SEASIDE SATURDAY

[DeeClutter]

Just picture yourself by the seaside, basking in the sun. Especially you in the north & even we who are shivering in the south.

[Twins' Mom]

Dee, yes, I'd like to imagine the beach, a light warm breeze and lots of sunshine! Weather here isn't that bad right now and we'll get to 50 degrees today, but it turns bitter cold and windy tonight with possible snow tomorrow night/Monday and later in the week.

DMacs has PT this morning and dh and I are going to Costco, maybe elsewhere this afternoon, and eating in this evening. May pick up steaks at Costco, we'll see. Last night's dinner was quite easy - the Costco fish from the freezer were already seasoned so just had to be baked, then the sweet potato went into the microwave and spinach cooked simply on stove top.

I need to get ready to head out with dMacs, and I should put dh's little gift into the gift bag, etc. and fix it up with the Valentine.

[helia]

Good morning all!

Twins, I think I missed your fall. I hope you are OK.
That is funny vision, Dee, when we are staying at a ski resort!

Our family was commenting on all the MI cars heading north Friday night on this very cold weekend, instead of heading south. . . LOL! I'm trying to block my memories of going to FL this exact same time last year. That was a fabulous trip, and we still have such good memories. Another year. . .

I got my list from yesterday done, except for Walgreens, but that can wait. I got help with some things, thank goodness, b/c that was really too much for me to get done by myself. Packing up and dropping off the dogs takes about 1.75 hours alone. We ended up leaving at 5pm, which put us in heavy traffic on the interstate almost the entire trip north. It took us 6 hours, instead of 4.5 b/c of the weather - and the heavy traffic. As we got farther north, there were spots of blizzard-like conditions, very short white out conditions at some points. Dh was driving then. Traffic was going slowly, of course. We were thankful to get to the condo safely.

It is now 10:40 and we are just up and having bfast. We won't get to the slopes until noon.

We are a stone's throw from a slope; we can see skiers and snowboarders from the living room windows. We can see one of the lifts as well. Temps are 0*F and supposed to drop a bit as the day goes on; winds are about 20 mph. . . I don't know what the windchill is.

[Kathryn-in-Canada]

More snow and cold here. No seaside for me. And the open water in the river looks very grey and unappealing today.

Guests will be here shortly. I've done a stash and dash but less than I stashed on Monday so I'm making progress.

These guests are friends of dd's but she's away so they are staying here. Haven't met one of them, am very fond (and FB friends) with the other.

[blessedw2]

oh that sounds so wonderful d dee - the seaside - the sound of the water against the shore, lovely... I am a big lake michigan fan - summer with dd younger on the water and all the people paddle boarding, sailing,wind surfing, swimming, children playing, ahhh the thought! wonderful!

What a cool sight d Helia. I used to love going to Indianhead when I was a kid.
How lucky!

hi dtwins. have a great day

d kathryn hello

and hello to everyone

[blessedw2]

dd younger is still sleeping (it's 11:02)
dd older is in New Orleans for Mardi Gras with some college friends. I haven't been to New Orleans in years.
saw d uncle... ahhh he is already giving orders to the man staying with him instead of getting up himself. I think he could get used to this really fast. He had me go to the store the day before yesterday and already has a grocery list for me

[Harriet]

Kathryn, speaking of Seaside Saturday, yes, I meant sunshine while you were on board ship, not while you were weathering a cold spell at home.

Dd has left on her date with her young man, looking so pretty. She curled her hair and put bandaids on her heels so she could wear her prettiest shoes. He always seemed so grown up to me until he put on a shirt and tie. Bless his heart, he is so skinny that you realize that older look is all a teen growth spurt.

She had lost a button on her coat and it was my intention to mend that before she left. A neighbor knocked on the door with a long involved problem - completely unexpected and I ended up going out to loan them things and try to help. By the time I got back to the house the young man was here. Sigh. So I safety-pinned the button, tried to take their photo, and sent them on their way.

I have such trouble taking photos with dd's cell phone. I don't think she explains it well to me. She thinks I'm a ditz. Probably some of both. I'd take a photo, lose "hold" of the phone correctly and inadvertently press another button. I got an excellent photo of her young man with his arm out around air, holding her place until she got back from helping me. I told him to tell his parents he was worried dd was a vampire, because, gee, she was there when he posed for the picture.

[lucylee]

I need to call dmom and get her list, probably, blessed. She is so disorganized. Whereas dh and I can easily plan for the week and Monday's trip to Wmart will do us till the next Monday... dmom? Not so much. But I do have her pretty well stocked right now. I would like to go out there and really clean out her refrigerator and take care of those papers on her kitchen table. (I threw out a few things the other day, but just barely touched the tip of the iceberg. DH would have a heart attack if our refrigerator looked like that!)

A little envious of blessed's dd older in New Orleans. I've never been to Mardi Gras, but I like New Orleans. Strange, b/c I'm NOT into the drinking/party atmosphere at all... but I love the food, and I love the old architecture, and I love the river. I just like to walk around down there.
Also envious of anyone headed to the seaside...
People who post beach pictures on FB in January and February just make me mad.

I haven't been out yet, but dh says it's very nice here today. Boy, that's going to end soon. They are predicting sleet and snow, maybe 1-3 inches Monday into Tues. morning. I know 1-3" is completely hilarious to most of y'all, but remember, we're in the South where we panic when they say snow, LOL. I'm not in a panic about it, but I am concerned that the weather -- and the roads -- clear up by Tues. afternoon, when I want these ladies to meet me at dmil's house.

Waving to Dee... Twins... helia...

Hmmm... I wouldn't mind being at a ski resort, if I never had to go outside, and I could just curl up by a fire with a nice fluffy afghan and a book, and watch people on the slopes.

Enjoy your guests, Kathryn!

LOL @ Harriet's vampire picture!!! Hope they have a wonderful day!

Hey -- speaking of pictures, I have a constant problem w/my Wmart pictures. Does anyone else have this happen?
I upload my digital camera pics and my phone pics to Wmart. I get this message that says some of my pictures are not "true digital" -- do I want to convert to (I think) 4x5.5... that if I do NOT convert, and the pictures are printed as standard 4x6, then part of the image will be cropped off.
SOOO... I convert... I get the pics back... and STILL some of the image is cropped off. It is EXTREMELY frustrating.

Today's PODA:
[x] ds/ddil/dgs visit for Valentine's gifts
[x] talk to dmom
[x] sheets in dryer, second load of laundry in washer
[x] s/s both main bathrooms
[x] 5-min. exercise
[x] breakfast, Bible reading, vitamins, water
[x] s2s
[x] go to dmom's/run errands for her
[/] change sheets, do other laundry
[ ] movie tonight

We will probably see the anti-50 shades movie, Old-Fashioned. It hasn't gotten a lot of press, but I saw the poster in the theater and it looks like a sweet romantic movie. Old-fashioned boy meets more new-fashioned girl.

I'm not so much morally opposed to seeing Fifty Shades of Grey. We see lots and lots of movies where I would not put my stamp of approval on the behavior of the characters on the screen. So far, I have not been tempted to commit adultery or do drugs or kill people or any of those things, after seeing it in a movie. A lot of people are just all up in arms on FB, signing petitions to boycott Fifty Shades, and all these articles about how it is degrading and everything. Well, it probably is, but a lot of R-rated movies show degrading things. It still managed to hold an R-rating, so I don't see how it can be sooo over the top compared to other movies. That's what amazes me -- why suddenly is this movie so horrifying to my fellow Christian friends? There have been tons of movies with less than Christian viewpoints.
No, my reason for not seeing it is just that I'm not that impressed w/the storyline, as I understand it. Critics also say the book is poorly written and the dialogue of the movie reflects that, plus I'm truly NOT into the S&M s e x scenes -- for the same reason I didn't see Titanic b/c I didn't want to watch people drown, and I don't see horror/slasher/occult movies b/c I know they will be too upsetting to me. I just don't see anything romantic about the S&M culture. DH doesn't really see the appeal of it, either, and he said it was up to me -- if I wanted to see it, we would; if I didn't, we wouldn't.
OTOH, some people say if we read all three Fifty Shades books, we will see that the guy has deep-seated psychological reasons that led to his... tendencies... and that the girl DOES change him, eventually. So I guess if we see this first one, we'll be in for the next two also. Just like Divergent. (I'm not really into all that futuristic scary society stuff, either.)
So I'm not saying we WON'T see Fifty Shades, just that we probably won't see it tonight.

~~~
I wish ds would call and they would hurry up and get over here. I need to get on with my day.

~~~
More in J&C.

[Kathryn-in-Canada]

The guests are all settled in now.

I failed to get to the rental office when it opened and no-one was there when we went to get the key 15 minutes later! So we visited. A third person showed up unexpectedly (another of dd's friends and I know her from FB too) so the suite is crowded but we made the extra bed fit! I'm short towels (I only put two sets in) but one of them brought her own towel so we're set. It works out to $24 each for two nights' accommodation so they are thrilled! They have keys to our apartment so they can get in if they need anything on Sunday while we are at church all day.

Dh is driving them down to meet up with a group of their friends so they can enjoy Winterlude. They'll get bus passes and figure out their way back tonight. They have internet on their phones and one lived here for a few work terms so they'll be fine. They'll come for breakfast on Monday morning.

Dh will drive on from there to dd's to bring in her mail and check her house (they are away this weekend which is why I have her friends with me.)

Next up - lunch! I'm starving.

[Kathryn-in-Canada]

Lucylee: I thought your comments on 50 shades were interesting. I don't want to see if for mostly the same reasons.

Not making any progress here. Had lunch. Sitll hungry. Sat watching netflix until a network error stopped my show. I'm taking that as a sign I need to be doing something else. I don't think playing solitaire is the right answer but that's what I've been doing!

Dh took 90 minutes to drop the guests downtown and check dd's place. The driving is awful and downtown has lots of roads closed due to Winterlude (winter festival.)

The view here is basically gone. They said 2 cm of snow this morning on the radio. It hasn't stopped snowing since and it is blowing around so I suspect this is another massive failure to get the forecast right. Glad we aren't going out this evening. I could use fresh veggies and I'd love to buy some fresh rolls but think I'll make biscuits instead and stay inside.