Um.... jrn, making up or making out?

Just a quick hello from sunny Santa Barbara, California....my meetings went great and tongiht I getting a massage....Monday I will be back on strict eating plans....but this weekend I am having a good time.....can't wait to get back to read everything more carefully...

you all are having so much fun this weekend!!!!!! keep it up!!!

RB

Hehe Ruth....:devil:

Ahhhh! AAAAH!

Yesterday we went to the Renaissance Faire, and walked around for 5 hours or so. I didn't eat the bad bad foods, and yet I woke up this morning having gained TWO POUNDS overnight. So that sucks.

I hope everyone else has a better start to their monday.

Hey there! :wave:

I have missed you chicks! Frisky is right Jen. :lol:

Sorry I have been out more then in lately. Mentally I have been pretty good, physically - this weather has been kicking my ***. Also have been off plan waaaay more then on. :shrug:
Work has been busy, but that is good. It makes the day go by pretty quick. The calls to me while home have slowed, which is even better.
Went and got pumpkins (and bake goods) Saturday. Apples on Sunday.

Hope things are going well! :)

:mouse:

So have any of you been paying attention to our grocery strike out here in SoCal?

It is becoming increasingly difficult to eat healthy when you can't just run out to the grocery store. There are three other grocery stores that are open without strikers. They are ALL jam-packed full of people. One of them is outrageously expensive, the other has lines from here to Pakistan and the last one closes early.

I won't cross the picket line but a coworker did and she said it wasn't even worth it, there was nothing left in the store! She bought the last set of eggs, the milk had already expired and the produce had obviously been sitting there for weeks.

What a pain in the butt! And they're talking like it might last two months. I can tell you right now, Thanksgiving may cause riots in San Diego. :lol:

wow Jessica,
i had no idea that was going on.
bummer...
let me know if you want me to fedex a gallon of skim milk...
kidding but, not really, is there anything we can do?
send letters to the corporate owners of the supermarket chains...
or whatever...
let us know,
Soozie

No, but maybe some cookies. :lol:
You're so sweet Soozie!

OMG! Jessica, shall I send you the pears that are composting in my kitchen? That is just terrible. Grocery stores should be designated essential services!

hi again Jessica,
my DP works for an East Coast Supermarket which is owned by Albertson's...she was wondering if Albertson's is a union store on the West Coast and if Albertson's is on strike.
Albertson's purchased stores out here that were union and they ended up having to maintain them as union facilities even tho their stores in other parts of the country are non-union.

anyway, what good are cookies without milk...I'll fedex both...
low-cal, low-fat, low-sodium, high-fiber, high-protein, nutrient dense, delicious cookies that is...um, first I'll have to find them...
but, lately I've been enjoying Slim Fast Chocolate Fudge Ice Cream Bars...
yum.
love, Soozie

The strike is horrible. The cost of food has gone up because you can only buy food at the more expensive stores or Costco. Albertsons is union here in So. Calif.

From what I understand, the strike is about them paying an additional 6.00 a month towards medical benefits and them having to supplement dependent benefits.

These workers get paid well... Since it is cost prohibitive for most US companies to completely cover medical insurance --if that is truly the case then I don't have that much sympathy for them and the havoic that they are creating.....if there are other issues there that I am not aware of, then I may feel differently.

....here in L.A. we also have a Transportation strike happened at the same time, so we have no grocery stores and so many people are not able to get to work, or others are being inconvenienced to the point to have to go and pick up workers, again these poor people (and I mean financially poor) who rely on this as their way to get to work are suffering terribly....

Again, I know that union workers are paid well, and they should be understanding with the impact that they may have on society should they walk out...people lose their jobs and can't feed them families because of their actions....

I don't feel that this is the American Dream!!!!

Sorry for the soapbox......

rb

Just a quick fly by "Hello!" as I have 2 seconds at work! :wave:

I plan on taking Friday off, so I can play in here quite a bit then. :)

Hi Squeaky! How are you, sweetie! :grouphug:

I'm on honkin' hold with my gas company. A 10 to 20 minute wait, they say! Isn't that just too damned MUCH!?!?

Hi Chicks! I've been down with a bad back, hope to be up & about in a few more days. Can you believe they are calling for snow here tonight & tomorrow :yikes: I'm just not mentally ready for it yet. Hope everyone is doing well....Hugs!

Sflake, you take care of that back and get better soon! :grouphug:
Yeah, we're supposed to get snow, too. Does that mean I have to wear socks with my Birks?

Yes, soozie, Albertson's is on strike too.

I think unions serve a purpose. And I support the strikers at the groceries stores. What they get paid is called a "living wage." They don't get paid well, per se, but they get paid enough to live on. They wouldn't be paid as well if it wasn't for the unions. As for the health insurance, they are making it on what they got. That means they can't spare the extra money. Plus, I'm a firm believer in corporations investing in their employees. The cashier at my Ralph's has been working for them since 1976! To get that kind of loyalty, you need to invest in your employees. To get a more articulate explaination, http://www.ufcw.org/press_room/index...ssReleaseID=47

There is a time and a place for strikes and unions. Strikes aren't suppose to just make a statement, they're also suppose to show impact. There are some unions I do not support (the nurse's union, for example. Striking while people are sick and in need of help is not my idea of a morally good strike) but in general, I'm okay "suffering" without cookies for awhile in order to support them.

Yeah, girls...my DP had gotten the low down today...that the strike is over health benefits and that the Albertson's out there is union. The unions themselves are very powerful entities Rowan...which creates another demension to the whole thing. The unions have become so strong that they have a life of their own and sometimes their actions involve advocating for or supporting the union as opposed to the workers.

The workers vote but the union leadership really has alot of power in terms of influence and don't forget that the folks who work in the supermarkets aren't getting paid while they are out on strike and they will never recoop that money that they are losing...so, they and their families are suffering as well. I know that my DP would prefer not to strike but her store's contract is up this Spring and tho she wouldn't be happy about it she would support the union if they called for a strike.

My DP has been working for this company for 37 years....she started out as a part time cashier when she was in high school. there was a time when being a full time supermarket cashier was a really good, well paying job with decent benefits.

Today that has changed, the hourly wage capped years ago and if you looked at a relative comparison of what a union store clerk made in 1976 and what they make now, you would see that they are making less....new hires make significantly less than old timers like my DP...

and some companies were trying to push out the older clerks to fill in with younger, parttime clerks so they could increase their profit margin.

My DPs salary is at the highest level and has been forever, which means some years she gets no increase and some years she gets something like a quarter an hour... Her work is very physical, she's on her feet all day and bending, squatting, and lifting...and it is stressful as over the years not only have the companies been paying less they have been cutting hours and trying to get the same job done with fewer and fewer employee hours. This leads to customers getting frustrated because there is no help to be found in the store and no one to answer questions and the clerks get frustrated because they have so much to do, if a customer asks a question the clerk falls behind and can't do what they were supposed to do that shift.

They also cut cashiers or pull clerks from other departments to do checkout if they get busy...which means only one employee to re-stock frozen foods because one ends up spending his or her whole shift checking.

I am grateful for my DP's job and the fact that she is covered for health insurance as is our DD...but, Rowan, don't buy into that corporate nonsense that workers should make up the difference for the rising cost of health care....health care costs are rising because, lawyers, health insurance companies, pharmaceutical companies, large corporate health care providers...not lowly private practice docs,
malpractice insurance companies, and other big money wealthy corporations are making beaucoup dollars...put alittle French in there to keep the Canadiens interested.

If a corporation is really at risk of going bottom up then I support them going to their workers and asking for help...and offering the workers incentives in return...but, I would want a good look at the financial statements of the corporation if they were saying, boo-hoo, we can't afford to pay for your health insurance anymore...and I would want to look at the figures in context, ie, relatively speaking who is suffering more? who's life style would be more effected by the change? the share holders and vice presidents of Albertson's? or the divorced woman who has four kids, two in college, and is working at Albertson's fulltime to support her family?

oh, gosh Rowan, look what you've gone and made me do now...my soapbox was much bigger than yours...and I don't even like the big powerful unions tho I support them in theory...but, I do have compassion for the grunt workers like my DP who are there working hard everyday and I fear that both the union leadership and the corporate leadership see her only in terms of dollar signs...

okay, enough.
love you girls
Soozie

Here here, Soozie! :hat:

YUP!! There IS a reason that the richest few in this country keep on getting richer. The CEOs of all these companies STILL get their bonuses even whem the companies are filing BANKRUPTCY!!!!

I know, but, I do think I carried on a bit...
love you girlies...
think I'll change my name from Soozie to Perkie,
lil boobin Soozin is too cumbersome...
love,
thingsareperkinup.

That's okay sooze....I get indignant when I hear about some celebrity or other well off person spending huge amounts of money on something really lame like 10 million dollars on diamond studded wheels for their beemer or something equally ridiculous and I think of how much poverty there is in the world and people are wasting huge amounts of money on crap when it could be helping people instead....:soap:

Help! Cody has decided he doesn't want to be a bag of jelly beans for Halloween...but we can't think of anything else! Does anybody have any cute ideas they've seen recently? He never goes as anything scary, he likes to make people smile. Last year he was Pee Wee Herman and the year before he was Nintendo's Mario....

How about the cat in the hat? :)

My daughter was a tube of toothpaste one year....

And she was also a crayon.



~VOW

When in doubt you could go to a store and buy one of those yucky plastic costumes...How about the shark from Nemo...if that isn't too scarey...I was Jaws one year....two big pieces of poster board...make a shark head that is rising up out of the water and have the front poster board be the open mouth and your face sticks out of it like you're inside the shark's mouth....???

When I was in grade school, I was the "Operation" man. I had a white jogging suit with felt pieces of some of the different things (charlie horse, thigh bone, pencil...I don't even remember all the pieces), and a red clown nose. Cheesy, but kinda cute. :shrug:

:lol: that's pretty inventive Squeaker!
when I was a kid two of my friends and I dressed as cats wearing one mitten each and went out at the 3 little kittens who lost their mittens ;)

I have been a "merry" widow in mourning gear (vintage black cocktail dress, elbow length gloves and a velvet pillbox hat with a veil) with a fancy urn and a Will with $$$$signs drawn on it (yeah I have a twisted sense of humor :devil: ) a fallen angel in a long black gown with black feathered angel wings; a fairy "goth"mother in a poufy black ball gown, silver fairy wings and a silver wand, and silver stars in my hair; a victorian vampire in period piece costume and fangs;madame butterfly in a chinese style cocktail dress that my mum used to go out dancing in- with elbow length gloves, geisha hair and makeup, a butterfly mask and antique painted fan, :chin: hmmm....I've actually gone out as a geisha too. I tend to go with costumes that make me feel glamourous and I can use my vintage pieces with since I don't get to wear them that often.

*VOW screams in laughter over the "merry widow"*

I saw a kid dressed up one year as a Thanksgiving Dinner...he wore a box decorated like a holiday table, with a paper T-Day tablecloth, plates, cutlery, napkins and cups glued on the top, and his head poked thru the middle with his face dressed up like a turkey.

I wanted to meet that kid's MOM!


Peace and pumpkins carved into Jack-O-Lanterns,
~VOW

:lol: :lol: :lol: that is hilarious VOW!

HAHAHA! Thank you for all these ideas! Mauv, you really make me want to dress up with him! No time this year, I am afraid...I should have planned ahead.

Thanks everybody! He has resolved to a Pikachu costume from Toys R Us. I just can't stand the thoughts!

One year I had a Halloween party with my two roommates. One who is white as a sheet dressed up like Janet Jackson, I was a vestal virgin, I took a bra and sewed cowboy fringe and rows of white sequins, I made a princess crown and wore a white short skirt (madonna type skirt--it was the 80s) and I made a chain belt with a big padlock over it that hung over my pelvic area...

But my favorite costume was the one that I made for my friend. A Flasher!!! It was a flesh colored body suit. I then cut out pink circles with cut bottle nipples sewn over where the breast are, and the took the very curly hair you use for making dolls and sewed it all over the crotch....she wore a trench coat and dark glasses and when she flashed, for the first second, you thought she was naked!

Then one year, we went to a party where the costumes had to be based on a song...my favorite one was this guy who was wearing a pain of long johns with the drop pants...when you asked him what song he was, he turned around, opened the drop pants mooned you and his butt was blue....He was Blue Moon!!!!

This year I will just dress up the dog and have fun...I will be swapping out my picture later with him in his halloween costume from last year!!!
rb

I LOVE all of the costume stories! :)

Going to carve my pumpkins tomorrow.

Went to a wonderful wedding celebration today. The wedding was a few weeks ago - very small thing. Today was the party. Only 50 people. It was at a winery, and the food was amazing. I had a great time. :)

How is everyone??? What are you girls up to?

We're all sick, darling. Haven't you noticed? ;)
How are YOU!? :grouphug:

I am sorely tempted to wait until Harry falls asleep and then go to the Hallowe'en Dance at the Fair Hall and get smashed. I have a raincoat and could go as a flasher without too much fuss with baby bottle nipples and dolls' hair! Hmmmmm. Someone hold me back!

Well if you go, let me know, because I want to be there to see you!

I'd love a party right now! I had a damned stressful day at work. I've got a couple of college boys that just don't take me seriously. I can't blame them, because my manager hates confrontation and he won't back me up. Yep, that is definitely a good trait for a manager. :(

Still not decided on the costume. I have Cody convinced that they don't make Pikachu costumes in his size.

Yeah, Jen,
I had a breast reduction. I had been thinking about it seriously for over one year. I'm really happy about the results but right now I'm a bit miserable because I had some post op problems...
I probably was too active and did too much and now I have alot of swelling...my boobs looked like a smallish C after surgery, now they look like a large D and that is all fluid! They feel really tight and yuckky...

and, I had used warm compresses one night to help with the swelling and soaked off all of the medical tape they had put around my sutures, so, being the efficient woman that I am I went to the pharmacy, bought betadine and paper tape and tried to replicate exactly what the nurse had done...I think that I did a pretty good job but, I had a severe allergic reaction to the tape or the betadine and now I have 3/4 of an inch of red and itchy and bumpy all along the incision line on both sides....

so, between swelling and itching I'm feeling awful. I went and saw the surgeon this morning at 8am and he aspirated some fluid and that helped a bit...and I just finished painting myself with caladryl...can't wait till I'm feeling better again.
Love, Soozie
but, ps, if anyone is considering breast reduction let me add that I still feel so much better about my body and my neck and back feel better already... the swelling and the rash are temporary, so I don't regret the surgery, just that I didn't rest enough early on!

((((((((((((((soozie))))))))))))))))))))))))))))

feel better girl!

chris

Soozie- :balloons: Sorry to hear about the complications. In a few months they will just be a distant memory (mammary?) and you will be enjoying the new perky boobs. In the mean time....TAKE IT EASY SWEETIE!!!

Oh, Soozie. You be careful, dear! :grouphug:
And don't be jiggling them about too much, either! Otherwise, before you know it they'll be hanging down to your knees. Get some good bras, for goodness sakes!