I lost 70 or 75 pounds a few years ago. I’ve gained half of it back, so I’ve been wearing a pair of jeans for the last year that I got about half-way on the way down. They were just loose enough to require a belt. For the last several weeks they seem to have stretched. If I went into a store, I had to take my belt in another notch. Obviously the leather belt stretched too. My shorts seemed a bit loose as well. Clearly they stretched. When I was carrying Abbey out of the bedroom the other night, they fell down. I was holding them up with one hand and carrying the cat with the other.
Then it dawned on me. Maybe my jeans and belt and shorts didn’t get bigger. Maybe I’m getting smaller. Last night I put on my next-size-down intermediate Levi’s, and they fit. Later I put on smaller shorts and they fit. I’m going to have to start exercising again.
Mowage achieved. The new to me rider actually turns tight enough to do most of the little front lawn too, so now it takes 20 minutes from opening the garage door to done. Which is nice. Now to sweep le walnuts off the porch, and clean the walnut goo off of the deck chairs. Tis a beautiful day, so I think some quality porch/book time is in store.
In good news Cinnamon is feeling much better, he came out and did the whole trot right in front of where I’m trying to drive the mower thing.
doggio Gordie sounds like Cin. He loves all people, but all other dogs are to be yelled at. And now that his eyes are getting bad, he’ll yell at people with any small thing at their feet. Grocery bags, luggage, whatever. We pass the bus depot on the way to work, so it’s not that unusual to see luggage on our commute.
Just checked my vax card, I can get boosted in 2 weeks.
flyboy I weigh myself every morning, been in the same 5-ish pound range for 10 years. Last week, I was suddenly down like 10-12 pounds. WTF? That’s what happens when the corner of the bath mat slips under the edge of the scale. D’oh!
Work was insane this week: on top of my day-to-day responsibilities we had trouble with a software manufacturer (who I eventually had to call), the company instituted a vaccination requirement (flowed down from the federal mandate 'cause we’re fed contractors), new guidance came out about continued remote work, there is mandatory ethics training required by the end of this month, open enrollment starts soon and our plans are changing, and the customer rejected one of our formal contract deliverables (I’m in charge of those). I’m a manager and also part of my program’s leadership team, and each of those things demanded varying amounts of my time and energy.
Oh, and my new hire who starts next week had previously disclosed to me that he’s anti-vax, so I had to tell him about the new corporate requirement – because I’d told him that I’d let him know if anything changed in that regard – and it seems that he’s going to plan to file a religious exemption request, which if approved will let him keep his job but might not let him go to the customer site. We don’t know about that yet. Going to the customer site from time to time is part of his job duties (as advertised), so I could wind up with someone who can’t do everything he was hired to do – which means I’ll have to do the other bits. Or, if his exemption request isn’t approved, I may wind up with an employee who has to be terminated at the end of the year (he is aware of that possibility). I admit that part of me hopes he changes his mind about the job before Thursday, but he’s been out of work and he’s probably counting on the religious exemption so I’m almost definitely just gonna have to deal with it.
Plus, the way quoting/replying works on my iPad changed this week: suddenly I can either see the thread or the composing window, but not both at the same time. So my usual quote-as-I-read strategy has become slightly more challenging and time-consuming, and frankly for the past few evenings I just haven’t had the will to deal with it. Yesterday and Thursday I told myself that I’d get caught up with this thread at lunchtime, but…well, see my first paragraph. Right now I’m on my home computer, having just finished a 2-hour meeting of the NAACP committee I volunteer on.
Next week will be busy (the aforementioned new hire + two medical appointments) and so will next weekend, so I’ve decided that this weekend will be the opposite. I managed to do my laundry and run (and empty) the dishwasher during the week! I do need to get the storage room (aka bedroom #3) straightened up, but it can wait. For the past few days I’ve been in “eat whatever you want while you can” mode, so lunch will be leftover pizza and the last brownie (just two weeks until the 5-week liquid diet begins). I’ll leave the house tomorrow afternoon for my vocal workshop, but today’s to-do list is sitting on the couch and spending some quality time with the dog and my TV.
I would have moved. Immediately.
There are at my dog’s daycare…I seem to see more men than women, actually!
I’m only vaguely familiar with her* music, but I’ve been watching her on The Voice (she’s a coach this season) and I’m kind of impressed.
*Ariana Grande, not her cousin
For my next trick, I will address several posts with one emoji:
Car’s on a lift at PepBoys, we Lyfted home to wait. We took it in for wheel alignment and asked to have the brakes inspected while they were in there anyway. Turned out the front brakes needed attention, which wasn’t a surprise since we’ve had the car for almost 5 years (putting 80k miles on it in the process) and financial constraints forced us into a “deal with it if/when something’s noticeably wrong” maintenance model. Since we’re now not that constrained, time to address stuff we’ve been deferring. We’re assured rear brakes are fine.
Gah! What I had hoped for for was some nice porch/book time turned into an invasion of stink bugs and squirrels. Stink bugs all over the place…there are currently 6 on the screen to the kitchen window. And they’re really loud when flying.
And the damn squirrels sitting on the garage roof and chittering at me.
Plus almost got conked on the head by falling walnuts. Altogether not relaxing. I think I’m retreating inside and will build chili. Or maybe beef stew.
Twas a chilly 46 degrees at the park this morning.
My toes were cold, but it seems just a bit too early to pull out the toe-warmers.
Not a big crowd, as some are on vacation, and others are dealing with issues.
I stayed longer than planned. I was going to leave with Lucy and Lily, until Coco showed up. I was going to leave with Coco, but then Ziggy showed up.
By then it was 9 and warming up nicely. I thought there’d be a lot more people showing up.
Two and a half hours there and my dogs were still wired.
Nellie, you think the doggie drama is like Payton Place? I don’t even talk about the people drama.
The picture I saw was very nice. However, I could only see one and then I got a bunch of other photos that were not yours. I’ll try again later.
MetalMouse, the experience toughened me up. I’m sure it has changed since then. I hope.
My son wanted pizza, so pizza will be breakfast, lunch, and dinner for me.
I made chicken-fried steak for breakfast. Four and a half hours later, I’m starting to feel a little snacky. I used my new Torx bits to re-attach the support for the little roof over the front door. Dishes are washing and should be done soon. I pulled the hood (top) out of the boot (trunk) and put it on the MGB, which I let run a bit. Finishing off the second pot of coffee.
We went to Mayer Days this morning. Mayer is a town down the road, has a parade and founding day fair every year. It is pretty small but I like to go and see what sort of artsy crafty stuff folks are selling. Quilting is big out this way and I saw some beautiful examples up for sale. George got a catnip stuffed pillow and I bought a hand made by a local young person Arizona fridge magnet for this year’s Secret Santa.
George got a toy because he had a rough morning, he had to go to the bad place and get his pre-surgery blood draw. He’s going to have a real bad morning next week!
Hubs has been talking about mowing before too long, I want him to wait. We don’t have grass, we have a largish white clover patch instead. The clover still has flowers and I don’t want them to cut them off because I don’t think it will bloom again this year and there still hungry butterflies flitting around. It doesn’t ever really need to be mowed anyhow. I think it looks just fine, he thinks it looks messy. Hmpf.
You have my sympathy, nothing should interfere with porch/book time. That’s special!
Mom an I are going to the Embroiderer’s Guild convention in Los Vegas at the end of the month and she wants to send stuff to me so I can bring it and we can sell it. The first box arrived, stuffed full of ass sort of kits. I’m pretty proud of myself, I briefly looked at some of them, then put the lid back on the box and told myself that I do NOT need more projects. I really don’t. I have enough already.
But there were some really cute seasonal kits…
Psssst shoe, need a couple more kits to have on hand?
Ye gods, I have four or five ongoing projects as it is, plus more pending in the wings.
Plus, I’m slow as hell to complete anything (obvs) so anything seasonal will be oddly outdated.
Or possibly I’d take so damn long that it would be the right season again!
I’m SO glad you all liked the photos! It was even better in person. My friend sent me a photo of Rainier she took when there a month ago, and there was very little snow on the summit. Weird. Also a little spooky.
I slept long and hard last night. I need to get to the gym. I have odds and ends to do around this joint, but I’m feeling far too blurfy.
That must have been so hard! I can’t imagine. My son was born in summer, and I was teaching college classes then, so I was blessed with about 12 weeks of newborn time. My daughter was a different story. I was teaching HS and only allotted 6 weeks, but I got sick, and the doc ordered me to stay home for 2 more weeks, which was deducted from my pay. I hope your daughter gets enough Toby time.
What a cool pastime! I hope you strike it rich, mushroom-wise. We saw Amanita muscaria yesterday. (Don’t be impressed. I had to look that up.) They’re the red-capped, white-spotted mushrooms you see in cartoons. Wiki says some Europeans boil them twice and eat them. I think they’re supposed to be hallucinogenic.
Hey, I do that! There’s Jimmy and Mildred and Sailor Sam (He’s a navy bean.) and Lindsey Lohan (a has-bean).
So THAT’S where Norman Bates, the Squirrel You Hate went! Good luck. Don’t take a shower.
Jane, hope you can hold off hubby for a little longer. Clover is cool for many ways.
Must be a guy thing. I like my gardens looking kinda wild and random. I’d love to fling wildflower seeds thither and yon. FCD would prefer everything in tidy rows according to height and color and political inclination… He won’t do yard work - he just complains about how I do it!
We went to Cracker Barrel because I was in the mood for their chef salad. Now we’re home. I have to finish emptying the dishwasher, then I’m done for today. Suddenly, I’m beat, even tho I didn’t do anything particularly strenuous today.
Tomorrow, I’m going to help my daughter thin Roxy’s herd of toys. They need to make space for the crib in her room (that should be interesting) and, frankly, the kid has way too many toys. So we’ll box up a bunch of them for storage, then maybe rotate the stock so she gets lots of “new” toys.
I also need to pick up a pressure washer that I ordered from Lowe’s. The clothesline deck needs to be painted, but I have to pressure wash it first. Guess what I’ll be doing next week!
Afternoon all. Soccer started early (left 8:15am to referee a 9:00am game), then had a break until Noon (U8 boys won) and 1:30pm (U12 boys lost and I had to referee half of our game - no ref). So came back down the hill (our fields are tiered on a hill) to referee a 10U game at 3:45–whih appears to have been cancelled by the coaches without telling anyone else… So home to a Pepsi and a bowl of cheese balls, which should hold me until dinnertime.
Taters, sounds like you deserve some time mushroom-hunting. And an happy birthday to Adam
VanGo, no stinkbugs around here, but anything that interrupts a reading time is bad.
Oopsie, sounds like work is becoming irk…as in irksome. Hope it works out with the new hire.
The main difference is the level of difficulty in the drills; a lot of the stuff is the same, but the older kids get a few extra items thrown in. Basically for 8 years old and under, you’re giving them the basic skills and maybe some tactical ideas. For 12U and up, it’s using the skills in a more intelligent/tactical manner. Or at least that’s the idea, I’m just happy to keep them busy for 60-90 minutes.
OK, need to do some browsing and consider dinner. All y’all take care.
:nods head: Yeah, a guy thing. For the most part, the yard is mine. The only reason the clover gets mowed is because Hubs gets motivated to push the mower around because I’m certainly not going to do it. It’s clover, fer crying out loud. We put it in so he didn’t have to mow (and to save water and fertilizer as well as feeding the pollinators).
I accidentally opened the top of the needlework bin when I was moving it and found a big handful of Hardanger embroidery kits. I used to love doing it when my eyes were younger, are you interested in learning a new skill, shoe?
Trained yet another new girl today. (We gotta stop chewing through newbies!) This one seems like she might work out. She was running the drive-thru register headset within a couple of hours … most folks - including me! - get nervous at first about it and kind of opt out. (“Here! You take the headset!!1!”)
She had a few panic moments, but it was easy to show her what to do, and then she did what I showed her which beats hell out of some previous newbies.
My ridiculously young sorta-crush was washing dishes with his sleeves all rolled up, and I admit it, Mumpers: I may have taken a few seconds longer than absolutely necessary to get what I needed from that shelf just above his tousled head of fabulous hair.
Are any of then in good enough shape to donate? She could pick out a few to “share” with other kids who aren’t lucky enough to have such a flood of toys … some kids LOVE the idea, others not so much, so proceed accordingly.
I think part of what my daughter has in mind is separating toys that her little brother can use, especially early on. But you’re right about donating. When my daughter was little, the local news program sponsored a toy drive around Christmas, and my kid picked out half a dozen of hers to share. She was especially thrilled when she saw one of hers on the news a few nights later. OK, maybe someone else donated a stuffed Mickey Mouse, but as far as she was concerned, it was hers!
Frankly, a major accomplishment will be getting sets reunited. Roxy will be visiting her Grandma tomorrow, so we’ll be able to work uninterrupted.
I appreciate ya, but I gotta opt out of this ever-so-kind & generous offer. I have So. Many. Projects. (including a pressed-leaf thing in the works since, oh jeebus, last summer WTF) plus some other shit starting up.
Among other things, there’s the Great Pumpkin Seed project that gets underway about this time every year, and really swings into full gear a day or two after Halloween, when everyone is throwing out pumpkins like they’re decorations and not actual food, and I put out a local call for them.
Couple of years ago, I got so many at once, my poor little hatchback was sagging under the weight & I couldn’t see out the back. Close to a hundred pumpkins stuffed into my Honda Fit. That was a banner year for seeds!
I’m SO glad you all liked the photos! It was even better in person. My friend sent me a photo of Rainier she took when there a month ago, and there was very little snow on the summit. Weird. Also a little spooky.
I slept long and hard last night. I need to get to the gym. I have odds and ends to do around this joint, but I’m feeling far too blurfy.
That must have been so hard! I can’t imagine. My son was born in summer, and I was teaching college classes then, so I was blessed with about 12 weeks of newborn time. My daughter was a different story. I was teaching HS and only allotted 6 weeks, but I got sick, and the doc ordered me to stay home for 2 more weeks, which was deducted from my pay. I hope your daughter gets enough Toby time.
What a cool pastime! I hope you strike it rich, mushroom-wise.
Right now I’m on my home computer, having just finished a 2-hour meeting of the NAACP committee I volunteer on.
So home to a Pepsi and a bowl of cheese balls, which should hold me until dinnertime.