Good morning gals. We had lots of rain yesterday afternoon and into the evening. Some big thunderboomers but no loss of power. I hope it has moved on through.

No swimming for me today. I decided to go tomorrow if weather permits. I need a day off. My muscles are complaining because I really work them.

Susan: You just take it easy and like Jean said, listen to your body and get rest. That kind of thing will take it all out of you and you need recoup time.

Jean: How are you liking the retired life now that you know school is back in session? I bet you enjoy having the time to tool around with Bob when he goes places and doing the luncheons and what not.

Today is bill paying day I am going to have to get to it I guess. This is the month for tags so Jack has to go this weekend and get that danged bulb and replace it in the Grand Marquis so he can get it inspected next week and we can get the tags. At least we don't have both of them due at the same time or have to pay the prices of places like California. Their car tags are out of this world.

Not much going on here. I haven't been doing much knitting, but I need to get the blanket in a box with a card and get it shipped to Dave and Rachel. Their wedding is coming up real soon.

Have a good hump day all and I will talk with you later.
Faye

Good afternoon, ladies! A lovely day today in the low 90s.

I've seemed to have turned the corner and almost feel like my old self. My friends are going to take me to quilting bee tonight. It will be good to get out. I can tell I'm still not quit up to par because I get short of breath so easy. They did find my blood pressure is too low while I was in the hospital and it continues to be so the doctor is going to put me on medication to bring it up a little. I'm still on high dosage of Prednisone so my face looks like a moon and I'm so hungry all the time. I've eaten enough vegetables that I should be turning into a rabbit.

You all have a great day.

Good Afternoon, Flowers! It is trying hard to rain again. We had a downpour this morning and thunderstorms are coming through tonight. It is 78 degrees and humid so if the sun would come out the air conditioner would come on. I went to the retirement breakfast this morning; there were probably 30+ there and I knew all but one.

After eating we got to tour the new elementary school. It will hold K-4 with the grades divided into pods. We have so many Kdgners (26+ per 7 classes) they are "thinking" about adding another section. The elementary students begin on Friday so someone had better be making some decisions so a room can be ready for them. The projected room is now set up as a reading and ESL room combined; they will have to move out and share space in other rooms. Some of the rooms have no windows and I would not like that at all.

I made a WM run, came home, and then went out for lunch with the other four who retired from the high school. We hadn't seen each other all summer so it was fun to catch up on the scuttlebutt.

I stopped to get groceries on my way home, put them away, and here I am. It's way too late to start any cleaning projects today! I'm certainly NOT hungry so think Bob will be on his own for supper.

"Gma" -- After touring the new school I am so glad I am NOT working there. Anyone new coming in would need a map to get around! I'm sure once everyone settles into a routine it will be fine, but I can't imagine 500+ elementary students invading the place all at once and no one will remember where they are supposed to go! I have missed seeing some of my favorite staff members at the high school, but not the chaos of the first few days when schedules keep changing and tempers are short.

Susan -- I'm glad to see you here today! You must be feeling better if you are going to the quilting bee. Enjoy! I'm glad your friends are taking good care of you!

I need to make a couple phone calls so had better get a move on. Have a nice "rest of the day!"

Jean -- from Iowa!

Good morning all! Looks like it might be a nice day today. No swimming today. It has clouded up and really dark. Jack just called and said they are getting pounded out at the plant with a storm and to "batten down the hatches." Once a sailor, always a sailor!

Susan: So glad you are feeling a bit better. Hope your progress continues. You will be back to your ole self in no time.

Jean: Wow a new school. Are all your schools in close proximity to each other? The town I grew up in had the schools all together, but that was back when it was safe to have little kids around teenagers. I am not so sure anymore. I am still waiting to hear from someone about the clinic. I did enjoy doing it last year and would like to do it again this year and I know they have to want the extra help. Guess I will just have to wait and see.

Guess I better get going on chores so I can get some breakfast in a bit. I found my ff milk to be sour already so I am going to either have to use the 2% or eat something else. Seems everytime I get milk at Walmart it spoils quickly. It is commissary weekend so I am going to just go without until Saturday.

Have a great day today!
Faye

Good afternoon, ladies! Hot and humid yet again - must be August!

Faye, I'd call the school and tell them I'm ready to help. I'm sure they would be delighted to hear from you. It looks like your rain is about here. Storms in the forecast for tonight and then this weekend rain and beach erosion from Bill. Just so he doesn't decide to come our way. I'm not ready for a hurricane. I have all the emergency supplies, but mentally, not there.

Jean, Sounds like you had a good time with your fellow retirees. It's always fun to get out and get the latest gossip. I remember when I was young we had the Borden milkman delivery and it came in brown bottles. Actually, milk should not be in containers that allow light to get at it because it destroys vitamins.

I did enjoy the quilting bee last night. I'm not used to being home all day for days on end and it was getting on my nerves. The doctor told me not to go out when the humidity is high if I can avoid it. It felt good to do some hand sewing and I'll be back to my quilting a little today. I must be just about better. Hopefully I can go to work next week. I'll be lucky to find my desk after being gone for 2 weeks.

Good morning gals, well afternoon to Gloria and Susan. I had a bunch of errands early so I didn't get in here to post until now. My stupid cell phone wasn't working for some reason so I had to come home and find out why. I turned it off and back on and the dang thing started working again. GRRRRRRR! I was going to meet Jack for lunch, but I couldn't get ahold of him to ask him where to meet him so I had to come home and by that time it was into his lunch hour so he had to just eat his lean cuisine meal.

Susan: I don't know if the woman that has taken over the clinic is going to be better or not. I went to the school website just to see if they had any PTA info up so I could call the person who was now the clinic person and she had posted a calendar on the website and had people already signed up for all of August. I saw her phone # and called her and told her I was willing as was Thomas's other grandmother as far as I knew. I asked why she hadn't called me. She said she had called some people but a lot of them didn't want to volunteer this year. I told her she should have called me as I volunteer once a week for them. She said she had been told we were excellent and did a great job then just left it at that. I thought to myself, if we (meaning Pat and I) are so excellent, then why have you not called either of us! Anyhow, I emailed her when I would like to work in Sept but she hasn't gotten back to me. My gut says it is going to be as disorganized as it was last year. I don't like going month to month as I like to sign up for several weeks at a time so I can plan around them but looks like she is going one month at a time.

Jean: I never realized your town was that big that you would have that many students. I know it isn't big to you, but then my high school had less than 300 total students. I think my graduating class had something like 64 or so.

Well, I need to fix me some lunch and jangle the toilet. I can hear it running. The stupid thing works for weeks then starts acting up.

Have a good weekend to all of you!
Faye

Good Afternoon, Flowers! It is a cool 67 degrees but sunny in my corner of the world. I went next door this morning to see if my neighbor had a box I could use to mail a gift. I ended up staying over an hour and just visiting; we don't do that very often. Consequently my morning slipped away without me accomplishing anything besides wrapping the gift and fixing a casserole for dinner. Bob came home late for lunch so I just finished cleaning up the kitchen . . . again.

Susan -- It's nice to see your post again! If you feel like quilting you are on the mend! Is there anyone at work who might have done some of your work for you? Either way it will get done when it gets done. I've never seen milk in brown bottles. That doesn't sound very appealing. I remember the milkman coming to my grandma's house and the glass bottles had a different kind of an indented top where the cream settled. That's probably been 60 years ago.

"Gma" -- Our population is probably 8 - 9,000 and goes up a couple thousand when the college is in session. I'm guessing the school district is pushing 75% nonwhite; if the packing plants ever close the schools will be like ghost towns for sure.

I hope everyone else comes to visit and post today! Have a nice weekend!

Jean -- from Iowa!

Good afternoon, ladies! Another hot, humid day. Rain is in the forecast and the promise of a few cooler days.

I appreciate everything my friends have done for me, but I'm getting a little tired of having so many people here. My refrigerator is stuffed and I've asked for no more food but some of them have switched to desserts. What I really don't need around! I must be better.

Nothing interesting to report.

Faye, that school sounds like most of them - PTA is disorganized. They will be the ones to lose out if she doesn't get you on the September schedule.

Jean, if the Armed Forces and Seafood industry ever left here, we would be a ghost town. We have lots of orientals that work seafood packing. Smithfield Packing is on "the other side", meaning you have to cross the James River so I don't know who they employ, probably Mexicans.

Hi, to Maggie and Gloria!

Good morning to all of you. I am not even sure I posted yesterday. Sometimes I just plain lose track of time. Old age I guess.

We got all the shopping done yesterday for another couple weeks, Jack got the bulb for the headlight and they had a two pack so he came out ahead. He just changed them both so the beams would be evenly bright. Now he can go tomorrow and get it inspected and then Tuesday go and get the tags for it. She has been a good ole girl that's for sure.

Tuesday I have a physical, which I am looking forward to like getting my teeth pulled. I just want to get the darn thing over and done with. I imagine she is going to want me to schedule a colonoscopy, which I will do, but not right away. I am still just not ready for all that again. I figure then it will be time for the mammogram, which is no great shakes to me so I will schedule that and get it done.

I want to get a few days swimming in this week as we had lunch out yesterday and none too diet friendly. I did have a guy who was waiting tables, at least 6-7 years younger than my son, come up to me and say he loved my hair. I wasn't sure whether he was saying the color, the style or the whole shebang. Usually it is black women that rave about my hair. They seem to like the wild red color I wear. Anyway, it was nice to hear.

Susan: It is nice all your friends think of you, but maybe they need to get organized about bringing you tons of food. lol Why is it all things are solved with desserts? Every person is supposed to feel better if given a chocolate cake I guess. When we lived in Indiana and I had my gall bladder removed, the ladies group from church took turns bringing in meals. There was always a hefty dessert included that was for sure.

Jean: We are probably around 65% black here. We have a pretty large hispanic population, many of which live in the area we do. We also have a lot of koreans and vietnamese. They run almost 100% of the nail salons here and boy do they make the money at it.

I guess I should get started on cleaning the downstairs. I am pretty hungry and my tummy is growling, but I would like to wait to eat for about half an hour or so if I can. Probably fruit and cereal today.

Have a great day everyone!
Faye

Good morning to you all! I had a very rough night last night so didn't get much sleep so I slept in until 7:45 or at least tried to. The neighbors had a puppy barking and whining outside at midnight last night for one thing and it made Fortune bark. They must have finally taken it back inside as I came downstairs and watched tv until 4 am with Fortune in my lap. They aren't allowed pets next door so we shall see about that.

We bought the film "Knowing" and watched it this weekend. It was a little scary and a tear jerker so I whacked Jack for buying it and told him that I was going to have Fortune bite him if I had nightmares in my sleep about Thomas. The movie had a little boy Thomas's age in it and something happens to him to separate him from his father and I boohooed for several minutes.

Jean: Fortune takes his dog food and carries it into the living room and flips it around sometimes. Drives me nuts. Our bare feet usually find it! I am amazed you have any furniture, households or clothing left in your house! You are the Goodwill queen. My younger sister is the return queen. She buys tons of stuff she can't afford then ends up taking it all around town and returning the stuff. Most of the time it doesn't even get out of her trunk. I think shopping makes her feel better but then she realizes there isn't money in the checking account to cover what she bought. Who knows? She does love to shop. When we lived in town together in South Bend she used to drag me all over with her shopping. I am not a looky loo lover and you know I shop online for almost everything so it really wasn't my thing.

Susan: Just finished Finger Lickin' 15. A lot of people complained it is the same ole stuff, but I still laughed, especially when Rangeman gave Stephanie the Cayenne to drive and she and Lula were chasing the Chipotle killers and Lula got stuck halfway out the window and her boobs came out of her top and were flying around down the street. I laughed til tears came down my face.

I did all the body shaving today so I don't have to rush around and do it tomorrow. My appt is 8:20 and I have to take Jack to work tomorrow as we are going after work to get the tags and I have to keep the good car to go to the doctor. I just want to get it over with at this juncture. I am not anti doctor except for the idiots that seem to think I don't know I am fat. We shall see what the scale at the dr office says tomorrow.

I guess I better run as I want to get to the pool and swim and get back here and get some work done before Jack gets home from work. He will be late as he has to get the Gran Marquis inspected today, but I want everything done early.

Have a good start to the week!
Faye

Good evening, ladies! More rain but it's only in the low 80s.

Jean, Cupid always has to drag some of his food into the family room. I get tired of cleaning it up. I second Faye, you are the Goodwill Queen! I'm still working on the sewing room.

Faye, I was tempted to make a quilt for the Challenge with Lula hanging out the window. I laughed and laughed when I read that. I could see it so clearly in my mind. I wish those books came out more often.

I went back to work today. My boss actually asked me this afternoon if I was about caught up. I gave him the look. It'll be at least a week if nothing comes up this week. They didn't even take checks to the bank. I'm feeling good again, thank God!

Our bible study group at Church is going to study the book of Matthew this year. I look forward to it.

Have a good evening!