Latest Mel update:

dear joy
how mom stayed out of the hospital is a mystery to all of us.
it must be how much she hates hospitals.
the antibiotics are working but cause other problems.
she still has a few days to go.
she's been very quiet this time and left the signs on the door.
Richie and I are still doing the medical alarms. he loves it. ha! ha!
he doesn't know how mom can wear so many hats.
mom is not out of the woods yet but I will let you know when she is.
sending much love, jen & richie


Be back tomorrow when my eyes will stay open for a longer period of time. Definitely proves that coffee doesn't keep me awake - and I like mine fairly strong.

Good morning all,

Or should I say afternoon as the clock just ticked over. Yesterday I spent a lot of money - ordered a new microwave and also ordered replacement shades for the front part of the house - open living room / dining room combo. Ordered some fall / winter boots too. All on sale - tried to get the most for my money where possible. It's chilly today and going to dip below freezing tonight - I am trying to decide if it's even worth it to cover things or should I just pull everything out. I do have a lot of tomatoes left on the vines but the flowers are starting to peter out. We still have 2 hummingbirds who really should have left already - they are feeding on the flowers more than the one feeder we still have up. I am keeping the nectar fresh in case there's any passers by or stragglers left. Going to make a pot of Olive Garden's Zuppa Toscano - one of DH's favorite soups with spicy Italian Sausage, potatoes and kale. Perfect day for soup.

I haven't heard about the job - probably won't. That's ok, there's more than enough to fill my life and I am cool with what will be, will be.

Thank you for the update on Mel Shad. Sounds like you could use a bit of a rest yourself.

Do you mostly have rice and cotton up your way Ceejay? I was really surprised to see all the rice fields - I always imagined rice in some place like China or Japan, not here in the south Speaking of rice, I should make some sushi too before my avocados go soft.

Have fun with the writing class Michelle - it's good to have something like that spur you on to write. Just hope you can squeeze the time inbetween other things.

Hellos to the rest of the Worldies, I'm off to get cooking. Enjoy your Sunday.

Happy
We have rice, cotton and soy beans and sometimes you see a milo field. Which I might add is pretty this time of year. They are harvesting rice now.

Shad
Thanks for the update on Mel. I need to look her condition up on the computer to see if there's much difference in this and diverticulitis.

My day at work has been ho hum. A few stray phone calls but not bad.
I did 10 minutes of walk away the pounds with Leslie S this morning from YouTube. Gonna try some beginner's Yoga tonight or one of my exercise DVD's tonight.
I'm craving pizza and know I should eat it but I'm going to. I'll probably pay for it tomorrow.
Still haven't gotten caught up with the Ab challenge.

Quick check in since I am having my morning tea at the moment.

Yesterday went by in a flash. I cleaned down the kitchen. It was looking a little like a bomb went off since I had done some vege prep and some baking. Banana cake turned out well, but the Afghan biscuits were crumbly. Guess I didn't get the butter soft enough or something.
Just as I got the kitchen more or less straight and was about to start on the next task, the DS2 appeared and stayed for a cup of tea and a chat. He seems to be overcoming the Bells Palsy but the bruising on his legs and feet are quite gruesome and worrying. No doubt the blood tests will come up with something, hopefully this week. Hopefully it will be an easy fix as well.

Last night DS1's partner came through with some new photos. I'll get them to you as I can. S is growing up so fast. She has taken a few steps on her own, still prefers to hold onto mum or dads finger but is getting better at it. While she was here, they put a lock of her hair into a pony tail at the top of her head. I called it a palm tree - hey S you've got a palm tree on your head. Well now she has two palm trees on her head. Her hair is growing very fast.

Happy - love the sound of the soup. Yep the seasons sure are changing. We have our bugs back - or most of them anyway. Yesterday the biggest spider I have ever seen walked into my bedroom and around my bed. I gently guided him back outside. The flies were making a nuisance of themselves while I was baking (so was the cat - fish was on the menu) and I got bitten by some bloody mosquitoes when watering the garden last night. We haven't had enough of a winter to really get rid of them. It's going to be a long hot summer according to the powers that be. How the **** do they know. They can't even get tomorrows weather right much less next years.

Ceejay - Milo - what plant gives milo to us? I always thought it was a mixture of sugar, cocoa and some malty stuff. Shows how much I know.

Right better get off and do some more. Seeya

Will have to catch up later in the day on Monday. We are off to the vets first thing with poor Miss Nina. I'm hoping that her older sister will make the contribution we need in order to proceed. Poor little kitty - she is such a trooper but has dealt with so much in her young life. She was laying the bed tonight and I was petting her and she is indeed "bunny soft" as they proclaimed at the vet. In spite of her digestive issues, her fur really is nice and clean and soft. Hoping for the best for the wee thing...

Watched an episode of a Food Network show where they actually did cooking surprise, surprise. Everyone is complaining about 1) Paul Deen not getting her contract renewed and 2) how the Food Network has gone from actual cooking shows to competitions and game shows. This must have been an older show with Trisha Yearwood (the country singer). She made a divine salsa with avocado, tomatoes (which as she described were sidekicks, not the star of the dish), a bit of onion, the usual cilantro and lime juice but the secret to this was chopped pineapple. Ok Shad I know that totally ruined it for you But it was wonderful. I didn't have any fresh on hand and had to use canned but I am really liking salsas that have fruit in them. That was my dinner as DH ate the chili I made the other night which gave me horrid indigestion and I couldn't think of anything else that sounded that appealing to me. Of course now that I am about to go to bed I am hungry.

And really, I should hit the hay as we have an especially early rise tomorrow. Good night all.

Morning all, had 2 very hungry kitties that decided to start pestering me at 4:40 this morning. I was able to sneak some dry food to the older one (Meadow) who was not that impressed so she decided to go pout under the bed. Now that DH is up Nina decided to attach to his ankle in the hopes that he will follow normal routine and feed her. Poor baby.

It's cold and foggy this morning - did get to 31 degrees and at the last minute last night I decided to cover the garden after all. I'll leave the tarp on tonight and after that it will warm up just a bit - at least not to freezing at night. I decided whatever I more I get out of the garden in the next week, that's it.

Right now I'm tired - didn't get much sleep so dear coffee, do your thing. Catch up with you later...

Happy Monday...

Brother is out of the hospital. Found out the infection in his knee was strep and not staph infection so that was a huge plus. He is on very strong antibiotics now that he is out of the hospital. His blood sugar is under control now and his kidney levels are almost normal. Amen for prayers answered.

Curtis deep cleaned my laundry room yesterday and also put up a couple of shelves. I told him he could move on to the bathrooms, not so much of that did he do. lol. Anyway the laundry room looks fabulous. What a man.

SHAD...thanks for the update on Mellie. Sounds like you might like this job a little more than the prior jobs. Good for you.

HAPPY...I can barely stand to watch TV anymore. Too many stinkin commercials and frankly, I cannot stand reality TV. There is just too much of it. Bring back sitcoms like Happy Days, Laverne and Shirley, stuff like that, entertaining, comic, laughter. That is my two cents. Poor lil Nina. I sure hopes she gets straightened out soon.

CHELLE...sounds as if you had another wonderful weekend. Good for you. Pinch yourself, it is for real. Living life and loving it.

CEEG...I know how you feel about ho hum days at the job. I start getting the Sunday afternoon/evening blues about going to work on Mondays, then have to remind myself as least I have a job to go to, bleh.

LAURA...I figure anything we get out of the garden with this crazy weather, we have had a successful harvest. I agree with you. Friday afternoon meetings/sessions are the worst. Our internet and phones were down all day on Friday, so we all left a noon. Amazing how we depend on them so much.

MELLIE...still sending love and prayers.

That is it for me, gotta catch back up from Friday's loss.

Hugs

Shad
I'll have to ask about the milo. I thought that's what my uncle grew for his cattle. Hope your son gets good reports. Can't wait to see little S.

Happy
Poor Nina. Hope the vet can find out what her problem is. You could always pick the green tomatoes and fry them. Mom made a salsa type thing to go with fish.

Annie
Glad your brother has gotten some good news. And yeah for C in deep cleaning the laundry room and putting up shelves.

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My Monday has started out busy. And I'll have to play weather watcher today as there is rain on the radar. We could use some rain.

Morning all. Back to Monday and a full workweek.

Yesterday was very rainy almost all day. I had to run to the store early, but then spent a good part of the day with my tea and newspaper. Phoned my mom in the afternoon and she phoned me back a short time later because she said she’d just gotten home. Turns out she’d just gotten home from the hospital!! She wasn’t feeling well on Friday while out running errands and went home to nap. She then thought better of it and called herself an ambulance instead. She spent two nights at the hospital getting tests, etc. According to her, she had a very, very minor heart attack – she said the docs didn’t know at first if she even had one. Of course she’s rather evasive (doesn’t want to be the bearer of bad news), so who knows? She only called my brother about the situation, who lives in the same town as her, and he met her at the hospital. She said she was feeling very good yesterday, but she’s gotten some prescriptions and can’t drive her car for 10 days. I’ll have to get some more information out of her, or hope my sister can. My mom spoke just as much about the poor sick woman she shared a room with - don’t know if that was just a smoke screen to distract me from her own condition. In the meantime, my visit with her is still on for a week from this Friday. She turns 80 in a couple weeks and has been very healthy until this. I think maybe now she’s thinking more seriously about getting the house decluttered and more ready to sell.

Back to my Sunday…luckily the rain stopped around 4-ish and I took doggy for a walk before he got cranky. Bf and I went to our favorite mom and pop Italian restaurant for dinner. I had stuffed peppers, which I’d never tried there. Yum. Rest of the evening was ho-hum.

Going backwards…

Saturday morning I did a bit of reading and breakfast and then one BE workout and my ab challenge for the day.

It was such a beautiful day, bf and I went to the Skokie Lagoons and rented a canoe for an hour of paddling. So nice out there. We saw a Great Blue Heron, and happened to catch it dunk its beak in the water and snag something to eat. We hope to go again when the fall color pops. There’s a boating center in the Busse Woods forest preserve area that’s much closer to us, so maybe we’ll rent a canoe or kayak from there next time.

Afterwards we went to lunch at a place that’s been around for ages and is known for its burgers. This particular location has a nice outdoor eating area and so we had some more outdoor time. Back home, I took a hour breather and then walked doggy by the creek.

All that fresh air knocked me out. In the evening, bf went to see a band. I stayed home and watched a movie I’d dvr’d on the Hallmark channel a few weeks ago. It was “First Daughter” with Katie Holmes and it was pretty fluffy. I can’t believe it was actually a theatrical release in 2004! For some reason, quite frequently when I watch movies on Hallmark, the soundtrack seems to be so loud it overpowers the dialog and I get annoyed when I can’t hear what's being said. Surprised I had a problem with this movie as well. Wonder if that’s a Hallmark issue (or a Laura issue??).

Friday’s career development workshop was alright. One of the exercises involved identifying what your interests are and how much of them you get to use in your job - it was interesting. Of course we came away with a big binder of info and yet more assessments we could do. We're supposed to set up a plan to address our career development needs. Our bosses have already been through a workshop for this, so we're supposed to meet with them after we’ve drafted a plan. I’m thinking my short-timer boss could care less, so I might just meet with someone in HR instead…

***
I decided to skip the ab challenge for yesterday and move it to today. (Today was supposed to be a rest day, so it works out alright to swap days.) I’ll do it before I go to my Pilates class tonight.
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Ceejay – I had to look up milo and learned it’s sorghum. A-ha. Wikipedia said it was used for cattle feed and molasses. I was just listening to a podcast on my commute this morning that mentioned it was used by a small spirits distiller to make his rum. Also heard it's a major food crop in parts of Africa. Good job on doing the plank! I say don’t worry about catching up on the ab challenge, just make up your own challenge and start fresh.

Happy – Hope the vet can help poor Nina! Your cooking sounds tasty – I’m ready for some soups, stews and chili! The salsa sounded tasty too. I don’t think the Trisha Y. show is that old – I saw a mag article about it earlier in the year. Too funny – it did occur to me that the Food Network didn’t really have any cooking shows anymore, just contests. I still like the PBS America’s Test Kitchen and Cook’s Country shows. What’s in the chili that makes your stomach react? Is it the acid in the tomatoes? Saw on FB that you saw the start of the bike race – must have been interesting to see so many bikes like that. Big woosh of money for the house stuff. Been feeling like that lately with the car repair and airfare payments. And the car apparently still has an issue that had supposedly been repaired, I think bf was taking it in again today. Bleh. Temps in the 30’s!!

Michelle – Your weekend plans sounded fun – did you enjoy yourself?

Shad – Thanks for the Mel update. Glad to hear she’s avoided the hospital. “Where there’s a will, there’s a way.” Ugh, I’d freak if I ever had a really giant spider in the house with me. I’m really happy we seem to have had very few mosquitos around this year. I was worried because we had some very wet weather early in the season and thought it might lead to a LOT of them. I guess we got the cicadas and skunks instead, lol. Glad to hear DS2 is overcoming the Bell’s Palsy!! Looking forward to more S. photos. How did your photo wall turn out??

Annie – Glad to hear your brother is out of the hospital, hope the meds wipe out the strep. Nice to get out of work early on Friday…except for all the catching up today. I agree with you about harvests – lucky we get anything. Can’t imagine being a farmer and being at the mercy of the weather!!

Okay, enough rambling. Everyone have a great day.

Sorry to be away...and now I've got a to do list for work a mile long. Well, better to be busy, I guess. I had a great weekend...lots of fun with my friends. My joy is tempered by the shootings at the DC Navy Yard. Such senseless acts of violence!

Annie - I'm glad your brother is out of the hospital. I hope his health continues to improve.

Shad - Same for DS2. I hope he makes a complete recovery from Bells Palsy. Thanks also for the update regarding Mel.

Donna - I cannot believe the temps you're getting. Yikes! Temps below freezing in September. Sheesh!

Laura - Great photo! I'd love to do some canoeing or kayaking for an afternoon.

Ceejay - well done on the plank!!

Time to get back to my to do list. Boss is out today, but tomorrow he'll be expecting significant progress. After work, I'm either going to do 1/2 hour on the recumbent bike or an hour of water aerobics. Then it's home to do some writing in prep for sharing sessions in an online writing workshop I've signed up for.

Much love and many hugs,

Laura
Didn't think about looking milo up online. And come to think about it my sis always has called it sorghum. Thanks you save me some time. As far as the ab challenge goes. I've backed off a bit due to the soreness of my stomach area due to the ailment I've had recently. It's getting better though. It's sad to hear that your mom may have had a slight heart attack. Canoeing looks like a lot of fun. Your vacation is just around the corner.

Michelle
You are a busy person since moving to CA.

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It looks like rain is going to miss us, sigh. We really need some rain.
I did do some more exercising last night. I've been looking at the DVD's on You Tube.

Is it Friday yet? bleh...it is so beautiful outside. I am finally going to the doc today about my foot/ankle. I have limped around all summer since daddy's funeral in June like Igor dragging his foot around. It is time to see what is really going on in there and maybe get treated. That is today at 2 pm.

CEEG....we were to get rain yesterday also but noooooo. Looks like maybe tomorrow or Thursday. We can only hope.

CHELLE...did you get your to do list done? What do you have on the agenda for this weekend? You are so busy these days.

LAURA...I love love love canoeing. We go over to Turkey Run, Indiana, which is about mid state, west side. It is a beautiful park. As a matter of fact that is where my niece got married. So pretty. Ahhh, the Hallmark channel..I have seen First Daughter several times. It is a pretty cute movie. November 2nd starts the C word movies which will make our MELLIE very happy. We are on our last season of Smallville, thank GOD. It is getting stupider every episode. My hair dresser and I swapped out my Downton Abby for her Fallen Skies series. We will start that next.

Howdie to Shad-how's your DS? and Happy-how is your DH and your feet?...

Make a great day.

Morning all.

Ceejay - You have to listen to your body - if you're not feeling up to a particular exercise, skip it for the time being. Gosh, I would have sent you some of our rain - it rained so much on Sunday. I like the idea of checking out youtube for exercise videos. I've never found a yoga one I like.

Michelle - Hope you made good progress on your to-do list for work. Yes, the DC shipyard shootings are awful. Turns out the shooter was suffering from some sort of mental illness. Very sad if that could have been avoided through treatment.

Hellos to the rest of the Worldlies!!! Hope you're off to a good start or finish to your day.
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Nothing much to report. I ate way too much salty junk yesterday, so I'm not sure about having a good weigh-in today.

I did my ab challenge and Pilates class last night.

I received my passport in the mail yesterday, so I'm happy that's out of the way. They didn't send back my expired passport, which I believe they've done in the past. I was momentarily annoyed by this, but then I remembered that I didn't have any punches or stamps in it anyway!! I believe my only "foreign" travel during the time of my last passport was a ground crossing to Canada and they didn't stamp it at all for that.

I haven't received my BE dvd's yet and we're going on two weeks now. Sigh. I might do one of my other BE workouts tonight. I've been dvr'g the BE shows currently airing on my local PBS station the past week or so and have confirmed I have those shows already saved onto my own dvds. However, one of the shows looked unfamiliar to me. I checked my log (whenever I do an exercise video, I log which video/episode # so I don't repeat them often) and it turns out I'd never actually done that particular episode. I wonder how many of those are out there? I'm looking forward to finding out.

No movie tonight since they moved it to last night. Happy to have the free time.

The boss has sent the sr mgr and I three e-mails about some exhibit she wants done so I better get to it.

TTFN!

Annie - You snuck in on me! Glad to hear you're seeing the doc for your foot/ankle. Hope it's treatable because time sure hasn't seemed to heal it!!

Good morning ladies -

Quick post for me as I've got SO many things on my to do list for work this week! It is good to be busy, so I'm not complaining.

Annie - I'm glad you're seeing the doc...let us know what they find with your foot/ankle. I liked Falling Skies the first season or two. This season it sort of fell by the wayside for me.

Laura - Glad you received your passport! Hopefully you'll get your DVDs soon. Good luck at your weigh in, and good on ya' for doing the ab challenge and Pilates class. I hope your mom is doing better.

Ceejay - Yes, I'm definitely busier since I've been in CA, but it's a happier sort of busy...so I don't mind a bit.

Gotta get to it! and to all!

Much love,