Wed. Oct. 27 for Magnif. Maintainers

[OrchidCactus]

Hey gang

This whole week it's supposed to be warmer than normal, but of course they blew it on the sun/rain quotient. Ah well, you can't have everything...where would you put it? I am glad for the extended warm season so I reckon I can't complain. Had a good easy night at work last night, seems to have slowed down just a bit, which is fine with me! We went and got our beef yesterday. Not sure what the total lbs was, but the critter was 750 lbs prior to processing. Makes the freezer look mighty inviting

Shawnee, sunshine sent. Are you still having to mow? I think DH will need to do one last go 'round and then we will be done.

Loretta, you've got a great looking pair of grandkids there! I bet you're quite proud of them! We usually drive vehicles until they are pretty well gone too. I just can't see spending what they want to get for a new one, plus the full coverage insurance etc. And I think older pickups look tougher too LOL!

Linda, you probably will get many more miles out of your Toyotas...unless the bodies rust through. We dealt with that plenty when we lived in MN. The metal gave out long before the drive train did! Seems like everywhere, different groups of the same faith set up their own churches. Here in the south, there are a bunch of small ones, usually because this bunch can't get along with that bunch!

Zip, hope you had a fun night out with the freebie! Haven't heard of that new soft drink, will have to keep my eyes open and try one if we get it here. A 2 liter of Diet Rite runs around 1.08 and the 12 packs are generally 2.99. I don't buy many cokes (remember, they are all cokes in the south!), but DH really likes the Sam's flavored waters so I get them. Amazing part is they are really diet, and he hates diet cokes!

Becca, I know ALL about those tall ponies! My mare is 16.2 and DH's gelding is about the same size. Good thing we're both long legged as it's a stretch to climb up on them! Back years ago, I'd climb onto anything, but it seems that the older I get the harder the ground is, so now I will at least find out if they're BROKE! A friend of mine is a certified John Lyons trainer, but as much as I'd like to send our two over there, I can't justify the expen$e!

Julie, ouch on the knee......DH has a problem with one of his, and old injuries are the culprit there too. Between a horse falling on him when he was a teenager and a couple impropmtu dismounts from the roof it's a wonder he's got a knee left!

Not much else new here. Hi to our MIA's, hope all are well and content!

[Loretta V]

Hi Ginny

We sure have been having warm temps 80s with occasional rain.
How beef did you end up with? Do you buy the whole thing? Last time our order got messed up and we ended up with a half instead of a quarter. We are still eating that beef and I have way too many sirloins. Running out of ways to fix them.
Thanks for the compliments on the DGkids. I sure don't get to see enough of them.

Zip my isp does not host a web page. There are some free ones out they but most are "pay" or they have way too many pop ups.
I might check out photo bucket. Connor is so different than his sister. He is a mild boy and she is a wild gal.

Linda I though you might know where that church was. We visited one of the old slovak churches in Ill and it was beautiful but they made it tawdry with artificial flowers all over the place. Thanks for the compliments on the kids. Beth is 7 soon to be 8 and Connor is 3.5.

Julie how is Nick doing? Sorry that your knee is acting up on you. Hope they find a simple solution to ease it. Thank for peeking at the kids.

Shawnee sending you some sun. Hope the clouds go away so you can go out and play.

Later folks
Loretta

[zip2play]

Hi Ginny and Loretta,

Ginny did you buy the whole steer or a side? or a half side? We get out 2 Liter sodas, either the COKE, PEPSI, or CANADA DRY family for $.89/2 liter...something is always on sale. I like the 12 packs because they don't go stale at $2.50 or rarely $2 but then you've got to buy 4...a load to drag home...but worth it.

Speaking of beef,
That BIG piece of round that I made stew out of a third of was SLIGHTLY tougher than I like, so the remaining beautiful chunk (about 3.5 pounds) I decided to pressure cook (after I blew the dust off the cooker)
It's rattling now. One of the recip[es said 45 minutes under pressure another an hour...I'll give it the hour. I browned it well first with copious onions...I'll report tomorrow on it.
Serving it with a BIG acorn squash.

Linda,
Yesterday's dinner was the one that gives you wine, a huge apppetizer of your choice (Caesar salad for me, everybody else had stuffed mushrooms or mozzarella and tomato) and the TIRAMISU with all dinners!!!!! My entree was chicken parmesana with a side of linguini alia e olio. ($10.95 before 7PM.) Cannot beat it.
Show was a WONDERFUL one man job with the lead character playing 8 parts....big talent named Dominic Hoffman.

Loretta,
I see Puritan Pride offered me a $5 coupon by e-mail (off $50)...but I really don't need a thing.

Got my blood results...damn HDL slipped again to 37. That's what teetotalling gets me. If ONLY I could hold to sane daily drinking. Well I can keep trying. I've had alcohol less than 30 days this year.
LDL is 82
Triglycerides 107
Total Cholesterol is 140
C-Reactive protein: 0.1
Ratio TC/HDL is still a respectable 3.8 (Better than the 10.0 I tallied in 2000)

Hi to all those coming in later....

[Loretta V]

Your numbers are great for the most part Zip, except for that HDL. That 3.8 ratio is a vast improvement.

[Jewels]

Zip, I agree with Loretta on those #'s. When the cholest. goes down of course so does the HDL. Looks good except for that. Good ratio too.

Loretta, Nick is continuing to do fine. He likes school and is madly in love with his gf. He stays busy with all the court and meetings he has to attend.
Had to put off my knee appt. til next week. Decided I could work a long day tomorrow, probably the last long one for quite awhile so took advantage of it.

Ginny, we use to go halves with another couple and buy a cow. Got everything!!! Some I didn't want!!! I even cooked and peeled the tongue one time and then I couldn't eat it. Make me gag to think about it.

Did a little shopping today but 2 hours is my max and everything hurts. So I picked Nick up from school and now I'm going to put my feet up and read for awhile before dinner.

Hi to all...

[SuSUN]

Hello Gang O' Mountainers!

Worked today, another sunny, Fall day. Golden leaves are everywhere, lawns and pathways, assorted red ones scattered amongst the gold.

DD's company leave in tomorrow, so they are all out tonight for supper and drinks. I am too bushed to go after work, so D sis in law and DH have gone along.

I am working again tomorrow so I need to get ready tonight. sheesh this getting old gets to me!

Shawnee,
Sending you LOTS OF SUNSHINE Hope it travels at the "speed of light" to reach you!

Loretta,
LOVE those Gkids, they are adorable and such clear pic.
DsonIL set a website up for Ella. I can ask him how he did it if you like? I am sure Roger is more than willing to help too!

Roger,
CONGRATS on all your hard work! I gather from your disappointment that those numbers are not what you wanted to see, but they are still great!

Julie,
Sheeesh! So sorry to hear about the knee pain. I know they move around. I seem to have my back under control now after many weeks of morning stiffness. I have only had one physio treatment, going back on Friday. Now my right wrist keeps locking and the pain, osteoarthritis, so not much cartilage left there, bone rubbing on bone.
Hope you can get some relief!

Ginny,
Thanks for your super long post. I love reading your news in your neck of the woods! Lots of rain huh?
So glad that you had a easy night, what are your shift hours? I used to work 7:30p.m till 7:30a.m. years back when the kids were small, 3 nights gave me 36 hours.
Now I work 7 hour days and I am pooped, go figure?

TurnNBurn,
You seem to be settling in just fine. Glad to see your posts.

Linda,
What's new? Did you find the car of a lifetime yet?
Great numbers on Gerard and yourself. You are our role model here! I am striving to meet those numbers.

Off to take a long slow soak in the tub!

Wavin to Jacki and y'all

SuSUN

[LoveMontana]

Hi everyone,

Washed some blinds and windows today and did a few other necessary chores. I didn't even leave the house at all. DD is on kind of an off and on lay off so she was home with Dakota today. I miss that pup walk.


Ginny, is that free range, grass fed beef? YUMM, that's a lot of meat and should keep you going for a long time.
I'm nagging Gerard because I want to get a small freezer to put in the garage.

Yes the Toyota vehicles run forever but the bodies rust out here. They use far too much salt on the roads.

Glad you had a quiet night and wishing you the same for tonight.

Loretta, those churches are lovely. Unfortunately I couldn't find a web site with a picture of St. Cyrils . We have a Russian Church that is absolutely spectacular. Maybe I should get out with the camera and take some to show here.

LOL Roadrunner provides us with a web page but I haven't figured out how to use the darn thing yet.

Shawnee, if we had any sun, I'd send some your way. This valley is known for it's clouds and rain.
It looks clear out now so I'm hoping to catch a glimpse of the moon tonight.... Eclipse and poppy color according to our local news... Should be some show.

Roger, bummer on that HDL going down. Sheesh!! Maybe increase the good fats? Gerard eats tons of natural fats and his HDL is 132. Go figure.

My God!! What fantastic prices you find in that pricey city. How on earth do you do it?

Julie, I would gag even trying to prepare tongue and I've eaten some really strange things in my time.

It's great to hear Nick is doing so well. Good for you for guiding him in the right direction.

<smack> Get that knee checked ASAP girl. You know better than to let it go.

Susan, you have SUNSHINE??? How did you manage that? Pass some down this way will ya please.

I thought you were going to work from home. When does that start?

Well at least enjoy your alone time tonight while the rest of the gang is out for dinner.

Barb, how's the job going and do you have lots of snow yet?

Waving to Jackie, Turn and all.

[Jewels]

Just lost a post...dang.

Finally downloaded Service Pack2 for windowsXP. I was so scared to do this but an update kept popping up when I would get on my puter every morning and got sick of clicking it off. Linda, have you done it? You have XP don't you? So far so good unless I lose this post again. LOL

Anxiously awaiting the lunar eclipse. Chuck just said, it's coming up right now. Clear as a bell here tonight so will have a spectacular view.

[LoveMontana]

Julie, moon is in full eclipse right now here. BEAUTIFUL!

YIKES!! Uninstall that service pack 2 and don't install it again until at least next Jan or Feb. This is according to the computer guy we had here all last week. He said they haven't worked out any of the bugs yet and it's causing far too many problems for people.

[Jewels]

Dang Linda!! Why didn't I check with you first?????? It's uninstalled. Took a good half hour. Course it took jut over an hour to load it. I'll wait and thanks.

[shawneesioux]

Hi Y'all

Beautiful Eclipse here.

THANK YOU one and all for sending the SUNshine this afternoon...what a welcome sight. Just goes to show, the power of positive thoughts!

GBrat brought BurkPup over to enjoy a major sunny romp in the outback here. Its such a joy to see him so full of himself, rippin' around the trees.

We didn't reach 70*, and rain is again on the way...but what a nice little reprieve.

Loretta, I still have a few flowers blooming, but most as not glorious...some actually sad-looking. I've chopped/pulled many out already. Two weeks of rain has most of the roses looking like crap. Will soon be Frost time.
Your GBratties are so adorable. Hope ya get to see them more often. We also have a Connor.

Ginny, I KNOW its not in the least funny...but your phrase a couple impropmtu dismounts from the roof had me
HA, re your TALL mare: I'd hafta install running boards on her to mount up!

OLD vehicles???? Bob's OLD truck will turn 32 on Nov 8 ! He bought it new in Nov 72 (its a 73)...Rust rot is so bad here, he's cut out and welded in new steel, Bondo-ed and sanded, painted more spots on that thing...
Its almost at 400,000 miles...and he's never let anyone touch a thing on it..ooops, he did let DS help him put the tranny back in last fall, new clutch install.
The NEW truck will have to last him for the duration. (He'll never part with the old one tho)

ZIP ! LOL, you had alia e olio ! Remember last year, I knew how to make it, but YOU had to tell me the name of it. YUM!
Congrats on the new numbers.

SuSUN, Thanks so much for the family pics. You are a blessed Gramma. Lil Ella is a doll.

Montana...re the windows...we are having an epidemic of fruit flies here (even in the stores, produce sections!) The damn things are evading my sticky traps, and leaving their nasty secretions on the windows and mirrors! Wash them, and they are nasty again the next day. GRRRrrrr! Oh, BTW...have been using lg. coffee filters as a No-fuzz wipe instead of paper towels...

Julie, how good to hear that Nick is doing well.
Baby that knee, and hope ya get some answers/ relief soon.

Hey Jacki...I saw Star in the yard yesterday. I shoulda stopped and hugged her.

Hey Becca....got any recipes to share?

I'm still puttering with the Crochet thing...approaching it the same way as I did the LC Baking...LOL..I hate following Instructions, so I'm inventing as I go. Have been forcing my first completed efforts off on GBrats, telling them its the thought that counts.

OK, theres's my long missive for the week.

Shawnee