[Roseblush]

Hello Teel welcome back so sorry you aren't feeling very well. That is no fun at all. We are looking forward to the stories of your trip. It is always nice to learn of new places through other people.
Potatoes you say...... well, let me say this first.... it is almost impossible to buy a good yukon gold potato that we grow so well in this state at our local supermarket....very frustrating. Only the best potatos are shipped to everyplace else. State that are allowed to accept a less grade potato get them!!!!!! The country is very different south and east of me..... fields and fields of them.... and the schools are so much newer and better it is amazing to see the difference. WE are a poverty county so things are different here as a whole. No more logging...limited mining.... no jobs not allowed to develop in so much of the area.
Shad wow girl you are an inspiration for us all!!!! What a great feeling to be shedding some of the old clothes that you use to wear.... the pounds might not be coming off but you are toning and slimming in muscle mass and that is most important.... some woman just have a more physical body that keeps weight but tones.
I went swimming yesterday after a storm and my little dog came over to the pond by herself and acted like she wanted to be out there with me so I went over and put her on my life jacket that I just open up and use like a float and she stayed. It made me smile how brave she is for her 4lbs. and how it is everything to just be with me. She is my best companion for all the hours I spend alone.
There is party today at a club a gal I know just sold to celebrate so that will be a fun introduction for my friend. There is an older gal who called that wants to go but refuses to go into any establishment alone....so we will meet her and go right after work tomorrow......I am up early to finish some house work and try to feel like I am ready for company.
There is so much work that needs to be done in my house. Even though it has been 4 years since my divorce and the boys have been gonefor 2... I have not gone through stuff and sorted it all out... it is like being left with a house full of 3 others life and possesions......The transition when we left alaska and arrived was aburpt and rude for me. I feel like I am still sort of processing all of it.... but little by little I am facing it a bit better.
Love to talk to you girls...hope everyone has a good day. Mel thanks for the quote and hope your weekend is better. What is everyone doing??????
Peace,
Nae

[MELODY525]

Miss Shad i need some of your energy over here! I am determined to re-box everything in these new boxes I got. their lids are attached and i am going to use a bit ogf velcro in the open end. With all your talk of painting Jen and I re in the mood for "color"!!! Hope the weekend is good and let us know which color DS2 decides on?! Will it be a repaint?! Should we take bets?!

Teel~God, How sorry I am to heasr about not feeling well. Things were going so well there for awhile! Hang in there. Too bad about the parents and Holly though I am sure you miss her. You could have curled up with a book and the meds and your simon and Garfunkle!!! Feel better Friend and be well soon!(((((((((get well hugs)))))))))))

Happy~ I was wondering myself about the questions you and DH are asking each other. Seems like job hunting is not easy and it would be a shame to miss an opportunity. Many thoughts to ponder I see. Good luck. Hope you find the walkman thingy and get out there and sprint away!!! But be careful!!! No more falling down on the "job" stuff for you!!! We need you in good shape!! Don't want you missing any part of the summer!

Nae~ The going out bit sounds nice. i used to meet friends outside of places too. I would never walk into a place alone! *gasp* *gasp*! for someone with a big mouth, I am very shy if that makes any sense! My bark is much worse than my bite!! Have a great time and enjoy. The dog and you almost made me cry. Why can't people love unconditionally?! It is a mystery to me why we act at times the way we do?! ((((((HUGS))))) for you both!

I have had a very strange week, glad it's over, and will Mel-low out for the next 2 days I hope. There have already been 2 plumbing problems since 4PM so this does not bode well for the weekend to come! I might sort a box at a time and watch old movies on DVD. Sounds like a plan. I'll see how the weather is. If it's humid I am not going out. This weather made me feel distressed in the chest a bit today. I think only cause all the crap. OOOOOHHHH I forgot to tell you!!!!! I got a $350 check today!!!!! Jen will deposit it and I'll pay off another bill but I want to buy one small thing for myself. I don't know yet what to get. I also had to put $25 into a kitty cause a very lovely lady is retiring "with" me. We always said we would go together and in the end we did! Her party is on the 28th!! I will miss her terribly. She was a dear friend, caring and generous to both myself and my daughter for years. We were friends these last 16 1/2 years here. She lives down the shore so we will talk on the phone at least. Anyway.....now I will see if the $50 a month starting in august will commence and keep on coming. Tomorrow I have to let the bookkeeper into the offices. Anothe audit is imminent. God bless the state of NJ and all their AUDITS!!
But it will make me a wee bit richer!! For $50 I'll open all the offices every weekend! I must go cause I have written a book and my back is killing me!!

Happy~ I think it may be the keyboard!!! Also, my eyes feel like each one should be able to watch their own side of the board!!! One eye for each half????

Have a great weekend everyone and be well and happy!! thanks for all the kind words this week. It made life so much nicer!

[Shad]

Those keyboards do need a bit of getting used to Mel. Some people love them, some hate them but they do take a bit of getting used to - this I do know.

Nae, nice of you to take the dog for a swim. Shad used to love the beach, he would sniff out the sea about a kilometre away and would start getting very very excited. Once in sight of the sea, there was not stopping the mutt. He was gone and wet and happy. Sometimes it took forever to get him out. When I lived in Townsville, we went to the beach every Sunday as it was less that 10 minutes away.
Teel, good to hear from you again. I was about 10 steps away from the phone when your message cane through. I'd told myself I would ring if we hadn't heard from you by teatime my time. (Didn't want to get you out of bed)
Mel, I have posted you an envelope. It should get to you in about 10 days always provided your tame goons in the immigration dept don't get their hands on it. There is no note in with it, you will understand why you have it, I am sure, when you open it. I was going to jazz it up some more, but thought that the more I do to it, the more likely it will be that it gets opened and/or destroyed. Let me know if it doesn't arrive within 10 days.
Happy, keep mulling around in your head what you want to do with yourself, and see what comes up that may fit the bill. You have a little time to sort yourself out yet. And keep talking about it to the DH, let him know how you feel and what you are feeling right now. That way, there may not be some nasty surprises if you don't go back to work immediately and you have the separation anxiety etc. etc.

DS has decided to go with the butter yellow walls. I love it, so cheerful looking and you can cool it off with white and with a redbrown timber floor it will look good, or you can jazz it up with colour trims and skirting. I've been there this morning and finished undercoating the last bedroom. DS put the second coat on his bedroom and we looked at the skirting for the other room. I've come home to grout the bathroom floor and get ready for the big MAYBE. As in maybe the vanity will go in tomorrow. I hope so anyway. So I guess I better go get on with it and think about the waste pipe for the basin while I am getting the grout ready.

So I'll be back later - jeez I feel sleepy at the moment. Maybe 5 minutes on the couch!!!

[MELODY525]

Must be a secret button on this board to close the internet! I was typing and AOL shut down altogether! Grrrrr

I have decided to post in the forum first, then the journal and leave commenting there for later. I am spending all my energy trying to read and type. My eyes are not "awake"!! Energy level is highest early so I will use it for myself and my needs first.... the journal can wait. I think it makes me lazy too. By the time I get started, I feel like I lost the day! Making some new rules for myself!

Shad~ I have marked the calendar for your mysterious post. Will I be arrested when it gets here? Handcuffed and beaten with a rubber hose till I confess as to the sender???
Hope you sent me some uniforms!! It might be worth the beating and the hot lights
What more can I say about all your exercise? Next thing you know your under drawers will be falling off too! Try not to do THAT in front of the open window!

Well Girls, the boxes are calling my name and I best get a start. I promised myself at best that I will be doing things for me today. I have allowed myself to become so cluttered again that the mess is paralyzing my efforts everywhere else. Gives you that old defeatist attitude!
So I am off to flylady the bedroom first. Lately, I haven't even wanted to go in there!

Have a great weekend!

[happy2bme]

Good morning ladies,
Mel, I hear you on cutting back on your time here on the boards. I have had to myself. Not that I want to, but sometimes I spend way too much time here and things that should be getting done are not. This place should be part of the 15 mnute reward after 15 minutes of work routine, not where I'm spending most of my time. Hence the reason my posts have been a little light lately.

It's very cool today - 66 degrees right now, a bit breezy and absolutely perfect weather to be working outside. We have an area around the tree out front that needs to be cleaned out from the blighted leaves, lot of fresh dirt put in and leveled out. We probably will put some flagstone under the tree and a bench to sit in the shade and watch the world go by. The tree has a fungus and we had to be able to collect and sweep away the leaves before they fall to the ground, decompose and reinfect the soil and tree roots. This is requiring some collective thinking on our part. Anyway, this is the perfect weather to be doing this. I got the dirt yesterday and DH is out raking away as I type this. Tomorrow he wants to do a trip to the botanical gardens again. I think I'll pack a nice picnic for us as I have more fruit in my kitchen at the moment than most fruit groves

Seems like we're all a bit busy lately with things to do, people to see or just enjoying a bit of quiet time. Teel, I hope you will be feeling better soon.

I had better get a move on, I have found that raking and pulling weeds and shoveling - all that grunting effort is also good for thinking about life and settling the brain. Seems I have a lot on my mind lately - but in a good way, instead of being paralyzed with fretting and indecision, it's now more a matter of sorting the bits, deciding on some pro-active things and getting them done.

I am disgusted to say that I went and bought just 2 pairs of pants yesterday in a larger size as I am really feeling a bind from the post-smoking weight gain. I told myself this is TEMPORARY and I am not to get comfortable in them at all. I found my real measuring tape the other day which has been hiding from me for months. I was able to more accurately measure body parts and compared them to a list I did on May 31st. Oh boy! I had a poor man's excuse for a tape because I couldn't find the proper one so the measurements weren't exactly 100 percent accurate but... what a difference from the weight gain. If I needed one last bit of convincing to push the scale the other way - that was it. It did motivate me to start doing some exercise which I have done each day - even without my trusty walkman

Well, I feel badly that DH is out there heaving and toting and I am sitting here, so I should go and assist. Have a good weekend, I might night be back until tomorrow night.

[teel]

Good evening/afternoon/night! After a few very heavy showers today it is now an absolutely wonderful evening and the birdies are singing and the sun us shining..
The chest pain has been a bit better over the past two days so today I decided I really ought to go and buy some food for eating whilst the parents are here and also I aim to get back on plan and lose at least the few pounds I gained eating shnitzel and apfel strudel in Austria.It really isn't fair you know...Teresa ate almost the same as me and we both did exactly the same amount of excersise and yet I gained weight and she didn't!! Humph!! So when the parents have gone I will start on the mini mountain of fruit and salady vegetables I bought from the supermarket.. Of course having charged round the shop like the proverbial maniac I now hurt almost everywhere and all my chest pain is back. I am NOT impressed with that, let me tell you!!!
And so to Austria. It was rather "difficult" getting up at 02:00hrs to shower and wash hair to leave at 03:00hrs..but I managed...the dog went back to sleep... as we stole out into the night. as you can imagine the main road was almost empty of traffic! The airport was suprisingly busy with people trying to sleep in the terminal amongst all the noise and chaos of check-in. The flight was fine and we arrived at Salzburg 15minutes earlier than planned to a beautiful blue cloudless sky. One of the airport staff commented that we were very lucky as this was the first good day they had had for a week!! Taxied to the hotel and, amazingly full of energy we went exploring..the Mirabell Gardens and Palace were only 10 minutes walk away and it was SO hot as we sat on a bench and surveyed the flowers. Lots of people about and we eventually located the Salzach (sp?) river. There was a very handt Italian restaurant right opposite the hotel so we ate there for lunch and dinner...too tired to find anywhere else at that point.Our first full day we acquired a good map and discovered why it had taken us 20 minutes to find the river when reportedly it was only 500 meters away...if only we had turned right on leaving the hotel and walked down that main pedestrianised bit we would have been there in ten minutes! We went on a mini-bus tour of the city which gave us a good idea of where things were like the cathedral and the old town. The tour took us to Hellbrun Palace a couple of miles out of the city. This place is famous for its hidden waterfalls. It was built for an arch bishop who designed the garden bit with secret water pumps located under the seats round the garden tables. The tale goes that he used to hold summer parties, and when he was getting tired and thought everyone should be going home, he turned on the water and lo and behold all the guests got wet derriers and scooted off home rather quickly! Of course the bishop sat in his special chair perfectly dry! Later water fountains were added that sprang to life when certain paving slabs were stepped upon causing great hilarity to one and all. We thought we might revisit Hellbrun as it was a whistle stop visit but time ran out on us! The tour was very useful in finding landmarks and we even managed to walk back across the river that evening and find The Spagetti House for a very decent dinner, without getting lost! The second day we had already booked to go on a city tour through the travel agent so we hoped it wasn't with the same company. It wasn't! Phew! And although we went round the city again the guide pointed out some different places of interest and left us at the foot of the funicular railway that took us up to the fortess high above the old town. Unfortunately the weather rather turned for the worse when we got to the top and it was blowing a gale but we decided to lunch. Teresa ordered a salad and when the waitress bought it out a gust of wind blew half of it off the plate!!! Unsurprisingly the cafe decided to shut after that so we were the only people eating whilst the waiters tried to lean the chairs on the tables...as fast as they leant one up it was blown down! At the foot of the funicular there was an exhibition of amber...the largest collection of amber in Europe. Very beautiful!!
Ah well I think it is time for me to go and sort out some dinner. Doggies home tomorrow!!!

[Shad]

Ha Ha Ha, I loved the tale of the salad. Brings back memories that does. But it sounds like the palace is a good place to visit. I'll put it in my wee black book and plan on being there sometime or other.

Mel, I should hope the goons do not come knocking at your door. They shouldn't but seeing as how suspicious they are of anyone and anything coming to the door of the USA, nothing would surprise me too much. There is no white powder in it, nor is their wire going from one bit to another, however it occurred to me after I posted it to wonder about wrapping ribbon and how it measures on the scale of destructive forces. Not to worry. We will soon know. Funny story here. I went to the Post Office to post the envelope and the man said $1.00. Uh. what?????? says I. Listen lady says this bloke with the accent, the prices go up and its $1 for that. Uh duh says I, I am simply amazed that it is only $1 to New Jersey USA. OOOOOOOOOHHHH says the man - where is New Jersey???? U.S. replies I. Uh duh says the man, what State is that in? AMERICA I patiently explain. Oh well, in that case, it will cost $2.30 please!. Do I not have to fill in a declaration and show ID for a foreign parcel, asks I. Just write documents only on the front says he.
And you wonder why I question whether the envelope will arrive on your doorstep.

I see this morning that someone has managed to make their journal entry 'sticky'. I'm surprised that some of these editing modes were not disabled actually. You could wreak havoc with some of those. I've also noticed that if I leave the comment button ticked on, I get comments made in everyones journal except my own. Now's theres a good trick. Wonder how I did that. Must go ask Suzanne.

Well it is Sunday here in the great South east and there is not a cloud in the sky. It looks like another great day coming right up. DS decided that he liked the colour of the paint and that it should stay and proceeded to put another coat on the walls. Now he is doing something fancy with rolling the new colour over the top. Got to give it to him, when the creative juices start flowing, he comes up with a few doosies.

My knee hurts this morning. Not sure whether I twisted it during Body Balance yesterday or it was the running the day before. So I'll just take it easy for today and see what happens. I'm off to sit on the floor and grout for a while shortly. First breakfast. Have good days - enjoy the garden, enjoy the boxes, enjoy the folks and Holly coming home.

[teel]

Hello all. This is a mega quickie to say I probably won't have much free time to get on the site over the next few days as the parents will be here till Tuesday....so do not fret...I haven't diappeared into the far beyond!!
Shad, sorry your knee is hurting...be careful on it...have you tried the usual hot water bottle then ice pack routine?
I tried to put my pictures c.d. into my computer yesterday so I could send you piccies but they didn't save to hard disc for some reason. I shall have another look when everything here has calmed down a bit!!!

YAY!!!! Nearly time for Holly to come bounding through the door. Batten down the furniture!!
Ta ta for now. Be good.

[MELODY525]

Happy~I got a LOT accomplished by staying off here! WOW! I was losing so MANY hours of my life worrying about all those people!! I must have been crazy! Hope you guys get the fungus amongus under control with the tree. All that work must account for something right? When we all work hard you would thing the pounds would just drip away. Hmmm. I too had a lot of thinking going on while working. Circulation and exercise must be good for the brain! When I went shopping recently I bought some 1 and 2X pants and shirts. They are big on me but comfortable and I can get my arms in them without breaking them off. I was a bit premature in buying the XLG. I wear them but am not happy in them. I think you did a great and healthy thing for yourself with the smokes. So the weight will come off and you can worry about sizes later. You're still new to the ciggie-less game so don't be too hard on yourself. You're still in the trenches with that battle I'm sure. All this work outside and fresh air will get the butt moving. Especially when it cools down a bit at summers end. Sending good thoughts your way for supreme calmness within yourself.

Teel I am so glad yopu posted your trip. I love to read of other's adventures. There are so many fabulous things to see in this world. I hope the chest feels better after the shopping trip!
Bet you and Holly will be inseperable(sp?) when she comes home. She'll be afraid to leave your side lest you disappear again! Looking forward to the pics.

Shad~ too bad for the knee!! Hope the grouting job didn't make it worse. You'll have to out on workman's compensation!
While watching a home program lo and behold there was a beautiful pale yellow bedrppm. They used white trim and had reddish furniture. Mahogany?? The colors for bedding and drapes were of the reddish orangy type. Hard to explain and they had a field of yellow in them. Absolutely gorgeous and neither feminine or masculine even with the flowers on the materials. Kind of stately. Very nice. I never heard of the combo till DS2 started and now I got to see something like it. They had another in yellows and beiges but apparently I missed it!
Hope the knee improves upon waking!! Sweet dreams.

I have a day off from Clara. She decided her fingers hurt and wants a rest from testing. I think we need to call the DR and tell him. OH WELL! (sigh)

I would also like to pat all our backs. I think considering all the trials and tribulations that we all have collectively...that we are doing a great job of getting on with life and carrying on. We dust ourselves off so fast and get right back up again that it even surprises me at times. What a bunch of Gals we are!!

I must go and let the bookkeeper back in today. One has a ton of work left. He should be here soon too. Adios my Friends and take care. See you soon.

[Shad]

Mel, I know what you mean. I have tended to spend too much time here trying to help people, some of whom can not be helped much anyway. I'm sorry for anyone reading this, that thinks I am being very harsh, but it's true. I still read many entries but reserve comments these days because I would just get too bogged down with problems not my own. I've got enough of those too!
Knee seems fine again this morning although it clicked on the treadmill during warmup. It was fine everywhere else, so I am not going to get excited about it.
Grouted the bathroom floor yesterday. It's not a bad shade of blue, however I think I got a little stingy with it yesterday and some of the spacers are showing through the blue. I'll go back and try it again this afternoon after the dentist.
Yes I have to go back to the Dentist. I lost a filling from a molar a while back. Last night I got offered and took a small piece of chocolate. It broke the back half of the tooth off. Very good reason not to eat any more chocolate hey. That piece of brown goo will probably cost me the best part of $150. or so. Ouch, but if I don't get it done now the ouch will be a bigger OUCH later on. I have to get it fixed, it's near the front so can't just have it taken out. There is another filling gone from a big tooth down the back and I may have that taken out since it has now been filled 3 times and each time the filling has come out after a couple of years - at over $200 per time it is just not worth keeping.
Son's house is coming along. He has chosen the colours for the 3rd bedroom. A sort of pale grey/silver for 3 walls, a metallic pale blue for the 4th and something called Velvet Rose for the trims. I'm told the Velvet Rose is a burgundy shade. I'm glad he likes it, but it may look very nice at the finish and as yet I haven't seen it so will not judge. Now the trims and the floors are the remainder left to do.
Teel, have fun with the folks and with the hound. It's only for a short time and it will be nice to see them go at the end. Be strong.
Linus must be all partied out by now. Surely she will be back with the tales of 21 birthdays, anniversaries and family fights soon!
Happy, the tape measure will start to go down soon, I'm sure. You just need to sort out the things that are causing you to stop exercising and keep eating. As Mel says the battle with cigs is not quite over yet, but you have done so well keeping off them. Yes you are bound to put on a bit of weight because you have this extra time where previously you were standing or sitting around having a smoke. The brain found something else to do. But now is the time to start getting it off again, before the fat sets hard and becomes very hard to shift.
DS is home today. He has an ingrown toenail which has turned nasty on him again. He has had this problem for some years. Goes along nicely for a while and then goes astray. Eventually I think he will have the nail removed to solve the problem once and for all, but for the moment he wants to hang onto it.
Okay, best get off and get showered - I've been to the gym already. I have a list of things to do a mile long. Today, some of them just might get done. And I must get back to that guy in Western Australia who hasn't got back to me either grrrrr. You know I don't mind if they get back and say sorry, it's not going to happen. But to be left in limbo is a pain in the proverbial

[happy2bme]

'Morning to all of you around the world,

Yesterday we went to the Botanic Gardens. 4 hours of walking around. Oofduh. Didn't really even count as walking because it was mostly stop, wait, take a picture, walk 10 steps, repeat.... Shad the Rose Garden was in FULL bloom - you would have loved it! I have a whole new appreciation for roses having seen all the different varieties. We meanderered over to the English Gardens too. 6 "rooms" of examples of English Wall Gardens - some with flowers, some with just greenery. There are benches all about, some in the sun, many in the cool shade of some overhanging branches. I often sat on a bench as DH was setting up his shots. It was soooo very pleasant and calming in there - even though there were large crowds of people milling all about - at times it was almost as if you were all alone. I wanted to rush home, put up a brick wall or 4 and plant my own English wall garden. And I now understand what a Pergola is - I think you put them up in your yard Shad. Of course DH has taken hundreds of pictures. We got home and he picked them apart one by one - shrinking them down to about a dozen or so pictures he actually liked. I am trying to get him to update Webshots so you can all enjoy them. Perhaps I have to just start shooting some pictures myself. No wait, he uses both cameras. Anyway, I wish you all were with us, I'm sure you would have enjoyed it. There were more people than I'd ever seen there before - they had some big event with an Ice Cream Social and a Dixie Land Band. Dixie land music is music from the southern states - peppy foot tapping music featuring banjos and trumpets. DH and I got a hamburger for lunch and he promised we'd come back to get a piece of cake or some ice cream. By the time we made it back to the food area, there must have been hundreds of people in the lines. Good diet deterent as I waited about 15 minutes in a line that never moved and decided my life was passing too quickly to spend an hour and a half in a line for something I really didn't need although I did have my heart set on that Red Velvet cake Good thing we went early to the gardens as it was ridiculously crowded when we left mid afternoon. People were chasing us in the parking lot to get a parking spot. I'm sure many heated arguments broke out. Shad, that picture of the sculpture of birds atop the fountain you have on Webshots is no longer in the garden. They are doing quite a bit of renovations and new gardens tho the Japanese garden is still peaceful, serene and untouched. And now it's Monday and back to work again...

Sorry to hear about your tooth Shad. I hope this does not start a chain of expensive events as I surely have been there, done that. Sometimes you wonder if it's worth eating anything at all! I once joked about the $800 peanut M&M I ate - broke the tooth and cost me a new crown and I'm not talking British money. Hope it's not too expensive at the dentist for you. DS's paint schemes sound rather interesting. It is a new thing to paint 2 different colored walls? Is the one wall that's a different color used to highlight a particular piece of furniture or wall decorations or something? Sounds rather interesting...

Mel, I hope you have had a restful weekend. Sounds like the more you resolve to get back some Mel time, the more that they bug you. I know the extra money can come in handy, I just hope that you don't let them take advantage of you. You should be compensated adequately for your time.

Teel, I'm sure Holly will be delighted to see you again. Hope you enjoy your visit with the parents. I kept thinking of you as we strolled the gardens. It reminded me of how you described your garden, small but very relaxing and intimate. I was thinking how nice it would be if we could all get together for tea one afternoon. We could dress up like fancy ladies with our giant hats, white gloves and high heeled shoes which I find I can no longer walk upright in! Your trip to Austria sounded like ever so much fun. Wish we could have come along.

Shad, you experience at the post office sounds like my confusion also. Especially when trying to figure out what is the proper way to address an envelope. I think Canada and Great Britain have longer addresses than other places. They never teach us that stuff in geography class in school

Welll, I should get my act together and get busy doing more productive things now. Have a good day everyone...

[happy2bme]

Oh and I meant to thank you all for putting up with my endless yakking about the smokes. Sometimes I feel like a broken record and I should just shut up about it. It's just that I didn't imagine it would be this hard for this long. I thought the first few weeks would be difficult but tomorrow marks 3 months clean and by now for sure I thought it would be an occasional random thought - not still an everyday occurance thinking about them several times a day as it still is. Just like food I suppose - a habit is a habit is a habit. And we often want immediate gratification instead of what's good for us. But thank you for putting up with my rambles...

[Shad]

Dentist - oh yes well it went something similar to the following ramble.

Went to the dentist, he filled the tooth behind the broken one! The conversation went something like:
G’day Senevar
Gut day Yoy! Vat is zis bruk toot problem you haf?
Here it is - see front incisor 4th tooth back from the middle.
Ah ja - him filling not gut, not dere!
And it is broken inside.
Ah jah. Open ze mout. Ja Ja all fix
At this point he bungs in the gear, wads, steel bits, mirror, drill, 5 fingers and anything else he can lay his hands on. This silences me apart from the occasional grunt.
Breat tru the nose for me ja?
Grunt
Da mout not to close at any cost ja!
‘Thinks - impossible journey anyway’ Grunt!
The dentist fills the tooth. Says - dere now - try wit tongue - all smooth!!!
Wrong tooth - what is going on here.
Arghhh - de toot is rot - shall I pull!! See here mirror - look
No, if you pull, it will leave a gap. I shall have to think about this.
It rot, it will brek an’way soon!
Right, well anyway, it stays where it is no matter. I shall have to think about this.
You will be back - him toot, she rotting away, him brek soon.
See you soon then Senevar.
And the receptionist utters the first words all day - that’ll be $100 today, thank you.

So the story of the tooth continues. Yes it will have to come out, but I need to examine the consequences and what I can do to fill the gap. The dental assistant did say that the teeth will move forward, but will not completely fill the gap. She didn't elaborate as to how long it will take. She said I could also have a denture made. Seems a bit silly for one tooth. She said I could have root canal work to save the tooth, painful and expensive. But she never mentioned the teeth which can be fitted back into the gums after extraction. Maybe they don't do them any more. I shall have to make some inquiries.

Happy, the gardens sound great at the moment. Wish I had been there. I look forward to the photos - what!!! all those pictures and he only likes a few of them! and I thought I was a perfectionist!!! Sorry to hear that the bird sculpture has gone. I liked that. Maybe they could send it over for my patio or I could use it as a focal point fountain!!! Only if they are giving it away mind you!

Smoking is a funny thing. It is far more addictive than most people realise. I'm not sure you ever get free of the addiction, just like alcohol and drugs - you just don't go to the places where you can give in and indulge one more time. I don't miss them anymore and don't want one, but sometimes a whiff of tobacco will bring back more memories than I would like. And I have been off them for nearly 15 years.

Okay, well it's time I moved my big butt and trotted off down to the gym. Running today. I'll be back to check on you all later.

[MELODY525]

Good afternoon Chicks of the World!
I have a headache since sunday and just got out of bed to shower and change sheets! I just tried to read the posts but the light is killing me. So I must catch up another day. My brain hurts if you know what I mean and this is not over yet. I wanted to say hello and hope all is well.
SHAD~ I am sorry bout the tooth and hope it feels better soon. Teeth are so expensive!
Happy~ looking forward to new photos!
That's all I could get from trying to read. Sorry. Jen just called. She's on her way. I will shower and she will do the sheets. These rain storms all bunched up together make my sinus meds ineffective. I sometimes resort to codeine but tried no to this time. Like to save them for the backside! Have a great week and hope to be back by Thurs or Fri. Eyes should be able to take the light by then I hope. All my curtains are closed!
Well Jen is here now and I am off to get the stink washed off!! See you soon!

[MELODY525]

I just PM'ed Happy but thought I should come back and say it here too. "LOVE MEANS NEVER HAVING TO SAY YOU'RE SORRY"
I know that saying is not good for every situation but in the case of cigarettes I think it holds up!
Happy~ I would have been climbing the 3FC walls and screaming my head off had I been a Chick when I gave the butts up. I was like a raving lunatic and about ready for the men in white coats. Poor Jen and how she suffered. I think you have been handling it amazingly well and should never feel the need to apologize here and with us. We all whine and winge from time to time. Isn't that what life and friends are all about? So put that worry aside and whine away! Oddly enough, there are times when it's nice to know I am not alone in the tough "feelings" department. Hope that makes sense and doesn't sound sadistic!
OK this time I really am getting into the shower. Jen just about has the sheet situation all sorted out! Goodnight Friends and good morning Sunshine!