<p>Gee my firm never has any parties. Maybe we should start.</p>
<p>Just checking in. Had some disappointing lab results from my checkup last week. I need more sun, more exercise and less carbs. 
I hate getting older. </p>
<p>You can do it, Northminn! And I need to do the same!
I gave myself a little slack, actually a LOT of slack, while on vacation. >:) </p>
<p>Went to the cardiologist today… they took a bunch of blood and then I had a CT Angiogram. Four hours later I was completely exhausted. If I am honest, I just want clearance to get these yellowish spots removed from underneath my eyes. My regular doc who did the initial cholesterol screening said it wasn’t great, but not high enough for medication or anything. The cardiologist slapped me on Liptor and a baby aspirin a day. Not sure who to “believe” but look forward to getting all the results back. But again, mostly it’s about vanity, especially considering I had the eye surgery last January. Fortunately, I was told the one has nothing to do with the other!</p>
<p>Finally able to get on – for some reason CC has not liked me at all the past few days. </p>
<p>Moda - sorry you’re going through all that. yuck.
NM – I hate the lower carb thing, but I can’t argue with the results. I just wish I could argue myself into better willpower.
MP - I hope you’re feeling tremendously better. </p>
<p>Spring is here with a vengeance – everything is in bloom, and my allergies are already kicking. I’ve got to get demonically serious with the vacuum cleaner. We had a mini-vacation in Wyoming, and even though it wasn’t that far, apparently my allergies are not tuned to whatever was blooming in the Big Horns. It was lovely. Or, it may have been the mineral and sulfur content in the hot springs. I can only imagine how wonderful the hot springs were for the early settlers. Even today the town has a public hot springs pool (called “The Hobo Pool”) that’s free to use. I laughed when the waitress told us that the hottest part is called the lobster pot. We saw hundreds of pronghorn antelope, and well over a hundred mule deer, but no elk or moose. There were also an amazing number of raptors, and I wish I could identify more than bald eagles. </p>
<p>Thanks for checking in, arabrab!</p>
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<p>On the bright side, much better to receive these instructions with summer approaching than winter. I bet you will naturally do all of the above once spring finally lands in the cold North.</p>
<p>I do feel better, thanks. My lastest issue is that both ears have been blocked for about a week…it’s the feeling like a plane is landing. I thought the flights on Monday would either clear it up or make it much worse. It made it somewhat worse. My ENT can’t see me until next Monday. Hopefully it will resolve on its own before then.</p>
<p>I hope you guys feel/get healthier sooner.</p>
<p>arabrab, congratulations on your husband finding a new job. Is it local? Less stress/intensity than the previous job?</p>
<p>Everything’s local around here, Shawbridge. (At least compared to traffic in LA :)) He likes the new place – turns out several folks he’s worked with before in other places also work there. The tech world is sometimes smaller than we realize.</p>
<p>I thought our credit card had been compromised when I got a travel confirmation for a person I do not know flying from Texas (where we do not live) to Florida (where we also don’t live) – but about two hours later an apology email showed up from the travel agency. I guess mail merge was not their friend. I’m just glad we don’t need to get credit cards reissued yet again. I’m still updating cards with various automatic billing folks after the Target breach. I noticed that we hadn’t been billed for home phone service in a couple of months – not that they’ve told us that there was any problem, or anything – called and the somewhat bemused rep said that since we’ve never before had a late payment in 28 years that she thought she could let this one slide. (But really, if a card was declined two months in a row wouldn’t you think that the phone company could – radically speaking – use one of their darned voice messaging systems to leave us a message that there was a problem? </p>
<p>^that would require said telecom co finding its arse with both hands, an occurrence that would b the seventh sign of the apocalypse ;)</p>
<p>Just back from Canada after the death of my grandmother. She was 89 and suffering Alheimers, so it was a second goodbye. I was wiped out yesterday and blamed the driving but H said it was writing and giving the eulogy amidst my rather dysfunctional extended family which was not unlike decommissioning a bomb </p>
<p>Now the real fun begins because this side of the family has a long tradition of communicating resentment via the instrument of last will and testament. Hi ho ;)</p>
<p>Sorry for your loss, kmc. I know what you mean about “a second goodbye” – I felt like that with my Mom since her memory was pretty much gone when she died. No “bomb decommissioning,” though.</p>
<p>Congratulations to arabrab’s H. </p>
<p>Continued good karma to cq’s D. </p>
<p>mp - I’ll be interested to see what the doc says about your blocked ears. I periodically go through episodes of this where I’m constantly trying to unblock my ears. It’s more annoying than anything, and I’ve never felt it’s bad enough to go to a doc.</p>
<p>NM - I hear ya about the carbs! H doesn’t believe me; says calories are calories. BUT, I know from experience that carb calories “stick” to me more, and every time I’ve gotten carbs somewhat under control I manage to lose weight. I haven’t been to the gym since January due to broken bones in my foot and the new puppy. I have summer clothes that don’t fit, so really need to get back on track here.</p>
<p>Finished my online Archaeology MOOC yesterday. It was really a well done course. One minor issue was the online “Discussion Forums” – but, considering how many people took the course, I shouldn’t have been surprised at the number of pompous jerks hanging out there! I guess the good news is I didn’t spend much time participating in the Forums due to the puppy. Oh well. There may be a real life meet up next month with the professor at Brown. That could be fun! </p>
<p>So sorry to hear about the loss of your grandmother kmc. I hope you get some well deserved rest after your travels.</p>
<p>Congrats to your H arabrab! So happy for all of you. Hoping he really enjoys the new job!</p>
<p>missy… sending healing thoughts and prayers your way. </p>
<p>I weighed in this morning after VERY strict reduction in sugar and carbs this week. I have dropped 7 pounds. I know it is water weight as this has happened to me before. I really do miss my fruit! I will add berries back in next week. Consistency is important for me. </p>
<p>NM, good for you!</p>
<p>Kmc, so sorry for your loss. You wrote and delivered the eulogy? I am so impressed when y’all are able to do that. Hope you can rest up.</p>
<p>Are you way way younger than the rest of us? My youngest grandparent was born 103 years ago. </p>
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<p>I was represented one side in litigation where one of the too-big-to-fail banks needed to pay a settlement amount under $100,000, via wire transfer. Months passed and they finally paid…but they sent a check “because they couldn’t send a wire.” ???</p>
<p>Sorry to hear about your grandmother, kmc. </p>
<p>Got to my parents house yesterday. Had dinner with them and a favorite cousin last night, walked with my dad this morning. He’s golfing today, you would never know that he is sick. </p>
<p>Sorry about your grandmother, kmc. missypie, any of my grandparents would be well over 100 as well.</p>
<p>CBB, That course sounds interesting. Congratulations on finishing it. And congratulations to NM on your weight loss!</p>
<p>Enjoy your visit, FallGirl. Glad to hear your dad is still able to get out and about.</p>
<p>Best thing about today so far: a Ghirardelli dark chocolate salted caramel square (snatched from an Easter basket.) NM, I guess the weight you are losing is just going to cybertravel to me.</p>
<p>Starting the final intense round of high school “lasts” tonight. (First up: younger D’s jazz choir show. It was SUCH a big deal when she got into the choir as a mere sophomore…now she’s a departing senior.)</p>
<p>Bittersweet, MP. So many lasts. </p>
<p>KMC - very sorry about your grandmother; I hope her memory is a comfort for you despite whatever weirdness is in the will. </p>
<p>NM – so far H’s job sounds like it is sufficiently nerdy, so that’s good. He can do nerdy. (Some might say he wrote the book on nerdy. We were at a dinner party on Easter where he got into a lengthy discussion with an astronomer about the pro’s and con’s of ion engines, and the status of the probe headed towards Pluto, with H discussing acceleration and distances and timeframes quite intently. Meanwhile, my total memory of Pluto’s distance from earth is – “a lot”.)</p>
<p>FallGirl – I’m glad your dad is still able to get out and enjoy his golf. That’s a gift.</p>
<p>MP – too funny about the bank that couldn’t send a wire. Cobbler’s children, and all that. </p>
<p>Hi you wonderful people. I do read on sometimes but have been freaked and so not posting after I looked at my H’s facebook (that he has not posted ont 2-3 years) and somehow I was quoted?? I have no idea how and as I said things here about D and her situation and know that his family uses facebook and might even look at H…well seriously CC???</p>
<p>S will graduate in June only one year late with a son and wife. She just took her MCAT. G’Son is lovely. Our relationship with him is not so great but lovely with her. We will wait.</p>
<p>D is returning for a 6 week stretch to study for her boards as she pushed them out the first time. Lovely. However, do not interrupt and lots of great! food and we are training her dog to balance a tray to take her meals to her. She is just just starting to really recover from her breakup. Her friends have a guy in mind for her–a Midwest Catholic Italian neurosurgeon resident. So me:))))
She is not so sure. I don’t care about the religion at all but the work ethic and the kindness of the Midwest (I was raised in Indiana) could be thrilling. At least he would know the cities and sites I might talk about–“Brown County,
the Great Lakes” and so.</p>
<p>So no doubt saying more that I should here, damn CC.
MS hope you are feeling better and congrats to so many of your D’s and S’s. Their job searches and apartment hunts…</p>
<p>Yesterday was my Mother’s one year anniversary. Seriously sadly I will have to say there is just one sib who grieves. I envy those of you who had the opportunity to sincerely feel loss. That said, I grieved years ago and am so Ok now. I did tell my dearest Aunt that I was sending her some of the $ as a thank you for being my Mother’s sister. And she was a very good one too. She I will grieve.</p>
<p>Happy note! Veggie garden is in and the lettuces and carrots are showing! Just fun.</p>
<p>Thanks for your well wishes. My grandma was 89 and had adopted my 10-year-old mother when she was in her early 20s 
So no, I don’t think I’m younger than y’all </p>
<p>What was amazing to me was that two couples that hung out with my grandparents extensively (travelled together, shared cottages up north, bought horses together, etc.) showed up together unaided at the funeral. One of them looked like she’d just stepped off a Parisian runway. Another had just invented a new game he’s trying to bring to market. They all have to be cracking 90 or better. And they all, at least while I was young, loved their whisky, tobacco and red meat. I am seriously trying to figure out how they’ve stayed so young and healthy. It’s gotta be the high-fun-quotient factor I swear.</p>
<p>Oregon, sorry to hear you were somehow quoted. Had you ever let cc know your Facebook identity? Mystifying. Gals to hear from you nonetheless. Glad to hear your d is back in the saddle, so to speak.</p>
<p>Arabrab, sounds like your H and my H would be besties!
Most of the folks we have dinner parties with are on my side of the equation and are fascinating conversationalists about many things but I’ve noticed few of them can speak “nerd.” It seems that at least in our social circles those who are fluent in “nerd” aren’t as likely to be social conveners </p>
<p>However, virtually all of mcson’s friends speak nerd extensively, and I’ve come to notice he pretty much holds court when they’re around. It was sweet – one of mcson’s friends had a dream that we were all together at H’s funeral and immediately called mcson, insisting that he check in with us to make sure H was okay. </p>
<p>He was oddly prescient about the family funeral, as grandma died later that night. Fortunately, mcH is well. But mcson thought this was uncharacteristically cute that his friend made him check in with us :)</p>
<p>Oregon, I’m so proud of your son!</p>
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<p>So nice of you to provide good meals and a great place to study! Oregon, I am sure you will not have the “no one mourning her” issue when your time comes.</p>
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<p>Ah, where does one find that type of friend?</p>
<p>Here is a non-political political quesition for all of you. When you are in a social group and something political comes up - the Affordable Care Act, gun control, etc etc., is the group able to genuinely debate the issue at hand, or does the discussion immediately degenerate into vast negative/positive generalizations? I’ve probably mentioned that most of the folks with whom I am surrounded are of a different political persuation than me…but what I miss in conversation is any attempt at “persuation.” Does anyone hang out with folks who are able to calmly discuss the merits of issues rather than painting everything with a “wonderful” or “horrible” brush?</p>
<p>So sorry to hear about your grandmother KMC… and as I know the “stress” of eulogy, my hat is off to you.</p>
<p>Enjoy the lasts, Missy… It seems our entire social calendar ceased when our kids were done with HS! And the opportunity to meet new folks isn’t quite as easy as it used to be. I am seriously considering joining a church… and it’s not that I am not religious, because I do love the spiritual side of being at the nook, but having had my kids in catholic school for so many years, definitely put the need for religion on the back burner. But honestly, since we don’t belong to a country club, nor do I serve on a bunch of boards, involved in a bunch of civic worthy endeavors, adding that I’ve been a sahm for 24 years… and my husband works in an industrial industry where he doesn’t have a lot of “peers” per se, well… I just don’t know where else to meet people! Spending summers at the nook definitely plays a role in the lack of continuity (vs the weekend -long or otherwise- of going to the cabin). </p>
<p>Oregon, I know your relationship with s is not optimal but glad to know the D bridges the gap. And that he is graduating only one year behind his peers having added a wife and child to the mix - to say nothing of his most recent health issues - well, I say… HUZZAH for him! Well done and the rest. And definitely glad your D is finding some equilibrium… while I might be partial, I have to say that there does seem to be a lot of level and down to earth heads in the midwest. Apparently that is the most often compliment given to our son-in-law… he has a great midwestern work ethic, good at what he does, and is definitely humble about everything!</p>
<p>D1 is finding disappointment in finding a teaching job. Personally, i think she is failing to see the forest thru the trees or rather the long term gains compared to the short term struggles. Mostly, I’d like to see her working less than 80 hours a week. Not exactly, but close.</p>
<p>Hey NMN - when you said that your D1 was looking at apartments… who is the “they”? Or did i misread and it’s really D2 and her fiance looking? </p>