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Old 06-02-2014, 06:09 AM   #1  
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Default Maintainers Weekly Chat June 2 - June 8

I've been out on my bicycle twice this weekend. Felt great to divert from my planned trajectory to go explore some yard sales and the open house for a newly renovated condo nearby. When I'm walking, I tend to stick to the path.

June means warm weather, right?
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Old 06-02-2014, 07:13 AM   #2  
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Here in Florida, June means it's summer already, with highs in the low 90s and lows in the mid-70s. And rain every afternoon. Steamy. This is the season where we stay indoors a lot.

A pair of red-bellied woodpeckers have set up housekeeping in a tree in our neighbors' front yard. The female is busy pecking away inside the hole, doing renovations.
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Old 06-02-2014, 09:28 AM   #3  
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I went out without a jacket both days this past weekend (except for kayaking - needed one for that) and the weather is still gorgeous and sunny today.

Bill You've reminded me of another task - getting our bikes tuned up. I really like to ride on the trails in the park system near our house.

Good week all!

Dagmar
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Old 06-02-2014, 09:29 AM   #4  
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Summer has come a little early here too. High of 86 yesterday and roasting sun! The humidity wasn't terrible at least. I sometimes feel like I've become a wuss by living here because where I grew up summer temperatures are regularly in the 95-105 range between March and October, but now 86 feels like I'm burning alive. On the other hand I now go out in short sleeves when it's 50 degrees, so...

Poor DH who hates sunscreen is going to be miserable because while he can take on the risk to himself of not putting on sunscreen, he's not going to take that risk with our kids. This means he's got to get "yucky greasy" sunscreen on his hands in order to get them covered in it. He claims even after washing with soap that he's still greasy. It's entirely in his head -- I use the same sunscreen and it's a non-greasy formula and washes off nicely with soap.

In other news, I didn't bring my breast pump to work with me today. Yesterday I made it all day without having to pump in the middle, so my last excuse for not exercising is now gone. We'll see how today goes. I caught a cold over the weekend so probably not going to do much other than walk a bit anyway, plus I managed to get blisters from walking too much in my sandals this weekend.

Also, A took her first steps yesterday! Now both girls have done it, though they haven't really repeated it. We will have walkers soon!

We made an appointment with our vet to discuss Carter on Wednesday and are trying not to think about it until then (beyond more vigilance than usual with him & babies). If there are no other viable options and we have to euthanize we will probably wait until next week so we can spend the weekend taking him to do all his favorite activities.
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Old 06-02-2014, 10:37 AM   #5  
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Andrea - love the gazebo you put the picture of last week. We put up a gazebo with a mosquito net last year. One warning - tie the sides back if you aren't using it or rain and wind can damage the netting. We learned that the hard way.
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Old 06-02-2014, 11:05 AM   #6  
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The weather here is cooling off a bit this week. And with that we also get wind. There are a few high clouds but nothing to cause humidity so we can still use our evaporative coolers. Last week it was too humid for them to work effectively so we had to turn on the regular A/C. I don't sleep as well with the A/C on as it gets too hot and then too cold. And it costs more. The longer we can use the evaporative coolers the lower our electric bill will be at the end of the year.
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Old 06-02-2014, 06:59 PM   #7  
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Weather here in central Florida is super hot, humid and some rain storms to cool it off for five minutes. My DD says the weather is amazing in Monterey! Can't wait! I leave on June 26th. She loves the area. I thought she would end up staying in NYC after graduation but I can tell after five days out west she has other ideas! But it's wherever she gets a job. She tells me she has to start interviewing in Sept for her May graduation.

Jessica, they are going to be so cute running around together!!!! Such a cute age! My kids hated sunscreen but I was relentless. Florida sun is nothing to mess with and we are all fair skinned. They still burned occasionally, ugh! Especially faces even though I kept them covered.

Alison, never heard of an evaporative cooler. Looking it up!
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Old 06-02-2014, 07:03 PM   #8  
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Quote:
Originally Posted by CalCounter1003 View Post

Alison, never heard of an evaporative cooler. Looking it up!
Also known as a swamp cooler. They only work in very arid locales. They'd never fly in Florida!
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Old 06-02-2014, 08:27 PM   #9  
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Jessica, I hate getting sunscreen on my hands, and I have fish-belly white skin that requires constant screening. I have been very happy with the new spray-on sunscreens for body, and use a stick (like Chapstick only bigger) on faces. Bonus is that squirmy kids hold still much better for these too.

Also, for what it's worth, Loki once again bit one of my sons (not hard enough to draw blood, but hard enough to hurt) when he approached too close to DH while the dog was lying next to DH on the couch. After much heartache and discussion, we have decided he needs to go, and I am now looking for a new home for him without children. Since he's never been a problem with adults, I don't think we actually have to put him down, but at age 6, he may not be adoptable :>(
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Old 06-03-2014, 09:20 AM   #10  
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Andrea, sorry about Loki. DH and I have discussed whether or not rehoming Carter would be possible but given that he's 10 years old, disabled, and is neither friendly to other dogs or to strangers, it would be a really hard sell. I'm also not sure whether there are legal implications in putting an aggressive dog up for adoption. We are still holding on to a little bit of hope that the vet might find that there is something physically wrong with him that is causing his increased aggression, but mostly we are feeling really guilty about the whole thing (the "if I had just worked harder on training him," or "maybe if we kept him separated from the kids 100% of the time we could work this out" kind of thoughts).
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Old 06-03-2014, 09:30 AM   #11  
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Andrea, I'm sorry you and Jessica are both having to make these decisions.

Jessica - They haven't repeated the walking because they're gearing up to go straight to top-speed running. My DS waited quite a while to walk, but walking only lasted him about a week. Then it was off to the races! I've been trying to keep up ever since ...

Beautiful weather where I'm at, also. It's wonderful being able to sleep with the windows open again! Hoping this is DH's last week in KY. I'm getting too used to him being gone.
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Old 06-03-2014, 12:14 PM   #12  
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Andrea and Jessica -
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Old 06-03-2014, 12:18 PM   #13  
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Andrea-- I'm very sorry to hear about Loki and I hope you can find a wonderful home for him. When my mom passed away, we "inherited" her Yorkie. He hated living with us. He growled and snapped at everyone-- pottied everywhere-- it was awful. I had small kids, dogs and cats and he was overwhelmed. I agonized over what to do. We amazingly found an older couple that loved him. He went everywhere with them and as far as I know, it was a match made it heaven.

Jessica-- my heart breaks for you. Please know that you have done so much more than most people would have to try to make things work and you shouldn't feel guilty. It's only natural to feel guilty, but you can't have your girls at risk. I hope that someday down the road (if you do decide to euthanize Carter), you all will be ready to add another doggie to your family.

I had an interesting encounter yesterday at bikram yoga and I feel like I may have helped someone-- that's always a good feeling.... I also donated blood yesterday on my day off so I guess I did two good deeds. But, back to my story... I took a morning class and there was a new woman in class (several newbies actually)-- I noticed her as being very underweight and I wondered what her story was. After class she stopped me and we had a long conversation. She told me she's pretty much addicted to cardio-- doing cardio and running at least 1.5 hours a day. She said her body hurts and she feels like she's doing damage to it. She told me my body/figure was amazing and I was a "freak of nature" at yoga. It was humbling to hear that from a stranger. I tried to assure her that yoga is an all around great workout (cardio, strength training, etc) and I think/hope she's going to back off the gym and give it a try. I also talked to my yoga friend Sunday night-- we went to see Cee Lo Greene and Lionel Richie in concert!! She is quite thin and I know she does bikram most days plus runs. She also told me that she has body/food/exercise issues and we talked a lot about it. I guess I need to remind myself that no matter what someone looks like (thin, heavy, etc), I really don't know them internally and I should never ever think I do.

My own weight is now back down to where I want it and lower than it's been in a couple of years. The last time I got down this low, I thought I might get too thin (ha ha), and I allowed myself too many splurges/vacations, etc. I gained and had a heck of a time getting back down. I'm trying to remind myself that even if I got a few pounds underweight (which I doubt would ever happen), it certainly is easy to put pounds back on. My vacations this summer will certainly help with that!
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Old 06-03-2014, 12:25 PM   #14  
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Sending good thoughts to Andrea and Jessica. It's got to be such a stressful situation to know what is right to do. ((hugs))
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Old 06-03-2014, 01:27 PM   #15  
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Hi all just checking in for a quick read....
We had a nest of Brewer's blackbirds on the back corner of our house under the eaves and have been watching it carefully since we don't want to remove it until the babies were fledged & out of the nest. Yesterday when I came home I saw what I thought was a chunk of steel wool in the grass of our side yard (my DH uses it all the time for work) and I went to pick it up, but when I got closer, it blinked at me! LOL, it was one of the babies and the papa bird was watching in the fir tree nearby.
I just stood there for a while and watched it then I did the "chirk" call that they do all the time here and the baby perked up and began "chirk"ing back - so did papa, getting a little excited and deciding maybe I was a threat...

I backed off and just watched from the porch as the baby flapped around and followed papa while he was hunting for dinner in the grass. Lots of "chirk"ing going on between the two and poor papa was kept busy feeding the little beggar. Later the momma joined in and they were so cute to watch. Not sure where the baby is today as I had supper to make, and police patrol to go out on last night. I hope he is OK and has learned to fly better by now. There are cats around sometimes so I worry a bit.

A little interlude with nature always gets me feeling happy inside.
Liana
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