I'M ALIVE! And the Stuff I Ordered for the Gift Bags is Coming!

Hola darlings!  Well, here I am, all "cured" of the too little clotting factor thingy and feeling sooooo much like a regular human being again!  I don't remember what I last wrote.  Quick review: I stayed home from work on Tuesday and tried to honor my pledge to the doctor to bed rest.  I mostly did rest but it wasn't exactly in bed.  But no matter, because later that day my urine started coming out clear to normal color again (I was drinking tons of liquid) and no more blood!  The vitamin K had finally done it work.  By about 5:30 in the evening I was feeling so normal I was shocked at how poorly I realized I had been feeling before - probably since nearly the time I started taking the blood thinner on June 22nd.

So, I had a doctor's appointment on Wednesday morning for another blood level test.  My youngest sister was now back in town and drove me to the doctor's office (what luxury!) and later she drove me downtown to the office!  Talk about feeling pampered!  The level test was at 4 on Monday; on Wednesday it came in at 2.3, well within acceptable limits.  Even the nasty bruises I'd somehow accrued over the weeks were fading away quickly, like the memory of a bad dream.  I got to work about 10:15 a.m. and worked until 4 p.m. because, unfortunately, my youngest sister had learned only that morning that one of our cousins had died unexpectedly.  We had not been notified of the death or of the arrangements made; she just happened to see in in that morning's paper in the obituaries (long story as to why she reads them - and I'm so glad now that she does).  So, we had a memorial service to go to.

Scary stuff.  Our cousin died of a sudden, unexpected heart attack while coming out of a supermarket last Saturday morning.  The night before she had gone to Festa Italiana down at our beautiful Lake Michigan lake front.  She was 63.  Talk about shock!  I won't go into a family history; suffice to say that there was a family history of some heart issues.  And so my own heart issue was brought heavily home to me once again.

Yes, I will have to have it addressed one way or another.  In the meantime, Mr. D is now at home out of the hospital (yippee!) and his a-fib has been fixed!  Isn't that just like a man?

All right, I don't want to talk about this anymore.  This morning I had to get to the office early because we were doing a large tax filing and I needed to be on hand in case there were last second changes before the clients came in, and then I had to be there in case we needed this or that or the other thing.  As it was, things could not have gone more smoothly, so I was able to use the 40 minutes I arrived before my regular 8:30 start time to get a lot of backed-up work out of the way!  I'm very pleased about that!  The early bus I caught just happened to be the one that all FOUR ladies I normally ride home with at night were also on, and since I had disappeared off the face of our bus world for three days I was bombarded with questions.  So the entire ride downtown was taken up with recounting what had been happening with me and Mr. D during the past couple of weeks!  Geez!  I love being able to hold a captive audience rapt upon my words!  Perhaps in a prior life I was a bard :)

So - besides all that good news, I also have good news about the stuff I ordered for the chess femme gift baskets!

The silver-plated purse/compact mirrors specially engraved have SHIPPED from Memorable Gifts!  Joy joy joy!  If they were done correctly, they will say:

2012 Goddesschess Canadian Women's Chess Championship

AND the purse hangers and little purses/wallets that I ordered from Sam Moon were shipped YESTERDAY!   I did not order those items by expedited shipping, though, so it will be cutting it close!  I hope to have everything here for inspection on August 1st and then haul it all to the office on August 2nd to be Fedexed to Montreal for final assembly upon arrival on August 3rd and presentation on August 4th.  Yes - close!  Too close!  Fall back position is to present the gift bags at the conclusion of the tournament on August 11th, but I really hope this all comes together in time for an Opening Day presentation.  If only I had started earlier!  Ach, GNASHING OF TEETH! 

This is the beautiful Goddesschess logo for the tournament that my clever and talented Mr. D put together:

I printed off 3 dozen of these babies on self-stick labels during lunch hour today at the office and did rough cuts on them on the large paper cutter to trim them out.  Two of these will go on each gift bag, and another one will go on a gift card or card stock on which a special message to each player will be inscribed. 

I have started scouting out gift bags and tissue paper. I will have to mix things up - it will be impossible at Pick n' Save or Walgreens to get 12 matching bags.  I will pay a visit to the dollar store on Saturday and keep your fingers crossed that they have a nice supply of the right size gift bags in the right colors and tissue paper in the right colors!  But if not, it's Pick 'n Save and/or Walgreens because I don't have time for anything else! 

And I sure hope I'm able to find some plain gift cards or note cards or greeting cards.  If I don't, I'll visit the Officemax in the downtown mall on Monday and buy plain card stock and make up my own cards -- I anticipated that being a possibility and that is why I printed out extra labels with the tournament logo on them.  Hell, maybe I'll do that tomorrow and give up the idea of buying pre-made cards.  It will probably be less expensive to just buy card stock and cut out my own!