Hi Ladies.

Short post here..I'm like Shad--flat out busy-- (I LOVE that expression Shad!).
I will have to come back and post personals tomorrow. I'm getting ready to head to bed.

I had to work a few hours from home tonight as most of my day was tied up again with that dang Visa.

We found a bit of a loop hole and he can go into China the first time on a Vistors Visa that he gets at the airport and spend 72 hours and then he has to leave. from the same airport he entered China at. That works as he will then leave and go to Manilia and spend the time he needs there and then entry back into China for the second week using his single entry visa that he was issued.

We had to change some flights and hotels but it is done and he feels this will work. I'm a nervous Nelly that when he gets to China the 1st time he won't get the 72 hour visa they give at the airport. I'll cross my fingers...he has more guts than I do! But he lived there three years and feels ok with this.

I think I talked to everyone in NY and Chicago in the Visa offices about this trip and I know I NEVER want a job there!

I'll see you all tomorrow.

Hi ladies,

Quick post for me before I head off to bed (on new microfleece sheets no less) ahhhh soft and warm. :cloud9:

Thursday (later today) I have to get to the thrift shop early and drop off my bag 'o stuff (tea, lunch, water bottles, change of shoes, etc) and then head over to my yoga class. It will be a lot easier navigating the snow banks and streets without this sizeable bag. After yoga I will grab a quick lunch and then train one of the new volunteers at the shop (hopefully she lasts longer than 1 day like the last one who decided the cash register was just too darn hard to figure out :( ). I then have a desperately needed hair appointment a short walk from the bank after I walk over the nightly deposit. Actually since I am working Friday afternoon too I can probably just skip the deposit on Thursday and do both days at once - not like we have hundreds of dollars streaming in the door. But I can wish... Our neighbor stopped by today. Our mail lady is a real dingbat ditz-o-rama, she must know someone. L brought over an armful of our mail. We have noticed on several occasions we don't get anything at all or just one piece of mail. This is frustrating as she has been misdelivering or not getting our mail to us ever since we moved here. DH takes special care to clear out the spot in front of our mailbox as she was tearing up the road and hitting the box - I guess years of practice have not made her a better driver. :rolleyes: Included in the stack of mail I might otherwise have never received was an invite to a Humane Society volunteers recognition and celebration event. I was planning on going anyway. It appears I will be given an award to recognize my past year's help with the Humane Society. I was very touched. The event is in early March. I think it's nice that they do something for all the wonderful people we have here in town and the surrounding area that do so much to support the animals. Friday is going to be busy too - I have the thrift shop again in the afternoon and will have to scoot out of there - DH and I are going to a Crabfest Buffet at the casino. They will have crablegs but not much else with crab but they always put together and enjoyable spread so I'm looking forward to that. They can keep the chocolates for Valentine's Day, give me some shrimp scampi :lol: Oh and I guess I forgot I have a doctor's appointment at 10 on Friday. I'm not sure if it's a follow up for my leg, I hope it is and not cholesterol testing as I have been eating far too much cheese lately. :o I hope it's about the leg as I have been very good at doing my PT exercises but am still having a lot of problems. Sometimes my knee crunches and that takes me down.

You are talking about ganglion cysts. That's actually a herniation of the tendon. Whacking it with a bible / heavy book might be an old wife's tale but that will probably cause another rupture further up the tendon. Not good or recommended. I had one on my foot which the doctor removed but I took the bound bandages off too soon after surgery and it came back 2 inches higher. I was nervous about getting it cut again but after my bunion surgery they used compression bandages and it held in place.

I'm sorry I don't have time for personals - the night is getting away from me. I spent the day going through some old papers and for lack of a journal, I am just making notes in my blog about a time line of events that have happened in my life so that I can finally toss these receipts, copies and notes that are wasting space in my cabinet.

Have a good day, I might not be back until the weekend.

Quick check in....

I had insomnia last night...only got a few hours of sleep, so I'm exhausted.

I've got a couple things I need to get done today...one ASAP and the other by end of day, so I'd better get to it.

I'll check back later.

Much love,

1day@atime ~ Thanks for the welcome

happy2bme ~ Thanks for commenting on my weight loss. Thanks for the encouragement too.

annie175 ~ Thanks for commenting on my weight loss. Walking and cutting back on my eating does seem to be working so Im gonna take your advice and keep doing what Im doing.

diyana ~ The meeting I go to on Wed's is called DA4A its a disability advocate group and the Thursday meeting is called Peer Support Group. Thanks for commenting on my walking, Im glad to hear your impressed with my walking, That makes me feel good.

Laura705 ~ Thanks for commenting on my weight loss. Im sorry to hear because of the winter weather you havent been able to get to your classes at the gym, I heard that Spring is March 20th so the weather should be better next month.

Shad ~ What would you like to know? You said in one of your posts that you want me to tell you all more about myself so Im just asking what would you like to know, Im like an open book, I'll answer any questions.

Im about to do my 1st walk out of 3 for today in a few mins. Y*E*A*!!!!! Im also looking forward to going to my meetings next week. Hopefully we are done with winter for the month.

Morning all. Happy Thursday. My 4-day week feels like it’s crawling by – shouldn’t today be Friday already?? :?::?:

Happy – Sounds like a busy couple days ahead for you. I’m sure you can train the new shop volunteer without scaring her away – it wasn’t you that trained the one that only lasted one day, was it?? ;) So nice the humane society recognizes its volunteers. Without them, where would they be?? Oh brother, too bad you have a crappy mail lady. You might just need to rent a post office box instead of dealing with her haphazard ways, but then again, you’d have to hope the employee putting the mail in those PO boxes is competent…a situation like that would finally convince me to go paperless on my bills, lol. Our mail carriers are very good – I feel bad that Coal barks like crazy when they deliver.

Enjoy the casino buffet tomorrow – yum, crab, shrimp…I ordered crabcakes at dinner on Monday and they were less crabcake and more like big piles of crab, served with a nice fresh basil-tomato salsa as well as remoulade sauce. Yum!! Both bf and his mom wished they’d ordered that, despite enjoying their own meals. All the talk of ganglion cysts reminds me a bit of my right knee. Years ago I had some pain and a bit of swelling in one spot – I figured it was too much Jazzercising. I was also experiencing the occasional feeling of it “going out”. But the orthopedic doc said the knee joint wasn’t going out, it was some sort of fatty tissue in there that was getting hung up on the joint when I did certain things. He drew some fluid from it, nothing bad. I think he did a cortisone shot in the knee for the pain and that was that. I still experience that “going out” feeling, but only when I’m sitting on my haunches or down in the yoga position called child’s play – essentially whenever my knees are bent all the way under me. Hope the doc can help you with your knee problems – a crunching sound isn’t good at all.

Susie – Glad you got the travel/visas worked out. Hope it all goes as planned for your boss - good thing he is familiar with travel to China. Travel arrangements are one thing I wish I could leave to other people – the way things work in the world of airlines and customs, etc. can be very complicated and convoluted!!

Shad – Like Susie, you sound very busy at work. Sorry the system is giving you fits. Boo on going home cranky – don’t blame you for chilling out with a drinky after that. The show and tell night sounded nice. Glad you got the photo package deal tweaked to work out for both sides of the family. Re the shot of me on the beach – that was a selfie and so it was my finger. As good as cameras are these days, the photographer still plays a part in the quality of the photo. :D Okay, I’ll post a couple photos from NOLA, but the one is a band playing in the French Qtr, but I didn’t get the guy who (as part of the band) danced to the music. I think that kind of band probably also does the funeral parades that are the tradition in NOLA.

Ceejay – Good for you – let the trainee do all the work while he’s with you. That’ll help him learn anyway. Is his maintenance job just for the water plant or for other city departments/utilities?? So it's your weekend now? Ah, enjoy. Hope the friend stays at her place or elsewhere and not your place this weekend!!!

Michelle – Sorry you’re going to be dragging with exhaustion all day. I hope you get a good night’s sleep tonight!!

Hellos to the rest of the Worldlies – hope all is well in your little spot of this earth. None of us out east in the US thank goodness – they’re in a whopper of a storm. Our airport looked like a ghost town on the news this morning.

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Crazy awful food day yesterday, ended with going out to dinner with bf last night. Had a big cheeseburger and some of the restaurant’s homemade potato chips. Watched the Olympics last night – men’s speedskating, women’s downhill skiing and couples figure skating. Turned it off when the halfpipe or whatever it’s called came on. Not my thing.

After work I have my hair appointment. Bf wanted to use a freebie Noodles & Co offer he received in his e-mail. It’ll be sort of late by the time my appointment is done, but we’ll see how that works out. Like I need another meal out...

On with my vacation recap. Forgot to mention that Sat. night/Sun. morning in NOLA I did my two challenges, leaving two days left. Monday was Day 2 of the cruise and it was a day at sea. It was nice and sunny, and hot and humid and no I’m not complaining. :lol: I don’t think I took any photos to speak of that day, and the day is a blur. At some point we ate brekky, I did my challenge for the day in the fitness center (I might get to the gym more frequently if it had the beautiful ocean vistas this one had), visited the shore excursion desk to ask some questions, and then a couple of us got out on the pool deck for some sun. I took a couple dips in the adult pool to stay cool, but otherwise was content to sit on the lounger, listen to the band and watch people dance when the DJ took over with dance music. After dinner we went to the show in the theater. It was a magician who was a comedian. I’m not big on magic acts, but this guy was really funny, and it was more comedy than magic, so I really enjoyed it. We all did.

Day 3, Tuesday, we ported in Cozumel, Mexico. On tap was our excursion, Cozumel Highlights and Shopping. This was probably the one I was least excited about, as it was a bus tour, but we had an excellent tour guide and it was really interesting. One of the stops was (IMO) a tourist-trappy sort of place “Discover Mexico”, sort of like a museum/cultural center. If we’d gone alone and just seen a bunch of mini-replicas of Mayan ruins, I’d have been very disappointed, but it was our guide’s presentation that made it special and really made me look forward to our excursion to a real Mayan ruins later in the cruise. Another stop was a small town with both a tiny old church and a small Mayan temple sitting beside it. Then we stopped at a beautiful beach, and then a tequila tasting. The tequila stop was the least interesting for me – it isn’t produced in Cozumel…strictly for tourist biz, and I’m not into tequila. Rum would have been another matter altogether, LOL. The brief tour around town was also ho hum, but again the guide added a lot – he had a lot of passion and pride for his heritage and his hometown in Mexico and that came through in his presentations. After some dockside browsing in the shops, it was back to the ship for lunch and then my challenge. After dinner, we went to another show. This was an 80’s music show, with both singing and dancing. It was entertaining. Not sure why bf didn’t want to go to the shows when we went on our cruise 5 years ago…we really enjoyed the shows on this cruise.

Okay, better get this posted before there’s more interruptions. Dang work!!

Photos of NOLA attached: me in front of some nicely decorated balconies, the band playing in the French qtr, setting sail from NOLA on a foggy, misty day.

Pics from Cozumel: our arrival at cozumel; taken from the bus, a wind surfer (featuring my infamous slanted horizons); the first towel creation from our room steward, an elephant. We got one each evening. Silly, but everyone seems to like them.

Hi Terra! Re winter - I don't usually expect any hint of spring in March, but I hope. :) In April, I EXPECT, LOL. Enjoy your walks today! What's your involvement in the disability advocate group? (As with any topic here, if you don't want to get into it, no worries.)

Morning all and TGIF.


Yep it is Friday here. Thank heaven. However I have a fairly busy weekend planned as well. Tonight I need to go plan some meals using the stuff in the freezer and then sort out the rest of the shopping for the week ahead or maybe the fortnight ahead. Also I need to clean the kitchen and sweep all floors and put a wash on. Saturday, I am definitely up the hills for some much required exercise. Sort of planning an early one, up the hill, down through the botanic gardens, and back home along Tokyo Lane via the historic cemetary - as long as I keep moving, I'll get out of there okay. Then I am off to Petone (pronounced Pe tony) to the Petone fair. The whole of the main street is blocked off and there are stalls and food and craft sales everywhere. Sunday I will be off to the markets for fruit and vegetables, plus any grocery shopping that I find I need between now and then. I'd like to take a trip to the zoo at some stage on Sunday, but that all depends on the weather, which currently is 'ominous and threatening'.

Laura - love hearing about the cruise. I watched a cruise ship come into harbour this morning - the Seaborn Odyssey - she's not a big ship, but she looks nice. Earlier in the week we had 2 biggies in the harbour. Over 2000 passengers on one and nearly 3500 on the other. If I was to go on a cruise, it would be a little one. All those people would drive me nuts.
I saw a tv program a few weeks back about travelling the Mississippi River from it's delta to its source. There was a segment on those funerals and the marches. The man in the white coat in your picture looks remarkably like the man that the British tv presenter was interviewing.

Terra - I am nosy. Where do you live, have you got family, are you married, do you have a dog, is that the dog is your avatar, do you work, what sort of work do you do? Like I said, I'm nosy.

Michelle - hope you get some sleep tonight.

Happy - sad indictment on the mail services up your way. How the **** can someone who drives into a letter box, be allowed to drive at all. How many more letterboxes does she drive into?
Happy training.

Susie - always some way around things, even though I would not like to try and buck the Chinese authorities. They are not known for compassion and kindness. Good luck to the boss.

So it is back to the program for me. I will either bust it or fix it. Although I have to admit that fix it is not my ideal. I really hate that program.

Shad ~ I live in Wichita, Kansas, Yes I have a family, Nope Im not married, Yes my dog is the dog in my picture,Nope Im not working at the moment, Thanks for all of your questions.

I walked once today and I'll walk for the two other times before bed, I hope everyone has a good night.

Shad
Taking a cruise of the Mississippi River is on my to do list. Maybe I can get my sis to go with me.

Laura
Love the pictures. Thanks for sharing.

Happy
It's a nice gesture that some one would recognize the volunteer's at the Humane Society.

Hello's to the rest.

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Sounds like every one is busy today. I've been relaxing and cleaning house which wasn't to bad. I'd been keeping things picked up.

Hi ladies,

Had absolutely NO sales at the thrift store today. But my hair came out a nice color - I just had her trim it, trying to grow it out a bit and frankly I can't do much with it when it's only 2 inches long. I did quite a bit of walking around town today - from the senior center after yoga to the coffee shop on the corner for some soup, coffee shop back to the thrift shop, from the thrift shop to the hair dresser. I found walking in the snow it's own challenge, can't imagine cross country skiing 30 miles for the race next weekend. One of the hairdressers did her first race last year and is doing it again this year. We got about 5 inches of fresh snow between yesterday and today and she said it was REALLY difficult - she looked wiped out and she's a very fit lady. Yoga was fun but my arms seem to have shrunk a good 12 inches since the last time I took classes. :lol: I did try and review the closing procedures for the thrift store but was informed by the new volunteer that she's been running a cash register for 30 years and would be ok. I guess she will absorb how to do things like closing out the day's receipts by osmosis - I wasn't going to put up a fuss. I went outside to shovel snow and the coordinator stopped by - I told him she said she didn't need training and I winked and he rolled his eyes. Not my problem. :shrug: I also got there early from yoga class and she proceeded to put her hat and coat on but I informed her that she had an hour to go yet on her shift - most of the time I just let the others go if I get in early but this lady rubbed me the wrong way and cut me off whenever I started to explain something so I figured she best start pulling her own weight if that's what she wanted to do. ;)

Ceejay - I think a cruise along the Mississippi would be great fun - the river starts north of where I am which puts you more than half way down - that would make for an interesting route if you did start to end. And thanks, I also think it's great that they recognize the Shelter volunteers. We have a fantastic group of people. Just like the Memphis zoo is one of the nicest zoos I've seen - because of the help and dollars of the corporate sponsors - we have a really nice shelter because of the donated manpower and willingness to fund raise. I'm glad your new coworker is calming down - he still will probably do things differently than you - shortcuts.

Terra - Kansas - are you in the open plains getting socked with these snowstorms too? I have only been in Kansas once, when we drove to Denver and we probably took I70 and were north of you. Did you get all of your walking done for the day?

Shad - oh how I envy you a walk through the botanic gardens. :( You can have the walk up the steep hill but I'd love to see some flowers. Please do not go out in "ominous and threatening weather" I know you have talked of having a broom once or twice but don't assume you can rely on it to get you safe passage. :rofl: Having a walk through the fair sounds lovely too. I take it that Wellington summers are quite wet and rainy. Heard that back home you are getting weather as over the top hot as the snow and cold we are experiencing here. As for New Orleans, I think there are parts of it that would fascinate you and parts that would downright scare you. But you might enjoy the river cruise.

Laura - love the pictures - thanks for sharing them. Sounds like it was quite a nice cruise. You did well with the weigh in all things considered and I am really proud of you for completing your challenge while you were vacationing. I agree that having a gym with spectacular scenic views would be nice. I have a few yoga tapes that were made in southern California on a nice cliff or beach.

Going to have to cut this short. Of all things a black house fly has appeared on the wall. Nina our younger cat is an avid hunter and she is crawling back and forth across my keyboard barking and chattering at this fly that is tormenting her. Of course this greatly interferes with my typing so before I lose this post I will submit it. I have another busy day tomorrow will try and finish personals with my coffee in the morning. Nite all. Nina behave!!!! :nono:

Happy Valentine's Day :val1: You can extend the love over to your friends too :grouphug:

Shad - take me to the open air market with you :D

Laura - sounds like you had a very interesting bus tour in Cozumel. I think those tours would scare me unless I knew something about them. I always imagine rickety buses wheezing and rocking their way up steep mountains loaded with people and chickens :rofl: Glad you got an interesting tour guide.

Michelle - I hope you got some sleep last night. Why is it with insomnia you toss all night and then 2 hours before you need to get up, that's when you finally fall into a deep sleep, just to have to wake up all foggy and tired feeling?

Annie Annie - come out from hiding where ever you are. How was the Kiwanis meeting? Did DS take stock of all that got stolen?

Hi Susie :wave: hope your work day is more like 8 hours instead of 12.

Can't hang around - gotta jump in the shower and get ready for my doctor's appointment. I am not looking forward to the cold rinse after washing my hair but I really like this color so I will work to try and preserve it. Have a good Valentine's Day and a good weekend...

Morning
Happy
The new volunteer sounds like my trainee. Oh well not much you can do. She will sink or swim.

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Going to get some stuff done. Didn't want to buy any more furniture until I move but I need another bed. My sister from Tx is planning a trip soon so I want to have a place to sleep other than the couch.
One of my classmates in high school posted a picture of our senior trip on FB. Don't remember it being taken at all. My how small we all were.

Happy Valentines Day to all my Wordly Chicks! :val3:

I am at work and should be working but my brain is tired and i want/need some me time, so I'm catching up on here and work can wait for 10 dang minutes!
I am VERY happy it is Friday and we are off Monday for President's day.

We finally had a TOPS meeting last night and I showed a small loss--.25 lb but hey, it was a loss. I have a new incentive. We have a friend who we haven't seen in a couple of years and his son is getting married in April and they invited us to the wedding. We plan to go and I want to be down 10-15 lbs..it will give me confidence about myself. So, I have something new to work towards in the area of weight-loss. I am one that I need small goals to work towards.

Happy: When I was reading about your lost mail, I have been having the same issue. I have missed several of my magazines because of this and it ticks me off. We have a different mail person often I think and so I"m not sure how to get it taken care of.

How nice that you will be recognized for your efforts with the Human Society!

Sorry you are dealing with a "Know it all" Volunteer...I"m sure you can set her straight...the best way is usually letting them "fall on their butts" and pick themselves back up! ;)

Laura: GREAT pictures and I am in awe that you worked out on the cruise! Way to go! Sounds like you have a full weekend planned...will you do anything different with your hair when you go to your appointment?

Shad: Your walks sounds lovely. I want to walk in warm weather and see green grass and flowers!

Michelle: What is bringing on the insomina? I hope you get some good sleep soon.

Ceejay: Glad to hear that the training is going better with the new guy. Now, if you can just get your "company" situation taken care of.

Annie: ganglion cysts are not fun and nothing to mess with...I hope you get it taken care of soon.

Tara: You are doing great with walking. do you listen to music when you walk?

Ok..the work world needs me so I must go. I'll be around this weekend.

Morning all. Happy Friday/Saturday. Happy Valentine's Day everyone! :val3: And it's payday for me, whoo!

Happy - We booked all of our tours through the ship, so we felt pretty safe with that. My understanding is that they also wait for you if something happens that would make you late getting back to the ship. Hope the new volunteer works out. It appears she knows it all, but what's with her wanting to duck out early? How did the housefly fare with Nina on the hunt??

Ceejay - A few hours of our cruise was sailing down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico. We didn't watch much, but then again it was a foggy afternoon, and my understanding much of that has commercial operations on the banks. Wonder how scenic the parts north of New Orleans are? I know up in the Duluth area are noted for eagle watching. How fun to see the HS pics!! I have some from ours - we chose Orlando, FL. My HS friends and I talk about it occasionally, but I haven't pulled out the photo album in a while. I might have to do that when we meet to look at our cruise photos.

Shad - I hope you enjoy your exercise in the hilly area today, especially the botanic gardens. I so enjoyed all the lush green foliage I saw on our shore excursions. I hope the weather cooperates for your Sunday and that you get to the zoo! Re smaller cruise ships - I think there's one very small line that has very small vessels that are sailboats. That sounds interesting to me, but I wonder if it just might be too few people. I'd enjoy one of those European river cruises - fewer people and I think the rivers are narrow and you really get to see the areas/towns you sail through. Wonder if the NOLA band guy I saw was really the same band guy you saw in the video...NOLA's not really a big city, it just might have been.

Terra - Hope you got all your walks in yesterday. What kind of dog do you have? Our lab mix was adopted as a pup from a rescue organization. He turns 11 years old tomorrow.

Hellos the rest of the Worldlies. Hope all is well.

Yesterday after work I had a hair appointment - touch up and cut. I had about an inch taken off - it felt like my hair was too long, especially with it having gone flat due to the dryness and the wearing of hoods and hats all winter. Of course down in the heat and humidity of the Yucatan peninsula, it went crazy and was wavy and frizzy and Bozo-like, but I didn't mind it at all after having hat/hood hair all winter.

After that, bf and I went to Noodles & co for a quick dinner - he'd gotten a 2 for 1 deal. Finally, we picked up some kibble for doggy, as well as some steaks. Doggy gets a steak (yes, cooked) every year on his birthday. I also make him some peanut butter biscuits.

That was about it for yesterday, except to report that eating was atrocious again. I will be paying for it at the scale on Tuesday if I don't get back on track.

Back to my cruise - Day 4, Wed. was Belize. When my friend B told us she'd heard that this area had the 2nd largest barrier reef in the world, we decided to do the snorkeling excursion, which also included a beach break afterwards. We all left the ship early to check out the shops, and then B & I boarded the catamaran for our snorkel trip. It was a short trip to the snorkel area. Neither of us has snorkeled in a while, so we were a bit nervous, espec. B since she'd never done it off a boat, just a beach. Something new for me was the required wearing of an inflatable vest. Before you were allowed off the boat, it had to be inflated a bit. Once you were in the water, you could deflate it if you wanted. Between your own buoyancy in the salt water and the use of swim fins, I don't think you really need that vest, but I'm sure others don't feel the same...Anyway, the snorkeling was fabulous - we saw a LOT of fish, a lot of variety, including some jellyfish. We were both so glad we did that.

The beach break afterwards was a short (1 hour) stop on a tiny little island that had little more than thatched roof structures for bathrooms, a bar, etc. It was a lovely, quiet spot, and the break was just long enough to enjoy a cold beer and chat with three Canadian gals who we met on the catamaran. It was a nice way to finish the excursion.

That night was another comedian, again, very funny.

Day 5 of the cruise was Roatan, Honduras. The excursion was to a wildife preserve/sanctuary. It was pretty, and we got to see iguanas, parrots, monkeys, other creatures and some lovely foliage. I had a very nice chat with the woman who founded it - it takes a very special person to do what she's done. After we got back to the dock area, we sought out a ship-"guaranteed shop" - too bad it was in a rather slummy area. We were not amused, but we made it there and back safely. The guest services person I spoke to afterwards wasn't receptive to my thoughts - they guarantee the shop, not the area it's located in. Whatever.

That evening the show was called le cirque bijou and it featured a lot of acrobatic/gymnastic moves on ropes, rings, curtains (LOL) as well as a couple who did amazing lifts - we all wondered what would happen in rough seas, LOL. Very talented cast, I don't care what someone like Simon Cowell (formerly an American Idol judge) would say about them.

Attaching photos.
1. Belize beach break
2. Roatan - iguana
3. Roatan - pretty foliage
4. Roatan - the suspension bridge (the alternate route was called something like "Chicken Way", haha)
5. Roatan - parrots