Morning
Not much is going on except for the weather. We had freezing rain and sleet yesterday. Luckily our area didn't get as much as northern Missouri did. I'm thankful. The tree's were beautiful with the ice.
The ladies that came the other day were selling all kinds of insurance policies. I didn't fall for that. And yes Happy there is a window of time to get your insurance for us seniors. That's what threw up a red flag.

No personals this morning but back later.

Good morning ladies,

Don't have much time to post. This is going to be a doctor / dentist week. Yesterday I had DH make an appointment with the new urologist in town as he is still having some residual issues. The new doctor is nice, took some tests and more to come. Today we are going north to get him his pain shot for the neck and afterwards a stop in at the cabinet place to review a design for the laundry room. Wednesday he goes for CT scan on the kidneys, bladder, etc. Thursday we have to get my dental partial relined. Friday he goes back to the urologist and depending on Wednesday's CT scan, he might have to have more invasive types of tests. Hoping all is well and this is just a stubborn UTI. I think he is a bit less worried than he was last week.

Yikes on the ice Ceejay - would rather deal with 12 inches of snow than any ice. Be careful getting about.

Shad - saw on the news yesterday the crazy weather and fires are wreaking havoc on the tennis matches. Unbelievable the devastation from the fires. Hoping you get some normal much needed rain and not torrents and hail storms. The plantation shutters sound quite nice. Have fun with the grandkids and hope the ice cream turns out. That was a funny story with the dog walk

Annie - hope C has stabilized. What a shock for him, you must be exhausted mentally and physically. That is funny about him telling you about hidden money. I think we can all relate to at least one incident where we thought we were near the end. Makes for a good story LATER but frightful at the moment.

Laura - hope you are getting around well. Meant to tell you your card was another that my Mom kept and read to me.

Hi Susie

Sorry to be quick but it's super cold outside and I want to get in a fast shower before we go and need enough time to properly dry off before I head outside.

Have a good day everyone.

Hey all....

Uneventful 3 day weekend. i.e. No hospitals. My bro came over from St. Louis on Friday. Just beat the yucky weather. He stayed until Monday. It was nice having him but he is a lot of work. lol. My SIL Cindy has an upper respiratory infection but got it taken care of before it could get any worse. Good news on her health she does NOT have to have the hiatal hernia surgery. The specialist said only having pneumonia one time does not warrant surgery. When she had the endoscopy (down the throat) to check that a couple of weeks ago they also stretched her throat and that should help. Fingers crossed she is in the clear. Me on the other hand had a MRI of my head, yeah yeah, there is nothing in there. I have been having what I think is nerve pain around my ear and side of face. Also in my side into my breast. No lumps. Also my left eye has a gel like substance that I have to keep blinking when it goes over my pupil as I cannot see. Then there is a bursts that follow. IWon't know the results of that for a few days. I truly believe this is all nerve related somehow.

HAPPY....good luck with all your appts this week and DH too! OH and thank you for the very nice card. It brightened my day for a minute.

SHADDIE...the way our news is reporting the rain over there, the fire is almost out. haha.

CEEG...we got the same yuk weather that you did.

Hello to all ya'll.

Afternoon all.

I had a pretty dull 4-day weekend, but it was better than being at the office. Did some laundry. Sold a pair of table lamps we bought at a garage sale last summer. They were Mission style with beautiful shades made of amber-colored mica. Unfortunately, the length of the shade didn’t cover the bulbs enough and they were visible from a seated position on the sofa. And the color cast by the shade was very warm and inviting, but not really sufficient to read by! So on Saturday I listed them on craigslist and on my fb garage sale groups and had them sold and out of the house Sunday morning. The previous lamps were brought up from the basement for the time being. Having a hard time finding new lamps that I’m excited about, so I’ll keep shopping online.


Went by Mom’s on Sunday since she didn’t answer her phone. She was fine. TV was blaring – she had a basketball game on, of all things. While I was there I got a grocery list from her. I shopped and dropped them off yesterday. Otherwise yesterday was quiet. I oiled the wood handles of our knives and made headway on a long novel I’m reading. Oh, and more laundry. Yep, I was living it up.


Back to work today. Bleh. I’m taking this Friday off work, so I have a 3-day workweek. I could get used to that!



Shad – I need to just stop trying to find flavored yogurts that don’t have too much sugar in them (there aren’t any!) and buy the plain kind and flavor it myself. Your Ancient Grains bread sounds similar to a bread that my mother likes called “Seed-tastic”, LOL. You’re definitely treating your body like a temple. You mean you haven’t installed flooring with a paw-print design to camouflage what doggie tracks into the house?! LOL. How was the ice cream session with the grandnieces? What flavor won?? Read part of an article yesterday about how the aboriginal peoples in the northern part of your country practice controlled burns (don’t recall what they called them – “controlled burns” is what they call them in the US) to remove brush and reduce more serious damage from wildfires. Interesting.


Annie – I’m glad you had an uneventful long weekend! You probably needed one of those with all the C. events and stress going on in your life! So has C changed all his money-hiding spots now that he’s home and on the mend? I’m glad you liked the movie 1917. There are movies I’ve avoided seeing because they just might be too sad or something I have no interest in, but every once in a while I’ll watch them anyway and am often pleasantly surprised. Hope Cindy is in the clear and won’t need the surgery.


Ceejay – We had slushy snow on the ground on Saturday morning with a limited time to shovel it before the temps dropped and froze it. Of course, bf missed the window. He did manage to shovel a path in front of the house and also from the garage to the house/stoop, but only half of the driveway got cleared. The rest is now rutted and icy. Hopefully some of it melted in the sun today…


Hi Susie!


Happy – Hope all the medical appointments go well this week and all the traveling doesn’t run you ragged.


Okay, gonna get this posted and get ready to get out of here. Debating walking to the train, but the wind chill is in the upper teens, so I think not. Everyone have a good rest of your day!

I woke up to the chirping of the smoke detector this morning. I finally figured out how to change the battery but was afraid of those wires so I asked my nephew to do that for me. He came and did that. And has gone to their house to visit with the boys and hold the baby. He seemed to be doing really well.
I joined WW online this week and started out with the purple plan but I've already switched to the green plan which gives me more points. I want to go weigh in this week but the on coming weather may not let me. More freezing rain, sleet and show is on the way.

Susie
Hope you are feeling better.

Happy
Wow, you will be busy with those dr appointments between the two of you.

Annie
Glad that C is doing better and your SIL is too. Hope the MRI show something that can be treated. That doesn't sound to fun to deal with.

Laura
Glad your mom is doing better. Has it been long enough for you to go back to work? Time gets away from me lately.

Holy Mother of God....I spoke too soon. Cindy is back in the hospital with double pneumonia. That is the text I woke up to. Please send all your good mojo, thoughts and prayers her way.

I have decided to go to an acupuncturist to get some stress relief. A gal here at work referred me to the doc she goes to and swears by her. I am still getting chair massages from Katie but think I need to take it a step further.

Hope everyone is doing well and staying healthy.

Annie
Sending good vibes to your SIL.

We have had some sleet this morning but it looks to be melting quickly so I'm going to they gym and grocery store in a few minutes. The traffic on FF looks to be doing okay.
I had nephew stop by and help me change the battery in the smoke detector. He looks and sounds great Hope he stays this way.

More good news...not. My MRI came back with nothing on the pain by the ear and jaw. HOWEVER I have chronic small vessel ischemic disease. I guess this is like hardening of the arteries only in the small vessels of the brain. I am now on a statin drug which I refused to take previously because it raises my liver enzymes, but now it is necessary to treat/help with the CSVID. Great. Shoot me like a horse. No pain from it really just if is gets really bad, which I have a mild case at the moment, could lead to dementia, stroke and other not nice things. Doc is referring me to an ENT for the pain in face. Not sure that is correct but oh well.

Thanks CEEG on the good mojo!

Make it a great weekend.

Wok up to a dusting of snow this morning and snowing little bitty flakes. The streets were fine. Not sure of the over passes but I didn't get out till noon. Slept till 10 o'clock this a.m.

Annie
OMG, What else! Sending you good vibes also. How is C doing?

Morning all,
Welcome to another hot and sticky Sunday down here in the great south east. But at least we are getting some rain even if the humidity has climbed to off the scale proportions. 3 showers and 3 changes of clothes per day. Ugh.

Annie - I don't know what to say about your family. It really has been a horrible couple of years for you and yours healthwise and probably financially as well. Our Queen called her bad year an Annus Horribilus) Lets hope for a better outcome in the future. Meantime you need to take time out for yourself, all the running around for C, the kids and the grandies and the brothers and SIL will not help your stress levels even though you are a very strong lovely lady inside. Probably going to work is the tonic you need to decrease those levels even if you find it boring.

Ceejay - between your weather and mine we really are on opposing sides of the world. Here it is smoke, fire, heat, storms, humidity and wind, and yes they even had some snow in Victoria a couple of weeks ago. Didn't have enough to put out their fires though. Good luck with the WW.

Happy - hope all is going okay with your week of medical and dental appointments. The havoc at the tennis was down south and yes there was smoke in the air but the main grievance was the itty bitty spoilt brat players complaining about the air quality - duh we are in the middle of the worst fire storm in history, shut up and get on with it. The rest of us have to live with it. Interestingly enough it was the men complaining and not the women. The big names never said a word about the air quality which hacked off the minnows and the tennis goes on.
The icecream turned out fine. The girls had a lot of fun and one made a death by chocolate complete with a chocolate fudge sauce and the other made a raspberry swirl ice cream with a raspberry sauce on top. Both were yummy but I got them round to the parents asap so I wouldn't have to eat them.

Laura - yes read above for the icecream. Generally speaking, the chocolate won because mum and nana are chocoholics and the mums partners two boys are also chocoholics. Grandad and I and the mums partner went for the raspberry and it was delicious.
Glad to know that you are shopping for your mum. At least you can keep the supplies in order in the house. My mum bought whatever she fancied and we found tins of stuff (all the same) that she wouldn't have eaten if she wasn't gaga.
Don't need to install flooring with a doggy footprint ingrained. I get a new and different design each time he comes in with muddy feet. It washes off easily enough and I have to mop the floor fairly regularly anyway since I am a bit of a test kitchen cook and the floor looks like a rubbish dump when I have finished chopping and slicing and dicing and throwing out the rubbish stuff.
Generally I find the Greek yoghurts have the least sugar added and some don't have any added at all. I don't know if you get Bornhoffen (sp) over there but it is really sharp tasting and has no added sugars at all only what is containing naturally (lactose) in the milk. If I am going to add a flavour I sometimes use essences (vanilla extract, almond, orange etc.) but I don't find it all that thrilling. I prefer to add a swirl of stewed or frozen crushed fruit with maybe a teaspoon or so of honey. Sometime I put maple syrup in there as well. It's sugar but sometimes only sugar will do.
I don't know what article you read, but there is a part aboriginal man who works for the RFS (Rural fire service) doing training and education. He had an article on facebook a while back about how the aboriginal people back burnt (controlled burning). It was only ever done on a rotating basis and was done in a circle formation - ie. pick a tree, build your fire around the tree and let it burn outwards to a certain point (presumably the point was already marked, cleared or burned. This way avoided the tree top fires (most dangerous and what we are now enduring) and allowed wildlife to move out and escape. Apparently, most Australian bush fires (mostly eucalypts) start with the forest floor fire. When this fire reaches a certain temperature, the oil (eucalyptus oil is highly flammable) which oozes from the canopy leaves will spontaneously combust when the floor fire sends up sparks and embers (and sometimes burns inside the trunk of the tree) and sets light to the oils. The result of this is that the fires now leap from tree top to tree top and are notoriously difficult to put out. The result of not actively back burning the forest floor is the disaster we have now. Well done forest activists and stupid politicians.
Hope you survived the above lecture.

Okay, I'm off to do some more in the house. One of the shutters is now installed in bedroom 3. If DS2 doesn't get called out on a job today, I may get the bathroom window done as well. Next pension day I will get two more shutters and he can put them up - meantime I better get to and sand and paint the window frames. Been slacking a bit lately. With the rain, the weeds are knee high and everything in the yard needs pulling, trimming or digging out. I have capsicums (bell peppers) coming on at a great rate (self sown so free food) and I have just picked 4 corn cobs (also self sown) the lemons are finally ripening and the herb bed is motoring along. Meantime I also have floors to lay, doors to paint and hang and some cleaning and clearing out to get on with. Can't think why I wasn't born rich instead of beautiful.

Have a good one and get on with the eating plans, this is the year we need to lose this weight.

Good morning friends,


Ah well 2019 was supposed to be the bad year. Weren't things supposed to reset now? Annie my heart goes out to you. I have no wise words. For crying out loud, it's just one smack after the other for you. I know it sounds sappy but I guess all you can do is try and keep focus on the positive things in life, otherwise far too easy to go down that whirlpool of depressed feelings. I wish there was something I could do to help, even if just to give you a nice neck and shoulder massage. Will just keep sending some positive thoughts your way. Hang in there girlfriend. Is it at all possible (and completely understandable) that your ear and jaw pain might be caused by unconscious clenching of the teeth due to all the stress in your life lately? We do have a tendency to tighten up when life keep lobbing hard balls at us. *duck!!!! Sometimes I swear we are better off not knowing what is going on. Get a massage - isn't Sam good at them? How is Cindy doing?


Shad - we have the opposite problem here from your humidity. Dry as a bone. Skin looks more wrinkly, static electricity shocks, fruit and vegs tend to wither up quickly if left out for long, cotton mouth in the morning - tongue and eyeballs stick to things they shouldn't LOL. Still I will take that and more compared to your ever present humidity. What I hated most was that after taking a morning shower it was impossible to dry off. Had to run a big fan in the bath aimed at me which just made the morning routine even longer. Forget any activity that required drying as part of the process - like painting! Hard to believe that with all that moisture in the air things are still burning. Thank you for the lesson on the fire dangers. That was amazing about the flammable eucalyptus just adding to the dangers. I think there are parts of the world where money and business and greedy humans have messed with the ecological balance of this earth. I don't know if we have turned down the wrong side of the bell curve. Your point about not maintaining the forest floor is the same issue we have on our west coast. Fires burned the protective layer, then driving rains came in and with nothing to hold the ground in place - mudslides and flooding. Still they refuse to accept that man alone has damaged the earth and continues to do so. Nice to hear the ice cream party went well. The raspberry sounds very lovely. Did you have a machine or try one of the quick set mixes in the freezer? I bought an ice cream maker back when we lived in the south. Used it once. I am a purist - vanilla is my favorite flavor so the local soft serve ice cream place down the street works just fine for the occasional craving and supports portion control too! Are the new shutters for shade and privacy as well as decoration? They probably look quite lovely and give the house a whole new look.


Ceejay - sounds like you get a bit more true winter weather here than you did in Arkansas. Appreciate it for what it is, especially if you don't have to go out in it. Hope the nephew continues on a successful path. Nice of him to pop in and help you out. Those smoke detectors are a tricky bunch. The covers are hard to get off and some of them, the plugs that fit on the battery heads seem glued on! I am glad DH takes care of that. I looked at the purple plan of WW also but have not had the personal discipline to sit down and plan things out. I tell myself just a few hours of work and then things will be laid out and on with it. Hope you like the plan. Are you going to meetings?


Laura - had to smile at your comment "yep I was living it up" about all the mundane tasks in life. Muddling through things is sometimes what it's all about. I'm not sure I have the energy for exciting any more. And as we age, excitement often is paired with a negative event such as the Mum's having an episode of something frustrating to deal with so - bring on boring! How's the foot coming along?


Hello Susie


OMG these kittens - into EVERYTHING. We are constantly hollering at them. Climbing over anything and everything, knocking things down, chewing on anything made of paper. They are cute but oh so much a pain. They seem to get into trouble rather than amusing themselves by playing with each other. Even if I play with the laser light to get them to burn off some energy, once finished they go looking for something else. I have to constantly be vigilant that they have not snuck into a closet where I close the door, or the dryer - their favorite place when there are warm clothes in there, or a cabinet I turn away from for just a minute. They will be 6 months old mid March. Hoping they quiet down by then. Geez.


Doctors appointments went well. My eye issues seem to be related to dry eye so am trying to be really vigilant about keeping up with a wellness routine. DH went back to the urologist - seems he just has a stubborn infection so they gave him a new and more powerful antibiotic. Hoping that works. His prostate test numbers were elevated but the doc said the infection can give a false elevation. I hope so because DH ain't dealing with any prostate surgery or issues. The dental lab adjusted my "flipper" partial denture. It's still annoying but not as loose as before. The results of the CT scan show that I have good bone build up in the frontmost 2 teeth. They will put implants in there and hang crowns off the teeth on either side as I don't have enough good bone structure for 4 implants. That will reduce the price considerably. I'm thinking my days of eating fresh corn off the cob are over. Such is life, unlike what my Mum thinks, we have to adapt and adjust as we get older and things weaken and change. The cardiologist recommended a procedure for my Mom to fix a leaky valve but my sister had a long talk with my cousin. My aunt has had a series of medical issues. Cousin cautioned that yes, the surgeons say they can fix things BUT they don't talk about the all too common complications that arise afterwards that often cancel out any benefits gained from the procedure in the first place. That was true with my Dad who got talked into open heart surgery. Instead of fixing him, it just bolstered him into a series of horrible incidents of congestive heart failure. Without the surgery he would have likely had one big heart attack that took him out. Instead for 2 years it was a back and forth trek to the hospital in heart failure, get him stabilized and send him home until the next episode, each one occurring more frequently. It was awful. My Mom who thinks she will live another 30 years (longer than I plan to myself) sort of agrees that surgery is not a good option for someone in her general condition but then again she does not want to face the idea that she is in the last turn on her road of life. My sister is on her last good nerve so we'll see where this heads.


Time is flying by even though I have nothing monumental to focus on. I suppose I will agree with the meme I read recently that January is a test run for the new year and we ACTUALLY start the good resolutions in February I have actually made an attempt to incorporate some good routines and habits into my life, just not a complete makeover at this point. My knees are bothering me which is 100% due to the fact that the shoes I have are not supporting my knees properly. So I need to work on that before I am in great pain again. I have started to focus on one small purging task at a time - a single cabinet or bin of papers - something I can start and end in one session so I feel a sense of accomplishment. My mantra for 2020 is "WHY am I keeping this?" It has helped me to purge many things I would have otherwise hung on to cluttering up space simply because they had some good, not that I was using them. Bingo is going ok. DH seems to enjoy himself. I always fret we won't have enough people to make it worth playing and while they straggle in late, in the end we do well enough. Not as good as I would like but we need to get more word of mouth out and the key is getting people to fork over a few extra dollars for donations. And that is about it for me. Have a quiet week ahead as far as obligations go so I hope to catch up on things and get a few more to-do's crossed off the list. Yesterday the weather warmed a hair above freezing, we were able to shovel the deck clear of snow, the birds were singing and we could hear the dripping of melting snow. It's too early but it almost sounded a bit like spring. Ever hopeful.


Have a good one ladies.

Hello all.

This is my first full workweek of the year, so I’m sure it’ll feel long. Foot is coming along, feeling pretty good. I did 20 minutes on the stationary bike on Sunday. Have to get into a routine with that now. Since the temps are relatively mild and there’s no precipitation for now, this week I’m skipping some of the taxi/Uber trips between the office and train station.


I went to my allergy/asthma doc last Friday. I remembered to tell him about my allergic reaction to that Asian condiment I had several months back. He tested for a sesame allergy and got a positive response, but he also advised that it could be a false positive and I should have the test done the next time I have blood work. I didn’t know that kind of test could be done via bloodwork…Anyway, I think it was a CYA for him as a doctor, but he called in an rx for an epi-pen in the event of another reaction. He did say that not ever having a serious issue in all my years, it was up to me if I wanted to fill that rx because it’s costly and insurance might not cover it. The alerts from the pharmacy say it isn’t covered and that a 2-pack cost $375. Yikes! Not sure I will buy it. I think knowing that I have a reaction, I can avoid sesame in concentrated quantities/form and be fine. I did, however, ask bf to pick up a packet of that condiment the next time he’s at the Asian marketplace’s food court (he picks up potstickers for himself every so often) so I can research the ingredients in it and confirm it had sesame oil in it.


Ceejay – I’m glad your nephew got the smoke detector sorted out before it drove you crazy. How is WW going? I’ve been back in the office for three weeks. Been spending a good amount of $$ on taxis/ubers to travel between the office and station. Gonna try to cut back on that this week, weather permitting.


Annie – How is your SIL doing? I’m so sorry to hear about your CSVID diagnosis! It’s good to know about it and get it treated – but what about the liver enzyme levels being affected by the statin? Sigh. How frustrating. When it rains it pours. Have you been getting any stress relief? You certainly need it these days! Have you been to the ENT for the facial pain? I’ve been having an intermittent pain in the bone behind my right ear (mastoid) and my allergy/asthma doc said might be a clogging issue – fluids aren’t draining, so I might make an appointment with an ENT (as he advised).

Shad – Ugh, your heat and humidity remind me of my time in Miami many years ago – multiple showers a day. The ice cream flavors sound wonderful. I would go for the death by chocolate and bf would go for the raspberry. Now I want to make a batch of ice cream in my ice cream maker! I had a full size one cast off by my parents, but found a smaller size one at my local thrift shop. But have I used it yet? Nope. Soon! Thankfully, my mom is pretty stable with her grocery purchases. I have a mental list of her typical purchases from her two go-to markets. Her new place is pretty small so I think she’s become accustomed to not buying in stockpile quantities. I agree that starting with plain Greek yogurt as a base is best. I’d probably crush frozen strawberries and blueberries to sweeten and flavor it. Oh, and banana. Yes, the man you mentioned sounds like the one I read about in much less detail. The article I read didn’t get into the combustibility of the eucalyptus leaves! I do think these wildfires were dealt with much better when people’s lives were at the mercy of nature and moved on when they needed to if their methods (like those burns) didn’t work. Now that we’ve got giant populations that are stationary, the problems are giant too. Not to mention what we’ve done to our environment to set off all of these catastrophes…

Happy – Very dry here too. Don’t know if it’s home or the office or both. I finally set up my mini humidifier at work. I need to be more diligent with moisturizing as well. Yes, I can imagine how much chaos those kittens are stirring up! So much for them playing with each other and not destroying the house!! You have to watch them like hawks I bet! Re your mom – I suppose at some point one gets accustomed to hearing “at your age…..”, but it sounds like she’s fighting that, LOL. Good to keep her spunk…but also be realistic about the risks of surgery at age 90+. And then there’s a guy I saw on a TV show – he’s 90 years old and does Crossfit. Think he put the 30-ish reporter to shame by giving him a workout he does as a warmup – of course the reporter was exhausted after completing it. I hope you find some shoes that’ll help your knees. Are you scheduling time in your day for the NuStep?

Hi Susie! Come up for air!!

Okay, lunchtime is over, better get this posted quickly!! TTFN!!

Hi Ladies,

Sorry to be MIA. I have been learning new budget stuff and had a mess with the MSR invoice. They were being created but no was was checking to see if payments recieved where going to our cost center.

I have spent house getting it updated and payment information so it can be applied to our cost centers. This has to do with us billing Associations that give us money to do research for them.

We have about all of it straightened out.

I have also written a Standard Operating Procedure so now it is documented as to how it is handled going forward

My mind was tired when I came home, I didnt want to read anything online or on my phone because I couldn't process it.

I have now read through the posts. I wont be able to recall it all but there seems to be a lot going on with everyone...some good and some very trying.

Hang in there friends....we will get through these times.

Annie, girl I am praying for you and your family. You all need a break. Sending love to you!

Happy:I am sympathetic with your husband and the uti issue.

I have had two of them this month. I thought I was having an IC flare, they feel like UTI's, but they werent getting better so I went in to my urologist and gave him a urine sample and it showed a uti both times, he then cultured the sample and figured out what antibiotic I need. I guess the bacteria that showed was resistant to Cipro. I am now on a new antibiotic and feeling g better. I hope it stayes that way once I have taken all of them for this time

It really makes a person miserable.

I am heading to bed and will have to finish posting tomorrow


I did finally get to the cardio drumming class tonight and it was so much fun. I can tell I havent used some muscles in a long time.

I have missed chatting with all of you.

More updates and responses from me tomorrow.

Popping in to say hello
Bil didn't get his chemo this week as his platelets were to low. Nephew fell off the wagon and showed out. Came to my house an I blew up on him. He now can not come to my house with out his brother, mother or step dad. I did apologize by text and he did too but he is still not welcome.

WW at home is going well. But I still like the MRC program a lot better. Think I need to build up my bodies nutritional needs first though I love to eat sugary/starchy things and they are not doing my body any good.

Hi all,

I have to get ready for bingo shortly but will come back this evening and make a post. SOOOOO excited - sun is shining outside. We haven't seen that ball 'o fire in about 10 days. But the clouds are moving in so it will be short lived.