Great to hear from you Patti! I've missed things being away. Hope your packing goes well. Too bad your there and I'm here...I had a ton of good boxes you could have had. Today was not a bad day at all. I had taco restaurant style chips with my salsa. It's all been added to my WW tracker for today. Again, I'm working on portion sizes to relearn, adjust habits. I enjoyed the salsa. DH said it was missing something. I agreed. Added some Tex Mex seasoning and he put hot taco sauce in his bowl (no thanks). I also could have put another clove of garlic in it - but garlic powder did the trick. Fun way to add fresh veggies to a meal that's for sure. Got some more wood down from the pile (fresh air), unloaded some more from the trailer - almost done with that job. We've given the trailer to our builder who can use it. It paid for itself and then some, got us through a tough time. Now its ready to go to a new owner who knows trailers and can give it the tlc it needs. Once that's gone it opens our back road/trail towards our friends across the field and our back 40. Getting outdoors everyday is imperative for my health. I don't want to be a hermit or get cabin fever. Routine is helpful too. I'll be glad when my routine switches from settling in to working on other things. But hey, we home finally! How was your day today? Cheers, Peggy

Happy SUNDAY! We have about 4 inches of a lovely mixture of sleet/ice outside. We were supposed to meet our fellow Snow Village clubmembers at Boscobel up in NY State near West Point. Well, that has been cancelled formally, even though DH did not want to make the trip this weekend. Looks like it's wrapping gifts for me now because I forgot to take out my cookie dough from the freezer last night! After wrapping, I will make a batch of almond shortbread and raspberry/hazelnut shortbread bars, so it should be productive. Oh, between that, I will punish myself by watching the JETS/Patriots game. Ohhhhhh, the humanity!!!!!!! LOL Patti/Dave, hope you are enjoying yourselves. I told DH yesterday that if you two are anywhere within a 3-hour range, we are all meeting up, even for a cup of coffee!! Marci, you are a tower of strength with those sweets, girlfriend. Sometimes when I'm tempted I think about how easy it seems for you to avoid the junk. I don't always win, but you have been so successful, that I have a 50/50 chance of victory! [[[[[[[[Suzanne]]]]]]]]], I know how you feel with that "DUH" moment. It happened to me a few times with my keys and the car. As the door slammed shut, I would see those shiny keys sneering at me from the front seat! Glad you are safely back in. Suzanne, DH is trying to think of a way to help you unfreeze that hydrant, but he tells me you will crack it if you pour warm water over it (my suggestion!). He said whatever you do, it has to be a slow process, but I told him "it's too cold for her out there!" Sorry I'm no help, but I've got broad shoulders. Good luck! BJ, we are all waiting to hear from you this week. Hope all is well out there. Jen, I'll bet you are tied up in the season and that the girls are so excited. Check in to say hello! Hello and best wishes to Gretchen, Joanne, Zig, Besh, Amy, John, Maddie (where are the pictures Maddie?). Please check in when you get the chance; you are missed! Gotta run and get dressed; it's 10:27am and I'm still in my nightgown. TAKE CARE, EAT HEALTHFULLY, AND NEVER NEVER GIVE UP! DeeMarie

I always post about the alcohol water spray! Love it for my granite and on my SS appliances. I use anywhere from 1/2-2/3 alcohol, 1/3-1/2 water, and 20+ drops of essential lavender oil (for fragrance and additional antibacterial quality). Basically I go by scent, and evaporation rate, lack of streaking after refilling or topping off my spray bottle, and adjust amounts as needed (if it smells "right" and cleans without streaking, it's good to go!). I spray it on, and wipe dry with a microfiber cloth. It's great on the black enamel burner pans on our Wolf range as well (for light cleaning, or follow-up after scrubbing with soap and/or BKF), and on our glass backsplash tile and grout. Over the range, I spray it on, let sit a few minutes, and wipe with a paper towel (or cloth). Does a good job loosening and lifting vented cooking grease and grime from the range from the grout. I repeat spraying and wiping a few times as needed.

I'm not paying by time. He gave me a schedule of values and bills by percentage complete. In some cases, it's easy to tell if something is complete; not in others. Some costs are for items, some for labor. I don't think he is dishonest in terms of how much something cost. His dishonesty is more related to how long things will take and when they will occur. This project was supposed to take about 2.5 months. He volunteered that (I did not request it) and put it in his contract, but only as "approx. date of substantial completion" and "approx. working days." There are no penalties for not meeting these deadlines, although I suppose I could claim he abandoned the project by not showing up when he said he would. He's here for 1 day, not the next, sometimes for 10 minutes, sometimes a total of 4 hours, rarely more. He has never left completely for more than a few days at a time. He's dealing with some personal issues, but these were known (to him, not me) before he started. I was accommodating at first, but this 2-room project now has taken longer than a 2-story, 5-room + roof addition I had done once. Now that things have gotten contentious, he's acting like a child.