Sistah Pat

I’m not one of them.  I don’t understand how some women frolic in the ocean, hop out and throw on a floaty, breezy coverup, fluff up their hair and look like a million bucks.  Even the sand clinging to their legs looks golden.  Me?  I come out of the ocean like a drowned rat.  My hair is matted, my skin is red and I’m covered with sticky gray sand within two minutes of getting out of the water.  I took a shower at the beach and then stripped down and took one back at the hotel and left the tub covered in a layer of gritty sand.  I wonder if men get sand in all those unmentionable places that women do?  Do Beach Girls look that good with a crotch full of sand?  I don’t think so.  I don’t think sand would dare crawl under their boobs and cling to their butt cracks the way it does with me.

Whatever….I had fun, today.  We rented a golf cart and drove all over the island.  We went to the lighthouse and the pirate museum.  Went back to the beach and flew the kite some more.  The waves were AWESOME!  Huge swells and crashing waves.  Again, maybe a total of 30 people on the entire beach.  Great fun.  I bought frozen lasagna and onion rolls for dinner but forgot forks so we’ve working our way through dinner with plastic spoons. 

11:00 p.m. Update - Our hotel and most of the village has quiet time from 9:00 p.m. to 8:00 a.m. and I love it.  I’ve been sitting out on the balcony enjoying the moon and the stars and the ocean breeze while I finish off my bottle of wine.  It’s totally quiet.  The only sounds are the occasional golf cart humming down the road or a family quietly cruising down the road on bicycles.  I don’t suppose this place is for everyone but I’m loving it.  I can see a woman swimming slow steady laps down in the pool.  No loud music or bright lights.  I can even see the lighthouse beacon in the distance.

Don’t want to think about it but I guess we ought to start heading toward home tomorrow.  Guess we’ll see what happens when we get up in the morning and make plans for the day.

We finally found a perfect beach and spent the afternoon there.  Left Plymouth this morning and drove to the Ferry.  Kind of interesting to hear the GPS say “In .2 miles, drive on ferry”.  It showed us traveling across a screen of blue for the passing to Ocrakoke.  In fact, the island is so narrow for the first five miles or so, it continued to show us driving through the ocean.

We arrived at the motel and everyone was hot and tired and the room was nice and cool.  We have a one bedroom with a separate kitchen and living room area.  Pretty good sized place for $140 a night.  Beautiful pool, microwave, refrigerator and queen size sleeper sofa in the living room.  We also have a generous sized balcony overlooking the ocean.  It’s fairly new, very clean and I had a hard time getting everyone out of the room.  As soon as we got here, we went downstairs to eat since we didn’t have breakfast and it was 2:00 p.m.  I ordered a BLT that came with chips, DH ordered a garden salad (no meat), Steven had a grilled cheese and fries and Andrew ordered chicken tenders and fries.  The bill came to $44.00  Hello!  I took a look at the dinner menu and simple things like roast beef, mashed potatoes and green beans were priced at $14.95.  A spaghetti dinner with garlic bread was $13.95.  I decided that we weren’t going to eat dinner out since we had a late lunch and the prices were so high.  Still…it is an island and everything has to come by boat or plane.

After eating, DH and the boys settled in to watch a marathon of Indiana Jones and I couldn’t get anyone to move.  I finally told the boys they were going to get their trunks on and I was taking them to the beach.  DH said he was going to stay in and take a nap.  We didn’t come all this way to watch Indiana Jones!  By the time the boys were ready, DH had decided to join us and that made me happy.

We went by the store and picked up a loaf of bread, swiss cheese, ramen noodles, ham, dill pickles and peanut butter.  Also got a box of cereal and some milk for breakfast.  We passed a produce stand on the way to the beach and I got a cantalope and some homegrown tomatoes.  Also bought a kite for the boys.

The beach was fabulous!  The water temperature was perfect and it was a beautiful beach with very few people on it.  No beautiful babes strolling and strutting their stuff in their skinny little bikinis.  Just us and a few other families with the entire beach to ourselves.  The boys loved it.  We fought the waves for a couple of hours and I had to drag them out.  They set up the kite and flew it for a few minutes and then we pulled it in and headed back to the hotel.

We had gotten a pretty good workout in the ocean and, I swear, those ham and cheese sandwiches, pickles and sliced tomaotes tasted fabulous!  I even ate a peanut butter sandwich and I don’t even like peanut butter sandwiches!  After dinner, we went out to the pool and had another perfect swim with a large, perfect temperature pool that we shared with just one other middle aged couple.

DH was so content, he asked if I wanted to stay another day and I said yes.  Everyone is happy.  We’re staying another day and the guys can watch Indiana Jones now while I take a glass of wine out on the balcony and watch the sunset.

We spent the night in Plymouth, North Carolina.  Yesterday morning, the twins spent a couple of hours touring the USS North Carolina.  They enjoyed it but DH and I spent the time waiting for them at a picnic table and poring over maps.  We decided to head inland and pick up some friendlier roads to head toward the Outer Banks.  The coastal road we were following was not really all that scenic and the traffic was terrible.  We’d catch a glimpse of the ocean every now and then but whenever we’d get close to a beach, we’d encounter heavy traffic and nothing but condos on the horizon.

So, we headed inland a few miles and did a big U-shaped route that avoided the coastline for a while and then brought us back to a good point for today’s launch on the Outer Banks.  I made a reservation on Ocrakoke Island tonight.  Should be a nice secluded island with lots of beach and few tourists.  We’ll be taking a ferry to the island in two or three hours and then we’ll spend the night, take the ferry back to the rest of the Outer Banks tomorrow morning and spend more time heading north on them  before turning east toward home.

Gotta go.  I want to wake up the rest of the crew and get to the ferry before it gets crowded.

Been running around all over the east coast the last few days. We decided to head to Savannah and stopped to see DH’s sister on the way.  That took up an afternoon and then we made it to Savannah that night.   Used to live there about 35 years ago.  Nothing looked familiar but it sure was pretty.  We found a wonderful little hotel that was inexpensive, had wifi and a pool out in the sun.  We had the pool to ourselves all morning, toured Savannah and then had the pool again that night without another soul to disturb us.

The next morning, we checked out and visited Fort Pulaski before leaving.  The architecture was astounding.  They must have used a million bricks building that thing.  Actually, they probably used more than that and the intricasies of the arches and ventilation were incredible.  It was 100 degrees and the grounds and rooms in the fort were cool and breezy.  Don’t know how they fared in the winter but it doesn’t get all that cold in Savannah anyway.

Leaving Savannah, we drove up Hwy 17 along the coast and pulled over for the night in a Jameson Inn.  Again, we had the pool to ourselves and the room was really nice.  The boys enjoyed hot waffles for breakfast and we had wifi, a refrigerator and microwave.  All for a great price of $50. 

We got up this morning and went to Huntington Beach.  It was pouring when we woke up but the sun came out for a few minutes and we decided to hit it.  Again, we had the place pretty much to ourselves.  I got a terrific workout fighting the crashing waves and the boys were really enjoying the ocean but a storm came up and we wound up in a downpour.  Here’s a picture of Andrew and Steven walking down the beach.  As you can see, it was totally deserted.  You can also see the storm just before it hit.

The rain didn’t bother me but the lightning did.  Time to get out of the water.  I had a coverup for my bathing suit but it got drenched and so did all our towels.  We made a mad dash for the car and piled in.  Our intent had been to leave the beach and change clothes in the dressing room but it was raining buckets so we just jumped in the car and headed toward the highway.  The rain was coming down so hard, we had to keep the air-conditioning going to keep the windows clear.  I asked DH to pull over at a gas station and, while we were under the canopy, he got in the trunk and got clean, dry clothes for himself and the twins and they headed in the gas station to change clothes.  MY suitcase was on the very bottom and it would have required unpacking the entire trunk to get to it so DH handed me one of his tee shirts.  The guys all emerged from the station in warm, dry clothes but I was FREEZING. The minute I put the tee shirt on over my wet bathing suit, it was sopping wet.  I shivered for the next hour or so until we came to a K-Mart and I went in the store wearing a wet bathing suit covered by a wet tee shirt that went to my knees and flip flops.  I bought a huge tee shirt on clearance and a pair of flannel pajama pants, paid for them, and then went directly in the rest room and changed. 

Finally, warm and toasty, we kept on moving down the road, through Myrtle Beach (which held no appeal for us) and aimed for Wilminton, North Carolina, where we’d made a reservation using the Jameson Inn brochure.  Unfortunately, this Inn is not the little treasure the last one was.  We don’t have a fridge or a microwave and our room is on the third floor.  No balcony or window to open and it cost us $110 for the night. 

Tomorrow morning, the boys want to visit the USS North Carolina battleship and then we’re heading toward the Outer Banks.  Not exactly sure where we’ll visit but I’d like to see Rodanthe or Ocrakoke.  Love those wild deserted beaches.

We’ve been in Chattanooga since Friday.  I wrote a nice long post Friday night and the wifi at the hotel crashed before I could save or send it.

It finally came back up Saturday for a few minutes but went back down.  We went to Rock City, Battles of Chattanooga, drove Go Karts, and visited downtown.  The wifi was working Saturday evening so I wrote about all  about it but it crashed again before I could save and post.

It was down all day yesterday and never came on.  Finally, this morning, it’s working again.  I don’t know how long it will last so I’m typing at full speed and saving as I go.

Yesterday was a frustrating day.  Started out pretty good.  We went to the Open Air Market down on the riverfront.  There were lots of booths, arts and crafts, local food specialties and fresh produce but the produce prices were outrageous.  Tomatoes were $4.00 a pound.  I can get Tennessee tomatoes at my local produce market at home for $1.99 a pound.  We still enjoyed browsing and looking at stuff.

The rest of the day went downhill.  We went to Ruby Falls and the line was unbelievable to get in.  We’d already purchased tickets because we bought a combo package at Rock City so I asked if we could get a refund.  No go.  It was either stand in line for two hours or come back.  The woman at the counter said it usually isn’t too busy after 5:00 so we decided to come back. 

During the three hours we were killing time, DH told me he really doesn’t want to go to our place in Florida.  What???  NOW you tell me?  He wants me to try to pull a rabbit out of my hat and plan a different vacation.  I took my laptop and drove out in search of a Panera, McDonalds or someplace with free wifi to try to figure some things out.  The GPS (we named it Louise) took me halfway around the city to a Panera and then kept “recalculating” when I didn’t “turn right” at non existent intersections.  She finally got me to a vacant lot and kept insisting “Destination on right!” when there wasn’t anything there.  I gave up and drove back to the hotel.  We hung around and looked at maps for a while and then headed to Ruby Falls.

That was a disaster.  True…the lines were much shorter but the event was frustrating and set my teeth on edge.  We waited in line 45 minutes and then began our “tour”.  We’d walk 50 feet and then our guide would say, “Everyone move way over to the right to let this group pass.”  Returning groups were called “Survivors” and the entire tour consisted of walking 40 or fifty feet and then moving over to let survivors pass by.  Our guide kept joking that, on the way back, we’d be the survivors and everyone would have to move over to let us pass.  During the entire tour, we’d walk fifty feet or so and wait ten minutes for survivors to pass, walk fifty feet and wait for survivors, walk fifty feet, etc. etc.  The trip to the falls was half a mile and it took us three hours.  True, the falls were really pretty but we only got to stay five minutes and then headed back.

By the time we got out of Ruby Falls, it was 8:45 and we were all tired from being on our feet three hours.  We headed back to the hotel and I grumbled and growled because the wifi was still not working and I don’t know how I’m supposed to switch gears in the middle of vacation and make other plans.  grumble, grumble….

Ordinarily, we’d just follow the road wherever we want to go and grab a hotel room close to a beach.  Maybe we’ll do that tomorrow.  I don’t know.  Still, I’m hesitant because this is the height of vacation season and I don’t want to get out in the middle of somewhere and not be able to get accommodations.

Now, while the wifi is up, I’m going to see what I can find on Expedia.  Sure would be nice to know where we’re going.  Savannah?  Brunswick?  Outer Banks?  Florida?

Ughhh, oooohhhh, yuck…. I’ve barely had my coffee and yet I have to decide whether or not I’m ready to jump in the pool.  If I don’t get my laps done before we leave for vacation, I know I won’t get any exercise today.  We’re heading out soon and I’ll be in the car most of the day until we arrive in Chattanooga this evening.  I’m probably just making it worse sitting here imagining how cold it will be.  Brrrrrrr….

12:30 Update - Did 60 laps in the pool.  It really wasn’t too bad.  The temp was up to 69 degrees.  I have to admit that the laps between 20 and 40 seemed to really go slow but I worked through it.  Now I’ve been to the bank, packed my bags and we’re hitting the road!  Tonight we’ll be in Chattanooga.

Sitting here eating my Yoplait yogurt for breakfast.  For some reason, I’m having a hard time being creative with my meals and that’s not usually a problem.  Wish I could get motivated to dream up some fantastic diet dinners and go to the store.  Last night, I grilled some chicken and made a salad.  Ate too much of it but, then again, can you really eat too much salad?  I only used one chicken breast–boneless, skinless, assorted salad greens, strawberries and blueberries and shavings of Asiago cheese with Paul Newman’s Lite Honey Mustard.  Oh yeah, had a few stone wheat crackers with it.  Funny - how I felt guilty about eating so much and I bet the entire meal didn’t have 500 calories.  I have to be careful about that.  Once I get into dieting, I tend to go overboard and not consume enough calories.  Sometimes it’s easier to just not eat.

Weight is at 202 or 202.5 this morning.  Don’t know which because the last digit on my digital scale burned out.  Given a choice, I’m going with 202.

We leave on vacation tomorrow.  Not a big exciting venture this year.  We have to keep the price down so we can pay college tuition for the twins.  Andrew wasn’t so bad but, once Steven graduated, the cost went way up.  Wouldn’t it be nice if their parents stepped up to the plate?  Neither one of them have contributed a penny.  DIL even ripped us off after claiming them on her taxes and never gave us the money she got for claiming them.  Oldest DS is somewhere in Illinois living with a girlfriend.

Let’s see…about vacation…

We always pass through Chattanooga on our way to our place in Florida.  Never stop but always want to.  It’s not that far.  Just a five hour drive but it’s too far to go for a weekend and not far enough to stop on our way to Florida.  So we decided to drive to Chattanooga and stay in a hotel for five days.  We’ll see Rock City and Ruby Falls and ride the Incline up the mountain.  Steven is a Civil War buff and there are lots of museums he wants to visit.  There’s a Riverside Marketplace where merchants have booths selling fresh produce, arts and crafts and homemade goodies.  We’ll probably go there one day.  The Tennessee Aquarium is downtown and we might spend a day there.

After leaving Chattanooga, we’re heading on down to our place in Madison, Florida.  We haven’t been down there since last summer.  I’m sure the grass is shoulder high and the neighbors are tired of looking at it.  Although…we had a neighbor run a bushhog over it last November.  Anyway, that’s ten acres that needs to be cleaned up.  I’d like to do some work on the cabin but we don’t have the money this year.  Wanted to get the drywall finished in the downstairs, pour a concrete slab for the pool and buy a huge shed so we can get all the stuff we have stored in the cabin out of the way.  Unfortunately, we can’t do all that and still pay for Steven’s dorm and food for school so we’ll probably just cut grass and relax for a couple of days. I’m looking forward to a few soaks in the clawfoot tub out in the garden.

There’s a state park called Madison Blue Springs that we’ve never visited just 15 miles from our property.  The water is icy cold and crystal clear.  We plan on taking a day to enjoy the springs.  It’s supposed to be beautiful diving but I don’t have my certification anymore so we’ll just take some snorkels and masks.

After we leave Madison, we promised Andrew we’d go on a day cruise so he can play the slots.  The boys are 20 years old now and they have to be 21 to gamble unless it’s on a day cruise where the age is 18.  So we’re heading to Jacksonville.  Andrew wants to see what all the hypes about since DH and I go to the casinos so often.  As cautious as he is with money, it probably won’t take long for him to lose $20 and decide the slots are not for him.

After the day cruise, things are pretty vague.  I don’t know if we’ll head straight home or travel up the east coast and spend a couple of days.  We’ll decide when the time comes.

And now…time to get to work.

12:30 Update - Did my laps in the pool.  Didn’t really enjoy it all that much today but I hung in there and let my stubborn streak run the show.  Determined to do at least as much as yesterday and then pushed for five more laps.  Now it’s time to start packing.  We have a pool at the hotel in Chattanooga but I don’t know how big it is or how crowded it will be.  Wonder if they have a treadmill? 

5:00 Update - No, they don’t have a treadmill.  Guess I’ll try to workout in the pool.

I decided to put some effort into dinner.  I’m fixing Caribbean Pork from My Favorite Recipes category.  Bought some home grown tomatoes and fresh asparagus from the produce market and I’m making baked (microwaved) apples with Splenda and Cinnamon to go with it.  Picked up a nice watermelon, too.

Pepagirl, I responded on your page.  Thought of a couple more things since then:

I hardly ever buy anything unless it’s on sale, color my own hair and do my own nails.  Tanning booths? HA!  If I get within ten feet of a ray of sun, I tan.  I also have $150 a week automatically sent to my credit union.  It adds up fast and is always available if we run into an emergency or a great deal on something we need.  Hope that answers your question.  It all adds up!

There ought to be a song about quiet summer mornings.  Something about sitting out on the patio with a cup of coffee watching the birds on the feeders.  Checking out the newest blooms on the flowers and knowing you really don’t have to do anything at the moment except relax and enjoy the scenery.

Everyone is still sleeping and I’ve been up two hours.  A rare treat to have total quiet and the house to myself. I even eased the backache by sitting in the spa for a while.  In a few minutes, I’ll get dressed and go to the garden to stake a few tomatoes.  Had to use bug dust yesterday.  I hate using it but something is eating through the corn stalks and chopping them off at the base.  Went out yesterday to find another three or four stalks totally eaten through at the base and lying on the ground.  Something’s also eating the blossoms on the tomato plants.  So I had to dust.  The “not so nice” part of vegetable gardening.

I sent an email to our city councilman about getting a community garden.  Not an hour later, he replied and said because of the re-districting last year, he’s no longer our councilman.  Said it was a great idea and he’d love to be involved but would have to forward my email to our new councilman, Brent Ackerson.  I thanked him, waited a week and sent another email to Brent Ackerson just in case he didn’t get the forwarded message.  He’s yet to respond.  Not even a “received your email, will get back with you”.  Kind of pisses me off that he can’t even take a second to let me know he got my letter.

I got a packet from my attorney yesterday.  Fourteen pages I have to fill out about the circumstances related to identity theft.  It asks about all the details surrounding the event and I’m trying to remember names and dates from ten years ago.  The fact that a student got a bunch of teacher SSNs and her boyfriend used them to get charge cards was pretty much hushed up.  No school wants that kind of information getting out.  It makes it difficult to get the facts after all these years.  Guess I should call my attorney.  I don’t have a clue about how I would get the report.  The girl was a minor and I don’t even remember her name.  The principal retired and moved to Florida and, although I’ve called several teachers I worked with at the time, everyone else is about as vague about it as I am.

I’ve still got the spark going.  Thought about going ahead and doing my laps while I’m out here on the patio in my bathing suit but I’m toasty warm and comfy and not in any hurry to jump into a pool that’s 66 degrees today.  No…better to do that this afternoon when it’s really hot.  During vacation, I won’t have access to scales and I’m really looking forward to coming home and finding myself back in Onederland.  I’m at 203 this morning.  Planning my big homecoming to Onederland will keep me motivated during vacation to stay on track and I should be happy when I finally step on the scales again.

Ahhhh…I’ve indulged long enough.  Time to get a shower and get to work.  Have a good one, ladies!

4:00 Update - Weeded the garden and staked a few more plants.  Mowed the grass in the front and back yards.  Got all hot and sweaty so I jumped in the pool and did 50 laps.  Then, just for the Hell of it, I did one more.  Added two laps of sidestroke and called it quits.  Still sparkin!

I’m coming home.  I don’t belong in the Terrible Twos.  I should be firmly entrenched in Onederland.  I’ve lived there my entire life and I never should have strayed.  It’s terrible living here.  Aches and Pains and a total loss of confidence.  Ugly clothes and no energy whatsoever.  Why did I ever come here?

Oh wait…I remember.  I hitched a ride with doughnuts and french fries and anyone else who shot me a “come hither” look.  And I went.  I just jumped on board without a second thought.  I didn’t even drive.  Just sat back in my lazy boy and watched the scenery go by.  And now, I have to take the long walk back home.

I followed the path today.  Went to the pool determined to do 40 laps and then, when I got to 40, I pushed myself to 45.  See, that’s the thing, when you’re competing with yourself, you can always win.  No matter how far you go, you can take just a couple more steps.

I’m pushing.  Pushing my way back to Onederland.  We leave on vacation Friday and, when we get back, I’m coming home to Onederland and I’m never leaving again.

Dinner tonight is grilled pork loin, edamane salad and sauteed green beans with almonds and lemon juice.  Dessert is sugar free jello and sugar free Kool Whip.  Not too bad.

I haven’t.  Of course, I don’t get to see it too much with all the dense shade we have around here but I like to see the sky now and then.  Yesterday was gray and gloomy and today is even worse.  At this rate, the pool will still be freezing.  I’d like to get the chiminea fired up and run the pool water through it but it looks like it’s going to rain any minute so I don’t guess that’s going to work.

Weight is at 203 this morning.  I want to go back to Onederland.  I felt so good yesterday about taking the plunge in the pool even though I didn’t want to but I don’t know if I have it in me to do it again today.  We’ll see what happens.  In the meantime, nothing going on.  Just me and Ray Lamontagne cleaning house.

Later….

4:00 Update - I don’t know what makes a spark.  I don’t know where it comes from or where it goes when it leaves.  I just know you’ve got to use it while it’s hot.

I cleaned the house and I just felt like I HAD to do my laps in the pool.  They say it takes three days to make something stick and I just felt like I had to get it done.  Then, when I got in the pool, I started to do thirty laps jogging like I did yesterday but I figured if I could do 30, I could do 35.  And so I did.  Feeling pretty good about that.

“I’m on the edge of Glory

And I’m hangin on a moment of truth

Out on the edge of glory”

Kind of feel that way this morning.  Like if I could just make a committment I could find Glory.  Confidence.  Strength.  Determination.

I was so good yesterday.  I had an absolutely perfect day and I want another one today.  It’s been so long since I felt good about myself and my choices that yesterday left me feeling like I was positively glowing.  I felt like my horoscope was a message written just for me.  I’m not reading it today, hee, hee.  Don’t want to spoil that positive impact by finding that the message is some generic piece of crap that has nothing to do with me.  And I don’t even believe in that stuff.  Yesterday was just the right kick in the ass to get me going.

So I went out to the pool and DH was putting in a new skimmer.  I haven’t been in it this year and he needed help from the inside to get the thing lined up right.  Okay…that’s even more motivation to take the plunge.  I jumped in and damn near jumped right back out.  I asked DH to look at the temperature and the water was 64 degrees!  Hot damn!!!  Time to get some wood and get our homemade chiminea pool heater fired up. 

Still, I tippy toed over to help DH and, by the time we had the new skimmer set, I’d warmed up pretty good.  I used to do 5 laps around the pool to warm up, 45 laps jogging and a final lap to cool down.  I walked five laps to warm up and felt like I’d done a full workout.  I’m in terrible shape!  I jogged five laps and my calves and thighs were hurting and I was breathing like a whale.  So I alternated, five laps walking and five jogging for a total of 30 laps.

Hey!  It’s a start.  Okay?

Our place is very high maintenance and DH and I just haven’t been up to it the last couple of years so there was plenty to keep us busy.  I weatherproofed the spa deck and sides and a big wooden planter/bench we have on the patio with a redwood stain.  It looks so much better.  Then I headed to the koi pond and netted out a ton of dead leaves and crap.  Followed that by going across the street to work in the garden.  We’re gradually replacing all the wooden privacy fence with vinyl and DH and I moved four wooden panels to replace damaged panels in the back and on the right side of the yard.  Then we installed four vinyl panels on the left side around the spa.

By the time we finished, we were both feelin the pain.  I barely had enough strength to fix dinner.  DH wanted to just order pizza but I refused.  I made a rub for some chicken breasts and made my own version of Wendy’s berry almond salad using spring mix, romaine, iceberg, blueberries, strawberries, wafer thin shavings of asiago cheese and almonds.  Topped it all with grilled chicken slices and low fat raspberry vinaigrette.  Pretty good stuff.  I ate a couple bowls of salad and was satisfied.  I thought DH was, too, but I caught him in the kitchen a couple of hours later making two grilled cheese sandwiches.

Instead of snacking in the evening, I sat here at the computer using iTunes to download some new music for aerobics.  Lady Gaga and a few others ought to keep me moving.

DH told me he thinks it’s our mattress that’s making our backs hurt all the time.  I have a hard time with that.  We have a really good quality mattress and it’s only five years old so it shouldn’t be causing so much tossing and turning but I told him I’d start looking.  I’ve always wondered about those sleep number mattresses.  Maybe I’ll check that out. 

Anyway, I already felt pain in every muscle in my body so I considered taking half a pain pill and wondered why the ones my sister gave me when we were on a cruise last fall didn’t cause the same problems as the codeine pills the doctor gave me.  She and I talked and the ones she had are the same as the ones the doctor gives me.  Then it dawned on me.  There were two days on the cruise when I was pretty much confined to the cabin because I was dizzy and nauseous.  I went back to my entry last December 5th and read it.  Sure enough, I got sick taking codeine pain pills.  That pretty much reinforced my discovery that I’m allergic to codeine.  Instead of a pain pill, DH and I both took a couple of Tylenol PMs and headed to bed.

We both slept a lot better and woke up without backaches but I’m still going to start looking for a new mattress.

It’s rainy and gray outside.  I don’t think I’m going to find the motivation to jump into a 64 degree pool today so I’m going to take my newly downloaded music and try to do some step aerobics.  Wish me luck!

4:30 Update - Wow!  I feel so much better!  I cleaned the house and then decided to do some step aerobics.  The new music wasn’t fast enough and I felt bogged down.  I switched to some old stuff and it was so fast I was ready to keel over after 20 minutes.  I justified my decision to quit since it was the first time I’ve done step in ages and figured 20 minutes was a good start.

I went out to the spa and, when I was all warmed up, I talked myself into jumping in the pool.  Figured it would feel pretty good after getting all hot and steamy from the spa.  NOT!  It was like plungeing into ice water.  I didn’t even have the sun shining like yesterday.  Just gray, gloomy skies and ice cold water.  Still…I prodded myself, since I’m already in here…I decided to repeat yesterdays “workout” and started walking around the pool figuring I’d do four walks and six jogs instead of five and five.  After four walking laps, I started jogging.  Sure enough, my calves and thighs were burning and I was breathing hard but I decided if I could do six laps, I could do seven.  I kept going and seven laps became ten, ten became fifteen and I kept going until I jogged thirty laps.  I could have kept going but DH came out to talk to me and kind of ruined the feeling.  I’m making Hoppin John soup for dinner (My Favorite Recipes category) and he wanted to know what he needed to buy from the store so I could make Hoe Cakes to go with it.

Leave it to DH to ruin a perfectly healthy dinner.  Me?  I’m not touching Hoe Cakes and, aside from giving him the recipe, he’s on his own.

I don’t do horoscopes.  I might glance at one if it’s staring me in the face but I usually forget it 30 seconds later.  Still, this morning was a little strange.  I woke up early after tossing and turning all night.  My back was killing me.  It’s been hurting for a long time.  Just a chronic pain that I attribute to being overweight and not exercising.

I sat there at the table and thought about what’s going to be involved with getting back in the exercise habit.  I’m not kidding…just working in the garden ten minutes makes my back hurt so bad I can barely straighten back up.  I’ve thought about getting a new mattress but I have a really good one so I don’t know why my back hurts all night.  I remember when I used to exercise all the time.  I didn’t have backaches back then.  I don’t think I’m ready for the treadmill or aerobics but I’ve got to start doing something.  My sister had a chronic backache like this and finally traced it to cancer in one of her kidneys.  She had surgery to have the kidney removed about three years ago and seems to be doing okay.  Scary stuff.

I decided that it’s time for me to start jogging in the pool.  That’s probably the best way to get back into shape.  It won’t hurt my joints and I’ll get some sun in the process.  I’d like to be able to hit the treadmill but it used to make my back hurt when I was in fairly good shape so I don’t think it’s necessarily the best avenue for now.

Decision made, I picked up the paper DH had been reading and the horoscope section was right there.  My horoscope for today says:

“Greater physical challenge will improve your life on many levels.  Initially, your motivation to push yourself may be low, but you are eventually going to feel better as a result of doing this.  Make today the beginning of a daily routine.”

Are you kidding me?  Weird, huh?

I promise.  Today I’m jogging in the pool.

I was up at 11:30 to pee.  Also at 1:30, 3:00, 4:00, 5:30, 7:00 and 8:30.  My God!  I must have lost a gallon of water weight last night.  Funny how one day of being back on track can make such a difference.  I must have been consuming a lot of sodium.  Too bad I don’t have any scales here to celebrate a loss.  Yes, Susan, I’ve seen Super Size Me.  Scary stuff!  Besides that, if I eat that kind of junk all the time, it doesn’t even taste good.

Yesterday, I had a Wendy’s Berry Almond Salad with grilled chicken for lunch.  Dinner was a salad with lite dressing and a turkey and swiss sandwich on 7 grain bread.  I snacked on a fruit bowl and a few rice crackers. 

I ate yogurt with a fork for breakfast but noticed that the fridge in our room froze my salad greens and tomatoes even though it was on the lowest setting.  Damn!  We went in search of a grocery yesterday and drove ten miles to discover that there wasn’t any grocery close to us in Tunica.  The GPS showed a Kroger 14 miles farther up the road so we drove twenty four miles to find a decent grocery.  I asked the woman at the hotel registration desk if there was anything closer and she said there’s a little grocery about 15 miles from here but they don’t have a lot.  Where do people around here get groceries?  I know the casino area is way out by the river but there’s got to be a closer grocery.  There are a few gas station/convenience stores in the area.  If someone put a Kroger in Tunica, they’d hit a gold mine.

I’m feeling cheap today.  I don’t take well to losing money.  Always think about what I could have bought with the cash the slot machines swallowed.  I know I shouldn’t feel that way.  We’ve lost $150 but we got a free hotel room with an indoor pool and spa for four days, 2 free breakfast buffets and 2 dinner buffets.  We enjoy playing and the time away gives us a chance to relax.  Well worth $150 but, like I said, I’m feeling cheap.  Steven starting college this fall has me scrimping and scraping.  Feels decadent to be out playing the slots.  Today’s limit is $20.  Yeah, I know…I’m cheap.

Okay, I’m off to the slots!

Eating bad= Feeling bad.

I felt so bad yesterday evening and I still feel pretty icky this morning.  I’ve been eating pretty healthy since school let out but we’re down in Tunica and I made some pretty bad choices yesterday.  We’re in a hotel room with no microwave.  Nothing but a small fridge.  We stayed in the casino yesterday and I ate a lot of crap.  We ate brunch at the buffet.  I ate more than I should have but it wasn’t a disaster.  Shouldn’t have had the almond torte but I would have survived it.

The problem really started yesterday afternoon.  DH and I were at the pool when we started getting hungry around 3:00.  The snack bar at the pool had NOTHING but junk.  Hotdogs, hamburgers, fries, nachos, hot wings, etc.  It was either go back to the room and change clothes or grab something at the snack bar.  We opted for the snack bar.  I had a burger and fries.  Later on, DH got some nachos and I had a few of them.

Around 7:00 we went to the casino and stayed a couple of hours.  We didn’t feel like eating at the buffet.  $21.99 each and we were hungry but not enough to justify the buffet so we were left with the snack bar in the casino.  Same choices as the snack bar at the pool.  I ate a BLFGT.  That’s a bacon, lettuce, and fried green tomato sandwich.  It came with potato chips.  We played the slots until 10:00 or so and I had a couple of girlie drinks.  Strawberry dacquiris. I’m not much for drinking but they’re free and the cocktail waitress kept coming around asking if we wanted more.

We went back up to the room and rented the Lincoln Lawyer (really good…I love Michael Connelly and he wrote it).  About halfway through it, I started feeling really nauseous.  All that fried food.  I felt totally gross.  I got sick.  Not once, but three times.  Food poisoning?  No, junk-food poisoning.  If you eat healthy for a while, you just can’t eat that kind of crap.  Even this morning, I’m still feeling queasy and all I see in the room are DH’s tortilla chips, salsa, chocolate covered peanuts and Cheetos.

So, for today, my plan is to get my butt out of the casino and into town (ten miles) where I can buy something healthy.  Maybe some stuff for a salad, some fruit, milk and cereal.  I might even see if I can get a salad to go from Wendy’s or Sonic. 

Funny how you can eat that garbage all the time but, if you eat healthy for a few days, you begin to lose your tolerance for junk food.  Yes, Body, I’m listening….Thanks for the reminder.

3:00 Update - Drove 50 miles and spent $50 on food.  DH has told me a dozen times that it would have been a lot cheaper to just eat at the buffet.  We’ve got two free dinner buffets coming and the breakfast buffet is only $6.99.  In all honesty, I might have been willing to pay $50 for the Wendy’s Berry Almond Salad with grilled chicken that I had for lunch.  It was sooooo good!  The problem with the buffets is that I know myself too well.  I could get a salad at the buffet but I know I wouldn’t.

Now we have yogurt, cereal, Silk soy milk, fruit cups, mozarella cheese, fresh apricots, bing cherries and strawberries, 2 packages of salad greens, grape tomatoes, lite dressing, deli turkey and 7 grain bread.

 Kind of wish I’d just bought a half dozen Wendy’s salads.

I just finished sending off my second e-mail to our city councilman about getting permission to use the land across the street for a community garden.  Our little plot is growing (pun intended) exponentially.  Many of the neighbors have come by the comment on the garden this year and it seems like everyone wants to get involved.

Personally, I’m all for it but I don’t want to be the one who has to do all the digging and drag the hose across the street.  I wrote to our councilman last April requesting his assistance in establishing a community garden but I never got an answer.  I have this slight niggling thought that I may have missed his response amongst the 60 or 70 emails I get daily.  It’s entirely possible.  I’m involved in a lot of different stuff and, if I didn’t recognize the sender of an email, I may have ignored it.

At any rate, I know they get their funding for next year on July 1st and I’m hoping he’ll be willing to contribute to the gardening effort.  If they would just dig it up one time and get rid of all the gravel and concrete blocks they used to fill it would be a tremendous help.  Going a step further…if they installed an irrigation source, I’d be delighted.  Dragging the hose across the street is one of my pet peeves.  It always gets snagged on something and it takes forever to get it set up.

Of course, it would also be nice to get permission to use the land for a garden.  As we invest more and more time and money into it, I have nightmares about the city issuing me a citation, fining me, or, worse yet, deciding to mow the area.

Lots of neighbors want to get involved and I would love to be able to include them but it would be nice if the city laid it all out for us and then everyone could have their own little piece of the action.

Lots to do today.  I’ve got to finalize vacation plans and get Steven to an appointment downtown so I better get to it.

I do a lot of stuff.  It drives me crazy to sit around and do nothing.  Still, I’m no spring chicken and it’s getting more and more difficult to take care of the stuff that bothers me.

Sometimes I feel like I’ve been trying to change everyone’s bad habits for years and years and not getting anywhere.  Like a hamster on a wheel, I just keep running and running and the scenery never changes.  DH is a total slob.  I’ve been harping and nagging for more than 40 years and he still does the same things he always has.

I know I shouldn’t run around behind him picking up all the time but I just can’t ignore it.  Believe me, I’ve tried.  Again, this morning, he went to work and when I got up, I found toothpaste in the sink, his toothbrush on the counter.  His prescription meds on the table, his towels on the floor along with his dirty underwear.  His coffee cup is on the table and creamer is sprinkled all over the kitchen counter along with little pink packets of Sweet-n-Low.

I just went ballistic on him last night!  He was sitting in the bedroom watching TV and had a bag of chips, a two-liter coke, salsa, and dirty ashtrays on his nightstand. Little foil wrappers from Hershey kisses were thrown on the floor like confetti.   He just went to bed and left it all there.  I went to bed later and saw the mess and discovered that his cigarette has fallen out of the ashtray and burned a hole in the nightstand.  I woke him up raging and he just mumbled, “Okay, I’m sorry.  What are you going to do, shoot me?  It was an accident.”

Just like that.  “Okay, I’m sorry…”  I’ve been hearing that for 40 years.  I love him but I have to admit, he drives me CRAZY.  It just never sinks in.  He does the same things over and over.

I’ve always worked my butt off.  That’s just the way I was raised.  I was raised to work hard, get nice things and take care of them.  He was raised in a family where they didn’t clean very well.  Things were picked up but they didn’t scrub and clean the way I was taught.  His parents always bought the cheapest stuff they could find and then bought more when it was torn up.  Dishes didn’t match, glasses didn’t match, towels didn’t match.

Our upbringings were very different and I’ve accepted that he won’t ever change.  Believe me.  He won’t ever change.  Our entire marriage has consisted of me working every minute and usually carrying a full-time job as well as a part-time job.  DH has always worked only as much as he has to.

We have very different values.  I value hard work and nice things.  He values relaxation.  He had the GI Bill and was paid to go to college.  I did most of his homework for the year he attended before he decided he wasn’t college material.  I took care of the kids, delivered three paper routes every morning, went to the office where I worked from 8:00 to 4:00, attended classes at night and tutored on the side for the next six years while I completed college. One of the students I tutored was the son of a local businessman who made me a proposition.  If I would travel 25 miles to his home and tutor all his kids in math, he would pay me $100 per hour in furniture from the furniture stores he owned.  And so I did.  On Mondays and Wednesdays, I would travel to his home and tutor each of his three kids.  That was six hours a week and $600 credit in his furniture stores.  I furnished our entire home from tutoring. 

The day came when I told Mr. O that I didn’t need anymore furniture.  Over the first couple of years, I furnished every room in the house with really good quality stuff and still got a few things for my sister and my parents.  He asked what I needed and I told him I needed carpet.  He worked out a deal with a friend of his who owned a flooring company and gave him furniture while he gave me flooring.  The best quality carpet and tile went into my house.

I think it’s because all of our stuff never cost DH a penny that he hasn’t valued it the way he should.  Is it that or is it just because of how he was raised?  I don’t know.  All I know is that he’s totally ruined every piece of furniture we have.  He actually eats off the coffeetable and then brings a wet dishcloth in to wipe it down.  He’s burned holes in tablecloths, comforters, pillows and furniture.  I went ballistic when he burned a hole in a $200 comforter that set the pattern for the entire guest room and he replaced it with a K-Mart Bed-N-A-Bag set.  He thought I’d be happy!  All for $19.98!

In a lot of ways, we complement each other.  I like to think I raise his standards a little bit.  He likes to take a lot of time off and I make the money for the trips we take.  He makes me stop working sometimes and I make him get to work sometimes.  He patches and fixes things and I buy new things.  Like opposites, we sometimes attract.  Other times, like today, we totally clash.

I’ve gotta go.  I have cleaning to do.  Enough ranting.

I worked like a dog yesterday.  All those grimy things that don’t get cleaned when your life is hectic and demanding and rearranging the clutter seems to be the best you can do.

It was old toothbrush style cleaning.  Grubby, grimy work.  I spent a lot of time on my hands and knees, crawling around washing baseboards and scrubbing tile and floors.  The cabinets got cleaned.  Curtains got washed.  A lot of clutter got thrown out.  Windows and walls and knick knacks where washed and polished.  I really didn’t make much of a dent but I was happy when DH came home and said, “Wow!  You’ve really been working.  It shows!”

And it does.  The place just seems brighter.  You can dust forever but washing and polishing makes everything shine.  I made progress yesterday and I’ll continue today.

I want to get as much done as I can while I have time.  DS has car problems so he’s using DH’s car and DH is using mine.  I’m stranded.  Might as well clean because we’re heading out for a few days next week.

I spent so much time doing things at school last summer that I didn’t even feel like I had the summer off.  It just flew by.  This year, I’m not going to spend all my time doing things for school.   DH took four vacation days next week.  He wants to head down to Tunica.  We have free hotel rooms from Sunday through Thursday at Hollywood Casino.  It’s always nice when the two of us can get away.

Our actual vacation is the first part of July.  I think DH said he took three weeks.  He gets 6 weeks a year.  It’s strange to be getting close to vacation and not have any plans.  I guess we should go to our place in Florida and check up on things but it’s so hot down there in the summer and we don’t have a lot of money this year.  Supporting two grandsons in college is not easy so we have to budget accordingly.

I’ve been thinking about exotic vacations.  Haven’t taken one for a while.  I’m trying to think of something wonderful to plan for.  Maybe in a couple of years.  We’ve been to Hawaii so many times I’ve lost track.  Used to go for a month every other year until we burned out.  Imagine that…burning out on Hawaii.  Still, there’s only so much to see and even though it’s a beautiful, spectacular place, we’ve decided not to go back.  We actually decided not to go back a few years ago and then relented when DH’s aunt wanted us to take her there about five years ago.  Big mistake.  We’d seen everything and done everything and spent way too much time just lying around the pool.  There are too many new and exotic places out there to spend a ton of money to lie around the pool.

Fiji or Bora Bora sound nice…one of those bungalows on the beach where you can snorkel from your lanai.

Enough…I have work to do.  Bora Bora will have to wait.

It’s taken more than a week off work but I’m beginning to re-energize.  Feeling better than I have in quite a while.  I’m looking around and seeing all the mess everyone makes and it has me on the warpath.

Yesterday, I waged war on the backyard.  DS is rebuilding a golf cart and he had parts all over the patio.  He was also working on a pressure washer and a lawnmower.  We had to get the pool cleaned up after DH replaced the pump. We also had to mow the grass, get my fountain going in the koi pond and clean up the mess that accumulated over the winter.

After that, I came in and started on the laundry.  The boys go through a ton of laundry and most of it is totally unnecessary.  They pull on  a shirt, decide not to wear it and toss it in the hamper.  They start a load of wash and then leave.  Everytime I go to wash, I have a load of wet clothes in the washer, a load of dry, wrinkled clothes in the dryer and a pile three feet high dumped on the downstairs couch.  We have two, count em, TWO laundry baskets full of clean socks.  I folded everything and put it away and told them the next time they start a load of laundry and don’t finish it and put it away, I’m confiscating it.  I told everyone to match up socks because whatever they don’t match by tonight and put away is hitting the trash.

It doesn’t help that I have three “homes” to take care of.  We have sheets and towels and dishclothes and blankets that belong in Florida, the RV and the house.  I have Florida stuff in my linen closet.  I have RV stuff in my linen closet.  When we take a trip, the laundry should be done and put back where it belongs.  Right now, I can’t get another thing in the linen closet and it all has to be sorted and put where it belongs to make room.  We don’t have a washer in the cabin in Florida so I wind up bringing stuff home where it should be cleaned and packed in a box to take back to Florida.  I guess some of that is my fault.  I shouldn’t bring Florida stuff back to Kentucky but it seems like whenever we leave, I make the bed with clean sheets and put out clean towels and bring the dirty stuff home with us.  I need to make a habit of going to the laundromat in Florida the day before we leave.

I cleaned the bathroom yesterday the way mama cleans.  Scrubbed everything, took all the stuff off the glass shelves and windexed them, put out clean matching towels and two hours later, it was all messed up.  Toothpaste was on the counter with the lid off and it had oozed a green gel all over the place, deodorant was on the sink, towels were gone and shampoo, conditioner, bathgel, a razor and washclothes were all over the place. 

By the time evening rolled around, everyone had come to the conclusion that I was on the warpath and they all wished they could send me back to work.

More later…I have to clean house.

I’m glad I’m not single.  Dating is just too hard.  Yesterday was a disaster.

First of all, let’s not forget that it’s a week late.  I couldn’t get appointments for the massages until Friday even though our anniversary was last Sunday.  We were scheduled at 3:00.  I called them Wednesday to confirm and asked if they had any earlier appointments available but they were booked solid.

I worked in the garden and then came in and began the formidable task of cleaning up at 1:00.  I scrubbed my nails and cut them.  Shaved my legs, shampooed and conditioned, shaved my underarms, scrubbed with a loofah and used moisturizer from head to toe.  As soon as I finished, DH hit the shower and did the male version of making himself presentable.  We were finishing up at 2:15 when the phone rang.

“Mrs. R.?  We had you and your husband scheduled for a couple’s massage at 2:00.  Did you forget?”

“No, I didn’t forget.  We’re scheduled at 3:00.  I just confirmed it with you guys on Wednesday.”

“No, ma’am, I’m looking right at it.  You were scheduled for 2:00.”

“No.  I made an appointment for 3:00 a couple of weeks ago.  I called you Wednesday and said, ‘This is Mrs. R.  My husband and I have appointments this Friday at 3:00.  Is there any possibility of us coming in earlier?’  The woman I spoke to told me you were booked solid and didn’t have any earlier openings and I said, ‘Okay, we’ll be there Friday at 3:00.”

“Do you know who you talked you?”

Do you ever know who you spoke to?  Everytime someplace goofs up, they want you to tell them who you spoke to. Like it’s going to make a difference.  If I tell them who it was, is that going to make it all right again?  Does that mean we’ll get our massages?   I actually remembered who I spoke to.  “I think her name was Crystal?”

“Well, I’ve been off the last two days and it’s possible she made a mistake.  It would have been Crystal who made appointments when I was out but she has you down at 2:00.  I’m sorry for the mixup.  Would you like to reschedule?”

To make a long story short, their next available appointment was on June 28th.  I listened to apologies and tried to sway them with the anniversary routine but they said they didn’t have anything available until the 28th.

Damn!  DH and I were ready to head out the door.  I was feeling really down.  It was my anniversary surprise for him and, without the massage, it was nothing more than a movie and dinner. It may not seem like much but you have to understand that DH gets up for work at 3:00 a.m. each day and he’s in the habit of going to bed at 7:00.  We don’t get out a lot.   We were definitely feeling the let-down but tried to regroup and reorganize and make the best of it.  He went on-line searching for a new pool pump and I fooled around the house until it was time to leave for the movie.

We got to the theatre, got in line for tickets and I asked for two tickets for Thor 3D.  “I’m sorry, we’re showing Thor but not Thor 3D.”  I told her I’d checked the newspaper and it said they were showing Thor 3D.  She informed me that the paper is always wrong.  They’re even thinking about discontinuing their movie times listing in the paper because they’re never right.

DH was NOT interested in seeing Thor without the 3D effects so we asked about Pirates of the Caribbean 3D.  It was showing but had already started and we’d have to wait more an hour and a half for the next showing.  We went out to the car to discuss our options.  DH started whining about how late it would be if the movie didn’t even start until 7:00 and he wanted to be home by 8:00.  (I’m not kidding.  He’s worse than a two year old.)  I suggested we forget about Cheddars since it was on the other side of town, have an early dinner at a little Italian place we used to visit that was close and then come back for Pirates. 

We headed on down the road to Jeffersontown.  Pulled into the restaurant parking lot and found that they’d closed down.  The mood was Black.  We were both frustrated and disappointed and just decided to go home.  I was really annoyed and irritable.  I couldn’t figure out why EVERYTHING  had gone wrong.  DH kept trying to pacify me but it just wasn’t working.  I was angry with the massage clinic.  Angry with the Movie theatre.  Angry with the restaurant.  He finally said, “Let’s go ahead and go to Cheddars for dinner and catch the earliest matinee for Thor tomorrow.”

That’s what we did. Cheddars is not a place to go if you’re feeling used and abused.  They have way too much comfort food.  I found consolation in the worst way.  I had a huge Margarita and ate fried chicken tenders and potato skins.  Snatched quite a few onion rings, too.  Probably gained back the four pounds I lost.  I’m not weighing myself today. 

Thor 3D is showing at 11:30.

Lots to get done today.  First of all, the good news, I’m at 203.5 this morning.  Can I get a “Hoo-Rah!”?  Wouldn’t it be nice if it would continue like this?  4 pounds in less than a week?  Just goes to show what watching the food and getting some exercise will do.

My driver’s license expired last month.  I keep forgetting to get it renewed.  I’m placing it high on the list of things to do today.

Today is the big anniversary date for DH.  We’re getting full body massages at 3:00, going to see Thor 3D at 4:45 and then dinner at Cheddars at 7:00 or so.  Bah, humbug!  I shouldn’t even take him.

The last time I jumped in the pool yesterday afternoon, the pump wasn’t running.  DH checked it and said it wasn’t a simple fix.  He’s going to work on the motor today or we’re going to have to buy a new pump.  While he’s working on the pump, I’ll work on my berry bed again.  If you missed the post update yesterday afternoon, I found more berries on sale and now have to plant 4 blueberry bushes, 2 thornless blackberry bushes and 2 raspberry bushes.  DS might help me if he has time but DH does NOT like gardening.  Better for him to work on the pool.

Jewlz280, I tried to find your blog but couldn’t.  Thanks for your comments.  Leave a link for me if you would so we can touch base.  I sent an email to our city councilman about 8 weeks ago asking that the city make a community garden across the street but he never responded.  We used to have a great Alderwoman but she isn’t serving anymore and I need to find out who the new one is.  Add that to today’s list…

DH is off every Friday, he works a four-day week, but he has to go downtown today to vote for a new union steward.  They formally served me with papers on Wednesday evening about my mysterious debt to some credit card company for $17,000 so DH is dropping off the paperwork with our attorney.  Guess I must have had pretty good credit whenever the scammers took out a credit card in my name.  It’s probably in the toilet now.  I have a feeling this is going to be a long time getting fixed….

We had some fence damage during a storm a few weeks ago and lost a couple of panels.  Seems like that’s a pretty regular problem so we decided to go with vinyl fencing.  With Steven starting college, we can’t afford to do it all at once but DH and DS went ahead and took down the remaining panels on one side of the back yard and it’s been open for the last couple of weeks.  I’m hopeful they can set the posts for the new fencing today.  I hate going out to sit in the spa or jump in the pool with half the fence down.  I feel like I’m on display.

Wow, I really DO have a lot to get done.  Better get off here and get started.