Healthy Living Thread

[Dee*Jay]

Happy Friday kids!

Deegee, the inventory situation here is a challenge—for me anyway. I want something very specific and I’m afraid I’m going to have to go to a different neighborhood (translation: one where I won’t be able to walk to work any more!!!) to get it at any sort of decent price. Yesterday I went to see another unit that was GREAT… but overpriced by about $100K once you added in the pricing. Yes, things are *better*, but not THAT MUCH better. Not sure exactly where the fault lies between the optimistic media, the hopeful sellers, and the hungry agents…

Curby, I will have loads of extra wine after my annual holiday party on Dec. 6 so I will fully expect you on my doorstep to help with the leftovers! Being a manager is no fun. If I never have a team working for me again it will be too soon… I did pass my test, even though I didn’t even read the last chapter of the material until about an hour before, LOL. I’m really curious as to how they grade that thing and it’s so frustrating not to get a real score, just a pass fail. Oh well, my results said PASS so that’s all that matters!

I ended up meeting my friend for dinner after the test event though I wasn’t hungry, and this weekend will be a food fest… Dear Santa, please bring me bigger pants!!!

Tomorrow the CB and I are going to see 8 properties between 9 am and 1:30 pm. Not for the faint of heart! I am really in a little bit of a panic about what prices are doing and I think spring is going to be a madhouse so if I find something that I life I am going to jump on it!

 

[Dee*Jay]

deegee - I totally missed the part before about your soon-to-be-new-car!!! How excting! I can't wait for pics! And yes, you need a personalized license plate!

 

[marcy]

We put up a few more things and used a real camera on our lights.

 

[marcy]

Hi Kids! I hope you are having a happy and healthy weekend.

Deegee, I am also thinking of getting TREX for my plates. I get teased a lot for short arms. Decisions, decisions. BBLEWRAP would be good for you; do they allow that many letters in your state? Did you get to drive the blue Acura today? My goal is to get my Christmas cards out by the first of December. Wish me luck on that. I agree personnel problems are not fun. Yay for good portion control this week.

Dee Jay, well rats that the great place you visited was overpriced. Are places moving at those inflated rates? Being able to walk to work is a wonderful plus for that area of town. Sounds like a great offer and challenge to help you dispose of some wine in a few weeks. That would be fun (until the next morning anyway). Congratulations on passing the tax exam. Marty said pretty much the same thing to me last night; if he ever has to work ops again it would be too soon. He is loving not having 80 plus employees. Did you and CB find any properties you liked?

We had our astronomy meeting last night. We went out afterwards for pie and my cherry pie had to be sugar free, it was so bitter I couldn’t stand it. I saved calories that way. My dad wanted to join us so he showed up for pie and coffee. We got home late but it was a nice evening.

We got up at 5:30 this morning to try and find a comet. The wind was howling but we did manage to see a smudge on the sky in the right spot (or both of our glasses had smudges in the right spot that we “thought” we saw the comet). We took our showers and went out for breakfast before 7. My cleaning lady was coming at 8:30 so we came home to let her in. I headed back to the Simply Mac store to buy Marty the Applecare for his new laptop but they wanted to see it so I came home and got him and his laptop and went back. The person that waited on me the second time didn’t even want to see the laptop. Oh well. The store was having it’s grand opening and I won a stylus. Woo hoo. After we got that done I went to the bank to change the pin on my new debit card and then stopped at the grocery store. This was all before 11. We met my dad for supper tonight. His birthday is Tuesday and Marty is out of town that day so we took him out for his dinner tonight.

Laters,

Marcy, Curby, TREX

 

[Dee*Jay]

Happy Monday kids!

Curby, I swear I'm going stupid in my old age... it took me so long to figure out TREX was T-Rex and not Trex like the outdeck deck product. I was like, why on earth would she want to be Trex... HA! I have a friend who, when he gets very drunk, kind of walks around with his elbows, bent up the whole way, with his hands out in front of him. We call him The Dinosaur!

I saw a commercial space this weekend that I am rather fond of, but there are challenges, not the least of which is that my mortgage guy just said he isn't sure they can do a loan in a live/work complex. Very odd becuase there are a number of live/work buildings in Chicago so if he doesn't figure it out will will have to shop for a different lender (assuming any of this goes ahead). If I got it absolutely cheap enough I could pay for the space with cash but that would (a) seriously deplete my free funds and (b) not leave me anything left to renovate the space and my interest is in gutting it and starting over. If it doesn't work out I guess I will just wait for the spring inventory to come on and see what happens.

Food this weekend was a bunch of random stuff, none of it good! Madelise was in town and we went to dinner at this fabulous tapas place on Saturday night. Last night my friend made marinated flank staek on the grill and we ate 'til we were ready to explode. Oh--and there was some wine too.

Grandmother update: She started complaining about numbness in her right hand. It turns out she has a brain tumor that is impacting her right side so they are starting radiation today. She's 89 years old for gods sake... I can't believe the radiation along won't kill her... Ug.

 

[marcy]

Happy Monday, Kids!

Dee Jay, I certainly get teased a lot about being a T-Rex. I get a lot of T-Rex jokes emailed to me. I am still leaning towards CRBY for my plates. That is funny about your friend acting like that when he drinks. I would think you could find a lender that would finance a live / work place. Are interest rates different for something like that? Sorry to hear about your grandmother having a tumor. I hope the radiation treatment isn't too rough on her and stops the tumor. That is rough on anyone let alone someone 89 years old. Flank steak on the grill is quite tasty.

Marty left for Little Rock today. He got to fly first class to Houston on a Dreamliner; it had amazing room. Of course he got on a 20 seater commuter from Houston to Little Rock. I am sure that was a big let down.

I stopped by the bank and post office on the way home from work and then warmed up leftover steak and baked potato for supper. It was not very good (I tried to warm it in the oven). Good thing I had some slow churned chocolate ice cream to wash it down with.

Take care.
Marcy

 

[Dee*Jay]

Happy Tuesday kids!

Curby, I think the thing that made the flank steak better than ususal was that it was thicker than it normally is. My friend had it cut by the butcher and I don't know if it was a coincidence or if the butcher did it by design but it was so good!

Last night I had chip and salsa for dinner. Two kinds of salsa actually, a red and a green, so that's like a three course meal! I wanted a glass of wine but I knew I had to read some of the material for Thursday's test so I resisted. (It was hard though!). I think I'm actually in pretty good shape for the test. I only have one more chapter to read and about 380 multiple choice questions. That's where I was the morning of the last test, LOL.

No word back on the specific issue I asked about on the commercial space. There was evidence of water due to the way the cat walks were installed a few years ago and I am trying to find out if it is an ongoing problem or if it has been resolved already. The interest rate wouldn't be impacted because since it's live/work I can get a "live" mortgage, but I may have to put more down. We will see how this all pans out...

 

[Dee*Jay]

Confession: I just ate a bag of Munchos for lunch. Well, OK, for DESSERT since I already had a lean cuisine. And not one of those tiny three chip bags either. Oops.

 

[marcy]

Happy Tuesday Kids!

Dee Jay, it seems that thicker flank steak does come out better. We have a couple of places here in town to get meat cut so I think I’ll have to start having things cut for us as well. I love your “3 course” meal. Good for you not indulging in wine when you had to study. I still haven’t picked up any of my favorite wine and weird how it’s really cut down on my alcohol consumption. I hope the commercial place you are interested in doesn’t have water issues. I saw you posted in the thread about stuff animals. I was going to but I had no idea how to explain 8 teddy bears and 7 killer rabbits.

Well in spite of telling myself “don’t get up at 5 to look for a comet” I got up at 5, didn’t see the comet but didn’t fall asleep again until like 5 minutes before my alarm went off. Work was busy. Marty is on home from the airport right now. We still don’t know if he is going to be gone next week or not.

I took my dad out for lunch today and took him out to pick up his car.

Breakfast was Cheerios, lunch was 2 tacos and a few chips and salsa and supper was a junior cheeseburger and a few fries. I had some slow churned ice cream awhile ago but I’ve been cold all night so I should have passed on that.

Speaking of cold that nasty 4 letter word “snow” is going to pay us a visit tomorrow night and we are dipping in to really chilly temperatures. Aak! Say it ain’t so!

Laters,
Marcy aka Curby

 

[Dee*Jay]

Happy Tuesday kids!

Curby, I know what you mean about deciding not to post on the killer rabbit, et. al! When I read over that little bit about POG I though, "Yep, she bought herself a first class ticket for a nice long ride on the crazy train!" And too bad you didn't actually see the comet after actually getting out of bed for it!

Last night I had a lean cuisine for dinner but I was so cold I had to have a little hot chocolate (with whipped cream!) afterwards. Today one of my colleagues and I are going to Epic Burger for lunch.

I talked with the listing agent for the commercial property last night and it sounds like I will have to pony up more than I originally throught (hoped) if I'm going to buy this place. The problem is everything else is going to be so crazy over-priced (IMHO) come spring anyway that suddenly this isn't such a bad deal... There is another unit (half the size but finished as residential space) in a more developed neighborhood that was on the market for $385K in January of this year, the owners rented it out and took it off the market, and now it's going back on next January for $419K. Nothing in that unit has changed but suddently it's worth $34K more??? And I'm afraid this mentality will be pervasive throughout the city come the spring market.

 

[Dee*Jay]

Happy Thursday kids! (And happy WEDNESDAY yesterday, which I called Tuesday...)

I had a small pot pie for dinner last night. And when I say small, I mean TINY. That SOB was like an appetizer, so I had to follow up with some chips and salsa. The good news is my laziness won out and when I thinking of a second round of chips and salsa I ended up just keeping my wide a$$ on the couch.

Tonight I am taking the third part of the IRS exam. Please god, let me be DONE!!! And then this crazy crazy journey I started last August will be OVER. Did I mention I want to be DONE?!?

I put in an offer on the commercial space yesterday. I'll be curious as to what the owner comes back with... or if he tells me to go blow, which is a response in and of itself! I've got a total vision of what this place could be, but I'm not sure I have the checkbook that goes with that vision, LOL.

 

[marcy]

Happy Thursday!

Dee Jay, I think I started us down the path of the wrong day of the week. I checked before I put down Thursday tonight. I did see the comet on Wednesday morning. It was pretty good in our image stabilizing binoculars. It is closing in on the Sun so I hope it gets better after rounding the Sun. How exciting that you put in an offer on the commercial space. I know prices of houses are rising around here. The base price on our model is $12500 more than when we signed our contract and the lots have gone up about $1200. I bet are you very anxious to be done with all of your studies. However, you aren’t kidding us – you’ll find something else to do.

Deegee, how is your week going?

We went out to supper last night then wandered around to several stores looking for Christmas plates. I also picked up 3 boneless hams for the family dinner. They are about 6 to 8 pounds each. I probably bought too much but I’d rather have enough than run out. I bought a roast for Marty to cook us for supper tonight.

We had both that nasty 4 letter and 3 letter word on the streets this morning. SNOW and ICE. Yuck! Our high today about 9. That was a shock to my system. The roads were very icy and tomorrow morning won’t be much better.

Marty heads out to UK and other places Sunday. He hopefully will be back in 2 weeks but may be gone 4 weeks. Waah.

Take care.
Marcy

 

[Dee*Jay]

Happy Friday kids! And a Happy Friday indeed it is because I am DONE! FINITO!!!

IRS exams OVER. Woo hoo!!! I had a migraine start yesterday morning so I didn't even have a glass of wine when I got home to celebrate (and I've been up most of the night with an ice pick above my left eye... ) but I am still THRILLED!

Curby, yes, you are right my friend... I will indeed find something else to do. I would *like* to turn that commercial space into my next project but the owner hasn't responded to my offer. I've been a real estate agent for far to many years to read my into that (there are a whole host of reasons why people take a little while to get back to you), but it still annoys me. And be careful on that snow and ice!!!

OK, off to pump in some more coffee in the hopes the caffeine will ultimately help.

 

[marcy]

Happy Saturday kids.

Deegee, congratulations for being done with your IRS studies and exams. I bet you feel like you have all sorts of free time. I hope you hear back on your offer for the commercial space. I am sure that would keep you busy. Is your migraine gone? Or at least better? Those are certainly no fun.

We slept in this morning, ate a light breakfast and took off for Colorado. We bought a new dining room table. The one we have seats 6 at the most – it’s 42 x 60 inches. We bought a table today that is 48” wide and can have 3 lengths – 72, 88 or 104 inches. It is from the same place our other table is from so we bought 4 more chairs. We are getting ready for the family Christmas next month.

After our furniture-shopping spree we went to our favorite kitchen store. We picked up some assorted spices, food, and mixes for some friends for Christmas. Then we had lunch at an Italian restaurant before coming home.

We put up our Christmas tree today. It is in our den so you can see if from the street. We ran down to the mall to pick up some padded vinyl from Joann’s Fabrics to keep under the table cloth on our new table. We get it week after next.

I’ve been doing laundry tonight. Such an exciting Saturday evening. Marty is downstairs working.

Marty is taking off tomorrow for 2 to 4 weeks. He is doing a tour starting in the UK, then Sweden, Finland and Serbia. Depending on how things go he may be home for a week then go back but we don’t know yet. At least we have all of our Christmas decorations up now.

Take care.
Marcy

 

[marcy]

Happy Sunday kids.

I don't feel like I ate too smart today but I sure walked a lot this weekend so hopefully that helped.

I got up a little before 6 to see if I could spot the comet. I was going to wander to the dining room and try to get a picture of it but Marty had stuff all over the place for his trip and I figured I'd trip over something in the dark so I just went back to bed. I'll look again tomorrow morning. I slept for about another hour then made breakfast. We had homemade biscuits and I made Marty some scrambled eggs. He left for the airport a little before 9 so I decided to go buy groceries before the store gets too busy. I was I and out pretty quickly since I just need food for me. I took my shower them went to Kohls to pick out some Christmas tablecloths for the new table.

I picked up my dad about noon and we met my sister and her family 1/2 between our homes for lunch. It was fun to see the whole crew. I had a steak and.brought 1/2 of it home for sandwiches this week. I picked up wheat hot dog buns and baked lays so I'll be good for lunch for a few days. Ooh I just realized this is a 3 day week. Sweet.

I need to make cheesecake for thanksgiving some night this week.

Marty is flying over the ocean right now. He said this morning he'll be finishing today by going in to the office since it will be Monday already when he gets there. That will be a long day for him.

I got more laundry done today, things like towels and tablecloths.

It looks like I can get the Christmas plates I want from Dillard's for about $12 each. I need 18. It seems too good to be true. I don't know if I should just order them online or go in and see if that is correct.

Take care.
Marcy

 

[Dee*Jay]

Happy Monday kids!

Curby, your house looks GREAT!!! I love that you can see the tree through the window like that, and the killer rabbits are doing a great job as decorations! The plates really might be a good price because a lot of things are on super sale right now. Even though the holiday shopping season is short this year I think retailers are making up for it by putting things on sale early.

One thing that is NOT on sale however is the old industrial printer's table I fell in love with on Saturday... to the tune of $8,500... I am under contract (woo hoo!) on the commercial space and I think some funky things can be incorporated into the renovation. The CB and I went looking around for ideas at a couple of architectural salvage places and I came across this table that would make a b!tchin island in the kitchen. All except for the very non-b!tchin price. Ack. So I will keep looking. I also love the idea of an old carved wood door as a coffee table, and I found some of those too... to the tune of $4,200 and $5,800. Yah... NO. Oh well, at least we had a ball looking around!

Tomorrow I head to Phoenix for the holiday. I'm looking forward to a little warmth!!!

 

[marcy]

Happy Monday Kids!

Thanks, Dee Jay! I always like seeing trees in the window when we drive around to look at Christmas lights. Our last house didn’t have a place that worked out for that but our den in this house is perfect. The killer rabbits do work great as decorations. My teddy bears are happy they aren’t chewing on them. The original rabbit is traveling with Marty right now. I agree retailers are trying to get their sales moving with super sales right now. Congratulations for being under contract. How exciting. Will you be making part of it a business? Is the living space move-in ready or do you need to do anything before you move in? When is your closing date? You’ll have a blast renovating it. And wow to the prices on the printers table and wood doors. I would definitely keep looking around for better prices.

Work was very busy today. We have to do a week of work in 3 days but I’ll take that to get a 4-day weekend.

Marty made it to the UK okay landing about 7 am Monday UK time so he went in to the office after traveling all day. He gave a presentation today and based on his typing skills and incomplete sentences in his emails I wonder how well that went. He just can’t sleep on a plane. I am sure he passed out when he got to his hotel. He leaves for Sweden tomorrow. He did say he was coming home on the 6th.

I met a friend at the mall after work. We ate supper at that greasy burger place. Sadly the fries were crisp this time so I ate more than I should but my lunch was light and we walked around a lot so hopefully that helped. We looked around a couple of craft stores, we stopped at Kays and I bought another bear which I will take to work for safekeeping. Then I went to see about buying those Christmas plates. They only had 2 sets of the plates in the store so I guess I’ll buy them online. Now I am trying to decide if I want to order salad plates or bread or butter plates as well. The salad plates are available in a set so they actually cost $10 less than buying 18 of the bread and butter plates. I am leaning towards the smaller plates but the price on the salad plates are better. I am so bad I was only going to buy dinner plates and I am already trying to justify getting smaller plates for dessert. And then I need new crystal glasses and blah, blah, blah. But yeah for lots of walking.

Laters,
Marcy

 

[marcy]

Happy Tuesday Kids!

Marty is in Romania tonight. He said it was snowing. Somehow that didn't surprise me.

Work was crazy busy today. One ore day to go then a 4 day weekend.

I had a burger and baked potato for supper and some raw veggies. I think I'll start on my Christmas poem tonight. Wish me luck on that.

Laters,
Marcy

 

[deegee]

Dee*Jay-Yay! Congrats for being in contract!!! It sounds like you have some great ideas for turning it into a fabulous living space. That is so exciting! Does it have awesome views? Will you be walking distance to lots of good stuff?

Marcy-your decorations look great. I see Snoopy! Our tree will be in the family room, which is on the backside of the house. It seems like we never put a tree where it can be seen from the outside. Matt got decorating happy and put garland and lights on the bannister and a tree in the foyer. If we leave the front door open, you can see that tree from the road! And wow for Marty's trip. Has he ever been to that part of the world? If you didn't work, do you think you'd go on the trips with him? That would be pretty cool.

I officially ran myself into the ground and called in sick today. I have spent lots of long hours the last 2 weeks wrapping things up with my job and moving out of my office into my new space. Unfortunately the new space isn't quite ready yet and the project team is sitting at individual tables in one big room. I turned my table towards a wall so I wouldn't be looking at everybody else. The walls and furniture are supposed to be ready by January, so we're stuck there in the big open room until then. We've been decorating for Christmas around the house a little at a time, but haven't put anything outside yet. I'm leaving it up to Matt to come up with a plan for out there. I'm always okay with slapping a wreath on the front door and calling it a day. I hate taking stuff down after Christmas. Have a great Thanksgiving tomorrow! Enjoy the day!

 

[marcy]

Happy Long Weekend!

Deegee, it sounds like Matt is doing a great job decorating. I was trying to figure out how to decorate our mantle but decided I’ve spent enough on Christmas decorations and dishes already. Marty has not been to that part of the world before. He liked the food in Romania. I actually don’t like to fly I am too claustrophobic. I guess the Dreamliner first class wouldn’t freak me out though. I am sorry to hear you wore yourself down to the point of being sick. That will be awful being out in the open at your new office space. Good idea to face the wall.

I got to work about 45 minutes early today so I left 30 minutes early. I was going to make cheesecake tonight so I picked up tacos on the way home for supper. Sadly the soft shell taco was chicken which I can’t eat so I saved calories that way. My cheesecake is baking right now.

I spent a lot of time on the phone today. Our debit card flagged an inquiry from member services. They leave us a message for Marty to call this number. I called and of course they won’t talk to me because I’m not Marty. I call our credit union who kind of helped me but not because I didn’t have the card number. It’s stored on my phone so I had to hang up to get that info. They wouldn’t give me a direct line to call back so I got to call in again and go through all the Spanish inquisition questions and finally that person told me the charges in question weren’t in Romania they were mine from last night ordering my Christmas dishes. Grr. Finally card services called me back and supposedly gave me access to answer questions on Marty’s card and also noted his card works overseas. The aggravating thing is I am on the account the money comes out of why the heck can’t they talk to me?

Have a very Happy Thanksgiving tomorrow.

Marcy

 

[marcy]

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope you had a wonderful and healthy day.

I stayed up late last night but got up about my normal time today. I had 2 emails from Marty which I answered then I was wide awake so I got up and started to watch the NY Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. They started it out with Snoopy. I was excited. I ate some shredded wheat then paused the TV while I took a shower and got ready. Once I came back to the living room I was able to zip through all the side blah blah blah and watch what I wanted of the parade in a shorter amount of time. I love DVR's.

I picked up my dad about 10 and we headed to Colorado for a Thanksgiving feast at my nephews house. There were 20 of us there so it was kind of a zoo but fun. My cheesecake was a hit even though there were quite a few pies there as well. We had turkey and ham (I can't eat turkey so I had ham). It was usual thanksgiving fair but all of it was delicious. I didn't have any wine since I had to drive 100 miles to get home.

Marty called me once he got back to the hotel in Southampton. He is there until next week when he goes on to Sweden then Finland.

We got back to town about dark. My dad did okay with the day and was going to watch football tonight. I am watching the Charlie Brown Thanksgiving Special right now. Then I plan on working on my Christmas poem.

Take care.
Marcy

 

[deegee]

marcy-I had planned to do great things with my mantle, but my plan fizzled and I ended up putting a bunch of Santa Clauses up there. Maybe next year. I'm glad your dad did okay with the day. How are you? I've been thinking a lot about you and your family. So many people at work are dealing with loss or family illness. This has been a tough year. What a pain to have to deal with the debit card issue! When they turned off our credit card this summer after we notified them of a change of address, they said they had turned it off due to suspicious activity. There was a $1 charge to the US Postal Service, and a $35 charge to a local restaurant. I was so mad. I don't like to fly too much anymore either. I was thinking today that the last 8 times I have flown have been on the private plane. Talk about claustrophobic! I hope Marty takes lots of pictures on these trips. Or is he too busy to be a tourist?

We went to KY for Thanksgiving and had a really good day with my family. My mom and dad ended up coming back to WV with us after we cleaned up all of the Thanksgiving mess. They hadn't seen our new house and dad will be starting chemo in the next 2 weeks, so they decided to come home with us to spend a few nights and see our new digs. We lounged around in front of the fire all day watching football. I thought about putting up a few outside decorations, but the fire felt way too good. Dad isn't doing too well with food right now, so we went to Cracker Barrel for comfort food for dinner. We watched Christmas Vacation when we got home, and Matt and dad have big plans to watch the Ohio State/Michigan game tomorrow before we head back to KY. I'm already dreading going back to work at my table on Monday. Wah! I'll have to post a picture so you'll feel sorry for me. Have a great Saturday!

 

[marcy]

Happy Saturday Kids!

Deegee, I think your mantle sounds great with Santa Clauses on it. I think my dad is generally doing pretty well. He is pretty lonely though. I am generally okay but get sad quite a bit. I agree, there has been a lot of illnesses and losing loved ones recently. It is rough on anyone. Yes a $1 and $35 charge would certainly trigger suspicious activity on a debit card. It is good they watch out for things but seriously. Marty generally gets a picture in each place with his traveling Killer Rabbit. He never posted one from Romania; I hope he got one. Tomorrow he is going up to the Royal Observatory in Greenwich and will get a picture of the rabbit on the 0 line of longitude. Sorry to hear your dad isn’t doing well with food right now, how is he doing? I hope he does well with chemo. I’ve been wondering how he was doing. How is your mom holding up? Christmas Vacation is such a classic. I am not looking forward to returning to work on Monday either. Tuesday we have a deep freeze then snow coming in too. YUCK!

I stayed up very late last night but got my labels and Christmas poem printed for my Christmas cards. This morning I put all the cards out with their envelopes, signed them and got them ready to mail. I used one of those little glue sticks. I was done with that project about 4.

I went over to my dad’s to get some holly glasses my mom had to use for Christmas. They will match my Christmas dishes well. My dad went me to Dillards and I bought a platter, baking dish and serving bowl on their buy 2 get 1 free and he helped me get them to the car. After that we went of lunch at Outback. We had a nice time.

Tonight I am going to have leftovers for supper and make my first batch of Christmas cookies.

I can’t rent a movie on PPV because we got a new router a few weeks ago and Marty didn’t set it up on our receiver. He told me how to do it and said it was easy – I decided to leave it for him when he gets home. My luck I’d break something and be without TV all week.

I hope you are having a great weekend.

Marcy

 

[marcy]

Happy Sunday Kids!

I had an email from Marty about 6 am my time that he might go to Abbey Road and call me when he is there so I can see him on the webcam. I answered OK and went back to sleep. About 7:30 he woke me up saying he was there. I got up, found my laptop and got to see him on Abbey Road. I had him wave the Killer Rabbit at me. It was awesome! They have their webcam footage archived so I went back and recorded the segment on my camera. Very cool we can do that. He also went to the Naval Observatory and has a photo of his foot and the killer rabbit on the 0 meridian line at Greenwich. I told him his travel photos have to be more cool than most because the killer rabbit adds character.

I finished my club newsletter and got it posted, baked myself a potato for lunch and I have been working on laundry. Exciting Sunday at my house. I am watching football now.

We have a high wind warning that is bringing in a bitter cold spell. YUCK!!! Snow that nasty 4 letter word is in the forecast as well.

Off to knit and watch my team win. I hope.

Marcy
Still curb free for 2 months now.

 

[deegee]

Marcy-are we going to have to start referring to you as Curb-Free instead of Curby? Marty's travel photos will be unique with the killer rabbit in them! The Abbey Road webcam sounds really cool, and I'm glad you were able to record Marty's segment. What a fun keepsake! Matt wants a telescope for Christmas, but he doesn't want me to spend more than $250-$300. Any suggestions? Thanks for asking about my parents. They determined dad has stage III colon cancer and will have chemo every other week for 6 months. I'm dreading it so badly for him. Mom is worried about taking care of him. They live about an hour away from the hospital, and I'm worried about them having to get out on snowy, icy days.

Matt and I started to put a few decorations outside today but didn't get much accomplished. We had to make a run to Home Depot for a few supplies and it was too dark and too dang cold when we got home to do anything else. We plan to meet tomorrow after work at the farmer's market to get a tree and have dinner at one of our favorite restaurants in town, which happens to be located at the market. I did really well with food over the holiday weekend. I didn't overeat, and I haven't snacked. Something clicked in my head a few weeks ago...or maybe it was that my pants hurt...whatever. Anyway, I'm doing really well foodwise, but sure wish I would get out and exercise more. I have been on the go a lot, so maybe that will count for something. Have a great Monday! (I am sooooo dreading going back to work.)

 

[marcy]

Deegee, I think hitting a curb is as inevitable for me as cutting myself with a knife. It's just going to happen. The webcam video from Abbey Road is very cool. I watched it again tonight. It made me feel good to see Marty thousands of miles from home. The best telescope in that price range is the Edmund astroscan. It is a little red ball with a telescope sticking out of it. It is a wide field, low power scope so you won't see dim objects but you can look at planets, nebula, clusters, bright galaxies and the moon. It is very light weight, we mounted the base on a camera tripod and it works amazing. It is easy for beginners to use. I don't know how much you know about the stars but finding things in the sky can be challenging if you don't know where to look. Marty explains it like this - it's like looking at the sky through a straw. You are seeing a tiny spot on the sky so you have to know where to point it. The bigger the scope, the smaller the area of the sky you are seeing making it even harder to find things. I had one as my first scope. Finally sold it when we bought me a 6" scope and I missed it so much I ended up getting another one. We have a solar filter for it too. You can get it from Edmund Scientific. I am so sorry to hear your dad's chemo schedule is so frequent. I hope he does well with it. Have they talked to the hospital about having someone come in to help your mom? That is too bad they are so far from the hospital as well. I will keep them in my thoughts. We made several runs to the hardware store as well for our decorations. How fun to be going to dinner tomorrow and then to pick out your tree. Good job on not overheating this holiday weekend. This time of year can be rough with tempting food.

I got my pj pants hemmed tonight. They are for cold weather and I might want the this week.

 

[Dee*Jay]

Happy Monday kids!

Deegee, I'm sorry to hear about your dad. Modern medicine though is genuinely a miracle, and I'm hopeful the treatment will be very successful and that he responds well! Did you ever get your car BTW? And this is the season for credit card issues apparently. Last week I had to call Chase over a charge on my Visa. They determined it was "compromised" and shut it off. OK, great, but I was leaving town the next day and that is typically the card I use becuase of the miles. Oh well, Am Ex it was all over Phoenix.

Marcy, I love the idea of the globe-trotting killer rabbit! As for winter jammies, I'm with you. Last week I bought four pairs of velour lounge pants to wear as jammies... and proceeded to wear them outside in public all weekend long! The first day I went into the restroom at Crate and Barrel and looked down... I was like... hmmm... look at all that blue fuzz accumulated in my crotch. Apparently my underwear is a magnet for the loose furry fibers on those pants, especially since I didn't wash them before I wore them. Oops!

My trip was warm and sunny, and (lest I jinx myself for all travel going forward... ) absolutely pain free in both airports and at the rental car place. I even joked with the TSA guy when I went to O'Hare on Tuesday to make sure it was really the week of Thanksgiving becuase there was NO ONE in the airport, and I didn't wait in line AT ALL at the rental car place. Even when I travel at a normal time it's never this easy!

The CB and I did a little shopping over the weekend and I think I've narrowed down the sofas and coffee table I want in my new place. Now just to get over attorney review... I'm always nervous until a deal is signed-off on and the balance of the earnest money is turned over, so fingers crossed please becuase I'm mentall "all in" on this one!

Last night the CB and I ordered Thai food. I have enough leftover to eat for a month...

 

[marcy]

Happy Monday!

Dee Jay, nice they shut off your Visa card. Surprise! I am glad you were still able to spend money all over Phoenix with your Am Ex. Your lounge pants sound warm and fuzzy. I had a fuzzy pink fleece jacket one time. Every time I wore it I swear my pants looked like I had a dozen cats setting on my lap. I finally gave it to good will. I can’t believe the Phoenix airport wasn’t busy nor the car rental place there. I only went through there once but it seemed very busy to me. It was your lucky day. That is great you picked out some furniture for the new place. Good luck with the attorney review.

Marty is in Sweden today. Tomorrow is Finland then back to the UK. He’ll be home Friday night. He hasn’t been sleeping well so he didn’t set his alarm last night and slept until 7:45 so he was late for the office. I am just glad he got a decent night’s sleep.

I stopped by Michael’s after work to get some more yarn for my scarf and a few other things. Then I drove around the neighborhood to look at Christmas lights. I got home and found our reindeer had blown off the front of the house so I stood it up again the house. It was still lit up. It didn’t look like it tore up the side of the house but it was dark. I did find a big box on my front porch – my Christmas dishes arrived. The box was pretty heavy so I cut it open on the porch and carried in 2 boxes of dishes at a time. I left them in the boxes but I am anxious to see them.

My dad was pretty chatty tonight. He got his $255 death benefit on my mom from social security. One of their neighbors got put in hospice yesterday. His lungs and heart are failing. My dad went to visit him today; I thought it might bother him to go there but he seemed okay with it. I used to babysit for their kids so I guess I should try to stop by and see him.

We have a winter storm coming tomorrow. Sadly it is going to be bitterly cold. I rounded up some stuff to leave in the car since we are getting snow, blowing slow with wind chills 20 to 30 below. Ugh. I told Marty it’s a good thing we sold his diesel because he’d never get it started to come home on Friday.

I can’t get in to my bank account tonight. It kept telling me my password was wrong, then it locked me out then it kept giving me incorrect security questions. I guess I’ll be on the phone with the credit union in the morning. Maybe they just flat cut me off!

Take care.
Marcy

 

[Dee*Jay]

Happy Tuesday kids!

Curby, I can't believe how cold it is there! We are in the 50s today and tomorrow (but then down into the 20s over the weekend). I'm glad Marty will be coming home soon. And I applaud your restraint in not looking at the dishes--wow! When I get something new I'm all about gettin' that box open and taking a look!

Last night I had left over Thai food and the better part of a bottle of prosecco for dinner. They have intubated (?) my grandmother because her right lung has collapsed. They are going to take the tube out today and see what happens. See what happens? I don't have a medical degree or anything but I'm pretty sure I can tell them what will happen... Big sigh. And I'm stuck because I have 85 people coming to my place on Friday for my annual client party. Not sure what to do... Dammit.

This morning I put on two skirts and then promptly took them off making the executive decision that they are too tight. Apparently the holidays have come early to my a$$.

 

[marcy]

Happy Cold and Snowy Tuesday!

Dee Jay, I am so sorry to hear about your grandmother. I am sure your clients would understand if you cancel or postpone your party. I am thinking of you and your grandmother. I am sure this nasty weather is coming your way. It arrived here with a vengeance today. Don’t be impressed at my restraint at not looking at my Christmas dishes; I was in there pulling off stickers about 11:30 last night when I should have been studying the inner portions of my eyelids. I finished taking the stickers off tonight.

It sure looks nasty outside. Right now it is 12 degrees and feels like -6. I have no idea how much snow we’ve had so far. It was icy coming home.

I have tomorrow off because our table and chairs are going to be delivered. Of course they have to drive 50 miles so if they may cancel on me. I pushed our other table over to the wall and put down some throw rugs to put it on, Marty has to put some felt feet on it so before we put it on the floor.

I am going to make homemade beef noodle soup tomorrow. A friend who lives about ½ mile from me invited herself over for lunch so that will be fun. I might try to bake homemade rolls tomorrow for my family Christmas dinner. I haven’t made rolls or bread for probably 15 years.

Take care.
Marcy