Good Sunday Morning Chickies....

My date went marvelous with Jeff. He is such a kind and considerate guy. Remind me later on down the road. haha. We went to a steakhouse, I got grilled chicken, it was so moist on the inside and quite tasty, salad and baked potato. Couldn't eat all day just so I could eat last night with him. He is so much fun and quite the talker. Never a dull moment. The evening ended up at my house (wink, wink) till he had to leave to pick up his daughter at the skating rink. He is golfing this morning, but supposed to call me this afternoon about the Colts game tonight.

Yesterday I got up, cleaned the entire house, washed sheets and put them back on the bed, cut the grass, sprayed for bugs, did all the laundry and went and tanned...all done before 10:30 am. Had the rest of the day to lay around, watch TV and read, till Jeff picked me up. This morning I have already made homemade veggie soup and peanut butter cookies. Suzy homemaker...haha

Not going to do much today, cept maybe think about Jeff. haha. Ok I admit it, I kind of like him a lot. Good Giggly Wiggly.

HELLO TO EVERYONE....

Love and Hugs

Goofy Blondie.

Annie
You are a busy little beaver aren't you. Sure glad you had a nice time.

Shad
Sounds like trying to get around Jersey lol.

Cee
The yard is on my to do list today. Parts of it need it and parts don't this darn dry hot wet weather is killing my lawn.


Weather just can't decide what it wants to be. This morning I had to put sweats on this after noon I will have to put shorts on lol.

Morning nice ladies. Just a quick check-in to say hi before I run off to play. My friend’s surgery went better than anyone ever thought it would and he is now in recovery mode. A huge weight off of all of our minds. Thank you all for the good thoughts sent his way - frankly, I think they help, which is an odd admission for an old rebel like myself to make.

Rainy today so I had planned to bike to my friends’ places, but it looks like it will be a driving day instead. Oh, I love fall and rainy fall weekends. Strange, huh? I’ll check in later.

Shy - yep, getting to that time of year when it cools off overnight and then swings up when the sun is out. I kind of like this weather.

Annie - glad to hear you had a nice date with Jeff. You sure were busy yesterday. Nice to know that stuff is all done and now you can have a day to relax. Goofie Blondie

Mel - thanks for yelling at Shad for me too tho I suppose if you are use to travelling you look at things differently than we do. When you have torrential rains coming at you, always good to be on a hill. Hope your Sunday is quiet - work in a nice nap too I loved the dancing cat - made both me and DH laugh - too bad it's not right sized for an avatar.

Shad - well geez Louise, I'd be sticking with the hotel too. Guess there's cities you venture out into and ones you don't. Sounds like you have to master at least a few key phrases to get around. I guess this is one country you don't need to experience - or at least you tried your best shot.

Ceejay - well if you're stuck mowing, at least the weather is nicer now. I think we've mostly said goodbye to the 90's. The evenings are nice and refreshing.

Carla and Madcat - get outside and enjoy this best part of autumn before it gets cold and rainy!

I already can guess that Michelle is outside

Hope you are hanging in there Ruth.

Carla - instead of making a cake, I made some nice fruit kabobs on swizzle sticks and froze them so we can have something fancy to stir our cocktails with

I don't know what it is but I seem to fritter away Sunday mornings in front of the computer and have done it again. I need to get outside and help DH - it's lovely out there. We have 12 butterfly caterpillars now and its' time for the annual hummingbird swarm where we get large numbers as they stop by and bulk up for their long trip overseas south for the winter. The yard is abuzz with them - at least 20, perhaps more because they flit about so quickly you can't keep track of time enough to count. I love this time of year.

Time to grab some lunch and get busy...

Here's some pics - I'm sorry they are so big, I thought I had sized them down smaller than they were. Kinda slaps you in the face. Mel, let me know if they take too long to display on the dial up and I'll adjust them.

This is the first butterfly caterpillar to hatch. Mind you this is sitting on 1 parsley leaf which is about the size of a U.S. dime - so the picture is blown up substantially. The caterpillars have markings that resemble bird droppings so that the birds don't eat them. As you can see this guy was munching on the leaf and yes, that is caterpillar "frass" on the leaf. You can bet I WON'T be eating any of this parsley



This is a picture of the newborn swallowtail 2 weeks ago after she pumped up her wings and was drying out. She's sitting on the flowers of my Italian basil plant which seems to be popular with alot of the flying critters in the yard



And this is an adult Swallowtail having a meal in one of the petunias in the hanging baskets by the swimming pool



And lastly, this is our scaredy cat Boo. DH was working on the stairs in the yard and she was "supervising" him. As long as he was working she'd be dozing but the minute he stopped, she'd pick her head up and look at him as if to say "why'd you stop??? Hey, c'mon, get busy now".

Loved the photos Happy.

Sorry, once more this is just a flyby. Three days left and I still have much to do. No more tripping around until I get to Singapore, then I have time to go to places and just generally laze the day away. It will be fun and I will get to meet up with some friends in the evenings - friends who are now working in Singapore. You should get some photos from there. Language is practically the same so I should be able to understand the three year olds there too - if not the cabbies.

I'll try to get back later.

Very good pictures, Happy. My uncle would love these.

Mel
Hope Hannah doesn't do to much damage. Love the dancing cat.

Reenie
I love fall just for those reasons, cool nights and mornings but warm afternoon's.

Ruth
How are things going?

Madcat
I like rainy week ends also especially if I'm home. I love the sound of rain. Glad to hear that your friend is doing better.

Annie
Good to hear that you and Jeff had a good time.

Shad
Sure am glad you had Pieter along on you adventure.

Michelle and Carla hope things are going well with you.

Trying to get things caught up so I can focus on the next 72 hour work week. I wish that my boss would try this for 72 hours and see what it's like.

My time of year is coming around. I love fall and winter. You can put clothes on if you are cold. You can't take skin off if you are hot lol. I have to admit I have enjoy this summer more than any summer for quite a few years. Having some of the weight off has really helped deal with the heat. I still don't expect to like summer except for camping. I didn't like it when I was young and thin I can't imagine I will like it when I am old and thin lol.

Good morning ladies,

Back in the groove again. Up at 4:30 and off to the gym for a good workout. The pool was a bit cool today, had to keep swimming hard to stay warm. Why is it so hard to form good habits and so easy to slip into the bad ones again?

Yesterday I made a stir fry for supper. The first time I made it, it was wonderful. Yesterday I cut back on the brown sugar and somehow the soy sauce took over. The house smells of cooked soy sauce - ick. I even lit one of my oil burners with the nice tangerine fragrance that ususally dissipates any odor but not today. Woke up early this morning smelling soy sauce

It was a nice cool morning today. DH said the night skies were a little hazy but there were still bunches of stars out as we went into the gym. This month I'm going to focus on crunches - got to get this belly down.

Shad - Singapore sounds much more intereresting than Jakarta. Hope you make it through these last few days without going bonkers.

Ceejay - you got that right about walk in my shoes and the 72 hour stints. People don't realize just how draining that is.

Guess I should get on with the day.

to the chicks

Good morning ladies.

Just a quick check in...lots to do today. I hope everyone is doing well. I've got a bad pain in the arse....quite literally. It feels like every muscle in my left cheek is spasming and I'm not sure why, although we did go on a short hike Saturday - which was really fun. I tried stretching and stretching yesterday while watching football and it helped, but the pain returned.

Happy - Thanks for the lovely photos! Swallowtail butterflies are so gorgeous! And Boo is so adorable. Good for you for being so dedicated about getting to the gym. I probably won't get to the gym until Wednesday as tonight is the Packers game on TV (during which I'll be stretching) and tomorrow is the Brewers game.

I've got to get a lot done today as I'm taking 1/2 day tomorrow. So I'll try and post more personals later.

Hugs,

Ouch Michelle!

I have found that when the sciatic nerve gets annoyed, it starts hurting in the butt cheeks and progresses to the feet if left unchecked. I hope that's not the case with you.

Maybe you should do a bit of heat and ice on your back while you are watching the game tonight.

I'd like to wish the Packers success tonight but coming from Bear country, of course you know I can't so let's just wish them a good game.

Hope you feel better...

Mel - are you ok? Odd not to hear from you today. Did you overextend yourself cleaning yesterday or are you still stuck on the other page trying to get my giant pictures to load?

di
That darn sciatic nerve can really hurt. You take a vibrator ( any kind will do ) and push is right into the heart of the pain. You really need to press into the never and that will really heap. Do that several times a day if you can and keep doing it for a few days after the pain stops. My left side likes to act up every now and again and I swear by the vibrator ( we have one that was in a pillow for the back that I took out of the pillow ) it works wonders.

Happy
I am not getting up at 4:30 am unless someone is paying me double time lol. Heck I don't generally go to bed until 2 or 3 am lol.

Morning chicks.

Shad
Just keep thinking Singapore and these three days will be over in a flash.

Michelle
Hope the back problem clears up soon. Enjoy the game.

Happy
I'd promised myself that I'd be working on abs this week also.

Mel
Hope things are okay.

Had a weird dream last night. I was around 8 years old an it seem's the German's had taken over Paragould. My parents, and little sister were playing dead when truck load of soldiers got out to come and check on us. We were laying on the ground. They started kicking our shoes and one said shoot her and we'll see if the others are really dead. I heard the shot and felt a pain in my lower right side this morning then I woke up. My side was hurting but since stopped. I don't usually remember my dreams.

OMG Ceejay, what an aweful dream. Sometimes they seem so real, or are a prelude to something coming about.

Whew Michelle, sorry about your arse....mine feels like that after going bowling. Yikes.

Rennie...you can all the winter you want and mine too, I detest winter and cold weather.

Happy...I don't know but you are right. Bad habits are easier to keep going than good ones.

Hey to you Shad, wherever you are.

MEL...Waddup??

Hello to everyone.

Love and Hugs