November - nice or nasty - the choice is yours
 

Okay, going for a short snappy title this month.

I don't want negative stuff. There is enough of that around without me or any of us adding to it.

I'm hoping November will be nice. I'd like to lose a couple of pounds before I finish this contract. Anyone else going to post a 'I want to....' and see what happens at the end of the month.

To go back to the old thread, click:cool:

"Hello November" & a Time change ;) Fall back our clocks 1 hour, until next year when we Spring ahead 1 hour.

Joy ~ Thank You :hug: for starting our new thread.

2 of my winter goals are:
#1. Be 'active daily' with walking a minimum of 5,000 steps/1 mile daily because I told Dh that we r doing the annual Labor Day Mackinac Bridge walk in 2016 http://www.mightymac.org/bridgewalk.htm We did it the last time in 2004 & enjoyed the views & nice people walking the 5 mile bridge. We took amazing photos that u can't see from anywhere else. It took us about 1 1/2 hours & the 2 prizes we won were 1 free commemorative t-shirt from a business downtown & a free breakfast in Mackinaw City :T we bought another $15 t-shirt & extra breakfast ;) And yes we r also tourist 'fudgie's' eating the famous Mackinac Island fudge whenever we r up north. Wherever we visit we have to help the local economy & buy their products. So I also, can officially call myself a Cheese-head from buying soo much Wisconsin cheese :p visiting our son.

#2. 'De-clutter' weekly; my home, my health, my marriage & my job. I'm easily distracted from taking care of my own life tasks, whenever anyone needs my help I'm there w them. My Dh says I'm too 'easy' :spin: & to 'help them' only if it works into my schedule. So I'm back on-the-clock w time management again & I'll work around my health probs.

Time to go make our French toast breakfast now, I always cook our bacon in a pie plate in my microwave & nobody knows the difference. My way to lowering the cholesterol :D draining the bacon fat often as it cooks & Dh uses the fat for frying eggs the next day.

What r some of your winter goals & a healthy cooking trick :chef:

Happy November :thanks2:

Hello Everyone! It was so nice to have an extra hour of sleep this morning with turning the clocks back.

Shad: I like the title.

Dee: I saw on the October thread that a long post you wrote went MIA. :mad:

I like your goals! I would love to walk over that bridge with you. We went to Mackinaw City a couple of years ago and I loved it there. So pretty.

Ceejay: I saw on the October thread you were pretty busy this weekend. I hope you enjoyed yourself.

My "I want to" is for Nov and Dec together.

1. I want to be down 10 lbs from my current weight on 12-31-15 a.m.
2. I want to be back in the habit of exercising 4-5 days a week for at least 30 active minutes.

Morning everyone,

What are you going to do with your extra hour of time today if you live in the States? (Clocks go back one hour for daylight saving time). Personally, I'd rather have it darker in the morning and lighter at night. It's going to get dark insanely early now - not my favorite time. I told DH it's time for him to switch over to Driving Miss Daisy time ;) I am not comfortable driving at dusk / night now even more than ever. And the deer seem to be very active in the evening right now.

Thank you for setting up the new thread Shad - I do like the title and for the first time in over 10 years, we do not have the word WORLDLIES in the title. Maybe it's time to retire that anyway.

I was thinking about goals when I woke up today. I decided to commit to small but steady changes rather than taking on the world and failing. So... my goals for November are to pick a small food change each week, start with 5 minutes of daily conscious exercise and add 5 minutes to it each week (to form a habit in my brain) and I also have a goal to go through at least 3 items (box, bag, hot spot or drawer) and do the keep, toss or donate to reduce the stuff in here. I think they are small but doable goals that will get me back on track.

Sis got home ok yesterday - it rained from the minute they walked out of the cabin to when they walked in the house. She made good time until she got to Woodfield Mall in the north suburbs and got hung up an extra hour in bad traffic. She said she is NOT happy to be back in the city again but Mom and son are most happy she is home again.

DH and I went grocery shopping yesterday. We stopped at the thrift shop to talk to our friend but it was dead slow in town. They were supposed to have a Zombie Walking Dead fun run but the weather was prohibitive. They were also supposed to have an outdoor trunk or treat where you park your car and serve treats out of your trunk but I think they had to move that indoors also. I think that's a better idea than going door to door. The houses are close together in town itself but everywhere else (like by me) the houses are so far apart that I'd be wiped out just walking up and down the 5 houses on this street! I'm glad we don't have trick or treaters - no candy temptation. But I should donate the few decorations I have since I don't bother to put them up any more.

I stopped at the shelter right before they closed and picked up paperwork for the new animals received and adoptions for the last 2 weeks. Boy that's a busy place - I must have 30 new intakes and a big pile of adoptions! DH asked where they get all the animals from and more importantly where all the adopters come from in a small town of 2,000 people. I said right now we have lots of puppies. We took in 3 pregnant mommas from Oklahoma who were due any day. They were about to kill off all of them - apparently they don't believe in spay and neuter but instead do a very high euthanasia rate. :cry: With each mom having 7 to 9 puppies - there was almost 30 animals just from those 3. Happily they all got adopted. And we are also overloaded with kitten season too. Last 2 weeks in October were free kitten adoptions - they placed many but we still have lots left. As for adopters, I told DH that Facebook has been so instrumental in helping us. With us able to post pictures and the fact that we have over 3,000 followers with people posting to their friends, it helps to have a great support network. So I was working on entering animals last night and got hung up on trying to figure out how to put in their medical records. It was a struggle I still have not figured out. I have to get the files back to the shelter by 8:30 tomorrow morning so I just opted to get the basic data in (we know all adoptable animals are spayed/neutered and current on vaccines anyway).

I am also doing laundry today and hope to get a little housework in also. A few months ago, DH forgot to close the hatch on the 4Runner in the garage and went and pushed the button to close the garage door. The garage door being heavy put a deep scrape all the way from top to bottom on the hatch. We got the hatch repaired when we had the work done on the front of the car when we got hit at the Thrift Shop. So... door is nice and shiny again. DH pulls the car into the garage, takes groceries out yesterday and I was looking through the front door moving stuff when he went to close the garage door. I THOUGHT he had not closed the hatch again and was about to say something but it was too late. I saw the garage door wobble a bit and then DH started cussing and went back in the garage. Sure enough, he did it AGAIN. This time not as deep a scratch but a length wise scratch none the less. :( I couldn't believe it. He said we need to get rid of the boxes that are at the front part of the garage so he can pull in farther. I said ok, you can't pull in totally away from the door and we can do that BUT you have to start paying closer attention to what you are doing. *big sigh* So I will have to find some time to get at the garage very soon.

Tomorrow I have an all day drawing class I am looking forward to. I had this teacher before and I really like her a lot. It is a pen and ink drawing class with landscapes. DH had some photos printed up for me - fortunately I have lots to pick from thanks to his hobby. But that will take all day. I am just a bit disappointed because we are getting the last final burst of nice weather before the gloom sets in and tomorrow is supposed to be sunny and an unseasonable high of 62 degrees. I would rather spend it outside than in an art class but can't change the weather. ;) Tuesday I switch from mornings at the Thrift Shop to an afternoon shift over the winter but when I changed the calendar I saw that I have a hair appointment. So I asked 2 friends if they would cover me. Maybe I can get out in the morning and finish off the garden area for the winter. There are weeds to pull and mulch to cover. I'm sure DH will be raking pine needles on Monday so I'll use that and maybe some newspaper underneath. (We don't have any leaves on our immediate property and I'm not going out back if Mr. Bear is looking for a winter home ;) ) I was not happy at all with the cheaper name brand garden soil I used this year. Seems it had lots of weed seedlings in it. So it's back to reliable but more pricey Miracle Grow next year. Last 3 years seriously have been a waste of money on the garden. I only do it because DH went through the effort of building me a nice, fenced it area. We will see how the strawberries I planted this year fare next year - it takes them a year to get established. I hope they don't take over the entire bed though!

Wednesday they are still talking about the last bit of residual nice weather so we might take a ride out to Minneapolis to go to the zoo - DH wants to take more pictures. We bought a one year pass when we went and it's only cost effective if you use it at least twice. We went in July I think and it was miserably hot, humid and very uncomfortable to walk around. Should not be the case now as there is a mix of indoor exhibits as well as outdoor stuff.

And that's about it for me. Will catch up on personals when more of you get in here - always a slow weekend for posting here. Happy November, success to all. :grouphug:

I'm getting ready to pay bills & decided to drop-in, then its the doggy weekly baths & grooming time. They love it :smug: But I should've turned my TV off of the shopping channels, I just bought a new 'flash fryer, by Chef Ming Tsai' on HSN for $80, my deep fryer uses lots of oil & Ming's flash-fryer is very efficient, I'm tasting my veggies cooked in it already, yumm. Because Dh likes his onion rings, etc. this will b a family Christmas gift for us to share. I've been watching the HSN 24 hr. cooking show & only bought this today ;) Dh is watching football. I just finished making cheese ravioli for meatless Monday, I added mushrooms & onions to mine & Dh likes just the 3 cheeses I use.

Donna... You make me tired :o just reading how busy your life is. We get up to 70* Monday-Wednesday & then our temps go to low 60*. So tomorrow I'm detailing my car & waxing it. You have enough going on w your schedule, so let Dh organize the garage his way & possibly he'll b more careful parking by doing that work.

Susie... Yes, save the Labor Day date for u & John to walk across the bridge w me & Ron ;) If your Dh doesn't want to walk, he can enjoy a morning of leisure while u & I walk across the bridge w Ron. We always camp those 4-5 days, so if u want to u guys can stay w us that weekend camping or we can meet-up & do things. I know u said u are a hotel person, but camping is fun & relaxing being on the lake. If u don't have a double sleeping bag, just bring your electric blanket w u guys & your 2 pillows. We don't know if we'll take our kayaks up there because we may stay @ Mill Creek campground Glamping on Lake Huron w the beautiful view of the M. bridge lighted up @ night about 3 miles from Mackinaw City (3 hours north of our home); if we don't get a state park reservation, because we only kayak in inland lakes & only on slow rivers in state parks w big lakes, that's a option for u to think about kayaking. Or we could drive to a Canoe Livery & rent kayaks or tandem kayaks on a local river up there. Does your Dh like the water? Don't believe anyone that says kayaking is hard or tippy, because if u kayak on inland lakes & not on fast rivers, its easy & as safe as walking. Not tippy like canoeing is. Our g-babes started paddling @ 10 yrs old when their arms were strong enough to hold the paddle. There's many things to see & do w/o going into the water up north. If u decide not to come up & walk across the bridge my feelings won't b hurt, but you'll miss a very nice day. I hope u & your hubby do come up. I told Ron about this & he is happy to meet new friends.

Oh, Ming just made Sushi in the deep fryer :T & veggie sticks... I'm going to make 'fried chocolate chip/peanut butter cookie dough' when I get it for my first dessert & flash-fry everything all week :broc:

Talk to you'all tomorrow after I detail & wax my car in our 70* temp :beach: Then I'm headed to the lake to kayak & look @ any fall colors left on the trees, unless Dh wants me to wait for him, to join me after work.

:wave:

On my phone
 

Shad, thanks for starting the new thread. I like the title.
Instead of pounds I'm doing better losing inches. I will measure tomorrow. But I'd like to lose 3 inches. I'm up to 7000 steps this week so the next 5 days I want to do 7500 steps per day which would include a 20 to 30 minute activity minutes.
I also need to do some more decluttering.

Went by to see my uncle who is in the jonesboro hospital. They did a cardiac cath procedure and wanted a frontal view of his heart by doing a endoscope. They damaged the top of his esphogus. He has an extremely sore throat and can have nothing by mouth. He has i.v.'s. He said he really wanted a drink!

My appointment with the cardiologist is Thursday. And it never fails that my coworker calls and may need off this week due to a death. I really do not want to miss this appointment.

Good Morning Chicklets!!

SHADDIE...thank you for starting the thread. Great title. Altho I do like the word Worldly in the title cause that is how I search out old posts when makeing references from years past. Just a thought. Again, you are on the rolling down to the end of the path with that job. Yeah!

HAPPY...OMGoodness, I would of crapped if C did that AGAIN to the car. I have to laugh, cause I knocked off my mirror on the Camry and on my RAV4 both by backing out to close to the garage door. GUILTY as DH here. :) We will have to set up a driving school at our commune to include garage door training (backing and closing). lol. Lord I am glad I am not around for all the puppies, I am such a sucker. I went over to my sponsor's house yesterday after church and she has 3 schnauzers (Frazier, Holly, and Sasha), they are rescue doggies that were used for bait in dog fights. How sad is that? All 3 stole my heart. So lovable and especially Sasha, she warmed up to me and laid next to me with her head on my lap the entire visit.

CEEG...don't cancel your appointment, your health is more important than anything else.

DEE....anything that is fried in my books is scary. Not heart healthy. I would have to pass on the deep frying thing.

SUSIE...your goals sound very doable. Remember to put YOU first and not your stinky bosses or job. Do for you first then do for work.

Hello to all the rest of ya's. Cannot remember from last month's post and to think I just read it about an hour ago. haha.

Did a lot of running around on Saturday, laundry etc. Sunday was church, meeting with my sponsor then we went to lunch at Red Lobster. We went to Ainsley's BB game at 3. Too cute, a bunch of 4th graders running up and down the court, kind of like a cluster F. Anyway they won 13 to 8. Then off to do Cs pull ups as my brother took yesterday off, so we had to fill in for him.

Home to watch some football and off to bed. I must say, going to sleep and sleeping all night long is no longer a problem. Out like a light and don't wake up till the alarm goes off.

Hello to all, make it a great day. Hugs

Hospital only bill $119,777.12

Afternoon all. Nice sunny day here.

My weekend was fine. I used the boutique gift card. Thank goodness I found a necklace & earrings I liked - there wasn't anything I loved at that place - nothing like my style at all. After that I stopped at the Talbot's outlet and bought a pair of gray dress pants. After that was Kohl's to use my Kohl's Cash (undies), and finally to Walmart to buy the big bag of Halloween candy.

It was rainy all day, but finally around 3-ish it let up a bit and while I was out walking the dog I came across a few groups of trick-or-treaters. We had a fair amount of kids, but didn't give away all our candy by a long shot. Bf has it hidden, thank goodness.

We met friends at the chosen place and it turned out to be closed for remodeling. Huh. So we went to another place and had a nice time - chatted and watched the end of the baseball game. It was a pretty early night - left for home around 11-ish.

Sunday was laundry and vacuuming and a wee bit of yard/garage work. Bf moved the mulch bags to the side of the house. The car is ready to go in the garage. Happy, we'll have to be careful to shut our SUV's rear latch before shutting the door. We don't have a door direct from our garage to the first floor of the house, so we always leave through the big door once the car is parked in there, so I should think closing the overhead door while the rear hatch is open is going to be impossible. What a bummer that happened to you a 2nd time! Your hub has to come up with a new routine to stop that from happening a 3rd time!

Okay, gonna post this and get out to enjoy the day (I'm off today). And maybe go to the hospital - please send some healing thoughts to bf's mom - her leg swelled and hurt starting Friday and she finally went to get it checked today and she's been admitted to the hospital with a blood clot! Thanks!!

Annie
I'm definitely not going to cancel this appointment. I told my boss this morning that these kind of appointments are hard to get. Then made an appointment with the GYN. I was still in the computer. It's been since 2012 since my last appointment and longer than that for the heart. Yikes on the hospital bill.

Dee
I need to either wash and wax my vehicle or pay some one to do it for me.

Laura
Most definitely sending healing thoughts for your bf's mom. Glad she decided to go to the doctor.

Happy
How big is the shelter?

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So far I have 26 activity minutes with 5504 steps and 1 mile. I'm having a cut off time for counting steps which will be 9 p.m. This way I can ride my bike for 10 minutes if I need to get the rest of my activity minutes in after work.
Wearing my new shoes today and my feet are hurting.
I actually saw the mouse last night in my bedroom and another time in the living room. Why do those little creatures make me say eeek! Probably cause I'm not used to seeing them in the house. I still don't want them in their. I bought TomCat poison and put out. These are containers but they are not traps. They are supposed to go back to their nest. I'm going to check under my bed tonight to make sure it hasn't taken up residence there.

Ceej, I had the 'stress test & echo' @ age 55 yrs for a baseline because both my parents died from arteriolosclerosis & I was tested again last year @ age 60 & was told I'm fine. It's important for everyone to know their health risk. My parents were both former smokers & that did lots of damage. My cholesterol numbers were great in September @ my yearly physical. My doctor says my risk factor is Low for cardiac disease & I know it's because I changed my food lifestyle to 1-2 servings of food 5 years ago & my stress lowers when I talk to God. Everything that u are doing is improving your health :hug: I'm very proud of u for taking care of your body & peace of mind gives u more happiness. Measuring as u lose inches is a really good plan too, because muscle weighs more than fat does. ps: I hate mice too! :mouse:

Annie, I bought a 'flash-fryer', it isn't a 'deep fryer'. A 'flash-fryer' uses minimal oil & has a fast-cook, high-heating element so the food cooks quickly & is crisped outside without oil penetrating the crust (cooking technology); it's comparable to searing food in a frypan @ high temperatures, or oiling a baking pan then flipping the food over on the greased side to crisp both sides in the baking oven. Dh had a deep fryer yrs ago for his French fries, onion rings, etc. & I sold it @ garage sale because it made greasy food & it used 2 qt. of cooking oil & Dh was PO @ me. He's happy about the new flash-fryer we're getting because he can cook onion rings, etc. 'crispy & healthier'.

Laura, How was your day off today :beach: :exercise: It's great that u got your Gift Card shopping done on Saturday & found something u liked. I'm sorry about your Bf's mom's leg, I hope as u are reading this post that she is healing well & that her doctor gave her good news :goodvibes to leave the hospital on Tuesday.


Have a good Tuesday everyone :cheer3: :goodscale :cheer2:

Good Tuesday Morning/Evening Lovely Ladies...

Let me see, C went fishing with the neighbor last evening, I went to a meeting. It was a good meeting, about work related issues and how the steps can help with that. I am beginning to think the steps would help anyone get a better outlook on life, attitude, gratitude, God, and many other things. Don't have to be an alcoholic to make them apply some way in life.

RANT....our Directv service went out last night. Spent an hour on the phone with the customer service. They could not resolve the issue. SO they are sending a tech out to see what the problem is....First available time..Sunday between 12-4 pm. REALLY, test my patience will you? I am calling back today about 6 days of credit toward our bill. This is BS, yes we missed the Colts game last night, well if you wanna call it a game. I am very disappointed with Andrew Luck and is non-reported injuries-it is about honesty, my man, honesty. Rant over!

With all that said, I went to be at 8:15, I am so exhausted by 8 or so I can barely keep my eyes open. It is so crazy! Now I sleep through the night like a baby and even if I get up to potty, I am right back to sleep sitting on the toitie. lol. Amazing when the blood flows, how much better your body reacts.

I am starting the stairs this week and walking farther also. I am not going to make goals for this month other than just trying to do better and get healthy again. Of course, I forgot my Fitbit this morning, so steps are not calculated today.

DEE....glad to hear the way the flash-fryer works, better than all that fat and grease. Yes C had a deep fryer when I met him, so when he moved all his stuff in with me, I pitched the deep fryer, I think he almost cried. That is so unhealthy and so messy to clean up after use. Yuk! How are you feeling today? You seem to be in a better place with all of it.

LAURA...how was your day off? You've got my prayers for MIL. Bless her heart. I know the pain and suffering must be awful for her. Hope you got a little "me" time on your day off.

CEEG...glad you are going to keep your appointment. Good on you for the GYN appt. Stay on top of your health is #1 these days!

Hello to all of you. Hugs and Prayers for us all.

Howdy all,

Yesterday, today and tomorrow are just absolutely gorgeous outside. Except for the millions of Asian Beetles which have woken up and are covering everything! Yesterday I went to art class. It was ok but a little disappointing because she did not teach very much. It was a pen and ink drawing class and if you were new to it (like me) or not very skilled it could be intimidating although the teacher knows her stuff and is VERY kind and encouraging. She has a lot of groupies who take every class she offers and they have been doing it for years and years so some of them are real artists. BUT as Diana says - the wonderful thing about art is there is no "right", it's in the individual's own eye so I try not to look at how great other stuff is and remind myself that you're never quite that good starting out so practice, practice, practice! But I did enjoy the class. I came home and found that DH spent the day cleaning house. :faint: I thought at first it was going to be a fight because sometimes that triggers the "I ALWAYS HAVE TO ... response, but no. He was in a good mood. So thanks! I made teriyaki pork chops for dinner with homemade cranberry sauce, salad and beans - was a good dinner. Today I skipped the thrift shop, worked on creating some training documentation for the shelter software - I start training them next week. The morning flew by, I hope to get a load through the wash before I have to shower up and head over to the hairdresser. Need to drop off some cleaning supplies at the shelter too, probably after I get my hair done. They moved the rain forecast to Thursday so it looks like we will be taking a trip to the zoo tomorrow. Not exactly first on the list of things I'd pick if I was choosing, I'd actually rather go look at some waterfalls instead but I am being a nice wife and going along with what DH wants to do. After Thursday's rain we get back to seasonal temps in the 40's with cold and gloom so live it up now! :D :flow2::sunny:

Annie - glad that you are sleeping so much better now and that you are finding good things in the 12 step process. We have a Serenity Center here - they do everything except Overeaters Anonymous - don't know why not. Maybe as you say, 12 steps can be translated to it if they don't have a specific meeting per se. I have had the same annoying problem with DirectTV - I think they are all like that tho. When it goes out you have to wait a week for an overworked tech to show up. That's the problem - they contract their techs out and treat them like garbage - kind of like corporate help desks do ;) OUCH on the hospital bill! But that's the reason we are all afraid with insurance - who can afford to pay something like that - or even a "reduced" bill out of pocket. It's also sometimes good to be able to have the insurance to pick the care you want instead of having to deal with cheaper options. Breaks my heart each time I see precious little dogs used as "bait" for fighting. Makes me wanna take a :frypan::rollpin::club: to the lowlives. :mad: Same for puppy millers.

I am with you all on the fryer thing - I don't do anything fried except the occasional French fry with a burger when eating out. I have an old fashioned deep fryer I got as a wedding shower gift, I only keep it because there is a crock pot insert that goes in there and I still use that. DH had a hankering to make fried chicken once from a magazine article that tempted him. What a waste of oil and really, it was not that great. So buh buy grease! The flash fryer might be a better idea but we don't use it enough to warrant another appliance in the house.

Dee - it's great that you took steps to try and avoid the medical issues that plagued your parents. We know so much more and while genetics do sometimes thump us on the head, we can head off some problems with changes in our lives.

Ceejay our shelter is sort of small. We have 2 cat rooms, can hold about 70 cats at capacity, 20 dog kennels, 2 isolation rooms and a big area for training or temp kennels for moms and new puppies. We process about 700 animals a year through our doors. I am with you on the mice - I cannot bring myself to kill just about anything and while I like animals I am squeamish about mice crawling across me :yikes: When I was still smoking I smoked out in the garage and we had field mice in there - no way to prevent it. It was especially hard in the winter when they could get into a tiny crack the size of a pencil eraser and looked for some place warm. There were times I brought a small stool in the garage with me and stood on that if I saw one darting across the floor. :eek:

Laura - hope BF's mom is doing better. Clotting is a big risk. Scary! Glad you found something so you could use the boutique card and it didn't go to waste.

Ok, well I just looked at the time and if I don't get off the computer now it's no lunch for me and I don't want to go all day without eating. Hellos to those I missed. Hope everyone is doing well.

Afternoon all.

Shad – Thanks for setting up our new thread for us. Hope all is well in Auckland.

Dee – The bridge walk sounds interesting…do you walk back across or get a ride back?? I suppose I should check out the link you posted! ;) The flash fryer sounds interesting. Let us know how you like it. We had a deep fryer a few years ago and bf returned it. All for the best. We rarely deep fry anything. As it is, I’ve decided we have to keep our cooking oils in the fridge because we don’t use it quickly enough and it can go rancid after a while. I never would have thought kayaking would be less tippy than canoeing…

Susie – I think I need to replicate your goals! :yes:

Happy – I think I used the extra "fall back" hour to sleep. In the past, I’ve hated the early darkness that comes with the end of DST, but this year I’m really glad to have the light back in the morning. Last week I bumped into the corner of the dresser not once but TWICE in the morning getting ready for work. :headache: You’re really learning the nuts and bolts of the HS operations since you’ve been volunteering and implementing the software. It’s interesting. Re your garden – for some reason I didn’t know strawberries were perennials. Except for the wild variety of them, I guess… Enjoy your visit to the zoo, and enjoy the nice weather!!

Ceejay – Good job on the steps. I hope you don’t have to miss your cardiac appointment this week. I read your post about the mouse in your place and what did I have a nightmare about? Yup, a mouse in the house. :mouse: :yikes:

Annie – Wow, that hospital bill would make me faint!! :faint: Do you think it’s the new meds you take that are tiring you out? Good for you getting back to exercise. Bummer about the cable being out. What a PITA to deal with those companies. :mad:

Hellos to Terra and Michelle.
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My day off was alright. I lazed around in the AM and then we went out for lunch (Red Lobster) and to the New Balance store nearby after that. They had a few models of the shoe brands Happy recommended, but not a lot, and not my size in the one I wanted. Turns out I needed a half size smaller than I tried on. At least now I know how the sizes run. Bf also found some shoes he liked. I guess I’ll get back online and shop some more, though I don't think we'll find any great deals on those brands. I’m also on NB's mailing list, so I might wait and see if we get a postcard from NB in the mail announcing their next sale.

After the shoe store, we went to visit bf’s mom in the hospital. Her clot is serious - along a whole long section of her upper left leg (femoral artery I think?). They will try to clear it with drugs, but she may require surgery. If I understood her correctly, the surgery could result in severe nerve damage. Scary stuff. Please keep up the thoughts and prayers for bf’s mum!

Driving home right during rush hour last night from the hospital wasn’t far, but it was a nightmare. I think it being the first weekday after DST ended just made it so much worse. You’d think no one ever drove in the dark before! And construction EVERYWHERE didn’t help matters.

I went to Pilates class last night and it was fine. Someone asked about the next session and the instructor commented about the winter park district class catalog not being out just yet and how they seem to be cutting it close this time around... There are only 3 classes left in this session.

I arrived at work today to find I had my CPR class this morning. I’d forgotten about it and was tempted to skip it, but I decided to get it over and done with. Now I’m done for the year.

Nothing planned for tonight. I voted for two movies, but neither was chosen. Instead “Crimson Peak” was chosen. It sounds like a horror story? I’m gonna skip it.

You’ve all come up with some great goals. Now that the outside work is winding down, I need to focus on the inside of the house and one thing I really want to accomplish is getting the paper clutter under control.

As for health goals, I just received the evaluation from my employer’s wellness assessment. This assessment is based on a questionnaire we take online, and on the lab results. They come up with a numeric score and the goal is anything at 0 or less is desirable. I got a minus 20 (-20). So I’m happy about that. I just have to maintain a score of 0 or under. But…not having been doing any vigorous exercise for the past couple months, I feel very “out of shape” and want/NEED to get back to workouts. I think I will continue with the Pilates, but I need to do additional classes.

I better get this posted now or it just won’t happen. That kind of day. :shrug:

Packing, cleaning, washing, working. No peace for the wicked. :running: :running: Will be sleeping on the plane on Friday.

Between Mexico and the Indians I'm in a cultural wilderness. Hola, Salaam, Hiya, G'day, Morena, howyagoing, Konichiwa and selamat pagi. I can say yeehah and good morning in a dozen different languages.

Shad
That's one thing about working with different cultures, you pick up on their language. I know you are excited about returning home.

Dee
I had my baseline 5 years ago. But with the heart disease that runs in my family I'm ready to do it again. My heart has started racing again too so that needs to be checked. The only thing they found was that I was low on potassium.

Happy
Yeah for DH helping you clean the house. Maybe all the cleaning you did before your company rubbed off on him. I baked or boil most of my foods now. Like you I will have a burger and fries but will not fix them at home.

Annie
I'm going to try to keep my appointment tomorrow. The boss has given me tomorrow to that. Ii will work Friday and Saturday for L.

Laura
Sorry I've given you night mares over the mouse in the house. I saw it again last night so I'm going out tonight to get some ordinary traps. I hate setting those things. I hope I can keep up the momentum on this exercising thing. It's a mind set.

Hello's to Michelle, Terra and Susie.
______
I went to the car last night to leave work and opened the back door as usual
to put my things in there. I thought, that's weird that someone put ice cubes on top of my car and then opened the door a little more and the window fell out. Some on the ground and some in the vehicle. I text my boss and he said he would view the video from the camera when he got here this morning. I pray that I can get it fixed today and it can be driven tomorrow for my appointment tomorrow. I was really upset over this.
Met my goals again yesterday.

My boss has called the police department and an officer has come out to get information for the report. When I looked in the car this morning there was a rock laying in the floor board of the car. So it's evident that a child/teen ager/young adult has thrown a rock. In my opinion hatred of city employees. May need to park my car else where. Think my boss is going to have the city pay for it too.

Morning all. A bit foggy this morning, but the temps are still nice and mild.

Shad - I've always found it interesting to work with people of various cultures. So is it getting springlike yet in Auckland?

Ceejay - That's terrible that your car got vandalized!! That would be very upsetting. I hope they can find who did it, and I also hope it can get repaired quickly, and that you don't have to pay for it.

--
Bf told me that his mom's clot is responding to the drugs and it appears surgery will be unnecessary. So glad to hear that.

Tonight I have to remember to dig out a doctor bill for something I paid for through my flex spending account because they need the supporting detail. And I have to check what the remaining balance is in my FSA. I think the balance may be higher than can reasonably be spent in two months. But then again, I think I might have paid for some items out of my own funds and not out of the FSA. What a PITA. Our open enrollment for benefits starts next week and we are supposedly with a different company that administers the enrollment and the FSA accounts. I sure hope the FSA stuff will be easier with this new company.

That's it for me. TTFN.

Laura & Ceejay52 ~ Hi Ladies, How are you doing? I hope you are both doing well.

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

Woke up at 4:00 a.m. Its now almost 7:30 a.m. I need to start watching for my bus at 7:45 a.m. I'll get to school by 8:30 or 9 a.m. at the latest and I'll come back home at 4:00 or 4:30, 5:00 at the latest. I have music and movement class today.

Good Morning.

Today is Samantha's 30th birthday. Yikes, how can that be? I am only 29. lol Guess I am babysitting tonight so Chris can take her out for her BD. He text me this morning to see if I could. Nothing like waiting til the last minute. I only had to rearrange one thing to make it work out.

I rented and watched Southpaw last night. C was not back from fishing. It is a really good movie. I liked it. It actually had a good story to it.

No personals this morning, make it a great day all.

Morning peeps. It's overcast today, but still mild temps. I'll take it.

Annie - Happy b-day to your DD! Nice you could babysit the g-kids, even at the last minute. Your son-in-law knows he owes you, right?? :D

Terra - Hi Stranger. Gosh, what an early wake-up time! Enjoy your class today.

Hellos to the rest of you. :wave:

--
Nothing much to report. Couldn't get my mom on the phone for the past couple days, so I phoned my sister to see if she'd reached her. She told me my mom's been having phone issues with her land line and mom had left her a message saying that. So I'll phone her today on her cell phone. I should think she's keeping it charged and turned on until she gets her phone issue resolved...Anyway, my sis and I had a nice chat.

Didn't do much of anything else last night. Finished reading my book - Mystic River. Yep, that's an old one, but I'm slowly working my way chronologically through the author Dennis Lehane's novels. I'd seen the movie when it first came out and didn't remember much from it and now I want to watch it again. We'll see if the library has the dvd.

Bf is wanting a food dehydrator so he can make his own jerky. I've kind of been wanting one too (for what, I'm not really sure), so we'll get one. He found one from Walmart, so we'll redeem my Savings Catcher money to put towards it. Have any of you used a dehydrator? If so, what for??

Today's our fundraiser finale in the afternoon, but I think I'll skip it. I might, however, buy some raffle tickets at lunchtime.

I got one big icky to-do done at work yesterday and now I can move on to the others. Whoopee.

Have a good day everyone!

Morning everyone,

Yesterday we drove 6 hours (3 up and 3 back) to go to Minneapolis to the zoo. I thought that was a bit too far for me. It was supposed to be near 70 and sunny and instead was 60 and very cloudy and overcast with gusts of a chilly wind. I wore a t-shirt because it was supposed to be warm and was super glad I grabbed a hoodie light sweatshirt and that was only to keep me warm in the car because DH likes it freezing when he drives. I got a good walk in although sitting in the car for 3 hours leaves one kind of stiff. As we were walking to the zoo entrance I started to cringe. All around us we were surrounded by young moms and their "stroller buses" - you know, those giant humongous strollers that are about as long as I am tall. And the place was just crawling with running, screaming, shrieking kids bumping into you, banging on the windows, etc. It was a nightmare. DH said he thought these kids would be in school but I said they were, the school age ones were on field trips. I used to love kids and I can still take them one at a time up to the age of 5. After age 50, I can no longer stand bunches of kids. Especially today's kids who are like banshees. DH and I were talking as we left the zoo, we would never be allowed to run as wild and out of control as they did. I told DH that I really felt sorry for the animals - to me they looked sad and depressed. Their enclosures, while an open pen are small for the size of the animal. The zoo keepers try to stimulate them with various foods and objects - for example, a tiger was playing with a large ball, but many of them were at the very far end of their enclosures and the ones in the front looked very disinterested. I do believe that they were trying to get away from the constant shrieking of the kids all around. So for me, it was a sad trip. Also when we got back to our car the ignorant clod with the giant SUV that was parked next to us whammed open their back door and put a big dent and and inch and a half white paint streak into my passenger side back door. He was parked close to us but not that close since I got out without slamming their car. Must have been a big fat azzzzz because to put that big of a dent and scratch into the car they not only opened the door hard but pushed it heavy. People are so ignorant. I only wished I had seen that... :mad:

We stopped on the way back at an Italian restaurant we noticed on the way up. It was in a really neat old house that was built in the 1880's and used to be a rooming house. We were an hour away from home and I did not want to get sick from a large and heavy meal so I got chicken parmesan with spaghetti. It came with a side salad, I ate that and a few bites of the chicken and some of the cauliflower and boxed the rest up. The cheese they used was a salt bomb. DH got shrimp scampi which he said was really, really good. They have a nice outdoor patio and he said he'd like to come back in the summer and have drinks and an appetizer or dinner outside.

We got home about 8pm after a long day and a tiring drive and I checked my email only to find that there is some reports that are due to the ASPCA from the shelter. And they are due today at end of day. And the email requested them was sent to the shelter mgr on October 19. So she gives me less than 24 hours to do this. I was ticked off. The base reports only take 5 minutes to run BUT in reading the trail of emails dating back to the beginning of September (emails I was never copied on), it seems they have some requirements for how you categorize aging classes of the animals. So I had to figure out how to change the drop down boxes in my system and then go and update 80 animals to the right categories. That took several hours last night. And then when I ran the report again, it appears that there is a bug in the program that is not taking the new values even though they show up on the individual records themselves. I quit working at 1am when my eyes got too blurry to see. I am totally over this not communicating and constantly leaving things until the last minute. This is the third time in a row I was blindsided right up to the deadline. Then this morning I was looking at the email again and see there are 2 embedded reports that need to be done. Well, I don't have enough info to do them. So I'm not. :shrug: I ran the 2 reports that I needed to and since the output is an Excel spreadsheet, I manually went in and "fixed" the stuff on the report just to get it done. I will call in a support ticket to the software company - AFTER I get my personal stuff done. I am not rearranging my life and enabling these last minute crisis's. If you want that, you will need to pay me the big bucks I used to get for being aggravated all the time. :yes:

Then when we got home we noticed that Nina peed in the cat bed that her sister uses. DH was really mad. Nina is very jealous - I have never seen a cat react that way but then again we have almost always had single cats. Meadow is really laid back and mellow and Nina chases her around, if we are feeding Meadow treats, Nina gets right between her and us and makes sure she gets her share. By herself she is a good kitty. But DH is not going to put up with peeing outside of the box, so she is riding a thin line here. He will surrender her back to the shelter and I will cry because it will be a most traumatic experience for her. She is afraid of everything strange and has become very nervous and skittish and if she got returned to a room full of strange cats, she would be terrified. I can't for the life of me imagine why she peed like that and I sincerely hope for her sake that this was a one and only incident.

So yesterday was not the best of days. Today I need to catch up on laundry and stop at Walmart. I will have to go back to the shelter and pick up adoption papers for October's animals to enter into the system. It's supposed to start raining shortly and get cold and awful - our typical gray, chilly weather before the snow starts to fall.

From what I understand, my sister is not very happy to be back in city life again. :( She said she hates the traffic and hustle bustle and misses the peace and serenity up here. :hug: 4 more years Sis. IF the parents cooperate too.

Laura - from what I understand people either love the dehydrator or it's one of those things that you use once and it lays on the shelf. People up here make their own jerky a lot. And the ones who make it well treat their recipes as closely guarded secrets - no lie. If someone gives you some of their jerky, they really LOVE you. :lol: I did have goose jerky when I was visiting a friend at the library - one of the volunteers brought it in. Tasted like salami with the seasonings and texture of the meat. Not something I would eat all the time. People also make fruit leathers with it but because of the dehydration process, you tend to get a larger concentration of sugars like you would in dried fruit. Nutritionists would recommend eating the regular fruit over dried or leathers and skip the jerky. So it's up to you. DH says he has to die of something. :rolleyes: For me I guess it's just not on my taste preferences! I'm glad BF's mom can be treated without surgery. That had to be a scary experience.

Annie - happy birthday to Samantha! I can imagine when they hit a milestone birthday it also affects you. Hope she has a nice day - good of you to pinch hit babysit. I'm sure they feel like grandma doesn't ever have any fun plans like dancing or partying herself :rofl:

Terra - are you coming back home in the dark now? Ugh - seems like you eat dinner and it's bedtime already.

Ceejay - that is really awful about your car. Seems like you have a rash of trouble making kids around the area. Were they able to repair your car quickly? I know a front window is pretty quick but not sure how complicated repairing the other windows can be.

Shad - your workplace has always been a most diverse melting pot of cultures. When I started we had lots of groups but they tended to center around the English language and "fitting in". But as we got more people in groups - the Indians, the Chinese and the Russians - they tended to stick with folks in their own groups and we started to struggle with things like language and customs. Tip my hat to you and here's this week's "boy I don't envy you". ;)

Hellos to the rest of the chicks. :wave: Think I'm going to get a second cup of coffee and pop a load in the washer. Have a good Thursday.

Hello Everyone! TGIF for sure!! What a week it has been. Work, work, work!!! We have a department meeting this coming Monday. All I have been doing it Power Point it seems.

That and both of my bosses decided that next Wednesday they are going to go to a consumer research project they will be doing in Nashville Wed-Friday and so I had to book travel and clear & rearrange their calendars for next week. Let me tell you, I'm living for next Wed-Friday when they are both gone.

We also had PC trade up this week and I was slotted for that, so for 1/2 day I didn't have my computer; I couldn't work on anything like emails, calendars or PowerPoints for upcoming meeting on Monday but I worked on cleaning out file cabinets.

I did make it to the tread desk twice this week. On Monday, I went. I had my fit bit, or so I thought. It turns out I left the little chip thing in the charger of the home computer and just put the band on!!! I think I was channeling Annie as I saw she forgot her fitbit on Monday.

I did awful at TOPS last night. I gained!! Almost 3 lbs. I know why. I had a lot of soda when I had the stomach thing last Friday-Monday and couldn't deal with water and ate a lot of crackers...so I think the salt got me and the calories of soda and I didn't have time to rebound on all of it.

I plan on seeing all that gone and at least one more next Thursday when I weigh.

I need to get ready for work so no personals this morning. I have read through them and will come back and do them tonight or Saturday (I told DH we were staying in tonight after work and bringing dinner home so we can just rest--we are going out with friends on Saturday night...I need some down time at home!)

Have a great Friday everyone!

TGIF FO SHO...to mimic SUSIE....and pay Friday, money in, money out. Thank God for 401K.

Nothing too exciting last night, made turkey meatloaf with fresh tomatos from the garden, use them as they ripen from green to red/yellow in the paper bag, very delish to say the least. Used low sodium bbq sauce instead of ketchup. Oven basil potato wedges and kidney beans for a little change. All was very yummy and enough for tonight, so I don't have to cook. We watched 3 episodes of McGyver. We have all the seasons. It seems a little goofy in 2015 considering it was filmed in 1980s. Wall phones, outdated computers and such in the episodes. We kind of laugh through it and guess the ending. More fun than interest in the story line. Doesn't take much to entertain me, haha.

SUSIE...glad you are getting some down time. Your job wears me out. I won't tell you I forgot my fitbit again this morning. I put it on the charger and it is still there charging. Sheesh. I know you will do great at TOPS next week, when one is determined, it is accomplished.

HAPPY...wow, for being a volunteer job, you sure do put a lot of time into it. I think you need to speak with that woman about getting you the information quicker, or hey, tell her you cannot do the job if she doesn't. Maybe scare her into doing right. Ended up not babysitting. Samantha is so over protective of me after the heart attack. She will not let me do anything. Like Halloween night, she wouldn't even let me pull the wagon with the kids in it. I am not invalid. I have been released to go back to normal activities, please sister. Really? QUESTION: How do you know it was Nina that peed in the bed. Maybe Meadow is trying to make Nina look bad and did it herself? lol. You know like Garfield.

LAURA...I used a dehydrator back in the day to make jerky. It turned out very good. Marinated it in teriyaki sauce before dehydrating. Very tasty. Have not used one since. How is you MIL? Hope everything is going well and coming home soon. Did you get a hold of you momma? Did you win anything in the raffle?

CEEG...did you boss see anything on the video of the parking lot and your car? WTH is this world coming to? Kids have no respect for anything.

CHELLE...have you recouped from all that work of last week? Rest up sister. How did the interviews go, hear anything new?

Hello to the rest of you. Hugs and prayers.

Morning all. TGIF! :) It’s very gusty and cooler outside today. I was walking to the train station this morning and a neighbor about a block away offered me a ride and I took it. That was nice of her.

Happy – I’m sorry the day of your trip to the zoo wasn’t all that great. Bf and I also have a low tolerance for kids when they are allowed to do as they please because it does involve a lot of screaming and running around without a thought to the safety of themselves and others. Save that for the playground. What a bummer about the damage to your car. I’m thinking that it was actually a kid that did the damage – why would they be at all careful opening a car door, especially if an adult hadn’t warned them to be??

How frustrating re the HS work! I would really be steamed if someone held onto something until the last minute when the deadline’s upon you. Aaargh! Good of you to take a stand - you are doing this voluntarily! I was wondering when there will be training for other users – I know you won’t be personally entering new animals in the system permanently. I guess you have to get everything set up before training and handoff… Yeh, I can see this dehydrator eventually sitting on a shelf, but it’ll be fun to give it a go. Bf doesn’t care about turkey, but I wouldn’t mind trying teriyaki turkey jerky. I’d also probably try dried apple slices, and drying some herbs. One year I grew basil in the veg garden and ended up stringing the leaves on thread and hanging it in the basement to dry. It was a bit laborious, but worked fine and was well worth it. The flavor was so much better than the store-bought dried basil. I can’t imagine how old the stuff from the store might be.

Hi Susie – I do not envy your workload! It’ll be nice when your bosses are out for part of next week. Have you had any time to check out any internal job opportunities? Maybe next week… I’m sorry about the TOPS gain, but once you get back to the routine, I’m sure the gain will come off. Yep, I’ve worn the fitbit wristband without the fitbit itself once or twice!

Annie – LOL re watching McGyver. I enjoy watching the older shows just for the “throwback” factor – the clothes, hairstyles, furnishings, and technology (or lack thereof, lol) popular/available at the time. MIL is doing fine. The 3 clots she had are being broken up fine and it’s possible she will be released from the hospital tomorrow. She will have to be on the blood thinner drugs for many months after this, but if that’s what it takes, so be it. Awww, your DD must be so worried for you. But you’re right, you’re not an invalid and you have to get physical activity to stay healthy. No, haven’t gotten in touch w/ mom yet – by the time I get home from work, it’s later than she prefers to get phone calls. She likes to talk a bit, so I usually reserve that for weekends. As long as I knew why she wasn’t answering the phone, I'm okay.

Hellos to the rest of you. I hope your week went well and you have a good weekend. Safe travels Shad!
--
Nothing much to report. Bf and I ended up going out for half-price burgers last night. Different restaurant though – a new-ish sports bar/restaurant near the house. It was SOOOO loud in there last night – not like past visits. Anyway, during commercial breaks from the basketball game, they switched over to music. The Kinks song “Girl, You Really Got Me Going” as covered by Van Halen came on and all of a sudden I remembered that great TV commercial where Barbie dumps Ken to go off with GI Joe in his car (with that song playing). Do you girls remember that one?? For some reason I thought it was an ad for Jeep, but it turned out to be for Nissan (of course I had to look it up on you-tube to watch it, lol). So funny how memories pop up like that just from hearing a song.

I didn’t buy any raffle tickets for the fundraiser finale, so nope, didn’t win anything.

The boss is taking a vacation day today, so it'll be calm here.

No plans this weekend, but there’s plenty that needs doing around the house. I will get those last two shrubs dug out, even if I have to dig in the mud to do it! I also think I'm gonna take out the screens on all the windows in the 3-season room. These are awning style crank-out windows original to the house. The screens are on the inside. I like to take them out in the cooler weather because there's a clearer view to the yard without them. Maybe it's still too early. Do you think all the bugs are now gone for the year?? I haven't seen any lately.

That’s it for me, so I’ll get this posted. TTFN!

Good morning all,

I still have 8 minutes left before the click ticks to noon :D

I saw an infomercial for a Shark vacuum cleaner last night on TV. Looked like it picked up pet hair especially well and since I have lots of that... So I was researching comments and before I knew it, I didn't get to bed until 3am so kind of slept in today. :o WHEN I have my own schedule instead of being dragged around by the nose by all kinds of demands, I will have a more relaxed day. I have recorded probably 25 movies on our DVR and along with DH's 20 tv shows he's not watching, it tends to fill up. So I try for 2 nights to at least stay on top of the couple of tv shows I like. More often than not, I tend to nod off sitting in the warm and comfy chair. I dose on and off for about an hour which really tends to mess with me not getting to bed at an earlier hour. Gotta work on that ;)

Yesterday we noticed a new restaurant in town so we decided to give it a try for lunch. It's a bar and grill - this is the 3rd owner of this place. A nice guy from the southwest side of Chicago - just the other side of the expressway from where I grew up. He is doing bar food but with an upscale touch. Which means instead of everything thrown in the same deep fryer or grill, he actually has FLAVOR on his food. We had an order of naked chicken wings and cheese burgers. Yum all good. I took half my order home as I often do nowadays and that was my supper. DH was full too - he ate all of his lunch and just nibbled on something light for his dinner. I think we are going to go back there tonight and try his fish fry. I do have my Italian beef from Portillo's in Chicago that my sister brought thawing in the refrigerator and we need to eat that up too. But it will keep one more day if I get the chance to go out to eat :D

I did get a bunch of laundry done yesterday and ran some errands. Still have a few more things to do today so I should get going soon as I need to shower too.

Laura - regarding the New Balance / Aravon lines - you can periodically watch Amazon. There are sellers online and sometimes they have sales going on. Zappos also carries their shoes but it's only closeouts that they have sales on and not very frequently. I like Zappos for their easy return policy. Foot Smart also carries that line but they are a big hassle when it comes to returning anything and getting your money back so I don't really use them unless I am replacing a favorite shoe and know the exact size and width that I need. Regarding the dent in the car, I too thought it might be a kid because it's the back passenger side door but it's such a heavy scrape and deep dent that someone had to push it with a lot of force. It's almost as if someone really big and heavy had to wedge the door hard to get into the car and put a lot of force on it - not your typical open and bang kind of dent. My poor car - the Avalon - has all sorts of pock mocks from hail damage, ignorant drivers and general wear and tear. :( But I still love it more than the new 4Runner and resist all efforts by DH to replace it. I keep seeing a lot of older 4Runners and I still regret not getting mine fixed instead of trading it in. Anyway I digress... as usual.

Laura - I can see how McGiver would be fun to watch. Kind of like the very old Flash Gordon from the 1950's - campy I think they call it. I would also think that The Mod Squad would be equally funny to watch. We have come a long way with inventions but are still not living in a "Jetson's" world of the future. Yes, I remember that Barbie commercial. That was funny - I forgot it was to advertise a car. I never liked Buffalo Wild Wings restaurant - although the food was good - we'd get take out - because they also cranked up the volume in there. Not sure why anyone would want it that loud that they can't hear each other speak. Good luck on your yard work. As for the bugs, hard to say - we had the invasion of the Asian beetles 2 weeks ago when it got up to 70. Then the temps dropped and they went into hiding. Earlier this week we got a warm up and they came out of hiding and we flying around all over the place. I have to believe that like us, you also got your last dose of Indian Summer so maybe it's safe to take the screens down now.

Annie - I can understand how people will treat you delicately after your heart attack and how ANNOYING it can be to be treated that way. I'm sure it's just human nature, care and concern. :hug: You have to work with Samantha to understand that you know your limits and will promise not to enter any marathon jump roping contests right now but babysitting is ok. Grandma WILL sit down when she gets tired. :D Yes, I did have a talk with the shelter manager about last minute and lack of communications - she apologized and it will probably happen again BUT this time I won't stay up half the night trying to make up for lost time so all is good. And yes, volunteering is no different that working in that if you are good and responsible that the reward for hard work is MORE hard work. So if you're good you get dumped on. Have to keep in mind that sometimes we have to push back - it's just that most of us want to be helpful. I find that when someone needs something - let's say I stopped at the shelter to set up training and she tells me she can't do Wednesday because she is short a cleaning volunteer - I will tend to just blurt out - ok, I can help with that even though I am choking right now on this full plate of mine. I have to start biting my tongue and stop trying to take care of the whole world. I'm sure you are the same. And we know it was Nina who peed in the bed because when we came home from our trip she was sitting on the table where Meadow usually sleeps. She jumped from the table to the bed on the floor where Meadow sometimes sits and DH then noticed her "burying" on the pillow in the bed and saw fresh pee in it. So not sure if she was expressing her displeasure that we were gone all day long or she was nervous or just being mean to her sister. She is slinking along here waiting to get yelled at and I told DH we need to actively give her more attention. Siamese cats like Husky dogs need a lot of attention and stimulation, otherwise they tend to get into trouble if trying to amuse themselves alone. So far she's been ok. :crossed: Yum your meatloaf sounded delish - I love meatloaf - beef or turkey I don't care. It sounds like you are not having too difficult a time modifying your food for the low sodium eating.

Well DH just saw on FB our favorite Italian restaurant is having the grilled swordfish special he liked so much so I guess we will be going there for dinner tonight.

Susie - busy as ever with work. Worst timing to have to give up your PC also. And it never comes back working the same. I'll bet you are looking forward to both of them being gone next week. Give you a chance to catch up and sit there, do nothing and just think of ways to be more efficient, eh? :chin: :?: right ! :rofl: :lol3:

Hello to the rest of the chicks, I have one more email to send out and then I have to get busy here. Have a great weekend everyone.

Hi girls,
Wow what a busy Beautiful week w our temps 70* to 74* what a wonderful surprise :cool:

Ceeg, I just read back a few posts on this page, OMG what is wrong w ppl damaging your truck. I hoped that it was just some kids playing ball that accidentally hit your truck & they panicked & didn't come inside your building to apologize, instead of the vandalism. Seeing that rock is scary, what if u had been close to your truck when it had been thrown, u would've been injured by the broken glass. Hopefully your auto insurance won't make u pay a deductible to get the glass replaced.

Anne, It's really understandable that your family will b taking care of u :val2: for several weeks like 'a fragile flower'; w u getting the catheter they just want to 'mother u for a change' because heart attacks kill, so enjoy their Loving care. Soon enough they will b behaving normally to u again :smug: About u watching McGyver, we watch the old TV series too, hey Don Johnson is still as sexy on his new TV show as he was on Miami Vice. I laugh @ Dh when he watches the old corny Bay Watch episodes, etc. When our g-babes were here in the summer, I turned on Saved By the Bell & they watched it but were puzzled by the clothes until I explained it was made when their dad & mom were in high school. Shows like that have a innocence & lesson in it, I wonder if there are any TV shows w teens & morality anymore.

Terra, Has anybody contacted u about a job interview yet? Hang in there & have patience & a job that u really want will come along in time ;)

Laura, Have u used your new food dehydrator yet? I have one that I use for dill weed, herbs, etc. I know some ppl make fruit leather for their kids & hubby's because it's less messy than trying to eat fruit on the go & put it into the lunches instead of candy bars. That's awesome that you MIL is doing okay now.

Susie, :yay: about your bosses being gone Wednesday to Friday, no stress or pressure for awhile! Yep, I agree your gain was basically Salt :mad: but I know u Will take that 3# off, I've seen u do it before! While your @ home relaxing maybe u can catch up on some TV too. Are u watching this season of Nashville again, did u know that in real life Hayden P. admitted herself into the psych unit for Postpartum depression, like the roll she is playing on the TV show.

Happy, What... do u have a arrow pointing down from the sky toward your autos w a big bull's-eye on it saying 'hit me' :o If your autos could talk it would b screaming mad @ everybody right now, or crying. I was at our local library this week & a H. Society volunteer walked over to a few kids @ the computers & offered them cats & kittens & show them flyers that she was putting on the bulletin board. I told her about using Face B. like u said u are successfully doing.

A few days this week I drove 1 1/2 hours to our Ds1 new home, he's the one who transferred from Milwaukee. I washed the cupboards out, vacuumed etc. & I took Sundae our GoldenDoodle w me to keep me company & to walk her around the yard occasionally, she's pregnant & I want her to stay fit to whelp her litter in December. She's so cute when she sees me put my shoes on, she brings me her leash expecting to go outdoors w me. I got my Fitbit steps done on those days. Today it was back to the cold, fall temps & it rained :( the whole time I ran errands. I might b overdoing stuff, because I've been sort of shaky on & off the last few days & I've never felt weird like that before. I probably should get my flu shot next week.

Hello :wave: to Michelle & Shad, both of u have been super busy & I hope that life is being good to u & u have a relaxing weekend. Shad, TY for making me smile :Dwhen I see your New avatar :D

Blessings to you'all & I hope your weather is nice where u are :cool:

:hug: Dee

Morning
I've been upset since my doctor's visit on Thursday. My blood pressure was 180/80. Think most of it was due to stress of the broken window and told her so. But she wants me to monitor my blood pressure on a daily basis record it and bring that back next visit in December. I told them about me having jury duty but they told me if I had to go to call and reschedule. If my bp stays at 150/80 I'm supposed to take another blood pressure med that she prescribed. Yesterday after work it was in the 150's and this morning it was in the 150's. I don't want to start another med. Guess I have inherited my mom's blood pressure issue's.
The boss had my window fixed. It took about a day and they fixed while I was at work. I'm good to go. He didn't comment on whether he saw any thing on camera.
He brought my Christmas bonus to me yesterday also. :woohoo:
Now I'm confused. I didn't notice that a pump was in the off position until now. I did notice some low run time. I'll try it and see if there is a noise on it and if there is I'll turn it back off and call the maintenance man. It's not taped off like it usually is if there is something wrong with it.

-------
Susie
I'm tired just reading your post about work. I hope you can get some rest when your bosses are out of the office.

Dee
How nice of you to clean for your son! I didn't realize that your GoldenDoodle
was going to have puppies in December. Bet you are excited. Good for you in getting in your steps. I didn't get mine in yesterday but will today. I forgot to put my fitbit on my shoe last night when I rode my bike.

Annie
Nice of you to keep the boys while the kids had a date for Sam's birthday. Enjoy being pampered. It show's they love you.

Happy
Wow, you have a busy job for volunteer work. I hope DH doesn't return Nina to the shelter.

Laura
I love the old reruns. I like to watch Perry Mason and Matlock. I'd watched McGiver if he were on. I always like how he could make something out of nothing.

Terra
Any results from the job fair?

Good morning. Slept like a baby last night and it felt good! We stayed in last night as I was very tired from the work week and I knew this morning I needed to finish the PowerPoint Deck for the Department meeting on Monday.

As soon as I got up at 8:00 a.m., I started working on it and sent it to my boss to put his slides in. I told him I won't be looking at email anymore this weekend so if something majorly needs changed he needs to text me and I'll get to it early Sunday evening. I am documenting things like this so at my next qrtly review we will review these sort of things and I have decided if they tell me that I'm still not tracking for a 1, I'm going to HR.

The reason I'm working on it so late is that I asked for information by Monday, especially the awards that have happened since the last qrtly meeting so I can get them into slides..the managers had two weeks to meet that deadline and on Monday I had 3...and there are 9 managers!! I can't work on them until I have everyone's because the information is put into tables and those need to flow. :mad: It happens all the time like that.

I had gone ahead and built the transitions slides and things for the skeleton of the deck so that was done. I don't think I am inefficient...I think it is the crew around me! Believe me I'm tracking that too!

Ok..enough about work! I'm cleaning some of the house today and have laundry going. DH went to the grocery. We are going to O'Charlies tonight for dinner with friends--looking forward to that. I'm wearing cute boots and a cute sweater with new jeans.

My BFF asked me if I wanted to go with her to Indianapolis on Friday for the Bands of America competition. She has a kid in the local high school band. So I've decided to take Friday off and go with her. I'm excited! It will be a Lucas Oil Stadium. I think we will get there around 1 and we will be there until about 9 and then driving home.

--Annie---how close is Lucas Oil Stadium to your work?

Sorry again for no personals. I need to get moving on this house.

Sunday I'll do personals. :p

Have a great day everyone!

Morning all,
Got in on Friday but too darn tired to do anything except sleep. Then Saturday (yesterday) I went to get the eyes checked and they are fine, just a slight adjustment to my lenses and I am good to go for another year. There are apparently the beginnings of cataracts in both eyes but she said that they would take at least 10 years to grow. I don't know if I have 10 years in me. But then no one knows that. Anyway, today we went out to breakfast with the family and tomorrow they go to NZ for a holiday. I shall no doubt meet up with them in Wellington later in the month.
Tomorrow is dentist time. I know what he is going to say. However nothing can be done apart from a check up until I get back at Christmas.

Speaking of which (which I hardly ever do) apparently my offer to fly the DS1 and DIL + granddaughter to Brisbane for Christmas has been accepted. They haven't told me yet, but no doubt I shall get to hear shortly. Hope it is in time for some reasonable fares. No doubt I will have to give them a push.

I can't do personals right now. Need to get myself cracking and do some yard work. It's rained everyday since I have been here. Seems the storm season has arrived and there are some tree branches to be picked up and some neighbours to catch up with etc. So while it is not raining at the moment, might be a good move to go out there and do it.

Expecting the maintenance man here shortly. Problems with a filter that went to manual. I had to go down and close the valve manually. That's getting a bit much on this 65 year old.
Work yesterday was quiet.
More later.

Evening all. Just a quick hello. Yesterday I got the last two hydrangeas dug out. Very stubborn they were. My hands were once again very sore afterwards. So glad that job is done. That was it for yesterday other than the usual.

Today we brought home bf's mom from the hospital. Glad she's home now. She'll be on warfarin for a while.

Doing some laundry. Doggie & I had a nice walk. It's been a nice weekend for weather.

That's it for now. I'll get to personals tomorrow. :wave:

Good Morning All....

Lovely weekend. Errands and laundry on Saturday. Yesterday was quite nice. Sis and all 3 of the babes and I went to get their pix taken then off to O'Charley's for LINNER, as it was about 3:30 when we ate. Took chicken home to C. He stayed home to wait on the cable guy (not Larry, lol). It ended up being the transducer on the the dish plus when they installed the pole for the dish, it was not cemented in which made the dish go out of sync with the satellite. All good now and back in Hallmark channel business.

SUSIE...Lucas Oil Stadium is 15 minutes from my house and 7 minutes from work. Let's hook up at some point, even if just for a few minutes. I can break away from work, come after work, or even meet you at the exit off of I74 to Cincy right by my house for a quick cup of Joe on your way home. There is a Mcds and Wendy's at that exit, possibly a Taco Bell<--they are building it now, looks almost ready to open. Not sure of the opening date.

LAURA...my hands always hurts after digging in the yard too. Wonder if that is what arthritis feels like for those who have it in their hands? Glad MIL is home and doing better. She needs to be careful not to cut herself with being on blood thinner. They told me not to even use a razor to shave and get an electric one.

DEE...didn't know your doggie was going to have another litter. How often do you breed her? Seems like it would be hard on her after several times of litters. I know I wouldn't want to do that again! Lol.

CEEG...glad the window is replaced and it didn't cost you a dime, only sanity. Scary on the BP. At least the bottom number is good. Relax a bit, stay clear of salt and WE all know, lose some weight. Bleh, huh? Hugs sister!

HAPPY...I don't believe I have ever had swordfish. Have you? Is it tasty or a taste that has to be acquired? The Shark vacuum intrigues me, however as C pointed out to me, the collection of the dirt container that you have to empty puts more crap back into the air. So he won't let me get one. Yes, I believe you and I are very much alike in ways like we are fixers and helpers, which gets us into more work and time consuming things not of choice.

SHADDIE...even when you come home, you are busier than I would like to be. Woman, slow down and take 10 for yourself.

CHELLE...have you caught up on your rest and sleep from that very busy week at work?

TERRA...any news on the job front?

Bout it for me, have a great Monday/night. Hugs all the way around.

Still waiting for the filter to be fixed. Ugh, Started taking the new blood pressure pill yesterday. I made many trips to the bathroom. Wanted the maintenance man to fix the switch on another filter that opens the rewash valve. Didn't think about going down stairs to do it by opening he valve manually. I shouldn't have to do that. But they are dealing with a sewer main that's backed up to the police department. Guess we know who gets priority around here. :lol: Do we see why my blood pressure is high. I'm secretly hoping that the doctor will tell me I need to retire due to the stress at work. One can hope.

Laura
Glad your bf's mom is back home.

Hello's to the rest. :wave: Be back later for personals.

Morning all,

Happy Monday. I was supposed to go with DH today to get the radio replaced in the new car but I woke up at 4am with a tummy ache and it carried through the morning. Is the result of eating out / not making sure I am getting in the fruits and vegetables like I should be. Re: the radio - we noticed when we first got the car that the satellite radio seemed to "skip" in spots. We though it might be crappy Sirius XM radio and we opted not to renew it. Then we noticed the regular radio also skipped - we chalked that up to the trees in the area and interference. Then something else happened and DH decided to have them check it when he took the car in last and low and behold, the radio is defective. I am hoping that the navigation system is part of that whole unit because that sucks too. Anyway he is gone and I have to play telephone central here. We were supposed to go and have the initial meeting to start our estate planning with the attorney. I made the appointment 2 weeks ago. DH forgot to mark on the calendar that he had a doctor's appointment at the same time. So when he got the reminder call Friday about the doctor's appt, he was well I can't change it. I was well ... why wasn't it on the calendar???? He made an attempt to change the doctor's appt but they have a stupid system and he has no patience. So I will have to reschedule this and as you know, I have a very busy schedule ;) so actually this is going to be a pain as the week is already filled up with stuff. Then I have to call the junior college and gripe - I registered for an art class in April when I was there last week and by chance I looked at my schedule and they dropped me from the class! :mad: This is a popular instructor - I'm going to be so mad if I am on a wait list. And then I have to wait for the THIRD call from Home Depot to schedule a person to come and measure for the replacement of our front door. So stupid how they handle this. One call to talk to a salesman. Second call from someone else about installation. Third call from the installer to come and measure. Probably a 4th call from the driver to find out where we live and a fifth call from the weatherman to make sure it's not a bad day to drive :rolleyes: Why have things become so complicated?

Then I am losing my mind. Last week I went and got my hair done and put my shoes on in a dark closet and didn't notice I had 2 different shoes. Today I got up early and started doing some housework. Washed 1 twin blanket with 2 sets of twin sheets. Put the blanket in the dryer by itself, left the wet sheets in the washer. 20 minutes later grabbed a load of towels and dumped them in the washer and turned it on. I thought the washer looked a bit full but ignored it. 15 minutes later I notice the dryer tumbling and wonder what happened to the sheets in the washer? I opened the lid and idiot me, tossed the towels on top of the wet sheets, added soap and away it went. The floor was thumping from the too heavy load. I'm lucky I did not mess up the washer. Stopped and drained the water out, pulled out the heavy wet sheets and tossed them in the laundry tub and went and rewashed the towels. Now I can't finish all the laundry I planned to because I have thrown too much water in the septic from my stupid mistake. Sheets will have to go another rinse cycle. I told DH he MUST start paying attention, guess I have to do the same. :^:

Saturday the Humane Society president and vice-president held an informal thank you get together for the people serving at the gourmet dinner and those who painted the thrift shop exterior. She served baked ziti which had (yuck) olives in it and far too many red pepper flakes. I wish people would realize that olives are a love it or hate it item - like mushrooms. And people who like olives tend to be like - if one can of 'em is good - 2 cans would be GREAT and they overdo them. They had a salad which was very good, I ate that. I brought a garlic cheese monkey type of bread - canned biscuits, garlic powder, parmesan cheese, butter mixed together and topped with shredded asiago, parmesan and mozzarella - very easy and big hit. I did not get to talk to everyone I wanted to and towards the end I got talking to the vp who very much wants to run the thrift shop like the retail business it should be. She made some valid points about several things. I just said you can't get these volunteers to understand that. :shrug: Anyway it was a nice evening. Yesterday we stayed home, it was a lazy day at home. While I truly enjoyed it, I feel I wasted a nice sunny day inside even though I got several of my to-do list tasks done. Today is supposed to be a similar day, I need to get outside in the afternoon.

Ceejay - I guess those pills are helping you to get your steps in! No fun though. Sounds like the job is tiring you out but you are still not sure "should I stay or should I go?" Sometimes you just have to make a decision and be ok with it. I think there are no simple answers anymore, we just have to stop analyzing things and tell ourselves we are ok with what we decided and not second guess ourselves.

Annie - glad you had a nice Linner :D and that the cable is fixed. Hallmark channel is gearing up with the holiday shows. They do have some really nice movies, would not want to miss that. Yes, I have tasted swordfish. DH has suggested I try his several times when it's prepared especially well. It is a dense, meaty fish. I do not care for the texture of it even if I did like the seasonings and preparation. I find it dry. My preference is the softer, smoother flaky type of fish like cod. I think that is the difference between fresh water and salt water fish - the texture. He was salt water coming from Rhode Island and I was fresh water. The same is true of yellow fin tuna - ahi - it also has a more dense texture and I don't like that either. Yes it is annoying being on the blood thinners. Something else to consider for the winter if you tend to get bloody noses from the dry air and the occasional sniffles of sinus - might want to get a bottle or two of the saline mist you spray in your nose to relieve dryness of the tissues. Bloody noses on blood thinners are also annoying and should be avoided.

Arthritis in the hands - yes, intense hand gripping like tugging at gardening, wringing out wet stuff, or lifting heavy things or even intense winter cold can aggravate the arthritis and make your hands ache. I have it in my thumb joint and if I squeeze the joint it brings an intense pain. Sometimes I just rub / massage my hands when they ache and that helps a bit. Yoga teacher has us do hand movements to get synovial fluid into the joints that seems to also help.

Laura - Good to hear BF's mom is home now. Hope she will recover quickly. What a great way to enjoy the last bits of the nice weather with a walk with Coal. Have you been out in the forest preserves lately?

Shad - welcome back for a brief touchdown at home. Much more to do than time to get it done I'm sure. That's nice that your son and family will be coming in for Christmas - nicer if they discussed it with you first ;) Ah it is what it is, eh?

Susie - you need to document everything that is going on with work, particularly the part about the managers sitting on the slides until the last minute. :mad: It's not just the directors but EVERYONE making a crisis for you. That has got to end. Or at least keep track of every instance the next time you have a discussion about your responsibilities.

Dee - argh about the Humane Society volunteer offering the kids puppies and kittens. That is NOT the way to ensure that the animals are getting good homes. Very irresponsible. Nice of you to help your son at the new home, just make sure you don't over do it.

Hellos to the other chicks, I'd better get a move on here and start those calls.

Morning all. Sunny today, and temps will hit the mid-50's. I'll get out for a walk at lunch.

Ceejay – I agree, your job sounds like it was stressful the past week or so, and your car window being broken certainly added to it. I hope things calm down for you this week. Is the other BP med working for you?

Annie – Sounds like a good weekend. I’m glad your cable/dish service is working again. It would be so great if you and Susie could meet up!! Re the sore hands – yes, I thought this might be how arthritis feels. In which case, it sucks. I like using a stick vac, but they all have dirt cups vs. disposable bags. The cups can be messy, and they sure do fill up quickly when there’s dog hair in the mix!

Shad – How long will you be home? I hope your dentist appointment went well. Wow, you actually mentioned that “C” holiday!! :D Anyway, it’ll be nice for you to be home for that holiday and have DS/DIL/granddaughter coe to you. Will your contract be done by then? If so, then it’ll be another reason for celebration! :cheers:

Susie – Ugh re working on a Sunday! What a pain having to wait on information from others that are tardy in order to get your job done. Good luck with that. So nice you have a day off on Friday to look forward to. And it’ll be really great if you and Annie get to meet up!!! Fingers :crossed: that it can happen!

Dee – We had a beautiful week here too last week. This weekend was cooler, but still beautiful. Nice crisp autumn weather. Our oak tree in back has turned a nice russet brown/orange, i.e., rust. Not brilliant reds, yellows or flame orange, but nice in its own way. Of course, it hasn’t lost many leaves yet. That usually happens well AFTER all of the village’s leaf removal options have passed, LOL. :rolleyes: We haven’t received our dehydrator yet. :tantrum: How nice – now both of your sons are in MI? Nice you got to help him out with his new place.

Happy – I hope you’re having some downtime these days. You’ve been so darn busy – those “not paying attention” mishaps are probably from having too much going on and too much on your mind! Nice you found a new restaurant option. Thanks for the tips for possibly getting the Aravon shoes at a discount, and avoiding return hassles. That’s important when buying online! Your poor car! But at least that’s cosmetic and not mechanical. The engines these days really do well in terms of longevity, so I hope you have a lot of reliability left with your Avalon. :crossed: I wasn’t a McGuyver watcher, but it’s funny how it’s become part of our language – like a verb – to McGuyver something – and (almost) everyone knows what you mean. The HS thank you dinner sounded nice, but olives – yuck. Way too salty for me. That garlic monkey bread sounds great. I love foods that involve bread or pastry crusts! I hope you get outdoors today – try to do some of those outdoor tasks, or just putter around out there pretending... I haven’t gotten out to the forest preserves lately. Bf and I drove past the Busse Woods FP area along AH Road yesterday on the way home from his mom’s place. Several people were on the bike trails walking and cycling. Nice day for it. Another cycling season has passed us by. :(

Hi Terra! Hi Michelle! Hope you both had a great weekend. :)

Have a great week everyone!
--
Nothing much else to report about the weekend. As I mentioned to Dee, we’re still awaiting shipment of our food dehydrator. We also ordered & are awaiting a big electric roasting pan to replace the Nesco that went kaput on us this past summer.

Now that the one big garden project I wanted to get done (remove all the hydrangea bushes) is done, I’m ready to get going on the indoor projects. There are still a couple garden projects to work on, but they will have to wait until next year. One is redoing the borders of all the garden beds with the fancy border stuff (Snap-Edge). The other one is removing the one border that runs along the outside of the 3-season room and replace it with grass. I will dig out the hosta and daylilies when they come up in the spring and give them away. Looking forward to easy digging projects!

The indoor projects are too numerous to list, but they include the half bath re-do (yes, still), paperwork decluttering, and basement cleanup (many sub-projects there). Oh the fun!

Okay, it’s taken forever, so I will finally post this. :wave:

Good Morning All...Got lots of reports to get done today. Doesn't even include the Wednesday mess. Sheese.

I tell you, Curtis requests the strangest things for dinner. Honey, can you make some mac n cheese and put some cut up hot dogs in it? Really, um, well ok. I certainly didn't eat any of it, so you are on your own. YUK. I went to a meeting instead. lol.

It is getting a little nippier around here than I like. Like 42 on the way to work, high mid-50s. Beats 0 and snow I suppose. Skip forward to spring please.

LAURA...does the snap edge stuff hold up very good? I have never had much luck with it which is why I switched to stone decor borders. I thought you got the half bath redone already. What is left to do in there?

HAPPY...ugh, automated machines when trying to talk to a human. I just start hitting 0 in hopes it will through me to a real person, works most of the time. Other times they disconnect me. Worth a shot in my books. Pretty cool the radio was defective and you didn't have to pay for anything on that.

Got to get this baby started, make is a great Tuesday/night.

Happy
I'm going to wait till my next doctor's visit concerning my blood pressure before I make a final decision about retirement. I want to get the most out of my social security benefits but it may not be worth it health wise. I've let my sister who is the nurse know about my bp. I'm with Laura you need some down time.

Laura
I'm getting out in the yard tomorrow to rake leaves. Supposed to rain this week end. Going to enjoy these warmer days while I can. I want to shampoo the carpets in the living room. Wish those Rug doctor's weren't so big I would rent of those. I also need to down size some more.

Annie
Reports, ugh, I hate them. Luckily I can do mine on a daily basis and then turn them in on the first of the month. Did you have a good day out with the kids? I don't mind the mac and cheese but not with hot dogs.

------
Where is Michelle, Terra and Susie.

The maintenance man finally got the filter fixed so we are back to normal today. I'm taking tomorrow of for a me day. I've had it scheduled for a while and I'm looking forward to having some me time. I'm thinking very serious about not going to Paragould and just relaxing this week end. And see if this will bring down my blood pressure.
Going to look up my new bp med to see what it is supposed to do.
Better get back to work and get caught up on this paper work.

Hi kids,
Happy Tuesday. Sun is shining, we still have temps in the 50's at least for one more day. Maybe there is something to this El Nino winter - we are fortunate in that we have had milder weather than normal up to this point. Yesterday I made it a point to get outdoors and winterize my garden. Pulled as many weeds as possible, pulled the dead plants and tomatoes that fell to the ground and covered the beds with a heavy brown paper mulch. Now I need to find some straw mulch to cover the strawberry plants.

Was supposed to go to see the lawyer about a will today but DH had a Dr.'s appointment he forgot about. I tried to reschedule but the attorney was apparently not in the office. She called at 8 this morning asking to reschedule as she was not feeling well. I was like - don't you check your messages??? Then I remembered where I live and how casual people are. :dizzy: We will try again next week. DH and I had a conversation about things - I told him if I die first (we are taking bets who dies first ;) - in his family the men outlive the women and in my family the women far outlive the men :lol: But I said if I die first and he remarries, new wife can't have my jewelry or my money :lol3: He said WHY do you think I'd remarry????? :shrug: I just said, you never know although at this point in my life I am done breaking in a new man. :D

We are having an ordeal and going in circles trying to get someone from Home Depot to come out and measure our front door for replacement. They were supposed to call us, then they didn't. We called, they promised to call. They didn't. We complained. They called and said they'd come between 3 and 5pm today. Then got a second call from the installer who said he'd be by between 5 and 6pm. Then got a 3rd call that they would be there at 3. Today we got a call that they had a mix up, could they come tomorrow? DH called the manager and complained. They called back, was no mix up after all, they would be here at 4 today. So we STILL don't know when they are coming. This is probably my biggest complaint about living up here. This is very typical of what we have to do to get someone to fix/install/show up. IF they ever show up. :nono: *big sigh*

Ceejay - I understand your concerns about stretching your money as best you can. But I can also tell you that when I moved up here I was on 5 kinds of medicine and within 1 year I got back down to 1 medication - thyroid which I will always be on. I was amazed to look back and see just what the overall stress of the situation - work and living in the wrong place - was doing to me and my body and my health. Same for DH. Yes, I have less money now - far less but I have enough to be busy and happy and spend some extra with a little shopping when I want it and extra for taking classes and hobbies. It was SO worth it to me. But only you can make the decision between having enough money and the continued stress of working. And remember, there is no perfect answer. Just make the best decision and move on with it. Enjoy your day off.

Annie - I thought mac and cheese and hot dogs was a kid's kind of meal. DH ate that once too and declared it delicious. OMG - salt bomb! :bomb: I would like to think that most men have a totally different caveman palate but then again, most great chefs are men so go figure :dizzy: I agree with you about the stone borders. The plastic tends to crack if you get a lot of cold weather and it also takes a beating from the string trimmer if you use that to nip the grass along the edge. DH told me the trick about hitting 0 on the phone or just not answering any of the automated questions. Good luck with getting all the reports done.

Laura - did you get out and get a walk in yesterday? Yes, you are probably right about too much on the brain and not paying attention. I keep saying I have to slow down - when I get past this week and it just keeps piling up. :shrug: I guess what you say about the cycling season passing you by. That's how I used to feel about September and those last few Indian Summer days - summer has flown by - get in a few more activities before everything gets cold and gray. :( What are you planning to make with the food dehydrator? Just meat or dried fruits too?

Hello to the rest of the chicks - time to check in with us. No slackers :nono: :rofl: Have a good one all. I am off to my shift at the thrift shop. We'll see how I do with afternoons instead of mornings. Will be a longer day for sure as I will now have to close out the till and count up the money. Oh well - more brain cells to develop! See yahs. :wave:

Hello all.

Annie – Hope the reports went okay today. LOL re C’s dinner request. Definitely a kid kind of thing, though at our house we’ve been known to make a dinner of Stouffer’s mac n cheese with a packet of tuna stirred into it. Good of you to skip that – not a healthy thing to eat. Re Snap-edge – I can’t say how it actually hold up. What I do know is that bf’s SIL works for the company and his brother had installed some at their old house. The half bath was not completed by bf to my satisfaction so just about everything is left to be done, or rather re-done. For example, below the old medicine cabinet were two old recessed soap dishes we didn’t want anymore. When installing the new medicine cabinet, he removed the recessed soap dishes. He did not reframe the wall and change the placement of the medicine cabinet to account for having removed the soap dishes. So the new medicine cabinet is too high on the wall, and the light fixture above that is of course too high as well. And there’s a big gap between the top of the sink and the bottom of the medicine cabinet. The paint turned out to be a bad color and I intend to repaint it. But aside from the color, the paint job is not good because the sanding was done poorly. The towel ring and the toilet paper holder are placed oddly, and also too high. Aren’t you glad you asked what was left to do?? :D <<<< if I don’t grin I will :tantrum: :bomb: :mad:

Ceejay – Enjoy your day off and time outdoors tomorrow. Ugh re the carpet cleaning. We broke down and bought a carpet cleaner for all our area rugs a while back, but have only cleaned one of them! :o: That’s another thing on the to-do list… I think staying home and not taking the drive to Paragould (and back) is a good idea. You need to de-stress. :yoga:

Happy – LOL re the discussion/bets re who dies first. :lol: I hope you finally get that will/trust done. Did you have to do any prep work in advance of this lawyer appointment – gather info, etc.? What a PITA re getting Home Depot out to measure for a new door! We haven’t used them for doing work, but when we’ve had to order something that had to go out to be done (3rd party) in the recent past, it wasn’t handled in an efficient manner. I felt better about them years ago, but not more recently. Yes, I got out for a short walk at lunchtime. Re the food dehydrator, we will use it for meat, maybe some fruit and probably some herbs.

Gee, never got this posted. Hellos to the rest of you and I’ll get this posted before I leave the office.