slidergirl

I have to do similar cleaning. I have boxes that I packed up from the Big House when I moved into the Little House post-divorce in 2009 and have never opened them!!! going from a 3600sq place to a 1500sq ft place had it challenges... ! Saw my Nurse Practitioner for the annual wellness check. Man I hate that stupid Mini Cognitive test that they have to give when you're on Medicare!!! at least this time I did remember all the words. Everything is going well. The A1C is down even more. All blood work is good, but my sodium level is low (typical for me). She was interested that the endocrinologist didn't threaten me with insulin like she has. the Endo gave me one more med to take and it's dropping my A1C and daily glucose a lot. And, I didn't change any eating since I was already doing low carbs. She was surprised that the endocrinologist said she wants to see me in 6 months and not sooner. It's not stressing me out like she did. Well, she said she doesn't need to see me monthly anymore since I've got the endocrinologist. I'll just see her now for usual "not feeling well" stuff. It really did take some stress off of me.

I know - the fougasse is out of this world! I also was in carb heaven. The Sundance guy did it again - I now have 3 $2 bills from him!!! I have to keep from laughing.

Melissa - great news on the CT scan and checkup!! Great reason to buy new ski stuff!!! The only other time I was called for JD, I was so relieved I didn't get seated. It was a very tragic and sad incident with a dad taking his toddler with him hunting in the early AM. Toddler got out of car and got lost. Took Search & rescue to find him, unfortunately dead. DA said he had to charge dad with involuntary manslaughter. Jury found him guilty. On the day he was to report to the judge for sentencing, dad killed himself. Everyone who served, including the judge, were rocked. The county provided counseling. More Sundance: I think I can tell the East Coast women - they are wearing long wool coats like you'd see in the cities back East. Everyone else is in parkas. I got two $2 tips (via $2 bills) from our one Sundance guest for giving directions and getting them to a theater that our shuttles wouldn't go to. What a big spender!!! My owner who lives in Italy part time in her villa in Tuscany showed up today. She just bought tickets for Andrea Bocelli again. He's doing a second show there, a first. Tickets went really fast as she could only get ones way up the hill. Turns out this summer she was actually not that far from my seat at the concert!

Got up, put on Webex-worthy makeup, turned on my Mac, and found an email from the Court that the case I was going to jury selection for has been resolved/continued so I was no longer needed, YESSSSSS! My name goes back in the pool, so I could be called up again this year. Melody - good luck with the surgery. Sucks about the meds, though. Good thing you had some left over. I did notice a lot of black parkas on the women walking around town when I was driving home last night. Maybe Amaozn had a run on the "Amazon coat" 😸 It looks like we won't get a Sundance snowstorm this year - just sunny to partly sunny and cold (highs in the teens).

At least you weren't expecting Venice and getting Trieste instead...

Yep. but, at a crowded coffee shop, I may or may not put a 1EU coin on top of my receipt for my cafe... Sometimes it will have the barista pick up my receipt faster thus I get my caffe a little faster 😉 If not, he will remember me tomorrow...

First - HAPPY BIRTHDAY Melody!! If it wasn't snowing, I'd drive all the way to CO Spr to buy you a birthday drink!!! Purple - funny thing - I have Jury Selection tomorrow! It's on Webex, so I'll gussie up on top but keep on the sweats. Not sure yet if I'm going to play dumb or entitled in an effort to not get selected 😼 My Orangecello is from Caravella, the same ones that made my Limoncello. It was a 2-for-1 box, complete with little orange and yellow shot glasses. Kept it in the freezer for awhile until I took it out the other night. According to Drizzly.com, "The peels of Sicilian oranges are soaked with sugar and orange juice in pure grain alcohol to make Caravella Orangecello." Maybe I'll have some straight up tonight - no cream. OOTD: my one Woolx black/white long sleeve zipneck, my thin Hue black leggings, my teal Mountain Hardwear quilted mini skirt, my trusty old Steve Madden faded black moto boots. If my my red Amazon parka was black, I'd fit right in as a Sundancer, I think 😉

At the condos, we don't have a totally full house. 4 owners coming in tomorrow. One condo definitely booked for Sundance. Primary is owner of a events company and has her team staying. They spent yesterday putting together swag bags for their event - stuff was all over the lounge at first, but we convinced them to move the operation in the room next door that wasn't being used yet (getting renovated into a game room this summer). That made things in the lounge better for everyone else. It's the traffic in town, the inability to go out to eat (everything is booked or taken off-market for private parties) that makes it hard to deal with. Me? I don't eat out anyway, but I can't get a table for any of my owners. What is usually a 20 minute or so drive home can take 45 minute every night. After feeling like cr@p most of today after drinking my drink last night (I think I had a little too much booze in there!!!), I may tolerate things. A Lagunitas low-carb tonight is perfect. Maybe I'll come up with something for tomorrow night. So far, the only "fashion" that stood out for me was a guy who had his skin-tight jeans tucked into his Timberland boots (unlaced, of course)and had on a tan puffy. I don't think he was going to be warm enough with those jeans since it was only 11 degrees when I saw him. Beanies of all colors (thank gosh they aren't all black) are trendy, too. And, puffies, puffies, and puffies. It is a good time to be skiing, according to some of my owners - the runs were empty, even with some of the best snow we've received in years. Two documentaries of interest: Encore performance of "Novalny" - it won the audience choice award and best documatary last year. And a last-minute entry called "Justice" - about the investigations into Brett Kavaugh that the FBI was told not to do. And, I've heard good things about a film called "Persian Virgin", a semi-autobiographical kind of comedy about a Persian-American girl growing up. I haven't heard of any celebrity sightings yet - that was one of the fun parts of working at the Waldorf and the St. Regis - if they weren't staying in private homes, they were staying there. I'm leaning toward the Puglia food tour. It's in a totally new part of Italy for me. Learn to make cheese other than my ricotta. Seafood. Who knows? I'm totally clueless on what I want to do.

I just want to get away from Sundance!! Ugh. Got home and made myself a orangecello (like limoncello but made with oranges) and cream drink. Easy going down. May have many more over the next 8 days...

Lois - you were going to do a river cruise out of Paris, pre-COVID I think. Did that one go away? Just got my Garnet Hill catalog. On the back, is their Everyday T-Shirt dress. Looks like it could have potential for anyone looking for a comfy casual dress for travel.

The Umbria ones does sound good, too. The visit to Deruta would put me in serious financial trouble!! Puglia would be something different - I was thinking of doing Calabria & Puglia by myself. Who knows??? And because I usually base around cities, churches and ruins, basing around food would be a change. Oh man, now you have me thinking about Umbria...

Tomorrow starts the Sundance Film Festival in town. 10 days of traffic jams. If it's anything like it was pre-COVID, my 10 mile drive home will morph into an hour trek. Since I have to drive through Old Town, I have no way to get around it. The one fun thing is to look at the "fashion" while I'm stuck in traffic. I'm in a tizzy about a vacation. I'm thinking now about playing low key this year and doing another domestic road trip. Or maybe a cheap cruise out of the US. There is a food tour to Puglia next year that I'm interested in. Led by Sophia Minchilli (she was Stanley Tucci's guide in Puglia and is Elizabeth Minchilli's daughter). It's a week-long venture through Puglia. Small group. I'd add on a week or two or three of my own somewhere. More to think about. OOTD: black pants and my tan&white striped long sleeve Tshirt. I've got some physical work to do at work today, so nothing "fancy".

Even then you are not "skipping the line." You have a ticket to enter at a specific time. There will be others waiting in line for the same time you have. But, you aren't waiting 90+ minutes to get a ticket and wait in another line. The Breakfast ticket is good if you don't want to be herded through the Museums (you don't have to be part of a group/tour to feel the herding). There used to be a Friday Night at the Museums in the Summer that was excellent. I was literally the only one in the Raphael Room and there were maybe 20 total in the Sistine Chapel. I didn't see it listed now or yet...

After my travels through Europe last Summer, I'll say that Europe is FAR ahead of anywhere for contactless payment. I even got used to using my Wallet on my Apple Phone for tap-and-go payment. But, I always had a hard card with me, just in case I ran into a mom & pop place that didn't have contactless. Would be the prudent thing to do in the Caribbean, I would think.

Melody - I wish I could charge for unruly kids. They were in the lounge late afternoon, watching the football game. OMG. I think they took 10 years off my life with the screaming they did when the 49ers had a good play. I didn't make extra cookies for them, though. They had to do with the 2 dozen I already baked and they gobbled up! I remember the days of working swim meets. Runner, timer, yes indeedy. Taking a "lunch break" at 6:15pm - I brought some turkey jerky that I bought at TJ's. It's soft, chewy and a little spicy. And it's just the Original, not the Teriyaki. Sometimes I just like to have turkey jerky - protein, low fat, decent carbs. We are supposed to have some amount of snow about every other day for the next 2 weeks. HELP!!!! I've already had more snow than I wanted to have.

Lois - would you like to finance a "Send Kat on a Cruise" fund??? 😸 I'm jealous of all your cruising! How was this "lazy" Caribbean cruise? It sounds nicely relaxing. Well, the animals have arrived for the MLK weekend. 5 families who all know each other and each one has probably 4 kids! Went through hot cocoa like rainwater yesterday. They attacked my cookies and then my cheese & salumi plates like vultures on roadkill. I had to pull out my "mean Auntie" a couple of times to keep kids from trying to turn on the convection oven to melt snow, have an indoor snow fight... The parents were all sequestered in one of the units getting drunk. Then, the adults went out to dinner, leaving the kids to their own devices and Domino's pizza. There is one responsible girl that I know from her stays - she was trying her best to keep the herd relatively mellow. At least they all leave on Monday. And I have Monday off!!! Then, next weekend starts the circus known as Sundance... I'm not ready for it! More snow on the horizon starting early this evening. Maybe another foot in 24 hours. Sigh. I'm falling behind on my shoveling. I only did enough to make a space to get my car in and out. OOTD: Something that I can run around herding kids!!! Black yoga pants, a long sleeve Tshirt and my Patagonia vest. Running shoes 😉

I saw that, too!

Another hair-raising drive home from work last night. The primary road was closed again so I had to take the windy way home. Ugh. And, there is another supposed storm coming in from California around Monday, More snow than I've seen in years! Melody - it may be coming your way!! If anyone ever needs a parka for a cold-weather cruise or trip or just at home, look up "the Amazon Coat." A few of my owners have it and even my neighbor has one. They love them. Since I don't own an actual parka, (just my Patagonia down sweater jacket), I took the leap. I got the Orolay brand one *there are 2* in red with the faux fur hood collar (detachable). I love it! Wore it yesterday - I was nice and toasty in the blowing snowstorm. Around $150. OOTD: sweats and a tshirt. Not going anywhere.

It was a white knuckle drive home tonight. It's been dumping snow since about 1pm. They closed the Mine Road (the one I tried and turned around on the other day), so I had no choice but take my least favorite road down. They could have at least plowed that road! Another 5-10mph drive, winding down the hill. It took me 45 minutes for what is normally a 20 minute drive. Melody - it's coming your way!!! OOTD: black stretch pants and my white & black hoodie. After wearing a dress & my boots yesterday, I just wan't inspired.

I'm with Hank on the 3pm nap. I've done that for decades. Gets me able to go out to get dinner at a civilized Roman time rather than the 5-6pm Tourist Special 😉 I used the TimeShifter app this summer to try to get a little help from jetlag. That and flying Delta One so I could sleep a good sleep on my 10 hr flight from home to Paris. It did help.

I'm with Cynthia, but another captive hub for Delta - SLC. I've had my Delta Skymiles card since 1980, when I was traveling for work. But, I've expanded from just that one to an AMEX Plat, thanks to my now-ex. So, depending on what I'm buying and future plans, I do one or the other. I do have all my recurring bill payments on the Delta card for a steady input of miles.

Well, she's trying to find a more inexpensive way to get from Charlotte to ITALY... Thus, the tie-in. 😼

I wouldn't do this, but you can buy a timed ticket from tour companies I believe to enter the Basilica WITH A GUIDE. After deciding at the last moment to go into the Basilica on one Sunny day, I'd definitely go first thing in the morning than waiting hours in the hot, beating sun with NO SHADE to be found!! Just saying...

You say "most of us" - how many of you are in your posse? That could be a determining factor, also.

We get nasty winter potholes in the roads. Maybe 3-4 ft wide and deep enough to swallow half of your tire and really do a number on your axle. It's like playing "dodge the landmines" lately.