Dee, glad to see u back but sorry that u will have to sell the house. Being around your son will be nice. Trouble with the bff is that no man will wait on her hand and foot. What she needs is a maid. Happy,I'm a bit concerned abt the markets myself. ---- I'm in paragould in my hotel room. I will call my uncle later tonight to see if they will eat tomorrow. Using my cell phone for now.

Morning Chicklets....

Was a mixed bag of emotions and goings on over my 3 day weekend. I had to laugh, looking back to yesterday. I went through Starbucks drive thru and was just bawling. The guy at SBs looked at me and said oh my, I am sorry, instead of the normal hello. I just shook my head and apologized, he said I understand and smiled. It just hits me at the strangest times. Usually on the way home from work as that is when we talked the most. Sorry I keep talking about this. It is just so fresh, I guess.

Got the weeds sprayed yesterday, of course it rained all night. SUV swept out and leather treated. Garage cleaned out, all of course with the help from Samantha. Made some delish chicken salad. We are still eating on it. Used 3 full chicken breasts and 4 hard boiled eggs, grapes, pecans, mayo, sugar, garlic, pepper but didn't have any celery to put in it.

CEEG...hope you are feeling better from surgery. Pretty sure no man signs up for waiting on anyone hand and foot. lol.

DEE....good to hear from you. Nice on the new fitbit. C is working 7 days a week, hard to tell when we will get to experience anything old or new. Thank you for keeping us all in your prayers.

HAPPY...man yet another volunteer responsibility? Now you are the bingo queen. Probably a good thing to have under your hat for our entertainment at the commune. lol. Loved the baby turkey videos on FB. The gbabes thought they were AAAWWWWW. Yes I heard the stock market took a plunge because of G. Brittains woes. Scary stuff.

HAPPY...did you enjoy your long weekend? Get anything done you wanted to get done or just plain relaxed a bit?

SUSIE...we are having the same storms you are having there. LAURA shoots them down to me and I shoot them over to you. Wish LAURA would shoot some $$ instead. haha We had some pretty hard rain last night, don't know if you are getting it or not.

Gotta get busy. GUess what, yes, another monthly report has been added to my list of crappy reports to do. It is such BS. They all say the same thing in a different complicated way. BLEH.

Make it a good day all. Hugs

Morning all. Another hot day, but the next few will be cooler. That'll be nice.

Ceejay - Hope you had a nice visit with the uncles over the weekend. And how was the reunion??

Dee - How do you like the new fitbit? I’m not sure what makes the various models different/better from/than each other, especially if they don’t have a heart monitor function (which, as you said, isn’t all that accurate anyway). I’ll just stick with my Flex until I manage to lose or destroy it. ---Sorry to hear you have to move from your current home - it sounded like you both enjoyed it so much. But it'll be nice to be closer to your sons & grandkids. And you'll certainly find new and different activities to occupy your time. Will you be in a rural area, or more suburban, urban, or small town??


Happy - Looks like you're committed to bingo now that you're being groomed to fill in for the guy taking a month-long break. You might have to give up sleeping now to fulfill all your volunteer obligations!! The baby turkey videos on FB are so cute. Seeing them coming around with their mommas must be fun for you and dh.

Annie – The grief and memories are certainly going to keep sneaking up on you, and like you said – it’s still so fresh. At some point there’ll be less tears and more comfort, hang in there! ---I think I’d especially LOVE that chicken salad because it doesn’t have celery in it! ---I hope the new report isn’t a PITA. Yes, same reports, info sliced and diced differently.

Hellos to the rest of you!
==

I had a nice day off on Friday. I returned the longer pair of swim shorts to Land’s End at one of their outlet stores and also shopped at the Eddie Bauer outlet across the street. I had a $10 reward I had to use by the 29th. I was disappointed in both outlets - half of the items I would pull from the racks were in the wrong size section - annoying. I bought nothing at LE & just a top at EB.

I bought a couple things at the thrift shop when I stopped there on the way home, including a nice pair of Born sandals for $4.

In the afternoon bf and I went to lunch and then to an outlet mall not far from the airport. It was the first time we’d gone there even though it’s been around for a few years now. We only went to a few stores – Clark’s, Skechers, and Fossil - and ended up with one pair of shoes for me, two for bf, and a purse for me. We’ll have to come back some other time to check out the other stores. Neither of us are shoppers, so who knows when that’ll be, LOL.

While shopping, I also tried on some sandals for walking, but I think I’ll stick with the Teva ones I picked out online. I need to find a store that sells that brand so I can try them on before I order them. I plan to wear them on my work commute, so they need to be comfortable and have good support.

Saturday I tackled the 3-season room windows. There are a dozen windows in that room, so it’s a big job. I first washed the outside glass, then removed the screens from the inside. Took those out in the yard, hosed them down, and let them dry outside. Then I washed the inside window trim – it gets really grimy because the windows are old and have gaps that let in dust and dirt. That part's the worst. Finally I washed the inside glass and put the screens back in. I was soooo glad to be done with that – took up a big chunk of the day - but it makes such a big difference!

Unfortunately, the exterior window frames and trim (all wood) now need painting. If money were no object, we’d replace all the windows with something easier to maintain, but nope, they’ll have to be scraped, sanded and painted. We’ll get some quotes - I sure don’t want to tackle that job!

Otherwise my weekend was uneventful with the usual errands and chores. Oh, I did finally get my pedicure yesterday!

The boss and the other manager are out of the office for a couple days, so it’ll be nice and quiet around here.

That’s it for me, so I’ll get this posted.

Getting yet ANOTHER STUPID ERROR trying to post on this site. Thank goodness I was able to back page and retrieve the post I spent a long time writing. Grrrrr.

Morning ladies,

Ugh I am in so much pain from my knees I feel like the Hulk about to explode. It's really bad in my right knee with this torn miniscus. The shot did nothing. It feels like an extremely bruised spot that I can easily find with my fingers. I don't even want to walk. Right now I smell like Ben Gay ointment - used some Capsasin stuff - I am desperate for anything right now. I have to call the doctor's office today, I realized I am supposed to get B12 shots and since I can just walk into the office and don't need an appointment, I can't remember how frequently I am supposed to get them. Once a week? Every other week, once a month??? So I will call the nurse and ask and tell her about my knee. Right now it's so sore that they will have to knock me out to give me a shot where I really need it. I did order a knee brace from Amazon as well as a fresh bottle of Watkins Linament since the one I got expired in 2009. But does turpentine and camphor (the active ingredients) ever really expire?

Yesterday we went out on the boat. Only the second time and we are getting better with launching and docking. It was really nice - a gorgeous day and we spent about 3 hours on the water. I did wear sunblock, got a bit of color but no burn this time. This place is called the flowage - they dammed up a part of the water for some reason and it backed up and created this amazing and most beautiful water area. There was lots of nooks and crannies and coves with all sorts of wildlife in them. We passed by one small nook where another pontoon was anchored and they were fishing. A bald eagle noticed the fish and kept swooping around them. Perhaps it was attracted by their fishing moves too seeing fish in the water. At one point it just flew into a tree and sat and watched. So we sat and watched it. DH tried to get a picture but it was rather windy yesterday which made alot of chop which in turn rocked the boat. The image stabilizer on the camera is only going to take out a bit of the shaking - that was too much and DH could not get a good enough shot off. We will have to check the wind gusts before we head out again. Came home, took a nap, made some burgers for supper with some pasta salad and watermelon. Perfect summer menu.

Today the peach truck comes to town with those delicious Georgia peaches! I'm getting 50 pounds. One box to can and the other to eat and give some away to special friends. I need to get more canning supplies, will probably pick them up today when I head out to the farmer's market shortly. I need some fresh eggs and will get some of the farm's delicious bacon. She said they are running low and don't know when they will get pork again. Which reminds me, I have to ask if they have hog bones. The cooking class I went to last week - he butchered a pig and made stock from the bones - you can make stock from anything actually. Used that stock in his jambalaya and it was fantastic. I am only familiar with beef, chicken and vegetable stock. I guess I could cook up a bone in pork roast and use the trimmings to make stock. So many possibilities...

DH is on the phone and internet to see what recourse we can do/get about this construction guy who will not respond to any of our many phone calls about getting the deck and siding done. DH said when you call he has a very short message limit on his phone - about 15 seconds. We gave him a deposit last October so we have a contract in place. He was supposed to start early May, then he told DH he would start end of May first week of June for sure and we have not heard a peep out of him since and here it is almost July. I think the only thing we can do is sue for our deposit back but then again, here we go again with trying to find another contractor. DH has taken most of the existing deck apart himself to save money. I can barely get into the house so I sure would like to get this done and over with already!!!

Yes Annie, I can now be the bingo queen. We can have bingo cruises on the boat - no gambling, no prizes - the state regulates it and charges you up the whazooty for their share of the cut. I think we have the makings of a very fine commune.

I think the waterworks will continue for a long, long time. I still get teary eyed thinking about my sweet mother-in-law and she died in 1979. Same with my Dad and brother. They will always tug at our hearts. Talk about it as much as you need to - it's all part of the grieving process. I wish they was an easier way to deal with things. I have a hard time with loss myself. You certainly were quite busy on your weekend. The chicken salad sounds wonderful - how do you cook up the chicken breasts? I may have to try that this week. Did the kids start their counseling sessions yet? Boo on the extra report. That is the thing about management. They get numbers they don't like so instead of improving things, they create new reports to manipulate the numbers so that they look different I was a "victim" of many of these schemes when I was working. I wanted to say "let's cut the crap, tell me what you want the end result to be, I will create a report full of lies and save us all alot of time and effort"

Ceejay - I agree that no man - although you'd be surprised - would be willing to wait on your BFF like that. So instead she needs a pitiful friend. DON'T BE THAT PITIFUL FRIEND! LOL. We have a lady at the shop who is like that - she gives an Oscar worthy performance when it comes to looking like the sad sack and garnering pity and getting people to help her out. I was forewarned about this so I don't fall for the stories any more. Is this the person who likes it really cold and freezes you out when you stay there?

Dee - it's a shame that you have to sell your home but it sounds like continuing your work would just cripple your hands totally. It sounds like you have a really nice home in the country - I'm sure it will sell quickly and the real estate market is picking up so hopefully you can get a good price and move on to the next phase of your life. At least you will be closer to the children!

Laura - did you have a nice relaxing weekend? I'm with Annie - instead of shifting weather (although we could use a little of your warm stuff), if you chose to send cash blowing south, send a little up north too How long will construction go on at the railroad tracks? That sure can muck up the commute as it's always tight around there anyway. It seems like the railroad traffic was an afterthought when they designed the town layout and every station is a mess to get in and out of - even Arlington Park that has a huge parking area.

Susie - I did a quick look up on Google and there are some interesting places in your city that do cooking classes. You should try one together - you'd have a fun night. It's just that they tend to fill up really quickly. I was surprised to see that Viking Cooking School stopped teaching classes - they had quite a variety and were always booked well in advance so I thought it was a lucrative thing for them.

Shad - did you make it home ok? How's the ODDU doing?

Time for me to get dressed and get outside. I am very embarrased to find that I was SUPPOSED to take some packages to the post office last week and I totally forgot.

Anyway ... on with the day. Have a good one chicks.

Hi girls

Anne, TY for your salad idea, I'll make on Wednesday Because today is meatless Monday. I've never ate a complete grilled salad w grilling the romaine, has anyone done this, I've seen chefs on TV do it.

Happy, WoW u & Eric did 1 from my '70 Want-To-Do' list that I want to experience before we're 70 yrs old We know several ppl who own pontoons & houseboats. Such a fun way to enjoy being outdoors April-October. We have married friends in their young 50's that co-own a marina on the Muskegon river (216 miles long to boat on, 230 miles can b canoe/kayak paddled through) living in their houseboat that Al made from a nice, used pontoon. Then he bought a 2nd & converted it into their guest-houseboat & we've used it several times She's a Postmaster & he works w Dh & they live on their boat June-September going back home one day weekly. When we can save-up $ Dh is going to build a houseboat for us too. They said I could work part-time @ the marina to pay for our dock/boat slip. If I do that, I want to also give swim lessons or boat driving & kayak lessons also. There are many ppl who go out on the water that don't know how to swim or safely drive a boat or do emergency First Aid.
Please share any Winning bingo tips with us

Susie, TY for joining us Saturday w your Fitbit steps challenge. The girls that joined us are my young friends in their 20's & 30's. I'm keeping my daily steps summer goal about 7,300 because it's been so hot & humid here & raise it with the lower weather temps. I really like your idea you have about getting John cooking lessons for a gift What's your favorite restaurant for vegetarian meals?

Laura & Annie, We need you to join us on a personal goal Challenges to motivate your day & to let the girls under 50 yrs, see that they can also be healthy too because we haven't given up on ourselves as the years go on.

I'll be back later for more personals. Be safe in these hot temps, I worry about Michelle when I see the problems in California.

Hello My Worldlie Girlies!

Not much happening at my end. Well if you think a 1366 sq ft house with 3 adults, a two yr old, a four yr old, and great dane/boxer/blue healer mix and a mini-daschund is not much then not much is happening. ALWAYS noisy and commotion going on. Got my nails filled after work. They will look nice for a few weeks. Came home and made fried chicken (pam sprayed pan), broccoli cheddar rice and cauliflower for dinner. Both the boys ate the rice and both ate a bit of chicken. Samantha did dishes and folded the towels out of the dryer. I went to bed around 8:45. Got some good loves and hugs from Royce. Little stinker.

Will come back for personals. So much to do, so little time to do it in. lol

Hugs sisters.

Good morning ladies,

I am trying to type this with a cat laying all over me. It was pretty chilly this morning - in the 40's overnight. And I have the heater on right now and she is as cold as I am so she's snuggling up here and getting in my way. I have my thrift shop shift this morning and I'm not sure how I will make it. My right knee is screaming in pain. I ordered a knee brace which came yesterday. I have to wear it over my pants or it slips down as I walk. It does help a bit but then it gets tight and stops helping and starts making it worse. I am rubbing the leg, rubbing liniment, icing, knee brace, stretching / physical therapy - nothing seems to help it much including the hot tub. So over this. I can't sit and stay off of it - that just won't happen.

Got my peaches from the peach truck yesterday. Lots of people in line. You'd think they'd run out but just like the loaves and fishes bible story - there is always enough to go 'round. At least until my place in line I got 2 boxes - approximately 50 pounds. Will can one whole box, the other we will eat fresh and give away some to special friends. Depending on how this goes, I might get more next month when they make their second run, this time with Michigan blueberries. While waiting in line a friend came up, we went back to her house and she gave me some rhubarb and let us taste a yummy simple dessert she made with a shortbread buttery type easy crust, a simple pudding base, stewed rhubarb over that and top it with Cool Whip whipped topping. Put it in the freezer and serve it frozen - it's an ice-cream like texture and aside from the crust which is not much, it can be made with lighter products to cut the calories. It's on the tart side because of the rhubarb but still dessert like tasting. Yum. And you can't eat it fast because it's frozen I am going to try a rhubarb salsa and either strawberry rhubarb bars or maybe I will make L's dessert. She volunteers at the library and purchased a copy of the book The Little Book of Rhubarb - 101 Recipes. That's where she got the recipe. I put the book on hold and will pick it up today after my shift.

Yesterday I hit the Farmers Market but too late to get fresh eggs I did get some great strawberries and cucumbers and tomatoes. Then I stopped at the store and got a bunch of fresh produce - spent a lot more money than I thought that little list of mine would cost. Got some littleneck clams - steamers as DH would call them. We are having them for supper tonight with baked potato and corn on the cob. The corn is in season right now and is delicious! We are having a New England supper (or suppah) tonight! I picked up a few things to put in the freezer and I sure did have a hard time getting them in there. I don't even have room to make ice which is a problem as DH said we are heading into the warmer weather after the 4th holiday next week. I REALLY need to plan my meals and use up some of the meat in the freezer... We are having grilled steaks tomorrow and chicken the day after. Then it's Friday fish fry and Happy does not have to cook!!!!!

I also FINALLY got to the post office yesterday. Sent something to you Anne and to Laura. I am sooooooooooooooooooooooooooo sorry I am such a late-nick Annie. I just kept putting things off to the side and forgetting about them. I also returned 3 pairs of shoes to Footsmart. I keep getting sucked in because they have the nicest looking comfortable shoes but I forget that unless you are replacing a pair of shoes that you know fits EXACTLY how you want it, don't use them. I bought shoes based on customer reviews for fit and they are all too big. Cost me $16 to return the shoes, they did free shipping but because I am returning them they will charge me shipping for the first time they sent them and it takes them about a month after they receive them to refund your money. So basically it cost me the same amount as the one pair of shoes I got on sale that I did not keep. I debated about returning them but didn't want to go through the hassle of sending them back again if they still didn't fit. I learned my lesson and will stick with Zappos - might cost more initially but you make up for it with the no hassle free shipping and returns.

Power just blipped out so I'm going to post this. This sometimes happens after we have a storm. Have a good day ladies.

don't know what is going on with this site but I am again getting caught trying to post and it telling me I am not logged in when I can clearly see that I am

Morning all. Cool and cloudy today. Nice change after a lot of hot days recently.

Happy – I’m sorry your knee is in so much pain and nothing is giving you any relief. I know how busy you are, but you really might just need to stay off it for a bit.---The latest pontoon trip sounded lovely – beauty and wildlife. Yes, you have everything set up very nicely for our commune! --- Let us know how the pork broth turns out when you make it. Pork is an inexpensive meat, so it would be good to use it in different ways. --- The RR crossing will only be closed through the rest of the week – I think it reopens Saturday. Thankfully it hasn’t affected us much, plus we know the area well enough to avoid ending up in backed-up areas. --- Yum, peaches, corn! Our local corn isn’t ready yet – where is yours coming from? I have to get to my local farmers market this weekend! ---What a bummer about paying to return the shoes. We have something we want to return to Amazon, but I’m not sure it’s worth the cost…

Dee – What fun it would be to work in the marina, and I think the lessons you’d offer are a great idea. We have friends who rented a houseboat for a vacation and it sounded like a lot of fun. But I would definitely want a lesson in handling it first! --- I’ll have to get in on the next step challenge that comes up. I haven’t been getting many steps recently, and it doesn’t help that I’m wearing my fitbit on my wrist - pedaling my bike to/from the train station doesn’t register!

Annie – So you’ve got “Full House” and “Too Close for Comfort” going on at your place, but it’s probably not quite as fun as a sitcom (those are oldies!). I bet you’re loving having those grandkids around though!

Hellos to Shad, Ceejay, Michelle & Susie! Hope you’re all having a good week.

==
Nothing much to report. Dinner last night was ribs, yum. I haven’t exercised the past two mornings. I’ll get to bed earlier tonight so I can get up and exercise tomorrow.

Had my usual round of frustration and anger with express scripts today. They know employers force their employees to use them and could care less about anything to do with a good website and customer service.

Having lunch with a work buddy today. I’m skipping the movie tonight. That’s about it for me, so I’ll get this posted.

HAPPY...I can remember eating rhubarb out of momma's yard and just a puckerin' up after every bite. Then again I used to love sour stuff. Not so much now. Whew! The pontoon sounds like fun, you would find C and I at the fishing end of the boat. Love that fishin'. SO sorry to read your knee is bothering you. I know your pain. My ankle is 24/7 now. Sometimes severe sometimes tolerable. Wakes me up at night at least once. Looking into any surgery yet? MMMMMMMmmmmmmmmm peaches. Love peaches raw but not so much in recipes. Tends to taste like perfume smells to me. I know I am weird, nothing new there. lol. No worries on the mail, I love any kind of mail, cept bills, at any time. Oh, I pressured cooked my chicken breasties in low sodium chicken broth to give them more flavor plus the chicken falls apart and makes great salad.

LAURA...yes, I am lovin' my grandkids being at my house but I also love my quiet times which there are none, cause we all go to bed at the same time....8ish. What movie did you skip?

DEE...cannot do much on fitbit tracking as I can barely walk most of the time. Surgery on my ankle comes up on August 11. Hopefully that will all go well.

Hellos to all, have a good night/morning!!

Annie - LOL re foods made from peaches - I can't say I've had much of anything made out of peaches, especially homemade, but years ago I had a piece of peach candy or taffy and recall thinking it tasted like shampoo to me! So I get you on the perfume thing! The movie I'm skipping is the one with Matthew McCanaughy (how do you spell it??!!) where he's some sort of civil war rebel. Nope, not up for that one.

Happy, Oops it seems I was typing over you Oh my gosh I'm so sorry about your right knee pain Your sweet, juicy peaches are making me crazy for one right now I love homemade frozen peach jam on homemade buttermilk biscuits in the winter. Oh & your rhubarb salsa Our oldest son got me hooked on fruit scones for breakfast when he lived in Waukesha,WI. You gave me a great idea to look for a peach scone recipe. The blueberries you'll be getting are probably from Muskegon about 2 hrs from me, I loved going to the orchards w our young sons picking them. When my occupational therapy ended, the doctor said I have 90% use of my right hand & 70% muscle strength as long as I remember to rest it often during the day. I keep trying to become left-handed but it's soo hard to do, is anybody a leftie here? I've bought a few large handle kitchen tools on Amazon, I'm a foodie too like you....

Annie, I didn't know about your ankle, I'm sorry about your pain. I wasn't here when you shared it with the girls. The Fitbit challenge I was talking about is a one day challenge with us cheering each other, to reach our personal goals. How did you injure your ankle? My heart aches for the boys missing the daily presence of their daddy, but I love that they are with you & C being nurtured in a stable, Loving home...grandparents....

With many Blessings & Healing prayers for you & Happy

Sweet Dreams everyone

Evening all,
Sorry to be so missing in action but I have been what with work and family (including a gigantic welcome from the ODDU who has reverted to being naughty again. However he hadn't been to school for a couple of weeks and it surely showed that in his behaviour.

At the moment I am out in far western New South Wales in a place called Dubbo. It is famous for the Western Plains Zoo. I flew out here today, will train tomorrow and fly back to Sydney on Friday morning, just in time to do another class in the afternoon. It's all go.

Next Friday I fly to Adelaide to celebrate the granddaughters 4th birthday. So far I have bought her a little crystal bracelet, and a book on birds that pops up and makes bird like noises and also a reading/ writing book. I thought I might get her a little suitcase and put it all in there. She can then have her own case for when she comes to visit. No doubt mum will fill it with every single thing she can possibly fit in and most of it unnecessary. Okay off the

I'd better buzz off and do some homework for tomorrows course - since it has been almost completely changed since I last did it. I wonder what else will go wrong tomorrow. Never done a smooth training class with this lot. Suck it up Shad and concentrate on the 7 p's.

I will be back tomorrow night. Should be over the course by that time - although you might all get the whinging that goes with it.

Morning
I had to play catch up at work this week. I was off for 5 days. I still didn't get every thing done.
Even though 2 other people showed up for the reunion out of my class I still had fun. These were my two best bud's at school. The reunion was for classes 1954 to 1968. The attendance was short for all classes.

Happy
Sorry to hear about the problems with your knee. The peaches sound good. I've been eating them this week. There for a little bit this sight behaved it self. but back to the same old thing again.

Annie
The house I will be moving into is about 1300sq ft. I didn't realize that S had moved in with you. This is sad.

Dee
So glad that you are back with us.

Good morning chicklettes,

Long day at the shop for me yesterday. I was always just "one more task" from being able to leave. Also gearing up for the next fundraiser August 1 of which I am a most reluctant co-chair. However my partner is having major issues of her own - health problems, a husband with rapidly declining Alzheimers and a resort with cabins she needs to maintain in addition to the charity work she does so I cannot abandon her much as I'd love to back out of the thing I was cornered into a few years back. We are down substantially from our last fund raiser 2 weeks ago - usually our best return but because of timing the crowds were low and so was the revenue. So we will try to make it up where ever possible. I didn't get a chance to eat my breakfast, thought I would be home for lunch and didn't leave the shop until 10 minutes to 4pm. I was ravenous when I got home as all I had was 1/2 a can of Coca Cola and a bottle of water. I picked up some fresh steamer clams at the store the day before so we had those with a butter dipping sauce made with fresh smashed garlic, a bit of Italian seasoning and some salt, pepper and fresh chopped parsley. Great but oooohh the garlic was strong. No vampires last night! We had fresh corn on the cob, a baked potato and caprese salad (tomatoes, fresh mozzerella, basil and balsamic vinegar drizzle). OMG it was so good I could have eaten the entire thing. I did give DH the bigger potato and ear of corn but I split the clams 50/50 evenly. They were small, only about the size of a half dollar coin or less so there wasn't much protein for us. Tonight we're having grilled ribeye steaks - hopefully the rain will hold off until late this evening.

My knee is still killing me. I got a knee brace and it helps a bit but I have to wear it over my pants leg otherwise it tries to slide down. And after a while it cuts off circulation so while it helps with support, it hurts other things I guess I will have to call the doctor although it's so sore that they won't be able to get a shot in the spot they need to. I probably should just sit on my duff and ice it for 3 days. Just have to find 3 open days to sit Yesterday I went into the hot tub because my whole leg was aching and I think the heat made it worse. I sat and watched a tv show for an hour afterwards and my leg locked into spasms. It did feel better after the ice, I think the heat just increased the inflamation. I keep thinking too that all this extra weight I carry is just making things even worse. I am trying to commit to eating healthier again although only eating once a day like yesterday sure does seem to cut the scale down - not a lifestyle I can embrace though. I got 2 apple fritter pastries and gave them to DH to eat. I am having eggs with a fruit cup instead. With a piece of toast, makes me happy.

We were going to go out on the boat today but I begged off with DH. I have some strawberries I picked up Monday I need to cook into a recipe. Also have rhubarb dishes to make. I got my copy of the Little Book of Rhubarb so I am eager to look through recipes today. Need to make that stuff before it goes fuzzy which happens all too quickly with berries. Instead he went off to Duluth by himself. There are several things we needed at the Home Depot store, he can swing by the park by the lake to see what's in bloom - I have it marked on the calendar that this is a good time for the rose gardens based on last year's visit. And he was sweet enough to stop at my favorite grocery store up there and pick up some sushi for me So he will be gone for half the day which gives me time to get busy with cooking, laundry and some cleaning. Cats are asleep in their beds taking their long afternoon naps. Lucky cats!

Shad - good to hear from you. You sure have a wild one on your hands with ODDU - sounds like he's on summer vacation and forgot everything he learned in school. Or maybe no teacher to reinforce the training? You make me tired with all the travelling back and forth that you do - I suppose you are used to it. I would no longer have the patience for it. Sounds like you won't have any opportunity to explore Dubbo. Pity to miss the zoo. Can't believe little Miss S is going on 4 years old already. Time has passed quickly. Sounds like her mother has not mellowed at all though. Hopefully S gets a better part of her personality from daddy, not mom

Dee - I am left handed. Having to live in a right handed world I have learned to adapt. I have all my dexterity in my left hand and use that for fine motion but all my strength is in my right hand so I do things like golf and bowling right handed as well as anything I can't quite figure out how to switch over when I right handed person teaches me something. My dad started out left handed and the nuns back then beat you and made you be a right handed person so that he was until he had his stroke and hand to learn to be left handed again. It's tough to master the fine coordinates like writing but other than that you can switch most anything out even if awkward at first. I hope you find some good recipes for peach scones. Not sure though if the fresh fruit would be too watery in such a dry recipe as scones. There are thousands of recipes all over the Internet.

Annie - I know what you mean about the cooked peaches sometimes being off in a recipe. I think you have to stay away from super savory herbs with peaches. I have 2 recipes I want to try - baked chicken with peaches as well as pork chops with a peach and amaretto sauce. Of course I am also finding tons of fantastic recipes for peach dessert type stuff. I gave away about 18 peaches yesterday to the volunteers at the thrift shop. In return I got a bunch of thank yous, a jar of rhubarb cinnamon jam and a promise if a jar of strawberry freezer jam that was so good last year I did not want to share it with DH ! I was so impressed with it I tried to make peach freezer jam but it came out more like applesauce texture. Good but not jammy. So I froze it and I have used it as a peach sauce per se with pork or chicken. Just as tasty. You get the rich fruity taste with this freezer jam rather than sugar. One lady at the shop on Tuesday said there must have been too much water in the peaches last year - her jam did not set properly. That may very well be why mine was more saucey than jelly. But when you are new at something, you don't know what you don't know. Made sense now though. Are they having you do some preparation exercises in advance of your ankle surgery or is it too soon for that? Sounds like we both need to get scooters for our bum legs. I feel sorry for you though - I can control how much I have to walk - sounds like you have a fair distance between parking and work. Ouch.

Laura - I used to like Matthew McCanaughy (how do you spell it??!!) but the last few years he's gotten sort of wierd. I think his Cadillac commercials are almost scary. DH told me he wanted to go see the new Tarzan movie. He said he read all the books as a kid and always liked Tarzan. 44 years I have been with this man and I never knew this. It amazes me sometimes that I can still discover new things about him after all this time. Tarzan does not interest me so I'm hoping there's something else that might interest me at the show although I guess it would not kill me to sit through that movie. I would like to see The Secret Life of Pets but that's not out yet. To your question, I'm not sure where the sweet corn is coming from. The farms out here the corn is still "knee high to a bug" and I have not seen the local guy who trucks in his most amazing sweet corn. The store does not identify where it's coming from either. But where ever, it's perfect and good right now. Sorry you are having problems with the express scripts now. I agree with you about the lack of support. I also hate it when the big wigs force you to use a product for something it was not designed to do because they bought a hill of beans pitch from a slick talking salesperson and the users have to suffer through it. Something Shad knows well I imagine

Are you cleaning out your apartment and writing all your turn over documentation for work Ceejay? Won't be long and the last 2 weeks on the job will either drag or go like a whirlwind.

Time for me to get off the computer. Hellos to the other missing chicks. Have a good day all.