Hi!
I hope everyone is doing well and that things are getting better for us all.

Anne, I hope your enjoying your weekend off of work. Your doing great on your gazelle. I finally made it up to 30 min. yesterday and it didn't seem so impossible. I have got to workout more, just to maintain my weight. The diet is just not going well. I bought some of those cereal and milk bars, thinking they would be cheaper than the expensive meal replacement bars. Well, they taste really, really good. I ate 6 of them yesterday. So, if your wondering how the changeone diet is going, Aleka, I guess you can tell, not well. But I have lost that 3 lbs and haven't bounced up there again, so guess it's not all bad.

We have a skunk hanging around outside of the house at night. Does anyone know how to repel a skunk? It sprays the house and cars and it's pretty bad. I saw a dead one in the highway a couple of days ago, I was hoping that was the last of the skunk, but his mate must still be around. I'm sure this one will be killed out there too, eventually. They aren't too with it when it comes to cars.

Later, Nikki

Hi Everyone:
Nikkic, I hear moth balls are suppose to be good for getting rid
of skunks. We have quite a few in our area and the darn things
even come out during the day time!

We now have 100 confirmed cases of SARS. Our health officials
are holding press conferences and updates every day. I hope
this emergency is over soon.

Nikkic, you are doing well. Maintaining is every bit as critical
for us as losing. I was amazed I lost 3 pounds this week
inspite of eating birthday cake, ice cream(the good and real
fattening kind) and of course peanuts. That gazelle is the
greatest. I give myself Mondays off though.

Hi Aleka, I hope you are enjoying your weekend!

Anne.

I hope you are enjoying your weekend. We've had rain since yesterday, and I just looked out my window and it's snowing. We're supposed to get 6" or more. DH can't plow because the road is too soft (we live on a dirt road).

ANNE, congratulations on your weight loss You are doing so well with your exercising. I heard on the news that there have been some cases of Sars in the US, Maine was one of them. I hope they can contain this soon.

nikki, I agree with ANNE about maintaining. Sometimes I think it's harder to maintain than lose. I don't know much about getting rid of skunks. We don't see very many skunks except for road kill.

Enjoy the rest of your Sunday.
Aleka

You'd think the hospital would tell people that are just not manditory not to come to work. People should be staying home and your right, they shouldn't let anymore people come in from the orient. I was telling DH about it and he said it's because of money and he's more than likely right.
Thanks for the idea about the mothballs. I'll try it.
I really think exercise makes all the difference. It speeds up your metabolism and helps to burn those extra calories.
Aleka, we had a little snow yesterday, no accumulation. It's not what I want to see this time of year. Hope you don't get as much as they are predicting.
Take care, Nikki

Hi Everyone:

Another person has just died. What kills me is we all have been
informed there is only one enterance to all Toronto and Suburban
Toronto Hospitals open and they are under police guard!! Whats
up with this???? Personally I am uncomfortable I always wonder
to myself if the officials are hiding something from us this whole
scenario just doesn't feel right to me.

Aleka, more snow???? It has gotten freezing cold here again!
Thank goodness its only suppose to last until Wednesday and
then warm up again.

Off to make dinner Ladies, talk to you later.

Anne.

Hi,
Anne, how was your day? I've been thinking about you and wonder how your doing.

Aleka, did you get all that snow? Are you house bound?

I went outside and cut down a tree and some bushes today with an ax. It was hard and gave me some good exercise. I have many little trees and bushes to cut down so that my garden will get more sun. I think if I take my time, I will eventually have it all done. I also repotted my garden plants that I started last month. They are getting big and if the weather cooperates, I'll plant them in a month. Tomorrow, it's suppose to be in the 70's and the next day in the 80's. Then it's suppose to get cold again.

A dead skunk was on the highway in front of our house. It was really smelling the place up, so DH decided to put it in a trash bag.. I thought he was going to take it out in the country farther and dump it, but he put it in the garbage can. When I went out, I opened the lid, dropped in a bag of garbage and got sprayed. I don't know how a dead skunk can do that, must have been the pressure from the garbage. Anyway, I smelled quit lovely for awhile. DH complained that I was stinking up the whole house, I did manage to get all the scent off of me, as far as I can tell. It came right through the plastic bag, can you believe it? I can only imagine what the poor garbage man is going to think/say when he dumps that can out.

Bye for now, Nikki

I am happy to say that we only got about an inch of snow from that storm. Unfortunately they are saying more snow tonight into tomorrow...no April fools joke here... It is supposed to get warmer by the weekend, but not as warm as you, nikki. It's supposed to be raining or snowing most of the week. I just love New England spring weather.

ANNE, how very frightening for you. I hope they find an antibiotic soon that will help with this virus. So far they have nothing. I read in the paper that people can catch this by coming in contact with people who are sick and/or people who have been near the ones with the virus, just by touching something they touched, or if they cough or sneeze in your presence. They are now concerned of it being carried in the air. This is very scary. Everytime I hear something or read something about this, I think of you. How is your Dad coping with all of this? I totally agree with nikki about not letting any more people in from the Orient unless they quarantine them first just to make sure they're not carrying the virus.

nikki, yard work is great exercise. My favorite is raking. Once the snow melts DH & I are going to enlarge our flower garden and move some flowers around. We have all kinds of daylilies. When it comes to flowers and house plants I have a "black" thumb, and I am truly amazed every year when the daylilies bloom! Were you able to get all the skunk odor off of yourself? Is there a road crew that does that sort of thing in your area that you could call to pick the skunk up off the road? I would hate to be that garbage man when he opens up your can. What will you do to get the odor out of the garbage can?

Have a great day.
Aleka

Hi,
Just a quick note today. I'm almost done cleaning the house and DH has gone to rent a tiller and will be home wanting to know where to till.
Anne, I'm still praying for you and your family. How are you doing?

Aleka, there are no road crews around here that do that, outside of crows and flies. The garbage can is old and needs thrown out anyway. I am apparently stink free. When I picked up DD last night, she said she couldn't smell anything on me.

Well, got to go, it's going to be busy. Suppose to hit a high of 82 here today.

Nikki

Hi Everyone!
Nikkic, I loved the story about the skunk I am so glad you
got the smell off yourself though!!


Aleka, would you beleive we got snow today!!! I am disgusted
with this winter that does not want to end

Toronto is still under a medical emergency with S.A.R.S. another
two people died today. My poor dad in the midst of his treatment
too My mother is not longer allowed to go in the hospital with
him. He has to be interviewed each day before entering the
hospital building, after he is interviewed he has to sign a paper
promising he told the truth in the interview!!(This is at all Toronto
hospitals by the way) Again I state, if they are not going to
stop these planes from landing all the shut downs in the hospitals
won't accomplish a thing!!!! Naturally when you are on the
subway and someone coughs or sneezes everyone starts
covering their faces. It is just awful. Other than this sorry tale
I am fine.

Good evening,
Anne, I'm so glad you've posted. I was starting to worry. This must be so stressful for everyone.

I sure wish I could have sent some weather your way, you two. It was 85 here today. It broke a record that was over 100 years. We had to turn the ac on in the truck. DH tilled up 3 garden spaces for me. 2 of them are around 30x40 and the one for the strawberries is 10x20. I cleaned off my flower beds, dug up a couple of small bushes and finished cleaning the house. Tomorrow is suppose to be another great day. I'm going to get back at the tree cutting. I think DH will probably take the day off from home improvement projects, he has to go back to work tomorrow night.

I set out my little plants today and it didn't help them. I thought they were protected from the wind, but apparently not and they got trashed. Guess I'll see how many will survive and then just buy some at Walmart. They don't cost much anyway.
Talk to you guys tomorrow, take care Nikki

ANNE, last night on the news I saw that in CA that a few people onboard a plane coming from the Orient were not feeling well and when the plane landed they wouldn't let these people off the plane until they were checked out. They said that the people who were ok were allowed to leave, which I thought all the passengers should be kept on the plane until everyone was checked out. If it was SARS the healthy people could have contracted the virus without knowing it. I think of you often and I'm glad that you and your family are doing ok. They said on our local news that a NH man has caught the virus and is a hosp. in Michigan. It's awfully cold here too. We had snow flurries here last night, but thankfully there is nothing new on the ground this morning.

nikki, OH, how I envy you your temps. Your garden sounds like it's going to be great when it's all done. When can you start planting? I think people in our area start planning their vegetable garden after Mem. Day Weekend. Home Depot has a good selection of plants that are inexpensive too. I usually buy my flowers there in the spring. Now that we have a WalMart close by I'll go up there too.

Have a great day you guys.
Aleka

Hi,
I don't think they've dealt with an illness like this in a long time. They are trying to be pc about something that is running rampant. I wish they would start to take it more seriously. I'm sure the people that are doing the care-Drs, nurses etc are taking it very seriously, but the people that make the decisions about things like letting people into the country, off of planes or how to deal with infected people are not being very smart. That has always been the problem, they have lots of degrees and and power, but no common sense. Plus, they are thinking about how much this will cost and trying to keep it cost effective. They should throw all they can at it now, while it is still not too advanced, because eventually, it will cost a fortune and countless lives if they don't.

I can't really start to plant until later this month. This next weekend, it's suppose to be a high of 40. My little plants are doing better this morning. I think I might lose a couple of them.
I will probaby go ahead and plants some strawberry plants pretty soon. I just have to decide which variety to plant.
Walmart has nice plants, but they are more expensive than some other places. We use to have several little stores here that sold plants, but since Walmart came to town, many of the those stores have closed. They actually had better prices on plants than Walmart and more variety.

I have got to do something with that skunk. I can't let the poor garbage man deal with it. This is one of those oh brother moments. Think I'll take it out in the field and bury it. Wish I could bury the can too. I have some of that odor eliminator from QVC. Guess I'll see if it really does work on skunk odors.

Bye and take care, Nikki

Hi Everyone:
Nasty cold day in Toronto, we are expecting a couple of days
of freezing rain I told my boss I had an
emergency to attend to on Friday and she has allowed me to
take a day of my vacation. Ever since I fell this winter I have
been terrified.

S.A.R.S. is still going strong in Toronto. It doesn't look like this
is going to end any time soon. Everyone here is still really
worried.

Nikkic its so funny you talking about odour eliminator from
your shopping channel, I just bought a big spring cleaning
set with oxi clean (which I love), and several other products.
Billy Mays was in Toronto last weekend and Joan Rivers will
be here on Saturday. (oh no, I just got my income tax rebate
back)
Aleka, you and I and our winter weather, when will it be over!

Talk to you later!
Anne.

ANNE, I'm sorry you are still frightened about falling again. I probably would be myself. Enjoy your day off on Fri. On the news yesterday I heard that a Boston man who had just gotten home from China had the symptoms of SARS, went to the Dr., he told him that he didn't have SARS, and sent him home. Now the board of health got into it and said that the man had the same symptoms as SARS. I don't know what the outcome was, but if he did have SARS, who knows how many people he could have infected! I hope our winter weather will be over soon.

nikki, did the QVC odor eliminator work? We also get some flowers from a local nursery along with going to Home Depot. If you do go to Home Depot, Friday is the best day to go, at least around here. They seem to put their new plants out on Fridays, by the weekend and beyond, they're pretty well picked over.

Take care and have a good day.
Aleka

Good Morning Ladies!

I was up at the crack of dawn doing my gazelle (3:45 am).
David had a bad night so we didn't get much sleep
I am at work now it is just after 7am and I start at 7:30.
Even our radio announcers are talking about how depressed
they are with everything that is going on around us.

Aleka, I hope and pray it does not spread in Boston or surrounding area's. This is becoming an epidemic. I even
heard a doctor on TV last night suggesting that this could
turn into a pandemic !!!!!!

It is rotten outside this morning. Our real nasty forcast is
due to start later in the day and I hope I am home by then.

Hi Nikkic!!

Talk to you later.
Anne.