Trying to be less MIA and participate on a regular basis, but good grief is my life busy. And just when I start to dig myself out of the work-hole left by a 2 week vacation in another country, I discovered Spotify. Do any of you belong? Oh my, I feel like a kid in the proverbial candy store. I can't stop surfing for songs, listening to bits of things and clicking on the "related artists" links for an ever-expanding series of wonderful songs to discover. How this can be free is beyond me. Maybe because lots of people are impressed enough to pay for the premium version (I'm tempted, but will wait to see if I keep using it before I do that).

Jen, I live in Michigan where the economic downturn has hit particularly hard due to the huge loss of automotive jobs. We bought a house in 2001 for $370,000 and it is currently estimated to be worth $150,000 on the open market. Thankfully, we're not trying to sell and we don't have a mortgage. There were posh houses in my area that were worth north of $750,000 at their peak (in 2007-8) and are now begging for buyers at $250,00 or so. It's just sad.

Those of you resuming school or teaching soon, that stinks, but I kind of wish my kids were resuming school imminently- they have another month before K-12 classes resume in my neck of the country. Could be worse- the 2 older ones are in sleep-away camp this week so we are a one-child family for a bit (the 6 year old is loving this).

I'm certainly happy I don't feel as if I need to sell my house right now. As far as I'm concerned, I could live here for another 20 years. It is in the best neighborhood in regard to location, solitude, good neighbors, etc. It is comfortable and I love it in most ways. DH wants to sell in a few years as it will be too big for the two of us. The problem is, where will we go? There are a few places I'd probably be happy, but most have downsides. We'll see when the time comes.

I've heard of Spotify and I think I got an invitation to join at one point but didn't really pursue it because it seemed like they were trying to get me to buy a premium version that I didn't really want. Is it a lot like Pandora or is it totally different?

Last night bombed for dinner. I had tons of work to do when I got home from work and I ran out of time for prepping anything mildly healthy and DS opted for pizza as any 16 year old boy would. I kind of felt bad leaving him for the weekend all alone, so I caved. Then, just as the pizza was delivered, DH got a call from our security monitoring service as the alarm at our office had gone off. He and DS went to check on it while I kept the pizza warm. Turns out the alarm was tripped by the feral cat we feed. She had slipped in an open garage door at some point and got locked in and set off the motion sensor after we all left. DH laid a trail of tuna to lure her out (only took 15 minutes for her to come out). Now we're going to have to figure a way to keep her out of the garage so it doesn't happen again. And I'll have to find a way to eat pizza without pigging out. I wasn't hungry, but you know that temptation. I ate 4 slices from a medium pizza. I'm certainly feeling it today, too.

I'm really hoping that what is predicted will in fact happen today. They claim we'll see an upturn in the market today due to some announcement by the Fed. I don't know, but it's going to take more than an upturn to reverse the last few days of the market tanking. It's like losing weight, only the opposite. It's easy to gain weight (lose on the stock market) and hard to lose weight (gain on the stock market).

I've got tons of errands to run today in the initial preparation for our upcoming trip to Montana. DD comes home tonight, too, so I have to have a few extras on hand for her. And I need a pedicure, although that sounds a little frivolous at the moment when I have so much other stuff to do.

Andrea - I've just started using Spotify and love it! Allison, I like Pandora, too, but Spotify has fewer ads and MANY more artists/songs. So it's a trade-off; I feel like I can zone out a little more with Pandora and still get variety, but discover lots of cool musicians on Spotify. And I have the free version and don't intend pay for it right now.

Pizza for dinner = recipe for disaster for me. I could easily eat 4 slices of a medium pizza, and as a matter of fact, I did while on vacation. With ranch dressing. I'm paying for that now!

Shannon - What a small world! If you ever want to meet for coffee, let me know. If you think that's creepy and want to avoid me, that's ok too. :)

Yesterday was OP calorie-wise and this morning I got my lazy butt up and ran. I'm already feeling less bloated and icky, and I know my body just wants normal food and activity again. I need to remember I feel better when I treat my body well.

Originally Posted by alinnell:
I've got tons of errands to run today in the initial preparation for our upcoming trip to Montana. DD comes home tonight, too, so I have to have a few extras on hand for her. And I need a pedicure, although that sounds a little frivolous at the moment when I have so much other stuff to do.

This doesn't sound frivolous to me, Allison, as I neglected to get a pedicure before I went to Montana last October and paid for it with two bruised & blackened toenails that eventually fell off. The nails were just slightly too long for comfortable hiking. Not in a creepy way, or even in a way that was really all that noticeable -- but on our long twice-daily hikes through Glacier National Park, going up or down steep grades, my feet kept sliding forward just a little inside my hiking boots and banging and pressing against the inside of the toebox, which got to be painful on those toes with nails that weren't cut back really far. (I mean, **really** cut back, not flush with the edge of the toe.) I realized the mistake on the first day's hike & clipped my nails back & bandaged those toes up like little mummies for the rest of our hikes. Still, my feet were a bit tender. I was a novice hiker: Now I know.

Hi all,

I really need to start doing yoga for relaxation and stretching! I guess I can buy a video or something to try it out... I had a fantastic weekend with the girls in St. Augustine. We had a blast and it's a really cute city. Came home and back to work yesterday. BF called me and told me he's having major boat problems... his motor might be toast, and he almost gave himself heatstroke (literally) yesterday. He actually is remarkably unstressed considering he makes his living with his boat but I'm stressed out with all he's going through. Then I woke up with a sore back this AM, and no idea what from. Hence needing yoga!

I would totally eat 4 slices of pizza. Right now. Oh, right, mustn't do that. I suppose I will eat my yogurt instead.

I agree we need a financial investment/retirement/etc class Jen! I just have no idea about that stuff. I selected "moderate risk" things in my investment retirement plan but I really don't know what it all means. The company rep said "You're young, you can afford to wait for the market to come back. Just think of it as buying lots of cheap shares now." I don't know if that's comforting. :?: I don't have cable right now...another story... but last night I listened to the financial news on the radio while I worked in the kitchen and it was scary.

Allison, at least you like your house and aren't looking to sell it soon. And good for you for not getting caught in an upside down mortgage.

Jen, glad you had a great trip! I'm sure you will get right back on track with healthy eating etc. and feel like yourself in no time. School already, really?

Shannon, ugh, fire ants are so nasty. Be careful!

I suppose I need to get back to a little work... the rainy day makes it hard to concentrate! Sigh. Have a good Tuesday all.

Megan, will it be really expensive for your BF to repair/replace his motor? I know nothing about boats.

I spent my day at jury duty. Didn't get selected. It's weird how it really takes like an entire day though just to pick out 14 people (jury + 2 alternates). I'm not sure if their main reason to kick me off was that my dad was a prosecutor (big one) or that I said I trust scientific evidence more than eyewitness testimony. The case was something involving felony battery, criminal confinement, and aiming a firearm at someone. I didn't know it was illegal just to aim a gun at someone, but I guess it makes sense?

We're going out to dinner tonight to see off my brother-in-law as he moves on to his first real full-time paying job. He finally finished all his dental school requirements and is moving in with his GF a couple hours north of here. As usual for DH's family, it was a mess trying to arrange when to do this dinner -- last weekend his mom told us it might be this coming Saturday, but then found out BIL was leaving Wednesday morning, so it was suddenly planned at the last minute to be tonight. Oh well! Now I need to examine the menu and figure out what I should order.

Speaking of which I was proud of myself today. I had thrown together some food to take with me to jury duty -- fruit and a small PB&J sandwich on ww sandwich thins -- but was really hungry and decided I should buy something to supplement it when they let us out on our lunch break. I bought a plain no-frills salad and a bottle of water while completely ignoring the display case full of cannolis, tiramisu, danishes, and all sorts of other goodies. Even better, I didn't really even want any of them. Let's hope this attitude holds out at dinner tonight.

The funny thing is that they told me that the prednisone might make me hungry, but so far I've been less hungry the past two days than I've been every day for the past couple weeks. Go figure.

My ankle is starting to feel a little better, but still itches. I've been popping Benadryl like candy... I got in a great run at the park last night, probably the first time all day my ankle didn't itch. I was able to get 6.2 miles, which is the longest I've run since the Peachtree on 7/4. Worked out this morning, had a good calorie day yesterday. Looking good.

Jen - I would love to meet for coffee sometime. I'll PM you. :)

Andrea - I just started playing with Spotify myself. I'm considering the premium to get to my iTunes playlists remotely, if I can figure out how that works. I've used Pandora for a long time, too. Spotify seems better so far.

Allison - How did DS do over the weekend? Wild parties and debauchery?

Megan - I love yoga, and I feel so much better when I practice it every day. Sorry about BF's boat.

Jessica - good job with the food today! Yay!

Thanks Saef~I will do a pedicure before I leave. Now I won't feel so bad about it!

WTG Jessica on passing over the pastries!

Shannon~no, DS had no parties. He said it was really boring without us there. Now I wonder how he'll do for 9 days in September when we're in Costa Rica. Of course he'll be busy with school, so that may help.

Speaking of Costa Rica. My friend is scheduling the whole thing and didn't take into account the fact that you need to check into the airport at least 2 hours prior to departure for an international flight (they're even saying 3 hours in Costa Rica is optimal). She has us with less than 1:10 hours to check in and they won't guarantee that we'll be let on the plane. She's looking into an alternative flight, but the one she chose (American) is making us wait all day at San Jose airport (after having taken a commuter plane from the coast) and then put us in Miami only to spend the night at the airport there before heading home to Phoenix. Ugh. I hope we can find an alternative because that schedule sucks. I don't know if she is locked into American. There is a Continental that would work really well if she can change airlines.

Originally Posted by Shannon in ATL:
My ankle is starting to feel a little better, but still itches. I've been popping Benadryl like candy... I got in a great run at the park last night, probably the first time all day my ankle didn't itch. I was able to get 6.2 miles, which is the longest I've run since the Peachtree on 7/4. Worked out this morning, had a good calorie day yesterday. Looking good.

Hey, Shannon, maybe we all ought to look into Benadryl as a performance enhancer. ;)

Allison, Pandora chooses the songs for you after you pick the initial one, and creates a "station" of things that are chosen by the program based on some mysterious and arcane algorithm. It also will not repeat a song for a good long time in the queue. Spotify is different- you select each and every song that you put in your playlist yourself, and you can listen to the same one(s) over and over if you want. You can click around and hear snippets of anything you want, and take recommendations for songs or artists from friends, or their playlists, via Facebook (there's a direct link and it imports your FB friends that have Spotify accounts).

I love pizza too. I find the trick to enjoying pizza in moderation is to ensure that there's plenty of salad or raw veggies to serve before/with it, and to move on to a fruit course as soon as I've eaten 2 slices. This strategy is typically made even more effective by the hoard of locusts (aka my 3 DS and DH) who empty the boxes before I've had a chance to catch my breath after the 2nd slice.

On a different topic, do any of you belong to a CSA (community supported agriculture)? We joined one for the first time ever this summer. It provides us with 5-7 different veggies each week for a growing season of 18 weeks (we're at week 9 now). Our horribly rainy late spring/early summer meant that we had a pretty slim set of greens for the first 6 weeks, and DH and I were pretty underwhelmed with the program, but it has definitely picked up, both in quantity and diversity, over the last few weeks. This week we got kale (my pick- I LOVE kale chips), new potatoes, cukes, chinese eggplant, green beans and fennel. Reminded me of gardener Bill's posts about his garden and the rain he's been getting up in Boston. Bill, do you grow vegetables or is it all landscaping?

Waving in this morning.

Yep, we grow veggies. This week we are awash in tomatoes and cukes. Since our kitchen is being redone, DW asked how often I could eat gazpacho to consume the abundance. My thought was . . . "every day," LOL. I love that stuff. Our Kale isn't in yet, but looking forward to that lasting through late fall.

Good morning all!
 

I'm having a rough week. Hard figuring out the different computer, DH is going off the rails (what else is new), etc., and now we've moved from no rain to storms for a couple of days.

Less watering. That will probably be the week's highlight.

My eating has been lousy for the last 2 days - stress and depression related - but I will try to clean that now so the bloat will be gone for the weekend.

DH and I are going to Cirque de Soleil this Sat. night. I have been looking forward to this since I bought the tickets two months ago. It's the only event DH and I are attending together this summer.

DH has a show on Sunday at some community centre thing. I think he has already pretty much guaranteed that he won't have a good time at the Cirque by obsessing on how much is going wrong with the show. And now he (who "hates to drive") is going all the way up to Barrie on Friday night and coming back Sat. a.m. just to pick up an amp that his buddy could arrange to bring down to us. Whenever he does stuff like this it ends in disaster.

I wish there was someone else I could take to the Cirque, someone who enjoys going out with me. But the one likely candidate is away camping.

I will try to enjoy the show, with or without DH. If he doesn't show up I will have wasted $150 on a ticket to something he agreed to go to and enjoyed previously.

I never learn. But what's the point of having a relationship with someone if you never do anything/go anywhere together?

Dagmar :shrug:

Morning all,

Dagmar, we've been having lots of storms here too. It's making my field work really hard to get done. Then again I'm definitely in a "pre-disposed to frustration" mood this week. Recognizing this, I tried to get some of the household chores that were bugging me done last night, took Emma for a long walk, and get a full night's sleep. All the pizza talk made me want pizza, so I made a pita pizza on whole wheat pita and ate some green beans. I feel a bit better today - just need to make a to-do list and menu plan to get myself organized and stick to it.

Jessica, a new boat motor of the size BF needs for his boat would cost somewhere around $15-$20K. He is very mechanical and is still optimistic, worked on the motor yesterday, but if he has to replace it now it's a big expense he wasn't counting on for a few more years. It's sort of funny to me that he often feels anxiety or depression for unknown reasons, but something like this happens and he's cool as a cucumber. And way to stick to your guns and make a healthy choice with the salad! I'm glad the prednisone doesn't seem to be affecting your appetite.

Neurodoc, I belonged to a CSA for one season last winter. A group of interested folks had talked a farmer into delivering to our rural area. All winter we got greens, greens, a few potatoes, and more greens. I understood the winter probably wasn't the best time to get a variety of veggies and was willing to try another season, but our #s fell too low and they stopped delivering. I try to grow some of my own veggies in spring and fall. Sounds like your deliveries are great, though! Glad you're enjoying it. I love kale & kale chips too. Have you ever tried collard chips? Also delish!

Dagmar, sorry about the frustration w DH. I saw Cirque once and was totally mesmerized. Though BF was beside me and enjoying it, I think Hugh Jackman could have been naked beside me and I wouldn't have noticed I was so entranced. Hopefully you can enjoy it no matter who's next to you!

Shannon, I'm impressed you could do so much with Benadryl in your system! It makes me so sleepy, I will only take it for allergies at night. Glad the itching is going away and you were able to stay so OP!

Allison, I hope you and your friend can figure out the flights. Flying can take you to such great places, but can be such a pain in the rear.

I'm glad I get to take a break from field work and stay in the office today. Have a good Wednesday all!

I think we figured out the best solution to the flight problem. Instead of spending the last day at the beach, we'll spend half a day and fly back to San Jose that afternoon and check into a hotel there for the last night. That solves everything and won't cost us anything different--or at least not as much as changing the flights around.

I'd love to belong to a CSA but there aren't any around here. Which is weird as there are so many agricultural areas near here. I haven't looked lately, so perhaps another search might yield one. Until then, I can go to a few open-air markets and buy local, fresh produce but they're not very convenient. (sigh)

Megan~I hope BF is able to repair his motor. It'd be horrible to have to buy a new one, or a new boat for that matter.

Okay, I guess I'll have to look a little closer at Spotify and see if I can get an invite.

Enjoy Cirque de Soleil, Dagmar! Our employee's sister is a physical therapist and travels with them all over. That would be interesting. I've never seen them in person--just the things they have had on TV but they are so good!

Happy hump day everyone! Time to shove off for work.

Andrea - I joined a farmer's market basket pick up service near my office this summer, but haven't been able to use it as often as I would like because you have to pick up by 5pm on Thursday and I've been at a different location most Thursdays. I have greatly enjoyed the products I've gotten, though.

Allison - I'm glad that you worked out a plan for your travel days. And I think you would enjoy Spotify.

Megan - enjoy your time in the office today!

Dagmar - I'm sorry about the complications with DH. Try to enjoy your outing on Saturday. If you think the DH will make you miserable then find someone else to go with you, or go solo - don't make yourself suffer for his drama. You have put up with a lot from him over the years and have suffered a lot of hurts already, I'm sorry.

Saef - I need to make sure that I pop another Benadryl before I try to run today, I guess! :)

I've had two good days in a row now, and my weight is down a little. I'm hoping for good days today and tomorrow, then Friday night we are going to a baseball game so I'm planning for some snackage.