Hello Everyone,

Quick update on me and mine. DH is still working and it didn't turn out as badly as what everyone was thinking. I just one things to stay steady for him until December 31, 2020, he can retire then, at least from full-time work. I have told him he needs to start looking for his part-time job now. He needs to get an idea of what he would like to do. His other part time job will be working for me as I have a list of daily home management tasks he will do while I work so that when I am off on the weekends we can enjoy them, since we will never really retire together as he is 10 yrs older than me.

I actually have it all written out what my expectations are for the things he will do during the week so we have evenings and weekends together to relax. lol

I have been training and learning in my new role. I have the traditional Admin tasks done...it's the PO ownership and the budget report ownership that I am having to spend most of my time on. I'm going to try a few things tomorrow on my own and see how it goes. I won't freak out if I have to learn by trial and error...at some point you have to point and shoot and see what you hit or miss.

I only have a few things left from my old role to hand off..actually just two small things and that will happen this week.

My previous manager actually had some very nice things to say about my contributions from last fiscal year and I was very surprised. I haven't asked him my rating yet but I will.

I had a 1.4 lb loss at TOPS. I didn't like it but it wasn't as bad as it could have been. That is it for me...let's see if I can remember the posts I just read through and can comment on them.

Shad: We are having issues with our tomatoes turning red as well. We read that if you see them starting to turn you can pick them and bring them indoors and they will turn. We do see this happening. I love the taste of home grown tomatoes. How did the lunch with the neighbor go?

Annie: It was good to get an update from you. I have been wondering what you are up too. I think it is ok that the job is a little boring...just rider the wave for the next 5 years. I look forward to hearing about your upcoming trip. I'm so glad you get to "get-away". Everyone needs that.

Laura: Sorry to hear about the crummy timing of the projects....I hate have hard work in the summer months.....I think the work should be lighter in the summer months! When are you planning your foot surgery? My DH had a issue over the weekend with his foot. He stepped and heard a "pop" and they it hurt to walk on it. We went to ER yesterday as it was still bothering him, they determined it was arthritis and told him RICE, and see a foot doctor. They gave us a couple of names. I need to call them this week.

Sorry to hear that things with your BF are a little strained at this time and that your friend isn't able to do a get-a-way with you due to the new job. It would do you good to get away. Have you thought about a retreat of some kind?

Happy: I am so sorry about your cousin's passing. It sounds that he had a lot of physical pain and suffering.
I believe that you will be ok with your decision to stay with Bingo as it doesn't seem to take all the time like the thrift shop did.

Hello to Ceejay!

It's time for me to head to bed...I can't keep my eyes open any longer. 5:00 a.m comes early and that is when I get up to get the 30 min of cardio in. See you all later..hopefully tomorrow

Morning all. Not a whole lot to report. I think I'm past the busiest part of my work projects right now. It still don't like that it all falls during the summer. It's odd because I don't work a ton of extra hours, but it does weigh on my mind and that kind of ruins summer for me. And this year there's an extra PITA project to deal with, and we also changed the timeline and all the project deadlines fell in at the same time. Not to be such a whiner, but don't we all want to be in a carefree, "school's out" kind of mood at this time of year?

BF and his mother and I went out to dinner at Red Lobster last night for his birthday. This weekend is an overnight gathering with friends in a lake area a bit northwest of us.

I've been on the stationary bike two mornings this week, but not getting in more than 20 minutes in my sessions. I'll keep working on that. I finally installed the app that works with it yesterday, but it didn't register because I did it while I was using the bike. And I forgot to open it up today. But that's a moot point, because I think I need to input some settings before I use it.

Did I mention that bf installed the lawn mesh a couple weeks ago? Now we have to wait for about three lawn mowings before being able to park a vehicle on it. Apparently having the grass grow through the mesh kind of makes it become better integrated and stronger as a result. And of course in the two weeks since it was installed we had very little rain, so growth was sort of slow. But the grass has been growing through the mesh, and I heard it raining pretty good overnight last night, so pretty soon our first mowing of that area will happen.

That's about it for my boring little life. On to personals.

Happy - Good for you trying to keep moving. The fitbit is a good tool, but at some point if the movement becomes a natural part of your routine, the fitbit becomes less necessary. And you know that it can't always properly register certain types of activity. -- As for your box purge...are you actually seeking/missing anything specific that you know is in those boxes in the garage? Maybe it's a blessing that your DH might be doing some of the purging, especially if you haven't missed anything out there... ---I'm so sorry about the loss of your cousin. I think you and the family are probably glad he's not suffering and struggling anymore, but the regrets left behind are difficult. Having lost two brothers and wishing I'd had closer relationships with them, I understand this. My condolences to you and the family. I'd say that hopefully you could reach out to other family members, but we all know that it's a two-way street and bottom line...they are who they are and it might not be worth the effort if it's all just because it's "family" and not really connecting out of caring and enjoyment of their company. --- Re my foot surgery - I'm mostly okay with the prospect, except for the commute to work. One day on crutches negotiating train, train station, office was so laborious. I think the knee rolling thingie will be equally troublesome, especially the pavement. I will mentally prepare to deal with my boss re working from home, because I won't commute or do anything to risk the success of this surgery. -- Please don't get sucked back into the thrift shop stuff if it doesn't make you feel good....

Shad - I'm glad you're happy in your house. If gardening is something you like to do, you've got to have a spot for that. That said...my mom's retirement community does have raised garden plots for those who want to grow stuff, albeit small ones. I think I'd like my house more if I had the time to work on it - house, yard, etc. But I'm at a point now where I'm accepting my need to use my weekends to chill out and not work on house and yard projects. I just need to be better about the outsourcing so that it does get done...--- How was lunch with the neighbor? Did you manage to communicate on some level?

Susie - I'm glad the shake-up at your DH's work wasn't enough to impact him. Wow, he's getting pretty close to retirement, or semi-retirement. How exciting for him. And it's going to be interesting for you as a couple, but it's good you're giving it a lot of thought as to how you want it to look. We have friends in which the wife retired less than a year ago, but the husband is about 5 years her junior and just lost his job - they'll be fine financially, but I'm sure they will need to rethink things like medical insurance, etc. You think you have it all planned out and then the unexpected happens. ..-- Good job on the WL. Keep it up! I hope your dh's foot is getting better! Yes, I've thought about a retreat of some sort. A woman at work told us about a session of yoga with goats she did, and she mentioned a yoga retreat. Maybe something like that would be good for me.

Annie - How was the whirlwind trip to/from Denver??

Ceejay - How's it going? Miss you!

Okay, after many interruptions, I'm finally getting this posted. Have a good rest of the day everyone!!!

Last night went to nephew's house for the August birthday's. Couldn't resist the ice cream cake though.
Not much else going on except helping my sis out with BIL. BIL had his 4th round of chemo Thursday. The tumor has gotten a bit smaller. My small ray of hope is gone after sis told me about the 2 spots on his liver. If they have spread there is nothing else the doctor can do.
All of this bad news has gotten me off plan but Thursday I jumped back on board. I've been to the gym twice and would like to go again to day.
Have a good day or week.

Great thread, will be following!

Afternoon all,
Well the westerly winds have arrived and it has been getting colder. When I say colder, I would suspect that our temps are probably on a par with Happy and her backwoods hideaway. We are getting around 50F overnight and about 80F by day. Love the day temps and not looking forward to the summer coming along at all. Westerly winds always pop up in August and they are usually strong and cold This year is no exception and everything is getting a pounding and dried out by the blasted thing. These winds arrive coincidentally at the same time as the Royal Brisbane Exhibition fair each year - sort of similar to a State fair over there (if you still have them). I'd like to go and see the craft and the dog shows and maybe the cooking stuff as well. So maybe some day next week might be the day.

My heart went out to the people of El Paso and Dayton the other day. Unfortunately I think your population has become too polarised to consider gun controls and this will continue to happen until some one up and shoots up the family of one of your politicians. We've lived with gun laws all our lives and although there are rumblings about draconian laws etc., it seems to work reasonably well. But then again, gun laws here in Aus were upped after the Port Arthur massacre and they were good laws. NZ have taken the shortest time ever to pass the no assault rifle law. It doesn't actually mean you can't have one, you have to have a pretty good reason to have it. Some of the outback pastoralists have them because of the plagues of rabbits and kangaroos on the properties I'm sorry to say that the time for prayers and forgiveness is long gone and things need to be sorted. I was heartened to see the large group of people protesting about 'doing something', maybe they should also park a pile of fertiliser on the driveways of the politicians and keep it smelly until they start listening to the people. Part of the reason why I hate party politics is because they aren't looking out for the country, they are simply looking out for the party and/ or the individual. Enough of the ranting, I'll find something else to talk about.

Maryw - don't just follow, move on in and chat awhile. We enjoy a new face now and then and we seem to have a number of lurkers (if the stats on posters and readers are correct.

Ceejay - nice to see you back posting again. Sorry to hear that BIL has now found spots on the liver. Never ever give up hope and never ever let the family give up hope. Look what happened to me and also to a very dear friend of mine who has been diagnosed as free of that curse. Also Susies friend who is now on the getting better list.Laura
Good on you for getting back to the gym.

Laura - good to see you back posting again. Those project sure seem to keep you busy these days. And good for you getting the bike up and running again. I'm getting a bit like Annie and apart from the dog walks and the garden, my exercise is minimal. Naughty me.
Yes I love my garden. The block of land is not huge but I try to make the most of it. It does cost me money, but I really don't care about that too much. I fully understand your need to take it easy and enjoy the weekends. I used to be much the same when I was working, but now there is time for lots of different things to do and to try out. Life is much more fun than corporate demands and timetables and ensuring that you do not rock the boat too much and get a bad grading.

Susie - I'm so pleased to hear that the DH is still working as per normal. Only fifteen months to go and he can please himself as to what happens. It's empowering to be able to say I can work if I want to or I can just do part time or nothing at all except the housework and the yard. I'm not sure what happens over there, but we are finding more and more that once you are over 50 here then jobs are few and far between. You can't get a pension until you are 66 1/2 now and it will be worse for those coming along behind. Hopefully by the time your DH has got to there, life and work might be more stable for you both.
Congratulations on the 1.4lb loss. Any loss is good especially if you have had a couple of bad (or overly good weeks depending on your way of thinking) weeks on the dreaded scale.
Yes you can pick tomatoes and bring them in. Sometimes if they can sit on a sunny windowsill for a couple of days they will ripen. I now have a bowl full of beautiful ripe tomatoes on my bench. I don't like them being in the refrigerator so they live on the bench and I often grab one and shove it in my mouth on the way past. Better than eating lollies or biscuits.

Hello to Annie and Happy. Hope you are both okay. Happy, I hope that bronchitis is going away. A spoonful of good manuka honey and a glass of a good scotch should work. Won't do much for the bronchitis but you could feel a bit happier.

Oh yes, lunch with the chatty, accented neighbour. Well it went off okay. There were 4 of us there, 2 New Zealanders, 1 Australian and the Slovenian. Nobody got more than one word in three so we had to ask lots of questions to try to work out what she was saying. I guess I understand more than the others since I live across the road and get to talk to her most days. Only been in Aus 40 years and still can't speak English well. Aaah well, I guess her English is better than my Czechoslovakian. Which reminds me, I haven't seen her since Friday and it is now Sunday. I am under the impression that her daughters birthday is this weekend so maybe they have all gotten together and gone out to celebrate. That should be interesting as she has 4 daughters and one son here and another daughter in Slovenia. At any given time half are not speaking to their mother or one or more of the other siblings although they don't seem to be shy in asking for money from her. Aaaarck Shad your cynicism is showing.

Well my poached chicken should now be cooked. I'd better go rescue it and make stock from the liquid it is poaching in. Then it will be time to go out to the garden and tidy up after the winds. Maybe I will also get a bit of mulching and weeding done as well. That's if I don't get blown away and end up on some uninhabited island in the South Pacific.

Good morning ladies,


Earlier in the month although I tried very hard to avoid it, I picked up a viral thing from my bingo partner and it turned into asthma. I have had bronchitis before but never asthma and it really knocked me out. So incredibly exhausted after very tiny effort. I was on high doses of steroids and found that the medicine in the rescue inhalers doesn't work as well as it once did. So for the last almost 2 weeks I have been knocked out and day by day had to cancel my activities. It is finally getting better - I am not coughing as much but I still can't shake this terrible tiredness. My sister said it took 6 weeks before she felt better after her last bout with asthma. Then the lead physical therapist who is a jerk who thinks he knows it all but forgets to listen to his patients went and screwed up my physical therapy appointments by discharging me long before he should have. This was complicated by the fact that my chiropractor is having foot surgery and will be out for 3 - 4 weeks and they are very short on physical therapists right now. Just as I was making progress on my back pain. I haven't gone swimming because they had some issues with the pool and I was just too weak but I am hopeful that things will be on the mend soon. We are rounding the bend to the end of summer - you can see little glimses around you. We had some cool days yesterday and the day before - felt like autumn. The hummingbirds are starting to swarm as they prepare to bulk up and head south. It's impossible to count them all because of the way they dart and fly and chase each other but I would say we have at least 20 of them. We have 4 baby fawns. Our neighbor stopped by last week and said he saw 2 wolfs on the hundred acres he owns across the road from us. Warned DH about it because he knows he tends to roam about outside. Later that night we heard a big commotion with the deer in the yard. Our lame momma deer was snuffing and making all sorts of noise. Her baby was no where to be found and we were both worried that the wolf may have gotten to it. But 4 days later they were back again and all babies seem intact. We have 2 sets of baby turkeys - 28 altogether. They come as 2 separate groups. And we signed papers and handed over money yesterday, now the lot next door is ours and our compound expands to 10 acres. DH would like the 85 acres behind us but that is overkill. That land is landlocked - there is no access road to it so it will probably never be developed and it does not have any lake shoreline to it so it's not desirable anyway. We have enough to guarantee our privacy and that's all we want. DH was out the other day sawing off dead tree branches and tripped and fell with a saw in his hand. He does have a guardian angel looking after him - always did. He sliced into his face but it was not as bad as it could be. He walked into the house face away from me and said "don't scream". Then he turned and was all bloody. I didn't scream. We cleaned him up and bandaged him. Other than that it's been quiet around here.


Shad - you are right - your winter weather right now is about what we are having here. I hope you can make it to the fair. Thank you for your sympathies with the recent shootings. It totally is polarizing our country. The gun nuts have every single excuse in the world to protest every means of instilling any sort of control on their "right" to have a gun. They distort the meaning of the Constitution to argue their point. Meanwhile we are becoming one bloody mess in this country. People are having great arguments over it. Well when they invented cars they never imagined that people would drive drunk and turn it into a killing machine so eventually rules had to be put into place when common sense went out the window. The same is true for guns. I really don't like to deal much with people any more. And when they show the news they often talk about how other civilized countries such as yours don't have this issue yet they have violent video games, people with mental illness and sport shooting. I am trying to picture you talking Czechoslovakian with an accent from your homeland. Still good you sit with the neighbors and converse.


Ceejay - hope your BIL will have a successful fight with the dreaded cancer.


Susie - smart of you to make plans for DH's retirement. My DH retired 2 years before we left Memphis. He took over housework and some of the cooking. I still had to do simple side dishes but he'd put it together if I gave him exact instructions. You are right, it made a big help, especially since you have an intense job. Nice to hear that your former manager had nice things to say - perhaps he realized what he lost Sounds like you are making a nice transition to the new job and not worrying about trying to do it all at once and be super woman. You finally learned!!


Laura - I hear you on the work front about rather having an easier time over the summer months but if that is the nature of the beast calendar wise, I guess you have to deal with it. As long as you don't have to put in long hours in OT. Doesn't sound like you've gotten much time to ride your bike outside either or has it just been too darn hot? Thank you for your sympathies about my cousin. We will be coming in and out for a quick weekend to attend the memorial service, but no time to really visit. I don't like leaving the cats alone for a couple of days - they are not used to it either and with Bimmy getting bored and picking on Nina and Nina being neurotic, it makes me uncomfortable. Perhaps I can get one of the shelter people to look in on them. We won't be gone that long. Anyway... as far as your surgery goes, you are smart to give it some advanced planning. I don't see how you could possibly make the trek downtown even with a knee scooter. Can you connect to the office from your work laptop? I think they have relaxed FMLA to the degree that they can't really fight you if you get a doctor's approval and need to work at home for a while.


Annie - wish you'd post - miss hearing from you.


Gotta go get showered up. We are having a quarterly thrift shop meeting today and I really don't want to go but have to. They are doing a tour of the shelter afterwards which I think is good. I doubt most of the shop volunteers have seen or been to the shelter. We have a big disconnect between the shop and shelter staff - like 2 different worlds (think north and south side Chicago ) even though we are the same organization. Anyway - carry on people. Take time to enjoy the rest of the nice weather, time is passing quickly.

Hello all.

My weekend was alright. We did an overnight outing on Saturday, which happens annually with a group of bf’s friends. We stayed at a dumpy motel in the Chain-o-Lakes area about 30 miles north of where we live, near the WI border. Our late lunch was right over the border in WI and two of our group had a fish boil dinner which turned out to be tasty, but I had more of a taste for a burger, which was also very good. Afterwards we stopped at a liquor store to get some beer that you can’t get outside of WI. Then some more hanging out at the motel until later in the evening when we went to a boater’s bar that’s on an island in one of the lakes – you take a shuttle/ferry to get there. It was fun – it was 80’s weekend and the two bands we saw were decked out as hair bands with wigs, LOL. We ubered between the port and the motel.

Otherwise the rest of the time was just “meh”. It’s kind of a tradition, but it’s generally just hanging out, drinking, staying up late, and listening to music. It’s important for them to get a place to stay where they can be noisy but not bother anyone. There was an outdoor area with a picnic table, but it was too buggy to spend time out there after dark. Also, our rooms weren’t next to each other (due to the room configuration – some had one queen bed and some had two doubles), so it put a damper on the evening after returning from the bar. Sunday morning we went out for breakfast and then headed home. I kind of think it’s an immature thing – like you have to go away to do that?? I’d much rather be doing something during the day that’s outdoorsy or seeing/doing something interesting, but that’s not the purpose of this annual thing. Add to that the fact that one person in the group is completely anal about everything and she came to our house and she drove there and back with us – she had a TON of stuff she was bringing just for an overnight outing. She’s a bit too much to take for outings like this. Anyway, for next year they decided they’ll definitely rent a house. I think I’ll skip it next year and let bf go by himself while I’ll enjoy having the house to myself.

Sunday evening for dinner bf got carryout from an Asian place that’s located in a large Asian marketplace in our area. It was potstickers and an order of fried chicken cutlets. He had some condiment packets that were a combo – one small packet of some kind of oil and the other packet was soy sauce. He opened them both and mixed them together and I didn’t get a good look at what it was. The food itself was tasty, but the sauce mix was way too salty, so I didn’t use much of it. Even so, I woke up with a swollen throat in the middle of the night. I thought it might be from breathing cold air through my mouth and it dried out, or that I might be coming down with something. But I gave it some thought in the morning – my throat wasn’t sore, just swollen. I once had a similar reaction but even worse many years ago (in college) to some sesame snack sticks I’d binged on. So I’m pretty sure that the oil packet was sesame oil. I took some Benadryl in the morning and the swelling was gone by mid-afternoon. I’ll have to be careful about that in the future. When I go back to my allergist in January, I’ll discuss it with him and maybe have him do a test on that. I eat foods topped with sesame seeds and even cook something with sesame oil every once in a while, but I never have an issue, so I think it’s just a concentration of sesame oil that affects me. But I guess a test would be the best way to be sure.

I was glad to have Monday off work because of that throat thing. Later in the afternoon I did some weeding - there was another spot that the goldenrod was taking over. It will probably be years before I get rid of it...if ever. So it was a ho hum vacation day.

Work has calmed down a bit now, enough that I counted that there are 6 more workdays until the boss will be out of the office for over a week. He’ll be back for a week, and then out again for a week. Looking forward to it.

Did 20 minutes on the stationary bike this morning. Better than nothing I guess.

That’s about it for me. Gonna post this and come back for personals later if I can. TTFN.

Happy Friday/Saturday. Another workweek done. At least a payday fell in there. But I'm still grumpy that so bloody much is hitting all at once this year.

Ceejay - I hope your BIL can keep fighting. Have they checked into any research studies he can qualify to participate in for a new treatment?

Shad - Have you made plans to go to the exhibition? I've never been to a state or county fair. I've put it on my bucket list.

Happy - Sorry to hear about the bronchitis and the lung trouble. Yes, any kind of cold/virus/bug tends to flare up my asthma and the coughing lingers a while. Congrats on finalizing the land purchase! And the flora and fauna that comes with it. Scary fall for dh - is the cut healing okay?? Glad someone up there likes him... Yeh, the weather keeps me from cycling, and I wish i had a cying partner. Bf doesn't exercise and won't cycle with his puny legs. I need to find a meetup group that likes to ride the trails. I don't think the local bicycling club does that, which is why i haven't pursued it (except for joining one year and never riding).

Hellos to Susie & Annie.

Posting from the train. Gonna cross my fingers and hit submit. Have a good weekend everyone.

Not much going on in my neighborhood. Woke up to thunder this morning around 4.30 and it's rained off and on all day. We needed the rain.
I'm excited but nervous about my first cataract surgery on the 22nd of this month. Wish that my sis could go with me but a couple of friends at church told me they would go with me. Been having the "moody blues" this week. And when I get this way I eat more and exercise less.

Last week was a blur. Between work, taking Cailyn to college and just life I was out of my routine and only got two workouts in, ate horrible and now I feel tired, groggy and grouchy.

So, I am detoxing with a lot of water and back to my exercise and clean eating.

Ceejay: Your brother-in-law is in my prayers, as all of you are.

I didnt realize you had cataract surgery coming up. I will be praying for that too.

Happy, I hope you are feeling better and getting energy back. Also, I am very sorry for the loss in your family.

Laura: it sounds like you had a allergic reaction for sure. I am glad you were able to get it calmed down on your own.

Shad: it sounds like you are getting a lot of bounty from your garden.

We brought the tomatoes in and they did ripen up quickly. So nice to have them in a salad.

Now they are coming on quickly and I am meeting all my neighbors as I share the crop. Lol

My bike workout is done, now to shower and get ready for work.

I am about to head to bed. I was up at 4:45 this morning as I needed to be at work at 7 to get things ready for meeting that started at 8:30. My commute is a 45 min commute as long as the traffic is flowing well.

There is a lot of technical things I have to take care of and I am not normally techy....Happy, I could have used you and your DH.

I followed my written procedures and with only a small glitch, which I was able to fix pretty quickly. I have another month before the next one.

I didnt have time to work out as usual this morning so I improvised and walked the building at lunch and and again in the late afternoon.

See you all again soon.

Afternoon all.

Ceejay – I hope your cataract surgery went well today. I wonder if you’ll still have to wear glasses after you’ve had surgeries on both eyes.

Susie – Good for you fitting in exercise when you could. My schedule at work got me off track this week - a couple of the days really took it out of me. Exercise was skipped in lieu of some extra sleep. LOL re meeting your neighbors while sharing your garden bounty. How is your niece adjusting at college so far? Might be too soon to tell.... My bf’s one niece went off to college a few days ago for her freshman year, and her sister, a junior, left a week or so ago. I wonder how her parents will deal with a completely empty nest now…

Happy – Are your lungs feeling better now?

Shad & Annie – Hello & hello. How are your fur babies?

Finally getting a breather at work. The past three days were super busy - Monday with preparing a presentation for Tuesday. Tuesday was a very full day – a total of seven meetings with potential vendors as well as our incumbent, including the meeting where we made our presentation to everyone. Lunch was brought in, and we had dinner out with the incumbent. I ended up taking an 8:30 train home. Yesterday I worked non-stop to finish the budget before the boss left town that evening. I didn’t even take a lunch break and that very rarely happens. So today has been wonderfully calm and quiet. I tweaked a couple things on the budget before submitting it, and did a few other things, but nothing urgent. The boss will be out of the office through Labor Day, so next week will be nice and quiet too.

I’m taking a full “summer day” tomorrow and the weather’s supposed to be great. I plan to do something outdoors for sure.

Okay, time to get this posted. Everyone have a wonderful rest of the day and weekend.

Cataract surgery went well. I've had to have the lens popped out of my glasses on the left side cause my eyesight is so much better.. The surgery was simple/ Mainly watches a lazer show.

Laura
I'm not sure yet if I'll still have to wear glasses when both surgeries are done.

Good Afternoon Ladies and Lurkers….

HAPPY…so sorry to hear about your cousin. Way too young. With all that was wrong and the pain probably a relief to be gone from earth. Hope you are feeling better. OMGosh, asthma too. What the heck else can you possibly put up with, besides DH..lol. SHADDIE…glad to hear the reno is going good. Yes, I probably will never have enough money saved to retire. My hope is June of 2025. 5 ½ years approximately. I don’t know. If it were today, I would say sell my house and Cs house and move to a retirement community. Bah on big houses with grass to cut. SUSIE…good to hear the job transition is going well. Hope you like this position a lot. I didn’t realize DH was 10 years older than you. Good on you for getting a “to do” agenda for him during the week once he retires so you two can enjoy life on the weekends. He might try a hardware storeLAURA…so are you having foot surgery? Is this the foot you have been having trouble with for a couple of years? The Denver trip was long, long, long car ride. 18 hours there and 18 hours back. Left on Friday came home on Saturday. I will NOT ever do that again. The doggie traveled well and has adjusted to his new home. In answer to your question, Sassy cakes and Bruno are doing well. Both so spoiled it is silly. Once 7pm rolls around they both start in bugging us wanting their evening cookie. (Natural dog biscuit). We call them cookies. CEEG….glad the cataract surgery went well and you are seeing great. Hope the next one goes as well. Sorry to hear about you BIL. Is this the BIL that I met when you came through Indy?HELLO to the NEWBIE that posted, I forget your name, sorry. Plus I am typing this in Word for a copy and paste.My SIL, Cindy has recovered from the kidney removal nicely. She is getting around great, just gets tired a little. Heck who would at 66 years old. I do at 59 for no reason. She had a little scare in that there was a lump on her thyroid. Had to have a scan and biopsy. All came back benign with no further action. Next she has a “cloud” spot on her eye, pupil I think or somewhere near it that has to be lasered. That is scheduled for September 3rd. FINALLY got into the orthopaedic doc. Bone that was broke in wrist has healed beautifully. The pain is coming from tendon that runs down the thumb and up the inner part of my arm. It is highly inflamed. Doc shot cortisone in my wrist. It is feeling SOOOO much better. I go back October 7 if it is not completely healed then surgery to release some part of the aggravated tendon. Hopefully no surgery. My two bros and my one SIL (Cindy) are going to try to plan a siblings beach trip. Pia (Mike’s widow) is invited but will be in France. C is hopefully going also. We hope to go around the end of April. Bro Chuck (widower of Fe) wants to go to Destin, bro Eddie and I don’t care where go we just want to go relax. Bro Eddie and I both agree putting up with bro Chuck for a week will be challenging. Bro Chuck is a handful. (head strong, bullheaded, argues about EVERYTHING and thinks he is always right). Bah. Of course this all depends on me staying employed. I really don’t know if I can do this for 5 ½ more years. Not really happy about this job. It puts me in a down mood. It is boring. I am trying to make the best of it and pray on it all the time, endlessly. I have to put up with so much crap and of course there are a few peeps that are impossible to like. I know it is just a job and move on to something else I might like. That is a true positive thought however it is so HARD to find any job these days. Proved that Nov through May before starting back here. If someone would just dump a bunch of cash my way that would be great. Hahahahahahah The road construction is horrible with closing 465 around Indy completely for days at a time. What should take me 20-25 minutes to get home takes me 45 to 1hr15min. Needless to say once I get home I am even a grouchier bear than when I left for work. Dinner, dishes, laundry, bills, and BS. Ok nuff on all that.We are supposed to go visit Cs parents this coming Sunday. Might as well get it over with. They beeaaaaccchhh about things but won’t do anything about it. Which just makes me want to choke them. Stuff that really Ps off C too. C has an appt with the VA on September 23rd. This will determine if he can get coverage for is issues. Cause LAWD knows that boy has issues. Wish us luck.Three day weekend this weekend. So looking forward to it.

Hope everyone is doing great. Missing you a lot but also lazy to post. I do read now and again. Love you ladies as my own.

PS….punctuation and paragraphing might be messed up with cut and paste, it usually does.

Hope you've enjoyed it!