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Healthy Living Thread

Happy Friday night kids!

Curby, I think I'm officially done sending out orders for the holiday! I had a lady last night who wanted some glasses but didn't want to pay for expedited shipping so I ended up canceling the order today. That's Ok, I had PLENTY of other things to do! I've never tried the Dove dark chocolate mints, but I love chocolate and mint together so I will look for these. LOL to whitecaps in the toilet! When I worked on the 51st floor of the Sears Tower the building would sway so much that water would literally slosh out of the toilets on really windy days. It was kind of freaky. I'm not surprised at the goofy airline pricing. At least if he does go to Australia in January it would be warm!

Today has been non-frickin-stop. I took pictures of a whole counter full of stuff, packed all the pieces up and stowed them in the basement, went to the post office, UPS and the grocery store, came home and made dinner, did laundry, and who knows what else along the way. I'm happy to be laying down in bed right now!

Tomorrow we're going to Iowa for family x-mas so it will be another long day. I really hope I don't have to drive Liam's new truck back because it's even bigger than his old truck and I fell like I'm behind the wheel of a semi haha.

Alright, off to see if I can find any audiobooks to download. I've got three on my "shelf" right now and I can't get more than half an hour through any of them before I lose interest.
 
Hi Kids!

Dee Jay, I remember you mention the toilet in the Sears Tower. My SIL worked in a building in Seattle with mega floors and she had several tales about that. Yay for being done shipping orders for Christmas. I got my cheesecake baked so I’m good there. It’s party weekend. And I have “right” my right wrist, knit and toes are all yelling at me. I need to get up and move every hour for one thing and assorted other things, I say a meme that fits perfectly “my mind thinks I’m in my 20’s, my humor level is that of a 12 year old and my body fought in the Civil War”.

Definitely try those Dove dark chocolate mints and some of the Landolakes mint cocoa. They are divine.

I am sure it’ll be warm in Australia. It’s probably snow like crazy while Marty’s gone.

You did have a busy day. I worked until about 4. Baked cheesecake and ordered Wendy’s for supper. I got some busy work done and things ready to mail. This weekend I need to do my gym bookkeeping job. I’ve neglected it since August. Our credit union requires two forms of verification so Marty’s payment app only gets the direct deposit payments. Checks I deposit or bills we pay don’t come through. I get to enter them all by hand.

Have fun at the family Christmas. I hope you don’t have to drive Liam’s truck home. I hated driving Marty’s F250 - it was extended cab and full bed. I felt like I was driving a fire truck (it was red). I could do okay in a straight line, parking was another issue.

I lose interest in books quickly too. If they don’t grab me in the first chapter or two, I’m done.

Laters,
Curby
 
Hi Kids!

Party #1 is done. About two dozen gym folks showed up and I think everyone had a lovely time. One lady was delighted to take home all the food that was left and that worked great for me. The food that has been setting out for hours gets thrown out anyway. I got the kitchen cleaned up again and vacuumed upstairs and down. My thumb joint that is in cahoots with my carpel tunnel did not like all that vacuuming. After I was done, I made the M&M casserole for tomorrow and tested it to make sure it was cooked okay.

Speaking of cooking, Marty’s brisket turned out great. But his monitor for the meat probe was chirping and waking me up all night. I finally moved it to the coffee bar. I still heard it so I put it by the mudroom door. Apparently Marty didn’t hear it once. Shocking, I know.

I also got three videos ready for preview this morning. I need to get my article for the newspaper wrote tomorrow. I need a vacation. LOL.

Laters,
Curby
 
Happy Saturday kids!

Curby, why is it we are the only ones who hear things?! Even with earplugs and a white noise machine I am the one who hears the dogs barking to be let in, the beep of the refrigerator door left open, and every other damn thing. Good for you for getting through party #1 -- and for ridding yourself of the leftovers!

We made it to Iowa and back without incident... but I ate wayyyyyy too much candy today. Ugh. When we got back I wrapped six more presents and cleaned up the kitchen, and Liam and the ferals have run out to get me a Christmas present. I'm sure it will be well thought out and fabulous. Ha!

I have two orders to pack, neither of which will obviously get there by X-mas. But I think I'm just going to sit here and internet until the crew returns. The holidays wear me the he!! out!
 
Dee Jay, it’s our curse for good hearing. When I was in college I slept with the radio playing low enough to block out sound. A gnat flying by will wake me up.

Good deal you made it to Iowa and back safely. I can tell I ate too much sugar today and not enough food. I’m hungry now,

Hopefully your surprise present will be fabulous. I’m with you on the holidays wearing you out. I’m shot. And there’s still so much more to do. I’m yawning and it’s only 9:30. Maybe I’ll sleep through most of the night tonight.

Here’s the Christmas Tree Cluster hot off the press from Marty’s observatory.

Marcy
NGC2264.jpeg
 
Hi Kids!

I got Marty’s few presents dropped in gift bags tonight and even pulled the draw strings and tied them. Darn near wore me out. And I.have his stocking full.

The family Christmas went well yesterday. I liked the pizza and finger food. Great idea. I had one load of dishes, not four and didn’t have to put all the china dishes away one at a time. Yes, I still have the original boxes and inserts for them.

I saw my dental hygienist today and they didn’t find any problems. Score!

Laters,
Curby
 
This little elf is checking in quick before I get locked in the laundry room!

Curby, LOL to putting Marty's gifts in bags wearing you out -- I'm about to spend 8+ hours standing on the tile floor in a mass of paper and boxes and bows, oh my!

The trip down yesterday was long and boring and I did most of the driving. We had tacos for dinner and #2 and I sat up into the night and had way too much wine. I dreamed that I moved to Belgium and lived on a town square. Every morning the residents would sing like the Vienna boys choir. There was a car repair shop on the first floor and the guy who owned it had a peacock blue GTO with with tan interior, and he'd let me sit it any time I wanted. WTF goes on in my head?!

Alright, off to find a second cup of coffee and steel myself for the day's assignment!
 
Happy Friday kids!

Well we all survived X-mas! Lots of food, lots of presents, lots (and lots!) of booze, and lots of driving.

When I got back to The North Estate last night Liam and YF were at the Bears game downtown so I unpacked the car and went to bed. I had eight orders at that point, and even though it was only just after seven, I couldn't bring myself to go down in the basement and deal with any of it LOL.

This morning I got up pretty early and spent the whole day packing, going to USPS, UPS, Fed Ex, and Target. OF went out and got a pizza for dinner. And now we're waiting to hear from friends of ours who are in town from Ohio about going out for a cocktail. I should really go put on a little makeup and pick out something slight better to wear.

Other than that, the Thrill-O-Meter is quite low around here.
 
Happy Saturday kids!

Reporting in from the land of Not Really Getting Much Done.

I went to an estate sale early and snagged a set of Christmas dishes. On the way home I stopped at the grocery store and got dinner for the next new nights, plus picked up a dozen donuts and dropped them off for the UPS people since I forgot to get them little gifts this year. Oops!

My plan, once I got home, was to do a zillion things. So far I have packed two orders, eaten most of a bag of potato chips, run my filthy car through the wash, and... uh... that's about it.

I would really love to make some progress cleaning up the family room and getting things ready to photograph tomorrow. But we'll see if any of that actually happens!
 
Hi Kids!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Dee Jay, what a strange dream about moving to Belgium. GTOs are cool cars.

Glad you had a good Christmas. I participated in four parties in six days. I haven’t been that social since college. We’re celebrating New Year’s watching TV. I made lasagna for supper. I tried a different sauce, I didn’t care for it. And I have 2/3 of a pan left for leftovers.

My activityometer and thrillometer is about the same as yours.

What’ve I done since my last post? A lot and not much. My sister that lives on a farm about 20 minutes away invited us to come out for dinner on Christmas so we ventured out there for most of the day. On Boxing Day we went to a friend’s house for dinner and games. Since it’s the drinkers, much alcohol was consumed. I worked quite a bit getting January things done and making my first video with me on camera. That 4 1/2 video took me about 16 hours to make. I think I’ve figured out a way to make it quicker next time.

Marty finally got his official job offer from the company that bought him and he spent the day filling out papers for them. He officially starts for them on January 1. He heads to Australia on the 7th, I hope he’s signed up with them and can turn in travel expenses when he gets home. That massive arctic blast is heading our way (and probably yours too) while he’s gone. I am a bit nervous about that since he’ll be gone and we haven’t experienced severe cold here yet. Let’s hope all our pipes, well and septic tank are deep enough to not freeze.

I got my Snoopy village taken down the other day and will take down the tree tomorrow.

Laters,
Curby
 
Hi Kids!

Dee Jay, we woke up to snow this morning. Marty’s been on vacation this week and last week. I’m not used to him hanging out at night watching TV and napping in the recliner all day. I even had to cook supper for us today. WTH? He’s finally getting more than a few hours of sleep anyway.

I didn’t get my tree down yesterday. I got the astronomy newsletter for the club out last night, got a few videos done for the astronomy club’s YouTube page and then tackled my bookkeeping job for the gym. What a FREAKING mess. Our credit union does a 2 person verification system so it doesn’t sync anymore. The payments from clients does come through because they are invoices from that app. Since it quit syncing with the credit union, I was adding debits and check deposits manually. Marty apparently synced it at some point - he doesn’t remember when - so it jacked everything up. The only way I can get it to balance each month is add the payments already in the app. So then it shows his income doubled. I think I’ll do a spreadsheet for 2024. That would have taken me less time than all the time I spent trying to reconcile the account. I do have a question for profit and loss for taxes, do I carry forward the cash on hand from 2023 or is it simply the income and expenses for 2024? Thanks.

We watch Red One on Prime tonight. It was a cute Christmas movie.

Today felt like Monday and yet tomorrow is Friday.

Laters,
Curby
 
Happy Thursday kids!

Curby, I assume that Marty's business runs on a cash basis so you only deal with cash things in the year in which they occur. So for instance if you send an invoice to a client in December 2024 but they don't pay it until January 2025 that counts as cash in (i.e., income) in 2025. If I'm not answering the question you're actually asking just text me or give me a call. LOL on getting the tree down -- I'll be lucky to have ours back in the basement before Easter! I actually don't mind because I think it looks fun and festive, especially when I pull into the driveway in the dark and see it through the corner windows. I know that area will seem very empty once it's out of there again.

We didn't do much on NYE... mostly because we didn't even try to come up with a plan until the day before, and of course by then everything was booked up. That's OK though; I got salami, cheese, olives, etc., and made a big charcuterie board and threw a couple of bottles of prosecco in the fridge. We sat here at the kitchen table looking at houses on Zillow trying to decide where we should move to once YF is out of the house. Good thing we've got two years at least because we're all over the place in terms of ideas! There are a bunch of Arizona options (Payson, Pine, Flagstaff, Sedona, Prescott), and somehow Utah and New Mexico are now in the mix. I absolutely love Colorado, but I'm really done being cold. Frankly, I wouldn't mind being your neighbor if you could just do something about the damn snow! There are also more eastern state options, but I feel like everything out that way involves humidity, and I'm pretty over that too. One other big limitation is that we definitely want to be in a location that has auctions and estate sales. WE were looking at the auction and estate sale sites and none of the places on our list has anywhere near the level of activity like we have here. Ugh. If I don't have something to do in retirement I'll go batty from boredom! Can you see why finding the right place is going to be such a long difficult process?!

Today I took a bunch of pics and ran to the post office and grocery store. I had just turned the oven on to make dinner when Liam swung into the driveway and talked me and YF into going out for pizza (it wasn't much of a struggle on his part to get us to agree!). Afterwards we swung by four thrift stores. YF is now on board with going to Goodwills and Salvation Armys because he's realized they're a treasure trove full of the sports jerseys and other stuff he's gotten into. And I'm sure it's no surprise that I came home with a bunch of glass and stuff.

Alright, I need to draft the listings from today's pics and fold that last load of laundry before I can climb into bed!
 
Happy Saturday kids!

Curby, Venus was just crazy last night! SO big and bright!

Well it's officially colder than a witches t!t here. Ugh. I -- fool that I am -- went to the local auction this morning. Base layer long underwear (top and bottom), jeans, turtleneck, ski socks, little hotties for my toes, HEATED VEST*, and faux fur leopard coat. Various parts of me were cold at different times, but fortunately not ALL of me was cold at the same time. *The heated vest was a gift from my dad for X-mas and this is the first time I've worn it. AMAZING! I had it on low for the first few hours because I didn't want to run out of power, but I kicked it up to medium around noon and it made a huge difference. The power pack still had three out of four dots when I got home, so I guess I could have had it on medium the whole time. A game changer! Of course I left there with a carload full.

I've got a bunch of things queued up on the counter to take pics of tomorrow, so at least that's done. And I'm fighting the pull of the couch because if I go down for a nap that might be IT for me today. :lol:

Alright, off to throw in a load of laundry and do my nails in an effort to stay upright and awake. I just did them but this set hasn't lasted. I think I should have cured them longer because the color is a deep red and I feel like the darker colors take longer. I also have two orders to pack, and that will also keep me awake (assuming I actually do it LOL).
 
Hi Kids!

Dee Jay, yes, that answered my question. That's what I thought, but wanted to confirm it. Thanks. I downloaded all the the bank statements from 2024 today and built a spreadsheet. I couldn't figure out how to do a report to summarize things, so I just did more columns by category. Easy peasy.

I did get all the ornaments off the tree and packed up. I have the tree lit up right now. I'll miss the lights. Doesn't it look funny when the tree is gone and that area looks so much bigger?

It's nice to have a few years to explore and contemplate where to move. I agree Colorado and Wyoming are way too cold. I wouldn't mind you living near here though. There's a new development right next to ours that is just starting to build. Just saying ...

I'm sure Good Will can have lots of treasures. I know I gave bags and bags of nice things to them before we moved. And cool that YF enjoys going too.

Doesn't Venus look amazing in a dark sky? It's such a beacon. It will be at its brightest around February 14. There's a dimmer steady golden light higher in the sky from Venus, that is Saturn. They are going to be close to each other on January 17-18. I had a video on last nights moon and Venus that is now of 100,000 views. I'm such a star. LOL.

Glad the heated vest worked so well for you. I should look in to them. A friend of mine gave me an electric shawl for Christmas. I haven't tried it out yet, but I am a fan of heated seats and steering wheels in the Curbymobile.

Today was cold and frosty. All the trees look pretty with frost on them. We're getting snow and freezing fog now. Marty wanted to run to town for bathroom stuff at about 5, but luckily he decided against it. We can see I-25 from our dining room window and there wasn't much traffic on it and it what we did see wasn't going too fast.

Marty has been filling in paperwork for the new company. He hasn't filled out benefits yet though so I hope he gets that accomplished before he heads to Australia. I'm sure there's some overlap between companies, until you need to make a claim.

I made homemade beef noodle soup for supper since the weather was so chilly.

Laters,
Curby
 
Happy Monday kids!

Curby, how many views do you have now? You are definitely my most famous friend. :lol: Is Maty headed to Australia tomorrow? One thing about the heated vest is that I've seen (including the one I have) are generally unisex so they're relatively long. You and I are about the same height so that is a consideration. Mine hits me at the bottom of my hips/top of my thigh, which is of course the widest part of me LOL. It's fine when I'm standing, but if I was going to do a lot of sitting I'm pretty sure it would fold up right there and annoy me. I don't have a heated steering wheel in the Audi. Having bought it in the November of Covid I had NO ability to be picky about options. I was frankly lucky to get a car at all at that time so I took what I could get. In lieu, I put on a furry leopard print steering wheel cover. Not the same, but I'm doing the best I can here!

Yesterday I was listing MACHINE! The light wasn't fabulous for the last few, but I wasn't giving up at that point ha ha. I think I'm set now through NEXT Wednesday if I put up one a day. I'm also going to get better about the insta and FB posting you and I were texting about. There's no reason I can't put up one thing a day on each platform, especially since I can use the same thing for both. Pinterest... Ugh. I'm still at a loss there. I do think I'm going to go the Fiverr route. I just can't believe I don't know anybody who can do this for me. God knows I'm willing to pay, I just can find anyone...

Today I've packed an order, done a little work on one of the companies I've taken over the bookkeeping for, been to the chiro and the post office, and that's about it. Now I need to get something straightened out with the State of Illinois regarding sales tax. I really should have done this when I first set up my website, but as long as no one in Illinois bought anything from me it wasn't an issue. Well last week someone did and I can't put it off any longer. I'm sure the state would never find out about the $5.03 I owe them in sales tax, but I'm going to get it worked out anyway. Just want I need, more administrative crap!

Alright, off to do that and then to get things ready to take to the cowhide bag lady's place tomorrow because I'm going to drive into the city and do some things with here.

The excitement never ends around here!
 
Hi Kids,

Dee Jay, the views are over 118K now. It’s a past event though so should fall off now. Marty heads off to the summer in Australia on Thursday. He is locked out of all his accounts and training material he needs to present the class because he started for that other company. He still hasn’t been told to fill out insurance either which is making me quite nervous with him traveling. I’d have the exact same problems with the heated vest. I’ve got the fuzzy Snoopy blanket you sent me on my lap right now. If I double it up I am ALMOST warm. Bummer on no heated steering wheel. I know my Macan was a lucky find, they’d just swapped something for it from a dealer in California and it came in that day. Pickings were bleak then.

I did see your new listings. I did share them on FB. You can probably do it yourself, it’s nuts you can’t find someone to do it for you. So if Marty hires a bookkeeper, I’ll ask you first. He has about 7 charges a month so it’s easy for an amateur like me. I just have to keep it up. Bummer for figuring out state taxes. Marty was going to sell t-shirts to his clients but wisely choose to not do anything like that.

Are you getting snow? We are on day 3 of cold and snow. I need to pick up my beta blockers but Wednesday looks like the temp will creep up past freezing so I’ll try that day.

I worked on videos most of the day. They sure take more time than I think. At least I got out of being on the livestream, so I volunteered to monitor the chat. Ha!

Laters,
Curby
 
Hi Kids!

We dropped Marty off at the local airport this morning. Driving in blizzard conditions is so fun. It was worse coming home since the snow is blowing from the north and the west, which of course were the only two directions I drove to come home. I am not familiar enough with which turn to take in to this area in the dark either. I started down the wrong road first but realized it was wrong and backed up. It was such low visibility you couldn't see houses until I was almost by them.

We got up at 3:30. I should have tried to go back to sleep when I got home, but didn't. I'll be zonked out by noon. I have to be on a live stream today too about Mars this week. Let's hope I don't let some colorful metaphors out. LOL.

Laters,
Curby
 
Happy Thursday kids!

Curby, no snow here, but there was a thick crunchy frost on the grass when I let the furry monsters out this morning. The sun's been out so it's likely gone now. Is Marty in Australia yet? When he starts telling you how warm he is in Australia please tell he I also say Stuff It!

It's been a busy few days! On Tuesday I spent over six hours doing stuff with the cowhide bag lady. I was just Over It when I left there LOL. Now I have some more to do, but at least I have a better idea of WHAT I'm doing.

Yesterday I went to lunch with a friend of mine who's about an hour south. He's the guy that I took to the hospital/picked up when he had back surgery last summer. Due to a bunch of health issues (even beyond the back thing) he doesn't really socialize so I'm about all he's got. How scary is that?! :lol: We did belated gifts (his birthday is Dec. 22) and then went to lunch at an Italian restaurant just a stone's throw from his house. It was DELICIOUS. And I of course ate way too much. Minestrone, then we split a sausage and peppers appetizer and then had pasta with mushrooms and truffle cream sauce. Giant meatball in marinara on the side because, yanno, we didn't have enough food ha ha! We wisely skipped dessert because I was ready to pop at that point.

My friend has also been thinking of where else we might move to and we've love to find a "compound" for all of us. He's focused on the states with no personal income tax, and is fond of the idea of Washington right now. I spent half the night looking at houses on the Washington/Oregon border (no sales tax in Oregon!)... But I don't think I can do it. The temperature isn't so bad, however I think the rain would depress me. Some months have as many days with rain as without. Ugh. We also talked about Arizona. I didn't realize his ex-wife lived in Laughlin, AZ. She's had a rattlesnake in her garage and scorpions are a common thing. Double ugh. He's not on board with that AT ALL. We're still looking...

Liam has a cold. He's been sick for a few days now and it's progressed to the stuffy head coughing stage. He came home for lunch and I made him chicken soup. Clutzarella here cut her finger on the can pulling the lid off!

Alright, I need to get some things done, as much as I would prefer to sit here and drink coffee and internet all day.
 
Hi Kids!

Dee Jay, I can’t wait to tell Marty to Stuff it for you. I’m sure I’ll hear about the summer weather. He’ll arrive there about 36 hours after he got on the plane here this morning.

You’re a trooper to continue to do the cowhide bag lady’s taxes. I need to start rounding stuff up. We’ve got all sorts of unique stuff for 2024 due to moving.

That’s nice of you to spend time with your friend. I always eat too much when we eat Italian. I like it but pasta is so filling and I rarely eat it. I feel like I’ll be a total recluse with Marty gone - I have NO desire to venture out in the cold, snow and wind. We’ll see. I do need fruit and bread.

Wyoming has no sales tax. As for the weather … My niece and sister-in-law both lived for a while in Seattle. Both of them said the dreary weather bothered them. As for scorpions - when we stayed with Marty’s sister in Arizona - a little white scorpion was under our car in the garage. Marty went to kill it and it raised its tail and went right for him. It was about 1 inch long. Marty’s sandal took care of it. It was impressive how aggressive it was.

Oh no to cutting your finger on a can, I hate those pull-off lids on cans. Half the time I have to dig out a can opener. I hope Liam feels better soon.

Too bad I don’t believe in naps. It’s only 2:15 and I’ve been up for 11 hours already.

Laters,
Curby
 
Happy Friday kids!

Curby, I am right there with you on not wanting to go anywhere! Some days the only place I venture out to is the post office and I even get mad about that LOL. A guy that I used to work with had a scorpion in his shoe and it stung him on the foot. He had a BAD reaction and ended up in the hospital. That'd be just my luck!

I slept in late this morning and didn't get a whole lot accomplished aside from a couple loads of laundry and packing three orders and getting them to the post office.

There's a sale tomorrow run by one of the estate sale companies. The lady lets her employees bring stuff they want to sell into the warehouse and they have a big blow out. I found some things in the pics I would buy... but I'm not sure I want to actually leave the warmth of The North Estate to do it! We'll see.

I'm drinking decaf with gingerbread spice and eating dark chocolate right now. Not much else in the house appealed to me so I'm calling this dinner! As of yesterday I was down 30 pounds (29 this morning, WTF). I wonder if DeeGee is still doing the 16/8 and if she made the leap into retirement. I hope so!
 
Wowza!! Tgiving through the new year flew by in a blur! I had a bunch of use it or lose it leave and I wasn’t about to lose any of it. We spent time around Tgiving in KY with mom, came home for a few days and then to Tennessee for Winter Fest for a week. Back home for a few days, then back to KY for Christmas, then to the beach through Jan 5. We got home just in time to get snowed in for a week! We had a foot of snow, then an ice storm, then 6 more inches of snow. We lost power for a few days but have a whole home generator so we were okay. No internet for a few days. You’d think I’d take that time to get some stuff done around the house, but nope! I live in the hills and am way too chicken to chance sliding into a ravine, so I have stayed put. I got a fedex delivery today and the guy told me the roads are okay now, so I plan to head to work tomorrow.

dee*jay-I was doing really well with the fasting thing and then got off schedule and then got just plain lazy. Hearing you’re down 30lbs is the motivation I needed to get moving again! Lordy, where did that guy live that had a scorpion in his shoe? Yikes!! Matt thinks he wants to move to Washington because he’s very warm natured and he hates hot climates. We were there in August one year and he loved it. I hated it so moving there is not happening.

Marcy-Marty is in Australia? What does he think? Matt’s company got bought by an Australian company 2 or 3 years ago. He’s never had to go to Australia, but I client requested that he go to Canada for 6 months for a project. He declined and is working on site with a client here in Charleston. That works much better for me! Have you ventured out? We were just in the Outer Banks, and we had an awesome night sky for gazing. Matt said it was almost like looking at the night sky when he visited his folks in Montana. We missed the big meteor shower though.

I haven’t retired yet. If I can make it through May, it’s a big boost to my final average salary for my retirement calculation. I started the year with 39.5 vacation days and I earn 2 days a month, so I foresee many days off between now and June! We do get a new governor next week and the rumor is he’s putting an end to remote work, and that would most likely make me retire earlier. Here’s a pic of Ruby enjoying the sand, which she liked much more than the cold snow!

IMG_1829.jpeg
 
Happy Sunday kids!

Deegee, helllllo!!! And hello Ruby too! The scorpion was in Arizona (I think Scottsdale). I have to admit those sorts of tales make me take pause when considering the southwest... Good idea to stay off of the bad roads. There's nowhere so important you need to be that you need to go there in treacherous conditions -- at least that's my philosophy! May isn't thaaaaaaat far away. Even if the new governor does away with remote work do you think you'll stick it out for the $$$ bump? I've been bad food-wise yesterday and today. After dinner last night I was just dying for something sweet so I toasted a hamburger bun and had it with butter and strawberry jam. Today Liam and I ran to Fed Ex around noon and decided to have Potbelly for lunch... and we just got done with a frozen pizza for dinner. But the thing is, I'm OK with that! Sure, I'll pay for that on the scale tomorrow, but that will motivate me to get back on the wagon. One bit at a time, as they say!

I did a major clean up and reorganization downstairs yesterday into last night. Christmas was so crazy, it was all I could do to get the orders packed and out the door. There were scraps of bubble wrap and other detritus, empty boxes that I'd taken the contents out of to ship, and all sorts of other mess going on, both in the room I pack stuff in and around the "admin" area where I print out the shipping labels, gift wrap stuff if people ask for that, etc. Anyway, it was quite a chore -- but it's done and I'm so happy! I do need to vacuum up the ever-present dog hair, but at least now I can get to the floor to do it LOL.

After lunch today Liam and I went to one of those Treasure Hunt places where they sell the stuff that gets returned to Amazon. It was pandemonium! Everything was $5 and we filled a cart with so much random crap! Twenty-three things for $115 (plus tax of course). We came home with four big bags. The bad thing is you're not allowed to open any box that's sealed, but if you have the Amazon app you can scan any bar code and find out what's in a box. I have neither (a) the Amazon app, nor (b) that level of patience, so we only bought things that were either out in the open or completely identifiable. One small fail: I got a desk organizer thing and didn't realize it was PINK. I assumed it was black, so opening the box was quite a surprise, ha ha.

Alright, off to clean up the kitchen and continue the accounting project I've been working on for a couple of days now. At this point it SHOULD be just a matter of sorting, but there's always some monkey wrench that shows up a couple of hours in. Good thing I have extra bourbon in the house!
 
Hi Kids!

Dee Jay, I haven’t left the house yet. Our roads out here are still solid ice. No more snow until - you guessed it - the night Marty needs me to pick him up at the airport. Oh no to that guy having a scorpion in his shoe. After seeing several spiders in our closet, I put my shoes on a shelf in there all the time. Sweet and congratulations on being down 30 pounds. That is awesome.

Good deal to pack up and organize the post-Christmas stuff. Our unfinished portion is right by my gym, I might start working on that between reps when I lift. It is sol cold in the unfinished part of the basement, I need to keep moving between reps. Marty put a big electric heater in there for me that we had at our last house. But it takes forever to heat up and I never remember to go start it ahead of time.

What a deal of the Amazon return items. Did you get a real treasure among your bounty? Thanks for mentioning bookkeeping. I was going to see how far I can get on my assorted tax documents. It’s all over the place with buying the new house.

Deegee, Ruby is a cutie. You certainly got in a lot of travel and vacation. Naturally, you don’t want to lose those days. I got so I took off Fridays quite a bit when I got close to the max accrual.

That’s a lot of snow. Nice you have a whole home generator. None of our neighbors around here have one, so we didn’t get one. We’ll see if something changes our mind. All the power lines are buried out here so hopefully that makes a difference. I am with you staying home when it’s icy. I am not a fan. I didn’t like Seattle, that wet environment made me very achy. Marty said it’s humid in Australia and HOT. He is opposite me, he’s always hot. It took him about 40 hours after I dropped him off to land in Sydney. He wandered around quite a bit on Sunday and sent me a bunch of pictures. The night skies were good when we visited the Outer Banks too. I was kind of surprised. The house we rented was on the beach and it was very dark at night. Good idea to hold until May on retirement to boost your final average. Hopefully, if the return to work order comes, it’ll be later than May.

I binge watched 1923 season 1 again on Saturday. The new season starts soon. My niece’s husband answered a local ad for extras in Houston to be in some scenes for 1923. I hope he makes the final cut and I recognize him. I worked off and on this weekend and by Sunday night I was bored out of my mind. I finished a book and made a batch of mini-meatloaves for easy dinners this week. I’d make cookies, but I’d just eat them. If it was nicer, I’d meet some friends for lunch or supper. It was zero when I got up today though. Next week there’s going to be a minus on our low temps. It’s like winter or something.

Laters,
Curby
 
Dee*Jay-the Amazon treasure hunt thing sounds fun! We used to have one of those here but I haven’t heard anything about it for a while. Have you ever thought about bidding on a storage unit in default? I always wonder what people end up with. Good idea getting your work area organized. Were your sales pretty good through the holidays? We pulled out mom’s 12 days of Christmas glasses for Christmas dinner. I haven’t seen them in years! If the new gov does away with remote work, I probably won’t make it to May. Our agency had to move 2 years ago, and we’re in a building that didn’t have enough space for us. A whole bunch of employees of other agencies had to vacate their offices and move to higher floors to make room for us, and we get the stink eye a lot when we pass people from other agencies in the hall.. We ended up having to double up in our offices. Some have 5 people in them. I’m lucky I only share with one person, and I have a window. We have 2 really long hallways and everybody keeps their doors shut. It feels so institutional! The HVAC is all messed up and we freeze all of the time. I really, really don’t want to avoid that place as much as I can.

Marcy-Ruby ended up being an awesome dog. I’m so glad I stopped by the shelter to “borrow a buddy” for a walk! The people who had our house built had the generator installed. They had a power outage that lasted 2 weeks in December one year. Lucky for us they did because that thing is soooo nice to have. I think this winter is going to kill us both. It has been brutally cold and we’re not used to that. Everything hurts! I keep seeing 1923 suggested for me. I’ll have to watch it. Is there another series that needs to be watched before it? Right now I’m watching a series called Joan on BritBox. Matt and I go to OBX 3-4 times a year. We usually get an oceanfront house on the northern end in Corolla or Duck. It’s so peaceful and laid back. No big hotels, and it’s so quiet and completely dark at night. We’ll be heading back in April.

I made it to work today. Go me! I went in late because there is so much ice! I was hoping it would warm up a little before 9 and get that stuff melting, but it was still a tricky drive. I had a slippy slide but didn’t fall down in the driveway and again walking across the parking lot. My knee is all nice and puffy and my back is reminding me not to forget about it. Tomorrow is mine and Matt’s 30th anniversary. I was supposed to pick something big out, but you know how I can’t make decisions! I thought about upgrading my ACA and I could pick something out, but then I’d get hopelessly stuck on a setting. I think I’ll just keep my eyes open and when I see what I want, I’ll know. Stay warm and safe!!
 
Deegee, watch 1883 first, but both series stand alone. And both series are good. I remember when you guys moved to the other office and people weren’t happy about it. That makes for unpleasant and long days at work. We were in Duck and ventured to Corolla frequently. That one Main Street is tough to turn left on at times. It was pretty there. We’ll probably never return though, that is where we met with Marty’s brother right before he passed away. His brother loved those beach front rentals for the entire family vacation.

Those whole home generators are nice to have. It sounds like sweet Ruby was meant to be yours. I love happy endings.

Good deal you made it safely to work and back. Sorry your knee and back are talking to you. My right wrist and knee are constantly yelling at me. I may have to crack someday and see a doctor.

Happy Anniversary to you and Matt tomorrow. Dee Jay and I will gladly help you shop. We seem to do okay at spending money on jewelry. I was toying with upgrading my ACA studs simply to move them to platinum settings. I can’t find my certificates though after moving. I asked for a quote once to move my studs from gold to platinum and the cost was ridiculous. Even though I bought the YG studs and diamonds from them, they were charging me a small fortune for mounting them again past buying the new posts. That soured me on the deal immediately. I am pretty sure I pulled those certificates out of the safe and had them in some boxes we packed early, but I’ve never found them. The movers had an accident moving our safe, it fell over forward out front here and the door flew open. Marty said he didn’t see anything fall out. So I’m hoping they weren’t in the safe and got tossed or lost in that accident.

Marcy
 
Hi Kids!

It's another chilly and windy day in Wyoming. Shocking. I had an attack of insomnia from about 2 am to 5 am this morning. I finally got back to sleep and the wind must have knocked something in to the side of the house, because a loud bang woke me up. I tried to sleep a bit longer, but no dice. It's not 2:30 yet and I'm ready for a nap. Too bad I don't take them.

Laters,
Curby
 
marcy-thanks for the show recommendation. I binge everything and then I have nothing left to watch! My favorites are usually on BritBox or Acorn, and I recently subscribed to Hulu so I could watch only murders in the building. I need to get back into reading. Last year I read about 300 pages of a book that made me give up the will to get out of bed, and I haven’t read a book since! We go to the OBX in the off season so we don’t have the traffic. We go April/May, Sept/Oct, Dec/Jan and every now and then throw November in there. Thanks for the offer to help me shop. I’m lousy at picking stuff out! Your WF story is interesting. I don’t think anybody I ever worked with is still there. I have this ACA ring I never wear, and a pair of ACA studs I never wear, and an ACA pendant that I haven’t worn in years but saw it hanging there and wore it to work yesterday. I don’t wear my tennis bracelet either. What’s my problem?? I do wear my sapphire with the massively bent setting and my yellow diamond ring. My sapphire has 2 antique old mine cut diamonds and I absolutely love them. I may look for an old mine cut solitaire for my anniversary gift. I hope your certificates didn’t get lost! If I do trade my ering diamond, I need to find the certificate. We have moved too and I have no idea where those certificates ended up. When does Marty get home? I hope bad weather holds out so you can go pick him up. He’s going to have a big temperature shock going from heat to the frozen tundra.

Hi dee*jay!

We did a big fat nothing for our anniversary today! It’s still icy out and now it’s snowing, so we stayed in. I made grilled pork chops, fresh green beans, mashed sweet potatoes and we’ve been hanging out by the fire with Ruby all evening. We’ll go to a nice dinner this weekend.
 
This one reason is why I hate our office. We have 2 of these hallways. They zig zag at the end and keep going. You walk down the hall and it’s just closed doors, all 366 steps for a round trip restroom visit. And it’s freezing. Very institutional. I pass people in the hall and don’t know if they’re my coworkers or work for another agency. I think a good work atmosphere goes a long way, and this ain’t it!! And the funny thing- each hallway had different color squares in the floor because people are always getting lost so you tell people to look for a certain color square. And there are several You are Here building maps around the building.IMG_2066.jpeg
 
Happy Wednesday kids!

Curby, I don't think I got any really big scores at the treasure store, but it was a fun way to spend an hour! Have you left the house yet? And did you figure out what the big bang was in the middle of the night? I would think that having the power lines buried would make a world of difference vs. having them above ground. Of course something could happen at a transformer or something like that, but at least you don't have to worry about a simple thing like a single tree falling on a power line.

Deegee, Happy Anniversary!!! No, I've never considered bidding on a storage unit because the stuff I sell is so specific. There is a show that Liam has watched a couple of times where people do this and it seems interesting, but probably not very fruitful for my genre. Wow... that's QUITE a hallway. Just seeing that depresses me on behalf of all the people who work in that environment!

Well the accounting adventure continues. I finished (or at least I THOUGHT I finished) the accounting for one organization... and now the guy who was doing it wants to have a meeting to go over where my numbers differed from his. I'll be having a nice stiff shot of something before I log into that zoom call tomorrow! And the other organization continues to evolve. I spent a long time Monday night going over all their Quick Books info for 2024 only to find out there also ANOTHER system (that I don't have access to) they use for certain things that's completely separate and the two don't marry together. Ugh.

And in other news, today I went down to the local office of the Illinois Department of Revenue to talk to someone in person. When I started selling on Etsy and Ebay I didn't worry about sales tax because those two platforms collect it from the buyers (where applicable) and remit it to each state. My own website is a different story. For 49 of the 50 states I'm not worried because I (a) don't have a physical nexus there, or (b) sell enough that I would get captured in the out-of-state net. In Illinois though I have to collect and remit tax on an in-state purchases. Not a problem Mr. Tax Man! I'm HAPPY to do it! BUT. When my accountant set up my corporation seventeen years ago he named it The XXXXX X Corporation. THE. Well that THE has been a real problem. My tax returns get filed with the THE, but for some reason the state is inconsistent in different systems and some have the THE and some don't. I really don't care one way or the other, but I have to have an online account to be able to remit tax on a monthly or quarterly basis and the system where you sign up kept registering a "mismatch" and wouldn't let me go any further. The people on the phone were about as useful as talking to the goldfish in the corner, so I finally said, fvck it, I'm GOING there. Fortunately one of the few Illinois Department of Revenue offices in the state is only fifteen minutes away so this morning I went in person. The kid who helped me knew even less about the way sales tax works that I do, but fortunately he got me into the system and come tomorrow I SHOULD be able to log on and create an account. We'll see. Otherwise I have to either mail in or take my deposits in person every reporting period. So fingers crossed this online things works!!!

Alright, I need to queue up some things for photos because I am going to Aspen on Sunday and I need to have enough drafts to get me through the trip.

BTW, Curby, you are THE BEST!!!!! If it weren't for you liking my things on Instagram and Facebook I would wonder if they were even visible to the outside world, ha ha.

OK, off to dig through some boxes and see what I'm going to take pics of tomorrow.
 
Hi Kids!

Deegee, I like to read too. Let me know if you like Murders in the Building. I’ve tried to start it a few times and can’t get in to it. We were in OBX mid-to-late September. The weekend was especially busy. I know WF let some people go. The sales lady I worked with was still there last year anyway. She emailed me some questions about what they could do to make me more likely to buy from them again. I did tell her the amount they wanted to charge me to move my diamond studs really turned me off. I haven’t put on a bracelet in a long time. I should sell them all. Then I’d miss them. I did look a few places today for my certificates and I can’t find them. Marty gets home late Friday night. He said it was quite warm down there. They never get snow. When I told him our forecast he said I was tempting him not to come home. He said he used his umbrella today. Around here you’d get airborne or the umbrella would be torn to shreds. Sounds like you had a perfect evening to celebrate you anniversary. That is a very impersonal building.

Dee Jay, I did venture out on the porch a few times yesterday trying to see an elusive comet. It was a waste of time. I do plan on at least go get mail tomorrow. It’ll reach the 40’s before the snow and frigid temps blow in here. Yes, I agree the utility lines underground make a lot of sense here.

Ugh to the meeting with that guy to go over your accounting results. And what a pain about the other organization that has their info in two systems. I still say Marty should fire his bookkeeper.

What a pain about the state tax. I hope you get it all set up tomorrow. Marty quickly ventured away from selling tee shirts for his gym because he didn’t want to mess with any of that. All his income is for coaching services.

You’ll be cold in Aspen!

I worked most of the day. Our cleaning lady came today and I did a batch of towels. The thrillometer didn’t register much activity.

Marty will begin his long journey home tomorrow evening my time. He was debating the upgrade fee to first class. I guess I’ll know when I see our statement. I told him we’ll live. It’s up to him. This trip should give him a lot of miles.

Laters,
Curby
 
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