Healthy Living Thread

[Dee*Jay]

Happy Friday kids!

Curby, we got some snow off and on yesterday, and it was that wet heavy stuff. I had to clear of my windshield when it was time to go to the post office because even though I let the car heat up with the defroster going full blast for a long time the windshield wipers wouldn't budge. I use rubber gloves to wash everything -- otherwise my hands would like like leather by now! The best ones I've found are the cheapie Meijer brand with a cotton lining. Seriously, of all the rubber gloves I've tried these win hands down (pun intended!). During covid they were all sold out but one day when Liam was at the store he saw the guy putting them out and he got every pair. Now that's true love!

DeeGee, I have my own stand-alone website too. It's www.TheSameNameYouFoundMyStoreOnFB.com. I'm a one trick pony -- ha! Are you still retiring in January? Don't forget, I've ordered a cake! It sounds like Ruby is settling in nicely. She's so lucky to have a good family in you and Matt! Bill and I tried doggy boot camp with The Demon after he (The Demon, not Bill!) bit the first person. After nine weeks they gave us our $2,500 dollars back and said there was no helping that dog. Unfortunately they weren't wrong LOL.

I'm tired! My whole life right now is Christmas Christmas Christmas. I'll be glad when this holiday is OVER. When I get done posting this reply I have to start washing and prepping a huge set of Christmas dishes I got at the last auction because anything that isn't listed by the end of this weekend is pretty much a dead duck. I was also talking to Social Media Marty today and pointed out that about 30 people have opted into emails/newsletters on my website (Curby, you're one of them!) and I've never sent anything out. My guess is it's too late this year, but starting in January I should try to do something monthly-ish.

Alright, off to get the hot water and dish soap rolling. It's another fascinating evening here at The North Estate!

 

[deegee]

dee*jay-Found your website! I like the layout of the website better than Etsy. I bet you are super busy with Christmas listings. It’s coming up fast. Oh no for The Demon biting a biter. Yikes!! Ruby is a sweetheart. She’s very affectionate and she loves every person, every animal, every kid, everything. We’re going to obedience classes for basic manners and not jumping on everybody to give them kisses. Funny thing-she jumped in the trainer’s lap and gave her a thorough facial cleansing.

I worked from home today, no shocker there. I logged out for a few hours to take Ruby to the park for a good walk and to practice some of our lessons in a public area. We were on our way back to my car and it started sleeting. I so hate this weather! I’m going to have to work some this weekend because I didn’t quite get done what I needed to today. Talking about Christmas, I haven’t even thought of what to get anybody. I am not sure I’m going to do any decorating either. Kinda not feeling it this year. Oh well, have a great weekend!

 

[marcy]

Hi Kids!

Dee Jay, if Liam doesn’t have running boards yet, maybe have him get retractable steps. That is what we have and they are GREAT! They go down lower than running boards too. I know, NOW I think of it. My brain just picture Liam was getting what we have on our pickup.

Deegee, Ram pickups seem to be really high. I’d need to pole vault in to my nephews pickup. I’m short. I hate to hear there have been so many accidents near you and boo to speed traps. So far our running road hasn’t attracted attention. Marty ran to the Tractor Supply down the road twice today. Each time he gets back, I great him at the door and ask how fast he was going. The second time he said my car gets a little squirrelly on this road over 130. I commented I’d better trade it in for a new one. I like the low activity on my thrilometer. It’s about right for me. That’s awesome Ruby is doing so well and you’ll be retired before you know it. How is your mom doing?

I had friends over for cards and lunch yesterday. I made homemade cocoa brownies. Over half of the 8x8 pan was left so now I’m obliged to finish them off. I did freeze them though. We’ve got snow and cold moving in this week. Today isn’t bad, no hurricane force winds anyway. I was going to go to the park and get some shots with my new lens, but it’s really cloudy so it is kind of dreary out. If there were a lot of flowers, they’d be very colorful in low light, but I’m sure all the flowers in the park are history by now. The sunrise was gorgeous this morning.

I worked a bit this morning and have been watching Die Hard movies and reading. We are meeting some friends for supper. Marty is working on the observatory. I think he’ll be doing things on it for months. I keep nagging at him to hire someone to do some things, but he prefers to do it himself. They are supposedly putting on the roof Wednesday, but there’s snow coming that day. I hope they get it done. The plastic is already on there, so it shouldn’t take long on a 8x16 building.

I saw a great recipe for a Thanksgiving casserole on FB: you mix a bag of the assorted kinds of M&M’s. I might make one to take to dinner Thursday.

Laters,
Curby

 

[deegee]

Marcy- homemade cocoa brownies sound great! I’ve never tried freezing anything like that. And I think I could possibly handle making the M&M casserole!! You know how sometimes you start to pass someone and they speed up, then you get behind them and they slow down? A guy kept doing that on the interstate and he got on my last nerve so I floored it to get around him. When I looked down, I saw I was going over 100. Can’t do that with all the speed traps! I did get far enough ahead of him that he never caught back up. I’m with you on the low activity on the thrill o meter. Low key works just fine for me. Mom is doing good. Matt was out of town last weekend, so Ruby and I spent the weekend in KY with her and we had a great visit. This time last year she was in the hospital with a setback after hip replacement surgery, Matt and I were both pretty sick with Covid, one BIL was in the ER with blood clots after knee replacement, and the other BIL was in the ER after a reaction to medicine. Our Thanksgiving was cancelled, so we’re all looking forward to it this year.

The governor gave us 1/2 day off tomorrow. Woo-hoo! I was going to take 1/2 day off to take Ruby to obedience school, so I’ll just use that 1/2 day another time. I’m going in to the office tomorrow. A guy I work closely with is retiring at the end of the month and tomorrow is his last day. I’ve got to go see him off. Have a great Wednesday!

 

[Dee*Jay]

Happy Turkey Day kids!

Curby, now that M&M casserole is my kind of cooking! The Porsche/turkey meme you just sent me is hilarious! Did the roof get put on the observatory yesterday?

DeeGee, nice that you get an extra 1/2 day off! You and the fam deserve a fabulous Thanksgiving this year to make up for last year. Is Ruby going to graduate as valedictorian from obedience school?

Well we are on our annual whirlwind Thanksgiving trip. Flew in Monday, Tuesday wove our way through the desert up to Vegas, buying a bunch of stuff at thrift stores along the way, spent the night at Treasure Island and gambled a little (I left up $30 and Liam was about even), wove our way back down through the dessert, had dinner with a friend here that I met through Etsy, and today the people we're staying with are cooking some fabulous dinner.

My sales are a virtually non-existent. Last year I went home to fourteen orders, this year I currently have TWO. My friend from last night said she's in the same boat. Ugh. And Social Media Mary certainly isn't helping! She put up a post yesterday and someone messaged me to say they tried to buy something using the link but it went nowhere. Turns out NONE of the links she put up worked. WTF. So instead of fixing them she just took them all down. Double WTF. I'm obviously going to have to take over my own social media, and much as I absolutely hate the concept.

Alright, off to take a shower and go to the grocery store. It's our job to provide the champagne and chocolate!

 

[marcy]

Hi Kids!

I hope you had a lovely Thanksgiving.

Deegee, when I’m behind someone going slow, I tell myself they are saving me from a ticket. Marty does what you did - goes around them except he doesn’t slow down. I did get up to 120 coming home this morning. Our road out here is rough, I wish it was smooth payment. I hate to hear everyone was not at their best last Thanksgiving. I am glad things were better this year. Nice to go spend some time with your mom recently. How did Ruby do in obedience school? I’m sure many people think I should have attended that at times in my life. Ha Ha.

Dee Jay, the M&M casserole was a hit. We split up the leftovers among families. The cheesecake was popular as well. I thought that Porsche meme was pretty quick. The roofers showed up on Tuesday instead of Wednesday. It didn’t take them long. Your annual trip to Arizona sound fun. We should get down there to see Marty’s parents sometime. That really stinks that lady isn’t doing well with your social media. I think many people think they are experts, but aren’t. They are skilled in their own minds.

I think I had a food coma on Friday, eating more than normal on Thanksgiving. We played games after dinner. The lat game was an over three-hour hearts game. Longest game EVER! Marty spent the daylight hours on Friday and Saturday working on his observatory. He quit after noon today because it’s been so cold out. He has both scopes mounted on the piers. And did take his first picture Friday night. He still has all that detail work and tweak issues left that will take forever. OCD Marcy is about ready to start nagging about the stuff laying around the house that goes out there.

I was productive yesterday. I got laundry done. I edited a long chapter on that book we are editing, worked on a few photo galleries, got the December newsletter done and posted for the astronomy club and got my Christmas cards done and in the mail. I went for quick and easy this year, a photo card with a brief poem on the back. Switched out envelopes for self-stick envelopes. I didn’t even write any notes this year. I have NO idea if we’ll host the big family Christmas this year. I feel like we are still too busy to do that and Marty sold the chairs that went with his big poker table, so we’d need to buy some chairs. I was looking for my Snoopy village containers this weekend and they are on a top shelf in the garage. No way am I reaching them.

Today’s agenda didn’t trigger the thrillometer.

Laters,
Curby

Marty’s first picture: The Pleiades.

 

[Dee*Jay]

Happy Monday kids!

Curby, what an awesome picture! And LOL about OCD Marcy and all the stuff that goes out there. If you lived here you'd be driven to drink in no time because there's always a big pile of stuff that is on its way to "somewhere" -- the shed, the storage unit, the basement... yada yada yada. Did Marty get the Snoopy village down for you?

Taking a break right now before I head downstairs again. After having very few sales over last week things seem to have picked up again. I also need to prep stuff for helping my cowhide bag friend at the show this week starting on Wednesday through Sunday. Assuming I get orders I'll need to come back here to The North Estate at least once, probably on Friday night, to pack stuff. What a PITA, but I don't know what else to do as I think holding off shipping until Monday is a bad idea. Not only does every day count in terms of holiday shipping, but I don't want people to worry that their stuff hasn't gone out yet. Having such a short time between Thanksgiving and Christmas really puts a crunch on things.

Alright, off to keep this little glass factory rolling!

 

[marcy]

My motivation-o-meter is plummeting.

 

[deegee]

Marcy-I love your pictures! I remember The Pleiades from astronomy in college. That was always one of my favorite classes and I absolutely loved the professor. It helps when they’re super excited about what they’re teaching. I got cut off by a slower vehicle on the interstate today but I just slowed down and stayed behind him. Good thing too because there was a cop car parked in the median with the speed gun pointed right at us. You have been productive. I can’t say the same about me!

Dee*Jay-my momma got out her 12 days of Christmas glasses this year after I showed her your listing last month. I think she also got out her Arby’s Christmas glasses. I think those are so pretty with the snow and trees! I’ve got nothing. One day I’m going to order those cool champagne glasses so I can look classy drinking my cheap champagne. That does stink about the lady handling your social media! Even I can do links. How do people not check things before they think good to go. I’m always stunned at work when people do something but don’t make sure it works.

I don’t have much motivation either. I worked from home today and then Ruby and I went to obedience school. She got a gold star for doing well and learning fast. We have to keep practicing at home and the park. Right now I’m on the couch with Ruby across my lap and my newest rescue kitty Nutmeg beside me. That’s the closest any cat in this house has gotten since Ruby came home 5 weeks ago. Progress! I got some Christmas decorating done but didn’t put up a tree for the third year in a row, mainly because of rescue kitty Nutmeg. She’s rotten as they come. We didn’t put anything outside either, except I did slap a wreath on the front door. I demolished my favorite ring, my 3-stone sapphire. I have no idea what I did and I’m surprised my finger is still attached to my hand. Pictures don’t do the damage justice. The band is misshapen and bent and the whole ring is crooked looking down at it. Ugh. I hope I don’t have to have it remade because I am terrible with that kind of thing! I had actually bought a sapphire and was going to use my 1.2ct tw diamond earrings as side stones, and Jocelyn at Gilded Lane put this ring up the very day my sapphire came in. I knew I’d never get around to having a ring made, so I returned the sapphire and bought the Gilded Lane ring. I’m so aggravated with myself for damaging it. Grrrr. Well, have a great day tomorrow!!

 

[deegee]

It was too big so I was wearing a sizing clip so it wouldn’t spin. You can’t tell how damaged and bent it is in pictures. Grrr me!!

 

[marcy]

Hi Kids!

Dee Jay, Marty took some stuff to the observatory last night and worked on it. There is still a ton of stuff piling up around the house. Our mudroom has a bench as you come in from the garage. He was so excited about that. It’s covered with observatory stuff, you can’t sit down on the bench and underneath it is filled with shoes. Not my shoes either. I don’t have my Snoopy village stuff yet. I guess we’re having two Christmas parties on the 21st and 22nd so he’ll get them down soon. The first one is his gym and the second one is my family. I decided to pass on a formal set-down dinner. Pizza and finger foods. Ha! That’s a lot of days to be helping the cowhide bag lady. You’ll be busy packing orders when you get home.

Deegee, what a gorgeous blue sapphire ring, I sure hate to hear it’s bent. I hope someone can fix it for you. I love it. It is annoying to be behind a slow car, but yes, they can save us from a ticket. Our insurance company keeps offering us a discount if we use their safe driving app. I ignore it. We’d get dropped. Ha Ha. My mom had the Arby Christmas glasses too. I recently passed them on to a niece that’s getting married. I bought myself a set of 10 ounce Waterford crystal glasses to drink my baby Coke in each day. Makes you feel special That is spot on about people not checking their work. And not checking if a link works, is inexcusable. That’s great Ruby is doing so well with obedience school and the cat decided it was okay to get close.

My motivation-o-meter has not shown much improvement. I did get quite a bit done for work today though. My wrist is uttering serious Gordon Ramsey words at me. It had improved but decided it didn’t want to play nice anymore. I used a Q-tip this morning to put some Aspercream on it and it seemed to help. So I tried it tonight using my finger. Now it’s really yelling at me. It’s right up there with tooth pain. There’s about a 1/4 inch bump that is the center location for pain. How can something that small make so much noise?

I did get several shots of the moon near Venus tonight. This is my favorite one. I like my new lens.

 

[deegee]

Marcy-I absolutely love my sapphire ring. The band is all chewed up on the side that is badly bent. I can’t figure out how I caught it on something and damaged it so badly, and I don’t know what I did and my finger is still attached. I guess I have so many mini-accidents everyday, I don’t even notice! Is your wrist pain a new injury or from where you broke it? Things just don’t seem to heal. I’m sorry it’s giving you so much trouble! That cracks me up about your mudroom. Mainly because that is what ours would be like if we had one. And that picture is awesome!!

I went to the office today, and that made twice this week. I’m all peopled out. I have a meeting in the morning so I’ll have to show up at least in the am. Matt’s office fancy Christmas party is tomorrow night. My haircut lady cancelled my appointment last month because she broke her ankle and I had planned to do a root touchup this evening, but it’s the zero motivation thing. I’d rather not have this big silver stripe down the center of my head for the party, but then again…do I really care? I see these people once a year. That’s about it for my day. Oh, and my new iPhone 16 pro max came in so I got that set up. Woo-hoo! Have a wonderful day tomorrow!

 

[marcy]

Hi Kids!

Deegee, you’d think as bent as your ring is, you’d have some cuts or bruises on your hand or finger. I’ve starting to say outloud “that’s going to leave a mark” when I hit something. That way when a bruise shows up I MIGHT remember how I did it. The wrist issue has been going on for months, but got really bad a few months ago. It’s not the wrist I broke either. Strange. I noticed over the last year that hand is weaker and the thumb joint was getting agitated knitting so much started last spring. I keep thinking I should make an appointment, but so far, I have not.

About the mudroom, every time we saw one when we were looking at houses Marty commented how handy that would be to sit down and take off shoes. I can’t say he’s done that once, but he sure stacks up stuff on it or under it.

Phooey going to the office so many times this week. I can’t say I miss that drive to work. That’s too bad about your haircut lady. I got a haircut today. Let me know how you like your new phone. I have the iPhone 15 Pro and I can’t say I have any complaints with it, but it’s an OLD version now. Ha Ha.

Other than venturing out for a haircut today, I worked. I skipped lifting because that nerve pain is spreading through my hand and occasionally up my arm. I am using a Q-tip to put Aspercream on it and it cuts the pain a bit. As my dad said, getting old isn’t for sissies.

Take care.
Curby

 

[Dee*Jay]

Happy Sunday night kids!

Deegee, holy cow on the bent ring! I hear ya on being peopled out LOL. Have you gotten snow yet? I'm curious how Ruby likes it -- or not. How was Matt's party? And you one million percent do not need to dye your hair for people you only see once a year) or for ANY people for that matter!

Curby, your pictures are THE BEST! Pizza and finger food sounds just fine to me! I wish we had a mud room... The closest we get is the laundry room, but I'm sure even if we had one it wouldn't get put to any better use than yours does ha ha.

Well I am just EXHAUSTED! The show is over and we did GREAT, but man, after all those day standing around on the concrete floor I'm really done in. For the past two days I've had to stop and really think about it every time I had to bend over to pick something up because my back was pretty mad at me, and my knees are truly p!ssed. I can't even describe how tired my feet are. Oy. My friend is very happy though, and that's what really matters.

Tomorrow is going to be A LOT. One of the estate sale ladies called me today and said she had some glass left over from a sale this weekend so I'm going to go and get it at 75% off tomorrow morning. I've got five orders to pack and I need to get more bubble wrap and peanuts. Chiro in the afternoon -- and I will be damn glad to see him!

Alright, off to drag myself to bed. It's only nine o'clock but put a fork in me 'cuz I'm DONE!

 

[Dee*Jay]

Oh! One more thing! I literally stood non-stop from before 10 am to after 7 pm every single day... and my watch keeps tell me "It's time to stand up!" W.T.F. I could not possible be ANY MORE stood up! Makes me wonder about the accuracy of any of the info... Argh.

 

[marcy]

Hi Kids!

Dee Jay, sounds like the cowhide bags sold well and you had LONG days. I hope you are feeling better from all those pesky things your body is telling you. And I hope you got rested up too. Such a deal getting 75% off at the estate sale. I hope you get some great things.

I feel like I have “right” where my entire right side yells at me. The exercises (wristercises) I’m doing are KIND of helping my wrist. I haven’t lifted for a week though because it does bug my wrist. I try to remember to use the mouse with my left hand, but some things are beyond my left hand abilities.

We had a quiet weekend. Marty did get some stuff off the countertops and installed on the observatory on Saturday. One of the guys from the gym was over here helping him for most of the day. Sunday, he’d had enough and watched TV for about 1/2 of the day and caught up on his work and scheduling. We did get the Christmas tree up and I got my Snoopy village put up. It’s spread across a few places, but it works.

I pulled on the cord to pull up the Roman shade in my office on Sunday and the entire shade came crashing down. It hit all the prisms I have on the window sill that were on cheap plastic stands. I screamed like a little girl. Prisms are okay but the cheap acrylic stands, not so much. We called the blind company today and he came over and - as Marty predicted - the guy who installed them screwed them in to drywall, not a 2x4. All three braces were not in a piece of wood. Made me nervous the rest of them of like that. He had to use longer screws to hit a stud. They also ordered a replacement shade because the end of the rail broke off. Such fun.

We’re have snow tonight. We ran to the hardware store late Saturday night and drove by our old house. They did a lame job with Christmas lights. I bought a poinsettia to run out to the cemetery but it was crazy windy yesterday so I passed. Guess I will water it until I can get out there.

Looks like we’ll only have 12 here for the family Christmas. That’ll be easy but I’m still ordering pizza. The day before Marty is having his gym over. That’s usually about 2 dozen people that come.

I ordered myself pink sapphire studs today for Christmas. I was looking at a vintage platinum band, a lab created baguette platinum band or a teddy bear pendant, but realized since none of them were really pegging my Iwantthatometer I decided on pink sapphires. I forwarded the email to Marty and let him know “here’s what you got me for Christmas.”

Take care.
Curby

 

[Dee*Jay]

Happy Tuesday kids!

Curby, holy cow about the blind falling! I hate to say it, but you're probably right about them all being set in only drywall and not studs. What sort of moron would do that?! I got four big boxes of glass at the estate sale, so it was totally worth the hour each way (good thing, because I would have been maaaadddd if it made a big long round trip for not much stuff!). Ooooohhh -- can't wait to see your earrings! Your card came yesterday. Love the pic with the TBE sign LOL.

This was a busy day! I got up pretty early (for me anyway!) and headed to the bank and the packaging place to pick up peanuts first thing. Then I stopped at Marshalls, Old Navy and Kohls. An order came in while I was doing that so I packed it up and took everything to the post office. Then I went to Home Goods and Target. Liam called me while I was at Target and we met up for dinner at our usual Tuesday night dinner place (half price wings, ha ha). Now I need to figure out a listing for tomorrow because, for the time time in ages, I don't have one to put up. Really though I just want to start wrapping X-mas presents! But its only seven so there's no reason I can't queue up a few things for the morning. Off to troll the dining room to see what I can wash up now to photograph quick and easy first thing.

 

[marcy]

Hi Kids!

Dee Jay, I’d say the guy who installed those wasn’t too careful or experiences, or both. I am very careful now. Good deal the four boxes turned out to be worth the trip. I am glad you got my card. Marty was supposed to mail them, I am suspecting he didn’t drop them off the day he took them. Shocking, I know.

You did have a busy day yesterday. I’ll check Instagram to see what is new. I haven’t had anything else pop up on FB, but I made sure I followed you.

When are you heading to see that ring? What are you getting Liam for Christmas? And the ferals? We might be getting new iPads. I was whining last night that I can’t download all the images from our allsky camera. It stops at about 9 p.m. Of course it takes 180 images an hour. Go figure it would choke on that much data. My iPad is fine and maybe almost three years old. Marty’s is way older than that. Best Buy has them discounted so we may be making a Colorado run this week. My earrings are supposed to be delivered tomorrow.

I was on another livestream today. When I become a YouTube star, I’ll try to remain humble. Ha Ha. I am trying to figure out how to record videos on Keynote. I did one scene but I don’t know how to delete audio and record it again.

Today was trash day and I hadn’t run out trash or boxes since this weekend because of hurricane #50 (wind wise) since we moved in here was blasting all week. When I got up there wasn’t a breeze. I even put it out before I showered. It was kicking up again by the time Marty got back from the gym.

Fun times for Marty. His company had two rounds of layoffs this year. He inherited several of their projects. He found out yesterday he and five other support team were “sold” to a company in India. He talked to another former co-worker that was moved to them last year and it sounds like things are okay. I feel bad for him being so busy with that and all the changes, trying to get the observatory done and run the gym.

I had fun with his bunny slippers today. I made those for him about 15 years ago when he started working at home. They were on the floor near our abominable snowman greeter so I put the snowman in his slippers. I got to giggling so much though he came upstairs to see what was so funny. I do amuse myself.

Laters,
Curby

 

[worljewels]

Wow, what a week you guys are having! Sorry to hear about Marty's work situation with the layoffs and transfer. Hope it goes smoothly. Love the bunny slipper and snowman prank - that sounds exactly like something that would make me giggle too.

 

[marcy]

@worljewels I am easily amused so it's a good thing I work or I'd be doing that kind of thing all day long. The job transfer for Marty was handled a bit poorly. Rather than here's what's going on, the guy (not HR) basically said we sold you to this company. You're like, WHAT?

 

[Dee*Jay]

Happy Thursday kids!

Curby, LOL on the slippers! I'm going to the gem show tomorrow and if nothing leaps out at me I'll reach out to Ilya. Be prepared for texts with options -- if I find anything I'll need a second opinion before I spend thousands of Liam's dollars ha ha. Nothing much new on FB or Instagram. Social Media Mary seems to be MIA. Again. WTF about Marty being sold to India?! I once got to the final steps in accepting a job and they casually mentioned, as they slid the offer letter across the table to me, that I would be starting off with a six month project in Mumbai. I RAN out of there! Did your earrings come today?

Hi Worl!

I am a busy little elf! Last night I brought all the wrapping paper and boxes and bows (oh my!) up out of the basement and got to it. This morning I finished all the presents that had to be shipped (with one exception that's still on its way to me) and got all of those boxes packed up and out the door. The rest of the the stuff that's staying local is also wrapped as of right now... and I am tired of standing at the kitchen counter! Not one Christmas card has been written yet though...

Somewhere along the way I made a pot of chili that turned out different than every other pot of chili I've ever made, even though I swear I do it the same way each time. Oh well, at leas it was better than last night when I burned the sh!t out of a pan of hamburger helper! Liam just loves the stuff so about once a year I surprise him with it. The pasta just wasn't cooking so I turned it up... and walked away. When I realized it it was too late. The top layer was OK, but the bottom of it was black. Oops!

Alright, off to queue up a listing for tomorrow and then I'm going to bed early so I can be at the gem show when the doors open. Wish me luck!

 

[marcy]

Hi Kids!

Dee Jay, I hope you find something you love at the gem show. I'll be glad to help you spend Liam's money. My earrings did show up today. I had them open since Marty was outside installing a GIANT camera that faces the observatory. I just had it open and Marty came in a busted me. I put them under the tree. Then I tried them on tonight. They are pretty. I asked for friction backs but the posts are for screw backs. They did put friction nuts on them and it seems to work okay. I'll see once I get the for Christmas.

WTH that Media Mary disappeared again.

You didn't want to spend 6 months in Mumbai?

You are a busy little elf. You need an elf on the shelf to help you. My gift bags with pull strings arrived and I totally plan on lazy gift wrapping this year. Such a change for me. I used to spend hours trying to make pretty packages. Now it's get 'er done!

Don't you have that when a tried and true recipe turns out different? LOL to hamburger helper. I used to life the beef noodle. Marty would probably not enjoy that for supper - Mr. protein man. Darn that you cooked it too long. I made a grilled cheese sandwich for supper and had an orange.

Good luck at the gem show tomorrow.

I started my day with an email my boss forwarded me from a complaint out a bunch of errors in a Venus article I maintain. Out of the 5 things he mentioned, one was valid. A 2023 article had one error in it that I corrected. The other stuff was not errors. A few of them were off by a minute or hours based on info I found on line since I didn't have our go-to source book because it comes out in November the year before. It took me several hours to go through all our Venus posts and look them over. Then, I reviewed all the other 2025 posts I have out there to match the 2025 info. Such fun.

I guess we're going to Best Buy in Colorado tomorrow to get new iPads for Christmas. Marty probably needs one, I don't. But who am I to turn down a new iPad? Sadly, my Apple keyboard won't fit it so I'll need to buy on of those too. I can try to sell mine or I can trade it in tomorrow. Decisions, decisions. It's easier to just trade it. Marty's iPad is so old his isn't listed for credit. The area we just moved away from had a private page for the neighborhood where you could sell things. I don't know this area's FB page allows that. It's not very active. There's probably not more than 15 houses in the division.

Naturally we'll hit our favorite kitchen store and steak house while there.

Laters,
Curby

Here's the one quick photo I took before getting busted looking at them.

 

[marcy]

Hi Kids!

I only worked about 1 hour today. I’ll catch up tomorrow. I slept in, we headed to Colorado for a quick shopping trip, had lunch and came home. We both got 13 inch iPad. It’s like a laptop. It’s fast. I’ve been playing with it once I got it set up. My iPad was 2 years old so I can’t say I really needed one. Marty’s was pretty old though. They gave me $410 trade on my iPad. I got a nice bonus from work today that almost paid for what we bought. Score!

We have hurricane force winds going on again and Marty’s giant ladder blew off the patio, and it keeps moving down the hill. I can see it becoming airborne and going through the window of the house below us. I nagged at Marty to take care of it when he gets back from the gym.

I am glad you found that lovely bracelet at the gem show. I like it.

Laters,
Curby

 

[Dee*Jay]

Happy Friday kids!

Curby, ohhhhhh, those earrings are fabulous! Did you get a keyboard to go with the new ipad? And $410 in credit is great! I keep seeing ads for phone credit no matter what condition it's in and I'm tempted because my current phone is olllllld and starting to act pretty squirely. The drive to Denver is only about and hour and half, yes? Liam and I were talking about Colorado a few weeks ago when we were considering options, and he was shocked when I told him how close you were to Denver. I think we might have to put Wyoming on the list to check out! Plus, no personal income tax = more bling, right?!

Whew, what a day! I woke up to questions about a set of dishes on ebay (which the lady ultimately bought, so I packed those up before I left), bolted to the post office to drop off Liam's packages, went to the gem show (as you know!!!), picked up YF on the way back, packed up ANOTHER set of dishes and rushed everything to UPS, and then Liam, YF and I went to dinner at a steak place that I can't remember the name of.

I'm half tempted to go back to the gem show tomorrow because I really didn't get to enjoy it much today. The dishes order I got just as I was pulling into the gem show garage had me in a panic -- if I didn't get it out TODAY there was a good change it wouldn't make it in time for Christmas -- so I gave myself a strict timeline to get in and out. Once I decided on the bracelet idea that was really ALL I looked at. For a hot minute I thought I might want a rose gold one but when I tried it on it just "disappeared." Yellow was the much better option, and this hex shape just GRABBED me. I'd been looking at hex bezel ones on Brilliance, but I was afraid they would just blend in too much so the yellow is a perfect compromise. Of course I had to go into the safe and get of ALL of my bracelets. Now I'm sitting here with FIVE of them on my wrist, ha ha ha ha ha!!!

An order just came in for a repeat customer in California. I'm half tempted to go pack it right now, but really I don't HAVE to do anything tomorrow so I think I'll save it. I do want to work on getting my cards out tomorrow... but I have a strong suspicion they aren't going anywhere until Monday...

Alright, off to clean a few things up and maybe go to bed early.

 

[marcy]

Hi Kids!

Dee Jay, I think I’ll enjoy my earrings. They’re pink. I bought the Apple Magic Keyboard too. It’s like a laptop almost. I’m enjoying the new iPad so far. Yes, Denver is about 90 minutes from Cheyenne - that’s the closest city to the southern border above Denver. And we don’t have state income taxes. They get you other ways, of course. I’ve got lost of glassware I’ll pass your way when you guys move here. And they’ll be drinking and jewelry trips.

Did you go back to the gem show today? When we went to the Tucson gem show I was determined to find a tsavorite garnet for a ring so I wouldn’t look at anything else. I just glanced at things. I am sure a sapphire would have won me over if I browsed through them. Far too many choices. I do like how diamonds pop in yellow gold. I like rose gold with colored gemstones. Too funny you were wearing five bracelets at once. Rose gold does disappear on some skin color. It’s pretty though.

Marty worked on the outside trim on the observatory today since it was in the 40-50 range. We went out for breakfast and for supper. Then wandered Barnes and Noble for a while on the way home from supper. I brewed up a batch of snickerdoodles for Christmas and a friend stopped by for a few rounds of cards.

I need to get some work done this weekend but didn’t do much of it so far. Apparently my recent charts and posts were not what the boss expected and it’s the topic of discussion during our Tuesday team meeting. Joy. It’s like a diamond flaw, you don’t know it’s there until you see it, then it’s all you see. Live and learn.

I ran errands this morning to mail a package, pick up a few things and get gas in the Curbymobile. It was exciting going to the big city so many times today.

Laters,
Curby

 

[worljewels]

I hope you get some rest this weekend.

 

[marcy]

Hi Kids!

#holyhurricaneforcewinds

The wind is NUTS out here today. Our house is rattling all over from the vents flopping in the roof. I've seen a sea of tumbleweeds blowing by and it looks like a dust storm out there. I don't want to go eat anywhere and I hate to order Door Dash to have someone come out in this. What to do, what to do.

I worked quite a bit today. Now I'm impatiently waiting for the series finale of Yellowstone.

Laters,
Curby

 

[Dee*Jay]

Happy Sunday kids!

Curby, did you just see a girl on a bike with a little dog blow by? No, I decided not to go back to the gem show today. My fear was that I'd find something (a) else or (b) that I liked better, so staying home was the wiser idea. Plus, I had a bunch of orders to pack and I wanted to get them to UPS before they closed this afternoon. Is the series ENDING ending, or is this the end of the season? Liam said something about taking YF home so he could get back to watch it.

Hi Worl. Rest sounds marvelous... but I'm not counting on any for another few weeks yet!

Today has been A Day! I stayed in bed a bit late, but as soon as my feet hit the ground it was go go go! I packed some orders, did laundry, went to UPS and the grocery store, made dinner, loaded and unloaded the dishwasher (and somehow there are enough dishes AGAIN to do it once more!?), queued up a listing for tomorrow because I don't have a single thing ready, and now I need to do my real estate code of Ethics training just to get it out of the way so I don't have to think about it again this year. Ugh. I'm TIRED!

Tomorrow is likely going to be more of the same, but I do have the chiro and I am waiting for more cards to be delivered so I can finish that off. I wrote out about seventy-five of the hundred I do and was too over the whole holiday thing to even consider going to Hallmark so I took the easy way out and ordered them. I also need more stamps. Ack.

In a moment of madness I did my nails last night using these snowflake pattern stickers that they sent me for free. The base color is a pale pink but the snowflakes are white white and there's some sparkly stuff in the design. I keep seeming them out of the corner of my eye and thinking there's something on my hand. Great I theory, but I won't do this again LOL.

Alright, off to get my ethics done. Thrill-o-meter = -3 !!!

 

[marcy]

Hi Kids!

Dee Jay, LOL to seeing a girl on a bike with a little dog fly by. Our house was rattling and banging. All the vents in the attic had a workout.

Good idea to not return to the gem show. I am so bad, I’m planning my next jewelry piece before I’m back in my car from buying something. Like I need more jewelry.

Yellowstone did end on Sunday night. I’m looking forward to season 2 of 1923.

You are busy with cards and packing sales. I can’t even order stamps to be delivered on our rural route. WTH?

Too funny about the snowflakes on your fingernails. When I have dark nail polish on I always thing there’s something on my fingers.

Did you ace your ethics training? I’m glad I don’t have to do anymore training classes for work. Yay. That part of being retired is nice.

Marty has been enjoying scaring me lately. It’s on! I spent most of the day working on assorted videos. I’m trying to get things out of the way before I get my charts for January.

I still have cheesecake and candy cane cookies to make before the weekend. I did get assorted M&M’s again so I can make my M&M casserole for the family dinner.

We had some snow today. Big snowflakes too.

Laters,
Curby

 

[Dee*Jay]

Happy Monday night kids!

Curby, I hear ya on planning the next piece before even making it back to the car! Your mailbox is in a central spot for your development, right? I can't see why they won't deliver stamps to you... ? I finished my ethics training, but I wouldn't say I exactly aced it. Instead of a final test there were several quizzes along the way and if you got a question wrong they just said try again. There was one that I literally had to do all four answers before I got it LOL. Candy cane cookies sound marvelous! When I was at Home Goods the other day they had big tubs of crushed up candy canes for sale. I had to really restrain myself not to get it because I just love chocolate and peppermint together. I had visions of sitting at the kitchen table with a bar of dark chocolate in one hand and a spoon full of crushed candy cane in the other!

Today was a little frantic. I woke up to an order and then another lady immediately messaged me about shipping because she NEEDED something by Christmas. I was like, uhhhhhh... I'll do MY part but once I hand the package off it's up to the CARRIER to actually get it there in the stated time frame. It was a pretty expensive order and I packed it half to death. Fingers crossed on that none getting there on time! There were more orders throughout the day as well as taking a few listing photos. Liam and I went out for the Tuesday night special of half priced chicken wings. On the way home Liam said, "Oh, let's just stop at Goodwill since we're driving," I got Christmas dishes (service for SIXTEEN, all in the original boxes), twenty-two champagne coupes/sherbet cups, and a condiment set. Oy. I can see adding the Goodwill stop to our Tuesday night dinner outing! To be clear: I'm not even LOOKING at those dishes until JULY at the earliest!

No idea what tomorrow will bring, but it's getting pretty late in the game for people to order anything so I'm guess I'm about done for the season on that front. Now I need to just keep plowing through the backlog.

Alright, off to be early!