Elly Patterson: Dental Assistant.....

[dreadedcandiru2]

We're in for a bit of revisionist history to take us into June. We know from the book "Lives Behind the Lines" that Elly was John's assistant when he started out and she resumed that role when Jean Baker was absent for a while. It would appear, however, that Lynn is in the process of rewriting history so that Jean wasn't even there to be absent. However Lynn wants to retcon things, one thing is certain: Elly wasn't very good at it. The strips I remember show her making a complete mess of things. She could never remember a technical term for more than five seconds and was always handing John the wrong tool. She also didn't handle his angered reaction too well. Here he was, trying to stay afloat and there she was screwing things up for them and their family. I should also think her ineptitude helped sour him on the idea of her working outside the home by confirming the stereotypes he grew up with. His hiring more attractive assistants later on was an act of nastiness calculated to mess with her head as badly as he felt she messed up as an assistant. He had no intention of stepping out on her, he just wanted to see her squirm.

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May's letters

[nisie.livejournal.com]

It's late, I want to sleep and you email address bounced.

Greetings,

By now, you know that my next book was released, Blood Cargo. With that comes a flurry of publicity, including a web page that should be lunched next month. April recommended a very creative friend of hers to run the page, and quite frankly, I’m afraid to know what’s going into to. All I really understand is that it’s to have my picture with my autograph under it, a blog, and a link to Amazon to promote it. I guess I really don’t have to understand it to benefit from it.

Truth be told, Blood Cargo was based on a nightmare Dee had after seeing the first pirate of the Caribbean. It was a short story that I extended under pressure from the publisher. It’s an okay story but… I’m no huge fan of it.

Lately, I haven’t been a fan of my own work… I’m suffering from a case of writer’s block at the moment.

Dee suggested that maybe I look at returning to school to be a professor. Liz is the teacher, not I, but I must admit the idea has some merit. This way, I could bring home a steady paycheck, work on ideas in my own time that interests me, and show the kids the value of an education. The con side is the cost and the fact it would take away from my free lance articles, which truth be told, I like more than the creative writing. I’d hate to end up as poor as my mother thinks we are.

Changing the subject, as I am tired and sore- Robin was up sick late last night and I was busy in the garden most of the day. The newest things around here are the gardens I planted while Dee was in Montreal.

It started when I realized that Grandpa Jim doesn’t get a lot of fresh fruits and veggies, and took Robin and Merrie to a farmer’s market. I watched the way they savored the foods that they sampled as we picked out enough fresh produce to last him and Iris for a week, and my mind drifted to a not so happy event, when my grandfather would die. I wasn’t sure how to prepare the kids for what was coming when my eye spied a dying plant.

I’m hoping to help the kids to accept that people die, but life goes on by gardening. It’s not original, it’s not unique and it’s a little over there heads, but I hope by helping them tend to a garden, they being to realize life has a cycle.

So we started small, a tea garden for Mommy. I tried to tie in the garden with a green angle and recycled the wooden boxes that wine comes in. The kids painted the planters and then planted several kinds of mint and other herb like things… tea is not really my thing, I went by what the farmer told me.

Then I got to thinking about how hard it is to get the kids to eat their veggies and bought corn, tomatoes, bell peppers, lettuce, sunflowers and beans. It is my hope that by having the kids grown the vegetables themselves, they will look forward to eating them.

Now Robin, Merrie and myself spend at least two hours a day in our small patch of earth, spending time with each other. I can write books, but I’m working with Merrie’s therapist to learn how to grow children.

That and build my rogue up to a level 70 within the next two months. Merrie is getting quite bright about realizing when I’m too caught up in WOW to pay attention to her, and she’s managed to exploit it. I’ve got to cut out the gaming until after the kids go to sleep.

Until next month,

Mike

Re: May's letters

[nisie.livejournal.com]

Hello,

I have to admit, I loved the trip to Montreal at the first of the month! My oldest friend, Maxine and her wife Betsy, were just the folks I needed to see. They let me sleep until noon, took me shopping, we went out for facials, watched trashy movies, and had a blast! It’s such a shame that I don’t get to spend more time with Maxine.

I came home to one of those moments that, if you didn’t know that somebody was trying to impress you, would drive you crazy. Mike had the kids paint recycled wine boxes and plant them with herbs! Skipping the fact that my children saw their father digging though the dumpster to get the ‘planters’ and then painted them, those boxes weren’t meant to hold a garden. An A for effort, I guess.

And then there’s the fact that I paid for a subscription to CSA for organic food. Mike swears he’ll can/freeze what we can’t eat…. We’ll see about that.

I know I’m being a little pissy at the moment, but I can’t help it. Robin was sick last night and I ended up changing the sheets three times and give him two baths. Mike was a help, but to be blunt… it was coming out of both ends. We nearly took him to the hospital, but thankfully we didn’t. Did you hear about that poor woman who was on a stretcher for 5 days waiting to be admitted to a hospital? That’s the one we would have taken him to!

I have to admit with the garden, once Mike explained he wanted a way to spend time with the kids and help them foster better nutritional habits- and help them learn about death, I could appreciate what he did.

I know I hinted last month that maybe Merrie wasn’t an accident. The truth was that she was very much an accident of timing. After the wedding, I got very depressed. Before starting anti-depressants, the doctor and I decided to try to cycle off the pill first and see if that was increasing my problems. After Merrie was born, we tried another pill, which didn’t cause so much depression, which is a good thing, I think.

Work is going okay. I don’t really like some of the changes upper management is causing, and I’m seen as the bad woman as I have to enforce them. If they get too bad, I’ll just find another job. That’s the nice thing about my field, I can leave if I want to.

Right now, all I want is to get back to bed.

Until next month,

Dee

Re: May's letters

[dreadedcandiru2.livejournal.com]

Sorry about the e-mal thing. There seems to have been a hiccup someplace but that's over with now. As always, your Mike and Dee look a lot more sympathetic than Lynn's versions.

Re: May's letters

[dreadedcandiru2.livejournal.com]

Merrie is getting quite bright about realizing when I’m too caught up in WOW to pay attention to her, and she’s managed to exploit it.

I was wondering how you'd explain that Sunday strip. Mike sure looks like the kind of guy who'd get hooked on that sort of thing.