Hump Day Poll: That'll Do it!

What's the dumbest thing you did as a kid to get your crush's attention?

When I was in 7th grade, I took up smoking so the little douchebag I liked could bum cigarettes off of me.  I never inhaled, I hated the way it smelled and made me smell, it was purely for aesthetic and potential opportunities to talk to him.  It worked once and then I think after hearing him talk for more than just what I'd overhear passing him in the hall I was like "what an idiot" and never bought cigarettes again.  (That was back in the days you could go into a gas station with a note "from your mom" that she was giving you permission to buy her cigarettes.  😂)

What's the dumbest thing you did as a kid to get your crush's attention?

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Suckitude Weekend Recap

Once again, Friday was the day for getting crap done.  I wrestled the mattress off of the frame and got the box spring into the garage.  Then it was trying to free the headboard from the frame which of course required an allen wrench.  (If you don't have a set, you really should just have them.  They've saved our butts on many occasions.)   Of course they fought me every step of the way but after about 30 minutes I finally got them out.  I got the bedframe down the stairs the hard way and I needed the Mr to come home to get the headboard out there.  We scheduled a bulk pickup for them but of course that won't be until next week.  We set up my new bedframe which I got an 18" high one so I could have actual storage under it.  Well, once we chucked the 12" mattress with topper on it, it looked ridiculous.  

I mean I could still get into bed without using a mini trampoline but my feet dangle off the sides and I'm 5'9".  (Oddly they're right in line with the nightstands though.  Maybe I'm just too used to the low pro box spring?)  So given it's been 8 years since we got that mattress and we were pretty happy with the new mattress in the office, we decided to bite the bullet and get a plush Wayfair mattress that will be coming either tomorrow or Wednesday.  It's a 10" high so probably 2-4" lower than the current one.  I'm REALLY hoping it's truly plush and I won't need a topper.  I doubt it but still, we'll see.  I'm hoping it'll give just enough inch wise that'll it'll make a difference since I nixed a box spring.  When I went to bed I told the Mr the air was thinner up there.  Oh and these panels I ordered WAY early for the bedroom that said they would take 4-6 weeks to arrive came in 2 weeks unannounced so now I 1) had to find a place to store them and 2) this now put a severe time crunch on me having these huge panels to now greet me every day to say "have you cleaned out your entire life in the closet yet??"

Saturday was just a storm of suck.  Gained a pound which I don't know how that happened and the Mr said likely stress (and low water intake) because I was so stressed the previous day I had vertigo.  The previous day's decision which now has me having less rights than my grandma had put me in occasional crying jags throughout the day.  I had planned to do what I mentioned last week and make spam loco moco from Hawaii.  (Making swaps to make it as healthy as you can for what it is.)  Once I started cooking the short grain brown rice, I saw it takes 45 minutes.  Ugh, fine.  I covered the lite spam and put it in the oven on warm.  As the rice got closer to ready, I put the eggs in the skillet and they weren't cooking so I turned it up and of course then they turned on a dime and got hard as rocks.  As I was making the Mr new basted eggs in another skillet, I had the gravy heating in the microwave.  I went to put the first thin layer of gravy over the rice and as I pulled the jar from the microwave, the label slid off the jar, the jar crashed THROUGH my new plate (which they no longer make) sending shards flying all over the rice on both plates and burned the top and side of my left hand.  (Which by the way is still bright red two days later!)  I had the Mr grab me some aloe lotion while I put a towel wrapped ice pack on it and I ordered Longhorn while he graciously cleaned up.  (After I put the spam in the freezer.  Ready to roll after my PTSD subsides from the burn, losing a new plate I waited 2 months for and tipping from patient to hangry.)  I wasn't planning on restaurant food that day but I didn't have the ability to fix anything and in that moment it was going to be 1:30pm before we were having any food in our systems which is just dangerous if you want to keep everyone from not choking each other out of food rage.

After that, the Mr suggested we do the Dacron for the patio cushions since the box has been in the dining room so long it became furniture.  We pulled the grody innards out of the cushions and washed the covers.  We re-wrapped the Dacron around the foam and polyfil.  It was horrible.  I can't even begin to know what we inhaled but if asbestos is still a thing, this looked pretty close.  Of course they don't look as good as they did seat wise when we started but I can count two times we've been out there in the past month just like I predicted last month.  The heat is frying petunias and geraniums left and right regardless of how often they're watered.  I don't know why I waste money on flowers every year.  Always so friggin' hot out.  

Then it was time to move up to the bedroom and start going through stuff.  I took a pic of lots of things.  We don't still need the prom wine glasses I kept or sweaters I'm not in love with.  It was a bummer the Space Saved stuff didn't neatly fit into under the bed plastic but those things are invaluable when they work.  This brand is the only brand across the board that works for me and stays closed.  I've gone through so many iterations of them and they always come through.  Hell, we've got the jumbo ones and guess what is in this jumbo one?

My wedding dress, the huge crinoline for under it, my vow renewal dress, bustier and a gala dress!  So it fits quite nicely under Mount Mattress.  Is this a proper way to store this stuff?  Probably not.  It's the difference between keeping them and getting rid of them and when I mentioned donating it I thought the Mr was going to cry.  So they survive another round.  I went through as much stuff as I could before my body started sounding the alarms.  I took lots of pics and pitched lots of stuff between Saturday and Sunday.  

Wanna see?  Well too bad, you're gonna.

Anyone else remember these little factoid cards from back in the day?  They also had some recipe collection I think I had at one point.

I kept this purse forever because I swore I was going to use it again one day.  I still wouldn't mind sporting the frankenpurse look but I've got two other purses in rotation and it'd still be waiting it's turn so it's time for someone else to potentially enjoy it.

Who remembers tape head cleaners?!  😆

Anyone else have this?

If you did and you're nostalgic for it, someone popped it up on YouTube for your childhood fix.

I was in love with the "Yo Quiero Taco Bell" marketing phase.  Yes, they both still talk.  "Yo quiero Taco Bell" and "Heeeere lizard, lizard, lizaaard!"

(Keeping 'em)

And the original coming of age book from the good ol' days.

While it feels like I didn't make much progress visually, I filled up a trash bag and got that huge Dacron box full of donate items.  It felt really weird to donate autographs and stuff like the Rolling Stone when Kurt Cobain died but hopefully someone else feels like they found a personal goldmine because they aren't worth anything on eBay.  

I felt pretty exhausted by the end of the day especially after our upper body workout.  We rounded things out with our Sunday night tradition of Chateau and Co-ceau.  

What did y'all do this weekend?

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What I'm Reading This Week #25

Holy poop, the last Friday of June!  As always, it flies by.  At least next weekend many of us will have a long weekend to look forward to.  I have to say, we've gotten a LOT of crap done this month and that feels quite good.  My mind immediately goes to all of the things we still have to do but I need to learn to enjoy those victories when they happen because it seems so few and far between.  I have big plans for the main bedroom but there is so much to be done there that only a match would truly take care of but probably not a great idea.  I'll need to make some tough decisions about what truly needs to take up closet space which is basically where my childhood lives along with odds and ends that served me at one point but will need to see if they still 'spark joy' now.  *barf emoji*  BTW, when did it go from emoticon to emoji.  Like it seemed to happen overnight that emoticon was the way to determine old people from young people.  "Oh, she said emoticon, so laaaame!"  I know this didn't just happen, it's been years but I so rarely type the word emoji (which is stupid and makes no sense) and welcome to the path of my brain.  Sorry.

Now let's welcome...

Do Slow Reps Build More Muscle?  (All I know is my muscles definitely feel it the next day after doing a ChaLean Extreme where that is her focus.)

Just 3 Minutes of Exercise Can Boost Your Health—Here Are 7 Mini Moves to Try  (Apparently every little bit does count!)

The 7 Best Oblique Exercises That Aren't Side Planks   (Holy sh*tballs, these look like they'll do the trick and we need to add them but I'm skeered!  I never understood #2 though because it feels like you're doing nothing with resistance bands so I'd probably skip that unless I did it with a dumbbell.)

5 Exercise Mistakes Undermining Healthy Aging, According to Exercise Physiologists (Especially #5!)

5 Ways to Declutter When Nothing Else Works  (Who knew there were so many different methods?)

The Downsides of Retirement That Nobody Talks About  (I don't know how anyone can retire anymore.  We literally made a retirement plan we were excited about, sank $12K into our IRA's and then the financial shitshow that is the past 8 months laughed in our faces.)

The Bizarre True Story of the Voice of ‘Jurassic Park’s Mr. DNA  (Truth is stranger than fiction)

Margaret Hamilton Wicked Witch on Sesame Street **FOUND FOOTAGE**  (What a wonderful episode and too bad it was immediately banned for being "too scary!"  This is almost as golden as when she was on Mr Roger's explaining that she was just a sweet old lady acting as a witch for a movie so kids wouldn't be scared of her.  I loved Margaret Hamilton!)

20 People Shared Their ’70s And ’80s Childhood Experiences That Blew Their Kids’ Minds  (Those were the days)

Not really sure what is on tap for the weekend for us.  We got two more samples of flooring from Home Depot yesterday and thought we'd found a winner.  Then we looked at a few reviews and how crappily it was constructed and sadly had to cross it off the list.  The Mr called another place on the one we thought we'd decided on but could save $1000 getting it through them but we wanted a sample first to make sure it matches the sample we got from the manufacturer.  I checked my email and I finally got a response from a flooring company we both really liked but wanted a sample before committing.  She said she'd send it right out and I have two more samples coming from Lowe's on Tuesday so it should be next week that we can hopefully have all of our options in front of us.  We need to make a decision soon on what we want.  It is maddening trying to find stuff that has good reviews and isn't going to break the bank.  The Mr has gone on a mini spree to set us up to have a good mimic of a table saw when we're ready.  He got a circular saw guide, an edge guide and some clamps that will make it easier too.  Given we don't have a table saw, this will make things leaps and bounds easier because using a jigsaw just doesn't cut it.  

What's shakin' for y'all this weekend?  

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Hump Day Poll: Are You Able to Relax?

Are you able to relax?  

I don't mean like when you settle in and cozy up with a beverage after a long day.  I'll describe a TMI scenario that comes up in SO many marriage videos for our Workshop Wednesdays.  It is hard for me to fully enjoy sex because like my laptop, I have about 37 tabs open in my brain.  It's easy to say "imagine closing each of those tabs and focus on the moment" but I can't.  It feels impossible.  Even if I'm trying to talk myself into being in the moment, I'm still not in the moment because I'm berating myself for not being able to fully be present.  😫

Are you able to mentally relax and if so, what are your best tips for someone tightly wound who just wants their brain to STFU?

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Gettin' Shizz Done Weekend Recap

Howzit, y'all?  

Thursday night it became clear our shredder was on it's last legs so I ordered a new one because we had a buttload of old docs to shred.  Friday morning it arrived and I got on a shredding bender so I didn't get much more done than that and watering flowers.  At least we didn't lose power that day.  It gets so friggin' hot upstairs so when the power is out you've got about 20 minutes before it starts to get stuffy and you don't want to be up there.  The Mr and I were reminiscing over old W2's and weeping over receipts from our last trip to Hawaii in 2016.  If you'd ever told me we'd go this long without going there, I'd have called you a liar but it looks like it won't be anytime soon so...   I'll have to look at the menus of some of our favorite restaurants there and recreate some meals sometime.  It will be nothing like being there but it's the closest we've got between that and throwing on some old vacation videos.

Saturday I had an appointment in the morning then off to grab lunch and head home to watch a little tube.  I decided it was time to get the longer dresser that basically became a catch all for stuff with no official home out of the bedroom.  I had to get creative on how we were going to finagle it to be as easy as possible.  I took all of the drawers out and flipped it on its top.  Then it was easy to push to and slide down the stairs where we tipped it up on it's side then I flipped it right side up as it came into the garage.  We put the drawers back in and slapped a 'free' sign on it and left it up to the wheel of fortune to whomever passed by.  That thing was this Crate and Barrel dresser (we paid $200 less for it 10 years ago) and the more I looked at it, the more pissed I got at the horrible quality of it.  We waited WEEKS for that set to come in from Italy and they did a crappy paint job on all of it.  Like it was so bad we got money off of one of the nightstands and then we had the bed all set up and the Mr thought he'd be funny and leap onto the bed and it broke.  The frame sheared right off on his side.  Better to have it happen during tomfoolery than sexy time, I guess.  We paid $1000 for that thing too and we immediately called them and had them take it back because the quality was utter crap.  I got a headboard from Pottery Barn and it didn't match and I've hated that set ever since because nothing remotely matched for all of the money we spent.  So it did hurt a little to just give it away but we wanted it out of the house and hopefully some good karma will be tallied up for us somewhere.  

I pulled out a box of CD's and started transferring them over to a book storage that will take up much less space.  It was nice to go from this:

to this:

I was so happy to finally get it done.  I decided to peek under the bed and see what else I could go through and was greeted by this.

Finger pistols from God.

(source)

That about did me in for Saturday.

Sunday morning we decided to tackle the broken drawer on the armoire I would be keeping.  The drawer was basically dropping forward just waiting to take off my foot and rubbing the paint off of the left side of the bottom drawer.

The Mr did a Home Depot run and grabbed this adjustable drawer guide kit (similar) so that we could get the show on the road.

To give you an idea, the new white one shows you which parts snapped off on the original green one:

I rubbed the track with paraffin wax (you could use a tealight candle) to make it slide easier and it was all fixed.  I'll be repainting it soon anyway so I'll worry about the paint on the bottom drawer then.  I made brunch and we let it settle by watching an episode of The Affair.  

When that was over, it was time to move on to the garage door installation of the Elfa back of the door storage we got from The Container Store.  (Similar one for much less here.)  Of course, it couldn't be as easy as hang, twist, hook like it made it look but once I walked away, the Mr seemed to do much better and got it ready for me to load up.

And load up, I did:

I seriously can't believe all of that crap fit in the bin below under our sink.  What's better is it left it open for me to be able to utilize for other things and get some breathing room.

The first thing I did was load up our pot lids from the new cookware set we got to get rid of Teflon because I'm tired of fighting with them in the pantry.

It is SOOO nice to have those out of the way and not falling every time I take a skillet or saucepan out.  Sometimes it's the little things that make a big difference in getting rid of every day nuisances.

Then it was time to get in our workout which was a nice little kettlebell burn.  Kicks our butts as always.  Then we did odds and ends and enjoyed our Sunday night ritual of Chateau DIY and hygge time.

My new bed frame and CD storage book (War and Peace sized novel) arrive today so I see some more work in my near future.

What did you do this weekend?  

(And thanks for answering about the toes on Friday!  😄)

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What I'm Reading This Week #24

It's time for Friday vibes, yo!  We've made it to the end of the work week and some of you might get an extended Juneteenth weekend.  It was a hot, grody week here with record temps that would fry an egg on your forehead.  Monday the radon folks came and collected their mondo monitor that they had on since the previous Thursday's install.  Our levels were down to .04 which is amazing and we can literally breathe easier.  Later that day, my friend came over and liberated us of quite a few things so we knew they'd be going to a good home.  The Mr's mom gave us a big picture that was cool but I only liked Elvis and the other artists weren't of our era so it never got hung up.  My friend is a huge audiophile with thousands of records and he was more than happy to take it for us.  We also had an air fryer, weighted blanket, a closet organizer that we replaced that I talked about in Monday's post, some clothes organizers for hanging multiple shirts on one hanger and one for pants.  We just had to get rid of some bulkier items or items we were no longer using and it's always nice when you know where those things are going.  Of course we also have another donate box rarin' to go and I have stuff I've donated, pitched and those "I think I still want this but don't have a place for it yet because so much of the room still needs cleaned out" pile.   We also still have the huge box of Dacron for the patio cushions that we thought was going to be the project two weeks ago that we still haven't opened.  😑  

Now let's open up...

7 Foods High in Phosphorus That Boost Bone Strength  (Gotta keep dem bones nice and strong!)

20+ Restaurant Copycat Dinner Recipes for Summer  (Ooh, I see a couple I want to try for sure!)

The Doctor Prescribed an Obesity Drug. Her Insurer Called It ‘Vanity.’  (Oh okay, so we're told to lose weight by docs and insurers but when some decide to get some intervention, it's for 'vanity.'  Gotcha.  🖕)

Anti-fatness in the Surgical Setting  (And if the previous article didn't chap your ass, this one will.)

12 Cleaning Secrets That Only Professionals Know  (I'll take all of the cleaning hacks I can get!)

Here's How to Remove the 8 Most Common Food Stains, According to Cleaning Pros  (Some I'd never likely do but a few were really good suggestions!)

How Do You Keep From Becoming Cynical As You Get Older?  (Too late.)

It Started With a Tick Bite. Losing My Husband To Undiagnosed Lyme Disease  (So very important to check yourself and your family but this is a very scary lesson considering what happened it should've been caught.)

39 Translations From Blunt Insults And Angry Emails Into Professional Language  (OMG, I do not miss having to word "you're a dumbass" in such a way that won't get you fired anymore.)

24 Times Teenagers Discovered "Good Old" Music And Were Surprised That Adults Around Them Knew These Bands Very Well  (HAHAHA!  That's right, we knew them first and likely our parents laughed at us as well when our peeps remade classics we didn't know about.)

At this point, we're just hoping power stays on.  We had a small bout with brown outs or whatever you want to call them and when it's the hottest time of the year thus far, that does not make for a happy moi.  I'm sure continuing to tackle the mess in the bedroom will appear in there somewhere.

Which toe is your favorite?  (Just seeing who actually reads to the bottom but feel free to spill weekend plans.)

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Hump Day Poll: I Hope There Are No Pictures

What has been the most embarrassing thing you’ve ever worn?

I'm going to defend this by saying I grew up in the MTV era when they actually played music with outrageous outfits.  So at age 8, I dressed like a Studio 54 reject to see Berlin and Thompson Twins in concert.  I don't know why, but I thought it would be totally bitchin' to wear a silver sequined tube top with matching silver sequined beret, red ruffled mini skirt, red bobby socks and pink jelly shoes.  Let that sink in.  Thank GOD there are no photos of that atrocity.  But I wasn't alone because a hot gay couple in front of us had one of the two guys wearing a silver sequined plastic trench coat and he turned around and was like 'cool outfit' and I said 'you too.'  I'm sure he was saying it ironically at 22 but it made me feel like I'd made the right choice.  I hadn't.  I'm surprised my tween boobies didn't get exposed dancing because those of us who lived through tube tops know how well they stayed in place.  Moreover, I don't know how much thought this was a good look.  I won't tell you we took the sequined ensemble back the next day.  (Don't clutch your pearls!  This was a common practice back in the day, so much so there's a Three's Company episode about it. 😋)

What has been the most embarrassing thing you’ve ever worn?

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Another Kicked Butt Weekend Recap

Happy Monday sweet cheeks!  I hope you had a productive weekend.  Dude, I am a whooped woman again.  Friday I dug into the office closet.  I'm pretty sure it hasn't been touched in like 7 years or something like that.  You know how you pull at a storage bin and it's so heavy you're like "WTF is in this thing?!" and you open it and it's like "oh yeah...future me's problem bin.  Hello future."  

Lots of old prints we bought in Hawaii that we tucked away because we couldn't bear to part with them.  I still can't bear to part with them but I took them out of the frames and donated the frames as a way to reduce the amount of space they took up, which was a lot.  The artist died and many of the prints aren't sold anymore and I'd still like the option to put them up if one day we're unable to travel and want to revisit that time.  So many little trinkety/gadgety type things.  My heart was heavy getting rid of a few things from Banana Patch Studios on Kauai that used to hang on doors around the house but it was time to let someone else hopefully enjoy them.  We donated the airbed that was in there.  We were going to keep it and store it in the garage and it's like, for what?  Gone.  Got rid of random art and the Mr went through the dresser in the main bedroom that he hasn't used for 2 years.  A lot of shirts got donated and let me tell you, it was sad.  It was from the time we were able to consistently lose weight to the point that we could always depend on being the next size down the following year so we 'bought ahead' at expensive Hawaii t-shirt shops.  I've got the top of the dresser to clean up and pitch/donate stuff and then we're getting rid of that dresser.  It sucks because it retails for $1300 now from Crate and Barrel and they did a horrible paint job on it from the get go and I was never happy with it.  I'm likely keeping the nightstands from the collection and I'll refinish them.  I've got an armoire that is very shabby chic oriented and it's gonna get the sh*t knocked out of it and refinished into something different and moved to the spot the old long dresser was in.  My goal is to be able to do some stretches or yoga at the end of the bed some year.  It feels like it's going to be FOREVER until I can get that room into some kind of shape but it needs to be done if I ever want the finished result which is scary in itself.  We've decided we're going to replace all of the flooring on the second floor ourselves.  Yeah.  We can't justify spending the kind of money for labor places would charge.  We have 26 year old carpet up there and it's already been stretched once for getting rid of wrinkles in it.  I'm not paying for that again.  The Mr said the idea didn't make his butt pucker but I could tell by the end of the night after watching videos that it did and he was stressed.  So if any of you handy folk have any tips for complete novices, shout 'em out in the comments.

We were going to do grilled pizza/flatbread again but just as the grills warmed up to temperature, they fizzled out.  Empty tank.  We thought we had one more full one left so into the oven they went.

We did Hawaiian and a BBQ chicken pizza which were quite good.

As I type I'm still waiting for The Container Store to get our closet drawer order ready which should've been done by now.  We were supposed to drop off some of the stuff we're getting rid of to my other boo but he offered for him and his partner to do a drive by this afternoon and pick the stuff up from us.  We had just finished doing Atletica when I got that email and the Mr was like "YES!!!"  (It should be noted that even all these years later, Atletica is still one of the most butt kicking strengths we've ever done and that's even with some Beachbody on Demand meatheads.)  We were grateful we didn't have to make that run even though the stuff was already loaded up.  We were also glad to get the workout over with so I could make brunch.  We tried a pancake mix that was new to us that was listed in a "top best flavor pancakes" list I got sucked into.

It did taste good but I'll be honest, I think the taste was more because of the butter I would quickly swipe across the griddle and it would instantly brown because that's what I could taste most.  We'll finish it because they are good but I'm not thrilled with the amount of sodium in it.  Over 500mg for a quarter cup of mix which is probably why its so "flavorful" according to the list.  Also, I don't know what weed someone was vaping when they came up with the serving size but they claimed 5-6 pancakes with 3/4 cups of the mix and I used a cup and couldn't eek out 6 full sized flapjacks.  Perhaps they were talking about silver dollar sized or something because I felt gypped on size.  I will say it's perfect for camping or vacations because you just add water and it's ready to roll.

Okay, so The Container Store finally got to our order and we went to pick it up and went from before to after.

The Mr and I laugh at the simplicity of that statement because what should've been click, click, slide involved a return trip to the store (and another one this morning) and a screaming fit from the Mr that I have probably heard less than I can count on one hand in 30 years.  So yeah, going from wonky to wow was not the easy prospect I thought it was going to be.  I feel horrible for suggesting it and am hoping that it serves the purpose it's intended for many years because I think that is the closest he's come to burning down the house.  I feel like when someone does a paranormal investigation here in like 50 years, they will hear that scream and people will run out.

We unwound with some cocoa and Portals to Hell.  As one does.

How was your weekend?

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What I'm Reading This Week #23

(tenor.com)

Holy whirlwind week y'all!  It's Friday and mama (and papa) need some DOWN TIME.  The work on the guest room continued basically all week.  We had a real bed delivered as opposed to the airbed that was in there, this amazing uber bed frame that's nice and high for storage with a high weight limit because nothing sucks more than a bed you have to pray first just to sleep on it.  "Dear sweet baby Jesus- I felt the movement and heard the squeaks when I laid down.  Please don't let this collapse as I sleep."  I got some curtains since we just had sheers before and where the bed is positioned now it blazes in right through the little gap on the side of the blind.  I already had a 2 pack of blackout curtain rods so the Mr was able to get that done quickly while waiting for the curtains.  I got some storage bins for under the bed to put seasonal clothes and blankets and free up some space in the closet.  I think the Mr has probably felt like he was on a Tilt a Whirl all week.  That coupled with the radon dudes coming out Tuesday and were like "we can do this Thursday" and it was just like "holy crap man!"    

In between all of that, we road tripped to the drive in mid-week and saw Top Gun: Maverick so we wouldn't have to contend with weekend crowds.   It's only been delayed a bazillion times the past few years.  It was so nice to have a date night and see the much anticipated return of Mav and Iceman.  There were some good nods to the previous movie as well as a nice one to Labyrinth in a bar scene with Jennifer Connelly.

Now let's trip into...

7 Carbs You Should Be Buying to Lower Cholesterol, According to a Dietitian  (Sounds good to me!!)

Eating One Egg Each Day Could Decrease Your Risk of Heart Disease, New Study Suggests  (Hmm.  Duly noted.)

37 New Trader Joe's Products Hitting Shelves This Summer, From Pickle Seasoning To Peanut Butter Popcorn  (Numbers 9 and 33.  Otherwise, looks a little disappointing.  You want to make me happy, bring back those chipotle potato bites you discontinued like 10 years ago when we were losing the bulk of our weight, you rat bastards!)

Do You Sit All Day? Here Are 5 Mobility Exercises You Should Be Doing!  (Trust me, your body needs these!)

Best Self Treatment Techniques To Get Rid Of Piriformis Syndrome  (OMG, the strengthening exercise is a killer but SOOO necessary!)

4 Spices Holistic Nutritionists Swear By To Stop Inflammation  (All good stuff to keep on hand!  I like to use this tea to get a two for one benefit especially after a workout.  I brew it with some organic green tea.)

Woman denied a colonoscopy by her doctor died of colon cancer at 39  (THIS is why you MUST be your own advocate.  This woman had a family history and people as young as 25 are getting this disease now which is why they dropped the age from 50 to 45 for screenings.  If you have a family history of anything or something doesn't feel right to you, you have every right to get a second or fourth opinion until someone effing listens to you!!)

What to Do When Negative Interactions Sour Relationships (It takes five positives to outshine a negative.  Yike!)

How to clean outdoor furniture for long lasting use  (Tis the season for algae and pollen covered everything!)

How to Protect Yourself From Tick Bites and Lyme Disease  (Do whatever you can!  The Mr had a Lonestar tick crawling on him on vacation and one bite from it can give you a red meat/dairy allergy that can kill you.  Not only affects what you eat but supplements, cosmetics, etc!)

Study: Women not being told common anesthetic may lead to contraceptive failure  (OMG, since these doctors aren't going to tell you, I will.  PLEASE READ IF YOU TAKE HORMONAL BIRTH CONTROL/IUD and have any upcoming surgeries!)

Person Receives Letter From Elderly Neighbor Detailing His Newly Found Happiness In Life Thanks To Him Being Asked To Babysit Their Pets  (I'm not crying, you're crying!)

50 Unexpectedly Wholesome Situations To Brighten Your Day  (Because we all need some wholesome stuff!)

I am now fearful saying "we don't have anything planned for the weekend" given how last weekend turned out.  I think I would really like at least one day of doing nothing because my body can't take a whole lot more even though we have a crap ton of things we could be doing around the house.  We do have pizzas on the grill planned again because we both really enjoyed it!  The Mr was almost giddy so anything that produces that response is a do again event.  Of course the previous crusts were out of stock so we're using the flatbreads I got from Amazon Fresh.  Hawaiian on one and BBQ chicken on the other.

Any events/shenanigans planned for the weekend?

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Hump Day Poll: Well, That Was a Mistake

Which Movie Sequel Do You Wish You Could Erase From History?

Grease 2.  I literally got up and left music class when they showed it.  It was an abomination to everything that was perfect about Grease and I doth protest too much at 13.

How about you?

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Not What We Planned Weekend Recap

Remember when I said we didn't have anything but a leisurely walk planned for the weekend?  The universe gave us some finger pistols and said "nope, I have other plans for you!"  

(tenor.com)

Our guest room serves many purposes from the Mr's office, my old office (aka- a pile of sh*t in the corner with 7" of dust on it), a snore respite when the buzzsaw is going off and to say it is not the most serene of places to spend time is an understatement.  While the Mr was putting in his mandatory Friday at work, I decided to tackle the 'my office' part of it that had been sitting there for four years in a heap.  I inhaled a ton of dust but managed to get that part and some other stuff cleared out.  He was quite surprised when he went up for a shower and saw it.  It was time to say goodbye to the awesome cart from World Market that I got about 6 years ago.  The lighting up there was never right for recipes and it just became a waste of space.  A treacherous trip rolling down the stairs and out to the front and a "free" sign later and our neighbor took it.  Then it was time to rearrange some furniture.  Years ago we got some of those cord wranglers that you put along the base of your wall to run cable/cords along the wall.  Well, that lasted less than a year and as the adhesive pooped out, it ripped off paint and drywall with it.  There was no repairing the damage of that without spackling and repainting the entire room which was not happening.  So at this point with half of the contents of the room removed, it made more sense to rip up the builder grade baseboards and replace them with taller ones like we have on the first floor to cover the damage they did.  We had SO many other things we needed to do but this was the only time since we now had furniture being delivered today and up to Thursday to get it done. The Mr pried the old baseboards off using this trim puller which he always says is a God send.  They decided to jam 3 1/2" nails in there so he had to wiggle those out with the pliers as well.  Then it was time to break out the ol' miter saw and see what he could do.  When you're not in that line of work like construction folks are used to, it takes a bit longer.  That's why we always give mad props to those who grew up or are handy.  When we saw all of the pieces lined up then we had to paint them before putting them in place.  Yay.  

I don't mind painting but I'm usually anticipating painting, not getting thrown into it the day after putting my body back into hobble mode.  I threw a plastic drop cloth on the table and painted with what we had leftover from the garage which was thankfully a full can of paint.  Not gonna lie though, my eye started twitching pretty much 10 minutes into it and hasn't stopped.  I so desperately wanted to just get takeout but we committed to no high cal days the next two weeks so it was the make your own pizza we had on the agenda.  I got the fixins for DIY pizzas that we could cook on the grills and at 600 degrees (the Mr really likes to crank it), it only took 3 minutes to burn.

I may have to get another basil plant because we both agreed we really liked it and this plant hasn't taken off yet.  Next time we're going to do Hawaiian and/or BBQ chicken.  In the end though, it really wasn't any better calorie wise than when we split a small from our favorite pizza place but we got a medium crust.  While it should've felt like we got more, the crust was paper thin so it didn't really hold me at all and I wanted to eat my hand an hour or so later.

After a few re-cuts and re-paints, the baseboards were on the wall and my already broken body was like "WHY did you say you would walk tomorrow morning??"  So I couldn't even relax knowing we had a kick back day the next day because we weren't getting that.  

Sunday came earlier than it should have since some effed up dreams woke me at 5am and that was that.  I wondered if it was too late to find a wheelchair rental place because my legs were just not having it.  I knew the only way I could upgrade from army crawl to hobble was with my trusty wooden gua shua tool to try to release my thighs and butt muscles.  The Mr grabbed our watches and we headed to the cemetery to go on our pre-scheduled walk.  It was actually nice walking and talking and I was surprised at how winded I was talking.  I was thinking "they probably think we lie when we say we exercise every day!" but I guess that means we were going at a good pace.  We ended up being out there for almost three hours!  Then the Mr got a blazing headache (likely from being in contorted positions all day Saturday.)  I made Beyond Burgers, fries and a salad hoping that would help but it didn't and neither did meds.  I gave him my neck release tool to try to dig in where fingers sometimes can't in hopes he'd get some relief.  We had so much to do to prepare for the radon guys so it wasn't the most convenient time for a headache like that but the body has a way of forcing yo azz to rest when it needs it.   I gave him a neck massage for a while to dig in those spots he couldn't reach due to a precariously placed blister.  He took back the remaining baseboard we had back to Home Depot and I started cleaning up the house a little here and there.  He joined in as I made dinner and I think we've got the house to a manageable "good enough for service dudes" clean and not have them think we're total slobs.

Not quite how we expected to spend the weekend which is feeling like we didn't get one but whatcha gonna do?  Still have a HUGE box of Dacron that came for the patio cushion project we thought we were going to be doing.  Who the hell knows when we're going to get to that.  The disintegrated Dacron is like confetti waiting to come out of the cushions so while it'll be a sit down project, it's still gonna suck.  The fun awaits!

How did you spend your weekend?

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What I'm Reading This Week #22

Annnnd just like that, we're in June.  As usual, short week blues.  The three day weekends never come without the cost of feeling like a 6 day work week.  Every. single. time.  Tuesday we had an appointment with a new to us local body shop to check the brakes that the dealer said "needed to be replaced along with the PCV valve."  We dropped it off the night before and by 9am the dude was like "out of curiosity, why did you bring us the car for the brakes?"  The Mr told him that the dealer said he needed new brakes and the rotors were worn down.  The guy was like "well, you don't need new brakes.  The back rotors are fine, minimal wear on the front rotor and the pads have 30 and 50% more on them.  We checked the PCV valve and we know why they recommended based on mileage but it's completely fine and all calipers are fine."  They rotated the tires at his request but we knew never to trust when a dealership pumps out a list of stuff that sounds like a load of crap.  If nothing else, it has lead us to a shop that we can definitely trust in the future unlike the chains that have been plummeting in customer service for us.  That would've been an easy $1000 for them with no skin off of their butts to lie to us.  So we'll take it back in a year when the mileage should match up with the amount of wear he said we have left and they can do the brakes then.  Hell, we were just glad the car was there for them to look at because of course when we dropped it off there was a shady looking dude sitting in the yard across the street with a bit of interest at our drop off and there have been a crap ton of car thefts in our area lately.  I took a pic of him in the rear view mirror just in case.  I hate feeling like that and I don't like profiling people based on their looks but we have a model that has been one of the most stolen ones so big sigh of relief on all sides that 1) it was there for them to look at and 2) we've moved out the $1K expense hopefully to next year.

The Mr was kind enough to install the blackout blind I ordered from Blinds.com.  I got a double cell premium blackout blind because the wood blinds behind the blackout curtains I got just were letting in too much light since the time change.  I can't be waking up at 5:30-6am every day after getting to bed after midnight.  The slightest bit of light wakes me up and we have a light pole out front that shines in as well.  After putting it in, I noticed the light gaps they mentioned can happen and they were bigger than the ones I already had so I'll be getting a solution for that because I can't do the $40 plastic strips just because they're marketed a certain way.

Then the week just tanked from there.  Anyhoo.

Now let's get to...

12 Foods Rich in Polyphenols, a Powerful Anti-Inflammatory Agent Linked to Longevity  (We all need to take the inflammation down.)

Are apple cider vinegar pills good for you? We asked a registered dietitian  (Definitely can't hack even smelling that stuff in liquid form...YARF!  But we do take these for heartburn and to even out blood sugar if we have something higher in sugar on a Saturday.)

Why Short Chain Fatty Acids Are a Key Part of Gut Health  (This gives a great explanation if you want to keep your gut health tip top.)

3 Signs of Weak Glutes a PT Says to Watch Out For  (I've spent this week getting back into consistent PT.  I have all of these issues.  I do need to order some of these bands to throw in the suitcases for travel.  Perfect for banded side steps and clamshells.)

How to Develop Self-Love and Why This Will Strengthen Your Relationship

13 Steps to Finding Yourself (It’s Not Your Average Game of Hide-and-Seek) 

An Easy Way to Clean Baseboards from a Professional Housekeeper  (I'm definitely going to use this trick with the ones I have left over.)

How to ask Google to remove your personal data from its search results  (Consider it.)

How to reuse a candle jar: 15 ways to upcycle the containers  (I love using mine to hold cotton balls/Q-Tips and in the kitchen for loose leaf tea after running it through the dishwasher a few times.  No one wants Frasier fir caramel tea!)

Artist Creates 30 Honest And Funny Comics About Life's Little Moments, Mental Health, And Everything In Between  (OMG, so much truth.  Couldn't stop laughing at #28 for some reason)

Nothing major planned for the weekend.  Meeting up with a family member to walk and talk on Sunday.  Haven't seen them in two years. 

Whatchu doing this weekend?

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