Weekly Chat Thread Feb. 20th - 26th

[staytuned]

Good morning, everyone! Happy President's Day. Hope you all have the day off to enjoy. Reminder, no mail today.

[labbypaws]

Fairly warm but overcast. Lots of people off. Lots of dogs and walkers out.

[kritter]

[val2525]

Um, Kritter? It's Presidents Day. But then, one does not need an excuse to post cute pics of guys with cats no matter what the holiday is

I'm just waiting on Target to tell me my order is ready, then I have to several places and pickup curbside orders.

[kritter]

OK then......

[val2525]

If anyone is looking for a short over the door hanger that works great as a plant hanger (for small diameter pots), here 'ya go:

www.amazon.com/gp/product/B095KDDML2/ref=ox_sc_act_title_3?smid=A3RNUWURPBJR9E&psc=1

I wanted to hang some small fake trailing plants on the closet door in my office. This worked great with the almost microscopic fake hanging plants I got.

[frakinfashion]

Well, George Washington was a veteran, so it's all good. And one more kitteh.

[kritter]

Feb 21, 2023 17:42:42 GMT frakinfashion said:

Well, George Washington was a veteran, so it's all good. And one more kitteh.

[chapeaunoir]

We've been out of town and returned yesterday.  A storm blew through and we lost power (as usual) and it was out until this morning.  The house is finally warming up. I'm glad it didn't happen later in the week when the temps are supposed to drop into the 20s and we may have snow. The rain has let up for a bit and the DH darted outside for a bike ride. I may go for a run later. 

We went hiking up in Bellingham over the weekend and came across this thing just plonked in the middle of the woods. 



The path has little mini-waterfalls along it, trickling down the rocks - at their foot is a brook. 



The trail we took connects onto an old railroad grade that's been made for a multi-use path for years - I always love to see paths that go into the woods. 



Random photo:  One of my favourite routes sort of near my house is a trail around an 18-hole golf course with a small lake in it (it's a hilly golf course):





I just found a 2 mile trail much closer to my house (maybe 1/2 to 3/4 mile away?) - I've been some trails through those woods before, but never connected them together - this time I found a map, so I can piece it together for a circuit for laps off road that I can just walk to. 

Still breaking in my new hiking boots the DH got me for Christmas - since I can no longer mountainbike save on easy paths and dirt roads (reflexes aren't as good due to age) hiking and trail running have become good outlets for me, but after 10 miles on Saturday my feet felt a bit macerated - breaking in boots is a bit of a chore, but it's so nice not to have leaky boots with worn tread!

[chapeaunoir]

Ohhh...the DH went out for a bike ride in a window between storms and about 30 minutes later here comes a lashing sleet/hail storm that just went on and on. It finally blew through and there is some blue but I can see the next front headed this way - hopefully he'll be home before it hits.

The forecast today was "rain with some sunbursts, hail, thunderstorms and snow in the mountains" - take your pick, I guess.

[sunsetpainter]

Sounds like the weather here: "If you don't like the weather, just wait 15 minutes and it will change!" LOL

[kritter]

[staytuned]

Happy Fat Tuesday and start of Mardi Gras!

[val2525]

Um, today is the last day of Mardi Gras. Tomorrow is Ash Wednesday. Sooooooooo happy I don't belong to a religion that expects me to give something up for Lent

[denise15601]

Me too. But I would give up sky-diving.

[chapeaunoir]

More weather adventures. I had been going to go to the 10:00 a.m. orange theory class but got up early and went to the 5 a.m. class instead. I'm glad I did, because it's 9 a.m. now and briskly snowing, and the temp has dropped below freezing.

I saw the DH off on his commute to work and the roads were merely wet, it was sleeting lightly and it was above freezing so it seemed fine to ride in - he's probably watching the snow now from his office window - ooops.

[kritter]

88 degrees here today and I love it. Laundry going out on the line.

Looks like we are going to bypass Spring and go straight to Summer.

Works for me.

[val2525]

Feb 22, 2023 16:32:21 GMT denise15601 said:

Me too. But I would give up sky-diving.

Unfortunately for those who honor Lent, one is supposed to give up something that matters to them. Giving up something one doesn't already do isn't a sacrifice. Lent is about sacrifice and self-discipline.  One side of the family is Catholic and so are most of my coworkers, so I get to hear all about the Lent "sacrifices".  My favorite is the year my boss decided she'd give up dropping the F bomb (she does that a LOT), and she would also punish herself if she slipped by putting $20 in a jar for every slip, then donate that money to a charity after Easter.  Surprisingly, she only had $20 in the jar by the end of Lent. We were quite proud of her   Two other coworkers learned the hard way that one does not give up coffee or chocolate for Lent, since Lent also coincides with the busiest part of tax season   It was a rough tax season for all of us as one gave up chocolate and the other gave up coffee at the same time.       (This was back when we were all still in the office and making daily Starbucks runs in the afternoon.)

Sunny and 83 forecast here today.

[staytuned]

DH gave up coffee a couple times and it was tough on him. Last few years he's decided to give up junk food/candy/cookies, etc. which is a sacrifice but doable. I keep telling him he should give up beer for Lent and he looks at me like I'm crazy.

[Shirley U Geste]

It's a balmy 62 here, perfect day to work in the yard... except we are having a steady 35mph wind with gusts to 70mph.

So much for yard work.  

[staytuned]

It's 35 and has been steadily raining all day. Temps supposed to be going up overnight and we might hit around 70 tomorrow before dropping down again. Glad it's rain because we'd have a significant accumulation of the white stuff otherwise. We can use the precipitation, just glad it's the liquid kind.

[kritter]

And we hit 90 this afternoon. I had been planning to air fry the marked down wings that I scored a couple of weeks ago but while at HEB this afternoon, I picked up a couple of steaks so I can pull off a big grillin' day in the near future.

Bit windy here too so laundry out on the line should dry in record time.

[chapeaunoir]

Feb 22, 2023 19:33:29 GMT staytuned said:

DH gave up coffee a couple times and it was tough on him. Last few years he's decided to give up junk food/candy/cookies, etc. which is a sacrifice but doable. I keep telling him he should give up beer for Lent and he looks at me like I'm crazy.

Damn right! 

The DH ended up in the snow his last few miles to work and came into the building shaking the snow from himself, but it stopped and the temp has gasped its way up above freezing.  It'll drop to the 20s tonight, and we hope no more storms to knock out the power. 

It was nice to watch the snow as it fell, though!

[treetop]

My dear late Aunt Nora gave up liquor for lent one year. She was in her early 80s. A bunch of us went out for Mexican one night and she ordered a margarita. My cousin said, “Mom, did you forget, you can’t have that, it’s lent.” Aunt Nora said, “Well, I can, too, that’s not liquor, it’s a margarita!” There was no convincing her otherwise.

[val2525]

My friends and coworkers who drink have learned to be more specific if they are giving up liquor for Lent. They'll say something like, "I'm giving up tequilla" or "I'm giving up rum". But nothing as generic as "I'm giving up booze" or "I'm giving up drinking"

[chapeaunoir]

A glass of good ale in the evening is one of my few indulgeances. Since I've already had to give up 50% of my salt intake I feel like every day is Lent now.    It's the only dietary change I've made that has been hard. 

When I left the gym this evening I was rather appalled to find ice falling - that was one thing the weather haruspices missed when they read the entrails. I got home fine, though, even on our hills, but it was rapidly dropping below freezing and I was concerned about the DH. Turns out he left work a tad early when he saw how fast the temps were dropping. 

ETA:  They missed "volcanos" and "earthquakes" in the forecast (though we have earthquakes all the time - once we had a horrible storm that went on and on and in the middle of it we had a rocking earthquake. It was like the earth was coming unstuck. 

[val2525]

Chap, what sodium limit are you aiming for daily? If you're using the FDA/AHA recommended limit of 2300 mg daily and cook your own food from fresh (not processed), you can add salt and won't see a significant change in taste. One tip with a recipe is to increase herbs by 3x, eliminate the salt totally (except for beef), and sprinkle salt on the finished dish instead. The salt will then be the first thing you taste and it will fool your tastebuds. If your diet uses a lot of soy sauce, you might try subsitituting coconut amino instead, and add small sprinkle of salt on the finished meal. I use himalayan pink salt in a grinder jar, so I can actually see how much salt I'm "sprinking" on the finished item on my plate (I put a little bit in my palm then pick up a pinch to sprinkle, less than 1/8 of a tsp that way). When you cook with tomato based recipes, add a little brown sugar. You won't miss the salt when you do that. It was really hard for me, but at first I had to cut back to 1200 mg a day, which really IS hard. Now that I can go up to 2300 mg, it's a lot easier although most days I'm still around 1400-1800 out of habit unless I go out to eat or order delivery. I can even have reduced sodium bacon now BTW, your tastebuds get used to the reduced sodium in about 4-6 weeks.

You may also need to add potassium to your diet (by food or supplement). It helps counteract the effect of sodium and can help in lowering blood pressure.

www.heart.org/en/healthy-living/healthy-eating/eat-smart/sodium/potassium#:~:text=Foods%20with%20potassium%20can%20help,which%20helps%20lower%20blood%20pressure.


Partly cloudy and 80 on tap for here today.

[labbypaws]

If you get bored, watch the Murdaugh cross by the prosecution. It just started a bit ago.

[Pantlandia]

Started snowing quite heavily around 1:00ish yesterday. Most everyone at the office left shortly after, I left at 3pm and my 40 minute drive home took 2 hours. We accumulated a lot of snow in a very short amount of time. Office was closed today, which is fine since the roads are still horrible and even tho I have AWD, there is no chance I'm getting out of the parking lot. So, I am listing swimsuits today...while it's snowing LOL

[denise15601]

Beautiful today! Another 70 degree day! Last week I finally washed my car in the driveway.

Today I picked up (with my reacher-grabber) a wheelbarrow full of pine branches and pinecones. It usually takes about 8 wheelbarrows full, but I can only do one at a time.

My daffodils, irises and daylilies are all coming up-about 7 inches high each....way too early.

It will be cold again tomorrow.