Healthy Living Thread

[Dee*Jay]

Happy Thursday kids!

Zoe, 1500 cals does not sound like too much, especially if you’re working out. Plus, your body will tell you if it is too much because you won’t lose any weight (obviously!), but the danger I run into is too few cals, so you definitely don’t want to go too far in that direction either. And LOL on throwing away the cupcake. Around the holidays we had tons of stuff floating around my office and people would come in and proudly present me with whatever they/their SOs had baked. As soon as they were out the door it in went right in the trash. Well, except for those magic cookie bars that my boss’s wife made!

Marcy, so now that the cleaning lady has been there a few times, have to decided if you like it or not? And I know what you mean about the downside of being a manager. Honestly, if I never manage any staff again it will be fine with me! And several people from my class have contacted the administration about the lousy teacher. Hopefully something will come of it because I am sure otherwise many of us will be looking at failing grades…

Ate TERRIBLY yesterday… it started off OK with a Kind bar and a banana, but then I had a cheeseburger before I headed back to the airport, and then cheezits, peppermint patties, fritos, and a mini Kind bar (different flavor than the breakfast Kind bar!) as I chomped my way through class last night. ACK. Today is our monthly office lunch—pizza!—so all hope is lost until tomorrow.

My interview went well yesterday. The guy I would work for asked about my time frame since I'm in KC and would need to get back, and the his boss said my "expertise certainly matched up with their needs." But I am not reading too much into it since the last time I checked I wasn't sitting here with an offer in my hand! They said they want to make a decision by the end of next week, so time will tell...

 

[zoebartlett]

!

Hi All!

Dee*Jay, if your boss brings you something, OF COURSE you need to try it. It wouldn't be polite to turn down something your boss gives you, would it? Thanks for the advice on the amount of calories I should try to stick to. I'll keep it in mind. It's too bad your teacher isn't good. Hopefully your grade won't suffer because of it. I'm glad the interview went well!

I went completely overboard with dinner last night. I had a meeting at school so I stayed right through until it began (and had a lovely 14 hour work day). Afterwards, I stopped at Wendy's on the way home to pick up a burger for my husband. How was I going to turn down getting something for myself when I was there anyway? So at 9:30 PM (well past my usual bedtime), I ate a medium sized fish combo meal with it's accompanying diet coke that could have been shared by three people. I felt guilty that I fell off the wagon completely but it didn't stop me from eating and drinking the whole thing. Ugh. I went to the gym this morning, so that made me feel somewhat better.

It's stopped snowing for now but the big storm is still on its way. 18-24 inches is expected. I went to the grocery store early this morning and was surprised that it wasn't busy. I guess everyone went yesterday instead. I got the usual things as well as grass-fed ground bison and hormone/antibiotic-free ground turkey for chili I'm going to make tomorrow.

I should be doing some work right now but I think I'll go take a nap instead. Sounds much better, doesn't it?

 

[marcy]

Hi everyone. Yay for the weekend being here.

Dee Jay, woo hoo for your interview going well. Of course you have to enjoy the treats your boss’s wife sent you. This was the second time our cleaning lady came over and I am quite fine with it. It is so nice to come home to a clean house. I know Marty is loving that fact he doesn’t have anyone working for him. When he quit his last job he had about 85 direct and indirect reports. I only have 5. Good luck with getting something done about your horrible teacher. If a lot of students are unhappy, struggling and may have poor grades then there is definitely something wrong with the instructor.

Zoe, I hope you don’t lose electricity with all the snow. How much did you end up getting there? It sounds like tomorrow will be a great day to make chili.

I had another busy day at work. When I got home Marty suggested going to supper and looking for countertop for his wet bar. We stopped by Home Depot then went to Lowes. I thought we’d never get out of there. At least they have good diamond lighting. We got the countertop, sink, plumbing stuff and a dimmer switch for our supernova lights in the bathroom.

Tonight I spent some time doing up some cheat sheets on how to use an iPad to give my parents. Marty’s new iPad will show up next week so then I can set up his old one for my parents to try. If they don’t like it I am sure I can sell it.

Marty is either going to Ethiopia then the UK or staying home this week. If he does go on his trip he’ll be gone 2 weeks. He had a trip to Atlanta planned this week but they cancelled it since they are working on a trip to Ethiopia. I will be freaking out at that excursion.

We are expecting some snow this weekend too but nothing like the storm poor Zoe is getting. I hope to stay home and be lazy this weekend. I need the mental vacation.

Take care.
Marcy

 

[zoebartlett]

Good morning!

Marcy, we got 2 feet of snow. It's still snowing and the wind is blowing it everywhere. There aren't many power outages in my state, so that's good. I don't think there will be either since this storm's supposed to wind down this afternoon. The clean up won't be fun though.

It sounds like we hired our cleaning lady around the same time. I love coming home to a spotless house. I have to admit though, the hardest thing for us is keeping up with clearing the clutter before she comes. Now, if we left the piles of mail out and other random things lying around and then came home to that stuff taken care of (put away for us!), it would be a much more noticeable difference. Does that make sense? Safe travels for Marty!

I have a feeling I'm not going to make it to our clubhouse gym today. It's too nasty out there. I'm going to just stay in and catch up on some things I DVRd last week.

 

[Dee*Jay]

Happy Saturday kids!

Marcy, doing a cheat sheet for your parents is a great idea! Is Marty going to install the counter/sink/faucets himself? I don't know what it is about men and putting things together, but more power to him!

Zoe, sounds like you are really getting dumped on with the snow. I'm glad you haven't lost power. And I think any blizzard permits gym skipping! (I personally have engaged in gym skipping since I saw it snow in Aspen... a month ago... !)

I got up early (6:30 -- ACK!) to go to the Porsche club breakfast this morning, and now I'm home and in all-out homework mode. I'm going to try to do both this Monday and next Monday's assignments because I'm going to Chicago next weekend for the auto show and I don't want to have any homework hanging over my head.

On the way back from breakfast I stopped at the grocery store and got a few things. I'm going to make some sugar free Jello with bananas in it. No idea why, but that just sounded so good to me!

OK, off to the land of CPA...

 

[deegee]

Hi all!

Zoe-I can't even imagine how people are handling so much snow so fast! I remember several years ago we had nearly 3 ft of snow fall over the course of a day. It shut everything down for a full week. We're not prepared for that here! Stay safe and warm. Surely you don't have school tomorrow. I know what you mean about cleaning up before the cleaning crew comes. We have found that it makes us make the effort to pick up after ourselves throughout the week a little better, but were still scrambling around the night before!

Marcy-wow! Marty sure does travel. He'd like this project I'm on. Last week we meet with programmers and system architects...all over my head! Matt spent last week in his Louisville office. He hasn't had to go overseas yet. How do you handle it? That's a great idea for you to make a cheat sheet for your parents for the ipad. I hope they do like it and want to keep it! I have considered getting the Samsung Galaxy Note tablet and giving my ipad to my dad for him to use when he is recovering from his surgery, which he is still putting off. He's going to end up in a wheelchair before long if he doesn't take care of it. Are your folks doing okay? Matt will be installing a new sink/vanity in the downstairs half bath. He hates plumbing so bad! Right now the new set in sitting in my family room. I hope he doesn't put it off too long.

Dee*Jay-gosh woman! I swear you're always studying or flying someplace! You must have loads of energy. Good to hear your interview went well, and hopefully they will replace your lousy teacher. What a waste! I don't think I could get up at 6:30 on a Saturday for any reason...

The project at work is really ramping up. We're on a tight time crunch for this part, so it is early mornings and late evenings. I barely have time to gulp down my cottage cheese and blueberries in the morning before our meetings start at 8. We have a quick break at 10:30, catered lunch/work at 12:00-12:30, a break at 2:30, and then go straight through until 7. The lunches have been wraps (I get veggie and pull off a lot of the shell), potato or pasta salad, a bag of chips (which I skip), and a cookie. Dinner is whatever is fast and on the way home. I was in bed Friday night by 9 and slept until 10 on Saturday. I think I only woke up because lily was on top of me, cleaning my face! This week is our travel week. We have all-day meetings in 3 different cities, and were flying to the city of the day and back home each day. Food will not be good. We have a few more weeks of the crazy schedule, and then things will calm back down some. We took advantage of an unseasonably warm day today and took Lily to the park for playtime. We took a long walk on a trail through the woods, and it felt really nice not to have anything to have to do. Gotta go get a few things done before bed. I have to be at the airport bright and early in the morning. Have a great day!

 

[marcy]

Hi everyone!

Zoe, I hope you get to stay home tomorrow. I was just looking at some of the pictures from the blizzard; there is a lot of snow to dig out! It is funny that we all go around and pick up things before the cleaning lady comes. I have been moving my laptop. I keep it in the living room and hate to have her move it for dusting or cleaning the floors. I’ve been trying to keep the upstairs picked up but sometimes it’s tough.

Dee Jay, yes Marty is doing all the plumbing. He actually does a nice job on everything and enjoys doing it. I can’t stand the mess but at least it’s downstairs. How fun to have breakfast with the Porsche club. Did you eat any of your jello and bananas? That does sound tasty. How are you studies?

Deegee, we used to dump everything on our dining room table at the old house but we are actually using it to eat in the new house. Plus we don’t get much mail now so that helps with clutter. I am always freaked out about Marty traveling but some of the places he goes are more scary than others. I honestly feel pretty safe in the new house but at this point in time I don’t know any better. I hope Matt gets the sink and vanity put in soon. I think Marty likes plumbing the least when he does a project. Good luck with your busy work project and traveling.

Yesterday I spent about 2 hours on work - something that should have taken me 15 minutes at the most ended up being 2 hours because I couldn’t stay connected on my work laptop so I finally had to drive in to work. Then my boss couldn’t connect either so I had to send him a picture so he could check it. Technology is great when it works.

Then I went in to Turbo Tax to hopefully finish up our taxes and get them efiled only to have it tell me we can’t efile because of some form that the IRS won’t accept through efile. After googling what was going on it appears it’s not the IRS but it’s Turbo Tax and if you use H&R Block you won’t have that problem. So I spent a great deal of my afternoon filling in our data on the H&R Block website. What a pain to enter all of that twice. H&R Block came up with a slightly larger return for us though and it submitted electronically without issue. Woo hoo! Then today I got worried I messed something up since the refund was different so I reviewed everything again. It all looks good to me. Of course I don’t have skills like Dee Jay and Skippy so who knows if it’s right! We don’t really have any weird income or deductions - mortgage interest, property taxes, our old house wasn’t worth enough to incur capital gains and we sold a few stocks which I had all the info necessary to list them out on our return. Easy Peasy!

Marty was going to breakfast with a friend this morning but his friend cancelled on him so I had to figure out something for breakfast. I made homemade soup for lunch and we made nachos out of leftover tacos for supper. We had some strawberries for dessert.

I went to the post office, bank and grocery store early this morning. We have about a 15” drift in the driveway which was fun to get through. The roads were either drifted or icy. While we were eating lunch my mom called and said she had slid out of her chair and couldn’t get up. We drove over right away and helped get her back up. She didn’t hurt herself but I hated to see she slipped. My dad went with some friends for the day to the mountains. I told her yesterday to keep her cell phone with her at all times so she at least listened to me and had it with her.

Since we were out Marty stopped at Lowes to get his 177th item(or so it seems) for his wet bar. I think he is down to the top of the bar. Woo hoo! Since I’ve spent more time in hardware stores in the last few weeks than I can stand; I just stayed in the car.

It seems like I was in the kitchen more often than not this weekend . I have a lot of leftovers for suppers this week though.

Well, sadly the weekend is almost over. I am glad to be going to work tomorrow though because I’ll be a basket case waiting for Marty to arrive in Ethiopia. He leaves the house at 7:30 our time tomorrow and gets to his destination sometime Tuesday afternoon. He’ll be TIRED.

I might have to crank on the fireplace. I am chilly.

Laters,
Marcy

 

[deegee]

I had planned to get in bed early tonight, but I always get all freaky pre-flying nervous before a trip. I'm flying on the state's small (9 passengers and 2 pilots) private plane. I have been on this plane too many times! I like to sit right behind the pilots because you can see out the front window and it's pretty cool. Once I get over the jitters, that is.

Marcy - I can't believe how long it will take poor Marty to get to his destination. How much of that is plane time? He's a tall guy...I hope he gets lots of leg and elbow room. I think you guys spend as much as we do at Home Depot and Lowes! When we get finished with our improvements, we're not going to want to move. We're finally getting things done that I have wanted to for years and the house is looking pretty darn awesome. I can't make this drive for 13 more years until retirement, so that is the motivator. I bet Marty's wet bar will be great when he's finished. He won't want to come out of the basement. I bought a new keyboard for my iPad today. So far I love it! It is so much easier for my creaky fingers!!!

I have to get myself to bed - I have to be at the airport in less than 7 hours. Ahh!

 

[marcy]

Deegee, the private plane sounds very nice. Have a safe trip. Yes, poor Marty gets pretty cramped up on planes. To get to Ethiopia he flies in to 4 airports. I think he will be on planes about 22 hours total. He will be very tired when he gets there since he never can sleep on a plane. I had the same thought about renovating our old house. We had redone the entire main floor except the guest bath and it looked so nice I kind of hated to move but this appears to be a smart move for us.

 

[Dee*Jay]

Happy Monday kids!

Deegee, your schedule sounds GRUELING! And it’s so hard to eat well when you travel. There have been many a day when I’ve had nothing but travel/airport food and it’s just blech! As for a 9 passenger plane…

Marcy, one of the joys of living along is that I can stand in front of the open refrigerator in my underwear and eat jello with bananas right out of the big Tupperware bowl with a spoon! That’s so odd about TurboTax/H&R block, especially the part about getting different numbers. Stuff like that makes me CRAZY!

So I was pretty good this weekend, with this exception of the French toast and sausage I had for breakfast on Saturday morning. And I studied studied studied… I actually finished the Becker review for this part of the course, even though it’s not due until the 23rd, and I’m going to fax it all in today to that will be off my plate.

Other than that, nothing exciting to report…

 

[marcy]

Happy Monday PS Sparklers!

Dee Jay, too funny eat out of your tupperware bowl at the refrigerator. May as well, huh? Yes, the difference in my taxes made me nervous enough I checked it all over again. Yay for getting some of your studies done early. I always liked students that turned in things early.

We woke up about 3:30. Rats. Marty got up and did some work. I finally went back to sleep about 5:30 sadly my alarm went off 45 minutes later.

Marty and I left about the same time. He is on the plan to Amsterdam right now. He is only about 1/3 of the way to Ethiopia by now. He’ll be beat.

Work was okay today. I was just anxious to come home but not for any particular reason. I had leftovers for lunch and supper. I can eat cheap when Marty is out of town.

Take care.
Marcy

 

[deegee]

Howdy!

Dee*Jay - I always try not to think about how tiny this plane is. It is actually really nice inside - big leather captain's chairs that you can move around, tables that pull out from the side, a stash of drinks and snacks. The pilots are awesome. Last year we flew from Charleston, WV to Albany, then to Des Moines, then to Baton Rouge, and then back to Charleston in a span of 3 days. That nearly did me in! Eating out of the fridge in undies sounds pretty sweet to me. I never go downstairs without clothes on because we have too many uncovered windows on the backside of our house. The neighbors would never let me live down eating out of the fridge in my undies!

marcy - it sounds like you guys are happy in your new place. I check real estate listings every day, and I am on an email list to receive new listings a day or two before they hit the website. There are a few we want to go see, but we can't get our schedules together enough to do anything. I'm traveling this week and Matt is traveling next week. Argh! We went back to look at the big house with the intention of deciding whether or not to make an offer. We realized it has 3 family rooms, a living room, media room, dining room, study, eat-in kitchen, 4 full bedrooms, 5 bathrooms (meaning 5 toilets!), and 3 staircases. We left with no doubt in our minds that it is too big for us and decided not to make an offer. That's a bummer you woke up so early this morning. I hate it when that happens.

I got back home a little while ago. I had a granola bar for breakfast after we landed. Lunch was a boxed lunch brought in to our meeting. I was so hungry I ate everything in my little box, unfortunately. I had a ham sandwich, potato chips, a cookie and a bottle of water. For dinner we stopped on the way home and I had a slice of meatloaf, green beans, and mashed potatoes. I had a healthy snack of grapes this evening, and I'm just about ready to fall asleep. Matt, Lily and I took a 3 mile walk which felt really nice after sitting in meetings all day. I have a meeting bright and early in the morning to go over what we learned in our all day meeting today. I'm getting really tired of all these meetings! Have a great day tomorrow.

 

[marcy]

Dee Jay, the plane sounds great to me especially comfy chairs. That house does sound really big. We are enjoying our house. Good luck with your house search. It is so time consuming and difficult. Did you see the pretty crescent moon on your walk tonight?

Marty found bear 5 and 6 before he left and his them. I found them in the recliners in his man cave.

Laters

 

[Dee*Jay]

Happy Tuesday kids!

Deegee, the fact that my neighbors would have to suffer at the sight of nearly (or sometimes *completely*) naked me wandering around my house would be all the more reason for me to do it. Serves them right for looking in!

Marcy, I hate it when I fall back asleep just in time for the alarm to go off! Is Marty just change planes in Amsterdam or does he have business there too? I've never been, but would love to go!

This week is spiraling slightly out of control... I work up this morning at 5:30 with just an absolute killer fvcking headache, and oddly enough it was on the right side and my headaches are ALWAYS on the left side. I got some excedrine and then couldn't go back to sleep so I decided to come in to the office early and put together my letter to the State Board of Accoutancy, which I had originally hoped to get done on Thursday night and send out on Friday, but since I was up anyway I figured I'd just get it out of the way.

The firm I interviewed with in Chicago is currently checking my references. The $64 million dollar question is still whether or not they can afford me. (And I might not really cost $64 million, but I am relatively expensive in the compliance space becuase I have a very esoteric background and I know what that's worth.) Anyway, time will tell. It would be nice if I knew one way or the other though becuase if I'm in Chicago over the weekend anyway I could look at a few apartments if it comes to that. (Have I said that already? I'm having a deja vu moment!)

Alright, off to build some more pivot tables in an effort to construct meaningful analysis from the quarter's data. One some crazy level I enjoy this... on a different saner level there are moments when I'm ready to throw this computer right out the window!

 

[deegee]

Dee*Jay - you will have passed the CPA exam, accepted a new job, and found a new apartment in Chicago before Matt and I get around to finding a place to live closer to work. You make things happen! I'm jealous.

marcy - we did see a really pretty moon while walking last night. When I taught 6th grade, I remember teaching a unit on the phases of the moon. I hope Marty has reached his destination and if not, I hope he gets there soon. My dad was stationed in Amsterdam while he was in the air force. He has lots of pictures, but unfortunately it was in the early 1950's and the pictures are black & white. How long will Marty be gone? Matt was out of town last week, I'm traveling this week, and he is back out of town next week. Someday we'll both be home at the same time and we'll go look at houses!

I have officially run out of steam. We had a meeting at the bank this evening after work. We were finalizing getting downpayment funds ready for in the event we actually find a house, and Matt and the investment guy talked investment strategies for nearly two hours. I was about to fall out of my chair. Afterwards we stopped for dinner at a Mexican restaurant, and then to the pharmacy for less-drowsy formula dramamine. Yesterday was a very windy day and the flight was rough and the landing was horrible. All 9 of us had varying degrees of motion sickness by the time we got off the plane. I never get motion sick, but nearly lost it on this flight. Tomorrow I will be prepapred, just in case. Matt and I plan to walk tonight but if he isn't ready in about a half an hour, I'm going to bed. I'm really tired and I have to be at the airport again bright and early in the morning. Have a great day!

 

[marcy]

Howdy ladies and lurkers!

Dee Jay, LOL at letting your neighbors suffer for looking. That is right - mind your own business! Marty just changed planes in Amsterdam but he sure thought it was a nice airport. You are so busy with your studies, projects and tests plus looking for a job. You are wearing me out just thinking about all of it. After being out of teaching for 2 years I don’t know how I had time to work 2 jobs plus do everything else. I guess we all just manage to get done what we need to get done. Who needs sleep? Funny about them checking references. They haven’t called me yet. Is your headache better? The medicine cabinet at work has some generic “pain away” that is awesome. The ingredients match Excedrin migraine but I swear they work better.

Deegee, do you have a realtor yet? If you don’t definitely ask around for recommendations; I don’t want you to end up with a lulu like we had. Marty gets home on the 22nd. Too bad you and Matt can’t be traveling at the same time but then again someone needs to stay home with your “kids”. How exciting to be getting ready for the deposit on a house. Hopefully you’ll get a chance to look next weekend. Rats for getting motion sick; hopefully the rest of the trips are much smoothers.

Zoe, has the snow gone down yet? Did they have school today?

Sharon, are you getting any of this snow? Looks like more storms are rolling in everywhere.

Skippy, have you had any snow there?

I went to bed about 10:15 last night. Marty landed in Amsterdam a little after 11 and text me for awhile. He did make it to Ethiopia. He and the Killer Rabbit got to the hotel okay. He hit $50 data usage in 5 minutes so he shut that off on his phone. The hotel was supposed to have wifi but I haven’t heard from him yet. Of course since he’d been up about 2 days by then I am sure he went right to sleep. Except for the builder calling him and waking him up. The guy called me then and said he couldn’t quite understand him since it was a bad connection and said I think he’s overseas somewhere. When I told him Ethiopia was kind of surprised. We have about 20 things they still need to do or tweak on our house so he wants to get those scheduled. I told him to set it up after Marty gets back. I don’t want to take off work for that kind of thing. They can at least finish our fence and put up our hand rail outside.

Marty’s iPad arrived today. I took a picture of teddies # 5 and # 6 and posted on FB saying how excited Brownie and Rerun were to get an iPad. That will get Marty’s attention when he wakes up. Ha!

I met a friend for lunch today. She is going to bring over supper tomorrow night (I am picking up wine) and she is going to do some jewelry shopping. I have a ton of pieces I want to sell. I just don’t wear them anymore. I may as well sell some to get some cash for my next jewelry project.

My parents invited me to go to dinner with them on Valentine’s day. My dance card is filling up.

I had the last of my homemade soup for supper. It was tasty on a chilly night.

Take care.
Marcy

 

[zoebartlett]

Wow, lots to catch up on!

Deegee, you've been busy, haven't you? Do you like traveling for work? I think it would be fun once in a while. Safe travels!

Marcy, it's great that Marty is so handy. My husband wouldn't know what to do with a box of tools if he tried. That is a loooonnnnngggg flight (well, flightS) to Ethiopia! I'm glad your mom is okay. Yes, we had snow on Monday. We (staff) were sent home right after school that day because parents were coming in at dismissal to say that the roads were pretty icy. Things have improved so we've been in school all week. No one lost power that I know of due to the storm last weekend, so that's good. What kind of soup did you make?

Dee*Jay, I hope the office in Chicago makes you an offer you can't refuse. Good luck!

I'm getting sick again and I'm really tired of it. I was sick over Christmas vacation and I'm pretty sure I'll be sick over February vacation, which is the last week of the month. I went for a follow up to the ENT and he said that my sinuses aren't actually that bad and that I don't need surgery. I was so focused on not needing it that I forgot to ask a few questions. I should call this week. I'm so tired of getting sick every few months because it wipes me out each time. I'm not sure what to do about it but it's making me cranky.

Things at work have been a bit stressful. I can't go into details but I expect things to get worse before they get better. Ugh. The good news is that tomorrow is Valentine's Day and we're having a party in the afternoon. That should lighten things up.

 

[Dee*Jay]

Deegee, LOL on making things happen. I had an old boss who called me “The Queen of Get Sh!t Done.” I’m so sorry that you (and everyone else) was (were) not feeling good on the flight. That is the worst thing in the world. Last year in Maui I went on a snorkel cruise and I felt BLECH the whole way back. So strange because I don’t get sea sick. But I was damn glad to get back to dry land!

Marcy, in my entire adult life I’ve always had either more than one job or worked and gone to school at the same time. I actually have moment of panic when I have nothing to do. Some people (read NORMAL people!!!) look forward to down time; entire days or weekends with nothing that needs to happen. I GO INTO PANIC MODE. It’s a disease. There is no cure, but alcohol helps!

Zoe, sitting here patiently tiddling my thumbs waiting for the phone to ring. Who knows… I’ve kind of resigned myself to NOT having this work out, so if it does it will be even more thrilling. I’m sorry you are sick again, and adding extra stress at work is not helping any. I forgot tomorrow is VD! I’ll have to dig something red or pink out of the closet to wear.

So I’m at 126.4 according to the evil scale this morning. I was thinking 125 was going to be my goal because last time I hit 125 I looked great, but the difference is I was working out then and I’m not at the moment. Soooo….. I’m (a) shooting for 120 and/or working out again. Oh well, 126 is better than 136, which is better than 146, so I grateful for what it is!

Last night I studied (kind of in a half a$$ed way) for my midterm tonight. At some point you either know it or you don’t.

OK, back to spreadsheet maina. Wrapping up year end – oh joy!

 

[Dee*Jay]

LOL, you guys will appreciate this!

So I always type my post in email first so I can read it over and spell check it. I've been "not saving the draft" thinking that if I deleted the text first it would just save a blank message (which matters more when I'm talking about the Chicago gig, etc., than it does when I'm moaning about my homework, or that sort of thing). Well, I just went into my deleted folder to see if I had accidently put something in there -- AND ALL MY POSTS ARE IN THERE IN THEIR FULL GLORY. HAHAHAHAHA!!!!! I'm so smart -- NOT!!!!!

Needless to say, I opened every one, deleted the text, saved them, and then deleted them for real.

Yes, I know that nothing is every REALLY deleted, but it somehow made me feel better.

What a moron I am sometimes!!!!!

 

[zoebartlett]

Dee*Jay, I know what you mean about down time. My husband's convinced I think up stuff we need to get done on the weekends to keep us out and about. Although I love down time, I also like making plans. Every weekend we go through the same conversation:

Me: What do you want to do this weekend?
Him: I don't know, maybe nothing.
Me: I don't follow. What do you mean 'nothing?'
Him: Can't we just see how the weekend plays out and go out if/when want to without making specific plans?
Me: Nope. Haven't you known me long enough?
Him: Okay, then what do you want to do?
Me: Okay great, let's run errands, go to the movies or visit our families, we could look at cars, oh and we could also...

 

[deegee]

Hello!

marcy - can I come shopping in your jewelry box? Or I won't complain if you want to just send me a few things to help you make room for new stuff. We haven't started working with a realtor just yet but I did meet one at an open house I really liked. She is a retired state employee who used to work with one of my coworkers. She was a division director for the state tax department, and my coworker speaks highly of her. That doesn't speak to her real estate skills though. I sure don't want one like you had! Are you happy with your decision to build rather than buy a house? Matt and I have tossed that idea around some, but it scares me half to death!

dee*jay - I like to get stuff done, which is why I get all of the crap jobs at work! Let's give it to dee, she'll get it done. Now if only they paid me for getting stuff done. I wish I had your confidence to say "Hey, I know what I'm worth. Pay me!" I can say that to Matt, but not my boss. I'm envious of the numbers on your "hateful" scale. I'm sure I'd cry if I weighed myself right now. For some reason I'm starving all of the time. I think the food I'm eating is fattening but not filling. Do you find that is the case when you travel a lot?

zoe - I don't mind traveling for work if it isn't a crazy schedule. This year I have a day in between each city. Last year it was city to city each day and it was exhausting. I'm sorry to hear you're getting sick again. I usually get one or two sinus infections a year and I feel absolutely lousy when I have one. I can't imagine getting a bunch of them a year. I have a coworker who ended up having surgery on her sinuses last year. I need to ask if she has seen a major improvement.

Today's flight went so much smoother than Monday's. It was snowing, but the wind was minimal. We also had our favorite pilots this time, and they will be flying us on Friday too. They remembered I had a horrible inner ear infection last time and was on major medicines, and they took good care of me on the plane by watching their ascent and descent. Flying on a private plane really spoils you for all other methods of travel! Food was bad. It will be bad through Friday and then I should be able to get back to a fairly normal diet. Lily plowed full-force, head-on into my knee last night causing it to hyperextend (is that the right word?). It is really sore today so we didn't take our walk tonight. Plus it is snowing, and I am clearly an accident waiting to happen. I have another early meeting, so I'm off to bed. Have a great day tomorrow!

 

[marcy]

Hi everyone. Lots of posts since last nice. Sweet!

Zoe, I actually kind of wish Marty wasn’t handy because he makes such a mess when he does projects. I was pleased at how well he cleaned up his wet bar before he left. He enjoys making things and doing things around the house. He made a desk out of pine that is absolutely beautiful. He sees all the flaws that he knows are there but I sure don’t see them. Glad to hear you didn’t lose power and you are back at school. I hate to hear your sinuses are acting up. That can sure make you miserable. I hope they get better soon. I can so identify with you on stressful things at work. It makes for lots of stress on and off the clock. Have fun at the party. LOL at keeping yourself and DH busy on the weekend.

Dee Jay, I can really identify with keeping busy and having no down time. Marty laughs at me when a commercial comes on - I am up and doing something. I can’t say I minded slowing down after I quit teaching but I was certainly that busy for 21 years. LOL at “Queen of getting Sh*t done!” Once people know you'll get things done, they will just give you more to do. The curse of competency. As for studying - I agree, there is a point where you either know it or you don’t. Woo hoo for the scale being good to you. Congratulations you’ve worked hard to get there.

Deegee, I am selling some of the pieces of jewelry I don’t wear like aqua, tanzanite, rhodolite, etc. They are not the best pieces of jewelry but not bad pieces either. A friend came over tonight and between her and her mom I sold more than 1/2 of what I wanted to sell. I gave them a great deal for 3 sets (rings, earrings, pendants and bracelets). I will take the last few pieces to work and see if I can sell them. I would definitely get recommendations on a realtor just because we had such a bad experience. We don’t regret going with having our house built at all. The area we picked has lots for sale and then you have about 15 floor plans to pick from that you can modify or customize (for more $$) as desired. They got it done in 5 months and still have a few tweaks to finish up. Locally the used houses were the same price range as a new house. I like that everything is new, we picked out everything that they put in here and we have a year warranty to get anything fixed or addressed in a year plus a 10 year structure warranty. I was also hesitant on a used home because of my allergies / asthma moving in somewhere where they might have had cats or smoked. Sorry to hear about your knee. I hope it gets better.

Today was quite interesting at work. As I walked in at lunch time I was pulled in to a conference call in our directors office about a problem. It ended up it was something we did but we had no way of knowing we did it. 4 hours later and after explaining it to a dozen or so people I submitted some bugs for our software and haven’t heard anything else. I will see what tomorrow brings.

My friend came over with pizzas in hand and I bought wine. We each had about 3 glasses. I am actually pretty tired. I took a picture of the teddy bears with Marty’s Valentine’s card and box of chocolate and posted it on his Facebook page. I told him his sappy card was safe but the bears might eat his chocolates.

Marty called me from Ethiopia last night. He doesn't see armed guards around there like Uganda so he thought it might be a little easier to at least wander around a little. His business meeting is Thursday their time then he will head to the UK for a week.

Take care. I think I’ll get ready for bed soon. I think that wine made me tired.
Marcy

 

[Dee*Jay]

Happy VD kids! (Well actually, VD probably wouldn't be happy, but you know what I mean! )

Marcy, UGH for unexpected things that suddenly whack four hours out of your day! That used to happen to me all the time at my last company, except it would usually end with, "And you're heading for LA in a flight that leaves in three hours." It's funny the differences in men that are handy, and the ones that arent. The worst though is men who aren't handy that think they are. If you've got one of those just prepare yourself for (a) a mess in the house, (b) repair bills to fix right what they tried to fix initially, and (c) inevitable trips to the emergency room. No honey, your thumb won't reattach itself if you just hold it on there long enough!!!

Deegee, I think you're on to something about eating but still being hungry. The three things that keep you full are fat, fiber and protein. In a travel situation your best hope is for protein. When I was in Indy a few weeks ago I had a ham and cheese sandwich in the airport, and I threw out most of the bread. Greek yogurt is another good one that you can get in some airports. A couple words of caution though: Don't try to bring it from home because they won't let it through security, and regular yogurt doesn't have the high protein content that Greek does. Some granola bar type things are OK (I'm a fan of Kind bars), but some are just glorified candy. I carry Kind minis in my bag all the time in case I get in a jam. The apricot almond ones are my favorite and they're only 110 cals. Bananas and apples are good too, and I can generally find those in airports. But really, travel food is just a bit PITA!

Zoe, LOL on the conversation you have with your husband every weekend! It's interesting that in most relationships there's a planner and and planee. Maybe that's the only way these things work, because if both were planners there would be too much trying to get crammed in, and if both were planees nothing would ever get done! I don't mind traveling at all, but in some jobs I've gone to better places than others... The best job I ever had was as a regional compliance officer for a bank affiliated investment company. They would pretty much give me a list of branches at the beginning of every year with the mandate that at least 25% of them be physically reviewed. "Go forth and audit!" Every Monday morning I would get on a 6 am flight to either Phoenix, Salt Lake or Denver, every Friday I would fly home, laundry on Saturdays, replack on Sundays, Monday 6 am flight... Lather, rinse, repeat! I was completely left alone; as long as my branches got done I never called my boss and he never called me. It was fabulous!

Whew--so sorry this is turning into the War and Peace post! Not much else to report on, just chugging along. I might go out to lunch with a friend of mine, and tonight I have to get everything together to meet with my accountant on Monday.

Hope everyone remembered to wear their red undies with the big sparkly hearts on them!

 

[Dee*Jay]

Just a quickie! Heading to Chicago today for the long weekend. Weight is good, but who knows what the scale will have to say after three days in Chi-town! Finishing up a big report, and then I have to go and do a volunteer thing over lunch. Happy Friday kids!

 

[deegee]

Dee*Jay-how on earth do you travel so much? I'm absolutely exhausted! I'm so happy to be on the ground for a while too although I kind of still feel like I'm in motion. Have a great time in Chicago. Do you have a long weekend ahead?

marcy-We have found a few neighborhoods that are new and the builder offers certain home plans or you can bring your own. Unfortunately they aren't located as conveniently as we would like, but we're considering it. We walked through 5 brand new, never lived in houses one Sunday afternoon in a very nice development. It kind of got us thinking in that direction. We have since found a neighborhood that puts me 15 minutes from work. It currently has 6 finished homes with 2 of them being brand new, never lived in. We're going to go look at both of those. I hope your work issue is resolved.

Today's flight went fairly smooth. We hit some wind when landing in Richmond, but nothing like Monday when I swear we landed upside down. I took dramamine both this morning and on the way home so I'm okay. A migraine started coming on this morning, but I was able to keep it at bay for most of the day. I have a feeling it is going to hit hard tonight and be with me through the weekend. We plan to paint the small bathroom downstairs which we had originally slated for the professional guy. We had to pull the pedestal sink out of there due to a leak and decided to go ahead and paint before Matt attempts to install the new vanity. Notice I said "attempts." We'll see how that goes. I had a banana and a granola bar after we landed this morning, 1/2 of a chicken salad sandwich and a handfull of Fritos for lunch, and a big salad topped with grilled chicken for dinner. After the past few weeks of ridiculously bad eating, I'm really craving salads and fruit. Have a great weekend! Is everybody off Monday?

 

[marcy]

Hi everyone! I am so excited the weekend is here.

Dee Jay, LOL at your things to expect when a man isn’t the handy man he thinks he is. Of course in our case I’d be the one at the hospital for attempting to amputate my fingers. Your best job ever sounds great to me except for the traveling all the time. Of course you don’t seem to mind traveling. Too funny about your post being War and Peace. That immediately made me think “It was the best of times; it was the worst of times . . .” Have a blast in Chicago!

Deegee, how fun to be looking through some houses including some new ones. 15 minutes from work doesn’t sound too bad. That is about how long it takes me to get to work unless it’s snowy and icy. I hope your migraine goes away and leaves you alone. Good luck with painting and installing the new vanity. I wish I was off Monday. We had that day off last year but this year they went with combining days so we get Thursday and Friday off both on the 4th of July and at Thanksgiving then we get both Christmas Eve and Christmas off. That will make for a nice break on those holidays but right now it’s a long time until Memorial Day.

Last night I went to supper with my parents. We went to a steak house north of town and got right in and out. They were fully staffed for the big night. I was home by 7. I brought home 1/2 of my steak and baked potato which I had for supper tonight.

Marty made it to the UK today. His 20 some hour day was easy compared to the 2 days it took him to get to Ethiopia. He said the Killer Rabbit was surly. Ha! I hope he gets the time to take in some of the sights of London this weekend.

My weekend will probably be very low key and boring. I don’t have to clean house. Woo hoo! I will do laundry, change the sheets and I think I’ll rent some PPV movies. I picked up some of those 100 calorie packs of popcorn so I can have some reasonable snacks this weekend.

Hi Sharon, Zoe and Skippy!

Have a great weekend.
Marcy

 

[marcy]

Hi everyone.

I slept in until about 7:30. After getting around I went to the bank, Target and Sally's Beauty supply. I wandered around Pier 1 for awhile looking for a few things for the house.

I made some meatloaf and potatoes for lunch then froze the leftovers for lunch this week.

I rented Taken 2 and Skyfall and watched both of them. I rented Flight later tonight so will probably watch it tomorrow. I made a bag of popcorn for supper. It sounded good to go with movies.

Tomorrow will be laundry day.

I texted Marty quite a bit today. He took the tour of Winchester Cathedral and really enjoyed it. He was pretty sad though that I wasn't there with him. What a nice thing to say. He's a keeper. Some of his co-workers took the time to meet him for a drink and he is meeting another one tomorrow.

It is going to be near 50 tomorrow. I think I'll give the partially finished greenway out our door a try.

Take care.
Marcy

 

[zoebartlett]

Hi everyone!

I haven't been feeling well so I haven't spent much time on the computer lately. I'll catch up more tonight when I get home.

I watched a friend's son on Saturday for a few hours so she and her husband could go out for their anniversary. It was fun but I was exhausted when I got home. I took a nap yesterday afternoon and my husband and I caught up on shows we DVR. I haven't been to the gym in a while, so I'm feeling guilty about that. Which is better, to continue going and do a very light, slow workout (biking or walking on the treadmill) or skipping it and resting? Part of me thinks I should have continued going to keep up with the routine and exercise, even if it was at a snail's pace. I also haven't been writing down what I've been eating although I've been keeping up with healthy eating. I didn't have one single treat on Valentine's Day, and in fact, one of my students brought in an apple for me, so I munched on that while everyone else decorated their sugar cookies and passed out their valentines.

 

[StacylikesSparkles]

OK ladies, where should I get started? I'm ready to make some changes, but I don't really know where to start. I already eat pretty well (with some random 'cheat' days), but I know I need to be more active. I've started doing some yoga videos, but I'm thinking of going to a class that is close to my house. I think being with people will help with the motivation. Any pointers for me? I'm about 10lbs away from where I'd like to be, but mostly I want to tone up a bit and just become more fit. Do you use a meal tracker on your phone? If so, what app do you use?

 

[zoebartlett]

Hi Stacy!

Right now I use a nutrition database that my husband created for work but it needs tweaking (I have to manually enter all the nutrition info from the food labels). I'm thinking of trying out Lose It or My Fitness Pal. My husband has recently started using the Lose It app on his phone and he really likes it. I haven't checked out either one yet so I don't know the differences between the two and I don't know the pros and cons.

As for classes, have you tried Zumba or any type of Bollywood (India's version of Hollywood) dance class? Masala Bhangra is one type of Bollywood dance and it's a lot of fun. Zumba is fun too, but I really liked the Bollywood class I took because I learned a lot about the Indian culture and was just so different.