In the Thick of it Thursday

[Harriet]

Well, we're in the thick of it - the week is hurrying by with plenty to do.

Take a look at your week and reassess. What were the goals when you planned your week? How are you doing in meeting them?

Do you need to recalculate, now that we're in the thick of things? Should the priorities change, or is there a need to reschedule? Two days and the weekend dawns!

[Kathryn-in-Canada]

I'm up. Dinner guest tonight. So house tidying is in order (mainly paperwork which can always be piled on my desk and the roll-top closed.)

I'd like to do a run over to ds's to empty the living room of boxes (well, there will be one left but I can manage with that.) I also need a new shower curtain (the one from the family bathroom at the house looked great but was at least 15 years old and disintegrated with regular use and while the one from my bathroom at the house is still working, it looks awful.) And I need to go to IKEA to get sparkling juice for Thanksgiving dinner.

Today is the last day of the current flyer prices so I need to grocery shop as well. And make up a proper list of things to buy at the last minute for Thanksgiving (the stores will be closed that day.)

[DeeClutter]

Hoping you have most of your 'busyness' over by the time that white stuff flies, Kathryn. Always good to have a 'good' day with one of our dks -glad to see you had one of those!

We all know there is little teaching going on except for taking those tests. My teacher friend said this all has to do with the cc; we thought doing away with the tests would be a good thing but they are replaced by an even worse system and testing. She says the constant evaluating she must do takes all her time and there is little to no teaching done now. She is stuck with staying because she needs some more years to be able to get her whole pension.

Our dd would whole heartedly agree with this, Harmony. Said -hate to think what the differences will be as this generation grows up. I'm sure there will be a world of difference in the educational process between dgks15 and dgs2. DD, too, is stuck with staying. She had an opportunity for a different job in the county's career center. However they emailed her to come in for the (pretty well said and done) interview the next day -she was up here and couldn't get there in time. They couldn't reschedule it -so she waits. She hates that she wants out of the classroom.

Sunny out today, but COLD. Know it was to be about at the freezing mark this morning. It's up to 40 now.

LadyM, such an ordeal for your dnephew. Is the same one who had the shoulder surgery? Praying for a good outcome in all of this.

Need to get s2s and get into the 'thick of it', Harriet. One week from now I should be in PA -regardless of which way I go (95 or 77). Right now I'm seeing showers and thunderstorms either way on Thursday. Have to really think about this. For sure, dh has to get my windows r ain -xd!

Went to DS-A's for pizza last night. Dh and Ds winterized their motorhome -which of course took longer than planned. And the weather was chilly and very windy! They left this morning for Newark to embark on their 10-day cruise. Did get to see dsgd15 and dgs15. Dgs2 had fallen asleep so I peeked in at him. Shortly before he left he awoke crying a bit. DDIL went in to get him, but he fell back asleep in her lap. So I didn't really get to interact with him. They didn't want to try to wake him as they know today will be a long day for him. Friend of ours was to come shortly after we left -she's house sitting while they're gone. DS was making sure the movie room was all ready for her. Her dad is planning to come spend some time in that room with her as well.

[Nancy]

Woke up at gym 5 today did q.t. & journaling.
I need to keep on with the tasks at hand reading some more did no yarn work yesterday to rest my wrist it helped. Got some outside stiff done too yea!

H got his new glasses and boots yesterday picked up chickens feed too.

I need to do a hot spot drill.

Thankful Thursday for me here. My friend comes and I get to watch my knitting show!

[Harriet]

Happy for your day's fun, Nancy.

Sadie, your family is in my thoughts. I hope ds starts feeling very well before his trip.

Yes, I am in the thick of prep for dd34's family of 6 and their arrival tomorrow.

A TaDa is that I got 2 tall kitchen garbage bags full of donations out to the street for the Kidney F (foundation or fund I am not sure and a little concerned they are not the same, and I may be giving to a new "fund" entity rather than our long time "foundation" neighbors, but right now cannot research).

Also yesterday declutter and cleaning in the master bathroom. With this many folks and several quite young, the other bathroom needs to be prepared for guests, too. Once before DangerBoy learned to read he came to me with a worried face, saying he couldn't figure out which of the pump bottles on my master bath vanity was one that held soap. "There are so many bottles!"

A grocery shopping trip is done, and as soon as I got home I started the list of forgotten things.

HRH's friend was somewhat easier to deal with last evening than I thought. HRH immediately took him out to computer store where HRH bought a new hard drive for one of his office computers. When they got back, they went to his office and worked most of the time. Somehow, they dropped a screw behind the motherboard (? frankly doesn't sound like a mistake HRH has made before but who knows) and spent a lot of time undoing that. So friend was occupied the whole time and not underfoot. Computer work is done. He comes back tonight at 5, though, and will not be tired from jetlag like yesterday.

Wonder of wonders the roofer showed up. (Well, his employee showed up.) It is a little concerning that we have not met this employee and have only the roofer's voice on the phone to introduce him. (We understood the roofer would be here himself - he is the one who was shown what is needed, and I do NOT want HRH climbing up that ladder again.) But at least something is getting done, and ahead of dd34's arrival, thank goodness.

Oh! Must tell...
A man called me "babe" yesterday! At dawn the guy who cuts limbs along the sides of the roads had arrived to start his equipment up again and continue up the road. I stopped and got out of the car to ask him if he needed our trash cans moved and he said, "Don't you worry about it, BABE, I can move those myself." Now, I will admit it was a little dark, but still! As far as I'm concerned, he has become the authority. I am still a "babe"!

[BookSaver]

Good morning, villagers ~
Today's goals are worked around 2 social activities: coffee with a couple good friends in The Big City at 2:00, and a sewing class in a neighboring Tiny Town at 5:30. I will probably end up stopping for fast food between the two because I won't have time to come home to fix anything.

I'm hoping DH can meet me for supper but that depends on how his day goes. He might not get off work in time.

Last night I deleted the whole season of Murder in the First from my dvr. The show got good reviews, but I decided that if I haven't watched it by now, I might as well let it go. Now I am contemplating doing the same to The Last Ship. The reviews weren't quite as good for that one. I liked Adam Baldwin so much in Firefly that I wanted to see him in The Last Ship, but again I don't have that much time to watch tv. I'm even thinking seriously about deleting Manhattan because, although I liked the first 2 episodes, the reviews of the ones since then seem more soap opera drama than anything else. Maybe I'll just fast forward through the recordings to see the 1940s styles, and dump the rest.

Laundry is caught up, but I have a few other chores to do before I can leave the house for the afternoon/evening.

[Norma]

OH Harriet! Yes, you are a BABE. I am sure of it. I love it. Mr. Guy always tells me I am "still" a Babe at almost 77. He also calls me "Bake" and has since we first got together. I know you know what that means. (Evidently a lot of breadmen use that term.)

I know probably no one cares about this, but, last night in Los Angeles our San Jose Sharks blew out the Kings (Hockey, OK) on their opening night. They are the NHL Champions and they had a huge big blowout celebrating their success and then got blown out! 4-0. We are going to San Jose for our first and only game of the year on Thursday night the 23rd. Can you tell I love San Jose hockey and I h--- the LA Kings? I am so happy today you would think I won the lottery!

Sadie, so sorry about the sickness going around in your family. Get everyone well soon.

Lady M - Tragedy for your nephew. Sorry for that. Also, reading about all the problems with CC. What a deal. I am glad I am not raising kids now. I remember when mine went through the "new math" way back when. Why of why can't they just teach the way we learned? I am not a real whiz at Math, but I learned so that I can get along. I think!

Hope every one of you have a super day.

[Kathryn-in-Canada]

Have fully wasted the morning. The warmth in the apartment doesn't help, I'm still in my pjs because I'm not cold and feeling I have to change.

Dh wanted to know our hotel for Toronto and that made me make reservations. And then change the NS reservations. And then look into airfare for next spring. It will be a breath taking amount of money but my issue is coming back from South Africa. My instinct it to get the heck out of Dodge asap so I've nixed the idea of a safari.

My flight option are via Senegal (just a stopover unless the plane breaks down which happened to my friends) and the US, via Middle East (Dubai or Doha) or via Europe (London or Paris.)

The Middle East option is half what it will be for the other two. But has us flying over countries with travel advisories (and missiles.) On the other hand, the airlines are top-rated for comfort and pampering and both of us have always wanted to see the Dubai airport. I think the timing is off, though.

The option via the US doesn't work for me due to Senegal being just too close to the Ebola countries (along with the possibility of plane trouble - the runway there is the worst I've ever landed on.) I don't have to get off the plane, but locals come on board to do all the cleaning and the crew changes. Fortunately, the price is the same as going through Europe so ditching this option is easy.

Going through Europe is 50 - 100% more than going through the Middle East. And seats are limited right now.

But it is so far in the future and if things get worse by then, I'll be able to cancel under travel insurance rules but I won't be able to get another flight at the same price so will have to cancel the cruise as well. Actually, I'd be happy doing that but there's no way dh will allow it.

[Lady Maverick]

Good Morning!

Norma - I love your passion and excitement for NFL team. YGG!!

I woke up on time but haven't stayed with my schedule. I've stayed busy by finding all kinds of things to sidetrack myself. It is almost 11am here and I haven't finished the cards to be done between 5am and 6am. Hum......Even though I've accomplish a lot, I feel 5 hours behind. Looks like this is going to be a 3D typa day. Just make sure the dishes, dinner and duds are covered. I can do that!

[DeeClutter]

Absolutely, you are a 'Babe', Harriet. Love the 'authority' part.

I'm advancing little by little getting small details taken care of for my trip. Had a page up that I didn't want to lose so Dh could look at a wallet I was thinking of ordering for him from a ma zon. Had researched hotels earlier for our trip. Thinking about booking one in Fredericksburg, VA for the first night. Just trying to figure out if it'll be too long a drive. Only other alternative is Winchester, VA and it's another hour & a half to 2 hours to Fredericksburg. Think we can make that -only problem might be that the forecast right now says rain/thunder storms for my route down. Didn't look much different to go the western route (77) so will probably go 81/17/95. If I have reservations already made it takes a lot of pressure off trying to find a room along the way. And dh will also know when we plan to stop. Now on to research the 2nd night.

Spent some time going through my smaller file basket as I had things that had to be filed. Got things filed in my travel file so feel good about that. Hmmm....now I have to find my notebook I've been using for church council/congregational meetings. It has to be within 7' of where I'm sitting -just not sure where I put it.

Came across the pair of diamond earrings that belonged to dShelley while I've been sorting out. Want to put them somewhere that I know to look for them when dgd19 decides to get married someday. Would like to give them to her as from her dMom at that point. DS-R has some other jewelry -rings, etc, that dShelley had. DGD19 had asked about them when she was turning 16, but the subject never came up again. At that point she was still living with her dad and we really didn't want her to have them there. Now she's in a college dorm and also not a good place for her. So, hoping she can take possession whenever she starts her life after college. (She's studying to be a pediatric nurse). Her Mom would love it!