Good morning all! Big thunderstorm here this morning and the animals were up and down on the bed so I brought them downstairs so Jack could sleep just a little longer. Five AM comes pretty quick!

Jean: Boy, his company celebrates Christmas a little late, don't they??? They ought to make an early combo of that and Valentine's Day...... I am seriously hoping for the best with the blasted furnace.

You know, I was thinking of Maggie too! We haven't heard from in quite awhile now and I am kind of surprised. Hope she and Cowboy are doing ok up in the great wilderness!

Gail, where the heck are you girl? We haven't heard much from you since before Christmas. I am trying to finish the baby blanket gift for my husband's friend. Once I had all the Christmas stuff done, I took a break and now need to get on the stick.

Darn postage went up and I forgot, so now I have to go to the post office and get two cent stamps. You'd think we'd get some kind of trade off for the stamp increase, like better service!

Well girls, since the "boys" snuck back upstairs, think I will too for an hour.

Faye

Hi Faye! I'm here! I'm here!

After the New Year I came down with a terrible cold/virus bug and when I finally got back to work (this past Monday) and feeling my perky self, there was a lot of work waiting for me. And this weekend I'm going to be out of town also.

I'm doing well! Now. Got my butt back to WW and managed to lose a pound over the holidays! One pound, I know, but I was absolutely positively thrilled because usually I gain weight over the holidays. Came back to work and found that everyone (or so it seems) is on WW. Which is a good thing for me. No more candy, cookies, donuts, etc. hanging out in the back workroom trying to tempt me. I weighed in yesterday at WW and lost 2.4 lbs. Thrilled again. I'm walking on a more regular basis--even DH is walking with me when he can (depending on our schedules). Yesterday I walked TWO MILES on my lunch hour. The weather was gorgeous yesterday but today all of Delaware is covered in thick fog with a fine mist. We're supposed to get a terrible storm late tonight and into tomorrow.

Faye, I've been obsessed with knitting fingerless gloves right now. So quick, so easy. Right now I'm knitting a pair for one of the other secretaries in my office. Last night I finished a pair for my oldest daughter.

Jean! Hi! I need to read the thread to catch up on what all you're up to. I'm sure you're back to school now. Hope the kids are drivin' ya' nuts!

OH! Gotta share this: My youngest granddaughter, who will be 2 on January 28, has potty-trained herself! She did this overe the holidays. She does need help getting up onto the toilet but other than that once she's up there, she points to the door and says to you, "OUT!" The girl needs her privacy! So cute! My youngest daughter and SIL say this just happened! Neither one of them pushed her to do this. NO MORE DIAPERS! She has no accidents! I'm astounded by this!

And...another thing, have y'all tried the new Lean Cuisine Paninis? 6-7 points. I think this is one of the best frozen foods out there. So satisfying. Filling. Love, love this.

Okay...gotta go...work, work, work!!!

Oh! Forgot. I heard from Maggie over the holidays. Just a post card. She's still doing the program...but did not say anything about when she'd be back on-line.

Good morning ladies! I am being a total nudge and copying and pasting what I typed for my thread instead of typing it all over again to you guys. It is very chilly this morning, but WE HAVE HEAT!!!!!!!! Jack called around 7:30 and said he was taking a vacation day and came home so he was here while they were here. Took them 6 hours to dismantle the old and put in the new. They were all a really nice group of guys about my son and dd's age. I got so tickled, one of the guys came downstairs and ask if he could use our restroom (we have 2 bathrooms upstairs but I guess he wanted to ask first.) He said he had been holding if for a long time. I told him of course and he should have just used one of the ones upstairs. They had cut the power so the bathroom was completely black as it has no window. Jack ask him if he needed a flashlight and he said he just had to do "#1" and would be fine. I yelled to him teasingly that I charged more if he didn't hit the bowl. Sweet boy came out and said, "Ma'am, I would always clean it up. My grandma used to always get on us about that." I went in later to go and found he had taken tp and cleaned the porcelain! What a mess the installation made though. We had a terrible storm yesterday morning and it rained all day. Yep, you guessed it, mud and leaves carried throughout my house and I just shampooed my living room carpet a few days ago, UGH! There was grime on my back door where they went in and out to the main breakers and the ac too. I have the bulk of it cleaned up, but I am going to get my hair cut, get yarn and go to the commissary this morning so it will have to wait until I get back. On top of all that, I still have to put back the curio cabinet, hang all the pictures back, move the china cabinet and put all the china back in it and then try and get the carpet and stairs shampooed again and remop all the downstairs floors. That is besides the two cleaning chores for the week I have left, which are vacuuming all the rugs and dusting the upstairs. That's ok, it is worth it to have a furnace that can be set at 65 and is comfortable, versus doesn't work at all and before that had to be set at 80 just to keep us comfortable a bit.

Jean: Since when did the post office EVER do anything that makes sense? No wonder our postage keeps going up! I went and stood in line yesterday and was a bad girl. Our post office is the busiest in the whole city as well as the poorest run (according to my sil, who is a US postal inspector with their computer system in the downtown main post office) and yesterday they had a gal running the drive through and this racist guy who I always hate to have to deal with because he is rude, arrogant and abrupt with white customers and nice as pie and pleasant with the black ones. Anyway, I heard one of the patrons ask something about when a package would get somewhere and the one person said Monday was a holiday. I had been standing in live forever so was obnoxious and said loudly that I guess the postal employees decided Friday was too! Gracious I am awful. Luckily, I didn't get ole grouchy pants because they opened another window by the time I got to the front of the line. Then....they had NO 2 cent stamps! What is with that? I mean, they have been planning this increase for awhile. I had to take 1 cent ones and plaster a bunch on each letter (actually only two, but it irked me.) Hope the party is worth the drive!

Gail: Oooh, glad to hear you are ok now. I wondered where you had been and glad you got an A-ok from Maggie. I worry about them being out there in no man's land. Ok, laugh for the week. When I read your post when I peeked in yesterday before they cut the power off, I thought it said fiberglass gloves. I was puzzled where you got fiberglass yarn and what the gloves were for, but couldn't post because he was waiting to shut down the power! This morning, I read Jean's post and saw it said fingerless so went back and and looked at your post. How funny is that???

Need to go gals. Have a marvy weekend and wish me luck at the AARP parking lot, better known as the commissary!

Faye

Happy Saturday morning!

It's raining outside and we might get <whispering> ...snow. I didn't want to say "that" word too loudly--my DH might "hear" it and start whining for summer again.

I had the worst case of indigestion last night! So much so I couldn't eat dinner. Finally, it went away by the time I went to bed and by then I was too exhausted to eat. So this morning I had a big breakfast of French Toast and milk.

I'm playing around with the idea of going to the mall today. DH is at the airport busy getting checked out to fly out of there. He rents planes to fly and since the small airport he used to fly out of went out of business he had to find another one...and he did. Although because it's raining he won't be flying but he'll be taking part of the check-out which is a verbal and paper tests. One of these days he's going to buy his own plane which will be cheaper in the long run than renting. In my opinion.

Faye, that happens to me a lot lately--I'll be reading something and its so NOT what is written! Glad you have heat!! As Martha Stewart says, "That is a good thing!" But I hate the mess! I am so not looking forward to the mess when the hardwood floors are installed.

Jean, exactly! I don't like wearing gloves or mittens so the fingerless (NOT FIBERGLASS Faye! ) gloves are great. AND surprisingly they do keep your hands warm. The theory behind that is if you can keep the palms of your hands warm your fingers will be warm also. BUT keep in mind I haven't worn them in snow! Jean, the spring semester where I work is always a busy one. It is like a merry-go-round. Hang in there!

But I'm on my fourth pair of fingerless gloves right now. I'm still knitting a shawl for my oldest DD. And I start a new knitting class on the 29th to learn how to knit another shawl. Some of those shawls especially if they are a lace knit are extremely difficult...IMHO.

Well...gotta go take a shower. It's not raining too badly so I think I will check out the end of season sales at the mall.

A rainy day here but it is still mild. Tomorrow we will have a big change as it is supposed to get very cold '27'. The rain we have today may change to snow showers and I hope that is all we get.

Monday I have a 7:30 Am appointment for a 6 months check up with the DR that did the lazer surgery on my retina. I am happy to report I won't have to drive myself there as DH is driving again. He has had such an easy time with his knee surgery and has has no pain. On Friday, 1 week after the operation, he drove for the first time. That means no more backing out of the garage for me......I hated that. He will see the knee surgeon on Wednesday and I guarantee he will not need rehab.

Faye: So happy to hear that the furnace is in and running so well. I know it was a pain to have your nice clean house all messed up but now you will have heat for the rest of the winter and just don't try to clean it all up in one day. As for the commissary.....I think we will need to go again sometime next week....boo hoo!

Jean: That was very smart of you to make a TO DO folder. Friday should be walk away from all school problems day! Too bad Beth is having such problems with colds, strep etc. Has she had her tonsils out...sometimes that can be a problem.

Gail: Good to see you back. I have been bothered with gastric reflux and have a prescription for Tagament. I don't have to take it very often, now, but when I do have indigestion it is there for me. I just take 1 pill and no more problem. When I first started with the problem they thought I was having a heart attack as the pain in my chest was so intense. Your idea of knitting instead of eating is paying off. Keep up the good work.

Gloria

PS: Gail so glad you heard from Maggie....been wondering how she was doing.

Morning girls! I got through the commissary, but it was a nightmare. I guess I didn't think about it being active duty payday too! As my Jewish ancestors would say..."Oy Vey!" It was wall to wall people and they were all disgruntled about something. Bunch of grouches and very impatient with everyone else. As long as they aren't rude or being piggish with the aisles, I don't mind waiting my turn to get at stuff. It is when they stand in front of the soup you need and argue about the split pea because the wife thinks it is too expensive, etc that gets to me. The scooter brigade was out in full force too and they are always fun because most of them are RUDE!

Jean: Hope you were at least able to "trick" you hubby into thinking you had accomplished a lot! Hope the party and trip back and forth went ok.

I now have all my "diet" food back in the house and we are ready to rock with getting back to dieting. Jack has his Lean Cuisine stuff for lunches, I bought a lot of lowfat or ff stuff and good snacks instead of junk food ones and as much fruit as I could find that was decent. Since Jack isn't much of a veggie eater, I don't get enough veggies so I bought bloody mary mix and V8 spicy juice to make up for my veggies somewhat. I also got veggies like green peas and navy beans to substitute for mashed potatoes, rice etc for me all the time as my starch.

I got the upstairs furniture rearranged and put back, but Jack put a new latch on my china cabinet (it stays shut with a magnet, but it wouldn't stay closed and the cat would crawl inside it! ) and now I can't get the latch open to put the china back! So, Jack gets to help putting it back. Then all I have is the upstairs and downstairs vacuuming and I am back to cleaning square one.

I promised Jack a last breakfast of pancakes so I guess I better go and check out whether we have mix or not.

Have a great Sunday!

Faye

Good morning gals. It sure seems warm here again. Maybe it is just ole menopause me, who knows?

Jean: On my way out to the base on Saturday, I stopped at WM to run in to the bathroom, when I came out there was this old guy on a scooter behind me and I saw a security person in his truck at the end of one of the rows. It was busy with cars and people and this guy went zooming around me, almost plowing into a group of people trying to get into the entrance, hit a row of stacked carts and just kept going, no apologies, nada. I looked at the security guard and he just smiled at me and shook his head. These are the kind of people that really frost my cookies at the commissary. My bil was that way. He thought everyone should just get out of his way. I have seen him in a busy mall actually hit people in the shins and not apologize just zoom around them.

I have a few cleaning chores to get done this morning, but I need to get my exercise in first thing so better get to it. I will talk to all of you later.

Faye

Just have to pass on the way we spent our Sunday. Last week DH mentioned that we haven't played any music for a while and did I know what happened to the old 'Sandler & Young' records we had. I hated to tell him that they went to the basement and are probable mildewed by now but instead I kept that question in my mind and today I remembered that before I sent them to the dungeon I copied them onto tapes. Well, I found them and we have been sitting and listening to them all afternoon. It brought back so many memories. I doubt if any of you remember Sandler & Young but they were hot in the late 50's and early 60's. They were a duo that sang romantic songs as well as some comedy. They did a lot of clubs and we were lucky to have seen them, in person, a couple of times. Tony Sandler is from Belguim and Ralph Young is from Brooklyn, NY. Their voices blend so well and Sandler sang a lot in French. Sometimes they would sing two different songs together Sandler in French and Young in English. As strange as it seems the two different songs blended quite well together.

Well enough of my reminising! Sunday was a cold day and it was good not to have to go out into it. Not much snow but the wind doth howl!

Today I had the 6th month check up on the Retina surgery I had in July and all proved well. No new tears and I don't see this DR for 1 year. I was happy to hear that. Now if only the Glacoma would go away but I don't think it will....I think I take those drops for the rest of my life.

Faye: I think rude people will be rude whether they are on a scooter or not...the scooter just makes it more obvious. When we were in Disney there were many, many people using the scooters and most proved to be very courteous.

Jean: Hope you had a great time with the grandkids. Your rain is headed our way....yesterday and today are COLD but Wednesday it is suppossed to be much warmer again and rainy. I get my hair cut in the morning and we have the check up....post op...for DH a noontime. Hope we get out of there before the evening rush hour!

Gloria in MA......keeping warm.

You could call this good early morning or good late night I guess. I have a little tummyache so got up for awhile. I think it is just gas as I tried taking Prolosec for some acid reflux and one of the side effects is gas and bloating. I decided after only a couple doses, the acid reflux was easier to contain than the pain from the gas so I quit them, but guess it hasn't all worked itself out.

Gloria: Sounds like you had a lovely time. Jack is not much into music and I love it. I listen to practically everything. I recognize the name and would probably recognize their music if I heard it. I was watching Oprah yesterday and she had Neil Diamond on the last half of her show. He is one of my favorites and I got tickled at how old he looked. He used to wear these flashy costumes on stage to perform and he had on blue jeans, a dark blue shirt and some jacket that looked like a cardigan sweater. He looked like someone's grandpa that could still sure sing up a storm. He also has hearing aids now (probably from years of performing with a band) and just made me think how the years are rolling by.

Jean: I will say an extra prayer for this young lady. Hope she gets the job. Being a CNA is hard thankless work though so I hope she enjoys it. The fruit salsa sounds yummy as do the tortilla snacks. I was watching Emeril Live last night and he was doing New York deli. He is so amusing and not so full of himself like other chefs. Most of the time, I start out good with him and what he is making, then he puts weird stuff in something and I think, "Uh, uh, not something I am going to make." Last night he made beef pastrami and you use brisket and put it in a marinade in the fridge for 3 weeks. He made this big deal about it and it was pretty comical. He then made pickles, homemade rye bread, homemade mustard and homemade thousand island dressing. Topped it all off with chocolate New York cheese cake.

I think I will sit and knit for a little while then see if I can go back upstairs to sleep. Have a great Tuesday everyone!

Faye