Happy Birthday Raeanne! May this year be filled with happiness, health and continued strength to go where you want to go, be who you want to be and to do all that you can in life. LOL and Hugs Raeanne! And now, for the news. Peggy and Dave are really confused. My husband is just as abnormal as I am medically. He did an hour with a recorded blood pressure machine. Leave it to Dave to totally baffle the nurse. His blood pressure readings drop 40 points after his doctor's visit 48 hours previously. Of course he had the entire weekend to get worked up. He also stopped taking 2 brand new medications - we don't know if they were part of the problem or not. He still has a heart scan being booked. His bloodwork has shown enzymes that are present after a heart attack. I am expecting "something" to show up on the scan because of the enzymes. I'm not worried so much anymore as too more curious - how can this be? When we get the results from that we can move forward. But his blood pressure is a huge relief. I too wonder about the pills he was put on. We'll see. Stay tuned for another episode of "We're Not Normal". On a lighter note - went to a charity shop today to purchase jeans. My size 14's are getting too lose so I got a couple of pair of 11-12s (whatever that means today). Out of 5 pair of jeans I liked enough to try on, only 2 fit. One tag said 11-12 but I could have wrapped the zipper area across itself a good 4 inches in totally. And there must be a pattern/industry design problem with that size because I also noticed it's the largest space consumed by one size in the women's jean racks. What a pain in the a$$ trying jeans on. Of course everything fabric related I purchase now from charity goes right into a garbage bag and stays shut until everything goes directly into a sanitizing wash run. Don't care to bring home bed bugs. The Ottawa area stores have posted signs warning people to take precautions because once one item that is infested gets into any recycled clothing store the store is considered infected. Makes sense to me. Every jean that I think would fit and I like, before I take it off the rack to try on, I do the pocket test to make sure the pocket is big enough so my wallet won't pop out. Today's hand testing revealed 3 advil in one pocket - so the jeans were worn, then tossed into a charity bag - unwashed. I even purchase bed sheets and some for quilting - everything gets sanitized. And then some. I spent $12 on 2 pair of good quality jeans. Bargoooon. But I did have fun in there. Got a huge aluminum roasting pan with lid - for a whopping $6.00 - bargooon. $12 on a percale soft/strong queen size sheet set - bargooon. And a few other small items. Bargooooooooooon. Had a lot of fun. Spent an hour in there - could have spent another but hubby happily took off to do the groceries. Came back just as I was getting tired of hunting down jeans and starting to enter....Peggy's Danger Zone.....I was going to start browsing more that today's purpose of going there. Danger, danger I say. I have been known to spend hours in big charity shops. But mentally it was better than a bottle of prozac. So I can retire a couple of pairs of jeans - making a jean bed spread for my niece. My pal who is on a health journey, weight loss all in one is also entering a smaller jean size - she's donating her jeans. There's no going back once the jeans have been cut. Saving the top part to make jean purses for both of us. So that's my Thursday. Still holding around 135. Very, very happy. And Dave is making a stir fry dinner tonight with a ton of veggies. He was on a mission at the store. His cooking is heaven. (And he gets more veggies in his meals this way.) One night a week to let go and enjoy. Have a wonderful evening too! LOL Peggy

Oh gosh. I got him to do it, but it took forever! I wasn't letting him jump high enough to get out of the hole the first time I guess. I got all the way to the level where you have to open another gate with a button. I had to bring up all the hints even tho I had a inkling how to use that one prop to do it. Still can't advance through that gate. I bookmarked it and will try again later. Ugh!

Your area makes a big difference for what you'd need. Around here, we'd need to have 3 different ones, one for spring/fall one for summer and one for winter. Generally speaking though, one item that's noticeably absent from most lists I see is to bring chargers for your cell phone. I keep a charger in my vehicle. During the winter I always have heavy clothes in my vehicle. For pets don't forget food and water for them. You'll last much longer without water than they will. I also keep an address book printout in the vehicle so I have access to names/numbers if needed. Essentially my "go bag" is my vehicle. We had a major bridge collapse a couple years ago and it was rather interesting to see the prep plans go into action. Granted, in the grand scheme of things it wasn't huge but it took a major artery out of the freeway system in town and people had to find alternative routes. Getting to know your road system can be valuable. I was caught in the snowstorm this past week and had to find alternative routes to get home. I know the roads fairly well but was in an area I'm not overly familiar with and the GPS, well, it helped but my mind did a lot more to guide me through it. Knowing several ways to get to a destination is helpful. I just picked up some more of the crank flashlights. They were free after rebate and I like them. Really appreciated their value during a power outage a couple years back. I don't understand the electric bill stub when you have a drivers license or State issued ID card that would be a true ID. What good is the bill stub? Extra eyeglasses, or the like would be helpful. I keep a grooming kit put together for traveling that could be handy, but again it depends on the situation. To me the important thing isn't so much a box of stuff, but the PLAN. Be aware that you could need certain things and have them available.

:) Beagles, I bought a nice plastic box for my touch screen stereo controller so I could use it from the tub. :) It's not the kind that you can get in waterproof form. I think they make those yellow toss 'em in the pool TV remotes though... Weedmeister, I love the active backsplash idea!! Not so much for the fishing shows, but can you just imagine? The recipe over the stove, Julia in the corner explaining how to fillet the squab and not lose any of the precious meet, the illustration from www.howtobutchersquab.info right next to her, the evening's menu with timer reminders on the other side, and the guest list with phone numbers, table arrangement, and allergies, at the other end. All controllable by voice or gesture. I totally love it!!! Marcolo, the TVs themselves are probably pretty expensive (mine were gifts so I don't know for sure), but the frame part can be done pretty easily if you're willing to compromise a little. You build a box frame on the wall, surrounding the TV (and run the wires through the wall so they're not all hangin' down), and then you cover the box with your painting or mirror. There are different ways to do it. You can make bifold doors that tuck out of the way and paint a pretty picture on them, you can hinge a proper framed art piece so long as it's not too heavy--I've seen this done where it dropped down and on the wall side of the frame, instead of brown paper or linen, there was a rack for the controllers and some pieces of the surround sound. I've also seen where the art only goes up when there's company, so they just have a double angled slat top edge/hanger and the framed piece sets on the floor behind an end table otherwise. I like having the ugly black TV on the island. It's right by the seating for A/V company when one is alone, or shucking peas (or, more likely, clipping artichokes), and I have it on a little slate turntable so it's easy to turn it to face the cook. Often, I'll turn on the news while I'm prepping or something and not even bother turning it because I'm looking at my work. Yup. Really functional. But no disguising it. The HDMI wire does help though. Just that and the power cord, rather than spaghetti. And the thing has Bluetooth and, I think, wi-fi, so if the stereo were allowed internet privileges (it's been hinting, and it has a birthday coming), the TV could get Hulu or Netflix without a computer hookup. 'Course, then my refrigerator would start calling home to Germany and trying to get my phone to talk my ipod into turning the car against me.