So I get an email from the Dr. in our office that I do a bit of work for that says...


we need to talk....perhapsFriday. Has Haddad (HADDAD IS MY BOSS IN LOUISVILLE) spoken to you this week? Might be able to do a phone callthis evening or Thursday. Louisville today again, DC tomorrow, MLB thursday,Busy Friday in Indy office. W
Wow don't leave me hanging like that....with all the unsure around here, I am just a bit freaked out. Like what have these two been talking about behind my back, am I next on the list to get canned?

Annie
Think positive, You may be getting raise or promotion. Hang in there.

We talked, it is all good...may go to work directly for the Dr...more $$ also more responsibility. I won't know which end is up. I am excited.

MELLIE....yes, the govt is messing with everything. My son is getting out of the Army when his stent is up in about 1 1/2 years. They have taken away what little perks they had..education assistance, lowered their weekend pay for National Guard...he is over it. I am glad, probably means he will not get deployed. Amen.

CEEG...yes, I fell into that negative mode. Thanks for the bump on positive thinking. Shame on me. Yes I usually pan sear meat before putting it into the crocker. So far, today, Sassy is doing good. We will see.

CHELLE....good job on the dog grooming 101 class...lol. It will save you bundles on the grooming. I know you, you will master it in no time. Have fun meeting up with your friend from WI.

Hey to Shaddie, Laura and Happy!

Hugs

APPLE-PEPPER SALSA

Start to finish: 10 minutes

Makes 3 cups

1 large crisp-tart apple (such asFuji or Gala), cored and chopped

2 bell peppers (any color), coredand chopped

1jalapeno pepper,chopped

1 clove garlic, minced

1/4 cup chopped fresh mint

1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro

2 tablespoons cider vinegar

1 tablespoon lime juice

Saltand ground black pepper

Ina medium bowl, toss together the apples, peppers, jalapeno, garlic, mint,cilantro, vinegar and lime juice. Season with salt and pepper.

Nutrition information per 1/2 cup: 40 calories; 0calories from fat (0 percent of total calories); 0 g fat (0 g saturated; 0 gtrans fats); 0 mgcholesterol; 10 g carbohydrate; 2 g fiber; 6 g sugar; 1 gprotein; 85 mg sodium.





CUCUMBER-CORN SALSA

Start to finish: 10 minutes

Makes 3 cups

2 ears of corn, husks and silkremoved

1 large cucumber, peeled, seededand chopped

2 stalks celery, chopped

4 scallions, thinly sliced

2 tablespoons chopped fresh dill

Zest and juice of 1 lemon

Hot sauce, to taste

Salt and ground black pepper

Carefully cut the kernels from theears of corn. To do this, one at a time stand each ear on its wide end and usea knife to saw down the length of the cob.

In a medium bowl, combine the cornkernels, cucumber, celery, scallions, dill, and the lemon zest and juice.Season with a splash of hot sauce, salt and pepper.

Nutrition information 1/2 cup: 45calories; 10 calories from fat (22 percent of total calories); 1 g fat (0 gsaturated; 0 g trans fats); 0 mg cholesterol; 10 g carbohydrate; 2 g fiber; 3 gsugar; 2 g protein; 105 mg sodium.

Feta Bruschetta

2 Large tomatos
1/2 cup feta cheese crumbled
1/2 cup kalamata olives, I use black olives
1/2 cup Italian vinaigrette made with extra virgin olive oil
2 T fresh chopped basil

Mix all ingredients, refrigerate one hour. Serve with crackers, chips, lil toasties.

Morning all.

Annie - Glad all's good - being sought out for other job opportunities is a good thing! Those salsa recipes are so summery! I have to figure out a snack for book club Saturday - maybe something like that with some chips/crackers. Re pillows - so I'm not the only one with a pile of rejected pillows....No more education assistance for soldiers??!! I'm not sure how big of a defense we need for our country, but the less attractive they make it to serve, the more trouble we'll have with the voluntary recruiting system.


Mel - What a mess you had to deal with!!! :hugs: I have my doubts that many of these tenants should be living "independently" in their own apartments - they obviously can't be trusted to not bake themselves in this heat or not burn the place down when trying to cook meals. It's a shame that doesn't become apparent until after it actually happens! So the phone thing was just another instance of govt waste. Sigh. Re pillows, I've got a neck roll, but I think it's too big. So tired of this hunt for the right pillow! Enjoy your trip to TJ's!!

Ceejay - Good job on the exercise - keep it up sister! Wow, 9/1/15 - not far away at all!!! You'll have to give us the countdown every once in a while. Stay cool.

Michelle - I hope you had a wonderful time with your friend last night and not too much trouble with traffic & parking. I'm glad the obedience & grooming sessions went well. Both those things will take practice and repetition. Coal never did learn to walk very nicely on the leash, probably because bf and I have almost always taken the easy way out and use a flexi-leash. Really, the walks are for Coal, and when we use the short leash, it just seems unfair that he can't go very far and sniff around. With the flexi leash we just have to make sure we "reel him in" when the situation calls for it. If we were taking him with us everywhere, that would certainly be a different matter.

Hellos to Shad & Happy! Hope you're both enjoying your time w/ family.
==
I went to the Sears store a few blocks from my office at lunch yesterday, but they didn't have the pillow I wanted in standard size. (We have a king size bed, but I've decided king size pillows are way to big and unwieldy to deal with. And if I'm constantly buying new pillows in my search for the perfect one, I'm not spending the big $$ for that size.) Anyway, I ordered the pillow I wanted from Sears online and will pick it up at their store in the mall that's not far from our house.

Bf had a wake to attend yesterday, so the plan was that he would meet me at the Metra stop right by my Jazzercise class with all my workout gear and the timing would work perfectly and he would pick me up after class. Of course, that was when Metra decided to stop the trains due to severe weather warnings. (And of course the worst of the weather has passed through much earlier, but they appear to stop things until the weather service warning period ends.) So it screwed that up. I ended up just getting on an express train and going home, no Jazzercise class for me. Allow me a rant - I'm getting sick of Metra f***ing up my plans with their overly cautious actions. And I'm getting sick of sharing one car between bf and I. And it really wasn't the one car thing that messed up my plans, it was bf not making a point to get to the wake and back home early enough for me to be able to use the car later. Grrrr. End of rant.

Back at home, I did maybe 10-15 minutes of exercises with my light kettlebell, as well as some knee pushups. We watched the Hawks game - what a great ending!! I thought at best it would go into OT, at worst we'd go to a game 7. But those last two scores at the very end of regulation time - wow - and here they are, Stanley Cup winners!! Whoo! Of course, my timing is off - I'm taking a vacation day on Friday and that's the day of the celebratory parade dowtown here. Maybe that's really a blessing because the trains and streets will be packed with people, but right now it just seems like it would be fun to be around everyone in high spirits.

Tonight I'm going to movie night - we're seeing Man of Steel.

Okay, that's it for me. TTFN!

Good morning ladies -

Quick check in for me as I've got a lot of work to get done. Had a great dinner in San Francisco with my friend. I was so crazed after driving up there and then the finding a parking place hassles, we just ate at a restaurant within walking distance of her hotel. The food was really good, and the conversation was even better.

I've been checking out this online dating site. The site allows you to post a profile and see others' profiles and then send a message to those you're interested in. You don't get each other's personal email addy's or phone numbers unless you decide to share them after messaging through the site. Well, this one guy messaged me through the dating site. I checked his profile and interests and he seemed pretty compatible, so I answered him back with a few questions. He responded but didn't answer my questions...he asked for my phone number so we could text. I wrote him back explaining that I'd like to know him better. I told him what I'm looking for in a relationship and asked him to do the same. He wrote back again, requesting my phone number so we could text. I wrote him back saying he has not really given me any information other than his profile, and I'm not really comfortable giving out my phone number to a complete stranger. Again, he responded with no answers to my questions...just a request for my phone number so we could talk or text. That's it. This time, I didn't respond, I just BLOCKED HIM on the site so he can no longer see my profile or contact me. Freak. I'm glad I erred on the side of cautiousness. Gotta do that nowadays.

=================================

Mel - I'm so sorry you had such a crazy day. The tenants need to listen to you and learn how to take care of themselves in the heat, and they gotta quit burning stuff!! That sucks about the housing cutbacks. Thanks for the nice comment about "who cares where it is going" in terms of my friendship/relationship with D. You're right. I'll just be happy now. As I noticed from the guy from the online dating site, there are some really pushy weirdos out there.

Annie - That email from the doc would have sent me off in a tailspin too. I'm glad it's all good. More $$ and more responsibility....good for you!!! And there might be more job security working directly for the doc. When will you start this new gig? Thanks for the salsa recipes! I'm not a big fan of feta or olives, so I might pass on that. That really sucks that all the perks are being taken away from the soldiers.

Laura - I agree with you about the walks being for the dog. I prefer to use a flexi-leash too so he can sniff around, and I can rein him in if I need to (near the street or other dogs/people). Sorry about your transportation woes. I'm really amazed you and bf do so well with just one car. When I was with my ex, it would've been a big hassle if we'd only had one car...of course, we didn't live anywhere near reliable public transport. Bummer that the Metra stops the trains during the warning periods. I guess with the possibility of pop up storms, if they waited until the severe weather was imminent for a particular area, they could get stuck with lots of passengers on a train in the path of severe weather Congrats to the Blackhawks on winning the Stanley Cup! I hope you enjoy Man of Steel. I've heard mixed reviews. Of course, I've also heard mixed reviews for Lone Ranger and I want to see that movie just because Johnny Depp is in it. I've also heard mixed reviews about World War Z, but I want to see that too.


Well, I thought this would be a quick post. Ooops. I gotta get some work done now before the morning meetings start.

Love and hugs,

Ugh, this is not the day of my dreams.

I had a 2.6 lb gain at ww today. Didn't help that I ate too much yesterday, much of it very salty. And missing my workouts Saturday and yesterday probably didn't help either.

I forgot about a project I need to finish this week. It isn't huge, but I hate that I forgot about it.

They finally posted the other sr. mgr position for our dept on our company intranet - the boss told me about this way back before her vacation. I kind of hate how they're handling this. We currently have one sr. mgr, and our dept head is planning to retire. So they decide to hire another sr mgr., ostensibly to prepare for the transition. Are they planning on having the two of them face off for the dept head position? If I were our current sr mgr, I'd be anxious. But then again, maybe they've told him more than they've told me. And naturally I have no idea what they plan to do with my position, if anything. The admin took the day off today, sick day. She's on some sort of probation/improvement plan, not sure how that'll work out. I usually see those as a way for mgt to fire you, so I don't have much optimism for her continued employment here.

No doesn't take me long to go off on a paranoid tangent.

Okay, back to work.

Laura - Bummer about the weigh in. Don't worry about your position at this point. As for the admin on the probation plan...she should be worried...if my experience tells me anything...and it does. My former company, a major department store, has an interesting way of getting rid of people....first, when they do a reorg, they move you to a position doing things you have no experience or skill doing, then in a few months, they review you compared to people who are experts in the field, and since you perform poorly by comparison, they put you on a probation/improvement plan that you can possibly successfully complete.

Annie
I think we all get that I wonder what/why they are talking about me especially when it comes out of the blue. I'm glad it's good news. I'm going to try some of these recipes. Thanks for sharing.

Michelle
I salute you for driving in SF. I really don't think I could. Just riding in the back seat was enough for me. And then I asked the driver, my nieces husband, a couple of times to go back so I could pick up my stomach. Glad you enjoyed the visit with your friend.
I'd like to see Man Of Steel and the Lone Ranger. By bil really liked the Man of Steel.
You did the right thing on that dating web sight.

Laura
Hope the pillow turns out okay. I haven't been to Sears in ages to shop and I used to like to shop there.

Mel
Ugh, on all the issues you've been having. Did you have to deal with each tenant?. I've learned that if I'm cooking I have to set the timer. Otherwise I forget. So far I've not had to call the fire department.

___________
Nothing out of the ordinary today except for some reason the day is flying by.
I'm ready for a haircut. But can't make up my mind to go here or in Jonesboro. I'm ready to get out of town for awhile.

Laura
I'm with Michelle. A company can fire you for most anything, according to the attorney I've talked to especially if you are an "AT Will" employee. And as Michelle said companies can be sneaky. Some of us catch on more quickly as to what they are doing. Like for instance the change in how they are handling the way I retire. It makes me want to go ahead and turn in my notice but I really want to try and stay for another 2 years. I'm going to talk to my sis and she what she recommends. I'm not telling my bosses anything to give them leverage but I'm cutting back some of my trips downstairs. They have camera's if they really want to get technical. I hate sitting on pins and needles.

Ceejay - you're right about the "At Will" employment. As for your situation, if it will make a big difference in your retirement payout/income, I would stick it out as long as I could (if I were you).

Laura - I really wouldn't worry about your position at this point. If your performance reviews have been good...they should find a spot for you regardless of what happens with upper management.

Morning all

Another short post as I am waiting for my sister and brother to pick me up and we are going to an old family friends place for lunch. I will shortly need to do some washing as well.

Dang it my feet are really cold today. Obviously not enough exercise yet. I need to get up and moving.

The days have been cool but beautiful and from my nieces window I can see a really beautiful view across the gorge and down through the valleys behind Wellington City. I can also see the snow covered mountains of the Kaikoura Ranges which are on the top of the South Island. It's a lovely view.

Okay that is it - off to finish the laundry and then to pack my bags to move to my sisters place.

Good morning Chicklettes.

It was a long day yesterday no matter what sign I hung on my door.
The bldg. is falling apart....must be the heat
The auditors were dying of the heat.
Last man out of here was my cutie pie A/C man at 7 PM
Everyone will be able to stay cool & eat lunch in the community room today.
I have a few things to do early & hopefully the dam won't break again today.
I am running out of fingers to plug the holes.
My boss would not have called but she was beside herself with audit and repairs.
When I come back I'll read and then post personals.
Have a great day and stay cool out there!