WOMEN AGES 50 + FOR SEPTEMBER 2015

Janetr — Sending good thoughts for your surgery today. I knew you'd lost a lot of weight in the past couple years but seeing your before and after pics was truly inspiring!

Heather — If I saw you with a liter of gin I wouldn't bat an eye. Considering the size of the party you're having I wonder if one liter will be enough! When my family is gathered together at the summer place and my father makes G&Ts for 5-8 adults more or less every evening, he pours the Gordon's from a half-gallon plastic jug!

In addition, our liquor monopoly in Svalbard sells spirits mainly in one-liter bottles. First, because that's the standard duty-free size, and second, because our rationing cards are in increments of liters and it would be such a hassle keeping track of 75 cl bottles. (Did you know we have rationing cards? When you come ashore from your cruise boat next summer you won't be allowed to buy booze or beer at Vinmonopolet. But if you want to see the process we can go there and use my rationing card. I've got plenty left on it.)

So, no, I wouldn't react if I saw you carrying a liter of gin. I did react to the idea of gin-and-milk, though. :noway:

There's a stiff wind coming in off the fjord, driving rain against my windows. Whitecaps on the water. Yellow leaves flying everywhere. I'm awfully glad I got most of the outdoor chores done yesterday. When it clears, I'm sure there will be new snow on the mountaintops.
/Penny, soon returning to the

morning ladies~
Janetr- you look great in the pictures, and best wishes for a fast and easy surgery..
Debbie~ so sorry about your sister.. it is tough.. I only have one brother and if something happened to him I dont know what I would do..
finished second book I got this morning..those Stephanie Plum novels are a hoot.. im only up to 17 and there are 22 so I will keep going ..
Pip~ yes you figured right about the nick name it is pronounced Grandma-allie lol but y'all know my real name and call me whatever ya want

Penny - I'm not making it for the party, it's just for general use. :laugh: Usually it takes us a couple of years to get through it as we don't drink liqueurs much, just with visitors after dinner. We didn't make any last year, but made rhubarb vodka in the spring, which is still sitting in the back of the fridge! :noway: My son, who makes loads of sloe gin, has it with soda as a long drink, which I might try with my evening meal occasionally. I would love to see you during our cruise anyway, but I remember buying alcohol in Finland at the Alko. It was like going into a prison! ! ! We used to buy Egri Bikaver (Bulls Blood) a Hungarian wine.

Cynthia - your lectures sound fascinating. My ex's wife is an international expert on analysis and restoration of old paintings using light. She is at the Courtauld in London. Right now she is researching old instruments and the relation of the sound to the materials used.

Irish Terry - Isn't the weather right now just fabulous!

DJ - you asked me some time ago about the key electric meter. These are only used for low rental properties where the landlord fears the tenant might abscond without paying the bill! It's a very expensive way of buying electricity. You have to take the key to a shop to get credit on it. I inherited this system when I bought the rental originally and it is a sort of insurance against untrustworthy tenants. I'm pretty sure my last tenant hasn't paid his council tax. Most people pay their bills by direct debit which is adjusted every so often so you don't overpay.

Got to get on with lunch.

Vegetable curry tonight.

Heather UK

DJ ... You are right ... Son should not have been driving while ill ... Lesson learned I'm hoping!

Pip ... I did the exact same thing with Alison's screen name! Never saw grandma Allie until you pointed it out!

Penny ... Why the rationing card?

Debby ... So sorry for your losses.

Son did not go to school. Migraine rebounded. Lots of contributing factors I suspect. Botox injections again on Thursday ... Hoping this helps.

It's a rainy day here. Matches my mood. Wish I was able to separate myself better from the things going on in my sons' lives...

Beth

Good morning ladies! Not much going on here except painting. It is taking a lot longer to do than I thought it would. I need to put two coats on the trim because we're painting it a burgundy color. Hopefully I will get the cabin done today.

Janetr- my prayers are with you during your surgery!

Have a great day everyone!

Mary from Minnesota

morning peeps-

sorry u will always b grand mallie to me now, can't get it out of my head. lololol

janetr - hope your surgery goes as smooth as mine did

terririchards - haha, didn't know that about the clips and kirbys name. i just told him about that!

kirby is gonna run 8 mi, I'm a bit jealous, I'm gonna spin for however long it takes him, he's got the marathon coming up in november.

type to ya later.

Miriam glad to hear your son's situation is working out.

Beth I have to work on that with my son too. I just was settling down to watch Indian Summer that I was looking forward to because the setting is Indian about the time my grandparents left. It is set in 1932 and they left in 1930. My DS who I had just dropped off where he is getting in patient treatment calls and tells me someone stole his money. I think he thought I was going to come and get him right then and there. We discussed this is like school and that you have nothing that you care if it gets lost or stolen. He needs to tell those in charge and learn the lesson be aware of your surroundings and act accordingly. I did not go and get him.

I just had had a discussion with my cousins that is seems when things are in a hard place it seems like you have these smaller things go wrong. One of there son's had car problems in the midst of their heartbreak with their mother. I think it is because the big things take so much out of you that you have less patience for the sink stopper breaking, the coffeepot going out, someone stealing your petty cash.

I found in my mom's papers a timely bit of advice. 101 ways to help with stress. Nice to have her still look after me.
Here are some I am finding helpful:
1. Avoid tight clothes
2. Prepare ahead
3. Avoid chemical aids
4. Practice preventative medicine
5. Make duplicate keys
6. Say 'No" more often and walk away when no is not respected.

MNMargaret

Pip -

pipcd34 wrote: »

One thing I always meant to mention was regarding grandmallie's profile name. The first time I saw it I was pronouncing it, grand mallie. Not until VERY recently, she was meaning it to be, grandma b]allie[/b]. I never connected it because I don't remember anyone's real name, I only remember everyone here by their profile name. ROTFLMFAO!!!!!!! So your name for me is the way I originally of it. I hate hen pecking, it's taking me so long.

This made me giggle. I too have been seeing Allie’s name as Grand Maillie. It wasn’t until you posted this that I saw Grandma Allie. This despite her occasionally calling herself that in her posts. I love being able to laugh at my own foibles. Ain’t it grand being human?

Debby – So sorry for your loss. I hope you have many wonderful memories to sustain you as you adjust to this loss.

Sylvia -

mollywhippet wrote: »

Hello all! It's been a busy day, but I still didn't accomplish much. I did call our vet and ask about Bruno's situation, and they asked me to bring him in so the doc could have a look. He pronounced Bruno fit as a fiddle, trimmed his nails, and sent me off with zero bill and a business card with his home phone, in case this ever happens again. He thought the problem was most likely his eating acorns, which have a mild toxicity and upset his tummy.

Irish Terri - the wedding pics are beautiful. What a great cake! I used to be a cake decorator and always loved the wedding cakes. The figures on the top are priceless!

Thank you, thank you for the info that acorns are mildly toxic to dogs. This weekend we were going through a similar thing with Merri that you had going with Bruno. She is fine now but it is very frustrating to have a sick furry one. We have an oak tree that has dropped acorns into Merri’s pen and I have caught her trying to eat the acorns. Mike has cleaned out her pen, but now I know we need to be extra careful to clear out the acorns as soon as we see them.

I was not a cake decorator, but I took some decorating classes and got fairly good at decorating cakes. I made 3 wedding cakes as gifts for friends who were getting married. The one that was the most fun was the friend who wanted a cake with Godzilla stomping out the city. I used a bowing pin pan and an egg shaped pan to make Godzilla. Even though I haven’t decorated a cake in several years now I still love at cake pictures.

Meg from Omaha -

megblair1 wrote: »

We had a sub at aqua Zumba and that was the best workout I have had in years! Too bad I can’t go to this instructor’s usual class.

I’m happy for you that DD#1 reached out and gave you her new phone number.

Aqua Zumba sounds like fun. I’m going to have to look around here and see if I can find Aqua Zumba near me.

Mia in MI

September goals:
Continue to honestly log food every day
Weigh and measure all food that I prepare at home
Get at least 15 min per day of aerobic exercise
64 oz. water (or what counts as water for my program) daily

Call me crazy but I love to see other people happy and succeeding .

Good Morning Ladies,

Sylvia, you have done a fantastic job of losing weight. You should be proud! I seem to have stalled at about 170 as well. I think I’ll concentrate on trying to get this 170# in a bit better shape and not worry so much about the scale. Even though I haven’t lost much of anything in the past two months, my clothes are fitting differently. I seem to be a bit in-between sizes at the moment so just need to get down to the next size.

Meg, I’m sure glad you found yourself when you fell asleep at your laptop. Thanks for the tired hug and I hope you got a good night’s rest.

Katla, other than the high price it sounds like you found exactly what you need in the door department. It will be nice to get that project behind you.

Joyce, you said it, “,must stop all the worrying and let the doctors take care of him.” No matter what happens to Charlie, we don’t need you to worry yourself into a tizzy. You are doing a great job and still can only do so much. I agree that Charlie doesn’t need behind the wheel of a car until his BP is stable. Hang in there, my friend, things are better than they were and will get even better still. ((((Hugs))))

Sharon, when does your DD find out if her bid won the vehicle? Keeping fingers crossed. I’m happy for your sis about her house and her happiness.

Heather, so sorry about your night. I just hate it when I have a night like that and then I feel like I get up more tired than when I went to bed.  At least you have a good day planned with yoga and the hairdresser. Have a better night, tonight.

Irish Terri, I had to smile about the Kirby hair clips. Glad you are healing nicely. Has the doctor said it’s okay for you to drive? Good luck but be careful.

Miriam, so glad things are moving along with your DS’s apartment. I hope the move goes as scheduled.

Beth, oh that any of us could separate ourselves from our children’s problems. Just do the best you can and I’ll keep you both in my prayers. ((((Hugs))))

MNMargaret, how cool that you found the ways to help with stress in your Mom’s things.

Janetr, I’m guessing is out of surgery by now. I hope all went well and she has a speedy recovery.

to any Newbies that I missed. Come often and join in the chat. This thing works!! Please sign your post with what you want to be called. It makes it easier for us to respond to you. Also a location is great, be it specific or general. We are happy to have you join us.

This morning on GMA the had a segment on burning calories. They have been doing something every day on exercising. They had a number of avid exercisers do something and guess the calories burned, while they were being tested by an expert with breathing machines attached to them in order to calculate the actual calories burned. In each case the subject estimated burning more calories than they actually did. The take away on the segment was, “It takes a long time to burn a lot of calories and a short time to eat a lot of calories.” I’m guessing most of us had already figured that out.

Here’s a thought for the day:
Focus on what you have instead of what you don’t have.
On what’s right in your world instead of what’s wrong.
On where you’re going instead of what you’ve been through.
Billy Cox

I hope all of you have a healthy and happy day.

Words I live by:
Savor. I have to slow down and savor every bite.
and
Opportunity. Each day offers new opportunities for good health and happiness if we just look for them and choose them.
I Love you,
DJ
Myrtle Beach, SC

Hi everyone,

I went to my doctor yesterday for my diabetic check up. I have been dealing (or not dealing) with Type II Diabetes since I was diagnosed in March 2010. My labs this time showed the lowest blood glucose level I've had since the beginning (my A1C was 7.2 and I have had it as high as 11). I am crediting MFP for helping me to track what I'm eating and getting encouragement from reading your posts. I don't post often because of work and busy life in general. I feel good if I keep up with reading, and haven't been able to do that too well, either!!

Anyway, I also needed to get to the point that I was no longer in denial and instead willing to do something about it. I prayed for someone who could understand where I was coming from, and while everyone here is in different circumstances, I consider you an answer to that prayer! I have several friends, but you are coming more or less from the same place in wanting to do something about getting more exercise and eating right and have many of the same struggles with food.

Elaine in Lansing