Daily Ooos: April 15-16: Weekend Edition

[faerywings]

Yeah, baby, it's the weekend! As you can see, I survived my day surrounded by the stubborn Iantoscas-- all 4 of us. When I got home, Gary asked how they were. Individually they were fine. Altogether, they are a lot. I guess I should include myself in that too. I sweetly bullied my dad into getting a handrail for the basement steps. He's been fighting that for *years.* Why??? NO CLUE! Gary found one that will fit, we are going to have it shipped here. I'll sand/paint it. Gary will install it.
When I got there- my dad was trying to fix the hose because my mom wanted to wash the umbrella. Had to yell at them both for that. Man, oh man! I was calling my Dad Gorbechov because the scrapes and abrasions on his forehead looked like his birthmark. hehehe
It was nice to catch up with my brother even when he was talking in circles. I am starting to think that when he suggests my mom is losing it, it's more that he is. LOL Before I left my mom wanted to show me something on her laptop. It was running so slowly and I asked if she had used C Cleaner recently. "Not in a few years." When I went to update the version, C Clenaer notified me that her version was 32 versions behind the current one.
32.

The wildfire is almost contained as of this morning. I dropped off a case of water, some bags of trail mix, and some granola bars at the local fire station on my way out. We are supposed to be getting some t-storms today and hopefully, that will knock the rest of the fire down. I'm very happy about the much-needed rain but bummed that Scott's hike is canceled. It cracked me up when I got an official email from him with the cancellation information. He has a nice way with words and you can feel his enthusiasm for what he does.

That means that I have a day with relatively little to do. will I waste the day ahead? Will I catch up on some inside housework? Laundry? Only the Shadow knows...

Hope that your weekend is fantastic!

 

[LSlycord]

Oh my goodness...you miss a couple of days here and it's like a different place.

@faerywings I am so sorry about your dad's fall. And no handrail...oh my. Now I do need to go check on wild fires.

@taxed4ever I hope that your birthday was good! I'm sure that you were spoiled by your sisters and DH and probably SIL Linda as well.

@bcgal00 well it's too late to tell you have a great time on your cruise but I'm sure that you will. I'm going to catch up on personals and then I'll let you know what has been going on with me.

 

[Nonni F]

Good Morning.... a much cooler, but still beautiful day ahead here. Hoping to clean up a couple more garden beds... or scrap. We shall see which wins out. lol Hopefully I can find time for both.

Here's to a healthy, happy day for everyone!

 

[faerywings]

@tanteva 546 word art stickers. In four days. Bonkers. Utter madness.
Are you getting close to the end of the part-time work allowance? Or was the library able to extend your schedule any further?
It's freaking frustrating when you don't feel right but all tests come back saying you're fine. Hang in there

@bcgal00 I don't know if you will see this but I am wishing you a wonderful time away, lots of feel better and easy travel vibes. I saw that Ft Lauderdale airport was open on Friday afternoon *fingers crossed that is one less thing to worry about*
Catch ya on the flip side and cannot wait to hear and see all about the cruise!!

@Cherylndesigns Thanks for the good thoughts for my parents. I guess it is normal that neither is willing to accept that they can't do the things they used to do. I lectured them (sweetly, again) that when the weather warnings say to check on babies and elderly people - That's **them!!!** He had two more vertigo spells yesterday and it has to be scary especially when there is no warning. That is how he crashed his car a few years ago. One second he was fine, driving down Rt 80. Next thing he knows he is spinning -- in his head- and hit the concrete barrier. He was darn lucky.
I hope that your weekend is calmer than the last couple of days for you- although I wouldn't count on it with all of the usual craziness on the CiCi Compound. LOL!

@Nonni F Oh my goodness. Your dad. Just. Oh my..........
I swear we could put the two of them in a room together and the stories they could tell. We could/should lock them in that room and maybe do the work for them that they shouldn't be doing. My dad had been mowing his own lawn until 2 years ago when he had his shoulder replaced. But your dad-- and a beer? I shouldn't laugh... but I can't help it. Men!! Stubborn as rocks.
That said, I know you get it when I shake my head at my dad.
You take care of yourself in the heat too, are you getting the same cold front that we are?
I hope you get some rain, the lack of snow is gonna be an issue with everything hot and dry ATM


xoxoxo

 

[faerywings]

Hi Linda!! Hope you are having a wonderful and lazy Saturday morning!

 

[vickyday]

Yeah, baby, it's the weekend! As you can see, I survived my day surrounded by the stubborn Iantoscas-- all 4 of us. When I got home, Gary asked how they were. Individually they were fine. Altogether, they are a lot. I guess I should include myself in that too. I sweetly bullied my dad into getting a handrail for the basement steps. He's been fighting that for *years.* Why??? NO CLUE! Gary found one that will fit, we are going to have it shipped here. I'll sand/paint it. Gary will install it.
When I got there- my dad was trying to fix the hose because my mom wanted to wash the umbrella. Had to yell at them both for that. Man, oh man! I was calling my Dad Gorbechov because the scrapes and abrasions on his forehead looked like his birthmark. hehehe
It was nice to catch up with my brother even when he was talking in circles. I am starting to think that when he suggests my mom is losing it, it's more that he is. LOL Before I left my mom wanted to show me something on her laptop. It was running so slowly and I asked if she had used C Cleaner recently. "Not in a few years." When I went to update the version, C Clenaer notified me that her version was 32 versions behind the current one.
32.

The wildfire is almost contained as of this morning. I dropped off a case of water, some bags of trail mix, and some granola bars at the local fire station on my way out. We are supposed to be getting some t-storms today and hopefully, that will knock the rest of the fire down. I'm very happy about the much-needed rain but bummed that Scott's hike is canceled. It cracked me up when I got an official email from him with the cancellation information. He has a nice way with words and you can feel his enthusiasm for what he does.

That means that I have a day with relatively little to do. will I waste the day ahead? Will I catch up on some inside housework? Laundry? Only the Shadow knows...

Hope that your weekend is fantastic!

No hand rails is ONE of the reasons why I don't enter our basement much.....that and the fact that the stairs "bounce" as you go down them!
Glad you survived your family interaction yesterday!
My first DH was the one that kept the computers "clean" and Mark is not a computer buff and I have no clue. That could be why I tend to have problems with my computers always bogging down so much! This Mac is OK so far. I wouldn't even know where to begin to "clean" it!

 

[vickyday]

Oh my goodness...you miss a couple of days here and it's like a different place.

@faerywings I am so sorry about your dad's fall. And no handrail...oh my. Now I do need to go check on wild fires.

@taxed4ever I hope that your birthday was good! I'm sure that you were spoiled by your sisters and DH and probably SIL Linda as well.

@bcgal00 well it's too late to tell you have a great time on your cruise but I'm sure that you will. I'm going to catch up on personals and then I'll let you know what has been going on with me.

How are you liking your job, Linda?

 

[vickyday]

Good Saturday Morning to all!
Feeling pretty good today! Thank You, LORD!
I'm feeling so well that I told Ilene yes to join in on a trip to PA tomorrow through next Thursday! She and her two daughters and I have been planning it for several months, but I didn't think I was going to get to go since I have been so sick. But.....Lord willing and the creek don't rise.....we are leaving tomorrow morning! It should be a fun girls trip! We are going to see "Moses" at the Sight and Sound theater in PA. Tomorrow we are going to spend the night near DC and go to the Holocaust Museum before finishing the trip to PA. Not sure what all of the plans are for the week. Ilene's daughter took care of that!

We've had more rain over the last couple of days but it looks like it is supposed to be a nice day today. Mark is packing up "stuff" to go to the woods as we speak. I'm going to straighten up a bit around the house, putting things away that have become clutter over the last couple of weeks of not feeling great, and finish packing for the trip. We are going to Ruby Tuesday for supper so I don't have to worry with that! Other than that, no plans. I will probably do some more knitting on the sweater I started last week.....yes, I had to do something while just sitting here waiting to feel better, LOL! Not following a pattern.....yet. I will need to look at one to shape the neck. I'm trying to use up some of my yarn stash and I'm afraid I am going to run out of yarn before I get this sweater finished! I may have to mix some yarn to finish it!

OK, have a great weekend! I may not talk to you again until we get settled in the hotel in PA.

 

[bcgal00]

Good morning ladies. I'm having a few sips of coffee before I feed the birds and play with Remi for a few minutes, then into the shower, get dressed and head out. I will probably post a few selfies in Vancouver this afternoon on FB. We'll be getting on the plane tonight to Toronto and then onward to Fort Lauderdale. Travel agent called last night to say a few of the others that went early got thru FL ok. They still are dealing with flood damage there but the incoming planes are only slightly delayed so by the time we get there hopefully there will be no delays.

If all goes well, we'll be getting onto the ship Sunday around noon.

I'll check in randomly from the ship when the wifi is working. bfn

 

[LSlycord]

Ok...since it took me 2 hours to get back here I need to spend a bit of time getting caught up with everyone and then finishing the layout (which by the way is simple) for the heritage challenge. And I want to do that before it gets hot. It's gorgeous right now. My flowers are blooming like crazy and the fountain on the pool is running and creating a very soothing sound.

@vickyday I do like my job and the people that I am working with are great! And, that is definitely half of the battle! (PS so glad that you are feeling well enough to take a trip with Ilene and her daughters. It sounds like it will be lots of fun...lots of laughs for sure.)

Since I last talked to all of you on Tuesday, we have decided to put our house on the market. The people in Minnesota have a contract on theirs and ours is still in the running but the wife needs to see it. They are planning to fly down in a couple of weeks. So we decided to look seriously down in Palm Coast to see if they said yes, what would we potentially like. Well, the first one that I saw that I really liked was small but perhaps doable in the place where we looked last year. It's a community of about 350 homes and it is right on the Atlantic. The clubhouse and pool are on the ocean. The homes that we are looking at are anywhere from .5 mile to .75 miles away. Then there is some very nice new construction that will be further inland...like a 12 - 15 minute drive.

When we called to have the agent show us the first house, Brian told her that he is a licensed agent. She and another woman just broke away to start their own brokerage. Since Tuesday when we first met them, Brian has reactivated his license and tomorrow he has an open house. These ladies are thrilled that he would join them. He will list our house this week...probably want to wait for the photographer to come and do new pictures. But where he will spend most of his time is about a 45 minute drive from here so we are motivated to sell this and get down closer to the beach.

And, lest we forget, Sydney is leaving for Germany 3 weeks from today. Oh my goodness. And Shaun will be done with the semester in 12 days. Then we can revisit what he is doing with his life.

 

[faerywings]

Good morning, Ooos!
It sounds like everyone is on the upswing and that makes me really glad to hear.
Good news from my neck of the woods, the wildfire is 100% contained and I am hoping with the rain yesterday, it mostly out. No homes were damaged (other than a smokey smell I imagine).
I was bummed that the hike was canceled and of course, it didn't rain until it would have been done. But I get that Scott, or any hike leader, would not have wanted to take a chance of being in the wood and having a storm roll through early. Caitlyn, Gary, and I ended up taking the dogs for a walk around the baseball fields. However-- the dogs had other plans, they wanted to go on the trails. We ended up taking a small hike on the bottom part of one of the trails. Later on, I did some more yard cleanup and tried to avoid the poison ivy. I haven't been lucky earlier in the week since my arms have small blisters all over. Caitlyn and I had the rats out for a little while and by the end of the day, I was so itchy. The girls like to chase bubbles so Caitlyn was blowing bubbles for them and they were scurrying around the cage and on us. I'm allergic to them and get hives when they walk on me but as you can see, that doesn't stop me. (Reason #96475 that shows I am stubborn as a rock too)
No big plans for me today.
How about you? Whatever you do, I hope is it wonderful!

 

[tanteva]

Are you getting close to the end of the part-time work allowance? Or was the library able to extend your schedule any further?

Most likely April is the last month of work. Really sucks, especially since because of Easter, I didn't get to work first 2 weeks of the month. Working only 2 days this month.

 

[faerywings]

@Nonni F How did you do yesterday, did you scrap or do yard work? Both? I did a little scrapping in the afternoon. But then Caitlyn had a mini-emotional breakdown and that was the end of that.

Rhetorical question: How can young adults find a place to live these days?? Everything in the area where Caitlyn and Tom are looking to live, they are priced out of both buying and renting. And she makes a really decent salary. And she isn't looking at places that are closer to where she works, they are looking at the cheap places in the boonies. Seriously, how do kids do it??

@LSlycord I saw that it is forever family day for Shaun! BIG hugs to you all!!! Do you do anything special? Give him a hug or high five from me and to you and Brian ♥

@vickyday I use C Cleaner to clear out the junk on my computer. It's very easy to use if you ever want to try it out. You download it, it runs (Analyze) and then you Clean. Gets rid of cookies and junk files, clears your cache, and empties your recycle bin. You can adjust whatever you want it to ignore. There are a few log-in cookies (like for here) that I tell it to ignore so it doesn't clear them.
I am sure there are other programs and I would imagine that Macs have their own system/software to do it as well.
Yipppeeeeee!! So glad that you are feeling better!! #cheer1
Enjoy your vacation with the girls! Have a safe trip and lots of fun.

@bcgal00 Bon voyage to you too!!!

@LSlycord Ooooh boy!! How are you feeling about the house being on the market and all that?? Talk about a *lot* of changes and upheaval all at once. Good stress is still stress so make sure that you take those deep breaths and relax when you feel it getting the best of you. I am sending you good luck vibes for everything in your life
You got this-- all good things coming to you, my friend!!!!

 

[faerywings]

Most likely April is the last month of work. Really sucks, especially since because of Easter, I didn't get to work first 2 weeks of the month. Working only 2 days this month.

That bites. Are you looking to find something else PT? Good luck if you are. How is the job market in Sweden?

When I was at my parents, I was thinking about how I finally am feeling good enough to work on a more regular basis. But now I am hitting the Caring for Your Parents Stage of life. I wish there were better options to make your own schedule and/or work from home part-time. Not much here, hope its better by you!

 

[Nonni F]

Good morning, everyone.
@LSlycord house on the market? Wow. Lots of changes going on in your corner. Very exciting.
@Su_Sanne I hope that rash or whatever it is hasn't gotten any worse. Sending positive vibes your way.
@vickyday so very happy to hear you are feeling better!
@faerywings I did both yesterday. Yard work and scrapping. Finished up a piece I had started a few days ago after spending pretty much ALL day in the yard. It feels good though to look out the window and see "spring" not imagine it buried under all the leaves and winter debris. I swear, we have lived here almost twenty seven years and I have never hauled so many giant pine branches off into the woods. They were everywhere. ...and we still have a few we have to take the chain saw too.

As for finding a place to live these days. I feel for Caitlyn and Tom. I look at things around here and I don't know how people do it these days. The house next door to us just sold to a very young couple with a baby (can't wait to meet them) but I don't know how anyone can afford what they paid. It's a crazy world for sure. I wish them luck. Sending positive mojo up and out.

 

[LSlycord]

Good morning. Computer is driving me crazy today. Something got changed yesterday and now my keys are clicking when I type and moving really slow. And I think that I have fixed it...what did we do before there were YouTube videos for everything?

Brian has an Open House today. I've been busy on Amazon getting a few things to get the house ready to list. The photographer is coming Wednesday morning. With two big dogs that sleep on our bed, the bedspread is really ratty. So, I ordered a new bedspread and while I was at it, I got a few new towels that no one should use but they will look nice during showings.

@Nonni F and @faerywings couldn't agree more on the finding a place to live for young people. Shaun is telling us to never expect him to move out...he is a fixture that will be moved with us wherever we go. He is only 20 so I'm sure that will change...but I don't expect the change anytime soon. And I can't blame him...if he moved out, he would have to find roommates. He has already got that with his parents.

@tanteva I am so sorry about your work situation. I hope that something else comes along soon. But I know that times are hard. At least you are getting lots of daylight now, right?

@faerywings we didn't do anything special for Shaun's day. He is still heads down hammering through some homework that was caused by procrastination. Since he was 4 1/2 when we met him, I used to think it would be so long before he had been with us longer than he had been without us. Well, that 16 years went pretty darned fast!

Ok...going to try to finish that layout. I'm trying to improve the photo. Which of course took me down a rabbit hole! Have a good day all!

 

[Cherylndesigns]

Good afternoon O Fam.

I don't even think I made it in here yesterday - I don't remember and I'm too lazy to look.

Chris @faerywings so glad that fire is contained and you're so sweet to take the water and snacks to the firestation - that's just the way you are, though. Sorry your hike was cancelled, but it sounds like you've had fun with the dogs and the rats. I can just see them chasing the bubles. SO cute.

Boy of boy - your parents - i yi yi. Your mom's laptop was 23 updates behind. I'm surprised it was even still cranking, let alone "running slow" as your mom said. They didn't have a handrail down the basement stairs??? I'd be afraid of that myself. SO happy that you're getting him one. They must be a "trip". I have a picture for you! I didn't get a "plant baby stroller" but I had a "plant wagon" yesterday. Adrienne and I spent about 2 hours at a locally owned nursery yesterday and had such a FAB time! We went alone and just wandered through about 5 different sections - this place is huge. I took this picture just for you.



Everybody pulls these cute wagons around and you put your plants in them, as you go. Here's just one of the greenhouses - you can see the back of my wagon. We were in plant Heaven.



Then we went to Adrienne's house and I helped her plant all of her plants and then we were exhausted, so we're going to plant mine this week. I really only got two big ones, which I might get in the ground today. The others are going to go in pots. Remember how I lost a lot of them in that heat wave? I decided that I would containerize them and put them in the front this year.

Roger announced yesterday, at our brunch at Nancy's, that this Tuesday was "all hands-on deck in our front garden day". He said that all of us could whip it out in a couple of hours. We need topsoil and mulch spread - we have it, but it's all in the bags. It's gotten so nice overnight and there's a lot of work that needs to be done. So, I'm pretty excited about that!

Linda @LSlycord what news about your house! I didn't know that Brian was a licensed agent - I was when we lived in Michigan. The Florida market is hot, hot, hot all the time, but especially now, I'm sur. Syd leaves in 3 weeks??? She'll love Germany - maybe you've been there, I can't remember. I loved it there.

I'm going to get off here - I want to walk up to Adrienne's and see what trees Roger and Ava got planted. He has a post hole digger to dig the big holes he needs. They're doing so much work up there. He had a follow up with his surgeon Friday and he told him he has to wear the sling for three more weeks. That man is working with one arm. Geez. I told him that Doctor/Cici would be watching him. Hahaha

Hugs to everybody and I'll try to get on here tomorrow. Sounds like today is going to be an outdoor day again. Oh, I got my ferns too - YAY! Four of the beauties and we got them hung on the front porch. They make me so happy.

XOXO

 

[tanteva]

Thanks for your support. I don't want to work anywhere else, I'm going back to housewifing 100%. We'll manage, we always do. It's just about adjusting your needs to your income, and hope for the best.