bumping us up
Went to the gym for a good work out. Completed 20 minutes on both the treadmill and bike, then did 3 weight machines.
Going to a Valentine's breakfast that was rescheduled from last week because of bad weather. Will be sharing a ride with a couple of friends.

Will someone please turn the heat off? We are all so tired of it, and to add to the heat we have a cyclone tracking along the coast. The winds are here, the sea is in turmoil but it is not giving us any rain. We were up to 83 days with temperatures above 30C (about 90F give or take) and had at least a dozen days where the temp was over 35 (105F more or less) then we had a little patch of rain and the temp dropped to 29C for a couple of days and now we are back in the mid thirties for 40 odd days. My poor garden is dying The winds are ferocious and a few branches have broken off the big trees in the front yard and a few hanging pots have been blown off their hooks and scattered across the yard. Okay, weather report done and dusted I won't whinge anymore.

French lessons are going okay. I did take French at school, close on 55 years ago if not more. You don't forget a lot of the words however I have forgotten a lot of the verb tenses and this teacher dwells on verbs not words which doesn't do a lot for my head - which is spinning by end of class. I was never much good at speaking it but I can read much of it and translate it although sometimes I get things completely wrong which can be quite funny sometimes. I'll keep with this class for the rest of the term and make a decision as to whether to move to a more basic class for the next term or not Speaking of French, better do my on line course shortly too. Duo Lingo allows you to learn a language (and it is free)

Ceejay - hope you enjoyed the Valentines days belated breakfast. Good going at the gym. Congratulations on the new babies to come in the family. Lovely time for everyone.

Happy - You're over the cold, I'm over the heat. What are we becoming - whinging about the weather. I always thought I would rather be hot than cold, but I think I have changed my mind. At least you can put more clothes on and get wrapped up in wool and blankets but it gets to the point here where you can literally take no more off without the risk of the neighbours reporting a beached whale.
Sorry to hear that you slipped on ice and banged yourself up somewhat. Hope all is well now and the bruises are fading. I can well understand the 'getting over the whole volunteer thing'
I hear you on the credit/ returns policy these days just like I am over the banks who, when I make an online payment, take the money immediately out of my account but the creditor doesn't get it for about 3 days. They are making interest on the overnight money market. I am losing interest in my account and the creditor is still waiting for payment. It sucks.
I feel for you with the eating less and still gaining weight. Having the same problem myself. Got rid of 3kg before the last visit to the dietician, and have managed to lose another 2kg but it seems to have stopped. So I guess it is time to up the exercise and reduce portions some more. I have set a menu for the next week, and will try to follow that but with reduced portions. The biggest problem I find is that most recipes are made for 4 or 6 servings and it is very hard to reduce them to one serving. So I either it whatever for a week or reduce it two serves and it doesn't always work out well with that either. There is a program on the internet that will reduce the servings but it doesn't always work either.

And with that I need to disappear. I will get back to the personals tomorrow = it's time for cleaning up after dinner and getting on with my French lesson.

Morning all
Well yelling at the computer may have done something to the weather :dizzy: :dizzy: :dizzy: It is cool and overcast - well by cool I mean under 30 at 10am - a minor miracle to be sure.

Annie - where are you friend? Don't make me ring you and yell at you. I'm sure we would have heard if there was a job offer Something will come of that I am sure.

Laura - I hear you about the bra shopping, I too hate that. Nothing seems to fit the way it used to and everytime I go looking there are all these padded or sexy outfits in the shop and I don't believe I need either of those varieties. If they are cheap (not the sexy or padded sort) then they do not seem to hold me in as I'd like. I hate to wobble everywhere and especially there. And the price of some brand names is astronomical.
As for the overseas holidays, it depends on where you are going. For example if, like Susie, you are only going to Denmark, you can see the entire country in 2 weeks or all the touristy things in less than that but the thing is, if you are going that far, then you might as well see as much as you can. 4 weeks would get you a lot of Europe. On the other hand if you are going to somewhere like Australia, you need to allow time unless you want to fly everywhere and that doesn't show you the sights. Europe fits into Australia about 2 1/2 times and although we joke about it, you can drive 3 hours in NZ or England and go through 3 or four different counties and see numerous sights. If you travel 3 hours from my place, you will get into the very north of NSW on the coast road but to get out of Queensland any other way, it takes 3 days. To get to see anything over here, you must plan your itinerary very carefully.
Glad to hear that you got a bonus and a raise. So few get that these days. It's a struggle for many.

Susie - Glad to hear that Genny has the all clear at 6 months. Those sort of answers help with recovery a lot. I'm coming up for 2 1/2 year blood test in April. I wait for it in nervous anticipation and then cheer like mad when a negative result comes in.
Good to hear that you are back on the treadmill and doing well. I have some rolls that you might like to get rid of for me if you'd like to. Just get on the treadie and say one for me and one for Shad. I'll wait for my results. :rofl:

Well that's about it for the personals. I did go and look up Happy and her DH on the news. Great article Happy. I've taken a couple of things off my to do list this morning. I poached a chicken and broke it up and froze the stock it created. and I have used my angle grinder for the first time and cut some tiles that didn't break properly with the tile cutter. So now they are stuck to the wall in the laundry. Next I will have to attach the kickboards in there. Another first. But I can do this. Can't expect DS2 to come to my aid all the time. Yesterday I took lunch around to the DS2 who is working on one of his rental houses - putting in a new shower room since the previous tenants managed to wreck it for him It's an old house with lots of problems. Main living and sleeping areas are quite habitable, but the downstairs rooms and the yard need a lot of work. Still he has to tenant it to be able to do the repairs over time. So I guess today, he will need another lunch. Not sure what but I will think of something soon.

Next job on the list is to clean out behind the shed in the yard so we can finish the fences down there. Got most of the rubbish out from behind there last week but there is still weeds and stray bushes growing and they need to be dug out. and the place cleaned up. What's after that? Start at the side of the shed and clean up down there. Can't wait for these fences to be done. A big tick off my list of 'things needing to be done' Houses and fences do not maintain themselves.

Quick post.

Woke up Sunday with a bit of throat crud. Woke up yesterday (a scheduled vacation day) with chills and fever and felt lousy all day. Feeling better today, but still not great, so i stayed home again. Bf tells me he has a cough and told me I need to work from home and not ride metra with all the germs because he can't be sick and needs to work, yadda, yadda, yadda. Not what i needed to hear. He likes to blame me when he gets sick. I'm accustomed to this, but at some point it'll be the straw that breaks the camel's back.

Enough of the crabby ranting. TTFN.

Evening all,
Another couple of days of cooler temperatures. Autumn appears to be on the way. Now all we need is some decent rain. Life gets better.
I went to shift the compost bin today, but it wasn't producing any compost, probably needed water more frequently, so I decided to shift it further up the garden, and so I pulled the bin apart and moved the stuff in there only to find there were also mice in there!!!!!!! :faint: :yikes: Probably explains the influx of mice the cat brought in as a present last winter. So the whole lot went out into the garbage and the mice got chased around. Several of them have gone under the fence into the neighbours place. He will not be amused. I certainly wasn't. So no more compost bin for me. Will buy the stuff as and when required.

Laura - sorry to hear that you are not well. Hope it improves quickly. As for the b/f complaining that you gave him the crud, well that's ingrained male gripes and they always get it worse than we do. My ex used to take to his bed in the last throes of death, and sleep and sleep and sleep, only to wake up, sit up and demand a full meal at least three times a day. The last time I got sick, which was when the children were little, I wasn't allowed to sleep it off since there was always some question about meals, or school books, or how to cook a tin of spaghetti (or was it baked beans?) Anyway, I got the morning in bed before I got sick of it all and got up and sent him out to work.

I've been doing online French courses and am doing okay with these. Whether it will help in class or not I don't know, but at least my vocabulary is improving even if the spoken word isn't. It is hard to pick up the actual nuances and accents when you are partly deaf and the acoustics in the room are not that good. But enough. A breakthrough will come sometime no doubt.

And with that I think it is time for a last cup of tea and then bed.

Good morning ladies,


Laura - sorry you are feeling sick. This time of year it's easy to pick up something and it stays dormant for a while. Hah on the BF's crabbing. I agree with Shad - their "logic" is no logic at all. :rolleyes: and as for empathy, forget it. Used to be that I'd only get sympathy from DH if I was barfing. He is better about being more courteous now but agreed that no woman is ever at death's door as much as a man suffers. :rofl: I do hope you are feeling better. Take a sick day and sleep it off.


Shad - glad you are pursuing the French. Even if you never get as good as you'd like, just the act of working with it is good for the brain. Music is good too - they say music and story telling are the 2 skills that the brain hangs on to the longest so if the French doesn't work out, then there's always tuba lessons :lol3: Having lived in the tropical south and the frozen north, I would have to say that heat and drought are far worse than our cold and snow. Worrying about lack of rain and water I think is the absolute worst. We can shovel snow, put on more clothes and be careful about walking and driving which are hassles but we can't do anything about making water and precious rain. So I'll stay put where I am even though it's that time of year when I never feel like I will ever be warm again and I am tired of being cold and achy in the bones. Bummer on finding mice in the compost pile. I suppose it's like the birds, squirrels and critters here - they get their meals where they can. Don't want them in the house either thought it sounds like Romeo is doing a good job of hunting. Do you drink a lot of tea? What kind do you like? Sounds like you are keeping yourself very busy around the house. Always something to fix, update or maintain. Are you still the neighborhood driver for the local folks or has that eased up?


Ceejay - your pictures of the water were nice. I love the peacefulness of water. Sounds like you've been keeping yourself busy too.


I had to get up early - today is a thrift shop meeting. I'd rather not go, I am somewhat distanced from that but they won't let me go completely. I don't think it will be very well attended. We got a little snow overnight but not enough to keep people from attending. I am pulling away from the senior center too - I worked on the newspaper for them all last week - that was about 50 hours of my time but that is about done for 2 months until the next issue rolls around. My bingo partner is starting to get more forgetful. He forgot to collect money from several people on Monday and I had to scold him. It would cause a scene if people were paying attention and noticed the pot wasn't what it should be. Last Thursday we were short one guy so I had to play the role of bingo caller and payer and we came up short $69 at the end of the night and it was a SLOW night. D said he knew it was him miscounting books or not giving proper change. The week before I skipped bingo because DH and I went out to dinner for Valentine's Day and D said he had s frantic mess of the night. He made mistakes, his helper was giving out too MUCH prize money, what a zoo. :shrug: My new laptop came yesterday. Now I make the effort to move over my existing stuff, learn Windows 10 and figure my way among all that is foreign. I apologized ahead of time for all the complaining and whining I will do while learning this when I don't have time for it. :lol:


We will start the work on my teeth March 12. This round will cost me almost $18,000. It involves replacing 13 crowns I currently have in my mouth and opening up my bite. My crowns are loose so I am sort of eager to get this work done. But I am not looking forward to 3 hour in the chair dental appointments. My jaw muscles hurt to think about it. They can numb my mouth but not the jaw which tenses up. I've been practicing holding my mouth open. At least when all done I will not have the gaps I do, the teeth will all be the same color and I won't be having the issue of food getting stuck in my teeth. Our wedding anniversary is next Tuesday - 42 years. We wanted to have a small dinner party at the place we went to for Valentines with our favorite chef but the owner who took our information never contacted us to follow through and plan. I am irked about it and I think when you are giving them money, you should not have to pursue them. I think chef might be a little disillusioned about how they run their business too. So not sure what we will do to celebrate as our favorite Italian place closed and this was our other option. Now that the big ski race finished - the Birkie - this town shuts down for the next 2 months. We are innudated with snow and cold. I can tell spring is around the corner - birds are starting to sing their songs, the days are getting longer and they announced on tv that in the next 2 weeks it's time to get the ice fishing shacks off the lakes. Hard to believe it could be warm enough to start to melt the ice - our last snow and wind storm actually stranded anglers out on Lake Superior with so much blowing snow the guys had to be rescued and plowed out. They had no contingency plans for that because it's never happened before. The weather sure is wierd.


Well I have to grab a shower and get ready so I'll post this.


Hellos to the rest of the crew. Annie I say prayers for you every time I think about it - a couple of times a day. God's not listening or as you say - not the right time yet tho I'm sure you are getting anxious. Sending good thoughts that you'll get a much anticipated call already.


Later ladies :wave:

Laura
Hope you are feeling better.

Shad
I will trade you come ice and snow for some sunshine and warmer temperatures. This has been the coldest winter we have had since I've lived in Missouri.

Happy
Glad to hear that you are pulling away from the volunteering. I feel for you during upcoming dental procedures. .

Susie and Annie
Hello

Not much going on with me. More ice this morning. Ice is on the grass but I hear traffic so the street must not be to bad. But I don't like getting out in 25 degree temperatures.
I've been eating around 1400 to 1600 calories but keep fluctuating on the scale so I'm dropping down to 1200 calories and will be using the pyramid for my diet plan. It's also recommended that I get 150 minutes of cardio per week. I can do this.
I need to clean house and do laundry so I'll get this posted.

Morning all,
Ceejay - yes the fluctuating scale and calories are a real pain. Hope you can get it under control. I am using portion control and apparently it must slip somewhat over the week since the scale annoyingly weighs higher and lower, stupid thing. It doesn't also help that there is chronic constipation (sorry TMI) if I eat too much bread (two slices per day is all I can take) and I might go a week with out having to take something to alleviate the problem.
I'll trade you some ice and cool - heck 25(C) would be better than 35(C) or 40(C). 25 F might be somewhat cool but it is what it is. We have had the hottest and driest summer since 1910 (when records were kept) and sounds like you lot have had the coldest and wettest winter.

Happy - Unfortunately there is not a musical bone in my body, so tuba lessons might be somewhat of a trial for the neighbours, teachers and classmates. It's good to hear that you are pulling back on the volunteer stuff, you don't need the crap every day of the week. Pick your battles I say and stick with it. Sounds like D is losing it somewhat or just doesn't think far enough ahead. Pity some of the people don't let on that they have been over paid too.
It's good that the teeth will be over in a short period of time. Then the recovery begins. Hope that all goes well.

Laura - hope you are getting over the crud and are not running around after b/f with his death defying sniffles.

Susie - where are you? So busy as usual I guess.

Annie - get your butt back in here and let us know how you are. We all worry for you and we know you don't have it easy. Take some time out and talk to us.

That's about it for now. The bin full of compost has gone. The sole mouse I saw this morning while shovelling the last of the heap to the garbage bin was soon under the fence and in the shed next door. Should really tell the neighbour he has mice. I will be spreading some mice ******ant around the area this week. So now I had better go back to sorting the shed, cleaning the ceiling fans and going to French lessons. Oh yes, Happy, you asked about what type of tea I like. I prefer the lighter blends like Earl Grey, Lady Grey and Russian Caravan. Twinings used to put out a smoky tea called Lapsong Souchong. I loved it lightly brewed, but they no longer seem to make it. I found some in a teashop up on Tamborine Mountain and bought it, but it is so strong it is terrible. So I don't know what I will do with it yet.
Okay, I am out of here.

Morning all,
Painting today since we have SHOWERS :rain: :rain: :rain: and when I can't paint anymore while the doors and trims dry, I can tile or maybe just post here. We've been having showers on and off for 3 days now. It's wonderful. The temperature has dropped to a balmy 27C - 29C (84F to 88F more or less) and we are all dancing on the grass.
It doesn't seem to matter what I would like to do, my calendar appears to be full of things I must do. I might have to go back to the office for a rest - oh no, that won't do. A friend rang the other day to say he was working in Brisbane and we should get together. Then yesterday (Saturday) he texted to say that he had quit his job and was flying home straight away. Couldn't stand the pettiness, conflict and downright bad manners and bullying of the 'business partner' for the project. Seems like nothing is changing in the training world.

Mr Romeo the cat is annoyed with me because I am keeping him out of 'his room' so he can't sleep in the sunshine through the window anymore. Tough for him. This room has to be finished and soon. Lots to do in there. I have to put another coat of paint on a couple of walls, sort out the window (trying to find new ones to fit the opening difficult after 30 years) and put down the flooring or find some one to do it.

Must be coffee time, then back to work and anyway, there is no more news. cya

Hey Ladies!
I have been reading the posts off and on so I could stay up-to-date with everyone.

Shad: If I had found those mice you would have heard me screaming.....I get so freaked out by them
and snakes! I have no tolerance when it comes to them.

I love tea as well, but I dont get to drink it much due due to my IC and the fact that tea is acidic. I try to use no caffeine types and there are some low acidic and I dont steep it too long. We do what we have to do.

Laura: I hope you are feeling better. The flu is showing up now in Ohio. A friend of ours had it two weeks ago. She went to the doctor and got the tamaflu and felt really badly for 5 days and then better. The medicine helded to shorten the duration.

Ceejay: Last week I got back with the program with my food and exercise and I had a 3 lb.loss at TOPS. I still have 10 lbs to loss to get back to where I was before Christmas....we can do this...it is about where we put our priorities.

Happy: How disappointing that the venue you wanted to do celebrate your anniversary at never got back to you. I hope that you and DH will have a nice anniversary despite the venues oversight.

I will be thinking about you as you start your your dental this process....just think how pretty your smile will be....you will look like a movie star.

Annie dear....you are missed. I am still praying for you and believeing it is coming soon.

I have just been busy with life. The week before, I worked some overtime as I both the Managers I support were getting ready for a two week trip to Asia and I was getting all the travel plans and meetings in place and then still had all the regular work.

I also had applied for a position in another business unit at work. It was a lateral move but I used to work with the Director when she was a section head and we were in Pharma. Her admin is retiring. It came down to me and one other lady and the other lady was chosen. I was very upset by it because I really thought I had it and then I found out the other lady was displaced which meant that for some reason her role was eliminated and she was looking for a job...when that happens if the person has the skills they encourage the hiring manger to choose the displaced candidate.

A lot of my disappointment was because I really am tiring of my manager and the fact that he doesn't partner with me..however when he became aware I was interviewing and it was a lateral move (I told him once I was granted a interview), he said he didnt want to lose me and he wants us to talk and regroup so we can get back to a partnership.

That is about it for me.

We had a light snow, about 2 inches,.over night and of course the weather people predict things were suppose to me a whole lot more. Glad we didn't get the 4-6 inches. It is very cold outside right now and down to 5 degree's tonight. We are having periods of sunshine and then light snow flurries. But the street looks half way decent. I was binge eating the past two days because of the amount of snow being predicted.
They cancelled church this morning because of the snow. Think there was more of it the further north you went. I hope that it's clear Wednesday as this is ash Wednesday.
I bought more pork chops as I didn't get my fill of them the last time I made them. I have carrots and potatoes in the crock pot along with the pork chops. I'm trying something just a bit different this time. I browned the chops and them wrapped them in foil. Hopefully they will not get to soggy this way. I do like them tender so we will see how this method works.
I need to get back in to exercising. I have a stationary bike at home I can use but I'd rather go to the gym.
--------
Susie
Great job on losing those 3 pounds off thi past week. Why is it so easy to put on pounds rather than to take them off. :sigh: I understand the disappointment in not getting the job.
Shad
I don't even want to think of going back to work at a real paying job. I don't mind at all sitting around on my duff and getting more and more lazy. (lol) I'm going to see about babysitting my nephew's baby girl for a couple of days a week but they may want to have some one full time.

Hello to Annie and Happy.

Greetings and salutations good friends,

It's terribly cold out there but brilliant sunshine. Will be cold for a few days and then zing, spring arrives next Saturday we move to around and just above the freezing point which will feel downright balmy I tell you and looks to stay there for a good while. We have an abundance of snow, no one is looking forward to the melting that will soon begin. It always makes me VERY nervous when the sump pump starts in the spring as the water melts into the ground and it kicks on every minute for sometimes a month straight. There are too many things in the furnace room that can be destroyed if the pumps die and the water comes in. This is going to be similar to the spring of 2014 where we got a record 8 feet of snow for the year.

We went grocery shopping yesterday and I spent about 90 minutes in the basement pantry / storage room there sorting and packed 2 large grocery bags full of expired cans and boxes and things from the back of the second refrigerator. I am trying hard to spend at least an hour a day on several large projects and goals. At least I feel I am making some progress even though it doesn't always look like it. Was really feeling overwhelmed this weekend. There always seems to be something nagging on me - do the minutes from the meeting. make something for the potluck meeting tonight, get my new computer set up, clean the basement, still struggling to get the water balanced in the hot tub, enter the daily sales. yah yah yah. And DH is ALWAYS over my shoulder either interrupting me from my work to talk about his stuff or he's asking me the infuriating "when are you gonna..." I finally told him to leave me alone before I blew up.

I reluctantly attended a Thrift Shop meeting last week and the weather was not the best so the scribe did not attend. The person running the meeting fell and broke her dominant arm so she asked me to take minutes. I didn't want to but everyone else just looked at their lap and I did the same but mine was the only lap that reflected back "SUCKER" so I took notes. I used to be the scribe for our meetings in the past but I handed that off when the new regime took over. So I took about 2 hours of my time this weekend to type up the notes and another couple of hours to write up "how to" documentation on 2 procedures that I have trained everyone on at least 6 times but no one remembers. So I send it off to P and tell her as the meeting chair she can distribute them. Which she does later that evening. I am looking over them and I notice that she has totally and completely re-edited and rewrote all of my notes. Not fixing grammar or typos - of which there are none because I am careful about that - but rewriting sentence structure and writing them in her own style. Ok so I did a lot of writing in my career and one of the things that was under acceptable behavior was to not criticize someone else's writing style. You might do it a different way but don't insult the other person and unless something is terribly wrong, you don't rewrite someone else's work. I do this with DH all the time, my writing is more polished only because I do it alot and when he writes up something and asks me to review it, I am careful to respect his words and style even though I might reword things differently if I was writing it. So when I saw P redo everything I did - and with a broken arm mind you - I became rather upset. That was just tacky. She does have an arrogant air about her - claims our past meetings were unsuccessful NOT because of personality conflicts and low attendance due to general apathy but it was because we did not know how to properly run a meeting. And fear not, SHE was really good at running meetings. And yes, she said this in front of me and the current manager and the president and we all rolled our eyes. So I fired off an email last night chastising her about how what she did was personally insulting and a big no no in the business world. And don't ask me to scribe minutes ever again. Lately I am feeling I am wearing a sign that says "Kick Me". And I told DH last night that these constant kicks in the butt are really a brick to the head that I need to walk away or severely limit the volunteering. So I wrote and sent an email to the senior center that I want to limit my volunteering to 10 hours or less a week which is just about bingo. No more Facebook and website work. Or office work. Or extra typing or data entry. And I am going to do the same with the Thrift Shop - in that case giving up what little I am doing now. I will help out at fundraisers - a few but not all like I did. I am becoming angry and resentful and quite honestly, they don't really appreciate you anyway. One of my regrets in my career is that I went hard and fast and gave the job all my everything. And I have done the same with volunteering. I ignored things around the house, didn't have time to put in a garden or use the expensive pontoon boat we will now sell at a deep loss and I have probably gained weight from spending far too much time sitting at my computer constantly. DH picked out some places he wants to do to - 2 day road trips and I want to go. And I have to get my house in order to bring in a cat sitter and this clutter I have is killing me as is this extra weight. Time for me. And I am couching this in the key that next month I will turn 65. It's a milestone, time to do some changes and find a different path for my life. Which I hope includes watercolor painting and some writing. I think I'm 65, I'm going to finally "retire". :lol: I told DH yesterday, some times the kick in the butt is exactly the brick in the head that you need. I will still keep up bingo because my partner won't let me out of that - we are both getting whacky and we need each other as check and balances. And I can get my social fix from bingo.

Next week starts my dental work. First appointment is 3-1/2 hours in the chair. Ugh. So NOT looking forward to this but my teeth are frighteningly loose and I told DH once this is all done all of my teeth will be either crowned or implants or bridges and I will never have to go to the dentist again. Since my teeth will be straight and butted against each other like they should have been, I won't have the gaps that make for shifting and pressure points and routine cracked crowns. Plus my teeth will be whiter and all the same shade. I will have a nice smile for the first time in my life instead of my usual grin that DH thinks is dumb. But then again, he's not a smiler either - most all of his driver's licenses look like prison photos :lol3:

Ceejay -one of the things you can do with the pork chops is to cook them in the crockpot / pressure cooker and then just before you are ready to eat - when they are cooked to the right temperature - you can heat a cast iron pan hot and give them a quick 2 minute sear on each side to crisp them up. Just make sure to let them sit on a plate about 5 minutes afterwards "to rest" and let the juices go back into the meat - if you cut them too soon the juices leak out and you get dry meat. The greatest mystery in life is "why is it so easy to gain weight and so hard to get it off? :rofl: when you find out, please let me know ;)

Susie - I am very sorry that you didn't get the other job. :( So often today there are so many other factors that influence the hiring decision - least of which is most qualified candidate. :( I hope your new director takes this to heart and is willing to work with you to make your job more satisfactory and challenging. See prior comment about not being appreciated. I swear the incompetent whiners get all the attention and us good ones are just expected to suck it up. I did not realize that tea was acidic. I do love my jasmine tea - was drinking more of it lately to warm me up and figured it was better than drinking soda. I guess we just all have to drink water and that's it. :lol: Congrats on the refocus and the loss at TOPS. Do you have a stand up desk at work? I don't really know how people can do certain types of tasks on those. But it helps if your job involves lots of walking and an occasional stairwell or two. Keep up the good work!

Shad - so nice to hear that you finally got some rain!!! Hello autumn! I know what you mean about replacing old windows with today's new designs. Can make it complicated. Our house in Memphis they had an antique front door which was badly warped and let in too many drafts. They custom built the house around this door and we had to spend lots of extra money getting things retrofitted to put a normal door back in again. I hope your painting goes well and is not decorated with black cat hair :lol: Pity on the friend walking off the job. Do you miss working? It sounded as if at the end they were really making it difficult for you to just do the job. I am surprised you have mice with Romeo around. Tell him to get to work. Funny how your mouse moved next door!!

Laura - hope you are over the chest thing and feeling better today.

Annie - still pulling for you. Wish you would post here. You are in my prayers every day. I don't know why something isn't happening for you. :( Makes me very sad. :hug:

Hello to the rest of the lurkers. :wave:

I have to put a bunch of ham pieces in the oven to slow roast them for tonight. We are having the annual volunteer recognition thing for the Shelter and Thrift Shop. I do wish I did not have to go - it's too cold outside and I don't really feel a part of this group any more. IT also conflicts with bingo tonight so DH is going to run that for me as D and I both have to be at the Humane Society thing tonight. He is sick with a fever I hope he doesn't infect us all.

Life goes on... See yahs.

Happy
I should not be complaining but I'm a wimp when it comes to cold weather. This morning it was 3 degree's. I need to be doing some deep cleaning but I don't want to. Yikes on the first dental appointment. I hope they give you some of the "good stuff". When I turned 65 I thought my outlook on life would be different but it hasn't been. Just more aches and pains :lol:
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Sis called a few minutes ago. My nephew's wife may have their baby later on this afternoon. Her contractions are getting closer together. Getting excited.
Sis took off work today because of a dental appointment. She had to have a crown. She said the numbing agent went away before they finished.
Looked out the window and the snow is melting quickly from the sun. It has only warmed up to 16 degree's. Niece sent me pictures via text and they were in swimsuits on the river. How I envy them living in Florida!

Afternoon all. Sunny here but very cold, 12 degrees F, minus 6 wind chill. My weekend was uneventful.

Ceejay – I’m glad you didn’t get a lot of snow. How did the pork chops turn out? I can definitely see not wanting to go back to work after being fully retired! Stay inside and stay warm! Best wishes to your nephew's wife for a smooth delivery!

Susie – Congrats on the TOPS loss! I’m sorry you didn’t get the position in the other business unit with the director you’d worked with before. I hope your current manager makes an effort to work with you to your satisfaction.

Shad – I hope you’ve gotten enough rain for a bit, and slightly cooler temps too, though high 80’s is still rather hot!! The mice in the compost pile would have really freaked me out! I’ve never done a compost pile in our yard because I didn’t want to draw critters like that, and when our pooch was still with us, I worried about him getting into it, so I never did it. I like Earl/Lady Grey tea. Never heard of Russian Caravan… I think I tried lapson souchong, if I recall correctly. Really didn’t care for it at all, had kind of a smoked flavor to it?? I like a plain strong black tea like English or Irish breakfast and I like the (Indian) spiced chai.

Happy – Yes, what a zoo with that bingo stuff! Sad that’s happening, and there sure aren’t people busting down the doors to volunteer. Something’s gotta give. Oh, just saw your latest post - good for you limiting your volunteer time with both the thrift shop and the senior center!!! Enjoy your retirement!!! ;) How’s the new laptop? Is tomorrow your anniversary? Happy Anniversary!!! Sorry your plans for a dinner party didn’t come together. Even though it won’t be pleasant, I bet you’ll be glad to get the work on your teeth done.

Annie – Miss you here! Keeping you in my thoughts and I hope the right opportunity comes to you soon!

I don’t really have much to report. I felt pretty lousy the rest of the week at work and Saturday too. Bf and I went out for lunch and a couple errands. We were in the sedan because it needed to be gassed up. We also took it to get the tires filled and we’re told we have two tires with rim leaks. And the rim leaks occur because the of corrosion of the wheel rims. Which cost $$$ to have resurfaced. And leaks on tires around the rim area apparently cannot be repaired. Sigh. We’re not putting the $$$ into new tires and resurfacing the rims. So the more I think about it, the more I decide it’s a good idea to replace this car sooner rather than later. Besides the tires and rims, it probably needs some work on the power steering. And this morning, it wouldn’t start because the battery is weak. Even though the temps dropped overnight, I thought it would start because we did drive it a good bit on Saturday, so the battery should have been charged up enough. But nope. Cars are a PITA.

As for a replacement, I originally thought I’d want the same make/model, but now I’m having 2nd thoughts about that too. Like maybe get another sedan, but one that sits up just a wee bit higher. Not sure what. I honestly don’t want or need anything luxurious, but bf’s only real suggestion is a luxury brand, one that I’m not interested in at all. So some research is called for on my part. Or we can just keep the SUV because it has a long while yet on the extended warranty. That said, I’m just not a fan of driving that vehicle, and it has a lot of issues because of all the fancy features on it – more that can go wrong with it. We’ve put that extended warranty to use quite a bit… Bf is doing his own vehicle search for a work vehicle that has more cargo room, but he has pinpointed exactly what he wants (one specific make/model with the exact options package) and of course can’t find it at the price range he’s set for himself so he’s frustrated. It never ends.

I got sidetracked... I felt better yesterday and alright today, but still not 100%.

I did some laundry this weekend and some errands/shopping, but never did get going on the taxes. Bleh. Tonight is stretch class and I'll probably go just to do something other than work, TV or reading.

Enough rambling, I need to finally get this posted before I forget about it - I started it this morning and then got mired in some ick projects today. Bleh. TTFN.

Morning
Laura
Glad you are feeling better. I hope you find the right vehicle that you both like. I would love to have a new car but this one is paid for and I do not want a payment. I do love the heated seats on my sis's new vehicle.
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It is not as cold today at 22 degree's but the wind is still tough. We still have snow on the ground. And the sun has been shining the past couple of days.
My pork chops were very good. They were tender but not falling off the bone the of course fill with water.
I've gotten lazy. but it's been to bad to go to the gym plus the arthritis in my lower back has really been bothering me on the cold,cold days.
Need to get busy. Today is laundry and cleaning day.

Good morning,

Not much going on in my end of the world. Just wanted to check in and say hello. Hello to the rest of you lot.

Good morning Chickies,
Don't know why I am so happy in my greeting. We are back to abnormal temperatures again and it is going to get hotter during the next week. No rain forecast until at least Friday or Saturday. And the sweat is dripping down me as I stand here at 8.45 on a Sunday morning. Seems like an age rather than only a week ago I was crowing about getting showers. I had a tradie come to read the water meter last week while I was out in the garden. I said that it had been read only a week or two ago. I know, he said, just checking. Seems that a few of us gardeners are getting the same message. We've used a lot of water and they want us to check for a leak in the pipes. Well no, I know why there is so much water being used. I have a garden. I grow things. Things that need water and I am also losing a lot of plants due to them not getting enough water. I refuse to have my garden die on me, not when I have spent so much money on it.
Anyway. Today I have already shifted furniture and cleaned down behind things, where does all the dust come from. I think I may sell some of the furniture that belongs in the spare room. I don't sew anymore - although I wish I did, but haven't the need for clothes or crafty things. And I don't need to leave a lot of stuff for the kids to have to deal with when I am gone - whenever that may be. I am not planning on soon.
I'll carry on with painting the trim and a couple of walls later in the day when the sun has gone from the room. Meantime I will hang the door. Such excitement, getting a door back on that room. I found a place that renovates aluminium windows and doors so sent for a quote for 4 windows and screens 1500mm x 1800mm and one smaller window 1500mm by 800mm. $$$$$$3654.00 OUCH. So I will just get a couple at a time done when I am ready. Beats trying to find new ones or some good seconds or second hand one which would cost about double. You'd think they were made of gold.

Happy - sounds so strange to hear you say nothing much is going on in your stretch of the woods. DH has some great turkey photos on FB this morning.
I hear you on the stuff in the pantry and refrigerator, I had all that and more too a while ago. The stuff I threw out was incredible (Chocolate years out of date??????) I felt guilty when others have so little. Cans and jars can be used up for years provided they do not have bulging lids or cans. The best before date is just a recommendation. Was watching an article on it a couple of days back. Use by - definitely throw within days of the use by date but best before is the supermarkets idea of making you feel that you can't eat the stuff. And the 'remove from shelf by xx/xx/xxxx ' sticker is so the supermarket can replace the goods with new stuff at a higher price. There is so much waste in this country that is perfectly edible and we are only now coming to grips with it - mainly because our refuse sites are filling up and there is nowhere else to go with the stuff (councils problem with waste) and supermarkets just dump it if it doesn't sell and we all buy too much stuff and have to throw it away because we can't ( or believe we can't) eat it all. Okay off the :soap:
Hope the dentist is going well. Or haven't you got there yet?

Ceejay - glad to hear the pork chops came out well. Always a bonus when things just taste good. I'm having them for dinner next week. What sort of baby did we have? I hope the cold starts giving way to Spring shortly for you, just as I am wailing for winter to come here.

Laura - I've never had a compost bin that drew critters before. I think with the dry weather, the bin didn't get enough water and so dried out and made a very comfortable nest for them. Anyway I have thrown a few ratsak bags around and not seen one since. I have however been explaining to the cat about his job. He is not amused. Russian Caravan is a light strength tea like Lady Grey but with a slightly smoky flavour. Not strong at all. I had chai tea made by and Indian lady when I was working in Townsville. Far to spiced and sweet for me. Mind you the tea bags may not be as rich as hers was.

Susie - There are a great many different teas and coffees out there now. I don't like the fruit flavoured ones, I like my tea straight, but with IBS, you will have no wish to upset anything in the gut. Chemo caused all sorts of problems in my gut and I have only just come out of the worst of them - still the odd one or two symptoms lasting but I can at least identify and control most of them.

And that is about it. My French is going so so. I don't think I will carry on with this class at the end of the semester. It is too advanced for me, and although they are all very nice and helpful, I tend to feel a bit lost because they all speak it so well and can understand one another easily while I am struggling to understand one word in three. So I will have to see if there is another class around that is more basic and keep up with my Duo Lingo on line lessons.

Have a good weekend all.

Happy Sunday! Did those of you in the USA remember to spring forward today?

I am looking forward to more sunlight hours during the day. After bitter cold last week we will have temps in the 50 to 60F range this week. I am looking forward to it.

I did great working out all week and getting additional steps in during the work day by meeting friends for am and pm breaks and walking....but on Wed, we went out to eat after the girls spring concert and I made poor food choices and was up 2 lbs at TOPS.

I need to get back to my thinking of "dont give up what I want most for what I want in the moment".

And this morning I am on the bike...getting it done for the day and my food planned for the day and my resolve in place.

I have all my cute smaller clothes waiting for me in April/May and I will wear them and feel good in them

Have a great day everyone.

Happy
Are you okay? Never knew you not to have anything to say.

Shad
No baby yet, The last was a false alarm but I saw her today and goodness she looked exhausted. She told that at her drs appointment Friday that the baby would be born this week. She's ready to emerge and if the baby decides she is to comfortable the they will start to induce. By the way, We know that it is a girl.Her name is Olive Jo.
Yep I remembered to set the clock forward.

Susie
Isn't it easy to gain a couple of pounds but so hard. to take it off? I really admire you with the determination. Let's work together on this. I will get on the bike as soon as I'm through on the computer.

Laura
Have you chosen a new vehicle?

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Went to church this morning and a gift was given to my sis for her grand baby. I took it too them on the way home. The niece look so exhausted. She is ready to deliver.
I have an appointment with a consultant with the Metabolic Research center in Springfield on Wednesday
My mammogram is for Tuesday.
On Thursday my bff from Arkansas is coming for a visit. I'm excited in a way to see her, but I know that she can be a pain. I'm hoping that she doesn't take to her sick bed while she is here. I've already hinted that I cannot have roommates. Im going to make the best of it. She sounds energetic at the moment.

Good morning all,


You gave me a good laugh this morning - if me being quiet is a cause for alarm :rofl: :lol3: Reminds me of when I was smoking and someone told me they knew I was coming by because they recognized my cough :eek: What a way to be a legend :rofl: I figured I would just pop in and say hello - too many days pass and i realize I have not gotten in here.

Today's the day I start the first of the appointments with the dentist. Am I nervous? Yes. Was I thrilled about getting up at 5:30 this morning? No. I can't wait to be done with this. My stomach is wonky but I know I need to do this and I tell myself what I always do in these kind of situations - in 12 or 24 hours this will be behind me and you can do it. I don't know how I am going to keep my mouth open for 3 and a half hours. A feat even for me.

The temps are warming to above freezing which is bringing in heavy rains. With almost 2 feet of snow already on the frozen ground they are already talking about flooding. I hope this will not cause us problems. I thought my hot tub was on the fritz - the temp kept dropping to 87 degrees from 102 and then it would go back up again but then after 3 days of this, I figured out in the shower that perhaps I inadvertently set a timer which I did. Don't need any other costly repairs.

I am trying to ease off the volunteering slowly.

Ceejay - ah I remember your needy friend. I hope you don't get roped into something you'll regret. Just set the ground rules for her visit. I hope your niece has the baby soon. I'm sure it can get exhausting towards the end.

Susie - it's all about the mind set, you WILL get back on track. Wish a little bit of food didn't have such quick effects but a good reminder that once off track it can be a downward slide. You can do this!!

Shad - those are some big windows to replace. I hope it won't be too dear. I would also be trying to find the water to keep the garden alive. Not like you have green pastures of grass but I suppose if water conservation must be done, they will have to monitor it. That is NOT a problem I'd want to have to deal with. Will try and send some rain your way.

Laura - hope you are feeling better.

Hugs to you Annie - no word yet? My prayers are getting more fervent...

Sorry to be quick but I have to get ready to head out shortly. Let's all have a good day.

Afternoon all. We have sunny and 48 today, nice. I wasn't happy to get up in the dark again after DST kicked in, but I saw a beautiful sunrise yesterday, so that made up for it, LOL.

Ceejay - I bet your niece will be happy once she has the baby. Good luck to you with your bff's visit. Stand firm! I haven't chosen a vehicle type yet, but a Buick Lacrosse has been suggested. I haven't thrown out the idea of getting another Acura TLX. I'll have to do a test drive on the Lacrosse.

Shad - Ouch on the cost to replace those windows. Wait, that was to renovate the existing ones?! Yikes. Yes, I agree, maybe do a couple at a time. Sorry your French classes aren't going as well as you'd wish. My friend B is going to Italy later this year and is going to take a "conversational Italian" class, which I guess would teach you enough to get by as a traveler. I don't like fruit flavored black teas, but I do like citrus herbal teas every once in a while when I just want something warm to drink. My chai tea bags are just black tea with the spices, and not overly spicy. And the bonus is adding sweetener to your taste. I've never bought the sweetened chai syrups because they are usually too sweet, and I very rarely buy a chai from a coffee shop because that's what they usually use.

Susie - I loved still having daylight even by the time I got off the train last night. That makes the dark mornings bearable, LOL. I too had a 2-lb gain when I stepped on the scale yesterday morning. I ate poorly last week. This week will be different! Hopefully the longer days will motivate us to be more active too!

Happy - I hope the dental appointment went well today. Doesn't the dentist use a thingy that holds your mouth open? I can see that being a requirement when you have a long appointment time.

Hi Annie - Thinking of you and sending positive thoughts on your job search!! :hug: :goodvibes:

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Not much to report. I had to cancel my debit card yesterday after someone tried to use it to buy gas and martial arts lessons. Those transactions went through just after I used it to pay for lunch at a sandwich place at which I'll never eat again because of that. My bank communicated it to me within a couple hours via phone, email and text and I contacted them on my way home to get the card cancelled and get a replacement arranged. This isn't the only thing that's putting me off this sandwich chain. Another time less than a year ago, the same place entered the wrong dollar amount when running my debit card to pay for lunch. Not fraud, just an error because they're in a big fat hurry and not being careful. They give you the cash register receipt, but not the credit card receipt (systems aren't linked) so I didn't catch the error until I reconciled my bank account. And a few years ago, I complained to the place in person and via email about the high volume level of the music in this place - so loud you hear it even if you've got earbuds in your ears playing your own music or podcast. The response was indifferent. So even though it's convenient to my office, I'm writing them off permanently.

I went to my stretch class last night. It was good. We have two more classes left in the session. I don't think I'll repeat it if it's offered again at the same day/time - I don't like waiting until 7:30 pm for class. Especially on a Monday.

My membership to the fitness center ends today I think (I've been paying for two months at a time). I don't know if I'll continue with it. It seems my motivation has worn off and I'm once again not thrilled to go there just to do cardio, and I sure don't need to pay to do the mat exercises I do there that I can do at home.

Right now my foot feels fine because I'm doing no walking of any significant distance or speed, and I'm not doing any other exercise that impacts my foot. It's tempting to sign up for a more vigorous exercise class that I'd like, but I imagine the foot pain from the fracture will just return when I put weight on it. So I'm at a loss and I guess I should at least do exercise at home.

The NordicTrack stationary bike that I bought last year and subsequently got the refund for and was told to scrap (vs. them arranging pickup/return) is still sitting in the basement. I can use it on the lowest resistance, but I don't like the seat. I'd rather just get another brand. It'll be a PITA to get rid of that NT, and bf did try to sell it on craigslist without success. Grrr. It's just wasting space at the moment.

Bf has replaced the solenoid on our whole house humidifier and has it running. It is once again draining a lot more water than it did before we started having problems with it. Bf claims this is normal and I think that's ludicrous. So we have heated water going into the humidifier and just draining out a drain tube. All I have to get from this is a higher water bill and probably a higher gas bill too. I'm annoyed. Bf tells me I shouldn't complain because he's done the research. So I guess I'll do my own research and then make my suggestions.

Okay, I need to quit grousing and get back to work. Have a lovely rest of the day everyone!

Oh blessed rain. Finally we had a decent downpour last night, along with a great thunder and lightning show. It always amazes me how the plants suddenly go from :cry: to :carrot: :carrot: :carrot: overnight after these storms. Tap water just does not do the same thing for them. This weather is supposed to continue for around a week. Oh happy days. :dance: :dance: :dance: :dance: (line dancing by all my gardening friends)

Other than that, there isn't much to report. I finally gave up on the French class and my last act of kindness to them was to source some text books that the newcomers can't get. The text book used in class is supposedly out of print and it is much used by the U3A classes here in Australia. I finally found a book store online that has a stock of them so have communicated this to the class. Today I will go down there and take the paperwork back to the class and that will be that. A new course list should be on line by the 24th March so I will check for something else then.

Laura - Sunrises are just the best. Most days lately we haven't had much colour, no cloud, no colour, but todays was pretty good. Hopefully it will mean rain again today.
The window man came back with a quote per window and I will get two done in 2 weeks time and the other three will wait until renovation reaches that room. Once the painting, flooring, windows, wardrobe extensions and security doors are done, there isn't much else to do in the house - hallelujah. Outside is a different story.
Pain on the debit card. Glad you noticed it early This technological age is not always user friendly. We are going high tech too fast in my opinion and not enough is being done to protect our personal information and financial status.
Good luck on the research for the humidifier - however if you want humidity, come on over, you will be glad to get home to the drier air. I'm so tired of sweating.

Happy - thanks for sending the raid down. Much appreciated. I hear your despair over the volunteering stuff. I know when I was working and training people that it became so frustrating when they refused to change, sticking to the old ways or finding a way around the new ones. None of which was of any benefit to the new system. Then when all goes to **** in a hand cart, they throw up their hands and say they weren't trained properly.
How's it going at the dentist? Hope not too painful. But just think of the end result.

Ceejay - Hope the baby comes soon for the nieces sake. It's not nice being 91/2 months pregnant and feeling like a whale.
Have a great time with the bff and don't let her upset you or push your around. It's your place and the rules are yours.
How did the mammogram go?

Susie - like the mantra - just keep repeating that everytime you look at the fridge or pantry. Good on you for getting back into the exercise. Summer is coming and you don't want to be carrying all that weight around.

Well that's about it. DS2 was supposed to be coming early with the dog today, but he is now an hour later than he originally said. Probably doing some shopping on the way. Hardware stores and trade stores open early these days to cater for the working mob. Anyway it allowed me to get this done. I will now go off and make the bed, demolish the wardrobe in the spare bedroom and do some yard work before it rains again. See how positive I am that it WILL rain again. Oh oh, guess who has just arrived. See you.

BFF made it here today. She's taking a long nap this afternoon and that was to be expected.
I had my mammogram yesterday so that's over with for another year unless I'm a recall and I hope that is not the case. No results yet.
Also located the MRC office and went there yesterday. I'm not sure I want to do all the "pills" that are involved and I will not take them until the doctor see's what they are. I want him to say no. I don't like them being so pushy and I will not buy any more of there products.
Niece has been having some pains periodically but none that will say it's time. I'm ready to cuddle that little one. She told me Sunday that they will probably induce labor Friday if she still has not had the baby by then.
It is so windy today. Gust up to 40 mph.

Shad
I know you were happy to have all the rain. I do know for a fact that the plants do like the natural rain better than tap water. I think niece's due date is the 22 or 29th. We are just anxious for her to have it.

Laura
I don't like the bike seat on my bike either. I like the bike itself though. Later on when the weather is a bit warmer I'm going to go down to the park at least a couple of days per week.
Glad the foot is better.

Morning all. Happy Friday. I'd be happier if the boss hadn't removed the half day vacation from his calendar. Oh well. I'll get over it. But I might have taken my own vacation day if I knew that...

Shad - I'm glad you're getting the rain you need. I wonder if the rainfall is just more thorough than watering? I was gonna say it's more gradual, but you said you had a downpour... Too bad about the French class. Maybe the online classes will be good. And watch some French language movies. And maybe some French language podcasts? The app I use lets you speed up or slow down the playback. I just had a memory of my HS days taking Spanish. Our school had a "language lab" with sectioned off desks and audio for each student and I guess it was to allow the teacher to listen in on you to hear how you were doing with pronunciation? I can only remember using it once or twice - and I took 2 years of Espanol. I wonder if it was just something the school already had and thought they would utilize it more, but nope. Kind of a waste of space I think. == Yeh, the tech age is certainly not all wine and roses. I read an article to that effect, written on the 30th anniversary of the internet. Wow, how time flies!! Loved the fb pic of the orchid and the one of R. the dog in his pool. :)

Ceejay - Hope the visit w/ bff is going well. Yeh, we had the wind yesterday and up on the 51st floor it was banging against the windows, and the building was creaking. Not exactly pleasant. But we had a wee bit of sun for a brief time, and the temps were mild when I was out at lunchtime yesterday. Just a taste of spring...:flow1: Yes, it'll be so nice to get outdoors and actually enjoy being out.

Happy - Saw your fb post - glad you're getting yourself out of that volunteer stuff. It's time. Definitely take up those hobbies, I think you'd regret not doing that. You probably would have regretted not volunteering too, but now you've done it... and maybe you regret that you did it longer than you did when you weren't enjoying it anymore or at the least, feeling like it was doing those organizations good (because they didn't value your time/efforts). How did the dentist appointment go?? Oh, meant to ask you because I know you have a freezer unit in your lower level - do these freezer units typically have automatic defrost? Or is that usually in higher priced models? We have an old fridge/freezer in our basement - maybe 80's era, so totally energy inefficient. I opened the freezer the other night and the bottom "shelf" - the bottom surface had heaved up in one corner. The freezer was still freezing/working, but bf had to push it back in place so the door would close and seal. He thinks a seal around the bottom surface (with the freezing elements underneath) (not the door gasket) gave way. So now we're thinking we better replace it with something else. We hardly ever use the fridge section, just the freezer. So anyway, if you can share any tips for getting a new freezer, that would be great.

Hellos to Annie & Susie!! :wave:
==
I went to a zoning commission meeting at our village hall last night about a new housing development that will affect the commuter parking lot I use. It was interesting, but I wish I'd known they were televising it live on our village's cable channel. I thought they just filmed it and then showed it after the fact. But no, someone on the board mentioned it in passing. Anyway, this is a big deal, so the room was packed and too warm for me. I was lucky to get a surface I could lean/sit on because all the chairs were taken. But it was interesting - the process, the resident input, etc. But...it was still going on and on after 9:30 when I left. When I got home, I turned on the tv to see if it was on, and yes it was. So I watched a bit more, then it was getting late and bf was still watching when I went to bed. I'm ultimately okay with the plan, but I think it's great that resident's stated their concerns and questions. And I hope the village and developer slow down and address the concerns - some of that was done, but there's obviously still concerns. And I love that these people challenge the traffic studies and school district impact projections and financial impact. Thank goodness for these people!

No special plans for the weekend. Shopping with mom tomorrow. I started my taxes last weekend and am not happy with the result. I'll look at it again this weekend to be sure it's correct and can't be a better outcome for me.

That's about it for me. Have a great weekend everyone. :)

Hi Ladies,
Last week was busy. Work is work but I have not been working late at all. I am asked, where is this, and I have stated that unless a priority is given any routine scheduling, printing, data entry etc will be finished by the end of the next business day after I receive it

One thing I am learning is teach people the way you want them to treat you.

Home life was busy last week, the all girls had concerts one night,Layna had the musical this weekend. We had a birthday dinner to attend for a friend and Thursday night is TOPS night.

I did work out every day...I am getting up at 5 am to be on the treadmill by 5:15 so I can get a 30 min workout in with a 5 min cool down and 5 min of stretching. Then into the shower, pack lunch and get ready for work and commute...which is so much easier now. It is about 40 min each day one way but I dont have the traffic I did when we were at the other location :)

I stayed the same at TOPS. This week I am going to cut out my afterwork snack...even though I try to keep it healthy, I find myself having to have it and it is for energy when I get home...I relax with the snack. I am going to have a big glass if water instead and set a timer and let myself have 30 to 45 min of quiet..maybe a quick nap, or I am going to read during that time.

I will try to come back for personals later

Good morning ladies,


I started a big ole long post over the weekend and was adding to it between things. Then last night my computer was acting wonky with internet - kept getting errors that I was not connected. I think our service is sucko - anyway it got to the point I could not do anything internet related and I had to reboot. I lost the screen I was working on with cannot connect internet errors. :mad: So if at first you don't succeed... ;)


Will try to summarize. Dentist appointment - they have to drill off all of my crowns. Thought they'd yank them out, especially because they are so wiggly loose but they said pulling on them would damage the underlying tooth stub. I started out ok but at about 90 minutes in, I suddenly got hit with this horrible wave of phobia. Had to make them stop because I went roaring down the tunnel of panic attack. I knew I should have popped a valium beforehand but did not anticipate this reaction because I have had a lot of dentist work in the past. This was a first. I guess I don't like that drill which is bad because I have a whole LOT of drilling ahead of me. After about 15 minutes of sitting there and some oxygen, they asked if I wanted nitrous oxide and I agreed. It helped me to refocus away from the nerves and I was able to stare at the ceiling tiles and count spots and make patterns with the lines in the ceiling tile textures. We adjusted the future appointments to about 2 hours each. Thank goodness because the next appointment would have had them working on the bottom 9 teeth and that would have been a doozer. I felt embarrassed about the reaction but they were so kind and understanding - said it happens to other patients. They formed the temporary crown by gluing the 3 teeth together instead of individual temporaries so that seems to be holding up better.


There is still drama at the Senior Center with the receptionist / secretary who is massively immature and is playing vindictive games. She is purposely doing things that waste my time and I hit the wall last week. Decided I am done with the games, not going to waste my precious volunteer time and fired back one of my cannons. DH is at the same point. Something has to give. I am delighted that outside of bingo this week, I have the whole week to myself.


It's starting to warm up. We are supposed to be in the 50's temperatures towards the week's end. We still have a ton of snow - did have freezing overnight so there are ice ponds to be maneuvered. Yesterday we were pulling up to the house and the turkeys were running from us - several of them slipped on the ice but since they can flap their wings they were able to stay upright. If I had caught a video of one actually falling on it's butt, it would have killed my sister with fits of laughter! Spring is coming. You can smell it in the air, you can hear the birds songs, the deer's coats are changing colors as they start to shed their winter coats. I'm sure under all this snow shortly we will see shoots of green that those deer are waiting for.


So I'm going to stay home this week and get caught up on things unless we plan a trip to Duluth. I would like a run at Sam's Club again.


Susie - I am so HAPPY that you are setting boundaries for your work and expectations. People will push as much as they can and unless you are insubordinate, they won't fire you for setting reasonable expectations. Sometimes you just have to do that. I admire your fortitude about the early morning exercise routine. I think it helps to start the day that way and give you some positive energy and peace of mind getting it out of the way. Glad the commute to your new location is less stressful. Will be interesting - and please update us - if your snack time is satisfied with just some r & r time - it was like when I was smoking - going out for a cigarette sometimes was a chance to get away from the chaos and decompress for 10 minutes. I have been cutting back my portions and often if I have a bigger lunch I don't eat a lot for dinner but then around 9pm I am looking for a little something (at this point it's 3 or 4 hours until bed for me) and I find that giving up that late night snack is really difficult. So good luck with your plan.


Ceejay - I hope you are having a good time with your friend and that she is being a friend and not a demanding burden. Any news on your niece and the new baby?


Laura - we needed an extra refrigerator out in Tennessee where we kept it in the garage. The appliance guy recommended with the excessive heat of the south or cold of the north that you not put a refrigerator in the garage - the compressor has to work too hard to keep the refrigerator at one temp and the freezer at another. So get a refrigerator - no freezer or a stand alone freezer. Since we already had the smaller refrigerator when we moved here (which we keep in the basement) when we needed the freezer space, we researched that. Chest type freezers are generally not self defrosting and I didn't like the chest one because I am short and even with interior baskets, it seemed inefficient to dig through stuff looking for things. So we opted for a stand up frost freezer, self defrost upright freezer. A Whirlpool brand I think but I can check if you like. In fact it lasted about 5 years and then we replaced it with the same, newer model. One of those expensive worn out parts that made more sense to just replace it. I like the freezer, there is lots of light in it to see things. It keeps stuff at negative 5 degrees so everything is nice and rock hard. When we lost power, it kept everything frozen for 3 days which was pretty impressive. I do not have to defrost it. At Dh's suggestion, I purchased plastic organizing trays and have those on the shelves so I have chicken, pork, beef all nicely sorted. The shelves are glass and sturdy because stuff doesn't sit easy on the wire racks and frozen stuff can be heavy - the tempered glass works out better. And yes, I would agree that the higher priced models have the frost free. Not sure any chest type of self defrosting no matter what the price. I can't see defrosting a freezer so any extra cost was worth it to me - especially when I have 1/2 a pig or 1/4 of a cow in there at any given time. Hope that answers your questions. Happy shopping. I think it's good that you are babying that foot of yours. You can try to gently push it a bit but be very mindful so as not to head back down that pain road. I am having the same concern with the tendonitis. It seems to go dormant rather than completely heal up. You will probably need an almost ski boot type of shoe with excellent protection to support that foot. Or maybe gently wrap it to support it = then you need 2 different types of shoes. Guess you need to move to water exercise!


Shad - I am so happy to hear that you finally got a bit of lovely rain. How happy the plants must be. We have well water and even with that natural untreated stuff, the plants still appreciate the rains. Sorry to hear you gave up the French classes - I'm sure you can find something to occupy the mind. How nice of you to help out with the books for the students. And you are right - I much prefer the drier air up here even with the dry skin, quickly drying produce and the abundance of static electricity over the heavy wet humidity down south. I hated in the summer that I'd take a shower and could never dry off completely even with a fan blowing on me. Talk about getting your underwear in a bunch! :rofl: So hard to get clothes on a damp body. :lol: Your flowers are absolutely beautiful. I know you like fragrance, I like color and you certainly have that. Bummer on the expensive window repairs. But new ones are hopefully energy efficient so that should give you some savings over time.


Hello to Annie :wave: wish you'd check in. I keep praying for you girl - like you say God's time but I'm getting impatient. :(


Got to post now. DH kept interupting me because he was trying to compose a note and then when he's done it's like "are you going to be ready for lunch" well yeah, I would have been if I could have focused on my task at hand. :rolleyes: So now I need to go get cleaned up.


Have a good week everyone.

Afternoon

I set boundaries while ago. It is a big pet peeve of mine not to be able to plan ahead and with bff I can not. Today I did my own thing. Had a weigh in at 10.30 in which I had lost 1.5 pounds woot woot. and then on to the gym to walk on the treadmill and use a couple of weight machines. She has asked me to fix stew meat with certain veggies so that's what I'm doing now. It's in the crock pot. She keeps saying she would like to do this or that. so I'm waiting. Today I told her that if I get out in Springfield I try to do it while there is less traffic which is from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.. I told her today that if we were going to point a lets go at 1 p.m. tomorrow. If she doesn't get up I'm not even going to ask her to do any thing else. It all involves her time line. She mentioned this morning that their house need to have renovations done that involves mold removal Oh no, I'm trying nt to show anxiety but it is here.

Happy
Yes our baby girl is here. She weighed 6 pounds 10 ounces and has a head full of black hair. Her hair looks curly but her dad has curly hair also. I have pictures on FB.
Good for you in stepping down from most of he volunteering.
I had a mild panic attack when I was int the dentist chair. I raise my arm up and started waving my hand. The dentist raised me up immediately. I was gasping for air.

Hello to all the rest. Send me some good vibes please.

Happy: Oh my with the dentist appointment; I was getting nervous just reading about it. I'm glad they knew what to do to keep you from wigging out....as I get older I seem to be getting closterfobic and I can feel myself starting to panic. It can be something like my feet have been in boots to long, or the seat belt is bothering me; or my coat feels like it is suffocating me I will try to talk to myself and calm myself down but the only thing that takes it away is I have to get the boots off, or the socks or the seat belt or the coat.

We are havin more sunlight and that is so nice but I still don't feel that 'hit of spring". Enjoy your week before you with no committments!

Ceeyjay: I saw the post of the new baby...she is so pretty. Good for you for that great loss!

Laura: Are you able to do the rower with your foot? I remember that you seem to really like that piece of exercise equipment.

Shad: I'm so glad you got rain...is everything looking lush.

Annie: I sure am missing you and what is going on with your family and yoursel. I'm still praying for the job situation...I know God will be faithful. Love your sister friend.

Dee: Are you out there? I would love to hear from you.

When I came home from work, I got a big glass of water, drank it and then layed down for about 30 min.....and closed my eyes. I did have a peppermint when iI got up but then I was ok to pay some bills, and emptied the dishwasher. We had salads and baked potatos from Bob Evans tonight. My friend who is personally chefing for me, needed today off. Her dad had a mild heartattack on Saturday and they were going to do some testing today.

I am heading to bed. I hope to make it back tomorrow.

Morning all.
No sign of bff today She's still in her room. I'm not sure why she does this. Why did she even come up here? I haven't been waiting on her hand and foot either. I just told myself I'm older and can't deal with it. Now she is leaving her dishes in the sink and leaving things in the garbage disposal. ugh This will be the last time she comes to visit. She was okay until I told her that my nephew who stayed with me works with social security. :lol: He's been by a couple of times. I told her we could go to point A today if she were ready to go by 1.00 p m If she isn't I'm going to the gym. I'm not putting my life on hold for her. Sorry to be this way. She and niece were texting back and forth and I know she was wanting me to feel sorry for her and say just stay up here, but I politely told her I can have visitors but no roommates.
I'm not going to do personals.

Pretty good day. Accomplished a lot at work. Had a good workout this morning on the recumbent bike and got to take a good afternoon walk in the building. My Fitbit steps show it.

Ceejay: it is strange that your BFF comes to visit but doesnt really spend time with you.

It sounds stressful to have her visit.

Hey ladies. I have lost a couple of posts that just peed me off to no end. I am going to type it in Word and paste. Will be back later.

Well today is Wednesday. Stargate 3 2019. Been on this ship since October 2018. Nothing on the dang job front. One interview at Don’t Drive Naked. Google it. Vehicle wrap place. 15 an hour and NO benefits. Well I can get that much on unemployment. Yes, got signed up for it. Used to be a disgrace to me, but h*ll I have worked 50 years and by gum I am going to collect it. Sorry if this offends any of you. Seems my demeanor is brash. I need a break. Depression and ungratefulness has set in. Severance has ended and insurance ends at the end of March. Nothing much to look forward to. I just want to go to work.

Did a two day stent in the hospital in February. Vertigo so bad I couldn’t walk, vomiting and dry heaves. After an IV, nausea meds and vertigo meds I got to come home. Couldn’t drive for 2 weeks. Now I have no job and 10K in medical debt. Oh whoa is me. Pull my big girl panties up and stop whining. I know. I get that.

Had a root canal last week. OMGOSH one of the worst pains ever. Had it on Friday and pain didn’t stop this Tuesday. I have yet another one next week on Tuesday. Trying to get everything in before insurance expires. More bills to come.

Let’s see.. Royce turned 5 last week. Sam had a bd party for him at Great Times. A game place. I told her I couldn’t help her with the cost this year and she amazingly took care of it. Hmmmmm. She is babysitting more kiddos now so that helps her. Doesn’t help with my sanity tho. Haha Royce starts kindergarten in the fall, Jacob will be in 2nd grade. Where the heck did that time go?

Jacob had a little singing program at school a couple of weeks ago. It was really cute. He got cracked up after seeing us in the crowd making faces at him. Then we got cracked up laughing at him. It was really cute.

C did get his route sold and he drives the route for the guy that bought it. He gets a regular paycheck with taxes taken out. The good news is we paid off our Toyota Hilander so that is one less bill to worry about.

Taxes…well on Cs business taxes we owe 500.00 fed and 1300.00 state which is much better than I thought it would be. Still another bill. We have not yet gotten our personal taxes done yet. Hopefully we can get a refund to cancel out the business taxes.

Hoping warm sunny weather gets here soon as I know that will help my mood. At least I could be depressed in sun drinking iced tea. Yep still sober. 3 ½ years. At least I don’t have that desire or allowing this work situation effect my sobriety.

My brother from St. Louis came over last weekend. All I did is cook and bake his favorite things. I was worn out after that 4 days. Irish stew, apple pie, pineapple upside down cake, cheeseball, roast with all the fixings, orange cranberry muffins. I can’t even remember the rest of it.

Nothing is fun anymore. Everything feels like a huge chore. I need to get some things done around the house and am not motivated. Guess I am in a slump.

Thank you all for the continued support…prayers, thoughts, good mojo, light a candle. I love you all for everything.

Afternoon all.

Susie - Good to set the expectations so people aren't taking advantage, or disappointed when they expect things much sooner than can be done. == Great job getting up early and getting the exercise done before anything can get in the way. I need to get myself on a morning exercise track. I think I've decided not to dither over cardio workouts. I'm going to do strength training and other types of exercise like Pilates and yoga based on the videos and equipment I have and maybe some you tube stuff. Good idea to try to be fine with a glass of water. A good chunk of my (over)eating is mindless/automatic/boredom eating. When I keep busy, it helps. It's when I'm planted on the sofa watching tv that I look for food.

Happy - How horrible to have that panic attack during your appointment. Good to just get the stuff to put you out enough not to suffer through it. And making the appointments shorter. Don't forget the valium for next time!! (Or is it a no-no to have that if you're going to take the nitrous o.? Thanks for the freezer tips. We've decided not to get a dedicated freezer with auto-defrost. We don't really need a full-size freezer, so we'll forego that cost and buy a used fridge/freezer combo on craigslist. I pulled the manual for the basement fridge (was upstairs when we bought our house 19 years ago). It turns out to have been purchased in 1984 - it's 35 years old!!! Guess we got our use out of it and now ComEd can pay us $50 to let them take it away!

Ceejay - Congrats to you and your family on the new baby. Yep, odd that your bff isn't taking advantage of her time with you and is wasting it sleeping. I guess she has issues.... Good for you being prepared and not letting her talk you into some kind of living arrangement you don't want!!!

Annie - Awful you had to go to the hospital to deal with the vertigo! I hope you're okay now. And the root canal!! When it rains it pours. But good to do that while you're still insured. Any insurance to be had through C's job?? I'm keeping my fingers crossed for some job opportunities to come your way. :crossed: :hug: Good to hear that C. sold his route and now has no more hassles with the business crap. Well, after the taxes are paid...

Okay, have to shut down and catch my train. Take care all of you. Hey Shad - are you in the path of that cyclone???!!!

Morning
The beginning of the week was horrible. She kept texting me from her room complaining about it being hot. She expected me to wait on her hand and foot and I refused to do that job. She was hoping to move up here and I had to verbally say that I cannot have roommates per sis. She wants to be in control of everything and I'm not standing for that. I told her that my window of time to getting out and doing things is between 9 and 2. It makes me nervous to drive in heavy traffic. She wants to be in control of her niece to whom she lives with now which isn't going to well either. She kept trying to wear me down but I finally told her that I'm soon to be 69 and I WILL NOT be taking care of you, and that I can barely take care of myself. I have health issues also. All of a sudden she got better.
Enough ranting. She's leaving tomorrow.

Annie
I will send more good vibes for you and family. So good to see your post. By the way, your little ones are so cute.

Laura
If I didn't have Silver Sneakers I would probably cancel my membership this summer and work outside for exercise. I didn't want BFF to bring up the fact that I was going to the gym so I told her I was doing therapy. I'm trying to walk a mile every day. Takes me about 38 minutes at a setting of 1.6 miles per hour.

Guess I'd better get the washer going. Have a good week end.

My friend is on her way back to Arkansas :dance:

Good morning everyone,


I had the week mostly to myself and was looking forward to it but it zoomed by like it was on a bullet train. There were days where I looked at the clock and it was 8pm - where did the day go? I signed up for a bunch of free classes and made the mistake of thinking a new lesson came out every OTHER week but they actually come out TWICE a week. So I am behind in my classes and they will drop me if I don't catch up by Wednesday. I took 3 Microsoft Office products classes, one on weightloss, one on website development and one on non-profit management. The one on non-profits is pretty intense, requires a lot of work. These classes used to be $100 each - I took them in the past (different subjects of course) but now they are offered free through the library system. This week when we were at Sam's Club an outdoor flat top griddle caught DH's eye. So we bought it. Yesterday was a beautiful day so we made pork chops for him, salmon for me, griddled asparagus and I served it with a salad of greens with pecan bits, blueberries and strawberries. Good dinner. Although the asparagus was griddled with a lemon butter and it was too lemony for me. Sam's had really good produce - the strawberries were red, juicy and delicious - not like they taste in the grocery store right now. DH went out yesterday to run some errands and texted me when he was in the driveway. We had a bald eagle sitting in the tree across the driveway. DH discarded some older suet and refreshed the cage and the eagle had it's eye on the suet on the ground. It sat in the tree for at least 10 minutes before it flew off. Don't know if it got any. That was pretty cool to see.


Ceejay - glad your friend is gone and you can have your peace back. It always seems to be the same story with her, never an enjoyable visit for you. You have to remember that. Good for you for getting a walk in each day.


Laura - the refrigerator we had when we bought our house in AH was fairly old and we put it in the basement when we remodelled the kitchen and it was still running when we moved out. Like yours, lasts longer than the newer stuff. We only bought a stand up freezer because we had planned on buying 1/2 cows and pigs from the farm. I think you made a good choice with the regular refrigerator / freezer combo. Have you made a decision on your car - weren't you thinking of getting a new one?


Annie, Annie, :hug: my poor friend. :( When it rains it just MONSOONS in your life, doesn't it? :cry: I'm sorry about all the expensive woes and I don't know if I can pray any harder than I am (well yeah, I probably could) for you to get a job already. Geez... I get on my soapbox for a minute - they brag about this great economy and all the jobs that are available and I say bunk. Are they LIVEABLE wages? :no: I'm sorry about the root canals - they are not easy to deal with. I do hope that the ray of sunshine smiles down on you SOON. I'm glad that C sold his route - at least you don't have to deal with truck maintenance any more. PLEASE LET THINGS GET BETTER FOR YOU and thanks for posting. We do miss you ever so much. And we are so proud of you maintaining your sobriety through it all. :hug: I can't believe how Royce is growing up. He seemed to do it faster than his brother although perhaps because Royce was more "toddler" looking. Blink twice and they are driving :lol:


Susie - glad that the water is working for you instead of snacking. I am curious about your personal chef. Do tell more. I'm always looking to "tweak the plan". ;) So proud you are holding fast to balance and your time.


Shad, hope the weather is breaking for you and you are looking at hints of autumn just as we are looking at peeks of spring here. Encouraging. Will autumn bring welcome rains too? Still making progress on all the house work/repairs/remodelling?


We are supposed to go to breakfast so I will end this post for now. Have a good week everyone.

Afternoon all. Bright and sunny, but not even 40 at the moment. Oh well. I'm enjoying the view from our office. The sun shimmering off the lake in the morning, and the blue of the water after that. :)

Ceejay - Back to usual and not being on guard with your friend trying to make a home in your place! I'm relieved for you, lol. Good plan with the one mile walk per day. :yes: I need to figure out how much I walk between the train station and the office now. I thought it was the same distance as the old office location, but it feels longer. I think it's just the escalator and two elevators once I'm in the building that makes it longer.

Happy - We had a nice Saturday here too. I think it was several degrees warmer than forecast - in the 50's vs 40's. Nice. Good luck with your classes! How many? Sounds like a lot of work! That's okay - keep you out of trouble. :D No decision yet re the car. I'm not in a big hurry, as long as it's running well, which it is (knock on wood).

Hellos to the rest of your!! :wave:

==
Weekend was fine. Saturday I took mom grocery shopping. Bf put a new battery in the sedan - it was lower on power than it should be and that's probably why it didn't start on a couple of our really cold days. This morning I discovered the radio doesn't work - but there's a code that has to be entered to get it back. I guess this is a common thing with this car after a battery change... Bf also had the oil changed last week - or was it the week before that?? Anyway, all's good so far. I've got this week left on the commuter parking lot permit, so I'm hoping the temps will warm up and I can start cycling to the train in April. :crossed:

As for replacing our basement fridge, once we factored in getting someone to deliver it, buying one used on craigslist would not have been worth it. We ended up getting a brand new fridge from our favorite electronics/appliance store. It's a floor model/out of box item and we got a great deal for something new and under warranty, with free delivery. Plain old fridge - no icemaker/water dispenser, etc. Perfect. It's being delivered this afternoon. Bf has arranged the pickup by ComEd of our old fridge next week and we also get $50 for doing it. :carrot:

The dvds I ordered for my BOSU trainer arrived Friday. I bought the BOSU (google it) used years ago and haven't used it much. I finally decided to get some workout videos for it. They were from the site of the BOSU company, and they were free. They are intended for personal trainers to instruct them how to use them with their clients. I watched the beginning of one and I'm happy that they are in the format of an actual workout class. And because of their purpose, they have a lot of great tips for using it. I have seven different dvds. I also have a couple other workout dvds I bought at the thrift shop a couple weeks ago that I want to try out.

I wish I could have tried one out this weekend, but I woke up Saturday with a sore rib in the back. No idea how that happened. Must have slept oddly. I was uncomfortable moving around too much, so I had to take it easy. I'm trying to decide if I want to go to the final stretching class tonight because I'm still sore.

I replaced my wallet and that arrived on Saturday. It's bigger and has more slots and compartments. We'll see how it works out... I'd rather downsize, but I just have too much junk I *think* I need to carry around. Sigh.

Sunday bf and I had breakfast with my former coworker who is now retired. We also bought two paint sample sizes for the powder room. I did a load of laundry. I finally watched the rest of the final season of "The Americans" series. I really liked that show.

I overheard bf talking on the phone to his mother in the afternoon yesterday ranting about how awful the basement was and how it overwhelms him so much he's just given up. That really ticked me off because it's a lot of his junk that's making it that way. I've decided to leave his workshop/tool area to him to dig out, but I'll take on the rest of the basement. He's not a natural at organization by any stretch of the imagination - none of his stuff has a home, and he's also the type that thinks throwing money at it will solve the issue. I'm so annoyed at him about this. I was glad when he left the house to go shop for his mom.

Okay, I've got to get back to work. Have a great rest of the day everyone. :flow1:

I've had a headache today. I'm not sure why.
Yesterday was church and afterwards we went to see the baby. She is adorable.
I asked the man who did a lot of work here 2 years ago when I moved in to come and check on a couple of things , The entry way over head light has started flickering and my garbage disposal has quit. I have to get a new one for him to install later and a new light switch.
I had a doctor's appointment this morning, then went to the gym. My goal is to walk 1 mile. I can't do a 15 minute walk . Takes me around 35 minutes. I'm a turtle.
I'm curious as to what is going on between my friend and her niece. Her niece was really nice when she brought her up here but was a bit snappy when she came to get her. I know it is partly because my friend is really bossy and wants to be in charge of everything. and a know it all and wants everything her way..
I can only imagine what living with her full time would be.

Laura
I really need to go through my closets once again and get new homes for some things I don't use.

Hi Ladies,
I am happy to share 6 lb loss at TOPS last Thursday!

The weekend was a crazy one. It was a long weekend. DH took Friday to watch all the basketball games. He did have a doctor appt in the AM so we went out for breakfast...I love to have breakfast out.

Saturday morning I did one load of laundry and then my 13 yr old front loading washer front loading just stopped working. The drum wouldnt turn. For about the last 6 months the noise from the washer was getting louder and louder during the spin cycle and the guy who worked on my washer and dryer told me it was the bearings going out and it wasnt economical to fix it as it is usually $500 to 600 and to just use it until the noise got to me or it quit and it did just that on Saturday. My new one is comingnon Friday.

My brother and family are away on vacation this week so I did most of the laundry there on Saturday. I am doing a load of undergarments there tomorrow after work.

I hate it when appliances quit working!

I am going to go eat dinner and I will come back later for personals

Back to do personals.

Annie: it was so very good to hear from you.

Congratulations on your sobriety milestone. That isnt easy and it is something you have to live out everyday.I am very proud of you.

I was glad to hear that Curtis got the route sold, fingers crossed that your income tax return covers what you need and also a few "wants".

I enjoy seeing the pictures you post on Facebook.

I continue to pray for your job hunting.

Happy: it sounds like yiur time at home went fast....at least it was due to you doing what you wanted instead of your time being taken by what others want.

I saw the eagle picture on your Facebook page! That had to be amazing to see and to see it in your backyard!

Laura: I think you wimm really enjoy your new workout dvds, they sound really good and the sort of thing you like.

I had to laugh at your plan to clean the garage, it sounds like what I would do in the same situation.

Ceejay: It is great you are doing the walking. Dont worry about the distance timing. What counts is you do it routinely.

I loved seeing the picture of Olive....babies are just awesome and make a person feel good!

Hello Shad: any rain yet?

I am getting my clothes ready for tomorrow and then get in bed. That 5:00 am alarm that I set so I can get in 30 min workout before works sure seems early when it goes off.