The only thing I have to report is that I did get outside and cleaned the truck both inside and outside. It needed it. And I hopefully have blocked my neighbors from driving through my yard to park in their back yard.
Sure wish were in the mood to exercise but the motivation is not there. Maybe tomorrow.
Location: A beautiful and peaceful place in the woods
Posts: 8,905
S/C/G: Stuck/Working on it/Good 2 Go
Height: Fun Size
Good morning girls,
Yesterday we took a drive up to northern Minnesota to visit a state park that has some amazing waterfalls. It was a long trip - 2 and a half hours and we hiked through the park for about 3 hours. There's lots of stairs so my knee and hip were complaining, especially today. It was just a lot to go from winter nothing to a long hike. But I need to keep pushing myself. We really enjoyed the place - beautiful area. The weird thing is that they found a woman's remains in one of the more secluded areas of the park last year. Just recently identified her as a young woman gone missing over 30 years ago. We stopped and had a delicious dinner, stopped in at a famous pie place and got a couple of pieces "to go" and were treated rudely by the cashier. Finally we decided to stop at a curious place based on a road sign we saw as we were driving by. It's a hotel which was made from actual train car box cars. The place is lovely - the rooms are quaint and look quite comfortable. The place is exceptionally clean too. We both agreed that we'd certainly stay there in the future. Having to drive that far and then explore the area and then drive back is really tiring. Would be good to stay overnight and then get up early and go roaming around once rested. There are tons of parks and water falls along the Lake Superior shoreline (and lighthouses too) up that way. Though tiring it was a very enjoyable day.
Today I agreed to help out at the thrift shop - we should be busy for the holiday weekend and there was only one volunteer per shift signed up when we desperately need 2. Summer people are coming back and bringing donations too which adds to the chaos - welcome as it is Sadly, no one besides me signed up to pull and extra shift - not even from those who only occasionally help out. Our fill in person got a permanent job and her replacement won't start getting paid until next week - which in my opinion would be a nice thing IF she pulled an extra shift this weekend, even if it's just being a volunteer and not getting paid. Oh well. Wish people would step up. Anyway I have to jump in the shower and get ready now.
Hope everyone has a nice weekend and good weather. Have fun! Happy early summer!
Happy ~ Thanks for the tip about eating something light before a work out.
Laura ~ Yeah, The cooking class meal Thurs. was good. I think building a salad is kinda fun.
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Woke up at 7:45 this morning. I havent done much today but my plans are to vacuum my room,take a shower and of course work out. I've decided not to sell my grandma's barbie's. It would cost more to ship them then I would be getting by selling them so I'm not gonna sell them. I hope everyone is having a great Memorial Day Weekend.
Happy
The drive to Minnesota sounded nice. I would love to do something like this. Hope things go well while at the Thrift store.
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I'm dreading going to work tomorrow. Yep got to work Memorial Day. We never close. But the one good thing is that this week is a short week since I'm taking off Wednesday.
I've made some chicken Alfredo which turned out really good. Very simple as that is the way I like to cook.
Been missing again I see. I went to work yesterday morning to make up for the 1/2 day off next Friday. Then I discover that next Monday is a holiday. Of course this happened after I booked my fare. So tomorrow, I will check out as to whether we are having Monday off and then decide whether to change the booking. It's only money right?
The weather this weekend has been atrocious. Cold, wet, windy. As I said yesterday I worked and then did some shopping so it didn't matter too much. Today I was going to go for a walk but it didn't happen. I did get out but mostly in the car. There wasn't a lot of walking. Took a few pictures and got back in the car mostly. Freezing out there.
Rangitoto and Brown Island
Rainbow over Eastern Beach
Eastern Beach
So that was more or less my weekend.
Ceejay - yum Alfredo. Love it.
Happy - gotta love signs on the road. I enjoy the interesting ones. They will always draw me in and send me in another direction. I went to a national park in North Queensland once and stayed in a railway carriage. It was lovely. Not a box car tho'. The hotel dining room was a station. It was interesting too. The whole outing sounded nice. Wish I was there.
Laura - good going on getting out early. Get on with the exercising now you have the tape all set.
I've had a very busy weekend so far. I went to a concert with some friends on Friday night. It was Train, The Fray, and Matt Nathanson. It was an excellent show. Yesterday, I took Santa to the vet for a sore on his rear end. The vet said it's nothing serious and gave me some topical cream. Today, I'm getting together with some of the women from the dog park to walk our dogs and then go to brunch at a dog friendly restaurant. Then in the afternoon, I'm planning to go to the movies with my step-brother, who came back from Belize to get some treatment for back pain. He has had two radio-frequency ablation procedures (one for the left side of his back and one for the right), and he is going back to Belize on Saturday.
Tonight, tomorrow and Tuesday, I've got to get some cleaning done, and some computer work done. And then I start at HP on Wednesday.
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Shad - I love the pictures. Gorgeous rainbow!
Happy - Glad you had a nice drive to MN. I hope you didn't overdo it on the hike. Bummer that no one else is stepping up to help out at the thrift shop.
Ceejay - Bummer that your neighbors are driving through your yard. Sometimes I wonder how people were raised that they can be so thoughtless about other people's property and stuff.
Laura - Glad the Pilates tape was found and that you're copying it to dvd, and so good that the Total Gym can be used as a reformer! I hope you enjoy the graduation today, and I hope the party isn't too chaotic so you and bf can enjoy yourselves.
Location: A beautiful and peaceful place in the woods
Posts: 8,905
S/C/G: Stuck/Working on it/Good 2 Go
Height: Fun Size
Morning all,
Yesterday was a long day as I figured it would be. I went into the shop early - good thing because we were very busy with all the summer folks coming back into town. It was a great day to be out and about too. I did stay over my shift until 3pm because J came in for the afternoon and I told her that her time would be better spent going through the donation room sorting things, pricing and setting stuff out. She was glad about that. We are fortunate in that people are continuing to bring in lovely items, especially now that they are returning from the cities to open up their cabins. One man has donated TONS of stuff to us - beautiful items. We think his wife has passed away and he is moving to the south end of the state and is liquidating his house. He must have given us over $2,000 in saleable goods so far and he's still working on it. It appears his wife was one who loved to decorate - the items are drop dead gorgeous. He is now starting with the Christmas stuff - dropped of 5 HUGE Rubbermaid storage bins so far. One had a 2 foot high Christmas tree decorated with ornaments that were "s'more's" They were snowmen made of marshmallows, sitting on a "sled" of a Hershey's chocolate pip and a graham cracker. Each of the ornaments was a standard heavy ornament - not cheap stuff and there must be at least 15 ornaments on the tree. It also has lights and garland. Just adorable!!!! Anyway - we did very good in sales yesterday. Also the lady in charge of books came in and I had a conversation with her - we are inundated with books - double stacks on the shelves which is hard to browse and tends to make a mess as people toss them about. She was amenable to a book sale so for the time being until we cull the inventory, all books are half off. As desired, once people heard about that they started buying armfuls of book - especially the dreaded romance novels After the shop I ran some errands in town, came home and sat on the deck with DH for 20 minutes and had a water. We were watching one little boy hummingbird who found a new perch on the very top of our gazebo. From there he could see everything going on, especially the other male competition whom he would divebomb when they came for a drink. We were both tired and I was glad we had leftover food from our road trip to warm up for supper. I watched some tv afterwards, DH read and we had an early night. I had the screen doors open because it was a nice day and when I went to close them last night, I stepped out on the deck and the usually quiet night was ablaze with sounds - crickets chirping and frogs singing. It was a beautiful symphony. The stars were shining in the sky and it was one of those things where I just thank the heavens that we landed in such a lovely and peaceful area. (I could forget about the down side of summer - all the horrendous traffic and crazy tourists that summer brings )
Michelle - I'm surprised a bit that your step-brother did not have medical treatment in Mexico - I have heard that Anyone's health system is better than what we have in the U.S.A. and I'm sort of starting to believe it the way things are deteriorating. I hope he gets some relief for his back. Sounds like you are having a fun and active social life - that's great - exactly why you moved back home again. Sure beats coming home from work dead, sitting around doing nothing but vegetating and then doing it all again in the old hamster wheel. Glad to hear you are enjoying life. Yes, I do wish more people would help out but that's the problem with volunteers - you can't make them do what they don't want to. I am just being careful not to get sucked into picking up all the slack myself.
Ceejay - wow on the picture of the control room at the plant. Yikes that's a lot of buttons to watch! But like running the computer - I think it looks more complicated to a lay person than one who knows what's going on. Still it was very interesting, thanks for posting. Hope your workday will be a quiet one.
Shad - as always - loved the pictures - such beautiful scenery. Especially the rainbow - it came out quite clear. That's the thing about cold - less smog and you tend to get clearer pictures save for the shakey shivering but that's why we have image control on the cameras What holiday are you having on Monday? Ours is Memorial Day - like your Anzac day. If you do make it here one last time, we will have plenty to show you but it will involve a bit of driving, which if you don't have to do it won't be so bad! Definitely less city, more scenery up here than what we've shown you in the past.
Well my coffee cup is empty and I need to get outside, ignore my aches and go get that garden cleared and planted before the close by rain heads up north.
Hi there
Back at work Monday and we have a bunch of Mexicans down here for training purposes. Real Mexicans from Mexico, not the Australian variety of Mexicans - from Victoria (because they are south of the border) You have to be old to understand I think.
So I am creating doco to explain what the production side of things are doing. Not always easy since I know so little of it myself.
Rain, cold and wind over the weekend. I don't mind any of those but not all together. Got my washing up to date, read a book and finally went out while the sun came out, hence the rainbow picture.
Happy - glad you are enjoying the photos. I was going to go down to Hunua Forest to photograph waterfalls, however the rain and cold was so bad that I decided not to risk going in there. Might still be trying to find my way out.
Back later. Better get this simulation on the way.
Location: A beautiful and peaceful place in the woods
Posts: 8,905
S/C/G: Stuck/Working on it/Good 2 Go
Height: Fun Size
As DH would say - we sure got our exercise the last 3 days. Friday we hiked all over the forest. Saturday I put in almost a full day at the thrift shop and today I spend outside getting the garden ready. I cleared both beds of pine needles, pulled out the stray stubborn grass blades that worked their way into the beds. In one bed I got the soil all turned over, mixed in some compost and potting mix, smoothed things over and then went and planted my sugar snap peas. I hope those are very good for you because we sure will have a lot. I did not realize there were 4 plants to a cup when I bought some at the hardware store. I also bought 5 sturdy plants at Walmart. Anyway I have about 25 pea plants planted. I do love them and their sweet taste. DH wanted to shell them and eat the peas but I like them better pod and all. This time we will no doubt have plenty to fix in many ways DH got the "trellis" contraption up for the peas, I got so many that we will have to make another structure. I had wanted to get to the tomato bed but all I did was clean it out. By 4:30pm I was very tired, the mosquitoes were starting to bite and it was starting to rain and get chilly so we called it a day. DH is in the process of building a very nice wooden planter box 6 feet wide by 10 feet long to go into the front yard. He was working on that in between dumping the pine needle mulch out back and lifting heavy bags of dirt into the raised bed for me. We were both pretty tired by day's end. I should really be in bed as we want to head into town and pick up some more supplies tomorrow. He is going to stain the wood (planter box) grey to match the house and I need more plants to finish the garden. I didn't want to buy them until I got the beds done - just purchased the peas because I got the last of the stock and I know once things are gone, they are gone - no reordering of plants up this way. Then when DH gets the box finished, we can decide on some butterfly and hummingbird attracting flowers to fill it with. I will have to see if there is anything that deer find particularly tasty and avoid that. We haven't seen many deer around lately - save for a stray one of two in the middle of the night. Not sure if it's because we stopped feeding them because of the bear (there is plenty of greenery for them to eat now, especially since we got a good rain and things are budding). DH thinks the females are in hiding having given birth although the ones we had did not look pregnant. That's about it for me right now. I should get to bed, DH went early so he will be up early and nagging me to hurry up.
Today (Monday) is our Memorial Day in the states. Thank you to all the service personnel who have served our country bravely and given their lives for our freedoms.
Ceejay - does seem to be getting a bit quiet, but then again, you are in spring/ summer and after the winter up there, I'll bet that you all like to be outside as much as possible soaking up the vitamin D.
Michelle - good luck with the cream on Santas butt. I can remember doing that on a cat once. It was green - the cream that is not the butt - and the darn cat scraped its butt along the carpet and left a big smear of the stuff for a good length.
Happy - glad you like peas. I love them. Could eat them all day - probably do when I am home and growing them. Rarely think about buying the pods in the fruit shop tho'. They never seem to have the flavour. But then that is the problem with growing your own. Nothing else seems to taste as good.
Get ye to bed girl. Far from it, to let the DH rant and rave about you getting ready to go somewhere exciting.
Still bitterly cold out there but it is improving somewhat. Seems that it was a particularly nasty Polar storm that moved up the country. There has been snow in places that haven't seen it in years if ever. I've changed my booking to come back on the Monday now. That will be good. I'll have two good days with the family and a couple of nights as well. And it WILL be warmer. Guess I will acclimatise eventually.
It has been a very lovely 3 day weekend. Some work around the house, some shopping, seeing friends and today we will spend some time with my brother Sam, his partner James and my adorable nephews. The just got back from a Disney cruise a week ago and I can't wait to hear all about it from them.
Had my TOPS weigh-in last Thursday and I'm officially down 10 lbs since January. It's not a lot but it's 10 lbs. DH say his cardiologist last week and he is down 37 lbs from when he saw him last November. His heart is staying in rhythm and so they took him off the blood thinners.....we are very happy about that. He will see him again in December and he told him if he was down another 20 lbs by then, he will take him off his blood pressure meds. My DH is very excited about that!
Michelle: It sounds like you had a great time at your concert.
Terra: I love salad too! I love the summer salads where they put in strawberry's or other tangy fruits. It really gives a salad a different taste.
Happy: It sounds like you have been doing a lot of exercise...good for you!
Shad: I am enjoying the pictures you are posting.
Laura: In one of your posts you mentioned a Pilates reformer. As part of my PT for my hip, I used one of those doing 4 different exercises. I had never used one before until then.
Annie: Did you get the cortisone shots in your ankles? I hope it is giving you some relief. I too am very close to my out-of-pocket with my insurance or I am there. When that happens, I go "see" about everything.
Hi Dee--I hope you are having a wonderful long weekend.
I need to get my bills paid and a couple more loads of laundry done. Then it will be time to go see my brother and his family.
Hope today is quieter than last night. The plant lost power and it was in operation. I've purged one filter but still have two more to go but can't do them just yet. We lost a transfer pump last night also. What a storm we had! It hit just before I got to go home. And my doctor wonders why I have so much anxiety.
I'm taking off on Wednesday to get ready for my sister from Missouri who is supposed to be here on Thursday. Hope this rain quits while they are here.
I'll be back later. The phone hasn't been to bad and the plant is operating pretty good considering.
Just a quick check in as I have a lot of cleaning to get done and sadly, I can't just wave a magic wand and *poof* all clean. I also have an online training course to go through before I start the new job on Wednesday.
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Ceejay - It's no wonder you have so much stress and anxiety. I applaud you for all you do at work, especially during storms and their aftermath.
Susie - Congratulations on the weight loss! 10 lbs is 10 lbs! I hope you have a lovely visit with your brother, his partner and their sons.
Shad - Bummer that you're experiencing all that cold weather. Stay warm, sister.
Happy - Wow, you both really did get your exercising in. As for my active social life...yes, I'm enjoying myself. And Santa enjoys his social time too. Wow 25 pea plants! that's wonderful...and there's nothing as tasty as home grown. I am house sitting for a couple of friends starting June 5 for two weeks, and they have a lovely garden and 6 chickens. So I'll be having fresh eggs and fresh veggies for two weeks! Yummy!!
Laura - I may end up commuting by train to my new job. According to the train website, there is a shuttle from the train station to HP. HP has a HUGE campus! Like many, many acres....so once I figure out what building I'll be in, I'll see how far it is to the shuttle bus. Commuting by train would probably cut my commute time nearly in half, and a monthly pass would be cheaper than gas. I'll be driving to work the first few days to get the "lay of the land".
I hope you all are having a lovely day! I have to tear myself away from this computer because sadly this house won't clean itself. LOL
Hi girls, My allergies hit me bad last week & made me sick & I've had a earache w sinus pain the last 2 days, stupid weather nothing that I've tried is working & I hurt so bad I can't sleep either. I'm phoning my chiropractor this morning for relief before I phone the doctor. Or maybe it's a migraine because the sunshine hurts my eyes & it hurts to read.
I hope everyone had a good holiday weekend & that u have a Great week
We stopped and had a delicious dinner, stopped in at a famous pie place and got a couple of pieces "to go" and were treated rudely by the cashier. Finally we decided to stop at a curious place based on a road sign we saw as we were driving by. It's a hotel which was made from actual train car box cars. The place is lovely - the rooms are quaint and look quite comfortable. The place is exceptionally clean too. We both agreed that we'd certainly stay there in the future. Having to drive that far and then explore the area and then drive back is really tiring. Would be good to stay overnight and then get up early and go roaming around once rested. There are tons of parks and water falls along the Lake Superior shoreline (and lighthouses too) up that way. Though tiring it was a very enjoyable day. 
Sadly, no one besides me signed up to pull and extra shift - not even from those who only occasionally help out. 
Our fill in person got a permanent job and her replacement won't start getting paid until next week - which in my opinion would be a nice thing IF she pulled an extra shift this weekend, even if it's just being a volunteer and not getting paid. Oh well. Wish people would step up. 
Anyway I have to jump in the shower and get ready now. 
I do love them and their sweet taste. DH wanted to shell them and eat the peas but I like them better pod and all. This time we will no doubt have plenty to fix in many ways 
DH got the "trellis" contraption up for the peas, I got so many that we will have to make another structure. I had wanted to get to the tomato bed but all I did was clean it out. By 4:30pm I was very tired, the mosquitoes were starting to bite and it was starting to rain and get chilly so we called it a day. DH is in the process of building a very nice wooden planter box 6 feet wide by 10 feet long to go into the front yard. He was working on that in between dumping the pine needle mulch out back and lifting heavy bags of dirt into the raised bed for me. We were both pretty tired by day's end. I should really be in bed as we want to head into town and pick up some more supplies tomorrow. He is going to stain the wood (planter box) grey to match the house and I need more plants to finish the garden. I didn't want to buy them until I got the beds done - just purchased the peas because I got the last of the stock and I know once things are gone, they are gone - no reordering of plants up this way. Then when DH gets the box finished, we can decide on some butterfly and hummingbird attracting flowers to fill it with. I will have to see if there is anything that deer find particularly tasty and avoid that. We haven't seen many deer around lately - save for a stray one of two in the middle of the night. Not sure if it's because we stopped feeding them because of the bear (there is plenty of greenery for them to eat now, especially since we got a good rain and things are budding). DH thinks the females are in hiding having given birth although the ones we had did not look pregnant. That's about it for me right now. I should get to bed, DH went early so he will be up early and nagging me to hurry up. 
I hope you have a lovely visit with your brother, his partner and their sons. 
& that u have a Great week 