Morning all.

Safe travels Michelle!

Annie – Wow, what a bargain your nephew got on his house! Congrats to him and his GF. I get you with the bloating. I’m feeling good after the colon screen, but I ate some salty foods for lunch and dinner that left me bloated yesterday. I’m trying to drink a lot of water today to flush out the fluids. The challenge was going fine until yesterday, when I just didn’t feel like doing it. Picking it back up again tonight. Aaargh re the rain – we’re having beautiful weather this week, but rain is forecast for Saturday. Not fair!

Susie – What a bummer that the balloon ride was cancelled. I hope you get your ride on the next date. I remember I was on a work assignment in the Phoenix area in March many, many years ago and seeing hot air balloons in the sky each morning of my commute to the location. The sky was blue and the balloons were colorful. I sure liked being in Arizona in March!!! Yeh, glasses are really expensive. Since I like to wear contacts most of the time, I don’t replace my glasses more often than once every 2 or 3 years. Sounds like you had a nice few days off. Good for you getting your exercise!!

Happy – Oh, decisions decisions re the colors of the roofing and siding, etc. Not too hard – you just have to look at your decisions every time you drive up to the house, LOL. Good luck with that. (Odd that the one shingle color isn’t available in your area…) Wow, sad news about the volunteer who died after shoulder surgery. So young. A man two doors down from us died suddenly in June – only 53 years old. Very active/athletic, and so devastating as he left behind a wife and two young kids. I think the wife/kids have gone off to stay with family – there’s been no one around lately. The wife has cerebral palsy, so it might be hard on her to raise the kids on her own. Sorry your garden isn’t doing so great. I determined I placed my plants too close to each other. The squash required more room, that’s for sure. Bummer about the big scratch on the car – but aren’t you glad you’re not the one who was responsible for it?? We’ve already gotten a small ding on the hood of our “new” car – something hit it, probably from another vehicle while on the highway. Oh well…at least there’s no more waiting for the first damage anymore. Okay, next Wed. is the day – will keep you in my thoughts for smooth sailing during that surgery.

Hellos to the rest of you gals.
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Bf went to a free outdoor concert yesterday. I slothed for a bit after work – fed doggy, etc, then decided to run over to Kohl’s. We get to wear jeans all summer (well, not when it’s too hot!), but not many of my work tops “go”, i.e., look right with jeans. So I bought a couple more woven cotton popover tops since they’re cool in hot weather and go well with casual bottoms like jeans and khakis.

That was about it for me last night. I blew off the challenge and relaxed a bit more. Nothing planned for tonight except to do the challenge.

Okay, off to post. TTFN.

Annie - Great bargain your nephew and his gf got! Good for them. On the news the other day, they talked about how the median price for a house in San Jose is over $900K, and that even a highly paid engineer making over $125K wouldn't be able to qualify for that much of a mortgage. And I don't make a salary that high. Sigh. One of the reasons, I'm looking to purchasing a mobile home in Southern CA in the next 5 years or so.

Hi all,

We were supposed to go berry picking this morning. I got up at the gawd awful hour of 5:30 and then my cousin's wife who was going to go with us called and she had the most horrid summer cold. Said she felt a bit weird last night and woke up to Armageddon today. I said no thanks, trying to stay well for surgery next week. We will reschedule for another time although this is the peak and close to the end of raspberry season but we'll have blueberries for another month at least. DH said he didn't sleep well so we finished our coffees and both went back to bed for a while.

I went to the memorial service for my coworker yesterday. It was at a Wesleyan church - I am not familiar with that religion although they are always doing a ton of community service and outreach programs and are most generous in letting others use their facilities. The service was beautiful - very personalized with the pastor talking about her as well as moving tributes from some of her friends. I was raised Catholic - they tend to be very pomp and circumstance which I don't care for although everyone is raving about the new priest who just got assigned to the church. He plays air guitar at mass and is very down to earth - I may just check it out. One of the friends started her tribute with "what do you think YOUR funeral will look like?" sort of gives you pause to think. Mine will be attended by a bunch of hungry critters I think.

DH is getting frustrated with the house colors - not at me even though I said if we are spending this much money it will not look like a clown car. He it totally off on colors and thinks gray with a brown cast is very brown to him. He is putting the ownness on the contractor to provide us exact samples of what materials he CAN get, rather than us going to the home improvement store and picking out stuff only to find he can't get it. I think I know exactly what I want - I just need to see the samples.

I touched base with the lady who is co-chairing the fund raiser with me. She is supposed to be calling people to sign up for volunteer slots. She said she is not having much luck. I am totally resisting the idea of stepping in - I don't have time to call and I did everything else related to this fundraiser which was plenty.

Thank you everyone who has offered prayers and good thoughts for my cataract surgery next Wednesday. I appreciate all good wishes of all sorts. Yes, it's routine surgery but you never know. No one thought V who had shoulder surgery last week would be having a funeral either. Not that I'm thinking that drastically but things happen sometimes. I hope I don't wind up with my eye screwed up.

Susie - so sorry to hear the balloon ride got rescheduled. At least they have make up dates - hoping for good weather next time I hear you on the glasses expense - with regular glasses, computer glasses and prescription sun glasses it was always over $1,000. I am looking forward to better eyes and less expensive glasses It's especially frustrating like you say when the glasses are only 2 years old and you have to replace them. I second the "good for you" for keeping up with the exercise.

Laura - that is really sad about the neighbor who's wife has CP and left a widow. I hope she has a good support group in her family and friends. Yay on scoring some summer tops to go with jeans - now is the time for bargains and I know how much you detest clothes shopping I had the opposite problem yesterday - finding dress clothes for the funeral service. Dress pants felt funny as well as dress shoes which I never wear any more. I hope you get a decent weekend of weather. Been awfully hot and humid by you.

Annie - it's downright maddening how easy it is for guys to lose weight. All that muscle they have - even if they are not built, helps them to burn calories far more efficiently. DH started a prescribed diuretic this week to control his blood pressure and he announced he lost 10 pounds in 3 days. So last night he discovered the Minute Maid frozen juice bars I had in the freezer and decided he had to try all 3 flavors - grape, cherry and orange. While I slowly savored the ONE I had. I could have slapped him. Congratulations on maintaining your 25 pound loss and sticking with the plan. I am so proud of you - you will make a gorgeous Mom of Bride.

Ceejay - are you sweltering in the summer heat?

Shad - who is freezing on the other side - are you still inundated with long days and more to get done than the schedule allows?

Hi Terra - any new cooking meals?

Have fun at your weekend Michelle.

Hi Dee

DH is outside mowing. It's really hot. I should go make him some cold lemonade and get some lunch in me. Later chicks.

Sorry to be MIA. Might be for a few more days (weeks) yet. Yep, only the nose is above water at the moment. I will be working six days a week for the foreseeable future which doesn't allow for much sight seeing or recreation or even exercise since I am here 12 hours a day.

Today I shift back to the beach house. I've enjoyed being up on the hill and it is far more peaceful than the beach with everyone coming and going, walking the dogs and shouting at the people in boats.

So .... time to go back to the grind. Got UAT training next week. No documentation ready yet. It's Friday. Only good thing coming up is that I get to go to Brisbane next weekend for a flying visit. Got to get my tax stuff ready for the accountant before the ATO decides I am rich enough to pay more. They are now asking for it in quarterly assessments (they make the assessment) and then I have to fight with them to get my deductions. Such is life. I'm mighty tired of them holding out their hands for more, maybe I should retire and hold out my hand for a pension.

Back when I can. But whatever, safe travels, good health, good diet and exercise and anything else that needs to be wished.

Shad - but what if the users don't accept the testing???? oh wait - They DON'T get a choice, do they?

Don't drive yourself nuts.

Happy ~ We had Ramsey's Special today, It has hamburger,potato o'brien and soy sauce, Its very good

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I went to school today, I stay home tomorrow though. I dont go back to school until Thursday. I cant believe there is only one week left of July. It went by so fast. I hope everyone has a great weekend.

Whew this week is flying by! And where did today go.

Shad
Guess I shouldn't complain about working. I feel for you. Enjoy your quick trip to Brisbane.

Happy
Don't blame you for not wanting to call people to volunteer. My cousin want's me to go by their house in Paragould to check on the grapes, blueberries and blackberries. My mouth is watering for all of those. Not sure I will pick any blackberries though. Don't like the briars. I have another cousin who has fresh produce. Sure wish I could get some of that too. She's had a bumper crop this year.

Annie
Glad for your nephew and his gf. And congrats on those 25 pounds lost.

Terra
I like to watch Ramsey's cooking show. I bet that burger was good. Would have never thought to put potato in the burger itself.

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I've rested today and that's about it.

TGIF Whew, TGIF Whew, TGIF Whew!!!! Yeah!!

Last night was a quick dinner of frozen veggie pizza. Just wasn't in the mood. Two loads of laundry. Very boring.

I am taking a couple of hours PTO this afternoon so I can wrap up loose ends for Sissy's brunch bridal shower tomorrow. Picking up the cake and balloons, going to Bed Bath and Beyond to get her a gift, then home to make the food, wrap the prize gifts and load into the car with the items I can so not so much to do in the morning. I am hosting it and it will be at the church we attend. 9:00 am to start decorating and getting things together then the shower starts at 10:30, over at 1:00 and have to clean up and be out by 2pm.

BRB if I can

Ceejay52 ~ Ramsey Special isnt from Ramsey Gordon, Its from my cooking teacher's grand parents, They came up with it.

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Woke up at 5:00 a.m. Its now 9:23 a.m. Today I need to clean my mask and tube and fold and put away my clean clothes and organize the cupboard and work out for an hour and thats it

No time for personals, desk covered and I am leaving early.

Have a great weekend all ya'll!

Hugs

Morning all. TGIF.

Annie – You will be a busy beaver today and tomorrow, but it’s nice that it’ll all be over by the afternoon. I’m sure everything will be fabulous. I forgot how many guests you said you’re hosting. Enjoy!!

Ceejay – Sounds like you need to go to Paragould to get some good fresh produce from your cousins! I have a cantaloupe that’s been sitting on the counter for a week and I can tell it’s ripe by how it looks, but it has no scent, so I’m sure it’ll have no flavor. Bleh.

Terra – I’ve never heard of Ramsey’s special (just read your latest post - now I know why!) Is the dish like a casserole or a burger? It sounds tasty, but what’s not to like about beef and potatoes??

Shad – No need to apologize for being MIA. It’s just too bad you’re not off doing something fun… I hope that being back at the beach house isn’t too unpeaceful – you need good rest after all your long workdays. Safe travels!

Happy – Re what your funeral will look like…bf met his mom for lunch yesterday and then went back to her place to look through her paperwork related to that to determine if it was all in order. She doesn’t have much in the way of assets, but it was the health care proxy and burial plans that were the concern. Bf didn’t like the way his sister handled their father’s final arrangements and he doesn’t want that to happen to his mother…I could go on forever about this, but I won't. You're welcome, LOL. Re the house colors, double-, triple-, and quadruple check the colors when you do choose them!! I had a friend who had a house built years ago that ended up with the wrong roof color all because the shingle sample was in the wrong slot of the book and the wrong color got ordered AND INSTALLED. Glad you’re not phoning for volunteers. You did plenty.

Michelle – Wow, housing is so expensive out there! Hard to achieve the “Great American Dream” out there... though home ownership isn’t always all it’s cracked up to be, IMO. Safe travels today kiddo.

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Nothing much to report. It’s quiet here – today both the admin and another department member are out of the office.

I didn’t do much of anything last night, except my challenge. I’m in a rut where I’m feeling rather housebound once I get home from work. I definitely need to get out more.

I’m looking forward to a party my friend is having tomorrow, a gals only kind of party, should be fun. I’ll be staying there overnight too. Bf will be going to a Ravinia concert tomorrow – Steely Dan. Heard him on the phone with a friend making plans and they are certainly making it more complicated than it needs to be, on top of the uncertainty of the friend's wife possibly being discharged from the hospital that day…oy.

Plenty to do around the house this weekend, but I won’t really have the time. Unfortunately, the !@#$% garden bed in front is weed-filled again. Why? Because we didn’t cover the bed with mulch. Why? Because the type of fancy edging we bought last year to edge all our garden beds is not appropriate for installing in this one bed because this bed already has concrete (driveway and path to house) bordering it. Sigh. I will perhaps try the type of edging that hammers straight down into the ground. I looked at a forum posting on Houzz with a situation similar to this, but one potential obstacle mentioned was that the edging might not be able to be hammered into the ground right next to the concrete because there might be excess concrete beneath the soil that gets in the way (because when concrete is poured, it sometimes oozes outside the barriers of the wooden forms). For Pete’s sake, all I want is something to keep the mulch from washing away when it rains!

Enough rambling. Everyone have a great weekend and stay safe!

Howdy peeps,

Was supposed to rain today - it did rain in the morning but it's clear and sunny now. They are talking about heavy thunderstorms after 4pm - we'll see. This weekend we have the lumberjack (and jill) championships in town. It's an outdoor arena by the water so storms would NOT be good. DH and I were going to try a riverdeck restaurant for dinner last night - but we forgot that the place is next to the lumberjack place and therefore was mobbed. The contractor dropped off roofing shingle samples. After much deliberation I picked out a color scheme I could live with - only to have DH comment that he did not see that color offered in our area online at the GAF website. I told him I was going to STRANGLE the contractor if he provided samples of things he COULD NOT GET. We shall see. This is maddening already. I'm sure DH is frustrated but like you said Laura - we have to live with this and I can't see getting something that is going to be "off". It will drive me nuts. If choice 1 is not available, then choice 2 is VERY PRICEY. A red brown roof with shake cedar shingles and a red cedar deck. I know it's pricey - I can tell without even getting the quote. I am trying to work with the mid range stuff as I don't want to spend my retirement savings dressing up the house but WORK WITH ME GUYS. Tell me what I CAN get and I will pick something out. Lordy this is frustrating. Maybe we should just buy another house - if only we could see this one My surgery is on Wednesday and I still don't know when it is. I am going to call the office after lunch. They will probably tell me they will call the day before surgery which will peeve me. Sure, put my life on hold for them. Mostly I want to hear that I have one of the first surgeries of the day so I can get it over with and I can feel confident the doctor is not tired. I'm sure he does a whole mess on his surgical day. Probably most of us up this way are walking around with "new" eyes. Today's YOUR day honey

Laura - I have more trouble figuring out how to pick a cantaloupe than a watermelon. Both are hit or miss. Got a good watermelon this week. I have a cantaloupe that I'm ready to cut into also. I have had them where they smell great but are rock hard and tasteless even though they give a bit and should be ripe. Grapes too are very sweet one week and awful the next. Regarding the funeral, I delicately approached my Mom about it one day when I was there. I know what she wants to wear. She wants to have the service out of her home church, my sister said it's a real hassle to have it all the way in the city so Mom might be "moved". We are both thinking too that it's getting to the time where her first cousins and most of her siblings have passed before her. My first cousins are fractured - everyone seems to have gone their own way and I rarely hear from any of them anymore so I'm not sure if there's even enough people to have a service. The funeral I went to this week, they had a viewing which was not the casket but rather a memorial set up of photographs, some of her favorite books and scriptures with her personal notes and that was an hour prior to the funeral service. I'm not sure if she was buried or cremated. Not like the 2 days of viewing and funeral day that I was used to. Probably works out better. I hope you have fun at your friend's house over the weekend. A girl's over night sounds like fun. Drink wine and laugh alot Bummer on the mulch retention problems. We had the same problem in AH for the stuff that bordered the concrete walk. The concrete spilled over jaggedly that prevented a clean install of the border. I think DH wound up digging a small trench and laying bricks in there. I agree with you about the weeds though - my garden is horrible. I suspected the Hyponex potting soil I used was not very "clean" but now I am wondering if it's just a lot of weed schumtz in the air. Seems worse than ever before.

Annie - I hope all goes well at the luncheon tomorrow. Sounds like it will be quick and efficient - as it should be. People can continue the party later if they want to. Hope she gets some nice stuff.

Terra - tell us more about the Ramsey special - sounds yummy.

Ceejay - yum - I would not pass a chance to go pick some grapes and berries if you can. Yes the brambles can be a pain but the sun warmed berries are so good Just bring a shade hat with you.

Shad - make the most of your quick trip back home.

Hellos to the rest of the chicks. Time to find something for lunch and get doing something productive.

oh happy day I FINALLY have the colors picked out for the house renovation.

Dee,

Report him to the moderators on this thread. Let them deal with him. They will possibly ban him from the site, or just give him a real dressing down. You don't have to deal with that.

Morning all,

Dee - your husband is welcome to come here and eat all my favorite foods. He'd be eating better than salami although he probably would not like it much since we eat a lot of fruits and vegetables in this house. Only about 25 percent of our meal plate is protein. Over the years I have steered DH away from the meat and potatoes typical man style. It's better for his overall health - mine too. I still eat way more vegetables than he does but we eat very little in the way of processed foods any more. And don't get me wrong, we eat bacon too - love us a good BLT occasionally - but I get our bacon from the farm, it's much better tasting than the store stuff - you can really tell a difference. Also I totally agree with Shad's response about the person who is bugging you. That's what the mods are there for. Play nice kids.

I'm so excited. I have a weekend to myself. Of course I have laundry and housecleaning to do BUT I am very happy not to have to go anywhere. The rollercoaster picks up again on Monday - something going each and every day. The contractor called - he assured us that he can get any color from the samples he gave us to look at and it was finally nice to get everything pinned down. He said they will start with the roof - probably on Thursday this week. Not sure when they will do the siding. I'm wondering how they can get in to do the siding with the old deck still up. And because of the storm we had last September, it has been a big boon to the contractors in the area - people are full up on home repairs. The guy who came out to look at our deck said he probably won't be able to do it until next spring. The guy doing our siding and roof also wants to do the deck but he is contracting with someone else for the job. We are leaning on waiting for the first guy - we think he will do a better job and DH is VERY particular about getting the job done right. I don't blame him.

Looks like we are going to hit the hottest week of the summer this week. Don't envy the guys up working on the roof but I guess they are used to it. The weatherman said after today the days tend to start tricking down in temperature. Awwww I am not ready to see the warm weather go yet. But by September there are definitely hints of autumn in the air. I hope my tomatoes are going to soak up as much sun and warmth as possible. I think I agree with DH that MAYBE I did plant them too close together but I won't give him the satisfaction of hearing it from me

The lumberjack championships are this weekend, but I don't feel like sitting out on bleachers in the heat with no shade either. Some day. It looks very interesting though.

Guess I will stop babbling and toss a load in the washer and go water the garden. Have a good weekend chicks.