Meg - oops, I forgot to say congrats on the grandbaby!

Ditto to that MEG :carrot:

can it be me next---me-me-me....;)

SHANNON....sending you :hug: to pass on to your folks....

We apparently had an earthquake here yesterday. I was down at the beach working and didn't feel/see a thing. Then last night there were tornado and heavy rainfall warnings.

I turned the TV on to keep track of the weather (the stereo has been converted to computer and I have no idea how to use it for a radio) and ended up watching a program. I had to fight to keep from eating something. Talk about an ingrained habit! Finally switched the darn thing off and just went to bed.

Not much you can do about an earthquake or tornado, except make sure all the pets were inside. No problem getting the cats in - they were cowering behind the door when I went to look for them.

Have a great Thursday all!

Dagmar :dizzy:

Allison, I am so sorry about your stress. I hope you can push your accounts to pay. It's scary how the ripple effect works in our business world. You get a big pat on the back for not scouring the cupboards for chocolate. I definitely would have - I'm not as evolved into maintenance yet.

Dagmar, I'm glad you're ok with all your Mother Nature rants.

Shannon, I have loads of sunscreen that I use daily. Lots daily and I'm losing the wrinkle battle. The bad side of dry skin. I think adopting a new pet after a beloved pet has passed takes time. I've found that adjustment time different with the passing of the individual pet. It could take your parents weeks, months, years or never to go there. Animals provide the most beautiful love and when it is gone, it's a devastating loss. :hug:
Marie

Things are looking up today. We got two medium payments in yesterday and I'm expecting one small one today. That will cover us for the immediate bills we HAVE to pay. Vendors on the other hand will have to be strung out another couple of weeks.

And yes, it is stressful! I've paid out twice what we've brought in this month so there's the deficit. If only this one job would pay us--even half of what we billed them, we'd be fine for another two months. But in the mean time I call on all the old stuff. One place has been stringing us along for an entire YEAR for just $600. It's not a lot of money, but DARN IT, we did the work they wanted so why not pay us? The principle of the thing bugs the heck out of me. I called them yesterday and she's all like "I'm hoping to get some money in next week..." How on earth are they staying in business? And the ONLY problem we have is with other businesses. We never seem to have problems when a homeowner has us do work. They pay within days of us billing them. But a business that needs this or that? They string us out forever. I have half a mind to not do work for these types of things any longer. /rant

And Marie, stress rarely causes me to eat. Boredom does, but not stress. I guess I'm kind of lucky in that regard!

Has anyone tried this cracker: 1000 Layer Cracker? (Had to link to a blog which I have yet to read). What I REALLY like is that they are individually wrapped, even though the serving size is 2 crackers, only 1 per wrapper. So it really makes you stop and think about having a second one AND they stay SO FRESH! They're really tasty!

Allison - I've seen those crackers. Now I have to have them next time I go to TJs... And I'm not surprised it is the businesses you have more trouble with than the homeowners, really.

Hi all,

Chuggin' along... Doing better (knock on wood) about extraneous snacks and desserts this week, and I've also been getting to the gym more consistently. Yesterday there were these two guys totally hogging the free weights section. Grumble. Don't they know they need to step aside so I can hog the weights?

Someone asked what BF is doing. He's part of BP's "Vessels of Opportunity" program, where they hire local people with boats to help with their oil monitoring, boom deployment, work as skimmer boats, etc. Right now he's just scouting for oil, which he says is pretty easy so far. We both have reservations about what could happen health-wise when big oil slicks start moving in and he's getting in close contact with that (even though they are required to wear personal protective equipment). But for now, the $'s good, and he's going to do it as long as he can since he can't fish. I saw a story today about a captain in Lousiana who had fished for 2 decades, was part of the VOO program, and committed suicide 2 days ago. It's not only very sad, it makes me worry about the stress is will put on BF, NOT that he's every said or done anything suicidal, but he had been depressed even before the oil spill happened.

Ok, enough about that...

Marie, I'm out in the sun so much, I also wear copious amounts of sunblock to try and save my skin later! Even at 27 I see more freckles than I used to. My skin is sort of oily, which made for some ahem, bumpy, teenage years. My mom, who has the same skin, would always tell me that the oily skin would also mean we'll get fewer wrinkles when we're older. She looks pretty darn good at 55 (only a little gray hair, too) so if that's an indication of my own future I'm hopeful.

Allison, I'm glad you got some payments! After a certain amount of time, can you turn an overdue payment over to a collection agency? I know times are tough for everyone, but that means it's tough for your business, too!

Dagmar, way to resist the TV-eating temptation.

My lunch is finished, back to the lab now. Have a great day all! ;)

Oh, happy day! Three payments came in today. I have enough to pay rent and miscellaneous bills. Vendors will have to wait until after the holiday, but at least we won't have to dip into our own funds to pay the payroll!

And we've never used a collection agency. At times we've paid our bookkeeper a little extra to collect on the hard to collect people, but lately I just do it myself.

Does anyone else like Jazz apples as much as I do?

Allison, I'm so glad you got some payments. I'm with Megan on using a collection agency or small claims court. I'm a Honeycrisp apple girl and when they're gone for the season, Fuji is a far distant 2nd place. The one Jazz I tried was mushy. I'm into crisp apples.

Megan, congrats on being on track getting the snacking under control. With the situation you're living, that's a great NSV.

So the co-worker (aka swindler) was supposed to be on vacation this week. I WAS enjoying him being gone. But I arrive at work and he's here. I am so tempted to be sick. But only 2 hours left then I'm running for the door.
Marie

BTW, my other co-worker referred to him as "His Highness King Prick". I thought I'd fall off my chair laughing. :lol: :rofl:

Marie - that is funny. I would have had to laugh myself.


Allison - glad some payments came in!

Megan - I have fewer wrinkles than my mom did at my age, and have significantly oiler skin than her. Never thought about it, but that makes sense.

Going to go for a run today no matter what the temperature. I think. I'm looking at the weather now and I see 70% chance of thunderstorms after 7, with the storms moving in at 6:15. Phooey.

I'm also about to get up and pour my trail mix open into the trash. I can't handle it so have to let it go.

I've only once had a bad Jazz apple. They're usually very similar to Honeycrisp. Crisp and juicy and a nice sweetness. I can't believe I used to like the tartness of Granny Smith! They're icky to me now.

As for a collection agency. I just can't justify it. We usually have collectibles of around $350K and only 5% or less is the old stuff we have to go after. We've only had to write off 2 accounts since I started working here--and only one of those was significant (over $10K). DH has the attitude of "never get mad, always get even." We've benefited from that mantra a couple times.

I can't imagine running in high humidity! When I did run, I only had to do it in high humidity once or twice and it was horrible. Heat is one thing....but humidity? No way.

I forgot to address the dry/oily skin thing. I've got oily skin and have had "bumps" my whole life. Poor DS seems to have inherited my skin. DD was lucky to take after DH--but unlucky as well as she has his baby fine hair. Anyway, even though I have oily skin, I use lotion every day. The only time I didn't need to was when we were in Hawaii--it was so humid that I couldn't stand anything on my skin. I'm sure I won't have a ton of wrinkles, but the sun damage I've had is another story.

Megan~I heard the story of the suicide. But the national news said they didn't think it was oil related. I don't know how they could come to that conclusion.

Megan and Shannon, my mom had really oily skin and has nearly no wrinkles as 80. Me, very dry skin and it's getting the dreaded wrinkles. Now, if I hadn't had zits when I was a teen, that would have been an ok trade-off. But alas, I still get the things monthly. Zits and wrinkles, majorly lucky. At least I'm not fat anymore. :)

Allison, "never get mad, always get even." :rofl: Glad it works! And I will try the Jazz apples again. Maybe Costco has them and I'll get some this weekend.

I'm on hold with AT&T for the 2nd time in two days. So far this call is 32 minutes. Our phones won't recognize voicemail to set it up. Yesterday's call was for my phone and they got it fixed overnight. DH's still doesn't work. Good thing I really didn't want to go do my HIIT routine right after work. :)

Real quick here TEAM ~

MEGAN ~ Continuing prayers for you and your boyfriend and ALL suffering from the oil spill.

ALLISON ~ Boy do I remember those days...I once had a little over 100K owed to me...30K plus on 3 accounts for over a year!...I couldn't get the $$$...my ex-wife just kept saying "WHY?...they owe you...you did the jobs...they have no problem with the work...WHY?".....All she wanted was to pay the bills OR to tell the collectors the truth on WHEN!!! Such stress! Prayers for you too! been there...done that!

Ewww!
 

I woke up to an ominously quiet puppy this morning. Put on my slippers and started downstairs. About half way down smelled :faint: why he was being quiet.

Fortunately his crate is big enough that all the mess was on his towel in one corner and he was clean :D.

Now I know my day can only get better after having to clean that up before I'd had my tea.

TGIF!!! Have a great one everyone!

Dagmar (7 more days and I'm home) :cool:

Nothing like poop clean up duty to start off your day ;)

Well - this is it, i am heading down to Seattle today - and will be hitting the pavement at 7am (ish) tomorrow.
Should be fun - i will update with results on Sunday.

S