Great Books

Here is a list I compiled from discussion at a party I went to a while back.  Most are my recommendations - some are from others at the party.  We had very similar tastes in reading.
 

Susan Vreeland, Artemisia, Clara and Mr. Tiffany and all of them.  (from me - art history fiction 

David Edding, The Belgariad

Ann Forsythe (wasn't sure if this is the right spelling, or what book?  Can someone elucidate this one?)

A Wrinkle in Time
The Mists of Avalon
The Kin of Ata

The Ascent of Money

Autobiography of a Yogi
The Handmaid's Tale

Daniel Deronda (the link has a little shameless self-promotion - I read the Librivox version.  If you're not already friends with Librivox, you will love it - an online community of volunteers putting all public domain books online in audio form, free to the public!)

Thornyhold
And more from Becky because you can never have enough good books in queue:

Geraldine Brooks   People of the Book

Joyce Carol Oates We Were the Mulvaneys

Ann Lamott Operating Instructions

Ann Rivers Siddons Peachtree Road

Anna Quindlan One True Thing

Denise Williamson -  1) The Dark Sun Rises , 2) When Stars Begin to Fall 

Jayne Anne Phillips, Lark and Termite

Not the wizard, a guy named Dave from Cleveland

So I didn't find the wizard, but a guy named Dave, from Cleveland, my boss. He relocated to Phoenix with his family just 4 months ago.

The Phoenix trip was very challenging last week. Why am I in a job where I have to start a new job every six months or so? I wonder why and how I got here sometimes, like last week. I kept getting lost on the way to work. My AT&T Navigator GPS software on my iPhone is driving me crazy and I'm going to pitch it and get a Garmin. I'm having to learn all new people, new systems, new hospital campus, new hotel, new roads.

And as usual, there is much un-done at home. Plumbing needing attention; front door lock won't let you in without wresting with you first, if at all.

I was exhausted, and by about Tuesday noon I was a little crazed. Unbeknownst to either party, I do not already know the reporting tools that this hospital uses. We both made assumptions about that. Every hospital I've worked at so far uses Business Objects to deliver reports. This hospital uses Epic to deliver reports, and I'd never seen that setup in my life. They had hoped I would come on board and fix and set up several reports within a day or so.

I did it by end of week. I created a solution my boss thought the customer would be happy with, but she's not, so he is re-doing it. I fear she will think I'm a waste. If they send me packing I'll be in a heap of hurt because this job does not have bench pay. No work, no pay. I thought it was very worth it for the opportunity to learn this topic area, and I still do, if they stick with me as I plan to stick with them.

On the up side, I'm helping very successfully with some other reports. The people are all really nice. The Epic project here is called "ARK" as in big flood, everything destroyed, and the ARK is what's left. That's how big the electronic medical record is for Maricopa Hospital - revolutionary and new-world-like. I work in what is called the ARK Crow's Nest with the rest of the reporting team. The Epic Builders are in the Engine Room.

Our building houses a few hospital floors. The area we work in at present used to be Hospice. My nose prickled a bit when my boss told me that. I walk past the Morgue on the way to the cafeteria. I still don't hear those terms without emotion. Maybe one is not supposed to.

Benji did great at the hotel last week, but I found some inexpensive day care for him so he doesn't have to stagnate in the room by himself while I'm at work. He went to "Heidi's Historic Home and Pet Care" for the first time yesterday and did very well. He whined a while. Those of you who know him will not be surprised at that. He's very vocal when he is unsure of what's going on and asks a lot of questions. By end of day he was wrestling around and happy, but very tired. He will go M-W-F so will have rest days between day care days.

The heat is horrific here - much worse than Tucson, and they have had ozone warnings most days.

This week, things are looking better, and will probably keep getting better. I like traveling by car and having my own trunk to stash things that I would not normally be able to bring.

New Job

Yes, I know I'm loading up all at once, catching up.

As of Monday I found out that I got a job I interviewed for last week, with Greythorn, an IT consulting firm.  My first assignment starts Monday - yes, Monday!  It's in Phoenix at Maricopa Hospital and I will be the Epic Clarity Meaningful Use Report Analyst.  So, yeah! dedicated to Meaningful Use, a hugely marketable thing right now and for about the next 10 years.  And yeah, I will probably get to take the certification tests I've been wanting, to get some of the certifications for Epic Clarity.  One has to certify in every Epic module.

I've been scrambling to be ready, of course, even after 11 weeks on the bench.  I have been that far behind.  I decided to get help, so hired a computer consultant to help me get the PCs up to snuff security wise, with backups, and bookmarks, passwords and some encrypted file storage on "the cloud" - Dropbox.  I'm still working through the long to-do list to get that all in place.

So, little Becky is off to see the Wizard, again.

Benji is Allergic

We had some recent scares regarding little Benji's health.  He has had stomach upset, vomiting, licking, smacking, trouble breathing seemingly at times due to large amounts of phlegm in his throat.

The vet did blood work which was all normal, then X-rays.  They looked pretty scary.  Comparing old to new, you could see a definite change, where there appeared to be a large area near the stomach and lots of unusual pattern in the colon, like gas, but unusual.  So he consulted with a radiologist who said it appeared to be just a large stomach full of water or gas and a lot of gas pattern in the colon indicating inflammatory bowel disease, probably.

The vet said we could do a blood test for food allergies as a possible cause, or do an endoscopy under anesthetic to do biopsies of the stomach and upper colon to confirm the inflammatory bowel disease diagnosis.  I opted for the former, especially since certain foods, like duck, always made him sick.

Well...the results came back saying he is allergic to all of the following:

• Poultry (all kinds)
• Duck
• Alfalfa
• Soybeans
• Barley
• Peas

Try finding dog food and treats without any of those ingredients. We are in the process of switching him to a new diet, gradually, then will go completely with the new for 30 days and reassess.  The little man seems better already and when I give him the old chicken and the new lamb food in the same bowl, usually eats only the lamb.  He is figuring this out.

I have to keep dosing him with Pepcid and Benadryl, and he has gotten pretty good at taking them.  I "hide" them in a treat, but they're not well hidden, and he still chomps them down.

He is such a loyal little man, and such a great help to me that I have to do what I can for him.  I'm buying pretty expensive food, but it's worth it to see him get better.  Luckily I recently bought health insurance for him, because I realized what could happen to my finances if he were to get really sick.

Here's the loyal little man on January 1 snuggled up to Mom's clothes as we collected them for charity. 

Does that face not say it all?

Quick Post - Last Year's Family Reunion

I tried to get this ready in time for this year's Barnhart Family Reunion, but didn't make it. 

But here are photos from last year's reunion.  Some are really good.

Such a short time ago...