I just noticed the pumpkins in the store - getting harder to pretend it's late summer. My refresh project on the house is reaching that point where it looks like it's concluding, with a zillion nits to be completed. You can't, for example, put up old window shades on newly painted windows, LOL.

Count me as one of those who enjoys the dog stories even though our Australian Shepard has crossed the bridge.

Ah, there you are, Bill. We were posting at the same time.

The side of my face is sore this morning & I think it's actually from grinding my teeth in my sleep, though I had my mouth guard in, as usual.

I've got a high-octane mug of coffee beside me on the desk this morning. My mother put Maxwell House into the coffee maker, and somehow, without realizing it, I've become a Coffee Snob. So to make it bearable, I added a shot of instant Starbucks, the dark roast blend, from a little plastic tube, like those single serve tubes of Crystal Light or instant iced tea which you're supposed to add to your bottled water. That's made a palatable drink but oh, mama, I am definitely ready for my workout this morning.

We're still picking raspberries here in Upstate New York, but the apples are coming in, and it's said to be a great year for pumpkins, as we didn't get the hurricane rains up here. Fact of the day: New York is the third-largest producer of pumpkins. Nearly all for display purposes as there are no canning facilities nearby.

Other agricultural fact of the day: It's cheaper to buy Chobani yogurt up here than it is downstate, as we're nearer to the Chobani mothership plant and transportation costs likely factor into the price.

(After a bad argument with my mother last night, I'm desperately looking for the Good Things about doing my extended stint Upstate while my apartment gets rebuilt.)

We're getting more "early birds" on this thread. I'm glad I'm not the only one awake at 5 a.m. DH thinks I'm unnatural. I would love to sleep in 'til 5:15 (that's my alarm time) but it rarely happens. So I make the best of it by getting online and answering stuff and posting and such.

I miss having coffee saef. I did try some of those little tubes of Starbucks in the summer for iced coffee but I was so afterwards that I had to give the rest of the box away. DH loves his coffee. He's now grinding organic beans (Kicking Horse is the brand) and mixing decaf and regular to try to reduce his caffeine habit a bit.

I am down to 1 diet cola per day and I'm no longer feeling panicky ( as that is) if I don't have a stash in the house. I'm drinking lots of peppermint tea and that seems to be a good substitute.

bill Dh refers to all the tiny things at the end of a reno as "the pickys". And yes, a fresh backdrop does make older stuff seem "tired". But the fresh backdrop soon gets a few smudges, nicks, and dings and everything evens out again. We need to paint here - are you available?

Good Monday all! Grey and rainy week forecast here and I'm dogsitting starting Wed. Still no word on whether I'll get net access or not so you might not hear from me for awhile.

Dagmar

Morning all,

I had a nice weekend and am continuing to enjoy our "fall" weather (still high of 86, lol). I got in two very long walks on the beach with Emma and went scalloping Saturday afternoon for my last trip of the season. I brought in some scallop ceviche for lunch today, yum yum. My friends didn't want to go again yesterday bc they were too busy with football. Imagine that. Instead I worked on the big computer layout of my community theatre group's upcoming season playbill. I did it in Microsoft Publisher but it really made me wish I had Photoshop, a program I got quite proficient at for high school yearbook but haven't been able to justify the cost of since then. I actually can get a hefty discount since I'm employed by a university and can get it for $200 instead of $1000... but I have trouble justifying it to myself for using it a few times a year "just for fun/volunteer". I'm tempted right now, though.

Which brings me to the $ talk from last week! My mother is extremely cheap. There are no two ways about it, plus she has a semi-hoarding mentality. But if she finds something extremely inexpensively she "has" to get it. She definitely rubbed off on me and it's really hard for me to spend $. I think $40 pants are expensive... I know they're not, but the $20 Walmart specials are so brainwashed into me it's tough to convince myself otherwise. Even if I know the cheaper ones will fall apart quickly. I'm a big Ross, Marhsall's, and TJMaxx fan! Especially for the kitchen stuff, Saef. And the purses. Ohhh the purses.

Saef, I'm a coffee snob too. It's ok... everyone can't have good taste like us. I'm a beer snob too, however, I will drink my wine from a box.

Dagmar, I love peppermint tea too! It is so soothing on a chilly winter night.

Bill, cleaning projects often snowball like that for me... I vacuum the carpets and notice the baseboards are kind of dusty. Then I look up at the corners and see spider webs (I swear I just cleaned them! darn Florida mutant bugs). Don't get me started with the kitchen... I have no idea how the whole thing gets so messy.

Pretty typical week ahead for me here, though the summer field work is slowing down (thankfully). Have a good week all!

We don't have baseboards. Something DH said about them looking out of place in a "contemporary" home such as ours. Well, no baseboards means when the housekeepers mop and vacuum, they hit the walls with the equipment and paint chips off leaving ugly grey holes where they should be a buttery yellow. So, yeah, I need to paint, too. Again.

I decided to give myself a chore to do each day after work this week. Today will be to file. I haven't filed my stuff since last spring and if I want it to be in order for the upcoming end of year, I need to get it done. Once I sit down to do it, it generally takes less than 15 minutes, but the pile is HUGE and daunting.

We went to see two movies this weekend, Driver and Warrior. Both terribly violent but good.

I have to say my kitchen is generally the cleanest room of the house. Since I never know if my cats get on the counters during the day or night (and I'm sure the new kitty does) I always clean all the counter tops before I do anything. Then when I'm done cooking, I clean them again as I usually spill something while preparing. And we have a glass top table and I dislike fingerprints, so that gets cleaned daily as well. The only thing that seems to attract a mess is the spill pans on my stove. I try to clean them, but they always look a mess to me.

So it is Monday. Off to work. And hopefully we'll be signing our refi papers today. I started the whole thing mid June and I was hoping to close at the end of July. Then August. And here it is the end of September. And to top it off, because I'm so upset about it I may refi again in a couple months just so I can get away from B of A.

Dagmar, I have been up a long time. I really resented it when I retired and still woke up early. Now, I prefer it . I usually have coffee and watch the news or come here to see what is happening. before the day starts in earnest. I am having a cup of coffee , now. made with "great effort" from my Keurig Coffee Brewer. Those of you who have a Keurig know what I mean.
I am still unpacking and trying to get things organized in new locations. Tomorrow I am having a new sofa and chair delivered, I am looking forward to that.

We call that ''snagging'. All the bits which aren't quite right or looked right at first but aren't when you use them. This phase can go on for some time. Courage, mon brave!

to your new home, bargoo! to have got there! May there be many moments.

In the construction business, it's called a punch list.

alinnell, trust a man not to see the utility in baseboards.

It's amazing what people think. I know of one man who built an entire small home for his family without including any closets because they were "too much work."

bargoo, I used a Keurig in a fancy hotel once, but I decided that as far as my buying one, I didn't like throwing away all the used packages. But the coffee was good!

Nothing but work for me for the next while, and that is good! Went for a walk this morning because as Megan1982 says, fall is weather is here!

Jay

Jay, don't you throw out your used coffee grounds , and the last little bit of coffee in the pot ?

Busy thread this morning! Wow!
Hello to everyone.
I was also up at 4:45 thanks to Mr. Dewey.
He had me up at 3 am on Friday (looking for the dead rat smell), 4 am on Saturday (I had to be up then to go to work early), and then I could have slept all the way to 6 yesterday but he woke me at 5:15. Grrr.... today he had me up at 4:45 (alarm set for 5). I wish I could get him to sleep in later but he wakes up all cute and playful and starts pouncing on the cats that are also in bed with us.

No more dead rat for us. The AC guy didn't show on Friday so dd had her guy friend come over Saturday and they extracted the guy. I was desperate. I paid her friend $50 and bought her some clothes at Marshalls. I'm going to call the AC guy later and make sure he understands he lost the job because we did it ourselves!

Weight is what I would expect when I eat slightly off plan. I was 117, then on Saturday dd and I went out to dinner. I decided to eat what I want and thoroughly enjoyed a pesto chicken sandwich and a cup of chili. Yesterdays weight was 118. I had some frozen yogurt and ate TOO MANY grapes. Today's weight is 120. I like to stay just under 120, so I'll try to watch my splurges a little more this week. Still coughing and congested but on the mend finally. Dh not home until Saturday, and then only for a couple of days. Tonight, dd and I are going to "college night" to talk to representatives. Going to be a busy week as usual!

bargoo--sure I do! We no longer have a compost bin... But it was the plastic packaging I meant. All those packets... I make maybe five or six cups a day for two of us, and that would be a lot of packets.

But, in the bigger picture, it probably doesn't matter.

Jay

My sister's friend bought a house that had a kitchen with no drawers and no space for a fridge.

My aunt owned a home with a kitchen that had no room for a fridge, either. They had to put it out on a shelf they made on the back stairs which made it very difficult to reach the top shelves. I think they fashioned a stepstool that could be used on the staircase so they could get to that top shelf.

The waste that is thrown away is deplorable, the one that gets me is disposable diapers they must be thrown out by the millions !