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Healthy Living Thread

Happy Tuesday kids!

Curby, WTF about the new lady quitting?!? Is there something about your boss that's really problematic or was she just using that as some sort of excuse...?

Last night the CB went over and fixed something for another unit owner in the complex and then we had left over pizza for dinner (no wonder my damn pants don't fit!). I painted my nails, but frankly I did a poorer job than usual (?). Oh well, in a few weeks this mani will be a distant memory and I'll be on tot the next one!

I got a bunch of gifts from Amazon yesterday but I couldn't bring myself to mess up the house with the wrapping adventure. Maybe tonight I'll start...
 
Marcy, I'm sorry the new employee quit. If she said it was because of your boss, he must be quite the package? Glad the registration didn't cost as much as you expected on the Macan. LOL about Marty starting a basement gym. Yes, you should definitely charge membership fees!

DeeJay, pizza is great anytime, whether fresh or left over. I watched a YouTube thing about the best way to reheat pizza. They suggested putting it in a pan and dry frying it a bit. The crust will be crisp on the bottom. I haven't tried it yet though. Charlie doesn't let us have pizza very often.

When I got home, Charlie had baked a batch of the black bottom mini cupcake cookies I mentioned a few posts again. I think he wanted to soften the fact that the new lenses for his glasses cost over $400. That's not frame and lenses, that's just lenses. Yikes. I told him I'd put a bow on them and wish him Merry Christmas. We haven't yet bought any gifts. There's really nothing either of us needs and when we do, we just usually go get it anyway.

Our new Samsung top load washer was recalled when a couple of them blew up. Samsung seems to be making things that go boom these days. But what I read was the couple that did were way overloaded. We don't wash huge loads to begin with. Anyway, they offered either a refund, or repair with extended warranty. We really like the pair we bought, so we went for the repair. Charlie had to help the repair guy pick it up and out of the pan it sits in as it's upstairs and code requires a pan with a drain in case it ever overflows. Otherwise, he said it took the guy about 20 minutes. All they evidently had to do was install two metal braces, which supposedly will stop the drum from flying out the top if it tried. Fingers crossed it never tries to.

At least tomorrow's Wednesday. Charlie's going to Buffalo to see his family Thursday. He'll only be gone till Monday. This means I can eat anything I want for 5 days!!
 
Happy Wednesday kids!

Rod, that's exactly how one of my favorite waiters told us to heat up pizza many years ago and that's the best way in my opinion! I use a non-stick pan and put in in there with nothing else (no oil or anything). I also cover it over low/medium heat so the cheese melts too, otherwise sometimes it doesn't, especially if it's thick crust or deep dish. That's also the way to heat up left over French fries -- they get crispy and delicious!

Last night I didn't do much of anything since the CB is still on the verge of death (I think he's getting better, but I slept on the couch again anyway, and I likely will tonight too). I would like to start wrapping gifts and stuff but I've got the notary coming to my house tomorrow morning to do the paperwork for my refi and I don't want it to look like Santa's workshop exploded in there. Maybe tomorrow night...
 
Hi Kids!

Dee Jay, I told my boss today if someone has an employee they want to get rid of just transfer them to my department. It seems to be a sure way to get them to quit. But why oh why won’t those other negative employees quit? They know a good thing when they have it. As for my boss he is blunt and direct; not touchy feely at all and yes he can be grumpy and moody. What really ticked her off was if she made the same mistake a few times he’d just do it for her but be mad about it. Once they started irritating each other neither one of them are the type to get over it. I am okay with blunt honesty so I don’t mind working for him. Sorry to hear CB is so sick. I hope he gets better. Good idea to not start wrapping presents so you can enjoy your clean house for a few days. I think Santa’s workshop would look good in your living room. I love wrapping packages but lately I am in to gift baskets.

Rod, my boss can be difficult when he’s grumpy or pouty but when he’s not I actually like him and get along with him pretty well. We don’t see eye to eye on most things but to his credit he still generally lets me run my department the way I want and not the way he wants. I use that to my advantage too. When we make mistakes I will remind them you better fix this or you’ll be dealing with him instead of me. There are 2 guys that come over to Marty’s gym and one of them would probably take me seriously and think we want him to pay us for using the gym. I am glad Marty has some buddies to work out with. I know he gets bored and lonely working from home. I would so love to have that problem. Marty heated my pizza at 425 in the over and it worked really well; the crust was still crisp. I would have never tried that method. The black bottom cupcakes sound great. Rats that Charlie’s lenses cost so much. Glasses are pricey anymore. I do the same thing when Marty is gone; eat stuff I like and he doesn’t or won’t eat. That’s something about your Samsung washer. Glad they have a fix for it. Did you get one of the colored models? I love the slate blue and red washer / dryers they have. Samsung has been having problems for sure; that was another reason I picked the Sony TV. Of course the other 3 TV’s we have are Samsung.

I missed posting last night because I was in bed before 10. I started yawning about 8 and could barely stay awake past 9. Wow that is unusual for me. I hate to get up but I can usually stay up pretty late.

Tonight we ran down to Kohl’s and picked up a few things. I had 20% off that expired today and they were way less busy than they were on Black Friday.

We got back and one of the gym guys was already waiting for us.

It is cold and windy here. I’ve been avoiding getting gas in my car and finally got some at lunch. Like an idiot I only had on my fleece jacket. Wind blocking my behind!

2 more work days then it’s the weekend again. Sweet.
Curby
 
Marcy, we went to bed early last night too. I had to take some ZQuill in order to fall asleep earlier than usual. I have a very difficult time falling asleep before 11:30. Got up at 5:30 (YUCK), took a shower and took Charlie to the airport. I stopped by Starbucks and was at my desk before 7:00 AM (Double YUCK). I'm hoping I can get out of here earlier since I came in so early.

Our washer and dryer are white. We have an upstairs laundry room, which is really just a bigger walk in closet, so the door is closed almost all the time and we just didn't think spending more on a color was important. So far, we've been extremely pleased with all the new Samsung appliances. I'm sure the washer will be just fine now that it's been reinforced. And the 4K Ultra TV is great, at least for our needs. I doubt though that I'd notice any difference between a Samsung, Sony or LG TV of similar spec.

It's good that even if your boss can be difficult, he leaves you alone to run your department. It shows he has confidence in you!

I'm sure Mary enjoys having a friend to share the gym with. It's funny that one was waiting for you when you got home last night!

Have a great day........
 
Hi Kids!

Rod, I hope you got off work early. Usually if I go to bed early I just lay there and stare off in to space. I really considered buying that blue Samsung set when we moved in to our house but decided to go with a white Maytag pair. I agree the Sony, Samsung and LG are very good TV’s with all the bells and whistles. For being such a micro-manager my boss does usually allow me to run things my way. He sometimes can’t help himself and butts in but he apologizes and has improved in that area. He does tell me I am doing a good job.

Busy day at work. We interviewed a guy who I think would be good on my team. I don’t know if I’ll get him or if he’ll go to another team in our department. His uncle is an old friend of mine and his mom used to work for me at my last job. Small world sometimes.

I met a friend for lunch and we talked so long I was 30 minutes late from lunch but since I usually go in 20 to 30 minutes early all the time I didn’t feel bad.

Have a fabulous Friday.
Curby
 
Happy Saturday kids!

Rod, It was so nice of you to get up at 5:30 to take Charlie to the airport! The CB gets up at 5:00 every morning for work and he's out the door by 5:30. He knows that any extra noise that results in waking Princess will also result in his immediate and painful death!

Curby, LOL on the negative employees not quitting but the good ones heading for the door! I've noticed that too -- sometimes you just want to say, Um, hey, how 'bout if YOU quit and then XYZ (who we actually like and does a good job) might want to stay!

It's been a busy shopping few days! I went to the One of a Kind Show that they hold at the Merchandise Mart every year on Thursday and I ran into one of my good friends there. She bought a cute small cowhide bag... which I then spent two days obsessing over... and today I went back and got three (bigger) ones of my own. Man, when Dee goes on a mission, she goes on a MISSION!

The gift wrapping commented yesterday, but not really in earnest. Now that I've got my real estate work done today (had a contract come together last night so had to run around this morning get everything signed off) and I'm done shopping for the day (well... I *think* I'm done shopping for the day, ha ha) I need to attack those presents with some vigor!

OK: Prosecco... check! Comfy clothes on... check! Holiday music in the background... check! Now WRAP!!!
 
Hi Kids!

Dee Jay, that would be great if I could make a deal and swap out the good employees for the challenging ones. There’s nothing wrong with going on a mission and coming home with some great bags. Nice that a real estate deal came together yesterday. Did you get a lot of wrapping done today? I am still in the shopping phase and I need to definitely start thinking about wrapping gifts too.

We had friends over last night and played Trivial Pursuit until about midnight. Polished off about 3 bottles of wine. Did you know Richard Gere’s middle name is Tiffany? Neither did I so I didn’t get the pink pie.

This morning I saw the price on the TV we bought was $300 less than what we paid so we headed off to Best Buy to get a partial refund. It worked great. The customer service lady didn’t bat an eye. Gave us credit and then told me watch prices through Christmas because if it goes cheaper we can come back and get the difference again. We of course spent that money while we were there. We got a Blu Ray 4K player and a few 4K movies. We just finished Reverent. Holy cow! I don’t know if you’ve seen that movie but it was intense. I kept looking away from the TV frequently. I told Marty next time I think I’m having a bad day I’ll think about that movie and realize my bad day is nothing like the life those people in that movie had every day.

We also went to our favorite kitchen store and then ate Italian for lunch. It was a fun day.

It is cold and windy here but no snow until later this week. Winter is definitely getting our attention now.

Curby
 
Hey......I've had a nice quiet weekend all by myself. Friday night I thought I was catching cold again (after just getting over one a couple weeks ago), but with a lot of rest, I think I'm OK. I slept in both yesterday and today. I've barely gone out, instead opting for multiple Xmas movies on Hallmark. I did some errands and went to Starbucks and sat outside a couple times. It's warm, not hot, which is a nice change. I did a bit of trimming in the back and side yard and oh yes, I swept the driveway. Do I know how to have fun, or what? I ate an entire pizza for dinner last night. It was a small pizza, but I woofed the whole thing down none-the-less. And for dinner tonight I had King Crab legs and corn on the cob. Charlie comes home in time for dinner tomorrow night.

Marcy, we have Trivial Pursuit in a long time. One question I'll never forget is who invented the Bra? His name was Titzling! He was a German engineer. I think that's funny, yes?

Oh and I finally bought a Christmas present for Charlie online. Charlie loves slipper socks and I found some really nice ones from Acorn. They're suede on the bottom and have memory foam insoles. Supposedly, the Astronauts wear them in space. Who knew? I have no idea what else to get him.
 
Hi Kids!

Rod, it sounds like you had a nice weekend. I am glad you slept in since your cold is trying to come back. I swear that cold I had a few months ago is still lingering. I’ve been watching the holiday specials on the local networks at work. When I am reviewing reports I turn on TV, stick in my ear phones and just listen. I swear I am not watching TV. Those classic holiday specials are always fun to catch up on each year. Good deal you enjoyed your pizza last night and also soaked up some sun outside of Starbucks. We are going to have a high of 10 on Wednesday so I doubt I’ll be setting outside. It will be nice to have Charlie home tomorrow. That is pretty funny about who invented the bra. Maybe I’ll get that question the next time we play Trivial Pursuit and I’ll already know the answer. How cool Charlie will be wearing the same slipper socks as astronauts. I wear slipper socks to bed every night even in the summer. I can’t sleep without them.

My sister and BIL came up for the day. She dropped off some of her sapphires at my jeweler to get made in to some rings and pendants. A few are for her but the rest of them are for some of her friends or co-workers. My jeweler must realize he’s got a sure deal with her for a while because he gave her his cell phone number so she doesn’t ever drive 100 miles and find he isn’t in his shop.

We all watched the Broncos game then went to lunch. I am still full. I had 1/2 of a big steak, salad and some fries then a very hot apple cobbler.

I had Marty and my BIL take my car to fill it up with gas. They were teasing me when they came back that it wasn’t even below a 1/2 of a tank but I pointed out to them today is the warmest it’s going to be for at least a week so I want gas now.

I spent quite a bit of time today trying a new desk top publishing app I bought and downloaded. Hate it so far. Tried some more DTP in Word and hated it as well. My Tourettes was kicking in what I was messing with it. I know I could buy Parallels and use Microsoft Publisher but I am way too cheap to pay $79 each year for Parallels. I have a few weeks to mess with the new app and see if I can get it to work for me.

Have a great evening and Happy Monday!
Curby
 
Happy Monday kids!

Curby, LOL on getting gas. I will go until my car says I've got less than 20 miles left (and sometimes I've taken in down farther than that!) if I'm going over to the boat house because the gas is SO much cheaper in Indiana and Michigan than it is in the City.

Rod, I find it funny that the astronauts wear slippers with memory foam soles in space! I mean, the purpose of the memory foam is to give you something cushy to walk on -- right? But it's not like the astronauts are really bearing any weight on their feet!

Yesterday we had quite a snowstorm! I had to go and do an inspection north in the city and I drove very very carefully! I did get quite a bit of wrapping done over the weekend, but there's still more to do... If I remember to take some boxes home with me today I can get two or three big piles shipped off, so that will make me feel like I accomplished something! I do have one pair of earrings I got for my mother a few years ago at the One of a Kind Show (they are silver ginko leaves made from the mold of real leaves -- very cool) and for the life of me I can't find them. The good news is I have enough other stuff for her, but damn, I wish I knew where those went! I also got a bit of shopping done for next year... and I'm going to (a) make a good list of what I've gotten, and (b) put it all in one place so I can actually FIND it when the time comes!!!
 
Hi Kids!

Dee Jay, I usually fill my car when it gets down to about ¼ of a tank but in the winter I top off the tank whenever the weather is decent. Nice that you can find cheaper gas at the boat house. Phooey to being out in a snow storm. I hate when I lose presents I buy early and put up for safe keeping. I hope you find it.

Not much exciting going on here today. My surround and backup cameras on my car didn’t work this morning. The sensors still worked because they were beeping when I was backing out of the garage. When I left work they came on fine. Weird. Breaking my new car already.

It is cold and windy here. Snow starting tomorrow. It was 20 when I came home and my fleece jacket didn’t keep me very warm between the door and my car. I cranked on the heated seat and steering wheel heater for my drive home.

Curby
 
Happy Tuesday kids!

Curby, I try to keep a list of stuff I've got for the future, and also what I've given people in the past so I don't duplicate, but I've got to be better about the accuracy because sometimes I switch up at the last minute what I'm going to give someone and don't update the list. I also tend to buy in bulk. For instance, I just ordered eight embroidered reindeer dish towels from Pottery Barn to use as stocking stuffers or last minute hostess gifts. In retrospect I probably should have gotten more, LOL, because they were on clearance for $8.99 and they are super cute

Last night I wrapped some more things and also boxed up four packages to send out to state. This morning I was WIDE awake at 2 am. I finally gave up trying to sleep at 4 am and started trolling ebay... and bought two things. Oops! Between ebay, etsy, and Amazon I really never need to set foot in a store again, ha ha!
 
Hi Kids!

Dee Jay, I used to stock up on gifts and buy them all year long but I honestly don’t exchange gifts with that many people anymore. That is a great idea to keep track of who you gave what to so you don’t repeat gifts. The reindeer dishtowels sound cute. They used to have some Christmas plates with the cutest reindeers on them. I regret not buying them when I thought about it; you can’t get them anymore. You can find anything on Esty, Ebay and Amazon. It’s a shopper’s paradise in our pj’s.

Holy deep freeze! It says it feels like 6 now and tomorrow is going to be colder. I am so glad I am taking a day off from work tomorrow and hopefully I can stay home all day.

Marty and I must have been in oblivious land last night when we went to bed. We left 2 steaks thawing out on the counter, left all of the little Christmas lights on and the tree was still plugged in. I guess that is better than the time I left a gas burner on low all night. We threw out the steaks this morning and Marty had to go buy some more for supper.

I went to the post office this morning and this time I walked in to be safe. I had to pick up the club mail anyway. No tires or rims were hurt during my morning stop.

Dee Jay and Rod can you email me your addresses? I plan on working on Christmas cards soon.

Take care.
Curby
 
It's late, so this is a quick flyby.

Marcy, I sent you our address via email. Let me know if you don't get the email. Sorry it's so cold. They say it's going to cool down by Friday, with a high of 60. That will be a nice change. Sorry about the steaks. And oh my about leaving the gas burner on, even on low.

Charlie started the tree today. We sprayed with some stuff the kitties are supposed to not like. So far, they're curious, but not swatting at ornaments. I'm scared we may hear glass break in the middle of the night, but hopefully they'll just leave it alone.

DeeJay, glad you're getting so much done with holiday wrapping. The cold and snow would make it seem like the holidays. I hate driving on snowy roads, that's for sure.

Again, just a quick flyby. I'll try to write more tomorrow.
 
Happy Wednesday kids!

Curby, just sent you an email with the address so let me know if you don't get it. Good idea to walk into the Post Office LOL!

Rod, I hope the kitty-away spray works! The first year we had The Demon he was quite curious about the whole thing, but when he realized there was no food to be had the appeal wore off pretty quickly...

I did pretty much the rest of the wrapping last night and started the major clean-up. I've done such a good job of going through the stockpile of gifts that I even emptied out an entire plastic bin so that will give more room in the closet -- woo hoo! Tomorrow or Friday I'll go ship everything and get it out of the house and then I can just worry about Chicago peeps.
 
Hi Kids!

Rod, I did get your email. Thank you! Enjoy your 60-degree weather – people will probably be running around in parkas. When Marty used to go to Arizona in the winter people down there wouldn’t even set outside in 60-degree weather saying it was too cold. I guess it’s all what you are used to. Good luck with the spray keeping the kitties away. They want to play with those pretty, sparkling balls on the tree.

Dee Jay, I read where Chicago had a record snowfall for yesterday’s date but became less impressed with I read it was 6.4 inches. I know you’ve had way more snow than that before. Your story about Demon reminded me of a friend of Marty’s who had a box of fudge wrapped up under the tree from his mom. Their two dogs ripped it open and ate all of it. They were both pretty sick from it. You are way ahead of me getting packages wrapped and shipped.

We only had about an inch of snow but it is cold and icy so I am enjoying staying home today. I slept in about an hour. I made some chocolate chip cookies. A friend of mine brought lunch over for us so I thanked her with some hot cookies. The rest of the cookies went in the freezer for a pot luck at work on the 21st.

I washed our flannel sheets this morning and got them on our bed. Marty said he was surprised I hadn’t dug them out sooner. I am taking care of laundry today and I really need to start working on my annual Christmas poem.

Take care.
Curby
 
Charlie's almost finished with the tree. It's a 3 day event. Really. We have that many ornaments. Once it's finished, I'll take a picture. So far, the kitties are interested, but leaving it alone. They do like to lay underneath the tree, which is cute.

All the talk of snow, whether 1 inch or 6, makes me shiver. The cold front is supposed to breeze through tomorrow and we'll at least be much cooler. And Marcy, you're right. When it gets in the 60s people break out the winter coats as we're just not used to cold temps. It's the tourists who walk around in shorts and t-shirts. We can always tell who doesn't live here.

It was a really long day. We're watching Hairspray live on NBC. It's a terrific production.

Have a nice night.
 
Happy Thursday kids!

Curby, I'm sure I've told this story before but the first year we had The Demon we noticed that the little ice skaters under the tree were disappearing. Well a few days later they started REappearing... as The Demon shat them out one at a time. That girl doing the triple axle must have hurt like hell!!!

Rod, a three day event -- WOW! I have a ton of ornaments and it's likely I'll never use them again (or at least not in the foreseeable future) since I spent x-mas with my friend at her house now. They are all packed up neatly in those Container Store ornament holders so it's not like they're going anywhere, but many that takes up a lot of storage space!

Last night I went out for drinks with some of the ladies from my office and then I met the CB for dinner at a local bar that has really good food. This morning I woke up when the CB got out of bed around 5 but dozed off and on until 8. Now I'm cleaning up a bit because there are a few people from my office coming over before our holiday party, which is literally right across the street from me. I also need to go to Fed Ex to get these boxes shipped but the site is down. What a PITA! I'm sure some poor IT guy is working like mad, but man, what poor timing! Oh well, I can always take them tomorrow too, but I had it in my head that they were going to be shipped TODAY.
 
Hi Kids!

Rod, putting up your tree does sound like a major project if it takes 3 days. At our old house we had from 11 – 13 feet live trees and they took a lot of ornaments. Now we have a slim 7-foot tree and we just put the Snoopy, Star Wars and Star Trek ornaments on it. We have another box of ornaments I don’t want to throw out but we don’t use them. That is very cute the kitties like to lay under the tree. If you aren’t used to cooler temperatures 60 degrees probably feels pretty chilly. I’d wear a sweater here if we were outside in 60 degree weather but I am usually cold.

Dee Jay, I do remember the story about Demon but I did really chuckle about the triple axle. Yes, that had to hurt. I hope you have fun at your holiday party.

It was about -10 when I left for work this morning. Marty offered to take me to work and pick me up but I said no – about 5 pm walking out the door to my cold car in 3-degree weather made me ask myself “what was I thinking?” Tomorrow we will get in the 30’s again. Heatwave! Woo hoo!

Tomorrow is Friday. Woo hoo!
Marcy
 
DeeJay, I hope the holiday party is fun tonight. I do remember the Demon story. It still makes me chuckle.

Marcy, our tree is tall and narrow because it's what fit the condo the best. We may well wind up getting a wider tree now that we have more room for the tree.

Charlie still has more decorating to do, but I hope he's finished tomorrow. We have boxes all over the place. I like when it's all done, but hate the mess while it's happening.

Tomorrow's Friday. YAY! Hard to believe Christmas is just two weeks away. We're going shopping this weekend or there will be nothing under the tree on Christmas morning.

Here's a pic of the tree. If you blow it up, you can see just how much stuff is on this thing:

xmas_tree_2016.jpg
 
Happy Friday kids!

Curby, the holiday party was good but I bailed pretty early. We have a raffle at the end every year and I always give my tickets that we "win" by playing casino games to my assistant anyway. Two years ago she won the $5,000 trip. There's no way of knowing if she won off of my ticket or her own but I like to think it was mine, LOL.

Rody, wow, your tree looks AMAZING! Charlie done good! And I would expect nothing less since he's so artistic about these things! If I ever put up another tree I'll fly him up to decorate it. Of course he might object to that given the weather in Chicago in December but I'll buy him a big coat and some gloves too!

Today I am going to ship all the Fed Ex packages (I hope!) and also go through my closet and take some things to a consignment store. I've never done that before but I'm going to give it a shot. Some of my things are nice (not super designer but always decent quality and gently worn) and if I can get some money for them rather than giving them away I might as well explore the option.

Tonight my neighbor is having a party, which we'll make a brief stop at, and then my real estate company's party is at the Field Museum. It's quite a shindig!

Party, party, party -- 'tis the season!
 
Hi Kids!

Rod, your tree looks gorgeous. It is packed with ornaments. I will get a picture of our tree. I keep whining I want a bigger tree but Marty tells me the one we have is big enough. I’d put one up downstairs and in the living room too but I guess the den is enough. I swear your shutters look like ours. I plan on wrapping a few presents this weekend. Our big present is our TV. Have fun shopping!

Dee Jay, I am glad you had fun at the party. That would be my luck I’d give my ticket for a prize and they’d win something. The best prizes they give out at our holiday party is a 50” TV. Most of the prizes are less expensive such as mini iPads, gift cards, dinner somewhere; stuff like that. Did you make it to FedEx? Marty went to the post office about 1 and he said the line was really short. Great idea to try a consignment store. I hate to just give away things or throw it away. Your dance card is full. Have fun!

It was in the 40’s today so most of our snow melted. Tomorrow will be near 45 for our hight then it’s downhill again with cold and snow. It’s like December or something. Weird.

I got to leave work about 5 minutes early. Not much but I’ll take it and drive home with a big old silly grin on my face. I put on my extra muffler noise and act like I’m cool. Ha. What an act!

I plan on working on Christmas stuff this weekend. Marty is going down to take his sister to IKEA to get some things this on Sunday. I have absolutely no desire to wander IKEA for hours so I am going to stay home and work on my chores. She is moving in to a house with one of her co-workers next week. I hope the 2 of them get along for the next year and a half. Sharing a house was the only way they could both afford something decent. The other lady has a dog that she kind of expects Marty’s sister to take care of if she doesn’t come home. Time will tell how that works out.

Have a fabulous weekend.
Curby
 
DeeJay, invite Charlie up. He lOVES cold and snow. He was so disappointed he didn't see a flake when he was in Buffalo, last week. Of course they're supposed to get a bunch of the white stuff this weekend. Too bad he didn't go this weekend as opposed to last weekend. Glad the party was nice, even if you were there briefly. We have a party next weekend at our next door neighbor's house, but just for us four new neighbors. Our work party is next week, during the day. They're taking us out for a very ritzy lunch at Eddie V's, which is a real upscale steak house. Then we come back to the office for our Secret Santa gift exchange. The gift I bought for my Secret Santa arrived today and it's really a beautiful watch. A $495 watch for $50 is quite a deal. And she needs a new watch, so I've been told.

Marcy, 45 huh? A veritable heat wave. LOL. It was only in the low 60s today. It's supposed to be closer to 70 tomorrow, which for me is simply perfect. A long sleeve T-Shirt and I'm a happy camper. We're going shopping tomorrow. I've got to find Charlie some gifts.

Glad you both like the tree. The boxes are finally out of the house and back in the garage. Tomorrow, I have to vacuum the entire first floor. There is glitter literally everywhere. The kitties are still being pretty good, which is wonderful.

We just got out of the hot tub and now we're having a cup of tea with honey and lemon. I've still been fighting a bit of a cold, which just doesn't seem to want to fully go away.

Have a great Saturday all!
 
Hi Kids!

Rod, so Charlie does snow – I know you often say you don’t do snow. :lol: If only it’d stay off the sidewalk and street. Darn that Charlie didn’t see a single flake of snow while he was in Buffalo. That is nice your office party is at a ritzy restaurant. Wow, what a deal on that watch! That lady will be ecstatic! Did you go shopping? I hope you found some things for Charlie. We are both hard to buy for (probably the same for both of you) because we just buy what we want. I hate glitter that gets everywhere.

Marty “loves” to scare me so he was wandering around and looking out the window in the den and I came up behind him and when he turned around I said “Boo!” He jumped quite a bit. I know I will pay for that but at least I was highly amused.

Speaking of Marty we baked our rolls for our Christmas dinner today and he’s obviously not skilled at doubling recipes – he was going to warm the milk, butter and salt on the stove while I measured out the flour, yeast and cracked open the eggs. He had to double ¾ tsp of salt and ended up using 1.5 T of salt. The hot rolls are kind of salty. I’ll see what they taste like cold. Hopefully they aren't bad enough and we can use them for Christmas.

Marty is going out for a poker night so I think I’ll start working on my Christmas cards while he’s gone. I am going to go pick him up at 11 so I'll be able to work on cards until then.

My niece-in-law's sister lost her baby yesterday. Very sad. She was giving birth at home with a midwife and the baby got stuck and quit breathing. How awful.

Curby
 
Can you smell the rolls?


Marcy

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Marcy, right-o, I don't do snow, but Charlie loves the stuff. I wouldn't mind a winter vacation, where it snows and they have wonderful food and all I have to do is sit by a roaring fire and watch it snow. I'd consider going for a walk in it, but that's about it. I'm thinking a tablespoon and a half of salt might be a bit too much for your rolls, cold or not.

Today was really nice. I slept in till about 9:30, then we had coffee and fresh fruit. For lunch, we had homemade egg McMuffin's. Last year, we bought a machine that cooks the English Muffin, egg, cheese and any meat you want in 4 minutes. I forget the brand, but it's just the best little breakfast sandwich cooker ever. I finally vacuumed all the glitter up - Yay! Then we made another batch of homemade sugar cookies, only this time instead of vanilla, we used lemon extract and we also made an icing for them. We just had one and they are so good!

We went to Sbucks for coffee this afternoon and came up with a list of small things to get each other for Christmas. Charlie could only come up with 4 things. We went to Nordstrom Rack and I managed to find all 4. He didn't do as well, so tomorrow we're going to the mall. I think instead of loads of presents, we're thinking about going to our favorite beach resort for a long weekend after the first of the year.

We stopped at a nice Chinese take out and brought dinner home.
 
It's snowing kids!

Curby, that is just tragic about the baby... I can't even imagine... wow. Your rolls LOOK amazing, but methinks you'll be making another batch!

Rod, are you going to wrap the lenses for Charlie's glasses and make that gift number five?!

Today the CB and I ran over to the boathouse (about three hours round trip, approximately 5 minutes of which was actually spent a the place, LOL) to turn on the heat because he forgot to do that last weekend. When we got back to the city we stopped at a local vintage and holiday market going on and I got an agate necklace for myself and another one for my friend for x-mas next year. I've got her and her sister pretty much done at this point, as well as my mother. We then went to a new Cajun place for a late lunch... and I don't think it's going to make it. The food and service were only OK. Too bad, we'd love to have that in the neighborhood, but there are just too many good restaurants for a bad one to stay around. A nap was needed after lunch and now we're just sitting here checking on the snow every now and then. I did a MAJOR closet cleaning the other day (and then I proceeded to buy a bunch of new sweaters,and also a slew tanks and long sleeve tees to go under the new cardigans, LOL) and I also moved my purses to a different closet so I really need to get in there and do some reorganization. I think the CB will be happy if I tell him he can have a bit more space!

Not much on the agenda tomorrow. One of my colleagues and his wife are in town from Austin and we are kind of planning dinner. I say kind of because it's COLD (which they are a little stunned by, being from Austin) and if we get the the possible foot of snow they are predicting I am pretty sure they will be happy to stay in their hotel and order room service!

Curby, before I forget, would you mind asking Missy if she might want my contact info (email and cell number) so we could connect? I'm going to be in NY with my girlfriend for the last half of December and would love to meet up with her if she's got any time!
 
DeeJay, 3 hours in a car for a 5 minute visit doesn't sound like fun. Sorry the Cajun restaurant was a bust. If a restaurant doesn't offer great food and superb service, they won't make it. There are too many restaurants that do.

A foot of snow tomorrow? Yikes. It's going back up to 80 tomorrow.

Much as I'd like to, I'm not putting bows on the glasses. Necessities don't qualify as presents. He would like to have a pair of bluetooth headphones and I have $100 in Best Buy money to spend, so I'll probably get him a set and be done shopping.

Stay in and warm tomorrow!

Marcy, I'm sorry I missed the news about the baby. Simply awful. I can't imagine the pain they must be in. I simply can't.
 
It's STILL snowing kids!

Rod, I opened my door a minute ago to take a picture for you and I caught quick sight of one of my neighbors on the other side of the parking lot standing under the overhang smoking a cigarette outside of his front door. If he spied me I'd be stuck for at least an hour so I closed up again PDQ and now I'm just going to TELL you it's snowing but you don't get a pic! :cheeky:

Last night we did not much of anything, and it was marvelous! No word yet on whether my office friend and his wife from Austin are interested in dinner. I'm fine either way, but if so I'm going to have to put on something other than my pajamas, LOL. The CB's daughter is on here way down to return his car that she borrowed for the weekend. I've got a ton of clothes for her to take home and go through. Christmas came a little early for her thanks to the elves in my closet! I also ordered another set of organization cubes to put on the top shelf in my closet, which will give much more storage space in there. Not sure why I never did that before, but I guess better late than never!

In the last of the ebay adventure today I tried to buy a silk pashmina (because... yanno... I need another one... the 50 or so I've already got aren't enough... :rolleyes: ) and I had to use paypal. What a PITA. I had to actually call them and get my account reset because I established the account about 8 or 10 years ago when the only way to pay on ebay was with paypal and I've never used it since then. It's all sorted out now, but man oh man... I was tempted to just give up on that one!

The big debate now is whether to put some apricot nectar in my prosecco and make a bellini or to just drink the prosecco straight. I LOVE Sundays like this!
 
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