Healthy Living Thread

[zoebartlett]

Dee*Jay, what an awesome view! I'm SO happy that you're back in Chicago! How did you find your new place? You may have mentioned it earlier. I haven't had time to check in so I might have missed the story.

Hi Marcy and Deegee! I hope you're doing well. I'm behind, as always, but I'll try to catch up this weekend.

I've been one big stress ball this month. I'm failing PT because I haven't gone as often as they'd like. I feel so bad for canceling some of my appointments but I can't be in several places at once. Our HR dept. has set up these transition meetings for people in my district who have been laid off. I've gone to those instead of a few of my PT appointments. So my month of PT would be almost over had I gone three days a week like I was supposed to. It's looking like it will be 2 months now. Oh well.

I've been busy filling out applications and I'm ready to send out a whole bunch of resume packets tomorrow or Monday. Yay! The search won't be over but at least I'll have done something proactive while I'm waiting to find specific positions to apply for, you know?

There's a whole lot more work stress I'm dealing with that I can't go into detail about online. Oy. That's all I can really say...oy, oy, oy.

 

[zoebartlett]

Oh, here's a totally random question. Marcy, you have a Macbook Air, right? I have a Sony Vaio and it's been great. I do have a HUGE problem with it though, and it's the one thing that would make me run out and get a Mac if cost and compatibility weren't an issue. My Vaio is hot. As in, I often feel sick while at the computer just because I'm so darn hot all the time. Sounds stupid, right? Sometimes the fan runs loudly (but not all the time) and when that happens, I figure it ought to cool down so I turn it off for a while. Anyway, my question...is this a common issue for PCs, getting really hot? I don't have this problem when I use my parents' Macbook Airs (that sounds funny to write the plural). Is there a way to fix this or is it just an annoying feature?

 

[marcy]

Hi everyone!

Zoe, it is completely understandable why you are a stress ball right now. You have a lot going on. I think the transitional meetings are important for you to attend but hate to hear they caused you to miss PT. Yay for getting some resume packets out in the mail tomorrow. Mega PS dust coming your way for lots of interviews very soon that lead to a wonderful job. Yes, I had a Macbook Air. I had a 13" and an 11" and neither one of them got hot; at most they got slightly warm on my lap if I used them for a long period of time. I bought a 13" MacBook with Retina in January. It's slightly thicker and heavier than the air but has a faster processor. I don't notice much heat off of that computer either. Yes, I would say many PC's and laptops run hot. We had a HP that sounded like an airplane warming up and would wake you up at night. One of us would wake up and say we forgot to shut the laptop down. It would get so hot on my lap it felt like it could burn me and would just shut itself down. I had a Sony Vaio before I bought my first MacBook Air and it used to overheat on me too. I bought a little computer stand by Targus that really helped. I don't see one on Amazon but they have chill pads and other stands on there. This little stand I have is hard plastic, 2 pieces and the top swivels. You can put little pegs on it for different heights to set the back of your laptop on so air gets up under the laptop. I propped mine up about 1 1/2 inches and it was enough to keep the bottom cool and also kept the heat off my lap. If you can get to your fan sometimes they get dust in them that just a good cleaning of fan can help keep them cool.

My day was eventful and stressful and I mumbled ill will comments about many people but we made it through the day and at least it is now the weekend. I left at 4 pm because we were going to a wedding that started at 5:30. We had a glass of wine while we got ready, I emptied the dishwasher before we went and picked up the house. I can tell Marty is home, little messes here and there.

The wedding was nice. It was for the daughter of some of our friends. They rented a community house in the park where they had the service then a sandwich buffet and cake. After the wedding and reception we stopped at the golf course for a drink. Our friends had all gone home already though. We wasted some money on pickles (little gambling cards) and had a drink. Marty is already in bed since he got up at 4 am for a conference call.

Snow is on it's way again tonight. Boo.

Take care. Have a wonderful weekend.
Marcy

 

[deegee]

Hello!

Marcy-I work for state government. We never get raises and we always get new crap thrown at us, but we get lots of days off!!! Update your resume-couldn't hurt. Your new rings look beautiful. I would love to see rose gold IRL. I don't want to buy anything without seeing it first. Maybe next time we get out of the boonies to a real city... Thanks for your words of wisdom. We're trying to figure it out. I used your curse of competency phrase today - Matt liked that one. I didn't see any Tiffany glasses at my eye dr yesterday. They had lots of other designers - Gucci, Vera Wang, Armani, etc. I ended up with Kate Spade. My prescription is such that they steered me away from any type of wire frame and only towards the two walls of plastic frames. Since I was still pretty blind in my left eye from all of the tests they did on that eye to try to figure out why my vision crapped out so bad in one year, I was at the mercy of the nice lady helping me. I hope she picked out a good frame for me. I'm so glad to hear Marty is back. You were definitely a good girl staying until 5. I'd have been out of there...goverment workers get time off in lieu of decent pay...

Dee*Jay-Your apartment views are freaking awesome! I shared your pics with a coworker who lived in Chicago for 5 years. She got a dreamy look on her face and said "ahhhh, yeahhh....." She said her last apartment had a similar view but she could see the lake a little bit. Imagine moving from there to the boonies in West Virginia! When Matt and I were in Los Angeles a few years ago, we got a kick out of a Porsche in front of us at a red light - with a ladder sticking through the sunroof. You might have looked something like that in your move! Thanks for your sympathies with Matt's promotion. Sigh.

Zoe-Sorry to hear about your PT delay. Got to do it though. You won't regret it. My health coach sent me a bunch of articles to read about stress management. Did you know if you distance yourself from the thing causing you stress, it will reduce your stress? The articles really are that dumb. Argh! I have to act interested and pretend it is all totally new information to me to keep my premium from going up.

So, I think Matt is going through the stages of grief over this promotion thing. He's been in denial (he wouldn't speak of the issue at all yesterday), he's been angry, he's done hypothetical bargaining, he's been depressed...hopefully that means acceptance is next. I stayed home today and we had a nice day together. We went out for a quiet dinner and ended up talking for a long time. We had kind of decided not to look for a house closer to town because we like our house and our neighborhood, we have a ridiculously low house payment, and we have less than 10 years left on our mortgage. I think I'm going to have to start seriously looking again. As Zoe said...oy, oy, oy. Food was bad today and exercise was non-existent. I have a feeling this weekend will be much of the same. Oh well, maybe next week. Have a great weekend!

 

[zoebartlett]

Deegee, I hope Matt grows to like his new job. Even though it's not what he wanted, congratulations to him for getting a promotion! In some way, that must make him feel good, right? I hope so! I've never heard of someone getting a promotion without the option of actually accepting or declining it. Is there way for Matt to talk to his boss(es?) about the details of this job and at least meet in the middle in terms of expectations and responsibilities?

Wow, the article your health coach gave you really said that removing yourself from stressful situations can reduce stress? No way!

Marcy, thanks for letting me know about how common it is for PCs to overheat. I don't have a gel stand (or whatever it's called) but just a regular one that my laptop sits on all the time. Maybe I'll look into getting a different kind. My laptop is 3-4 years old, and I'm wondering if it's on its way out. It works fine though.

I don't really get raises in my job but we can move ahead in the pay scale if we earn credits beyond a bachelors or masters degree. I thought I still had a ways to go before reaching the masters + 30 credits but I found out last week while putting all of my transcripts together that I got there. It was a pleasant surprise! My paycheck will increase through the rest of the year, which is great. I don't know what the difference will be, but it doesn't really matter. The only downside is that since a lot of districts are going through budget cuts, I may not be considered for positions if they think I'm too expensive. A principal family friend was told in a former district that she couldn't consider hiring anyone with more than 3 years of experience (implying that anyone with more than that would cost the district a lot more $ than they wanted to pay).

We might go see Lincoln at a cheapo movie theater this afternoon after PT. I'll do some online application work at some point today but plan on spending most of the day tomorrow on that. Have a great weekend everyone!

 

[marcy]

Hi everyone!

Deegee, I may as well work for the state. We never get raises and get all sorts of crap thrown at us that they wanted done yesterday. I am sure that sounds familiar. Sadly we only get 9 holidays. I do think I’ll work on my resume. I sure like the rose gold coloring; but I notice it is pretty soft. The bottom of my band is scuffing already and you know how careful and anal I am with jewelry – take it off all the time, clean it every day. I am confident once Matt begins his new job things will fall in to place and you both will be excited that he is getting a promotion and a raise. You both sound very level headed and things will work out fine for you. It is so hard to pick out new frames; I am definitely getting something new when we go in. I need to make appointments for us. Marty got superglue on his glasses and can’t get it off of his lense. I do love the non-helpful advice you are getting on dealing with stress. That would cause me more stress since I so appreciate something that I consider a waste of my time. It is hard to give up a low mortgage payment. So by “start seriously looking again” did you mean looking for a job that is closer to where you live now? I was unsure what you meant there. I hope you and Matt had a nice quite day and that Matt is feeling better about things.

Zoe, maybe find something you can prop up the back of your laptop off the gel stand you use; getting some air underneath always helped cool off my warm laptops. I loved my Vaio mostly because it was pink. It had Vista on it and I kept crashing it when I would install windows updates. Finally Marty set it to never do downloads which led to further problems. Finally he said to download them and it was taking so long that I thought it was crashed and I pulled the battery. After spending a weekend getting it fixed for me he decided I should have a Mac so I couldn’t break it. And that is why we own nothings but Mac’s now. Marty is a network / IT / engineer type guy but he often says no one can break things like me. That is nice your pay will increase the rest of the year. Did you go see Lincoln? What did you think?

I slept in late for me – about 8. Marty got up about 5:30 and was starving when I got up so I made us waffles and cooked him some bacon. We had leftover mac and cheese for lunch. He is making steaks and veggies for us for supper. I need to work on laundry but haven’t started it yet.

Our snowstorm netted about 4 to 5 inches of snow; I can’t really tell since it is so windy everything is in drifts. Colorado got a lot more snow than we did and I guess the roads are a mess down there. We are staying home and being lazy today.

I think I will start on the April newsletter for the astronomy club.

I did start a thread in Show Me the Bling with a few pictures of my rings if you are interested.

Have a great weekend.
Marcy

 

[zoebartlett]

Marcy, no, we never made it to Lincoln. We did errands all morning and into the afternoon, and then after catching up on Grey's Anatomy while having a late lunch, my husband decided to take a nap. He's still asleep and it's almost 7:00. I made salmon, whole grain medley, and roasted red peppers for dinner and stuck his in the fridge. Dessert will be blackberries.

So far, I've had a good day, food wise, well, except for bologna. I had blackberry Chobani for breakfast, and then I had Thin and Trim bologna (I know, an oxymoron!) in half a pita, Asian rice crackers, and blackberries for lunch.

I'm so annoyed. I went to Kinko's yesterday and asked them to scan a bunch of documents that I need to attach/upload (?) to online applications (transcripts, letters of recommendation, my certification, and other things). The documents (saved as pdfs) are all in one large file. I asked the guy helping me if he could save them separately onto a flash drive but he didn't. That might have been a lot to ask, I'm not sure, but I didn't think so at the time. I need to figure out how to separate them out into different files so I can attach only what I need in each field of the online application. Admittedly, I'm not exactly tech savvy so I have no idea how to make this happen. I'm hoping my husband, the IT guy, can do it for me later.

 

[marcy]

Zoe, I hope your husband can sleep tonight. If Marty takes a long nap he is awake most of the night. Sorry the guy at Kinkos saved all of your scanned images as one document. Hopefully your husband can get them sorted out and saved for you so you'll have them ready to go.

 

[deegee]

Hello! I hope everyone had a good Saturday.

Marcy-I'm thinking I need to start looking for houses closer to town/work. Matt had given me the okay to quit my job since I've been pulled out of my actual job to work on this cursed project for the next 5 years. I stopped looking for houses closer to work thinking I might do just that-quit. I need to put on my big girl pants and suck it up and work on the project in light of what has happened with his job. It isn't fair to him if I quit. Argh! I love your new rings, especially the band. I've been thinking about a thicker band for a rhr. The rose gold looks really nice with your skin tone. I'm really perturbed about the stress management thing. My stress is trying to get my regular job done in the few hours I'm not working on the project, and the stress management lady sends me completely lame articles to read. Seriously? I went to the dr on Friday and my blood pressure was 110/60. The whole reason I'm having to do this stress management thing is because my blood pressure was slightly elevated the day the insurance people were there to take it. I want to tell them where they can cram their stress management. I can't believe you had snow! My lilies are poking through the soil and the trees are budding.

Zoe-I understand what you mean about the salary. I remember when I graduated with my teaching degree being advised to look for a job before doing any kind of continuing education because of the salary thing. Hopefully you'll still be okay. If you are like I was, you had to start continuing education within so much time to keep your certificate valid. It's good you've got a tech guy. Matt is tech support for my entire family. My sis texted me last week that she needed him to look at her ipad because it was acting funky. I told her he knows nothing about the ipad and probably couldn't help. Somehow he fixed it even though he never touches my ipad and knows nothing about it. I use it all of the time and couldn't fix hers. Tech is not my thing.

Matt is still in the depression stage. He stared straight ahead at dinner and didn't say much. He was assistant manager in that department for 5 years prior to his promotion to the job he really liked and is now having to leave. He knows what he's getting into with this change, and that is a big part of his dread. Neither of us ate all day, and then we went out for pizza for dinner. The restaurant is about 40 miles out of town and has absolutely no ambiance, but the pizza is awesome. He went straight to his man room to watch basketball when we got home. I still only have Netflix on my tv, so I decided to watch the first episode of Downtown Abbey. I liked it and also watched episode 2. I'm giving us the weekend to be slackers, and then we'll have to get it together on Monday. Have a nice Sunday.

 

[zoebartlett]

Marcy, I missed your rings before. They're so pretty! Oh, and thanks so much for the tips on keeping my laptop cool. I may go out and buy a gel pad if that could help.

Deegee, I always laugh because my husband is very good creating databases and developing applications (whatever that means!) for work, but he always gets stumped helping me with my much more basic tech issues. He tried to fix the pdfs last night but he couldn't separate out the documents either. Well, he found a site that could allow him to pay a fee and do it, but we weren't going to do that. He had trouble logging in to his work computer remotely, otherwise he said he'd have it fixed in no time. We're going out to breakfast this morning and then back to Kinko's to get it taken care of. I'm thinking of getting a Macbook the next time I'm in the market for a new laptop. Hopefully that won't be for a few years though. If that happens, my husband will be useless because he doesn't "do" Apple products.

I'm sorry Matt is having such a hard time with this promotion. Are there any positives to try to focus on?

Dee*Jay, I hope you're having fun settling into your new place. When do you begin work?

 

[marcy]

Hi everyone.

Deegee, that makes sense to me now. I think moving closer to work is a good idea. If Matt is out of town you won’t have to deal with the long commutes on those icy and snowy days. Thanks for the compliment on my new band. It is definitely thick; it took me awhile to get used to it but I like the feel of it now. When I wear a thin band ring again it is going to feel strange. You should try a thick band on to see what you think. I had a 4mm comfort fit wedding band for awhile and I loved wearing it by itself it was very comfortable but of course I needed something sparkly so I traded it in. Since your BP is good now will they let you out of the program? I don’t mind learning something new but I sure hate it when they force you to take some program that isn’t helpful and it sounds like anyone with an IQ higher than a house plant already knows the things these articles are telling you. It snowed again today but not much. How fun your lilies are peaking through already. I was thinking of getting some tulips for our yard. Poor Matt, both Marty and I feel so bad for him and you. I hate to hear he is so depressed.

Zoe, I hope the gel pads help your laptop. One of those little wrist pads to use in front of your keyboard would work on if you set your laptop on something flat. Did Kinkos get your documents sorted out for you? The first day I used my MacBook Air I was lost. If we had an Apple store in town I would probably have returned it. But I just started going to google and typing in my “how do I . . . “ and finally got it figured out. Marty knew nothing about Apple at the time and he wanted something he wouldn’t have to spend time to fix. It’s funny because now everything we own is Mac. Updates on them are amazing. You get a little notice there is an update, you click on the yes install it; sometimes you have to restart your laptop and it is back up and running in less about 30 seconds. Good luck getting Windows to do that! Thanks for the kind words about my new rings.

Dee Jay, Zoe said pretty much what I was going to ask – how is your new apartment and when do you start work? I hope you found the wine and wine glasses already. Those are the important things in life.

I was semi productive today. I got Easter cards ready to mail, started the April newsletter, cooked and did dishes (seemed like that was most of my day), went over and helped my mom buy a book on the iPad. I dialed in and did some work for about an hour and other than that just goofed off. Marty spent a small fortune at Lowes for his wet bar. He bought stuff to sand and buff the resin on his bar so he can fix his boo-boo and also got some light fixtures that turns a ceiling can light in to a light bar so you can get more light out of them. He has been downstairs working most of the day. I just hit my “bling bell” when food is ready.

Well, take care. Sadly tomorrow is that evil day of the week referred to as Monday.

Marcy

 

[Dee*Jay]

Sorry for the quick fly by all, but I should be IN BED right now! Move went OK and I am SOOOO glad to have my bed instead of a yoga mat to sleep on! The place is still a disaster, even after three whole days of cleaning up... Tomorrow is Day 1 of the new job!!! Will write more tomorrow. Night kids!

 

[marcy]

Dee Jay, good luck tomorrow on your first day at the new job.

 

[deegee]

Dee*Jay-glad you have a real bed so you can get some good sleep the night before your first day! Good luck!

Zoe-Matt warned me when I bought my MacBook Pro that all tech support from him would stop since he didn't know a thing about it. I never use it anymore because I use my ipad for everything so Matt took over the MacBook (his laptop croaked). He doesn't like the MacBook. He's more of a windows kind of guy. I hope you got your issue taken care of at Kinko's today.

Marcy-I can't get out of health coach thing, but I hope I don't have to meet with her much more. She's kind of a dip anyway. Has your mom gotten used to the ipad? I don't think I could pry my mom's ipad from her hands. She tells people she didn't know she needed one until she had one. Thanks for you & Marty thinking of us. In the first 5 years we were married, Matt lost his job twice due to his companies being bought out and the new companies reducing the workforce. He's been with this company for 13 years and is taking this harder than he took the 2 layoffs.

Today was a mostly lazy, rainy day. I did a few loads of laundry, we watched basketball, and then went out to eat and grocery shopping. I didn't have breakfast, had a salad for lunch, and spaghetti and salad for dinner. I did good today and didn't have either wine or beer for the first time in about a week. Go me. My TV cabinet came in yesterday, so I got everything in place and my family room arranged today. I hope to be ready to order my couch this weekend. The lady who sent me home with 10 fabric swatches has left 3 messages on my cell phone. I'm being harassed by an interior designer! Ahhh!!!! Have a great Monday. Why does it seem like it is always Monday?

 

[zoebartlett]

Good morning!

Dee*Jay, have a great first day of work! I can't wait to hear all about it.

Marcy, you'll have to post pics once Marty finishes the wet bar. It sounds like you had a fun day yesterday.

Deegee, it must be nice to have everything in its place. What style couch are you and Matt getting?

We went out for breakfast this morning to one of our favorite places. I had California benedict, which is eggs benedict but instead of Canadian bacon or ham, it comes with a grilled tomato and avocado slices. I got the hollandaise sauce on the side, and I had it made with a grilled whole wheat English muffin instead of white. I also got berries on the side instead of home fries.

We went to Kinko's after breakfast and the girl who helped us out was really great. She erased the documents that had been scanned originally and then rescanned everything separately. I worked with her to rename all the documents so I could find them easily later. It felt so good to have it done! Then we got home and I began to work on applications. I submitted two. I'll keep working on them throughout the week. I hope I get them all done by next Sunday night.

Have a great Monday!

 

[deegee]

Zoe-we're looking at Flexsteel sofas. My SIL with 5 boys swears by them. They are very reasonably priced, and hopefully the quality is close to being as good as I have heard. I'm glad you got your documents straightened out. Good luck with getting your applications submitted by Sunday.Your California Benedict sounds good, actually. I had an egg beater sandwich made with whole grain bread with berries on the side for breakfast this morning. I discovered some tasty roasted red pepper sandwich spread in the fridge that I think I'll add to it next time.

Marcy-I noticed this morning that I do have something in rose gold...my eyelash curler. I remember ordering rose good just because I wanted to see the color. I wonder how true it is to actual rose gold for jewelry.

I can't keep my eyes open today. Matt and I got to bed after 2:30 this morning. He couldn't sleep, so I couldn't sleep. Actually I think I did sleep from 3-5. He took off on Thursday and Friday of last week, and he was really dreading going to work today. The big boss called him in when he got there and they talked for over an hour. I don't think he is any happier about the promotion, but he has some insight as to why they did it they way they did. Maybe that will help. I had an egg beater sandwich and berries for breakfast, a Kashi meal for lunch, and I made vegetable soup and turkey bacon sandwiches for dinner. I'm not a bread person and yet somehow today I had 2 sandwiches. Hmm. I don't have points left for a glass of wine, but I'm having a glass anyway. As sleepy as I am, that should knock me out for most of the night. Have a good day tomorrow!

 

[marcy]

Happy Monday Evening!

Deegee, I am crossing my fingers and toes that you’ll get out of those health sessions soon. My mom is not doing well with the iPad. She does better with the stylus so hopefully she’ll use it more. That is wonderful your mom loves her iPad so much. I sure don’t know what I’d do without mine. I hate to hear Matt is taking this promotion so hard even more so than when he lost his jobs when you were first married. Marty was unemployed when we got married. We often wonder what my family really “thought” of him in those days. He was working for a local copy and service shop and they wanted him to work overtime but didn’t want to pay him for it. He wouldn’t work those extra hours without pay so they fired him. I am glad Matt talked with the big boss today about the new position and got a better idea of why they made that decision. I hope it starts to look less bleak to him soon. Too funny you have a rose gold eyelash curler. I like it. Woo hoo for getting your TV stand. We have a Flexsteel couch and loveseat and they are wonderful. My parents have bought that brand for years and they hold up really well. I passed on wine for supper too. Yay us! I am trying to save that for a weekend treat. I hope you and Matt both sleep better tonight.

Zoe, the lady at Kinkos sounds quite helpful. I am glad you got that all straightened out. Yay for submitting 2 applications. They are a chore to fill out and customize your application and resume to the job. Your California Benedict sounds good. I keep picking up strawberries but sadly they just aren’t very tasty so I keep eating bananas and oranges. I will get pictures of the wet bar when Marty is done. It is turning out pretty nice.

Work was hectic this morning but got better this afternoon. I had a few meetings and worked on some notes and reports.

I sent Marty a text about 3 and woke him up. He has the crud and is feeling poorly and tired. He’s been snoring like a cheap saw for a few days. Last night I had to go find some earplugs so I could fall asleep. I kept tossing and kicking covers trying to get him to turn over on his side and quit snoring but the only thing I succeeded in doing was losing most of my covers. Good plan, Marcy! I think I went to sleep about 1 am and then I was very sad when my alarm went off at 6. My earplugs were working though since I barely heard it. Better luck next time sleeping right through the alarm.

I took leftovers for lunch and made us mini burgers and seasoned potato wedges for supper. I out out a plate of raw veggies to munch on while everything was cooking.

Dee Jay, I hope your first day was marvelous!

Laters,

Marcy

 

[zoebartlett]

Deegee, I'm glad that Matt has some answers about why his bosses made the decision they did. Hopefully things will work out well for him and he'll grow to like some of the changes.

Marcy, strawberries are hit and miss, even when they're in season. That's what I've found in grocery stores here anyway. Sorry you were kept awake by Marty's snoring. My husband snores so much that we don't even sleep in the same room anymore. It's not worth it -- I need my sleep! It sounds odd maybe but it works for us.

Hi Dee*Jay! How was your first day?

 

[Dee*Jay]

Happy Tuesday kids!

I’m so sorry to have been MIA—it’s been a hectic few days! These first two days at work have been SOOOO great! I really love the people I’m working with and learning a whole new area of the industry is really interesting to me. My new team took me out to lunch yesterday and this great restaurant and I ate a bit lunch. Nothing like pasta induced food coma at 3 in the afternoon on your first day at a new job...

Zoe, I agree that strawberries are totally hit or miss! Some of them don’t even taste like much of anything. As for snoring; my CB snores, but only sometimes. I have been tempted to go sleep elsewhere on occasion, but haven’t done it… YET.

Deegee, I was incredibly tired yesterday too! The whole day just wore me out and I had to take a nap when I got home. That made it even harder to get back up and watch the rest of this week’s four hour CPA lecture, but otherwise I would have just fallen asleep right on the dining room table!

Marcy, I have never slept with earplugs—I’m afraid I would sleep right through my alarm too!—but on the nights when the CB is snoring away I am tempted. Actually, I have some that I got as part of a mini-toiletry kit on an overseas flight and maybe I should dig them out…

OK, off to the land of inventory valuation and impairment and depreciation—oh my!

 

[marcy]

Happy Tuesday Evening.

Zoe, I really like good strawberries and good peaches; sadly they are hard to find. I used to sleep in a different room most of the time at our old house. Marty got text and phones calls off and on all night long with his old job. If I woke up too long I couldn’t go back to sleep. We both snore - sometimes worse than others and he moves and kicks a lot. Even when he started his new job I kept sleeping in the other room because I was used to it by then. We got a California king bed when we moved in to our new house and it is big enough we don’t wake each other up as much. The snoring is still a problem but we are getting by with earplugs. I am less tempted to move to another room here because the room I’d go sleep in doesn’t have the curtains up yet. The only room in the house without curtains and Marty says he knows if he puts them up I’ll get up and move there to sleep. He's probably right. The other spare bedroom has a really high bed that I'd probably kill myself trying to get in to it in the middle of the night.

Dee Jay, I am glad you are enjoying your new job and the people you work with. That always makes things nice. Earplugs have been a big help for us. I worry about sleeping through things too. Your “land of inventory valuation and impairment and depreciation” reminds me of how I figure out if I can buy new jewelry. Ha Ha.

I only had one meeting today and got most of my paperwork and other projects done by about 3 so then I was bored.

Marty wanted to go out for Mexican food for supper so I had 2 tacos but ate more chips and salsa than I intended. I hate being hungry and having those warm chips on the table. I passed on splitting a dessert though.

This morning Marty had all the teddy bears and rabbits setting around the kitchen table and told me they wanted breakfast so I gave them all a bite size mini wheat. Amazing when I wasn’t looking the cereal was disappearing off the table. It was pretty funny to see them all crowded around the table.

I need to go buy some groceries. I think the only thing I have to fix for supper is fettuccine. Grocery store time. BOO!

It rained a little bit this afternoon and now it's snowing again. Nooooooo!

Have a great evening.
Marcy

 

[deegee]

Marcy-thanks for telling me about your Flexsteel. I want something that will last as long as my current sofa, which would still be going strong if it hadn't gone through the Lily puppy phase. I tried earplugs with Matt once but it seems like they didn't block the noise well enough. I ended up in the bedroom down the hall. We sleep in a huge king sized bed, and he didn't even notice I wasn't there. Marty was unemployed when your first got married? I bet that was tough! Luckily both times Matt lost his job he found a new job before severance pay ran out. He has to travel next week because of his new gig. Boo.

Zoe-I totally agree about the strawberries. I have some right now that smell like strawberries, but they sure don't taste like them! They look tasty until you cut them up, and they're white inside. Yuck.

Dee*Jay-how exciting you have new stuff to learn. I still can't get over how awesome the view from your apartment is. Sometimes I think I'd love to move to a real city, but that would be a no go for Matt.

I picked up my new glasses today, and I can see! It took my eyes getting worse for the eye dr to be able to correct my vision better-if that makes any sense. Sadly my left eye went from -7.25 to -8.50 in one year, but my right eye is holding steady at -7.5. I feel old though because this is my first pair of glasses with progressive lenses. I need to get a pair of cheapie readers to use with my contacts. Sigh. I had cottage cheese and pseudo strawberries for breakfast, leftover vegetable soup and a salad for lunch, and dumplings, green beans and carrots from Cracker Barrel for dinner. It has rained/snowed all day, so we weren't able to walk again. Poor Lily is going nuts. I'm off to read a bit and then to bed. Have a great day tomorrow!

 

[marcy]

Deegee, agreed that you want a couch that will last a long time. Especially for the price you pay for them. Our first couch was a hand-me-down from Marty's grandparents. When we finally bought new furniture we bought England; we got the big puffy overstuffed pieces but the couch was a sleeper so it was always uncomfortable. I loved the matching chair though; it was so big it might as well have been a love seat. It was so comfy. We had it about 8 years maybe before buying something new. They weren't really worn out then but that style was definitely dated. Our next purchase was Marty's idea; he wanted a sectional which I reluctantly agreed too with the condition I got to tell him "I told you so" when you find it uncomfortable and getting sloppy. That joyous moment came about a year and a half later and the minute Marty said "I hate this couch; it was a mistake" I was making plans to go shopping the next day for a new one. That is when we got the Flexsteel set and we are very happy with them. We notice that too with the king sized bed; you don't notice when the other person gets up. The other bedroom in our old house was straight across the hall. In our new house I have to go shut off our alarm system, then arm it so some of the upstairs motion sensors are bypassed, then walk to the other side of the house. All of which sounds like too much work in the middle of the night so I just try to go back to sleep. Rats that Matt is traveling for his new job next week. Hopefully getting started on it will make the job more appealing to him. That is great you can see better with your new glasses. Once I had to start using reading glasses with my contacts that is when I gave up contacts. I decided what was the point if I still have to wear glasses to read or use a computer? I don't think my distance vision has been as good with glasses though. I had to laugh when your list of food for the day said "pseudo" strawberries. That is a perfect description for the ones I keep bringing home.

Speaking of glasses, I need to make an eye appointment for both of us. I want new glasses and probably need a new prescription anyway.

 

[deegee]

Marcy-we have an England sectional that has lasted way longer than we expected it to. It isn't pretty by any means, but it is comfortable and it lives in the man room so we'll leave it alone for now. It is 15 years old too. We had a huge house in Ohio that was full of furniture. When we moved to WV, we were in a small apartment so we got rid of all of the furniture except the beds and one couch. When we moved to our house a year later, we had to buy all new stuff so everything is about the same age-15 years. I understand what you mean about giving up contacts. It is going to get really annoying to have readers all over the place! We don't set our alarm at night, so I don't have to worry about that with switching rooms in the middle of the night. Our motion detector was really sensitive and the alarm would go off quite often for no reason. Scared me half to death too!

Matt is back to angry today. The acceptance thing hasn't come yet! I understand though. I was put on this project I don't want to be on without being told first. I came back from lunch one afternoon to find this 500 page document regarding the project right in the middle of my desk. When i checked my email, I discovered a link to a Microsoft Sharepoint project site with my name as a member of the team. I think the top of my bead nearly blew off. This is a project that will last 5-7 years, when it gets going I will be pulled completely out of my job and physically located at another site with the team...and nobody talked to me about it beforehand. It has been nearly 2 years since that happened and I'm still pretty steamed about the whole thing. And I found out this week that the offsite location could be anywhere-not necessarily close to where we are now. I can just see Matt and me moving closer to town, and then finding out the project team is being located in the town where I live now. That would be my luck! I have put the search on hold for now. I had cottage cheese for breakfast, leftover vegetable soup for lunch, and we stopped to eat on the way home. It was bad, so I won't got into details. Had dessert too. I'm trying to work up enough energy to walk Lily. I have been unusually tired this week. I hope that doesn't mean a flare-up of my aches and pains is on the way. Have a great day tomorrow!

 

[marcy]

Hi everyone,

Deegee, that is great your sectional is comfortable and found a good home in the man cave. I was carrying reading glasses in my purse, had a pair in the kitchen, in the living room, at work and finally decided that was enough; I had on glasses more than not so I may as well get something to wear all the time. We would have needed to buy a lot of furniture when we moved in to this house but the in-laws gave us enough to fill the man cave and a spare bedroom. I bet it was nice to buy all new furniture at once when you bought your house (other than paying for it of course). I am sure the alarm going off would scare you. In our old house the alarm was painful; here it’s not so bad since the alarm is in the basement. Poor Matt! I know you hate the project they dumped on you. That would be awful to find a place close to work, move there then find you have to commute back to where you live now. That would be my luck. I would have been right there with you on a bad supper tonight but Marty is pretty sick and so we ate at home. I hope you aren’t getting sick or having a pain attack on the way.

My day was HORRID. Someone at corporate was not happy we changed some of their stuff last night even though we were asked to by a director. A few of my employees again didn’t have their work done so I had to jump in and do some of their work for them plus work late. I wanted to go out for a nice quiet dinner and a glass of wine but Marty is not feeling well and was grumpy when I got home so I cooked supper here. I had one glass of wine with dinner because that is the kind of day I had.

I did 2 batches of laundry tonight. Today was cleaning lady day so it was nice to come home to a clean house.

Take care.
Marcy

 

[zoebartlett]

Dee*Jay, I'm glad things are going so well!

Marcy, I like Mexican food too, but do you find that it all tastes the same? A burrito may as well be a taco, just with a different shell. Every time I suggest going out for Mexican, my husband says that. I hope Marty feels better soon, and I hope today is a better day at work for you.

Deegee, being able to see is a great thing, huh? I'm blind as a bat without glasses. I once asked my eye doctor what my sight actually was because I don't have any idea what the numbers mean. I was hoping he'd explain it. He laughed at my question and just said "it doesn't really matter in your case. You're pretty blind." Um, okaaayyyyy. That wasn't exactly the answer I was hoping for.

Nothing new to report here. I've finished all of my applications, both online and paper, and everything is sent out, so now I just need to prepare for interviews and keep en eye on specific openings to follow up on.

I didn't eat too much yesterday. I skipped breakfast, had a thin and trim bologna sandwich on a whole wheat light pita pocket, a piece of string cheese, and blueberries for lunch. For a snack, I had 2 plain (well, lightly salted) rice cakes with 2tsp. of all pb. I had the last few rice crackers we had in the pantry for another light snack a while later. For diner, I had maybe a cup of taco meat and some light shredded cheddar cheese. I got kind of grossed out by dinner though, so I threw the last few bites away. I skipped dessert. I have food issues at times, and sometimes they come out when I least expect it. I ended up in bed pretty early, not feeling well. I'm up and ready for the new day already, getting ready for work.

Have a good day!

 

[marcy]

Hi! Happy Thursday evening.

Zoe, I agree most Mexican food tastes alike. Of course I like tacos so that is usually what I get. Marty is doing a little bit better today and my day at work was better. Thanks! Too funny the eye doctor told you that you are pretty much blind. When I quit wearing rigid contacts my vision got so bad I could barely read the big E. It looked like a V or a drawing of a bird. I have very bad astigmatism. What a relief to get all of your applications turned in. Good luck! Sending mega PS dust your way. I hope your day goes better tomorrow.

Marty is doing a little better but still coughing a lot with headache and sore throat. His voice is really deep; I told him I like that. He wandered over and slept in one of our spare bedrooms last night so we both slept well.

Work was hectic and had it’s moments of “your kidding me right?” but what can you do when stupid things are pushed your way? Oh well. Move along.

I met a friend for lunch today and she brought her son with her since it is spring break. He is about 10 and told me he’s been watching TV and playing games all week. I bought her some ingredients for baking for her birthday and filled the bag with a ton of birthday confetti. She said she got it everywhere when she was pulling out her stuff. I will be careful when my birthday rolls around and she brings me something.

We went out tonight and got Marty some more suits. He was just going to buy one but Men’s Warehouse had their frequent buy one get one free sale so he ended up getting 2 suits. He is going to a convention soon and has only 2 suits that fit him so he’ll have 4 now. The only other store here in town with tall men’s clothes is Dillards which is in our mall. I had it all planned out how I was going to wander over to Kays and see if they would give me another teddy bear. I kept trying to get away in Dillards and finally said I was going to go look at something. Marty knows me too well – he said if I was going to Kays and brought back a teddy bear he was going to make the bear pay for it. I thought it would be funny for him to come out of the dressing room and find me holding a teddy bear. Oh well, I saved some teddy bear’s stuffing tonight by not going to see if I could get a free teddy bear.

We went to Chilis for supper after suit shopping. I got a cheeseburger and will take half of it to work tomorrow with some baked Lays. I need to go buy food sometime. We are out of pretty much everything. I have a 5% off coupon to use so maybe I’ll stock up on a few things. Marty was traveling so much I wasn’t picking up many groceries. He is home next week then gone for 5 days.

Well, tomorrow is Friday. Yippee!!!

Marcy

 

[marcy]

Happy Weekend is Here Kids!

What a week it was. One I'd never care to repeat but its over. I had a glass of wine. Things are looking up.

Marty went to the doctor and found out he has a sinus infection. They gave him some antibiotics. Hopefully he will be better by his trip on the 7th.

I picked up takeout from Olive Garden for supper. Holy smoke! Food for 2 was enough for supper and lunch tomorrow. No cooking Saturday.

We are watching Skyfall.

Have a great weekend.
Marcy

 

[zoebartlett]

Marcy, how was Skyfall?

Last night a friend and I went to a new (to us) restaurant in town. It's a place that uses only local ingredients, full of fresh everything, and it's one of my now one of my favorite places. We had falafel and hummus salad for an appetizer, and then I had sesame seed encrusted sole with swiss chard and baby potatoes. So, so good! My friend had red velvet cake for dessert. It looked great but I didn't try any. I did have a latte though, and that was good.

We're going to my in-laws for Easter dinner today. We were supposed to go to my parents' house for Easter dinner tomorrow but my mom is getting back from a mini-vacation tonight, and she won't have time to get everything ready. I offered to help but she declined. Smart move on her part, with my cooking! I think we'll get together next weekend instead.

Have a great Saturday!

 

[marcy]

Hi Everyone! All those who think the weekends are too short and have telepathic ability raise my hand! It can't be Saturday evening already.

Zoe, Skyfall is good. It is a typical Daniel Craig James Bond movie. I liked the older movies better where 007 was clever and thought his way out of things rather than succeeding only with braun. I think they have turned James Bond in to Jason Bourne. Mind you I like both of those movie series but I guess they changed the Bond character because today's audience wants more action. How nice to find a great restaurant with local ingredients. You don't cook much? I have 2 sisters, one is an amazing cook and the other one barely cooks. I would consider myself an good cook but cookies are my speciality.

We got up about 7 today. I made homemade pancakes for breakfast and had 3 pieces of bacon left to cook for Marty - basically because that was about all the food I could round up. We finished the OJ and as sick as Marty is I said I'd go to the store and get some more. Marty said he'd go with me since he knows I hate to go grocery shopping anymore. We were at the grocery store before 9 so it wasn't too busy yet. I was out of pretty much everything but luckily I had a 5% off coupon. I hope to have enough food now to last at least until Marty goes on his next trip.

Marty is a little better today. He is still coughing and worn out. He was snoring bad when I got in bed so I really shoved some earplugs in my ears. I woke up about 2 am with my ears hurting. I pulled the earplugs out and then he started snoring again. By then I was awake enough I had to get up anyway so I ventured over to our back spare bedroom. We still don't have the curtains in there yet so I put a washcloth over my eyes to keep out the light and I slept until 7. I might use that washcloth every night! Lights really bother me when I am sleeping.

I got 2 batches of laundry done and have most of my April newsletter finished. We had the rest of our Olive Garden food for lunch and snacked for supper. I brushed my teeth already because I am hungry now.

The weather is pretty decent this weekend. Marty might try to play some golf tomorrow. We are meeting my parents for lunch for Easter.

I had to dial in to work for about 30 minutes today and make a few phone calls but at least it wasn't as much work as last weekend.

Take care!
Marcy

 

[marcy]

Happy Easter!

We were pretty lazy today. Marty is still pretty sick. I did a batch of laundry. We met my parents for dinner for Easter. The restaurant was really busy and behind on reservations but once we got seated we got waited on pretty quickly and dinner was good.

I need to finish the April newsletter so off to do some star stuff.

Take care.
Marcy