Wednesday 5 by 5

[Twins' Mom]

I am visiting dsis today for care plan meeting. She is having lunch right and we will go out for ice cream after she is done.

I left home at 7:30 and felt sleepy and tired all morning, it will be nice to get home earlier tho.

[Emptynester]

Back from the last part of my nuclear thyroid test. I was faithful to the special diet before the test so had a mocha frappe and a med fries on the way home. Chocolate and salt never tasted so good.

Yesterday, we took the dog with us as we would be gone from 6:30 A to 4 P. I didn't want her to stay in the crate that long. She found the grass in the parking lot and reveled in it. She rolled, laid and ate it. Don't know if she had ever seen grass before as she is a high desert dog.

Just ordered meds for DH so that is done. Also ordered him a new Ki ndle Fire HD. I will probably take that and give him my non-HD one. I also signed up for Ama Prime so we can see the movies and old TV shows.

After my tests, we bought some new towels for the bathroom, a couple tops for me and some nice handkerchiefs for DH.

Now time for a nap. Being up at 5 for 2 days in a row is not fun.

[Kathryn-in-Canada]

I'm as ready as I'll ever be for the real estate agent. Didn't get to the store yet, but found really old cornmeal and couldn't find a best before date on it so made up the recipe with that. If it works out, I'll go buy more for Friday. Peeking in the oven, it looks amazing. I added way more sugar since this recipe called for 1 tsp (I added a heaping tablespoon) whereas so many other recipes called for up to 1/3c of sugar.

House looks great, BTW. Except for the basement which is a HUGE disaster!

[helia]

I'm home for about an hour total, then I'll be out again. Oven is pre-heated - I need to put potatoes in.
x pot roast in crockpot
x about 1/2 a.m. routine done
x walked with dfriend B at 12:15
x minimal prep for mentoree. .. shouldn't even count this.
x met with mentoree at 2.

I'm leaving in about 30 minutes for a haircut appt. - in town at 5:45. My stylist is in Calif. where her mother passed away so she passed her clients on to her stylist friends.

I'll need to pick up dd15 at 7:45. Then, I'll be done for the day.

I've been having calf and foot cramps the last 2 mornings, starting between 4 and 5 a.m. and continuing off and on until I get up around 7 a.m. I'm not sure why. . . I've always had a lot of night time leg cramps so that's not new, but the consistency of the time frame over the last 2 nights and their occurring multiple times (like 10+) within that time frame have me puzzled. I'm trying to drink more in case I'm dehydrated. Any suggestions/wisdom? It's quite painful; I can still feel my calf muscle late in the day.

--edited re: grammar error. . .

[Kathryn-in-Canada]

Meeting with agent is done.

She went over comparables with me. You can't compare the new subdivision houses with ours, so even though they are smaller and on smaller lots, updating this kitchen to that standard doesn't mean we can get that price. Therefore, we have to compare to houses the same age as ours, 30 years old. None of those sold are as nice as ours for size, but that makes no difference, most have an updated kitchen. Therefore we'll get only abour $425 - $450,000 for ours. Which means I was dead on right when I priced it to our friends at $400K (ball park figure.) Commission would be $21,250 if we sold at $425, so selling it to our friends for $400K means we'd be getting almost as much and not have any hassles at all (no prepping, no open houses, no having to leave the house for showings.)

If we decide to list it, I have 30 hours of work clearing out the basement and editing everything in the closets upstairs to make them look larger. And packing away all my decorations. And then I'll end up living in a sterile home, not MY home for the last few months we are here.

In other news, the cornbread turned out wonderfully. And so unbelievably easy! Just not sweet enough for dh so he put tons of butter on it.

Just zoomed on the oven controls on the stove in the apartment. It is self-cleaning! YAY!!!!!

[Nancy]

Back from picking up meds. From the dr. Office. Got the pm insulin in vials which I prefer.
(Our blood tests are fine so that is good.)
Had a salmon burger & salad for lunch it was good.
Back inside after raking the front yd. Finished up my walking with dgson.

[OKay]

Kathryn - what is the average "day on market" for the comparables?

Yesterday I tossed a comment into the air about selling MPB..... the real estate guy who personally owns two adjoining corners from MPB is definitely interested. Today he brought his business partner with him to talk with DH. I had told DH that we needed "x times the gross". That's all DH knew to tell them (I was in class and not available). I show DH the finances weekly, but he doesn't retain the numbers.....just how we are doing. I'll need to get with the fellas and discuss particulars. We don't have to sell so they will play my game or I'll not play with them. That sassy attitude might come back to bite me.

Another wasted trip to Social Security office. I didn't know they are only open until noon on Wednesdays. I know now.

Been txt'ing with DDIL on arraignments for her surgery support. She has this week covered (her Mom and DD are there). Depending on how DDIL does, it looks like I might spend at least part of next week there. Her surgery is tomorrow so will know more in a few days.

[Kathryn-in-Canada]

OKay Not sure on average. A couple were over 100 days. One I considered comparable (same age, down the street, smaller lot, smaller house, no dining room, no family room) was only 48 days.

She says I'm in the right for timing now - figures the average close is 2 - 3 months so if we sell by April 1 we'll probably have a July 1 close. If we back that up to 40 - 50 days on the market, then I'm tight for the closing I want.

I'm shaking again and that's because I'll need to pack up my life now if we list the house, not in a more manageable fashion (you remember, I have some projects that need spreading out that I've been hoping to get to, not to mention taxes and company year end.)

She figures it will take us at least 30 hours of work to get ready for the first showings. That's a full week of the two of us working flat out. If that takes dh away from work (he's double booked with paying customers right now), the real cost to me is a lot of money. So I'll have to do that work on my own with minimal help from him. Which is even more overwhelming. If I could just wait until ds gets home, that would be a help since he won't be back to work immediately. But that puts us another month behind.

Dd can't come to help because she starts her last work placement for school. And I can't hire packers to do it because decisions have to be made. For instance, it is dead of winter now, 0*F today, but before we move the temperature will be in the 80's. So I have to have winter, spring and summer clothes left out. Same with jackets. I can't pack away my fur, nor my lighter winter coat. Both are needed now and my spring coat will be needed as well. Same for boots, etc.

On top of all that, I suspect she'll want us to move the office out of the 'dining room' and the dining room furniture in there and stage the living room properly (I've never seen the need for a living room and two family rooms, all on the same level plus a finished recreation room in the basement, so am happy to have things arranged as they are.)

At this point, I'm overwhelmed.

[BookSaver]

Hello, villagers ~
I feel as though I'm not getting much done this week because I haven't been able to get to the paper decluttering project. I did manage to run some errands today, though, and will go out tomorrow afternoon to do more. Must pay bills and buy groceries.

None of the house cats we've had through the years have liked purchased cat toys -- they've all preferred to find their own playthings like pieces of paper, plastic bread wrapper tabs and such. Earlier this week, I noticed the calico cat playing with a makeup sponge that she'd pulled from the bathroom trash can. She carried that yucky thing from room to room and played with it until it fell apart. This morning I gave her a new clean one, and she loves it. My makeup sponges are soft and wedge shaped. It's fun to watch the old cat romp around like a kitten.

Kathryn ~ Your cornbread would probably be perfect with honey on it.

And I'm sorry, but I missed the reason for the rush to show the house right now. Is the timing that critical that a month or two would blow the whole thing? It isn't that long ago that you were really ill, is it worth risking a relapse from pushing to do so much in a hurry by yourself? Must you show the house before starting the move to the apartment? Feel free to ignore these questions that I know are none of my business. It's just that I was getting excited with you that you'd found an apartment you liked, but now that fun type of anticipation appears to be lost in the worry of meeting the new real estate agent's demands.

[Harmony]

Kathryn, I hope you can find someone to help you with all that work. I took some acidophilus in to DH today and he informs me that they are giving him some sort of probiotic. I don't think he can get too much so he took it anyway.

Helia, both DH and I get leg and/or foot cramps. I've read all sorts of things about them, take calcium, take potassium, more water. The more water seems to help DH. My feet were all cramped up last night. I "force" myself (in my mind) to relax whatever muscle is cramping and do not let myself curl it into a ball so it will relax. If I start to "fight" it and tense up it just gets worse.

I had to work on a file today and since I was home had to answer the telephone. People find me here and want to talk and talk and I didn't have the time but I'm not good getting off the phone. Anyway, after a lot of work, I went to Rehab with my arms full of folders and office supplies. We went over it all and filled out some papers. DH found the mistakes and plans must be fixed and copied.

I have some phone calls to make tomorrow and a bunch of stuff to download and print out, then I must go to the drafting office and the engineers, basically starting all over with this.

Our next job is ready to start. Today DH told our customer what was going on (I was so glad for that) and he said if he wanted to wait to start it would be ok. But he feels he can get it underway with his helper and his first sub...and I was so pleased that the customer was so nice about it.

Today they tried DH out on a cane for a short walk. It was a bit of a challenge, with more weight on the hip, but he did it. Tonight he got really quiet, and he was just sad or in pain I couldn't tell which. He's so different these days. His roommate basically stays in bed. He looks pretty sick and will be going for some surgery in a couple days.

Remembering our card conversation here the other day, think about this: today DH got a card from an organization. Return address on envelope but no signature or note or anything inside the card. He said he must have been on somebody's to-do list, said it showed lack of caring. I told him I would cut the return address off the envelope and staple it where the sig. should be, and he said no find another envelope to fit and regift it! I think he was a little hurt.