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Good Saturday Morning beloved cruisemates from a continuing very cold upper East Tennessee. It's currently about 12 degrees outside the window adjacent to my computer area, which makes it hard for me to force myself out of bed but I just wanted to see what it felt like to get up at even near when Rollerdonna does!
I know Beenieweenie you're so apprehensive about D/S's surgery this month but as you so aptly put it, it'll all be over in a couple of months and you'll not have to worry about this problem ever again. I'm sure you've mentioned it but I've forgotten. Does your D/D have the same problem and if so, might she someday need the same treatment? I certainly hope not.
For those keeping track, Fran also has arisen (a bit early for her). It's too early to determine if she's any better as it's useless to ask her as her reply is the standard, "I'm fine." Maybe today she will be.
Nothing much on tap except I'll probably run to the store for somethings I forgot yesterday. It might be a great day for reading after I complete my morning chores.
Good Morning fellow CM-ers from a chilly Central Connecticut....maybe I should say really cold instead of chilly....brrrr.....
I haven't been as active on the morning post of late as I have returned to work full time (after 14 months out), and just don't have as much time as I did. I still read it every day, but usually late afternoon early evening, and by then, why post...it's no longer morning.
Mrs S. and I are in the very, and I mean very early stages of planning a Fall cruise....and the front runner as of now is Solstice because it sails over Labor Day which means I only need use 4 vacation days to do 7 day-er. We shall see.
Todd, I have been following the events that have unfolded with Fran, and am so very glad she is at home. Prayers continue for her complete recovery.....and for you also.....you are a good man on a lot of levels.
We will finally take the tree down today. All of the other decorations have been down a long time. We would have had it all done last Saturday, but our daughter had a medical emergency ( a small stroke, but thank God she is all right now....some life style changes, and a little weakness in her left arm which will improve over time, but for a few hours last Saturday, it was not a pleasant time) and Mrs. S had to stay with the Grand Urchins for a few days.
Speaking of grand urchins, a couple of weeks ago, our daughter was in a consignment shop looking for skates for our grand daughter (aka The Diva), when she chanced upon a small Louis Vuitton purse (probably a knock off), which she bought for Bethany for the enormous sum of $5.00. So now our 10 year old grand daughter has a purse that is "better" than either hor mom or G-mom ! It has what appears to be cherries hanging from the opening, and real leather handles.....wonder what's next.. a robins egg blue box with jewelry in it? (Tiffany of course !)
Prayers and best wishes for all who follow. Hope you all have a good week !
Cold - but not unbearable - it is 6 - it was probably 4 when I walked the dog. No sun yet, but we are supposed to see some - it has been at least two weeks, and the last time we had some I was in my windowless office, but it was only out for about an hour or so. The last truly sunny day has been weeks and weeks. We have many that get extremely depressed.
In fact on last nights new we learned that Artist Sephen Huneck committed suicide. He has a fabulous art studio, and he had to lay some people off, he became very despondent, and took a gun to his head. He is famous for his dog paintings. In fact he owns a mountain about an hour from me - it is called Dog Mountain - that is where his studio is - filled with books, prints, statuary, woodcuts - fabulous. He did many dogs, but concentrated on labs mostly. Beside the studio is the Dog Chapel - all humans and dogs welcome - if you are on facebook - I have several photos I took there a couple of years ago. Inside angel dogs he carved, amazing dog stained glass windows - and notes from dog owner grieving the loss of their dogs, placed all over. It is a moving experience to go there. I feel very bad, he brought such joy to so many, yet felt so little himself.
A few years ago my son won a print of his - framed in light oak, behind the glass is a signed/dated print of My Dog's Brain. It hangs on my living room wall, for safe keeping until my son is out of college and has his own place. Alway a fun print, now it fills me with sadness, I am not sure how long I can keep it up now.
Today is my son's last day here- tomorrow he drives back to Tennesee. I think he will come home for his grandparents 50th Anniversary Party in June, not sure where he will be most of the summer. So, today, I will try to be very happy, when in fact my heart is very sad - I so love having him home, he is so very easy to be with and very helpful. My husband works so much, it has just been nice to have someone else with me. Oh well - they grow up.
Sid - I so enjoyed reading of your granddaughters fabulous purse! And yes, I do see a beautiful blue box sitting in her hand soon. Consider it an investment piece - they do have some very pretty sterling silver that isn't toooooo over the top. I have my heart set on a beautiful Tiffany key - I have been oogling ever since they came out in the ads in my fashion magazines last year - I showed them to my dh - a few times, thinking what a great birthday or mother's day or what a fabulous 25th anniversary gift it would be. Instead I got well, nothing for all three ocassions. Oh, well - a girl can dream.
You can tell usually by the detail inside the purse if it is real - and usually there is a small tag with a number. Either way - I can only imagine! What fun for her.
So sorry to read of your daughter's stroke - even tho' it was small and minimal in damage. I hope she quickly returns to good health. What a blessing to have her mom and dad so supportive!
Todd - thank you for keep us posted - glad she is making progress. I think baby steps are more encouraging - then a giant leap, then a relapse, for those are most disappointing.
And yes, a fabulous day for reading! Indulge!
I hope everyone has a good day - I must venture out. Have paperwork to finish, but forgot an important piece of that goal at church. Of course I was going to do this at Church on Thursday, but I forgot something I needed at home. Yesterday I spent here finishing what I could, but today I must venture out and actually finish - my reports have never been this late, but I truly don't care - bad attitude. It seems like I have been working at it for two weeks, and the progress has been slow - I just can't seem to do these routine things without struggling. I have done this same report for 25 years, and the process hasn't changed, but something in my brain has.
Well, time for cup o' coffee number two.
Watching the weather, I would recommend - if you don't have great tires built for snow and ice - stay home. It is scary what I am seeing on tv!
Be safe mates - you are all so precious!
G'Morning "Mates". Well, Central Florida has 34 degrees, and WET this morning. It's supposed to be miserable (for here) today, and tomorrow, then gradually warming, to our normal high of 70 by Friday. Sure hope it stays there for a while. We sail on the 30th, and I've promised everyone at least 65 degrees when they arrive. (If it's like it is right now, I'll have to HIDE!)
Todd, so glad to hear that Fran is coming along. With all the Cruise Mates prayers coming her way, I'll wager she'll get better every day.
Got to run, but hope y'all have a GREAT week end, and stay WARM!
Good Morning CruiseMates!!!
Well it is indeed a chilly morning starting out pretty close to the zero mark. The house is warm and toasty and d/h just threw a log on the fire. It is working well. I also bought 100 pounds of corn to mix into the pellets yesterday. it provides a few more BTUs than the pellets and you can really feel the difference today. Between the heat we're generating with the corn stove, heat pump and fireplace and the sweat shirt I wore to bed, I actually woke up in a sweat this morning.
Jen I went and checked out your Tiffany Keys, very pretty! I had not seen them before. Lovely! You have good taste!
Sid, so sorry to hear of your daughter's stroke. I hope she continues to improve. She is very fortunate to have parents like you and Mrs. S.
Todd I am still sending prayers for Fran and you too by the way. I am also wishing us all an early spring. I think that should clear all of this creeping crud right up...if not at least we'll feel a little better about life if it was warmer outside. Regarding the upcoming surgery, I am so much more at peace about this process this time around. It helps so much to know what to expect and the fact that last night d/s came up and attacked me, he basically flung himself on me and hung on to me telling me that he isn't scared at all this time and he's ready to go and he sat there on my lap for about 20 minutes giving me lots of lovin's. Now d/d seems to have inherited more of her father's feet than mine. Luckily for her. She actually has an arch and a high instep just like her Dad. So as long as she continues with her nicely arched feet then she likely won't need this surgery (knock on wood). The doc wants me to have the surgery as well, and I am so tempted because my feet really cause me a lot of agony, but the only thing that holds me back is it takes a lot longer for adults to recover from this surgery than kids... it takes about a year for each foot. Right now that just isn't an option. So we'll see what the future holds.
Regarding the gremlin possessed truck. I got it to the dealer yesterday and explained my frustration with our failure to communicate...basically I explained that if I ask the car dealer employee (specifically the guy who sold me the truck, who is now the service advisor) a question regarding the normal vs. abnormal behavior attributes, I don't think it is unreasonable to expect an accurate answer. For example if I call him and ask him, should all of the ABS, Traction Control lights and all the other stuff be blinking like a Christmas tree when I am in 4 wheel drive? He says, "why yes that's perfectly normal" WRONG! Then I get home and the brake light comes on and off all night until the battery is about dead, whilst the truck is not running and it is parked in the drive way. The other thing that started up was my trailer brake controller started throwing error codes, and making a clicking noise. So anyhow I took it in at 8:00 a.m. I really torqued off the service advisor... but I am sorry he needs to go out and buy a clue. I could have brought the thing in the day before and got it fixed then, if he knew what he was doing. The technician ended up disconnecting the trailer brake controller, I have no idea how that controller could cause so many things to occur on my dash and then make the brake lights to stay on . Strange thing though I wonder if it isn't on the Tundra's electrical harness, since I have found a few other Tundra Owner's having the same issue online. Well I intend to chase it down and get an answer.
Oh, took d/s to the orthodontist, all is well, looks like we can wait for a few more years for braces on him, BUT while we were there he wanted to look over D/D who has an amazingly huge set of tonsils that always seem to intrigue the doctors. He wants us to take her to an ENT to discuss the fate of said tonsils and adenoids... oh all I can say is, thank the Lord that d/s took the job with the great insurance. Someone was really watching out for us this year.
My "Weather Watcher" thermometer reports that it is -18F outside. It really doesn't feel like it because the wind has now died down. Though before it did it moved a bunch of snow to drift in my driveway. It only took about 10 minutes to blow out so it wasn't too bad.
The grandkids came over last night and babysat grandpa. I think I needed it. It was one of those nights where nothing was working right. I somewhat pride myself on being a decent cook but last night I messed everything up. I made the kids pasta and cheese, chicken fried steak (sans gravy) and good old frozen corn.
Well: I'm making the cheese sauce for the pasta and go to add the Parmesan to the cheddar cheese sauce and suddenly notice dark chucks in the sauce. I look in the Parmesan cheese and there is mold. The cheese was purchased from Costco in just before Christmas so it should not have molded out. I had to remake the sauce without Parmesan. Well that screwed up my brain and I overcooked the meat and had to throw out three of the five CF steaks. At least the kids got meat. Finally it was time to serve up the plates. My granddaughter started eating and said: "Grandpa, the corn tastes funny." I took a bite and started to laugh. I had turned off the steamer and forgot to turn it back on so the kids had partially frozen corn. I just took the corn and zapped it in the microwave and threw some butter on it. Let's just say the entire dinner was "edible".
Today will be a play day but I will go through the fridge to see if there is some other reason, other than Costco selling old cheese, for the cause of the mold. Temp and humidity are fine so that isn't it.
I hope everyone has a great weekend and you all stay warm.
Take care,
Mike
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Morning Mates, I am really late posting this morning, as I had an e-mail from an old friend and we re-connected on facebook, and then she called me, so we had a lot to catch up on!
Yesterday we had a little adventure - we are still slowly exploring our new surroundings and trying new things. We visited the Museum of Industry, which was far more interesting than I thought it would be.
It covered Nova Scotia's industries from Pioneer days to the present, including farming, mining,logging, fishing, cars, trains, ships, all the way to computers.
We quite enjoyed learning a little more about our new home, past, present, and future.
Today looks like it will be quiet. We got some fresh snow last night, which is pretty, but the wind is whipping it around, which is not.
Our temp today is -1C which at 30F is almost like parts of Florida!
Got to go out to the garage and root around trying to find some books to do some planning for the new job. I have a meeting Mon. morning to get started, so I'd better be prepared!
Todd, glad to hear you are both doing better, and Sid, glad to hear your daughter is OK too.
Good Morning my shivering cruisemates. 8:35 AM here and the first golfers of the day have already made it to hole 15, where my office (err..patio) is located. There was the slightest hint of frost on the golf course, but temps are heading into the 70s again.
Loved the weather forecaster last night talking about how now is the time we begin to warm up.
I have a golf game on tap, and Mrs. Kuki is planning to be my chaffeur so she can spend 5 hrs shopping before returning for me. If we have any $$ left by that point, maybe we'll go out for dinner tonight
Good afternoon everyone. Nice to see you all up and about and things going well around here.
It's rainy and cool today. Looks like one more day of real cold weather for us, but after that we will start warming up to more normal Florida winter weather. Sounds good to me
Todd, glad to hear that Fran is doing a bit better today. Use the cold weather as an excuse to take it easy and get some rest yourself.
Mike, you're dinner sounds like one the kids will remember for a long time. I can hear the stories now about remember when Grampa....... :-)
Sid, nice to see your post. I can relate to getting to the boards late, and missing the morning post time.
Shivering CruiseMates, indeed! It was 82 in SoCal yesterday. Kuki, we'll probably pass some of that on to you.
Keith ad I went to Pasadena yesterday and had a nice lunch and shared a piece of delicious key lime pie. There was a terrible injury accident on the freeway between two huge trucks and a couple of cars. Oy! There were still plenty of people left over from the Rose Bowl games shopping and eating and having a good time. Pasadena hosted four universities within seven days, so you know the merchants and hoteliers are happy campers!
We have no special plans for today. By rights, we should get out and enjoy this beautiful weather.
Saturday...and it's "Brrrrrr" Outside
(If it's like it is right now, I'll have to HIDE!)
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