Afternoon all. Another hot day, but I brought lunch from home so I’m not going outside at lunch today.

Dee – Glad to see you back here! I hope your lab results are good, and that the thyroid issues are resolved. When do you see the neurologist? Please don’t leave the neuro dr’s office until you get clear explanations of what the MRI results are, and what the next steps/options are! I’m not a church going person, but I will certainly keep you in my prayers. :hug: == 2017 has not been one of my better years – think I already whined about the stress fracture and not being able to do what I want and gaining weight because of that as well as a never-ending self-pity party (which includes overeating, of course). Now trying to do some exercise in spite of the foot. That’s about it.

Susie – I’m glad you got the food thing worked out with your VP and that it’ll make your life easier for the remainder of her time in town. == Congrats on achieving a loss last week! == Yay for getting the mortgage refinanced, and yay for getting the home equity loan check! Let the work begin!!!

Ceejay – Yes, I’m working out at home these days. I still have to modify movements quite a bit and at this point, I don’t want to pay for exercise classes if I’m not going to be able to get much out of them. == I also don’t get what your nephew is doing with your ceiling that involves TP – that sounded funny, LOL. Anyway, that reminded me of grade school. The old building had a scary basement that was actually our lunchroom and was also used for the after school activities. In the girl’s bathroom, we would take a wad of TP, wet it (with water, lol) and throw it straight up to the ceiling, where it would remain stuck. The ceiling was covered with hundreds of lumps of dried up TP! Oh misspent youth. == When you’re done with the deep cleaning, c’mon up by me. Plenty to do by me!

Annie – I’m so sorry to hear about your SIL and the softball mom’s hubby. Very sad news. == I’m glad the colonoscopy went well. Ugh, prep. == Hope the counseling session went well!

Happy – I’m so sorry to hear about the arthritis pain. :( == Your October sounds busy, but I’m glad you’ve got some fun stuff in there too. (Hope the birdfeeder class isn’t lame!!) I hope your flight arrangements have worked out alright. == Did you get the rest of your garden removed? I feel guilty about neglecting my 4 measly veg plants this season. I should tear everything out right now, though the one cherry tomato plant is still producing a bit, in spite of the drought and lack of watering. == I hope the freezer has been fixed – that’s a lot of food in there! == Re the health lectures – they don’t ask hand out comment forms! If I actually registered on the website for it, I suppose I might get a survey, not sure. But I don’t register because it’s not required. == Ouch re swigging the coffee to wash down the pills! Or was it not that hot?? == You can send us some of your rain – we are in a drought here since about 8/1, less than 3 inches. The grass looks just awful.

Hello Shad!!
==
My weekend was alright. A lot of time spent inside because it was so hot. I’m watching the 2nd season of Outlander on dvd’s from the library. I’m perennially behind on most TV shows I watch. I don’t see Twin Peaks on Showtime’s page using the Amazon Firestick anymore. So much for that. I might do a free trial to try and watch the remaining episodes (#13-18), or just wait for it to come out on DVD at the library, or maybe Netflix.

I didn’t do much household stuff this weekend, but I did tackle some of the paper, so that’s at least something. My breakfast with my work friend on Saturday was fine. He’s now counting the months (about 6) until he reaches age 59.5, which is when he can access his retirement funds. He mostly complains about his co-workers. He’s getting a new boss, so I guess that’s what he’ll complain about when we get together next.

I got a massage yesterday. I hadn’t had one in a while. The 50 minutes when fast. Always does.

Okay, gotta get this posted. I have to prep for a meeting. TTFN.

==

Evening all,

At least today was cool. Not a lot else I can say about it. Went shopping for cabinets for the laundry - took the measurements and found that I have weird sizes in my little room. Bah humbug. I can get some of what I want from one place and yet to find somewhere for the other bit, other than having it made that is. Trying to find something that will allow a sink at the top and some storage underneath and I find I have a list of..................one. And that is for a metal cabinet similar to the one I had previously and it was about the most useless item that I have ever seen. Sure the sink part was okay, but the cupboard underneath was totally useless for putting anything in. So the search continues. Ikea tomorrow because DS2 reckons that if you have odd sizes, that's the best place to go. So, trusty tape measure in hand and book of measurements at the ready, I'll go back to Ikea tomorrow. I've already been there once and only seen one thing that impressed. I can of course go to the expensive places and have what I want made. But I don't want to go that expensive. Bah humbug already. Over this.

I've been making pickles and relishes and some jam for later in the year. I had a glut of tomatoes and had to do something with them. So the store cupboard is getting full. The garden is still giving me tomatoes and lettuce but the recent heatwave has sent most of the rest (except the beans and potatoes which I've only just planted) to seed. I can see a million lettuces in my future. Garden will be put to bed around November for the summer.

Had a visit to the doctor the other day. Sent me for blood tests, all except one came back in the normal range. No cancer markers found. Thank heavens. The one that came back with a question mark was something that could indicate something called multiple myeloma in my future. She says it is not likely and that of all the cancer patients she has seen, many blood tests come back with the indicators but only one has actually ever got the thing and that was nine years after being free of her cancer. So I have to have further tests but there isn't any hurry. Thank heavens for that. I don't want to go to yet another hospital for more tests. As for my hands, she is sending me to a neurologist. They rung me a couple of days ago, and the first available appointment was in December at Southport - around an hour drive south or February for my local area neurology place. Seems we are as bad as you lot for long appointment times.

Happy - so sorry to hear of your arthritis problems. Wish there was something I could do or suggest to help you. Getting old sure ain't that much fun sometimes. Hopefully your doctor might be able to prescribe something for you. Meantime look up foods that hurt and foods that heal that condition.

Ceejay - hope you sorted out your problem with the forum post. Have you got some relief from your stomach problems yet?

Laura - Had a laugh at your breakfast companion complaining about his co-workers and also getting a new boss. Such fun work these days.

Dee - good to have you back again. Hope all those tests will give your medic something to work on to put you back on the straight and narrow. I feel your pain with the weight going back on. I'm the same, darn it all.

Annie - lovely photo of you on facebook. You are really looking good. Hope you get things sorted with the counsellor although everything always seems to take a lot of time these days of stress and uncertainty and the degeneration of the human race.

Susie - busy as usual I see. Good to know another of us will be in the grip of renovation madness shortly. Once my laundry is done, that will be the last of the big renos. and I will only have things like paint choices after that - oh and learning how to lay an engineered timber floor. Another thing to add to my cv or resume if I ever decide to go back to work. :rofl:

The cat Sunday is still with me. I'm not sure for how long. She is very demanding much of the time but won't eat what I have given her. She is a problem. I will be taking her back to the vet later this week or next to see if they can see what is going on. As I said, life is slowing down for her.

So that's about it for me. Can't think of much else. Best put myself to bed as 5.30 will come about soon enough and we are promised another gruesome heatwave tomorrow. Today was cool. Weather doesn't know what to do and is certainly not following the normal patterns anymore.
I have a long list of items to cross off my list tomorrow. Gardening early to stay out of the heat later. Kitchen, dining room to clean. Doors to paint indoors, walls to prime and paint and some progress needs to be made on the spare room. Hope I get a good nights sleep. Oh yes and fit in a trip to Ikea, doggie day care and long walk for me, lots of running for him. I think I need a BIG vitamin tablet. Or maybe so go go pills.

Good news...I suppose if you have stage 4 cancer. My SIL, Fe is home now from the hospital and doing good. Waiting game until the genetic test comes back. She will then be assigned a team of cancer experts for the type of cancer, once determined. This will all happen at the Barns Jewish cancer research center.

Oh in other happy news....At today's AA noon meeting the group is celebrating me. My two year sobriety anniversary was this past Sunday. Sept 24. I will get my two year token and there will be goodies to eat that I won't eat. Not going to cheat. I look at Keto as I do AA. No cheating. 159 this morning, officially 35.2 lbs. Got a new bathroom scale that measure BMI, fat, muscle mass, calories, water, and many other things. Not that I am going to do anything with those numbers, I am just curious. Got a deal on the scale for $24.95 on Amazon.

SHADDIE...thank you for the nice comment about my FB pic. :) It was truly a fun night with the gang. In a bar. 6 of the 10 peeps at our table in sobriety...no alcohol and a band. Not once did I crave or want a drink. ALTHO...the margarita that went by sure did look tasty...lol. Samantha and Curtis went also. Two members of the band were also in the program. Drummer that we knew and the keyboardist. We were home by 11:00 pm and I felt like I had been out all night. Was dragging on Sunday also. Sheesh how did I do it before? Good luck at IKEA. I hear it is the store to find anything. I have never been to one however there is one opening in October about a 1/2 hour from my house. Samantha and I have plans to investigate. No money to spend but window shop so to speak. Hope you get good news on Sunday the cat at the vet. Poor baby.

LAURA...I heard Outlander is a good show. What do you think of it. We don't get it on Netflix. Bummer. Glad you are taking exercising easy with your foot. At least you are moving and it is all about moving. The old co-worker complaining...well it gets worse the older we get. Sad but true.

Hello to the rest of you. Got to prepare for my 1x1 with boss in 10 minutes. I don't know why but I dread this call every week. Bleh

Hugs

Hello Everyone! We have lots of sunshine and hot weather today but that is to change tomorrow and be in the 60's. High 80's to 90 and then in the 60's. :dizzy:

Yesterday was a long work day for me and I felt like I got not nothing done, today is feeling the same. We are moving to Office 365 and everything will be stored on the Cloud. We had a overview training today. There will be other training's and also we have online training's we can do at anytime.

I hope to settle down here after I get my lunch finished. I was reading posts while I ate and now posting, then it is focus on getting the Enrollment report all done.

I didn't get my workout in last night but I knew it was going to end up being that way so I tried to walk the halls in the building a bit yesterday when the VP was in meetings with others. I could get in about a 15 min walk every hour and then be back to my desk before she finished one meeting and the others in the next meeting arrived.

I am so excited for the weekend....because other than a 9:30 a.m. hair appointment, we have NOTHING planned and no where to be and we have both committed to being at home and doing what we want to there and just go with the flow on both Saturday and Sunday.

I know we will clean house sometime on Saturday but it is just nice to not have commitments. It is the first weekend in 6 weeks that we haven't had something planned to do with other people.

Annie: Congratulations on the accomplishment of our 2 yr sobriety. I am very proud of you! That new scale sounds like a good investment to get all that information. You need it now..I would say that you are in the "maintenance " of your weight loss and so seeing BMI, muscle mass etc will help you stay there.

I am praying for your SIL.

Happy: How did bingo go? The aches of pains of arthritis are not fun! I have heard that the packet of gelatin every day does help and I think that Shad's reco to look up foods that help and what to stay away from is a good idea to go along with prescriptions and such.

Laura: A massage sounds wonderful!! I haven't had one in a long time. I like facials too. Very relaxing.

Ceejay: What did the doctor have to say? Did you pour out the coke that you have at home?

Shad: I have been to Ikea once---it was overwhelming to me but I would go back again.

Ok..got to post and get to work.

Evening all. It’s cooled down a lot here overnight. Very nice and comfortable today, low 70’s. :)

Shad – I hope you find the right size cabinet without having to get one custom-made. I might take my mom to Ikea – it seems to be a good place to get inexpensive furniture. I know she doesn’t want to spend a lot, and shopping for secondhand furniture at resale & thrift shops would take forever. Plus she needs smaller scale pieces, and Ikea has a lot of that – including a table that is mounted to the wall and folds down when not in use. = I’m glad you’re getting a lot from your veg garden, unlike me. But I’m sure you’ve been much more attentive with yours than I was with mine! == I’m so glad almost all of your tests have come back normal. == Wow, long wait for the neuro appointment. I will pray that the problem will fade away in the meantime and the appointment won’t be necessary. :yes: == You sure hit the nail on the head with your comment re “stress and uncertainty and the degeneration of the human race”. == Poor Sunday – I hope she is keeping comfortable at least. == No, our weather is not following normal patterns. Or rather, historical patterns. We may be creating new normal now…

Annie – My best wishes to your SIL. == Big congrats on your 2 year sobriety anniversary! :congrat: Wouldn’t have expected a bar to be a place for a bunch of non-drinkers to gather, but where you gonna go to see a band play?? Anyway, that sounded fun, and I agree with Shad, you looked gorgeous in that FB photo. :yes: == And a big congrats on your weigh-in this morning – awesome! You are just killing it kiddo! == Be careful when you go to Ikea – you might find plenty you like… == Re the tv show Outlander – I read the first few books in the series many years ago and liked them, but heck were they long books! I never did continue with them. Anyway, that was a big part of the draw. That and they were pretty much in the historical romance genre (but not of the fluffy variety), with a time travel twist. The tv series is well done – beautiful scenery of Scotland in season 1 and gorgeous costumes in Season 2. If you aren’t interested in history (Scotland, England, France), it might not be your thing, but there is a lot of violence and nudity, which might keep you interested, LOL. If you liked Downton Abbey, you might like this (but it’s certainly not PBS!!), but there is a lot of political scheming involved. I’ve become much more interested in history since reading those books so long ago, but I’m still not interested much in the political side of things yet I do find the show interesting. Enough rambling. Get the dvds from the library and give it a look.

Susie - Good job getting the walks in while the meetings went on. == Yes, I do like not having commitments on the weekends, especially after having several full weekends. Enjoy your weekend...when it finally arrives. ;)

Hello Ceej & Happy!

==
Did a BE workout last night. Bf & I are having dinner with my mom tonight. I had one of the quarterly "Catch-ups" with the boss this afternoon. Generally awkward, as usual, but it went alright I guess.

That's it, will post before this gets lost. Posting from the train, anything can happen.:wave:

Evening ladies,

Annie
No I didn't pour out the coke. :sigh: Congrats on the 2 year sobriety. Is brain spotting a technique to get the patient to open up more? Still need to research that. I've started the AA approach to help with my overeating. It helped the last time. I'm not going to any AA meetings.
I may look into getting one of those scales. Trouble is I probably would not be able to program it.

Susie,
Good idea to walk 15 minutes in the hall. My doctor's appointment is tomorrow.

Laura
What did you eat with mom? How long are your video work outs?

----
My sis called while ago stating that some one with a red vehicle rammed her car knocking it sideways in her parking space last night. She waited till this morning to call the police who wasn't to helpful telling her that she should have called last night. She's upset. I told her I would come up and let her use my vehicle if I needed to.
It rained this morning. The temps were in the mid 60's which really felt good.
Took my vehicle to get the oil changed this morning and to the gym this afternoon.

Morning all. Another nice day today, though only 50 degrees when I left the house. I was glad for my fleece jacket.

Ceejay – Mom had been wanting to try the Wednesday night special for a while, which is buddy night pricing - 2 for $24. It was rather disappointing. About five menu items, and you can’t order off of the regular menu, or any substitutions from the limited menu. The food was mediocre, though the soup was good, and the fish I ordered was cooked nicely and got to the table nice and hot. The potato was mashed, and the veg was mixed with mostly peas (wrinkled), a couple green beans (mushy) and a couple bits of carrot. No bread brought to the table. Server couldn’t answer any of our questions about the menu, had to keep asking someone else. Now that we’ve finally tried that, we won’t do that again, LOL. == My BE workouts are the ones that are the 30 minute shows previously aired on PBS stations. So they end up being about 22-25 minutes long, including warm-up and cool-down. I probably should do two of them to make it a better workout for myself, but some nights I’m just not in the mood. I need to intersperse some of my other workouts between those – kettlebell, large ball, etc. == How’s the gym going?? == Oh, horrible about your sister’s car getting hit in the lot. And yeh, the police comment wasn’t helpful at all. But she needs to get a report done for her insurance claim, so she needs to tolerate them.

==
Warning, long ramble about my petty first world problems.

Yesterday’s dinner started off badly and didn’t really go all that great as the evening went on. BF and I were running late because the access road in mom’s community was blocked off before the turn-in to her building’s parking lot and we wasted time trying to find another way to my mom’s building. Finally, I was dropped off nearby, and bf had to go around the entire property to get to the parking lot. In the meantime, mom had decided to go to the dining room before the seating would end. Took her cordless landline phone with her and tried phoning us from the restaurant to tell us that she was already in the dining room – obviously that wouldn’t work, the range on those phones doesn’t extend very far. So I was trying to phone mom because she wasn’t answering her door and getting no answer, of course. Bf left me to see if she was in the DR, which she was. What a mix-up. And as I told Ceejay, the dinner was a disappointment.

We took mom back to her apartment after dinner. She gave us back the cell phone she isn’t using and was apologizing about that and she asked how much it cost. We told her that it was about $15 per month for service and she commented “that’s not too much”. Bf didn’t say anything until after we left, but when we were alone he said that her comment ticked him off because for a year that’s $180, and over the 10 years that we’ve been paying for a cell phone she doesn’t even use, it’s almost $2,000. It isn’t necessarily the amount of money we’ve put out, it’s that she’s very VERY frugal about money, but when it isn’t her money - that amount wasn’t “too much”. As an example - bf went shopping with her recently and she bought a 4-pound bag of sugar (bf had to reject her attempt to buy two bags), yet as we left our table in the restaurant, she grabbed several sugar packets. I told her she just bought a 4-lb bag of sugar and she said it wasn’t open yet, so she’d use the packets. Sigh. I actually think what my mom said about the cell phone is a reaction to her thinking that having a cell phone is expensive, so the $15/month didn’t sound like much - not understanding that that’s the amount just for her additional line. Sigh. But bf took it the other way. But now that I think about it, all those years ago (I believe it was after my father had passed away), we decided she should have a cell phone and just bought one and sent it to her. I don’t think we ever really asked her if she even wanted it. And she never said she didn’t want it. But the truth of the matter is that she almost never used it and she had it squirreled away more often than she ever had it on her person, charged and ready to use when it was needed.

Anyway, we were both irritated with the dinner experience, the cell phone comment, and the unfinished/unfurnished state of her apartment that we were grouchy and arguing with each other on the ride home and in the house. Stupid stuff about mom shopping for furniture and getting her framed artwork out the boxes still leaning against her walls and getting them hung up and making the place a home and not someplace to which we dread going. Apparently mom doesn’t want to furniture shop with my sister and SIL because she thinks they will pressure her into getting expensive furniture. So I was glad to have brought the Ikea catalog with me for her to see if she likes anything in there. If not, there are also big box furniture chain stores with less expensive stuff.

I hate how bf and I get when we’ve been with my mom – she seems to drive us both nuts. And then I feel guilty over my feelings.

Enough of that.

Today didn’t start all that well. The admin wasn’t there when I finally arrived (train delays, grrr). Boss asked me if I knew where she was. Nope. He said “she didn’t tell me anything” in a certain tone. But she had something in her calendar from 9-930, so it seemed premature to think she was “missing” instead of in a meeting or something. A bit after that, she did text the boss, taking a sick day. Then she texted me saying she’d texted the boss earlier - 5 am - but didn’t hit send. (doh!) She was asking me why he wouldn’t have someone try to reach her. Sigh. I was glad to text her back about her calendar item, otherwise I had been thinking I should text her. But my concern was worry that she might have felt unwell during her commute and something bad had happened. And I don’t think she’d appreciate an “are you okay” kind of text. She doesn’t want to be the sickly employee, in spite of all her health issues, so I didn’t want to make her angry. Oh the dilemma, oh the drama.

Enough rambling for me, back to work.

Afternoon all,
Hot, hot, hot. If this is spring, I'm dreading summer. Yesterday was 36C which is around a 100F and today it is 33C inside my lounge. Guess it could be worse. They are getting 39 and 38 and 37 out west. Got up early this morning and worked in the garden for an hour or so before it got too hot. Then I had breakfast and went and visited my bank - I use an internet bank and they only have about 3 branches. One is half an hour away from me, the others are a 3 day drive. Had a nice chat and a catch up with some folk that I used to work with and then came back, stopped at a shopping centre to pick up some preserving jars and seals and picked up a couple of plants along the way. They will need a good soak tonight and then planted tomorrow. Hope the heat breaks by then.

Hoping to do a fair amount of painting tomorrow and Sunday but I just looked at the walls and it seems I have a fair amount of preparation to do as well. No doggy day care over the weekend so I have a clear path to paint. With him there I am likely to have 'tail art' everywhere.

Annie - congratulations on your 2 year sobriety. I have the same sort of scale and I don't use all of the information either. I did set most of it up in a fit of being GOOD forever but that doesn't work.
Actually, compared to some of the prices in homeware stores these days, IKEA is reasonably cheap. Maybe not by American standards as Australia is the country of the con - high prices, shoddy Chinese goods. I had to laugh at one place I went to. The salesperson was carefully telling me about the deal they have going to try to combat the China syndrome and that all these pieces were made in Australia. Yes they were and very well at that, however they were nearly three times the price.
My best wishes to your Sister-in-Law. Seems to me that those who live longest at stage 4 are those who have an agenda and a will of iron. I hope she can plan out her future to give her things to strive for and live for.

Susie - hope you enjoy the change to Office 365 and the Cloud. I have some worries about the cloud although my tech head son tells me there is nothing to worry about. Yes it is like there are no leaks in government computer systems and private e-mails, not to mention identity theft through Facebook etc. Sometimes I think there is far too much reliance on technology and the web to the detriment of people and their needs.

Laura - Still haven't found my vanity or cabinet or whatever. One day it will pop up and say here I am. I will be off to Ikea tomorrow to check out sizing and then corralling up some store people to tell me what is what and how much.
Hope your catch up with the boss means less for you to do and more money for not doing it! Yeh like that will happen.
Sorry to hear your catchup with Mum didn't go so well. Often happens when we get old. Sometimes DS2 kittyfoots around me like I was about to crack and then I do and tell him to say what he thinks and the **** with being diplomatic and then we get on again. Mind you, he tells me the same thing from time to time and then when I let loose he then says, "don't hold back Mum, tell it like it is" Kids!!!

Ceejay - sorry to hear about your sisters car woes. What a bunch of losers that hit her. Did they leave a note or anything. Probably not. A$$holes. Hope it gets fixed soon.

I went to the local council today to change the registration for Romeo the cat from J's name to mine so I could pay the bill. Oh no it isn't a simple as that. I have to fill in a form and she has to fill in another part of the form and then I have to fill in all the information that is already on the current registration Bah humbug. So it will wait until next week now. DS2 will take the form home when he takes Ruger home and I will have to wait until she has time to SIGN the form and fill in her name. I should get it back in about a month no doubt.

And that is about it for more. I'm about to get a long glass of water and lie on the couch for a while until the heat goes down a bit. Then I will go out and water the garden and check the plants and maybe do a bit more weeding and a bit more fertilising. Later gators

Hi guys,

Not a banner week for me. The part for the refrigerator did not work. DH had to take a bunch of stuff out of the freezer, that brought the temp up to 29 - things are still frozen hard. He wound up going to a nearby town and ordered a new freezer - should come next Saturday. I have a place to store the food if necessary. Wednesday we went to one of our chef's classes. It was fun, we had a lot of fresh ingredients so he had us all do the cooking - I made guacamole, pan fried/ roasted vegetables and DH made dessert fruit kabobs. We also had tomato and mozzerella salad, a wayyyy to spicy gazpacho soup that had no time to chill and a delicious beef brisket and braised cabbage as well as this awesome salad which I will give you the recipe for. I came home that night with the most awful gas pains - it was really awful - I was sick all night.

But the worst of all is that we had to put Meadow to sleep Thursday. She had stopped eating and drinking on Wednesday and was looking very listless. I said the bar was when she stopped drinking - the diabetes did her in finally. We are both very sad so it was a bummer day.

I do have to go and help out cleaning cat cages first thing in the morning and then we have a 9:45 eye doctor appointment with another an hour after that. So I have to get to the shelter before 7am so I can do some good before I have to get to the eye doctor. Run run run.

Congratulations Annie on your sober anniversary. I am really proud of you.

I just wanted to do a quick post. Will try and get back on tomorrow afternoon.

Awww HAPPY...so sorry to hear about Meadow. You were theee bestest momma ever to her. She can now torment the other animals in heaven and be free of her ailments. HUGE, HUGE HUGs to you my sweet friend. Love you. Yeee, a new freezer. Dang the luck. Can you send the part back for a refund?? OH BTW, Portillo's opened yesterday in Fishers. OMGosh should of seen the lines of wait both inside and drive thru. No thank you. I will wait a couple of months for it all to die down before checking it out.

SHADDIE...you are always so busy. I feel like I need a nap after reading your posts. :) I think if I have time today I am going to go on IKEAs website and check it out. IKEA opens next door to the new Portillo's in Fishers on October 11. I may never get up there to try either as the traffic was already horrible that way. I really don't know if my SIL has an agenda or not. Her being Phillipino, I am lucky if I understand what the heck she says half the time anyway. You would think it would get better for me as she has been around about 30 years now. lol. I just pray for her and my bro. Romeo, Romeo where for art thou? Lil kitty doesn't know who his momma is. lol.

LAURA....had to laugh at your momma's fiasco. Funny how we let other's get us worked up over a bit of nothing. Just laugh and move on from it. Hard to when you and BF are feeding off of each other about it. Hugs. Didn't know it was up to co-workers to find out where the heck you are when you don't show up at work. Sorry the admin caused strain at work with the boss. And boss, the admin does not report to me, it is in your ball court. Just sayin'

Curtis has officially been diagnosed as bi-polar and placed on Latuda. He has not started on it yet but will in the next day or two. Hopefully this will help him. We are doing ok as far as we go. Just trying to stay in the moment and not let my head get carried away.

I made Keto chicken cordon bleu for dinner last night. So yummy. Also cauliflower and a Caesar salad with bacon. All was yummy. Plenty of leftovers. Probably enough for a meal and make chicken salad with it.

Going to a festival in Knightstown on Saturday with my Bro, SIL and possibly Samantha. Chris has the boys which will make going to the festival much easier. Knightstown is about a 45 minute drive for us from my house. I am looking forward to it. My friend Gina lives in Knightstown so hope to see her there. Sunday, Cs parents and brother are coming over. We are celebrating Cs birthday. Ordered a German choc cake from the local restaurant near our house. C tried it last week and raved about it. It is his fav cake. I was going to make one but this was easier. I am all about easier these days. My bro, SIL, and son will also be coming over.

That is about it for me. Have a wonderful, restful weekend. Hello to SUSIE, CEEG, DEE and all the lurkers.

Hugs...to all. Special hugs to HAPPY.

Afternoon all.

Happy – I’m so sorry to hear about Meadow, but you did what had to be done. Not just now - taking her out of her pain - but especially when you and dh adopted her and gave her a wonderful home for all those years. I know you and dh are sad right now, but I hope you both take comfort in knowing you gave Meadow a good life and were great parents to her. :hug: == Bummer that the freezer couldn’t be repaired. It wasn’t even all that old, was it?? I’m glad you have someplace to store all the food!! Our microwave bit the dust the night before last, but that’s not nearly the problem or expense of the freezer failing. == Glad you enjoyed the cooking class - well, except for the post-class gas – had to be the cabbage, right?? == Hope the eye doctor appointment goes well. :mag:

Shad – Wow, that is some hot weather you have down under! :flame: I was trying not to be grouchy during all the recent 90-degree days we had (many records were broken as a result), but I really don’t care for that kind of heat - and yours is a lot hotter! Hope you’re a/c is in good working order!!! == I have an internet bank account, but I can make transfers from it to my bricks and mortar bank if necessary, so I’m not really inconvenienced by lack of physical locations. Would that be an option for you?? == “Tail art” - love it! :D == The catch-up with the boss was the opposite of what you said – I’ll be getting more to do and no mention of money was made (not that kind of meeting). What I don’t like is that I get more to do because another department member is supposedly overloaded. I’ve seen how this person works and it’s more of a time management & work style issue if you ask me, so I’m not happy taking on more of her work. The boss needs to learn to manage her and challenge the amount of time she spends on certain things. This woman spends way too much time looking closely in all directions instead of zoning in on what’s truly important. But now that I know this is happening I can plan for how I will address it. Oops, sorry for the rant. :o == I forget, is Romeo the cat of DS2 and J that you had at your house along with Ruger? Has Romeo stayed with you all along, even after the others moved out? What a complicated thing it turns out to be to become Romeo’s mum!

Annie – I know both bf and I have to try and chill out with the stuff that goes on with my mom, especially since it’s not that important. (And it is funny a day or two later…) Just have to zone in on what is important and let the rest roll off our backs. == I hope the med helps C. and helps the two of you. == Sounds like a fun weekend for you – festival, friends, family. Enjoy! :yes: == Oh boy, Portillo’s and Ikea opening in your area. Yeh, I’d wait a while to visit, or find the right times to go check them out. I just hate being in crowds.

Hellos to Ceejay, Susie & Dee. :wave:

==

As I commented to Happy, our microwave died the other night. Last night bf and I went to our go-to electronics/appliance store and bought a new one. Also saved some good money by buying a floor model. Some minor scratches on the top, but that’s where we put a couple of potholders, a spoon rest, and a couple other items, so we didn’t care about that. This new one is a Kitchenaid and has a convection feature, which might come in handy if we need an extra oven. Our toaster oven also has a convection oven feature, but it’s pretty small and couldn’t be a backup to our full size oven. The microwave is small too, but still, it's a bit larger than the toaster oven. It could at least hold a round casserole dish or an 8x8 baking pan. We’ll see.

I didn’t exercise Wed. or last night, so I guess I’ll do workouts on both Saturday and Sunday morning. Unless I’m motivated by the nice weather to get out for a bike ride. :bike:

I hope you all have a good weekend!! Cheers!

Hello Everyone!

It is a beautiful fall day here in Ohio. So happy that the heat is out of here. It was better yesterday and today is even better.

I had a small loss at TOPS last night 0.4 lbs. I will show a loss of 2 lbs for the month. I'm used to bigger losses for the month but for the month of September I didn't exercise like I had been doing and while I didn't go off my way of eating, I did eat at the top of my calories so I would say I got what I worked for.

As we head into October in just a few days that got me to thinking that it is the last quarter of the year and what do I want to do in this area of my life.

My answer is, I want to return to what I was doing Jan-July and get this weight off, so then I can focus on maintaining a healthy weight (which I feel I did in the months of August and September). So that is it..that is my focus for the next 3 months and maybe, just maybe I'll get to goal. If not, then I should hit it January 2019.


Happy: I was so sorry to hear about Meadow. When I read it on FB my heart just felt heavy. I know you and DH will miss her bunches :hug::hug:

Annie: What sort of festival is in Knightstown? This year is when so many festivals happen and I do love to go to them. Enjoy your time there.

I hope that C will take his meds as he should; I know they will help. You did a good things ordering the cake...easier is my option as well when it can be.

Ceejay: What did you find out at the doctors office? And have you poured that coke out? You will be glad you did after you do...or at least about a week after. You will realize how much better you feel and also you will not have the "crashes" that comes from not having the coke as usual.

I hope you sister gets things sorted out with the car.

Laura: My DH and I can get into a tizzy after we both spend time with DH's father. So, we try to not talk about the visit when we leave...we give it a few days to just settle.

A weekend bike ride sounds nice. I hope you are able to fit one in.

Shad: Always busy. You should set up a camera and film all your projects and maybe some day you will have one of those DIY shows I watch all the time when I'm on the treadmill or bike. I think you would be successful! Do you have a Aussie accent? Americans would eat that up! ;)

Hi Dee if you are out there!

Time for me to get back to work. I'll be around sometime over the weekend to post.

Hi ladies,

Let's see if I can catch up. I am still down about Meadow - cleaning up the house, putting away her bed and the things that were "hers". I will have a bunch of blankets to take to the shelter for new kitties to use. I also seem to have an abundance of cat toys - don't know why - no one ever really played with them outside of the thing we have that we hide treats for Nina - she loves that thing. Nina is super clingy to DH now. DH went to go take pictures yesterday so I did some cleaning. Spent alot of time on my feet and by late afternoon my one foot was killing me. Had a stern discussion with DH - he is upset because I will not go to the doctor about this and get it x-rayed. I say I have been complaining for years now about this crippling pain and they run tests and nothing comes up. He also delicately mentioned that my excessive weight does not help - like I don't already know that. I have my dining room table back again - cats used to sleep on their beds up there and I allowed it only because we never use the table and it gave Meadow a chance to get away from her pesky sister although they would often sleep together in their own beds. I put a fresh tablecloth and centerpiece and found some cute autumn placemats I had in the drawer shaped like autumn colored leaves. DH came in, pronounced the look "cool" and then promptly dumped the mail on the table and cluttered things up. :rolleyes:

Today I want to get out and finish ripping out the remaining tomato plants. I should cover the beds with straw for the winter to help stave off the growth of weeds since we cleaned out both beds. So much schmutz in the air that the weeds appear overnight and completely overtake the bed if I leave it that way until spring. My new freezer is coming on Saturday - I think I will barely make it with the food that's in there now. Even if some of it defrosts, the meat from the farm is vacumn sealed really well - you can literally leave the meat refrigerated and it keeps for 2 to 3 weeks in the refrigerator just fine because they pull all the air out when they seal it. I have a pot roast and some chili to make today. Made a chicken soup yesterday but decided to put tumeric in it - we are both taking tumeric supplements. Of course what happens when I go to pour it is a whole glob comes out - soup is quite yellow as is the chicken meat - a little off putting visually but doesn't affect the taste. I do have to be careful as that stains the counters if I set a spoon down. This week we have a Cooking Chinese Food in a Hurry class one night, I have a shelter meeting we rescheduled from last week and I have a new class on Writing Your Life Story. I have gotten away from writing and drawing and I'd like to get back to that again.

Ok girls - you made me smile - :D seems our parents all make us a bit batty - we love them but still :dizzy:

Susie - I think you did very well eeking out a small loss considering how distracted you are with all the demands of work. You have done well keeping an eye on things and adjusting. I have complete faith you will meet your goal. Have you started shopping for new fall clothes yet? Skinny pants and cute booties in your future! Thank you for your sympathies :hug: I hope you were able to get out and enjoy the beautiful fall weather. And yes, Shad has a bit of an accent. You have to listen carefully but she tries to Americanize herself for us :lol:

Laura - thank you too for your kind words :hug: Yes, the darn freezer was only 5 years old!! :mad: We got it shortly after we moved in here. They just don't make things like they used to. Can't complain - won't do any good. I debated about replacing it but I don't have much room at all in my new refrigerator's freezer compartment. And I do like the meat from the farm - such a better quality. One thing I will do different is change what I store. When I first got the freezer I bought packaged meats like the 4 pack of steaks you can buy at the regular grocery store and things like frozen pizza dough and odd combinations of packaged vegetables that looked good. I can now see alot of stuff I never actually used up so I'm a bit smarter about what to save and I will leave some space for storing things in the future. I find the microwaves last about 10 years if you are lucky. I hope your new microwave holds up. Do you do more than just rewarm things with it? That's about all I find I used mine for. I hope the weather has cooled enough for you to get out on the bike paths this weekend. My sister said it's awfully dry out your way. We are fortunate in that we've had rain - too dry always scares me with fire dangers.

Annie - thank you for your love :hug: Yes, Portillos is a GOLD MINE. It will ALWAYS be crowded. First comes the curious, then the crowds continue because they like the food. It's always a maniac place there. Part of the fun I guess. I'm glad they are closer then Chicago but far enough away so that they aren't too much of a temptation. I hope you try them once. They do have good salads too. I hope Curtis will do well with Latuda. I'm sorry but from the minute I saw that commercial - I have always laughed at that name Latuda. But then again, I am immature. Oops - I just realized I made a mistake on Fb when I posted about C's BD and the cake :o - oh well - I figured since you liked to bake you'd make one but why not go for easy AND his favorite cake? Hope you had a great time in Knightstown. What is there to see?

Shaddie - you would freeze to a block in my winters and I would melt to a puddle in your summers. So if you are taking Romeo does that mean DS2 and the partner split up and you are adopting Romeo? How is Miss Sunday doing? I was thinking of her with our situation with Meadow and the fact that we here at 3FC seem to travel in similar circles when it comes to certain instances. I also agree with you over your concerns with the cloud - I don't care what anyone says. They tell you that companies are very secure with your private info and then oh, so nonchalant that oops there is a small security breach. I also agree that we are too reliant on technology and perhaps a bit complacent at time - although I am astounded at how casual the younger people are about security and sharing things and such. As always you completely blow me away with all of your energy and the things you get done on a daily basis. Where does that little bunny get it's energy from?

Ceejay - I am with you sister on the Coca Cola. We all know it's bad for us. Not that easy to completely walk away from. But we are working on it, right? ;)

Dee - hope you are doing ok :hug:

Ok girls, nothing getting done by sitting here. On with the day. Hope you are enjoying your weekend.

Evening all,

Great day today, it's raining :dance: :dance: and it is going to rain for most of the night. Yahoo.

Spent today clearing out the kids stuff from the main bedroom. Then I went and had a look at a vanity which was advertised on Gumtree for $250.00 and yes I bought it. Now I just want to get a top for it and the bathroom will be nearly finished apart from a few its and pieces. I'll get around to some pictures soon. DS2 picked up the furniture and brought it down to my place and we manhandled it into place, with a little help from Ruger. Then we went down to a bathroom/ kitchen place that was having a carpark sale. Since the rain was pouring down, the stuff was not in the car park. I got some great ideas for the laundry. Now all I need is some money! Next step is to paint the ceiling and part of a wall in there and decide on where the cabinetry is to go and get out there and buy it and put in a splashback. Then there is painting in the hall, spare bedroom and main bedroom to be done and I will be collapsed in a heap for a while. My builder has a new job and will be working on a drive in/ drive out basis, 4 weeks on and 1 week off. So he won't be available for the next part of the renovation darn it all.

Happy - sure enjoyed reading about the chef's course. The food sounds great.
I'm so sorry to hear about Meadow. That's the second kitty cat that has gone to the Rainbow Bridge in the last month or so. Sunday is still here. For how long I don't know. I'll take her to the vet this week because she is just not the cat she used to be. She seems to be having episodes in that she will just sit in the middle of the floor and make the most terrible noises - they sound quite terrorised. The only way to get her out of them is to touch her, whereby she leaps 3 feet into the air but comes back to her normal self. She is also impossible to feed properly. What she ate earlier, can not be eaten again later. She is surviving on a small amount of cat food and milk. And she yowls at me every time I move. Apparently this is supposed to mean that I should feed her but I don't know what to give her because she probably will take one sniff and walk away.
:lol3: on the Turmeric glob. Shouldn't we always use a measuring spoon??? Of course if you are a celebrity chef, you shake or dribble out an extraordinary amount of whatever and say about a teaspoon of this, 2 tablespoons of that.
See later comments to Annie and Laura about Romeo's transition to this house instead of that. No DS2 and J have not split up, mores the pity.

Annie - Romeo doesn't care who his mummy is. Just feed me and pet me and let me sleep in the middle of your bed, I will be fine. Actually he is a lot more active now that the dog isn't here permanently. He is getting a personality. Follows me around like a puppy dog.

Laura - Romeo was the cat who lived with DS2 and J. He is a very quiet cat and just seemed to turn up for meals. After Ruger went to his other home, I noticed that Romeo was a lot more active and was following me around the yard watching me garden - sometimes at very close quarters e.g. his nose was in the hole that I was trying to dig. And he wandered around, climbed fences, and checked out the neighbouring back yards. So I mentioned to DS2 that he was happy in his current environment and then I got landed with him.

Susie - small loss or not, it is still a loss. I'm having trouble getting back into the portion control I was having so much success on late last year. Doesn't seem to matter what I do, the weight is going up. I think some of it is building muscles with all the activity I am doing on the renovations and the garden, but a small loss wouldn't be too bad. I am working for it.
I don't think I will be very good at those DIY shows. I do enjoy seeing the whole reno coming together but I like it when the professionals do the hardest work.
Do I have an accent. Well when I am in your country I guess I do. Over here, nobody seems to know whether I am Australian or New Zealander. If I am in New Zealand, they think I am an Aussie, if I am in Australia they think I am Kiwi. I guess I must have a true trans-Tasman accent. Or maybe I just speak both languages really well. Both countries speak English but with a difference.

Hi to Ceejay and Dee

So tomorrow should be wet and soggy as well, inside work will be done, probably sweep and dust down the bedroom end, clean the bathroom and laundry and maybe get some paint on the walls. I will have Ruger here so maybe only the crown moulding and door frames will be done. He will not doubt be interested in the paint, brush and roller. And then maybe some more packing of the kids stuff. They must have too many clothes to leave so many here and not need them.

s

Morning.
 

Brought my sis back to Branson yesterday. Some one hit her car in the parking lot at her work and left without any information.
I did go to the doctor on Thursday. Said he was 95% sure that i have an ulcer or gastritis that is causing an ulcer. Told him i was a coke a holic and he cringed. Told me he couldnt tell me to stop but to definitely cut back. He likes cokes too lol.
Im on the phone but i will ppst more later

I am going home with yet another UTI. Headache and gut ache.

Cs party was a success!

His girls are being aholes. Long story.

SHAD....strength.

HAPPY...hugs and peace.

SUSIE...kudos!!

CEEG...Calm and feel better

LAURA...May the force be with you...

Chat tomorrow. Hugs to all

Morning all.

Susie – A loss is a loss, and not a gain, so good for you. :yes: Especially with your challenging weeks at work lately. BTW - when do your bosses go away??? == Good to take the time at this new quarter to revisit your WL goals. == Good advice to not rehash parent visits after the fact. I will make that a plan for myself & bf!

Happy – That empty spot at home where Meadow used to be will take time to adjust to. :( :hug: == I’m sorry your foot’s been giving you such pain. How frustrating that nothing’s been found when tested. == Sounds like you’ve been in cooking mode – I hope the food from your freezer makes it through to the new freezer’s arrival, or to the time you find to cook it! LOL re the turmeric glob. I’m always one to use measuring spoons, for that very reason. Re your cooking class – I always thought Chinese was one of the quicker cuisines to cook anyway…what will be the “secret” to making it in a hurry – buying pre-chopped veggies for that stir-fry??? :D == I hope your new freezer lasts longer than the old one. As for the microwave – yes, mostly used for reheating leftovers. Hot water for tea. Scrambled eggs. Hot cereals. Defrosting. Making noodle mix side dishes. Can’t forget about heating those frozen entrees!! And killing germs on the kitchen sponge, LOL. So it’s not used much for cooking items from scratch, but it’s used a lot nonetheless. I can’t imagine not having one, can you??

Shad – I could collapse in a heap from just reading about all your reno activities, LOL. == You must be so worried and frustrated about Sunday. :( Poor baby. I hope the vet can help. == Nice that Romeo is happy with you and your digs. == So you have a hybrid NZ-Aussie accent now? :D == I say get all the kid’s clothes out of the house – that’s what suitcases are for. In fact, tell DS2 to bring a suitcase by the next time he drops off/picks up Ruger so you can pack the clothes in it!

Ceejay – What a bummer about your sister’s car – and no information from the driver that hit it. == How does the dr diagnose if it’s an ulcer or gastritis? I understand that some ulcers are actually caused by bacteria… or do you use a lot of anti-inflammatory drugs like ibuprofen? I’m sure the doc already asked about that. Hope you feel better soon.

Annie – I hope you feel better. Those UTI’s can be the pits. == Happy belated birthday to C – good wife to get him his favorite cake, glad the party was a success! How was the festival??

Hello Dee. How’s it going in MI? :wave:
==
I had an early hair appointment on Saturday – too early. Thanks to staying up too late three days in a row, I woke up Saturday with puffy eyes and would rather have hidden them behind my glasses, but no, it’s better if I wear contact lenses when I get my hair done. So I did. Not liking what I see in the mirror, and I’m not talking about my hair or puffy eyes. The number on the scale this morning was appalling. :yikes: I need to get back to tracking my eating!! Anyway, I scheduled not only my next appointment, but the one after that too! I was told the salon is down by one stylist, and also the holidays are coming, so glad they warned me. I spent a big chunk of the rest of the day on housework – more than typical. Ugh, the dust!

I was in sloth mode yesterday. Reading and watching the rest of the Outlander dvds. On to season 3. I watched the first episode of that with the Amazon firestick, but as usual it had a lot of freezing and getting hung up throughout – not a fun way to watch a program. I think I’ll wait for the dvds to hit the library. Maybe we need a better router for our wifi?? Bf has talked about a hard-wired connection to the devices from which we would stream video… it just gets to be too much with all this tech stuff. I should just stick with books.

No formal exercise or bike rides this past weekend. :o Need to get my workouts in on the weeknights!

This week at work I have some quarter-end work to do. Also have the wellness blood draw and a flu shot.

Bf has our full bath toilet removed and could not find anything hung up in the drain part of the toilet itself that is causing it to get almost clogged several times within the past several weeks. Can’t imagine something being wedged in there so tightly it couldn’t be dislodge by the toilet auger or the snake. He used the snake on the large waste pipe since it was accessible with the toilet being off of there – nothing noted, though the waste pipe is a large one, so the skinny snake probably wasn’t effective for that. Today bf may rent whatever electronic thing plumbers use to rod out pipes. None of the other drains that go to that waste pipe are slowing or backing up, so we don’t know what the deal is. The joys of plumbing.

That’s about it for me. I’ll get this posted and get back to work now. Have a great day everyone!

Good morning girls,

Was supposed to be raining today but apparently that is coming in during the afternoon. Heavy storms, lots of rain. We don't need it. Which means I have to get out and run my errands before dinner time. Sun is shining brightly at the moment.

I have started to knock the gained weight back down again. I have decided that I don't want to go back on the Contrave - when I went off the weight just zoomed back up and I don't want to take anything like that forever. The issue with losing is that I get very little food to eat in order to lose. Coffee in the morning and one other meal for the day - that's about it. If I want to eat a lunch and dinner, I have to split it. Yesterday I had a grilled cheese for dinner and some cashews earlier in the day. I made a chili for DH - cut up a chuck roast into small cubes. I watch a TV show - America's Test Kitchen and they had an episode where they made beef hamburger chili. The thing that was different was 1) they soaked the beef in a solution of 2 spoons of water, 1 spoon of baking soda and a spoon and a half of salt. This brine of sorts helps the meat to retain moisture and helps it to brown up better in the pot. The second thing they did differently was make their own chili powder. I had picked up some poblano peppers at the farmers market about 2 weeks ago and air dried them - DH kept complaining they should be tossed out because they were shriveled up but I said patience. I did lose one of the 3 thinking that putting them in the sun would help the drying process. It didn't - just made the green turn a weird yellowy brown and I had to toss it. The other two turned a fiery red. So I de-seeded them, chopped them to squares and put them in the food processor. I also had some chilies that chef gave us from last week - a long green one, a jalapeno and some thin skinny red chilies. I roasted those over the fire and chopped and de-seeded them. Added them to the processor with some powdered cumin, a bit of salt, black pepper, oregano, some ancho chili powder, powdered garlic and onion too. Since the peppers were not totally dry I added a bunch of crumbled tortilla chips - cilantro lime flavor into the mix to help dry it out and process better. The mix chopped in about 30 seconds and smelled wonderful. I then tasted it and almost burned my darn tongue off :lol: I told DH to come check this as I didn't want to toss all of it into the chili mix without his ok - it was his hot chili, not mine. He approved, we decided to use half. I used my Instant Pot pressure cooker because I wanted tender meat. Browned some onions and garlic, added the meat cubes until I got good color and added the chili mix. It was really smelling good. I then added some tomato paste but it needed more tomato so I added a can of Rotel tomatoes with chilies and some crushed tomatoes. Still needed something else so I added a can of chili beans that are packed in chili sauce. Set it to pressure cook for 40 minutes and then DH and I went over to the casino for a special they had going. Came home in 2 hours and the chili was ready to go. Nice tender chunks of meat and flavorful sauce. DH like it - told me to add in the rest of the chili mix as it was good but not as spicy as we thought it would be. I also added another can of red kidney beans and let it cook a bit more. We'll see what he says about it today. I did check my freezer yesterday - going to have to get the meat out of there unless I want it to be cold but defrosted. I will get some ice today - I have some freezer space at a friend's I can use if I need it (probably will). I'm going to sort through the stuff and probably cook up alot of it which I may then portion and freeze the meals. I will have to toss out some old freezer burned stuff or things I won't ever use and really should have done this last Wednesday so I could put it out with the trash. Ugh.

Shad - so happy to hear you have rain at last. May everything get a good drink of water. How nice of you to take in Romeo since he seems much more happy about living apart from ODDU. Sorry to hear about Miss Sunday. Sounds like she is advanced in the age and not sure what all the caterwauling is about. Meadow would do the same - I suspect a combination of being hungry yet everything upsets her stomach and makes her feel ill - kind of like my poor grandmother at the end of her days. But Meadow would do the same - meow loudly and then turn her nose up at everything that was offered to her. When you do come visit again, I promise to cook very differently than the last time you visited. I now understand you are all about the fresh fruits and vegs - living in the country and having far less fast food convenience options - it's easy to change one's style of cooking. I even like lamb now! Good score on the bath cabinet. There are so many interesting topping options - can't wait to see the finished project. Sounds like you will be doing a lot of the work yourself as always. At least if the builder can get the basics of electricity and plumbing done properly, you can manage the rest. Do it before the heat and bugs drift into town although it already sounds steamy out your way. Yes, I have learned my lesson about the turmeric glob - but not enough that I won't do it again :lol3: I don't understand why some spices have shakers on them and others not. :dizzy:

Annie - sorry you are feeling bad. Hope you feel better :hug: - did you get some antibiotics for the UTI?

Ceejay - that's really awful about your sister's car. :( Ignorant that it was a hit and run too. What is wrong with people today? If you are having that serious a stomach problem, you really need to trim back on the soda. I try for just one a day - it does make a difference with the stomach upset and acid reflux symptoms.

Might as well post this and see if Laura signed in yet.

Ah there she is - good morning Laura.

That's frustrating about the toilet. One day when we lived in Memphis the upstairs bath tub was slow to drain to the point it almost stopped. Turns out when the built the house (30 years prior) they dumped rocks and construction waste in the drain and it took that long to accumulate to cause the blockage? Can you imagine??? I do hope you find the mystery issue. Did I understand that you use the microwave to make scrambled eggs? Do it get hot enough to kill the potential salmonella bacteria? I know you can make quick eggs in a coffee cup but I always shied away from cooking raw eggs or chicken in it. And yes, I would miss it if I didn't have one which I briefly considered because with today's new stoves that sit higher, it does make it a hassle for tall pots when you have the microwave in the cabinet right above the stove. I don't think our coffee maker makes the coffee hot enough and in the winter the coffee mugs are cold in the cabinet so I nuke my coffee an extra 30 seconds each morning to give it an extra boost of warmth. I guess I am a slow drinker too :lol: That's interesting that you say some ulcers are caused by bacteria. I always thought it was old school acid foods, stress or too much booze ;) You are wise to pre-book appointments with your stylist, especially if the schedules will fill up fast. The person I saw in Memphis you had to book 3 THREE appointments ahead to get in and yet she STILL kept taking on new clients. Kicked her to the curb after a while when she'd rather take on younger people for a $20 appointment to put feathers in their hair and push off her loyal older clients. I know, not everyone is like that. When my stylist was pregnant, we wisely booked around her time off. Our internet connection is so slow here that I don't stream anything. Tried to watch some stuff On Demand, just let it run and completely download because I hated all that pausing. And I don't do any of that on my phone. I laughed when you said you should just stick with books. Sometimes I feel that way too. Oh and it just reminded me that with my eye appointment I always have them check for macular degeneration as all of my Mom's siblings had it and she has it bad too. Doctor said that now they are finding it's about 60% hereditary and is also brought on by factors like lack of leafy greens in a diet and (as I knew) smoking. They are finding that exposure to blue light from electronics also can be a contributing factor. I told him I have had my face in front of a computer screen since 1972 so I was a good test case for that! :lol: Anyway no signs of macular degeneration and he also showed me how to change the lighting on my smart phone so that it's in night mode - more yellowish than blue light.

I will let you know how the Chinese cooking class goes. I can stir fry but never get my food to taste as good as the sauces and such at the Chinese restaurant. Perhaps the "secret" is using a 40 year old "seasoned" pan that has never been truly cleaned :yikes: :rofl:

Have a good one peeps. Clouds moved in - rain is on it's way. Looks like a good time for a nap :faint:

Back to the condo and on this silly willy tablet. Thinking about taking it over to the Geek Squad and having them to check things out for me.

Laura
I've been taking quiet a bit of Aleve for arthritis pain because I was afraid of the regular pain med that he had given me. He thinks this is the cause of the ulcer. He did Tell me to cut down on the coke's. I'm to take and over the counter med for this for three months to see if it eases up if it doesn't then I will have to have an endoscope to make sure what is going on. To bad that the dinner with you're mom wasn't that great. Maybe next time it will be. Hope the plumbing situation is solved soon.

Happy
Condolences for your loss from Meadow. You were very good to her. Sounds like the cooking class was a success also.

Annie
Feel better soon. Drinking enough water?

Shad
Is the renovations about done?

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I've had a good week end which started on Friday night. I've posted pictures on FB from our family outing to Busiek State Park. WE hiked a 3 mile trail which wasn't easy to say the east for this 67 year old. They had to stop several times for me to rest but I made it through. Saturday evening we went to my nephew's wife family's for her birthday party. I've got to post those picture on line too. I got to ride a 4 wheeler. Something I haven't done in ages.
Sunday was church and book club meeting.
My sister's insurance has put us in subrogation again from the water damage to the floors last year. They are now trying to get me to reimburse them for their loss. But I'm beginning to wonder if this might be a scam. They mentioned today that it was their church property. I don't answer the phone when they call and let it go to voice mail.
I was tired this morning when I got up so I told sis that I was going to stay here for the night and drive home tomorrow.
Let's see if this post.
Hello to Susie.

Hey everyone!

SHADDIE...so sorry to hear about Sunday the cat. You were a great momma to her and took very good care of her. Hopefully Romeo can help with the healing of your heart. Hugs dear sister friend.

HAPPY...Seems you and SHADDIE need extra hugs this week. The 20 year old seasoned pan that has never been cleaned reminded me of all the Pampered Chef stones that you are not supposed to wash. Just run under water and scrape with a plastic little scraper. I put my stone in the dishwasher. Can't stand the thought. Your chili sounds fabulous. It would be KETO if not for the beans. But hey, I can eat around those. :) I am with DH, make it hotter. Yummy. Make some casseroles with some of the meat then freeze them for later use. Easy peasy dinners when in a hurry. Yes, my primary care doc prescribed Bactrim for me to have on hand when I get UTIs. Then I email to let her know I have one. We may look at other options later.

LAURA...I book my stylist out 3 months in advance so I can get the time and day I want. I have only missed one appt and that was when I had the heart attack. Try low carb or Keto, you may be surprised at the results. I have that love/hate relationship with the scale as I am sure we all do. The festival was very small. Only took us about 20 minutes to get through the entire thing. Kind of a waste of drive. We stopped on the way home and had a great lunch so that made up for it. YUCK plumbing issues, anything to do with water is always messy. Thank God my son has plumbing skills. Shall I send him your way? :)

CEEG...your hiking through the park was great exercise. Looked like you had a lot of fun with family. That is what I am talking about. Yeah! Dang people and insurance. I tell you if they don't make money on you, they want more in premiums. Hope your sissy car issue gets straightened out. What a mess.

Hi SUSIE...

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Drama with Cs girls. It is a long story but C and the girls are both at fault in this and guess who gets the blame from the girls. Yep me. So much crap I don't deserve and yet my heart and head have to take it. Thank God for Samantha and keeping me calm. Just wish things could be peaceful for a bit.

I have my 2 year heart check up this Friday. Hopefully things will go well. I feel no heart issues at this time so I would think it would be ok.

I had a lot to say but can't think of anything at the moment.

Make it a great day/night. Hugs to all.

Afternoon all. It was lightly raining a while ago, and we’re supposed to get rain later today and over the next several days. It’s about time! We need it. But I'm sure I'll be complaining about it after a day or two...

Happy – The chili you made sounds tasty. Did you jot down the recipe, or do you create something different every time? You're a creative cook. I'm a recipe follower. :shrug: == How horrible about the construction waste being put in the drain! But I can't say I'm surprised such a thing happened... I’m a bit annoyed about our current plumbing situation because we had our main sewer pipe connecting the house sewer system to the city sewer replaced several years ago. Also had the catch basin pumped out, but somehow we didn’t have all the drains rodded to ensure everything was clear?? Or if not rodded – at least had the camera run through the sewage pipes once the main one was replaced to ensure all was clear. Grrr. We have decided to replace the toilet first and see what happens. Our current toilet is pretty old and it’s been impossible to get completely clean for a while now. Bf thinks there might be buildup of mineral deposits internally (in the rim where the water from the tank comes out and into the bowl) that it just isn’t flushing strongly/properly. I dunno, but I guess we’ll find out. If we spend the money on a toilet, at least we still have a new toilet to show for it. If there’s still an issue after that, then we’ll have the waste line rodded. == I’ve never heard of microwaving being an issue for making scrambled eggs. If the oven gets hot enough to cook the eggs, why would that be an issue? Especially since the eggs are being stirred at a some point during the cooking time so they get cooked evenly. == Yeh, there’s been an adjustment to this new microwave – I noticed that I needed more time for my tea water to get as hot as usual. == If it were so difficult to get an appointment with anyone - doctor, hair stylist, etc - on a regular basis, I would definitely be finding a replacement! == Interesting about the lights from all the electronics being a factor in macular degeneration. I'll have to bring that up the next time I see my eye doctor.

Ceejay – Looks like you had fun on your nature hike – good job on the 3-miles! == Hope the insurance matter gets cleared up. Sounds like a real headache.

Annie – How’re you feeling today? == The one baking stone we have is very old now and totally dark/seasoned – nothing much sticks to it. We just scrape it and wash it manually with dish soap and water. We don’t soak it, or put it in the dishwasher. == Bummer that the festival was a waste of time. Nice that the lunch made up for it. :) == Thanks for offering up your son’s plumbing skills, lol, but bf has still not given up on getting the problem fixed on his own… == Boo on the drama with C’s daughters. I hope you don’t have to deal with them very often.

Hellos to Shad, Susie & Dee.

==

No exercise last night. :( I got home and we discussed our plumbing issue some more and then moved on to dinner. Went to $5 burger night at a local place. It was okay. I skipped the fries & subbed cottage cheese. The cottage cheese was not a great side, so I didn’t eat much of that, nor the cole slaw.

Tonight I expect to have to shop for a toilet after work. Any advice for us? The one thing I told bf we should get is a comfort height toilet. And if possible, be easy to keep clean. Otherwise, I have no idea of what else to consider. Except that we get one in white. Our current one is PINK. Yup. And it’s not even the house’s original toilet – the previous owners bought this toilet to match the PINK bathtub (which is original to our 1956 house), but the pinks aren’t even the same shade! And yes, since we’ve never done anything more to this bathroom than paint it, we’ve lived with this for the 17 years we’ve been here. So a new toilet will be nice.

Okay, enough of my plumbing rambles.

I didn’t want to bring up the Las Vegas thing, but it was like a bad joke this morning – no, not a joke at all actually, but awful timing – to receive a brochure in the work mail today for a conference being held in LV at the very hotel where this horrible thing happened. What a sad thing that such evil exists.

Howdy ladies,

First of all Shad I am so sorry to hear of Sunday the cat's passing. I had a feeling she was going to join Meadow soon. You were a wonderful cat Mom and made her feel the princess she always thought she was. I know she will be missed. :hug:

I was shocked to see the Las Vegas tragedy yesterday. People are nuts. Don't take life for granted. I don't see any reason to have assault / automatic / combat rifles - I don't care what kind of nut job "enthusiast" you are. Unless you are in the military or employed on the SWAT teams. And these idiots on YouTube showing people how to convert their semi automatic guns to automatic weapons should be arrested as it's a felony to own those. I support everyone's right to own a gun if they are trained and LEGALLY LICENSED but this has gone too far. We have alot of idiots here who feel they can teach their kids better than some government mandated course. I thought one of the talk show hosts said it best last night when addressing our congress to do SOMETHING about stopping this madness - so much better than doing NOTHING which they seem to do while the first responders are doing EVERYTHING they can to deal with the aftermath of this non decision our lawmakers are ignoring.

I am also sad to see that Tom Petty died. I guess I am at that time in life where my peers are starting to drop. With Tom, George Harrison and Roy Orbison gone, perhaps they can start up a new version of the Travelling Wilburys up in the great unknown. :D

We are going this evening to another town for a Cooking Chinese In a Hurry Class. This classroom has no kitchen so this will be an interesting venture. Probably a wok on a cooktop.

Here's the recipe from America's Test Kitchen for the chili I made. https://www.americastestkitchen.com/...und-beef-chili You will probably have to sign up to the site (all free) to see the recipe. I used a chuck roast I cut up in chunks instead of ground beef. I used a variety of fresh chilies (skinny red chilies, one jalapeno, 2 dried poblanos and one long skinny pepper that I wasn't sure of but it had heat) I put in a dry pan and roasted until they blistered - then I deseeded them and chopped them up. I added them to the food processor along with a bunch of crushed chili lime tortilla chips (they are not Keto Annie but they act as a thickening agent and also help to mash up the ingredients - you might be able to sub your pork rinds instead). Added paprika, cumin, black pepper, oregano, some ancho chili powder I found in the cabinet and some dried cilantro and ground it to a semi wet paste which I added when browning the meat up. I added tomato paste and canned Rotel Tomatoes with chilis as well as a can of chili beans preseasoned with chili sauce. I MOSTLY followed the recipe as stated LOL. And I did soak the meat chunks in the brine of salt/water/baking soda for about 15 minutes before browning the meat. DH has not had a second bowl yet - not sure if it got hotter when it was sitting in the refrigerator. :flame: I wouldn't say I'm that creative as much as I love to watch cooking shows and get tips and I was really trying to use up all the extra stuff I have around here that gets tossed out all too often.

Laura - our house in AH had pretty clogged pipes. When we remodelled the kitchen, the drain leading from the sink to the outside was so narrow that I'm surprised it let water through. Much to the detriment of the garbage disposal I'm sure so I don't use mine all that much other than to catch residual stuff after I washed dishes. I hope replacing your toilet works for you. We have a higher one and it's a one gallon flush which has surprising power considering - it's the way it flushes. We got it at Menard's - it's a standard brand. Mid level pricing. Don't want to go too cheap on that necessary part of life. ;) As for the microwave, I had heard that the temps get hot enough to cook the egg but not hot enough to kill the bacteria completely. I did a quick check on the internet and it seems as if there are both camps for and against. I don't find it all that hard to do in a pan so that's my preference. Although I almost beat up DH last week when he was grilling chicken and came in with the platter that had raw chicken juice on it -he lightly ran it under the sink water - no soap, no hot water and was drying it with a paper towel to put the cooked chicken on. :yikes: :eek: :no: :no: :nono: He appeased me but I'm sure he was rolling his eyes out of his socket with his back to me.

Annie - two things I had to get used to were the unique "cleaning" of my stoneware and my cast iron pans. I wrecked my first piece of stoneware because I used soap and the stoneware absorbed the black raspberry soap and not in a good way. I clean my pans, use a high heat to dry them and hopefully burn off any residual germs from the food that was once on them. But I understand your revulsion at the idea of no soap. ;) I hope your heart check up goes well. Bummer on the woes with the kids and C. There's alot of that in relationships. Glad we don't have to deal with it. I hope you feel better with the Bactrim.

Ceejay - good job on the hiking - you did so much better than I would have attempted!!!! Be careful with the pain relievers - it can be contributing to the stomach problems. But I get it, when you hurt what are you supposed to do?? Especially all over body arthritis. :shrug:

Hellos to the rest. :wave: I have to call my sister - it's her birthday today and chat a few minutes before I have to get ready for cooking class.

Morning all,
Short post just to thank you all for sympathising over the passing of Sunday. She died peacefully in my arms and even stuck her tongue out at me while we were having our last snuggle. She is now with the Pets at Peace people and will be cremated this week and returned home soon. Then she can go up on the shelf with Shad the dog and Gunbo the dog. It was strange last night not to be woken up by her yelling for food.

Happy - last couple of months don't seem to have done much for our cats. Sunday was the third cat I know of who crossed the rainbow bridge. Two were 19 years old and then Meadow. Actually it is probably 4 cats since Chris (down the road) had to have hers put to sleep a wee while ago.
Yes I am devastated at the loss of life in Las Vegas this week. How long will it take to get some modicum of sense in the gun, licencing, storing control areas in your country. We had one massacre, 36 lives were lost, we had gun control on the books and passed into law 12 days later and haven't had another tragedy since. We're not perfect, but we are doing a darned sight better than you lot are.

Laura - up for a new toilet now. The one I bought probably doesn't exist over there. This one is quite tall, doesn't have a rim and has a very wide bowl and a deep exit point. It is quite a new shape for us but only uses 3litres of water per flush. Or 4 if you want a full flush. I put a soft close seat and lid on it so you only have to move it past the vertical and it will slowly close itself. I'm grateful if the men in my life put the seat down, but I also like the lid down as well. Picture attached. Another reason I wanted one like that is that I don't have to get down on my hands and knees to dust all the nooks and crannies as it has smooth sides.

Annie - sorry to hear that C and his girls are at war. Kids today can be so selfish. Just stay well away from them and unfortunately it will be you picking up the pieces at a later time. Thank you for your lovely remarks about Sunday the cat.

Ceejay - renovations in the bathroom are nearly finished, just a couple of details to go. Be glad when it is finished. The laundry is now mostly me trying to fit in cabinets in a small room. It's a stretch and my maths were never that good.
Hope you and your sister get the insurance sorted soon. This happened so long ago. I thought the property belonged to your sister or niece and not the church. Seems that someone is trying to get money out of you when it is not owed.

Had best go and get on with my day. I need to do some shopping for ODDU food and also get a couple of things from Joy's idea of heaven store - Bunnings.

Good morning all,

Here we are another day to ponder. We got a lot of rain a couple of days ago, sump pumps are going off on a regular basis. That always makes me nervous, don't want to think of the basement flooding. For as little as we use the basement, I often think I'd rather have a larger one story home with an extra wing on the end for the storage of the basement items.

Everyone is sort of in a weird mood - the Las Vegas shootings have raised alot of issues. There are those who are loudly screaming against gun control - they take it to the extreme - I think they need to tighten up on assault rifles, kits to convert semi-automatic into illegal automatic weapons - only to be met with the in your face "you ain't takin muh guns away from me" people. No one is advocating taking all guns away people. Just inflict some common sense please. Others are fretting over the state of the world and the fragility of life itself. I am glad I am out of the big city environment - nothing is a safe guarantee anymore but I do feel a bit more safe living here than in the city. Just too much negativity going on.

Shad - perhaps it was just the timing on losing all the cats. We knew Meadow's medical issues would shorten her life, Sunday was up there in age (I am startled that she was 19 years old - I would have guessed 11 or 12). It was good that you were able to hold her until the end - we did the same with Meadow - first cat of ours I was able to be in the room with - DH had to do the sad task with the last 2 before her. I did feel a little cheap that we decided to skip the $300 individual cremation - I still have misgivings about it. Yesterday I got the nice poem from the vet that has her paw print on the bottom of the page. I will have that nicely framed. What did you decide to do with the laundry room? I would like to do something with the wall that has the laundry tub and washer dryer against it. Our dryer is a double cabinet model that complicates the space issue. So above it we have a useless wire shelf that can't be accessed without a step ladder. The shelf is so close to the ceiling that it isn't tall enough for much anything of use like extra bottles of laundry detergent. I asked DH about changing it around a bit but because of the clothes dryer and the location of sturdy studs to hang shelves on, it doesn't lend itself to much usefulness. There is a narrow utility closet on that wall and the opposite wall which should be the mud room part of the house has a double tall cabinet where I store mops and brooms and container storage on the shelf part. Not a very practical set up.

Today I have a writing class at 1pm. Going to take a peek in the (not so) freezer and pick out a few items to cook up this week. Although it's already mid week. I seem to be lost in the days for some reason - don't know if I'm coming or going.

Ceejay - I guess I'm confused too about the whole house thing with your sister and the insurance company. :?:

Hope you are feeling better Annie - thank you for your really sweet card.

Shad - I like the design of that toilet - as you said sure would make it a whole lot easier to clean around the base without the typical bends and nuts and such!

Morning all.
Shad – I’m so sorry to hear about Sunday’s passing. :hug: You gave her a good, long life. I’m sure you will be missing her. == I like the idea of no toilet rim to have to clean. Soft close seat/lid sounds good to me – I always want the lid closed before flushing, and to prevent items falling into the toilet! That smooth bottom part of the toilet in your photo looks like it would so easy to keep clean. We haven’t purchased anything yet, so we’ll have to check into those features. == I had to look up Bunnings, just to satisfy my curiosity. Sounds like our big box home improvement stores Home Depot & Lowe’s. Have fun. :)

Happy – I totally agree with you about the assault weapons – those should be totally banned for non-military use. Maybe a law will finally pass! == I like the America’s Test Kitchen and Cook’s Country tv shows. I haven’t watched the show regularly in the past year or so, but watched one a week or two ago and didn’t see Christopher Kimball. I decided to Google him to see if there was a reason – retired, etc.. I guess I somehow missed the big news last year that he left that company after a new CEO came on – dunno if it was voluntary or not… Now he’s started his own company (Milk Street?), with tv show, podcast and probably a magazine – much like the other company. His spin is international cooking techniques and ingredients. I set the dvr to record the series. I think I’ll also set the dvr to record the ATK and CC shows once again. Maybe it’ll get me back into wanting to do some cooking… == Interesting about the heat level in microwaves. I’ll have to check it out online. Yikes with dh not using a properly cleaned plate for the cooked chicken - good thing you caught him before it happened! Have to be cautious when working with raw meat/poultry, etc. If you end up having more dishes to wash, so be it. == Enjoy your writing class. How was the cooking class?? == I hope your sump pumps are pumping strong! We had a bit of seepage in our basement from a big rain a couple months ago and I just saw that a custom framed print from our condo days was sitting on the floor in the area where we get the water. The print and matte were crinkled at the bottom, so they obviously got wet. It’s not anything I would hang in the house now –totally different color scheme from our current decor, so no huge loss. But I do wish I’d not let it sit around for all these years knowing I didn’t want it. Should’ve sold or donated it while it was still in good condition. Now I guess it’ll go to the curb for someone to rescue and re-purpose.

Hellos to the rest of you.

==
Let’s see. I did two BE workouts last night. Bf went to look at toilets and took photos, but didn’t buy anything. I think I’m being lazy, but I really don’t want to shop around much for the toilet, even though the features Shad mentioned sound worthwhile. :shrug:

Very humid today, but I made it to work without being rained on. We’ll see about the commute home.

There was a large presence of security in the building where the train station is. Sad reminder of the dangers that are present in our world today.

I had my wellness check today (BP reading & blood draw), so I was hungry when I got to work. I also got my flu shot today.

I’m sure I could ramble on and on, but I better get this posted before further interruptions and/or I forget about posting it.

Oh, just thought of the fact that we are now in the 4th quarter of the year. I guess we can go on with our current thread for a bit since our posts are in the 300's and I think we have up to 500, right?

Hey...had therapy session this morning. Was quite good. I needed it as C and I had issues last night. Dear God give me the strength to do the right thing for me.

Not doing personals as my head is in a strange place and I just got into work...12:15p.

Hugs

I was proud of myself for doing the 3 mile hike. I love being out in the woods. They did have to wait me several times.
I'm not sure as to what is going on with sissy's insurance concerning the "flood" last year. I thought all that had been settled and they closed the case. I'm beginning to wonder if this is not a scam as the last voicemail stated that the property was a church property. I'm wondering if this may be a scam!
Hugs to Annie.

Will be back later for personals.

Stop press:

Just been listening to a program on the radio and someone asked the radio doctor about sugar cravings. Seems that most people who have sugar cravings have hypoglycemia (low blood sugar). When you eat sugar the pancreas produces insulin and in some cases too much insulin - hence the hypoglycemia. He was suggesting that if you have this condition often, try taking Chromium which apparently balances out the sugar/ insulin balance. Might be worth looking into for those of you who have sugar cravings.

Hi all,

Thanks for the tip Shad - I know for sure I don't have low blood sugar from the test kit I used to use. I just like stuff that is on the sweeter side although I don't crave baked goods, cookies candies - something special once in a while and I am starting to actually notice that something things - like the coconut cherry almond cookies that DH loves are actually icky sweet to me. My problem with going keto is that there is so much stuff I do like that I'd have to give up totally - like bread or rice or potatoes or fruit or even the flavored creamer for the one cup of morning coffee I enjoy. Moderation I can do, total abstinence is another thing.

I have a meeting at the shelter this morning to discuss the use of the shelter software they barely use. They are going to try and place the blame that it doesn't do what they need it to do and it's going to take a whole lot of self control on my part to refrain from responding that they wouldn't know because they don't use it themselves - they hand data entry off to one of the volunteers that handles the front desk. You have to understand the movement of the animals through the shelter to utilize it at it's best. They also want to store records in the cloud which costs more money and they just totalled the shelter van in an unfortunate accident with a buck so they are fretting about the money to make up for the replacement (insurance covered about half since they opted to buy a used van the first time around). So no more money for software...

We did not get to cooking class the other night. We stopped and picked up the mail as we were leaving and Meadow's paw print from the vet was in there. It was addressed only to him, not me too and that upset me. Lately with all the flack I take from the shop and in general, I admit that I am starting to become perhaps overly sensitive. I do feel marginalized like I don't matter and everyone's opinion except mine is right. When I saw this just addressed to him, I tossed it in back and said I guess it doesn't matter that she was MY cat and I was there for her final moments. At this point instead of being empathetic he got really mad, backed up the car and we got into a huge fight. Lately we are on 2 different pages and I sympathize with you Annie - I'm starting to wonder about whether we are perhaps better off on our own sometimes. :shrug: DH is not the person I once knew, he is turning into an old fart and he claims I am turning into my mother. It's difficult. There's some truth to both sides claims and also a lot of inaccurate judgements. I guess relationships always need work... :^:

I took a peek into the freezer yesterday. Everything is thawed. The good news is that the expensive meat is vacuum sealed very well - it will keep for up to 4 weeks that way as long as it's kept cold. I will have to make a bunch of soups and casseroles and cook ahead meals that I will then package and freeze in the new freezer come Saturday. I did save the precious bacon I have (farm lady won't be doing pigs for the near future and she has the best bacon ever) - that for some reason was mostly frozen and I found room for it in my upstairs freezer compartment. I will lose some not so frozen packaged vegetables - whatever I can't use in soups will get tossed. When I come back after my meeting I will work on the freezer since trash pickup is tomorrow. I have bingo tonight so there's a small window in which to work.

Yesterday I started a creative writing class. There's 5 students and the teacher. At first I thought oh boy I don't fit in here because they all know each other and it started as a coffee klatch with them all discussing common things I have no knowledge of. But after we got some assignments and started sharing, it turns out to be fun. I won't be able to make all 6 classes because of other commitments but she said she is doing another winter class so we could continue if we like. Oh and at DH's urging and my sister's I finally went to the immediate care place for my foot. I hesitated because I didn't think they were going to do anything. And I was VINDICATED!!!! :p 2 hours sitting there waiting to see the nurse practitioner for about 6 minutes tops only to find that they did not x-ray my foot. No need they said. She claimed it was an injury because I was flat footed and I should do physical therapy. I am not flat footed - my arches have fallen since I aged but according to the podiatrist I saw about 2 years ago - she said I have a perfectly good arch. As for physical therapy they are so booked here (I made my p/t appointments 2 months before knee surgery so I could get in there as soon as possible post surgery and still had to wait 2 weeks to see them). She said they do things differently now and when immediate care recommends p/t they get you in sooner. Bah. WASTE OF MONEY. probably will cost me out of pocket $250 - $400 for this nothing visit. DH said we can go to the next town an hour away where they have a bigger hospital. I'm wondering if I should just go to Duluth where they have actual orthopedic doctors in the big hospital emergency rooms. The foot is not getting better and at it's worst I can barely stand or walk.

Ceejay - sounds like something might not have been registered properly when it came to the insurance policy. Could something have been overlooked? I hope it's not a scam. I'm proud of you too for doing such a long hike. 3 miles is a LONG walk!! I think your biking and work at home are paying off.

Annie - my heart is with you :hug: ALways available to talk if you want but I know it can be difficult at times. I pray for you each night to be guided to do what is best for you. :hug: :hug:

Laura - Christopher Kimball always reminded me of Mr. Crank - like he could be Sheldon's curmudgeon uncle on Big Bang Theory :lol: I don't think he added much to the ATK show and don't miss him now. Haven't caught his other shows, got a courtesy copy of Milk magazine, wasn't impressed enough to subscribe but then again, I have too many magazines anyway. Good for you for getting your flu shot - I haven't yet, missed the Health Fair at the Senior Center but I guess you can just walk into Walgreens and they will do it.

I did think about setting up a new thread as we roll into the last quarter of the year. Probably will do it but not today :lol:

I gotta get ready - have a good day everyone.

Morning all.

Annie – I’m glad the session helped you.

Ceejay – I hope the insurance issue gets straightened out. Definitely sounds odd if the church has nothing to do with that property.

Shad – Thanks for the information. I need to start paying attention to things like this (more below).

Happy – Sorry you’re having a hard time. :hug: It’s hard to stay positive when you’re not being respected or understood not just in your volunteer activities, but by your spouse. As for the two separate pages, I’ve often felt (more lately) that bf and I are operating that way and sometimes wonder if we’re at the end of road in our relationship and should part ways. I think about couples counseling and wonder if it would help. == Good luck with your freezer contents. :chef: == So sorry about your foot and the waste of time & money immediate care visit. I do think it would be a good idea to see and orthopedic doctor. :yes: == LOL re Christopher Kimball as Mr. Crank. I definitely think I can live without his presence on the ATK/CC shows. Certainly can live without his science-y segments because I’m not into science at all.

Hellos to Susie & Dee. How are your weeks going?
==
I didn’t get home until after 7 pm last night. Metra strikes again. Literally, a Metra train struck a car and caused long delays. I did go to the Metra station after work. However, I left after receiving an alert stating trains wouldn’t be moving for another hour. I walked over to the CTA (subway/elevated rapid transit) and took that to a stop that’s a couple suburbs away from home (Rosemont) and bf picked me up. This isn’t the stop closest to us, but we thought it would be easier to navigate traffic there than the one that’s closest to us. But nope, traffic is really bad by this Rosemont stop. The closest stop is the airport stop – naturally there’s a lot of traffic around the airport. But we’ve decided that next time (and there will surely be a next time) I need to take the CTA towards home, I will ride it to the last stop (airport) and bf will pick me up from there.

Funny thing happened while I was riding the CTA home – as we pulled out of one station, I saw someone standing on the platform waiting for a train going the opposite direction who looked familiar. After IM’g her and getting a response after bf and I got home, it was confirmed that it was a grade school/HS friend who was visiting from out of town. What a coincidence. We IM’s a bit and it turns out she moved from MN to KY this past January looking for a fresh start. I knew she wasn’t happy lately and she’d been talking about moving, but didn’t actually know she’d moved. Need to keep in better touch with her. When she comes to town to visit her mom (90 y.o), it’s usually a very short trip and her available timeframes are so tight, we rarely can meet up.

Well, my lab results came back and I’m very disappointed. My LDL (bad) went up out of the acceptable range and my HDL (good) went down and my total cholesterol is 205, also out of the acceptable range. This year they added an A1c test and that was out of range too, 5.7. Now that I’m so sedentary and get inadequate exercise, my crummy diet and weight gain have come to the forefront. Couldn’t get away with it forever, could I? Now that I’ve gotten these results, I’ll make an appointment for my annual physical and discuss the results with my doctor.

Okay, off to post & get some lunch. TTFN.

Morning ladies,

Happy
:sigh: Glad that I just have the nephew to contend with at times. Do you all have different spaces you can retrieve too in times like this? I will be glad when this ordeal with the house insurance is done with. I know that the exercise has been helping with my stamina and also with firming up my fat.

Shad
I've tried the chromium and it really didn't have the effect I was hoping for. I've been thinking about trying it again. Maybe the dosage wasn't correct!

Laura, Susie hello

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I've been in pain this week with arthritis in the mid part of my hip. Think the pain is being caused from the front that is coming through. Feels like the pain is coming from the lower lumbar and spreading across the top of the hip bone. Finally gave in and took two Tylenol this morning. I may have to relent and take the pain med RX that the doctor gave me but I don't want too. Stomach issues are a lot better.
Would like to go to the gym but don't think the exercise is going to do any good this week. Not sure if I could get up on the treadmill. Hurts to raise the left leg. Maybe tomorrow.
Getting ready to go get something to eat. Not doing very well on logging my food. Maybe some day.

Laura
You were typing above me. Hope you don't have to start taking med's for the cholesterol and A1c levels.

My boss is here today. Not liking entertaining him. I will post more tomorrow....Hugs

HAPPY...hugs hugs hugs. We need a ladies get away.

LAURA..bah on the train and relationships. Too much work.

CEEG...hope your hip feels better.

SHADDIE...Hope your day is better.

Hugs

Hey....I am not going to lie. This life I am in at the moment is really a struggle and taking a toll on me. Praying for strength and peace. Michael's birthday is next week on Wednesday, October 11. My heart aches. I have invited Pia over for dinner that evening. Don't want her to be alone and we are not going to make it about that. I just don't want her alone. Hopefully I can do the right thing for her. My weight is down even more at 155 today. Have lost 39 lbs thus far. The apron on front is still ugly and kind of makes me look like a starving Ethiopian. Yes is has shrank. Still bigger in comparison to the rest of my body. Something I need to tackle with the therapist. Body image.

I have the boys most of the day tomorrow. Sam's boyf got her tickets to Garth Brooks even tho her bd is not til November. Chris is too busy to take the boys...which I am glad to have the boys to myself. We may go to Chuckie Cheese. May the force be with me! Bah. Sunday is AA intergroup meeting which I may not go as it interferes with church time and I feel like I need church more than AA intergroup meeting. Regular AA meeting on Saturday morning.

Hope everyone has a great blessed weekend. Healing and love to you all. Hugs

Hello! My week has been crazy and all due to work! First, no email for two days because we migrated to Office 365 and there were issues.

We could use a web version of ema but you couldn't do much more than read it and reply. Couldn't get to calendars, any email that you had previously wasnt in the web version, you could open it in the old version but you couldnt reply.

I answered what I could, worked on what I could that wasnt email and spent a lot of time spinnng in place.

Also, on Tuesday we had a "giving back day" as a department and spent 4 hrs at Matthew 25 ministires working in the sort center of the mission and sorting items that are dropped off into categories so that things are in bulk and with like items.

That was very physical and as I was doing it, I thought about how 70 lbs ago I couldnt have lasted more than 2 hrs at it. I was tired after 4 hours but I worked the entire time and after lunch I had energy again.

The email is now in place and all looks good and today we have a all day Town Hall mtg. I dont plan on being in this meeting all day. I will bug out after lunch.

I stayed the same at my weighin last night. I missed a lot of my workouts this week as I chose to go to nieces soccer games, gymnastics practice, school concert etc.

That will not happen again for a while. I need to keep my workout time a priority if I want to get to my year end weight loss goal.

Sunday is our 29th wedding anniversary. I cant believe I have been married that long. I feel like I am only about 32 years old!

Now that I caught up reading the posts and posting my weekly highlights I will start paying a bit of attention to this meeting and come back for personals later.

If there are typos please overloom them. I am using my phone to post.

Time for personals.

Annie: you are doing very well with all you are have going on.

Counseling is never easy. You know that with everything all you can do is what you can do and let the rest be. You will get to the rest when it is the time for it. Last part of my life verse....In all you ways acknowledge Him and He will set your paths straight. PROVERBS 3:5&6

Laura, House issues make me crazy...I hope the new toliet solves it all.

It is hard to see blood work results that are telling about how we are taking or not taking care of ourselves. Good news is, you are at the place you can change it and see change in 3 months. I was in this boat last December. Things look very different now! You can turn it around. I believe in you.

Shad: My condolences at the passing of Sunday. I know you gave her a good life and she gave you back sweet love. I know you will miss her.

How is packing up the clothes left by others going? Just get it to the donation center and be done with it. It will make you feel great after you drop it all off!

Ceejay: I think it is great you went hiking. It is ok if they had to wait a bit..we all would be so much better off if we all just slowed down a bit and continue moving. Who said we had to finish at a particual time?

I hope that cutting back on the coke and not taking the over the counter pain pills will improve the ulcer and it will heal quickly.

Happy: it is fun to hear about your cooking classes and how you enjoy them.
Keep doing things you enjoy and not so much time where you have to take on others messes. After alk, Happy needs to be happy! 💜

See you all later.

Morning all. Happy Friday. Rained late last night and overnight. It was still overcast this morning, with a very fine barely perceptible mist. I was able to cycle to the train station. I hope it’s dry for my ride home tonight also.

Ceejay – Glad the stomach issues are better, but sorry the arthritis is giving you pain. :( Is exercise good for arthritis? I know it certainly helps with muscular soreness, but not sure how it is for the joint pain caused by arthritis.

Annie – Enjoy your time with the boys this weekend. Wow, Chuckie Cheese – may the force be with you indeed!

Susie – Sounds like a rough week without an operating email/calendar system for part of it. == What a great NSV having the stamina to more of the volunteer day than you could have pre-loss. :yay: :cheer3: == Happy anniversary in advance! :cheers: Doing anything special? == Thanks for the encouragement – I will definitely be working to turn around those lab results!!

Hellos to Happy, Shad and Dee. :wave:

==

I did a pilates-based ab workout yesterday, part of a dvd that targets abs, arms, hips, and thighs in four separate 15-minute segments. After that, I did one BE workout.

Bf installed a new light fixture at mom’s place yesterday. Today the new kitchen counters are being installed. Bf was going to install the sink and faucet after that, but a big problem came up. Bf opened the box for the sink and it was broken. It’s a granite composite material and it must have been dropped by someone at Lowe’s or in the shipping process before it got to the store. :mad: My mother is without a kitchen sink! It is not a stock item and bf may order one from Amazon… what a mess. He says my mom's place is cursed, lol.

Nothing much going on with me. Tomorrow is an Art + Wine Walk with a friend. It's in a neighborhood where I used to live. I think it’s going to be rainy though, so we'll see how this works out.

Otherwise, we have a toilet to purchase and install. What an exciting life I lead. :lol:

Have a great weekend everyone. :)

Hi all,

Last couple of day were a whirlwind. I have a freezerful of thawed meat so I am going to have to be cooking up a storm. Stopped at the grocery store Thursday to pick up things like stock and canned tomatoes and some fresh produce so I can make stuff which I will then freeze in the new freezer coming today. Thursday afternoon was bingo - a mostly quiet night except that management had the kitchen opening late and people came in at 5 expecting to eat before bingo started. That was a broo hah hah. Chaos reigns at the center. Friday morning I went into the shelter to help clean one of the cat rooms. My foot was achy so I went slow but got the job done. Then I had to figure out what to make for the bake sale the shelter is having. I just picked some cookies up from the bakery to resell - didn't have time. Then we got a call from friends who are heading back to their place in Florida in 10 days - they wanted to get together one last time so we met for dinner and went to their house afterwards. I really didn't feel like going - I was very tired, my foot hurt alot and my stomach has been sketchy for a week already but DH wanted to go and I did want to see them before they took of. I just drank ginger ale and ate lightly. Today I have to get going and get things cleared out of the way for the new freezer delivery early this afternoon. I will have to transfer the meat out of the old one - the temps are currently like a refrigerator in there but all the meat has thawed so while still good I have a big cooking job ahead of me. It's very rainy and nasty today - not a good day for people tromping through the house with heavy appliances and it's also not good for aches and pains but we will endure. Tomorrow DH and I are going to take a ride - car or ATV I'm not sure. The autumn colors have popped suddenly and thankfully today is a steady rain and not much wind so we're hoping to get some nice views before the leaves start to drop.

Laura - happy toilet or should I say THRONE shopping :lol: I hope the Art Walk is not too messed up with rain. Perhaps your Mom's place is possessed after all - sure are alot of things going wrong with it. I have sometimes wondered if there is bad juju in this house I'm in. The previous owners had a nasty ending to their marriage here and I sometimes wonder if the negativity is settled into the woodwork! Nothing like bad lab results to motivate us. I think several of us are in the same boat having to re-tweek our current situations - I find this time of year the most difficult to take off weight. We can still try though.

Susie - what great motivation to realize that you have newfound stamina after the weight loss! How nice that they let you out of the office to do something for the community. Happy 29th anniversary! Yes the years do fly by quickly - especially after 20 it seems. Hope you do something fun.

Annie- :hug: on working on the body image. We will never recapture our teenage tightness again. Focus on looking good with clothing. I understand your pot of turmoil right now with the emotions - praying for some peace for you as well. Sometimes life is just ... tough. That's when we have to look to things that keep us going. Have fun with the boys this weekend - make sure they make you laugh and smile.

Ceejay- sorry you are hurting - can you get in a pool and do some walking. I know they keep telling me that keeping the supporting muscles strong is a big help in easing the load of arthritis on the joints. I am starting to wonder if back issues are also bothering my legs. Everything is connected. Hope you feel better. Are the colors starting to turn by you yet?

Shad - so what fabulous things did you get at Bunnings? Do you have a wall full of tools? :lol: I know how much you love the home improvement store!

Time's a ticking quickly and I have lots to do so better get off the computer here. Have a good weekend ladies.