Yesterday was the perfect fall day: chilly but not cold, little wind, one die hard tree still held brilliant leaves that picked up the evening sun, slight smell of wood fires in the distance. It's the time that reminds me why I love being in New England - before the first snow shoveling day when I dream of Arizona or Florida.

Last week all the trees dropped their leaves at the same time. They were late coming down and all came together. Made raking them up fun. Five large barrels are out on the curb this morning.

Bill I can almost smell the hot apple cider, mulling gently, as you survey the sun, fall colours, etc. And taste that crisp apple you're holding in your hand. I hope there were some small children to help you with your raking by jumping in your huge leaf pile!

I am starting out this week in a happy mood. First the first time ever I managed to come back from a dog sit weighing less (133 lbs!) than when I started. :

And one of my favourite dogs, after 2 years away, came back from out west. She went when she saw me yesterday. My two golden retriever "roomies" and I took her for a walk and we all had a really great time!

And DH has finally, maybe, kinda, well sorta decided what he's going to pursue re an accounting career. He has another interview today for a "starter" job that will put him on the path.

I really hope he gets this or another job soon. For his sake more than mine.

And, finally, I discovered mahjong online . I was playing "Mahjong Titans" at the dog sit and looked up the games available on Pogo last night when I got home. They aren't as good but they're free!

Good week all!

Dagmar

Dagmar, I do free online games , as well. Between 3fc and free games it pretty much keeps me out of the refrigerator.

I began the day well, but felt low in spirits after visiting the Stickley Factory Outlet in a nearby town. There were solid cherry bookcases in discontinued styles that was I coveting until I realized that I had never measured the width of the wall where I'd put them.

So, no deal. I went home empty-handed.

The sale won't come around again till next year and they will probably be gone by then.

Anyway I have nowhere to store these things and I don't know how long they'd be in storage. My mother keeps warning me against paying storage fees and she's probably right, that they'd eat into any savings we got on the things I'd buy.

My instinct is to try to gather up & get back all I've lost, but apparently, I need to wait and do nothing. Or get back only small things. That's difficult for me. It's so hard to just drift along.

Morning all,

I did sleep a lot over my long weekend, but I don't know if I feel a lot better. Certainly not worse. I'm coughing now, but don't feel other cold symptoms, so it could be worse. Sleeping in + a long walk with Emma on the beach was how I started each day. I worked in my winter veggie garden, cooked a bit, and other than that was sinfully lazy. I wasn't totally relaxed as dear BF is sort of annoying me right now... not going into it but it was a source of some tension over the weekend.

I did finally make my ham and bean soup Saturday. After a long process of looking for a ham bone at every grocery store in the area, BF brought me home a ham steak with "a really big bone in the middle!" (Note to others: ham steaks do not have large bones in the middle.) Lol, he was just trying to be helpful. Anyway, I cooked the very small bone with the beans and added the ham to the final soup. It was very tasty and thicker than my last attempt bc I did simmer it for a long time. I found some recipes called for cooking dried beans with no pre-soak - I might try this next time as my beans were almost falling apart after their long simmer. I used Bob's Red Mill 13 bean mix, which was really tasty.

Dagmar, I'm sending good vibes to your DH for his interview today! Great job on the dog sit, and I'm glad your furry friend is back! It is so nice that dogs really remember us after not seeing us for a long time.

Bill, your fall day sounds lovely. Enjoy some fall colors for me! I miss the colors and change in seasons, though I don't miss that snow, muddy sludge, shoveling, or icy roads at all.

Someone just walked into the office with homemade apple pie. Sigh. Am I not allowed to put a sign on the door that says "no baked good here!" or how about "the average person gains 5 lbs during the holidays". I know, it's mean, and I need to take accountability for my own actions and those of my mouth. Wish me

I had a good weekend. It rained all day Saturday so I made chili for dinner. Yum. Leftovers for lunch this week. Sunday all was clear for a game of golf and a relaxing afternoon. Sunday night we had a great dinner including a wild rice and barley pilaf that had pomegranate seeds in it. It was wonderful--from the Eating Well website I think. It said 6 servings at 209 calories per serving, but the five of us ate only half. So we have leftovers to do with something later this week.

Tonight we have our annual wine tasting. It is accompanied by a buffet of finger foods--usually a lot of cheeses and some crackers and a lot of fruit. This is the wine tasting where I usually pick my wines for Thanksgiving. I still have a few bottles of the Viognier so I probably only need to buy a case of a red wine.

My Dad arrives a week from today. I talked with him yesterday and he sounded quite upbeat despite the fact that his catheter bag had been leaking for two or three days (the nurse was there replacing it when I called). He had tried to call my SIL the nurse, but she and her daughter were stranded in Wyoming because I80 was closed due to snow (they had been up there for a soccer tournament). His birthday is Wednesday. He'll be 90.

I am suffering from an ear ache. I have gotten these on and off since childhood. A cold wind will often bring it on, and I'm assuming the couple of days of sleeping in the really cold bedroom before I turned on the furnace may have contributed to this one. And it's not going away. I think I'll have to see a doctor this time around to get some prescription drops as I am unable to sleep through the stabbing pain.

Good morning everyone!

Hi to Bill!
Dagmar-- good luck to dh!
Allison-- I've had an earache for a few days but mine isn't terrible so I'm ignoring it.
Megan-- sorry bf is annoying you. Too much time together perhaps? That always does it for dh and me since he is gone so much!
Hugs to you Saef. This has to be such a hard time for you.

I feel like every week I say it's a busy week, but it always is. Dh is gone (surprise!) and then he returns and dd and I leave for Arizona on Sunday. We return next Tuesday and then older dd comes home that night too for Thanksgiving. I really wanted to clean house and a million other chores over the weekend but not much happened. Now I'm swamped at work....

I'll check in later....

DH's interview went really well except for his age/experience. He's running up against this more and more. People don't believe he will stick with a "junior" position for any length of time . He keeps pointing out that he's starting as a "junior" in accounting but employers are not buying it. There's a whole big complicated backstory to all of this but I won't go into it here.

I am now going to have to pick up all the household expenses until he's working full time again. DH wants to "cancel" Christmas and now I am really on board with that. It would cost me about $1000 all told if we go ahead and see his family. Plus there's a 6 hour drive up and back and we have to stay in motels, eat really high fat and sugar food,and no exercise. Lotsa stress and bickering etc.

And part of his family is so distressing to see. They are killing themselves with food. DH is following in their footsteps. He feels totally depressed when he sees them but experience has taught me that it doesn't change DH's behaviour. For me that's really weird, until I start to think about my mother and drinking . Ingrained habits are really, really hard to break.

The alternative is staying home, buying a pre-roasted turkey for $60 from a portugese place we discovered, no driving, and just quietly being home for the holidays. This is looking pretty good to me after all the stress of the last two years.

I do enjoy having a tree but that's about all I need from the holiday season.

Dagmar

At my job, we're starting to argue our cases for having time off around Christmas. (My company closes this year on Dec. 26th and New Year's Day. That's it.) It's annoying to listen to the three guys who cover for me if I go out:

Me: I have 15 days of unused vacation. We need to work something out.

Guy No. 1: I have 18 days of unused vacation and my wife is a third-grade teacher and that's the only time we have off as a family.

Guy No. 2: I want the days between Christmas and New Year's, too, since my wife is a second-grade teacher and that's the only time off we have together as a family.

Guy No. 3: I have 20 days of unused vacation and my wife is a tenured professor and I want most of the month of December off, since that is the only time she has off all year.

I want to invent a significant other with some kind of academic calendar career so that I, too, can plead for time off around Christmas, but for now, I have no idea how to resolve this except the obvious one of saying: "I'll just be sitting home during that time, anyway, so I'll cover for everyone."

Which I don't want to do. I want some time off, too. But that is not possible so maybe we need to draw straws.

How about, "I lost everything I owned in a hurricane, my property did not have flood insurance, no one else is around to help me, and I am living with my mother. If I don't get some time off around Christmas, I'll be in the hospital!"

Jay

SAEF Humm....my wife, son and daughter in law are all teachers and they have summers off, all of Thanksgiving week (sometimes), week of spring break, what they call a winter break here in Feb. for a week, all 3 day holidays, personal days and "don't ask don't tell" sick days....

if Christmas break is the only time they can schedule time off to find time together with their wives something is wrong...

I'd argue that with the boys!

DAGMAR maybe instead of doing away with Christmas because of the circumstances you and DH could look for something new to do to celebrate...

doesn't have to cost money.

SAEF I totally get you wanting to replace the past...

we all enter that situation in different ways in our lives...

it can't happen...impossible.

What we can do is look forward to the new things God places in our future and see what exciting things he has in store for us...

Sorry to keep picking on you

I just don't like to see my friends in pain....

ALLISON said...

I still have a few bottles of the Viognier so I probably only need to buy a case of a red wine.

I opened up a bottle of Viognier for the first time Sunday night for Angie...so sweet she wouldn't drink it...I took a drink just to see what she was talking about...now, sometimes I can handle white wines but I couldn't have drank a glass of that with a gun on me!

Don't know why...it was a $6 bottle of Smoking Loon...lol

Saef, who has the most seniority in your office ? That's how it always worked at my offices.