I'm off this morning to grocery shop for my Super Bowl bash. We just started inviting people last night and my husband was certain that such last minute notice would result in a very small guest list. Well, every last person accepted, so we have ten joining us for chili two ways...traditional and the white chicken variety.

Woo! What time? I seem to have misplaced my invte....I'll bring dessert!

Bobbi .. what are you doing up at that unGodly hour?! When I worked, I got up at 4:30 AM, and would be at my desk shortly after 6 AM, to enjoy a leisurely cup of coffee & catch up on work e-mail, before everyone else showed up at 6:45 AM. Once I stopped working, I switched to 5 AM, because the cats were used to eating that early. Once both cats were gone, I switched to 5:30, and now I'm at 5:40 AM. I'm a morning person!!

Astraea, I never sleep anymore! Don't know what it is!

i think that may be the reason you don't have any energy bob!!! SLEEP MAMA SLEEP! for starters at least! you would feel like a brand new woman i'm sure!

I know you guys were talking about fish oil, etc. I just saw something on the news the other day about the fish oil supplement wasn't really all the great in comparison to eating salmon and other fishes. That you will get much more benefit from just eating the fish!

at work....so i'll be in and out today! :)

oh yea...and bob, any pain from any ailment always wears people out. it makes you miserable AND tired!

HI girls. Fresh salmon is the business. My kids love it too and broccoli - does it get any better than that? I love green veggies (am slightly anaemic) so that with orange juice to absorb vitamins and minerals and red meat for the iron and I'm almost normal!
I am off for a high school reunion tonight ( a small one.) We organized a big one a few years back when we were 40. I hated school but I still have all my friends from it. Just hope everyone else is fatter than me and more wrinkled!

hahaha, lisa! you will be the belle of the ball i'm sure! when i went to one of my reunions, it was downright scary! some of the people had aged so much, it was bizarre, while others looked like a million bucks and were wallflowers back in the day. but it is great to reunite with folks you went to school with. there is always this bond no matter whether you stay in touch or not through the years. The older you get, the harder it is to find people that you get and they get you....or that you have a desire to waste (enjoy i should say) time with! :)

High school reunions...time levels the playing field for sure.

Lisa – Loved your reunion comments!! My 40th HS reunion never came off, unfortunately. I was in a new school that didn’t have an alumni association, and I’m not sure they ever started one, so they just weren’t organized. My 40th college reunion is this year, and I’m waiting to see what kind of activities they’ll have. It’s really only worth it, if people you knew show up; I can live without an $$ weekend in Manhattan if the guys aren’t there! Yup, you’ve also got to look better than the others you went to school with .. “living well is the best revenge!”

MP – Last summer there was something of a “reunion” at work, which I attended. I hadn’t seen most of those folks for 10 years, since I stopped working, and the years weren’t kind to a lot of them. Maybe 10 years out of college, I attended a casual, cocktail party reunion. And as you said, some of the ones who were gawky in college, looked great, and some others must have peaked in college & were getting fat & bald already!

lizzybethme - Hello! Are you joining us? Please do!

MP, You're right again, I don't sleep so that's why I'm tired. Duh! And achy. But of course I have to blow it out of proportion and I have every disease known to man and that's why I'm tired. Oh Lordy.......

Let's see, HS reunions, no thank you. For a long while I was getting calls from a classmate, we'll call her Cathy. Couldn't stand her in HS; we dated the same guy at the same time, and she had the biggest boobs and the biggest mouth.....Oh wait! Yes, of course I'd like to see you again, Cathy!!! Whatever was I thinking. Insert sarcasm here. And, isn't Facebook kind of like the ultimate class reunion, without the pressure or the travel? hehehe

Is this the most gorgeous tile you've ever seen???? I love it! https://www.houzz.com/discussions/what-is-the-one-home-material-youve-been-looking-for-but-havent-been-able-to-find-dsvw-vd~324664

I'm with you on HS reunions Bobbi! It's not for me! I have kept in touch with the people who are important to me over the years. Besides I am sure I would be one of the ones who has run to fat, and aged faster than anyone else!

my fave thing is to see the guys....bald! lol

When I went to that reunion at work, I was so disappointed, that guys I thought were hot years ago, are just old men now .. shocker!

Ha! I love it! Fat bald ex-hotties, life is good. And the brainiacs we had no interest in are now financially sound at the least.

@bobbi did U say yesterday that your get up and go got up & went?

I used to have a good quote on that. I think ti was by Wayne Dwyer (sp?) motivational speaker & author. I'm not home now so cannot find the quote.

Quote went something like: don't wait until U feel like doing something. U often have to "prime the pump" first.

I find this to be true, 4 me anyway.

Bobbi...when my potassium gets low I become lethargic. I have finally figured it out, so when I begin to feel as though I am dragging I take the prescription potassium I have. Before I started taking it I would eat 2 heaping tablespoons of molasses. I could usually tell a difference after taking it the second day. I buy this organic stuff that tastes like sulphur (though it states on the label that it is unsulphured.) It works, so I just swallowed it fast with a chaser of water.

A gets that way when his magnesium is low, so it all depends on the person and their system.

Having said all that the best thing would be to have blood work just to be on the safe side.

And elsewhere in teh news...

JANIS, is this sign on Rte 1 in Norwood?

anybody up? i know it's late for me, but just got a chance to say howdy again and i'm actually up!

Been working hard all day and exhausted and knee up like a balloon. Two rooms cleared out and carpet lifted on one. BH is still alive to tell the story ........... only just.

About to go put ice on it and watch the news - see what has happened in the world today.

j22, thanks! I can't figure out if I'm just too tired or too bored! I def need to get out of the house.

roo, it always works much better when we let them think it's their idea, doesn't it!!! hehehe

janis, I was thinking it's a low magnesium level. Going for blood work on Monday and get yelled at on Tuesday. My sugar is never where the dr wants to see it!

MP, I'm up!!!

HI gals. It was a great night.
One of the guys lived in Omaha just before I did! All through school we didn't talk ( we were neighbours too!)
One of my friends has discovered her cousin is a famous musician from a band here! I wasn't the fattest or the slimmest. One of the hot girls was and still is a hottie but she is also really nice so you can't grudge it!
Honestly if I and many like me weren't so shy in the early days and so self preoccupied we'd all have had many more friends! Never too late though!
I have to say for the most part the boys held up well, no real baldies just receding hairlines and slight paunches no real beer bellies. I am one of the few non-grandparents at the event so that was something! A lot of them had kids real young - when they were kids themselves in my opinion.
I'm off to retrieve my car now - decided to leave it overnight. Never again though; I get all the weird taxi drivers!

Sounds like it was fun and a success!!! Good for you. It's true what you say about being shy. I think it's also teenage awkwardness, no? You're still young, Lisa, baldies and bellies will come in about 10 years!!!

Janis – I used to put a spoon of blackstrap molasses in my tea! Still have it in the closet, but don’t use it as much. Now I don’t even drink tea .. just a cup of water nuked with a slice of lemon & dried ginger.

Lisa – My guess is that the ones who now look really bad, won’t even attend reunions!

Judy, I just happened across the sign and thought it funny. Senior citizens can be washed AND vacuumed for only $15.95. Can't say I have ever been vacuumed though...

Hehehehe, Bobbi, you hit the nail on the head, trouble is BH never shuts up about it. BH's way of doing things is just shove it somewhere and worry about it later, all that is important is that he gets done what he wants - no idea of the bigger picture and if it doesn't affect him, then there is no problem. Also when he wants something done, he forgets about the other things that need doing around the house daily and the time they take, except mowing his bloody lawn - that takes precedence over everything. My idea in all this is to either toss or put things in a permanent place if possible then it is done and dusted, even if it is a bit slower at the time, at least when it is finished, it is finished. He has absolutely no idea of how much I have culled, cleaned and put away over the last few weeks while waiting for him to help with the larger items so he only sees what hasn't been done. So at one point he is just shoving things wherever he could find a place while I was putting things where they belonged, and he blew up - why couldn't I just get things done, if it wasn't for him none of this would have been done today, I have given no thought to organising anything and he wants it all done, the painting finished and the carpet laid by the end of this month. I just looked at him. Funny thing is nothing can be started till walls are fixed in both rooms where the bathrooms were leaking, but he has no idea at this stage what he is going to do about them - and I'm the one not organised????

He is the absolute worst person to help with anything, he concentrates on what he is doing and forgets anyone else around him. You see jokes with people walking with a plank of wood and turning suddenly sending everyone around flying - well he absolutely personifies these jokes. We had to move the two wardrobes out of the back bedroom to the family room (which has been the storage room in all this) so he asks me to help him steady it on the trolley while he wheeled it out which I did but when he got to the doorway he didn't check on clearance but went crook when I let go of the wardrobe before he jammed my hand between the doorway and the wardrobe - didn't realise he was so close!!!. Then he is putting it in place in a corner but had trouble aligning it so asked me to help straighten it. The only way I could do that was to reach in and drag the back forward so as I moved it he rams the thing into the corner, making no allowance for me and the next thing I know my head is totally jammed between the wardrobe and the wall. So there is a headless body with arms flailing around yelping at him and he wants to know why I am making so much noise? Eventually he realises the problem and then seriously wanted to know why I had put my head there in the first place.

Hopefully, tomorrow is an easier day only one chest of drawers to move. I have emptied everything out of it except some things in one drawer that are his, which I told him to put elsewhere this afternoon. I will bet everything the first thing he says in the morning is why didn't I finish emptying it. Funny thing is they are things I wanted to toss but he insists on keeping.

Lisa, I can't believe your school chums are grandparents!!! Is there nothing else to do in your town?? I remember many years ago I went to a school reunion - they are too far away for me to get to now - I would have only been around 32 and not long had my 3rd joey. I met up with one girl I used to really like at school but we had lost touch and she had started at 18 and had 4 kids fairly close and she was really envious of me having a baby, when hers were hitting teenage. She regretted having hers so young and not enjoying them properly.

Glad the night went well for you.

Hi all, long time no chat. Just channel surfing and heard that there is 7 hours of pre-game coverage leading up to kick off. The fan base must really enjoy football. I'd be screaming and running away at just the thought of entertaining 7 hrs. of pre game.....so a 10-11 hr day of watching football would be accurate?

crap, hit submit before I had a chance to ask what's everyone up to today?

oh roo, i think you live with J!
J and i are not on the same wave-length most of the time. it's a full-time job understanding one another. are you ready for this one? j has a nice leather recliner, but it doesn't belong in the LR because of the style. i told him it could stay because he loves it so much, even though it was killing me. i got over it. then we came up with the whole middle bedroom being his office. moved all the furniture in there that would work for a nice desk, (the antique piano table) etc. we had moved the recliner in there during christmas, just because we didn't have enough room for the tree and the chair. It was the perfect compromise. he would actually use it in there too to read, which he didn't in the living room. everybody's happy. or so i think. i come home last night. he has gone thrift store/garage sale shopping (which has all of a sudden become his job in the past week-obsession????). he has some cheap gross recliner slipcover over the LEATHER recliner. I walk into the room last night and see it and he says, "do you love it? it's perfect isnt it? I stand there in shock. what tha....? why why why? his response, "well you said you didn't like leather." I feel like i am on some weird planet where my words are jumbled up, spit out, and completely unheard. this is my life girls. never in my entire life have i ever said that I didn't like leather. i love leather. who wouldn't. only thing i've ever said about that particular chair, is that i don't like the bulkiness, style, and am not a huge fan of recliners in general. especially since i am decorating in a more modern streamlined way in the front 2 rooms.
and has far as us moving anything together, well, he's tall, strong as an ox and some people dance when they move things together. we don't. i measure large objects to make sure we can get through the door and figure out what the best angle and twist needs to be done without ripping the walls up and hands! not him, bull in a china shop. he will force it through. it kills me. that in itself will start a screaming match. and get this i wake up this morning....he is gone and is hitting yard sales. he doesn't have a job, and all i've been doing for the past 2 years is getting rid of junk that i have collected over the last 20 years and replacing some furniture with new stuff that i really want. somebody shoot me! ha!

oh yea, it's freezing here today too! last night he fell asleep on the couch. he had the hose out last night doing something by the carport, cleaning a water fountain thingy. last night at 1am i hear this whining noise. i thought it was one of the smoke alarm batteries in a bedroom going off. i investigate. nothing, but i hear it coming through the heating vent. cant figure it out. I think maybe it's outside. me and fooey walk around outside in the back. he has left the water on to the hose. it out in the driveway. a frozen puddle of water by it. i go to the faucet part on the house and water has been coming out of all night long. it's squealing like a pig because the hose is totally frozen and the water has no where to go. so it was the water pipe under the house that was whining. i cut it off and then try to squeeze the trigger of the hose to release the pressure. no go. it's frozen solid too. all he had to do is turn the dang water off when he was finished, roll the hose up on the reel and be done with it. if I hadn't been up at that late hour, which i rarely am, gosh knows what would have exploded. i'm sorry to be complaining, but i am at my wits end. not a big deal in the grand scheme of things, i know, but i don't need the extra headache. we have worked so hard on this house for the past 2 years that i don't want some thoughtless mistake to ruin anything. am i being a witch with a capital B?

and i have some other more exciting news that i got this wek too...

Janis, my mother kept a newspaper ad by her local council about having animals desexed and finished with a very ambiguous sentence about a concession for Seniors.

MP, 'bull in a China Shop' couldn't sum BH up better and definitely if you don't like one aspect about something it is seen as the whole thing.

Several times today, I was admonished for measuring up like you, instead of getting on with it. Definitely a female logic thing. Just keep putting everything he picks up in his office - eventually he will get the hint.

My LAdd's DH will suddenly spring furniture on her very proud of himself for choosing and buying something all by himself. He suddenly appeared one night with a huge leather recliner that took pride of place in their lounge room, irrespective of the fact it stuck out like a sore toe and there was no room for it. He is also a hoarder of magazines and newspapers which he actually does read. They only had second hand furniture at the time so when DD decided to get new dining and lounge suites the chair just had to go. She took me on a FaceTime tour of the house and we decided the bulky desk and computer in their bedroom had to go to the family room leaving space for the recliner, which thrilled DD no end. Eventually though the pile of papers that have to accompany the chair got too much so they ended up buying a large waterproof garden shed which is now referred to as the Little House for excess toys and furniture and the recliner and collection of mags and papers now resides out there.

Oh and the GOOD NEWS - FOUND MY CAMERA BATTERY RECHARGER!!!!! I had actually put it away in one of my "very safe places". Very timely as something has happened with my iPod camera, the screen is black but it still takes photos. Happened once before but it fixed itself by accident and I have no idea how.

Found out why I was so cold last night too, it got down to 12 deg. Now I know that isn't cold for most of you guys but that is a fairly cold night for us in the middle of winter - not the middle of summer. It is up to 16 tonight, still not warm.

olldcan, i cannot wait to watch the game (super bowl), but i won't be watching all the pre-game stuff! new orleans has got to be a wild place right now! mardi gras and super bowl! craziness!

i started 2/2 guys FYI

bobbi, i said I'd share my sauce recipe, so her goes.

POT
In a med- large pot simmer on low:
2 large cans (746ml.) of Roma tomatoes. Use ones that are "Product of Italy". They taste much better :) no joke, they really do!!!! I just crush them by hand.
1 can of tomato paste.
1 can tomato sauce (540ml).
1 tbs. dried Basil.
2 tbs. dried Italian seasoning

PAN
Sautee in a frying pan on med heat, until browned:
3-4 tbs, olive oil
1 small pkg. of pork ribs. (sweet and sour size is best). Cut ribs into individual portions.
1 small package of Italian sausage meat (hot) or 4 large hot Italian sausages, taken out of the casing and broken up, so it's just just ground meat.
At about 1/2 way done, turn heat to low and add (the remaining ingredients, they can burn easily so low in super important:
3 cloves of garlic, minced.
2-3 jalapenos, sliced. (this depends of the amount of heat you can stand, so adjust accordingly)
3 Bay leaves.

Drain all fat from the meat and seasonings in the PAN and add to POT. Simmer all ingredients on low for at least an hour. While simmering, if sauce is getting too thick (2-3 hr mark) for you liking, add a water. If sauce needs to be thicker, crank the heat so it can boil down quicker.

Serve over spaghetti of course :) we use Crotenese cheese instead of Mozzarella or fresh Parmesan only because we like the sharper taste.

Dip slices of a fresh Baguette in Olive Oil and Brown Vinegar. We use 1/4 cup of each whisked together and then plated to dip the bread. YUM YUM!!!!

This will serve 4 easily, if it's just the 2 of us I use less meat (4 ribs per person and sausage meat from 2-3 sausages.) Only 1 can of tomatoes and 1 can of sauce (omitting or reducing the other ingredients to taste)

Think that's everything, I don't actually have this written down it's just by taste. You know, a dash of this and a pinch of that :)

Roo, he wants to know why you put your head there in the first place?? Are you kidding me? He sounds like quite the character. I would give anything to see him in action, I may just have to come over there and 'help' you paint! The things he wants to keep and you want to toss.....are they his entire 80's wardrobe??? THAT STILL FITS????

olldcan, I live for football season and get seriously depressed when it's over, but 7 hours of pregame festivities would make me insane. Unless I was there, natch! And I'll be watching the Superbowl with one hand over my eyes. I do love my Niners but....there just not terribly consistent yet so it may be a nail biter! And thanks for remembering the pasta sauce recipe. I didn't want to be rude and ask you again so I'm really happy to see it posted here! I will def give it a try but can't do the jalepenos, R will not eat them or anything spicy. Go figure! I'm excited, I can't wait to try it. Finally a good sauce, woo hoo!!!

MP, I love you leather recliner story, and I've got one for you. My father had a favorite recliner in the living room but the head rest part was starting to deteriorate so he and mother were set to buy a new one. I offered 'why not just get a piece of matching leather and use upholstery tacks to keep it in place?' My father was thrilled; mother was so furious her whole face turned red. Mother was into the biggest and the best and the social ladder; father was into saving money. Witch with a capital B??? I love it, I will have to nick that one.

All this misplaced furniture talk reminds me of the Electric Sex Lamp in a Christmas Story. I guess as long as that doesn't happen to us, we're still ahead of the game.

This is ridiculous, is the whole of Houzz watching SuperBowl???? I just got notification of Bobbi's post - 38 HOURS later!!!! That has to be a record!!!

Bobbi, I asked him did I look like a gorilla followed by a LOOK that defied him to answer anything but no.

No, he had to toss his 80s wardrobe,it was all way too big for him and he needed room for the 4 suitcases of clothes he brought back from his last trip to LA. Did I ever tell you about that? Think I may have ..................... guys here is the most seriously colour co-ordinated person you could ever find. DD helped him with his shopping, he got t-shirts, shorts and chinos, but DD ended up so fed up with what he appeared in each day she did him a spreadsheet of what he could wear with what - seriously!!!! By the time he came home it was summer here and absolutely EVERY morning he would make a big deal getting his spreadsheet out to decide what to wear that day. He was proud of the fact he had enough clothes to need a spreadsheet, the fact he was too stupid to put anything together right didn't enter his head. The following summer he had lost his spreadsheet and started presenting himself in totally weirdo again (seriously, he actually walked out and asked me did he look ok in a red and blue striped t-shirt with green and brown check shorts) - he had worn these clothes through an LA summer and our summer and still couldn't get anything right. After I picked myself up off the floor and dried my eyes, I ended up emailing DD who fortunately still had a copy of the spreadsheet on her computer, and had her email it to him again, which he printed out and taped to the front of his wardrobe.