I Agree---you Have Both Gone Completely Maaaaaaaaaad ,mad I Tell You,simply Maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaad!!!!!!!

WHY IS kiwi's 21 days progress marked off in minutes?

That is a secret known only to Sally Kirkland and Halim El-Dabh (who has the very cutest quote on his website).

Brown rice and salad turned into RiceaRoni and carrot sticks and cucumber slices.

I'm going to go watch Witness for the Prosecution. The lovely one with Charles Laughton and Elsa Lanchester. And Marlene Dietrich and Tyrone Power.

Perhaps I will make myself a Sidecar.

I don't even know what that is.

Kiwi

I have no idea what you all are talking about.

Gpa Jim is doing better - his Dr. thinks it may be an esophogeal (sp?) cancer, though. They stopped the bleeding, but will need to do an upper GI scope again next week. In the mean time, he will get discharged today to a rehab facility, where they will get him a little stronger and up and walking around before they send him home. I just out and out told them I couldn't take care of him. So far, no other family member is stepping up. They all just tell me whatever I decide will be fine w/ them. Which means "you handle it".

I am tired.

I did manage a movie and dinner w/ my sisters and a friend on Friday and a glass of wine and a heap of whining on Sunday w/ a friend. Spent most of Saturday either visiting Gpa Jim or having a gigantic crying jag. Some days are like that.

Not to worry, neither do we. Mostly we are just babbling.

Sorry to hear about Gpa Jim. I supposed it's better to know what you're dealing with, but still. Good grief, it's so unfair for you to have to shoulder all of the work and worry! You should just assigning jobs to people. You'll still have to make all the decisions though, won't you?

Wine and whining are a great combo. We should all do more of it.

I'm tearing my hair out trying to figure out this sign project I took on. I just keep staring at the pages of stuff I should be doing and can't make any sense of it all. I thought if I put down all the particulars in a spreadsheet it would help me organize it, which it doesn't seem to have. So I printed it all out on separate sheets of paper so I could jot down notes, but I didn't get anywhere with that. So then I thought if I hashed it over with the person who's going to help me make the signs, that would help, which it didn't. Then I thought
I would make DH drive around town and we would see where I had to put up the signs, that would help (we did that a week ago). Well, that helped a little, now I have more pages of notes, some ideas of how to do some of it, but I'm still so disorganized. I think I've become a drooling idiot.

Kiwi

i wonder if the mental pause we are experiencing is the main cause of our adhd behaviour---i have had the same problems kiwonk---i can't figure out where to start anything {like tax slips for the staff---or paying bills or painting an eastercat card} so instead--- I DO NOTHING BUT EAT AND LOOK ON THE COMPUTER------ WABBY!!!! HOW RIDICULOUS THAT YOU HAVE TO DEAL WITH ANYTHING AT ALL~~~!!!!! everyone STILL expects you to do everything---amazing how people can be so thoughtless----no wonder you feel so sad-----people should be doing EVERYthing they can to make you feel better-=----this makes us cows sick-----xoxoxoxox to you xoxoxoxo

Well, your group seems like it's been around for a while (?) and that you all know each other pretty well. Might there be a space for me? I've floated around the website for about a week and a half, now, and this feels like a good fit. I'm sixty. (Auuuurggghhh! How did THAT happen?) My kids are all grown - youngest, my only boy, moved out to the west coast about a year and a half ago, and HE was the most dependent, if you know what I mean, so I've been a little loose-ended ever since. I was divorced ten years ago and remarried five years ago to a sweetheart of a guy, so life is pretty decent. I live in central MA, work about 40 miles away in Boston (HE works in Manchester, NH, so we BOTH have major commutes) and on weekends, he paints, I do a little sculpting, and sometimes we manage to find a nice old piece of furniture that needs refinishing, and we do that together for "fun". In short, life has become WAY more comfortable than it was when I was struggling on my own and trying to pay college tuitions on top of the mortgage and everything else. TOO comfortable. (although we are by no means even CLOSE to being wealthy...we pay our bills and have a little left over. Period.) SO comfortable, though,that I've managed to gain 40 pounds, and he's gained at least 20. ENOUGH! I'm not ready to "grow old ungracefully! At the same time, I'm not going to be frantic about the whole thing, either. I do hope you'll let me squeeze in here - and do a little "grazing".

Ella

Welcome to the herd, Ellabella. You're most welcome, although you've probably surmised that weight loss isn't usually the main topic around here. Which doesn't mean that every once in a while we pick up steam in that regard.

I got Gpa Jim all settle in the "rehab facility", which we all know is a nursing home, we just don't want to admit it. He should be out in a week or so if everything goes well. He insists that he's just fine, but when they were getting him settled in the bed, he was too weak to scoot himself up into a comfortable position and they had to get 2 nurses aides to move him. You're right about the rest of the family, Bagzie, but they just make excuses. No amount of me telling them what is going on with their Dad seems to motivate them to help. Besides, in a way, I feel it's something I can do for DH. If he were here he'd be taking care of his Dad.

My sister has been a lifesaver for me. She stops by every day or so, and calls me daily. I don't know what I'd do without her. It sometimes surprises me who is there for me and who isn't. She is just totally there.

ADHD behaviour or mental pause - I went to get in my car at a restaurant the other day and I kept punching the unlock button on my key, getting frustrated b/c the battery seemed to need replacing, when I realized I was standing next to someone else's car. It was silver but it was the wrong make. My car was sitting patiently next to it.

ohhhhhhhhhhh wabby!!! i did that with the car too!!! every second car is a tan coloured toyota{i should have looked for the rust} I was getting so mad i almost broke the key in someone else's lock!!!} good for old grandpa J--i know exactly how you feel---you are doing it for your darling so that is adorable----do you remember that when we lost bil,my sister had his parents living at THEIR home---one had a stroke and the other was on oxygen AND NONE OF HIS FAMILY WANTED TO DEAL WITH IT!!! SO THE WIDOW WITH THE THREE KIDS GOT TO DO IT UNTIL SHE NEARLY CRACKED!!!!--- needless to say they are nicely ensconced in a nursing home at the present!!!! ELLABELLA!!!! how lovely that you have found a pasture to your liking---the only problem with this cowpatch is ---WE ONLY COMPLAIN ABOUT BEING FAT!!!! OR TRY TO THINK OF LOVELY WAYS TO TALK ABOUT IT----APRON GUT,SAUSAGE LEGS,ETC------ maybe you are our personal messiah sent to save us from our ROLLS!!!!! post away~~~~!!!!!!----OKAY,SO HERE IS A QUESTION FOR THE HERD------------WHERE THE BLAZES IS SHATZI????????----kiwi---i am freezing up here-----stop the arctic air!!!!----

my new pic is of a lonely tree up the hill from my house---it's in a park that overlooks the Bay of Fundy--Atlantic Ocean---it's on my walk when i actually GO---------------which hasn't been for AGES!!! i hate snow and ice and i refuse to buy boots---i guess i can't loose weight til the snow leaves.

Bagz, you sound just like me. Must be the mentalpause. How do you survive winter without boots? I have 2 pairs of boots that I wear almost every day -- one low hiking style and the other taller leather and rubber snowboots with big thick insulated removable liners. I can't even get the mail and the newspaper without boots. I have a nice pair of suede furlined tall dress boots too, but the zipper pull broke off and I can't drag the stinkin' thing up past my fat calves anymore, so I don't bother with dress boots. (Why bother, I live in the woods anyway)

Your in-laws should be ashamed of themselves, Wab! I am incensed on your behalf. But I think it's lovely that you care and are willing to put the time in for Gpa Jim. I hope he appreciates you. I'm trying to imagine being in that same situation, and coming up a bit short. I mean I can imagine taking care of my in-laws, but I can't imagine my SIL sitting idly by letting me. Anymore than I would twiddle my thumbs while a sisterIL or brotherIL took care of MY parents. It doesn't compute.

Howdy ellabella! You are most welcome to join. The question is usually, how long can you put up with us? We have, many of us, been hanging around online together for some years now. What did we say, 10, Bagz? Sad to say, I am fatter now than ever. However at least I am willing to go outside and do something in the winter.



Later, cowsies.

Kiwi

Well, thanks for the welcomes! The motivation may be running a little thin, but what the ****? You're intelligent and interesting, and if you've been hanging out for ten years and are willing to let me jump in, here I am. I'm sympathizing with the weather-related stuff, Oh lawdie how I hate winter! Didn't used to. Used to ski and everything. Yeah. Well, now all I want to do is get safely to and from my car without falling on the ice and breaking my butt. Of course, it can be very pretty. In pictures. Your tree is wonderful, Bagzz. For a while when I first married my present DH, we were living in his house/studio up on top of a great big hill - or maybe it was a mini-mountain - in Temple, NH, just over the ridge from Mount Monadnock. That hill would freeze solid after it snowed, and driving down into civilization, you took you life in your hands. Absolutely beautiful up there - in both winter and summer. The views were breathtaking. BUT, it meant a two hour trek to work in Boston for me, and we ended up buying an old restored victorian in central Mass (pretty much equidistant between Manchester and Boston) and I love it.
With re: caring for elderly relatives, and especially in-laws, I took care of my ex-husband's mother for six months when she had terminal uterine cancer. She was a lovely woman who did so much for every one of her kids - and daughers and sons-in-law and all the grandchildren. But, when she couldn't stay home by herself any longer, they all had a million excuses. I had a rotten relationship with my own mother, and she had retired down to Florida right after my father died, so I didn't see much of her in her later years, anyway. Having my mother-in-law with us for as long as we did was a nice thing for me and for my kids too, really. Interesting, though - when she got real bad, and we had to hospitalize her, and she only had a few days left, my sister-in-law (her daughter) swooped down and insisted on taking her home with her. What was THAT all about????? Tsk.
Oh, jeeze. I've done the car thing, too. Or forgotten completely where in the danged lot I parked it and roamed around like a lost soul with my grocery cart from one row to the next.
I have boots. Many boots. All I wear is boots in winter. Tall boots, short boots, leather boots, suede boots, rubber boots. ANY kind of boots. My feet get cold.
And, finally, what I'm doing, see, is low calorie, high fiber, drinking lots of water, which I never did before, peeing a lot, and WALKING. Yes, folks, I have walked THREE times since Saturday! And you know what? I feel good! I feel virtuous! I am a happy little heifer! (Watch - the end of the week will come, and I won't have lost a bloody ounce!)
Sorry for writing a short story, here. I'll try for MUCH shorter from now on.
Cheers!
Ella

We like short stories.

Today I'm on the girl scout cookie diet. One of the guys here brought in 2 boxes this morning. Then they all take off to do work and leave the cookies here staring me in the face.

Gpa doesn't like the food at the rehab facility. He says the tv doesn't work and there's no remote, until I pick up the remote from the table and turn it on and it works fine. He says the place is cold, so I run home and get his favorite tv blanket. Getting old is a b*tch. ------------ and I took his hearing aid in to be fixed and it's unfixable. A new one starts at $1000 -- and he really needs 2.

No need for boots here. No snow. No ice. It was sunny and 65 yesterday - back to 50's and rainy today. bleeh. Fits my mood.

Hello! Welcome Ellabella!

Peachie, did you ever have your multiquote problem fixed? It's the button with the "+ on it, next to the "quote" button. Click on that when you see a message you want to quote, then at the end of the thread, when you want to reply, hit "Post Reply." Ta-Da!

Wabby, I'm so sorry people are putting so much responsibility on you! It seems to be that way, doesn't it?

Still knitting, still schooling, still Sparking.

I'm such a bad cow! Too many birthdays and the mother of all migraines. Almost had to use my Lufthansa air sickness bag yesterday. Various children have also been staying home from school with miscellaneous stomach aches. ''Tis the flu season around here.

Still fat, still unmotivated.

Hi Ellebelle! And thank you so much for noticing that we are intelligent and interesting.

So sorry to hear about Grandpa Jim, Wabby! Like you need any more stuff to worry about.