Good Monday Morning, great day to be alive!

Whirlwind weekend. Sissy's birthday dinner turned out fabulous. Her friend and kidlets came over also. Chris was busy with replacing the drywall ceiling in the garage that had all collapsed last winter and told him to stay home while he had the help to finish it. Sent home a to go plate for him and his helpers which was nice since it left nothing in the house, including Sissy's apple pie "birthday cake". Very nice indeed.

Didn't get to meet up with Susie Friday night. Meet up time got pushed back to 10pm or so and I just couldn't do it. Not feeling all that great in the last week or so, I had to lie down (ie. plain just go to bed and was in bed, asleep by 9:30 pm) Maybe next time.

Yesterday was not such a great day health wise. Went to church, came home and laid down for a bit. Went to Wally world to get a few cleaning supplies and toothpaste. Came home and lounged until dinner, then laid around till bed time. I am feeling a bit better today. Had bathroom issues, very bad, throughout the night Saturday and all day yesterday. I think I finally got that under control. I am calling the doc this morning to see what gives, if it is the heart meds or what. I noticed I get nauseated every day between 10-11 am. Take some tums and all is good. I think maybe med related also. May have to cut back on my decaf cup of coffee to none. Just hope to get all adjusted before too long as it is driving me bonkers. wah wah wah woe is me. Bleh.

Posting this and will do personals next.

CEEG...ok, time to give the retirement thing up to the MAN and not think about it for some time. He will put the right answer in your head when you least expect it. IMO, this is giving you fits of discontent and health issues. Be strong and trust HIM. Wow you got a lot of yard work done. Kudos to you, my friend. Lots of love, hugs and prayers to you.

HAPPY...you, like me, might as well do it myself and get it right, however MS. HAPPY that puts a LOT of work on yourself when it comes to the thrift store and their computer woes. Remember this is your retirement of enjoyment not more work and this is no pay, not to mention, NO benefits. lol Glad Nina had an issue rather than just being a brat and peeing places she shouldn't. Makes sense what the vet said about letting you know she had a problem. Animals, like babies just cannot say, oh my ying yang hurts. Love the STRAWberry comment. I could go for a few good strawberries right now.

SHADDIE...loved, loved, loved the pictures of Hobbiton on FB. Had to show them to C. I want to go there. Are you allowed to tour inside the movie set "houses". How cool. Hope Christmas goes off without a hitch, maybe time for a real tree if you cannot find the fake one.

DEE...I will definitely check out that website. Sassy however does not like to wear anything. From the time it is put on her till SHE gets it off, it is a hilarious romp on the living room floor. Dingy girl, does she not realize it will keep her warm. She even gets her front legs through the neck of the sweater and walks around like that. She is a real hoot.

LAURA...did you get anything with your Kohls cash and GC? I have let so many $$ expire before I use them. I am not a shopper and unless I am going to the store for a specific item, it is not happening. How was breakfast with your friend?

SUSIE...sorry we didn't hook up on Friday, maybe next time. I am just a poop after about 8pm. Looks like you had a good time anyway.

Hello's to the rest of you.

Hugs

Morning all. Decided to take a vacation day today. Nothing special planned though.



Annie - Glad you're getting in touch with your doctor. Maybe the meds just need tweaking. Sorry you couldn't meet up with Susie. Another time.

Shad - Loved those pics from Hobbiton. What a nice place to see ( and I never read the books or saw the movies either). Hope there's a Christmas tree up in the attic...

Happy- the training sounds frustrating, but some one-on-one sessions should be helpful, and the documentation of course. Good idea to pick a pose from your yoga class and work on it at home. At some point you'll have multiples and will be doing your own at-home sessions. Hope Nina's better now.

Ceejay - Sounds like a good weekend. Except for the kitty claw- ouch! Hope the weather doesn't cause any issues at the plant. Fitbit reports my active minutes, but I don't know how they come up with it - maybe when there's a certain amount of steps within a certain amount of time?? I'll have to look that up. Outside formal exercise classes and physical activity like gardening chores, my active minutes come from my commute which is about 8-10 minutes each from the home to train segment and the train to office segment, and the reverse when I go home, so those 4 segments probably add up to about 30 minutes.

Dee - Aww, doggie clothes. Don't get to indulge in that with a 75 lb dog, except for the occasional bandana around the neck. How's the dining room project going?

Susie - How was the band event on Friday?

Terra - How's it going stranger? Hope all's well in your world.

Michelle - Best wishes for a successful shoulder surgery!!!!

Mellie - It's been two years now - miss you!!

==
Think I'm gonna post this before it goes poof. Might be back later. TTFN.

Laura
I have to purposely walk or ride the bike for x many minutes for the activity minutes to show on my fitbit. Your walking to and from the train is probably helping with the activity minutes. For mine I have to do at least 10 minutes at a time. But that's okay I need to push myself a little anyway. I love to be outside when it's not to hot. However, with the rain over night it doesn't look like I've done to much.

Annie
I agree I need to give up the retirement planning until it's time as it is making me crazy and giving me health issues. Sure hope there is nothing more seriously wrong other than the meds. I decided that I will retire on August 1 2016.

Terra
Where are you?

Per Sam's request...

Oh yum Annie - that looks delicious and the perfect color of golden crust. Good thing I can't eat it And very cute with her initial on the top

What's this about Michelle having shoulder surgery?

On Facebook from Michelle:

I'm home from surgery, all went well. no rotator cuff tears so just removal ofthe calcium deposit and shaving down the bone so no more impingement, Yay. no pain now...that will probable change.. thanks for all the prayers and good wishes, going back to sleep now,

Michelle
Sending you get well wishes.

Good Tuesday Morning...

Waiting on the call from the delivery guys, getting a new mattress today. Very excited. Our old one just sucks and it is only two years old. Very uncomfortable. I will never wake up, since the heart attack, I sleep like a baby. Yeee.

Last night I fixed chicken and rice. Threw some cooked rice in a bowl, added cooked chicken, LF cheese, low sodium cream of chicken soup, 1T of melted butter, some mushrooms, put it in a baking dish sprinkled with LF cheese covered with foil baked for 25 mins. Then uncovered for 15, Curtis thought it was amazing, I called it beaker food. (in a science lab with beakers) lol.

HAPPY...CHELLE had should laser surgery I believe. She had calcium deposits on her cuff or something like that. They removed it. It was causing her a lot of pain. Glad you liked the pie, come by and I will bake you one with a "H" on it.

CHELLE...feel better sister. How long will you be off work?

Hello's to everyone. Hugs

Morning.
A bit windy this morning and temps will climb into the high 60's and low 70's. Storm are predicted this afternoon. UGH.

Annie
Your recipe sound good. I like chicken and rice casseroles.

Mornin' all,

Quick hi yah's all around. About to jump in the shower and head out. Will spend a couple of hours at the shelter entering data and being available to anyone who might want to sit with me and learn a bit themselves. Then it's off to my afternoon thrift shop stint.

Made a butternut squash soup yesterday. It was good - DH said it smelled good - all those autumn spices - but he wouldn't even attempt to try it :P It was my supper (DH had leftover pasta) but without protein it was not quite enough. I had 2 pieces of cheese later on. Then as I was getting ready for bed I got the most horrible stomach cramps. Kept me awake until well after 3am so I didn't get much sleep last night again. Don't know what's going on.

Michelle - glad everything went well surgically. Hope you heal quickly and all is well. Don't forget to get a lighter purse now

Annie - some of those off the cuff "concoctions" come out being the best thing. Isn't that what makes a casserole so good anyway? Just a bunch of stuff stirred together and made with love.

Ceejay - I think the good thing about the FitBit is that it reminds you to get up occasionally and do something when you'd ordinarily just continue to sit. Just don't be a NAG FitBit As cute as kittens can be, the worst part is those tiny needle claws of theirs and their penchant for using your leg as a climbing pole! Enjoy that nice weather - gray and cloudy here, supposed to snow tomorrow.

Laura - yes, Nina is back to her old self, thanks for asking. 2 years gone now for Mel - wow how time flies. Are you in the path of that super storm that supposed to hit in a few days?

Gotta run - hellos to the rest of you ladies

Morning all. Back to work.

Happy – Hope the will/trust appointment went alright. Too funny that your dh wouldn’t even try the soup you made, even when he said it smelled so good. My bf loves an occasional frappucino from Starbuk’s and yesterday he bought one and he got me to try a sip (“it’s got caramel in it, I think you’ll like it”). I don’t drink coffee at all, and won’t even eat tiramisu because it has coffee/espresso in it, but I took a sip and naturally thought it was vile. At least bf was entertained by my reaction, LOL. I haven’t watched the weather in the past couple days and don’t know about a superstorm. All I know is that today it’s supposed to rain all day. I’m happy that the temps are milder than what was forecast, and will also be mild tomorrow. I’m glad Nina is back to her normal self. We all hate when our furries are under the weather.

Ceejay – I just checked our forecast – rain/wind for the next couple days – double ugh! I looked up how “active minutes” are defined by fitbit, and what I read got into “metabolic equivalents”, and that lost and confused me because I know the Flex is not as sophisticated as other fitbits like the ones that track your heart rate…but basically it’s what you said – steady activity for 10 minutes or more.

Annie – That dinner sounds delish. Mix cheese into just about anything and it sounds good to me. Awww, I like that pie with the S monogram. Very nice. Tasty too I bet… I’m sure you’re looking forward to the new mattress. What type – traditional innerspring type?

Hellos to the rest of you!!
--
My weekend was fine. I went to Kohl’s Friday evening and ended up with two sweaters. After the $20 card and another $5 card and then 20% off, I paid about $13 out of pocket. It’s probably better that I ended up with sweaters. I was about to buy some towels, but they didn’t have the hand towels in stock for the color I was considering. The color was a deep crimson and I think I would have regretted it because I would always have to wash those in a separate load, LOL.

Saturday I met my friend for breakfast and it was fine. He doesn’t really have much of a life beyond work, so that’s what we talk about. His survival strategy is being hyper-cautious so as not to do anything that can be considered harassment or discrimination. What an outlook, but he's a bit of a squirrel. I’m glad I don’t work in an environment that has me worried about that.

After breakfast I went to the thrift shop. All I bought was an umbrella. I suppose I’ll get to test it out this week…

When I got home, I got outside and tied up several bundles of brush with twine.

I had the house to myself both Friday and Saturday evenings as bf was out both nights and I overdid it with the Hallmark channel movies. I’ve had my fill for a while, LOL.

On Sunday I got back outside and tied up more brush bundles. I also pulled out several maple tree seedlings way out back before they get too big and require a full size shovel to dig out. I also ended up pruning & lopping a bunch of tree branches from the neighbor’s trees growing over and/or through the chain link fencing and into our yard. What a PITA. And that meant more branches to bundle up in twine. I also pruned some stuff on our side. In the process I bonked my head a couple times on a large low-angled branch of one of our arborvitae trees. Arrrgh. We have these trees growing all along the back of our yard. They are now old and overgrown and the lower limbs no longer have “foliage” (they’re like evergreens), so they aren’t even good privacy screens like they used to be. I’d really like to have those removed and plant something else there. But there are about 8 of these trees and they are large. It’s not a DIY project, so would be expensive. Oh well. It’ll have to wait.

Anyway, even though I bonked my head a couple times and have little scratches all over my arms from bundling branches in short sleeves, the weather was beautiful and it was great to spend time outside each day. I also did the usual laundry and dog walks those days.

My day off yesterday was very uneventful – I did a couple loads of laundry and did the dog walk and otherwise did some reading and watched some tv. I was a slacker and also skipped my Pilates class. That’s what happens when I take vacation days on Mondays…

The movie selected for tonight was “Burnt”, with Bradley Cooper playing a chef. I don’t think it got great reviews, so I’m skipping it.

Okay, enough rambling. Off to post this.

Morning
The weatherman kept saying the storm would be bad. Watched the radar all day and ran the plant accordingly. We did have some heavy rain and wind but I don't think we had it as bad as some, mainly flash flooding. Made for a day that I don't like to deal with. Thankfully no major power outages. We probably had 4 inches of rain.
I need to take the Rav4 into the dealership to get something about the window shield washer fixed. I got a recall letter this week. I don't really want to go this week end. May wait till Wednesday. And make a doctor's appointment for that day too.
I'm taking Wednesday as a vacation day so I will have a long week end, 5 blissful days.
---------
Happy
The Fitbit has been a good motivator for me. I love playing with the kittens and they love the attention. I'll just have to remember about their sharp claws. I may have to try butternut squash soup.

Laura
I'm going to have some more yard work to do also because of the wind but not as bad. I should be able to rake the leaves this time. Thanks for the information about the Fitbit. I don't need one of those high tech ones. Wish I could be more diligent in recording my food. Finally figure out that I can have as many intake calories as the calories burned to be in range.

Morning all. Happy Hump Day. Gosh, really quiet here today – where is everyone? We still have mild temps in my area, but it’s very windy and a bit rainy. At this time of year, I’ll happily take it. Ha, as if I have a choice in the matter.

Ceejay – I’m glad the storm wasn’t as bad as you’d thought. Nice you’ll have Wednesday off. I’m taking Wednesday off as well.

Hope the rest of you are all doing well.
==
The boss is having me research a service offering that a vendor is pestering him about. Not much on the internet about it except the vendor’s own marketing materials, which are very low on specifics and so not very helpful at all.

I got set up for next year’s medical benefits yesterday in our company’s new system. We have a new 3rd party benefits administrator. I hope that managing the flex spending account is easier under this system. In the meantime, we have a big chunk of fsa funds to use up before year end. I don’t have much to spend on as of now – maybe an rx refill or two, a doctor visit copay, probably nothing for dental. Neither does bf. We’ll both definitely order some contact lenses. I might see the podiatrist and get a new set of orthotics made. Bf will go see an orthopedic doctor about his knees. We’ll see how much we can eat up – otherwise it’s use it or lose it. I’m being much more conservative about the amount we’ll put in the fsa for 2017. I don't want to be scrounging around again next year for ways to use the remaining funds.

For Thanksgiving, we’re having bf’s mom and our friend D and her sister over for dinner. We’ll make a turkey, something we’ve only done once or twice. Should be an adventure. I’m going to take the Wednesday before off work to make sure we’re all set.

That’s it for me. TTFN.

Good Morning Ladies....

Rainy, windy, yucky day yesterday. Tapped bumpers with the car in front of me at the light on the way to work. We both got out, not a scratch on either car, shook hands, gave a hug, God Blessed and we both went on to work. WOW!!

Had a doc appt for my 6 mo pap test to see where we stand on the cervix, won't know the results for a week or so. If it comes back badly this time, I am looking at a hysterectomy early next year. OH BOY another deductible. Can hardly wait, still making payments on this year's deductible. NEED TO HIT LOTTERY, BIG BUCKS, NOW!! HELLO LAWD, you hear me??

One more day this week, our TG is the Sat at my house. Then will have a 4 day reprieve next week with no celebrations. Kind of looking forward to that. Relaxing and all.

LAURA...do you have the option of and HSA rather than a FSA. You don't have to use up all your funds in and HSA they just rollover to the next year. We have a choice of either here.

CEEG...We had crappy weather here yesterday, but not all that scary. Of course I love thunder boomers. We are supposed to have colder temps for the weekend, rain and possible snow flurries. I don't see the flurries cause the low is 40.

HAPPY...mmmmmmmmmmmmmm butternut squash soup, my very favorite. I have only had one shot at eating it this year and it was very good, even if at a restaurant. Would love some of yours, DH does not know what is good for him or what he is missing.

CHELLE...how are you feeling?

TERRA...where are you??

DEE...how are you holding up in the colder temps? Work keeping you hopping?

SHADDIE...come up for air.

SUSIE...come up for air also!!

Hi to all.

Hugs.