Woohoo!  The internet is back up - and up to stay (I think!)  Not only have I been chasing myself trying to be at the hospital, help out at work, and take care of Alli, the internet was down at home.  Paying bills on the i-phone's tiny screen is a pain!  (But it works, thank goodness.)  That explains the lack of posts as well.  Blogger doesn't like my posts from my phone and is pretty temperamental about them.  And, typing much on that little screen (without typos!) is tough, too.  I called in to Charter, and they were actually really helpful (what a shock!  The poor guy really wanted to help me, but.....I don't know which box is which in there, it was Halloween and the kids were already ringing the doorbell, and Alli wanted her dinner, so....I told him thanks for trying, and I would have to try it later.  He sounded so sad that I wasn't gong to crawl under everything to see where the cord was going.....)  He said it was acting really odd - fully on one moment, and then shut down, like someone unplugged it.  And then it would come back on, like someone plugged it back in.  They thought "someone" was moving the system so they could play their games better.  Turns out, we have a switch box that is going out.  Don't ask me what box - I'll have to have AJ show me which one, and take it in to Best Buy with me to get on new one, I think!

Ralph is doing good - still in ICU, but there is no reason to expect that he won't be moved out of there today.  They have slowly unplugged him from most things he was plugged in to, multiple IV's, insulin drip, catheter, etc.  He still has a morphine epidural for the pain, and his suction tube in his chest.  He may still be on an IV antibiotic drip too, but I expect them to keep that up for a while, since he had possible infection in his lung.  I just spoke with his nurse, and she kept up on his pain pills during the night as well, so he seemed to have gotten some sleep (as much as you can in the ICU, at least!)  He sat up in a chair last night for several hours - a good sign.  He is supposed to get up and walk a bit today - probably the last milestone to get released from ICU.

My department won the bank's costume competition!  We had gotten matching pink t-shirts, and Mal had ironed on a "Diva Construction" logo that she drew up, and we got hard hats that we painted pink, and then - then the sparkles begin!  During any slow time, Mal and Jackie were bedazzeling the heck out of them!  I have glitter on my desk that may never go away.  (Good thing they are pulling up all the carpet for the remodel, too)  We brought in all sorts of construction 'stuff' - ladders, paint cans, sanders, various equipment, etc. and scattered it all over the department, and strung caution tape around pretty liberally, too.  It was fun - Alli and I stopped by Wednesday to help.  Alli's contribution was to not get into anything, and to spin over in the corner so she didn't trip over the equipment we we putting out, and she did good!!  I stopped by after Ralph's surgery on Thursday to see how everything went together.  They looked so cute!  We were also planning on wearing short denim shorts, and high heels to go along with the Diva theme, and they did it up good!

The judges for the competition are usually people from upper management, so I encouraged the girls to bribe them with candy when they came by to judge, and left a pink pumpkin with candy on my desk.  They did me one better (or maybe upped me three or four times!)  Sometime around 8:30 (a.m.!), they decided what their construction site needed was a beer (or two).  I mean, what construction site doesn't have some?  I would have loved to have seen Jackie walking through the store in her pink shirt, short shorts, high heels, and carrying a 12 pack of beer at 8:45 a.m.!  They also had advance notice that the judges were coming, so they all "went on break", grabbed a beer, and kicked back at their desk with their feet up, high heels and lots of skin showing.  It must have worked!  (I think it was the beer!!!)  They really did do a good job decorating. There was glitter, sparkle, and pink everywhere!  This is the second year in a row that we won (last year we were "The people of Wal-Mart", complete with the YouTube video running in the background.) so they have already started planning next years' Halloween.  I think "gold lame' fabric" was mentioned.  Lord help us all!