TIMING THURSDAY

[helia]

I think my purpose in the village is to serve as a bad example.

lucylee, with your working full time + parents to care for + new gbaby arriving, you certainly are not a bad example! Honestly, care for family members expressed here by you and others is very inspiring to me. You do so much. Maybe you don't realize it/think about it that way. . .Anyway, I just wanted to encourage you.

elly, you're in the western part of the country, right? If so, some of the women here have days that start before yours do.

I've heard we have coyotes, but I haven't seen any. I have seen foxes from time to time, but not this spring. We certainly have lots of groundhogs every year. And deer - although, they tend to avoid our yard, probably due to eau de Pepper, which I assume is all over the yard.

Dh will be returning shortly. I've had coffee and devo. time and have played on fb. Off to s2s next. I think we're going to hike Diamond Head today, which will be a nice bit of exercise - and a fun way to get it. Last time we did that, dd16 was 3 and not very happy about the long uphill hike. I remember making up/telling her a long story to keep her distracted.. . .Also, dh's sister was with us on that trip and she was very helpful with all the kids.

I did bring my hiking boots; I wore them on the plane.

[DeeClutter]

Happy hiking, Helia! You're bringing back lots of memories! Loved that hike. Funny part was I had to use the restroom and we just meandered along the beginning walkway and were going to hike up just a little ways. Long story short -we climbed the entire thing, badly needed a drink at the top and still had to walk all the way back down before heading to the ladies' room! Sure couldn't do that today!

[DeeClutter]

The 2 different years we stayed in HI, Helia, were spent at condos right next to Ft. DeRussey (sp?), right on the beach as well. Of course dh spent lots of time there so knew his way around very well. Did a lot of walking on the 'main' drag. The Kodak show was on during that time and we went to see that a couple of times. Think the Hilton was a couple down from us, but walked around there a lot. Is that where the penguins are? I'd love to go back but don't think I want that 13 hour plane ride -though it's probably less now.

I can't wait to go to Indiana later this year to some traversing with our dfriends (now living in Indianapolis). He's retiring as IN's American Baptist Executive Minister the end of August so will be free after that. Hoping dh will be too. DH might go to South Bend with DS-R and DGS7 to the WKA event in mid-July. DS has said they're not sure yet if they will go. He tends to think more about the cost than DS-A did when DGS12 was racing WKA. They went all over (Jacksonville, FL, Indiana, Ohio, PA, South Carolina). Now both of his DKs are racing mini-stocks. DGS feels 'safer' with a body around him. Doesn't matter -Dgrandma (me) still can't watch.

Well, I'm just sitting here rambling this afternoon. Trying hard not to EAT. We're going out for supper to a strawberry festival in about an hour. Then dh plans to take a load of scrap metal in tomorrow morning south of here and knows of a really good breakfast place. 2 times in a week is plenty!

I think the name of the condos where we stayed was "Waikiki Shores". We really didn't cook in too much but could have. DH was on a daily per diem and we didn't worry about it at that point. It was nice having the condo and expenses all paid! Think the only thing we paid for either time was my flight.

[Elizabeth]

Hi everyone! I got a new foster cat last night. She is the only adult survivor of a hoarding situation. There were 110 cats and all the adults but her were either too feral to be adopted or diseased. She is supposed to be somewhat shy, but let me pet her. She is staying in the sewing room for a few days, then will be loose in the house. After lunch I went by and watered XDH's dog. In the excitement of the new foster, I forgot him last night. There was still water in his bowl though. I will be sure to go by tonight after art class!

I have seen coyotes in our neighborhood. We are in the middle of the second largest city in the state, near a main road, not far from a Wal-Mart. Not exactly a rural area. Cats and small dogs have been known to go missing. My cats stay indoors!

[ellyphant]

Dee--I know what you mean...with weddings, plans to keep things simple can quickly go out the window.

Lucylee--Helia is right. You deserve to do whatever you feel like doing after spending the year molding all those young minds! You and Harriet and others here are inspiring in how you look after older family members. Like your movie reviews, too.

Helia--It's exciting to read of your Hawaiian adventures! I am actually in the wilds of PA--not out west. Our county had a 3-day bear hunt season. Have to keep garbage contained and it is recommended not to have bird feeders out in the summer.

Kathryn--We also had fisher cats in New England. People definitely feared for their small pets when one was sighted. Sometimes we would have as many as 6 deer in our yard at a time. They were beautiful, but would eat the shrubbery at times!
Saw cute little red foxes a lot. Would see flocks of about a dozen turkeys at times, too. Now I'm missing New England .

Our new friends here had never heard of a fisher, or fisher cat, as we call it, and said we must be making them up just to show off!

[Norma]

Just got home after a full morning of foot doctor appointment _(YES, Cowinkie, me too) breakfast at a casino in Carson City, P-- Sm--- for Marco bird food and Wal greens for prescription pick up. My foot lady - I love her - she is a little Munchkin who has lost 20 lbs. in the last 2 years - slowly - following Dr. Oz's program. She really educated me on it and gave me a bunch of stuff to look at online. Oh, we finally got to my fungi toe! I have a pill to take for 90 days plus my fungi nail stuff I have been using and I go back in 90 days. I felt so good when I left there. I thought she would be doing the big needle thing and then taking it off. AARRGGHH! Didn't happen and I am so glad.

Indiana, you give me the biggest smiles and laughs! Of course you keep a 5 oz. can of evaporated milk in your cupboard in case you run out of coffee milk!! You are so prepared for everything. You are amazing. And for you it is not so surprising.

Well, I am off to research everything on Dr. OZ!

Do you all know SUGAR is bad for you? A lot worse than FAT!

[Harriet]

That's been quite a topic in H and F thread, brought up by Lynlee in April, Norma. I put a link there the other day that I also sent to HRH, and he really surprised me by paying a lot of attention to it and getting upset by all the harm sugar can do. He wants to cut our consumption more than we have. Btw, you sound chipper! Your eye must be doing very well.

Speaking of health, cathyy, I was interested in your report of dramatically better health. That sounds like it's been an important thing in your life lately.

elly, for all I knew, Kathryn was talking about wayward bass boats until you explained it's a cat. Guess I should thank my lucky stars we don't have those added on here. I'm still worried all our grandchildren will someday be having this discussion about pythons. Shouldn't have read THAT article, should I?

Your trip sounds wonderful so far, helia. So glad you are telling us about it! Now, stay out of the ER. Twins' Mom tried that on her vacation and it wasn't much fun.

Dd13's friend's family stayed and visited a while. My ddad actually left them alone and did not dominate the conversation this time, because he simply could not relate to the handicapped little girl, and was worried he would do the wrong thing. He said a few nice things and went to take a nap. I was able to give the mother the small supply of thick cotton bed pads my dmother never used. She uses them to make mittens, because her daughter has to keep one mitten constantly on her right hand, which can be hurt by being put into the mouth so often.

[Kathryn-in-Canada]

Back from our walk for the mail. I want dh to order pizza but he's stalling. I'm starving. At this moment, I have enough points for pizza but if I start to snack, I won't.

[ellyphant]

Don't mean to mislead anyone--a fisher cat is not really a cat, but more like a weasal...no wonder our friends didn't believe us!

[Twins' Mom]

Home again, finally, and I've decided to skip the evening meeting. I've made three trips up and down the mountain today, and I've always maintained that is my daily limit. This is a community meeting - feeling like I should be there to keep track of what's going on in the community, and, I've missed probably the last six months of meetings between tax season, and being out of town in late April. But I just can't do it. We were out of the house last night and will be again tomorrow night (late!) and I need the night off.

This has just been the day that things go wrong - dealt with temple issue, my primary credit card ended up with ds today when I bought his Starbucks this morning, and when I attempted to meet him to pick it up, his phone was mysteriously off, even no TP when I stopped in at MCD's this morning for breakfast, and again at Wal mart when I got groceries!

We back up to a state forest area - we have one street behind us with houses on each side, then another street that goes around the subdivision with no houses on either side, and the state forest on the other side of that street. We regularly see deer, possum, raccoon, and coyotes. New house is much closer in and won't have such a variety. May remember that Moses flushed a deer out of our back yard (which is wooded and grown up) about a month ago on a rainy day.