Oh Mercy CHELLE....sending prayers, good vibes and healing thoughts for your friend Bob. My friend's hubby had similar surgery. He walks with a cane and prosthetic now. Granted he is doing very well, it has been about 10 years since his surgery however he is 74 years old also. So you just never know how well a person can do in that situation. It will be a struggle and lots of therapy for him, but he can do this. So glad you are doing so well. Directly after surgery, like the next day, I was allowed mashed potatos (however a particular type, which I cannot remember, came in a dry form), unsweet yogurt, unsweet popsickles, and a few other things I cannot remember. String cheese, I think. My surgery was on Feb 7, so I did not have to worry about the holidays. Not even Valentine's day, divorced and no BF, didn't really want one.

SUSIE...have fun at the workshop and team building exercise. It is nice but those always seem to come at really busy times of the year.

TERRA...get your exercises done, then you can go to bed. lol Hope the foot is healing nicely.

CEEG...good for you on the bike. More than I have done lately. Cereal is a nice and easy dinner and filling. Don't tell anyone you are on vacation and take that time for you. Do you hear me sister?? lol

LAURA...come out, come out, where are you? Everything ok?

SHADDIE...are you still above water or struggling for air?

HAPPY...Sassy loves doggie treats. Her vet office always has the homemade ones in a cookie jar when checking out. They get them from a little doggie bakery down the street from them. Kind of a nice touch. Actually we probably pay for them one way or another. haha. Of course she is spoiled like no other. All my kiddos are, human and furry.

DEE...where are you sister??

Ok, in need of prayers sisters. My biopsy came back not so good. The biopsied places came back a level 1 and the further up in the cervix came back a level 2. I am waiting on the doc to call with further instructions. Scehduling cone surgery. It will be out patient. If this does not get rid of the nasty stuff, then a hysterectomy is the next step. BLEH. Don't wanna but will do what is necessary.

My cold/sinus/cough BS is as I told C this morning, 1/2" better than it was. Still clogged, coughing, and a headache. Have been up since 3:30, couldn't get back to sleep and that was with taking Nyquil before bed. Of course I couldn't turn my mind off. A childhood friend, through grade school and high school passed away from brain cancer on Monday, I didn't learn of it till yesterday. She was so sweet and kind and oh so much fun. She is flying high with the angels now. And today, Dec 3 marks the birthday of one of my besties that died when we were 16 years old from lung cancer. Happy birthday Mary Jane.

I am just full of good news today, maybe I need to sign off of here and count my blessings.

Much love to all. Happy Hump day!

Annie
Yes maam. I do have to schedule the maintenance men to come to the apt for a couple of small repairs. For some reason the cold water in the bathroom sink doesn't work and I need them to check on a window. But other than them no one will be coming into my house.

More later

Quick check in as I didn't sleep much last night. Bob finally went into surgery at 7 pm. The OR nurse told us it could take anywhere from 4-10 hours. I stayed at the hospital with Bob's family as late as I could, but as I didn't plan to stay overnight, I left around 10:30. Bob's sister texted me updates. I told her no matter how late, I wanted updates. Bob was finally out of surgery at around 2 am. He is in ICU and will be kept heavily sedated (asleep) for 24 hours. I will go to the hospital this afternoon for a short visit. And tomorrow, I'll go visit him after my post-op appointment.

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

Annie - Thanks for the kind words about Bob and the tips for me. I'm so sorry to hear the biopsy results, and the anniversary of your friend's passing. I'm keeping you in my prayers. Please keep me posted, sista. :hug:

Susie - Congrats for completing your "to do" list! I hope your off-site is good.

Ceejay - Good for you on the bike and food challenge! A 5 day weekend! Enjoy!

Terra - I'm glad the Bag Balm is helping.

Gotta run...I've got website work to do and I'm still exhausted from being up last night waiting for updates about Bob.

Love to all,

Good for you CEEG...Stick to your guns.

Morning all,

Just sneaking in under the wire here. I have created a monster with the kitty. She is cold and loves the warmth of my keyboard, the heat from the side exhaust fan and the heater on my desk blowing on her. She has no problems taking over and laying all over my stuff which of course makes it hard to type. We are literally pushing each other.

Went to the shop yesterday. The kids at religious education at the nearby Catholic church made and sold dog treats to the parishioners as part of a charity work activity. The secretary dropped off a check for over $100. Very sweet. :hug:

Not much going on, snowflakes in the air and the sun is shining - well it's a bright overcast day - like sun showers but with snow. It was supposed to warm up for the weekend but the closer we get to it, the more they drop the temperature down and add the chances of precipitation.

I realized with the day's racing and it's already December 3 if I am going to decorate and do Christmas cards, I need to get my act together. I used to love the holidays, just can't seem to get into it anymore. :shrug: I was streaming some music from Pandora at the shop yesterday which made things a bit more festive.

Michelle - holy cow - a 7pm surgery???? That's awful late - hope the doctor was a night owl. Healing prayers for your friend - what a fighter! But you can't give up hope - and I hope this stops the cancer and gives him a good chance for recovery. Dang! :mad: Congrats on the t-shirt sizing - that's always a good feeling. As is thinking about wearing a size medium a year from now! Are their any tips they gave you in your classes about how to minimize the amount of loose skin? Hopefully you can get the green light for some gentle exercise soon. Did the interest in food go away like they said?

Annie - very sorry to hear of your biopsy results :hug: If nothing else, they caught things early - always hopeful for that. Speaking of your example to Michelle - my BFF they discovered stage one female cancer long ago. She had a hysterectomy, some chemo which she stopped before the full course was completed and that was in the early 70's. She is going strong, cancer free - so there is hope if they catch things right away. Sending you healing prayers and strength too. :grouphug: How very sad that you lost a good friend at the tender age of 16. What a loss! Sorry to hear about your other friend too. Just a reminder for not to waste the time we have here walking this earth.

Susie - hope you have a good team building session today. Do you have many holiday activities at the office since they do a lot of people things? Keep up the moving!

Terra - I've heard of Bag Balm but never tried it. Hope it works good for you!

Laura and Dee - where have you been?

Ceejay - 5 days to yourself? How will you manage? Seems like a long time since you've had any me time for yourself. Do some fun stuff.

Shad - I loved the story about your granddaughter too. We need to get you a cowboy hat and a bull whip since you have to come into town and clean things up on every project you work on :lol: Is the weather more comfortable over in Melbourne?

Time for me to cut this short - I am literally in a push me pull you situation with the cat who insists on laying all over my keyboard. And I need to get some lunch into me before yoga class at 2. I am really enjoying the produce I got on Monday. Last night I tasted a few pecans and even DH agreed they were the best we ever had. They are moist and sweet - not the bitter (I guess older) packaged stuff you typically get up this way. Those 3 packages are going to go fast!

Anyway have a good day everyone - will send good thoughts to everyone needing some help today.

Wow, I have a lot of catching up to do!

Happy
That Korean bbq beef recipe you posted (on FB) sounds tasty. Yeh, I’d add veggies too. Good you used up the Kohl’s cash – I don’t shop much, but I’ve let one or two of those expire. Frustrating. Sounds like your Thanksgiving dinner plans turned out for the best. When it gets cold out, it definitely determines where we eat out and if we eat out at all – these restaurants can get very drafty and downright chilly with their entry setups. Interesting article about the comeback of wild turkeys in the Trib. I’m posting a link to the story in the Wash. Post because it looks like you can read it in whole without a problem and that’s what popped up first when I g00gled it, and because the Chicago Trib often blocks their “premium” content when you’re not a digital subscriber. http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/...3ef_story.html Hope the link works. The only dessert I made for TG is the cheesecake – from experience I know there’s always a lot of desserts brought by bf’s SIL’s family that I didn’t need to contribute two. Re leftovers, we were offered a turkey carcass, which I declined, but we took home a ham “bone” which was very large and heavy and knew it would have a ton of ham left on it. The next morning bf used some of it to make a ham/egg/bell pepper scramble. Still plenty left! Have to make some soup for sure. My sympathies to you re going through papers. Ugh. Of all the material items in the house, the only one I have trouble with in terms of accumulation is paper. Wow, you’ve got a half pig coming! Makes me think of that side of beef Lucy & Ethel bought, lol. Wow, didn’t know about running the exhaust fan with the propane oven. I’d be missing the double oven too (natural gas or electric, wouldn’t matter!) Good of you to make the dog treats. I want to make some too. My bonehead mistake with the last batch I made was putting the baked biscuits into a plastic storage bag before they were fully cooled. Condensation developed and then they got moldy. Grrrr. Live and learn!!! I’m looking forward to oranges now that they’re in season again!

Ceejay
Nice of you to work for your co-worker, but good for you not letting her take advantage of it by giving up your TG holiday. Good job not overeating on TG. Can’t you get a direct flight to Houston from Little Rock? Thankfully you have plenty of time to work out the travel arrangements. Have you started your 7-day challenge yet? Ooh, 5-day weekend coming up – sounds great. I sure enjoyed my 6 days off work!

Shad
Glad your project isn’t bad. Hope you’ve whipped them into shape (well, you and your colleague Z), including the wannabe boss who was sending you work emails to the wrong addy. Nice you can now have phone conversation with little S.

RE your shoes being tight in the bunion area…I have wide feet in the bunion area, especially my right foot. I bought two pair of the same model shoe, one ordered after the other proved to fit well and be comfortable. Funny number 1 – I pulled my custom orthotics out of the old pair to put in a different shoe. One day I put on the old pair without any orthotic, or foam liner in it at all, but once I realized I did that, I didn’t have time to replace the foam liner that originally came with the shoe. When I got home and had time, I was putting in the liners and noticed the right shoe had “9.5 2A” (AA width=narrow) printed in the bottom (covered by theliner), while the left one had “9.5 D”. Yet the tag on the tongue of both shoes read size 9 D. And I didn’t even notice the right one felt too narrow when I started wearing them, even though comparing the left and right sole to sole showed the right one was obviously narrower! Duh. Funny 2 is that the 2nd newer pair are the same size and model as the old pair and feel too short. Aaaargh. Both of those pairs are going into the donation bag – I know of a running shoe store that takes old (but wearable) athletic shoe donations. I don’t know if it was buying this brand, one of the less expensive models of this brand, or buying them online at a discount, but I’d already decided to avoid the brand in the future anyway. And FYI, the brand/shoe isn’t my new Brooks. Yes, my feet are fat and wide and resemble Flintstone feet, LOL.

Susie
Congrats on your raise! You sure worked hard for it and it’s great they recognized you for that!!! :congrats: After the chaos at Bf’s bro’s house, your TG sounded very relaxing and laid back. Your Christmas décor is nice and simple. I’ve accumulated a fair amount of the knick-knacky stuff, but don’t have a lot of spots to display it, so only a portion of it gets out of the box. Good plan to keep moving during December! Hope the offsite workshop today is worth the build-up of emails…

Michelle
I’m glad your recovery is coming along well. I hope the eating aspect – the mental part – is going alright for you. I hope our food conversations here don’t give you trouble… Are you enjoying your time off? How much longer will you be off work? I guess your doctor will have a say in that. Your follow up appointment is tomorrow, correct? How did the surgery go for your friend Bob? I hope it was a success. Whoo on the NSV!!!

Terra
Hope your blister is healing and you’ll be getting back to walking soon, like your shopping day on Friday!! Hope your SIL’s remedy for the blister works, otherwise Michelle’s suggestion re moleskin is a good one. I have a pair of shoes that are very comfy…except they come up too high at the back of my foot – i.e., Achille’s tendon. I put a strip of cloth first aid tape on that spot on my ankles and it totally protects my skin there. Thanks for setting up the new thread!! And yes, I’m up for stepping up the diet and exercise this month!

Annie
Sorry you’re still feeling crummy. I find the coughing is the last thing to go away. What a nice boss you have, buying you meds! And sweet of C to help out while you’re sick. Glad you made it to work safely after that slippery commute. I’m sorry your biopsy results weren’t good and that surgery is needed. Yup, you’ll do what you need to do!! My condolences re the passing of your childhood friend. Some days are low on the good news…

Hello to Dee!! :wave:
--
I think my last post was Sunday. Not much to report since then. I took vacation days on Monday and Tuesday. I had my allergy/asthma appointment on Monday morning. As expected my lung function has gone down. The doc gave me a “maintenance” inhaler for daily use to see if that calms down my asthma. I go back in two weeks. After that, bf & I ordered our other half bath items – some were in stock, some have been ordered. Luckily, the one that will take the most work, the medicine cabinet, was in stock and so bf can get to that right away.

Yesterday we both got massages in the morning.

Other than that, I didn’t do much at all. My side of the family has decided to (finally) do a grab-bag/Secret Santa thing for gifts, so we’ll only have to buy one gift. Yay for less shopping – even if the past many years it had only been gift cards anyways. I still have other gift shopping to do, as well as decorating, so I better get my you-know-what in gear!!

This week’s movie night was changed to tonight, but I will probably skip it since I have things to do and I’m not all that interested in the movie. It’s “The Theory of Everything” and it’s getting good reviews, but I dunno.

Okay, I’m gonna finally get this posted before I have more interruptions.

Michelle
That is a bit late for a long surgery. I'm glad the surgery is over for him and that he can now get on with his life. You are a good friend. Still sending good vibes and healing thoughts to him.

Happy
It's really cute that the cat hogs your keyboard but understand how frustrating it can be. Have you thought about getting a warm heating pad and lay it by the keyboard to see if that works.
Nothing better than fresh orange and grapefruit from Florida. Yum. And the pecans sound good too.

Susie
I've been thinking about having breakfast for dinner since I work later. Or sandwiches of some kind. Good for you in getting your "to do" list done at work. I need to make out one for next week.

Laura
Yes I can get a flight from Little Rock to Houston. It's just getting to Little Rock, but I think I'm going to buckle down and drive to Dallas and ride down to Houston with my sister and bil. This is going to be the biggest wedding I've ever attended. I don't like driving that far by myself but women older than myself have done it. I may talk to my cousin who has a daughter in Dallas to see if she will drive down with me. It's about an 8 hour drive so I may break it up to two 4 hour drives. That's what my bil does.
-------
Didn't ride the bike last night. The arthritis was acting up big time. Just didn't have the gumption.
I dusted the living room, and went to bed by 9.30. I can stay up a later tonight cause I can sleep later in the morning. Yipee.

I spent the afternoon at the hospital with my friend B. He's doing amazingly well considering, but the doctors are still only cautiously optimistic...the next 72 hours are critical. And the next 3 weeks...if he can avoid an infection, then he should be just about out of the woods. By then, he should be at a rehabilitation facility.

Right now, I'm exhausted. So I'm planning an early night. I've got another big day tomorrow with my own surgery follow-up appointment, followed by a visit to see B in the hospital, followed by grocery shopping for the soft food diet that I'll be graduating to.

Ceejay - You're right, that was a late start for such a long surgery. B was on a waiting list...otherwise his surgery wouldn't have been in 2 weeks. He was in such pain, and the wound that the tumor was pushing it's way out of (as well as up into the pelvis) was getting very necrotic - the tissue was dying and gross. And considering it was an aggressive, fast spreading cancer...2 weeks could've made the difference between life and death...which is why he had surgery late last night.

Laura - So far, the food talk hasn't been too bad. The only thing that got me today was a picture of some yummy, chocolatey peanut buttery dessert. I looked at the recipe and even though it was Health-i-fied, it still contained too much sugar for me to even consider. Now that I'll be able to eat soft foods I'm going to start looking at recipes to help with my love of sweets...in the meantime, there's sugar-free pudding.


Santa needs to go out and I'm trying to troubleshoot some computer issues. I'll do more personals tomorrow.

Much love and gratitude,

Susie ~ Yes my appt. on Tuesday went well.

Annie ~ Sure will do my exercises before I go to bed.

Michelle ~ Yeah I'm glad the bag balm is helping too, It seems to be helping anyway.

Happy ~ Yeah I've heard of Bag Balm too but never used it until now.

Laura ~ We are going shopping today at 3 p.m. instead of tomorrow cause its gonna be less busy today then it would be tomorrow. Yeah I think I've figured out the cause I'll know for sure after my shopping trip today but I think they are my new shoes :( I'm glad that your gonna step up your diet and exercise too. Good for you.

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

I've been awake since 1 a.m. this morning, Its almost 9 a.m. now. I'll probably take a nap later on though. I already gave Clyde fresh food and water and He's been outside twice this morning. My plans for today are to go shopping at 3 p.m. today and to do my chair exercises before 3 today and again before bed tonight. I hope everyone has a wonderful day today.

Hi there friends and neighbors :D

ok, ok, ok. I did it. Joined the gym yesterday after yoga class. Well actually I signed up for a 10 day free membership. Our local radio station has a seasonal auction and they are having one next week - hoping to score a discount on a 3 month membership. I go for my one hour orientation tomorrow afternoon. It's a small gym - they have cardio equipment, weights, machines, and a couple of group exercise classes - nothing fancy but then again the price is affordable too. The owners have had the gym for over 25 years and he is a physical therapist as well as muscled gym owner who apparently practices what he preaches. I am hopeful that he will be able to set me up with a program that will enable me to regain lost strength and rebuild muscles that will support my sad arthritic joints. Also hoping he treats me like someone who is 60 instead of a young trainer who treats everyone like someone their own age. My poor sister had one of those - she beat the heck out of her and my sister could not move for days. She kept telling the person that was far too intensive but the girl ignored her and pushed even farther until my sister up and walked off. She's lucky she wasn't injured. Anyway, we'll see how this goes.

Got home later than I had planned which messed up the dinner plans for a home cooked meal so we went out last night and had a good dinner. Today I am going to finish making that turkey noodle soup and I'm thinking turkey pot pie for DH to use up the bird. Got some cleaning to do and not sure if I want to start decorating or work on cards.

Michelle - hope your friend is doing well in recovery - sending good thoughts out. That makes a lot of sense about why he took the first surgical appointment available. I hope he will have good news. As well as you with your first follow up appointment today. It sounds as if things are going well. I'm not sure how you can get over the sweets cravings other than the longer you stay away, the less good they taste - sort of like fast food.

Terra - have a good day too!

Ceejay - I would consider a heating pad for kitty but she always seems to want to be exactly where you don't want her to be. :dizzy: She has her paw on my left hand right now and is resting her head on it and very frustrated that I won't keep still. That's a long drive to Dallas by yourself. I hope you can get someone to go along with you. I'd rather drive to Little Rock by myself than all the way to Dallas! Are you on your 5 day Ceejay-iday (as Mel would say ;) ) Enjoy!

Laura - glad you popped back in. Is there some pea soup in your future with that big ham bone? The scrambled egg mix sounds yummy - our favorite way to use up leftover ham. We freeze our extra dog biscuits at the shop and when I take them out to package them up, I always let them sit out and come to room temperature before I wrap them as the cold ones also give off condensation. I was horrified to notice once that a bunch sitting in the basket on the counter had gotten moldy - hopefully no customers bought them :yikes: I have had the same experience as you with the shoes I got. Had a pair of New Balance loafer type shoes I really liked. Ordered another pair to replace the worn out ones - same size and width and they fit horribly - had to return them. Ordered another pair - still a bad fit but in a different place. :rolleyes: I've found the same with clothing - just because one piece fits, doesn't mean the same in another color will be the same. I guess it's the sloppy manufacturing methods they have gone to. That's funny about the AA very narrow and D wide - AND they were marked the same on the tongue. WOW. Sounds like you enjoyed some time with BF on your vacation days. Are you still doing book club or have they suspended that for a while - don't remember you talking about it recently - more just movies.

Hellos to the rest of the chicks :wave: Will check back in later.

Morning all.

Ceejay
Glad you’re keeping your days off for yourself (except for the maintenance visit). Enjoy the time off!! Keep going with the bike! :bike2: (Sorry the arthritis kept you from it the other night. )

Michelle
Wow, odd time for B’s surgery, but seeing as he needed it urgently, that makes much more sense now. I’m glad the surgery went well and that B’s doing well in recovery. Hope it continues. I hope your follow-up appointment goes well today! Your meal planning and preparation are going to be a huge thing now! But I guess being forced to do that will really help you succeed with your recovery and weight loss. I definitely need to work on that. Plus I need someone around to slap the junk food and sweets out of my hand before it makes it to my mouth!! :D

Happy
You might have to sneak your laptop into the bathroom & lock yourself in there to work undisturbed on the computer, LOL! I like Ceejay’s idea re the heating pad. Re the gym owner who practices what he preaches…our local Bally’s gym had a membership sales guy that was heavy and didn’t look like he worked out at all – not very inspiring. Bf and I never understood that. But when LA Fitness bought out that location and opened a new facility in a new location, he wasn’t working there. I hope you’re able to score the 3-month membership in the auction and can work successfully towards your goals. Your muscle mass can always be increased, it’s achieving that without overdoing it and/or injuring yourself that’s the challenge. Being gung ho (or having a gung ho trainer) is not a wise thing. Yummmm, pot pie! Re my soup plans – yes, I want to make split pea soup. Bf always wants to use a ham bone for navy bean soup, but this time I’ll use it for pea soup. Re book club – they had a book club in November that wasn’t for a book, but an ornament exchange. Unfortunately, it fell on the same evening as a friend’s 50th b-day party, so I couldn’t make it. The book for the next one has been picked out – The Dinner - but I don’t think a date has been set and I haven’t started reading it. In 2015, one resolution will be for me to host one of the book clubs. I’m feeling guilty that I haven’t done it in many years. :o I should just e-mail or text our “ring leader” to put me on the list.

Terra
It’ll be too bad if your new shoes are causing the blisters. Or could it be your socks in combination with the shoes?? Hope the shopping trip this afternoon is successful. Awake since 1 AM?!?! :yikes: I sure hope you get a nap before shopping!

Hellos to the rest of you!
++
Yesterday wasn’t one of my better days. I was running late for work, so I asked bf to drop me off at the train. For some reason I forgot my backpack at home, duh, so we had to go back home to get it and I had to get the next train after the one I usually get. On the train, a bunch of stuff I had on my lap fell on the floor. Bleh. Work was going through all the emails (& phonemail) that piled up during my absence, and ancient business continues to be a massive modern-day PITA for our department and another. My former boss always told me my next job should be a start-up so I wouldn’t have to deal with this kind of crap…

And I guess I let that weigh me down (and a cold call from a corporate recruiter didn’t help either) because I had a dream last night that made me feel bad about how I’ve handled (or rather, mis-handled) my career. Don’t get me wrong, I have a good-paying job and good benefits with a stable, well-run company. But I’ve never been one to want to take risks, so I’ve never ventured off to other jobs with more and different challenges. And by doing that I feel like I’ve limited myself and possibly even made it difficult to even move on to other opportunities without taking a steep drop in pay. I suppose it all boils down to my desire for financial stability – voluntarily leaving this company seems unwise to me. Sigh.

On a positive note, even though I didn’t get much walking in yesterdayl, I did get two stair sessions in – one up 4 flights and then down again, and then up 5 flights and then down again.

I talked to my sister last night and we are definitely doing a Secret Santa type gift exchange this year. Did you know there are web sites out there that will help with drawing names, etc.? Then we can hopefully keep it a secret. I also agreed to host my family’s gathering on Christmas Eve. Yikes! I’m already stressed! Guess I just better start making lists and working through them.

Bf tore apart the half bath yesterday and we had a lot of back and forth last night about how the new medicine cabinet should be installed. It’s taller than the old one and the opening will have to be enlarged. He wanted to go up the extra 5 inches, while I preferred it to go down the 5 inches…Based on the existing framing, we will essentially be splitting the difference.

I was running late again today and got a lift to the train again. Maybe tomorrow will be the day I get my act together.

Nothing special planned for tonight. Need to take the water meter reading and enter it online. I want to take a look at the water bills for the past year - it seems like when we don't submit the meter readings on a timely basis the billing gets funky, and I'm not completely confident that the village is doing things right.

Okay, enough rambling. I've taken enough time away from my lunch hour.

Happy ~ Yeah I am having a good day. I hope your having a good day too.

Laura ~ So to see if its my socks as well what should I do?

Hi Laura,

Just going to make a comment about your remark on your career. I guess there are many ways to look at things and then there's the old "grass is greener on the other side" thing. I was (up to a point) a very successful manager for more than half of my career. I ALWAYS put the company first, did what I thought was right for the company, never questioning if this was right for me. I took on problems no one wanted to deal with, underperforming teams and turned them around. And then one day when the tide started to turn in management - not about what you do but how good a schmoozer you were, I too wondered - did I sacrifice my own career taking on the troublesome projects while others got more current experience? Did I hurt my future advancement because I refused to join the butt kissers and instead focused on what I thought was the right thing to do? The answer is probably a big fat YES. However, the flip side of that is whether one would have been happy living that kind of life. In my case, the answer was no - I was more satisfied growing people and getting things accomplished than hanging out having beers with the muckity mucks telling them how wonderful they were. You talk about taking risks, well ... sometimes risks bring rewards but they can also bring failures. Today's work environment is very different from 10 or 15 years ago. There's been a lot of job cuts and there's a lot of unhappy people on the job today. I know some people who are making a good buck but are squeezed to death - expected to do the work of 5 people for that pay. I guess it's easy to second guess things and when we get to our age with extended experience, yes - trying to do something different often involves a steep cut in pay. I guess you have to decide what is most important to you - advancement, pay & benefits, doing something you don't mind doing (or if you are lucky love doing), or job stability. And what's it going to take to get there or maintain your interests? It's sort of sad that the majority of people I know still working are stressed beyond belief. They are concerned for their own health and sanity and would love to change things around but feel stuck where they are either for financial concerns or lack of experience to get hired to do something else. As long as you are working, it's never to late to try something else - you just have to accept what comes along with that decision. After all, they say that today's 20-somethings will probably change careers at least 5 times in their working life. I can't even fathom that... I guess one field of concentration careers have gone the dinosaur way of jobs with good benefits, spending most of your life at one company and retiring with a pension provided by the company instead of a self funded 401K. Sorry... didn't mean to get preachy here. :o Just don't second guess yourself.

Terra - try some different socks to see if one irritates more than the other. I have some socks that are a looser fit and they tend to roll around in my shoe as well as rub the foot and irritate it. Or they are the dreadful ones (that I throw away) that creep down your foot and into your shoe as you walk around and you have to keep pulling them up :mad:

HAPPY...I agree 100% everything you said to LAURA in your post about jobs these days and who you smooze up to. Be happy with yourself first, and you are very right, the grass is not always greener on the other side, just ask my xdh. lol