Healthy Living Thread

[marcy]

Good morning!

Here is my complain-a-thon - read if you are bored but I'll feel better getting it out there.

It's been a hectic morning at the M&M household. The in-laws and Marty were going on a road trip but Marty kept getting calls from work so after my FIL had a few fits he and my MIL took off and Marty stayed behind to work. They were all trying to get out the door by 8 but the in-laws didn't get on the road until about 8:45. They also had a sensor warning light come on about under-inflated tires and Marty had to take care of that for them. I am so glad Marty has his mom's temperament and not his step dad's. His dad is very moody, pouty and grumpy. He doesn't like ice cream and my MIL loves it. We have the low fat slow churned ice cream for dessert quite a bit so my FIL starts giving her a bunch of crap last night about eating so much ice cream since they've been here. I wanted to point out her dish of low fat ice cream wasn't as bad for her as the 2 or 3 beers he had this afternoon but of course I kept my mouth shut. Is it Thursday morning yet? And remember I do like my in-laws and our house is big enough to handle guests. Good thing, huh?

One of my projects for the morning was delayed as well. My dad loves those thick sour cream sugar cookies so I told him I'd make some of them today. Marty and his dad went to the store last night to get the sour cream for me but they picked up light sour cream. It might have worked fine but as much work as those cookies are I decided I'd go get regular sour cream just in case. The dough has to chill for a few hours and I am meeting a friend for lunch at 11:30 so I guess I won't bake cookies until after lunch. I hoped to get them done this morning. I'll crank up the air conditioning and hopefully the house won't get too hot.

Sleep was brief last night; the in-laws left their iPads in the living room and they have all sorts of alert noises set up and they were dinging ALL night. My right foot is demanding attention as well. I have a planters wart on the bottom so bought some of the Dr. Scholls wart remover that has some kind of acid on them to kill the wart, it is burning and achy. Then one of my toes got a blister on the bottom of it the day we walked around all the hardware stores so between those 2 spots I feel like I am walking on rocks and can even feel them just setting here.

Okay - complaining is over. Sorry about that!

I am definitely enjoying my Mini Me iPad. I think it is sharp enough I don't know if I'd go to the expense of upgrading to a retina or not. I am also done with the new Janet Evanovich book so I think I'll read until I go to lunch. I have a batch of clothes going so at least I am being productive. I need to vacuum the floor but I don't want to disturb Marty if he is on the phone.

Have a great day!
Marcy

 

[Dee*Jay]

Happy Tuesday kids!

Zoe, some pool time sounds great! I keep telling myself that once I get through the CPA exam I'm going to go sit by the pool for all of September. Of course then I'm thinking about becoming an IRS Enrolled Agent, so that will be three more tests I need to study for... I hope you like the place you're seeing today with your "new BF." Having a good relationship with the owner is so key (as you know!) and if it comes down to renting to you or someone else people always pick the renter they like more.

Marcy, your MIL and the dishwasher would annoy me too! Actually now I have the WORST dishwasher in my apartment. I understand that buildings skimp in every possible way, but this SOB doesn't clean AT ALL. Just last night I opened it to put something in and the dishes look clean. I called the CB and asked if he ran it after dinner on Sunday night and he said no, but since it does such a lousy job he's gotten into the habit of washing the dishes really well before he puts them in there. At this point we might as well just wash the damn things all by hand and be done with it!

I was not quite as productive on the study front and I'd hoped last night, but I got up early this morning and made a useful little chart on a certain topic, so I feel pretty good about that. When I got in this morning the kitchen was stocked with breakfast sandwiches, sausage, bacon, and fruit. I started with the fruit but somehow ended up having everything else too... ? Not sure what lunch will be but I can hear them setting up in the kitchen right now. Oh how I wish my department had moved away from the kitchen in the annual restacking!

 

[marcy]

Dee Jay, the dishwasher they put in our old house was that bad too. Basically it sterilized them and dried it for us.

 

[Dee*Jay]

Happy Wednesday kids!

Marcy, I opened the dishwasher late last night to put things away, took one look at one dish, and just turned the thing back on. I didn't even bother to look at anything else. I am just going to get some rubber gloves and take to washing dishes by hand. Ug.

So my plan last night was to finish all the reading and multiple choice questions for the last chapter, but I got to about 15 pages and 80 questions left and I just couldn't keep my eyes open. I did read the pages before I got out of bed this morning and then came to work early and did the MCQs so I'm still on track (ahead, even!).

The scale gave me that magic number this morning that says, "OK fatso, ENOUGH." So now I'm in trouble with myself. And being in trouble *with yourself* is never a good thing!

 

[zoebartlett]

Good news! I took Henry to the vet this morning to get an ultrasound done, and his heart murmur has actually improved greatly. He's on meds for it and has been for a while, but it had been a while since he had an ultrasound done. We switched him to a higher calorie version of the special food he's been eating, and we're also going to add in some wet food, too. That should help bulk him up a bit, hopefully without going too far.

We found a condo near the seacoast! It's almost a done deal in that we've put in an application and spoken to the realtor a few times, and the paperwork is underway. It's been on the (rental) market for less than 24 hours and ours is the only application the realtor's gotten. Things go so quickly so we're glad it's in our favor so far. Who knew there'd be so much work involved just to rent?! We're really hoping to be let out of our current lease so we won't be paying for two places in a month's time, but we might have to. We'll see. This condo is awesome. It doesn't have the same character of some of the older places we've seen, but it's very spacious. It's in the town we want, and it has 1600+ sq. ft., 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, a dining area, a great finished basement, a one car garage, and a deck that overlooks the back lawn and tennis courts. There's a pool, too. This condo's much larger than the other places we've seen, and for what we get, we think it's a great deal.

It's going to be another hot day. It might storm later this afternoon, so I think I'm heading to the pool for a while. I skipped breakfast today, so I'll probably have an early lunch. Sandwich on a wheat thin bread, crackers, fruit salad, and water.

 

[marcy]

Good morning.

Dee Jay, your condo is a rental, right? Can you ask for a replacement dishwasher? I would not enjoy doing dishes by hand all the time. Glad you got more studying done. I say that to myself all the time (OK fatso, that’s enough) but listening is another thing. Yesterday I tried not to eat much but how that turned out will be addressed in a few paragraphs.

Zoe, that is great news that Henry is better. The new condo sounds great and sounds promising you got your name in first.

I didn’t make it over to my parents yesterday because about the time I was going to go Marty texted me from the golf course to come have a drink. So far all I’d eaten that day was a 110 calorie bagel, a few grapes, ½ of a hamburger patties and some tomatoes. So I drink once glass of wine and I am already “OK I can’t drive anymore”. So I have another glass of wine and we go to a Mexican restaurant. I am drunk and starving – bad call. Tons of chips and salsa plus 2 tacos later I am stuffed. It was a 2 alka seltzer night after that. Marty knocked a full beer over on me and got me and my purse; luckily my iPhone was in my pocket on the other side and the purse is nylon so only outer pocket stuff got soaked. I just remembered I had a $30 Kohl’s cash in the stuff I threw away. The trash is out already but I don’t think they have picked up yet. I think I’ll go check!

After we got home last night we all had slow churned ice cream and cookies. I was still full when we went to bed.

Off to dumpster dive.

Marcy

 

[Dee*Jay]

Happy Thursday kids!

Zoe, your condo sounds wonderful! Isn't it amazing how fast good rentals go?! When I was in KC I called on a couple of them and they were going within the same day they were listed. Crazy! And I'm so glad to hear about Henry! Whenever The Demon or Oscar would be sick, I was just beside myself. LOL to those of us whose pets are our children! A friend of Bill's once said that when you get pets they are your children, but when you have real children your pets go back to being animals again. Ha!

Marcy, did you have a successful dumpster dive? I once threw out a Marshall Field's gift card and I never did get it back. It was over 20 years ago and I'm still p!ssed off LOL. As for the dishwasher; I'm sure they won't replace it. I complained about my damn washer and dryer over and over and they keep sending some yahoo up to "fix" different things. It *works*, but believe me, if this were a unit I OWNED I would have replaced it with the first big problem. Plus, it's six years old based on the building age, so "someone" has had it in continuous use for the past many years. Take a crappy-to-begin-with washer/dryer, use it constantly by people who don't own it so don't really care, and six years later this is what you get. There's something to be said for renting and this is "not my problem," but there's also something to be said for being able to take care of stuff the way you want.

Last night I did some homework and went to bed early-ish. This morning I got up early but I threw in some laundry and then had a hard time finding something to wear (WTF?) so I didn't make it in any sooner than I normally do. I tried to crank out a couple of practice CPA simulations but the office got buzzing early for some reason so I couldn't concentrate well with all the activity.

Tonight and tomorrow I'm going to do a bunch more laundry and give the place a good cleaning since I wasn't really able to do that the past few weeks with my back messed up. And then a weekend of homework homework homework... says the broken record.

 

[Dee*Jay]

BTW, what is with all the crazy one-off posts in this forum lately?

 

[marcy]

Happy Thursday, indeed!

Dee Jay, I would be upset at throwing out a Marshall Field’s gift card too. I did find my $30 Kohls cash, I foresee a new blouse in my future. Being the OCD clean freak I am though it’s in a zip lock bag. It was only beer but still . . . That is certainly the downside to renting you are at the landlord’s mercy of what they deem necessary to replace. I would definitely replace things that aren’t working. I am working on laundry tonight myself. Marty is pretty engrossed in TV so I might just swifer the floor instead of using my stick vac. I hope you had a chance to study tonight.

My in-laws left about 7 this morning. Tonight I found my MIL put dirty dishes in with my clean dishes again. Aargh. Mental note – the next time they visit I am telling her back off from the dishes!!!!! Okay I’ll do it politely but they obviously would get done the first time if I do them.

I sure didn’t want to go back to work today but I did. I was kind of blue yesterday and this morning. Marty sent me an email asking me if there was something he could do to help since he can tell I was unhappy. That cheered me up and just a change in routine helped get me back to my normal self. I was fine by the time I left work today.

I think I was kind of hung over yesterday and I was definitely ready for our company to bid farewell. Also I’ve been feeling bad for not going to visit my parents as much. I think the stress and hectic pace of the last month just caught up with me and having time to set around and think about things.

Marty played golf this afternoon so I met him at the club after work. I passed on a drink though; we came home and ate leftover pizza and had some slow churned ice cream and the last 2 sugar cookies.

Tomorrow is Friday already. Yippee. We are getting a nice rain and thunderstorm tonight. It cooled off the temperature too.

Take care.
Marcy

 

[marcy]

BTW, what is with all the crazy one-off posts in this forum lately?

I don't know.

 

[zoebartlett]

Happy almost Friday!

Dee*Jay, I've noticed lots of one-off posts too. Odd.

Marcy, I'm glad your dumpster dive was successful! I hope you feel better soon.

I was sick last night and didn't feel like eating today. Only meal of the day was at 7pm -- crackers and fruit salad. I have a feeling I'll be starving in the morning. We're off to sign the lease tomorrow, and then a friend and her daughter are coming over to use the pool. I think it's supposed to be 98*. D.'s taking the day off, so it will be fun to hang out with him on a weekday. Not much else going on. I just starting reading a new (to me) David Baldacci book. It's the first one in a series about characters named King and Maxwell. They're former Secret Service agents who end up working as FBI investigators, I think.

It's way past my bedtime. 'Night!

 

[Dee*Jay]

Happy Friday kids!

Marcy, we're supposed to get some cooler weather this weekend too. I know it's been super hot and muggy here for the past few days, but honestly I am only outside to walk four blocks twice a day so I don't mind it very much. Yet.

Zoe, I hope you feel better today. And I am living vicariously through you on all the great stuff you're reading! Anything sounds more interesting than rereading--for the one millionth time--the Form 1040 and Schedule A.

This morning I walked over to my real estate office around 7:30 and then stopped at the grocery store on the way home. My other big accomplishment so far has been to paint my toenails with bright blue sparkly nail polish. I feel like a 13 year old girl, LOL!

OK, back to the books.

 

[zoebartlett]

Dee*Jay, happy studying! I admire how hard you're working. I wish I understood tax forms but honestly, my eyes glaze over pretty quickly when I try to figure them out. That's why we hire someone to do our taxes. It's probably safer that way! Thanks, I do feel better. I think I was just dehydrated. My head hurt and my stomach was bothering me. I feel much better today.

It's about 99* degrees today, but my car said 106 earlier. There's actually a slight breeze, so it doesn't really feel too hot, oddly enough. It's supposed to cool off this weekend and go down to the low 80s next week. I have some friends coming over, so I hope it's still warm enough to go to the pool.

We brought our check for our new condo to the realtor this morning. I had a slight freak out moment about 5 minutes before walking into the office, questioning whether or not we made the right decision. I'm always second-guessing myself though, and after almost ten years together, D is quite used to by now. He reassured me that we're moving to the place we want to be, and other things will fall into place in time. In other news, we need to step up our landlording (new word!) and be pushier in order to see actual progress with the floor issue. Our tenant needs to be more flexible about when workers can come by (she works nights, and sleeps during the day, so she often tries to schedule appts. for late in the day. That doesn't always fly with the workers. The property manager for the development isn't as demanding as she could be, so she'll make a few calls and then wait around to see what happens. D. and I need to get things rolling again because it's kind of ridiculous how much time has gone by and how little has been accomplished.

 

[marcy]

Happy Friday!

Life is back to normal at M&MLand. My teddy bears are watch an aquarium app on my iPad mini and Marty is watching DIY and Velocity. Occasionally the Killer Rabbit hisses at me.

Zoe, that is exciting for you guys to go sign your lease for the new condo today. I am glad to hear you are feeling better today. The heat there probably doesn’t help anyone feel normal! Let me know if you like your book; it sounds interesting. I like your new term “landlording”. Arranging repairs is never fun.

Dee Jay, you mean reading tax forms isn’t exciting? I face them with an “I have no idea what that really means” approach but hopefully the tax software interview asks me all the right questions. That is great you walked to your real estate office today and picked up some groceries. Did you get me some? We are pretty low on food so I know what I’ll be doing Sunday morning.

Work was long and boring today. We weren’t very busy. At 3:30 a friend and I went outside and waved at Saturn. We’ll be famous. Okay not really but a spacecraft orbiting Saturn was taking a 15-minute image of the Earth at that time so we wanted to go out and be in the picture. I am sure we’ll be able to pick ourselves out on the Earth since it will be one entire pixel in the resulting image.

Marty cooked supper for us today; we had burgers on the grill, oven seasoned veggies and split an ice cream sandwich.

Take care! Have a great weekend.

Marcy

 

[Dee*Jay]

Happy Sunday Kids!

Zoe, unfortunately for your tenant I agree that she will have to be more flexible about allowing the workers in even during times that aren't convenient for her. I go through this frequently as I quasi-manage some properties for my clients and the tenants want things fixed but only at times that work for THEM. Sorry buddy, the A/C repairman isn't going to come at 7 pm after YOU get home from work so you can either let him in early (i.e., 7ish, before you go to the office, and understand that he may still be hard at the fix while you go to the office), or yes, you will have to be around on Saturday to let him in then. Your choice--you want air conditioning or you don't!

Marcy, you get extra good wife points for putting up with your inlaws. Mine were always super super nice when they visited, but still, having them around was a bit of a pill. Plus, they would feed the dogs people food and then wonder why they were puking all over or begging for more. Oh well, if that's the worst thing I can say about them I'd doing OK! I have sent the poor CB to the grocery store for random things all weekend along. I'm sure he thinks I'm crazy but I just HAVE to have Tyson's crispy chicken strips in the house in case I get an urge for them some night this week!

The CB and I went with a couple of our friends to watch the 80s cover band playing right by my house last night. It started raining soon after we got there and our friends gave up early, but we stayed and got soaked for another half hour or so. I should trying going to the gym today but honestly I think I will just keep on doing homework and skip it. (I should be kicked off the healthy lifestyle thread, LOL.) My next exam is a week from tomorrow and I feel like I'm getting dumber with every practice test...

BTW, this is the first day I've noticed "spell check" on this forum; i.e., when I misspell a word I get the squiggly red line under it. Is that new or did I somehow change a setting on my computer and now it shows up where it never did before?

 

[marcy]

Hi Kids! Did your weekend zip by as fast as mine? Most Likey.

Dee Jay, that is a very good plan to send the CB to the store for you. Marty would rather I play go fetch so he can stay firmly planted on the couch. I am confident you are not getting dumber with each practice test. The spell check has worked for me on PS for a while but I don’t remember how long.

We had a marvelous day yesterday. An art gallery in Denver was hosting a Tom Everhart show so naturally Marty and I ventured down there. He was going to be there from 1 to 5 pm. We got to the gallery about 12:30 and enjoyed looking around at all of his pieces on display and the owner took us to see about 20 more pieces not on display. We finally picked something to buy and then we got to meet Tom Everhart. He signed a dedication card they’ll mount on the pack of our pictures. He was very nice and friendly.

Since we were out of town the owners invited us to go to dinner with the Everhart last night. It was really a great time. There were 18 of us there. 4 from the gallery, Tom Everhart and his wife, his 2 publicists and the rest of us were from out of state (Indiana, Michigan and Kansas). We didn’t get home until well after midnight but it was worth it. Just meeting him, talking to him and finding him to be such a nice, interesting person will make us like his art even more.

Today I worked on laundry, bought food for the week and went over to visit my parents.

Have a great week.
Marcy

 

[deegee]

marcy-glad to hear you made it through the visit from your in-laws. The last time my MIL visited for a week, I stayed out every night until 9 at the earliest, visited for a few minutes and then headed to my bedroom for the rest of the evening. That woman is pure evil. I did a google search for Tom Everhart...you have several of his paintings, don't you? They're so colorful and cheerful. I like them! How is your mom doing?

Zoe-I hope you're feeling better. And a new condo - how exciting! Congrats! I agree your tenant needs to be more flexible. Repairmen really don't work around your schedule. I'm glad to hear your kitty doesn't have thyroid problems. I'm glad his heart murmur is improving. I keep trying to put my kitties on diets. They went straight from kitten chow to weight control formula, and I measure their portions but somehow they are just big cats. Matt swears they have a stash of Doritos hidden somewhere we don't know about.

Dee*Jay-Your dishwasher story cracks me up. Sorry. But I completely understand what you mean. We replaced appliances in our old house about a year and a half ago, and the only appliance that really was having problems was the dishwasher. We had kicked that stupid thing long enough we decided to replace it, and then we had to replace the rest to match. That was one expensive dishwasher repair! I am a stomach sleeper too, which is horrible for my back. Sometimes I can't roll back over.

I am recovering from a monster head to toe flare up, which I think was brought on by us moving ourselves. That was so stupid...of Matt, that is. I keep reminding him that I wanted movers (I should probably stop rubbing that in). I haven't been able to get my rings past my first knuckle in weeks, and I'm having a heck of a time trying to type. I've been wearing a huge brace on my left arm and hand, and I have terrible fumble fingers. I have been going to work, but I'm not very productive. Everything is finally calming back down except my shoulder, which I am trying really hard to baby. I am incredibly grateful for my first floor master bedroom. Matt could have a real party pad upstairs and I wouldn't know it! Food has been okay-ish and I've been taking slow walks in the neighborhood, trying to avoid the big hills. I can't wait until I can tackle them though - it will be a great workout. I'm off to bed. I meant to be in bed an hour ago, but I always seem to get a second wind around bedtime. Why is that? Have a great day tomorrow!

 

[zoebartlett]

Ohhhmmmyyyggooo------- I'm so furious I could cry. There's more condo stuff going on and apparently, no one's in a hurry to get anything done. I have a few calls in to the people who the property manager hired to find out what's going on. Then I might have to fire them and hire people ourselves. I feel horrible about all of this and now our tenant is upset with us, too. We have no experience with any of this but we've always tried to get things taken care of asap.

Deegee, I hope you feel better soon.

Marcy, it sounds like you had a great time at the gallery yesterday.

Dee*Jay, an 80s cover band sounds fun!

 

[Dee*Jay]

Happy Monday kids!

Marcy,

Zoe, oh no! Dealing with people who don't get the job done is so frustrating. I'm sorry you have to go through this, but certainly your tenant should not be mad at you becuase you are clearly doing everything you can. Big hugs on this.

Deegee, I'm sorry to hear you've been suffering since the move! As for a second wind at bed time, that never happens to me... As a matter of fact, I frequently just sleep on the couch becuase I can't drag myself from there to the bed. Ah; one of the joys of living alone--you can sleep where ever you want with no one waking you up to ask if you want to come to bed.

Marcy, well now I don't see the spell check thing any more... ? Maybe it makes a difference what computer I use, although I don't know why that would make a difference. Oh well, please forgive my typos! It's great that you have found an artist that you like. I have a couple of pieces from a particular artist too and they are a very distinctive style.

Yesterday the CB made breakfast, and then I did some home work, and then he made lunch, and then I did some homework, and then he made dinner, and then I did some homework... AAAAAAAACK!!!!! Hampster on wheel. He had to go home last night though becuase his car is at the dealer and it was easier to just take the train back then rather than deal with it all this morning.

It's really pleasant here today, but the down side is they apparently haven't adjusted the A/C in my building from last week when it was really hot because now it's freezing in here. I'm glad I brought a jacket today.

 

[deegee]

Zoe-your condo repairs sound like an endless nightmare. I sure hope things get straightened out for you soon.

Dee*Jay-Matt can fall asleep anywhere. I often head to bed and leave him conked out in a chair. Of course, when he comes dragging in the bedroom, my second wind has hit and I'm wide awake reading & listening to music.

I was bad today. I had a lousy day at work and only had a few minutes for lunch, so I had a Wendy's hamburger AND fries. I never eat fries. Ugh! My only saving grace was that I didn't supersize my meal. When I got home, I threw a load of laundry in the washer, put ice on my shoulder, and took a two hour nap. I really didn't mean to sleep so long and woke up to Lily giving me a very gentle but thorough facial cleansing. She had a concerned look on her sweet little doggie face. I made spaghetti for dinner and had a bowl of ice cream for dessert. We're having our daily thunderstorm so it looks like no walk tonight. Have a great day tomorrow!

Oh, and can anyone recommend good blackout drapes? My white wood blinds do not do much to keep my bedroom dark. I am not, let me stress NOT, a morning person. I do not exclaim, "Oh, glorious day!" when the sunlight comes pouring in at the crack of dawn. I swear dawn cracks earlier in the mountains, and I think I'm closer to the moon too. It seems awfully bright and my room never gets really dark at night. I need blackout drapes! Any recommendations?

 

[Dee*Jay]

Deegee, it's funny you say that about the daily thunderstorm because I feel like we have lightening (but not always thunder I can hear, and also not always rain) every single night lately too. I also have an irrational fear of leaving important electronics (laptop, ipad, phones) plugged in during a storm, even with a power strip, so at the first flash I bolt around making sure nothing I care about is plugged in.

As for the blackout drapes... I am not a morning person in terms of chipper personality, but I actually never close the drapes or blinds in my bedroom at all. For some reason I want to know when it gest light out (although that doesn't necessarily mean I'm going to do anything about it! ). Hopefully Marcy and Zoe will have some ideas for you.

 

[marcy]

Happy Monday!

Deegee, I know you’ve mentioned what an evil MIL you have before. Mine is generally pretty nice so I am lucky there. We do have 3 of Tom Everhart’s pieces on the walls and will soon have 7; we always get something with Snoopy in it. Our new pieces are black and white but we really like the pictures. My mom is about the same. She did make Jello yesterday. Sorry to hear you are having a bad flare up; I hope you feel better soon. We bought some blackout drapes at Bed, Bath and Beyond which do pretty good when it’s dark out but since they are on poles the sun comes in around the edge. I am sensitive to light when I am sleeping and I don’t notice the Sun wakes me up with them. The best thing we found at our old house was the blackout drapes and thermal shades on the window.

Zoe, how awful to have more problems with your condo and how frustrating for you to try to deal with it all. Good luck! It doesn’t sounds like the property managers are doing much for you; do you have a contract with them or can you just fire them? When will you guys be coming to your seacoast place?

Dee Jay, the spell check is working on this response for me. I wonder if it is an option in your browser? You continue to spend most of your time studying. I’ve been chilly lately too; I am digging out a sweater tomorrow. That is too funny you never close your drapes. My sister that lives on a farm rarely closes her drapes and it drives me crazy when I am out at their place. It makes me nervous. Once the Sun is out I am usually wide awake.

Work was long and boring. Marty made supper for us, which was great to come home and not have to cook supper.

Take care.
Marcy

 

[zoebartlett]

Yes, it's a never ending nightmare to deal with the condo issues. It's funny though, just to walk through the place, you wouldn't necessarily notice some of the issues. The bubbling in the floor isn't horrible but we know we need to deal with it. The bathroom ceiling currently has a hole in it so that obviously needs to be fixed, but the room itself looks fine. We didn't choose to work with the property manager. She works for the whole development, but they don't really handle issues that occur inside individual units. It gets tricky though because with something like leaky pipes that go between floors, who's responsible for that, you know? We've had to fight for her to deal with and pay for that, but with the flooring bubbling, even she can see it's most likely a crack in the concrete slab, therefore the association would be responsible. We lived there for 3.5 years and never had one issue.

Marcy, we move into our new condo in mid-August.

I'll be back later...

 

[Dee*Jay]

Happy Tuesday kids!

Marcy, at most I tend to put sheers up on bedroom windows, and those are obviously more for aesthetic reasons than for any light blockage. When we lived in the loft we had an expanse of 80 feet of alternating walls and windows and never put up a single window treatment in any part of the space. When the sun was up WE were up!

Zoe, I responded some more in your flooring thread in Hangout. As I generally mentioned there, your flooring decision may be more market driven than anything else if the height differential is negligible, especially taking the subfloor into account.

Last night I was not nearly as productive as I should have been so I came to work early and did an hour of practice tests. Tonight I need to be HARD at it or I will be in full blown pacic soon...

For "dinner" I had chips and salsa. Twice. The good news is I just remembered I also have ice cream sandwiches in the freezer. I'm glad I forgot about those last night or else dinner would have included an ice cream sandwich too!

 

[zoebartlett]

Thanks again for your thoughts on the floor, Dee*Jay. I replied in the other thread.

Deegee, how are you feeling today? I had to laugh when I read that you rarely eat fries when ordering fast food. What's the point of getting fast-food if you DON'T eat fries?! Oh, and sorry, but I don't have any recommendations for black out drapes. I'm like Dee*Jay. I like to know when it's getting light out, so I've never looked into them.

Marcy, do you know where you'll put the new Everhart pieces? That's so cool that you went to dinner with him.

I should be packing or filling out subbing applications but I'm procrastinating. Friends were supposed to come over for a pool picnic but because it's raining, we had to reschedule. The property manager of the condo we're in e-mailed us to ask if a realtor friend of hers could stop by tomorrow. She has a client who might be looking to buy this unit, and she wants to come over and get a look at the condo before bringing her client by. If the client wants to purchase, that would be great news for us because she's hoping to close by the end of August or maybe mid-September. We're hoping not to have to pay September's rent, so we'd be thrilled if this client moved in at the end of next month.

It's so overcast, it looks like it could pour any minute. It's the perfect afternoon for a nap.

 

[marcy]

Happy Tuesday!

Zoe, the condo and who’s responsible for what sounds like a real tricky and sticky situation. The ceiling and floor certainly sound like a structural issue which they should pay for. I bet you are anxious to move. We have been talking about where to hang our new pictures. The long / skinny one would look great over the stairwell but I sure hated Marty straddling a ladder to hang up the picture we have there now. The matching pair will probably go over the TV. I should make some examples Photoshop Elements but that sounds like more work than I am willing to do tonight. Did you take a nap? I hope it works out your current condo gets rented right away.

Dee Jay, the window space in your loft must have been amazing! I am definitely never asleep if the Sun is up; that is why I do look for blackout drapes and curtains. I have a hard time sleeping if there are lights from anywhere. Good luck studying tonight. We are out of ice cream sandwiches but we did have some slow churned chocolate ice cream tonight.

Deegee, I hope you are feeling better today.

Work was once again boring. I picked up burritos for Marty for supper and got myself 2 tacos. We had the ice cream for dessert. Marty is pretty tired because he didn’t sleep last night. I went to bed an hour early and you guessed it woke up an hour early. My allergies are awful right now which makes me really tired.

We had a nice rain right after work. We saw a little rainbow while we were eating. Nice view for supper!

Take care.
Marcy

 

[Dee*Jay]

Happy Wednesday kids!

Zoe, I'm with you on the fries thing! But I just HATE it when you go to a place that's busy and they are taking the fries out before the timer goes off and they aren't completely crispy. I can't tell you how many times I've asked to wait for fries, and PLEASE leave the basket in the glorious grease for it's appropriate amount of time, THANK YOU. Ah--fries!!!

Marcy, my allergies have been pretty OK for a little while now, but this morning I'm back on the meds again. I don't know what's in the air but it's just killing me today! And that loft was amazing, but the building itself was in rather poor shape. I'm just glad we sold it before the whole thing tumbled right into the river--and I"m convinced that's exactly what will happen to it some day, especially based on the amount of work I see going on over there right now.

Last night I stayed at my office until about 10 pm doing practice tests, and then I went home and worked on a couple more concepts I wanted to 100% solidify. My best traveling girlfriend planted the seed about a trip to Aspen between now and the final exam and I am struggling with whether I can afford the time or not...

 

[zoebartlett]

Darn, I hit something and my post disappeared as I was typing.

Hi Deegee!

Marcy, nah, I didn't take a nap yesterday. I'm sorry work's been boring. Is there anything you can do to spice things up a bit?

Dee*Jay, I love loft spaces? Was yours a converted loft with exposed pipes, beams, and brick walls? A trip to Aspen sounds like fun! You've been there before right? It could be a good time to get away and take a break from studying. Could you wait to go until after you're finished with exams? You could reward yourself for the hard work you've done.

So I figured something out which made me laugh earlier. I've spent the last 4-5 months packing. Okay, so it's not like I've done it every day or anything, but still. I started packing up my classroom in March, gradually, and now I've moved on to packing up the house. We want the move to go as quickly as possible, so after I pack a few boxes, D. takes them to the garage. We're hoping that by having all the boxes (or most of them anyway) in one place, it will help speed things up. We've gotten quotes from 2 companies and one was pretty much double the price of the other one. Both are professional moving companies, but it's funny how different the two quotes are.

I think we're going to the pool after D. finishes working. I have an appt. with the local unemployment office tomorrow. Hopefully they'll be able to answer a few questions I have. Some friends and their kids are coming over on Friday for a pool picnic. That's it for the week. Stanley Steemer is coming over on Saturday to clean the carpeting, and then hopefully D. and I will go to the pool and get a lot of packing done.

My aunt is coming next week, so I'm looking forward to that. She'll be here for a week, then she's heading down to see family and friends in NJ, and then she'll return here for a few days before heading home to CO. My mom's having knee surgery in a couple weeks, so my aunt (her sister) is going to help out.

 

[deegee]

Dee*Jay-Matt's desktop got fried last year when the power came back on after it had been off for 4 days because of the derecho, so I know what you mean! The loft sounds awesome. I love natural light, except when I'm trying to sleep. One of our bedroom windows is 90 inches wide by 78 inches long, and the other is 36 by 78. And there's another huge window with a domed window above it in the master bath, but at least I can shut the door at night for that one. Good luck deciding on whether or not to go to Aspen. I'd choose Aspen over studying any day!

Zoe-I never, ever eat french fries. I don't know what possessed me to order them, but they tasted wonderful! I ate every single one of them. Good luck with the packing. I sure don't want to do that again for a while! I have made Matt promise that if we ever move again, we're hiring movers. Matt and I had our "staging" area in the garage too. All boxes were labeled and moved to the garage as we packed. We tried to keep them organized by room too so we could unload at the new house faster.

Marcy-Sorry to hear your allergies are making you so miserable. I do okay as long as I take my medicine and use my prescription allergy eye drops every day. We're in a very woodsy area now, so any time spent outside gets me sneezing. Thanks for the Bed Bath & Beyond recommendation. We don't have that store near us, but I did find a several good possibilities on their website. I love the brand "sound asleep." I'm like you - I have to have a dark room to get to sleep. I don't even like light coming through the crack under the door! I love the layout of my new bedroom because the door is actually around a little corner and I can't see it at all when I'm in bed. Now to take care of that pesky moon and sunlight! I'm sorry you're bored at work. Nothing makes the day go slower.

The highlight of my day today was getting a new brace for my wrist. I got the brace I was using after the cast came off the last time I broke my wrist, so it was pretty rigid and I didn't have much finger motion when I was wearing it. This one goes around my thumb to stabilize it and then drops down to my wrist so that most of my hand is free. I can type so much better. Matt is out of town this week, so I stopped by Cracker Barrel on the way home and picked up dumplings, carrots and broccoli for dinner. I had watermelon for breakfast and no lunch, so I decided to splurge on dinner. Our daily thunderstorm came really early today and there is no rain in the forecast for 24 whole hours. Woo-hoo! Lily and I have been on the deck all evening listening to the birdies chirp. She's been chasing squirrels and playng with the black lab next door, so she's getting some exercise. Have a great day tomorrow!!!

 

[marcy]

Happy Wednesday!

Dee Jay, LOL at asking them to leave the fries in the “glorious grease”. If you are going to eat fries they better be good ones. They need to be hot and crispy. I am glad you guys didn’t tumble in to the river when you had the loft. I hope your allergies are better tonight. I might try children’s zyrtec. They might be enough to help me but not enough to make me crazy. Aspen would be a fun trip. The airport there was impressive to drive by; lots of personal planes.

Zoe, I hate to lose posts. We have about 1 more month of slow time then I’ll be wishing for a boring day. I sure don’t miss packing. We worked on our house for months as well. We got a screaming deal on our movers. We found a local business mover who moved us for about $900. It was a smaller truck and the guy and his family moved us. It took them all day and a few things got banged up but the price was right. We spent about the same having Allied move a small amount of furniture from Marty’s parents house to our basement so I am sure they would have charged us 6 to 8 thousand to move us. That will be fun to have your aunt come visit. What kind of knee surgery is your mom having? I hope it goes well for her.

Deegee, our worst electrical “frying” was when lightning hit our pole outside and traveled in to the house. We were in bed with the lights off and it was so loud and bright it woke us up and then when it hit the house all the lights came on for a few seconds. I screamed like a girl. We lost a lot of our electronics that night. That is great you can’t see the door in your bedroom when you are in bed. We had 2 doors and one is the master bath that lets in far too much light trough the opaque window. We shut both doors and have room-darkening drapes so it is very dark in there. I am glad to hear the new brace is working better to type. Are you feeling better yet? I bet Lily likes her new neighborhood.

We got off ½ of a day today for a local holiday so I left at noon. I stopped by to visit my parents then picked up Marty about 1. We had lunch at Olive Garden and brought home enough to feed us again and then some.

Marty worked until about 5:30. We had a heavy rainstorm roll through here for about an hour tonight.

I am working on laundry. The girl who cleans my house missed cleaning the tub / shower in our guest bath so I go that done. No one has used it before now so she probably didn’t think to look to see if it was dirty. Marty teased me for cleaning it but I wasn’t going to wait 2 weeks; you never know when you might get company.

My mom has had a few rough days again. It is kind of like her chemo wore off. She has round 2 starting next Monday. They took her off any kind of blood thinners and her face swelled up again where she fell and hit so hard. They x-rayed it but she hasn’t heard anything from the doctor.

Take care!
Marcy