the Magnificence of MOnday

[Lady Maverick]

DH and I had lunch together and watched two episodes of Blue Blood. We watched two episodes instead of our typical one episode just because we could.

I talked to the urologist office again. DH file is still waiting on doctor to look at it. The office person told me this urologist is booked up through April so it is up to the doctor whether he will take DH on. Really? I probably should have started with our family doctor instead of going directly to urologist. Thankfully our family doctor gave DH a huge supply of pain meds when he had kidney stone before so DH does have a way of getting some relief. DH said the Oxycodone takes the pain level down to about 5.

We close on the Birthday House Wednesday @ 1pm!!!!

I've packed and have another 11 boxes of STUFF ready to load up and move. I'm watching the wind to see when it dies down a bit. Carrying boxes in/out with our typical strong wind is a good way of getting the storm doors damaged. There is a good reason our state song sounds like...... When the wind comes sweeping down the plains.....OOOOOOOOklahoma.

[Ramblinrose]

Afternoon y'all...

I am recovering from a headache which started last night so my morning was slow. I didn't do much yesterday which was by choice.

Now I need to get my calendar together for the month. I've accepted several subbing assignments which means next week I will be out of the house for 3 days in a row...just like the good ol' days

Most of my Xmas shopping is done. With much of my family living away, it forces me to shop and mail early. My mom's fleece pj's have been sitting in my xmas drawer since early Nov. Same with some of Sweetie's stuff.

We gave my son and his gf part of their Xmas while they were here...sort of Xmas on Thanksgiving. They loved their presents and had a bunch of fun opening them. My son's GF is much like me, so she was easy to shop for.

Need to focus on my desk this afternoon and hope to join my exercise group this evening. My mind is willing, but my body will be going at a slower pace...and that's just fine with me.

"I wonder if divorce proceedings ever happen because of irreconcilable toothbrushes?" Love it Harmony...thanks for the belly laugh

I know that song LadyM ....

Waving to y'all.... cya later

[blessedw2]

d Lady I love your Oklahoma song (I hope your dh feels better - kidney stones.. ouch!)
d twins... chicken soup...mmmm
d kathryn ... my dh would love a heated garage
d lilac - at least you paid your bill... the company was late getting it to you and you must have felt it... great job on paying it ahead.
d helia - It sounds like you had a lovely time with your d kids being home for Thanksgiving.. How lovely!!!
d harmony - my home is quiet and I am slow... it's amazing how quiet it is with dd younger being at school again.
d rose ... hope your headache is well gone. so wonderful that you got your shopping done!
today has been a slow but a contented day. I think the joy of the last couple days really relaxed me!

[Kathryn-in-Canada]

Harmony: An early irritant in our marriage was that I squeezed the toothpaste from the middle and dh from the end. My mother actually gave me a birthday card with a picture of toothpaste squeezing out both ends and we kept that in our bathroom for years. I've converted. I also learned to fold dh's socks the way his mother did. The things we do for love!

I'm dressed. Put fresh sheets on the bed, tidied the bedroom, took down the snowflake lights and threw them out. Pulled out the two sets of lights from the front porch and managed to make one completely working set from those for one living room window. There was a third LED set from the front porch as well. So those are up in the second living room window.

The apartment is still a mess. Ds has not let me know if he's coming for dinner so I don't know if I'm cooking a proper dinner or opting for a frozen dinner.

This post sat there so I've now vacuumed and dusted the bedroom and hung up the clothes to dry on the rack. The second load of laundry will need to be folded in a moment. I've watered the plants and refilled the bowls of water providing humidity in here.

Still have to dust and vacuum the rest of the apartment but I've started, at least.

[Nancy]

Time for me to swap out crafts. Not enough yarn for my project so I have to spin more.

[helia]

Sympathizing and grinning with Harmony and irreconcilable toothbrushes. Dh has always packed his own stuff when we've traveled together, thank goodness. We did once have a huge argument over how to "correctly" load the dishwasher. Well, we'd had countless small arguments leading up to the big one. It's kind of funny in retrospect but it wasn't funny at the time.
sounds like you had a marvelous time with ds and his girlfriend over the vacation, RR. Impressive that most of your shopping is done!
Being relaxed and contended sounds great, blessed.

I don't think I'm mailing any gifts this year b/c (1) we're going to my parents for Cmas and (2) dfriends E and C who live in Texas will be here for New Years. I just emailed with dfriend D in Calif. and we're going to forgo gifts (we only do gifts for each other's kids) since the kids are all ages 16-20 and difficult to shop for beyond gift certificates. I might mail gifts to dfriends N and J's 3 young children, also in California, but it is not necessary. They don't send gifts to our kids anymore, but I think I did this last year? It's a way to stay in touch. I might also send a Laura Ingalls Wilder book to dsil's family in Germany. She and her family were here in the States while her dh, my dbil, did his PhD. My niece9, their eldest, spent the first 6 years of her life here, and still speaks fluent English. And fluent Dutch. And fluent German, of course. Dnephew6 (or 7?) also speaks English quite well still. I want to support the English of their children, and dsil and dbil liked that idea a lot when I spoke to them about it last summer. They have the Little House series in Dutch - but not in English.

done:
- school: returned CDs and got my spatula!
- groc. store
- put everything away
- had a snack, 2 points of popcorn

Hmm..... I'm feeling sleepy now but still need to start laundry, exercise, and reclaim the kitchen. And work on SS. Dd16 is leaving in about 25 minutes, so I won't go anywhere, like the gym, until she has left.

Next:
- email to moms group leadership team re: potluck details update
- update laundry
- unload dishwasher

[Harmony]

Well, stuff happens all the time. It doesn't mean anyone necessarily is at fault. Eggs drop. Spills happen. Bottles leak. This is not a perfect world. I think if everybody is trying hard and doing their best - that's all that can be expected. How much better if everybody would just accept this.

My 2 neighbors have decorations up. One of the houses never decorated before even when we had everything up and lighted all over. So now I'm thinking I must do something. Next door (I ran some information over to her) her tree is huge and all decorated.

Called customer support to ask a couple questions about the website. Boy, those people really have their act together. Their music (on hold) isn't horrible. The people are pleasant and helpful. It's the first time I can remember calling customer service anywhere and not being totally irritated.

Wow, RRose, you have all your gifts bought! I wish I could say that.
I have one gift and ideas for one more.

You'd think after all the paperwork I did today I'd be caught up. No. I just brought in another stack of mail. And DH brought back papers from customer and from the county office. Piles all over.

Cooked dinner and cleaned up. An excessive amount of cooking and cleaning. I got up on ladder and got that light fixture put back together with new bulb. Bulb is supposed to last for 11 years. We'll see, I saved the package! Same kind of bulb has been in laundry room for 5 years now.

I should go unpack my suitcase.

[Lady Maverick]

This afternoon I managed to ...
** load/unload and unpack/put away 6 boxes of STUFF in the Birthday House.
** took water paperwork & deposit to city hall
** electric put into our name (2 meters at BH house). They will read the meters on Wednesday.
** internet service will be moved next Tuesday. They don't think the radio connection I have now will work at the new house (out of range) but are going to try it. I may have to return to previous line-of-sight connection I used to have. I'm hopeful it won't be as bad as it used to be. I'm afraid I've become spoiled to having better connection/speed. My internet options are very limited.
** started making enchiladas then decided it was too much trouble filling/rolling so I just dumped/layered all the ingredients and made a casserole. I made up the recipe as I went along and it was a hit! They loved it. Good thing because we have enough left over for 2 more meals.
** Phone calls from Realator two times.
** Finalized & paid for the BH insurance and got that information to closing company.

After waiting all day and being told twice that we would receive a call.......We did NOT receive a call from urologist. I am NOT HAPPY. Tomorrow I'll call our family doctor and start again getting DH some help with suspected kidney stone.

[Twins' Mom]

I had started a post earlier, then the power went off. I love this neighborhood - I look out and neighbors are outside visiting so I went out to visit. Younger families, the couple across the street that are a little older than us, nice to hang out for awhile. Power was maybe off 45 minutes total.

I have answered and cleared out a bunch of emails today but have a ton of things I didn't get to, of course. I downloaded update to my genealogy software and updated, and read quite a bit online about some of the technology questions I've had.

I ate a baked sweet potato that was left from Sat night - that may do it for my supper but there's also a little leftover steak that I might have...

Going to go ahead and walk the ddogs - I'm only at 6K steps so need to get some in; I may need the treadmill also!

Harmony, we don't decorate at all since we are Jewish. Some families here don't decorate much, some have lights all over. Do what you can, when you can. You don't "have" to do anything.

[Kathryn-in-Canada]

Did a dpc to the credit card company and had them put interest on hold while the bank clears up their error. I also did two mini chores and ate dinner.

Ds called and he'll come for dinner tomorrow night and sleep over. I'm hoping we'll get some things to his place on Wednesday. He's off for 4 nights in a row (after tonight) so is trying to shift over to daylight hours/sleep at night. He'll switch back to nights on Sunday after a Saturday evening shift.

He's sleeping at my place partly to warm up (he has the heat off still at his place.) He was going to buy a space heater but I told him to take his back. It is a nice little one that kept me at my desk all last winter (I tucked it under my desk) but in theory I won't need it once I actually turn up the heat here. At the moment, the apartment stays at about 68 but once the deep cold comes, goodness knows how cold the windows will make it.

The Christmas lights I put up are subtle. Not sure if they show from the ground or not since they aren't near as bright as the others. And the set where I replaced 15 bulbs, has 6 still not working. Not sure if it is bad sockets or bad replacement bulbs. But I'm done fussing with it for now.

I think I'll spend some time on the treadmill to increase my step count for the day. My knees are sore after 11.5 hours in low heels yesterday, but I need to get some steps in if I'm going to maintain my 10K per day average. I ended November with 309,731 steps and in 48th place. I was 74th place in October and around 100th in September but I'm not planning a push to 25th this month since that would require me upping my step count by 75K over the month and I don't think I could do that!