Maintainers Weekly Chat February 13 - February 19
 

Feeling the pressure to get the income taxes done this week. And not to eat away the tension that goes with that. I don't have a problem paying my fair share; I just hate the paper work involved to be sure that I'm not overpaying.

Reminder: Tomorrow is Valentine's Day for those, like me, who start planning late.

Bill Romance and taxes - :yikes:! We pay our personal tax at the end of April. I do my business and personal together (I'm self-employed) and I always wait until the last minute, because I use the Easter long weekend to get it all done at once.

I combine DH's birthday and Valentine's Day (2 days apart) so I'm already done. I took him to dinner, gave him chocolate cake and wine for dessert, and he was a happy camper.

We cut the (small) cake in 2 - half was frozen for my birthday next month. We also only had one glass of wine each. I think we're getting old! :p

Good week all!

Dagmar :coolsnow:

Morning all,

I'm so tired, I'm ready for my weekend now! Oh wait... darn. I veered and crashed off course of my healthy eating (and drinking) habits last night at/after the cast party. Mostly after, for the drinking, at least. I'm really regretting it this AM. Back to the grind at work this week and I need to tighten things up if I want February's weight loss to be as successful as January's. I'm glad I will be at home for dinners this week after traveling so much the last week (dinner theatre venue was a 45-minute drive one-way, I always left home early when I wasn't hungry, and just didn't plan very well). I ended up having a lot of fun doing the show with my two co-actors, which was nice bc the director was very frustrating. I won't work with him again.

I have healthy foods planned and need to go to the store today to finish my grocery shopping for the week. I got some delicious navel oranges over the weekend at the local fruit stand. I'm also hoping to get back to yoga this week. BF and I never really celebrate Valentine's too much, other than making sure we have dinner together. A healthy dinner.

Taxes? Oh yes. Must clean the house, launder the carpet, and do taxes too. Priority in that order. I can't do my taxes in a messy house. I'm weird like that.

Have a good week all.

Feeling like I'm teetering on a tightrope in regards to my weight/eating. Must rein it in. Anyone ever feel like they are testing maintenance to see how much they can do without really gaining? That was me this weekend/ last week, and the scale is punishing me as a result. I'm not happy about it, so hopefully I will buckle down.

Dh had his interview this morning. Now we wait. I hope he finds out soon so he doesn't drive us both insane. Then he will either be disappointed, or the whirlwind will start with figuring out where to move, what to do with our house here, etc.!

I'm still trying to amass all the paperwork that I need to turn my taxes into our CPA. I think I should take some time this weekend to look up the last of it otherwise I won't get it in to him in time.

I had a good weekend and am up only half a pound this morning, so I'm pretty confident it will be gone tomorrow.

Tomorrow I have an appointment with Truly Nolen as the ants are attacking far sooner than they should. We first noticed it when Louie, the cat, would sit in the laundry room staring at the wall. Turns out he was waiting for an ant to crawl up through a crack between the wall and the tile and then he'd eat it. This morning I found a bunch of them in the guest bedroom. I've determined that they mostly have colonies all around my house but have found several entrances into the house and are living in the walls. Ugh.

I feel bad this morning. Who knew that it was a school holiday? Obviously not I, and I did my normal routine and fixed DS his breakfast and woke him up. He kindly informed me of the day off, ate his breakfast, loaded his dishes in the dishwasher and went back to bed. Teenagers! I would have liked to go back to bed, but instead am at work.

Um... why is it a school holiday, alinnell?

Jay

Jay, his school district (as well as others here) celebrate it as "Lincoln's Day Observance." I thought that was the point of Presidents Day--so there weren't so many school holidays!

Hi all,

I actually feel like I have my weight under control. I can eat whatever I want as long as I don't want massive portions of rich food all day every day, and allowing myself this much freedom is really working. The number is going down and I know that I am below my "set point" and feel great. My habits could be a lot healthier but it's such a good feeling to feel IN CONTROL of something so basic as FOOD.

I moved out of my parents' house a couple weeks ago and living a regular working life is pretty cool. I make crap money and need a second job, but aside from that I'm very happy. My relationship and my social life are stable and I feel like I'm managing my money OK considering I have such a pithy hourly wage.

Your son loaded his DISHES into the dishwasher? How, how, how did you teach him to do that? The closest DH ever gets is to put a dish on top of the counter in the general area where the dishwasher is located. I have shown him the "magic door under the counter" several times but he can't seem to get it open.

Dagmar :p

My SON always loads his dishes. My HUSBAND? Not so much--he'll load his glass in the morning, but rarely helps with the dishes after dinner. And I don't remember teaching my kids these things, but they do help out--most of the time without my asking. I have great kids (but then my son says I'm an awesome Mom).

:angel: Happy Valentine's Day Everyone! :devil:

Dagmar (already ate my chocolate) :ink:

DH brought me chocolate :love: AND roses last night. And a card with a purple hippo on it (that would be him, according to him).

He's working tonite so I will be spending Valentine's alone. Leftovers by candlelight, with roses on the table and chocolate for dessert. Life is GOOD! Kinda. :crazy:

He does come through with the gesture at times. But our relationship is such that I too bought myself a box of chocolates, just in case he didn't and felt like a dork :o when I gave him his.

I'm beginning to think that this is just the norm when you live with a man. It's been 16 years and I only figured this out now? :lol3:

Good day all! Hope you all enjoy a little romance in your day, whether you're partnered up or not. :D

Dagmar :cool:

I second that

Happy Valentine's Day






[Acknowledging that my gender takes a while to tame, LOL.]

Happy Valentine's Day all.

Dh came home from his interview. He will hopefully know something soon. However, he threw a curve ball at me. He said the job was 100% in Atlanta. Ok.... so I was getting used to that idea. Then when he came home, he had a new scenario. He thinks there will be another opening in Houston. They might offer him the job in Atlanta, or give him a choice between the Atlanta job or the Houston job. This is just his speculation, but he is pretty good at figuring out the politics in his company usually. He wants me to tell him which I prefer. I am from Houston and we lived there until 2003, so my best friend is still there (a plus), but his parents are too (plus and negative!). We'll see if we get to make the decision, but it has left me with my mind spinning!

Happy Valentine's Day everyone!

DD is starting to get her acceptance and rejection letters from grad schools she's applied to. So far Columbia said no and UTAustin said yes. She's still hoping for Claremont Grad (as am I).

DH recorded the Grammy's for me and we watched a little on Sunday night and were going to watch the rest last night and somehow our DVR decided not to record the rest of the show. I was really disappointed because I look forward to the performances. I finally found the performances online this morning and am watching them now (those that I wanted to see anyway).

Michele~good luck with your decision!

This morning for V-day I made maple-pecan pancakes and bacon. Tonight we are having wine, salad, wine, stuffed mushrooms, lasagna with all full fat cheese, and dark chocolate-port truffles. And maybe some more wine. I don't like going out on Valentine's day, but the eating is no-holds-barred even at home... being as I haven't gone running at all in the past week, I'll need to step it back up after this!

Yum, Iris!
What time should I be there!!??

Congrats Allison on dd's acceptances! My dd is planning on staying next year where she is (Gonzaga) for her masters. Time is flying!

Michele, good luck with figuring out DH's potential new job. I will be in Houston for a couple days on business later this month! I've never been there before. Not that I'll get to see it at all since I'll be working the entire time . . . again . . . but oh well.

Allison, congrats to your DD on her acceptances!

DH and I went for a couples massage on Sunday. I think he may be willing to try it again and go for a deep tissue instead of swedish next time. We'll see. No official V-day stuff for us, we exchanged cards last night. MIL brought us cookies last night which I unfortunately ate too many of. This morning I came downstairs to find DH listening to Marvin Gaye on Youtube. :lol: Setting the romantic mood I guess!

Oh Mudpie - eeew!
 

DH has been complaining about a strange smell coming from the laundry room. I keep nodding and saying "yes dear" and just ignoring what he's saying. :p

Mudpie does like to stash her "treasures" (pencils, DH's wooden drumsticks, string, etc.) behind the furnace in the laundry room.

Mud doesn't like to go outdoors much in the winter but she does make an exception when I'm loading my car in the mornings. This morning she beetled off through the yard and behind the shed. A couple of minutes later she raced back through the yard and ran into the house and downstairs. I thought I saw another rubber fan belt (she loves rubber only a bit less than wood) hanging from her mouth. I figured she would play with it and hide it later.

Turns out it was a dead baby garter snake. She had a stash of 3 of them back behind the furnace. Protein snacks for later Mud? Lucky me got to fish them out of there and dispose of the remains.

And now my mind keeps returning to a nature special DH and I watched on garter snakes. Apparently they hibernate during the winter by swarming into huge balls of snakes, usually in large piles of boulders.

I'm hoping these baby snakes were not part of such a ball. Fortunately there are no piles of boulders in the neighbourhood so it's unlikely.

Dagmar :yikes:

So where is she finding the snakes ?

Gross Dagmar!!

Tonight I am bringing dinner to my friend whose husband recently died. I am going to stay for dinner. I have chatted with her via text and email multiple times, but I haven't seen her since the funeral. I am anxious to see how she is doing and to see what else I can do to help. She is vegetarian (was vegan until very recently), and I made a vegan dessert last night. It smelled good but we'll see how it tastes! I'm going to make the dinner after school and then go to the gym, and then to her house.

My weight is terrible! I've not been tracking and I don't really want to. I tell myself that I don't have to track unless I go over 120. I'm almost 122 at the moment. I'm going to give myself a day or two to get back down, and if I don't, then it is back to strict tracking. Some of it is water retention, and some of it is I've just been eating too much! Healthy foods, but portions have been too large. Sigh....

Michele, you are such a good friend. Many times when there is a loss since you friend suffered. everybody immediately offers to help, make phone calls, etc and soon get busy with their own lives, this is understandable but the friend still grieving and still needs supportive friends.

DH and I are having a really rough day here at work. If you all could spare us some good vibes, we'd be most thankful.

Sending good thoughts your way.

Allison-- lots of strong, powerful, positive vibes coming your way. I hope things are okay.

Bargoo-- you are right that people often offer to help and then drop away. I would hope my friends would do the same for me if I were in the same situation. My friend emailed me yesterday (Valentines) that she was having a very rough day.

Dh said the Houston option isn't an option like he thought it might be, so I guess we won't have to make a decision. Now to wait for the decision on the Atlanta job. Unless things change again-- which seems to happen often!

michele Life is change, yes? My DH is again quitting his job - today. SIGH. I don't get nearly as aggravated by this as I used to but it's still annoying.

Allison Hope your day improved.

bargoo The snakes came from what I believe was some sort or terrarium that the neighbours behind us had. It looks like everything in it died and they chucked the large glass aquarium tank into the back of their yard. I don't know if racoons made off with other inhabitants of the tank but the cover had been pried off. Mud is clever but she's too small and not that smart! So she got the "leftovers". I poked around very thoroughly with a stick to make sure there was nothing else of interest in the tank.

I sometimes think I have the weirdest senior cat in the world. We had roofers working on the shed today and they told me Mud had sat in the window watching them and pawing at the glass for most of the 3 hours they were there. She has an attention span that is incredible for a cat. They came over and tapped on the glass and she immediately "tapped" back. I let her out after work and she went right out front to their truck. Attention hound!

My second group of all female labs today were acting like a troupe of baboons who had been smoking crack - SHEESH! I am so glad this day is over.

Dagmar :dizzy: :tired:

Cats like to bring you gifts, so I am told. I am a dog person. There was a neighborhood cat where I lived before, he just hung out around there and hoped for a handout and enough people left food out for him that he stayed around, I once in awhile would give him something my dog would not eat. He evidently really appreciated that because every once in awhile he would bring me a dead rat and leave it on my doorstep. I lived right near a church and one Sunday during worship service he came into the sanctuary and just strolled down the center aisle .He was quite a character.

Well, DH didn't make it home in time for V-day due to traffic. He works very far from our house but when I woke up this morning, there was a big box of chocolates, a dozen pink roses and some clothes that I had on layaway at one of the stores. So, more than made up for it. We're actually going out this weekend - it stinks when the holiday is during the week especially on a school night. Not much else to say except having a good week, thus far. :)

Morning all,

I've been busy with work this week. I've had trouble staying OP food-wise (or, trouble eating at losing levels - I've been eating at maintaining levels), but while it's been a physically taxing work week in some ways it wasn't that bad. I'm just going to "own it" and try to get OP today. I did finally get to go back to my yoga class last night after missing it for the last month+ due to rehearsals, then the holidays before that. She didn't do any of my favorite moves and it still felt soooo good! So glad I'm back to it.

BF found an organic farmer that is coming to sell to our area Mondays. He bought me some "veggie bread" from the farmer for Valentine's day. It's got 3 dough colors woven together, dyed with veggies (green - spinach, red - beet juice?, orange - sweet pot), though it doesn't taste whole grain. He also made me dinner and did the dishes (yes Dagmar, here's another MAN who doesn't understand what the hole in the kitchen counter with the thing that has water coming out of it is for). If he would only fix the toilet now, that would be so romantic to me and really top my Valentine's Day week. (I could fix it in 5 minutes but I won't do it bc it's his job. Not bc he's a man, it's the principle of the thing. Sorry Bill!)

Dagmar, nice gift! My BIL's uncle's cat would bring them live rattlesnake presents in New Mexico where they lived. At least your gifts are dead? Yes, dogs just eat their finds and then you get to smell it on their breath. Reason #17 why Emma isn't allowed off her leash by the house: the neighbor's cats' poop.

Michele, how do you feel about moving to Atlanta? It would be nice to have DH around more, though, wouldn't it?

I'm glad it sounds like everyone had nice Valentine's Days. :love:

Have a good Thursday all.

Megan-- that bread sounds delish!

My dh made me dinner for Valentine's day too-- yummy! I did the dishes though. Usually when one of us cooks, the other will do the dishes, though I tend to do more of them than he does. He does do them sometimes (sometimes they just make it to the kitchen), and he does laundry and changes the cat litter (I scoop-- he changes)! I am lucky!

I think it would be an exciting change to move to Atlanta. I would hate to leave my job, but I hated leaving my job in Houston and I found another one that I love, so it is possible again. We are very upside down in our mortgage here because we bought when the prices were high and then the market fell, so the company would help us to get out of the house. So, that is a very attractive piece of the puzzle for us. With both of our daughters away at college next year, we are joking that we could be honeymooners again!

Little bit of a catastrophe with the dinner I brought my friend last night. I was very proud to make a vegan dessert-- it was delish!! For the dinner, I made a pasta bake with veggies. Dh told me to use the pasta sauce he had made a few months ago and frozen. I did that and had him taste it right before I was leaving to make sure it was done, tasted okay, etc. He realized then that there was meat in the sauce! Ughh.... She is a strict vegetarian. I didn't notice the meat, so I'm glad he did! I called her up and offered to pick up a salad or something, but she told me to just come over. We had a nice time and I left the pasta for her boys even though they are picky eaters. It was yummy and I'll probably make it again for my family. I promised her I would bring another meal soon and make sure she could eat it! I'm going to watch her kitties this weekend while she goes to visit her mom with her boys.

We have a 4 day weekend so I am thrilled! Today is my Friday! Dh is taking off tomorrow too so we'll do some stuff together (mainly stuff around the house). Hopefully we'll hear something soon about the Atlanta possibility.

The only "presents" Carter has ever brought us from outside are twigs and leaves that he wanted to chew on. Far superior to poop or dead things, although muddy sticks still make a mess on the floor.

Actually I just remembered one funny incident. We had a compost pile we were tossing things into outside, and we had let Carter out, and when he came back in I could see he was hiding something in his mouth (he was trying to be sneaky but not doing a very good job). It turned out that he had raided the compost pile and brought back a broccoli stem! :lol:

I am lucky, my DH always does the dishes for me and/or puts them in the dishwasher. His saying (picked up from his own father) is "I'm no slouch, so she's no grouch!" In general our rule is whoever cooks doesn't have to clean, but I do 99% of the cooking so he does 99% of the dishes.

I'm trying to think what has happened this week other than me being really busy at work. Carter got his stitches out but still has to wear the cone until Friday at least while his foot heals some more. DH is now a yoga master -- he had signed up for 3 yoga classes per week at work, but they liked him and told him to come to the 4th for free.

I'm going for my physical at 1pm today. Weight will definitely be up from last year since last year was when Carter had just had his surgery and I had barely eaten or slept in a week and was at my lowest weight in years. My labs are usually fine so hopefully that will be the case again. I'm not sure if she has reports from my rheumatologist so I guess we will have to rehash all of that again. The problem with a 1pm physical is fasting for the bloodwork! I had an 8am meeting so I wasn't able to get my labs drawn this morning, so no food for me until I get back from the physical at like 2:30pm. Hopefully it will be okay. I used to not have a problem with not eating (other than being hungry) but lately I feel like my blood sugar has been getting low if I'm late for a meal, and right now (10:30) I'm already starting to feel a little jittery. I guess we'll know shortly since they always test my blood sugar. I remember it being low last year too but chalked it up to having barely eaten in days because of Carter's injury. The other concern is that when I don't eat I get super freezing cold, and when I'm cold it's really hard for them to find a vein to get blood. Maybe I need to chug some hot water.

This sounds really funny to me. :lol3: I thought it was a joke... but is it an actual technique? I've always had "really good veins" (they complement me at the bloodmobile! what attractive veins I have :D) so never had to worry about this.

Jessica - I have terrible veins, will hot water really help?

Michele - keeping my fingers crossed on DH's job interview! :)

Allison - I hope today is better than yesterday.

Dagmar - I had a cat that used to bring me small rodents for a surprise. My current cat will sometimes leave a squeak toy on my pillow, I wonder if she is doing the same thing in her own way.

I'm sorry I've been so out of it lately guys - I read every day, I just don't make it back to write anything.

Haha, well, drinking hot water seems to warm me up in general which is why I drink tea when I'm cold usually (but tea's not allowed before the blood tests). When you get cold your blood vessels constrict and when you get hot they dilate, so overall when they're looking for a vein they want a big fat dilated one instead of a skinny constricted one. Usually they use baby heel warmers to try to warm up my arms enough to get a vein! :lol:

In any case I threw on another sweater and one cup of hot water warmed me up, but now I'm getting cold again so I'd better drink some more before I go.

It's hard to imagine it's been an entire year since Carter's surgery, Jessica. It doesn't seem like it was that long ago.

So sorry for the casserole catastrophe, Michele. Good thing your DH caught it!

Megan, cat poop is the reason we've installed a hook & eye to the door to the cat room--the door remains ajar for the cats to get in and out, but the dog can't fit! He loves the litter box--even likes just eating the litter (it's made from corn husks). And the cats don't bring presents because they don't get to go out unaccompanied, but once the dog brought me a dead rat. Actually I've had two dogs do that. Ick. The smell, it hits you the second you come into the house and you just know there's something dead in there.

Thanks for the good wishes everyone. Today is better, but I'm afraid it will be a long time before everything is "normal." Our previous business partner (who is also our landlord) is laying on us some extra costs that we find unreasonable and he's also not taking any responsibility for a job that he got us into several years back and we've settle one lawsuit on it, and got served again yesterday on a separate case. We made an offer to buy the building we're in (the landlord is cash-strapped) but we don't think he'll take it. He paid $1.4M for the building but it's currently worth only $850K. If he doesn't take it, we'll demand a lease agreement for fair market value (he's currently charging us exorbitant rent plus forcing us to make all repairs). If he won't do that, we and the tenant next door are going to move out--whether we buy or lease we don't know yet. But I'll be happy to sever the ties despite all the headache of relocating.

All of Mudpie's "gifts" have been dead (including the biggest cicada I've ever seen and a yellow velour sofa button with shank attached). I don't think she knows how to kill anything. Mishka has brought home many, many live gifts and neither cat seems to know how to dispatch them.

I had my crack-smoking baboon troupe pull me off my feet today. It took me 10 minutes to get them half a block. I kept stopping and forcing them to calm down and stop pulling, barking, jumping, and generally carrying on like total idiots.

We made it to the boardwalk, which was wet. I stepped on to it, everyone leapt forward, and I went smash, down on to my knees. Then they pulled me down onto my belly and on to the sand. My inner mule had kicked in and I refused to let go of the leashes. The dogs dragged me 20 feet to the snow fence. I got my feet hooked in to the snow fence and levered myself until I was able to get back on my knees and then on to my feet.

Then I hooked the 5 dogs up to the fence and left them there. I walked about 30 feet down toward the lake and stood there until the urge to beat every last one of them senseless left. I also had to remove my shoulders from up above my ears and unclench my fists about 20 times.

Hap barked hysterically the whole time I stood there. It took 10 minutes for her to finally realize that she had to shut up before I'd let her go. I kept breathing, and breathing, and breathing.

Everyone was a whole lot more co-operative going back to the car and sat quietly all the way home.

I have been really soft and indulgent with these girls. I have enough aches and pains and several big bruises tonite that will remind me that I have to really "bring it" when walking this bunch.

And I will. This will make a really funny story a couple of months from now.

Good evening all - time to hit the heating pad and then a looong scalding shower.

Dagmar :tired:

Ouch, Dagmar I bet you will be sore tomorrow. Heating pad sounds good, even to me and I thousands of miles away.

Oh, Dagmar! How horrible! But then again, I was watching it in my head and had to chuckle a little. Darn dogs. Reminds me of the time I was walking my two dogs several years back. The sidewalk jumped up and bit me and I landed face first. The dogs? The darn things just looked at me like "when are you getting up and finishing our walk?" Absolutely no concern over their human (who had actually stubbed her shoed toe on the heel of her other shoe and ended up losing the toenail).

Meanwhile, just got back from a second visit to the vet today. Ringo--the tuxedo cat, has been sitting in the litter box without doing anything (for up to 5 minutes each time). I thought at first it was constipation due to hairballs, but then read today that it could be urinary related. Yup. Bacteria in the urine (which they had to hydrate him to get a sample, so I left him for the afternoon). He got an antibiotic shot and two different pain meds--once that you sprinkle on his food--which he's decided he doesn't like. Cats.

I tried to post twice last night and the computer "ate" my posts both time. The gist was: Allison, sorry about the bad & unfair building situation. I hope it is resolved, one way or another. Dagmar, sorry about the dogs. I was there several times in the months right after I got Emma! Why the heck can't we let go of the darn leash? Take a nice hot soak to ease those bruises!

I'm going to the city for work today. Of course that means visiting my favorite grocery store. My grocery list seems really long - and most of it's produce. Can I eat that much produce? Sure I can! Have a good Friday all!

I can't believe it's Friday already, but I'm sure not arguing!

Allison, what a miserable situation with your landlord. Good luck with whichever way the situation goes.

Dagmar, hope you aren't too sore tomorrow, ouch! One time my parents rottie decided to run straight between my legs. I was caught off guard and it knocked me right down on top of him. Did he keep going? Seem concerned? Nope. Turned around and grumbled at me for falling on him.

Megan, enjoy the grocery store trip! =)