From - Mon Apr 13 07:03:10 1998 Message-ID: <3531FEFE.1881@Mindspring.com> Date: Mon, 13 Apr 1998 07:03:10 -0500 From: inthewind Reply-To: inthewind@Mindspring.com Organization: inthewind X-Mailer: Mozilla 3.0Gold (Win95; U) MIME-Version: 1.0 To: tbear@mindspring.com CC: JWilson@NLvl.com, tehopely@nlvl.com, tjw@spd.hitachi.com, tmathews@gic.gi.com, snicol@tcs.lmco.com, skizerfive@juno.com, SallyKirk@aol.com, pcastill@tcs.lmco.com, pamela.delisa@ariel.com, maryann@acmenet.net, mariog@hicam-msd.hitachi.com, selectek@mindspring.com, lgillihan@nlvl.com, ljcurtis@tcs.lmco.com, eddy@tcs.lmco.com, armatage@tcs.lmco.com, geokenny@mindspring.com, krobison@tcs.lmco.com, QMTL80B@prodigy.com, MALANOT@cosine.up.ac.za, cal47@g-net.net, jworner@voicenet.com, jhbnyc@aol.com, thesage@iamerica.net, kros@tcs.lmco.com, wren1800@aol.com, mccklb@mindspring.com, jwilson@nlvl.com, jhoward@stb.com, jhoward@stb.com, jany@spd.hitachi.com, guy32@mindspring.com, gene@cadence.com, gmanning@tcs.lmco.com, fjames@stb.com, bowlersalley@juno.com, dennisb@slc.unisysgsg.com, davej@tcs.lmco.com, minerals@xmission.com, dgross@nlvl.com, tcb@atl.mindspring.com, cwilson@ccsivr.com, whrsmykees@aol.com, cramzy@psych.uiuc.edu, cselden@spd.hitachi.com, Carolsprin@aol.com, bova@bovagems.com, bsmith@infodial.net, bcase@tcs.lmco.com, mendoza@spd.hitachi.com, abenson@atl.mindspring.com Subject: The Saga of The Steel Magnolia Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-Mozilla-Status: 0001 Content-Length: 6117 or...'Why don't she write any more?' My Friends, I have just been busy. Waiting a lot, working very long days at the office, and just generally busy. A lot of hurry up and waiting amidst the business. My usual insanity. :-))) The new job is taking a lot of time. But, I am happy to say that things are progressing well. We have finished the system design and now, it's time to get the actual work done. A mere three weeks ahead of schedule. You can call me 'Super CAE Librarian!' Able to leap tall schedules in a single grin.... Oh well. Now, maybe I can stop putting in 11 hours a day at the office and get back to the usual grind. The weather here is great! Not that I get to see much of it, but I have hopes for a change soon. I was off-line 4 days this last week after I did the big format on my machine at home. We think the hard drive took a big bump and reset itself on the trip from Dallas to Austin, bummer. I want a new system! I still hate WIN95 and I only want 60 seconds with Bill Gates to convey my displeasure of his company products. With my work schedule, I don't get much time to tinker or do anything else. My greatest joy is that my Tbear is finally here in Texas and I am not alone any more. My next greatest joy came in the arrival of Miss Lillie on March 4. Yeasssss, I am now a grandmother, no you can not call me 'Granny Jannie' and expect to live a long and full life. Miss Lillie came into the world weighing 8 pounds and change and over 20 inches long. Oh, she also had a full head of black hair about an inch long, and curly too. I got the call on Monday at 5:30PM from my daughter saying that she was in the hospital and could I please come. Well now, the support engineer from Cadence and I were in the middle of a head session and I have to say that it blew my concentration. Okay, we finished up our stuff and I got on my way. Mind you, I am 4 hours away from the hospital so I decided to get an early start since things weren't going to happen before I arrived. Details can come later if you like. Lets just say that the unexpected trip to the hospital was being monitored by the doctors and they were planning their stuff for Tuesday. I think I spent the evening packing but can't say for sure. Well Tuesday morning arrived and I got under way. About 5 miles down the road, I'm thinking of all the things that I was supposed to be taking with me. You know, cats (seven singing kitties in their cages all mad at their Momma), cat food, cat toys, cat litter and pans, my clothes..... No I didn't have my clothes in the truck. They were hanging in the closet in the suit carriers. Okay, I turn around and go back and get my things. As I am turning the key in the ignition a second time, I remember that Elizabeth asked me to bring her some other things that were sitting in the living room in a bag. I got the bag and decided that I would buy whatever I forgot when I remembered it in Dallas. Down the road we go, kitties singing, wind blowing, sun shining. It was a great day. Well, it was noon before I got to the hospital. My mission at that time was to terrorize the staff into submission while having as much fun as I could. I had fun. Well, by the evening, the kids are wearing thin and the doctors aren't happy. Wednesday is D-Day no matter what. Miss Lillie needs to arrive, but she's not in any hurry to get it done. Wednesday arrived with a glorious sunny rush. I got to prod the kids as necessary, have fun, run the other prospective grandparents about, and generally have as much fun as I could stand. Well, by noon the kids are worn very thin and not cooperating, the doctors are cringing at the sight of me coming down the hall, and it's show time. When she decided to arrive, Miss Lillie almost didn't wait for the doctor. She came out with a good set of lungs I am happy to say. Now, the fun really begins. It's time to play 'baby, baby, who gets to hold the baby'. I won. 'The Grandmother from Hell' emerged victorious. :-))) I stayed through the weekend and then took my kitties and went back to Austin. I think I have spent nearly every weekend running up and down he road. Now in the middle of all this, my younger daughter Miss Katherine enlisted in the Air Force. She graduated from basic training March 27th in San Antonio. My parents came down to see the GREAT-grand baby and to see Katherines graduation. Well, Airman 1st Class Noble was a sight to see. We all sat in seats on the parade grounds to watch all of the new graduates march by in the review. I cried, my mother cried, the guys all grinned at each other and I wanted to hit something. My baby was leaving. No, she had already left, but I hadn't let go yet. It was a hard thing to watch, but I was so proud of her. She shipped out on Monday morning for technical school in Monterey, California. She is well and truly launched. I have lost my camping buddy but have gained a replacement. Miss Lillie can come camping this fall. But her Daddy can carry her for a while yet. :-))) Yesterday was Easter Sunday. We were in Dallas, or course. The kids went out to dinner last night for the first time without the baby. So, Tbear and I spent our time playing with the baby and having a good time. We said we would keep her until she was old enough to vote or something like that. BTW, Miss Kitty Cleo gets her stitches out on Wednesday. She has been a good trooper about her ‘fix-up’ and I let her sleep in my lap all the way to Dallas and back. Now, I look back at all of the changes in my life over the last few years and I am happy with the outcome. I am very close to achieving goals that were set in place nearly a decade ago. My timetable was a little off, but I am arriving at the finish line. What else matters? My family is well and I happy. Happy Holiday and Best Wishes! Jan Noble The Steel Magnolia http://inthewind.home.mindspring.com steel_magnolia@mindspring.com inthewind@mindspring.com