Good morning gals. I have been sitting and knitting and watching Christmas movies on the Hallmark channel this morning and bawling! Those kind of movies always make me tear up.

We didn't do anything this year for our anniversary. I bought Jack an Iphone and considered my Iphone a combo anniversary and Christmas present as does he. We decided to eat at home. Like I said, I made beef stew and yeast rolls.

Jean: I mix pineapple juice, brown sugar and ground cloves together and pour it over the ham then baste it from time to time. It seems to work well when you have a precooked ham. I often think about how fast the years are rolling along. Jack will only have 5 years in January and he can retire from the City. Seemed like yesterday he started working for them. The Navy seems a bit far off by this time, but I remember lots of stuff about being in the Navy.

Maggie: We keep our credit lines open so that if we have an emergency our credit score is such that we could get a substantial amount of money if needed. I order stuff at Christmas from Swiss Colony then pay it off in full. That's why they keep raising or amount I guess.

Susan: I know, I am kind of a nut about being organized, but I am a bit more scatterbrained this year to get things done. Kelly had her birthday dinner at IHOP. I don't go there because I love their chocolat chip pancakes! lol

I need to skeddaddle. I have work to get done and laundry and such and it is not doing itself. Have a great weekend. Faye

Good Morning, Flowers! It's cloudy and 'warmer' at 37 degrees today. The sun is supposed to be shining -- I wonder where it is. I'm working in the gift shop this afternoon and hope to read a couple more magazines that are taking up space here.

Maggie -- I could never stay up as late as you do! Do you sleep later in the morning? We only eat the white meat so I just buy the turkey breast also. I didn't know that they came spiral cut; I'll have to look and see if they are available. We have a 'turkey plant' here in town and lots of people get their turkeys "hot off the press" so to speak. I went in there once and the smell was really bad even in the office. That combined with the pork plant really stinks up that side of town.

"Gma" -- I was typing as you posted. Bob is going to start getting Social Security in January and for some reason I will get a raise because of his income. He doesn't plan to retire any time soon but if they raise the retirement age he wanted to be in the system beforehand. Now it sounds like they are questioning whether it is wise to raise the age limit or not. Typical -- can't make up their mind!

I need to get busy! Hope you all have a fantastic Friday and enjoy your weekend!

Jean -- from Iowa!

Good afternoon, ladies! 54 degrees and sunny today.

I went to the Y this morning and this evening is lock in at the quilt shop.

Faye, I rarely get pancakes at IHOP. I get the senior Taliapa dinner and it is less than 500 calories. I don't really care all that much for pancakes. Occasionally I'll have a waffle or French Toast, but that's only once or twice a year.

Jean, They ought to just put a box out and let people pay for anything they take at that gift shop. I'll bet the stuff wouldn't even go then from what you say. Enjoy your magazines. I don't start more than 1 or 2 applique quilts a year. It takes me a long time to make one.

Maggie, I ran my popcorn through the calculator you sent us and also computed it with the formula I sent earlier today. It came out the same, 3 points for what I get for 1 point now. Carbs are expensive but I'll have 10 more daily points so I'll still be having my popcorn. I put the formula into an Excel spreadsheet and have started putting in the things I have in my pantry. I'm also going to look for the spiral sliced Turkey breast. I only eat turkey or chicken breast so that would be great if I could find it. I have a turkey breast in the freezer. I debone it when I buy one and make 4 roasts out of it so I don't have so much at a time.

Have a great day!

Good morning to you all! Looks like later this morning we are going to tackle the deck and get it all cleaned up. That is what Jack wants to do so that's what we will do. We have bushes to trim, the bbq grill to move into the garage and stuff like that besides getting the leaves blown out, which Jack will do. There are so many that I will have to do sweeping as he blows or the piles get too high to get through. It will be a process.

I am posting this picture just so you ladies know that Spiderman gets rest so he is ready to keep us all safe! (this was taken in Mexico at Alicia's Dad's house)

We did a couple errands yesterday afternoon, then got a bite of supper and came back home. I sat and knitted and Jack went upstairs to watch the Boise State game. He is hooked on that football team. He has no connection to it other than he likes the little team. He thinks they are getting a raw deal by not getting #1 status on the BCS ranking since they are undefeated, but I noticed Wrigley Field is hosting a Northwestern game today. That should be interesting because they found the baseball field a bit too short so now they got the bright idea to only have one end zone. The two teams will continually flip flop with whomever has the ball. Another bright idea from a man more than likely!

Jean: There seems to always be something going on with SS either we are running out, the age is to be raised, changing amounts, denying COL raises, always something. It has become one of the worst protected programs the government has and has been "raped" for years and now the price is being paid for it. Jack plans on retiring in January of 2016. His 66th birthday is in Oct of 2015, but he wants all his new vacation and such from the city so he can sell it back. He is allowed to sell 75 days combo of sick and vacation time back. In the meantime, I am trying to have everything paid off because we take a significant hit in income between his job/pension and the increase in Medicare cost versus our Tricare premium. I think we figured we lose about $1500 a month. We will still be in much better shape than a lot of seniors.

Susan: We have had Christmas dinner there a couple times because it is the only place open on Christmas day besides the casinos. I remember one year we drove to Indiana for Christmas and had to travel on Christmas Day. Kelly swore that Cracker Barrel was open on Christmas Day so we thought we were in good shape for food. Well, we ended up eating candy bars for Christmas day lunch because the only places open were gas stations! Lesson learned, take food if traveling Christmas Day and IHOP is not available!

Maggie: I am like Jean, I rarely stay up that late. Usually on the weekdays I go to bed with Jack at 9-9:30 so the dog will settle down and go to sleep otherwise he will wake him up getting on the bed if I stay downstairs and watch tv or something. If I fall asleep in the recliner I just stay there rather than disturb Jack. I tend to wake up early though as you have seen when I post here.

Poor ole Jack's knees and hands have really been bothering him a lot lately. The "take ibuprophen" from that idiot doctor for his left knee doesn't work at all so he is going to have to go see his regular doctor. I imagine he is just hanging on until the first of the year so he has plenty of sick days. He has changed his mind though and decided the hand has become a bigger issure than his knee so it will probably be the thing that gets surgery first.

I guess I am going to sit and knit, then at 9 watch Burn Notice from Thursday as I fell asleep again and missed the episode. It always repeats on Saturday morning at 9! Have a great Saturday all. Faye

Good morning, ladies! A lovely day in the middle 50s.

I went to WW this morning and I was down 3.4 pounds. Just all of a sudden woosh! I was very happy about that. I woke up at 4 am and couldn't get back to sleep so I think I'll have a nap after lunch. I'm making stuffed acorn squash for dinner.

Faye, The picture is great! So cute. I don't envy you with the yard cleanup. Makes me thankful for Scott to do it for me. I've got 2 rose buds that are opening so it looks like roses for Thanksgiving this year. Everyone is putting out pansies for the winter. I need to get some.

Maggie, that's interesting about the cups being different measurements. I wonder how they make them? You'd think some kind of a mold that would make them uniform. You'll probably get a couple more points than 29 for your dailies. The new plan is giving great results in the UK so I hope it does for me, too.

Hi, Jean!

Have a great day!

Good morning all! I had an early morning chuckle this morning. Jack went to bed before I did last night and I fell asleep in the recliner. I kind of roused when Fortune came downstairs sometime int he middle of the night and jumped into my lap, but decided to just stay where I was. I woke up at a little before 5 when Jack walked across the bedroom and I heard the bathroom door shut upstairs. When I hear that when I am downstairs it means he is getting ready for work! lol I debated whether to run upstairs and tell him it was Sunday but then said nah! I guess he figured it out. He said he was standing at the sink, had taken off his underwear to get into the shower and the light bulb went on in his brain that it was Sunday!

Boy, we wore ourselves out cleaning that deck yesterday. The leaves underneath the piles were still very wet so it was hard work getting them blown out. The deck needs a good washing, but I had to throw the garden hose away because it had two holes in it so we will have to go out and get another one so I can clean the deck well. We did get everything but the bushes trimmed. We were too pooped to finish after we got the leaves all done.

Jean: Our utility company here is installing "smart readers" around the city. They feed information back to MLGW every 15 minutes and other things. Sounds like a good deal, more efficient and such but from what one person posted to the online news source, it will actually cost more for a couple reasons that she explained but I can't remember. My mom used to plant pansies when I was a little kid. She loved those and gladiolas. Funny how you remember little things like that. Jack's city pension is 2 1/2% per year of working or something like that. I think he ends up with about 40% of his yearly income as a pension. He is fully vested now so we have no worries about his pension. I do get his pension is he passes after he retires, but I lose his Navy pension completely, which is a raw deal, but they changed the rules in the early 70's. At that time, you had to decide whether you wanted to lose a portion of your monthly pension in exchange for your spouse getting a portion, something like 30% or whatever. We added up what they would take from his monthly pension and what I would get against just giving it up and we decided to just give it up if he died. We just didn't think it was worth it. I don't plan on drawing on my SS until I am 70 if I can help it and we don't really need it. I was never employed for years and years so my SS benefits are only about $400 a month if I retire at 63 and don't increase significantly until I reach 70 so we will just wait unless we really need it.

Susan: Hurrah for you and your big loss! WTG! What do you stuff your squash with? I love pumpkin and even sweet potato, but I really hate squash of any kind. Hope you enjoyed yours!

Maggie: The kids will be here on Thursday and I am excited to see Jackson. He has really grown a lot too. Unfortunately, around the baby boomers generation on, companies quite doing pensions. Our parents generations and before most people retired around 40 and with a pension from their work. Nowadays if you don't put money away yourself you don't have anything. Back then the majority of the workforce was male too so you didn't have as many people in the workforce. Lots of things have made people lean a lot on SS.

Well gals, I am going to get out of here. I want to get the sock done today if I can and get started on Thomas's. Have a great Sunday!
Faye

Good morning, ladies! Its 60 degrees and sunny today.

Just doing housework today and addressing Christmas cards. One of the tenants at work pays me to do that for him every year. He wants real handwriting and he pays me $100 so it's a nice way to make money.

Faye, I stuff acorn squash with turkey sausage, stuffing mix for pork, a little celery and onion and bake it. It comes out really good. I made coleslaw with it. I've got a pot of cheesy vegetable soup on now. Do you have a pension from when you worked or would you just have SS if Jack goes before you?

Jean, I plant pansies in front of my house which faces south. They need lots of light. They are planted all over down here - in the entrances to negihborhoods, in the medians on divided highways, etc. They last and bloom all winter and then die when Spring comes. We can't grown them in the summer - too hot.

Hi, Maggie!

Have a nice day!