'Cafe Eclectic - Thursday, April 25th

[diane]

Welcome to Café Eclectic! The Café is a place to come and share good times and bad times. We are a group of women and have been together since 2002. The Café is open to everybody. Newcomers are always welcome - just jump in and post. Some people are regulars and visit daily, some pop in now and then, some stay to chat, some just listen. All are welcome. Post a personal message if you can. If you can't, that's okay too. You will find lots of support and encouragement here, and hopefully you will enjoy this thread as much as the rest of us.

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Quote of the Day: "In all things of nature there is something of the marvelous." Aristotle

[kem1956]

Good Morning,

It is beautiful here this morning. Headed to 70 with full sun and a brisk breeze.

Doug has gone to Melissa's left at 6:30 this morning. I am going to pot four plants that need to go in pots today. We got the marigolds out yesterday afternoon. I am going to the church at some point today for a few hours to do statements and to plan a shower for May 11. That may be all I do today.

Doug is going back to Melissa's tomorrow to help Wes so I will have another day here at home to catch up on some things. No plans for either of us for Saturday. Doug is teaching Sunday so needs to study at some point.

Doug just made it to Melissa's he said trafic was heavy and just creeping as he got into Nashville. But he is there. I think he will start home about three so will miss the rush hour. I am going to open my windows to air out the house again today.  I sent left over food that I didn't use and that Barb brought from the boat to Melissa's today.  I had planned to have stuffed peppers one night so sent the mixture for that and peppers to Melissa today and I sent her the left over berries I had bought for Robin.  I had left over chicken salad so sent her a small bowl of that too.  She is excited her supper is ready tonight if Wes doesn't leave it at the house and forget to take it home.  I will try to text him about 2:30 to remind him to get it.  LOL  I was happy to have more room in our fridge.  We are having stuffed peppers tonight too.  No cooking..

Annie hope you get good news about the car today. When does Greer go home?

Sue glad you have your new AC unit.

Peggy so sorry about your uncle. Be careful as you drive to the funeral Saturday. The weather looks to be good for the funeral.

I need to get moving.

Have a Blessed Day,
Count your Blessings,
Karen

[Grammaof4]

Good morning. We have sunshine to start our day and then clouds roll in with storms predicted Friday and Sunday. I was hoping to have Joe get the siding and gutters washed before he leaves Monday on his fishing trip, so that I can get the blinds and windows and curtains done while he is gone. But after some thought, I decided to put that off. With these storms, it would all to be to do again so we will wait a bit on that. The painter said last week that he would be here in about 2 weeks to repair our garage ceiling and get that painted, so I need Joe to go get Brad's small trailer so we can wheel the bikes and a few of the larger pieces in our garage over to mom's before he leaves in case the painter shows up. I can't do that alone.

We got my uncle to the airport and he got to Phoenix safely. I'm not sure what happened but I text my cousin Tammy to see if they had stopped for the night and she said they were staying in Flagstaff. That's only a couple hours out from Phoenix. He was hoping to make it to Alburquerque last night, so I'm not sure what happened there.

We did visit my Aunt Marie. She looks good but is in some pain, of course. They had her up with the walker and would get her up again yesterday afternoon. She may be moved to a rehab facility today.

And we did go check out the window company. I sent our house plan for a bid. We'll see.

We stopped by Dick and Colleen's on the way home, after grabbing a few groceries in Edwardsville for Joe's fishing trip. They are having cabinetry installed in their garage and boy does it look nice. Our cabinet guy, Kirk, is doing it. I told Kirk that we have a tentative break ground plan for August. He asked about when the rent house would be torn down and I told him we have plans to try to sell it. He said I thought you were building there! I told him we are but someone suggested we try to sell the house (since its a good solid house, just in our way) to be moved. Before we left Dick and Colleen's, Kirk said "I'm going to do Janet's cabinets for free." I just looked at him and said oh sure you are. He said "Yes, in exchange for your rent house, I'll do your cabinets for free." He said the house they live in was moved from another location to where it is now. It is a Sears home. Of course, his partner wasn't too thrilled with that plan because that cuts him out. Now, I am guessing Kirk was just kidding but girls if that deal could happen (and I told him, I'd take that deal!) it would save us thousands of dollars of having that house torn down PLUS the cost of my new cabinets. It's almost too good to be true, so it probably isn't going to happen. But, I'm praying it will. That would help us so much.

We got home and I took mom a few groceries. My cousin Debbie and her son Mark had come up and stopped by to visit her. Debbie has property near us and she was checking on it. She said she had that terrible sinus infection and was just getting over it. My mom looks so frail. She's really losing weight. I can't get her to eat much of anything. Yesterday was crackers and applesauce. She knows she has to have something on her stomach with taking the antibiotic, but she's so nauseous she just can't eat. Debbie said she was the same way. I'm just praying today is a better day. I made chicken noodle soup and I'll take mom some of that. Maybe she'll eat it. And I'm going to try to get her to eat some peanut butter toast. at least that would be a little protein. I know its hard to eat when you are nauseous but she needs something on her stomach with all that drainage. I think she'd feel better. The struggle is real.

Bryce had a home baseball game yesterday, which is rare. Most of his games are away. He got to pitch a few innings and did a great job. But the coach always wants to put a "closer" in for the last inning. And Bryce was pitching so well. It really made him mad, but that's that coach. I watched the Game Changer app during the last innings of his game because Brooke was playing softball in Collinsville. Bryce's game got over at 7pm, and so did Brooke's so we didn't make it down to see any of her game. We try to switch it up.

We have the stone guy coming at 5pm today to go over things with us for the new build. We are getting closer! I want him to see the stone I chose before we take it back to the vendor.

I need to get moving here. I see the winds are pretty strong so I hope that we don't have issues getting these things moved before the rains move in.

Karen: I know you were the hostess with the mostess! What a nice opportunity to get together! Doug is such a blessing to so many. I hope that he and Wes can get things done and get their house sold soon.

Peggy: I'm sorry to hear of the passing of your uncle. Is that the uncle you were hoping would make it to your reunion? Hugs to you, gf!

Lauren: Praying all went well yesterday with your first treatments. Love you!

[aviemore03]

Good morning, Café friends,

It seems like forever since I actually posted. I know I’ve commented on others’ posts, but didn’t have one of my own.

We had such a lovely time with Karen, Peggy, and Janet. Karen is definitely a wonderful hostess! I hope we can do this again next year. If I ever get moved to AZ, I’ll definitely reciprocate and invite any of you to stay with us. We hope to have a few extra bedrooms to accommodate guests. And just think…Sue and I will be in the same state only a couple of hours away from each other. We may decide to rent there before we pull the trigger on buying. We found a couple of really nice homes to rent - one was a bit over 3,000 sq. ft, and came totally furnished. We can afford the rent too, which would be nice.

Today I will have a nice easy day - no appointments, but do want to do some more purging. I swear I can purge and trash things all day and still not make much of dent in the amount of “stuff” I have accumulated over the years. 50 years in a house = a lot of clutter and things not precious enough to keep.

Jared called yesterday. He and Kirsten are renting a plane and flying up here for Robin’s birthday on Saturday. His actual birthday is tomorrow, but of course, both J&K are working then. The plan is to meet them at CMA and drive them up to a favorite restaurant of ours in Carpinteria for lunch. We’re hoping that Tracy can join us since Carp is only about 15-20 minutes away from her work. She may either take a longer lunch or just work up to that point and then come home. Jared is working on his IFR certification (instrument flight rules) and flies out of French Valley near Temecula. This flight won’t really count since the skies will be clear. He’ll be under visual flight rules (VFR) conditions.

Annie - hope your car is fixed soon and the warranty covers the majority of the incurred costs. How is Aspen doing?

Lauren - happy to hear the positive update this morning. Sending love and prayers your way! ❤️🙏🏻

Peggy - so sorry about your uncle!

Time for me to get dressed and start the day’s tasks. Have a wonderful day!

[peggy]

Good Afternoon Y'all,

Thank you for your condolences on my Uncle's death. He was a good man...as was my daddy and all of his brothers.

I've got my laundry going and my funeral outfit picked out. I will pick up Everett at 6am Saturday morning...head to Chattanooga and pick Patti up then on to Williamsburg. I made reservations though we probably won't get checked in until after the burial...I'll see if I can check in through the app I made the reservation with. We'll go straight to the church where the visitation and funeral is, then on to the cemetery for burial. Then maybe we can put our stuff in our rooms before heading out to the farm for more visiting. We'll head home Sunday...so a quick trip...won't need to take much. Some of the Knoxville and Chattanooga family will go up and back, but I didn't want to do that. There's nowhere good for me and Everett both to sleep at Patti's and I'd rather have time to visit with some of my cousins who may or may not come back for the reunion in June (the ones from Florida).

Patti's cat, Abby had 4 kittens and she is being VERY protective. She doesn't even want Patti touching them. And she really doesn't want her brother in the room. So Jethro is getting to sleep with Patti. She'll probably leave him in the garage while gone to KY this weekend. There are too many feral cats around that would eat up all the food if she left it outside.

Dennis is here, working on my path to the creek bed today. I'll be happy to have that project done!!

(((HUGS))) all,
Peggy ^..^

[anniehewgill]

Good afternoon. We still have Greer and don’t really know for how much longer. The trial still hasn’t been handed over to the jury for deliberations and Keisha is still on the boat. She actually didn’t get out on the boat until Tuesday because there were some repairs needed that couldn’t be done with the crew aboard. I think she’s still getting off today, but she says she will be on the boat most of the next couple weeks. That doesn’t mean she won’t want to get him before then. Nothing has been settled yet. He is happy and doesn’t seem to miss them, but last night when Justin FaceTimed he didn’t want to talk to him and wouldn’t smile. But, a couple minutes later Keisha FaceTimed and he interacted and smiled at her. Who knows?

We have come to an agreement with the dealership. They came down in some prices and agreed to let us have a radiator, which we still don’t think we need, sent to them. That alone saves us $500. We were in a good position to negotiate because the warranty company is sending a check made out to Greg to them. We could simply pick up the check and the car, which then they would be out the money spent on the misdiagnosed fuel pump since they put that on the same ticket. We really didn’t want to do that, and, fortunately, they gave in on enough that we’re paying more than we wanted, but is still reasonable. They expect to receive the long block in 5-10 business days from yesterday. Then, of course, they have to put it all back together. So, we’re still three weeks out I’d say. I don’t even want to think about it, but if it’s not right then we have to consider a law suit. In the meantime we have the rental they’re paying for.

So, that’s my life, a whole lot of we don’t know what the heck is happening. Or at least when it’s happening.

Greg and Greer are napping and I’m going to finish cleaning the kitchen and then get dressed. I need to vacuum, but don’t want to do that while they’re napping. We’ll see.

Hope Lauren is doing okay.

Annie

[avocado41]

Good afternoon,

This day is really getting away from me!  My friends took me out to breakfast for my birthday, so that was a nice start to the day.  I haven't done my yoga yet, so will do that next, then try to do a couple of productive things this afternoon.  The laundry is outside trying to dry, but despite a sunny start to our day, it's back to being overcast and cool.  Steve is watching a baseball game right now, so I don't feel free to play the piano, although he's always willing to put on earphones.  I'm not feeling energetic, had a lot of tossing and turning last night.  If I get moving I'd probably feel less sleepy.  Right now I can't stop yawning.

Happy to report I was a winner in the club championship yesterday.  I won first prize for low gross in my flight (not the first flight with the better players), and was low net over the whole field, although I was only eligible for one prize.  I ended up shooting just over my handicap, but the first two weeks I had excellent games that carried me through.  At one point my irons kept pulling to the left and getting me into sand traps, but I was happy that I figured out what I was doing wrong and able to mostly correct it relatively quickly.  It's nice to be playing better.  I happened to run into my old coach in the parking lot.  She really helped me a lot when I was trying to relearn how to golf, I should go back to her for a tune up.  Maybe in a month or so when we're both less busy.

Tomorrow morning I have a massage scheduled, looking forward to that.  I'm hoping it'll be a sunnier day because I'd like to go the pool for my inaugural swim after taking the winter off from swimming.  But if it's overcast and dank it'll be a stretch to get myself to go.  Then we have dinner plans at a French restaurant that we've never been to before.  So just a few plans for my birthday, it will be a nice day.

I should get moving, I'll feel better if I do.  Hope you all are having a good day!