Wednesday MIA

[Kathryn-in-Canada]

At least I hope we are all missing in ACTION!

I, to be honest, slept in!

[Kathryn-in-Canada]

Tea and chocolate is now consumed.

I ordered a Miele vacuum, the C3 Limited Edition. Doesn't have Hepa (but neither does my current one) and doesn't have a power head (nor the option for one) but since I only have two area rugs and it does have a head that is designed for rugs, I'll go with it.

The selling features for me were the 36' radius (I need every inch of that to avoid having to plug in more than twice in this apartment) and on board tool caddy (my current one doesn't have that and I miss it terribly.) I get a retractable cord as well with this one (not a deal breaker but very nice to have.)

Not sure if the power switch is on the wand (I don't think so) but not as important without a power head. With my current vacuum I'm normally 5' away from the power switch when I vacuum up a corner of a throw rug or it's own cord. I haven't burned out a power head yet, but I've come close and did wear out one, although it lasted 12 years so it wasn't only abuse that made it ineffective.

I did research on which brands to buy about 18 - 24 months ago when I was considering replacing my current vacuum and picked Miele as the brand. My current one is a TriStar and has been unbreakable. It is designed to simply fix, not replace. Bought used 14 years ago, I'm on my second power head (just 18 months old), second power cord (I keep vacuuming them up!) and have the choice of keeping this one and putting in a new motor (at $150) to improve the suction, or just give up and buy new. Since I hate the way the accessories work with this one (I carry them around in a bag), the fact the carpet head and floor attachments are two wands so I have to carry wands with me as I move around (or vacuum all the carpets around the apartment and then go back to do the hardwood floors & tiles), and the weight of thing (it is a tank, designed to last forever.)

I'll give the vacuum to ds. The suction is lousy on hard floors but still great when using the attachments (shorter hose so it needs less suction) or the carpet power head (because the brush augments the weak suction.) Ds has lots of carpets and just a small kitchen and bathroom with hard floors. Plus lower standards than me! His is an ancient Sears given to him by someone who replaced it due to a missing front wheel. Or I'll take it to a scrap metal man. It weights about 30lbs so should get me something!

[Elizabeth]

Good morning everyone! I started a thread for today, but by the time I finished typing, someone else beat me to it! I thought I might be starting a trend of starting threads (really surprising since I am NOT a morning person). What trends are you starting or wanting to start today?

Progress report from last night: DD13 did want soup from the Chinese place. That worked well, as I was DRENCHED and cold from my walk/wait at the bus stop. This morning, my shoes and train pass are STILL wet. (I wore other shoes). I did do a good amount of cleanup after she left: completed guest bath and sewing room and made progress in the kitchen and DD's room. Also did a very small amount of packing, updated the checkbook, and mailed off some checks to deposit.

I have not made my list for today, but I know it will include an animal org meeting and more cleanup.

LadyMaverick: We had tutoring for DD13 in second grade. It really helped her, confidence and grade wise. There was one HUGE disadvantage though. She was failing in December and the tutoring brought her up to passing. Her improvement made her ineligible for learning disability testing. After battling the school system over this (they thought barely passing was acceptable), we had her tested in my hometown when she visited grandparents. (My mom was a teacher for decades and knew where to take her). She tested as learning disabled, but the school would not accept the results unless it was from THEIR tests, which she was still not eligible to take. (If she had been a transfer student, it would have been sufficient). It was not resolved until the x met the governor at a company function and she took care of it. By the time the tests were done, it was the end of 4th grade. She tested as Aspbergers (surprise), with a need for dyslexia intervention (no surprise). That was a two year program so we had her repeat 5th grade. I always got the impression that the administrators thought the problem was that DD was an only child. That I couldn't handle the fact that the one and only was average. Being an only child, does not give her immunity from learning disabilities. And people with multiple children don't find it acceptable to ignore problems with one child, because there is a "spare"!

What is SHEM?

[DeeClutter]

I, to be honest, slept in!

Me too, Kathryn. Got up around 7 for a mini-break and went back to bed. The next time I saw daylight I figured it was 8/8:30 -notta. Finally looked at the clock at 9:22. So I've had a very slow morning.

May I recommend A spercreme with lidocaine for aching/hurting spots? My left leg is still quite sore and decided to try some on it today. I can actually move it without feeling the pain/soreness. I've had a hard time finding it in stores (though I did finally yesterday at W mart) and have ordered it twice from A mazon. Have the 2ne one coming from online but picked one up yesterday for a spare. Pretty much the same price either way. Should have the 2nd one today.

Have been waiting for some time for dh's new license plates for our car. (Volunteer fireman). We got a new registration for the window last week, but have yet to see the plates. Not quite sure how this reg differs from our old one as it has the ORG license # on it. Paint me 'confused'.

Think I'll take a little run over to dd/ds-A's and see what's happening today. Or maybe I'll wait until I'm sure the mail is in and go there first.

[DeeClutter]

For Elizabeth or anyone else: SHEM -

SHE motivational after posting three posts in a row.

Editing: (Me too, avoiding a SHEM) -just finished balancing dh's (and now mine too) check book. I was off somewhere around $800. Went way back to April and I think what happened was that dh never entered a deposit he made around $800 something. We have new checks and a new register so just went with their balance finally. (After I figured everything was taken out). No wonder dh thought we had more than I thought.

Think I now will get dh's lunch and THEN go to the post office. Going every day now (which I normally don't do). #1 to see if our plates are there and #2 to see if dd has important mail With so much going on with T, never sure if they'll end up getting mail. And DSONIL also is awaiting word on what may be a sizable inheritance from an uncle. He first had to submit paperwork last summer on this issue. They're still waiting. Part of that is because the uncle had several pieces of property which had to be sold. That was done only to discover he had more property by a golf course in GA somewhere. So they're still waiting. But we do anticipate that info could be forthcoming at any time and may well have some time restraints on it.

Had AC on yesterday but it's much cooler and nicer today.

[helia]

Hello friends! I was awake at 6:50, up at 7:30, and I've been in action since then.
- emails: checked; responded to one, sent out email to Th. dinner crew
- decluttered more emails
- emptied the dish drainer and the top rack of the dw, which involved re-washing many of the glasses and other dishes b/c someone didn't do a good job rinsing the plates, and there were globs of parmesan (we only grate it fresh, so pieces are larger and maybe more sticky than the packaged kind) glued to items in the top rack. Grrr.... I'm not happy with this dw. Our previous one, a Bosch, caught fire in the middle of the night. Also not a great dw.
- QT
- s2s and self-care
- dentist; all is well. Pretty uneventful.
- groc. store for last minute food items for the kids of dfriend. She just emailed me back some ideas last night.
- lunch

Next:
- update li$ts
- inventory bedding to make sure we have enough to sleep 8 starting tomorrow night. I think we need more pillows; I think I threw out a couple recently. We have slept 10 here before.
- BBB trip; I'm also getting memory foam to put on top of the mattress since IKEA mattresses are very firm, which we don't know if dfriends (or other future houseguests) like or not. Dh says European mattresses tend to be more firm.

Later:
- jog. It is perfect weather for it! Gray, cool, dry. I might try for a long jog if I'm feeling okay around the 30 minute mark.
- file away all snail mail bills I paid last night.
- keep laundry going
- work on getting guest rooms ready
- dinner: leftovers. Yay! I may need to pull some leftovers from the freezer too.

I need to get in action before sleepiness takes over. . .

[Harmony]

Kathryn, I have a Miele also. Mine has the regular head but I bought the power head because of the carpets (area rugs) and my switch is on the handle to turn the beater bar on or off. I never use the plain head because the power head is better with the beater bar on or off even on the tile floors. I don't like my filters and bag; they are difficult to change and are very costly to buy. I wish you luck with yours. Mine has lasted I think over 15 years with no repairs...except the automatic cord reel broke and DH tried to fix but the part is not available. My attachments go inside the top of the canister, but not all of them fit, so I don't bother to put them there. Taking the power head on and off is a pain cause the electric cord has to be wound around the wand and put into the slot at just the right angle - hard to do. I don't think I'd buy another.

Just taking a break here from our yard work. We have another truck and 1/2 of sod to lay. I am exhausted and DH is due to come back any time now with full truck. Barely keeping my head above the rubble in the house...loaded up the dishwasher today...not sure about dinner as leftovers are all gone and I sure don't feel like cooking after days like this.

[Kathryn-in-Canada]

It is cooler here, too, Dee. And much less humid. I have every door and window open fully in order to get some fresh air in here.

One of the joys of room a/c (our a/c is actually the fan on the radiator with cold water running through instead of hot) is that dh can shut the doors to the office and keep his a/c off since he loves hot and humid. It was almost unbearable in there yesterday but no problem for me. I vacuumed early in the day while he was out and then avoided the room. In the evening it smelled rank for some reason so he opened the window at my request and that cleared out the smell without adding any cool or cutting the humidity. We figure it was probably cooking smells from next door (different culture, different food smells - sometimes good, sometimes not.)

We slept with the windows shut and a/c on (although I didn't sleep well at all) but once I heard it was windy this morning and cooler, I knew to open up everything. The bedroom is still warmish but the rest of the apartment is cool so I have long sleeves on.

Harmony: thanks for the Miele review. Mine doesn't have the electrical option so that's one problem solved. Expensive bags are true for my Tristar so I didn't even bother to check the price. I did opt for the model with the larger bag, though.

I've finished s2s and did my physio. Will make myself lunch once I finish watching the episode of Nashville I was watching while doing my exercises.

[Harmony]

Kathryn, mine is a canister type. Is yours? I will look up the model #.

For twins: DD and her 2 sons and DH were vacationing in Rome a couple weeks ago. They had not checked into hotel yet and all their luggage and electronics were in the trunk of their rental car. Someone broke the back window, got inside, crawled into trunk and popped the lid, then took everything. They had to get new passports and new airline tickets. She said the police were less than helpful, didn't seem to care. I can't imagine they parked in a dark alley in a ghetto...so maybe tourists are targets? Course, I know this can happen anywhere...just relaying their experience.

Back outside to work here.

[Harriet]

Elizabeth, in other words, you post three times in a row, you need to give a motivational quote or statement to the rest of us. I guess it must be because we all could benefit from such dedication!!!! (something like that)

((Harmony's dd's family)) I'm so sorry.

I need to get back to posting when I get up. The alarm is 7 these days, but if I let things get started around here, I never seem to get back to computer until mid-day.

TaDas last evening
Got gasoline last evening so I'd be ready for today.
Exercised 25 minutes last evening.
TaDas today
I've been to bank errand at bank 2, also P.O., also grocery, all on the way home from chauffeuring, so that was efficient. Back home, I've been on Desk Day most of the time and still have one more step to finish, as soon as HRH gets here to double check an email. Got a smoothie breakfast in. Took out the recyclables and picked up some trash the trash truck scattered.
Next Ups
declutter and organize some clothes
spif master bath