Maintainers Weekly Chat April 7 - April 13

You're on Page 1 of 4
Go to
  • Sugar snaps are planted. As are the lettuce, kale, and collards. Colorful ribbons are strung over them to flutter in the breeze in our attempt to suggest to the House Sparrows that they should eat somewhere else. Spring is here even if some of the cold lingers.

    My current challenge remains keeping my snacks to plan. As the weather gets more pleasant, that's easier for me as I don't spend as much time wandering into the kitchen looking for something that needs to be eaten.
  • Quote: Sugar snaps are planted. As are the lettuce, kale, and collards. Colorful ribbons are strung over them to flutter in the breeze in our attempt to suggest to the House Sparrows that they should eat somewhere else. Spring is here even if some of the cold lingers.

    My current challenge remains keeping my snacks to plan. As the weather gets more pleasant, that's easier for me as I don't spend as much time wandering into the kitchen looking for something that needs to be eaten.
    Bill You can wander outside and look at your future healthy food instead. on already having your plants started. I do not garden with anything that needs constant care as I'm away dogsitting so much. But I do enjoy eating the bounty of my clients' gardens when staying with their pets in late summer and early fall - nothing like fresh from the back garden produce.

    Dagmar
  • It's 7:20 AM, I'm at the office, looking at an inbox with 22 emails from the weekend, the majority of which were sent to me on Saturday, and the remainder of which were sent to me on Sunday. None yet this morning. Yes, this is how it feels to arrive early on a Monday and find you're already behind for the week.

    I need more coffee. And another day in the week, or perhaps, a redo of the weekend.
  • DH was busy this weekend with the seedlings. I won't tell him you're planting outside, Bill. Here it is April 7 and we still have snow on the ground. It is way too wet to even think about working in the garden yet.

    Dagmar, I agree - there is NOTHING like eating hours-fresh food. Even DS14 gets a kick out of taking friends to the garden in the summer. Between snow peas, cherry tomatoes, and the raspberries, we've had teenagers hanging out in there for hours. Wish they'd pull a couple weeds while they're at it!

    Saef, I too wish there were a phantom extra day in the week. Taking a vacation day doesn't help and almost makes it worse, so what seems to be needed is a way to make the world STOP while we catch our breath. I haven't figured it out yet. In the meantime, coffee sure doesn't hurt.

    Spent the weekend putting up the closet system and moving all the stuff back in (whew). Shout-out to Easyclosets.com - very happy customer here. There is still a lot of sorting and shuffling to do. And more than one trip to Goodwill. I am realizing that I haven't worn over 80% of my clothes in several years, and it has nothing to do (mostly) with size. There's always the couple pairs of pants that are "just a few" pounds away from wearable, of course, but for the most part, I simply do not like any of my clothes.
  • Morning all,

    Saef, I feel that way, but not about work. I have my big final project due for class a week from today and have barely started researching, but I have extra choral rehearsal time this week and the weekend will be dominated by our two final concerts, so my "free" time is largely taken up. I was thinking this morning that I might just take a half day off work Wednesday to work on the project. (I know, my priorities aren't quite straight. Work isn't busy this week though.) I know I've said it before, but if I take another class this fall semester I'm not singing in this choir, no matter how much I enjoy it or how badly they need sopranos. It's hurt me not to be involved in the current spring theatre production already but I had to say no. This is for my career, right? Right. (Ok. Pep talk over.)

    I spent most of the weekend being responsible, getting exercise and doing my school work for last week. I did go fishing with BF and get to relax for a few hours yesterday morning (and brought my ipad with my course reading loaded onto it, ha ha). The morning was foggy and we were out before first light so we watched the sun rise through the fog. It was beautiful.

    Speaking of workout DVDs, I tried a "Ballet Beautiful" workout that streams for free if you're an amazon prime member on Saturday. I'm still sore, but rather than beating myself up for being out of shape I'm just trying to be positive and keep momentum to do it again sooner than later. I'm already wondering when the heck I can fit it in again this week but I'd like to continue doing it because I need to do more strength training (any strength training!). I could see myself doing it several times to get a little stronger and make sure my form is correct, then writing down the exercise sequence and doing it while watching TV. She did the exercises so fast I had to pause and catch up a lot, in addition to pausing to give my muscles a break.

    Bill, your garden sounds great! I've got kale that I grew through the winter that's ready to be harvested, as well as tomato and bell pepper seedlings in the bed. This year my heirloom tomato seeds got started late and have been growing so slowly I'm afraid they'll be too late (my garden bed is very sunny and in FL our season ends early due to the heat). I'll just go to the hardware store and get a few more tomato seedlings already that are already started, as well as cucumber and a few other things because my seeds are too slow. I got some home grown lettuce from a friend on Friday as well and have been enjoying it in salads. I love garden season! Enjoy your garden!

    I agree that the warm weather drives me outside more, too. On Sunday I spent 6 AM until about 3 PM outside. I thought to myself "Oh yes, back in the swing of things. Spring is here." I love it.

    Have a good week everyone.


  • I'm so envious of everyone with a vegetable garden. I simply cannot grow anything here although there are certainly others that can. We have community gardens here and there and they are teeming with vegetables.

    My MIL got a hole in one on Saturday. My FIL had gotten one this past January. They were commenting on the fact that it is probably very unusual for their son to have witnessed both of them.

    I used to have an overflowing inbox, too. I'd come in and easily have 60+ emails to deal with and each one had to have a reply or more. I kept every email in folders so that I could reference them if something similar came up again (still do, although it isn't as often now). I really hated the people who would return an email with a phone call. I'd have to take notes and then translate them into a "reply" for me to save for later and it never translated well.
  • Megan Beautiful pic! What type of bird is that? And it's really nice to be outside when the weather is temperate.

    Becky I hear you on the not liking the clothes. In my case it's a bit more them being unsuitable for any thing I do or anywhere I go. I kept a beautiful taffeta party/cocktail dress, heels, and matching purse for 3 years. Tried them on and looked at myself in the mirror many times. They never left the house, except for that last trip to the charity box.

    I just had a porch guy come and look at our ageing, rotting front box. He is very gung ho on cedar for the design I gave him so the new porch is going to be expensive. I figure this is something I'm only going to do once and it will be good for resale in 10 years. That's my rationale and I'm hoping he's in the upper limit of my parameters. The house really needs a facelift and the porch is a major part.

    Dagmar
  • Megan-- that sounds intriguing. I have amazon prime but have never looked at their workouts. Is there much available?

    Good luck Bill on all your gardening! We have sometimes done a garden but with dh gone so much and my lack of a green thumb, we planted flowers this year. However, a yoga friend gave me spaghetti squash seeds on Saturday as we were all talking about trying and cooking spaghetti squash. One of my yoga friends suggested putting the seeds in an egg carton with dirt to see if they grow so that is my grand experiment. I also made spaghetti squash for the first time last night. I enjoyed it and have leftovers for tonight's dinner.

    I went to "coffee" after yoga with my friend that I was nervous about inviting. It was great. We both enjoyed getting to know each other better. I was guessing she is around my age and I was right. She's a year younger than me.

    I also found out she has a side pet sitting business which is great! I'm currently having a mini nervous breakdown about my pet sitter. She usually sends an invoice awhile before a trip. I haven't gotten one for the upcoming cruise. I sent her a text on Saturday and didn't hear back. I sent another text yesterday and still nothing. I sent an email last night and I will call her after school to confirm. I set it up so long ago that I'm just paranoid she somehow doesn't have it on her books. Or she's flaked and moved or something weird. Since it's Spring Break here, I would have zero chance of finding openings at kennels or pet sitters at this point. My friend will be out of town or she would be a great back up. Hopefully I'm just being paranoid but I have no idea what I'd do if she fell through.

    Five more days until my Spring Break. Starting off this morning with a fire drill... hopefully we all make it!
  • Went to Library and got a different dvd I have rarely if ever done before and so I am changing up my routine a bit!



    Billwe live in town and cant really have a garden, but I sure wish we could! I tried last year and put plants into soil bags and a few of the vegetables produced but most of them just got diseases or something and didnt grow right

    Megan I have Amazon prime, I will check out Ballet Beautiful! Thanks!
  • Becky, once I lost the weight I decided I was only going to buy clothes that I really liked. I had fallen into the heavy person's trap of buying any clothes that fit, regardless of how much I liked them! As a maintainer I try to buy clothes that I really like and am willing to spend a little more money on an individual item. That said, I've bought only a few crappy cheap clothes in the last year because I really don't want to buy myself a new wardrobe when I am still planning to lose the pregnancy weight once I'm done breastfeeding. It remains to be seen whether I'll ever be able to fit into my old pants or whether the extra skin on my belly will make it impossible.

    Megan, lovely photo!

    Jen, I your photos on last week's thread of the chicks with your pets! Adorable!

    Things are going well here. Work is very busy although I finally have a bit of a lull today after meeting a stretch deadline last week. Babies are doing well overall. They are super cute much of the time, but they also cry and fuss a lot too. That's just what babies do! They are having a separation anxiety phase and they only want DH at night now. For maybe three nights in a row now whichever girl I take to change her diaper and put her in PJ's will just start screaming until I hand her over to DH, at which point she instantly calms down. Sigh. I cried the first night that they did it but have come to terms with it now. It's a phase, and some day they will have a reverse phase where they only want me and not him. It does make me feel kind of guilty for being at work though to see how much they prefer DH! Of course it's just at bedtime -- during the day they are perfectly happy to climb all over me.

    Hard to believe they are going to be a year old this month! I am thinking of calling our doctor to check on them developmentally. Their motor skills are great for their age and their babble is good but they are starting to fall behind on social milestones.
  • Jessica - can you be more specific on the social milestones they are falling behind on? I have heard that twins sometimes don't interact as well with others because they have each other and don't need others. Is that kind of what you are referring to?

    Michele - funny that you mentioned spaghetti squash - I planted it for the first time last year - it grows REALLY easy. I had never eaten it before and LOVED it. AND it keeps FOREVER. As a matter of fact, I had the last one from my garden last night!!

    We typically plant our garden the first weekend in May, but we've had such a HORRIFIC winter, that our garden is completely snow covered and the ground is still pretty frozen. So it is going to have to warm up a lot and consistently for us to be able to till it up and plant in a month!!
  • I'm at the point where I'm starting to get my garden ready - I can put tomatoes in somewhere in the next 8-10 days I think, peppers a little later but soon. I'm not sure what all to plant - everything was either rained out or eaten up by caterpillars and weevils and mites and whatever else came to visit last year so I'm a little gun shy. I've never tried to grow any beans or peas. I should do that. I have a lot of kudzu bugs usually though, and they eat those don't they?

    So XW's AC has gone out and has to be replaced. She cancelled her home warranty early this year in a fit of temper over something they wouldn't cover and now she is looking at thousands of dollars to replace the unit that the warranty would have replaced this year. Not sure how that is going to play out, but she doesn't have the money and I bet that she will come to us for some of it. As she doesn't honor the visitation agreement, tells DSS bad things about me and DH, and generally jerks us around. I was already over the line last week, this is just going to make it worse.

    It is raining here, has been since about 1:30 am. A car was washed off the road in an overflown creek near a friend's job site today, driver was killed. Sad.
  • Jen, the main one is that according to the literature we were given when they were born they should be imitating things by now (faces, gestures, sounds). They will smile at us if we repeat a sound or a gesture over and over but they won't make any move like they're trying to do it too. They are starting to at least respond to their names a little bit now, but they don't seem to really understand any instructions or gestures yet.
  • Terribly full day today. Must crawl into bed. Food has been poor.

    Jessica, everyone's different, of course. They'll have a burst very soon, I'm sure. Have they got a mirror they can see themselves in?

    Shannon, XW is such a difficult person. I can understand if you call her something stronger.

    OK, night night.
  • Birchie - if you've seen my journal on my other forum, she is the one often called by names I wouldn't say in polite company.

    Jessica - I remember you mentioning adjusted age and physical age for the girls, do you count the developmental milestones by the adjusted age based on when they came home from the hospital or birth age?