2016: First Quarter of January 1 through March 31, 2016

PamS53

My niece and her husband got into trouble early in their marriage with credit cards, so after they got them paid off they made the decision to not use them. I think they have one with a very low credit limit for emergencies, but no others. Although he could have opened one without telling her about it. Might not be a bad idea for her to run a credit report to make sure she knows about all potential credit issues. Her parents (my sister and BIL) live two doors down the street from them and I'm sure he knew they would make sure his family has enough money to get by until she gets paid again. Although a teachers aide salary isn't much in a small school district. My sister said that they used a lump sum payment recently to pay their mortgage for a full year, so at least she won't have to worry about that, and they don't have any car payments at the moment. What a mess!

Helene610

Pam..The library I use for pick ups is a hole in the wall. So there's no drive through. it's part of a large network so most of the book come from off Island. I just use Captiva as a pcik up point. Once in a while, I browse the shelves too. I also use the Sanibel Library which is closer to me. They are a stand alone library so while they have a good selection but I can get more titles using the network. My library on the Cape has an option to get the reserve notices by email or phone. I use email there. They also send out reminders a few days before items are due with a link to be able to renew online. And if I'm late, that notice comes by email too. The Cape library has the option of getting a phone call and Sanibel does all their requests as a call.

Helene610

We're trying to finish up our tax worksheet to mail off to the accountant. We've worked on the numbers in fits and starts, taking a break to work on the bedroom moldings and order the carpet. We want to get it in the mail this weekend so the accountant can get it done by tax day. I want to see a movie that's playing on the Island. It's The Lady In The Van with Maggie Smith. It looks like the kind of movie I enjoy and I'm sure it will only be here this week. Other than that, not much is happening here.
Pam...Any news on the missing husband? I hope your niece opens separate accounts from now on just in case they get back together. She needs to protect herself and the kids.

PamS53

Thanks so much for the expressions of concern and prayers for my niece's family. I just got word ten minutes ago that he had come home. He was very emotional and couldn't really talk, so I still don't know what possessed him, but at least we know he's at home and safe.

I had an early home health nurse visit this morning to change my dressing and remove my Picc line. I'm so glad to have that thing out of my arm! They are also reducing the number of visits each week from 3 to 2 times a week because the wound is very close to closing and not requiring the vac any longer. I'm hopeful that by the end of next week I won't be needing it at all. It's been a long haul with that vac attached, literally, to me 24/7. I may not be able to sleep anymore without the sounds it makes, lol! We were talking about the sounds this morning while the nurse changed the dressing. It reminds me of the noises an old-fashioned coffee percolator made when the coffee was perking. And then every so often it makes a loud "raspberry" sound, just to make sure I'm not ignoring it. After so much time I've gotten used to the noises, but it's a bit embarrassing when guests are around and it issues a raspberry!

Helene610

I'm so glad he returned home safely.All too often you hear of a person committing suicide when they vanish like that. I hope he resumes his treatments and that they can all work through whatever prompted him to leave.

mdubbs1

Pam - I'm glad he returned home safely! Hopefully he'll be more honest with his psychiatrist going forward so he can get some real help! Also glad you are continuing to get good news on the medical front! I thought about you yesterday at the cat show. The show manager showed up late in a wheelchair with her right leg in a boot. Apparently she broke her heel and is awaiting surgery. She can't drive so there was a minor panic when the first judge tried to check into the hotel and was asked for a credit card. The show manager had made a special trip several weeks ago to take care of all that. They had to track down a way to fax back and forth to the hotel to get authorizations signed.

We got set up. Had to be creative because the spaces weren't the normal size (hate when that happens - no one seems to ever care that they actually had vendors sign a contract for 10 x 10 spaces). They view those contracts as completely one sided (i.e. contract only comes up when it suits THEM). Took me FOREVER to get home. Set up was supposed to start at noon but they weren't even remotely ready for us then. We finished up about 4:30, absolutely the worst time to be trying on a Friday to get from northeast of Baltimore to west of Baltimore. I got on the Beltway, took one look at the traffic, and got off at the next exit. Wound my way around the back way.

It's been really really warm here the last couple days. Typical Baltimore. We go from winter to summer.

I did pretty good on the food yesterday. I picked up packs of things at the grocery store to take with me - carrots with ranch dressing, a P3 protein pack (cheese/ham/nut clusters), and apple slices with peanut butter. 400 calories total. I even set up a spreadsheet for the day. There have been times in the past when show day has meant the diet goes to heck but not yesterday. I have similar food packs ready for tomorrow but a little higher calorie since I'll be there probably lunch and dinner. I'll throw in a protein bar as well. Looks like there will be some food there but I imagine it will be more like pizza and hot dogs since it's a "sports arena".

I'm counting setup yesterday as treadmill time. Someone suggested I park closer to the door to unload and looked at me a little funny when I said it was my treadmill time for the day.

The cat show is actually set up in what looks like an ice rink. Complete with the clear plastic walls. But there's astro turf on the floor and signs about soccer leagues so I guess maybe it's more like an indoor arena. There are also signs about kids' gymnastics and it looked like there were some parents there with kids dressed for that. The place is in like an industrial area and is actually attached to what appears to be a decaying empty business/warehouse. Not somewhere that looks like it's going to turn out the next Nadia Comaneci.

My helper is sick but she's a trouper and showed up anyway. I just hope I don't get it. If I did would be just in time for my birthday at least based on the way she's figuring her incubation time.

Helene610

I hope the cat show is a big success and that you don't get sick. You did a great job packing good, healthy foods for the day. I'm sure you won't be tempted by the arena food. It certainly sounds like spring has arrived early this year. I discovered a text from the guy who did our fall yard clean up. He wants to know if we want him to do a spring clean up. We do since DH isn't allowed to rake after his heart attack. But I was stunned to see his texts. we don't text and I never saw the texts he sent last month about payment for snow plowing the driveway for the cat sitter. We sent a check after he called us with an amount and he never mentioned that he texted. When DH calls him back, he'll have to tell him we don't text and to pick up the phone and call us in future. We're headed for the Post Office to mail the tax worksheet to the accountant. We spent 2 days finishing up her worksheet and I want her to get it early in the week so she has it done by April 15th.

KonaKat

Maryanne--I'm sorry that the cat show set up was a challenge but hopefully, it will go well. Congrats upon adhering to a good food day with your planning.

Pam--I am glad that your niece's DH has returned home. Hopefully, he will be able to get the help he needs. You are making great progress but I know you will be so happy when freed of all the medical equipment, etc.

Helene--Texting is great. You can be specific on what you want to say without a conversation leading you into other areas or wasted minutes, especially when dealing with people who can't get to the point. Except for business calls, most of my contacts are now via texting and if a telephone call is needed to follow up, then it is done.

Tomorrow is cleansing day with clear liquids permitted. Today, I have really cut back to help with the product of the cleansing.

I found a great offer on the Vitalicious tops which promised free shipping which would be applied at check out if you bought a certain amount which was reasonable. I had been considering these, so I bit. The only problem was that they didn't apply the free shipping. There was a great sale.

Helene610

Jean..Try contacting customer service to say you didn't get the free shipping. You should be able to get a credit from them for that charge. I'm probably one of the few who doesn't text and I'm not highly motivated to learn how. Right now, I don't even now how to send a text. As I said, the lawn guy sent us 5 texts over the last month. I didn;t get any kind of an alert to let me know they were there. Last night, as I was heading for bed, I set the phone alarm to get up early today. There was a message symbol on the screen so I figured out how to open. The only message said It's Vaughn. That's his name. I saw there were other texts so I opened those and saw one from last month asking for a check and one from Thursday asking if we wanted spring clean up. You'd think he'd figure out I didn't get the earlier texts and just call us. He called about the check after getting no response to his text and never mentioned that he's sent a text and was waiting for a reply. At least with calling, he could leave a voice mail. When we call him back, we'll have to mention we don't text.

We spent 2 days finishing the tax worksheet for the accountant. We're at the library making copies. We didn't make it in time to mail it today but we'll have it ready to go out Monday.

mdubbs1

Jean - good luck on the day of liquids.

I don't have (or want) a smart phone. I figured out how to put a message on my cell phone just so I could put in a message that says something along the lines of "calls to this phone are never answered and messages not retrieved; please call my home or work phone or send me an email".

If you don't know my home or work phone or email I can't imagine I want to hear from you. I already have FOUR email addresses and TWO voice mails to check constantly. I don't need any more!

PamS53

I for one find texting to be highly efficient and useful. I can take care of a lot of things quickly and easily via text whereas a phone call is much more time consuming, especially if it turns into phone tag. Plus, it's a great way to easily send pictures taken with my smart phone. And if I happen to be in a place where I need to be quiet, I can still communicate via text, if I need to. So many of my younger friends nowadays won't pick up for a phone call, but will respond to text messages. As I understand it, most of the younger (under 30) set, consider calling to be rude unless you first text to find out if it's a convenient time to talk. I'm coming around to preferring texting over calling, except for close family and friends.

Today DH and I are celebrating our 33rd wedding anniversary. We are planning to go out to dinner later to a steak house that we both like.

Jean, good luck with your cleanse and the procedure. I hope all goes well.

Maryanne, I hope your cat show proves profitable. It sounds like you are well prepared food wise, and wil be getting lots of good exercise.

Helene, good luck with the tax prep. I'm sure your accountant will appreciate getting the info before the last-minute crunch.

We got the unwelcome news yesterday that somebody filed a phony 2015 tax return for us. Luckily, something in it triggered a closer look by the IRS and they sent us a letter asking us to verify that it was in fact our return, which it was not. So now we have had to file a fraud report with the police, notify the credit bureaus, and contact several federal agencies to start an investigation. I ran a credit report and didn't see anything out of order, but whoever did this must have one or both of our SSNs. Hopefully, the fraud alert will prevent any issues there.

mdubbs1

Pam - congratulations on the anniversary! I hope you have a great evening out.

And best of luck cleaning up the tax fraud issue. That's scary. I've been reading about that. The advice seems to be to file as early as possible to beat any fraudster. That's often hard to do.

KonaKat

Pam--I agree with you about texting; it is very efficient. I despise the telephone tag issue, and it also permits you to clearly and specifically state what you want to communicate without the other person dragging it out in a telephone conversation. You also have a record of what was stated until you decide to delete the message. Congrats upon the anniversary but sorry about the tax issue. I had heard that many had been affectrd.

Maryanne--I don't have a smart phone. I use a TracFone that does permit connecting to the internet, get email but it is not fancy. If I want to get on the internet, I can wait until I get home.

Helene--I received another email from Vitalicious. Apparently, they discovered the bug and alerted people to the deal again. I did order the amount for free shipping but resisted the amount necessary to get a free variety package valued at almost $17. The nearest place that sells these Vitatops is an hour and a half away, so free shipping will give me an opportunity to try them and should last me over a month at one a day.

Helene610

I have Cellular One and got a flip phone since I don't use it all that much. I find using a phone keypad to put in contacts is pretty annoying so I can't imagine doing a text that way. I'd be pretty frustrated. I actually prefer email but I guess the younger generation doesn't like that form of communication either.

Pam..That's terrible about your tax return. We have a pin number on our account because we E file. I hope that keeps our's away from scammers.

PamS53

Helene, I would hate texting with that type of phone as well. I've had an iPhone for the last four or five years, and it made a huge difference. DH was always fussing at me about the expense of my cell phone account because he had a pretty old prepaid phone, similar to yours, and of course it was less expensive. I decided to upgrade my iPhone 4 to a 5 about a year ago, and when I did I convinced DH to give up his old prepaid phone and go onto my account, using my iPhone 4. I could tell he was very skeptical about it, but there's no going back for him now. He really likes being able to look things up, texts a lot, and loves the camera feature. His old phone did not have a camera and could not receive photos. He could text, but the keyboard was as you described so he didn't like texting before changing phones. And my bill only increased by about $25 per month, which is close to what he was paying for minutes for his old phone. I'm not trying to convince you to change, but for me, texting is a huge convenience. I find that most people who say they don't like it just haven't tried it or, like you, have an older phone that isn't as easy to use for texting. If or when you upgrade your phone to one with a keyboard, I'll bet you'd like it. I really like the immediacy of it -- when I text someone, I usually get a response very quickly. Unlike e-mail, which can take hours to days to get a reply, at least with one of my friends, lol. We've all learned that she only checks her personal e-mail once a week, but she immediately responds to text messages, usually. She teaches at a local college, so she is used to dealing with students who text her with questions and e-mail her constantly on her work e-mail.

We did go out to dinner to celebrate our anniversary. The food was good and our waiter was attentive, if somewhat inept. He brought me the wrong salad dressing, and took a long time to bring me a to-go box, as well as giving DH my plate. None of it a big deal, but I thought our orders were pretty straightforward, so there shouldn't have been any confusion. But it was really nice to put on nice clothes and get out of the house for awhile.

mdubbs1

I can't even imagine who I would text. My friends aren't any more into that than I am. We communicate by email mostly. And that's the way I communicate with clients. I do agree phone tag is a thing of the past. I probably get one call a month from clients, if that (except for scheduled conference calls). Because I work at a computer I am checking email constantly.

It's supposed to be rainy here today which could really complicate packing up and loading at the cat show. I talked to my best friend who covered the first shift yesterday and she said we sold most of the books I took. That's good news for the weight of things to be packed! We get a lot of donated books. I sometimes don't feel like lugging them but when I do they sell pretty well! I'm always happy to see them go to good homes. When I was pricing them I actually bought one. It's called "I could pee on that" and is pretty funny.

I'm planning on eggs with a whole wheat roll for breakfast and then carting the rest of my food along to the show in two cooler bags. Left behind a plate for DH to heat up for dinner.

I'm planning on really watching my calories this week through Saturday so that I'll be in a little bit of a deficit before my "birthday binge".

KonaKat

My TracFone looks like one of the fancy smart phones and has a camera, internet access and email. It has a virtual keyboard for texting. I can switch it to use the type of input Helen has on her phone. It meets my needs.

I have over 1000 minutes on it right now which do not expire for two years. Since a text is a third of a minute, that is a lot of texts that can be sent. Calls are one minute for each minute used. It is a triple minute phone so when I buy minutes, I get three times the amount of minutes bought. I had one of the other types of phones from one of the national wireless companies, and it was too expensive each month for the amount of time I used it. This ended up being much cheaper for me. If I want to get on the internet, I have the choice of Wi-Fi which does not use minutes, but if in an area where I cannot connect with a free Wi-Fi, it connects via 3-G service. If I were to upgrade, I would get the android version that is a true smart phone. My triple minute phone cost me $79 which included 1500 minutes. That lasts more than a year the way I use it.

I lost one pound last week. I'll hop on tomorrow morning and see how much I lose thanks to today's "wonderful" diet. I just had my permitted usual breakfast of Quaker Weight Control oatmeal. Hello, clear liquids from now on.

KonaKat

Helene610

With the time change, I have no energy to do anything except read. I am making a pot of chicken soup and that's it. We made it to church on time despite messing up the time change. We went to the Parish Hall afterwards with other members of the choir for coffee and. My and was a half blueberry danish. It was 1:30 before we got home so I'm treating this as a day of rest. We may go down to the beach later to watch the sunset. It's such a beautiful day here so it will probably be a pretty one.

Pam..You must have been pretty excited to be able to dress up and go out to dinner.
Jean..Great job losing a pound. I know how hard it's been to lose with you medications so that's a big victory.
Maryanne..were the books all cat related or an assortment of all topics? I hope lots of them sold to lessen the weight of packing.
The book I'm reading is Violent Crime by Philip Margolin. He's another author I like that I'd forgotten about. I saw his new book in the library and decided to check it out. It's pretty good so far. If you don't know him, he does legal thrillers.

mdubbs1

Jean - congrats on the pound!! Love the cartoon.

Helene - haven't read Margolin in awhile. I wouldn't be surprised to find there are some in the piles. LOL! I learned a long time ago that there's no point to taking anything to a cat show that's not cat related. We've tried other things. Like nice jewelry right before Christmas. But no point. And yes we sold most of the books including two that were large and HEAVY.

What a weekend. They broke it to us this morning that there was ANOTHER EVENT in the evening today and we had to be out no later than 6. So it was crazy. And raining. Geesh.

KonaKat

Good morning, everyone. I am off to sub today after a good evening and night of sleep.

I did have the cystoscopy of the bladder and kidney retrograde procedure yesterday. I am still cancer free after one year.

How much weight loss did I have with the day of cleansing? One pound. I'm sure that is back tomorrow after having a grilled chicken sandwich and side salad from Wendys for dinner which I picked up on the way home.

mdubbs1

Jean - that is FANTASTIC news!!!

I've got my spreadsheet filled out for today. I lost a pound and a half last week.

PamS53

Great news, Jean!

Helene610

Jean..What a relief about the cancer. Hopefully the pound will stay gone. If it doesn't, it's probably due to the medications that are keeping you healthy. If that's true, a few pounds is a small price to pay for being healthy. I've been forgetting to weigh myself lately. By the time I'd remember, I'd already eaten a meal and felt the weight wouldn't be accurate. I remember it today before I ate and was pleasantly surprised to find I'm 2 pounds down from a few weeks ago. I've been trying to log my foods although I sometimes forget to go back and add dinner. Even so, I think the logging has made me more careful about the number of calories I've taken in that day. We've been using the Master bedroom this year. Last year, I used that as a guest room because there's a long flight of stairs and my knee was giving me problems. This season, the knee has been good so I'm up and down the stairs a few times a day. It's not a lot of exercise but every little bit helps.

KonaKat

I worked yesterday despite being a little tired, and was hoping I could work today. The money comes in and goes out and right now, it is going out. I got on FollowMyHealth and see that the cardiologist in the city is planning on me having another stress test and echo test. I sent them a message to see if this could be done during the week of Spring Break.

I see that my shipment of Vitalicious tops are supposed to be delivered today. I've never tried these as they aren't available in the stores around here.

Helene610

The Vitalicious muffins are really good. Did it come as an assortment of flavors? I hope the timing of the testing works out timing for Spring Break so you don't lose any work days. Will you have to find someone to drive you? DH had both of those tests last fall and I drove him. I don't recall if I had to take him or if just wanted to be there. One mental holdover for me is I haven't let him drive many places alone since the heart attack. I think he drove 5 minutes down the street to the hardware store but I've felt more comfortable being with him just in case. It's just 6 months since his attack and 2 months since his last cath test. I may get more relaxed about him being okay going alone as time goes by and he continues to do well.

KonaKat

Helen--The Vitalicious Vitatops just arrived. I got the chocolate chip as they were on sale plus the free shipping. I just had one and they aren't bad. I can drive myself to these tests. It has been two or three years since I have had them done. Time passes so quickly that you can lose track. I think time will make you more comfortable with DH's driving, etc.

PamS53

I just got home from getting a haircut and style. I was overdue for a cut and color before I broke my ankle, and since then I've had more pressing concerns than my hair so I just let it go and did the best I could with it. But lately it has really been bothering me, so I tried to call my hairdresser I've been with for the past 15 or so years. Imagine my dismay when I got the recorded announcement that her number is no longer in service. I knew she was working toward retirement, but I had hoped she would change her mind. So I began the search for a new hairdresser that was reasonably affordable. My previous hairdresser was really good with both cuts and color, and seriously undercharged by local standards. I got a Groupon for a new salon and decided to give it a try today. I liked her enough that I think I will let her do some highlights the next time I go. Today I wanted to just get a haircut and blow dry to see if I liked her enough to risk letting her color my hair. I saved my Groupon for the color, since it will almost cover the full cost of getting highlights, and today's service didn't come near the value of it.

Tonight DH and I are going to a friend's home for dinner. She is a college professor and is on Spring Break this week. She and husband like to entertain and have had us over for dinner several times. I'm not sure who will be there besides us, but I know we will eat well and have fun!

mdubbs1

Mom Decorah and her 2016 eggs:

mdubbs1

If my hairdresser disappeared I'd be bereft! I've been seeing her since the early 80's.