Holidays Equal Busy Times

Sorry for the absence from blogging - I'm usually at my busiest over holidays, and this year is no exception.  While I am not staying at any specific house until the 27th, I am caring for 5 houses, 2 with cats, and one with hens and dogs - but am sleeping at home with my kits.  Lovey is currently standing/lying across my chest, while Nedi was seeing if he could chew through some ornament hangers.  We've been rather cold since Tuesday's eleven inches of snow, with lows at night in the single digits (Fahrenheit).  However, we're having some melt, as it was 50 yesterday and 60 today, in the sunshine.  It was odd - one side of the street, in the sunlight said 60 degrees, while the same corner, on the other side of the street, in the shade, said it was 43 degrees.
   I have been experiencing my annual computer difficulties.  The blasted thing keeps freezing on me, and I have to do an emergency shut down and then totally reboot, causing me to lose what I've just been working on.  I've run all of my virus scans, debugging scans, registry, add-ons and problem solving scans; they all say that everything is fine.  Well, if it's fine, then why does it freeze?
  I'm going to wait for a couple of weeks to go see the new Star Wars movie - I saw the first one on opening day down in Gainesville, and saw the second and third ones at the theater, also in Florida.  I think I saw the fourth one in a theater.  Haven't seen the fifth and sixth.  I'll be going just to see Harrison Ford reprise his role as Han Solo in this one....
   It was crazy at one house earlier this week.  I was staying there, with the dog, while the owners were away.  The lady of the house employs two house-keepers - one comes for two hours on each Monday and Friday; the second cleaner is a single mother and she cleans on Wednesday for two hours.  The cleaner who comes twice a week is Hispanic, and frequently uses her "no speaka da English" as a reason to not follow directions.  The husband of the house-owning couple speaks a Mexican, Peruvian, and pure Spanish dialect.  She pretends she doesn't understand him, either.  She is from a small town, just south of the Mexico-Texas border, so she should understand at least one of the dialects.  Anyway, Modesta worked Monday, as usual.  Heather came on Wednesday, but could only stay for one hour, not two, as she had to clean a house she had missed on Tuesday, due to it being a "Snow Day" for local schools.  Heather asked me if she could come back Thursday, or maybe Friday, to make up the hour.  I told her to come Thursday, as the other house cleaner came on Friday, and that Modesta could be very territorial about the house and her cleaning.  Heather left her payment on the kitchen counter, as she hadn't finished her work.  She called and left a message for the owner, telling her that she was doing two one hour shifts.  The owner called both Heather and me to say that Heather should just take her payment and not work on Thursday.  The owner had to leave a message for Heather.  I called Heather and left the same message.  Then I left the door unlocked, so Heather could get her payment, and I left for 70 minutes to walk a neighbor's dog.  When I returned, I could see Heather's tire prints in the snow in front of the house; but Modesta's car was also there.  As soon as I came in, she started yelling at me about the other cleaner - Heather.  Heather's payment was gone.  I just grabbed the dog and left, because I didn't want to hear Modesta's commentary.  She was upset that another house cleaner was there - and she had come a day early, because she didn't want to have to work at the house on Friday.  The only reason she could get inside was because I had left the house unlocked for Heather - neither of them has a house key.  When I returned 90 minutes later, with the dog, Modesta had left and left me a note saying that she was the house cleaner and she would see me Monday.  In the meantime, Heather called the owner because Modesta had scared the daylights out of her...  The owners came home early today, and it seems that Modesta may no longer be cleaning their house....   Weird.