Morning all. Back at work today. Made an appointment with my allergy/asthma doctor for 12/1. Lungs feel a bit better today. Using the inhaler twice daily now.

This Saturday I have a dentist appointment at noon and then a hair appt at 1:30. Lunch will have to be late. I don’t know why I scheduled it this way, except I thought I would go to Jazzercise in the morning. But if I do that, I will be driving to the city for the class, going back home to shower, then driving to the city again for the dentist. I don’t feel like doing that, so I guess I’ll skip class tomorrow and maybe do a workout at home. I like my dentist, but maybe it’s time I find one closer to home.

No other plans for the weekend. We're still waiting on a quote for the work on the half bath and kitchen ceiling. We also have the HVAC guy coming this afternoon for our annual furnace checkup and filter replacement.

That’s it for me. On to personals.
^^^^^

Annie – Good thing the doc gave you some gel to relieve your ankle pain. I hope the cortisone shot kicks in quick and brings you some longer term relief now. Enjoy babysitting the little guys tonight. Yeh, cold weather like this makes me want to stay indoors, but I’ll still be doing my usual dogwalks this weekend. It would be unheard of for Coal to not want his walks!! As for other outdoor activities…our oak tree out back hangs onto its leaves for a loooong time, so we still have raking to do. This year with my lungs giving me fits, I’m going to probably leave all that to bf to take care of. Having a vacation booked to a warm spot sure would be nice to look forward to… :beach:

Happy
Sorry the FB class was a waste of time and money. Definitely try to get your money back! :mad: Wonder if those evaluations will even make it to the powers that be. Re the ice cream – if you like strawberries, I might pass along the recipe for strawberry ice cream – unbelievable flavor. Not quite the season anymore though. Sorry the zipper on your parka is difficult. Today the zipper on mine isn’t giving me any trouble. Maybe just being new and stiff is the issue. Zippers must be the most difficult thing for manufacturers to deal with – they get a lot of wear and stress on them.

Shad
Sorry you’re not having a peaceful time at the moment. Earplugs?

Ceejay
You’ve been a busy bee. Nice of you to help your friend move into her apartment. She probably really needs the time away if she’s caring for grandkids all day long.

Hellos to Terra, Michelle, Susie & Dee!

Oh Annie, I wish I had known. Threw away 2 big tubes of Voltaren gel 2 weeks ago. DH had it for his back and said it didn't do anything. :( I took the Voltaren pain pills once - tore my stomach up so bad I was begging for whatever pain I had that I took them for in the first place :dizzy: It's strong stuff. Sorry to hear your ankle is killing you. Was it your driving foot? Those cortisone shots are a pistol going in (as in feels like they shot you in the foot) but once they kick in *angels sing in heaven*. Is there anything that can be done to fix it? My coworker just had his ankle scraped. Doc said as soon as he heals, get his knee done as the bad knee was putting undo pressure on the ankle too.

Loved the boob-squishogram :rofl: They got a new machine - 3d now. Bad news is they were told they can no longer use the hot pads they once did to warm up the plates. I said they need to dunk that person's privates in ice water :lol: The tech asked if I had any breast changes since last year - I said only that they hang down lower than last year - she said it was a common complaint :rofl:

Nothing of any other importance going on. I need to focus on 4 things I started so I can wrap them up once and for all. Have a good weekend everyone. Good luck Michelle with all of your projects!

Annie - have fun babysitting. It's nice that S&C can get out for a bit by themselves. I always thought that was healthy for parents.

Laura - you really hit the skids with the lung crud. Hope you can get back to easy breathing soon. Yep, that's a long way to go to the dentist - guess you have to decide if it's worth travelling so far. I hate changing dentists though once you get used to one.

Laura - I hope you feel better soon. lung crud is the worst (in my opinion).

No time for other personals. Went to the gym first thing this morning. Now I'm at work for 4 hours. After, I'm going to be dropping Santa off for a "sleepover" with some friends who offered to watch him while I'm in the hospital. I want to make sure they know what they're getting into. LOL This evening is a support group meeting. My favorite group actually. I'm looking forward to getting a few answers from the last minute questions that are rolling around my brain.

Time to get some work done.

Love and hugs to all,

Morning all,
I'll get this in before the heat hits and the noise comes back.
Our delightful (Not) Premier is disappointed in us because we are not showing our visitors what a great town this is. Well hallelujah, Mr Premier, we did not ask for this circus to come to town. We refuse to be caged in and herded like cattle into the bits you permit us to go, we refuse to have to provide ID to shop in our town. We don't like the fact that the US Security Service has taken over our airspace and thereby ensuring all planes are late leaving and sit on the tarmac in 35C heat while the US deem if we are worthy or not. We don't like the fact that the Russians have deployed 4 or 5 of their warships onto our horizon. And we certainly don't like the fact that we are paying for all of this.

Okay rant over, it all goes away tomorrow - apart from the heatwave which will see us getting to 35 or 36 C today. It'll be a brave bunch that protest in town to today and it is reputed to get up to 39C here tomorrow with the inland areas up to 43C. For those who don't understand those temps, take the C temp (43) and double it (86) then add 30 (116). It's not entirely accurate but a rough guide to converting C to F. Actually it is probably a couple of degrees cooler than 116F. There is little humidity so it is burning hot.

Other than the weather, the garden is producing more tomatoes than I can eat per day, more corn as well. The potatoes are all dug up and will do me for another 5 or 6 meals and the capsicum (bell pepper) is finally producing. I now have butter beans coming on, the first sowing is up and growing, the second is in and in a week or two I will put in a third. Seems like seeds do work quite well here. I've a couple of lettuces in there but they aren't doing too much and the peas are about finished. Better get some more in there too. Once the tomatoes finish (and that's not too far away) I will plant more potatoes and more corn. The tomatoes are beginning to attract bugs and there is something out there that is chewing off the new blossoms so once the existing fruit ripens that will be it. There are some big tomatoes out there as well. Mine get to be misshapen and not the even size of the bought variety but heck I don't use sprays apart from tomato dust and organic seaweed.

Happy - sorry to hear the facebook course was a waste of time and effort. You will just have to google it. Google seems to know everything.
Hope the boob squish goes okay. Annoying but necessary and they do get new things to make it easier every time I go. I understand the hanging lower comment, mine are held up by the stomach fat these days.

Annie - you boob squishing too??? Aaah well, it comes around and is a necessary evil. Nice of you to babysit so the kids can have a date night :love:. I always volunteer that when I go down to see the Adelaide mob, funnily enough it doesn't seem to occur to them that I will always do so. :dizzy:. Must be love.
I'm not keeping anyone in order around here. It would be a waste of time and effort. I just keep hoping the rent-a-crowd has not arrived and the protest marches (of which there are several per day) stay peaceful. Can't think what they might achieve with this, but I guess it is there right to protest.

Laura - hope the lungs get better quickly. Hate it when the breathing is not right and you seem to be gasping for breathe. Doesn't happen here often since we don't have seasons as such. Sure the leaves fall off the trees, but generally speaking they are pushed off by the new season growth. They fall to the ground and the wind deals with the leaves during the equinox gales.

Ceejay - good on you for helping the friend move. Hope she enjoys her new home.

Michelle - In case I don't get back or you don't get in before surgery, good luck with it. We will see you on the other side all thin and trim.

And that is about it from me. I've been out and checked out the garden - planted some lavender and geraniums yesterday although I don't know if that is where they will stay - might be too shady for them. Watered well last night and this morning I went out to poison the weeds that are growing through the pavers on the patio. One day I will get time to heave them up, dig out the top layer of grunge and concrete them down. Too many weeds here for just laying pavers.

I'll concentrate on the inside of the house today - in the third bedroom probably. It would be nice to get that cleaned up and renovated. It needs painting, flooring, lighting, enlarging the wardrobe and some window treatment.

Be good or be careful and I will try not to go out and shoot down your president's helicopters.

Plans fell through on going to help bff move today for several reasons. She had to meet with the land lord and the U-Haul place didn't have a truck so maybe tomorrow hopefully she will get to move. I love the location and the amenities of the apartment complex where's she moving. She's in a one bedroom one bath which is what I want. Think she saw that we were going to make it in one apartment. Don't think I'm going to go tomorrow. I'm in a mood to pitch things again. No matter where I land at retirement I don't need this junk. There will be no space for it. I did get the books off the shelves and ready to go to the Library next week. Our small town's Library is not open on Saturday's. One piece of furniture has been moved from one bedroom to the other. I'm asking the maintenance man at work if he want's the shelves. He's young and starting out.

-----
Laura
Did all those stairs stir up the asthma? Good idea to have the HVAC people to check your furnace. I have been using mine already, but I change the filter myself. It's an old unit.
Rode the bike last night for 2 miles but today I think I'm going to do some Yoga. My muscles are really tight.
Been trying to get into my social security account but the last password didn't unlock it. Will try again later.
--------
Annie
I get in these moods where I want to do things maybe extra energy.
Ouch on the foot pain. Glad you have something that helps. I remember those cortisone shots. I feel for you.

More later.

Happy ~ Yup I love Sub Sandwiches over any other kind of Sandwiches

Laura ~ I made a Honey Ham and Colby Cheese sub.

Annie ~ If you meant get my laundry done as in get them folded and put away, I already did that but I have a new load to do which I will do tomorrow.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I woke up at 5:00 a.m. this morning. I had a appt. today and it went good. My left foot on the bottom has a blister on it, I've been dealing with it for a couple of weeks with pain off and on but last night Scott told me that it had opened up so now its hurting alot so much for stepping up my walking again , If its not something then its something else. Anyway I hope everyone is having a good night, Talk to you all tomorrow.

Hello Everyone. My week was busy and I just didn't have much energy left in the evening so I never made it back here.

We ended our 12 week Biggest Loser contest at work. I ended up being 12 lb down. I put on 2 lbs of muscle. I lost 1/2 inch off my chest, 4 inches off my waist and 3 inches off my hips. I was pretty happy with the results. I sort of got lazy the last two weeks. One of the gals on my team lost 25 lbs! She was so happy---and to think that she really didn't want to do the contest and I talked her into it.

Now I need to get focused again on my workouts. I used to love to work out but right now I can't seem to get myself on the treadmill at home or at the work gym. It's nothing but excuses and I just need to go do them. I know once I start I will feel so much better and I'll get in the frame of mind to keep doing them.

Today we have a birthday party for my brother's son, who will turn 5. It is at one of the places called "Run, jump, play". Aiden already asked if I would get on the trampoline with him. I did it last year and he loved it.

Dee: I haven't seen any post from you...so you must be busy like I was...hope to see you here soon.

Ceejay: I was reading your post where you were up and down during the night not feeling well. I hope you feel better now and can get the projects done that you were mentioning and helping your BFF move.

Shad: It would make me very uneasy to see Russian warships in the harbor. It sounds like a zoo there---is it finished this weekend and then you all can go back to normal?

Terra: I'm sorry to hear that you have a open blister on the bottom of your foot. Hopefully it is healing and feeling better.

Annie: I hope the cortisone shot has kicked in. I am thinking I need to get one in my knee..it's been a while and with the cold weather my knee is telling me about it. It's great to hear that your numbers looked good.

I'm looking forward to KI with you and Sissy in the spring/early summer.

Michelle: Your surgery date is fast approaching. I'm so excited for you!

Happy: From reading one of your posts I think you were going to try a new Italian restaurant last night? Were you able to get there and if so how was it?

I think it is a good idea to send that coat back. I feel like if I have to fuss with things I'm not going to be happy so back it goes.

Laura: It sounds like you have a busy Saturday. I hope you are feeling much better now and will have the energy for all you need to do today.

That's all for me for now. I want to get the house straightened up and a few loads of laundry done before we go to the birthday party. I'll have to do the "real" cleaning tomorrow.

Susie
Congrats on losing the 12 pounds during the Biggest Loser contest. I'd be happy with losing inches right now.

Terra
Ouch on the blister on the bottom of your foot. Are you going to the doctor with that?

------
Got a lot done yesterday but one couldn't see it. I threw away a bunch of paper work and moved some books off the shelves. I really wanted to get rid of the shelves but I can't right now cause there's no place to put things unless I go ahead and pack them in boxes.
Tried to get into my account with social security to see where I stand but my password didn't work. And my email has been hacked again. Will be using a different email account.
No exercise last night but will ride the bike and do the Yoga DVD this afternoon.
Getting ready to put on a pot of stew for dinner tonight. The weather people are talking snow tonight and tomorrow and with it being 32 and below at night I can see where it could.

Susie ~ Thanks, I hope its healing too and it feels okay if I dont walk on it a whole lot during the day/night. One of my friends on this forum told me to keep up on my exercise even though I cant do my 2 mile dvd, I can do chair exercises until my blister closes and heels so thats what I'm gonna do.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I woke up at 5:00 a.m. this morning. Its now 6:25 a.m. I'm currently eating breakfast while having a Cherry Coke Zero. I let Clyde outside for a few mins and then I brought him back in, He is now sleeping on the couch. My plans for today are to do my laundry and clean the bathroom and check out the chair exercises on youtube.

Evening all,

Today is the anniversary of Mel's passing. I left a message on Jen's phone and will try and ring again tomorrow. Hope she is okay.

What a heatwave we are having. Must be all that crappy hot air coming out of the Brisbane convention centre (where the g20 was held). All that inconvenience, barricades, motorcades, airplane delays and no go areas for little more than 1/5 days.
There were a couple of leaders who shone and a couple who the people went out of their way to avoid. Germany's Angela Merkel was very popular. Saturday night she went out and about on the town and had a few beers with the boys down in Caxton Street. (Bit like Beale street in Memphis Happy). Barrack Obama got on it with the youth of Uni of Qld and some high school students and his speech was well received and Mr President, PM Abbot from Aus, Putin from Russia and the Koreans and Japanese were all out cuddling Koalas. But between you and me, I doubt that anything discussed at the meeting will affect us for any better conditions or prosperity. There was plenty of one-up-manship between the major players and Putin left early pleading plenty of work on Monday but it is more likely he got the pip because few were actively seeking his company. His one and only press conference was strictly for Russian journalists.

Anyway - the temps soared again today. We managed 41.1C (about 110) and there isn't much relief in sight. The power went out at about 4.00pm. Could have been worse. Could have done it in the middle of the day. Keeping cool was a bit of an effort I can tell you. Added to that I got up at 3.30 to watch the football from Scotland and then went out into the garden and picked all the corn and pulled the stalks. A dreaded green caterpillar had got into a couple of cobs so I decided that I would pull the lot. The caterpillars had been in the tomatoes but I fixed that with tomato dust and the rotten critters hopped over to the corn patch. Grrrr.

I think I might leave personals to tomorrow. I have a few things to get onto tonight - namely a bucket full of corn cobs to deal with and also I need to organise myself for going away. I haven't yet got the contract but Z tells me she would like me to start Monday week. So just in case the contract arrives, I had better get organised to go away again.

So with that I will bid you good night and leave you with this quote from the last e-mail I had from Mel.

Laugh when you can,
apologize when you should,
and let go of what you can't change.
Life's too short to be anything... but happy

Good morning from Ohio! We have a dusting of snow this morning. :snowball: Good thing I picked up my new brown boots yesterday.

I would like to take a moment to acknowledge Mel on the anniversary of her passing. I did not have the opportunity to know her, however I can tell what a special lady she was because each of you on the thread that did know her have shared wonderful memories and stories about her. My sympathy to all of you for the loss of your wonderful friend. I hope that your memories of her bring you peace and a smile to your face when you think of her. :hug:

It was a full day yesterday with making a trip to Dayton Ohio to pick up my boots and then we drove to Cincinnati to celebrate my nephews 5th birthday. I had fun swinging with him and his brother and on the trampoline for a bit before the other kids showed up for the party.

We also stayed that evening and had dinner at the Olive Gardner (Aiden picked it..it's his "fancy" dinner place he says. :D ) and then back to their house to watch the movie Planes (the second one). It was cute and they both were snuggling with me and DH before the movie was over. Hanging out with little ones sure does reset ones priorities.

Today will be busy with laundry, cleaning and I have a report to do for work ( about 2 hours for that..it's ok Christmas is coming and the extra $$ will be handy). Somewhere in there I need to get 30 min on the treadmill or a Walking DVD.

Terra: Great idea to do chair exercises while your blister is healing. Did you find some good ones on YouTube?

Shad: Hard to believe that you have temps that are 110! That has to be miserable. Sorry to hear about the caterpillar in the corn. It sounds like you were able to save some? I love when DH grills corn on the cob.

I like the email quote from Mel..she left all of us with wise thoughts. Thanks for sharing it.

To the rest of the Wordlies...have a great day and I'll check back in tomorrow.

Found It At Last!
 

http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e6...ps9392082c.jpg

a
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I finally found her. I hope she doesn't mind and is laughing at the intense level of effort I made to find her picture. I literally went through everything (and that's saying a lot). Finally found it in an obscure place on an external drive. I am fully convinced that she was doing a great job of hiding. Mel is on the right in the orange/red top. I know the lady on the left is the office manager, I think she is the one who gave us some information in Mel's final days at the hospital.

This is our dear friend Mel who was full of sunshine, cuss words, wielded the cattle prod whenever we were slackers and was full of love and support for us. We miss her dearly :grouphug: That year certainly went by quickly. I hope you are bringing a "Joisy" attitude to the hearafter and that the skies are filled with hunky bare-chested men for your viewing pleasure my friend. Love to you from all of us ♥ ♥ ♥

Let me know if that picture is too big and is skewing things, I can resize it.

I did post yesterday but the cat is enchanted with my heater and I did a bad thing by bringing up a YouTube video of a mouse on the screen (cat game). Be careful what you teach a Siamese cat as they learn quickly and never forget and are rather determined about getting what they want in life. She surprise jumps up on me and lays on my laptop keyboard which often messes up my post, changes my webpage or turns on goofy settings and lets not forget clawing my leg as she gets a good jump up on the desk. So it went yesterday and I didn't get back on to repost.

We had a most delightful and delicious dinner on Friday night at the new Italian restaurant. We almost passed it by because they are having some opening day glitches including not getting all their supplies like pasta sheets, fresh clams and more importantly - their restaurant SIGN. Were it not for an oversized Italian flag out front, we might have driven past it. The food was amazing. We did a sampling (excuse the food porn) - antipasto plate, I had a dinner salad and calamari appetizer for my supper, DH changed his mind and had a over the top simple but delicious broiled shrimp and spaghetti dish - olive oil, garlic, a touch of butter and red pepper flakes. The shrimp were huge and tasted sweet as lobster. He liked the tiramisu - I though it was a bit too heavy on the expresso for me and we both had a cappuccino which unfortunately sat on the counter for too long and was barely warm when we got it. They also set out our dessert the minute it came out of the kitchen and we waited 20 minutes for our coffee. We came early - the service was really good but as the restaurant filled up, the service got pretty slow although the kitchen stayed on top of things. When we left the restaurant we realized that the parking lot is on the smaller side (especially with winter snow) and one jerk parked perpendicular to us and nearly blocked us in. It's a good thing DH is good at manipulating the car - I would have been stuck. We agreed this was the best meal we have had dining out since we have been here and will go back again. We will just do a 5pm sitting which is ok with us.

Didn't do much of anything yesterday. DH went to a town an hour's drive away to get our windshield fixed. We got a rock crack and once it got cold the thing just spidered across the entire window. He called me just after he got there - the guy who took the order over the phone did not ask the right questions. Turns out we have a heated windshield and they did not have that in stock so they sent him off with apologies. Actually the owner said he'd drive up here and replace it at our house but DH said no need - we are headed to the deep freeze this week and the man agreed it would be really hard to replace it working outside but he did feel badly that DH drove basically 2 hours for nothing. The only thing is DH made another appointment without checking with me - I had the day filled already and needed the car. Seems like he is not going to relent and change his appointment so :dizzy::mad: We are supposed to get snow tomorrow night so driving the other car even just in and around town might be ok for DH but I'm not comfortable with it. Would have been ok if we had not been getting the new snow in...

I found a new planner online that a young entrepreneur came up with. It helps you set goals for the week, keep a positive focus and keep track of things. I did order a bound one for 2015 - hope it hits before the new year. You can also download some blank sheets online. I really REALLY need to get focused.

Susie - that was very nice of you to give a nod to Mel. We miss her humor and her graphics - she was always looking up pictures to share. How do you like your new boots? Glad you had a nice day with the nephews. Yes, it is a good reminder to make sure we have our priorities in the right place. A fun day is restorative for the soul. :D

Shad - don't envy you such hot temps. :faint: That's the kind of heat where you walk outside and your clothes (the cotton ones) immediately start to smell like freshly ironed frocks. Not a bad smell, but still... And I didn't think it was ever too hot for tomato plants but indeed, there is a point where even they wilt out. Thank you for including that lovely quote by Mel - she was always full of inspirational things. By now all those world leaders should be boarding planes back home and out of your town. I don't understand, having so many world leaders would be a huge security risk - not like they will head out afterwords for beer and pretzels in the pub although I guess some of them did. Would think they'd be more likely to meet in an underground bunker in the desert. :dizzy: At least you have your town back. Maybe I could borrow Airforce 1 (the president's plane) to fly to Brissy. I could probably handle the long flight on that :lol: Smart of you to prepare to leave for work on a moment's notice but by now I'm sure you know what to expect - most of it last minute.

Posting this... kitty just crawled up here.

Susie - congratulations on the 12 pound loss from the contest - that's fantastic! How nice of you to drag a coworker in, especially when she did so well.

Terra - I agree with your friend about switching up your exercise but not stopping altogether. Maybe tape your blister and a 10 minute walk. Chair exercises and strength moves are good too.

Ceejay - snow already for you? That seems rather early! I guess the polar cold is extending pretty far south. Do you have an extra storage area at your apartment or just the closets? Not sure I'd get rid of shelving unless it's a fairly big unit. However shelving does invite stuff to fill it up!

Michelle - Check out the passionplanner dot com site. I think that will appeal to you. Good luck getting all those last minute things done before surgery. I'd be so nervous but it seems like all your planning and research has you well prepared.

Hi Annie - hope you are relaxing with the kids and watching the Hallmark Channel :D

Hi Dee - how are things going for you? Busy I'm sure.

Laura - I see you are getting some snow but just a dusting I hope.

I am hungry - was wondering if DH would suggest going out for a burger but he seems happy in his fleece pants so I guess we will be staying in. I'm going to find something to eat, plan dinner and grab a shower. Have a good Sunday everyone.