Happy Monday All...

Was a very lazy weekend. We babysat lil man Saturday night and all day yesterday. He was so good and so funny. He is really talking now and putting words together. Nanna, What happenend? Oh my goodness, Papaw. Too stinken cute and so much fun.

HAPPY, I love your avatar. Did Nina pose for that pix? lol I know probably not. We had rain like the dickens also. I think the entire yard is flooded. Putting the tomatos in a dark place MAKES them ripen faster. Just FYI. Hence placing them in a brown paper bag. THe method of choice for me. Your festival sounds a lot like our Covered Bridge Festival that we all are going to next Wednesday. My DS says they always have a lot of craps (crafts) at those festivals. haha

SHADDIE...Home again, home again, jiggity jig. You are our gadabout. Safe travels. Any news from Jen?

CHELLE...I will send you a thumb drive. I am not as handy as you all on the puter stuff. I also cannot guarantee it will get there by this Friday. If you want to pull some pix off of my FB page that's ok too.

CEEG...may the force be with you on working until you are ready to retire. Some days my mind says ok you can do this, other days my body says you've got to be kidding me.

LAURA...our exercise queen and almost at goal super lady. Hope your weekend was marvelous.

Hugs, Loves, Strength and Healing prayers to our MELLIE.

That's it for me for now. I have a 4 day work week. My BFF is coming in from St. Louis this week and I am taking Friday off to spend some time with her. THat should be fun.

Loves and hugs.

Morning all. Back to work today. Mt. E-mail to tackle. Bleh.

Annie - sounds like you had a good time with the li'l guy over the weekend, and you have another fun weekend coming up with your St. Louis bff. Yay for a short work week!!

Shad - hope your travel went smoothly and that this week's work is the same! Great photos in dropbox - stunning scenic ones and I really like that one of the family in which you're holding an earlier family photo. And nice to put a face to Mel's Jen!

Ceejay - I had a couple fits and starts with dropbox, but managed to get my photos on there. Of course, right when I was ready to upload them, I realized my photos were high in pixels and therefore high in the kbytes, so I decided to re-size them so they didn't use up too much of the allotted space. Oh, and I believe the pictures are in order by the filename you've given them. Have you fully rested yet?? Six days of work in a row, with those long workdays you put in - I'd have been exhausted too!!

Happy - Sorry the cranberry fest was not as organized as it could be. Long walk from the parking!! Nice you got a ride back and didn't have to walk it - the weather sounded sucky. You sure did a lot of cooking & baking!! I picked a bunch of cherry tomatoes the other day, but just one big tomato (but a nice one). Looks like I'll be snacking on the little ones until they're getting to be past their prime. You sound all achey - all that walking, as well as all the standing when you work in the kitchen. I hope it's eased up by now. Do you ever get massages? Sure sounds good to me, and I don't even have any aches at the moment!! Love the pics you've posted on dropbox! You don't look like you've aged a bit when I compare the 2003 pic with the more recent ones! Nice of you to get Patty & Java's pics on there too.

Michelle - How was the cruise? Sounds fun. What a great idea. I've been on a boat that went to Alcatraz, and a ferry over to Tiburon, but a wildlife/eco cruise sounds so interesting!

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Gosh how quick the time off flies! My Saturday began with a full morning of sorting through the mail basket. Oy! But I got through that and a lot ended up in the recycling bin. And I could have sworn I'd purged the catalog pile not tooooo long ago, but nope, there were a lot of holiday catalogs in the pile. Have to keep up with this so I don't need a 5-hour session again!

After that was a hair appointment. Touch-up and cut, and it took a full 2 hours. Seemed like I sat with the color on for longer than usual, and then after I was rinsed & shampooed, I waited some more for my cut - my girl had to make an appointment for someone because another employee was busy. After that was a late lunch - we went to a place near a bathroom/plumbing showroom that we thought we'd visit to see if they have the recessed wall soapdishes for our 1950's bathroom. However, they closed at 4 pm and we were too late. We discovered this while we were sitting in the car in their parking lot waiting for the rain to let up before going inside. And guess what - it just kept raining & raining like cats and dogs almost all the way home. So much rain so quickly that we made many detours to avoid flooded roads/underpasses, but we still drove through one section in which our car was so deep in the water that I thought for sure the car would die and we'd be stuck. Thank goodness we made it through!!!

Of course it had stopped raining completely by the time we got home, so I put on my crocs and took doggy for his walk.

Yesterday was a lazy day, just did a dog walk and a couple loads of laundry. Bf was not feeling well all day, but finally got out early in the evening for something to help his stomach and it seems to have worked.

Tonight's my pilates class. That's about it for me. Back to catching up!

Good morning ladies -

I'm exhausted. I think I need a weekend to recover from my weekend. Had a great time on Saturday when my stepbrother and I went out on the San Francisco Bay on a catamaran. It was supposed to be a wildlife trip with the chance to see seals/sea lions, whales, dolphins. Well, we saw some seals. They were very cute. Anyway, it was beautiful (nearly 80), which is practically unheard of in San Francisco at any time of year. And it was lovely to get out on the bay. We went under the Golden Gate Bridge, but not too far out into the ocean. I took lots of photos, some which I will include on Mel's digital frame. Sunday, I went to the Packer bar to watch the Packers beat Detroit with the other Packer fans. It was a lot of fun. Then I went to Costco to pick up some healthy items for portable breakfasts, lunches and snacks. I picked up Santa from day care and got home...only to feel like I was having a blood sugar crash. So I ate a greek yogurt, and took a nap. I still didn't feel right for the rest of the day - and I'm not feeling 100% today.

Speaking of the digital frame...It looks like a lot of you have posted wonderful photos! I'm really enjoying looking at them! I hope there's some way I can have the filename display on the photo or a way to easily add a caption, so Mel knows what she's looking at. I must confess, I haven't gone through my photos yet. I'll do that this week.

As for those of you who are having trouble with DropBox...I second what Shad said. No one is stupid here! And I won't have anyone saying so. We all have our talents and areas of expertise. And like Shad said, if you want to email me the pictures 1 or 2 at a time, that's fine. Or save them to a USB thumb/flash drive/memory stick whatever the heck it's called and mail it to me.

Sorry to hear about all the rain everyone in the Midwest got. I hadn't heard about all the flooding. I'm glad you all are safe. I heard about the 3' of snow in one of the Dakotas...and I just thought to myself "I am SO glad I don't have to deal with snow anymore!"

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Annie - Friday is not a hard and fast deadline for the pictures. I just wanted to give folks a guideline because I'd like to get the frame sent to Mel sometime next week. Let me know when you send the thumb drive so I can be on the lookout for it. Glad you had a nice time babysitting the lil man. How fun that your friend from St. Louis is coming for a visit! What a wonderful time to look forward to!

Shad - I love the pictures you've posted. And good for you for doing so well on the Abs Challenge. I haven't done any since Day 2, and with today being Oct. 7, I'm several days behind. I'll just kick in from where I left off. Thanks for posting a photo of Jen. She's doesn't look like I pictured her. I don't know if I've ever seen pictures of Mel either. I really like all your family photos. Sophia has the most beautiful eyes! She's just adorable! I also really like the photo of you and your siblings holding a photo taken when you were kids.

Ceejay - Good for you for sticking with the abs challenge. And sending a check in the mail is totally fine. No worries. The photo of you and your nephew is really nice! Bummer that your friend isn't liking her new job.

Happy - Thanks for uploading some of Patty's and Mary's photos. Sorry the festival was difficult to navigate. I've both bought and sold things at festivals and craft fairs, and the people that choose take up residence right in front of a booth to have an hour-long conversation with long lost friends...ugh. That and the people pushing strollers that hit you in the ankle. I do appreciate the people on ATVs and Golf Carts who shuttle festival goers. Was this the Warrens, WI Cranberry festival. That's the biggest Wisconsin cranberry festival I've heard of...but I have no idea where Warrens is in relation to where you live. I hope your knee and neck pain have eased up. I'm enjoying sharing all the lovely photos too! You're looking as great as ever! And I love the photos of your home and the critters. And thanks for posting the photo of me, Annie and Laura!

Laura - I love your photos! It's so nice to put a face to your "bf" finally since I didn't get to meet him when you, me and Annie met up for lunch. Vacations always fly by too quickly...and then there's always Mt. Email and Mt. Piled Up Work to catch up on. Enjoy your pilates class tonight. I should go to the gym tonight...but it will be a "game-time" decision as right now, I'm exhausted and not feeling all that great.

Well, I've got to tackle my to do list.

Much love to all,

Morning all,

I just noticed Carla's pictures on the Drop Box. Sorry that I recognized her cat before I did her (I've never seen her before ) Just have to say that it's so nice to see everyone's pictures. I have really enjoyed this.

Also ... I don't want to be pushy but do you think maybe you can get this frame to Mel as soon as possible? I don't know what kind of shape she's in. I'm a little worried that we have not heard from Jen although I know she's probably running around like a maniac - I know myself that when you have someone in the hospital, it totally takes over your life. I think Mel will really love this, just wouldn't want to get it to her and she can't view it because her eyes are bothering her or she's doped up.

My neck and hips are really hurting so last night I slept in the guestroom so I could use the heating pad (they don't recommend using any heat on our memory foam mattresses). I woke up to a noise at 2:45 - thought the cats had jumped on the bed but no cats. Next thing I realized was this horrid smell in the room. I grabbed the heating pad controller and burnt my hand on a hot spot. As I was waking up and recoiling from the burn the thing popped a blue flash, smoked and died. I bolted upright and all I could think of was thank you Jesus that this thing did not start on fire and burn us all down. I have to admit it really kind of shook me up - the smell was awful so I got up and not only opened the windows but had to get a clothespin to pull the curtains back to get more air into the room.

Yesterday I made a batch of tomato marmalade - it's a sweet based jam with fresh lemon and orange slices as well as cinnamon and clove and a bit of ginger for good measure I picked through the tomatoes (which have to be blanched and peeled) and first used up the meatier Roma type of tomatoes. You blanch them, then chop them and let the excess water/juice run out. I didn't have enough Romas so then I moved on to the beefsteak tomatoes. Blanched and cut them up and darn if they weren't 80 percent juice and very little pulp once I pulled the skins off. No wonder my batch of pasta sauce was so watery. So I still have about 20 pounds of tomatoes left but not much else I can do with them since they are the beefsteak kind. A few can be used for salads and sandwiches but I'm afraid there's a bunch that will simply be tossed in the back. After a second year of gardening, I'm not sure I will devote an entire bed to tomatoes again. I can always supplement from the farm vendors on the streets in town.

DH is about to go out and rake pine needles - thank goodness that's what we have instead of mountains of leaves. I'm sure he'd like some help but I have a kitchen to clean up, lots of laundry to do as well as vacuuming and dusting. I will get out there later if I have some time. Tomorrow is a work day and we might go to see the movie Gravity afterwards. Wednesday if the weather holds up we might go for an ATV ride. The leaves should be at peak color so I'll try and get more pictures. DH put up the new shades which are a bit crooked because the window frames are crooked. That is bugging DH so I hope it's an easy fix. I also realized as I moved things to give him access to the windows that I have squirreled away at least 50 books I want to read "someday". Now that the cooking season has ended (although I still want to make homemade pasta), I need to buckle down and set aside some time to read.

Laura - thanks for the compliment! I know I am getting older. I can see that my face is getting that old lady puffy from loss of elasticity. Maybe I should try some of that Oil of Olay Regenerist stuff they advertise on TV for youthful skin that they use 19 year old models for !!!! They think we don't notice that???? They were doing chair massages at the cranberry fest. I would have loved one but we were carrying several bags and I didn't want to saddle DH holding all the stuff while I got massaged (bad enough he had to be the dutiful husband while I did the potty run). There is a place in town that supposedly does lovely massages - I may check that out next month after I save up for it. Bummer that you just missed the plumbing store closing. Hope you find the soap dish you are looking for. A friend of ours who has some great ideas is remodeling his mom's very old house. He retiled the shower and put in a "grotto" where the soap dish was. He put a cute tile inset in there and it looks really nice - still retained the vintage look of the bath, yet was more practical to hold today's liquid soaps and shampoos and such. We put a "soap shelf" in the corner of our remodeled bath in TN and were surprised that there was a very limited selection of ceramic corner shelves - we went to a supply store and the owner said people were favoring the gotto/inserts now. It was nice to see a picture of your BF on the Drop Box - I feel like we are an even bigger "family" now

Annie - no, Nina didn't pose for my avatar but if I could get her to wear a hat, she'd look something like that. I'll bet that Lil Man is at that age cute as can be. Just the perfect age. How nice that your friend is coming in. Hope you have a great visit.

Michelle - how was the cruise? Did you get any good pictures?

Shad - hope you arrived safely. Will this be a hectic week to get 3 weeks of training compacted into one?

Ceejay - sorry your friend does not like her new job. I can relate - there is a certain restlessness in changing things up before we find a nitch to settle into. I think you are wise to skip over the occasional frustration of wanting to retire THIS VERY MINUTE and instead wait until the time is right.

Well DH is making ALOT of noise downstairs. I need to go see what that's all about. Have a good day everyone.

Afternoon
Friend boss brought a couple of book's over for me to read through this week for my continuing education hours. So I'll be busy doing that later on.
I've only completed 10 of my ab reps last night. I hadn't really felt goo this week end. Not sure if my abs are sore of if it's something else. I'll make them up tonight.


Happy
I'm glad in more than one way that I've decided to stick things out till I retire. Wow, glad you woke up in time to get that thing unplugged. That's the main reason I don't like to use those electric blankets. One did me that way.

Michelle
Sounds like you had a good outing Sunday afternoon.

Annie
Ah, you make me smile when you speak of the lil man. I know he brings a lot of joy. How's Sissy doing.

Shad
safe travels.

Happy - You bring up a good point. I was really hoping to get the picture frame off to Mel ASAP because the sooner she gets this, the longer she'll be able to enjoy it. But I wanted to allow time for people to mail their USB drives. I'd like to get more photos from Ceejay if possible, and from Annie, and from Ruth too. If no one minds, either I (or maybe Happy) can pull some off your Facebook pages. Yikes, Happy, that's so scary about the heating pad. Does the heat help more than ice? I've found with my back that while heat feels good at the time, it actually makes my back worse because it increases inflammation. The tomato marmelade sounds yummy.

Morning all, from sunny and scorching Rockhampton. It's going to be a very long hot summer. We are already experiencing temps which are breaking records. My city (Logan) was 10 degrees C above normal yesterday - we reached 38.5C or about 105 and this is Spring!!!!

Happy - its a bit worrying about not hearing from Jen. I will send her a message today asking how things are going. As you say, she is probably not interesting in anything but Mum at this point. We can always send the frame with the usb stick. I presume the one that Michelle bought uses a usb stick to hold the pictures. And then we can send more later.

Michelle - unfortunately the wildlife don't always perform when we go out there to look. Just have to hope. We have a whale watch boat down on the Kaikoura coast in NZ that guarantees you see all three. Most of the time you do, but there is one very lazy whale who is obviously star struck and who will wait around for the boats. Dolphins are always fishing around that coast and the bloody seals live there. So much for that guarantee. You don't actually have to pay for the boat to see the seals. Most tourists don't know that. Not far from where I used to live in NZ there was a colony of juvenile male seals. You could actually walk among them (if you don't mind the smell)

Ceejay - sometimes we don't give enough thought to what is going on when we shift to someplace else. As someone who shifted countries, I can tell you that no one ever does enough homework on either a move or a retirement. You think you have got it, but something always comes up.

Laura - Mt E-Mail, Mt Papework and Mt Washmore. Poor you. Sometimes you have to wonder if it is all worth while going on leave.

Annie - lovely to have time with the littlies. Wish I saw more of mine, but then again, maybe not. Families, gotta love them.

Okay, time for the last run of the morning on this Abs challenge. Up to day 20. Only 30 sit ups, 40 crunches and the 80 second plank to go. Can't wait for this to finish. Then I need to shower and get on with the day.
Got to go find this place I am meant to be working at. I love it that I'm told that I am to go out to xxxx Railway workshops and full PPE gear please, but they don't tell you how to get there. Should have taken a dummy run last night I suppose.

CHELLE..PM me your email addy, not FB or 3FC, so I can send you some photos, this will be faster.

Cottage cheese with yellow and red tomato from the garden for brekkie. YUM, funny but I think about getting to work so I can have it for breakfast.

Last night I made cukes and onions out of the garden with vinegar etc. Then clean an entire whole watermelon. That was dinner. C said he had a big lunch and really didn't want any dinner. So that is what we had. Quite good too. Watermelon was juicy and sweet. Tis what I brought for my lunch also.

Weather is shaping up quite nicely in the next few days, at least dry until Saturday. 78 on Friday when I meet up with BFF and running around. That should be a perfect day.

No time for personals right now, will try to come back later on today.

Loves and hugs.

Michelle
I don't have any photo's on FB I did add a few from my uncle's area and other places.

Annie
Guess I'm going to have to buy a small water melon to get a good amount. Those in the individual containers do not look good to me. I love watermelon.

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Switched up my ab challenge and am doing chair sit ups this week. I did make up my challenge for the sick day I took. Also rode the bike for 10 minutes. I had an abundant amount of energy last night.
More later.

Morning all.

Michelle - Sounds like you had a fun weekend - maybe too much fun. Are you feeling better today?

Happy - OMG, thank goodness nothing worse happened with that heating pad!!! How scary!!! Maybe icing your aches would have been better after all, haha. Your marmalad sounds tasty! What a shame a large quantity of the tomatoes will go unused, but that's the way things happen. I will likely stick to only one or two (or three) tomato plants next year. Re the moisturizers/anti-aging products - every once in a while I do wonder how old the women in the commercials & adverts are. As for the soap dishes for the half bath - we really just want to do a quick update without too much expense. Soap dishes, towel rods, light fixture, medicine cabinet, paint.

Ceejay - Glad you're being realistic about your retirement plans. We've got longer life spans these days and more expenses than ever!! Retirement may not be possible for a lot of people. Glad you've modified the ab challenge and are back to it!! Go girl!!

Shad - Sorry you're getting this hot weather already! You've already got the high electric bills to sort out, you don't need more! I hope you hear something from Jen soon. Good luck with the rest of the ab challenge. I don't think I reported here that I finally finished it last Friday (whoo!!!) - I found the last part really difficult and time-consuming. But I did end up with a much stronger core. Definitely worth it, wouldn't you say?? I would, however, like to incorporate more back exercises into my life.

Annie - I had the cottage cheese/tomato combo the other day. Yummmm. Cukes and watermelon for dinner - sure healthier than mine - we had frozen pizza. Reminds me, I better guzzle some water now and see if that flushes the sodium out of my system before my WW meeting this afternoon.

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Found out yesterday that someone at work that I was friendly with got fired last week. Not in our department, but the department I used to work in long ago. Not terribly surprised, because she did tick off a lot of sr. people, but still sad to hear it.

Pilates was good last night. I have some muscle soreness today. I'm thinking of what my next challenge will be. I will likely create my own this time.

WW meeting today. Coming to the end of this session and haven't much at all to show for it. I need to get my head back in the game if I'm to make progress in the next one. Oh yes, I'm definitely signing on again.

Tonight I'm seeing the movie "Don Jon" with Joseph Gordon Leavitt. I've seen the preview a lot and think it'll be good.

Okay, better get this posted before further interrruptions happen.

Morning people,

The guest room still smells faintly of burnt electrical - I think I REALLY dodged a bullet with that one. Made a chunky roasted pear and apple sauce yesterday. This recipe called for peeled and cored apples so I went looking for the apple peeler/corer I purchased on a whim after we moved here. Found it without too much looking and gee was that fun! Took me longer to figure out how to use it than to peel my first apple. The sauce was interesting - chunky as I wanted it but a bit too tart for my tastes. It has firm but ripe pears we got at the orchard, I used 3 kinds of apples and has zest and juice of 2 oranges and 2 lemons as well as cinnamon, brown sugar and some cloves. DH said he really liked it although he's going to use the hand blender to smooth it out more and said he can really taste the pop of orange (I couldn't). Labor intensive work tho I tell you. Took me almost 3 hours to make the stuff and clean up and an hour and a half to bake it up. No wonder pioneer women spent most of their time cooking

Talked to my Mom yesterday - she got the results of her bone density test and has deterioration (or destruction as she called it) in both her hips. That's why they are bothering her so much. I have a spot in my neck and my right hip that are pretty gruesome right now - nothing relieves the pain and I'm hoping that is not bone loss causing it as I'm sure it's some sort of spinal thing at this point. I do admit I stopped taking calcium years ago - could not remember to take the pills as I was supposed to. I did have some bone loss after I stopped taking hormones but was still in the "green" part of the range when I had my last test 8 years ago. Shucks. I can't think of any logical reason for this pain and by now I've quite had enough of it.


Laura - I caught Jay Leno I think and he had Joseph Gordon Levitt as a guest promoting that Don Jon movie - it looked good. Let us know how it is. Good for you for sticking with the exercise plan and especially those challenges. I understand about the WW - like the challenges I imagine - easy to get off track and one has to make sure they stick with it to see results. Many years ago on this board I ran a fitness bingo type challenge - we blocked out each square of a bingo card with a specific item like hold a plank for 90 seconds, do 30 sit ups, drink all your water today, etc. And then you put slips of paper with each of those challenges into a bowl or something from which to draw from. Each day you'd draw and complete that challenge. I think it was a 5 x 6 squares - so 30 day challenge. Since the tasks all differ, it kept it from being routine or boring. And it isn't really BINGO! since you're not trying to fill in a line like bingo - kinda like the cover all squares game. Just a suggestion if you were looking to create your own challenge this next time around.

oops - hit enter too quickly but at least I didn't lose my post this time. Will continue personals with another post.

Now you guys have me interested to try the tomatoes and cottage cheese - I usually have fruit with it instead of savory. Reminds me of the old "diet plate" at Woolworth's lunch counter - dry hamburger patty, cottage cheese and a tomato slice I'm sure this is much better and I do have those tomatoes to use up.

Ceejay - sometimes I have purchased the small pre-cut cartons of watermelon only when the sliced big ones were looking pale and yucky - but the pre-cut are really expensive. Good for you for hopping on the bike again.

Annie - sounds like you had a nice crunchy dinner yesterday. You have given me hope that the watermelon I bought last week from the farmer may still be tasty - haven't cut into it yet. You certainly are still getting some nice warm weather. Is the garden still in?

Shad - wow talk about hot! I'm trying to imagine you in full safety gear down at the railroad. I thinking welders suit or space gear You certainly have some interesting challenges in your line of work. Makes for being extremely resourceful I imagine!

Michelle - yes, I don't mean to make you hustle, I was just going through some past threads looking for something and reading posts I was reminded how when Mel's sensitivities kick in, it takes her out of the ball game. I'm not sure what sort of medications or treatments she's on but it certainly would be a shame if she is in a position where she can't enjoy the pictures. I very much appreciate you putting this together for us I've heard of the Warrens cranberry festival also - I think it is bigger - by a little - than the Stone Lake one - Warrens is about 3 hours south of here - half way between us and the WI/IL border. I'm glad you had such a nice time on your cruise and got to see some interesting stuff. Can't wait to see the pictures!

Time for me to get something to eat and get ready for another day at the thrift shop. We are going to see the movie Gravity tomorrow - I'm excited about that. Have a good day everyone.

Good morning ladies -

I'm feeling better today. I got a pretty good night's sleep last night, despite being woken up twice by Santa and once by my stepmom. She was supposed to have an outpatient surgical procedure done this morning and needed to get up by 5 am. So I set my alarm because her alarm doesn't always work. Anyway...she came downstairs at 4:30 to tell me that her surgeon had an emergency surgery so her surgery was being postponed. So, Annie, that's what I was doing up at that hour. LOL

I'm in the process of trying to find a good doctor that accepts my insurance. The doctor I had is not on the plan. What a pain in the arse.

I wasn't planning on going to the gym tonight so I could come right home and look after my stepmom. But now that she's not having the procedure done today, I will go to the gym. After the gym, I'll start working on transferring the photos from the DropBox to the digital frame.

To answer Shad's question....yes, the digital photo frame does accept photos on a USB so we can always send more later.

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Shad - Is Mel's apartment address the best address to send the frame to? Or do you have Jen's address?


Gotta run for now...I'll try and do more personals later.

Much love,