Happy Hump Day!! Such another glorious day in Indy! Sunny this morning and 46 to get up to 70+. My day was happy and awesome yesterday. Just a very nice feeling inside. I was up last night with an upset tummy. Took some tums, went to the couch and finally went to sleep around midnight. Slept till the alarm went off at 4:45. Laid there til 5:30, a little late to work, thank goodness for flex time. BRB
Sorry had to call tech support had a network error pop up "blossom" on my screen. All fixed now. Back at it.
WEnt to an AA Big Book workshop last night. It is every Tuesday at 6:30 until we get through the first 164 pages of the AA book. This is all the personal stories of alcoholics. Short 4 to 8 page stories. We discuss as we go. It was very interesting last night the major subject was how NON alcoholics really do not understand this disease (yes, it is a disease that can be inherited) and why we cannot just not drink. Or just drink on special occasions. I explained it to C several months ago like this and I am sure CEEG will get this explanation. Curtis, you know what foods and beverages you are not supposed to eat that make your leaky gut syndrome, diverticulosis and major gut pain happen. You do really well with eating, then bam you cannot control yourself. Dairy, gluten, sugars etc. and a trip to the hospital (which we are not doing again ever as we now know why he has bleeding from the bum). SO can you just NOT eat that stuff. NO YOU ARE ADDICTED to it. I don't know if he really "gets it" or not but he no longer asks me if I could just not drink. Make sense? Just like any other addiction, food, sex, gambling, drugs, soda. Especially when we have an additive personality. Anyway it was an enjoyable night and can't wait to go next week. I volunteered to chair the meeting.
Dinner was left over Keto fried chicken made into chicken salad. Pretty good as the only two ingredients I cannot have on KETO is the grapes and sugar added. So I dish out my keto style prior to adding grapes and sugar. I add celery and additional onion to mine. The fam do not like celery or too much onion in there CS. Keto recipe follows, I do not measure, I eyeball.
Chicken
Real Mayo
Boiled egg
garlic
onion
celery
pecans
dash mustard, little dash do not want to overwhelm
pepper
salt
Mix, chill, serve. I eat mine on a lettuce wrap. SO yummy.
KETO fried Chicken
Chicken breast and thighs for C. I use Boneless/skinless, don't have to on Keto tho.
Bag of pork rinds crunched up fine
Eggs beat up.
Oil or butter, I used both, enough for frying chicken, heated in skillet.
Dip chicken parts in egg then in pork rinds then in skillet for frying then salt and pepper to taste.
Fry till done. I do put the lid on the skillet for almost the entire time.
Comes out nice, brown and crispy.
YUM
No you cannot taste the pork rinds and it makes for a VERY delish breading.
Posting before my computer freaks out again. Will do personals ne
HI SUSIE...I believe you earn every last cent of your job and deserve more. Come on May 5, Cinco De Mayo I love that you interject fun at home with the nephs and nieces, concerts and just time with DH. Good job on your TOPS loss. WOW 50 lbs is a lot to celebrate. Congrats.
CEEG...lovely that you can just nap whenever you want to and no feedback from anyone. Sleep a little for me. Rolling pin for you sister on the nuts. Stop that.
LAURA...lol J and R are not getting Tasty Cakes in their baskets. I don't allow them in the house. Not for me cause they do not bother me, not a sweet eater, but for C and S, they both need to watch their intake. Sam has about 10-15 lbs she needs to lose for BP issues. When her wait is down so is her BP. WHen it is a bit up so is her BP and then on meds. Lunch with a buddy sounds nice. I rarely eat/take lunch. Would rather get out of here earlier. What is the ETA on the Admin's return?
SHADDIE...safe travels. I had to smile about the matching gbabe house slippers. I love little girly stuff. Unfortunately for me, with J and R is matching Batman t-shirts or some other super hero. Bleh.
HAPPY....hope DH likes the full CPap mask when he gets it. Curtis likes his well enough. He does have to put a soft piece of cloth under the forehead part as it seems to "cut" into him there. Works like a charm. FUnny Jacob and Royce will not hug him goodnight once he has the mask on. I think it freaks them out. I just laugh. So he goes and tells them goodnight early enough to be sure to get his hugs. Boo on the co-worker return. Thank goodness we have all likeable, helpful people here at WF. Only took me 40 years to find a job that I loved all the co-workers. I know, IN HIS TIME, not mine. Whew! I agree with you on the pennies from heaven. I found several on vacation.
Hello to all, gotta get busy. This is wicked Wednesday.
Location: A beautiful and peaceful place in the woods
Posts: 8,905
S/C/G: Stuck/Working on it/Good 2 Go
Height: Fun Size
Good morning ladies,
Cool but sunny and supposed to warm up by afternoon. A few nice days ahead, a few days of "April Showers" oh well gotta take the bad with the good. Hello Springtime.
Just a few minutes here and I have to get ready to head off to a thrift shop meeting. I don't want to go I do enjoy backing away from all the drama. We haven't had a meeting in months - I turn a blind eye to everything now. *Sigh*. They recruited another person to help out at bingo - this was an uninvited person - I have not talked to my partner about it yet but his wife said he is none too happy. He likes to control things and in all fairness, the poor man is surrounded by crazy old ladies as he is also the manager of the thrift shop. At bingo we have a nice little crew that gets along well. We'll see what happens on Thursday. She might be a Godsend after all.
Anne - I totally get what you are saying about the addiction part. I tell people it took me 4 years of not smoking at all before I started to believe that I MIGHT have overcome smoking. I don't miss the coughing and the chest tightness. I detest the way it smells, I flinch when people approach me who have just finished smoking as they stink but man - there are fleeting moments when it's appealing. And I know for sure, if I ever smoked an entire cigarette again, I'd be back to smoking in a New York Minute. That's the crazy addiction - you are right - many people don't understand it. I remember when my dad (alchoholic) quit drinking. He said it was hard because he'd go back to the tavern to sit with his friends and just have a soda. Or at family parties or believe it or not at work where they'd go and have a few beers with lunch when that kind of thing was overlooked. He said the hardest part of quitting drinking was that everyone was always pushing a drink on him - oh just one. And you know one is too many and 1,000 is never enough. I was so proud of him as I am of you for keeping your committment. I think one of the hardest parts about facing your addiction is knowing you can't ever have a taste of the devil again. Not even a smidge. That's what I think about giving up Coca Cola - when I do walk away, it has to be forever as one little sip and I'm back again. My sister has tried to give it up over and over again so now she said she understands how tough it was to give up smoking for me or beer for Daddy.
DH gets frustrated with the full on masks because he has the dents in the face for hours after he wakes up. Yes, men lose collagen and tightness just like we ladies do. I told him "who cares - we are old people, no one looks at us". I doubt the cats, turkeys or deer care much. That's why he went to the smaller nose one that hurts so much. I think he forgot about the strap marks. Prepare for some complaining. And I laughed about the kids not coming near him. Sometimes I don't get my goodnight kiss early enough and he tries to kiss me with his mask on which just blows air at me - yuck! I don't think I could deal with that myself.
Thank you for the chicken and salad recipes. I don't add sugar to my chicken salad (probably a good thing) but I do LOVE grapes in it. I could learn to eat it without but I sure would miss it. I am glad you are doing so well with your eating plan and you can easily adapt it for the family too so they are also benefiting from healthy eating. Are the boys still picky?
Enjoy that wonderful job you love so much for as long as you can. I had one of those too - best 4 years ever and then the universe had to go and muck it up which happens... But when you enjoy what you are doing, work isn't so bad, is it?
Yesterday I picked up lunch from a caterer who does a pop up special lunch once in a while. Yesterday was Italian meatball sandwiches on a hoagie roll (I skipped the bread), a fresh fruit salad of melon, strawberries and pineapple and a crunch veggie salad we both liked - Nappa cabbage shreaded, sliced radishes, red cabbage, chopped celery, chopped red bell pepper, slivered carrots - all really crunchy stuff with a sesame Asian kind of vinaigrette dressing. We both liked it but we had to dig the Kalmata olives out of it first. Not olive fans here. I ate a part for lunch and finished it off for dinner yesterday. DH ate his in one shot and finished the shrimp scampi he made for me the other day. Today we are having senior center lunch - bbq ribs, baked potato, tossed salad and fruit for our big meal. Maybe eggs for supper tonight. I am trying to get back to cleaner eating again.
Susie - 50 pounds lost - bravo woman!!!!! That is awesome. You have earned yourself a new wardrobe complete with shoes!!!!! Very proud of you, I'm sure you feel amazing.
Ceejay - did you get your laundry done?
Laura - most people I know who are still working would love to push up their retirement date earlier if they could. Mostly it's covering the health insurance that stops them. I hope your co-worker can make it happen. As Ceejay and I can attest - life if BETTER when you are retired
Hi Shad
I'd better jump in the shower or I won't be ready on time. Be back later chicks.
Happy,
Yes, my laundry is done. I'm going to wash the sheets on the nephew's bed today but he does his own laundry which is getting piled high. He and his brother went fishing last night and caught 3 fish. Thankfully the fish are not here, His brother took them home.
Annie
I really do get what you are saying and I have not had any more nuts since the episode. I was doing every thing in moderation, I thought, and then a little bit more each day and it caught up with me. I love nuts. And yes an "over dose" of sugary sweets can do it also. And right now I'm craving cake. Ugh.
Ceejay – You’re sounding very content with your retirement life. :
Susie – Big congrats on hitting the 50 pound loss at TOPS! == Leaving for vacay on the 22nd. == Enjoy the musical tonight
Annie – Hard for people to understand alcoholism – it sure was for me when I was a kid with an alcoholic dad. Lifelong battle for him. I’m so happy AA works for you. == Admin was saying she could be out for 12 weeks. Last I heard, she was back in the hospital up in WI where she had the transplant. She reportedly had a respiratory infection. ’m thinking the 12 weeks might be optimistic if she’s having setbacks like this.
Happy – What a lot of drama in the volunteer world! My sister also experienced it at the rescue/thrift shop she volunteers for.
Hellos to Shad, Ellen & Dee.
==
Went sneaker-shopping after work. Didn’t much care to deal with the employees at the sporting goods store (not very knowledgeable). Unfortunately, the New Balance store was closed. We checked Yelp for the hours before we headed over there, but there was a sign posted on the door with new hours – closing time was an hour earlier. We’ll have to try again.
Another thing that came up during lunch yesterday was some gossip about a contender for our new office space. Right across the street. We’ll see if that’s the one that will be chosen, or if we’ll stay put.
Susie
Congrats on the 50 pounds lost. I'm thinking very seriously that I need the one on one to keep myself accountable. My sis is like I am in that she has cravings etc. She certainly doesn't have the weight problem that I do. I would love
to be her size.
Laura
I need to go shoe shopping. Are you getting excited about the vacation?
My sinuses, cough etc all disappeared while we were on vacation. Different climate. C and Sam's also cleared up. The boys allergy-cough cleared up. Guess what, we were only about 50 miles into Indiana and we all started sneezing and our heads clogged up. So yes we all have the Indiana noses. Just another fine reason to move somewhere warm or hey HAPPY how are the allergies up at the commune. I am thinking we need to bubble top the entire commune.
Last night was leftovers. Chicken salad or roast beef. Take your pick. We all ate the chicken salad. C did have a bowl of cereal later with his rice milk on it. That is the only thing he does correctly in eating for the most part. Put his rice milk on things. Wink wink. Sam and I cleaned up the kitchen, then relaxed in the living room and made out our grocery list for us and for Easter.
Easter is going to be very small. We are having it on Saturday instead of Sunday. Saves the whole who gets the littles when and what time. We will be dropping off the kidlets after church on Sunday with Chris. I am making a KETO ham for Easter. The rest of the family does not know it will be KETO. I will post the recipe later. Also having angeled eggs, greenbeans with ham, mashed potatos, rolls, probably mac n cheese for the kids, and what ever else I can come up with. I am making small amounts of everything since it will just be our household and Michael's wife, Pia. My oldest brother, Eddie is going over to my other brothers house in IL. I was not invited. hehe. C and Sam agreed on Nilla wafer banana pudding. I may use SFree pudding. I am not particularly going to eat any of it as it is not KETO so I am not sure if I will go SF. We are having our Easter Egg coloring fun tomorrow night-Friday. Of course the Easter eggs will turn into angeled eggs..
Ceejay – Yeh, I’m looking forward to getting away. Bf and I haven’t booked any excursions through the cruise line, and I think I like that. I can’t think of a vacation we’ve taken where we’ve just relaxed the entire time – we're usually always on the go with sightseeing, etc. And if we choose to do something, there’s always excursions available independent of the cruise line. Not gonna sweat it.
Annie – Hope you got through Wicked Wednesday without too much trouble. – Our Easter will be small too. My sis and BIL are having my mom over (they didn’t invite us, lol). We'll be having bf’s mom over and that’s it. It’ll be good to see her. -– Must be challenging feeding the household – you on the KETO plan, kids being kids (i.e., sorta picky), C with his restrictions… Your plan sounds like it’s the easiest to modify/accommodate.
Susie – How was the show? Saw the pics on FB – you look marvelous!!
Happy – How was the thrift shop meeting? Did the nasty one who winters in NC show up?
Shad – I hope you had a smooth flight to Adelaide and are enjoying your visit. I want to see a pic of you and S. wearing your matching slipppers!!
Hellos to Ellen and Dee!
==
I did two BE workouts last night (but just one warm-up and one cool-down).
Just realized I better figure out when I’m getting a pedicure and get an appointment made. Not happening Saturday morning because I’m having breakfast with a friend.
Arrived safely in Adelaide. The matching slippers were a great hit. I will get a photo shortly. She is busy with Mastermind with her Dad right now. However she is a little blabbermouth and tells him basically what pattern she is using.
I'll be back with personals and pictures later. Meantime I had better start learning how to play mastermind quickly or she will beat me hollow when it's my turn to play.
Happy Easter Weekend to all of you and your families. Hope you have a marvelous weekend.
SHADDIE...the slippers are adorable, and my favorite color too! Well done granny! Hope you are feeling up to par. Good luck with the game and the little . They sure know how to change the rules in their favor when necessary! lol
I will come back for more after I go back and read.
OK I am back....must everyone's needs be a fire drill? Just sayin' lol
Dinner was cheeseburgers. The end. I ate two with jalapeno's and mayo on the side. I did have a veggie tray with Keto ranch dressing everyone sorta picked at. Baby boy showed up unexpectedly. He was in town for a dinner meeting and stopped by. That was a nice surprise especially since he will not be able to join us for Easter dinner. He has to work. Bleh on that. He is trying to lose weight also. He does look like he has lost a bit. He diets all week then cheats on the weekend. If it works for him, then great.
Sis and I went grocery shopping. Chris had the kids therefore it was just the two of us. Ahhhh. Hadn't bought any groceries since a week or so more before vacation. We were low on everything plus we bought the ham, etc for Easter dinner. We also got the basket stuff for the kids and Cs Easter baskets. I do make a basket for my kids too, altho I just gave my son his basket stuff last night since he won't be up this weekend. A t-shirt from Orange Beach, Alabama, a bag of beef jerky and one small chocolate egg since he is on a diet. He said, that's it. Yep you are 28, be grateful you are getting anything. lol.
Sis had all of me and Cs work clothes washed, dried, folded/hung by the time we got home from work yesterday. What a nice surprise. She also de-weeded one of the veggie gardens-the smaller one (4x6). I don't think I am going to put out a veggie garden this year, maybe just a couple of tomato plants. We need to get the larger veggie garden de-weeded (6 x 8) and decide what to do with it. I may just plant wild flowers there for the hummingbirds, bees and butterflies. Wild flowers always look in disarray like weeds to me and tend to get on my nerves.
Today is a half day, early release. Just what I need on this glorious spring day. Sunshine and 70s today. Gotta love that and be grateful for the wonder's of God.
Sign on the One America building...Double your money....fold it in half. bah
HAPPY...your lunch you picked up of meatballs etc was pretty much KETO. The meatballs were questionable if they had anything other than pork rinds instead of crackers or bread crumbs in them. The vinaigrette probably had sugar of some sort in it, most do. Other than that, KETO...see you can rock this! How did the thrift shop meeting go? Did grumpy show up?
SUSIE...wow 50 lbs! and yes, you looked marvelous on FB pic. I am so stinkin' proud of you!
LAURA...I need new sneakers also. My problem with that is I need some with a great arch in them. Just can't do the regular off the shelf easy sneakers. Did you get your pedi scheduled? I had one before vacation also.
CEEG...I think you and C, both have to have these episodes with forbidden food to remember you need to eat healthier for your tummy/gut/heiny. You can be the size of your sister, you just have to want it bad enough (it is a head thing, I know) to commit yourself to getting that.
Guess I best get busy so I can get out of here at noon.
Morning all. Started off cool this morning, but supposed to get warmer in the afternoon.
Shad – Aww, pretty slippers for you and little S. That was a cute idea and I’m glad it was a hit. I’ll have to look up what type of game mastermind is. Enjoy the rest of your visit.
Annie – Nice your son came by for a visit. LOL re his response re his basket. Yes, he’s lucky to still get one! == You’ve got at least double the garden plot that I do, but I don’t go much beyond a few tomato and pepper plants so I guess I don’t need too much space anyway. This year I’ve threatened to not bother with the pepper plants (serrano or other spicy variety) because bf doesn’t do much at all with them – wouldn’t even dry them in the dehydrator. So why should I bother? == Nice you get an early release today. We only get one if it precedes an official company holiday and there isn’t one. It would be nice to get an email telling us to go… == Re the sneakers, I too need ones with good support including the arch. So I will go to a specialty shoe shop and talk to someone who knows their product. Can’t just pick them off the shelf because they look pretty. == Haven’t gotten the pedi appointment yet, I’ll do that today.
Hellos to the rest of you. Have a wonderful weekend and holiday!
==
I wish I’d looked at my phone to see the metra alert before leaving work, but I’m not in that habit. Turns out everything on my train line was delayed due to a pedestrian vs. train accident, once again right in my home station’s area. (Why this train line? Why my area? Are we cursed?)
Anyway, I arrived at the train station to find everyone milling around. I decided right away to take the cta el train to a stop that’s just shy of the airport and have bf pick me up (about a 15 minute drive from home). I took the bus to the el, took the el, bf picked me up, and I ended up home much sooner than I would have if I’d just waited around for the trains to get moving again. (Last I’d checked on the metra site last night, my train was 84 minutes delayed.) I’m glad I have that option – not too far from that el stop and someone to pick me up (or an Uber ride wouldn’t break the bank). The el train only goes as far as the airport and this metra line takes commuters all the way out to the far northwest suburbs – still practically rural/country even now. Those commuters are kind of stuck when this happens.
Anyway, from now on, I’ll try to make a point of checking my phone for metra alerts before I leave work. I will also get myself a cta transit card and load it with $10 so I have it when I need it. I had cash with me, but when you don’t use a card (i.e., pay cash, use their machine to buy a single ticket) you end up paying a premium over and above the transit card base fares. Ticks me off to pay extra like that over and above the fact that my metra monthly ticket couldn’t be used on the CTA in this situation, and on top of being inconvenienced to begin with.
The specific circumstances of the accident are of course never divulged, which is frustrating. I definitely think we have a right to know if the situation was caused by a signal issue or a train operator error.
Okay, enough of my ranting.
I’m happy for Friday to be here, and it’s also payday. I’m meeting a friend for breakfast tomorrow, then I’ll probably do some preparation for our Easter dinner on Sunday. Also have to get going on the vacay prep.
P.S. Just received an email that the office is closing at 2 pm today.
Location: A beautiful and peaceful place in the woods
Posts: 8,905
S/C/G: Stuck/Working on it/Good 2 Go
Height: Fun Size
Hi ladies,
Hopefully those of you working will get an early dismissal today. Hooray for holidays
Bingo was fun last night and super busy. The progressive jackpot was over $700 for the last game of the night (you have to cover all the bingo squares in a set amount of numbers or less - ie 59 numbers called or less). That brought in a big record crowd. As we played the last game I said a silent prayer that the jackpot would roll over to the next week. It did - the person who won the consolation prize covered all their numbers at the 61st number called. Whew! That means we actually made some decent money last night and we have to buy more bingo cards and dauber supplies so that helped. Also ensures we have a good crowd next week. So even though I drank a high caffeinated Mountain Dew, a cola and caffeinated tea I was still able to go to sleep at a regular time. I used to get by with 6 hours of sleep but the last few months I have been sleeping for 8 + hours which is very unusual for me. DH suggested trying the B complex for my aches and pains - he started his about a week ago and said he is not getting the stabbing sharp pains he once did. I've only tried it for 2 days so too soon to tell.
Got my diet scale in the mail yesterday so I am ready to go starting Monday.
It is beautiful and sunny but cool out there - DH is going to work on the deck rails so I will have the house to myself - laundry and cleaning as I am home for the entire day. We are supposed to have a rainy weekend. I remember as a kid when Easter meant we got a new pastel colored coat, dress, hat, white gloves and an Easter basket. Oh and a horrible fuzzy Toni home permanent on our hair so we looked like fuzzy Easter chicks. We have would be hunters staking out our property watching the deer and turkeys and trying to lure them from the road. DH is on the watch and chased a few guys off already. We have 3 big tom turkeys that would make nice trophy birds. Did I mention that it is NOT hunting season right now.
Laura - bummer on the train snafu. I did notice an awful lot of "problems" on the line in the 22 years I was riding. What really botched things up was the few times the train crews went on strike and everyone had to drive in. Turned into such a "cluster mess* that the Feds instituted a law that they could not actively walk off the jobs and essentially mess up the entire traffic system. It's good that you have options because like you said - get out to the suburbs and you are mostly dependent on the trains. I know they cut out alot of the Metra bus routes due to lack of ridership. It's funny but people who live in the city and take the El(evated trains) often don't know who to get home when there's a mess on them - ie. regular bus routes. When I lived in the city, I knew a million ways to get around without driving My BIL works for the railways and said most problems (outside of the obvious suicides or cars blowing the train signals) are caused from rail issues. It takes an awful lot of constant work to make sure the rails are in good standing. Just like roadways. But in any event, glad you were able to work around things - 84 minutes is a long time to just hang around and then jam on an overly crowded train.
Anne - that's nice that you make your kids Easter baskets - my Mom did too when I was still coming over for Easter dinner. It was cute. Just a chocolate Easter bunny - an affectionate gesture. That's nice that Sissy got the housework and laundry done. I know it must be crowded at the house and they of course naturally make more work just with more heads there but it has to be nice to have some of the housework done for you. Sounds like you are the chief cook though. Since you asked, yes we had a good Thrift Shop meeting. No, the PITA did not show up but this was probably our only reprieve. One of the funny stories was that one of the volunteers came in with her leaf blower to clean out the parking lot. She brought an extra change of clothes and shoes and had them neatly folded on the table in our kitchen area. After she finished, she went to pick up her clothes to clean up and they were gone. One of the other volunteers saw them, put the clothes on hangers and even priced her shoes and set them out in the boutique thinking they were donations It is a running joke to stow your stuff or we will sell it. Several volunteers coats and clothes have been put out for sale! I hope you can get all your work done today so you can get out early and enjoy the rest of the day!
Shaddie - the slippers are adorable. Glad they went over well. Hard to find things that the kiddies will enjoy in this world of overload. Have a great visit with the family!
Susie - saw your picture on Facebook - you can REALLY see the weight loss. Congrats girl - you look amazing!!!
Ceejay - is everything blooming up your way?
I guess we all agree that we are all scaling down our gardens this year and no one can find truly comfortable shoes
Time for me to get busy. Have a great Easter everyone.
I do enjoy backing away from all the drama. We haven't had a meeting in months - I turn a blind eye to everything now. *Sigh*. They recruited another person to help out at bingo - this was an uninvited person - I have not talked to my partner about it yet but his wife said he is none too happy. He likes to control things and in all fairness, the poor man is surrounded by crazy old ladies as he is also the manager of the thrift shop. At bingo we have a nice little crew that gets along well. We'll see what happens on Thursday. She might be a Godsend after all. 
I told him "who cares - we are old people, no one looks at us". I doubt the cats, turkeys or deer care much. 
And I laughed about the kids not coming near him. Sometimes I don't get my goodnight kiss early enough and he tries to kiss me with his mask on which just blows air at me - yuck! I don't think I could deal with that myself. 
Not olive fans here. I ate a part for lunch and finished it off for dinner yesterday. DH ate his in one shot and finished the shrimp scampi he made for me the other day. Today we are having senior center lunch - bbq ribs, baked potato, tossed salad and fruit for our big meal. Maybe eggs for supper tonight. I am trying to get back to cleaner eating again. 
:
== Leaving for vacay on the 22nd. == Enjoy the musical tonight
