Good morning chicks,

Susie - glad you had a fun birthday. Boy you sure are ambitious on the garage! Wish I had your energy. We are overdue for a clean out and I am reminded that this is the time to do it when the weather is warm and workable. I'm glad to hear that Genny is doing well. You have been a good friend to her and everyone needs at least one of them in their lives. I hope you have fun at the graduation party. And congrats on your impressive weight loss - it is very motivating and proves if you only put your mind to it... AND STICK WITH IT - my personal problem -

Ceejay - when we moved out of Chicago (14 years ago) we decided to retain the credit union we had banked at for 20 years. We thought it might be a problem not having a branch anywhere close to us (ie. Memphis to Chicago and then up here) but actually - it's never been a problem. We were always able to electronically or snail mail take care of any business or odd check deposits. We get cash from the ATM here that doesn't charge a fee and we have a small bank account local to cash a check if we need one. Our stores limit cash and ATM to $40 so that doesn't really allow for much. I'd go with the more convenient bank even if it is a bit of a hassle to initially set it up. Only because I personally would avoid the busier city if I could. To your question - I try to volunteer one day in the office and of course Thursday nights for bingo but they always seem to suck me in more frequently than I'd like.

Laura - I can't believe they'd push that bone growth stimulator BEFORE they checked if the insurance would pay for it. I have to believe it's not cheap! Kinda LOL on BF pushing back on the house chores. My DH was like that with the older house in AH too. I think it was because he always hated that house. He worked like a dog outside in sweaty Memphis and he putters quite a bit out here but that's because he LIKES it. Although there are many unfinished projects here inside the house like door trim, painting, getting the basement floor done. I don't push because I can't help him with alot of it. I do agree though, if there are some things you can hand off to a reliable person and you can afford it, do it. Free time when you are working is a precious commodity. Don't forget to order your maid and cook while you are at it Sounds like you are doing very well with the rower program. It's great you found something you are enthused about.

Annie - I'm so glad you had a happy Michael moment. I'm sure he is watching over you and found a way to let you know that. Yay on the heavy duty yard work. You and Shad can be the gardeners at the commune. DH has fun toys and tools to make your job more delightful!!! Retirement is fun and enjoyable - I hope everyone can get there because it's GREAT to leave the working hassles behind. Not so great for the smaller paycheck (pension/social security) but I think it's worth it for the trade off.

Shad - thanks for the tip on getting the fuzzy parts off the Kiwi. Didn't realize so many varieties. I told DH you ate the skin and we were both I might try it on the NZ one as that looks more palatable. I am confused about your post - are you saying you will decide in MAY if you are to come in AUGUST??? August - though more crowded with people (which is relative to me me considering I don't live in cities any more) would allow for a much greater range of things to do and see. August is the blazing heat of summer for us - where we feel like we are living on the sun itself when the temps get to 80 degrees (F) But it's perfect for going out on the boat or taking an ATV ride though the cool woods. Mossies can be pesky but there is spray for that. May isn't too bad either but August is better. We have been known to get our last winter blast of the season first week in May - twice since we have been here we got 12 inches plus of wet snow the first week in May just so Mother Nature can show us who is boss! Anyway please clarify for me...

Dee - DH just configured a bunch of android tablets for the senior center and he was grumbling about them. I think if we got a tablet, it would be an iPAD.

Thursday was not a good day for me. I have been prone to bouts of the weepy blues lately. Mostly I am tired of hurting all the time, frustrated with the excess weight and having to constantly monitor and chastise myself for every bit that I look at or consider. With the rash of suicides in the news, I can actually understand the point of despondency - sad as that might be. The constant pain gets to me more than anything else because it really negatively affects my ability to move and do things. And I have been really tired a lot lately - allergy coughing is interfering with a good night's sleep and I don't get many of those anyway. I always wake up feeling like I only got 30 minutes of sleep, the only time I get a good rest is if I take a long nap in the afternoon.

Went swimming Thursday and the pool was COLD. They were emptying it and refilling it as we were in there and were filling it with fresh cold from the tap water. I'm thinking Thursday might not be the best day to swim because they are probably prepping the pool for the weekend guests now that summer is here. Then to boot coming back into the house afterwards I took a flying leap on the stairs. I have new casual shoes - lightweight New Balance that I really like in the Keds shoe type of style but they have a tiny rubber piece at the edge of the toe. The stairs on the deck have a small over hang on each step. I think I caught the toe of my shoe on the lip and since it's a rubber it stuck a bit and sent me flying on the landing. Since it was a low trip and I didn't have enough room to manipulate I could not catch my balance even though I grabbed for the hand rails. I landed on my hands to try and break my fall - jamming them of course) and I twisted around to my butt as I finished my descent. I had my new white sweater on that I really like - scraped the skin on my forearm and the sweater has a long streak of deck stain that I'm not sure I will get out. My wrists are still sore. Last week at bingo my foot got caught in a chair leg and I stumbled backwards but was able to stay upright - just barely. I feel like a clumsy fool which didn't help my mental mood...

Yesterday I planned to have the day to myself, except for DH's favorite lasagna lunch at the senior center. I give him half of my meat/entree and eat the veggies instead. I got a phone call at 10am. The receptionist had a family emergency, could I please come in and cover the phones. Sigh... DH just looked at me because I am getting no where attending to the clean up I promised I'd work on. I did go into the office, straightened out the mess they made. Realized that the receptionist who I like actually takes A LOT of time off. Around 2pm the other worker - my buddy - came pleading for me to help her. She is innundated and needs help. Can I come in on Monday? I said no This is turning into a 3 day a week stint for me and I just can't do it. DH has been patient but if this goes on much longer, he's just going to start tossing the extra stuff and I can't blame him at all. She was almost in tears and that's not like her. She said "I'll call him and talk to him (she knows him) I REALLY NEED HELP I AM LOSING MY MIND". So I helped her. She is like me, the more frazzled we get the more we tend to flit all over the place and not get anything done. So the calmer one, in this particular case me, figured out a method to so we could find all the mistakes that the people providing her the data made giving her sloppy work to fix. I was supposed to leave at 4pm but wound us staying until 6pm because I was adamant about not coming in on Monday. I will be there Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday of next week. Tuesday and Wednesday are an exemption as there is something special going on I offered to help with. That means I really have to buckle down this weekend and make some progress here. I also have some baking to do - there is a fundraiser for the shelter on Sunday and they are having a bake sale and I got some rhubarb for DH and promised him a pie.

We are supposed to take a ride to a farm - she is opening her retail storefront and we said we'd stop by. Tomorrow we might take an ATV ride to breakfast as I told DH that we need to make firm plans to use our "toys" this summer so they didn't waste away in the yard / garage unused.

Just a million demands on time it seems lately.

Anyway I'd better get off the computer. I have about an hour before we head out and I have gotten 2 loads of clothes done. I also paid bills - got a phone call today - missed one of them I had it on the wrong side of my computer and missed it.

Anyway - have a good weekend to all.

Checking in. I've had a busy weekend at home.
Had a nice drive back to Branson this afternoon. There was hardly any traffic. Just wish the people would learn how to move over so one can merge. Think that is why I like to come the back way.
I'm waiting on my niece to call for me to come and get her. It's almost nine. They are working her pretty long hours. She told me this afternoon it would be around 8 or 8.30. It's now 9. Praying she doesn't work till midnight.

Afternoon all,

Happy - It will be interesting to know how you go with eating the Kiwi skin. I don't mind it, but a lot of people don't like it. All the vitamins are near the skin too, so you can be sure of getting the lot.
I meant changing the date from Sept to May next year for my visit. June, July and August are when the fares are the highest because it's your summer. There tends to be more choice in the off season. I have to work around medical appointments and I figure there will be a haematologist March or April. In fact that appointment is already made - April 4. Since my cancer appointment was in June and the next is in December, I will figure on the one after being early June again. If the weather is bad around then, so be it. I will just have to get some cold weather gear to live in.


Susie - good to hear you had a great birthday. Looks like there was plenty of loot there for you. Good going on the garage. Do you feel like coming over and doing my shed for me?


Annie - I still have to work out how long I can stay out of the country before it affects my pension so at this point of time I will probably be there for three weeks or more. I'm sure we can come to an arrangement of some sort. I've sort of got an itinerary but it's not complete.
How funny that your brother sent you a bunny for your birthday. Nice

Ceejay - Over here, we don't worry about where our bank branch is mostly. I do online banking for 95% of my time and I can always go to an ATM at a mall or outside a bank to get cash since we pay extra to cash things over the counter here. So my bank only has 2 branches - one in Melbourne and one on the other side of Brisbane. I can ring them to get things done if necessary but it is so much easier to do it online.


Laura - ha ha on the maintenance getting old for B/F. And the tools are the drawcard. Funny, but I used to have one like that as well. Now I have a drawer full of tools which I use practically every day.

I have a tray full of tomatoes if anyone wants any I'll have to batch them up and give them away. I'll look like a tomato if I eat many more.
Only two weeks now to when I go away. I need to try and find a present for Chris. Have no idea what to get. Lets face it, when one gets to 70, one more or less has a much as they need.

Okay, I am off to plant some more bulbs for spring. Not that we have had much of a winter yet. Been a bit cool in the mornings but beautiful sunny warm days. On the other hand I may just go and sit in the sun and read for a bit. It's going to get busy later in the week.

Good Morning Lovely Ladies...

Pretty good weekend. Ballgame Saturday morning at 8 am. Then breakfast with bro, sil, Sam, boys and C met us there. My nephew Eric (bro's son), 39 yrs, surprised us and came. He has been in Brazil for 4 mos on company business. Brazil was having a strike and there was no gas, transportation nothing. He couldn't get home for about two weeks. They went off strike he got home and they went back on strike. Don't know the status of strike now. Good news he has been in Brazil all he is allowed for this year so he won't have to go back. Hopefully the project will be done by the new year and won't go anymore. He loves his job, doesn't mind the travel as he is not married, no kids so very easy for him to go.

We had a pit fire on Saturday night. The neighbor across the pond came over and shot the poo with us. I have never laughed so much in my entire life. C, neighbor, and Sam all were getting their buzz on, me of course drank a cup of coffee with my homemade heavy whipped cream beat to death to be frothy. So yummy. Anyway I laughed the most and hardest as those simpletons were hilarious. The boys were down in bed fast asleep before we started with the fire. Very fun and actually peaceful. My son came dragging in about 3 am. He was in Indy visiting friends. I had went to bed about 12:30 am, was so asleep, and he was very quiet, I didn't even hear a thing. He is usually pretty noisy.

Sunday son and C got up to go install a new water heater in his house. Water heater $485.00, labor 0. Bad news, good news. Sam and I did errands and lunch with the boys. It rained like no other all day and is raining now. Sadly, we need this rain. Everything was dry and brown. I found a recipe for a keto pound cake and boy is it delish. I cut up strawberries and made whipped cream out of heavy whipping cream. So so yummy. 1/16th piece of the cake was a huge piece of bunt cake and only 3.5 net carbs. Total net carbs with berries was about 4.5. So worth every bite.

Will come back for personals in a bit.

Hugs

Ok back for a minute....Oh I do want to tell you that I have been strict KETO for about 6 days. Guess what...everyday my knees felt better and better. Today there is no pain in them. My ankle is almost all better. It is going a little slower but feeling less pain in it also. I can now attest to eating keto does make joints feel so much better.
It is so worth not having pain than eating popcorn. Yes I miss it and want it but my health is more important. Always said I can't not eat popcorn, I call b*llsh*t on myself. I CAN do it. It is all in what I want more and today (yes, one day at a time) I want to feel better for me. Also the bloating I had with eating things I shouldn't has almost dissapated.(SP) I think feeling pain also makes for a bad frame of mind and being mean and snarky when I don't really intend to. Shame on me. I apologize to all of you if I have been less than kind to you.

SHADDIE...ok we are shooting for May. I too will shoot for May at the commune. I had no idea there are so many kiwi fruits. I only thought the hairy ones existed. Hmmm, who knew. I saw a personal license plate on the way home from work last week it said "1 Kiwi" or something like that. I thought of you. I would love to have/eat your tomatos. I do have about 8 the size of pool balls on my vines so far. Excited. One cucumber and a lot of blooms for the jalapenos.

CEEG...sheesh the niece went from skipping out on work and classes to working her bunz off. How late did she work the other night? How is little Miley doin?

HAPPY...sorry you are feeling blue. Probably the aches and pains don't help your mood any. God love you. You must be having sympathy blues for me. Well snap out of it sister. I am on the road to a happier place and I am taking you with me. You got it. STOP going into the center to do stuff. You need you time without the worry/thoughts of going there. I thought retirement was about doing fun stuff? MELLIE's rolling pin inserted here. OH my gosh, another fall on top of all the other aches and pains. My heart hurts for you. I, however am NOT falling on your behalf just to go with you. hahaha. DId you get out on the ATV? What all did you end up seeing/doing?

LAURA...boo on the bone stimulator. Seems like the doc is just prolonging things and having you do nonsense/expensive stuff because he doesn't want to deal with it. I think I would get a second opinion. Don't take the denial of the claim as the final say. Contest it. The more you fight the more they get sick of hearing from you and give in.

SUSIE...so so happy to hear Genny is on the mend and in rehab. Hopefully she can get back to fighting the cancer. Good job on the garage clean up. Did you toss anything cause that makes cleaning out the garage far more worth it. Samantha usually cleans out our garage about twice a year. June marks 2 years she has lived with us. Stay focused on your health needs.

HI DEE.

That's a wrap for me. Got to get busy.

Love and Hugs.

I think my kitty missed me this week end. She's been my friend this morning. And bolted out the front door when my niece came home. She caught her and brought her back. Think I might be more able to get her in the car this weekend.
My neighbor across the street from my house is moving. They sold their house and she is moving to Republic. I didn't realize it but she told me the partner will be going back to Kansas. I assumed they were married.
I have decided to get home internet. My mobile hot spot doesn't have enough gigs to last all month. Even though I have unlimited the hot spot slows down after I use the data allowance of the hot spot. I'm also going to pay off my phone. It's going to be a sizable hunk of change but I will not have to pay monthly interest.

----
Laura
That's a pity that the insurance will not pay for the stimulator. Think I would check into this a little further.

Happy
Thanks for the information I would like to have the bank a bit closer but after all the hassle with the medicare and my retirement fund accounts is what really bothers me in moving the accounts. But I may start on that this week end. It sure would be easier to travel .7 miles to the local bank than 10 miles to the next city.

Annie
Sounds like you had a good weekend. I liked the story of the two tail bunny.

Susie
This is mainly what I do when I'm banking. And I may decide to keep it where my money is now. It's a tough decision.

Shad
This is true that most things can be done electronically and or by phone.

CEEG...safe travels this weekend with kitty.

Easy dinner last night. Browned hamburger and onion, through in mushrooms and cheese. C ate it on a bun, Sam and I on a plate. Also had a mix of summer veggies and black olives on the side. Yum Yum. Had some of my keto pound cake to boot. Strawberries too. All keto stuff and everyone was happy with it.

Lounged around all evening and went to bed.

Sam and my SIL Cindy are meeting me for lunch today. C is taking me to Red Lobster for dinner. Hope it is better than our last experience.

Make it a great day all, I am certainly trying!!

Hugs sister friends.

Happy Birthday to Annie and Annie's Daddy!

I know you are sad and missing him but I'm sure he'd want his little girl to be happy.

Hope you have a great day and a nice birthday dinner.

(- keto cake )

back later for personals...

HAPPY....LOL on the keto cake!! Thank you for all the birthday wishes here and on FB. xoxoxo

Happy Birthday Annie!!




Hope you had a nice lunch and enjoy your Red Lobster dinner tonight!

Quick hello to everyone. Had a busy afternoon yesterday, followed by a work dinner. Managed to catch the 7:30 train home, but then it was stopped for a half hour just a bit over one stop away from where I get off the train due to freight train interference. Sigh.

I had a meeting first thing this morning and took an earlier train to work, and that was followed by one of the long quarterly meetings. And just now, yet another meeting that was (thankfully) short and sweet.

Going to do some catch-up now.

Leaving on time tonight and going to get to the fc to do a rowing workout.

Have a great rest of the day everyone!

Good morning,

New week, new plans. Oh wait - it's Wednesday isn't it? Halfway through the week. Don't know if I am coming or going

I am going to the Senior Center shortly just for the morning to help my buddy distribute some food vouchers. There are some pushy, grabby people so we are double teaming to keep it more orderly. I went and helped her all day on Monday with some government reports she needed to complete. The data was all mish moshed and we had to figure out the right numbers and she was frazzled beyond belief. I sometimes think like that when there is too much going on swirling in my head so I helped her to focus. Took all day but we got it done. After we finished she asked if I had ever been in a situation like that - facing a huge deadline and spinning your wheels in the sand trying to make sense of it all. I said yes, many times in my work life. The first one that came to mind was when we were preparing the annual budgets - a horror show in the best of times. We'd gather all of our data on computer terminals. Then our progressive boss decided smack dab in the middle of it to have us work on these new fangled machines called Personal Computers that had all new programs to learn and none of us could figure them out. It was like trying to do your job when all the data was in CHINESE. Took us 10 times as long and of course we got no extra time to figure it out. What the heck is this PC thing????

I was home yesterday and make a little progress around the house. Still lots to do.

We are starting a TOPS group on Thursday. Got all the permissions and arrangements done. Looking forward to that. We will meet after we go swimming in the morning. And try to SKIP lunch at the Senior Center afterwards

Laura - seems to be a lot more delays on the train line than I ever remember when I was riding, but then again unbelievably I stopped riding 20 years ago - just as they were getting new train cars. That has to be frustrating - I never understood people wanting to drive into downtown when the train was much more steady and reliable. Not so much now I guess.

Annie - how was the Red Lobster dinner? DH saw a commercial the other night for Lobster Fest or something that had him drooling. Keto pound cake - made with almond flour or something? Glad it was good. How fun that you had a great time around the fire pit. Sounds just like what you needed - lots of laughs and a good, relaxing time!

Ceejay - I'm sure the kitty will miss you. Who looked after her while you were gone? Oh boy you have a runner - get your track shoes on

Shad - I used a NZ kiwi in my fruit salad the other night. Tried tasting the peel. Didn't like it. Rough like Idaho potato skins. No thanks even though you are right about the vitamins and nutrients in the skin. Ok, then I will reset for May for the commune. Still can be iffy but probably better than October temperature wise.

Hello Susie - I hope you enjoyed your weekend.

Time for me to get ready to head out. Happy Hump Day kids.

Almost laughed at sis the other night. She's been habitually late and getting farther and farther behind on her charts. They talked to her this week about it. I'm kind of glad. She was getting to the point that I'm not replaceable. When charts are not turned in they can't be processed by insurance. Dah that's money.
Been going to the gym after I take my niece to work. Works out better for me.

Annie
Happy belated Birthday I'm beginning to tell some difference in my joints with the lower carbs. And cravings are almost gone.

Happy
Glad you got at least had one day off to do some things at home. Miley stays with the dog while they are at the condo. They sleep a good part of the day. However, the dog has to be crated when he is here by himself. He was getting in the garbage and pottying in the condo. Food and water is left out for them then niece is back to look after them at night. Seems you are more relaxed just volunteering for the senior center and bingo. Yes, you finally got the TOPS started.

Laura
Meetings are one thing I do not miss from not working.