slidergirl

It is just so heartbreaking that this still happens and things that could possibly help curb these events go unused. Between the 3 UVA students murdered and now the murders in Colorado Springs, I just am so sick. I feel like some of the stuff the dogs leave on my front lawn. Ugh. And, some elephant came here and is now sitting on my chest. Coughing like crazy. My voice has lowered from it's usual alto to a baritone, when I can even talk. Definitely going to be drinking tea and broth and couchsurfing again. Fortunately no snow in the forecast so I don't have to worry about shoveling. I went to bed at 8 last night and slept straight through to 8 this morning. Feel like napping is going be the big activity today. Stay safe and healthy everyone!

I forgot: if anyone sees a Med cruise for May 2023 that has a good single price during the Black Friday sales, let me know please. My brain just can't let go of another trip. I finish my season up here the end of April so May 1 is the earliest I can get out of here.

Lois - good to know feel better today. I'll be sure to schedule my vax #2 when I have 2 days off! Still feeling lousy today. Just in case, I did a COVID test - negative. I'll couch surf some more today. I couldn't go down to the valley today, anyway - they are closing the Interstate every hour in the canyon so they can do blasting at the quarry that's next to the Interstate. In case anyone is in the market for another travel bag - Sherpani is having their Black Friday sale with some decent prices on totes, crossbodies, rollers. It was nice and officially cold this morning - minus 1 at 8am. Ugh. I guess it's offically leggings time! Hanging out today in some Athleta joggers and a Tshirt. Not going anywhere, don't care.

If you were to take away the windows and the overhead cabinets from the sink and put a wall from the end of the sink counter all the way across the kitchen, you'd have my kitchen. Right down to that diagonal cupboard by the stove - it's where my pots go! Right now, my butcher table is used as my pantry. I sure would like that extra space!!

I use Tru Earth. I got a free sample of 6 sheets in my camping subscription box last spring. Best invention ever for laundry!!! Used them on my Summer vacation - just slipped them in an envelope and tossed in my bag. I now even use them at home. As others have said - pack like you did for your 1 week cruises, just rinse and repeat 😉

Welcome back Purple! Hadn't heard from you for awhile. "Congrats" on the colonoscopy. None of us like it, but we have to do it. Sherri - congrats on the kitchen completion! Nice and bright and makes the small kitchen look much bigger. Started feeling a sore throat coming on last evening. It's here now. Feel lousy. No fever, though. I'm going to put off the Ikea trip until maybe Sunday. I'll just hunker down, drink hot tea and honey, and have some of my Panettone.

bummer. They used to be called "Cost Plus" - I still call it that once in awhile. I did just get back from World Market. The panettone is not the same brand (it's Muzzi Tomasso). But, it's a smaller loaf (500 vs 750 grams) and half the price. Worth it to me to give it a try. Sadly, no basalmic creme-filled one, though. Bought the cherry one. And, since I was there, more candies & cookies to go into the basket for my hair stylist. And, no joy on the square storage boxes I'm looking for. I guess a trip down to the far end of the Valley to Ikea is in order. Nothing at the local HomeGoods, either.

This summer I did a 7 night Rhone canal barge trip with 10 other women. The barge part was $6K (our group chartered the barge). My airfare (Delta One) was somewhere in the $4K range. Then, add in train from CDG to Marseille and 2 nights in Marseille and that's another ~$500. I won't add in the additional month I spent traveling between France and Italy, although my ticket to see Andrea Bocelli (the reason I stayed longer) cost 304EU (totally worth it!!!).

I think I'll go there, today, too. I have to pick up a couple of storage baskets to turn into a pantry on my kitchen island. If anyone saw the ads for Wendy's new Peppermint frosty - I tried one yesterday. Meh. Not much peppermint taste to it and it was more like a shake than a frosty - they didn't even give out a spoon for it. I still like putting the peppermint whipped cream onto my coffee instead. I don't know if I mentioned: At TJ's, they had these cute baskets woven out of newspapers. They'd be great for making gift baskets - bought one to use for my hair stylist's gift basket. OOTD: It's another cold day - mid 20s for the high, but it's sunny. I'll go out in a pair of leggings, a Tshirt and my Patagonia. It's my standard Winter uniform.

Cynthia - I just browsed that website. It has a lot of the things that my Italian market carries. I've got one of the Olivewood EVOOs but haven't cracked it open yet, and I swear the Ruscichetta panettone are the ones at World Market - I recognized the color paper wrapping, I'd love to try the one that has the basalmic creme filling - sounds yummy. And, those panforte, wow, One of my favorite sweets!!

Go to World Market too. They actually have several flavors of panettone, and several other good holiday goodies. And, Whole Foods usually will get in a lemoncello cream-filled one. My TJ's has their panettone in now. My Italian store down in SLC will carry, too. But, I have to look at this website to see what goodies they have! I love panettone!! It's good as-is or with the traditional, toast it a little. I've also done French toast with the traditional. Made my turkey burgers with the turkey gravy and I did add some mushrooms, Good. I've got one left for tomorrow...

gotta say - I started watching RH Orange County because I went to High School with one of the husbands. And, I went to high school in Orange County (Corona del Mar).

I've done cornish hen many a time. I'm doing TJ's half turkey breast this year. It's brined and fully cooked - all I have to do it stick it in the oven and get it reheated. The remainder goes into soups and chili. I've got my stuffing and veggies ready to go. I just have to head to the state store and get a bottle of wine, most likely some kind of Pinot Noir. Let us know how the shingles vax goes! My NP took a few vials of blood from me yesterday. Today, she said the results are back and all is OK except my red blood ones are on the high side. Could be from dehydration, since I hadn't had anything to drink for a good 12 hours and I wasn't feeling all that spiffy (my BP was way high for me, my pulse ox was 94 and I hadn't slept most of the night and I felt hyperglycemic). Then she casually tosses in that it could be Polycythemia Vera. Didn't explain what it is, but says she usually has people donate blood to get the blood generating better. I look it up and it scared the cr@p outta me because it can be a type of blood cancer!!! She just said we'd look at it again when I go back in the end of December. Great - leave me hanging...There are some dietary things you can do also to help, but between those, the ones for Type 2 and the ones the ENT has me doing for silent reflux, I'd just be drinking water!!! I think I'll try to ignore this for a month. Dinner of the night: I'm going to cook up some turkey burger and season it with TJ's Everything But The Leftovers spice mix and smother it in TJ's turkey gravy. Melody - congrats to the people of CO!! Women now have the majority in both sides of the legislature! Quite the accomplishment!!

It was on Bravo - same channel as all the Below Deck and Real Housewives shows. It finished it's season like 2 weeks ago. Not worth it, content-wise, but it did have Paris in it...

The card you got is the usual Part A/B card. You still have to figure out the prescription/part D/advantage plan stuff. But, congrats on joing the "old ladies" club!!! I'm still adjusting to it, after 4 years! It started hitting me a few years ago - one day I was looking at myself in the bathroom mirror and went "Da#n, I got OLD!" I still have trouble with not being able to do some of the heavy lifting I used to do. But, I just call myself the old hippie lady and do my own thing.

Melody - sweet machine! You need to get some of those USB or battery powered mini lights and wrap around it for some fun! If it was during Christmas, you could have velcro'd a wreath to the front!!! But, being in Colorado, you can velcro a little deer or moose head to it 😹 Cynthia - they did have the Dark Chocolate covered Peppermint JoJoe's. I turned my hair stylist onto those and they are now always part of her Christmas bag. I wasn't looking specifically for the plain ones, and they didn't have the box yet of the different flavored ones they get in for Christmas. Got the peppermint mini meringues and the Candy Cane chocolate coated almonds for her bag. The one worker said they are getting Holiday stuff in every week now. I had some of the olive Fougasse last night - yummy and yummy with good olive taste. It was in the section where the fresh baguettes and ciabatta rolls are found. It was a nice surprise. Fashion update: I love my leopard strap I got for my bags in Florence. I wanted to buy one, maybe two more to go on my little duffle and my carry on bags. I've seen more and more women with these straps on their purses so I went surfin' the 'net and found a company on Amazon that has a bunch of them! And the price was comprable to what I paid in Florence. search "replacement bag straps" and hunt for Zooeass, the one with 150 choices. I know that a bunch of them have the same ones, but this one has way more choices. I got the "colorful stripes" because it goes with all my Cotopaxi bags and then a "leopard 1" for my other crossbody (it's a normal small leopard print). Gotta say, I get complemented on my one everytime I take it out. If you have a bag that has detachable strap, check these out for a fun change!

Back in the day, the now-ex and I spent a week camping in the National Park, The Park is spread out over the island. I think the visitor center is in Cruz Bay, the ship excursions dump everyone off at Trunk Bay to snorkel. The campground with an amazing beach is at Cinnamon Bay. If you could, I'd ditch Trunk Bay (nothing like snorkeling with 1000 others) and go to Cinnamon Bay.

Just say no to a selfie stick unless you are going to use it underwater. depending on where you are going, some places have a ban on selfie sticks. Look at a Pocket Tripod Pro - I have one and love it. Pair it with a remote app for your smartphone and you can take pix of yourself with more than an arm's length. I was going to say Otterbox for you iPhone, but you may have to hunt to find one for an 11.

My iPad Mini with the Keys to Go keypad (I also use it with my iPhone) is a nifty combo.

You are going to the wrong ATM (yes that is technology!!). I have several here in my podunk town that allow you to select the way you get your money - you speciy how many 5s, 10, 20s etc,. you want. I've had to hit those ATM a few times when we ran out of small bills at the hotel and our finance dept was gone for the weekend.

I wish there were knee scooters back in 2007 when I did my leg!!! Crutches for 3.5 months sucked. Dotle you have a nice little daypack to scoot with?? The cold is here. At least the ski areas can blow snow 24/7 now. Park City Mountain opens Saturday - there are some on the other side of the hill that opened last weekend

Well, after my visit to my NP to see how my new diabetes med is working (A1C going down and lost 3 lbs after 3 weeks), I decided to head down to the Valley to have breakfast at one of my favorite spots and hit TJ's while I was there. I can say that it was indeed a "HOLY CR@P" moment at the register. They got in a bunch of their Christmas candy/cookies, so I stocked up on them (I give them to my co-workers, hair stylist) instead of waiting until next month. Picked up the brined half turkey breast and I'll have it for Thanksgiving and make more chili and burritos afterwards. I got the Maple salad dressing and all 3 of he cheeses/spreads that I wanted. There were some things that weren't on the Flyer, but I had to get: in the frozen section, eggplant sfogliatelle and Italian creme puffs, in the good bread section, olive fougasse. So, now I have some memories of Italy and Provence. I went to Whole Foods after that (!!!) to get my sparkling waters and to my delight, they had the peppermint candy whipped cream! I put it in my coffee to make it festive. OOTD: my Pact cotton leggings, my big white heavy longsleeve Tshirt, my Patagonia down sweater. It is only up to about 26 today...

You definitely CANNOT miss the statue/fountain in Quinconces, It's huge. Also, there is a good size ferris wheel there next to the promenade. I used it a few times as my "landmark" when walking back to my hotel after a day of wandering. I stayed at Hôtel de Tourny, a quick walk behind Quinconces. If you need a place to stay, I'll recommend it. I was there as a solo and liked it.

Out of PHX also look at American. if you go to matrix.itasoftware.com you'll find lots of flights using various airlines, all just fine. You'll see flights with Iberia and Finnair but they are actually codeshares with American. Don't just look for the cheapest price - double-check what it doesn't have (free bags, seat selection) and add those fees into the price.

I still have my sleeveless neoprene rash guard from years ago - if I ever get back to snorkeling or bodysurfing in Southern California or Hawaii or Puerto Rico, I'd take it. Otherwise, it'll always be one of the "new" UV shirts. I think I even have my old "farmer john" wetsuit (what we called sleeveless full body suits) from when I'd kayak in cold water. Now, THAT one was miserable to put on!! New use of baby powder...