Sunny Tuesday

[OKay]

Home from LO appt. It has been almost 2 months since his parents have asked to see him, so there isn't much for him to talk about. We will keep next week appt (since they have asked to see him this weekend). After that the counselor appts will start being bi-weekly.

Lesson learned. I took Low Carb tortillas with me with plans to make wraps using the "guts" of Subway sandwich. I thought I could easily transfer the sandwich stuff from Subway bread to the tortilla. NOT a good idea! It was a mess! It would probably been a good idea if I wasn't trying to do it on my lap in a small car. ANYway, I won't try it again. We ended up just eating the subway sandwich the way they served it.

Bookie - you are a prize! I remember Molly! She was a super helpful and eager to do all she could. Trying to remember......after Molly left, I seem to remember a male webmaster.....can't think of his name. I'm also drawing a blank of the webmaster name that came after him.....

Alrighty! Bright sunshine is calling my name. I'm going to spend 30 minutes in the yard spreading things out to dry.

*POOF*

[OKay]

Harmony - have you seen the news about peanut butter recall? Wondering if that is the nut recall you are thinking of.

[MysteryWoman]

Gotten very little done. Updating the calendar took forever. Was miffed to see that, Sunday after next, dd is supposed to have a 10:00 game -- and DH, who is an assistant coach for dd's team, is committed to running the Boy Scouts' pancake breakfast at our church because the scoutmaster is going to be out of town. Who schedules these things, anyway? (I'm sure part of it is difficulty in scheduling the church hall.) And yes, DH is an assistant scoutmaster for the Boy Scouts, despite not having any boys. He was an Eagle Scout -- guess I should say, "is," as the Scouts' philosophy is, "Once an Eagle, always an Eagle" (unless you come out as gay, I guess) -- and has remained active with the Boy Scouts ever since. As he puts it, yes, he doesn't have any boys, but he's needed, especially these days, because so many boys don't have dads. Anyhow, meanwhile, DD and I will be at a hockey tournament out closer to helia's neck of the woods than our own.

I e-mailed the pastor a note saying we couldn't make it, and why, and what the best times for us to reschedule are, and that, if he needs us to make a financial commitment right now, we can't -- but if he just needs to meet with us so he can cross us off his list, to go ahead.

Updating the calendar has put me in an even crankier mood -- although I am starting to wonder if maybe I'm heading into a mood episode. The disadvantage of my meds is that they make the signs very subtle, and it's hard to distinguish a bipolar mood from a normal mood until I'm well into it.

Harmony, normally I resist the HGP -- so much of it feels like rushing the season to me -- but I'm thinking I might have to adopt it, or some variation on it, this year. We are expecting "cousinpalooza" for Christmas -- DmiddleBIL and family are coming over from England, and DyoungestBIL will be coming in from Canada -- they move to Ontario from Kentucky next week. (For Kathryn & CathyS, they're headed to the western edge of the Golden Horseshoe -- DBIL works for the Tim's foundation.) It'd be great if DeldestBIL and his family could come, but he's in the theatre biz, and he'll be busy with the Nutcracker. However, even without his boys, there will be 10 cousins around, and 6 of them will be girls between the ages of 9 and 13. I'm envisioning a massive sleepover!

OK, let me try once again to actually get something done -- start laundry & excavate dining table, at least, before heading out for pickup. Yesterday, I left the house :15 to :20 later than usual and got home only :05 later, so I'm thinking it may be useful to hold off on driving.

[scattered]

No time or energy for a cuop. Came home with a headache, gonna take something and lay down for a short nap... gonna give DS's permission to bug me til I get up after my time is up.

On the way home for lunch got a call from a young DF at work who lovingly calls me Mom. She is in a tough situation, she works hard but her new DH (married 2 months) has dropped out of school after 1 week and lays around playing video games. Refuses to get a job or lift a finger, her stress is so bad she is now getting physically ill. I told her to "KICK HIM OUT." Her utilities have been turned off and she has a young DS from previous who is also sick from the stress. I gave her support in the form of options and even offered a TEMPORARY safe, warm, happy environment for her and her DS (not DH ). I told her I would not give her money; 1 I don't have any to spare and 2 that would not help in the long run. I also told her I would expect help around the house if they came to stay here, I don't give hand outs I give hand ups. She has been texting me with progress, she made him get up and gave him an ultimatum either he go get a job today (with her there, because she can't trust him) or he is out today! I don't see a good future for their marriage but she is a sweet gal and I am here to support her. My DS19 is incensed! He said that if he were to do that he knows I would "kill him" and take his DW and DsS in... Muhwuhhahaha I am such an evil Mom.

Got the lamb in the crock-pot when I came home for lunch also swept the kitchen.

See ya'll in a bit.

[Emptynester]

We are at the most beautiful location. We are on a bluff overlooking Elephant Bluffs Lake in the state park. It is a back in site so we look over the lake out the windshield.

The lake is down right now as the dam has been opened. The river is the Rio Grande. We followed the west side of the valley all this morning (124 miles) and enjoyed looking at the green, GREEN crops where they pull water from the river.

We will be here for 3 nights - just relaxing - no plans - no schedules - no nothing. We even passed some good looking restaurants so I might not have to cook.

Time to shuck the heavy Levies and find the shorts and tank tops again.

PS: Picture of our campsite will be posted on my blog.

[Lilac]

I am so irritated at myself. I have a 6 year old car with less than 25,000 miles on it. We are very nit picky with our vehicles. I have been driving dhs SUV most of the time, since we have moved. Today I drove my car to the store. I always park far from the store and walk. Today I pulled up to angle parking place and scrapped the underneath bumper on a conrete curb type deal. You have to get down and look to see it, except for a tiny spot. I kicked myself all the way in the store. In my mind it was at least 6 inches of a scrape. Came home and it had shrunk to less than 2 inches. Imagine that! Anyway I called the local dealership to order a small container of the touchup paint. It has a brush plus a ball point tip, to use. When my dh washes my car, he is on his knees on a garden mat, to wash the wheels, tires, grille and the underneath areas that he can reach. There is no way he can miss this. Guess who isn't mentioning it until I have the touchup paint in my hand?

Well I better go. I am going to dd2 shop and have some gelato. She opened her store on Saturday. It did real well that day but has been very slow since then. She is working on radio, TV and newspaper ads. If that doesn't help, then nothing will.

After that I need to come home and mow.

[Kathryn-in-Canada]

Good morning at volunteering. But I'm going back on Thursday because I have things I want to do before next Tuesday night's meeting.

I'm in bed but fussing over our January holiday instead of napping. The email we got this morning from our friend is that the room is available from Feb 23 to 31! Got a phone call this afternoon from the hotel manager (our friend is the owner) correcting that back to January that but in the meantime, we were looking at things we could do in January instead of going to Granada and dh started to get excited in other options and I was excited at not having to cope with getting to Granada. The only advantage I can think of to going is that we've felt we've let our friend down year after year by cruising in the winter and not coming to visit her. She is desperate for us to take advantage of her hospitality (she's giving us 30% off the room rate to return the favours dh did for her when she started the business.)

It is all but impossible to get there from here. The best routing is by Caribbean Airlines (which has a nice direct flight from Toronto.) The problem is that airline has a very shoddy website and virtually no mention on any reputable site on the internet so I can't find safety record (although I know they crashed last summer because a friend was on the same flight one day earlier and then drove past the airport to see the crashed plane.) There's no info on the kind of plane it would be, what their seating is like, etc. Their own website pages for that don't work. And when I looked at booking today, booking one way, it gave me the direct flight but when I asked for a return ticket, it took the direct flight there away from me, which makes no sense at all.

I'm very frustrated.

I'm under the impression I have to book the air tickets now. The discount tickets are 1/4 the price of regular economy fare and I know that I won't want to pay 4x more in December, knowing how little I would have paid if I booked now. Actually 4x more pushes the trip into the cost of a cruise and I'd rather take a cruise. But if I book now I feel I need to take 3 days in each direction (so 4 nights of hotel along the way.) By December I might be able to book it all in one day or perhaps 2. I really don't know what to do and am not excited about this at all (especially about all the warnings about being careful of hepatitis in the Caribbean.)

I'm really too sick to think about travel now. I think I'm going to tell dh that and we'll just cancel the whole thing (and book something in December or January once we know how much travel I can stand and buy something that includes airfare.)

[OKay]

Lilac - If we lived closer to each other, I would want to buy your vehicles when you are ready to sell. I love buying someones vehicle that takes excellent care of them. I have been looking for a well cared for used SUV for months.....and am still looking. There is nothing pushing me to buy so I'm just waiting for the right used vehicle to show up.

Time to do school pickup. *POOF*

[helia]

Got the lamb in the crock-pot

Scattered, I want to hear more! I LOVE lamb! Hope your headache is better.

MT, I'm trying hard not to be GREEN with envy. It sounds beautiful!

Yes, Lilac, you and your dh are a gazillion times more careful with your vehicles than we are! Ours are all so old now that when there's a small scrape, which dd16 did recently add to our "kid car," we don't blink an eye. We won't even bother with it.

Kathryn, with your not feeling well, surely your friend would understand if you don't make it to Granada to see her this year, regardless of what has happened/not happened other years. . . .Yes, book something once you know how much travel you'll be able to enjoy.

Well, the errands took 2.5 hours, much longer than I thought they would. I got a lot at the groc. store.

I can't see back to my list, so I'll post double.

[Nancy]

I'm back from errands today it's too windy to paint outside so I'm seriously considering doing it inside as the parts to the nest box are portable and small.

Got a acorn squash and am decorating the front step with it.

Journaling is done.

Got some yarn in fun inspiring colors I see the strong possibility of
granny squares in my future.