Daily Ooo's: Monday, January 4

[faerywings]

Nothing like starting the week off from break with a sleepless bang! I was fine until 1am- then one of the cats was yelling about something. He has the "thing" with socks. He steals socks, carries them all over the house and yowls. I guess he feels like he is hunting, so I should be very grateful they they are "animals" of a non-living variety. But at 1am??? Then you all know the drill- once you are wide awake, your back hurts, hubby is snoring,your feet are cold, your feet are hot, you back hurts more, your arm fell asleep. Next thing-- 5 am and I have to get up. Poor Cait, she is in the same boat up for hours, unable to sleep. I guess it is subconsciously anxiety provoking that vaca is over. :faint2:

I should also be grateful that I don't have anything major to do today. Get ready for food shopping, finish putting away Christmas, pay some bills, work on the kids' financial aid applications. I started doing that yesterday which is always a blast. It is "almost" as fun as doing out taxes. *eye roll*
And I'd better not forget that I need to make that appt for Ray at the vet to check that lump on her head.

Hoping that everyone has a wonderful -- and warm-- day. Winter has truly come to NJ!

 

[faerywings]

Going from the bottom up from Sunday:

Rae- I remembered the electric blanket yesterday!!! I still needed a heat pack, 2 pairs of thick socks, and blankets on top but it wasn't too bad. Thank you for suggesting it to me!

tossed the last of the cookies

Sacrilege!!! hahah!!!
I looked everywhere on the Fitbit site trying to find a way to track food groups, not calories and I didn't have any luck. I set up meals plans twice for myself, then realized what I was doing and where it would head, and deleted them (yay me!-- Big step!!). Good luck with your WW plan!!!
That photo is amazing!!! Is that with a phone camera or DSLR?

Kat-- Oh drat! Sorry to hear that the steamer didn't come clean. Did you try heating it back up with a little water/dish soap and vinegar? I have tried that to get burned food off of my pans and then scraped and scraped.
That is interesting about the farm raised being higher in fat. I wonder what will be the nutrition of the GMO Salmon once it is on the market, not that anyone will really know since it doesn't have to be labeled here.

Trudy- Hope that you were able to get the oven cleaned without it smelling too badly. However-- it is much better than having to use those spray cleaners- ick!!!!
Hope it wasn't too cold for the hummingbirds last night and that you slept better than I did

Nancy- woo hoo on the upgraded tickets! That must have made the game even more exciting for you. And :high5: for telling the drunk dudes to chill out on the chant. Really funny how it turned out so well too!
You must be counting the days until your AZ trip!

Sara- so good to see you here and that you survived that last semester. Good luck with the one coming up too!

xoxoxo!

 

[faerywings]

Today is National Spaghetti Day! Did you know that in the year 2000, 1.3 million pounds of spaghetti were sold in American grocery stores? If all of those packages were lined up, they would circle the Earth nine times!
The first historical reference to boiled noodles (found in the Jerusalem Talmud) suggests that the Arabs invented the dish thousands of years ago. What’s remarkable about this record is that it actually refers to dried noodles purchased from a vendor, which means that pasta has been sold in stores since at least the 5th century!
Today we associate pasta with the Italians, who have revolutionized the dish and invented a wide variety of pasta shapes. These include farfalle, conchiglie, rotini, penne, tortellini, and, of course, spaghetti. Spaghetti is the most common round-rod type of pasta and in Italian, “spaghetti” means “little lines.” Spaghetti is traditionally served with tomato sauce and Parmesan cheese, but you can also add meat, garlic, oil, and pepper for extra flavor.
To celebrate National Spaghetti Day, make spaghetti and meatballs for dinner or head to your favorite Italian restaurant. Enjoy!

Would you be surprised to hear that out of all of the pasta shapes, I really don't like spaghetti? And yes, they *do* taste different!!! LOL
The kids' like capellini of the long shapes and penne of the tube shapes. I have to know what I am pairing with it before I can say what shape I like best.

 

[LaurieW]

Morning O fam! I am practicing getting up at 4:30am and exercising, quiet time, breakfast, shower and dressed to be on the road by 6:30am for my new job next week. Today I spent a little extra time on the computer. Must start slowly don't you think. Tomorrow I go for my drug/nicotine screen and my photo for my name badge. Must practice putting make up on. Those name tag photos last forever!! I am also completing my "onboarding" paperwork- what??? I must also go to the post office and pick up the mail that accumulated while we were away and numerous other errands including grocery shopping. I intend to be creative with invites for one son's marriage celebration in August, and one son's save the date in 2017. We had a meeting with later son about financial expectations for the event. Keeping in mind that we were married 35 years ago and paid for our entire wedding, things have certainly changed. They were hoping we would cover rehearsal dinner, marriage license, paying the priest, cost of DJ, wedding bands, brides, mothers and men's flowers, and alcohol for the reception. I woke up in terror the night we talked about it thinking it was just a dream, and then realized we actually had the conversation. Needless to say, there will be more, and we likely will not contribute all they want. Why do young people want to spend $40-50,000 on a one day event, especially when I would rather contribute to paying down their college debt versus the big day? Rant over.

 

[nancyr]

good morning! Yesterday was so fun but so cold. I went with friends (actually father and 3+year old) to a NJ Devil autograph signing. It was so cute as Patrick loves hockey and is learning to skate and loves meeting NJ Devils players. We stood in line outside quiet a while but he found another little kid and they just ran around so cute! And Kyle Palmieri was so nice to him. I love hockey players they are so nice. Tonight I have another home game Devils vs Detroit. It is Cory bobble head night. Too fun. And Chris is correct the cold has finally come to NJ. Of course Luther does not know that he just wants his walk so of course we did. And now he is asleep. I think he is also worn out from the weekend with Rex. But he and Rex really did well so happy for that. Today I get the World Junior semi finals. Finland vs Sweden and then the US vs Russia. Should be great games. Hopefully get some scrapping and laundry done today. And yes I can't believe I leave this Sat for AZ.

Chris enjoy the quiet day! My DH also had a hard time sleeping as he was back at work today too! It took me several years of retirement to enjoy Sunday sleeping.

Laurie that is one early morning awake time. Good idea practicing getting up! I am smiling at the badge photo lasting for forever! But so true! Laurie I too can't believe that young people want to spend that much money on a wedding. I too would want a down payment on a house or loans paid off. Good luck with the discussions!

Kat bummer your pan did not come clean! That smell would not happen in my house as we never cook fish. LOL

Trudy hope the smell was not too bad from cleaning oven. Cant believe you still have hummingbirds this late.


Rae that was an awesome photo! Today was the first day on our walk that water was frozen. We have had frost on the grass but the water was never ice.

Have a great day all!

 

[bcgal00]

Good morning, my lovely O ladies! I was thinking this morning how attached I have become to checking in with you all and hearing about your day. It's a welcome habit I've developed and such a lovely way to start my morning. I woke up to a few inches of snow on the ground. It's so pretty. It'll be slush in a few hours but right now it looks pretty. It is my official start day of WW and I've made jello for my night snack (with a bit of Cool Whip) and my daughter is bring hummus and pepper strips. We're going to watch "Room" which we're excited to see. My hubs is gone til late Wed night, away on business. I'll miss him but will enjoy the extra scrapping time, the casual dinners and I think tomorrow I'll pop over to the casino for a few hours of fun around dinner time. So the time will pass quickly, I'm sure. Tonight is the start of the new season of the Bachelor (my guilty pleasure) so will PVR it to watch later when my daughter leaves.

Chris - glad the blanket helped. Anything that makes you a bit more comfortabl is a good thing. I took the photo with my dslr, with my 70-300 lens which is the cheapest one I own and yet it is the one that I use the most and love the shots I get with it.

Laurie - ugh....name tag photos...almost as bad as getting a driver's license photo LOL.

Nancy - Luther is sure a well loved pup! The lake wasn't frozen but the ponds were. It didn't slow Taz down at all, his little feet just raced over the ice and he didn't slip at all.

One of the shots I took of Taz yesterday was a great one of him at the lake's edge as he was just jumping in and he turned and looked at me as he was springing up to leap in. I got the shot of him looking at me. I'm going to get it printed as an 8x10 and frame it. Here's the shot, if you haven't seen it on FB.

 

[taxed4ever]

Morning ladies... I slept until 7:45am a pretty good sleep, but according to my fitbit I was awake twice and restless 22 times, making my sleep only 5 hrs. Ugh!!! I went to bed at 10:30 and it took me over a half hour to fall asleep. out: Oh well on with he day! Yesterday I got the Christmas tree down and all the boxes ready to go to the crawl space. Poor DH hates that crawl space!! I can at least stand up in it but he can't and his back pays for it!! So he got the heavy bins and boxes put away and today I will do the rest. The house is all vacuumed and cleaned and furniture re-arragened a few things changed from before, but change is as good as a rest they say. So today I really don't have much to do except some scrapping and hopefully a walk. Then decide what to have for dinner.

Chris - Glad that you caught yourself and did not head to the bad place that goes along with your making meal plans and counting calories!! Not a good thing for you my friend and I am sure that you do not need to lose any weight!! Glad that you got your electric blanket out, you will be so much more cosy with it! Happy spaghetti day! My DD does not like spaghetti either, it used to be her fav until she got pregnant and just the thought of eating it made her sick, she can eat it now but no longer likes it the best, strange what pregnancy does to a woman!!

Laurie - Uggh that is far to early for anyone to be awake, let alone start exercising LOL but good for you for doing so! You are so dedicated!! ITA with the badge photos, they are forever and usually do not turn out so great, hope yours is the exception to the rule!! Have fun with your laptop!!

Nancy - How fun to go to the game with a such a young person!! So fun to be around the little ones! Isn't it wonderful when the hockey players are so nice, some can be so stuck up and can't be bothered with the kids or anyone else for that matter, fame just does not go with all personalities does it!! Sounds like the dogs had a great time together and nice that the cold weather does not seem to bother Luther. Hope your team USA does better than the Canadians did in the World Juniors, hubby very disappointed! Not happy with Boston either but the league made sure that the Bruins would not win against Montreal, I know that everyone does not like Marchand but to be suspended for what he did and then only give the guy that speared him in the jewels a silly fine?? There is no consistency in the league , just saying! The odds were in Montreal's favour as usual!! BTW the hummingbirds stay here all through the winter and are joined by the Rufous hummingbirds in the spring. The ones that stay are the Annas.

Rae - What a fabulous shot of your fur baby!! Looks like he is having lots of fun! Good idea to have this one framed its a keeper for sure! We woke to snow also this morning, it was so pretty last night as we watched out the window, almost all gone now and turning to a slushy mess as per usual here. Enjoy your evening with your DD and your yummy snacks!! It really is a great way to start the day here at the O!

It took me forever to get this post done, DD and Mason facetimed and Mason so cute was making a snowman from a kit he got at his pre-school. He was telling me how much fun he had with his cousins and his Auntie Jackie and Uncle Jason. I am so happy that they all had the time together! Everyone is now back to routine and back home a quick but very wonderful trip and visit for all! Lots of pics coming my way and I can't wait to get them! Have a great day everyone!! :wave: