Happy Saturday/Sunday to all. Coughing my head off, but okay otherwise. We're running errands right now - returned DVD & milk bottles (switching to grocery brand milk vs. Dairy), buying light bulbs, stopping at the butcher for some steaks & other meats...hopefully lunch comes soon.

That's it again, another weekend bites the dust and I am back on a plane tomorrow back to the Hunter. Given that it was really cold here this morning, I'd better pack some more winter woollies that previously, especially since I am there for the weekend as well.

Only the sick and those with sick kids got in here yesterday???

Laura - hope that cold is better today and continues to improve.

Ellen - hope those kids come right soon. Aren't they on school holidays now?

Not a lot to report here. I worked in the garden for a while this morning. The rose garden is looking good. Years ago I put plastic weed mat in under a load of good soil. That plastic is a PIA so I am trying to remove it bit by bit. I got a fair amount out today. Hope I haven't killed one of the roses in the meantime. Found a big root and pulled. It broke off. Now I think it might have belonged to the rose. Aaaa h well.

Okay, better off and pack. Hope you all enjoy your long weekend. I will be back tomorrow night.

Good morning.
My company is still asleep. We had an enjoyable day yesterday but it was tiresome.
More later.

Hi all,

Had a great time with the family. Everyone got home safe and sound although my Mom decided to eat too big of a meal too quickly on the way home which really upset her stomach and made for several unscheduled pit stops. The women in my family are not good travelers - we pretty much go dehydrated and half starved for the duration which is why we mostly don't like long car trips My BIL got his fill of fishing - as they were leaving he thanked us for moving here My sister did well with her allergies (thank goodness) and my nephew who did NOT want to come because he would have rather sat at home in front of the computer playing World of Warcraft for 8 days straight actually enjoyed himself too. My Mom loved the house and getting pampered here (she stayed with us) and it was good having her. The time did fly by as we expected it would. We went to see the movie Dark Shadows Wednesday night and had the entire show to ourselves - like a private screening. My sister who hates crowds was in heaven! She was happy to leave when they did because this weekend the summer people are flooding into town. It's crowded, they are everywhere and it's like living in the big city again - our quiet peacefulness is gone. Wouldn't be so bad if everyone just was a bit more polite to one another. Friday we went to a special thing they had at the museum for the opening of a new exhibit. It was a wine and cheese thing - generally I don't like those - I am not good with mingling with strangers but we had a nice time. I found after my company left that I was just wiped out - I guess you're in high gear cooking and prepping and doing stuff - not that we did that much in the way of activities - but once the house was quiet I just needed to decompress. So did DH. Yesterday he mowed the lawn and I got the vegetable garden planted before the rains came. We've been getting alot lately and yesterday was just one storm after the other - lots of water and lightening. Today it's supposed to be rather warm for this area - I want to finish planting my herbs in boxes and plant the rest of the flowers I bought into pots and all my planting will be done.

Ceejay - glad you enjoyed the family visit, are they staying the entire weekend? I didn't realize how much rice is produced up your way. Geez between the spraying for the rice and the cotton, you sure get your dose of chemicals

Shad - we were going to plant using the plastic mat too but as you discovered after a year or two when it works it's way out of the dirt, it's a major pain to deal with - I'd rather use paper or leaf/grass mulch - something that can be reworked into the ground again. I hope you didn't hurt the rose bush. As for your age, although I haven't seen you in several years, you do look great and I'd never guess your true age. No cracks in the frame and you have the perkiness of someone much younger - must be from all that whip cracking around the students

Michelle- I hope things went well with your interview. Keep up the positive attitude although I know how hard it is not to get frustrated. Bummer that you didn't have the team lead experience they wanted at the company down the road. Seems like whatever one has, they want other stuff. We are all pulling for you, something will come through I know it.

Mel - hope you are taking things easy, resting and getting your head cleared of worries and hustle bustle Come back soon - we miss you.

Annie - sorry your computer crapped out. Just what you need (NOT) another bill. Don't pay any mind to Dad's comment about the weight. I think Dad's like their girls with a little meat on their bones. My DH got ticked off once when I was frightfully skinny after losing a bunch of weight and my Dad (like alot of others) said it was time to stop losing, I was too thin. DH thought he meant I should be roly poly fat but that was not the case. Be the weight you are happy at as long as it's not the bony starved look of the Olsen twins. Hope you have a nice weekend baby sitting with both of your favorite boys.

Laura - sounds like BF is to bikes what some people are to classic cars. Guess you should have figured there's no such thing as a small fix to the bike. It's good you can get some money out of the old Schwinn's you have in the garage. I guess the city made it through the NATO meeting without another '68 riot?

Ellen - hope you don't spend the entire weekend with sick kids. Although summer for Moms with young kids means a totally different thing - lots of kids underfoot to keep busy and out of trouble

Patty - what did we do before the Internet? Great question. Spend too much time on it Sorry your router went out, hope it's a quick fix.

Tomorrow is Memorial Day - a day to honor those who have served our country and us in kind. Also the unofficial kick off to summer for those of us stateside. Have a nice long weekend all.

Someone just went tearing down our road at top speed on an ATV. So much for the peace and tranquility we once had. I'm sure this will mean the animals will be lurking deep into the forest too. Going to be a long 3 months

Good morning everyone!

Sitting at work with nothing to do. No calls coming in and too early to make any out. DD3 is doing much better, had some stomach bug but was on the mend before I lfet for work. DS and DD1 both have some upper respiratory/allergy cough. I am holding out becasue they are not acting sick just have the cough. The kiddies have one more week of school then they are on vacation. Looking forward to not having to get up early and get them off for school!

Not much is going on besides the sickness. Have plans to go to a friend's house for a BBQ tomorrow. Will definitely be watching my calories tho. I weighed in today and I am "unofficially" down 5LBS. I am super happy about that! Can barely wait until I can see a difference in my body, but I know that takes time.

Ceejay~enjoy the time with your visitors!! Life is short, best to spend time with those we love.

Shad~Your weekend went by so quickly, but as always it sems like you accomplished a lot. Hope you didn't kill your rose, I transplanted one a few years ago and it never bloomed again. I ended up just pulling it out and putting something else in. Stay warm with the approching winter.

Laura~Take care, don't let the cough wear you out. Have you found the parts for the bike?? I really miss riding, I will have to see if I can take one of my mom's older bikes...she has 2 schwinns, but they were in good shape.

Patty~I feel lost with no Internet...not sure how I used to get thru the day. I do everyhting online now!

Annie~New computer yet?How was your time with the Lil' man? Hope you are enjoying your LOONG weekend!

Mel~When I was home schooled we would take "mental health days" so much better than plowing thru all my work!! Hope your mental and physical self is getting plenty of rest!!

Michelle~how did DH's few day's back at work go? Is he feeling better? Hope you both are resting on this holiday weekend!!

Well, I guess I have caught up. I could keep typing away, but I guess I can start making outbound calls. Hope eveyone has a great day!!

Luv and Hugs!!

Hello Ladies,

It's a quite sunday afternoon here. Did some running around yesterday, went to Artfest, purchased some yard art. Like I really need more . Then had dinner with a friend and she brought one of her friends who I had met briefly a few years ago. We'll she is going through a divorce after 31 years, talk about her world being upside down. Her hubby did everything from deciding what she is cooking for dinner, to paying and control all banking. She is now having to cope with her life and her making decisions.

Happy - so glad your family visit went well. Traffic was bad here on friday. Everyone was leaving town, going off to the lake or somehwere else. I sure wish we could get some of the rains your getting. It's getting hot here and having to water my plants daily..

Ellen - WAY to go on your 5lb loss. have fun at BBQ and make good choices. I hope your work day stayed quite.

Ceejay - maybe your company slept in late. Hope your enjoying your day.

Shad - the weekend goes way to fast. Luckily we have a holiday on monday and I am suppose to take tues and wed as vacation days. I'm hoping to get some things done around the house.

Laura - I hope your coughing has settled down. Is it allergies?


Annie, Mitchellez, Mel, - Hope your having a good day.

Patty
Lucky you on taking vacation day's with Memorial Day. Have a good week.

Happy
Glad you had a good visit with you family. I miss mine already.

Shad
I know what you mean about the week ends being to short. I'm back to work today. Yes on a holiday, but someone has to be here and it's my day to work. Maybe it will not be bad.

Laura
How is you holiday going?
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Decided that I make a hand written copy of my food intake. I'm not counting calories. I'm just trying to eat healthy. So I've put every thing in Excel and have made forms to fill out. We'll see how this goes. Routine is my goal this week.

Good morning ladies,

Starting out with a salute to our servicemen and women on this Memorial Day holiday. Thanks for all who have served our country well.

Yesterday was a hot one, did some laundry, some cleaning and cleaned a floor fan that was super dusty. Avoided putting the air conditioning on as the fans moved the air enough to be tolerable. 87 yesterday and Wednesday and Thursday the nightly lows will kiss freezing so DH is making sure we have tarps and plastic to cover the plant beds. What crazy weather It rained like the dickens Saturday night - the sump pump is still going off on a regular basis with ground drainage. We decided to go for an ATV ride since the best time to go is after a rain (keeps the dust down). We drove out to a place we wanted to try and once again it was closed so we went to another place we had gone before. I tried their pizza and DH had a cheesy beef sandwich. Not bad. On the way home we decided to try some side trails. Along one of them we encountered a small porcupine on the middle of the trail. He would run (not that a porcupine can run - sort of looks like something trying to run with a big load in his pants ) but as soon as we stopped, he'd stop. We were on a narrow trail so we could not turn around and had no choice but to follow him. Poor guy was not happy to be followed by a noisy ATV. After more than 5 minutes he fortunately found a side trail to get into the forest. There were butterflies and dragonflies and wildflowers all about. It was a really nice ride. We sat on the deck and watched the hummingbirds last night - DH has to go get a few more feeders because we just can't find the ones we packed up from last year. Today it's kind of iffy cloudy - not sure if it will rain or not. I want to finish planting my herbs and I also want to finish the data entry for the museum stuff so I can be done with that. It's supposed to cool down mid week which will be a good time to go through some more boxes in the garage. I suppose with all the seasonal people in town now, summer would be the best time to have a garage sale if we want to get rid of some of this stuff.

Ceejay - even if you aren't counting calories it's good to log your food - it at least gives you an idea of what you are eating and I find that it always makes one think about what going in the mouth if you have to write it down. Hope the work day is quiet for you.

Patty - as they say there's always room for "Jello" and that also extends to another piece of yard art That's unfortunate about the friend who is getting divorced. Way back in the early 70's as women were coming into their own I vowed that I was never going to be dependent on anyone but myself. I had seen women like that who were incapable of making any kind of decision only to get dumped by the men who insisted they be subservient all along. Widows too would sometimes find themselves in that situation - hubby took care of everything and then he died and they were totally lost. Hope she will be ok, it's a very frightening feeling.

Congrats on the 5 pounds down Ellen. Make them official!

It's quiet in here as it tends to be on a weekend. Hope you are all out and enjoying yourselves except for Ceejay and Shad who are holding the fort down for us. Later chicks.

HELLO FRIENDS
SORRY THIS IS NOT A VERY HAPPY TIME FOR ME......
ON FRIDAY NIGHT I HAD THE BEGINNINGS OF ANOTHER GASTROENTERITIS ATTACK.
LAST YEAR'S GASTRO-DOCTOR RELUCTANTLY GAVE ME ONE REFILL AND ORDERED BEDREST & STRICT DIET.
IF IT WASN'T THE HOLIDAY WEEKEND I THINK HE WOULD HAVE SENT ME TO THE ER.
SO BED IS WHERE I'VE BEEN SPENDING MY "VACATION".
FIGURES RIGHT???
ANYWAY.........I HAVE ENOUGH MEDS UNTIL SATURDAY MORNING.
IF I AM NOT WELL BY THEN, I NEED TO CALL MY REGULAR DR AND GO BACK TO THE HOSPITAL.
I CAN HARDLY BELIEVE THIS IS HAPPENING TO ME.
HE SAYS IT'S THE RESULTS OF ALL THE MEDS FROM THE PNEUMONIA.
THAT THE INTESTINES COULDN'T HANDLE THOSE MEDS AFTER SUCH A SHORT TIME . THE PNEUMONIA WAS ONLY 6 MONTHS FROM THE GASTRO.
I AM NOT READY TO COME BACK TO THE COMPUTER YET.
HOPE YOU CAN UNDERSTAND.
MY WHOLE RIGHT SIDE IS IN PAIN AGAIN.
SENDING LOVE TO ALL MY WORLDLY SISTERS
I WILL LET YOU KNOW IF THINGS TAKE A WRONG TURN.

Mel, I'm so sorry to hear you're having a gastro attack! I hope the meds help you and you don't end up in the hospital. Sending hugs and prayers!

Nothing much for me to report. Coughing a good amount still, and this is from the cold I caught last week, not allergies. I have been sucking on cough drops the past several days, getting thoroughly tired of that.

Bought some veggie and flowers to plant, but NOT doing it today - too friggin' hot and windy. Will try to fit it in this week in the early evenings after work.

Off-site seminar tomorrow, so I will probably not post at all, or maybe in the evening.

Cheers!

Rush job tonight. I feel really bad. Not because I am sick but I had a really bad training class today and feel like burying my head under the pillows (and putting a bottle of wine in my belly)

Mel - get better soon and get back to life. Maybe you will now feel that you have to slow down, have to back away and look after you. Better start thinking about a hobby or two to relax you. Rather than politics to annoy the life out of you.

Hope everyone else is going okay. Sounds like you are all having a weekend. I'll be back when I have finished the pity party.

Good morning ladies -

I had such a busy weekend with an interview and two other meetings on Friday, a bad migraine all day Saturday, and website work and yard work the rest of the long weekend. It was definitely a hot one on Sunday and Monday, and the thunderstorms we had off and on contributed to off and on migraines with me being pretty much out of commission all day on Saturday. I woke up in the middle of the night last night with the beginnings of a migraine...but I was able to nip it in the early stages with some Excedrine, so I'm doing ok now. I've got a phone interview this morning (I've reserved a conference room so that I could have the phone conversation in private), and an in person interview for a different company after work one day this week (date still to be determined).

============================

Mel - I hope you feel better soon! That GI stuff just hits you so hard!! Please follow doc's orders and take care of yourself above all else! Let the office fend for themselves for a change. Sending you lots of gentle healing hugs, my friend.

Laura - I hope you get over your cold soon. Enjoy the off-site seminar!

Shad - I had having lousy days at work where you just want to drink heavily and put your head under a pillow.

Happy - I'm glad you had such a nice time with your family...and that Mom loved your house and the pampering! How was the movie Dark Shadows? DH and I want to see that one. Good for you for getting veggies planted...I hope they're doing okay with the cold nights. Bummer that the tourists can be so rude. Ugh! When I used to live in the Lake Tahoe area (in the CA Sierra Mountains), we used to savor the off-seasons and even the Monday-Thursday during the tourist seasons...because at least there wouldn't be so many rude out of towners. Of course, those tourists essentially paid our wages...so we had to sort of grin and bear it. How cool to see a porcupine scampering along during your ATV ride! I think porcupines are so adorable and have even pet a few "tame" ones. They're amazingly soft (if you pet them the correct way - going with the quills and not against them). Did you get any storms last night? Or maybe the storm front went south of you. We had a big squall line move through 70+ mph winds, lots of lightning that hit the nearby substation a few times and blinked the power, LOUD thunder, and quarter-size hail...and we didn't even get the worst of it. The worst of it went south of us closer to Milwaukee.

Ceejay - Good on ya' for logging your food intake! That's always the hardest for me to do. I can start out great each day and log breakfast and lunch at work....but in the evening I have other stuff to do and never get around to logging my dinner and snacks.

Patty - Hope you had a nice long weekend. And Happy's right, you can NEVER have too much yard art! So sad about your friend whose husband handled everything. It will take some time, but she'll get used to making decisions. In most major metropolitan areas, there are lots of free/cheap workshops and support systems in place to help women in her situation deal with finances and make decisions in general.

Annie - I hope you hear good news about your interview. How is the job situation going for C? Did you have a fun long weekend?

Ellen - I hope the kids got to feeling better and that you had a nice holiday with the family!

Well, gotta sign off for now.

Much love and many hugs,

Good morning ladies,

Geez, looks like we are finishing out the month on a bad leg here.

Mel - I'm so sorry to hear that you have hit a big health bump again. Sending you some healing thoughts and prayers that things right themselves quickly and you are on the mend again. Please try to not let it get you down.

Shad - what made the class so bad? Hope this was just a temporary thing - I imagine it's got to be quite difficult training people who have "always done things this way" in a new, and not so intuitive new way to get things done. Put it behind you, today is a new day (and hopefully not part 2 of yesterday's class )

Michelle - that's great that you got a couple of interviews How did you line up something so quickly? Sending you the strongest vibes I can for good things coming your way and an end to this stressful job thing. Funny you should say that about the porcupine being soft. I was thinking the same thing - from afar of course - that it looked quite soft though I was not going to reach out and check it for myself I guess most people here have the attitude not to dis the seasonal people because they bring so much money to the area but that is no excuse for general rudeness. Last night I went to Walmart at 8:30pm and there were only about 15 cars in the lot and of those, 2 were haphazard parked taking up more than one space (in the close up spots of course), one was an expensive car parked right outside the door in the clearly marked handicapped spot with no placard or handicapped plate on it. And inside of course there are those who stand dumbfounded in the aisles by the wonder of all the fabulous things Walmart has to offer, blocking the aisles so that you can't do the get in, get out mission that you came for. Just a little common courtesy is all I'm asking. No one's better than anyone else. I didn't realize the heat affects your migraines. I'm sure the recent stress isn't helping much either. Hope you feel better and good luck on those interviews

Laura - have you tried Mucinex for the coughing? Nothing worse than a summer cold - they seem to hang on and reinvent themselves over and over. I hear it sure has been hot over your way lately. Watch - you'll get your plants in and then like us, it will turn cool and you'll fret over them.

Hellos to Annie with the broken computer, Ceejay getting sprayed with who knows what kinds of crop chemicals, Ellen with the sick kids and Patty with the loveliest yard of the entire town

Yesterday we were just sitting down to dinner when POP the power went out. We had dark clouds passing over us and a drizzle of rain here and there as well as a distant rumble of thunder but nothing as severe as the other night. Couldn't figure out what was going on. I immediately started to freak out. We have a sump pump in the basement utitlity room which also contains the furnace, hot water heater, my pantry of canned and boxed foods as well as lots of boxes of paper goods and plastic bags and such, my new freezer which is totally jammed full as well as a pretty full second refrigerator. There is also all of my Christmas decorations. Right outside that room is my hobby room which right now has all my extra appliances as well as craft stuff and we are using it as a staging area to store stuff we are unpacking which hasn't found a home upstairs yet. This sump pump collects and pumps out the excess water which drains from just outside the house around the foundation. We've been getting a steady stream of water for 2 days now since the dousing storms we got on Saturday. No power, no sump pump, water will collect in the well, overflow and flood the basement I'm hollering, DH is saying there is nothing he can do and I run downstairs to start "moving things to higher ground". I can't see just doing nothing. DH meanwhile calls the power company who expects the service to be restored in about 2 hours. Fortunately we have daylight until around 9pm and several flashlights. I tried lighting some candles down there but they didn't really do much good. DH got the big 10 gallon water jug we had for camping, made a funnel out of a milk jug and started bailing water out of the sump pump and hauling it up the stairs and down the stairs outside on the other side of the yard (not near the house so it wouldn't drain back into the pump pit). He sent me out to get 2 more flashlights and when I came back I was happy to see lights on all the houses. This wouldn't have been quite so bad had the water not been trickling into the sump pump. I do count my blessings that at least while the power was out, the storms decided to track north and we did not get any rain to speak of. We talked about it and decided at the very least we need a battery backup sump pump. Could also use a generator at least for the basement to run the well pump (so we can have water and I don't have to wash my hands with expensive Dasani bottled water ) as well as a propane heater down there and maybe a light or two. Generators can be quite expensive. So after bailing for over an hour, we looked outside and there was a big but faint rainbow in the sky. Always something to see here.

It's really chilly today after yesterday's 87 degree heat. I closed up the house and we turned the heat back on. I want to finish the data entry stuff for the museum and DH and I will set up the greenhouse tenting for the garden this afternoon. It's supposed to drop to a low of 34 tonight which means it probably will get to freezing. But we have planned for that so our plants will be ok.

Have a good day all - hope the week gets better for everyone.

Oh Michelle - you did ask about the movie Dark Shadows. Well it was fun and campy and just what you'd expect. I love the music of 1972 - it was a very wonderful year for me so I enjoyed the soundtrack because those songs just make me smile - SUPERFLY Is it Oscar worthy? Did it have much of a plot? And in fact, I think they used many of the best tag lines in the trailers. But I don't go to the movies much (last movie I saw in the theater was Avatar) so for me, it was entertaining and worth the $8 ticket. And the fact that the four of us had the entire theater to ourselves made it all the better. I couldn't help but wonder if Johnny Depp's vampire hairstyle will spawn a bunch of knock off cuts.

Laura
Before I went to the doctor for the bronchitis, my coughing had gotten out of hand. I bought some Robutussin (sp) otc in pill form which did wonders.
Feel better soon.

Mel
If diverticulitis is similar to gastroenteritis I know how you feel. Take care of your self.

Happy
Don't you just love it when the power goes off. It probably wouldn't hurt if you could afford a generator for the basement.

Michelle
One thing I can say is that I've never had a migraine. Glad you are feeling better. What did you interview for? Sending good vibes your way.

Hello's to Patty and Ellen and Annie

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Not much going on here except it's hot. I have the a.c. on and it's cold. I'd like to turn it down but if I did the next operator would be miserable. It's 80degree's in here now.
So far I'm doing well in logging food. I did forget to ride the bike last night though. My lawn was being mowed when I got home. I didn't linger outside. Then they came inside for a bit.
Texted my sister last night. They got home okay and had yesterday planned for a family get together. She was exhausted.