CEEG...snow, snow, snow,,you can have all of it you want and ours too! I hate snow, cold weather, and dreary days. That is great you rode your bike for 30 mins, if it is getting easier, then move it up to 45 mins. I am making white chili tomorrow for the painting party, altho taco soup sounds wonderful and I bought the ingreds to make that too!

MELLIE...glad Jen and Richie can help out by taking the weekends for you. You need to rest and get all your parts to feeling better. Maybe a lil of momma Annie's chickie noodle soup? So sad about your friend with cancer, I pray the God takes the pain and suffering and makes him healthy and whole again.

LAURA...OMG I wish it were a two year lease, unfortunately it is a 5 year lease with the first right to refusal on the suite next door to expand. They better get to expanding before someone dies...lol Congrats on the loss and not losing 10 bucks. When summer comes it will be easier to eat fruits and veggies, always seems that way to me. Probably because I have a garden and live for warm weather and a garden.

ELLEN...where are you sister, hope all is well with you....at least let us know you are alive!!

back in a minute posting before I lose it.

OH and HAPPY....I love a nice hot summer day, could you please see about getting a pool for the commune. I am not talking about my lil baby pools I get every year for my back porch either. According to SHADDIE....big enough for her to do laps. Let us not skimp on our recreational items. lol Ok I can pitch in 10 or 20 dollars towards the pool...lol Now as far as Sven the pool dude/massage dude/and servant, I will go about 20K, if you all can pick up the rest...trade??? hahahahahhaahhaah

My man is getting home early tonight...by 6 pm....since I spent so much time at dad's house today, I have not even thought about dinner....maybe he can eat leftovers from last night....I made chicken bruschetta chicken and angel hair pasta and have tons left and it is oh so good.

Sass is passed out in my lazyboy as she went to dads with me. My two nephews and their GFs came over and brought lunch...baked ham, greenbean casserole and mashed taters...chocolate cake which I passed on since I do not like chocolate. Anyway, Sass thought it necessary to bark at one of my nephews till she warmed up to him. That is the most I have heard her bark since she was born...lol. My nephew just kept egging her on and laughing at her which made her bark more. By the end we were all laughing at Sass.

Gotta go and relax a bit...my dad and his house exhausts me. Don't know why but it does...maybe because I clean while I am there. I washed a wall down and dusted the living room, talk about sneezing my head off. Whew!! I had to use paper towels rather than the normal cloth dusting rag as there was so much dust on things. Now my head is clogged....

Love and hugs

Well really...someone else post, it is after midnight and I am bored. Need someone to post and keep me company. Hallmark channel is running a movie I have already seen, but good enough to watch again. Happy Sunday SHADDIE, or Sunday nite by the time you read this....have a good week at that miserable job. Hopefully it will pass quicker than you think. C was fine with leftovers, too funny, he said my leftovers were better than anyone elses first shot at it....He steals my heart. Tomorrow is white chicken chili for the painting crew...Hope they like it. Probably oughta get the rest of the laundry folded. BLAH...is there anyone out there that wants to chit chat? haha.

Annie - I certainly hope that the stops the company are taking away from C are not the most lucrative ones. Fine that he is beavering away to make things better for himself, but don't trust the company too much.
Sad that you won't be here but you can always wait for Michelle to move to CA and then do the journey in a couple of hops.

Happy thanks for setting up the new thread. I had in mind to do it last time I posted however, like lots of other things, it slipped my mind.

Mel - hope the shoulder is coming right. Keep calm and let the kids do the work.

Laura - how did the weigh in go? Hope you lost a bit so you didn't have to pay the fine.

Ceejay - Snowing???? Oh no! Winter - go away.

Michelle - Leave the love birds to it. Just stay away. You are only going to hurt yourself some more and personally I think the whole thing will self-destruct anyway. Post, e-mail or fax the tax returns and get on with your own stuff, you don't need the hassle, you don't need the furniture - just more to shift later, you don't need the ex. Let him be ex.
To keep in touch with the DMIL if you wish to, invite her around to your place. Pick her up from the kerb and drop her off there.

Okay - that's my 2c worth. I'm about to make some sushi for lunches for the next couple of days. A smoked trout one and a chicken one. Chicken will be cooked in lemon and honey and will have some roasted red pepper with it and some lettuce. The trout will have red pepper and some onion in it. And if there is enough rice left, I will do some spiced egg and lettuce as well. Definitely non traditional Japanese but then I am not in Japan and I am not Japanese.
So saying the day is getting away from me. I had better get on with it. Back to work tomorrow. About 9 weeks to go.
Oh and remind me to get in touch with the hairdresser tomorrow. I don't so much need a cut, but there is silver showing among the brown.

Ok Shad, you have me tempted. Just how do you make your untraditional sushi? With a mat and seaweed?

Annie - as for the pool, funny you should say that because I was just telling someone today (I forgot who actually ) that one thing we'd never get here is a pool. An outdoor pool. Not to say we couldn't clear out some trees out back, build a glass pool house / green house and put one in but ... filling the bugger would kill the poor well pump we have (hazards of rural living) and there's no fire hydrant in sight for the next 4 miles. Guess I could have them fill up the firetruck which would entertain Mel. However, it does not get warm enough up here long enough to warm pool water to the temp we'd be comfortable with. Daytime sun is quite warm and it won't be long before we'll be out having coffee on the deck watching the snow melt in the yard. But it cools quickly once the sun sets - kind of like living on Saturn I suppose. And night time chill always outranks day time warming. That's why we could not swim in Memphis much after Labor Day even tho we'd have days in the high 80's well into October. And DH said that it takes ALOT of money and energy to heat a swimming pool - even one you do short laps in. So.. I'm sorry - no one wants a pool more than me but unless one of you marries well or wins the lottery, we will have to be happy with the blow up kiddie pool at the commune. And don't be surprised if 136 wild turkeys, 12 deer, lots of birds, a few Eagles (and we ain't talking Glen Frey and Joe Walsh), an occasional bear, some foxes and the goats down the road decide to use our swimming hole as a personal drinking fountain. We do however have 346 very cold lakes in the county if you are brave enough... Rollerblades eh? I think you need legs longer than 2 feet long to use those. There's just the possiblity of breaking too many bones with those even tho I loved to skate. Heck C will fit right in - I watched the cross country ski race last week on webcam and one of the ski styles looked alot like the side to side push of rollerblades. In any event he can be the flag bearer in the parade since he doesn't have to use his hands to steer and if he can go fast enough, he'll get a nice wind and wave on the old flag. Which means we have to create a flag for us. Who's artistic? I have not cracked open the watercolor box yet or I'd volunteer. Doesn't Mel like to draw?


Michelle - I do agree with the others about walking away from the ex. It will only hurt you. Personally, I don't see this relationship working out. First she is moving from a totally different area of the country. Different culture. Different food, different everything. I'm from the midwest, I like the midwest (although not fond of the smelly smokers and people shopping in pj bottoms at the local Walmart). I'm not sure I'd fit into northern California and I certainly would not be happy in the Los Angeles area for 2 seconds. So I'm sure she will be horrified and bored and frigid very shortly. And as you know we are rounding the bend out of winter so she had no idea.... Then for the life of me I can't even imagine her moving in and starting a new relationship when his Mom is living there. I'm sure she's a nice lady but man, that's just awkward. Not only can you not be intimate (know they won't be having much sex - muhahahahahahahaha ) but you can't even have a regular old argument without it being uncomfortable for someone. I know you could use the help on some things but hopefully there are friends who might be able to step in once in a while. I am appalled that he would not let you inside the door to finish your furniture conversation. He probably didn't want you to see the shiny new box she put his balls in. Seriously - that is very telling. You don't need to be lugging heavy furniture out west. Start over at Ikea. With new stuff that doesn't remind you of another life. I just hope poor Santa will not suffer for this.

Geez I'm hungry. DH and I took an early dinner and I had fish and veggies which have probably been digested by now. That's what I get for eating healthy. But it's 1:30 in the morning. Too late for even a light snack so I guess I'm going to bed hungry like a poor orphan Please sir... just a crust of bread, won't you???? Talk to you in the morning kids...

That bit is traditional. You can't not roll it in seaweed and slice it up. When the seaweed softens up, it isn't bad stuff.
I've just done four rolls.
1 with trout, red pepper and red onion
1.with chicken, red pepper and lettuce
1. with pork rubbed with morrocan spices, red pepper and lettuce
1 with egg and lettuce. Egg has been mashed with lo fat cream and herbs.

Lunch is done, but I did so much tasting that I don't want dinner. So I now reckon it is wine oclock, time with the news and then masterchef and Downton Abbey. Weekend is done.

Happy
I could see where the wild life in your area would think that the cement pond was there's. As far as the late night snack, I usually have one.

Shad
I'm glad you like Sushi cause I don't. However, the chicken might not be to bad. Yep we had snow flurries yesterday. Didn't amount to anything but a dusting for maybe an hour.

Annie
Ah how sweet that your brother found your mom's wedding rings and that you and C will use the bands. Guess I'm a sentimentalist to say the least.
My house is clean once again. Gonna try to keep things picked up this week.

Mel
Hope you are getting to rest. It was a good idea for the kids to take the phone.

Michelle
It's a sad time right now. Sending you a Things will get better. Maybe once your new room mate moves in her dog and Santa will get along and you will not have to find a day care for him.

-----
I really didn't want to get up this morning but I had to come to work. No news is good news.

Morning all.

Michelle - The weekends sure go by fast, don't they?? Doesn't help when the workweek is elongated. What ever happened to no weeks over 40 hours at your job??!! Sorry things are now strange with the ex. Agree with everyone else, best to distance yourself from the ex and look forward. Good for you not accepting the additional piece of furniture - you'll be better off without it at moving time.

Ceejay - Yay for more cycling! I'm almost motivated to get into some workout clothes and head to the gym today. "A journey of a thousand steps starts with one." Did you cook?? Hope the snow doesn't stick around! Bocce is an Italian lawn bowling game, and it can be played on a formal "court" or on any lawn. We have a bocce ball set of our own and in the past it was funny to be rolling the bocce balls on our lumpy, tree-root filled backyard lawn. The ball didn't always end up where you expected it too! Minneolas, I learned, are a variety of tangelo. Now we know.

Mel - Good job on the weight loss - slow and steady wins the race. I almost think losing it all quickly doesn't give one enough time to get new habits to "stick". Glad the kids are taking over the weekends for a bit. Sal is lucky he has you to talk to. I like your March graphic with the sun and green in it. It looks like the temps will tick up a bit in my area starting around Wed. and I hope that means the end is near for Old Man Winter. Buh bye!!

Annie - How wonderful your parent's rings were found and that you have them. How nice to have them for your wedding. A five-year lease in the sardine can?! Ugh, maybe you need to make life uncomfortable for the neighboring tenants so they vacate more quickly and you can expand your space! Yeh, I think once I give increased fruits and veges a try it'll get easier, but I do love my carbs and sweets and today's starting off a bit grumpy for me because of that. The weekends are hard for me. I don't keep busy enough to keep my mind off what I'm missing... Sorry I wasn't awake post-midnight to chat. Happy painting today!

Shad - The weight loss contest weigh-in was fine. If I recall my starting weight correctly, I lost 6-7 pounds in the month, but like I said part of that was lighter clothes and no pre-WI eating this time around. (The first contest weigh-in was preceded by a pizza luncheon, and one woman in the contest said she guzzled a LOT of water before her first weigh in and so the 2nd weigh in naturally showed a great result.) They are also using one of those physician's scales, so the reading might not be as consistent as a digital display...but I did lose some weight on my first week of ww so that also helped. We'll see if it survives to Tuesday's WW WI! How did the sushi come out? Your versions sound tasty.

Happy - I think I recall that the speed skaters use the in-line skates to keep in shape for the season, so I can see it working for the cross-country skiers too. When I watched the Olympics, I recall that when the terrain wasn't all flat, they changed their movements to get up the inclines and it looked more like skating.

+++

Friday's dinner out with two other couples was nice. We didn't, however, do any bocce or bowling afterwards. Yesterday I did some more file organization in the morning, and then I spent a bit of time finishing up the Pat Conroy novel I was reading, South of Broad. The book was way too long for my liking, and his writing is a bit too flowery for me, so I'm not sure I'd read another one by him. So the book was a day overdue, and then I forgot to return the book to the library when I went out yesterday, so now it's 2 days overdue. No biggie, but the book just annoyed me, so paying a fine on it just add to it. Yes, just being silly and grumpy today.

I did a load of laundry and took doggy for his walk after finishing the book. I left the house a bit early to go to the Land's End outlet that was in the same giant strip mall as the restaurant I was meeting friends at for dinner. I didn't find anything there and bought nothing.

Dinner was nice - California Pizza Kitchen. I brought home half of my pizza, but the points were still way higher than the day's allotment. Bah. We didn't go out to a movie afterwards. With so many movies starting at 7-ish, it's hard to find movies starting at 8-ish. None of us were really keen on anything either. I still want to see some of the Oscar-nominated movies, but with many clocking in at well over two hours, I prefer to just watch then on dvd at home.

Nothing going on today. I've decided that I've had enough of my off-white boiled wool cardigan. It has gray heathering in it and that makes it looks dingey, and the dog hair showing up really well doesn't help. If I saw it on the rack at a thrift shop I'd probably skip over it, so instead of donating it to charity, I've decided to indulge my curiosity and see how it would look if I dyed it brown. I want another boiled wool cardigan in the brown family, but I rarely even see boiled wool cardigans, let alone in colors or styles I like, so why not?

Okay, I'm going to eat a little something before going to the gym - perhaps one of the eggs I boiled yesterday - but I AM going, and I will do 30 minutes of cardio.

Cheers!

Morning all,

Annie I also meant to say that I was delighted they found your parents wedding bands. Using them as your bands is a very nice idea - just happy that you have them back in your possesion again.

Ceejay - hope there's nothing too crazy going on at work. Did things calm down with the "situation" after you had a talk with the boss?

Mel - just be careful that you don't lose so much you float out of your chair Glad you're feeling good today despite everyone around you falling down on the job.

Shad - the more I see your post about your style of eating, the more I realize how incredibly different the food over on this side of the pond is for you. I would pass on the trout. The egg sounds interesting - for the life of me I can't even imagine that as sushi. I would try that and the others as well. Thanks for clarifying that you need the seaweed to make the roll - I was wondering about that. Guess sticky rice needs something to hold it together.

Another gorgeous sunny day out there. But it's still quite cold and snow covered so will just bask in the warm of the sun indoors. I have started to go through more bins and boxes so I have quite the semi-sorted mess about the living area. I think I will spend the afternoon clearing that out. Thinking about making a soup - just not sure which kind yet.

to the rest of the chicks. Have a good day mates.

Laura
Yes I did do some cooking but the taco soup was a bit spicey for my tummy. I pulled a LindaT and am trying to revamp it. I may have to discard the whole thing but maybe not.

Happy
Things have improved since I've talked to my supervisor. I did tell him that I thought what he did would be considered in my opinion black mail and possibly harrassment. I wasn't going to mention this but he or someone in the water department made a picture of me while at the car wash and was going to use it against me if I didn't come to work that following Sunday. I had missed work on Wednesday. And stayed in bed that day with 100.4 temperature. Had a 101 temp Tuesday night when I got home from work. I also told him what I did on my days off was for me and that I was single and took care of myself. I didn't care what happened at that point and he knew it. And at this point still don't care. I told him I wasn't going to the ER again in an ambluance from work. I don't have much faith in the bosses of this department any more, except my friend boss who has calmed me down considerably.

Mel
I've been riding the bike for around 8 miles per night except last night which was only 4 miles. I can tell a big, big difference.

Hi ladies -

Laundry is done, grocery shopping is done, and I took a tour of a doggy day care that's on the way to work. It's okay. I'm not thrilled that during "nap time", they put the animals in cages, so we'll see.

I appreciate all your wise advice...you are absolutely correct...the best thing for me would be to leave my ex-husband and ex-friend as truly ex. Leave them in my rear view mirror and not look back. Here is my concern about doggy day care though...we used to put our dogs in a doggy day care, and then one day when we picked them up, Doppler had a black eye...bruised, full of blood and swollen! And the day care place wasn't watching the dogs at the time so they couldn't tell us how it happened. Turned out it was even worse than it looked...the blow to his head/eye area was so forceful that it detached his retina and he has been permanently blind in that eye ever since. So you understand my reluctance to leave Santa in day care when I have another option....even if it is painful and unhealthy for me. Any emotional "damage" to me would be temporary...for a few months at most.

So my plan is to drop Santa at my ex's place tomorrow, call the vet and request that they mail me Santa's vaccination records, hopefully tour at least one or two more doggy day care places on the way home, and then pick up Santa either from my ex or his gf. He said she just doesn't want there to be any awkward or uncomfortable conversations...and I sure as heck don't want that either. I'll see how tomorrow goes and make my decision from there.

Granted, when I move to CA, if I can't rent a cottage or single family home, I may be forced to put Santa in doggy day care so he doesn't bother any neighbors that share adjoining walls.

I don't know if I told you that my cousin in San Diego and his wife of 20+ years have filed for divorce. They simply grew apart. Anyway, their 18-ish year old daughter (who is very sweet) lives with her, and their teenage son lives with my cousin in an apartment. So I've been thinking...since she got the house and has extra room now...I wonder if I could stay with her for a couple months until I find a place on my own. I just decided it doesn't hurt to ask, right. I prefaced it by saying that I wouldn't blame her if she said no, and I don't want to put her on the spot....blah, blah, blah. She said YES, Santa and I could live with her for a little while until he and I found a place. I'd pay her something for rent of course. That means that all I have to do is get a job there.

Now I'd better go work on my resume and also going through the rest of my boxes and culling out what I don't need/want. I'm sure moving in with her, I'll be putting a fair bit of my stuff in storage. Again, this is just a back up plan. Ideally, I'll be able to find a wonderful job and a place to live right away that offers exactly what I want: single family home or cottage, fenced yard, at least 1 bedroom (preferably 2 bedrooms), and within 1/2 hour drive to the beach.

On that very pleasant note, I'm going to to sign off.


Much love,

LOOKS LIKE A CRAPPY WEEK AHEAD ON THE TV JUST NOW.
TJ'S IS THURSDAY AND I HOPE IT'S NICE OUT.
NOTHING NEW HERE EXCEPT ONE ALARM AFTER ANOTHER.
LOTS TO REPORT SO I AM GOING DOWN NOW.
ONE WOMAN WILL BE HERE IN A FEW MINUTES.
HAVE A GREAT DAY




CEEJAY...WOW! THAT IS A LOT OF MILES YOU'RE PUTTING ON.
GOOD FOR YOU AND GOOD FOR THE HEART
ONE DAY WE WILL ALL BE RETIRED AND NOT HAVE WORK!!!
I FOR ONE CANNOT WAIT!!!





LAURA. SORRY THE BOOK WASN'T SO GOOD.
PIZZA....YUM! ARE A LOT OF MOVIES NOW OVER 2 HRS??
I REMEMBER FOR AWHILE THEY WERE SO SHORT AND PEEPS WERE COMPLAINING.
HOPE THE CARDIGAN COMES OUT OK. BOOD LUCK.
I LOVE THE LOOK OF BOILED WOOL BUT MY SKIN DOES NOT!!!!




HAPPY.....I WAS SORTING PAPERS OUT YESTERDAY.
WE SHOULD HAVE HAD A CUPPA WITH LAURRA TOO!
YOU BOTH SHOULD BE SENDING ME SOME OF THAT SUN!!
WHAT KIND OF SOUP DID YOU MAKE????




MICHELLE....GOOD LUCK WITH THE RESUME AND SEARCHING FOR A NEW JOB.
HOPE IT ALL WORKS OUT. THINK POSITIVE THOUGHTS ONL!!!

Good Morning all....

Back to the sardine can...lol. I know, it's a job. Can you believe this year will be 5 years I have been at Humana. Where has that time gone, just seems like yesterday I was job searching after leaving American Funds. Weird.

I made the best White Chili and corn bread and took over to the Cs house with us. My bro and SIL showed up around 10:30. They painted the master bedroom which will take another coat as Cs daughter had painted it deep eggplant purple. How awful that was and is to paint. I cleaned the stove inside and out as there was grease and gunk everywhere. Then came the fridge. I pulled both out from the wall and clean the floor, just about made me puke, grease, dirt, spills and dog hair. Wonder I don't get a lung disease from breathing it. Then did all around the edges of the floor and base board. Just about as gross and where they fed the dogs and cat was filth, then over behind the litter box. All of this in the kitchen. It couldn't of been healthy to live there. I feel like I need to drink a bottle of bleach. haha. Then we all went to Lillte Mexico for dinner. I got a spinach quesadilla. It came with a bed of lettuce with a small dip of guacamole and tomato. A bit of rice which I didn't eat. Water to drink. The quesadilla and salad was a bit much for my tummy and ended up losing a bit of it in the parking lot behind the car.

We have a winter storm coming our way. Get this, my house and most of Indy is supposed to get 1-3" of snow. Where I work on the northside the totals are 3-6". Hmm, may take me some time to get to work on Wednesday morning. Weather peeps have even named it winter storm Saturn. Hopefully this will be the last of the snow and we can move on. AMEN!! Looks like Laura is to get 6" or more of snow. Blah on that.

Oh and big news....me and a couple of other girls have had our keyfobs zapped to get us into our free fitness center across the street. We are starting on Thursday as several of us have meetings all day long. Couldn't get any easier than that I suppose I should just do it.

MELLIE...did you receive the goodies yet? Just wondering. Hope the seniors can use them. Maybe Jen just sleeps through all the bull the seniors pull at night...hahha. Glad she can help out. How is your shoulder feeling?

SHADDIE...I am not a sushi liker, no matter the kind. I can stomach the california rolls which really isn't much of sushi, but to me since I don't like it that well I don't waste my calories on it. Good for you getting some lunches planned out.

LAURA...I am with you on fru fru writing in books, just get to the point with minimal fru fru. Our California Pizza Kitchen closed down, I was never really a big fan of it anyway. Looks like you have some major snow heading your way. We have some coming too!

CHELLE....You got quite a bit accomplished this weekend also. Good for you! Stay strong sister...we are here for you!

CEEG...good for you on standing your ground with the supervisor. Once they think they can run over you, they have you by the nuts, so to speak.

HAPPY...looks like we will be building an indoor pool/green house for the commune. lol. DH and C can be the lifeguards. haha. Of course once they see me in my bathing suit both will be scarred for life and blind. haha.

Hidee Ho all your lurkers...

Have a marvelous Monday...

Loves