Healthy Living Thread

[Rod]

Thanks Marcy,

Yumm on cheesecake muffins. I spoke with my brother tonight and he will be going to the doctor tomorrow and hopes to get a clean bill of health. Fingers crossed!

I may not get a chance to check in again before Thanksgiving, so Happy Thanksgiving Everyone! I hope everyone's day is wonderfully shared with the ones who mean the most to you.

 

[Dee*Jay]

Curby, I’m not sure about a fire on the 20th floor… do you maybe mean the 50th floor of the John Hancock Building? That is about a mile and a half from me over on Michigan Avenue. Apparently they had water damage from the 50th floor clear down to ONE…!!! And it was started by a CANDLE. I have clients who burn candles so the place smells nice for showings. I always blow them out and chide the clients, but now I’m going to be RABID about it.

Rod, it’s great to hear that your brother is doing so much better and I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving! As for Charlie’s car vacationing in the port…how does he stand it? I remember the day I was to pick up Billy Ray, I was at the dealer long before they opened with my nose pressed up against the glass, ha ha! The kitties sound lovely, but I understand very different personalities. The Demon and his crazy (quasi) brother Oscar could not be more different dogs!

The CB and I are in Phoenix, we got here last night. Today we drove up to Sedona and then to Flagstaff. It was a great ride! We stopped at a grocery store on the way back and got some prosecco, cheese, crackers, salami and chocolate cookies because we had a late lunch so I think we’ll just do that for dinner out on the balcony. Not much else to report, just relaxing!

 

[marcy]

Hi Kids!

Rod, I hope your brother gets a clean bill of health from the doctor. Have a wonderful Thanksgiving with your brother and SIL. I bet Charlie is getting anxious to get his car. We found my red A6 on Sunday and I was calling that dealer the moment they opened and said hold that car. We’ll be there by 9.

Dee Jay, I meant to say the fire on the 50th floor. Must have been a typo but yes it was the John Hancock building. I know what you mean about candles. I always used that heavy crystal candle holders but I was pretty anal about blowing them out. My mom used to burn them right on her glass top and I often found them burning after she went to bed. I was glad she quit burning candles as she became less aware of her surroundings. I am glad you are enjoying Phoenix. Your supper on the balcony sounds perfect.

My busy day at the office zipped by. I went out at lunch and turned in 2 fleece jackets to have a Killer Rabbit Casino poker chip image embroidered on them. He can’t guarantee they’ll be done by Christmas. Rats. If they turn out well I will get a hat and golf shirt done as well.

We went out for supper since this might the last nice day we have for awhile. More snow and freezing drizzle is coming tomorrow. Boo!

Have a great evening and day tomorrow.

Marcy / Curby

 

[marcy]

Happy Thanksgiving!

I recorded the Macy's parade and fast forwarded through most of it to see the Snoopy balloon.

Marty got up about 6 and decided we weren't going to head to Denver for the day. It is really icy and we've had about 3 - 4 inches of snow already. It didn't break my heart.

We had waffles for breakfast. Then I decided we should make some homemade rolls to have with dinner. We are having some filet, sliced and seasoned baked potatoes and whatever frozen veggies are on top. We'll dip in to our stash of cheesecakes for dessert.

Have a great day!

Marcy / Curby

 

[marcy]

Happy Black Friday!

I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving and are having fun shopping or avoiding shopping today.

We are still getting snow, have icy roads and very cold here so I've been adding to Black Friday sales online. We are going to have packages arriving for weeks.

Marty wants a PS4 and some new game he wants to play. I'd rather have some upgraded sapphires but I know I've spent way too much money on jewelry already this year so I told him he has an option - we can upgrade a sapphire or two or he can get me a new iPad Mini. My other one is about 2 years old and very short on memory. I have to delete photos and apps to get something new. I don't need either the iPad or sapphires but that's what I want.

Marty ventured to the gym and picked up groceries. He said parking lots are solid ice so I am content to stay home while I can.

Have a great weekend.
Curby / Marcy

 

[Rod]

Happy Day After Thanksgiving Ladies!

We had a really nice day with my brother SIL yesterday. I cooked the dinner, which turned out simply fantastic. My brother will be having more tests this week. They said the white blood count in his bladder is off and needs to be checked out. We're not sure what that means.

I have to have a test for my prostate (and you ladies think god played all the jokes on you - he didn't!). I had my six month urologist appointment last week and as usual my PSA is too high. I had a prostate biopsy a few years ago, so now I'm going to have a MRI and if they see anything from that, another biopsy. Not happy about this, but will hope there's nothing wrong.

I just saw the weather Marcy. I can't imagine Marty even ventured out there. It's simply hot down here. No coolness whatsoever. It was in the mid to upper 80s today. Fall skipped us and it appears winter is going to as well.

We did get a good call this morning. Charlie's car, at long last arrived at the dealership this morning. We'll be picking it up at 10:00 AM tomorrow morning. I'll post pics sometime this weekend.

We're not going to buy much of anything this year for Christmas. We just don't really need anything and after spending so much on two cars, we'll just get a couple small things to have to open. Decorating is also going on a break. We love to decorate for Christmas, but we know the kittens will destroy the tree. They're just too young and we've decided to wait till next year for them to hopefully calm a bit.

I hope everyone has a great weekend!

 

[Rod]

A quick Checkin. We picked up Charlie's new Mercedes GLC300 today.

 

[marcy]

Hi Kids,

Rod, Charlie’s new car looks fabulous. The red looks a little darker than my car. I like it! I hate to hear you and your brother both have to have some tests. Good luck with them! It’s still cold and snowing here. I still have not ventured out of the house. Good call to not give the kitties a big, shiny toy to play with this year. I saw a picture on Facebook where the dog is looking at the camera with the Christmas tree knocked over in the background. The caption says “I’m glad you are home. The tree fainted”.

Marty went to the rifle range today and met my BIL and nephew. They had fun in that 16 degree weather. I baked my first batch of Christmas cookies and quickly got them in the freezer downstairs.

One more day of long weekend left then sadly it’s back to the salt mines.

Curby / Marcy

 

[Dee*Jay]

Happy Monday kids!

Curby, sounds like you guys had a great Thanksgiving... except for the weather--yuck! We are rather chilly in Chi-Town, but not icy or snowy (at the moment). Of course after Phoenix it's horrible, ha ha!

Rod, Charlie's car is a stunner! I'm sorry to hear about the tests, but fingers crossed everything comes out well. And good call on the tree with the kitties, that could be a disaster!

The CB and I came home late Friday night. I had showings Saturday and yesterday at one of my listings and I'm hopeful we'll get an offer from one of them (at least that's what they *said*, but I never believe it until I've got the paperwork in my hand...). The CB made chili on Saturday and yesterday we went out with friends. I've got all my boxes but one shipped off and I printed labels for cards yesterday but I didn't actually stick them on any cards yet, and I need stamps too. Baby steps!

Will you guys please email me your addresses? I'm not sure I've got the current one for you Curby, and I'm sure your and Charlie's is out of date too Rod. Thank you!

 

[Dee*Jay]

Happy Tuesday kids!

Just back from a successful closing! Now to get the place that they're selling under contract... ack.

Curby, JUST FOR YOU I bought special stamps this year for the x-mas cards.

I stopped at the place downstairs in my building on the way back and got four things from the salad bar for lunch. I have to say that I'm (a) over brussel sprouts and (b) whoever thinks that wasabi in everything is WRONG. The lentil salad thing isn't too bad through... once you pick out the dried cranberries. Maybe I'm a little too picky, ha ha!

 

[Rod]

A very quick pop-in from work.

DeeJay, I noticed you asked for our addresses. My Yahoo mail crashed some time ago and I lost almost every single contact I had and Yahoo was unable to recover lost emails/contacts for me. My email address hasn't changed, so would you please send me a email? I'll respond to it and add you back to my contacts.

Hope everyone's week is going OK. I'm kind of not in the mood to work........

 

[marcy]

Hi Kids!

Dee Jay, I think it’s chilly in Phoenix today. Does that make us feel better? Good luck with the getting an official offer in your hand on your listing. Yay for having a closing today. You are busy for this time of year. Sweet. You are ahead of me on Christmas cards. I don’t have labels printed yet, my photo cards are in the mail and I am working on my Christmas poem. Did you buy the Peanuts Christmas stamps? I have already got those babies ready for my cards.

Rod, after having a long weekend yesterday was rough being at work. I hope things aren’t so stressful for you at work this month.

Marty made spaghetti and meatballs for supper. He’s going to be gone next week; I’ll have to go back to either making my own supper or pick up window food. I plan on working on Christmas cards and baking cookies while he is gone.

A few of Marty’s gifts arrived in the mail today. I need to pick up a few things more for his stocking but some of the things I bought him are larger than I expected. That stocking will fill up fast. I ordered him some custom golf balls with “Killer Rabbit Casino” on them. I found some little chocolate pieces that look like Guinness beers. They also had some flavored Guinness chips so I thought how can I go wrong with those?

Have a great week.
Marcy / Curby

 

[Dee*Jay]

Happy snowy Wednesday kids!

Rod, I just sent an email to your @tampa.rr address... is that still good?

Curby, your gift ideas are clever! I'm sure Marty will love them!

I had to brush my car off for the first time this morning... ugh! Fortunately it's parked in an inside garage today so even though I have a showing tonight I'll leave right from my office and the car will be all cleaned off.

A location scout might be coming to see my place tomorrow so I will have to clean up tonight. I think lately the only time the house gets put in order is when a scout is coming, ha ha! Tomorrow I've got a showing mid-day and I'll be getting the cards ready to mail. Doesn't sound like much but somehow I'm sure those two things will fill the whole day up... ???

 

[Rod]

DeeJay, I haven't had that email address for more than 8 years now. That was so much my richer days! LOL

Marcy has my email address and home address. Marcy, would you send it for me?

 

[Dee*Jay]

Rod - just saw your post so I went back and deleted mine. I'll get it from Curby. Thanks!

 

[marcy]

Hi Kids,

Dee Jay, did our snowy weather move your way. I see the NW coast is getting a lot of moisture; I hope it doesn’t come in either of our direction. I hope Marty likes his gifts; we have a hard time buying for each other – every day can be Christmas at our place, which doesn’t leave a lot of things we need or want. Glad to hear your car was parked inside today. You do have a busy day tomorrow. Good luck with your showing.

Rod, I bet scraping or brushing your car off is a long forgotten pain for you. I hate scraping off ice. I did give Dee Jay your email. I hope work is going well for you this week.

I was busy at work. I met Marty for supper then we went to Sams Club. I stocked up on paper products. We got a few cases of bottled water for the family Christmas and we picked up Marty another wireless remote for his PS4. They only had sweet tea so I guess Marty will have to pick up 6 packs of unsweetened tea at the grocery store. I had to work for a while tonight. Marty put up the tree and got out our little door greeters. We can work on ornaments tomorrow night.

Take care.
Marcy / Curby

 

[Dee*Jay]

Happy Thursday kids!

Curby, Bill and I had the same problem, every day was Christmas at our house. It was terrible trying to think of things to get him every year. He had it easy because I would always go and pick out some piece of bling, tell the salesperson to hold it, he would then come in with his (our!) credit card, and voila! Gift for Dee! I established with the CB from Day 1 that we were not doing gifts. Ever. For any reason. Although I did buy him a seat heater at some point last winter that he can plug into the lighter of his work truck.

Rod, not sure if Curby has told you yet but we'll all be joining you for a warm and wonderful x-mas.

I'm going to clean the place up a bit, get the x-mas cards started, do my showing, and probably stop at Target on the way back. There is an event called the One of a Kind Show at the Merchandise Mart with all sorts of jewelry and crafts and other artsy type stuff starting today but I don't need ANYTHING at this point and all my shopping is DONE... and yet I am Still Tempted To Go... Sometimes I confuse even myself, ha ha!

 

[Rod]

LOL DeeJay! I tell 'ya what. I'll leave the key to our condo at the Concierge desk and you do the same at yours. You all come on down (Emi and Eri will need food and water during your stay) and Charlie and I will head to your condo in Chicago. I'm over this warm weather for the holidays. Yes I am!

 

[marcy]

Hi Kids,

Dee Jay, I like the idea of not exchanging gifts ever! It makes things so much easier. A seat heater is a very nice gift. I use my heated seats and steering wheel frequently this time of year. I hadn’t told Rod we were coming. I thought we should just surprise him; it’s harder to get away if we are blocking the door. Did you go to the merchandise mart? Did you get anything?

Rod, one problem if you go to Dee Jay’s condo or our house – there is likely to be some of the white snow stuff you often say “I don’t do snow”. But I think both places have a plentiful stock of liquor.

Our tree is up and decorated. Marty hung our snowflakes on the garage lights and I hinted I’d love it if he put up the lights outside. We’ll see. He feels bad doing things like that when he is supposed to be working.

Have a great evening and tomorrow is Friday.

Curby / Marcy

 

[Rod]

We're not exchanging gifts this year and with Emi and Eri, we're not decorating either. They'd destroy the decorations we've spent the last 35 years collecting. We've just spent so much money this year with new cars, the kitties, Charlie's eye surgery and we've both spent a lot of money recently on dental torture to boot. So you see Marcy.....snow for Christmas would be kind of fun! And I'd know we can leave it to come back to Florida!

 

[marcy]

Rod, you have had an expensive year but you ended up with some wonderful things. I am sure after a week in Wyoming you'd be glad to go back to the heat. Usually around Christmas we get some sub zero temperatures and the wind chills are ridiculous.

 

[Dee*Jay]

Happy Friday kids!

Rod, I'll gladly leave you the keys for my place! Feel free to eat and drink anything, enjoy the space, and make friends with the neighbors!

Curby, I did't make it to the Mart yesterday. I didn't even go to Target, I just ordered what I wanted on-line. I did write out 13 x-mas cards... but I've got about 150 more to go. And glitter -- OMG the glitter! I'll be vacuuming that sh!t up until the Fourth of July. Oy.

Last night we did takeout from the Italian place on the corner. It's not quite the same as being there, but at least I get to eat in my own house in my jammies so that makes it all worth it. I didn't sleep worth a damn though, probably because I read until I fell asleep and didn't put my earplugs in and every little thing all night long work me up. I've truly learned to love sleeping in silence; god bless earplugs!

 

[marcy]

Hi Kids!

Dee Jay, I am very anti glitter. What a nightmare to get rid of; that stuff gets every where. My employees were teasing me today they are going to glitter up my desk and teddy bears. Good idea to do your shopping from home. I like shopping online usually except for buying sapphires. Ear plugs are the best. I sleep with them in and usually do when Marty is gone because otherwise I hear everything too. Anything to help us sleep.

Work was busy today and went by really fast. Of course an automated email came out indicating my team made an error on something for tomorrow so I had to dial in and fix it.

I spent what seemed like an hour hand washing the Rubbermaid package we picked up at Sams the other night. I'd picked up a few larger Rubbermaid containers the day before at the grocery store. Between the assorted containers and lids I had to use 7 dish towels but at least they are all clean. Marty thinks I am crazy to wash them all but I'd rather give them a soapy rinse because I don't know how clean they are off of the shelf.

I finished my self appraisal at work today and my last moment was "I don't like doing self appraisals. It's all about me". One of my employees submitted their self appraisal so I got it finished today too. This summer when I was dealing with my problem employee I wrote up all of our appraisals so I have them pretty much done already. I just have to copy and paste them in to our internal site and I'm done. Yay!

Marty made meatball subs for supper with our leftover meatballs. I'd never had a meatball sandwich before It was good. He sent me a text to pick up chips on the way home. I went to the little mini mart store at work and bought chips there.

Marty is packing. He is headed to Philadelphia tomorrow. He was going to visit a friend in PA tomorrow then drive on to DC on Sunday. They guy's kids have strep and some other contagious disease so Marty is driving to VA tomorrow and will spent the night with his brother and SIL. They are about an hour away from where Marty stays in DC.

I have errands from heck to run tomorrow and will start working on Christmas cards and baking cookies. Hence the abundance of new Rubbermaid containers.

Have a great weekend.
Marcy / Curby

 

[marcy]

Hi Kids,

So I had a very busy and productive day. Marty got up about 5:30 and was gone a little after 6. I went back to bed and had a difficult time falling asleep then had a really weird dream. I got up a little after 8. I picked up a package at FedEx, picked up some things at Office Max, Hallmark, Walgreens, Joann Fabrics and picked up lunch while I was out. Then I baked some Christmas M&M cookies and started working on my Christmas cards. I pretty much got those finished and ready to mail.

I am going to bake another batch of cookies tomorrow and then I’ll be glad to go back to work on Monday to rest.

Have a great Sunday.

Curby / Marcy

 

[Rod]

Hey,

We had a nice day yesterday. We had to go find a new file cabinet for the home office. Wound up ordering a Hon from Office Depot, which will arrive this coming Wednesday. Merry Christmas to us. Then we went to Starbucks and had coffee while listening to holiday music on Bluetooth and reading on our iPads. Finally we had read about a new Ramen Noodle place nearby and we wound up having dinner there. Gourmet Ramen seems to be the rage these days and I must admit it was mighty tasty and quite filling. On our way home we stopped off at Target and picked up one of those new Hamilton Beach breakfast sandwich machines. We made homemade Egg McMuffins for breakfast and they were so so tasty. All we have planned today is to visit my dad in the nursing home and grocery shopping.

I hope you all had a great weekend so far!

 

[Dee*Jay]

Happy Sunday kids!

Curby, I hate doing self appraisals too. One year (and with a boss that was really my friend, I had just gone into a company to fix a specific problematic department for her) my three accomplishments (and god, don't you hate it when they make you list those?) were: I came, I saw, I conquered. My guess is that form never got turned into to HR.

Rod, I do a ton of reading electronically now! I balked at the idea several years ago when the whole concept was first becoming popular, and then I had a job where I flew back and forth to LA every week and had nothing to do on the evenings but entertainment myself, so I was hauling several heavy book back and forth. Hello Kindle! I just cancelled my subscription to Amazon Kindle Unlimited this week because I have the hardest time finding something on there I want to read (it pushes all these self published vampire sex books -- ???) and the stuff I wanted to read I had to pay for separately anyway so I set up an E account at the Chicago public library. So far I've read two books that way, started but then returned a third, am deep into a fourth, have four more ready to go, and have four for which I'm on the hold list (meaning they have a limited number of subscriptions available and you have to "get in line" to check them out). I'm in heaven!!!

Today the CB went to the grocery store at some ungodly hour because he needed stuff for something that had to cook in the crockpot for eight hours. Not 100% sure what it is but I'm sure it will be fabulous (or at least well cooked!) when it's done. I took a client to see a couple of properties, neither of which they are going to buy, and am about to work on some more x-mas cards. Sixty-eight done so far... and glitter as far as the eye can see!

 

[marcy]

Hi Kids!

Rod, it sounds like you had a nice weekend. Hon office furniture is nice. The new restaurant sounds delicious. It was nice enough here to set outside. Not bad for December. You’ll enjoy the breakfast sandwich machine. That was my go to quick supper between work and school. Lots of egg, cheese and Canadian bacon sandwiches.

Dee Jay, I love your list of accomplishments. That is awesome. This year I actually have been making a list of 2015 accomplishments. It seems to have fallen off lately but I had plenty to pick from for my list. I didn’t think I’d like giving up actual books but I’ve been all Kindle all the time for about 3 years now. Marty reads to much I rarely have to buy a book since they are already in our account. That is wonderful reading them through the library is working well. I can’t believe CB got up so early to get dinner going in the crock pot. I can stay up forever but I don’t like to get up early for anything. I hope your dinner was delicious. Stupid glitter. I hate it. Someone just posted on my FB wall they saw that sawdust is men’s glitter. It’s about as hard to get rid of and shows up everywhere.

I was busy today but I didn’t do as much as yesterday. I went to bed about 12:30 and got up about 7:30. I had cereal for breakfast then went to Office Depot to mail some packages, dropped off all my Christmas cards at the post office, picked up the mail for the astronomy club, came home and made lunch then started on candy cane cookies. I just got done with all the dishes. Sweet!

I took a few pictures of this year’s tree that I’ll post. I made a Christmas collage to send white flash with all of my WF jewelry, the bear they sent me who I call Arrows and the title was I’m Dreaming of a Whiteflash Christmas. Ha Ha.

I am looking forward to resting at work tomorrow. There won’t be dishes to wash.

Take care.
Marcy / Curby

 

[Rod]

DeeJay, I don't get anything in print anymore. All my reading is via my iPad. But I'm more into Magazines as opposed to books. I just don't seem to have the time or patience anymore to read an entire book. The Zinio App and an iPad gives me access to every magazine I could possibly be interested in.

We visited my dad this afternoon. It's really sad when we visit lately. He just sleeps, eats and goes to the bathroom. He no longer has the strength to get up out of bed on his own. We make him get up when we visit though. And we take him a treat each week, plus he has a prescription for a beer every night, so we bring his "medicine" and Charlie makes snack bags with an assortment of chips and crackers to have with his beer every night.

After we left, we went grocery shopping. Neither had a clue what we wanted for dinner. We wound having a salad and steamed jumbo shrimp. I steam shrimp with Old Bay and Red Pepper and I make a killer cocktail sauce. It was really good and very low calorie to boot. Of course we just ate some Godiva chocolates that were given to us from our dentist. He sends us a pound every year for the holidays. That's one sure way to ensure your patients keep coming back. Ha!

 

[marcy]

Here is a picture of my official cookie tester.

 

[Rod]

Now Marcy, if you'd like to send some to us, we'd be more than happy to, you know, taste test them for you!!