Oh... and MP... we've hit the upper 60s. I've got the windows open. Guess the clouds moved in on you before the temps warmed up.

good lord..don't you know it....i was hoping last week was enough for me for awhile. it gets to the point where it just becomes funny. I'm used to falling and tripping on things etc. but this is getting ridunkilous!
Friday must change the way things have been going! Although my horriblescope said something about March 19th being my lucky day????? I believe friday is the 15th...hhmmmmm
I happened upon some olld houzz pics and boy is it pretty....hadnt looked at them in awhile. pretty pretty pretty...

Mpoulson, we live midway between Asheville and Charlotte, about an hour from each.

Ridunkilous? I'm stealing that!

I was going to get her license plate, but I almost felt sorry for the poor woman. I just watched to see where she went..and she hung a right, right beside my house. When I left this morning, I kind of looked down in that direction and sure enough I think I saw the truck in the garage. poor thing. she was probably devastated when she hit it! lol....i know ya'll think i'm crazy, but it was like i was watching it on tv or something. Kind of like a seinfeld episode or something.

ok readerskeeter... i gotcha. Have you been to that scrounger's paradise place yet? I've been dying to go there, but haven't made it yet. AND if you go to IKEA let me know, I may need you to pick me up something and mail it! :) just kidding

creesy, It was cloudy when I got up and has stayed that way all the live long day. The rain hasn't started yet, but it will tonight. I want to try and practice walking crazy miss dali. I've only attempted that once so far. She pretty much sat down and resisted. I thought if Fooey was on a leash and walked, she might just chime in, but nope. She is growing so fast it's killing me. She has soooo much personality.

oops, i lied...it has started....water from the sky.

MP - I was reading you event with the lady in the car, and when you said it was like watching television, I knew I had to chime in...because one time I went to Marie Callendars Pie Shop with my mother and two sisters. It was raining outside and I parked and where we were seated we could see my car. It was not long before someone pulled into the slot next to my car and swung too wide and scraped the side of my car and then he backed out and drove off. It was just like we were watching tv. We were shocked and mesmerized by such a thing happening at the same time. I didn't think anyone would believe that, but now I know at least you will... You do believe me? BECAUSE that happened!

I am a hopeless scrounger, where is this paradise?

Scrounger's
Paradise
(828) 808-3617 9 Hickman Dr.
Asheville, NC 28803
(Just North of I-40 on Sweeten Creek Rd.)

Thanks, I just found their web site and it looks interesting. I don't go to Asheville often but this place will be on my list. I really love a deal or I'm simply really cheap. ;-)

MP - What kind of mailbox do you have; just on a wooden post? Where I used to live, someone hit my mailbox too .. but it was one of those nice cast aluminum boxes on a post with a matching aluminum sleeve - $500 installed. But she left her insurance information, and a note that a bee got into her car, and she lost control. So it didn't cost me anything to replace it .. nice!

mp - are those your dogs?? cats??? that you are trying to walk? I have a 10yr old Cairn terrier that walks US! LOL pets are so much fun. AARP just did an article about how they make us live happier and longer. Better than a spouse. I can say that because he has no idea what houzz is :-}

hahaha BD! i believe that is true!
I have 2 dogs and one cat! Second is named Dali and she is only a pup. australian shepherd mix.

Astraea, I had a very ugly black regular mailbox on a stick! haha! a post. and I worked my magic and built a wooden cover over the entire thing to go with the house. But that's not a bad idea...She did uproot the post, but right now the outer casing is making it stand up for the time being. I'll investigate. thanks!

guys, don't know if I'll have internet tonight, so if you don't hear from me, i do not.

have a great night and good morning roo roo!!

Good night all, morning roo. Catch up tomorrow. STK, what is your HDL #?

Hi gang, hopefully someones up to giving me an update. Seems I missed a ton of stuff in the past week....

mp, what the heck is going on

Good night mp - glad to hear you so chipper today.

Phew, has taken me half the morning to catch up. I thought I posted here last night and couldn't work out why I had no emails.

Do we have a new member - welcome readerskeeter.

Found a website with a bit on carpenter bees - boy they do sound nasty critters, I don't think we have any comparison - which would have to be unusual, but one less excuse for Lisa's husband - heehee.

http://www.helpfulgardener.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=25066

Bobbi, take a tennis or badmington raquet outside with you - apparently they are very effective for swatting them. It was very interesting to read that they generally lay 8 eggs a season and all the hatchlings come back home each year. Obviously stopping the cycle is important.

You keep your chin up about the wedding too Bobbi, don't look at the invite as an insult to you - it is an insult to her intelligence and breeding. If only 32 are invited then, that would only be about 16 invites so wouldn't be worth having printed, but they could have done them on computer themselves. Is she treating this wedding seriously?? Even the worst bridezilla would be anal about the quality of invitations she was sending out. The woman is a joke - treat her that way and hope the heck your son comes to his senses before too much longer. Of course this is where being the big person comes in too, the bigger you are the more you will show the cretin up, all perfectly innocently, you don't have to lift a finger. Don't stress if son doesn't call you, next time you see him just quietly express your disappointment that he isn't willing to try and walk away.

Anyway I must get out of here - shopping to do.

hey olldcan...where have you been woman? my life has changed is all...mate gone and some weird things happened, but i'm okie doke.

Oh no, you okay. Of course your not okay but is this a good or bad thing . Big, big hugs heading south to you right now.

thanks can!

Judy HDL is 35, Tri's are 212 and total cholesterol is 255..........which is really odd cause I don't eat red meat, watch my fat intake and cook sparingly with any butter or oils.........

Hello all! I've been "listening" but no chance to comment. Bobbi..the wedding invitation sounds like the Halloween Party invites we sent out last year! lol STK...don't throw in the towel! Take you meds cuz we want you to feel good! But, I know what you mean, Geesh. Sometimes it's tiring to feel tired! But, diebetes has nothing to do with your diet, in reality, from what I hear. My mom and brother "suffer" from that as well. Mom on insulin shots.

Bobbi...this will sound strange..but last year I prayed the question "what should I do for my daughter?" Should I "guide her". Should I tell her what we all see but she doesn't? Should I warn her of possible life mistakes? (i.e fiance). I swear.,..I got an answer in my ear... "JUST LOVE HER". So, since then I've dismissed any notion of "motherly guidance" and just shower her with the love I feel and our relationship has become so much better. No judgement, just love. Maybe your son (and my daughter) has life lessons to learn, and it's out of our control.

MP..glad things are better and I too, am stealing your word "ridunkulous"! lol
I also have a bunch of the cannas in the orangy/red in our front yard. They can get out of control and really ugly in winter but look fabulous in bloom!

Thanks roo and Darzy! My latest idea is to attend the wedding and skip the reception. I think it's the reception where it could get dicey, what do you think?

MP – I learned a valuable lesson years ago, waiting in a police station for an accident report. A woman and her late-teen daughter were there for a similar reason. When the officer came out with a copy of their report, the woman immediately started to explain that her daughter hadn’t meant to do whatever resulted in the accident. The officer replied, “That’s why we call them ‘accidents’, not ‘on purposes’.” Whether or not an accident occurs because a driver is careless or not, they should still take responsibility for the damage & expense they caused for someone else, especially if what they hit was an inanimate object, and certainly wasn’t “at fault” at all.

By the way - I was thinking last night about carpenter bees and decided to research some more and they live one generation a year.... they are also important pollinators of plants ignored by honeybees and with the big bee extinction that is going on, we need to protect and nurture these species... so please please if you can find another way of not killing them but just making them less of a nuisance you would be doing the planet some long term good.

Basically just plugging the holes they make with caulk will be enough to send them their merry way. Also the buzzing is usually by males who have no sting but are territorial but the females in their nest do have a sting...

At home, I collect bunches of dead bamboo shoots and tie them up and place them around the garden, so that insects like carpenter bees and ladybugs can have homes.
Sorry, I am stepping off the soapbox now....

i love ladybugs.....a good friend of mine loves them as well.
she said that after each parent died a ladybug showed up. when the second parent died 2 ladybugs came to her. she thinks they are gifts from heaven and to remind her that her parents are still around her somehow. Then right after my sister died a ladybug came to me. so we just like to think that it is them in another form telling us they love us.
then a great older neighbor friend of mine who i called buzz (because she was kind of a gossip and one of the funniest and most intelligent women i''ve ever met) who had been fighting cancer for years, spirits still high as a kite, I associate with the bees. After I moved into the house away from her, I would be sitting in the garden and a single bee would start buzzing around me. I knew it was time to call Buzz and check on her. And after she passed this past year, the same. She came to me immediately afterwards. I would just say, ok Buzz, I hear you, I love you too. The big Mural I painted on the outside of our old building was completed after her death. I went back one night and painted a buzzing bee in the background and a wide-brimmed pink straw hat sitting on the bench in the scene. Buzz walked to the stores, and loved being outside whenever she could. She was one of the most lovely people I have ever met. So when I see the bees this spring and summer and I will forever think of her.

How lovely - your story and reminiscing made my day MP! thanks

oooooh, mp, warm fuzzies.

Bobbi, you WILL go to that wedding - all of it - and you WILL stay in control. You are going to be the bigger person ..... remember? You are going to give them nothing to talk about.

Is it lunch or dinner?

Did a lovely big shop this afternoon and came home with one curtain rod bracket that I had been trying to find and a gianormous headache trying to work out what to do with the curtains in the kids' room. Have to sit and contemplate that tomorrow.

roo, you tell bobbi! i think she should just feel it out. ceremony, then have a drink and some food and if it gets weird, kiss everyone goodbye!

mp, well maybe only one drink ........... and of course we women are sooooooo prone to headaches, or seeing it is spring and an outdoor wedding some fake sneezes and a sinus attack will do it.

bobbi, who's wedding is this, friend, acquaintance of family

Thank you for the welcome Olldroo, i stumbled in here yesterday and it felt so comfortable, I stayed.

About the carpenter bees, they went after a deck we built with a gazebo overhead. I have gone out with short pieces of dowel and hammered them into the holes. It seems to work and there have been fewer each year.
And, the Bradford Pear, aside from being a weak tree, it is a hybrid and when it propagates it often becomes a nasty thorny thing which apparently displaces some of the natural habitat. We planted one when we first moved here but dug it out a few years later and replaced it with a weeping cherry.

readerskeeter, if I was going to dowel up the carpenter bee holes, it would have to be a 10 foot dowel! I wouldn't ever get any closer than that. I probably wouldn't mind one or two of them, but we literally have dozens! They're scary.

When I was a kid, I was very allergic to insect bites .. even flies. Even now, I have much worse reactions to mosquito bites, than the average person. So I'd rather to face 4-legged wildlife, than carpenter bees!

Speaking of "close encounters with wildlife", check out this YouTube video a friend sent. It starts out slow, but your patience will be rewarded!

Yes they are! Dozens would be more than I could deal with. After dark maybe?

Wow, dozens of bees might be preferable to a silverback!

Bobbi,

Darcy has it absolutely right! I would write a very nice letter one to your son and one to your future daughter in law. I say a letter, because someone had me do this to anyone in my life that I felt at odds with, or felt they were at odds with me. In the letter to each, it was very simply put, nothing, NOTHING was stated or mentioned about any problems we were having with one another. It is a letter of high roads and fair weather. You know just talk about the weather?... The letter would referto something you honestly found postive about that person.
I wrote this letter to three different people. Magically, I mean it seemed like magic, each one came up to me or wrote, and there contact was VERY nice. These were people I felt like you do about your daughter in law.

I have told this to several people and they have done it and have had the same result.

Fair roads and good weather simply means, that you STAY AWAY from any thing negative.

For instance, your future d in law. Sally, when I met you I was impressed by your wonderful sense of humor... (find Something which is true, give her a validation) Same with your son, write a letter.

My friend has a mother in law with a beach house that every one was invited to except her. She did this letter. I asked her what happened? She told me "it is worse now".

"How is that?" I asked and she said "Now my mother in law calls me all the time and wants to be my friend."

Don't delve up the negative part of the past in any way shape or form. But, speak fo her beauty, or style, or something that is true. Even Cruella D'Ville had great highlights Ha Ha!

I had three people that I felt the way that you do. If I told you the stories, it is still incredible to me. And, the best part of it is it cleaned it up for all of us. The negativity, and the past became the past. And the future became positive.

Your son does not want to call because he doesn't want that conversation about the past, because, he is never going to be willing to see your point of view. But, if you can look at the past and cull out anything positive write that to him, forget the past, and then you can have a future. Which is what you really want.

Ok! That guy in the video is either incredibly brave, or just plain crazy! Wow!

People who spend a lot of money & travel to wildlife sanctuaries, want to have experiences like that.

astraea - that video is amazing - what aftershave was HE wearing!!!??? Brilliant experience!

I think they're just as curious about us, as we are about them!

Ditto Roo and Mary Poulos! You WILL enjoy the wedding and reception with head held high and smiling. Your husband needs to toast your son and bride on your both behalfs! Say true statements in the toast like:

"Congratulations and "name" welcome to our family. Bobbi and I have always wanted a daughter (not necessarily HER! lol) and our new grandaughter "name" has already stolen our hearts. Thank you for making our son a happy man. We wish you both a lifetime of love and happiness. To new beginnings and "fresh starts".

Hopefully, your son and daugher-in-law will read into that you want a "fresh start" in your relationship as well. Your son will appreciate your efforts.

Okay, I will get off my soapbox. It's just that your heart will continue to hurt on this path. Mary's right, your son and his bride will NOT see things your way on past issues. You need to be the bigger person.

asterea..that video had my heart racing! That was so dangerous! One little "swipe" and off with his head. Whew. Remember the "bear" man in Alaska? He got too comfortable and too close with the bears and was killed.

Yes; heard of the bear man in Alaska, but he was there just with his girlfriend. This was a sanctuary, with other people walking around. While these gorillas are "wild", they are apparently fairly used to people who don't hurt them.

STK, it isn't your diet causing your high #'s…it is some kind of genetic thing. You could starve yourself and your numbers would only improve marginally. Your HDL isn't high enough to take care of the bad stuff. My count is 266, but my HDL is 97! That's why I don't take meds. When the math is done I am considered "heart healthy".

Have you asked your doc about Colestyramine? It acts differently than the statins.

Thanks, Darzy. We'll see. Doubtful, but we'll see. I'm liking the idea of wedding only, no reception more and more. La bruja told me my son's dad won't stay for the reception, so it will only be her coven.

Darzy - what a brilliant speech!!! Bobbi that really is a must, the sort of thing that will really show bridezilla up if she ever tries to say anything. These are the subtle ways you can score points and look good.

Astraea - I've seen that video before, it is amazing but I just loved the stain on the pants - but then who wouldn't.

Tulip trees? Magnolias! The tulip tree, state tree of Indiana, is the Tulip poplar. Orange and green flower on a deciduous tree. Lovely olive colored heart wood that turns brown as it oxidizes.

STK...you know it's exercise that changes those HDL/LDL levels. Good diet is good...it helps, but getting to the gym or walking an hour a day is better for you...reduces blood sugars too. I'm sort of up a creek right now...apparently the tension of being in recovery and trying to save my business has given me some TMJ problems...so now soft foods and/or liquid diet for two to three weeks...and smoothies have fruit in them. I've gone cave man on diet, like Bobbi, protein and veg for the most part. Working on eating broths and eggs...any bite down is friggin' painful. My PCP doc is after me about my cholesterol...barely out if balance...I told him I'd work on it after I dealt with the recovery, the blood sugars and the exercise. By the time I get all that done the cholesterol will be no big thing.

mp, you sound better. Good.

Hi Dave
Sorry to hear your worries - it has generally not been a good time for many of the OLDDS recently. Hopefully the divergent conversations have helped take your mind off things. Do hope things pick up for you...
We are trying to get everyone by - but it is hard without a physical pat on the shoulder or a hand squeeze as a form of encouragement and support. All the best

David, it's a good diet! But a bit boring and if you don't like eggs (me!) it limits you even further. But at least you're not hungry all the time, and cutting carbs = cutting bloat so immediately your clothes fit better. It's a great way to lose weight. Maybe you shouldn't worry so much about your crew/subs? Take the time you need for your body to heal!

Without my crew...oh crap...start all over? Nope. it will all workout. It always does. I'm heading up to Sea Ranch tomorrow to look at three jobs and stopping in at Valley Ford to look at shop space. I have leads on three new houses to build...two as a subcontractor for framing and exterior (hate that) and then the one from ASV. If I get any one of the three in the next year or so. I'll make it. I have timber frame to put up this summer, a house to trim out this spring and the potential for some furniture to build for a Houzzer. Not whining/whinging. Need the immediate future secured for the entire company...me included...no mon, no fun as they say. Just replied to a gal that wants a privacy fence in Tiburon...hell of a commute...