Maintainers Weekly Chat Feb 18 - Feb 24

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  • My parents bought some lakefront property in Northern Minnesota. My stepfather was a DIY alwasys finding something to redo in some manner. There were several trees on this property and one that he decided needed pruning. In the crotch of this tree with the tree growing around it was a glass jar, in the jar was a hundred dollar bill.
  • Jen - I've become an anti-apple person as well (traded in my iPhone and iPad for a Galaxy S2 and a Note 10.1) but got a 160gb iPod from my parents for Christmas. So, I'm taking advantage of it with the Sync. LOL The thumb drive will do the same indexing through USB, I believe. You will love it. I love Hair Nation, too - and lately I've been into Underground Garage.

    Dagmar - sorry about DH.

    Jessica - the food dreams are funny. LOL

    Bill - I would love to program my car to point out my bad food choices. That would be fabulous. "Me: Services - directions to nearest McDonalds" "Focus: Do you really want to go to McDonalds, Shannon? How about the nearest Panera Bread instead. Or better, directions to home?"

    Saef - I hate the feeling that you never really had time off when you get back to work and get pulled back into the crazy.

    Megan - I've had massaged greens, enjoyed them but never thought about doing it myself.

    Good day yesterday food wise, light exercise to stretch the ITB. I'm feeling okay so far today. I'm definitely going to buy Brain Over Binge. I don't think I've said it here, but I've worried about myself walking a path leading to bulimic behaviors for a lot of reasons, so when I saw the subtitle it told me I needed to have it. I'm going to get it on Kindle today.

    Good day everyone!
  • Shannon - How is the ITB feeling? I think strengthing and stretching mine has helped a lot - I do Fire Hydrants, Clamshells, glute kickbacks and side leg lifts in addition to foam rolling. Glad I'm not the only hair band lover here!! That's where my nickname comes from! Not the actual pie, but my obsession with Warrant!

    Chris - I am married so no one tries to impress me LOL And yes, I have lost 226 pounds as of today (got as low as 228 down but I seem to be holding steady at 226 down).

    I took a course while getting my Master's in Dream Analysis so I love reading about everyone's dreams!!

    Jen
  • I saw Warrant when they were the opening act for Poison in I think 1988?
  • Jessica - I saw this article today and it made me think of you and your post earlier this week about the gender colors.
    When Did Girls Start Wearing Pink?
  • I know that my DD wore a lot of Baby Gap stuff when she was little--dark blues, greens, reds. Nothing frilly, and she still doesn't like frilly.

    The only thing I was (and still are) against was characters. Like no Disney or whatever, on any article of clothing. My kids always wore plain underwear and pajamas and had regular sheets. And we didn't decorate in the latest prince/princess. I think the worst I ever did was get a pair of tennis shoes for DD that were color changing when you touched them. Stupid (and expensive) purchase. I know that they both sport t-shirts now with different logos and whatnot, but that's their decision.
  • Bargoo, that is a crazy story about the tree! Did they get the $100 out?

    Shannon, thanks for the article! Funny how pink used to be for boys and blue for girls. I have no problem if my kids want to like pink and princesses and whatever, I just don't want them to think they HAVE to.
  • Quote: Bargoo, that is a crazy story about the tree! Did they get the $100 out?
    The bill was completely in shreds, no telling how long it had been there, but SF took jar and all to the bank and the manager, with a tweezer reassembled it, as long as he could find the serial number it would be good, he did find it and gave SF $100.00
  • I came back to the dog sit to find the furnace conked out. Tried to reset it and stuff but nothing. Am waiting for the tech now - between 6 - 10 p.m. I have a firelog but no matches and no way to be sure the damper is open. It's 58 degrees in here. I have the oven on but can't figure out how to set the temp. there's some sort of electric rad but pushing the various buttons produces no heat.

    And the dog, whose food I put out before making mine, stole part of my dinner off the counter when I was answering the phone.

    If I had some beer I think I'd be drinking it about now. Is it Friday yet?

    Dagmar
  • Dagmar, this is the rule of the universe at work that comes into play in my own life: Whenever I somehow obtain a little extra money, some unexpected expense looms up and requires all that money & usually a little more, too. Thus the rule of financial homeostasis prevails. I'm getting my corporate bonus next week & feel I am hunched in a bunker, vigilantly watching for The Unknown Thing that's going to hit me shortly. A car repair, maybe. Or some issue with a major appliance. Something medical. Owing on my taxes. Who knows?

    Shannon, thanks for that article, which fascinated me. Before the flood, I collected 19th century photographs called cartes-de-visites, mostly from around the Civil War period. (They are the size of a visiting card/contemporary business card, which is how they got their name.) With the babies and children, you can't tell the gender till the boys are old enough to be "breeched." The boys appear to be wearing tiny hoop skirts, their dresses are so full and flared. It's also interesting that little boys' suits look rather militaristic, like they are all drummer boys, particularly when you know that this was wartime. (Oh dear, remembering specific images that I once owned is making me sad ... Gone, gone, all of them.)

    My presentation yesterday morning went about as bad as it could. I called in through the old system, rather than the new system, couldn't share my screen to show slides, had to just talk attendees through the slide deck. Then my connection dropped and I spoke for several minutes into space, talking only to myself without realizing it. Then when I got back in my boss had taken over showing the slides & I had to direct her. Someone made a really critical comment about the concept guiding whole project that I was presenting on, for which I had no answer, since I was just presenting what someone higher up had come up with & decided to implement. Not a good morning.

    But hey, I went to the gym this morning, got showered and dressed, had an unusually fast commute (schoolkids must be on vacation this week around here, along with their parents who'd otherwise be driving to work alongside me) and I'm here again. Ready to face the next thing the workplace throws at me.
  • Saef - I'm sorry that your presentation went off the rails, that had to be frustrating. I hope that today is better.

    Dagmar - Did the furnace get fixed?

    I fell face first into hormone related food last night. Bah. Oddly, right after I started reading Brain Over Binge.
  • Yuck Saef and Dagmar. Hope that today picks up for you....
  • Dagmar, did the tech finally come and fix the problem? Yikes--what a day! Bad dog, bad dog.

    Saef, hopefully your day will be better, too.

    When my son was a baby, someone had given me some hand-me-downs including pink onesies and a cool leopard print one. I didn't have an issue with putting him in pink, but his father wasn't thrilled. What I'll never forget is getting my DS back from a weekend with his father and seeing DS's beautiful blonde curls cut off. While I don't begrudge the ex seeing his son's first haircut, I would have liked some discussion on when that would be.

    Took dogs to the prison yesterday. I'm trying to desensitive myself to claustrophobic situations. So far I've been twice, and it's been okay. This time the inmates (called "offenders" by the prison staff) actually got to take the leash directly from us instead of using the deputy warden as an intermediary. At the two other prisons, the volunteers interact with the inmates, telling them about the dogs, but this one, which is minimum security, won't let us. Kind of weird and annoying.

    Hope everyone has a great day!
  • I was going to put stuff in the crockpot this morning but then I had an epiphany! Rather than spend all the time in the morning prepping, I put it in last night and it cooked while I slept. The good-- it was done when I woke up. The bad-- it smelled good when I was trying to sleep and it was making me hungry. I thought I would have food dreams but I don't remember any. So now I have chicken tortilla soup for lunch and dinner today and tons of leftovers too!

    After work today I'm going to meet a teacher friend at the mall and we are going to try to find dresses for our dinner/auction for our school tomorrow. I have a "little black dress (LBD)" but everyone keeps saying how fancy they are dressing so I am paranoid that it isn't dressy enough. So.... we will see if I find anything. I haven't shopped with a girl friend at the mall in years-- don't think it will be the same as when I was a teenager! Then I'm going to try to rush to late yoga as I don't want to skip exercising because tomorrow it may not happen. I never know if it is better to skip when I'm super crazy busy or try to squeeze it in-- tomorrow I'll work till 3, go home to take care of the dogs and then the auction starts at 6:30 (about a 20 minute drive away). So, if I want to workout it's going to have to be fast to have time to shower and get ready-- so probably not worth the stress!!
  • Massaged kale recipe:

    Massaged greens are pretty much what they sound like. I clean, devein, and cut kale into bite-sized pieces. Dinosaur or lacinto kale is my favorite raw and is a bit more tender, I think. I take about 8 cups of cleaned greens. Drizzle on about 1 Tbsp EVOO, ~1 T lemon juice, and 1/4-1/2 tsp salt. With clean hands, get in there and massage it all together for a few minutes, coating the leaves evenly with the EVOO and salt. Then let it sit for 10-15 minutes. The oil and salt will help break down the greens and tenderize them. Part of me wants to skimp on salt, but it does have a chemical purpose here. This tastes very earthy and is not for everyone. I also like to add some toppings when I've got them handy. I like apple pieces and sunflower seeds, or raisins, dried cranberries, or other seeds and nuts. The sweet and crunch balances out the earthy flavor of the kale.

    I've only ever seen recipes for massaged kale. I think more tender greens wouldn't work well and might start to break down too much (when BF did the arugula you could start to see folds in the green like when spinach is starting to turn, but he ate it all immediately so NBD). Kale works because it's really sturdy. Perhaps collard greens would work, whereas spinach and tender lettuces would fall apart too much.