THRILLING THURSDAY

[DeeClutter]

Hope there's some part of this Thursday that will 'thrill' you.

Find it almost thrilling that dCaroline is progressing toward her surgery, albeit it slowly. Will be so much better for everyone to have this behind them.

(((LadyM & your family))). 'Nuff said.

I have been awake since before 4 and finally got up, s2s before 7. I have to make a W mart run before I can even have breakfast so it's good that I'm up. I need to make some phone calls to friends today. Evidently they're still DPC as I've been putting this off for days and days. Hoping that maybe I can go see one (my friend with ovarian cancer). I haven't seen her since they left our campground last October. They're not that far away -only in Zephyrhills, but it's working around both our schedules to make that trek. It's still about 35 miles or so. Think I'll try to measure it today.

Off to do redo my shopping list and head out. Hate going out so early -as we've discussed before -I have that "can't get started once I've left the house" syndrome. But I want to hit the store before it gets too busy as it's wont to do.

Can't figure for the life of me why my blood sugar is so high this morning. I had tossed salad (salad bar at Sonny's) last night and then had 2 of a 6-piece 'redneck' egg roll, fried and stuffed with pulled pork and coleslaw, & jack cheese, dipped into a smokey ranch sauce (sure it's ranch dressing mixed with their smoky barbq sauce. Didn't have very much of that. Who knows?

[helia]

Good morning! Yesterday evening ended up a bit crazy. I lost time while meeting with my mentee and got home at 7:10 pm. Everyone was already here, except for the new guests. Dh and dfriend A did the cooking. I had no time to do any house cleaning. I did quickly put a couple things away. We ate, and everyone was gone by 9:30, after I pressed the new couple to stay for tea. Dh was slightly irritated I had done that. Otherwise, they would have left about 8:50 pm when the others left -- but it seemed the polite thing to do. I didn't work last night since it was late and my brain was turning off, so I now have a lot to do to get ready for work today. I'm also meeting a dear friend, the church's children's ministry director and a fellow teacher at the moms group, for coffee this morning. No moms group due to spring break for the local public schools.

Somehow, I need to get my car's oil changed and back brake lamp fixed before I leave town tomorrow morning. I might stop by the oil change place tomorrow morning.

It looks like another gray day. But I looked at the forecast, and it looks like we'll be in the 60s and 70s next week. I'll be looking forward to that.

9:00 - coffee with friend
1 - 6:15-ish out to payroll
dinner: leftovers, steamed artichokes, bread

[Kathryn-in-Canada]

Good morning. Thought it was Friday today so glad someone else opened the thread!

Re: IKEA

Shipping is uber-expensive so Lucylee's ds is right, it is cheaper to drive to Atlanta. Dd doesn't have a car so she looked into shipping. It is cheaper for her to rent a car for a day. In fact, the day she couldn't get our car out of the parking lot while we were away, she was using it to buy some chairs. The website is very accurate as to availability and I stress you should check that before leaving on a long drive to pick up something.

Weight of boxes: The weight is clearly noted on the sales tags. Real wood is much lighter than the particle board they mostly use but of course the cost of that furniture is much higher.

Service: no where near the quality of service of Costco. Even Walmart can be better (depends on the individual manager's motivation of staff.) On the other hand, they stand behind their product 100% and are empowered to support the customer resolve difficulties. But they created cheap furniture, your job is to load everything yourself and assemble it yourself. That's the trade-off.

Assembly: an acquired skill. Ds actually has a drill attachment for the alan key so he is very fast doing installation. Our local college puts together a competition and teams compete to assemble a dining table set. The winners get to keep the set. That's how ds and dfs ended up with a table and chairs for their first apartment! Interestingly, my dyslexic ds has no trouble following the instructions, but that may explain why 'normal' people have trouble!

Long-life of product: as I've said before, the pieces I bought when I first moved out on my own, over 30 years ago, are mostly still in use. The main exception is the drawer fronts of one style of dresser were clipped on with plastic and they didn't last as well. Of the four units we bought, only 3 are still in use (as the drawers broke, we'd move the working drawers over to other units.) Oh, and the 2 seater couch broke but that was due to teenage boys flopping onto it and it couldn't take the stress.

Restaurant Food: Harriet now understands what I mean when I say I don't dine, I eat. I love going to IKEA to eat! As part of the cheap food, you serve yourself and clean up after yourself. That is not to say the people who work there aren't friendly, they just expect you to do your bit. As for friendliness, ds eats there often enough that they know him and when he's depressed he often goes there for positive human contact. For him, they are life-line.

[Kathryn-in-Canada]

I'm up after 9 hours in bed. Unloaded the dishwasher, have had the tea and chocolate.

Am enjoying my 4 dozen flowers.

My legs were too itchy to stay in bed longer. I haven't reported this here but I got the same itchiness I get on other cruises. I have no idea what is causing it, it must be allergies of some sort. It started after a week on board the ship and wasn't as severe this time but is lasting longer. In the past it has taken about 2 weeks to subside at home but seems to have improved not a bit since leaving the ship. No rash this time, just bad itching, 90% on my lower leg. I have bought ointment (doesn't seem to be working) and took an anti-itch antihistamine last night. They make me very drowsy to I hate to take them in the daytime. My nails are longer (after weeks of not using my hands) and I'm scratching myself too much so just making the problem worse. Today I used a chilled gel-pack to calm the itch once I got out of bed.

I also had water retention issues on the ship. Once again, club soda was the issue. Their Canada Dry low sodium club soda had 115 mg per can. The Canada Dry low sodium in the lounge on the way home had 45 mg (that's why it took me a while to figure out the culprit.) Things like Peligrino are about 10. So I switched from club soda to the peligrino fairly quickly on the ship and I didn't get to the scary stages I have in the past.

Processing mail and writing the services for Sunday are my priority for the day (another reason I don't want to take drowsy anti-histamines.)

[BookSaver]

Good morning, villagers ~
It's so good to cuop and see all of you. I'm so happy to see the good news about baby Caroline.

When I disappear off the board for a few days, you know I'm
1) buried deep in 1 or more projects, pushing through to deadlines
2) buried under piles of paper
3) swamped doing work for other people
4) feeling like I'm not making any progress on anything
5) all of the above

We had a lovely Easter weekend with both families, and work at the library is going great, but I feel like I've been in a pressure cooker with everything else.

And then we just learned in the last few days that DMIL has decided to move from the wonderful seniors apartment building with lots of amenities ... back to her big house, which is currently such a mess that no one could live there. (We had been waiting until the older siblings returned from wintering in Texas before everyone pitched in to clean and clear to get ready to sell the house.) The older siblings are taking care of organizing the renovations that need to be done by contractors before DMIL can move back.

We will be going up this weekend to help pack up things for SalArmy, and clear the way for workers. I hope they can arrange for SalArmy to bring a truck, but I'm afraid they don't do pickups in that town and we'll have to load everyone's vehicles to haul ourselves.

Today I have
* a bunch of desk work for the sewing and library groups this morning
* must wash my hair
* long meeting for the sewing group this afternoon
* paying gig this evening
I'm trying to figure out what I want to do for meals because the timing will be messed up.

[Twins' Mom]

Good morning! I was up and about at 7 thanks to a very persistent obnoxious dog - Macs. I posted overnight in yesterday's thread, was up and couldn't get back to sleep so I really didn't get enough rest. Outing with dmom still OMM - I posted about this that a cousin (not my favorite cousin, by any means) is to take dmom out for lunch and a visit to cemetery today. I'm thinking that I shouldn't have gotten involved, and just let this go where it will but I'm already involved now. Dfavorite cousin sounded like she wants to do this but has concerns. I think I said that I've taken mother out for the last three weeks for dr appointments, and it's not easy and she really doesn't care much for the effort of getting out.

So I need to zip through a.m. routine and get moving. Perhaps should call dbro too to see what he knows, if anything!

[RunKitty]

(((Lady M and family))) So sorry about your dear dog.
(((Twins and Moses))) Hope he's feeling better.
(((Clueless Friend and her rabbits)))
(((Everyone else))) Have a peaceful day.

[Nancy]

I will have a thrilling Thursday if I can get the taxes prep mostly done today formh to look over.

Yarn meeting in the pm amd #3 dgd will be coming aftwr school day.

I am nearly done w qt & journaling time to s2s & fed.

[Twins' Mom]

Yes, I need to work on tax prep also.

Crisis averted - dmom doesn't want to out today but is happy for anyone to visit her. D.not.favorite.cousin may go on by herself today, and next week I will pick up d.favorite.cousin when I go visit dmom. And I have d.not.favorite cousin's phone number so I can deal with her myself next time. Dbro should have put his foot down when d.not.fav.cousin called him, turns out she never talked to dmom. D.favorite.cousin really shouldn't be driving herself, and d.not.favorite.cousin expected her to do so, so she wasn't keen on going today either.

Meanwhile, I've gotten through most of a.m. routine, need to take dMacs out to walk.

I feel for LadyM and her family. Such a hard decision. When I was little, we had a weimaraner that bit a neighbor child through a fence. I have very, very vague memories of it, but he was "put down."

-walk dMacs
-reboot laundry over to dry
-refill meds containers
-clean out my car a bit
-head out on errand run

Plan is to do errands, as many as possible and get groceries back home, go see dmom later in afternoon, and then on to stamp club at 6 p.m.

[Kathryn-in-Canada]

I've s2s and touched up my pedicure. This cheap black nail polish has real staying power. On the ship my pedicure lasted over 2 weeks. My second one with my Opi brand nail polish, lasted less than a week. So I put the black back on and here I am, almost 2 weeks later and only one toe nail was noticeable although I touched up two. So I'm in sandals right now instead of lace-up shoes. Have my pant legs pulled up over my knees too so the anti-itch lotion can work without be rubbed off. So far, so good, my legs were really itchy after the heat of the shower but have calmed down.

I'm going to grab a timer and start 15's.

TTFN!

Edited to add: Paintings have been swapped. Discovered why one wasn't changed from last summer - there is no room to store it in the cupboard! (Dh has tucked it behind the filing cabinet in the office until I come up with another solution to this problem - like find a year-round spot for the seascape in our bedroom which is still awaiting art to go up.)