Hi all,

I spent ALL DAY literally ALL DAY yesterday looking for a new stove and refrigerator online. Finally ordered a pair only to find later that DH said it won't fit through the front door. Off by literally a half inch. Then he thought about it - if you removed the door and handles it will easily fit in. What a mess.

I have to go to the Senior Center for a half day today to answer phones. Got out of doing the entire day! :lol: I am already late so will check back later this evening. Sorry for the rush.

And Laura - yes as your hair goes grayer you will find that the texture is harder to work with. I have no more bend from a round brush / blow dry because my hair is wirey gray even though it looks blonde from the outside!

Later chicks.

What a hot humid day here. Almost glad to be at work in the deep freeze. Got the ole space heater running. 100+ heat index today. Poor C he is going to melt. He said he would rather be in the heat doing what he is doing rather than in an office doing what I do. I just want to be independently wealthy and not do either. :)

Since I had AA workshop last night, I fixed double cheeseburgers for the group. I passed on them. Also sauteed up some yellow and zucchini squash. Kale salad on the side. I ate the squash and salad. Very yummy. I probably ate enough squash to equal an entire squash myself. Workshop was great. We just have a few more left. We have decided to go to O'Charley's as our final meeting. The gal that was going to have the cookout/pool party said last night that her pool was currently not holding water. Didn't know if she would get it fixed in time. I know that feeling of a leak in the pool liner and cannot find it from past ownership of an in-ground pool from my first marriage. WHAT A PIA!. That is ok cause I love OCs baked salmon on cedar plank dinner. So stinkin' good.

Tonight my SIL, Pia and her momma (here visiting from South of France) is coming over for dinner. I have a Mississippi pot roast in the crocker. Made a hot fudge brownie with fudge icing for dessert. Yeah, not Keto, and I don't like chocolate. The pot roast recipe is Keto. Going to fix mashed potatos, greenbeans with ham chunks, salad, and keto cheddar bay biscuits. Probably have enough for an army if you wanna stop by. I am kind of excited as I have not see her mom in almost two years since the last time she came to visit. She is such a sweet little lady. She is like 85 years old and very active. She does the equivalent of Uber here only in France. She is always on the go, and I me go. She is about 4' 8" tall. Like a little gnome. Just love her to pieces.

LAURA...yep can't wait to see you, get a great hello and snap a shot. Glad you found a dentist you like. Makes it a bit easier to go. NOT.

Hello to all, make it a great day/night.

HAPPY...typing over my head. If you take the door off and put it back on will it cause it to be all whopper jawed again? You know how things never fit right once removed and replaced. IMO. Bingo night? and Senior Center? Girl. You need a break.

Morning all. Happy Hump Day.

Happy – So what kind of stove/fridge did you end up with? Any special features? I still want a French door style fridge, but our current fridge is still like new (knock wood), so it’ll be a while until it gets replaced. Unless I win the lottery, lol.

Annie – We’re getting the hot weather here too. The AC is on once again. Poor C, I really hate running errands in the car when it’s hot like this because the car is so much hotter than outside. I can't imagine how awful it is for him being in and out of the truck all day, and hauling around trays of product. == Will there be any new new workshops you can attend in the future? You seemed to get a lot out of them. == Enjoy the dinner with Pia and her mom tonight. It’s so great that Pia's mom is so active and travels these distances at her age. Awesome.

Hellos to the rest of you!

==

I finally went to aqua fit class last night. It was a good class – I like that this instructor changes it up every class.

Now that my pass is a card with a bar code that gets scanned, I can’t tell how many classes I have left. So an employee checked and she told me I have 4 classes left (of the 11 I started with). I’m pretty sure I haven’t been to 7 classes – maybe 5. So I’m going to phone today and ask for the dates of the classes they show me as having taken. I’m thinking maybe someone double-scanned my card a couple times.

The boss will be out of the office Thursday & Friday of this week and Monday of next week, so that’ll be nice.

Tomorrow night is the health lecture at the recplex. The topic is inflammation. I'll be attending it.

That’s about it for me, so I’ll get this posted. :wave:

Good Thursday Morning.

Dinner with SIL and her momma was a great success. Everything was delish! Great conversation and laughs. Mississippi pot roast was fabulous! The boys were at their dad's and Sam went to dinner with a friend. No distractions. Took me about 45 minutes to clean up the kitchen. C emptied the dishwasher so I could refill it and run it again. :) Of course I will not find things when I go to use them next. Not complaining just grateful for the help.

Tonight is a hair cut. So looking forward to the washing part. It is never long enough. Sis colored my hair on Monday night so I am ready for my business trip next week. Not sure what the hair really has to do with the trip. Just one thing to make be feel better I guess.

LAURA...Glad you made it to your aqua class and enjoyed it. Always nice when we like the instructor, or so I hear...lol. Always nice when the boss is out of the office, hence in-house vacation. Got to love that.

Hello to everyone....Hugs

Good morning ladies,

It's going to be a gorgeous day - hot and low wind. We are going on the boat today. I told DH we just have to make dates to use the "toys" and stick with it. So he did and we will. ;) Going to be a great day for boating. I just have to pull everything together in an hour. :faint:

I got the stove and refrigerator ordered. KitchenAid. I like their small appliances - hope this won't be a disappointment. As for special stuff - stove has a double oven little and big. That will be a big help in cooking. Little oven on top - good for short people baking small stuff :rofl: Refrigerator is a one of it's kind. French doors on top for refrigerator. Under that on the outside are 2 temperature controlled drawers (separate from the inside the frig crisper drawers) - those are for meat and the other for keeping produce fresh. Because it's so dry here my produce shrivels up on the counter like it's in the desert sun. It doesn't keep well in the refrigerator either so this new fangled device should help. I hope. :crossed: And then it has the bottom drawer freezer that doesn't seem to have alot of space but I have the big stand up freezer so no worries. I hope everything will be nice and work well. :crossed: You never know with today's "quality". So after I replace the washer next year I will have all new appliances in here and next is my car to replace one day and then DH and I will have spent all of our money. :lol:

Annie - Pia's Mom sounds like a hoot and a delight. I'm glad you had a great dinner. I'd love to sit down with her. Can you eat mashed potatoes or did you skip them? Dinner sounds yummy yummy. I understand C's remark about working in an office - DH was the same way when he was an IBM computer repair guy. He said he liked the fact that if there was an office with yucky people and bad politics he could go there for a few hours, do his job and then get out of there - whereas you and I were both stuck with the crappola. Got a point there - I just countered with taking the train meant I did not have to drive all over in horrid weather. Everybody's got their somethin' ;) I love and miss O'Charley's restaurant. :( Enjoy for me!!!! Congratulations for sticking with your program and doing such a wonderful job on the weight loss. I like the idea (well not really like) but considering the bat wings trophies. Just hide them under clothes. But you should do some exercise so you don't lose muscle. Momma is very weak because she has no muscle left and tires easily (except when the neighbor girl took her to a new discount shopping warehouse :lol: ) but seriously I can see myself getting tippy and tired out so it is good to keep the muscle in place.

Susie - I hope your headaches subsided.

Shad - are you getting nice weather now to do thing outdoors as the seasons are transitioning?

Ceejay - what's going on in your world? Doing more with the music now?

Laura - Ugh - bummer on the new punch card thing. I'd have to start writing things on a calendar or making notes to keep track of the classes I used up. I'm not sure I like that method... Please share any tidbits of what you might learn from the inflammation lecture - I am very interested in that subject. Glad you liked the new dentist and didn't walk out with 3 months worth of dental repairs. Funny you talk about wildflowers. DH is talking about putting out a bag of wildflower seed out in the back of the yard. I don't think it comes in anywhere near as pretty as the package :lol: Sounds like you have a very pretty yard - you certainly work it regularly which is important. What a relief that the new limestone came out looking great too. Now to finish the garage door...

Going to be 86 degrees today. I guess that's our summer as after today it's dropping down to the 70's again. Ok by me but the tomatoes are not happy - just hasn't been warm and sunny enough for them. DH worked really long and hard building me sturdy cages for the strawberries and they were a big bust. Most all got damaged in the hail storm 2 weeks ago. :mad: Don't think I will keep the plants.

And now on with the day...

HAPPY...yes I skipped the potatoes. Wouldn't you know it besides the meat everyone raved about the mashed potatoes. Kind of wanted to try them but held off. Probably because I made them with heavy whipping cream and real butter. Looked creamy and yummy. Your new appliances sound awesome, especially the oven. Two ovens, I would love that. Hope they arrive in pristine shape and you can get them through the door! Yes I should do some sort of exercising for muscles, but you know there is that very bad word again....exercise. :) ahhhh, boating, would love to go with, especially if it is sunny and hot. Hope you have a great time.

Afternoon
I got started on a post but was distracted. I will try again.
I drove to Branson yesterday to go to the Butterfly palace with sis, bil and their granddaughters. I enjoyed it a lot They gave us artificial flowers with some kind of nectar in a tube to hold and at one time their were four butterflies on it. What some gorgeous little creatures!. We at lunch at Taco Bell and then went back to the condo to go swimming at the pool. I did water aerobics. and we basically had the pool to ourselves.
This afternoon we are going to Nixa to my nephews for a bbq and then go swimming again at their community pool. My legs are sore.
I'm not sure if it's me getting older and can't handle the heat or if it is just plain hot. I went to the grocery store this morning when it was 80 degrees and the humidity was 76%. Supposed to be 96 with a heat index of 104.
Having some trouble with the bp this week. It's been dropping down to low for my likings, especially the bottom one.
It's time for me to get refills and blood work so I will discuss it with the doctor at that time.

--------------------------
Happy
Yes, finally taking a day off to enjoy yourself. It will be nice on the water. So glad the appliances will fit through the door. I've been practicing but my fingers don't want to move the right way. Think they are to stiff. I did order a large print hymnal which seems to help.

Annie
How nice it was for you to get to visit. You dinner sounded delish. I bought some coconut flour this morning not that I
bake that much. I'm trying to cut back on the carbs.

Laura
Hope you get things resolved with the classes.

Hello's to Shad and Susie :wave:

Afternoon all.

Annie – Glad dinner was a success. Good for you resisting the potatoes!! == Haha, I understand others not knowing where everything goes in the kitchen, though I do wonder why this is because they do manage to remove some of those items from the cabinet, drawer, or pantry for their own use… == Enjoy your hair appointment. I suppose I would enjoy the shampooing part more if I had short hair and it wasn’t being pulled in an uncomfortable way, and if it didn’t sometimes feel like they are working out their frustrations on me. == Yep, enjoying my in-house vacation. :D

Happy – I hope you have a great day on the boat today. I think you have to make all of your volunteer commitments contingent on good boating weather, LOL. == Your appliances sound great. A double oven sounds nice, though I don’t do enough cooking that requires one. I think I get more use out of the storage drawer my stove has. I’m jealous of your new fridge. I hope the separate meat and produce drawers do the trick for keeping those items fresher. == I will share what I learn in the inflammation lecture tonight. == Re the new dentist – I did wonder if/when my old dentist would notice that old filling was a problem, or would it wait until the decay started causing me pain… == Sadly, the yard doesn’t look very good right now. We had a shoveled edging which bf didn’t maintain and so now the grass has grown into the flower border a and it's a mess. Also the flower border is a hodge-podge of different items. I like the flowers that are there, but there is no rhyme or reason to the plantings… It’ll take a lot of labor to make it a tidy, manicured, restful kind of place, but I’ll keep plugging away. Bf would like to remove everything and start over, but he does know how expensive it would be to replace some of the perennials I have out there. == I’m sorry your strawberries didn’t work out this year. Maybe keep the plants and see if next year will be any better??
==

Turns out my class pass was double-scanned on two different dates. The aquatics coordinator will make sure I get back the two classes - or the cash. I will go forward assuming I have 6 classes to use up, however there are only 4 weeks left in the session. I’ll have to go to two classes per week for a couple weeks. Good thing I liked the Saturday class as well as the Tuesday class.

I got home last night and bf and I began talking about my mom and the whole topic got my dander up again. She still hasn’t paid bf for the work he did on her plumbing weeks ago. I know some might think my mom shouldn’t be charged (being family and all), but she readily agrees to pay because she knows it would be much more expensive to have a stranger come in and do the work. It’s just been awkward between them coming to agreement on the amount. And then last weekend she goes to the little bank in the common building of her community and nobody’s there even though it’s open, so she can’t get cash out, and didn’t try to phone them to see what’s going on (it would help if she’d learn to carry & use the new cell phone we gave her a few months ago). And why can't she just write him a check? And then when bf did throw out a very reasonable figure, she says she’s “surprised”, but apparently there was no clarification of what she meant by that. Arrrgh. I told bf to call her up again today and get it resolved or I’ll phone her after work and give her the guilt trip. I’ve also told him not to commit to doing anything else for her. She keeps being indecisive about everything and nothing can be accomplished if she keeps changing her mind. Deep breaths… :yoga:

The installation of our new front entry door is set for the first week of August - the week after next. There are still a couple outstanding issues with the garage door and I need to keep on bf to get them resolved.

I think I’m at episode 15 of 22 of Twin Peaks now. I read a bit in a TP discussion forum and it said that there was a group of episodes in the mid/latter part of the season that weren’t very good, but it gets better toward the season/series end, so I’m sticking it out in spite of some very silly/lame subplots.

It was raining cats and dogs this morning, so it was a very wet commute and my shoes, socks and pant legs were very wet by the time I got to work. I don't think it's going to rain

I have the inflammation lecture tonight, and I need to return a few things to the library and also pick up something I have on hold.

That’s about it for me. TTFN.

TGIF fo Sho!!

Wow what thunder boomers we are having this morning. Samantha barely got in her run this morning and was cut short so only ran 1.4 miles. She needs to be at 3 miles to be on target for the run in October. Poor Bruno sat between me and the sink cabinet while getting ready for work. He is so afraid of the thunder lightening and loud rain. So to day yes it was worse than a 3 year old. His head is taller than the sink and he kept trying to get my hands to hold his head. Had me laughing at points. Then Jacob got up and sat on the toitie babbling to me. What a great morning so far. Dogs and grandbabes, does it get any better? I think not. Jacob was so tired from being at his dad's on Wed night and all day at his other g-mas that he fell asleep in the chair at 4pm yesterday and slept till 6am this morning. Chris just lets the kids run amuck with no bed time schedule.

Dinner was leftovers. C ate the rest of the roast potatoes and greenbeans. Best ever he said. lol I had a lil pile of parmesan cheese with a pepperoni stuck in the middle then baked till crisp. Made about a dozen of those and yummy they were. I don't know what Sam had as she ate while I was at the hair appt. She did a nice job on my hair this time. Very pleased.

I am kind of fighting a headache trying to take off this morning. Between keto eating and not pooing since Wednesday it is making my head hurt. I used to call this a Poo headache. Once I go so does the headache. Sometimes just eating keto gives me a slight nagger ache in the head. Oh BTW....my pap test came back all clear. No hysterectomy in sight for now. Oh yeah! I am telling you this keto WOE had done wonders for my health. At least I am crediting KETO for it. :) Today is my MRI on my shoulder to see what is going on with that.

No big plans for the weekend. Meeting and church. I hope it doesn't rain all weekend. I would like to get out into the yard, back porch for a little R&R and iced tea. Just the usual weekend. Laundry, cleaning, errands and such. Hopefully C will not melt in this heat. It is so awful right now for him. He comes home, takes a shower, eats, does his paperwork and goes to bed exhausted. Bless his heart.

LAURA...glad the aqua classes are being added back to your fob. I wonder how many people don't catch that and lose money? Sounds like your mom is as difficult as HAPPYs momma. And by golly they both have that right since they are over 65. :) Being difficult is a privilege of getting elderly. :) Hope BF gets it all taken care of. The front door and garage door seem to be coming along nicely. One step at a time. Yes it is raining cats and dogs here too, just don't step in a POODLE. Samantha's favorite joke when she was little.

CEEG...you sure are more active in your retirement with family. How fun and joyful. MMM Taco Bell, one of my very favorite places to eat. Silly it is not really any form of real Mexican but I just love it. So does C. Well all the family for that matter. Hot and humid seem to be in the surrounding area for us IL, IN, OH and MO worldlies. Maybe some of my fat will melt off with this humidity. Guess I would have to get out in it to make that happen. :)

HAPPY...someone from meeting told me to put clear gelatin like Knox or Jello in my coffee/tea/water. It is supposed to help with joint pain. Oh heck why not, I am giving it a try. Today is my 2nd day at it. We shall see if it helps or not. The guy said it help in after about 5 days. Probably just coagulate in my bowels and stop me up. hahaha. How was the day on the boat? Did DH ever get his Muskie? Or did I miss that post?

SUSIE...has work slowed down any? How was WI last night? You are doing such an awesome job with WL. Sinuses better? I know the weather is not helping with that.

SHAD...how is the hair coming along? Come up for air and check in sister.

Guess we lost Ellen.

Hello's to all. Have a marvy weekend. Hugs.

Morning all. Hot and humid today. Thank goodness for A/C. And TGIF. :)

Annie – Awww, poor Bruno. I wonder if one of those Thundershirts would help him. We had one for Coal and it helped a little bit. Donated it with all his other stuff and I hope it’s helping some other dog get through the scary thunderstorms. == Pretty clueless of Chris to ignore bedtime schedules, but he probably doesn’t give a hoot if it goofs everything up for the next day when he doesn’t have the kids. But does he give a hoot that if his kids don’t get enough sleep they are more vulnerable to catching colds, etc.??? Idiot. == Your parmesan crisps sounds so tasty – with a slice o’ pepperoni on it – yum. I picture it as a cool garnish for a pasta dinner, but I’m sure I could just gobble them down as the meal itself… Bummer on the headache – my excuse for never skipping meals. Or snacks. Or any eating opportunity. And it shows!! I need to get serious about losing the weight or I’ll be buying an entire new wardrobe in a larger size. Bleh. == Re the class pass cards – they just started using them, so I have a feeling it’s something that’ll have to be worked out. In the meantime, I’ll be sure to make a point of telling the person at the pool desk doing the scanning that I’m only doing one class. == Step in a poodle, lol. Cute. Enjoy your weekend. Iced tea on the patio sounds pretty nice to me. I might have to brew up a pitcher. :beach:

Hellos to the rest of you!! Hope you had a good week and have a great weekend!!
==

The inflammation lecture last night was interesting. Symptoms: heat, pain, swelling, redness and sometimes loss of function. Causes: diet, allergen/heat/radiation exposure, bacteria/fungus/virus/parasite invasion, stress, trauma. I’ve noticed that the nurse who gives the lectures is not too keen on medications, so she tends to focus on other ways to prevent/relieve illnesses. So she talked briefly about the meds (steroids, NSAIDS, immuno-suppressants) and then talked about non-med ways to deal with inflammation: exercise, nutrition, ice, rest, sleeping well (different than rest!), and stress management (mediation, yoga, etc.) Her handouts were about diet – foods to cut (pretty much everything, depending on how it affects you) and things to eat more of. https://www.curejoy.com/content/infl...mmatory-foods/ The link has the list of the foods, and also a diagram concerning chronic inflammation, both of which were handouts from the lecture.

I can’t get the link for the foods to cut, but here’s the list: sugar, alcohol, grains, artificial sweeteners, known toxins, processed foods, dairy, soy, gluten, peanuts, fried foods, diet soda, carbonated beverages, all fast food, processed lunch meats, veg oil, cereals, artificial colors, cookies, crackers. Not sure what that leaves us with … I guess it would be meat, poultry, fish, fruits and veggies, to name a few.

I always get notifications on my smartphone for postings on the FB garage sale groups I belong to. Yesterday I happened to see a posting for a dark-finished tray table set. Just what we needed. We bought a very nice tray table set off craigslist a few years ago, but it was a traditional look – oval trays with a medium oak finish. Our living room has all espresso-finished furniture, so the black tray table set goes much better. Another great find on the FB garage sale pages, and only $20. We’re going to see if my mom will want the oval set – she has a dining room table that she doesn’t like and doesn’t use, so she doesn’t even have a real table to eat her meals at!

Tomorrow bf and I will take my mom to Lowes to return her sink and faucet and then shop for/order a white sink and new countertop.

Other than that, the weekend is open. It'll be hot and humid, not sure if I'll be doing much of anything in the way of gardening/yard work.

That’s about it for me, so I’ll get this posted. :comp:

Hi Ladies! I am trying to start the week off right and post more often.

When I read the posts here it is like a breath of fresh air

My sinus infection if better. I did manage to get in 4 workouts last week and I had a nice loss at TOPS. I lost a total of 2 lbs ,which really was a net loss of .8 lbs as I had gained a bit in my last 2 weighins. I am at the lowest weight I have been at in 13 years.

Annie: you have done wonderful on your Keto diet.

Laura: thanks for the inflammation info. When my sister-in-law was going through breast cancer 15 years ago, I would go with here to her treatments and other appointments and I remember the oncologist talking about inflamation and how it is at the root of all illness.

The table you found at the FB garage sale sounds like it will work very well with your current furniture.

Ceejay: I love getting in a swimming pool and just splashing around. I hope the blood pressure settles down.

Happy: did you make it out on the boat?

Shad: how are things.

I am posting from my phone so I hope this makes sense and not to many typos.

Good Morning Lovies....

Busy day here at the office...Leave for CHI tomorrow morning.

The weekend was pretty normal with the exception of my baby boy coming up Saturday afternoon and spending the night. He and I went to dinner with my bro and SIL then back to their house for a couple of hands of Euchre. Then he and I did a little shopping. He even went to church with us. That was so nice. C, Sam, Jake and I. THe boys were with their dad. We ate at Olive Garden after church.

Susie...great loss at TOPS. Still moving forward. That is grand. Glad to hear you are feeling better and back to your work outs. Yep KETO is my friend. Also reduces inflamation, or so they say. I do feel better, my aches are much less, not gone but better. Hope your week at work is not so stressful. Hugs

LAURA...Bruno is a big baby with storms. I don't mind catering to him. He is def. Nanna's boy. lol. He starts getting squirrely about 1/2 hour before the storm hits. Great warning. Only ended up getting about 2 hours on the patio. Between storms, at least the sun came out then. Dose of Vit. D. Great find on the tray table. Always nice to "steal" something. wink wink...

HAPPY...please post, hope the boat trip was a success.

Best get my work done. Hello to all...

Hi all,

Crazy busy last couple of days. Very disruptive so I got NOTHING done that I planned to but the days decided my schedule. :dizzy:

First off - got the boat in the water and turned the engine on. It's supposed to shoot water out one side which shows the engine is cooling properly. Of course it did not. DH was mad because as part of the storage fees they are supposed to "tune up" everything and check it out. So we got the boat in the water and immediately took it back out again. At least we got practice launching the boat. Drove to the marine place as as we were waiting to be checked out, DH noticed a blockage in the tube that shoots the water. Turns out a mud wasp built a nest in there while the boat was sitting in the yard since when we took it out of storage. Good news was it was a minor fix with a pipe cleaner, bad news was no boating for the day - we had to be back in time for me to do bingo so no deal that day. We are going to try again today but it's much cooler - I was not hurrying to get on water when it's 52 degrees out and we have fog this morning. I'm hoping we can go around noon ish.

Then I was asked if we could pick up a load of books from an estate sale this weekend. The people running the sale are kind to the Humane Society and the owners talked about disposing the leftover books after the sale (books generally don't sell well) so they recommended us which the owners were happy about since they adopted one of their dogs from us. DH and I went on Saturday to check it out and the person had turned a room the size of an office into a library with tons of fantastic once read hard copies of very popular authors. I almost fainted - that was over $500 in revenue for us. But a LOT of books. So I had to organize a posse. Fortunately our friends brought their 2 12 year old grandsons and with the book lady we managed to fill up 2 pickup trucks completely as well as Nancy's van. That's ALOT of books. We stored 1/3 in her van, took 2/3 of the rest to temporarily store in the shelter and the rest I stacked as neatly as I could in the pricing area of the shop. That killed Saturday and Sunday for the most part. Now I am even more behind in house things and volunteer obligations. We did pick up a nice wind up clock - Ethan Allen - we used to have alot of their furniture long ago. And DH got a bronze bust of General Custer - I'm not sure why. :dizzy: The man also had a large gauge train set that he ran in his garden - apparently garden trains are a "thing". DH decided to buy 2 really nice train locomotives. So now he has a corner of the loft with "his stuff" in it. :lol: I am so overwhelmed with things to do here at home - I really don't want to go on the boat today but I am also guilted as the summer flies by that we need to make use of this. Run, run, run.

Annie - safe travels tomorrow. I hope you can meet with Laura and have a good chat. I'm glad Keto is working for you but don't eat more cheese if you can't poo - that just makes it worse. :lol: My friend is trying it also (dietying not pooing :rofl: :lol3: ) and like you is very pleased with how she feels on Keto. :D :D :D

Susie - glad you are feeling better with the sinus. What a wonderful feeling to be at your lowest weight in such a long time. Congrats!!

Laura - thank you so much for all the useful info on the inflammation session you attended. I really appreciate it. What a great find on the table!!! You are lucky to have such a great resource in Craig's list out by you. I hope you enjoy your visit with Annie. I'm sorry I had to smile but it sounds like your Mom is headed down the same road as mine is - you poor thing! :lol: :hug: It only gets more frustrating...

Ceejay - is there anything better than a live butterfly garden? I'm not sure there is. That is really cool with the "feeding tubes" they handed out with nectar. What a great idea - never saw that in Chicago at the place we go to. I'm glad you are happy and active in your retirement - don't you wish you did it 5 years ago? :lol: ;)

Hi Shad :wave:

Oh boy - you are all complaining of hot and humid and it was 52 this morning. We are relatively dry and in the low 50's at night and 70's during the day so really nice weather here. I'm not sure if I want to see the 80's again as we are so used to cool that 80 is like living on the sun. Garden is not doing well - too cool and too much rain. Produce in general is not so great this year. The corn kernels are small, the ears are small and it's rather starchy. The tomatoes are not bad tasting but have those white spots like they are not fully ripened.

Oh well I need to get going here before DH decides he wants to leave in 15 minutes.

Sorry for the short personals. I would love a week to myself with no committments to catch up but that's not happening any time soon.

Have a good Monday chicks.

Morning all.

My weekend was alright, uneventful. Mom didn’t sleep well on Friday so we skipped shopping on Saturday. I went to the thrift shop and bought a pair of casual pants and a small Baggallini crossbody purse. I didn’t do any gardening, but I did walk around in the yard a bit. Some of the phlox are blooming nicely, and some have such a great vivid fuschia/magenta color. The petunias in the hanging baskets and the “bag planter” don’t look great. Maybe too much water with all the rain we’ve been getting. Tomatoes are doing alright. Picked and ate a ripe cherry tomato, otherwise the veg garden is just so-so. Next year I might just do all containers. Thankfully, the gravel area alongside the house isn’t showing many weeds yet. Still time to get out there and spray it with weed killer again before they take hold once more. Nope, didn't do it over the weekend.

The SUV needs new tires, so another money suck. Sigh.

What else. I did some laundry. Also some grocery shopping at Trader Joe’s. Doesn’t take much stuff in the cart to spend a lot there. Went to Joann fabric for some elastic yesterday. Back at home, I replaced the elastic in a pair of old madras plaid shorts that I like. I also tried to convert an old crew neck t-shirt to a v-neck. Good thing I used an old t-shirt I wear for yard work. It didn’t come out too well. I’ll have to watch the instructional video again to see where I went wrong. Anyway, it was good to do a bit of sewing again, and my "new to me" OttLite is great.

I stepped on the scale this morning and it wasn’t pretty. I need to do something! First thing is to move the dinette set off the carpet in the workout area so I have no excuses not to exercise down in the basement!!

Today I’m meeting our former admin asst for lunch. She left us about 3 years ago. She’d done her undergrad work while she was with us, and then left to work in her field of study, which I believe is social work. Now she’s moving to California to go to graduate school there. Last Friday was her last day at her job, and she and her family are moving very soon. I’m happy for her.

Susie – I’m glad you’re feeling better and back to the workouts. Good job on another weight loss last week. You’re doing so fantastic. :carrot: Hitting all these milestones and NSV’s must be so motivating for you.

Annie – Sounds like you had some nice family time this weekend. I didn’t get out much this weekend myself. It was really humid and hot and I don’t like that kind of weather at all. Safe travels tomorrow!

Happy – Bummer about no boat time! At least you know what the problem was and that it wasn’t serious. == Yikes, 52 degrees! It was in the mid-sixties and cloudy this morning and it felt chilly to me. How quickly our bodies adapt to seasonal weather changes. Try to enjoy the boat today in spite of the cool temp and all the other stuff on your plate. == You were busy with books this weekend! :book2 I always have to avoid looking at the books at the thrift shop – I don’t have space for them, and I remind myself that almost any book I want is available through my local library.

Hellos to Shad and Ceejay!! :hug:

Nothing much else to report, so I’ll get back to it. TTYL.

Morning.
It's official. The nephew has finally gotten to move back home. He came and got his clothes yesterday. He says he's going to continue to come and visit with me. I'm happy for them. I've been showing him old pictures and theirs one of me when I was probably 2 or younger and he gasped and said OMG, that's Charlie his baby boy.
Yesterday was a good day at church. Bil celebrated 20 years of service with this church. They threw him a big party afterwards and the service was catered around him. The family was there. He had several cards and each had 20 dollars in it for the 20 years.
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Susie
You are doing so well with your weight loss. I'm still trying to get started back on my journey. I definitely understand about work and life in general. Splashing in the water is all I'm good at. I can't swim. But the pool at the condo in Branson has a pool catered for young children. Their is a deep end but I stay away from that.

Happy
Sorry about the boat trip. Plan another soon. I really did enjoy the butterfly palace. I like orchids and it seems that the butterflies like those. Sis still hasn't had time to send me the pictures I want from her camera but as soon as she does I will post those

Shad
What is your weather like?

Hellos to Laura and Annie

Morning all. Beautiful day out there! :sunny:

I had a nice lunch yesterday with our former admin. Some work-related gossip, some commiseration about our families, and talk about her grad program and the move. She and her family leave Thursday. My life feels rather stagnant compared to hers…

A garage door person came over yesterday to address a couple issues. The original installer put the door handle on crooked and facing up-down, not side to side, and one of the rollers in the track was making a noise. Now both are fixed and all is well with the garage door. The entry door is being installed next week.

Today at work is a big volunteer project. I didn’t go because I can’t spend that much time on my feet. The boss was going to participate, but he missed the bus that was taking everyone to the project site. So all four of us in the department are here today. Oh well…

Today I’m having lunch with a friend that I haven’t seen since last September. That’ll be nice.

Tonight’s aqua fit class.

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Ceejay – Good for the nephew moving back home. I hope all goes well for him and the family. I also hope you still get to see him frequently. == Congrats to your BIL on his years of service to his church. What a wonderful celebration! == As I’ve learned from the aqua fit classes, you don’t need to swim to be able to get a good workout in the pool. :swim: Maybe there’ll be time to get in the pool after the kids return to school and it’s quiet. I’d love to see the pictures from the butterfly palace. I think one of our local zoos has a butterfly exhibit. Another thing to do when the kids are back in school! I’ll have to look up when most area school districts start school. Certainly by mid- to late August, right?
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Hellos to the rest of you! Hope you’re all having a great day! :flow1:

Good morning ladies,

Was supposed to take the car in to Duluth to get an 85,000 mile checkup and also check the steering wheel which has been making noise. Got up at 6am to make the 90 minute drive and got a call just as we were about to leave - mechanic sick - can we reschedule? Not really - major inconvenience here. I am a busy lady and I need my car. Well there is no one here to work on it. :mad: So DH will take it on Thursday. We went for a boat ride yesterday. All worked well, it was a beautiful warm sunny day. At one point I had to move into the shade of the canopy because the sun was baking my legs in black jeans. DH got some great shots of an eagle. 3 were flying above the lake looking for lunch and one got something and sat in a tree and posed nicely for him. Came home and I scrambled to make a honey garlic shrimp and rice dish which was a lot of work for so so tastes. It was a 10 minute preparation and I honestly don't think there was enough time for the flavors to develop. Today I am going to focus on laundry and housework. Tomorrow I have a thrift shop meeting and another meeting in the afternoon. Might work a bit on the books we brought in if I have time - or go in early before the meeting. The lady who is doing the pricing is slapping stickers on haphazardly - upside down and in some cases barely on which would be very easy to remove. This time of year we have cheap visitors who are more about saving 50 cents than helping out the dogs and cats so they have no problems removing pricing stickers from anything in the store. I can't blame N about the stickers - she is working as hard as possible. I will just come behind her and secure the stickers. DH went to play blackjack last night so I popped into the store for about 90 minutes. Thursday is the car again and bingo, Friday looks nice and DH suggested we go out on the boat again. And there goes the week. I also need to work on the August fundraiser that is right around the corner.

We have a new turkey mom who just hatched her chicks probably a few days ago. They are so TINY. Maybe the size of 2 chicken eggs. Little peeper cheepers are so cute - you can barely see them above the grass blades. I did get a look at them yesterday. The twin fawns made an appearance also but one of the other young bucks got spooked by a turkey and leaped into the air. Apparently the fawns are very in tune to any sort of danger and quickly ran into the dense woods and stayed there while momma stayed by me and ate. We have baby Grossbeak birdies too.

Ceejay - I'm glad your nephew was able to work out his family problems. I'm sure you will miss his help around the house but hopefully he can visit on a regular basis. How has your weather been?

Laura - I think you are right about too much rain affecting things. Perhaps it's also a lack of important sunshine. It's pretty bad when petunias aren't doing well. :lol: I am jealous of those people who can rip out a crew neck t-shirt and make it look so good. I am not one of those people. I just pretty much ruin a shirt :rofl: I hope you have better luck! Isn't the OTT Lite WONDERFUL :dancer: Just amazing light. Who would have thought???

Guess I will catch up with the rest of you later. Time for me to get busy.

Hello Everyone!

It is a beautiful day outside. All the humidity is gone and the sunshine is warm. I should be outside at lunch time but where I work is trees and grass and that kicks up my allergies so I stayed inside.

Ceejay: I saw the FB post about the church celebration. How nice the honored him in such a nice way.

It is good news that your nephew is going back to his family. I hope he comes around to visit and he should bring his family with him. I think it is important that little ones build relationships with people in their family. Like showing the pictures to your nephew and he can see the family resemblance to his son. Those things are about where we come from and are heritage.

Annie: Safe travels to Chicago and I hope you and Laura can catch up with each other.

Laura: How nice that you keep up with the former Admin. She sounds like a a very driven person and her life does sound exciting.

So, those scales weren't kind....well...it sounds like you have a game plan to change it.

Happy: I saw DH's pictures on Facebook; the eagle is beautiful. With all the wildlife you have around you and at your home, I picture you living in this enchanted forest!

Hi Shad!

My lunch time is almost up...I'll see you all tomorrow.

Evening all,
Missing again. But it has been a very busy week - that's my excuse. The builder showed up to demolish and renovate my bathroom. My house looks like a bomb hit with dust so thick it might just choke me to death. He took down the ceiling and with it the loose insulation which had been there for nearly thirty years. That started the dust. Then the bath came out and with it a whole raft of rotten timber and mould. So then off came the wallboards and the discovery of more rot and mould. So then the rest of the wallboards came off between the bathroom and the loo only to discover more rot and mould. We ended up demolished right back to the laundry to get to good timber. After that the tiled floor came up and the concrete slab underneath was as wet as anything. So we had to then find out how far the water had gone and what damage it had done, so up came the flooring in the main bedroom. Yep some of that had to go as well and some of the timber flooring in the hall.
So now the wall studs had to come down because they were also mouldy and rotting. It's amazing how far water can spread. Better than inflation. Anyway, I decided to change the window in the bathroom and combine the bathroom and the loo to make a much bigger room. It will basically become a wet room. No bath only a shower and tiles everywhere.
I cleaned up in the lounge, dining room and kitchen today but there is still a large amount of dust still flying around so it is a never ending job. The builder is very good and cleans up at the end of each day but still the dust is there.
I've been shopping for a new window, shower head and mixer, shower screen, toilet, and tiles, vanity tap. Think I have it all sorted now and just have to go back and order the ones I want. Most is in stock, so won't take long to get, but the new vanity counter top will take about a week. Not a problem since the tiler won't be available for a week or so and the builder has had to go to another job for the rest of this week. He's only fitting in my job because the place he works for has had very little work for him at the moment.
Of course with the bathroom in it's present state, there is no shower, no basin, no toilet so DS2 hired an ensuite for me. Of course nothing is ever perfect, but this one was a real problem as not much worked too well. Water overflowed from the shower and there was a leak in the hand basin and water was pouring out of the side of the building. Only thing that worked okay was the toilet. So turn off the water. Ring the man and only turn the water on when I needed to go. Man turned up this morning and eventually sorted out the problem so now I can shower as well. Will do that shortly before bedtime tonight.

Happy - so glad you took the boat out. Life is too short to not enjoy some time out. I had a quick glance at the pictures on face book this morning but haven't gone back to study them. I will shortly.

Annie - Safe travels to Chicago and have a nice catch up with Laura. How nice to have dinner with your son.

Laura - Hope you have sorted the payments from Mom to B/F by now. It's always a problem about payments from parents etc. My son refuses to charge for all the work he does around my place and fortunately for me, he owes me some money so I just keep taking the costs of the job off his bill. Soon it won't be anything left to pay off.
Glad you got the classes reimbursed - have to check everything these days.

Ceejay - love butterfly houses. I really enjoyed the one I went to with Happy and her DH when I was in Chicago with them. The one in Singapore was good too. Apart from Peter the Snake that is.

Susie - you have been busy! Congratulations on the weight loss. You are doing so well. I have sort of stagnated lately so must get back into the swing of it very soon. It's not that I have been eating badly, probably not paying enough attention to portion sizes.

I'll see if I can attach some photos of the bathroom as it is now. My house is a mess. Can't do much about it until this job is completed.

I'm trying to switch my computer time to evenings because I spend too much time in the mornings looking at Facebook and things. There are too many things I need to do during the day. So hopefully, this will make more time for me to post in here too.
Meantime, I am out of here to pay some bills, check up on a few friends, shower and bed. cya

Good morning ladies,

I have to get ready shortly - meeting at the Thrift Shop. I have a feeling from the few emails I got that pretty much no one is going to show up. Which both saddens and infuriates me at the same time. I am really starting to feel - why bother? Afterwards I have to take another meeting about our fundraiser that I am in charge of which occurs 2 weeks from yesterday. Then I have to avoid having a conversation about the books - the lady who is doing it is wonderful but she slaps the price labels on any which way - many of them are falling off or easily peeled off and are on upside down or sideways which looks really sloppy. I am choosing to just ignore it and let her do her thing. Then I have a personal errand to run and I can be back home again. And answer emails and phone calls. :rolleyes:

I stopped in the small grocery store we have in town - I really like it because it's very convenient to run in and out during the busy summer months. It has been going downhill for a while now - you can see they are not doing well and have been carrying less and less of the fresh/perishable stuff. So yesterday the customer in front of me was discussing the store closing with the cashier. I got home last night and saw a blurb on FB that the store was closing for good yesterday. :( I'm going to miss that place. It was very handy. But people want low low Walmart prices and they can't compete with that. The other grocery store we have in an effort I'm sure to cut costs has gone to almost 2/3 of the store with their store brand. It's getting harder and harder to find regular brands like Kelloggs Hunts Barilla Pasta, etc. Kind of like shopping at Aldi. Not all that terrible because 80 percent of my shopping is fresh stuff but still I do like certain name brands like tomato sauce.

I just looked out my door and there is a gorgeous little bright yellow and black goldfinch sitting on the deck rail as if to say - cheer up Happy. :D One momma turkey just hatched her chicks and comes around the property - did I mention that already? She has 7 of the cutest baby fluff ball chicks. She won't let you get too close to them so you have to admire them from afar and she keeps them close to the grass so they are hard to see. But I love the peep peep squeek of baby chicks! Yes Susie - you are right - it IS an enchanted forest :lol:

I hope that you can get outside for a bit Susie - prior to the weekend - and enjoy some fresh air. It's nice once the humidity leaves. Are you enjoying your new summer clothes and shoes?

Shad - OMG - what a mess in the house!!!! Had no idea you had so much water / rot issues. Was that from a slow leak or part of the fact that you live in a place with such high humidity?? I hope they can get the job done quickly. I can only imagine the mess of yanking everything down to the rafters. So no more tub in your house? We call that a half bath here - sink, shower and toilet. When you said you combined the rooms did the loo have it's own "room" then? We had that in Memphis of sorts - the vanity and linen closet was it's own room and the toilet and tub/shower had a separate door. Not that anyone would be fixing their hair or washing while someone else was using the toilet or shower so it never made sense to me. :shrug: I'm sure now that you are RETIRED that the last thing you needed was a costly rebuild of the house. You have my sympathies. :hug: Thanks for checking in - you are one busy bunny.

Laura - if you are going to see a butterfly exhibit - skip Brookfield zoo and instead go downtown to the Peggy Notebart nature museum on Cannon drive off LSD. That's the live butterfly (permanent) exhibit that DH and Shad and I went to. It's a wonderful experience. And it's close to Lincoln Park zoo and the Morton Arboretum so you can combine a whole day trip. Sounds like this garage door replacement was a pretty big job too.

Annie - safe travels to the city. Hope your conference / seminar is worth it.

Hi Ceejay :wave:

Time for me to hop in the shower. Have a good day everyone.

Laura
You will enjoy the Butterfly exhibit. I didn't realize how many different ones there are.

Happy
Have you ever thought of just bowing out to all the volunteering?

Susie, Shad and Annie Hello

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Not much since yesterday. I've been having to water the grass. I hope I can revive it cause it's brow. We've been 28 days with out rain. And it's HOT. Even the gym is hot

Afternoon all.

I’m so ticked off – I missed meeting with Annie before she drove back home because I was stuck in a meeting. :mad: The meeting went over the scheduled time, and if I’d gotten out in time, I’d have seen her text and met her earlier. I didn’t have my phone with me in the meeting. Anyway, Annie, sorry I missed seeing you. However, I’m glad you got out of there early and got an earlier start on your return trip. I hope you’re having a safe and smooth drive home. It’ll feel good to be back in your own bed tonight. I bet the family missed you!!

Susie – I agree with you about building relationships in the family. That didn’t happen with mine and I don’t know my cousins well at all, even though I’m FB friends with a couple of them.

Shad – Wow, I had no idea your bathroom project was so extensive! And it sounds like it turned out to be more extensive than you thought it would be. Not a good thing when the inside is open to the outside where it never was, as your photo shows. Or is that where the window was?? Water can be so damaging!! I’m so sorry that this project has been expanded so much because of it. Not sure of the difference between the bathroom and the loo…does the toilet have its own room? (we have that here, but it’s still usually located in the bathroom). And the floor in the bedroom had to come up?? :yikes: And your DS hired an ensuite?? Is that like a porta potty but not just a toilet but also a sink and shower? Had no idea that existed. Anyway, you sure are keeping busy with this. Wishing you luck that it proceeds as smoothly as it can going forward. == Yep, bf got paid by mom, so they’re square. But he did get himself involved in the rest of the kitchen project, whenever that will happen. Sigh. It makes sense for your son to not charge you for his work and just work off his debt to you. Six of one, half dozen of another.

Happy – I guess you really have to let certain things go when you’re faced with the fact that you have a volunteer who’s wonderful. And it sounds like the shop can’t stand to lose more volunteers! == Bummer about losing the convenient grocery store. The Dominick’s was so close and convenient for us, but it closed down and it’s taken forever to get a new tenant, also a grocery store, in that spot and they still aren’t open!! In those years, Walmart opened a small version of itself in the strip mall right across the street, and Mariano’s opened a store about a mile east. And there are plenty of other grocery stores in the local area, so I wonder if this new place will have missed the boat when they finally open their doors. The only unique thing about them is that they carry a lot of Polish and European foods. == Aww, I bet those turkey chicks are soooo cute. == Thanks for the advice re the butterfly exhibit. I’ve never been to the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum, so that would be a great thing to do. And visit the Lincoln Park Zoo while we’re so close. The Morton Arboretum isn’t close (western ‘burbs), so maybe you were thinking Lincoln Park Conservatory? That’s right by the other two.

Ceejay - Hard to believe it's so dry out your way, but so wet in my area. I think the grass turns brown when it goes dormant during hot, dry weather. It greens up again once it gets moisture. == Re the butterfly exhibit, there was one right across the street from our b&b in Key West, FL. Bf didn't want to see it so I decided I could visit one back at home at my leisure.

==

I went to aqua fit class last night and the circuits we did yesterday were a lot of upper body work. I woke up around 3-ish this morning with sore hands and forearms, and now my triceps are sore too. I didn’t get back to sleep right away so I’ll be whooped by the end of the day. Oh, the new swimsuit that I’d hung to dry yesterday morning was still wet after work, so I wore an old one that was in very bad shape – its last hurrah. It was fun to just throw it away after class. :D

After aqua fit, I followed bf to the tire place in our sedan and he dropped off the SUV (put the keys in the slot) for our new tires to be installed today.

After work I have to get to the library to pick up the dvd I had on hold – “Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me”, which I believe came out in 1992.

Other than that, I hope I can just be a sloth tonight.

Nothing much else to report. Off to post and back to work. :wave:

Back to Indy today...the trip home was uneventful but very drive racking. SOOOOO much construction on I65. Probably added an extra hour to the drive home. Didn't get to meet up with LAURA, bummer. Didn't help that our meeting concluded 3 hours early. So with that and LAURA being in a meeting at that time, we missed meeting up. Always next time I suppose. I am just glad I didn't fly there as I would of been stuck in CHI for a half day waiting on a flight. This way I got home about the time I would of flown out of CHI. The meeting was ok, I did learn a lot about the new system. Supposed to make my reports easier. We shall see. Met all my sales peeps from other states. Funny how you imagine people then meet them in person and boy was that thought incorrect. I just want to say the drivers in CHI are crazy. And honking your horn does not make it right for you to do whatever you want. Makes downtown Indy look like a piece of cake to drive.

HAPPY...busy as can be. Saw DHs post of the eagle. How beautiful. He is really great at getting the nice shots. Kudos to DH. I am hearing more peeves about the thrift shop than joys for you. Maybe time to hang it up? Like me tho I am sure you think if you quit it will all go to h*ll. Hugs to you and I am so proud of your work. The babies in your yard sound so dang cute. Boating time happened. Good for you. On my list for my visit with you sometime??? ok?

LAURA...sorry we missed each other. There is always next time. Come on jump on the WL boat with SUSIE and I. I KNOW you can do it, you have done it before. Vehicles are always expensive. Always some kind of repair or work needed. Then there is the insurance required. Bleh.

SHADDIE...Holy batcrap batman. That is a LOT of demolition, repair and updating work going on. You will have to take a side job just to pay for that. Once done I am sure it will be beautiful. We need to pull up our carpet and put in laminate wood floors OR SOMETHING. Our carpet sucks. The previous owner put in really cheap carpet and it is all slowly falling apart at the seams. Hope all works out to your liking. :)

CEEG...you are adjust well to your new retired life. More fun things to do and lots of family time. Good for you. Glad the nephew is back at home but will still visit you often.

SUSIE...I see work still has you hopping. Good luck on WI tonight. Do let us know. Allergies are hitting hard here too. No wonder that we (You, LAURA, CEEG and I) mostly have the same weather. LAURA maybe a little more snow than us. And she can have it. :).

Hello to the rest of youse. Make it a great day/night. Today is my Friday. My bestie from Corpus Christi, TX is in town and we are going to hang out.

Love, Peace and JOY!

Morning all. Today is my Friday, so happy Friday to me. :carrot:

Annie – Bleh on all the construction on your drive home. I agree, though, that driving made more sense than flying. All the rigmarole of airports, security, delays, etc. is just not worth it. Driving trips are nice in the sense that you don’t have to worry about checking bags, luggage weight and size limits, carry-ons with the 3 ounce containers, and all that other BS. == I hope the trip was worthwhile for you and makes your Wednesday report days a bit easier. Yes, finally putting a face to a name and voice is sometimes surprising. :D Happy Friday to you, enjoy the day tomorrow with your TX bestie. :)

Ceejay – Saw on FB you got some rain – hope it wasn’t too much!! :rain: Just enough so you don’t have to water for a few days, LOL.

Happy – I hope the meetings went alright yesterday. So sad you’re losing your mojo for your volunteer activities because of others not holding up their end of the commitments. These roles are not the same as the one-time volunteer events – e.g., feeding the homeless on Thanksgiving, painting a school each summer (that was a couple days ago at work, which I passed on). Being on a committee or board for an organization requires dedication, and if people can’t or don’t want to do it because it’s summer, or they don’t feel like it, etc. then they shouldn’t take those roles. It can be like any other job, paying or not. I hope things get better and it starts to feel worthwhile and fulfilling for you again.

Hellos to the rest of you.

==

Yesterday bf drove the sedan to the tire place to pay for the tires and he drove the SUV home and left the sedan at the tire place. He said the SUV is driving much better with the new tires. After work, we drove back to the tire place to pick up the sedan. I’m glad that’s taken care of.

Today the SUV goes back to the dealer to finally get the new parts installed for the sunroof. They will also look at the steering column’s telescoping function – doesn’t seem to be working right. And whatever they fixed with the A/C system still isn’t right. I hope we don’t end up with that same crummy loaner with the plastic/petroleum stink.

My biceps are soooo sore from the aqua fit class on Tuesday. One of the circuit exercises was pushups against the pool edge. The ones where you keep your elbows close to your sides, which in my Pilates classes they call Pilates pushups. They totally work your biceps and not so much the pecs. So my biceps are really sore. To the point where lifting my arm is a painful challenge and I find myself tilting my head down so I don’t have to lift my arm too much. And using my other hand to assist, LOL. I’m pathetic.

That’s about it for me. Tomorrow I’m taking vacation. I have an early appointment with the allergist. After that I will pick up the carbon fiber shoe insert from the orthopedic doctor’s office. After that the day is mine. I want to get a pedicure. I’m also thinking I will get a massage.

Have a great day everyone.

Evening all,

Interesting day. I've been waiting all day for the wallboards to arrive - they didn't. The DS2 did and his dog. They did the rough-in for the electrical stuff. DS2 and I discussed what I wanted and then he went out and got what he thought he wanted. Ahhh well, it will look pretty good, just more expensive that I had considered. There will be some low wattage spots in the ceiling for when someone gets up to visit the little house in the middle of the night, and a bright light over a large mirror so I can do my make up easily and a whole heap of power points everywhere for every conceivable contraption I want to plug in. As well as that I will have the heat lights and fan in the ceiling and some LED strip lighting somewhere on the vanity to give a gentle glow somehow. Don't ask what or where. Yet to see it myself. I still have to get the new toilet, shower screen and vanity top. I think it will look okay when finished.
As well as that, the hired ensuite decided not to play nice again and I had to ring them again and get the man back. Boy will I be pleased when this reno is done. A very good reason why one would need two loos and two bathrooms around the house.

I did a bit of weeding around the garden today and also have some broccoli and cauliflower plants to get in the ground. That's tomorrows job. The soil is very dry and I need to both fertilise and put water saver on it. The strawberries are looking okay and growing quickly in their pots on the fence. Don't expect much off them this year. The last crop of broccoli has done extremely well and I have picked heaps of it and frozen a lot as well. Tomatoes are ripening - I had one at breakfast this morning and it was delicious. The spinach is ready and the beetroot will be soon. The potatoes are coming along and will be ready in a few weeks. Everything grows better when it is not summer. I will be putting in beans and peas soon. They never take long to fruit or bean or pea or whatever one calls the product of these plants.
The hedge is slowly disappearing. Only about 4 or 5 trees to go now. Getting there. Then I have to fix the fence! Never nothing to do round here.

Happy - hope the meeting went okay. How annoying if no one turned up. They can whinge plenty but are not prepared to do anything to fix it.
When our house was built, the fashion was to have the toilet in a separate, small room - hence the term - off to the little room. Today the fashion is to have it all combined in one room and to have a large space for all the bits. As if we have the time and the water to wallow in the bathroom with candles and champagne!

Ceejay - wonderful stuff grass. It goes all brown and crispy during the drought, but watch the stuff green up and grow with a little water.

Laura - Yes the ensuite is like a portaloo, but it is a complete wetroom. It has a toilet, shower, and hand basin as well as all the usual things like towel rails and niches to put things in or on.
Glad to hear that the b/f and mom have sorted it out.
Seems like the aqua classes are really kicking. All that muscle soreness. Happy slothing.

Annie - Glad that you made it safe and sound home again from Chicago. Pity you didn't meet up with Laura, but there maybe other times. Enjoy the friend.

And that's about it from me. Time to hit the sack and sleep for a while. Up early tomorrow because the builder will be back, hopefully the wall boards will arrive and the tiler comes on time at 11.00am. The builder arrives at 7.00am. Oh goody.

Hello All--scales were up on Thursday, .8 lbs..I KNOW it was the ice cream cone I had at work for "Take our Children to Work" day. I took my 4 nieces and it was a lot of fun and I didn't get much work done. Today I was trying to catch up.

I don't know if I mentioned that my right foot is giving me some issues, it is on that bone at the top of the foot, the one that feels like a little bump. My bump isn't little. It isn't to bad but if I jog on the treadmill or walk fast, it seems to get sore and looks a little swollen. I made an appointment to see my Orthopedist a week from this Wednesday, that was the first appointment they had.

Until then, I will go back to using the recumbent bike. I plan to do it for 30 min and walk for 15, at a moderate pace. I must get back to working out 5 to 6 days a week.

Depending on what the doctor says, I might see if I can find a water exercise class a couple of nights a week that I could go to right after work. We don't have a anything like that in town now that the YMCA is closed.

Laura: Did you get your pedicure and a massage? That sounds to me like a wonderful vacation day.

I am sorry to hear you didn't get to meet up with Annie. :(

Annie: What did you and your BFF do today? I hope you had a great day!

Happy: Yes, I am enjoying my new smaller summer clothes and shoes! I don't have to buy shoes in wide widths anymore. I was at Eddie Bauer this evening and they were having some good deals and I bought 3 tops and a light sweater for fall...it will be here before we know it. I no longer need a 2XL at Eddie Bauer; XL works fine now :)

When I was reading about your smaller store closing, I was feeling that pain with you. I HATE to go to Walmart. It is just too big and I don't like their produce. We have a Kroger in our town. It isn't small but it is smaller than Walmart. I usually go there on Sunday after church to get what DH didn't get at Walmart on Saturday (thank goodness he does the grocery shopping). Usually at Kroger, I get my produce and other things that I find Walmart doesn't carry or I don't like what they have.

Ceejay: We have had ran and now everything here has greened up and the lawn needs mowed again...again..glad that is a DH job. :)

Shad: WOW! That is a project you have going on! Think how nice it will be when it is done.

We have some home updates and repairs coming up. First off is that the air conditioning needs replaced. It is 14 yrs old and has a slow leak that is turning into a fast leak with the coolant. We have it ordered and they plan to get it done around the end of August. It isn't cheap but not ultra expensive. They said they will keep putting coolant in our old unit so we stay cool until they other one gets here and installed.

I had some other home projects I wanted done and I payed off our Home Equity Loan last January, so now I'm asking for another one. I will use it for the air conditioner, and we need some work done on our chimney, and I have been wanting to put in a vent less fire place so I have a quote for that, and I want a new front door and there is a bit of a gap that needs fixed as well. I also decided to throw in having the kitchen painted.

I got the quotes today for all those jobs and will take all my quotes and loan request paper work to the the bank on Monday. I want to get everything done by October and be ready for fall.

I would love to see a picture of this portable en suite, inside and out...how big is it?

I am heading to bed. I have housework in the morning and then DH's company owner is having an afternoon cookout at their home for the employees . I think we are going to see Atomic Blonde after we leave the cookout.

Evening folks,
I've had a good week end so far. Went to Branson to spend the night with bil and sister. Sure do like being close at hand but not under foot. Sis is staying in Branson tonight to work on medical charts for her patients. She said that she would be at church in the morning.Wish I could help her but she is very meticulous. Nephew was here when I came home. Said he'd gone to work this morning for overtime. But his wife has been bugging him almost to the breaking point while he was at work so he couldn't get any thing done. I've learned that she is extremely controlling. She called my sis this morning stating that she thought he was doing drugs again. But she gets this way when she's upset with him. He mowed my yard and I took him to get pizza at Godfathers. She called him twice while we were at Godfathers Think we both enjoyed our time together.
I did some more tree trimming today also. Still need to get a bigger limb off the Redbud tree.

------------
Laura
The rain did wonders for my little town but Kansas City was flooded in some areas. I'll more than likely turn the water back on the lawn Monday to keep moisture in the ground. I'm going to try those counter push ups with elbows close to body and see if they will help. How many reps did you do?

Annie
Glad you are back home, and that your meeting was shorter and you got to get home earlier. They are working on I65 here too.

Happy
Did you get to take the boat out on the water or go for an ATV ride? How did the meeting go?

Susie
You've been doing so well with your weight loss I wouldn't let that.8 pound gain upset me to much. That will easily come off. Are you keeping your calories at 1200 and doing an hour of aerobics? I'm curious.

Shad
Is it just your bathroom that you are making over? Hope it is completed soon.

Afternoon all. Lovely day here. I'm in the three season room with the ceiling fan on. Book & glass of ice water on the side table. Very pleasant.

Shad - Everything always costs more than budgeted or planned during a reno project, right? I like the idea of the LED strip lighting, maybe under the vanity toe kick. No need for a night light if that's on overnight... I looked up portable ensuite & ended up at an aussie site to see the photos. I've never heard of that until you mentioned it, even on all the HGTV home improvement shows I've watched. Must not be a common thing here. I take it you only have the one bathroom/loo and that's why you need it? We have a full bath and a powder room/half bath. When we finally renovate our full bath, I see us showering at bf's gym or at the recplex if we don't come up with another solution...oh, I could shower at work too. Neither are ideal solutions. = Your garden sounds like it's doing really well right now. I imagine the hedge removal will have to take a backseat for now while the reno is going on. Oh well,they aren't going anywhere, lol.

Susie - I'm sure that .8 will be gone in no time. How fun to take your nieces to work with you! Well, except for the catchup the next day... == Sorry you're having a foot issue. I hope nothing's broken. Good to ease up on the treadmill and use the recumbent bike. I hope you can find a water class to take. I was thinking I might get a recumbent or upright stationary bike to use to get more cardiovascular exercise while my foot continues to heal, but I'm undecided. I really don't doing like that kind of cardio, so why buy the equipment when hopefully it would only be needed temporarily? Bf's brother gave bf's mom a recumbent of his that wasn't being used by he or his wife, and she was using it for a while to strengthen her legs after her leg & hip problems. Not sure if she's still using it now. If she absolutely wasn't using it, I wouldn't mind taking it for a bit. But she should be using it, so I doubt I'll even bring it up. I could always buy a secondhand one if I really decide to pursue it. == We don't buy meat, deli, or produce at Walmart, except bananas occasionally. We prefer other stores for those items. Wow, you've got several projects lined up for your house! It really never ends, does it? :shrug: The ventless fireplace will be nice, especially if you don't already have a fireplace.

Ceejay - Sounds like the nephew's wife needs to back off a bit - when he's at work he needs to work! I hope they can work through their issues. == Re the counter pushup with the elbows held very close to your side...I did way too many!! They really work the triceps intensely, so I wouldn't start off with many. Mix them up with the ones where you have your arms out wider so your chest is worked too.

Hellos to the rest of you!
==
My day off Friday was nice. Allergist went fine. Lung function test was about the same as last, slightly better. Didn't confess to not using my daily inhaler much lately - just haven't felt I needed it. Without the dog [hair] and vigorous workouts, I haven't had much of the asthma symptoms. But it all works out, since he advised that I reduce my use of the inhaler. :)

Picked up the shoe insert, but haven't worn it yet as I haven't worn my sneakers all weekend.

I tried a different place for a pedicure this time. It was alright. I hope the pedicure lasts longer than the last one.

I didn't get a massage because my triceps were still really hurting. Maybe next weekend.
So I spent a lot of the day relaxing - tv, reading a book. I finished season 2 of twin peaks - crazy, creepy ending.

Yesterday I had a hair appointment. I also did some laundry. I finished my book, so I returned it to the library. They had their book sale, so I browsed & bought 3 workout dvds for $1 each. Two are Winsor pilates and one is a core secrets stability ball workout. I didn't buy any books, but checked out a few. I don't want to buy books when I can just borrow them.

Today I got out in the yard and finally finished digging out the rest of the day lilies from that one garden bed I'm converting to grass. Unfortunately, the part that was already dug up is getting some weeds growing, and baby daylilies too. Obviously I left some roots behind. We'll have to turn the soil and try to get the rest of those out. Too bad the rototiller isn't working right now. Oh well, what's a bit more digging?? :D

Bf met a friend at a local bar near the house to watch the UFC matches last night, so he wasn't home when our neighbor from behind us came by with his dog & his twin sons. He came by to tell us that the fact that we'd removed the arborvitae trees motivated them to do some re-landscaping in the back of their yard right over the fence from us. ( What they had was all overgrown and nothing "intentional".) He wanted to know if we had any plans for our area... just so they knew what would work on their side, re shade etc. I said no, not for the time being. Just grass. Anyway, that was nice, and it was since to see their dog. I look forward to seeing what they end up planting.

Okay, I need to eat something, so I'll get this posted. Enjoy the rest if your day!

Hi Ladies.
The cookout yesterday was very nice and a perfect day to be outside. They had plenty of shade amd also had a few tables and chairs inter a tent like shelter.

The food was delicuous. They did a brisket on the grill..i dont eat meat but it smelled good, a brocolli salad, a garden salad, this watermelon sald that had fets cheese and red onion in it. It was very good, Maccorni and cheese, and dessert was homemade peach cobler with homemade vanilla ice cream.

I had a bit of everything except the meat.

We stayed for about 3 hours, eating, holding babies talking and playing a game of cornhole.

Afterwards we went to see Automic Blond, very action packed and very bloody at times.

Went to church this morning, grocery shopped after church, we both made salads there to bring home. We ate and then took a nap. Now I am off to clean the bathroom. I didnt get to it yesterday.

Ceejay: it is very nice that your nephew came by. It seems his wife doesnt trust him and really she shouldnt be bothering him when he is working. I am sure this isnt all one sided, never is. It sounds like they could benefit from some counseling.

It sounds like you had a great time in Branson visiting your sister and her husband. Little trips like that are very nice.

You asked about my calorie intake and exercise. I do 45 min of biking or walking and then I do stretching and I do it 4 to 6 times a week. I really try for at least 5 times a week.

My food calories amount are set to 1200 now. When I started they were 1,800. I try not to eat my execise calories and if I do, because I am hungry, then it has to be nutritional. I do allow myself 3 pieces of Dove dark chocolate daily, if I want it. Usually about 3 days a week I do. If the chocolate or extra fruit and veggie, or a smoothy cut into my exercise calories I am ok with it because usually it is only about an extra 200 calories that I am taking in and I am still under my alotment for the day with exercise calories being included. As long as I dont eat all my exercise calories every day, I am ok to eat 200 calores of them a few times a week.

Laura, I hope the pedicure lasts. How often do you go i between them? I can usually go about 6 weeks before they need redone. The polish doesnt chip but the nails have grown out and things just need tidyed up a bit.

Your time reading in the sunroom sounds really nice.

Hello to Happy, Annie and Shad.

I need to go cut up some fruit, clean some corn, I bought some mushroom and vegetable kabos and DH has a steak for him to grill and that will be dinner this evening. Have a great rest of your day everyone!

But rushed this morning, but thought I would upload the pictures of the porta-ensuite to show you what it looks like. Not exactly glamorous especially when stuck in the middle of the driveway but it works okay. Good solution when you only have one bathroom in the house. Wouldn't have been necessary if I had 2 toilets because then I could have bathed in the sink and had a shower over at the neighbours. It's hardly neighbourly to bang on their door in the middle of the night and ask to go to their loo.

Anyway things are coming along and Dom the builder has lined the walls in the bathroom again, reinsulated the floors and ceilings and is back today to start waterproofing. Tiler should be here next Friday/ Saturday to start the leveling and then the tiles. The ceiling is now in as well.

I'll be back tonight to update the days progress. Pictures are of the portapotty and the stuff I dug out of the garden yesterday

Hello from the train. Mechanical problems on another train are causing delays this morning. The train was about 20 minutes late, and when I boarded, it was jammed - standing room only. They stopped at the next stop & I got off. Just not up for that. Unfortunately the station I got out at was one that doesn't have as many trains stopping at it, so I didn't know when I'd get the next one. Thankfully it was only about 10 min. And this one is pretty empty so far.

Oh, forgot to mention in yesterday's post that my weekend started off with Thursday's train home striking a pedestrian. We were not quite out of the station when it happened, so we were able to get off the train. We were only the next town over from home, so bf came to pick me up.

Metra is just a mess these days.

Oh, I'd forgotten about my bike being left at the station all weekend so bf dropped me off today.

==
Susie - What you're doing as far as diet and exercise is definitely working. How do you battle moments where willpower is low? == Re pedicures, a good one lasts me at least 4 weeks and needs redoing only because the nails have grown out. I already wrecked two nails on my left foot this time around, which is rare for me. Sigh.

Shad -Thanks for the photos of the portable ensuite. I'm glad the walls are back up - did you get any insects coming in the open spots?? :eek: Your veggie haul looks good.

Hellos to Annie, Ceejay & Happy. :wave:

Made it to work...finally...had a 8:15 am appt with the ortho about the MRI of my shoulder. Good news is no tear in the cuff, but it is beat up pretty bad. Sounds just like me. Anyway there the cuff is frayed from a bone spur pushing into it. There is also a lot of inflammation. I do have tendonosis, bicep tear, and a small spur. So the treatment was a cortisone shot into the ole shoulder and PT to start next week. One time just to show me what I need to be doing then I can do it at home. Yeah right...sounds like exercise to me. I go back in 6 weeks for a check to make sure all is good and no more action is required.

The weekend was a bit busy. Worked in the yard. Jacob had the stomach flu (Fever, vomiting and the poos) Only one accident and it happened in the bathroom. He is much better today however Sam kept him home from school just in case. Sassy has be vomiting since Saturday. Both times on Saturday she made it to the back yard. Yesterday and last night involved cleaning up the carpets. Of course last night happened at 4 am. Had to put 3 throw rugs in the washer and clean the carpet. Over this part of life. Poor lil girl. She thinks she is in trouble or doing something wrong. So I have to give her extra lovin's. I mostly stayed outside away from it all. :)

LAURA...my pedi's last about 6 weeks too and that is normally due to nail growth. This time however I chipped some polish off my big toe. Most likely from going barefooted all the time. The train rails amaze me when I drive through and walk downtown CHI. We have NOTHING like that here in Indy. I can see why now you would take the train rather than drive in CHI. OMGoodness what a mess and the drivers are terrible. Mostly just honk and go, be all you can be! That was very neighborly of your fence mate to check with you before planting, not many would do that.

SHADDIE...I had never heard of a portable ensuite either. That is pretty cool. Good thing with all that live in my house that we have 2 full baths. Shower/tubs in both. Don't have to share our master bath. Hope you aren't running out to the porta naked. bahaha. The veggies look awesome and yummy. I will be lucky to get 3 tomatos off my vines. Royce keeps picking the green ones and bringing them in as gifts. We may have stopped this but a little late. Oh well. There is always next year. Reno's are a PIA and you sure have had your share. Maybe things will run smoothly this week.

SUSIE...not bad, .8 up. You can get that back down with a blink of an eye. You know what to do. Atomic Blonde. C and I were going to go see it yesterday but he ended up working later than expected and he kind of forgot. I am good with that as I would rather hang in the back yard drinking my iced tea and lounging. Therefore I did. :) Love the cookout part about holding babies. That is something that makes me happy. Maybe in my retirement<---if that ever happens I could volunteer to rock babies at the hospital. HEY HAPPY...that might be an idea for you. At least babies don't walk and talk and mess anything up..well maybe diapers.

CEEG...did you play at church over the weekend? Nephew's wife sounds a little evil or a trouble maker. Is nephew sure that is what he wants out of his life. Cause staying for the kids is not a reason. Kids are resilient.

HAPPY..come up for air sister. Hugs.

Got lots to do. and here we go!!

Hugs

Susie
I agree that marriage is a two way street. Come to find out the nephew is spending more money and not paying his share of the bill's. Kinda like his dad was. He want's to stay in the marriage. He told me that he could trade in a 10 meaning his wife for something lower and he doesn't or isn't ready to give that up right now. Thanks for sharing your weight loss tips.

Annie
Better to have the cortisone injection than surgery any day. Sorry to hear that Jacob has been sick with the tummy flu. I didn't realize it until I've been around my nephews that they can get a fever at the drop of the hat. I am enjoying my life right now. As I told my sister the other day. I lived my life with rules from my aunt and uncle and from my friend who is sick. I would not have my own life if I had not moved here.

Happy
I wouldn't worry to much about the volunteers. They are not a paid so they can do as they wish, rules or not.

Laura
I wish I could read more but I don't have the patience to sit still very long. When I do sit still I get extremely sleepy.
I've been doing some counter push ups but haven't been keeping my arms close to my sides. How many reps did you do? I'm working on my arms and abs this month.

Shad
I really don't envy the renovations going on at your house. But I'm sure they will be worth it.


---------
Yesterday was church and we were with out an organist and pianist at one point. Tom asked me to play but I'm not ready for this part of it yet. I'm going to work really hard this week. He told me to pick out a couple of songs and practice and he would let me play during opening. Our organist was bitten by a stray cat and is having a very hard time getting the wound healed. She had one surgery to clean out the wound and now another one because the wound had started to drain. I've ordered a metronome to help me keep time. Practiced both piano and organ this afternoon.
Have a doctor's appointment tomorrow afternoon.
Been having weird dreams. Last night I dreamed I was floating on the clouds. It was so relaxing. Sunday morning I woke up shaking from a dream. I don't remember that one.

Hello's to the rest.

Busy day at work, even with the boss out on vacation. I am trying to get ahead on some things.

I have been working out on the treadmill and recumbent bike, trying to give my foot a bit of a break from the pounding when walking. It seems to help as my foot isnt as sore as it was. I see the ortho next week.

I am looking forward to Wednesday as I am going with my friend Genny and my DH to see the Goo Goo Dolls and I believe that Phillip Phillips is opening for him.

Shad: thanks for the pictures. I never knew those existed. I do think it is a good option if you only have one bathroom, we only have one.

Laura: I cant imagine being on a train when it hits a pedestrian! Are they going fast when that happens? I have ridden the Meto in DC and I imagine the train there is the same sort of thing.

Annie: Glad to hear no surgery for the shoulder. Did the shot help the pain? I know you dont like exercise but I think the therapy will help. I dont know about doing it at homd right off, I am not sure I would push myself if it hurt and I loved all the icing and massage they did for me when I finshed my therapy exercises. They help me feel better and get a better range of motion.

Sorry to hear abour all the stomach sickness in the house. Hopefully everyone is doing better now and it is all over.

Hi to Happy and Ceejay.

Ceejay, you were typing over my head.

Are you excited to get the opportunity to play more at church? What songs are yiu practicing ? I think you have a good plan in place.

Good Morning All Ya'll...

Whew what a night. Sassy has the poos now. The stench is awful. She, of course, pooed on my carpet. We cleaned it up with 409 then used oxy carpet cleaning for pet stains and odor. Still bad smelling. At 1:30 am I got up and went to the couch. C couldn't smell it because of the pap machine. I gave her some children's immodium 1mm dose for her size. Today I am feeding her plain white rice. She ate it well before I left for work this morning then went outside. Hope she did her business then. Sam is keeping Jacob home today again as he had to bouts of poos last evening. Sam got the children's immodium and started him on that. She didn't want him to have an accident at school. He is so sensitive and would definitely freak out. Hope today is better for J and Sass. At least Sam is home with both of the sickies to take care of them. Makes coming to work easier for me not to have to worry about Sass being home by herself in her cage. REMIND me of this if I EVER talk about getting another dog. Both boys were still asleep when I left for work therefore I don't know how they are this morning. Royce is probably too ornery to get sick. Last famous words.

Dinner last night was oh so yummy. Fried up some cabbage, onion, red sweet pepper in butter. Sliced smoked sausage then fried it up till crispy and added it to the cabbage. We scarfed it up with no leftovers. Oh so good. I added a bit of garlic powder and this spice I got in Amish land called Farmer's Dust. Forget what all is in it but makes everything taste so good. Meats, veggies everything. I think tonight I will make baked pork chop dipped in eggs then pork rinds. Some kind of veggie. Might make potatos for C. He said he misses them but knows he doesn't need them. Maybe something is clicking in his brain about food???? :)

SUSIE...good for you for exercising with a bum foot. See I would use that as an excuse not to exercise...lol Goo Goo Dolls...don't even know any of there songs or if I do I don't know it is them. For the past 5 years all I have listened to is KLove. I have no idea any of the current popular songs. Only time I get other music is when Sam has the station on in her car or has the HD on a music channel. I know, I am lame. KLove keeps me on track with God.

CEEG...soon you will be confident enough to play for the church. Keep practicing, you can do this! Geez that cat that bit the organist must have been rabid or something. Poor lady.

HAPPY....are you ok? Need to post lady!

SHADDIE...how's the reno coming along. Everyone coordinated yet?

LAURA...no train accidents today?

Make it a great day/night all. Hugs

Sam is going to take Ms. Sassy Cakes to the Vet at 3pm today. Just worried as she is so little she might get dehydrated with all the pooing she is doing. Poor little girl. Heart is breaking.

Afternoon all.

Annie - Sorry to hear about the sickies. Hope they feel better soon. Poor J and poor Sassie. :( == I hope the cortisone shot and the PT helps your shoulder. I've gone through the shoulder PT before - they gave me an elastic thing that I tied to the post in our basement so I could do the exercises they assigned. Oh the fun. == Re the trains - yeh, we have rails all over the place and all types - elevated, subway, on the ground. I really wouldn't like having a long auto commute (over 15 minutes), and it would just be awful because of all the distracted drivers. BUT... the train commutes are getting kind of crazy now. Metra was so mismanaged for so many years that all the capital improvements were put off and now our trains are having mechanical issues on a frequent basis. No accidents today (so far), but a mechanical problem on a train that was thankfully behind my train. And last night I was on a train in which the door to the car I was exiting from wouldn't open (deja vu of that morning's commute, except that time the door finally opened). The conductor used a manual release and so I and my fellow commuters were on our merry way. But when I got home I saw the email alerts stating that they ended up having my train combined with another and pushed it to the end of the line due to a mechanical problem (I'm assuming it was the door issue). Sigh. .

Ceejay - I'm so glad you made the move to MO and are enjoying your life now. :) Re the pushups - the instructor had us do two types, one that was the ones with the elbows at your sides, and then the same ones again, but when you pushed away from the edge of the pool, you lifted your arms over your head before you did the next rep. She'd wanted us to do 3 sets of 15 reps for each type. :yikes: So that's a total of 90 - as I said - way too many. I should have known better for myself and stopped sooner. If she has us doing that at tonight's class, I'll certainly know better!! The good thing is that this instructor likes to change up each class, so I doubt we will be doing those again. == Enjoy your piano and organ time! My bf has a metronome too.

Susie - I'm glad your change in exercise is helping your foot feel less painful. == Re the trains - I'm betting the DC Metro is like the elevated and subway trains here - light rail? The train I take (Metra) is on a real railroad with real locomotives. The train I was on that struck a pedestrian last week was leaving the station, so it was probably going slow, but starting to accelerate. Those trains are so big and heavy, that they could never stop in time when someone who is committing suicide just leaps in front of the train. Sadly, it's my understanding that a very large number of the pedestrian fatalities are actually due to suicides, not "accidents". I hope you enjoy your concert tomorrow. :) I'm like Annie - I don't know who sings what. I don't listen to music that much, usually I listen to podcasts instead. The only new music I would hear would be when I used to take Jazzercise or Zumba classes, LOL.

Happy - Come up for air and visit us here!! :comp:

Hi Shad! :wave:
==

Nothing much to report. Tonight is aqua fit class.

Tomorrow the new entry door will be installed. Fingers :crossed: everything goes okay with that.

That's it for me. TTFN!

Hi there,

Man - come up for air is RIGHT. This past week has been a whirlwind. The more I try to focus on what needs to be done, the more I get interrupted. It's been awful. I am getting constant phone calls and emails - several a day about things going on at the shop. I have a big fundraiser next Monday that I am trying to get organized for. We need big time help with the books. I am trying to appease DH with spending time with him and on top of all of this I think my cat Meadow is very sick and perhaps at the end of her time on this earth which tears me to pieces. She's been vomiting for over a week every day - no obstruction - I think the diabetes is taking over. She looks comfortable and alert but you can see she is losing weight. We are taking her to the vet first thing in the morning. She already suspects something is up as she won't let DH get anywhere near her. Rustling her up tomorrow will not be fun. Just taking things a minute at a time and trying to make some headway.

I did get my hot tub drained, cleaned out and refilled. We did get 25 boxes of books sorted and repacked at the shelter. I did send out the 50 individualized emails to all the fundraiser volunteers with all the info for their part in the event on Monday. I did get my bathroom deep cleaned and am on top of dishes and laundry at the moment. So I'm making some headway. And I have lists and lists of things I need to remember.

Today is the last hot day we will have for a while. It's going to drop down to only a high of 58 degrees Thursday with lots of rain and will take it's time to warm up after that so I don't have to worry about spending time on the boat. It would be nice to take an ATV ride after it rains as the trails are crazy dusty at the moment. But my calendar is quickly filling up. I didn't work again at the shop today - I need the time to spend on other things. Was hoping to get over to work on books today but was caught up in a round robin of emails between 4 people and a series of phone calls. I need to move to a new town where I can be anonymous. But wait, we have put FAR TOO MUCH money in to this house to move yet. :lol: They FINALLY got the last of the landscaping in - DH was getting really peeved but it seems that they don't get all the shrubbery / flowers / plants in at once and they have to make several trips to come back and plant as things arrive at the suppliers. We are all done now. Just let it grow nicely. I will have to take pictures soon.

Laura - that's really frustrating with all the Metra problems - we never had that many mechanical problems when I was riding - and they were just starting to replace all the equipment when I stopped riding in '98. The biggest issue was the switches freezing in winter. Now delays and reroutes seem to be a matter of course. :rolleyes: I didn't think that there were so many suicides but it makes sense - in my day I just saw alot of stupid stupid STUPID people running around and under trains - yes UNDER them because they were running late and could not wait 10 minutes for the next train. I'm like you though - I'd rather take the train than drive in that horrid traffic any day. And you get all that walking as a bonus! I hope your new door comes out nicely. And yes - the DC metro which used to be fabulous and clean (hope it still is ) is like a pristine version of the subway system - all underground.

Shad - thanks for including the pictures of the ensuite. We have fancy port a potty rentals for events but I have never heard of such a get up over this way. We had only one bath tub in our house in Chicago and I remember taking a frosty shower when DH was renovating and we had a giant hole in the ceiling and bitter cold winter air was blowing in from the attic. Brrr. But at least we always had 2 toilets. I'd never buy a house with only one toilet. :lol: I hope your guy can get everything together quickly. What an awful shame about the extent of the damage from wet and rot. Is that from humidity or did you have a slow leak?

Susie - I hope your foot feels better. Have a great time at the concert tomorrow - sounds like a great line up!

Ceejay - loved your pictures of the butterfly house. I was going to say with your nephew that once trust is broken - from infidelity, gambling, drugs - I think the hardest thing about reconciliation is re-earning and regaining that trust again. I know it would be hard for me and I told DH many many years ago that if he ever decided to cheat on me make sure it was worth his while because that would be the total and complete end for us - I could not recover from that. It sounds like your nephew needs more committment - perhaps his wife is naggy for a reason. :^: It's nice that they want you to play more at church - sounds like they are counting on you in fact. Keep practicing and you will build confidence.

Annie - I'm sorry to hear about Sassy. I hope she can get to feeling better soon as well as Jacob. Poor guy - no one wants an accident at school - the kids are mean today. I loved your comment that Royce is too onery to get sick. :rofl: Has C gotten to feeling better now that he's eating cleaner or does he still get the occasional stomach flair? Suck it up sister - don't make me cattle prod you on your sore rotator cuff :rollpin: Get the shot, do the therapy - think of it as therapy not exercise and get that arm feeling better. Believe me, I see the pain my Momma goes through and there's nothing they can do for her. You don't want it to get that far.

My Mom got 2 shockers this week. First her beloved family doctor who she will NEVER find a replacement for - is retiring. Very sad but the system beat him down - it's a true loss. And then 2 days later her cardiologist is leaving his practice and as part of the deal, he can't take his patients with him. Right now he's lying low - we are trying to find out where he went to so Mom can follow him. It is not the end of the world but when you are 91 - your doctors mean more to you than your kids. ;) Just kidding but almost accurate.

We are going to Tuesday supper at the senior center tonight. My former Tuesday partner is in her 80's - a lovely woman but is caught in a cycle of everyone dying on her. So I drag her out to supper once a week - good to get her out of the house. Tonight is pork chops and salad bar. I hope they don't over cook the potatoes as they have been and that they restock the salad bar after the Mongolian Hoarde pillaged it at lunch today. Last week was slim pickins. I only had a bowl of cereal at breakfast so I'm kind of hungry for dinner.

Let me get a few things done before I hop in the shower to get cleaned up. I am still in my pj's from this morning. :o

:wave: