:mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad:

I did it AGAIN. Went and wrote a long post and then went and did a control V - paste instead of control C - copy and lost my entire post.

I have to get ready for my shift so no time to re-type.

Bah that makes me so mad. Mostly that I should not have to do this in the first place.

Later chicks. Have a good day and a good workshop tonight Anne.

HAPPY....I found two pennies, heads up on my lunch walk. Maybe you should find some too!

Morning all. Back from my travels and glad to be home. It is great to see the kids and the little one and much easier to get along with the missus now since she has been having psych sessions. It really has calmed her a lot. She's more reasonable now. Little miss S is a great kid most of the time, until she gets tired and/ or cranky. Still I guess we all get the same way at times. She and I invented a game called Bozo's and she loved it. It just started out as a race between 2 wind up toys but developed into the toys eating our feet and banging into our knees which we yelled and shouted about. So the Bozo's were a great hit. She has a few issues I guess, but she will grow out of them. They usually do,

Flight home was uneventful. No weather to speak of, beautiful night with the moon and the stars lighting our way. Dinner on the flight was nice. There was a choice of a Tuscan Roast Vegetable salad or Penne with Ricotta. I chose the salad and it was very tasty. Lots of different roasted veges and Rocket (Arugula) in a lite, tasty dressing. Loved it. Might have to try to reproduce it. DS2, J and ODDU picked me up from the airport and I got licked to death by the dog.

Annie - your card arrived today. Thank you very much. Appreciate the words. Don't know that there will be much doing on my birthday since that will be on day 5 of chemo and that is never a good day but we can celebrate a week or so later when my big brother turns 70.

Happy - I'm sorry, your card will be late this year. I've been procrastinating about a lot of things lately. I meant to have it in the post at least a week ago.

Laura - Sounds like you are all ready for your holiday. Hope you have a great time and great weather for it. I only ever pack for 5 days and then it's laundry day. We have a down day where we go to the laundry and explore the town or area we are staying in. Then it is full steam ahead for the next 5 days. But that's just me. I hate having to wheel big heavy suitcases around particularly in those places that don't have lifts or escalators and you have to drag it up and down stairs.

Ceejay - how awful that your nephew got bitten by a snake. Hope he is okay now. I would have been screaming for an ambulance.

Okay, time to get the laundry out and put another load in the washer. Always laundry to do in this house. Some breakfast might be good too. And then today is blood test day. Tomorrow is skin check day and Friday is chemo day. Always something.

Hello all! as I mentioned life keeps me hopping. Popping in for a quick hello. Easter was nice, My parents and youngest sister came for dinner. Caught some cold and have been dealing with that today. Barely able to drive myself home. Think I may be be sick tomorrow as well---this sucks

Happy Hump Day! or night!

Workshop was great. I love these ladies. Last night was about getting out of our own heads and helping others. The only thing sobriety and AA wants from us is to stay sober so that we may help another alcoholic. I believe I do that, maybe on a small scale but I do help others in their road to sobriety. Keeps me going on the right track.

Jenn did not get to go with me as planned (she is from my noon meeting). She is suffering from a cyst on her ovary. She cannot get into the OB/GYN until May 5. Some days are good others not so much. She had a rough day yesterday. I told her once it bursts she will have very bad initial pain but then it will all be gone. Meanwhile she suffers. Prayers for Jenn and healing.

C got his route all caught up yesterday. Of course that meant working until 7:30/8 Monday and Tuesday. He wanted today off so he could go fishing with his brother. Good for him he got to go. This will perk is bit of depression away. I told him he needs to be on something as he gets really down, tired and the blues because of working so much. Prayers for C.

My pork loin, potatos, carrots and onions were marvelous that I brewed up in the crocker yesterday. I made them teryaki. Sam said they were very good but likes them when I make them Italian better. Of course I didn't eat the potatos and only a few carrots and one onion, both are on the eat sparingly list. Carrots too much natural sugar and onions have carbs. Dang I love both.

Got home from the workshop at 8:30 and was in bed by 9. Woke up twice last night but was able to get back to sleep quickly. I should refrain from gazing at the time when I wake up because I start thinking, oh crap I only have .... hours or minutes to sleep and that keeps me awake. Hot mess I am.

Hi ELLEN...sounds like your Easter was nice and sorry to hear about your cold. Hope you are feeling better quickly.

SHADDIE...Yah to a safe trip home. Yes there are things the wee one will grow out of, unfortunately once Jacob grows out of them, Royce starts in. lol. We make up a lot of games in our house too. Especially Papaw. Making memories.

Got a lot to do today, wicked Wednesday! Hello to all and to the lurkers.

Hugs

Morning all.

Happy – How frustrating to lose what you wrote when you try to post it.

Shad – Glad you had a good visit, nice that S’s mom is easier to deal with now. == Yay for an uneventful flight. Don’t know how long that flight was, but I was surprised to hear you got an actual meal on the plane – and something that tasted good! I don’t travel much anymore, but I really can’t remember the last time I got more than a beverage and a bag of pretzels or a pack of cookies. I actually don’t mind it though – the meals were never very memorable for me, LOL. == Awww, I bet ODDU missed you bunches – cute they brought him along to pick you up. Sounds like he was a good greeter. :D == Re packing – I might just end up planning to do some laundry at some point so I don’t have to pack so much.

Ellen – Hope you feel better soon!

Annie – I’m glad you enjoyed the workshop last night. == Poor Jenn, hope she feels better today. May 5th is a long way away to wait for her dr appointment when she’s feeling so crummy. == Hope C. has a nice mellow time fishing today. He deserves it.

Hellos to the rest of you!

==
I did one BE workout last night, and then I went out and bought the sunscreen. I was feeling sort of draggy after work, so I never got to the laundry. Tonight’s my pedicure, but I think I have enough time before I leave for that to sort and throw a load in the washer.

I didn't sleep well at all last night. Even though I had the window open, there was no breeze and I think I was just too warm. Feeling pretty tired right now, can't imagine how I'll feel later today. Bleh.

What else. Another woman at work has also not heard back from the admin, so we don’t know how she’s doing, if she’s home or still at the hospital in WI (where she had her transplant). Just have to keep praying everything is going okay.

This afternoon I have to attend a session for our new performance review process. It’s 3 hours long and I’ve heard it’s longer than it needs to be. And from what I also learned about it, it doesn’t sound like it’s going to streamline the process at all – and that was one of the objectives. Sigh.

Better get this posted and get more done this morning as the afternoon won’t be very productive. :wave:

Hi all,

Let's see if I can catch up without losing this. Last night about 10pm after a long day and night I found out that our elusive congressman was having a town hall meeting at 7:30am. Many people have complained about him, he is impossible to get hold of and had generally negative things to say so I thought this was an opportunity to decide for myself. Because that is what I do, assess the facts and decide for myself. What I discovered is that he has his own agenda and is not at all concerned about what his constituents are concerned about. We are a rural community with an aging population. Things like Medicare, Social Security, Meals on Wheels, Women's Health programs - that is what is important to us. Not reducing taxes for big business (there is none of that up here), we are also a recreational area so preserving our public lands for recreational use rather than selling them to private industry is also very important. It was a lively meeting as many town halls are now a days. Needless to say we were not impressed. After that I treated DH to breakfast as I knew I had a busy day ahead. Raced home, picked up the newly designed bingo patterns I had worked on the night before (the attendees are asking for new games) and I discussed them with my partner who approved them. We then discussed ideas for garnering interest and improving attendance. After that I raced back home and responded to 3 email inquiries and returned 2 phone calls. Then I had a 2pm web podcast because the shelter software is having a major upgrade. That podcast was poorly run - the girl doing the presentation was calling in from home and her audio feed was choppy and kept cutting out. Plus she had a foster dog who was getting "into trouble" with her other dogs and they made a ruckus throughout the entire demonstration. Not very professional. Also they did not have a set agenda and she was bouncing around all over the place and using a test data base to demo and being a test database, often the things she was trying to demo were not there. So I missed a yoga class for basically nothing. I was also tired because I got very little sleep the night before - work items kept me up until after 1am and I slept fitfully thinking I would sleep past my alarm at 5:30am. And I am NOT a morning person :faint: For dinner I found a packet of bruschetta chicken seasoning that Annie sent to me maybe 2 years ago. :o It smelled still fragrant and was just spices so I used it to make the chicken recipe on the package using chicken breasts I had purchased on Monday. Made it with a can of plum tomatoes and topped the tomatoes with some mozzerella pearls I had left over from another recipe. Served it with a tossed salad with garlic Italian vinaigrette and rice for DH. He proclaimed it to be "very, very good". I said well enjoy it then because that is the last seasoning packet I have and the company no longer makes that product so you will never get the chance to have this ever again. :rofl: Actually I should have looked at the seasoning packet, I could have probably recreated a spice blend, added olive oil and made my own. Maybe the leftovers will taste better to DH if he thinks he will never have it again. :D It's 1am and there is a HUGE racket going on in the yard. I turned all the lights on outside (thank you DH for installing bluetooth switches on all the outside lighting). Can't see anything but it sure it loud - might be racoons off fighting in the trees. I sure ain't going out there to see - only went as far "outside" as to look out the windows in the 3 season room. There was something else making a noise - sounded like a bird - perhaps an owl. Always something going on here. I talked to my sister today - my mother is h*ll bent on having some sort of surgery - cataracts, having all her teeth removed. She keeps rotating non existent issues. DH said to tell her if she wants a necessary surgery, schedule a breast lift. :lol: It is driving my sister crazy. We are most afraid that she's going to go on a bender and go off her blood thinners in anticipation of this surgery that she has seen no doctor or dentist about nor has anyone told her that she needs surgery which she would never survive and cannot afford either. My sister was so angry today at hearing about her teeth for the 1,000th time this month that she said she was going to make funeral arrangements for Mom while she was at the dentist. And get this - one of the reasons she wants her teeth pulled is because they are 90 years old and cracking. I asked my sister why she didn't get crowns like I did and Sis said - because Mom said crowns were too expensive and she's not paying for them. And what does she think major surgery in a hospital on a 90 year old lady with heart issues is going to cost??? And how would she eat if all her teeth were removed? She smugly said she'd eat baby food. We told her she could not have chocolate but even that didn't deter her. She was having issues with her eyes being blurry but a check at the doctor said she was having ocular migraines so we were all relieved that the macular degeneration had not advanced. My poor sister is at wits end already. Tomorrow is bingo, we have a new person to help, I hope that will work out. And then I am hoping to have a weekend to myself to catch up around here although I need to get back into working with the shelter software again and I have meetings next week to prepare for. I was sad to miss this week and next week's yoga classes, especially since my yoga teacher responded back that next week is the end of the session until the fall again. I thought we went through the end of May but I guess I was mistaken. Ok enough babbling from me...

Laura - I hope your seminar wasn't too boring and that your pedicure came out nicely. Did you decide on whether you are getting a spray tan before vacation? Did you decide on what to pack yet? Is it possible to take a small bottle of Woolite and maybe hand wash some items so you don't have to take too much? I would hate to have to pack an entire 2 weeks of clothes and shoes and toiletries. It's funny to hear that it was so warm you could not sleep even with the window open - especially at this time of year. Send a little warmth up north, will you?

Anne - thank you for the bruschetta mix. I'm glad you are getting so much out of your workshops and that you are taking the time to help others in your situation. Sometimes you can't understand another person's issues until you have experienced them too. Glad you can put a positive spin on things. Poor C - I can imagine how exhausted the poor guy must be. I'm glad he got to go fishing, hope he didn't fall asleep on the boat. I did not find any pennies today - I was probably rushing around too much - will have to go get gas tomorrow - there are always pennies at the gas pumps for some reason - perhaps that is where the angels hang out (they do play good music on the loudspeakers at the station) :rofl: Oh and I liked the idea of ham, cauliflower and cheese. I also like rice (which you can't have) mixed with diced ham, asparagus and mushrooms for a tasty spring dish. AND yesterday I had shrimp stir fry planned for dinner. DH chopped all the veggies and cleaned the shrimp for me so that when I got home from my shift at the shop, I just had to cook everything. I gave him onions, celery, colored bell peppers and said hey - Anne said fried radishes taste good so let's try that. Sure enough - at least in stir fry they reminded us of water chestnuts with a nice crunch. I will try that again so thanks for the suggestion!

Shad - glad you had an enjoyable visit with the family. And that you were able to deal with S's mum and have some good times with the little Miss. I too had to smile at your mention of a meal on the airplane. It has been years that they cut out meals across the continental United States. Not sure about longer flights overseas. I didn't mind airline food at all. Now you are lucky to get a glass of water and a teaspoon of an overly salty crunchy "snack". Don't worry about the birthday card - I am about 4 years behind on sending yours - the exchange of good wishes is enough on both our parts. DH showed me 2 travel agent tours - one of the Rocky Mountaineer train ride you took in Canada and another to visit New Zealand. We decided for the last trip of our life we will blow the last of our wad and take a month long vacation to Australia and New Zealand but will need you as a tour guide so I hope you will be retired by then and my knees will finally get back in shape! I am wishing you the best for your last upcoming treatment. At least you can take some comfort that this is the LAST one.

Ceejay - it sounds like although you may have to put up with some fussing that having the nephew around is handy. Yikes on pulling him from under the porch and double kazzooty yikes on that snake bite. I'm not sure I would have calmly google'd that with puncture wounds. Glad he is ok. Have you decided if you are going to pursue more opportunities to play at church? Might be fun - remember it can be on YOUR terms. :lol:

Hellos to Susie and Ellen.

It's almost 2am. I am surprised I am still awake but I am getting rather foggy headed so it's time to chase the cats from my bed and laid my head down for the night.

Sweet dreams everyone.

Ok so I scalded the inside of my mouth on my too hot coffee. Yikes. Spit coffee back out immediately onto the plastic roll around mat at my desk. Easy clean up. Sheese what a way to start the day. :(

Yee gad a quiet night at home. Boys were with their dad, C was fishing and Sam went over to a friends house for a bit. Didn't do much. Collected the trash and took it to the curb and put some dishes in the washer. Laid on bed and watched a bunch of nothing. C got home at 8, Sam at 9. I was asleep by 9:10. Pretty slow night.

LAURA...how do the toes look. Sam and I did laundry on one of the mornings that it was raining. Got back to the hotel, sun came out and we spent the afternoon at the pool. Perfect. We have had our air conditioner on as we all have allergies and sleep a whole lot better in the air than the outside allergy air. We get up more restful also. May cost us a bit more but well worth all of our sanity.

HAPPY...You are one busy chick. You must like all the go go go stuff. Not me, I am like don't bother me in my little world. lol. I didn't know they quit making that mix, no wonder I can't find it. haha. Always the stuff I like. Is mom just wanting something done to her to get the extra attention? Or does she think she is invincible? We have a say in our house...coocoo for cocoa puffs. From that cereal commercial. On the radishes...if you need them softer just nuke them a minute before frying them. I may have to serve those tonight, you got me hankering for them.

Hello to all ya'll. Busy day today at work.

Hugs

Morning all.

Happy – What a busy day for you! Is the congressman a state guy or the US one? Awful to have someone in power who is not representing the peoples’ interests. Our state’s speaker of the house of reps has been in office forever and he just turned 75 yesterday. He wields a lot of (ALL) the power here. I feel he’s the big reason our state is in such bad shape. There definitely need to be term limits! This guy will not go away without them. :soap: Okay, enough ranting. – I think I’d be nervous about switching up the bingo cards. I don’t know why, just seems like I’d worry about tilting the odds in some way. However, (and I’m not a probability/statistics whiz by any means) it seems like any letter/number ball has the same chance of being chosen, so whatever numbers you put on the card would work. Good luck to everyone tonight, especially the senior center getting a good crowd to raise funds needed for a good organization.== Dinner sounded so tasty! You and Annie are good at whipping up great meals. I’m more of a recipe follower. == Gosh, not sure I want to know what was going on outside your house.. == I’m so sorry you’re struggling to deal with your mom insisting on surgeries at her age that are not of the life-saving variety. I certainly hope she doesn’t go off her blood thinners! == Funny you said you didn’t mind the airline food. I was actually more satisfied when there were no meals and I could just purchase a snack box, but I guess that’s because I like junk food LOL. == Either of your big trips sound fabulous!

Annie – Ouch re the scalding coffee! == I don’t like to have the AC on unless it’s hot enough to need it, but I’m very tempted when the smoke/smell from someone’s fire pit (or yard waste burning masquerading as a fire pit fire) is coming into the house and I don’t want my asthma to flare up. As for the allergies, I’m hoping I might skip over the worst of it right now when everything is just starting to bloom. Though I am sad that I will likely miss the prime blooming time for our crabapple tree and lilac bushes. I guess there’s a trade-off there.

Hellos to everyone! Have a good day. :flow1:
==
The performance training session was alright. Went fast because we had a fire drill eat into about 15 minutes of it, LOL. Still don’t get how this new process will streamline things…

I sorted laundry when I got home, then had my pedicure, then threw in a load of laundry when I got back home. Toes look good, tried to match the shade of my swimsuit, just because. Looks less bright than the color of the suit though. That’s okay.

Nothing much else to report, so I’ll get on with the day. :wave:

Shad
Glad that your visit was a good one. And that the flight home was good. Must make you feel important that ODDU gave you bunches of "kisses" when you arrived.

Happy
You are one busy person. Yes one has to take the good with the bad. Think that they are working through a bunch of things. They talk every day. He's hopeful that it will not be long before he can go back home. He's going to out patient therapy and is randomly alcohol/drug tested. They are going camping Friday night so this might be a good thing. My bil, who is Pastor of the church, told me that choir would not be performing in the summer months and asked if I would like to fill in. I said sure.

Laura
I haven't had a pedicure in such a long time I may get one before I go to Maryland. The pedicure looks great. I'm doing laundry today.

Annie
I really think that if I were to go to a weight loss center that I would lose more weight and I might try that after I get back from Maryland. My nephew brought hone some home work that his counselor sent home with him. I told him I wanted to work on it too.

Ellen and Susie hello.

Hi ladies,

Let the record show that I do not like all this "go go go" stuff. I blew the entire morning responding to several back and forth emails about bingo stuff, things going on at the thrift shop, things going on at the shelter, two fundraisers, some financial questions and oh, can you order us more celophane bags for the dog treats - we are all out. I am very disappointed that we received a very large donation of Alfred Dunner barely worn clothing - lots of matching tops and pants sets that the boutique people deemed "too old fashioned" for us to sell and there was talk that they were going to send them to another thrift store. That's crazy in my opinion - many of them were matching tops and pants and even on sale those are about $50 an outfit. Yes, maybe 20 year olds won't wear them but we have a ton of people over age 40 and many elderly bargain hunters. I wish they would have at least given them a chance to sell. We will sell some of the stupidest one off stuff for a buck and then pass up selling clothes and shoes for 5 or 10 dollars. That's why I turn a mostly blind eye to what goes on in the shop. They are trying to suck me into doing more at the senior center too but I have been resisting. I really don't have enough time for me as I sit here looking at my cluttered counter and listening to my hungry belly wanting something for lunch. :lol: Didn't help that I got a sample food magazine and DH was reading all these yummy recipes to me.

Ceejay - I hope that your nephew and his wife can work things out between them. All too often people are quick to end a marriage so hopefully there is hope for them. It was a nice picture you posted on Facebook of the two of you. Looks like your house is coming along nicely. Just a piece of advice - look carefully into the weight loss center to make sure this is something you want to stick with unless you are talking about something like TOPS meetings. The centers are quick to give you a hard sell and take your money.

It's day 4 and I am already ready to give up on this so called diet program with the scale thing that does not transmit, can't give me an accurate scale reading and doesn't do anything but send the most basic of "supportive" text messages. Today's message was "let the scale be your guide - if you are consistently losing weight you are eating the right amount of calories". NOT - you can eat a healthy stir fry or yesterday's chicken bruchetta that has alot of salt which will give you a temporary weight gain. It's best to track your food in something like My Fitness Pal. Also I am starting to feel the effects of the medication - it's making my mouth a bit numb and I recall the odd taste it gave to food. I am only on one pill a day right now stepping up to 4 pills a day in 4 weeks. I can't imagine what this will be like 4 pills a day. But I am sticking to it for now.

Laura - your toes look very pretty. Hope you have some nice sandals to show them off. Yes it was our US Congressman - I hear he is not going to run for re-election next term - that's ok - he's done 2 terms and I'd rather we get someone who will be more representative (no pun intended) of what we need. Yes, I have also heard alot of rants about your state government reps and how they are responsible for so many of the state and city problems. I feel sorry for the poor folks downstate who have to suffer for what happens due to the city. Thanks for the compliment on the food meals - after watching so much Food TV programs I am feeling more comfortable about improvising things.

Anne - sorry you burned your mouth - why is it that we can't feel such intense heat through the cup itself. I hope it doesn't ruin your tastes for the rest of the day. Glad you had a quiet night to yourself. It's a shame that you can't afford more than one vacation each year. The water is soooo relaxing. Is Sam still seeing that guy?

Well ladies, things are not getting done with me sitting here and soon it will be time to get ready for my bingo shift. We will have a really busy night tonight and I want to get there extra early so I can grab my meal and eat before the hoards come in.

DH just brought the mail in - I'm on the hook for $1,041.35 (after insurance paid $248 bucks) for my arthritis x-rays. And DH got a bill for $800 for his MRI in February. I guess we won't be going out for my birthday next week. :(

Oh here we are on Friday and it is good Friday. Pay day. Guess I will go in and look at my direct deposit before sending it all out for bills. Nice while it lasted.

Last night was another surprise visit by DS. We ordered pizza. I ate only the topping. It was good and didn't miss the crust at all. I have been fasting with the exception of my bullet proof coffee every morning, from dinner to dinner time. It is paying off because my clothes are fitting better and the scale is making me smile. WI is tomorrow. I sneaked a peak this morning. :) DS left around 8:30, I finished up my work clothes laundry and hit the sack. Slept like a log until I woke up at 4:30 and had to hit the loo. Major output.

So now I am back at work with a ton of stuff I am in no mood to do. Would rather lollygag. :) Tonight there is nothing on the agenda. Hopefully. Tomorrow is meeting in the morning, then errands. About it. Church on Sunday morning<---words from a Little Big Town song, then C and I are going to dinner somewhere nice for a belated anniversary dinner. Yum!

LAURA...your pedi looks very nice. You have cute looking feet. My feet look like monkey feet. Nice interruption of the meeting with a fire drill. Did you secretly call HR and ask for that? lol. Especially with asthma, wouldn't you sleep much better with the air on in hot weather? We all do in our house including the littles. Yes bummer you will miss the blooming spree in your area due to vacation. NOT.

CEEG...are you going through Indy on your way to Maryland? If so maybe I could meet you all at the gas station while fueling up or for lunch, or coffee or something just to say hi and meet you in person. Your nephew is a cutie patootie. You look great in that pic on FB also.

HAPPY...wow on the Alfred Dunner clothes. Who cares how old they are, people will buy them at the reduced rate just for the name. Sometimes don't you just want to bonk their heads together at that thrift shop? I know I do. lol. DH should NOT be reading yummy recipes to you while you are trying to get going on this diet. Oh Lord medical bills. I got one in the mail earlier in the week. The hospital very nicely stated at the bottom of the bill that if I wanted to pay monthly it would be $250 a month for 6 months. Wasn't that just nice of them? hahahahahha....You all get what you get.

SHADDIE...YAHOOOOOOOOOOOOOO no more chemo. Just get through the next week and you will be good as new. You could always get one of those baseball hats that has the hair coming out of it. Sorry, that wasn't very nice, funny but not nice. Speedy recovery this time, eh? Hugs my dear sister friend. Extra kisses from ODDU.

ELLEN..good to hear from you.

DEE...how did the tests come back? Hope you are feeling better.

Make it a great weekend, SHAD you rest up and feel better.

Hugs

Downtown Indy
 

The attached picture is of a gold, glass mirrored building in downtown Indianapolis. The sun was blinding me from the glowing reflection.

Morning all. Happy Friday. :carrot:

Ceejay – Now you have a church gig for the summer. :) That’ll be fun for you. Do you get to choose what you play during the services? Re pedicures – I’d like to get them more regularly during the warm weather, but I just seem to fall off on getting to the nail place. I suppose I should do what I do for my hair appointments – make the next appointment before I leave the salon.

Happy – So what are you going to do to decrease the go-go-go and spend more time doing things for yourself and being a homebody?? == I don’t get how those thrift shop folks think when they take a pass on nice clothing like that. Sure, it’s not everyone’s taste, but there are people who like that and wear what they like and don’t care about what’s in style or not. I agree it should be put on the racks, and maybe the store policy should include more aggressive purging of stuff that doesn’t sell within a certain period of time. == Shame on DH reading those recipes to you. :nono: == Sorry you’re frustrated with that program, and ugh, those diet pills giving you numbness and bad tastes. :( Stick with it and maybe things will fall into place? :crossed: == Glad that congressman is not running for another term!! No chance of that with our state’s speaker of the house – he is pure evil and may just live forever. :devil: As for state funding and the city vs the downstaters – been a never-ending battle since time began, and unfortunately everything in this state is just getting worse. == So how did bingo go last night? Did anyone win the big money pot?? == Ugh re the med bills. Been gradually paying the ones from the flurry of the past three months related to the foot and the mammo stuff. But I’m taking my time so that the H.S.A. balance has time to catch up (i.e., with payroll contributions to replenish it). And now we've met the deductible, so at least that's something. I say go out and have a nice birthday dinner and let the med bills sit for a wee bit. (Do you get to participate as a player in the bingo nights or would that be seen as a conflict?? A windfall would not go unappreciated, I’m sure.) :D

Annie – Nice your ds came by for a surprise visit. You’re working that Keto plan good and I bet it’s nice to see the results at WI time!! :goodscale: I don’t know if I could skip meals though – I get headaches from doing that. But it sure as heck would help if I didn’t go out for half-price burger night like we did last night. Ate only a few fries, but the burger itself was damage enough since I ate the whole thing. == I like my toes too! That's about the only thing I like about my feet these days. I guess we should all be happy if they just do their job in getting us around, LOL. == Re AC, I mostly consider it a necessary evil (but worth every penny in the hot humid weather). I’m kind of lazy about turning on the AC if I know I’ll be closing all the windows and turning it on just for a few hours…I generally don’t have much problem with asthma symptoms unless I’m directly exposed to the usual bad stuff – perfumes, smoke (cigarette & wood-burning types), chemicals, and mold. I can avoid most through my own controls. I know I should just close up the house and turn on the AC when the fire-pit smoke comes into the house. Usually I just hope it doesn’t last long or that the wind will shift. I know people (you included!) love their fire pits, but when we’re all close together in an urban/suburban environment, unfortunately one person’s enjoyment is another’s pollution.

Hellos to the rest of you. Hope you all enjoy your weekend!

==

Went out to dinner after work and the hockey game was on and the volume of the sound system was deafening. :headache: I think we just need to stay away from that restaurant/sports bar. Duh. And the Hawks got swept in the first round of the playoffs. Sigh.

After dinner, went to buy the sunglass clip for my glasses. Back home, did a load of laundry and pulled out a bunch of clothes and other stuff for packing. I’ll definitely have to pare down the piles tonight.

I did the online check-in for our flight tomorrow morning, right at the 24 hour mark before our flight time and I still got boarding group 4 (last to board). WTH? I guess I’m just a poor slob who only flies once, maybe twice a year and will never get a decent boarding group. (how much you wanna bet the frequent flyers get to do an extra early check-in??) I suppose I should just feel fortunate if the flight goes smoothly and I don’t get dragged off the plane. One thing I heard with all the hullabaloo with United dragging that guy off the plane is that if you’re not one of the elite level of frequent flyers, you just get treated like dirt. :shrug: That’s the way it is now.

Okay, I better get this posted. I’ll try to check in here and there while I’m on vacay to keep up. TTFN!

Good morning girls,

Just glanced at the bottle of my diet pills. Says "WARNING: Breastfeeding is NOT RECOMMENDED when using this medication". Darn, well there goes my plans for the day :shrug:

Bingo last night was fun but very, very hectic. We have a new person helping out - she is very enthusiastic and seems like a great person. Her birthday is the day before mine. She is a nurse and gets off work and has a longish drive to get here so she won't get to bingo while we are selling cards and setting up but she can help once we get started. I wanted to sit down with her but we were doing a couple of new things and it was so busy that there just wasn't time. I barely had time to eat and even that was gulps in between other stuff. As we played the last game I said a little prayer that the jackpot would roll over one more week and thank you God, it did! Me and D high fived each other. That means 3 weeks in a row we actually made some decent profits which was good as he just spent $306 on restocking our supplies. The jackpot should be close to $900. DH said he would try playing next week. I am on the bingo license for our facility so I think that means I can't play but it doesn't mean DH can't play :lol: They are having a Woman's Expo tomorrow and our center got a "new" food truck. They are trying to use it for catering and special outdoor events so the debut it at the women's expo. The chef last night let me try 2 items - a watermelon soup and a seafood salad in an avocado. Both were quite tasty. They are trying a lot of new ideas at the senior center both with this food truck and new interesting classes. They have a group of young people who are enthusiastic about expanding the services and getting more people involved. It's a great thing to have for the community which is why I volunteer.

My cat Meadow is just totally chilling on her bed - all stretched out with this happy look of sleeping contentment. I'm glad the old girl is doing well. Her sister is tormenting DH - Nina likes to sit in DH's arm when he is on the computer. She keeps reaching up and tapping his leg until he lets her up there. He's getting ready to go out - it's a beautiful sunny day and starting to warm up (at least warm up in up North terms :D ) and he wants to go out and snap some pictures. Tomorrow is supposed to be an even nicer day but DH wants to spend it working on finishing up staining the remaining rails that need to be put on the deck - winter moved in before we were able to finish everything. I have plenty of stuff to do in the house so that's ok although it would have been a good day for one of DH's picturesque rides - I would have rather he worked on the deck today but he had already decided his plans so ok.

Ugh - I just got off the phone - 38 minute phone call - the volunteer who bugs me the most - Mrs. Snipey is brewing things up again. This time tho I refuse to get involved any more as it is just a headache for me and people drop their monkeys on my back and then I get all upset over it. If they want to make all the fun decisions, they can deal with the bad ones too. This chick has better things to do. And if I stop taking the lead, maybe they will leave me alone. :lol:

Laura - I was SHOCKED :yikes: to see the Blackhawks do so badly in the playoffs. What the heck happened??? I am also surprised that people can burn things in the yard by you - I thought they banned that in your neck of the woods long ago - both from a pollution/fire hazard and breathability point of view. I myself am an open window kind a kid. Once I woke up to something odd and snow was blowing in through the window and blowing on my face and woke me up. :lol: I had to learn to keep the windows closed up here in the bitter winter cold because ice would develop on the warm side of the window and I had problems shutting it. Like Nina, I love to stick my face against the screen and smell the fresh air. Keep and show off those pretty toes for as long as you can. And I'd say from experience to wear your orthotics or good arch supports to keep them nice looking. It's like a bra - if you can keep things from sagging (arches or boobs) they will stay in place nicely otherwise.... oh my it gets ugly fast :rofl: I hope you have a wonderful vacation with lovely weather and lots of fun. Where are you going? Hope there are no issues with your flight either. I guess it pays to not travel to popular destinations with a crowded plane. Although from what I'm reading it was more the fault of the Ohare security force than United although I still think they had no right to kick off people who boarded just to make room for their flight crews. Anyway I hope you are all packed and ready to relax and have a good time.

Anne - I wondered about the logic of designing a building that would be so reflective of light. Isn't that an issue with aircraft and birds and such? There was a coppery building where I used to live right off the expressway exit. We called it the "spam can" as it was shaped like one and the sun rise and set were just blinding on it. Still pretty to look at if you can just stand there and avert your eyes. I hope you and C can have a nice anniversary celebration and a little time to relax and just enjoy each other's company. No talking about work, kids or problems! You know I just had to laugh at the thought of you standing on the corner at a gas station with a handwritten cardboard sign that said "CEEJAY???" on it just waiting up to meet! Still it would be nice if you could. Yes, they did get "rid" of all those Alfred Dunner clothes. They said they were outdated. You should see what the person who made that decision looks like. :rolleyes: But this is also the person who sells our store fixtures and supplies for a buck. I just don't pay attention any more. I'm glad DS got to stop in on his way through town and have pizza with you and some time to chat. Do you all get together for Mother's Day? This year there will be no competing - you get to be the big Kahuna Momma and have the kids all to yourself.

Shad - glad your last chemo is behind you. Only good days ahead. :hug: Rest up the next few days and hoping the side effects are done by your birthday. Sending you good thoughts and wishes!

Same to the rest of the Worldlies :wave: I think I'm going to get myself some busy here. Have a grand weekend!