it either. And I'll tell you something else - Knitnana can be not nice when it's necessary...but she surely doesn't like having to be that way!)

So...today? Well, we managed to wrap up the grant and get it out the door. And I managed NOT to take off the heads of the couple of folks who were not nice about what they called needing from me. (See? I told you I could be nice.)

And so I rushed off to my vet, stopping at the post office to check Nana Sadie Rose's mailbox for orders and such, and then to the library to pick up books on CD. Tonight was payroll night at the vet. Her business is getting bigger, payroll is taking longer...and when I came down the stairs to leave?

All the lights were off. I started into the lobby, calling to make sure one of the kennel folks was still around...

and SIRENS STARTED BLARING!!!! The alarm system read "MOTION IN THE LOBBY!!!!!"

(sigh)
Well, no, that sigh up there isn't exactly accurate.

Yes, yes, yes...I do know what to do - well, sorta. I haven't had to unarm this thing for several years, as the workers are still usually there when I leave. I managed to calm the alarm company when they called (I thought). And I called the Office Manager on my cell phone. Because I really wasn't sure what to do. I got the alarm turned off, but it still read that it was "IN ALARM" -

YOU THINK YOU'RE IN ALARM????

And the alarm company called again. Seems the first person entered in the record that I knew everything I was supposed to tell them but she failed to say that it was a "false alarm" and in their lingo that meant trouble and they had to call back.

So they checked me out again.

And this time entered "false alarm" in the system.

As we were signing off the phone (the Office Manager was still listening to it all on my cell phone)...the girl said to me, "oh...you have only 5 minutes from the last time to get OUT OF THE BUILDING" and it had been about 4 minutes...

I flew. And got out and the doors locked with the alarm reset.

When I got into my car? Let's just say I was waiting for the police to come anyway. The office manager (I called her back to tell her I was out and the alarm was NOT going off) said, "you should go get a bottle of wine...."

Knitnana is well known for not being that mechanically, electronically inclined...
(sigh)

And then I went here:

It had been 2 months since I'd seen all my knit pals at Knit Knight, since I was sick last month!

We had sooooooo many new faces! A really big group! What a joy.

The library had asked for us to fill a display case with our work...here's my rather lousy photo of that...

I picked these up at the library (and got the new issue of IK Spring in the mail).

And Elizabeth asked me to show her how to use Judy's Magic Cast On tonight, and felt good about what I showed her (I think - if not, Elizabeth - just email and we'll go from there...

And I finished the first Trekking 66 sock, and cast on for the second one.

I think my blood pressure is still in the stratosphere...I hate alarms.

(and the worst part isn't what it does to me - it's what the cats at the vet have to go through - they don't understand why that loud whooping noise is going on...and they usually don't feel all that great to begin with.)

I think it's bedtime, what do you think?