Good morning to you all! I have already started a load of laundry and will empty the dishwasher when I am through posting. We have some errands to run this morning. We are going out to the commissary and get diet soda, dog food and treats for Fortune, snacks while on vacation and a couple things for breakfast and dinner. I am not buying a bill of groceries until I get back. We will just limp along with Walmart and Kroger when we need something. We are staying at a hotel with a complete kitchen so when we get there I plan on buying some deli meat, cheese, lett, tom and stuff to make sandwiches for lunches instead of eating out all our meals.

Susan: Wow, interesting study. I drink vinegar and honey with water when I have a sore throat so I could stand to drink it every day and try it with splenda or something if just the vinegar and water weren't palatable enough. They do keep you going for the full hour, but boy for someone like me who has bad knees it is a way to get a great workout without putting pressure on them. I just have to be careful of positions because I can pop my right knee out if it is stretched too far. Have fun with Glory. It is great you have such a wonderful close friend to do things with all the time. I just wrote a long letter to the girl who was my best friend in high school and my maid of honor. Her son is on facebook and I sort of tripped over him one day. I asked him to tell his mom hi and to email me, but she wanted me to call her. She said she missed me. I actually hate talking on the phone most of the time so I just typed her up a long letter and told her all that has gone on with us.

Jean: I have to get hair color today and get it colored so I can go on Tuesday and get it cut. It has developed a curl on top which will make it hard for them to cut it and it spike properly, but they will just have to cut it ultra short I guess, which is no biggy to me. I see the gray in my roots and the color has faded bigtime so I sure want to look better than this on vacation. I am going to get my nails done on Tuesday too so I will be all set to go on Wednesday. I hate the clothing they are putting out for large women. The shirts are ruffled and your boobs show, baby doll stuff that makes you look pregnant and ugly colors and patterns. The t-shirts have questionable sayings on them or stupid pictures. The ones I ordered are super long, but nothing I can do about it. At least it covers my belly. Walmart used to carry really cute stuff but lately the stuff is absolute garbage. I can find stuff on a couple websites but the prices are awful. I mean $50 for a t-shirt? You can't tell me there profit margin isn't huge. I ended up paying over $100 for a swimsuit to take. I swim so much in the summer I wear them out pretty fast. I didn't swim very much this summer though. I miss not being able to go across the walk and swim early in the morning. Hope your perm turned out ok this time!!!

I sat last night and watched the kids' movie, "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs." I had bought it probably a year ago on dvd and never opened it. I saw it on the movie channel and so I watched it. Cute movie and now that I have seen it, I am going to give the unopened dvd to Jackson for Christmas. Thomas is a bit old for it in years and wiseness.

Well, I hear the washer has stopped. Onward to the rest of the chores. Have a grand weekend everyone! Faye

Good morning, ladies! It's only 72 degrees today so lovely.

I was down .8 at WW this morning. It had to be the exercise. Whatever, I'm fired up for another week. I'm going to go do strength training this afternoon. Laundry is going and I'll mop the kitchen after I finish this.

Faye, I made a killing at the thrift store - I found not one but six bathing suits, size 12 and they fit, still with their Macy tags on them for only 98 cents each. When I was looking a a bathing suit, Macy's had none. Guess they gave the last of them to Goodwill. I couldn't believe a 12 would fit but I have been able to get into my 12 jeans (but wouldn't want to wear them long). I had my vinegar and water this morning and it wasn't bad tasting at all. I just drank it straight down and didn't sip. I got some Faye's Chili out the the freezer for supper.

Time to put clothes in the dryer. Have a great day!

Evening gals! I may not get in here in the morning so thought I would post that you won't have to read me griping about that clothing place anymore. I got the other three tshirts, (though they sent the exact same one in the dragonflies so I have two now! lololol) and I washed them and dried them and they are ready to pack so I am good to go. At least I was nice enough to email her and thank her for getting them to me. My mind said "give her a good email smack" but my heart said, "leave it alone, be nice and say thank you and let it go at that" so I went with the heart!

Susan: Wow, what a deal and a steal! I actually bought a suit too big when I bought this one a few weeks ago, but by buying it too big, it is longer and doesn't pull up over my belly area like some do. I have really short legs, but I am very long in the stride as my mom used to call it so swimsuits usually don't fit me well. I am too large for tall size suits and regular plus size are not long enough so I bought one that was too big and it fits better even though the bust area doesn't fit as well. Yeah for your loss! I am now famous for my chili and my sirlon tips! Wowee!

Maggie: Nothing is worse than dogs barking all night. I imagine they are lonely. Do they have them in the house when they are home at all? My vet says lonely dogs will chew on their paws, tear up furniture, shoes, etc and bark excessively. They also exhibit that behavior if they are bored. If they are bigger dogs maybe your neighbor needs to have a teen or someone go over and throw frisbees or balls or something with them everyday. Bigger dogs usually need to work off their energy. Fortune never barks when other dogs bark. We have a big dog 3 condos down and a real yipper across the street. Fortune is afraid of barking dogs so he cowers in my lap usually. He barks at things no one else hears, but usually only once! He is a real keeper that way. We would take him with us traveling and he would be in a hotel room with us and no one ever knew he was there except for hotel staff when we checked in. He only barks to go outside or when he wants us for something like if I am in the recliner and he wants me to put the kick up for he can jump up and sit on my lap. lol

Jean: It was a balmy 97 here today at around 2 pm. My feet are swelling again and they had quit when the temps went down. Hopefully we only have a couple days of this intense heat again. Luckily, it does cool down at night so the condo doesn't heat up as much as it did early in the summer. I think Happy Belly is a great sounding restaurant too. I mean better than the Upchuck Diner, huh? Makes for a much more palatable restaurant experience. I have these creamsicle orange capris and only have one shirt that is sleeveless that goes with them unless I wear all white. Well, the "mistake" flamingo shirt is gray and the flamingos inner wings are orange and outer a deeper rose color and looks great with the orange capris. So at least her booboos came out ok. I am not much of a sweatshirt wearer except in the house in the winter. I find them too short and I get too hot. Jack was teasing me this morning because I felt like I was cooking like a Christmas goose and had my side of the AC in the car turned down to 65 and he had his side turned up to upper 70's. Blasted menopause anyway!!! Did you see that little opera singer didn't win! The guy they picked was wayyyyy less talented but who knows?

Well gals, I am going to work on a couple things in the house before bed. I worked on my packing list and typed up some info for Kelly and Tom about Fortune. He quit eating his hard dog food completely and refuses to eat then gets sick so for now I put him on those little Caesars containers of dog food so I wanted to let them know to call him and show him so he would eat right away. Otherwise, Marty will think he died and went to heaven because he loves those too. I have some of my stuff laid out to pack and will be starting some of that tomorrow. Have a good night all!

Faye

JUST FOR FUN:

FESS UP TO YOUR SCORE! I GOT A 28

Can You Pass -?
The "Baby Boomer" Test

Scoring 24 to 35 correct answers means that yes, you too are a "Baby Boomer"! - that is to say one of the 76 million Americans born during the post WWII "Baby Boom." (1946-1964). (Answers AT THE BOTTOM OF THE QUESTIONAIRE)


Commercials

1 "You'll wonder where the yellow went, when you brush your teeth with_____.
2 Brylcream, a little dab'll _____ _____.
3 You can trust your car to the man who wears the _____.
4 This bread helped build strong bodies 12 ways.
5 I'd rather _____ than switch!

Gadgets

6 What are 78's, 45s and 33 1/3rds?
7 How many tracks did your tapes have in the seventies?
8 What is a mimeograph?
9 What's a studebaker?
10 What is a slide rule?

TV

11 Pat Brady, Nellybelle, Bullet and Buttermilk were all characters on what legendary TV Show?
12 They sang the intros to dozens of TV westerns.
13 "Dawn" appeared weekly on this seventies TV variety show.
14 Before Donnie & Marie, The Osmond Brothers were regular guests on this legendary TV show.
15 From the fifties to the seventies, this show was Saturday night's "must-see TV"


Movies

16 This former child star played "Dingy Ding Bell" in the 1963 classic It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World
17 This country star's Texas nightclub was the setting for Urban Cowboy, starring John Travolta and Debra Winger.
18 She starred with Elvis in Viva Las Vegas!
19 They sang and acted in John Wayne's great John Ford trilogy, (Rio Grande, Fort Apache, and She Wore a Yellow Ribbon.)
20 Sammy Lane was the love interest in John Wayne's first color movie.


Sayings

21 Never trust anyone over_____?
22 Good night, Mrs._____ wherever you are!
23 Fasten Your Seat Belts, it's going to be a _____night!
24 Who said, "We rob banks."?
25 Hey _____, watch me pull a rabbit out of my hat!


Music

26 Chubby Checker's big dance.
27 They sang Only You and Smoke Gets in Your Eyes.
28 What city did John, Paul, George and Ringo come from?
29 He sang "The Battle of New Orleans"
30 What was the first song Elvis recorded?


The News

31 "Good night, Chet,", "Good night _____".
32 California voters "wouldn't have him to kick around anymore."
33 What color was that Oleg Cassini "pill box" hat that Jackie wore at the Inauguration?
34 He beat his UN desktop with his shoe.
35 Why did we have to "duck and cover?"


*************************************



Answers to Baby Boomer Test: 1. Pepsodent 2. do ya 3. star 4. Wonder 5. fight 6. records 7. Eight 8. Your name 9. a car 10. A prehistoric calculator 11. The Roy Rogers & Dale Evans Show 12. The Sons of the Pioneers 13. The Tony Orlando Show 14. The Andy Williams Show 15. The Lawrence Welk Show 16. Mickey Rooney 17. Mickey Gilley 18. Ann-Margret 19. The Sons of the Pioneers 20. The Shepherd of the Hills 21. Thirty 22. Calabash 23. bumpy 24. Bonnie & Clyde 25. "Rock" 26. The Twist 27. The Platters 28. Liverpool 29. Johnny Horton 30. That's Alright 31. David 32. Nixon 33. Pink 34. Kruschev 35. To hide from "The Bomb"

Good morning, ladies. Another cool day in the middle 70s. Faye, please keep the hot weather away from me!

I went to church this morning and then to pick up a few things at Kroger. This afternoon is housework. That will have to count as exercise today.

Faye, I got 26 on the quizz. I'm glad you got something for your money but what a hassle! Cupid will not eat dry cat food at meal time, only for snacks. He only eats Friskies Prime Fillets or Fancy Feast Extra Gravy wet food. He doesn't overeat so I leave a small bowl of dry food out for him (in case I forget to feed him before I go to bee). Vacation is just around the corner!

Jean, did you get your cleaning done yesterday so you can play today? LOL

Maggie, the challenge starts today and ends December 19 - 13 weeks. I don't mind the vinegar, either. I think they used to put it in water to reduce thirst when farmers worked in the fields. I hate barking dogs.

Well, I need to get some lunch and get to work. Have a wonderful day.

Good Afternoon, Flowers! It's another cold, windy, gloomy day in my neighborhood. The car said it was 45 degrees on the way home this morning. We went to early church and out for breakfast. I've read the paper and have another load of laundry ready to take downstairs when I finish here. I need to do some magazine sorting and vacuum sometime today.

Maggie -- The little dog, who barks at anything, across the street was barking up a storm nonstop the other evening. The dad is an EMT (gone) and the mom works different shifts as a hospital ward clerk (gone) and there are multiple foster teens, with their own children, living there also. I finally called and said that someone needed to take the dog inside. They have a walkout basement and I'm sure the teens and babies live downstairs which was set up as an apt. years ago. The windows on our side were dark so I'm sure they probably couldn't even hear the dog, but I was tired of listening to it. They did take it inside then. Yesterday it got away from them and kept running through the back yards on our side of the street. It crossed our deck a couple of times and Ernie didn't much like that. I hope your 'thinking cap' is working properly today and you are enjoying the day. I've seen those Helpful Household Hint booklets advertised and thought they looked interesting.

"Gma" -- I'm so glad you got your clothing in time! It's great you have something to wear with your orange capris. I keep telling Bob that I think his heat/cool control controls my side of the car to some extent too. I'm usually in the sun coming or going and warmer than he is. In the winter I want it warmer and he says that makes him sleepy which stands to reason. I'm guessing the reason the panel didn't choose the little opera singer was that they think she will go far without their help. She is very talented! Thank you for sharing the Baby Boomer quiz! I missed being one of them by a year, I think. Anyhow, my score wasn't the best at 25. I missed the ones I'd never heard of or obviously didn't pay attention to. Can you explain #20 to me? I hope Fortune will eat ok while you are gone. Kelly might have to serve scrambled eggs to him.

Susan -- What are you up to today?

I think I will start packing away the summer clothes although the weather prediction is for 87 tomorrow! I will believe that when I see it! Have a relaxing day and enjoy yourself!

Jean -- from Iowa!

Good morning to you all! Boy yesterday morning was interesting. On and off, on and off with the electricity. It ruined breakfast finally and I had to chuck the whole thing. It has been doing that for several days now so I don't know what is going on. I don't know if it is just our area or what.

Jean: I know, it irritates me when I spend a wad on shipping something that is awful back. I usually do it priority mail because I can make up the postage as home on my computer than just run by the post office and drop it in the package box instead of having to stand in line. I was fuming yesterday because the dumb post office across town where they have our mail changed their hours again and I had to stand and wait for it to open on Saturday to put in my hold card. I always do it several days in advance you know so if I have to call the delivery super about it I can and I don't have mail sitting out for all to see while we are gone. As to #20 I got it wrong to, because first off, I didn't even know the movie or the character, but I thought it was the actor who played the character Sammy Lane and they wanted the movie I believe. It was dumb how they posed the question. I had a bit of an unfair advantage because I am a huge oldies fan so know a lot of that era's music and when I sold Tupperware I used to do the commercial fill ins for prizes so I knew all of them. I got #15 wrong because I put Gunsmoke instead of Lawrence Welk, #16 wrong as I had no clue, #19 wrong because I actually thought of Sons of the Pioneers, but it was the answer to one earlier so I didn't think it would appear again, #20 because again no clue, the Mrs Calabash one because I said Mrs Miniver lol, and the one I thought was from the Trix commercial so I put "kids" instead of "Rock".

Susan: Did you get all that cleaning done? I have decided to just hold off starting another round until I get back. It will be all dusty and such anyway when we are gone so I might as well just wait until we get back. I read an article that Dr Oz did that said that obese people lost a whopping 61% more weight if they ate 3 servings of yogurt a day. Maybe if I combine eating yogurt and drinking the vinegar I can waste away quickly! I actually like yogurt and always have it on hand here anyway as it is good for my digestive issues. I do eat the flavored stuff, but eat the fat free yogurt. I know you can put it in a lot of dishes to substitute sour cream especially the greek style too.

I have my trusty lists and I am going upstairs after I post, take a shower and get dressed and then pull clothing and get ready to pack. Jack is going to pack tomorrow so that we can load the suv first thing in the morning on Wednesday and off we go. Looks like the weather will be ok. Oh, I forgot to tell you, PCB is off and Branson is where we are going. I have to email Kelly today and let her know. It is going to rain everyday but one down there!!! See, wives DO know what they are talking about. We decided a few days ago when the weather report kept showing rain from Friday on. We would have been in Montgomery AL on Wednesday cutting the driving trip in half then get into PCB on Thursday afternoon and it is supposed to rain there from Friday through the following Wednesday. The radar looks like it is from the hurricane that hit Mexico's Yuccatan pennisula and moved up the Texas coastline and coming east. So, I discussed it with Jack the middle of last week and said we may very well not be able to get tickets to anything in Branson or a hotel, but I could check. They sell out a lot I guess. Well, I guess with the economy in the toilet and it being what they call "off-season" (I guess anything after Labor Day is off season) we were able to get terrific tickets to great stuff. Branson is going to get rain too, but everything we want to do is inside, our hotel has an indoor pool to swim in so unlike PCB we can still do all our activities. The boats in Florida we were going to go out on cancel if it rains and since they canceled our murder mystery dinner cruise because of booking that rehearsal dinner and you can't sit in the rain at the pool or beach, we would have had nothing to do the whole trip. We now have a great itinerary and looks like it won't be crowded. We are going on a paddleboat dinner theater cruise on Thursday (I got 4th row floor seats on the aisle for this one and didn't buy them until Friday,) Friday we are going to see a Beatles show called Liverpool Legends. They have a soundtrack on their website and are terrific. George Harrison's sister put the group together I guess. On Saturday we are going on an early dinner train trip into the Ozarks. I have only ridden on a train once and it was a city train into Philidelphia so am looking forward to that and then Sunday we are going to see the Chinese acrobats. Branson has an indoor place where you can play mini golf, bowl that sort of stuff if we want, shopping we can do and we booked Residence Inn so we have a full kitchen and living room if we want to cook instead of eat out all meals. I could have said "I told you so" to Jack, but I am just glad we were able to make this work. He is really looking forward to it and actually admitted to me he thought he would have a better time going to Branson because he doesn't really like sitting in the sun! lolololol The Florida trip was all his idea so..... He never listens, but then when do men ever listen!

I have my hair colored and will go get my nails done and my haircut and the car washed and vacuumed out tomorrow. I imagine we will just have sandwiches on Tuesday night so I don't have a big mess to clean up.

Have a good start to your week all! Faye

Good evening, ladies! A lovely day in the high 70s today. I just love this time of year.

I had water aerobics and Silversneakers today. Whew - 1 hour and 45 minutes with no stopping during the classes. I feel so good now and have so much energy.

I did get all my cleaning done yesterday. Tonight is Bible study. I had to chose between Bible study and applique bee. I decided I do so much quilting, I needed to skip it one night.

Faye, now you have a trip I could enjoy. I know you'll have lots of fun.

Jean, I never like winter white either. I'm a jewel tone or bright colors girl.

Have a great evening!

Good morning to you all! I had to go to the bathroom so thought I would just stay up and post and feed Fortune. It is going to be another very hot day here today. It cooled down some last night, but I don't think it will stay cool very long this morning.

I have nails and haircut, car washing and a couple errands to run before Jack gets home this afternoon. I also want to get all the laundry done and then we can pack this evening.

Poor Jack is going to have a long day today. I really can't understand the explanation, but something at the plant has been wired incorrectly for over 8 years and they were lucky the thing didn't burn up and start the plant on fire. He has to do all the rewiring today in several places that it was done incorrectly. His boss told him he wants the whole thing done before he leaves on vacation! I think Jack was hoping for a quiet day today so he wouldn't be so dog tired, but looks like that is not going to happen.

Susan: Wow a nice workout! I like bright colors too, but probably look better in pastel colors.

Nothing else going on gals. I probably won't get in here in the morning so have a great rest of the week. I will talk with you soon. Oh, I have to post this. I was looking at the knitting site I belong to yesterday and found this project. A lady designed this herself. It is the front and back just not sewn together of a sweater she designed for her 8 year old godson. I think it is adorable. Also, if I get brave enough, I may try this Spiderman blanket for Jackson, but then again I am not sure I could get it done by Christmas. The last row has something like 176 stitches on it!!!

Faye