Friday, February 22, 2019
What I'm Reading This Week #8
For those of you who don't want to read me "live blogging" the dishwasher repair process, skip to under the picture. Two guys came in, one older man and one guy maybe in his 30's. The older guy looks at the cardboard under the feet and says "yeah, they did that because they didn't want to cut their hands. I cut my hands twice this week on those legs." *silence* The Mr is like "yeah, so the Bosch guy said that they can't service it until it's installed properly." (Aka: If you didn't bring gloves to protect your hands after cutting them twice this week, then that's not my problem.)
The guy looks at the cardboard and reiterates he cut his hands twice this week. The Mr says "no problem, I've got some rubber gloves in the garage you can use" and retrieves them. Maybe invest the $5 at Home Depot for some gloves, write them off as business expenses and shut it? It's like the guy isn't old enough to retire but has mentally checked out so I don't know if he thought by saying he's cut his hands that we'd be like "oh, you did?! Well, that's okay. We'll keep this wonky $1300 dishwasher to save your pitties." *smack* I don't know why the younger guy didn't get down there and do it, but he was very nice, talkative and respectful. A lot of "yes sir's" I wasn't in there, but I heard a lot of banging of tools on my floor in there that I'm going to have to check out. Ahh, the sound of a man grunting. Why on Earth do you choose a manual labor job when you can't do it without grunting, sighing, moaning and huffin' and puffin'? I would do that if I was working on something in my own house but not on my job. Is it in the union handbook you don't get paid if you don't grunt a minimum of seven times? I just heard the young guy say "what about that piece" and the older guy said, "I don't do that." *Twitch* Ahh, here we go with the hand cutting again. Oh, he's asking the Mr where he got the gloves. LOL
Oh good, Bosch sent us not one, but two wrong toe kick plates that can't be used. OMG, dude...AGAIN with the cutting your hands twice thing. If you knew where I was in my cycle, you'd STFU. Long story short, while it's now level, there's still no toe kick and the problem is not fixed. I hear the Mr on the phone with Bosch and it doesn't sound good. Oh, he's just informed me that the brackets needed to get the toe kick on are on back order. At this point, I think we might be contacting Home Depot and demand a new dishwasher because this unit is jinxed. Onto week two of crap we shouldn't have to deal with.
Enough of that sitch, let's hop into...
10,000 steps is the biggest scam of our generation (So basically it was pulled out of someone's butt.)
Here's Why Dietitians Don't Recommend the Whole30 Diet or Even Consider It Safe (Good info)
Vitamin E is criminally overlooked but vital to your beauty routine (Lots of good benefits!)
If You Want to Lose Weight With Intermittent Fasting, Here's a Must-Read Beginner's Guide (Mulling it over.)
20 Natural Headache Remedies You Can Find in Your Kitchen (Raid the pantry!)
Weight-lifting grandmother, 58, defies critics (Get it, girl!!)
This guy was fed up with his classmate. He's gone viral for calling out his own ignorance. (Wow, a great read. Definitely gives you perspective. Courtesy of the Mr.)
When Kids Realize Their Whole Life Is Already Online (I cringe every time I see people post their kids lives on Instagram. So many inappropriate things not just from mommy bloggers but friends and family under the guise of "keeping in touch." Courtesy of the Mr.)
Neighbor Cat Visits Window Every Day Looking For... (Oh my heart.)
Strange Dog Shows Up At Guy's House — So He Gives Her The Best Day Ever (So sweet! But by the end I was yelling at the owners for being idiots.)
I don't think we've got any plans this weekend that I'm aware of. I wouldn't mind a little sun here or there since the only time I had workable light was when the dishwasher dudes were in my space. *rolling eyes*
You have anything planned for the weekend?
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Thursday, February 21, 2019
Exhaling and biting the bullet
I was contacted by the property manager for the place we rented about re-booking. They sent the link to the new listing and it was $350 higher...per night. So paying the $500 I was already having a heart attack over made me feel like I was having an out of body experience. She assured us we'd get the rate we were quoted before. Now I'll feel like I'm actually getting away with something staying there now which is sad because we're still paying a buttload more than I wanted to pay anyway. Plot twist! It will be interesting because there are only 10-15 rentals in that area and while I know they're counting on families splitting the cost, it still doesn't behoove you to be the highest priced rental. Like, when I search for a rental, I shouldn't recoil in horror at the quality to quantity ratio. (Not that the quality is bad but you know what I mean. For almost $900/night, I'd expect a Toto toilet that power washes my crevices or something.) As long as we're set to go that is all I care about and I can finally breathe and remove my shoulders from my ears. Ooh, look...a neck!
I decided to bite the bullet and get Beach Body on Demand. I wish they would let you preview what you're getting before you commit but I suppose that's the point. After scanning what's available, I feel like we're already doing the best of the best as far as what we like. So much of it is strength based which is fine but the whole reason I got it was for more cardio options. I haven't gotten to scroll through it all yet but some of the strength ones I was looking at had a dude so big, he was actually distracting. Some of them are plyo based which are out for us right now. I settled on doing the only non-weight based cardio session in 21 Day Fix. It was a good workout and had a modifier which was nice since the Mr is still nursing his back. I'll likely go through and see what I can find for strength tonight since there are a lot more of those options for us. I'm looking forward to checking out 10 Minute Trainer though. I'm sure I'll do a comprehensive review in about 6 months or so once we've had a chance to dig our teeth into it more. Edit: The Mr reminded me we have a 14 day trial period. If I really hate it, I'll cancel it.
We had dinner of orange roughy, sweet potato gnocchi, and veggies.
The Mr did some proofreading for me, we waxed nostalgic on movies and how old we are. Before we knew it, the night was over. Today, the nincompoops are supposed to come back to properly install the dishwasher. Apparently. some "quality control" dude came by yesterday unannounced to see if he could fix it since he was on our side of town. First off, I didn't hear him knock and second if I did, I don't answer the door if I don't know you're coming. Hell, we were never notified of the second appointment to begin with, the Mr found it by accident. So yeah, this place gets a big, fat 0 stars. He told the Mr he might stop over earlier than the window of lies we were given (11 am- 3 pm) and the Mr is salivating at the chance to show a quality control guy just what those hosers did!
What's the most per night you've ever paid for a rental? Was it worth it?
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Wednesday, February 20, 2019
Hump Day Poll: Where Do You Find It?
As we go through negotiations with modern day Satan, aka our cable company, it got me thinking about what I never thought I'd consider "the good ol days." One of the only things keeping us with this douchebag company is they have Music Choice. It's a bunch of different music channels in the middle of the guide, post sports channels, pre-adult movies. That is basically the only live TV I "watch." I get too distracted with regular channels on, and it allows me to hear songs I wouldn't usually hear so we can get new music.
I thought about the early 2000s and how we used to get new music then...commercials. Usually Apple iPod commercials. (It should not surprise you this is still how we listen to music, we have three of them including the classic original. My phone couldn't handle the amount of music I need at my fingertips and still function.) It was how I discovered cool songs like Horndog by Overseer, Shut Up and Let Me Go by the Ting Tings and Start the Commotion by The Wiseguys. Whoever was working for them then had awesome taste in music because the second we'd see a commercial, we always had to download it. Then they went another direction, and our source for music dried up because the radio was of zero help...until Music Choice. Problem is, no other cable company carries it, and it's on 70% of the time in our home.
So I'm curious...how do you find new music?
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Tuesday, February 19, 2019
Twitchy Tuesday
I woke up to an email saying our vacation home rental for the first half of our vacation was canceled because they sold the property. They refunded our deposit and said they need to get their listing off the rental site before the new owners can put theirs up. *twitch* They gave contact info for the new owners but it was blocked via the app, so I had to tell her that and wait around for her to respond, hoping that someone didn't come in and swoop in on our dates. It took FOREVER just to decide on that place (well, both places we're staying) so the skin went straight into stress hives on the face which is a good look. I finally got the woman's email address, and she said their property manager will contact us when the site is up and running to get us booked again. You can understand for a control freak like myself this sounds good in theory, but I will not be able to breathe again until we are in the books. I have two other places in mind, but they were low on the second choice list and didn't give me that feeling I get when I see "the one." If we're going on the longest road trip of our lives, I'm not settling. So hopefully this will be rectified this week. So yeah, that wasn't a fun way to wake up with an adrenaline rush and hives.
That wasn't even the thing that was supposed to send me over the edge yesterday as we waited for the dishwasher repairman in our 10 am - 2 pm window. At about 11:30 am, the Mr. called the place and asked if there was a more specific time yet or if they called ahead of time. They said they'd call when we were next up. We decided to go ahead and workout. We did T25 HIIT (low impact for his back), and after we were done rolling and stretching, the phone went off. It was 12:38 pm, so we washed up a little. The Mr made and ate his lunch, we watched Hawaii 5-0, and then I was starving, so I said screw it and made my lunch before I ate my hand. Two-ish hours later he shows up after his window. (Give a courtesy call if you're going to be more than an hour dude, c'mon.) At first, it looks like he won't be able to replicate the noise and even though the Mr. has it recorded on his phone it's as clear as it can get, but apparently "that doesn't always help." (??- Literally, you hear the same thing as if it was making the noise in front of you. The dishwasher will stop if you open it so this is as good as it will get if you can't replicate it.) He's thorough though and says "let's load this second shelf up off-center," and when he does, it makes the noise. The Mr and I shoot each other a nod and wink. He said even with it off-kilter load wise; it still shouldn't make that noise. He looks underneath and says first there's no toe kick panel. The Mr. told him it's on the way because Frick and Frack were too busy trying to get in and out of the house to take it off the back which is where Bosch says they put them.
Then he looks underneath and sees this:
See that circle? That is ripped up dishwasher box (that wasn't there before...we looked) that has been folded to "level" the dishwasher. This instead of using the self-leveling feet as shown by the arrow that is step 19 in the installation manual if Frack had bothered to read it. Instead, he sat there grunting and sighing that he had to do his job and decided to cut corners hoping we didn't notice, which we didn't because you wouldn't think you'd have to go poking around behind them. The guy tried to get ahold of Bosch, but they were closed, so he said he was going to call them tomorrow to see if any service bulletins are out on the model and check with the company reps for solutions to the problem and what parts need to be ordered. We need to call the installers (which they were closed as well, we didn't realize so many people were off Presidents Day) and get them to come out and fix that atrocity. He said he didn't have confidence that would fix the problem anyway but we paid for installation and it should be done right. Yes, sir. It should be done right, but that's not what happens with us...ever.
At that point, we were done mentally, so we decided to take a lap around the hood in the last of the snow falling. We enjoyed stopping and looking at our black coats and gloves at the different snowflake patterns. When we got back, the Mr. had to call the cable company and ask why the bill went up $12 and get them to reapply a credit we get when we raise hell annually for the bill going up for no reason. The
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| (via GIPHY) |
What's an unpleasant surprise you've gotten lately?
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Monday, February 18, 2019
All Over the Place Weekend Recap
The Mr basically had a free day Friday because he finished all of his labs for his class. The Mr moved up his chiro appointment and he is apparently staying "even" after his adjustment and is at about 90% this week. One more treatment and he should be healed. We should all be so lucky to have a "three treatments and done" ailment. *smack* I was jazzed because I thought we could get to the grocery stores early. (At this age, that is what apparently qualifies one for feeling "jazzed." Sad.) I figured we'd leave around 11am but then came dealing with the dishwasher crap. When you are calling for "warranty service" within 48 hours of receipt, things are not going well. But if you've been here for any length of time then you know we cannot spend over $200 without some crap storm of stupid raining down on us. I don't know why we haven't sworn off any and all forms of home improvement. The Mr. dealt with the installers, Bosch and Home Depot for over two hours so that late morning trip got pushed back to mid-afternoon. Today we get to wait in a four-hour window so warranty work can be done to a brand new dishwasher instead of going out and doing something fun today. If it's not fixed to our satisfaction or worse, if he claims there's nothing wrong with it, then because we reported it within 48 hours to Bosch and Home Depot we can either get it replaced completely with the same model or they can "work with the local store manager" to get a different brand in there. My mind literally can't even process that so I've chosen to believe we'll be sticking with what we have or getting the same in replacement.
After that poop fest, we went to all the grocery stores and it was nice to have all of them done by about 3:45pm. We usually go around 8pm because at 4pm is when all of the granola mom's, artisan coffee shop hipsters and looky loo's from the hotel across the street all converge and put you in a throat punching kind of mood. Sadly, this won't be an option for us again, ever, but it was nice while it lasted. We ran into the daughter of some acquaintances of ours and it's always weird to run into someone "in the wild." Like she runs a craft business and that's the context we're used to seeing her in. It's like when you're a kid and realize your teacher isn't kept captive in the school and actually has a life, eats Chips Ahoy and Cheetos (or whatever) just like you and she dresses like your mom. When we got home, I found out a family members dog was diagnosed with aggressive cancer so she doesn't have much time left. It really breaks my heart not just for the dog but this person has been through a tremendous amount of stress and caregiving and potential end of life care this year, the last thing she needs to go through is this. Sometimes you want to tell the universe/God/whatever you believe in "look, I know you don't give people more than they can handle but yeah, LAY OFF!"
Saturday, I needed to get out of the house. We had some financial crap to take care of, our taxes finally got accepted by the IRS, we did a little shopping at Hobby Lobby, outlet stores and such.
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| (Sometimes life calls for lobster socks from Old Navy "outlet" which sells them for the same price as the regular store.) |
Mama got some new bras and undies which I think is protocol when the crotch is ripping away from the elastic. No one wants their cooter dangling willy nilly. We went to a car hop kind of place for lunch the Mr wanted to try and since he dealt with all of the dishwasher crap, I thought I'd reward him like Pavlov. We perused Amazon Prime and I saw they had Salmon Fishing in the Yemen which I'd been meaning to watch because Tom Mison. The Mr was laughing at me making saucy comments regarding Tom's lusciousness. At one point, I yelled at Emily Blunt "he's too good for you!!!!!" Then we've been on this kick of watching bad 80's B movies that we remember the covers from whilst perusing Blockbuster as kids. So that meant The Slumber Party Massacre. If we thought that was bad (marginally so given the time period) then its sequel was God awful with a young Crystal Bernard pre-Wings. We also watched Screwballs Thursday or Friday. I think I saw some other T&A or T&A horror genre we had bookmarked that'll be in our future this week. I know it's not very today of me to say I kind of miss mindless boobie movies and campy horror.
Sunday was laundry day. I made some banana/Nutella oatmeal for breakfast instead of our usual big brunch. We watched "What If" with Daniel Radcliffe and while it was pretty good, I did NOT care for the lead and when she turned totally "victimy" in a stupid situation, I believe I called her several different terms for lady bits and flipped the bird at the screen at the final scene. The Mr was laughing pretty good at my disdain for it all. Then I needed a workout so we went down to do Turbo Fire Sculpt with the resistance bands which always kicks our butts. We talked about some changes we want to make to our routine but I'm not mentioning it yet because whenever I do, I jinx it and never follow through. I made grilled cheese and soup and as I was getting my soup out of the microwave, half of it fell on the stove, plate and my palm. I ran it under lukewarm water in an attempt to not lose any skin. Wow, I do not recommend burning the skin of your palm. It hurts like a mother. We cleaned up a bit for the dishwasher witch doctor and chilled the rest of the night.
What did you guys get into this weekend? Any tomfoolery to speak of?
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Friday, February 15, 2019
What I'm Reading This Week #7
Let's snuggle into...
This Is Why Walking Isn't Helping You Lose Weight (Pfft)
These Are the Life Tips People Actually Use (I do the "to" field all the time in emails (also because browsers flake out so often, I write it in Word first then copy and paste into the body of the email.)
6 Steps to Turn Regret Into Self-Improvement (Very good suggestions!)
How to Get Rid of Water Weight Fast (Nature Calm is the shizz.)
28 Brain Games Guaranteed to Boost Your Brain Power (Your body isn't the only thing that needs exercise.)
The #1 Payment Killing Your Wealth (Wow, some solid numbers!)
Deleting People Off of Social Media Made Me a Happier Person, and I'm Not Sorry About It (Did it! I can't tell you how much easier I can breathe now!)
11 Truths Only People With High-Functioning Depression Will Understand (Awesome...90% applied.)
Scared Coyote Trapped in Collapsed Den Can't Wait To Be Free (Courtesy of the Mr. Poor lil guy, those eyes)
Hawaii in the Snow Is a Bizarrely Magical Sight — and More Is on the Way (This is our favorite park on Maui! It would be so awesome to see this!!)
My Best Friend's Wedding cast reunites for EW's romantic comedy issue (Holy shiznit, I didn't even recognize "George!" 😲)
I don't think we have any plans this weekend. I know it won't be sitting in bliss listening to our dishwasher because when you spend 2+ hours troubleshooting why it is louder than the one we had 20 years ago and the manual basically says you're to blame for everything wrong with it and your glasses come out looking like this...
...you don't really feel like hanging out with your new 9-year roommate. Or it gives you the push to just move.
What shenanigans are in your weekend?
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Thursday, February 14, 2019
Almost Friday Poll: Anyone use it?
So when we had company Friday, they mentioned they started exercising that week. My cousin lost over 100 lbs before, and you know how it is...they gained a good amount of it back. They said they were streaming Beach Body on Demand and for $100/yr, you could pay just over what one of their programs cost. I saw the Mr's ears perk up on that one.
Since we've done P90, some P90X, Turbo Fire and T25 Focus, you could say we're fans of Beach Body.
I'm considering it when we stop the money bleed around here between appliances and insurance premiums coming due.
Anyone out there specifically use Beach Body on Demand? What are your recommended programs?
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Wednesday, February 13, 2019
In Between Decor
Uh...no. It's January, we are 3 weeks into winter no matter how many tulips you plaster on your door. It's a common thing though because most people including myself don't really have winter decor that isn't Christmas related. So I started perusing "after Christmas winter decor" to see if I could get inspiration from blogs and online magazines and I did. It was more about textures, shopping in your own home to look at something in a different way and keeping some things that you may have had out at Christmas but still take you into winter. One of the things I really liked was the use of lamb's ear in a lot of vignettes. It has almost a frosted look that is perfect for winter but can easily mesh into spring. The lamb's ear is the only thing I bought. I found a garland of it at Hobby Lobby for 50% off, so it was $10.
I left my mantel pretty much the same, but in the space where the Christmas candle and poinsettia ring were in the middle, I snipped off an appropriate length of lambs ear.
I also snipped off a few to tuck in between a cottage votive holder I have on the TV armoire just for a soft look with the pine cones.
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| (Our votives are Luminara so they won't catch the foliage on fire. Best investment ever.) |
The most fun I had was "shopping" in the house. I actually saved a few items straight out of the donate bin once I had the inspiration to look at them differently.
Top shelf: The seagrass basket was a 2 tiered clearance steal ($15 from $40) from Sur La Table for the Mr's 40th birthday party. I took out the middle bracket to make it flat, took some of our crispy greens from the kitchen pass thru, and put a huge sugar pine cone in the middle and some fairy lights. The candle isn't usually there.
Middle shelf: I had grand ideas for that cupboard door from an antique shop, but it never came to fruition. Just as I was ready to part with it, I thought it could give some nice interest to the shelf for other things to sit in front of it. The seltzer bottle is from an antique shop in Patchogue NY from our trip to the Hamptons. Beside it is a maple syrup tap from Montpelier VT the first time we went there. I printed a picture of our last sledding session in VT on the big hill with nothing but our two tracks on it, and it's the Mr's favorite thing up there. I put some lamb's ear beside it and used a slab of birch we had in the garage from our Charlie Brown tree from Detroit's Eastern Market the year before to elevate the clock. (I put a few sprigs of boxwood and baby pine cones in front of it.) Beside it is a hedgehog we already had.
Bottom Shelf: The sewing box is always there as our "junk drawer" for keys and such and the lantern is always there too. I saved the shutter from being donated and just flipped it on its side when it was just shy of fitting the normal way. In front of it is lamb's ear, a French tin I bought from an antique shop in Calistoga, CA on a trip to wine country (the non-drinkers raid the antique stores!) On top of the tin is a silver-ish cardinal I got a few years ago that I took out of the bedroom. Yes, it's a hodgepodge of things, but I think it works and makes it feel winter cozy in the house. It makes me happy to not have spring stuff while the snow is still flying.
I still have our vintage ski's on the wall with two winter prints between it and a picture of Stowe, VT I took that I had mounted on canvas. I still have up the wooden Pottery Barn tree shelf that I had up for the holidays but just took the Christmas decorations off of the hooks and use it for keys now. So it still feels very cozy to me in the house.
Come this time next month, I will likely be ready to decorate for Spring like the calendar dictates but not before. I've been all about hygge my whole life and didn't even know it with the hot chocolate/hot tea, fuzzy socks, blankie, fireplace blazing, snuggling up watching movies and all that jazz. Now I finally feel like I have some post-holiday decor to help me feel it even more!
Do you transition straight from Christmas decoration to spring, winter decor, or something neutral?
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Tuesday, February 12, 2019
A Hard Conversation
If you've been here any length of time, you know about my Grandma's diagnosis and eventual passing from dementia. It was a gut-wrenching time for the entire family. There were decisions made that I felt she would have disagreed with, but I know that everyone in every decision made did what they thought was right at the time. It led to the Mr and I having some very scary and hard conversations based on what kind of care we would both want should that be one of our fates. (We're screwed if it's both of us!) We basically said everything that was done for Grandma, we would want the exact opposite to some degree. People often take care of the grueling daily duties out of a deep love for the person because your vows say that's what you sign on for and you do. However, driving yourself into the ground mentally and physically will breed resentment toward the very person you're trying to take care of because you are basically dealing with infant care. Just as a baby cannot verbally express their gratitude that you keep them fed, change their diaper, comfort them when they're scared, a patient in the middle to end stages of dementia/Alzheimers are in the same boat. That person you knew and loved is not readily available to you anymore, and often you are in a stage of life where you are not as physically strong or mentally patient as you used to be. There are horror stories out there about care facilities but there are horror stories about anything, and it gets more clicks to report the bad over the good. If you dump a loved one off and never visit and the staff knows it, then in some lesser facilities, yes, there could be the potential for problems. Do your research WAY ahead of time, preferably before there is ever even a problem so that you both can give your preferences if you should have to go that route. If you think caregiver burnout isn't real and can't lead to people saying and doing things to their own family members, you are mistaken. (That is NOT what happened in our case, but it's being reported more and more.)
That actually isn't what I wanted to talk about today, but it's another significant part of the equation. As I said, being a caregiver is exhausting, especially for the spouse because they spend the most time with them. As a spouse, it is frustrating, heartbreaking and lonely. You are essentially left with no husband or wife. No companionship to be able to exhale at the end of a hard day and vent to the only person who understands you because that person no longer knows who you are. In the news the past two weeks, I have seen two different news stories relating to this topic. The first being regarding B. Smith's husband having a live-in girlfriend as he cares for his incapacitated wife. The girlfriend was also caring for her father with Alzheimer's and what started out as a friendship to talk about their journey with the disease, became more. He claims it is something he and B. discussed ahead of time before she declined. Then I was reading this hilarious obituary about another woman because she said: "I now have the smoking hot body I always wanted as I've been cremated." What else is mentioned? Her husband's "special friend" Dorothy who is now taking care of him. After so many people commented on that line, her daughter confirmed that with her mother's blessing, the caregiver she had is now her dad's partner. That is wonderful if they did indeed find true companionship but be aware there are some people who prey on that sort of thing. I'm not saying that's what happened in that case, but something to be aware of should you ever face the same situation.
Obviously, this talk of finding love while your spouse is suffering from the disease stirred much emotion in me. My heart is racing even now just thinking about the wrath I would've felt if her husband had done such a thing in front of her face without having discussed it beforehand. She didn't want to admit she even had anything and was "fine" so I know that conversation never happened. I would not begrudge him a "special friend," but what may sound totally acceptable for someone I'm reading about in an article, is way different if it's your loved one. This man is not my Grandpa so not a father to my mom or her siblings, and I have no doubt they would've had feelings about him moving another woman into the house. I can't imagine even if it was my Grandpa if he were still here that we would've felt much better about it. The thought of moving someone in and having sex with her in the house, I feel that is the height of disrespect. If you want to hire caregivers and spend your time at their place or date if they are in a care facility while still visiting and caring for them, that's one thing. This is my opinion and understand if most of you, especially those who may not have been touched by dementia/Alzheimer's feel differently. Matter of fact, I'm likely disabling comments for this not because I don't want to hear what you have to say but because I'm getting so upset just typing this that I want it out of me and to move on.
If it's so upsetting, why am I bringing it up? Because of every conversation the Mr and I have had about this disease, we haven't had this one. I don't know why but I never even thought people would have, what I consider the audacity to purposely move their girlfriend in while their spouse is still suffering in front of them. Obviously, this disease takes enough from caregivers; it shouldn't take any chance of happiness with it. But that is still "your person," and they're still in there whether you have access to them or not. We have no way of knowing if dementia is simply the inability to communicate what we feel, but inside we can still process what we see if it seems we don't. I can't tell you how many nightmares I had that my Grandma was screaming inside for us to hear her and why didn't we understand her when she spoke or grunted? There's nothing that can definitively say that isn't the case. So I have to operate under if that is indeed a possibility, and it is, then how would I feel seeing the Mr kiss, hug and hold this woman in our home? So yeah, big thoughts swirling around and they are thoughts you should have as well because dementia can happen to you or your spouse and you need to have all of the conversations.
It can be easy to say "yes, be happy with someone else" but that needs to be defined as to what you mean by that to still honor your marriage. If the time comes and depending on the capacity to understand what you are seeing, could you change your mind when it's too late to have the ability to say so? I have a lot to process because of these articles, and we have a hard conversation in our future. Thanks for listening. 💓
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Monday, February 11, 2019
Mexican overload and a case of the olds
Thursday, all day, I forgot to put my indoor shoes on so by the time I was done cutting everything up around midnight, my feet were searing in pain, and I knew what that meant for Friday. My ankle and foot were throbbing in pain, and I could barely stand. I couldn't even fit in a workout because I had too much to do and didn't think I could do one anyway. I was irritated at many different factors Thursday including the lady at the grocery store in front of us who just pushed me so far over the edge, I couldn't speak because I knew if I did, I would unleash all of the anger and frustration of the day at her. She deserved some of it, but as she tried to talk to me, I had to tune her out and reload our stuff into the cart and breathe before I blacked out or something. (Too long of a story to get into.) I was up until almost midnight that night, and while most of the house was done, there was still much to do Friday day that I had zero breaks except for when I forced myself to eat a PB&J and orange for lunch for 20 minutes. Between the Mr's SI joint pain (comparable to sciatica) and my shooting pain into my foot and up my shin, I was quite tempted to cancel plans due to a case of "the olds." I didn't, and even after company arrived, I was still going for 45 minutes getting crap prepared. We had a nice night though, and it was fun hanging out just the four of us. The Mr blew the dust off of his VR stuff and showed them that and I got to chit chat with both of them while the other was playing a game. They seemed to love it all, and I sent them home with a crap ton of leftovers since I made enough to feed an army. Plus I got them both a little something for Valentines Day. I hope to do it more often, but that will depend on one of them switching jobs because they work 12-14 hour days. The Mr is helping them get into his profession, and we're hoping with some hard work they can get out of this hole they're in career-wise.
Saturday was spent doing absolutely nothing. We watched stupid crap on Netflix, napped and ate leftovers and heated up some turkey chili for dinner I thawed. We figured with his back issues and my ankle issue, we weren't fit to go out and about. I wish I could say it made a huge difference Sunday but it didn't. (Improvement but not back to feeling like we could do anything strenuous workout wise.)
The dishwasher did free fall into the abyss. We were having to reset the breaker before starting it every time, so after doing some research, we spent a stupid amount of money on a Bosch 42 decibel dishwasher. They'll be here Wednesday to install it. Always so funny how the price is never the price once you add haul away, installation and the 5-year warranty. Add $300-350 please to what you already thought was a ridiculous price. We bought gift cards so we could at least get fuel points and some free gas since they weren't part of Ebates.
We filed our taxes on the 31st but because we have a schedule C, they were instructed to "hold them" this year. So a heads up to anyone who has a schedule C, it might not get filed right away. The ballpark date is Friday but that's the same day we could be facing another shitdown (why correct it, that's what it is if you want your money) so who knows when we'll get our friggin' refund.
Sunday morning we had a Mexican omelet and that was my absolute limit to Mexican food.
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| (The Mr was quite happy with his.) |
I choked it down and we got sucked into more bad TV. It's like all of the previous week caught up with us and we had no energy. The Mr got laundry going and the leftover dishes from Friday and now I just want to keep the house cleaned up. I say that every time but it'd be nice to actually do. Sunday afternoon some beautiful snow fell and it felt like nature's personal relaxation gift. I love watching it fall especially when it's big and fast like that. I couldn't resist suggesting going for a walk in it for our workout. We took in the surroundings and the light pole flyers.
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| (Answers to the name Church) |
What did you do this weekend?
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Friday, February 8, 2019
What I'm Reading This Week #6
Let's wash up and get right to...
7 Post-Workout Mistakes You're Probably Making (So eating a batch of mac and cheese alone in a dark corner is bad?)
13 Functional Exercises You Can Do At Work (Good stuff to loosen you up whilst chained to your desk.)
We may finally know what causes Alzheimer’s – and how to stop it (I've seriously been doing this every other day now since reading this two weeks ago. Apparently that threat was enough to make me do it regularly.)
14 Toxic Thoughts To Let Go Of If You Want To Be Happier (Yep, all of 'em)
10 All Too Relatable Comics About Coping With Anxiety (I find looking at pictures of Toy Fox Terrier puppies is 99.926% likely to pull me out of a funk for at least 15 minutes.)
10 Things in Your House That Could Be Making You Sick (I've got some cleaning to do.)
8 Myths of Happiness You’ve Convinced Yourself Are True (All true but I'm 100% sure a bigger kitchen would make me much happier. I sometimes walk in, sigh in disgust and leave.)
8 Times People Hated A Job So Much It Made Them Ill (*raising hand* This is exactly why I left my last job. I put on 60 lbs in a year from stress eating, had panic attacks frequently and the day I left, I literally lost my hearing for 20 minutes after my supervisor yelled at me for having my work done. I had my resignation letter on my desktop for 6 1/2 months and at the end of every day, adjusted the date to the next day.)
Woman Finishes Marathon Carrying Puppy She Rescued Along The Way (You can't handle the cute!)
What to Change When You Move Into a New Place (Mr, take note for when we move into the new place in Vermont.)
You Just Got KonMari'd (Pretty sure the Mr and the other hubby's "doing time" at Goodwill are all singing this.)
Yesterday the Mr got to the point where he couldn't even stand and was in intense pain. He's had back pain getting progressively worse especially this week. After 3x telling him to go to the chiro and hearing him yelp in pain, I picked up the phone at 3:45pm, called the chiro and had him in by 5pm.
Men.
So he's got SI joint dysfunction, and the doc ordered him off exercise for 48 hours after popping, drilling, rolling and stretching him because he said he'd be sore. He's all "I should be fine tomorrow" to which I responded with a hearty laugh for 2.14 minutes. I'm sure even if he feels pain, he won't tell me now but it'll be easy to spot. So he's off that, and I've got a LOT to get done today, so I'd better get to it.
Tonight is our Fiesta Friday or whatever you want to call it. I'm looking forward to a fun evening and getting to know my family member's other half better because we never get any alone time with them. Hopefully, all goes well as I ply them with Mexican deliciousness and fried ice cream. (We're weighing in this morning and hoping for the best.)
What are you into this weekend?
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Wednesday, February 6, 2019
Hump Day Poll: Meal Prep
When we got back from our trip, I was not ready to jump back into cooking right away, and I had frozen chili and a dinner of turkey, mashed potatoes and stuffing all ready to go. It was just the break I needed, and then I felt ready to jump back into regular cooking. I talked about how I have the biggest components of Friday's dinner already done. Monday, I put everything in the Food Saver and marveled at the feast before me that would just need to be heated up. When I was placing rice in its bag, I wondered why the heck I haven't done more meal prepping. I'm already in the kitchen, what would it take to have some brown rice or quinoa going while I was making my lunch? Then portion it out and freeze it to be FoodSaved the next day. Future me would be so happy, and I know this from experience.
So I needed to be inspired and was curious...
Do you batch cook/meal prep every week? What kinds of things do you prep for the week?
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Tuesday, February 5, 2019
Tin Man syndrome and discontinued
Yesterday was a rickety day in our household. Sunday I was still on the tail end of recovering from our snowshoeing adventure Friday night. Oh, did I show you my new shoes?
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| LL Bean Winter Walkers |
I absolutely LOVE them! The difference is night and day. They have great grip, and I could've done so much better with them in Vermont especially with all of the ice under some of the snow we encountered. I keep trying to get the Mr to agree to just buzz on out there for a weekend since we're approaching the height of snow season out there. So if you're in the market for snowshoes, I highly recommend these. I snagged a 25% off coupon, so they were just under $100 which is a great price especially for ones of such superior quality. I think the Mr was jealous. 😋 He said when his go kaput, he's getting those.
Sunday night we broke out the old Total Trainers for the first time in eons for a new strength session. We've never sweat that much doing that and knew we were going to pay for it the next day. We did! Despite feeling like the Tin Man, I sprayed down the tub with mold spray (the toxic stuff is, unfortunately, all that keeps it at bay every other month no matter what I've tried) and shut the door. I stripped the bed and got the sheets and duvet cover in the wash as I reveled in the smell of Beekman 1802's Happy Place detergent and odor remover spray on the mattress cover. Does anyone else use that stuff? The odor remover, like most of them, doesn't last for more than a day but you spray it on the couches and pillows before company comes and they'll think your house is fresh and clean without smelling like chemicals. (Because there aren't any.) I wanted their floor cleaner, but then I read reviews saying 1) it couldn't be used on laminate which is what we have and 2) that you have to use it and then go back and rinse it. Uh, no thanks. I love 85% of their products but we live in a "one and done" society and don't nobody wanna be mopping the floor twice, yo! If you're looking to try any Beekman products, order them through HSN. The bundles offered there can save you at least $5 and the shipping is much cheaper than through their site if they carry what you're looking for.
I was quite bummed to find out my favorite perfume has been discontinued. Provence by Yves DeLorme has been my fragrance for the past 5 years, and I had one bottle of it left and was going to order another one and nope. The thought of going into a department store and trying to find something similar makes me want to gag. My nose is so sensitive, and I'm sure it'll all start to smell the same after a while. So I'll have to take in my empty bottle, a sachet of coffee beans to cleanse the nose after each sniff and hiss at the saleswomen to keep away from me because I'm just looking.
We did Power 90, and we always do it on mute. (Those of you who have done it know why.) We do our own playlist, and when Moves Like Jagger came on, I blasted that sucker. It's still the best song to get you pumped up, and I love how millions of tone-deaf non-singers are blasting them for their performance. If you can do better, step up to the mic people. Sheesh. Then we ate dinner of shrimp over pasta with light alfredo sauce. Now it's time to settle in and watch Velvet Buzzsaw. We may or may not regret this. Update: Totally regret it. Don't do it.
What perfume is your scent? Did you have a discontinued favorite?
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Monday, February 4, 2019
Bittersweet weekend
Saturday was a bittersweet day. In my effort to KonMari the house, one of the things that took up the most room under the stairs was my childhood toy box. He was an absolute cutie...
I took pics of him, and he's been in our living room for three weeks just hanging out, you know, so I could get more attached to him while I could finally see his face. He makes me smile. I shed some tears over the thought of getting rid of him. I looked online and saw he was selling for $100-$150, but the cost of a box big enough to fit him ($50) and wrapping him properly (another possible $50) just felt like more than I wanted to deal with. I checked with a local mid-century antique store who said to send pics to them on their website if you have something to sell. I never heard back from them. I checked with another place a week later, and they said they weren't in the market for something like that but gave me a vintage toy shop not far away that might be. I messaged them, and sure enough, they were interested. They played the "how much do you want for it" game and I sent them three eBay listings to show his "potential." (aka- I know what he's worth, don't try to dick me on price.) I told him I was open to a reasonable offer as I know he needed to make money on him too. He said he wanted it for the store to put toys in for little kids to rummage through and would $100 be okay? I thought that was a very fair price. The thought that he would be used again and bring kids joy to look through but more importantly, parents and grandparents to say "I had that when I was a kid!!!" was the perfect outcome.
As soon as I agreed to it, I burst into tears and ugly cried for a solid 15 minutes. (Tearing up just typing about it.) The Mr kept telling me to keep him, we'd find room for him, he'd clean out his closet, and we could put him there to use him as a bin. I appreciated it, and I was tempted several times but I feel like him being used as a toy box again is the best thing. His cute little face can "spark joy" for many and not just me. I can visit when I want, but I know I won't, it would be too painful to not run out of the store with him saying "I changed my mind, here's your hundie back!" So yeah, that was not fun, but they immediately put him to use, and before we even left the store, he was already full of pro wrestling dolls!
They laughed at how weird that probably looked, and I smiled warmly and said, "no actually it's perfect because I used to go to late 80's WWF matches up the street. This is meant to be." And that Darth Vader head of the Mr's? They took it too, and he got $15 for it! He was happy with that and didn't know if they would keep it or sell it, but he said he wasn't sad about it. Even if it was meant to be, it was still a little sad, but I said my goodbyes and thanks to him before we left and took some pics with him. It was kind of a Toy Story moment I suppose, but he was meant to be a toy box, and now he is again at the perfect height for lots of little hands to go through his treasures. I think he'll be happy.
We ran to the grocery to pick up some Cabot Lamberton and Private Reserve cheeses for grilled cheese and soup for a comfort food lunch. (Get those two if you want the BEST grilled cheese ever. I swear the Mr almost explodes confetti when he eats it!) We started watching Russian Doll on Netflix (I thought it was a movie, I was wrong) and I could feel myself drifting to sleep. We took a 90-minute nap because the previous day was catching up with us. I went in and shredded the chicken and added pineapple salsa and enchilada sauce and put those in the freezer. Two big components...done. Before we knew it, night was upon us, so we finished Russian Doll (8 episodes at 25 min a piece) Then we settled in for our annual viewing of Groundhog Day. It's hard to believe it's been a year since we were part of the festivities in the movie town. I highly recommend it.
Sunday we worked on various things to bring down the stress levels that could spike this week. The Mr did my veggies and fruit, and I was irritated at the heap we left at the front door of snow sneakers, hats, and tennies. We don't have a dedicated closet on the first floor (something I deeply regret not just splurging for when we built, but we was po' and already scraping it) so we have a shoe rack in the garage as soon as you open the door. It was full of shoes that were old, didn't fit or were never worn. In a bit of a frustrated rage, I ripped away at it and boom!
Before you know it, it's 4pm, and you're wondering where the hell the day went. I recorded the Puppy Bowl (go Emmett!) so we could watch it on fast forward because it's become an advertising crap show over the past 5 years. I remember when it used to be 2 hours of watching puppies run up and down the field and putting their paws in the water bowl cam. Now, just like everything, it has to be all about ads and less about what it started out as. Why can't we stop ruining EVERYTHING? I recorded the Super Bowl only so I could watch the halftime show with Maroon 5. I'm a casual fan and wanted to see how they did. Oh and you know Amazon has more money than God when they get Harrison Ford to do a commercial. I can almost see him in hard negotiations for salary...
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| (via GIPHY) |
There's still a lot to do this week but the majority of the pressure, at least food-wise is off of me, and that's nice. I am going to try a new habit this week of drinking 20 oz of water before I even get out of bed. I have a 25 oz double insulated water bottle on the nightstand that stays ice cold all night. Since we wake up dehydrated every morning and it's usually at least 10am before I start drinking anything, I thought I'd see if I could put an early dent in things.
How was your weekend?
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Friday, February 1, 2019
What I'm Reading This Week #5
Enough about my rant on how 89.6% of people suck rocks and have no concept of courtesy in a public setting and get to...
Here's How Rapidly You Start to Lose Muscle Once You Stop Lifting Weights (Keep pumping that iron!)
Why Do Thin People Not Get Fat? (Well yay.)
Research Suggests That Tidying Up Could Help You Lose Weight (Grabs another bin)
What Happens When You Drink a Gallon of Water a Day? (This could explain why I am always so much more sore than the Mr. Dammit.)
Try the KonMari Method on Your Social Media Feed; It Feels Like an Act of Self-Care
(Did it. I can actually scroll without clenching my jaw now. Mute is the best feature ever.)
How One Redditor’s Viral Story of Helping a Bullied Woman at the Gym Is Inspiring Kindness
(Reaffirming that people who don't suck need to counter those who do more often.)
The Weight I Carry (Definitely some tears shed on this one.)
“Alexa, play some music” isn’t the only time Amazon is listening to you. (Which is precisely why I unplugged all of them until we checked out at the last house we rented.)
100 Things You Should Never Throw Out and How to Reuse Them (Some seriously cool ideas!)
50 Times That People Spoke Words So Profound, They Literally Changed Lives (So many good ones. I don't know why "don't set yourself on fire to keep other people warm" really hit me the day I read it.)
Michigan grandma, 82, captured snow blowing her driveway in freezing temps goes viral (I'd like to be you when I grow up ma'am!)
Dad “Rescues” Dog’s Injured Toy Bear in the Cutest Photo Ever (OMG, so sweet! I think of all of the toys I performed operations on while my nugget sat at my feet whining like a nervous mother. Hoggy's, Barney (we enjoyed watching her tear that bastard apart) and King Moonracer from Rudolph we all successfully treated at our "hospital!")
We have to clean the first floor this weekend because we're having dinner guests next Friday and I don't want to be stressing over it all next week. But it'll be nice to spend some time one on one with a family member's significant other. We only get to see them very little since they work on the holidays, so we don't really know them well. All we know is they like Mexican food and are incredibly picky food wise. Hopefully, taco sauce is like truth serum. Bwahaha!
What are your plans this weekend?
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