Healthy Living Thread

[marcy]

Hi Kids!

It’s rather nice here today. Thunderstorms possible later today then picking up the next few days. From snow to hail in one week. Either way it’s white stuff falling from the sky.

I updated my W4 this morning. I told Marty I’m cancelling my monthly payment as a client to the gym. I pointed out our money was already taxed then we pay taxes on it as income for the gym. Im a slender but I’m cheap. I would rather spend money on Porsche, iPads and jewelry. Shocking, I know!

How was the Russian Tea House today? Did you take Billy Ray? I was amused driving home yesterday. My 15 minute drive home consists for the first half in traffic - Wyoming traffic not Chicago traffic - then a very open state highway at the edge of town. At the stoplight before I hit the highway I put the car in sports plus. I totally chuckled between the sound and the car shifting to sports plus - it was like I could feel the car getting ready to fly. Those last few mikes are fun!!!! If I take another route home it’s all kind of an outer loop with little traffic which makes it even more fun. It’s the only reason I come to work. Ha ha.

Have a fabulous day!

Curby

 

[Dee*Jay]

Happy Friday kids!

Curby, I think everyone is in tax mode right now so you are in good company with the W4. Liam got the last of his stuff together last night, including a 1099 from Paypal that was damn near impossible to figure out how to download and print, so his taxes could get done. The Russian Tea house was good, but I didn't take Billy Ray. Good thing too because the highway was packed with state troopers. I think we saw one at every single access point for about 50 miles! There must be some sort of quota to be met, LOL.

I have been on the go since early o'clock, and with actual work things no less! That certainly hasn't helped me in terms of getting any of this glass off the dining room table either. Talk about TWO full time jobs right now!

The washing machine is dinging at me and the dogs are barking at someone/something so I better take a trot around the house and get things under control!

 

[marcy]

Hi Kids!

Darn those pesky taxes. You'd think PayPal would have easy forms to report income / expenses. I tried to confirm our return had arrived / been accepted and since we owe that little "where's my refund" doesn't work. She said if they haven't pulled our "dues" by the 20th to let her know. Nothing like leaving OCD me in limbo whether our taxes arrived on time.

It does sound like it was a good call to leave Billy Ray at home with all those troopers out there to ruin our fun. My cousin got stopped in her jag and when he asked her where she was going in such a hurry she answered "I feel the need for speed". He wasn't amused. It's early in the month for some quota needing met; I sure see a lot of local speed blockers out at the end of the month here.

Glad to hear the Russian Tea house was good.

You do have 2 full time jobs now but one of them is probably more fun than the other. I'll go check out your page.

Too funny that the dogs and washing machine are demanding attention at the same time. I often say the buzzer on the dryer is one of the most annoying sounds ever! That's why I shut if off. Ha Ha.

We went out for breakfast then shopped like drunken sailors at Sams Club. It was more impulse than planned so I bought things I didn't need since I hadn't checked my inventory. Let's say I am probably now entering in to being a hoarder of paper products. But after what happened during the "flatten the curve" last year can you really ever have too much TP? We got Marty a big old tomahawk steak and me a ribeye for lunch. I'm stuffed. I just ate the center out of my steak but it was good. Marty even grilled in the rain. I guess we got an inch of rain yesterday.

Marty has been turning his office into a media friendly environment. Don't know why; I know he wants to makes some training videos for his clients and he is on conference calls all day. Our DSLR is from 2006 so doesn't do streaming or HD. I told him he should ask his client who is a teacher if they have a camera club at her school - donate it to them. So Marty is shopping for a new camera for that. He has recently bought some microphones, speakers, studio lighting so guess the camera is next. I have 2 other cameras but my cell phone takes such great pictures I hardly use the other cameras anymore.

Laters,
Curby

 

[marcy]

Hi Kids!

Happy Sunday. It's been very cloudy today but not a drop a rain yet. I met Marty for lunch after his morning clients were finished lifting. The 14 year old was not very speedy today. As we were leaving Marty asked me if I wanted to race home; I said sure. Of course he was long gone before I got my car started. I caught up with him about 1/2 way home and he didn't even notice me pulled up by him at the light. I beat him that time. The next 3 lights; not so much. Darn!!!

Marty is working on his office downstairs getting it all set up for his media center. Maybe he'll become a YouTube star. I watched a few movies this weekend and been mostly bored / restless today. The case I ordered for my new iPad arrived today but the base that would set on my lap isn't solid; it bends in one space and I don't think I'd like that so I am returning it. I guess you can drop returns to Amazon at Kohls so I printed out my return label for them and will see how that works.

Laters,
Curby

 

[Dee*Jay]

Happy Monday kids!

Curby, Let me know when Marty's youtube channel is up and running and I'll go watch his videos! Yes, you can make returns at Kohl's, but I'm not sure if you can do it at ALL Kohl's or only some. At first it was only some and the one downtown by me was included but the one here by Liam was not. They may have have changed that by now though. It's super easy; you just initiate the return on Amazon, go into the store with your bar code (you can even just show it to them on your phone, you don't even need to print anything) and they take it and you're done! The ones I've done it at also give you a coupon for some % off in the store that day so if you have anything to buy it's a score!

Well another weekend zipped by! I went to a flea market on Saturday and got some things, and also scored at a few garage sales on the way home because people in that town set up during the weekends of the big flea markets (they do it in May and September) knowing there will be a lot of traffic going by. There was another flea market on Sunday but it was an hour in each direction and Liam didn't want to leave the children being that far away (which I totally agree with!) and I didn't feel like doing a second whole day of flea marketing alone, especially since I already had (and still HAVE) so much to list right now. Liam's cousin and aunt came over from Iowa to go to the Saturday flea market too, but we never managed to meet up, and by the time I'd made my second trip to the car with all sorts of stuff his aunt was worn out and ready to leave so we all headed back to the house. Liam made steaks on the grill and we had some other good stuff and it was a really nice afternoon.

Yesterday I slept in for the first time in what felt like ages! I took a lot of listing pictures and then went over to an auction place mid-afternoon to pick up the stuff I'd bought online. One batch was a whole bunch of wine glasses in two sizes... most of which were shattered by the time I got them! They were packed in a plastic tote all by themselves and all I can think of is someone must have just jammed them in there super carelessly because there was plenty of room for the glasses in that big tote even with paper wrapped around them. I'm super disappointed because I lost easily $150 worth of glassware, and also because the bigger set I've now only got three of (out of eight!!!). If I had at least four I could have done a reasonable set. Argh.

Tonight there is a charity event for a board that Liam is on so we'll be heading over to the country club later. Normally this is a big sit-down dinner thing, but due to covid it's outside with a tent. I don't think there's even a meal, but I'm sure there will be some sort of food involved.

I need to do a bunch of work, but I also need to get everything off the dining room table to make that happen. Mondays are such a "process" LOL!

 

[Dee*Jay]

Oh! And in other "big news" Liam bought me a wagon to take to flea markets and places like that! He suggested I stop at Lowes or Home Depot when I was headed out on Saturday morning to the market and I was like, "Nah, I'll be fine." And The First Thing I bought was two giant flats of glass! I left them with the lady and when back to get them at the end, but it would have been SO much easier if I'd had a wagon than having to make two trips to the car with a heavy packed bag in each hand. Lesson learned! My vision of what he was talking about was more like the kind of thing you'd take to the grocery store, but the one he got was a bigger flat wagon with heavy duty fabric sides that folds up. I'll do my best not to be "that person" who stops in the middle of aisles and causes a traffic jam with my wagon (which I saw a lot of on Saturday!), but I'm super excited!

 

[marcy]

Hi Kids!

Dee Jay, the Amazon return was quite easy - just as you described it. I got a $5 Kohl's cash and a discount coupon good for 7 days. On my way out of the store I wandered by the nail polish so picked out another pink - mauve OPI to use my Kohl's Cash. I'll try it tonight and I believe it's not a color I have already. Ha Ha.

I will let you know once Marty gets some training videos out there. It will make me antsy that we have a new camera but he'll be using it all the time. To be honest the camera on my iPhone is so good I don't pull out other cameras to use anymore.

How nice of Liam to buy you a wagon to use at flea markets. I am sure that will come in very handy. Are you going to put a bell and flag on it? Ha Ha. I frequently run in to a store to get a few things so don't get a cart and of course by the time I'm standing in line to check out I'm dropping crap left and right and my arms are aching from trying to hold everything.

It sounds like you had a nice time and good eats with Liam's cousin and aunt. Mmm grilled steaks.

I bet that felt great to sleep in for a change. On no so many of your glasses were broke; can you get your money back on that purchase? That is kind of crappy.

Going to the country club tonight sounds fancy. Did you get food? We've looked in to joining our country club primarily because Marty wanted to play golf there but we just never signed up. At the time his golf buddy wouldn't join so he kept buying the annual pass for the city golf courses. Now Marty's friend has moved and Marty doesn't play golf. Oh well. I went to a bridal shower there once. Ha Ha.

I was glad (so to speak) to see the IRS has our withdrawal pending in our checking account. At least I know they got our tax return now. My first car payment was withdrawn today too. Now I can go see about moving the loan to our credit union. Work was slowish; now that NHL and NBA are in playoffs our work load dropped dramatically. It was rainy today but more drizzle than anything.

Laters,
Curby

 

[Aerielle Max]

Heya,

I am having fun reading this thread. I am just like I am reading a book. It makes me inspired to read your daily things and thoughts.

That indeed put a smile to my face

 

[Dee*Jay]

Happy Tuesday kids!

Aerielle, my daily thoughts will likely make you think I'm crazy and bore the pants off you in equal measure, LOL.

Curby, when we were down in Missouri last weekend we ran into the grocery store to get ten limes (don't ask... ). Sister #1 is adamant about saving the environment and not using plastic so she tried pulling out the bottom of her shirt and using it as a pouch to put the limes in. That worked out... uh... not to great. There were limes rolling every damn where! And when we did get to the checkout the lady then put them in a bag and since we bought something else too she put the bag with the limes in ANOTHER bag to keep them all together in an organized manner. I thought #1 was going to have some sort of stroke, haha. And I'm not going to bother trying to get my $ back on the glasses. I only paid $5 for the who tote full... but I'm still mad!

Yesterday was busy! I have no idea where the first half of the day went. Then I had a call with the head of IT to go over stuff for the annual review, which went pretty well although I could tell he was rushed and this conversation was the last thing he wanted to be doing at the moment! Liam asked me to come over to the country club early in case anything needed to be done before the people started arriving at five so after the IT call I quick packed up something a lady had bought so I could run by the post office on the way to the club, threw on some clothes and headed out the door. Somehow I got trapped at the registration table and ended up staying there while the speeches were being given in case someone came in and needed to get checked in and pay. After that I helped Liam sell tickets for the 50/50 raffle out on the deck overlooking the river. It was a gorgeous night and after everyone left there were about eight of us that sat out there and drank. And drank. And drank. Finally the catering manager said we had to go and we headed over to the house of some people who lived about two blocks away. At midnight we were eating pizza and drinking bourbon in their kitchen. Oy. I wish I could have slept longer this morning but the dogs were aggravated by something early on (probably the fox that Blue took off after the other morning) so the barking woke me up. I should get out of bed soon (now!) because I start annual compliance training today and the first session is in less than two hours. Oh joy!

BTW, I got B.B. back last week. The plate I had Ilya put under the stone made all the difference in the world -- window gone! I'm SO happy I had that done!!!

 

[marcy]

Hi Kids!

Aerielle this is like my daily blog. I’ve actually dug back through it to see when something happened in my life. LOL.

Dee Jay, glad your broken flat was only $5.

Too funny about sister #1, limes and bags. One of my sisters is like that as well. She always takes any recyclable things home from our house.

I hope your IT guy was friendly than most of our IT guys. When Marty worked here he was head of IT for about 5 years and I bitched at him constantly about how arrogant, intolerant and grouchy the IT people were that worked for him. They all seem to be bothered by your stupidity when you ask a question or for help. That was also when Marty bought me a Mac. He was sick of fixing my Windows problems. Ha ha.

Your evening sounds perfect. You had me deck, drinks and river. Darn the night was late and morning rolled around so soon plus you were abruptly woke up by the dogs. They are saying hey Dee get up!!! Ugh to starting compliance training today. Good luck with that.

That’s fabulous BB no longer has a window. Great idea! Any word from Ilya on your EC side stones for GG? I am trying to resist contemplating my next jewelry project. I’m sure I’ve bought my Christmas, Valentine’s Day, birthday and anniversary gifts already through 2150. I always think I’m done with jewelry projects but I think ooh I could do this or get this.

Work is boring today. I’m catching up on TV.

Laters,
Curby

 

[Dee*Jay]

Happy Wednesday kids!

Curby, our IT people are really great to be honest, even the one that was rushed yesterday. I think he's just being pulled in too many different direction right now with everything going on. Sister #1 was particularly torqued off that you couldn't take your own bag into the store due to covid but half of the people in the area (rural Missouri) didn't wear masks, LOL. No more news on GG. I truly have no idea (nor does Ilya) when the last side stone will be released from customs...

Yesterday I actually got some work done! In additional to knocking out the first of the training I also got a project issue resolved so I can move forward with that at the same time as training (they will go in tandem). I spent some time last night working on two other things too, so I think I'm in pretty good shape starting the day.

There are some estate sales this week that I need to look at the picture for and see what my plan will be for the coming early mornings. I did see that one has a slew of a particular kind of glass and I might wait and go by when it's all 70% off and see if there's anything left because if I got it inexpensive enough I'd be willing to take it. There is also still a big pile of things in the dining room yet to tackle too!

Alright, off to get this day rolling!

 

[marcy]

Hi Kids!

Dee Jay, that's great your IT people are so good. The ones we had at the community college I taught at were really nice and helpful.

I hate to tell sister #1 this but I agree with the store about reusing bags. Some of those cloth bags I see people using are NASTY looking and have to be pretty germ infested. Our stores are having more and more people without masks now; if only they'd lift the mask mandate at work. Speaking of germ infested I won't keep sponges at the sink even though Marty always wants to use one. I'm like no way - those things are germ magnets. I do have a dish cloth in a crystal dish by the sink but rarely use it; if I wipe down the countertops with it once it goes in the wash. I generally use a wet paper towel or use a Clorox wipe. When my SIL was staying here she kept using the same wash cloth to wash dishes by hand; once she went to bed all those dishes went in the dishwasher.

Yay for getting some training accomplished plus resolving a project issue. I had a fun filled morning of drama but was bored this afternoon. Our annual appraisals are released but since one of the four employees won't be in until next Wednesday I think I'll give them out next week. Not looking forward to one of them for sure.

I hope those glasses are still at the estate sale when things are 70% off. I did see some of your new items in your store.

Tomorrow night I'm trying my first astronomy meeting using Zoom. I practiced with Marty tonight. I participate in Zoom meetings at work but don't do the share screen part; I'm sure it will be fine.

Marty got his new camera today; when we did our Zoom test he looked like he was on TV with it. i naturally want to give it a test run this weekend. My nephew who is going to inherit our old DSLR is pretty excited.

Laters,
Curby

 

[marcy]

Hi Kids!

I am looking forward to the weekend being over; I'm beat. Ha Ha.

Our first online astronomy meeting last night didn't go well for 2 reasons - operator error and lack of participation. Marty told his clients to come in early so he'd be home in time. I air dropped him my power point to him, he opened the few short videos I wanted to show from YouTube and then we set up our media room - lights, camera, lack of action and audio. Things were set and about 9 minutes in Marty says "crap - you need to go start the meeting on your laptop". Oops. If anyone tried to log in they wouldn't have seen anything. Oh well. I did send out an email saying if you tried to log in; please try again. We waited another 10 minutes and no one showed up. Oh well. It was a good test. Since Marty has the set up now to record videos I might record a program one a month and post it on YouTube. Why not? I don't foresee our neighborhood retirement home allowing us back in there for meetings any time soon.

We are meeting my sister, BIL and nephew for lunch tomorrow so I did my Saturday and Sunday chores today including lifting. Tomorrow my grocery order is ready to pick up at 9 in the morning then I'm done with chores. Sweet. I want to stop by Best Buy so Marty can pick out a tripod for his camera; he stole the tripod off my solar telescope and I told him he needs to work on finding his own tripod. Sadly my favorite brand of tripod is not longer available.

I plan on giving my employees their 2020 appraisals (nothing like being 6 months late) early this week. One of them won't be fun.

It's cold and rainy here today. I switched the thermostat back to heat. Phooey.

Laters,
Curby

 

[Dee*Jay]

Happy Sunday kids!

Curby, LOL on the meeting not being started -- that's so totally something I would do! When I got my new laptop (the third one in this pandemic) I had to log onto our department happy hour that night. I "couldn't get the camera to work." Well it worked just fine after the meeting was over and I realized there was a piece of black tape stuck over it, hahahahaha! We are also enjoying weird weather where we use both heat and A/C in the same day... sometimes switching back and forth multiple times! Good for you on having all your weekend chores over--and I'm 100% with you on being beat this weekend!

Friday I got up EARLY early to be the first one at an estate sale because there was a super rare glass set. It's a pitcher and glasses that should go easily for about $750... if it was perfect. But when I got home and used the black light I can see there is a small surface crack above the handle. On one hand this will certainly reduce the value, but on the other hand serious collectors will recognize the rarity of this piece so I think the whole set is still work about $500. There's always a risk in buying any fragile piece that's from the 1800s, but I can't say I'm not disappointed (not about the reduction in value but just that it's SO cool and so old that I hate to see it marred.) I need good sun to list it though because it's vaseline glass and it absolutely GLOWS in the light.

Other than that listing, I have a huuuuuuuge backlog of other stuff to put up. I'm a little overwhelmed just thinking about it! Today there aren't any sales I'm excited about going to -- thank god! I think If I bring one more piece of glass into the dining room the floor will buckle under the weight of it!

While all this listing is going on there needs to be laundrypalooza in a serious way! And Liam's oldest has an assignment to make stir fry this weekend for school. He brought a list of stuff with him that he needs so there has to be a trip to the store (which we are requiring him to go on!) and then I'm sure the kitchen will explode. I'm not certain when all this is going to happen though because Liam wants to go to an auction first thing and the kids have to go home tonight so the plan was for this to be lunch. We'll see what comes of this...

OK, I'm giving myself five more minutes and then I'm getting up... !

 

[marcy]

Hi Kids.

Dee Jay, it was kind of funny that we kind of both go I should have started the meeting. Too funny your new laptop had tape over the camera. I use a sticky note at work to cover up my camera.

This time of year it is hard to know what season or seasons we will have for the day. We had a lot of rain about 3 am, it woke me up. My sister that lives about 35 miles northeast of us had a 1.5 inches of rain plus enough pea sized hail it piled up like snow.

Darn that the rare pitcher you got has a crack in the handle. I am anxious to see what it looks like. The Vaseline glass does glow. It does sound like you have quite a bit of glass on the table.

How was the stir fry? Our dinner with my sister and family was good. We ran by Best Buy since we were there but didn’t buy anything. Wouldn’t you know it - they had the new iPad I have on order in stock. According to my shipping notice I should get it Tuesday.

i picked up our groceries this morning then ran my car through the car wash. No curbs were hit during said expedition. Woo Hoo. My only remaining chore is painting my nails tonight.

Latees,
Curby

 

[Dee*Jay]

Happy Monday kids!

Curby, the stirfry was fine, but there was a little anxiety leading up to it! Liam went to an auction and he was supposed to take the eldest feral to the store to buy the stuff but because of timing he ended up just going by Meijer and getting everything on the list on the way back home. The feral was stressing out that there wouldn't be time to get it all done before he had to go home and then he wouldn't get the grade for it. But fortunately things were fine, and I did give him some direction along the way (where things were in the kitchen -- measuring cups!), how to turn the cooktop on and what level would be appropriate, that sort of thing. But we all ate it and there haven't been any deaths reported yet, ha ha! Too bad they had your ipad at BB, but at least yours will be here tomorrow. Funny you mention curbs... when I went to the city last time I ran over the curb getting into my parking garage. It's happened before, and I'm usually super careful, but I just wasn't paying enough attention. Right after you pull up to where arm lifts up to give access you have to give the turn a super wide berth and... um... I didn't!

Yesterday wore me out! I took a bunch of stuff downstairs and attempted a little (very little!) organization. Then I was a picture taking machine! I've got photos done for about a dozen listings, even though I only posted three or four of them last night. I need to do a bunch more photos today and then I can take more stuff downstairs, but it's all got to be washed first and that's going to take about a million years. One set of glasses I bought must have been sitting in someone's basement since God was a boy. I looked in the bottom of one when I was wrapping it up and jokingly asked if they were going to charge me extra for the giant dead spider or if he was free. We named him Al!

When I got to the post office today I also need to run by Costco (I got some cute tops there last time but I didn't know what size so I'll be making a big return of all the ones that didn't work -- I really wish they had a fitting room!) and BB&B because if I replace the curtains in the eat in kitchen area with something plain I can use the counter to list more stuff. The light there in the afternoon is really good but the curtains are blue and gray and white and a busy patterns so they aren't exactly conducive to photographing very many things.

Alright, enough blather about dishes and glass and photos -- oh my! -- time to get this show on the road!

 

[marcy]

Hi Kids!

Dee Jay, glad to hear the stir fry turned out good and even better no deaths have been reported yet. Besides it's not a good time to die (as if there is a good time) because I refuse to be listed as a COVID death. Hopefully the oldest feral gets a good grade for not killing anyone.

Oh no for having a curb incident. I actually had to go wash my car on the way home today - some damn bird picked by car to be a liter box - it it must have had some digestive issue going on. Luckily the car wash wasn't busy and no curbs jumped out at me. I did see an orange McLaren on the way home. Marty has seen it before; they visit someone a few blocks from us. As I drove by there was a crowd around the car looking at it.

I bet some of the aged glassware you get needs some serious scrubbing; nice of someone to include Al with your glasses. Dawn has some dish wash soap you spray on then rinse off; I wonder if that would work well for you. Do you want most of them by hand? I would probably be more apt to break something washing by hand than running them through the dishwasher. Good idea to get more neutral curtains for the kitchen area so you can take pictures there.

I got my 2020 appraisal today and gave one - I guess that was an accomplishment. The tough one will be tomorrow. I got a meets expectations and a 2.5% raise. Woo hoo!!!

My cousin called me and dumped a can you find a place for us all to meet next month request on me. My uncle passed away a few month ago. They are having a funeral for him in Alabama June 24th then are flying to their home in Edwards, Colorado on the 27th. They want to come here and have a family GTG / memorial so wanted me to find a place we could have a picnic. I am guessing it would be 2 to 5 dozen people depending on who all shows up. Every picnic site and community house is rented that weekend. I will call the church tomorrow where we had a reception after my dad's funeral and see if they still do something like that. I toyed with having it at our house but I guess my aunt is in a wheel chair and I am not sure how well she'd do getting in our house or getting around our house. After I find a few places I'll give him the numbers and info and hopefully he takes care of it. He doesn't seem to know what he wants to do - dinner, snacks, desserts, more importantly booze? My aunt has parkinsons disease and I guess she doesn't remember my uncle died; I am sure they have their hands full with everything.

Off to pick up the house - since the cleaning lady is coming in the morning. My cash I had for her must have ended up as a tip yesterday where we had lunch - that waitress got a very nice surprise. That's fine tho - it was a very nice restaurant and was almost empty. Scary times for small businesses.

Laters,
Curby

 

[Dee*Jay]

Happy Tuesday kids!

Curby, good for you for meeting expectations (ha!) and more importantly for getting a raise! We don't get raises and bonuses until the end of September but everything gets decided in June and July so I try to be on my good behavior during the summer months and not kick or bite anyone. We have some birds with digestive issues here too. and they particularly like to hang out in the tree that over's the most logical place to park if I have to move out from right in front of the garage for any reason. Otherwise I have to go the whole way down to one end of the circle driveway to clear that tree and it's kind of a pain if I'm carrying anything. Good luck finding a place for the family get together, and I hope once you get a few options the planning gets lifted off of your shoulders. Do you really thing that will happen, or should we start referring to you as Curby The Party Planner now... ?

Yesterday I did a Whole Bunch Of Cleaning Up! I took everything down into the basement that I have pictures of at this point (even though not all of the listings are up)... but there are still eight big boxes of dishes and glasses yet to be unpacked from the weekend. That will entail a lot of standing and washing and picture taking... Oy. I do wash every single thing by hand. Putting some glass (especially really old stuff) in the dishwasher makes it "sick." That's the term they actually use for it, and it ends up being cloudy. Unfortunately the process can never be reversed and the forums are full of people who put grandma's precious depression glass wine glasses after a big Christmas dinner in the dishwasher and... rut ro. I also take advantage of the washing process to carefully look at everything to make sure it's in perfect condition. It's a CHORE though. Especially with the quantity of stuff I got last weekend, which is much more than I've ever gotten before. I could be a while before you see any of that up on my site, ha ha! I did list that amazing Northwood pitcher and glasses yesterday BTW. Take a look at the second picture in the listing -- the glow is really extraordinary! I didn't have it up ten minutes and someone had favorited it already. For a second I had a moment of panic that someone had actually bought it, which is ridiculous because It's For Sale... but I am hoping to have it in my life for just a little while longer at least.

Today the training adventure gets under way at ten. I have a project I need to do for the finance team too. The head of that group is... let's just say... "special"... and he torqued me off yesterday so I put that on the back burner. I will get it done today though.

Alright, off like a prom dress!

 

[marcy]

Hi Kids!

Dee Jay, photo # 2 of the Northwood pitcher and glasses is amazing. It glows! Very cool. I have never heard that about the dishwasher making glassware cloudy; some of Marty's thermal coffee cups have done that. Now I know - I always think they aren't clean. I can imagine it is a major chore to wash everything by hand but it is a great way to inspect it. Too cute you don't want to sell the pitcher right away so you can enjoy it for a while. I can see why.

Good idea to not kick or bite anyone this time of year so you'll get the big bucks next fall. The bonus to wearing a mask at work is I can "mouth" all sorts of things at people and no one is the wiser. Suckers!

Darn those birds with digestive problems; one got the window on my driver's door today. I got the windex and a paper towel out when I came home. I didn't even pick up window food on the way home because I didn't want to roll my window down.

Yes, that's me #CurbyPartyPlanner It's actually not the first time someone has done this to me. I actually planned a wedding one time then her family treated me like the hired help at the wedding. I baked cakes, decorated, took the photos, let her dress at my house - then she divorced our friend about 2 years after that. Probably because of my lack of party planning skills. I was popular for parties in college too - mostly because I will ALWAYS clean up the kitchen and trash before going home.

Ha Ha for putting that project off because that guy torqued you off; serves him right.

LOL to off like a prom dress.

It was pretty nice here again today. I gave 2 more appraisals; one was a bit tough but she took it better than expected - or so she seemed. Another tough one will be tomorrow afternoon then I'm done. Sweet.

My new iPad is on the table but seems to be claimed by the Killer Rabbit. I also got a box from Porsche today. I got a Macan pen, a book on Porsche, another book on the Macan and a Macan card for my wallet. I feel so special.

Laters,
Curby

 

[marcy]

Hi Kids!

All my employees have their appraisals. Woo hoo! The one today was a tough one but he didn't seem too upset. A friend of mine had a rough day; she put an employee on a performance plan and he blew up at her; slammed her door and HR was in her office most of the day. All she told me was it was her worst day ever at work.

Yes, I had ANOTHER calling card from a bird today; this time it's on my hood. WTH? I lifted when I got home and then spent over an hour trying to get rid of some stupid update Apple ID message that wouldn't go away. After much research I found how to restart the iPad (no home button) and then signed in to iCloud and magically everything works now. I need to make sure I can sign in to everything then I'll wipe my old iPad. I'm debating between passing it on to a nephew or selling it at a used Mac store downtown. It's not like I'd get enough to buy jewelry with it. Ha Ha.

I need to work on my June article and yes it's a week late. Phooey. Maybe I have an old "june" article I can reuse. Where did the month go?

Laters,
Curby

 

[marcy]

Dee Jay, I see you loaded more glassware. I have 2 lotus petal bowls, I just saw them the other day and thought i should send you a picture of them.

 

[Dee*Jay]

Happy early Thursday kids!

Curby, I'm glad you got your new ipad, but that killer rabbit seems pretty committed to claiming it for his own! Good for you for getting all your employees' appraisals done. I DO NOT miss babysitting -- I mean managing! -- people In The Least. Isn't it great to get a fun box of goodies from Porsche?! I still have mine somewhere from when I first got Billy Ray Jr. My favorite part was the pen, but I'm just a lost cause when it comes to keeping a nice pen around so it went MIA pretty quickly.

I am finally (almost!) caught up with everything except for the two big batches of dishes from last weekend and a giant load (more than 100!) of the same kind of glasses (in two colors). There are only two more non-big things to list and that's on the agenda first thing. I love those lotus bowls! I'm not sure when you looked but I put the bright orange ones up the other day and then the yellow and white ones last night. For some reason when I bought them (at the same sale) I thought they all went together but when I was washing them up and looking at how to do the display for photos I realized the finish was different so I ended up splitting them up. It's a shame because I think the colors are super cute together but I didn't want to disappoint anyone with the finish not being the same across the board.

I trained eight people yesterday. Ugh. If I were a better employee I would have my assistant put some more on my calendar today and tomorrow... but I really don't think that's going to happen! There's always next week -- right?!

This weather is a killer right now. I'm taking sinus meds and excedrine for migraines in tandem every four hours. Hopefully Liam will remember to tell all that to the paramedics should it become necessary LOL. There's some rain in the forecast though so if that would just HAPPEN and then blow through I think my eyeballs would stop felling like they want to pop right out of my head.

We went to the BBQ place last night and got take out while we looked around at the vintage cars. I ordered half a chicken so I've got leftovers for lunch today (or breakfast... !). Between than, the glass/dish washing adventure, and the never ending laundrypalooza it's just one exciting thing after another here today!

 

[marcy]

Hi Kids!

Dee Jay, that Killer Rabbit steals pretty much everything that is delivered for me. It's like he has help or something. I know you totally get the pain of being a boss. As for babysitting my employees, I swear I think more and more about just saying I'm retiring. Yes the box from Porsche is nice. I like the pen; I have both of them at work now. This new one has the same graphite accents as my car. And it came with blue ink already in it; that is usually the first thing I do is swap out the ink color. Then of course Marty gripes when he uses any of my pens because being former military it's only official if you use black ink. I am sorry you don't know where your pen is; maybe you'll find it some time.

Yes, those petal bowls are pretty cool; I can see why someone might complain about a different finish but the yellow and orange would look good together. I did go look through all of your items last night. Fun stuff!

Training eight people in one day is definitely enough and of course you deserve a less intense day the following day. There is always next week for sure.

Sorry you have to take so much medicine for migraines; is it both weather and allergies? Definitely keep Liam posted you are taking that just in case. You know anything with antihistamines turns me in to a cry baby and a total b*tch. It is like my evil twin from a parallel universe took over my body. It's amazing the change in my personality. I took allergy shots for years that didn't seem to help so I quit getting shots. And the nurses never thought I was funny when I didn't show for a month or two and I'd tell them the reason I didn't come in for awhile was I thought I was cured.

BBQ chicken sounds delicious. Did you see some cool cars?

Thursday night a friend came over to play cards and have dinner. After she left I had to get my June article for the local paper done and emailed; I usually take a few days to do research, find multiple sources, etc but since I had to get it done that night I copied the info about Ursa Major and Ursa Minor out of my constellation book I made for my students and tweaked it a bit - voila - instant article. The paper is killing me with their titles and pictures. Last month I wrote about the May 26 lunar eclipse and they put a picture of a solar eclipse with it. This month I wrote about the Big and Little Dipper and the title says you can see the Summer Triangle now. Yes, you can see that now but it was not the focus of the article. At least they included a picture of the Big Dipper.

We got off work 2 hours early yesterday since it's a holiday weekend - I stopped at the grocery store and 1/2 way through the store I get a call from my boss about changes and updates we had to do. I said well I will look in to them when I get home. I ran in to an old friend in the parking lot and talked so long I worried my ice cream would be a shake when I got it home but oh well it was nice to chat with her. After getting home I dialed in and worked for about 2 hours. Afterwards I ran out to the cemetery to put some red, white and blue flowers at my parent's grave. The car wash was open on my way home so I washed the Curbymobile again. After I got home I sent Marty a text "I'm hungry" and he was almost done with clients for the evening so we met for supper. We got home and I got paged for more "urgent" work that needed done. Seriously is anyone going to die if their baseball game isn't listed in the TV guide? This morning I found another huge update sent at midnight so I dialed in while still in my PJ's to take care of that. About an hour later I am almost in the shower when my on call person sends me a text I needed to verify a change he made because we scheduled 4 things wrong. It was 10:15 before I got my shower. I dialed in again 3 more times including the last urgent update we got while Marty and I were out eating a late lunch. It's going to be a busy weekend.

Marty got our sprinklers going today and I pulled our dead flowers from last year (actually there weren't many to pull since most of them died within days of us planting them.) We planned on going to get flowers to put out this afternoon but a bad thunderstorm rolled through. Constant thunder some even shaking the house then we had quite a bit of rain.

I was going to make homemade rolls today but between work and stuff I never got that far. We are having some friends and my SIL for supper tomorrow so we will see if I feel ambitious enough to make rolls tomorrow. I think my sister has a recipe for quick, no rise rolls that I might try. Marty is grilling pichania and tenderloin. Mmm.

Laters,
Curby

 

[Dee*Jay]

Just checking in to say I'm still alive and had a fun long weekend in Michigan! I'll give a big update later!

 

[marcy]

Dee Jay, thank you for checking in and letting me know you've not dead. I was going to wait a few more days before I texted Liam and asked if I could have BB and GG. Ha Ha.

The long weekend has worn me out. We had friends over for dinner Sunday night. We ended up playing poker way past my bedtime so I was up finishing round 2 of the dishes until about 1 am. Yes, I could wait until the next morning but I always hate to get up to a dirty house and kitchen. My SIL went home yesterday afternoon. We watched most of the 30 episodes of Yellowstone and I decided I don't need to marathon watch the series before season 4 starts on June 20th since I remember pretty much all of it. I kind of feel crappy today but I'd bet money it's my allergies; the few weeks everything starts blooming I am super tired and get horrible headaches.

I am working on laundry, washed and changed our sheets and got the June club newsletter done and posted. I ordered burgers from Door Dash for us for lunch and might brew up cookies this afternoon if I feel more ambitious than I do now. I am enjoying my day off from work.

As a matter of fact I am so lazy today I didn't put on any jewelry just so I don't have to clean it tonight. Now that is LAZY!!!!

Laters,
LazyCurby

 

[marcy]

Hi Kids!

Going to the office after 4 days off was tough. I felt like I was very close to a black hole since time seemed to slow down. I at least took the outer loop home so my car got to run wild a free occasionally. I lifted when I got home and have my supper baking. I at my raw veggies already since I was quite hungry. Tomorrow is Thursday already. Sweet!!!

Laters,
Curby

 

[Dee*Jay]

Happy late Wednesday night kids!

Curby, I'm so exhausted, the only reason I'm writing is so you don't send out a posse to find me! LOL on the lunar vs. solar eclipse. Close... but no cigar! And I fully understand not putting on any jewelry so you don't have to clean it -- I can count on one hand the number of times I've really worn anything in over 15 months. Part of that is the hand sanitizer thing with rings and being afraid of flipping out one of my studs with a mask loop, but I get it!

The weekend was great... but I bought so much stuff that my car was full... and then I stopped by a guy that always has good things... and got THIRTY SEVEN MORE glasses! My suitcase had to go in the front passenger seat on the way home because there was no more room in the back! I have washed several of them, but listing anything is outside my capability right now, ha ha.

Today I had to run downtown and when I was getting ready to leave this morning Liam suggested I take Billy Ray, which was a great idea! For reasons I don't understand I can't get my phone to connect to the PCM now AT ALL. I guess I'll have to figure that out at some point, but super annoying...

OK, off to bed! I just packed up four order, and one of them was a full set of dishes, so it's been a long night down in the basement with boxes and bubble wrap!

 

[marcy]

Hi Kids!

Dee Jay, I had a drone ready to go check out estate sales and flea markets to make sure you didn't need help to get one more load of new treasures in your car. Ha Ha. I bet you are exhausted! It sounds like you made a big haul this weekend though. I keep checking out your page. It's almost the weekend again too. Woo hoo! Funny you mentioned earrings and masks; I check my earrings every tine I put on a mask or take one off.

Sweet you took Billy Ray to town yesterday; I am sure it was a fun drive. Darn that your phone won't connect to the car; I wonder if your PCM needs to update software? My new car has a little red alert that pops up to notify me of a software update.

How great to be shipping out 4 orders today. You must be building up muscles lugging all those boxes of glassware around.

My boss is on vacation through the 15th; yay. We are kind of slow right now which makes for long and boring days. I picked up a burger and a frosty for supper. My excitement-O-meter is hovering near Zero.

Laters,
Curby

 

[Dee*Jay]

Happy Thursday kids!

Curby, next time I see a drone in the sky I'll wave now that I know it's you checking up on me! I'm sure you're right about Billy Ray needing a software update. Damn technology! I haven't really put anything new up on my page, aside from the Taylor Smith dishes and glasses (i.e., all that stuff with the blue flowers), for several days now since I was gone all last weekend in Michigan. I need to get on it! Dragging the dishes and glasses up and down the stairs is a workout for sure. Unfortunately the thing I notice it on the most is my bad knees, LOL.

Tomorrow morning I'm debating whether to go to any estate sales to just start working on listing stuff early and getting it out of the dining room and downstairs into storage because I haven't done anything with the stuff I bought last weekend except wash some of it. There are two sales that have stuff I would buy if it was standing right in front of me, but it's not fabulous enough to get out of bed two hours early and go fight a bunch of little old ladies to get it!

Next week we're taking a road trip to Ohio. Liam knows a bunch of people in Columbus and surrounding area so we're going to visit them and do a big round of auctions and garage saling at the same time. We figure that since a lot of the famous glass makers were in that area (Tiffin, Cambridge, etc.) there should be some good stuff, and hopefully "cheap" if it's as plentiful as we imagine it is there. Plus Liam has promised me a trip to the glass museum in Lancaster, OH, and I'm SUPER looking forward to that!

OK, off to chase the dogs into the kennel for the night and get the dishwasher going so I can get to bed!

 

[Dee*Jay]

Happy Saturday kids!

Yesterday I was a photo taking machine! I've got picture for seven listings done and the descriptions all ready to go, now I just need to get them posted. I did get one up last night but it was almost midnight by then and... well... Zzzzzzzz.... !

Today I am going to an auction about an hour from here. The pictures are just chock full of glass. Liam took one look and said, "You're gonna need a bigger wagon." What I really need is a full week off to get everything posted, especially with the Glass-A-Polluza road trip coming up this week. Forget a bigger wagon -- Liam's gonna need a bigger basement!

Alright, off to get myself together and load the car with bins and bubble wrap.

Oh -- I almost forgot! Those glasses your mom had in green that I got in blue early on... well I saw them in PINK! I've never seen them in that color before and t hey were super cool, but just destroyed. So much so I couldn't bring myself to buy them, but I instantly thought of you!