The weather is going to be nice here, so I am going to finish Winterizing my plants and deck/porch. That means the nice cushions come off the wicker out front, and the umbrella and chaise in the back head to the shed for six months. :o/ And then I'll be covering a lot of my plants with clippings to protect them from the cold cold cold. *sigh*

What will you be doing?

I'll be trying to hit 25K in NaNoWriMo

Reviewing 70 stories for a short story competition I'm co-judging. Apparently they're all awful except for two of them. I have read about 20, and yes, they really are awful so far. What fun awaits me tomorrow!

Not too much planned here so far. Youngest has a therapy appointment this afternoon so we will start the weekend off that way. Not her favorite way to start, either. Oldest will probably have plans tonight so we will be chauffering him somewhere I am sure. Will probably watch a movie with the girls tonight.

Tomorrow will hang around the house with the kids for most of the day and then go to SIL's to celebrate the birthdays of the oldest two. Their birthdays are 10/30 and 11/17 so we combined them this year. Hanging around again on Sunday. Hubby is still in his walking so not much outside work being done. He may wrangle the boys to do some. We do have some clearing out of toys, etc. to do so may get some of that done over the weekend. Some to the trash probably and some to Goodwill.

I just found out I have a severe vitamin D deficiency which explains why I am so tired all of the time. I am sure there will be lots of sleeping being done this weekend as well and hopefully a lot of reading.

#4 - From what I keep hearing many of us have a Vit D deficiency. It's all because they keep yelling at us to stay out of the sun. Plus, it doesn't occur naturally in too many food we eat these days. I have to start taking my Calcium + D pills again. Thanks for the reminder. Enjoy your extra sleep!

#3 - Sounds both fun and difficult. Good luck!

#2 - Keep typing! :oD

#5 - That is true. I am a vegetarian and have cut a lot of dairy out of my diet as well. If I had taken those calcium/vitamin D pills I bought, this probably wouldn't have happened. The 70+ sunscreen I use doesn't help either but I am very fair and had quite a few bad burns back in my wild teen years so I don't have much of a choice. Hopefully, the pills will help quickly.

I'll also be typing away at my nano novel. I'll probably aim for 20,000, I'm a little less ambitious than majkia!

We don't have much planned this weekend; going through the stuff in my MIL's loft to see what we need for the winter and what will be left in there, starting work on a freelance web design project, and probably doing some reading and library visiting. Not all that exciting!

#6 - Understood. I'm pretty pale, too. I try to protect my face, but l often let the sun shine on my arms and legs. (Not enough to burn, but to get some benefit.) It's a rock and a hard place situation for sure. Hope they help FAST!

Message edited by its author, Nov 6, 2009, 8:59am.

Knocking out a bunch of baked goods for a bake sale at church on Saturday. Making extra for samples to taste. People see the label organic and think it tastes like cardboard.

I have no plans, at the moment, but at least I'm not horribly sick any more *jumps up and down with joy!* :D

That's good to hear.

Today I plan to sit around waiting for the numbness from my dentist appointment to wear off (it's been ages since I had fillings and I forgot how WEIRD it feels). After that, who knows?

Currenly I am listening to these crazy Yankee fans screaming for the parade about to happen outside my window. My sister is in town this weekend so we will be hanging out, although we don't have any definite plans yet.

It is supposed to be relatively nice around here so I'll probably get a couple walks in. Other than that I have no plans.

The normal for me. I also have some cooking to do, including making applesauce and chicken noodle soup.

Heading to the movies to see The 4th Kind on Sat. That's about it.

Heading to the kids for an extended visit. Tuesday is Grandparents Day in kindergarten. Can't miss that!

Monday while everybody is at work/school/daycare, I'll be visiting bookstores. Mall of the Bluffs has a Barnes & Nobles right near a Panera restaurant. My little taste of heaven to hit them both in one visit.

Proctoring SATs tomorrow.

I was supposed to babysit tonight, but it has been moved to sunday instead.
Yesterday we had girls's night at the library, which meant that I didn't get home until 11pm, so I will probably just enjoy a quiet friday tonight doing nothing but reading and watching tv.

Saturday I will continue working on getting my books into my LT account

Just came back from tutoring, which means I have some poems to grade, report cards to fill out, and powerpoints to format this weekend. That is, in addition to my classwork- I should probably get working on my papers too.

My goal this weekend is to read A Student's Guide to Political Philosophy and finish Things Fall Apart. Those two should present an interesting dichotomy.....

On the fun side, work tonight, soccer tomorrow, dinner on Sunday with friends, and a holiday roll-out meeting at work. Busy, busy, busy!

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

I have an exceptionally full weekend. Tomorrow KB and I are going downtown for the Chicago Humanities Festival and Sunday I have an opera. KB's cousin is coming Sunday for two nights.

Thursday I got a phone call from an old friend who is moving to Virginia on the 20th. Do I want to run through his book shelves before he gives stuff away? You bet! So that's what I'll be doing this evening. I'm dragging KB along to be sociable and serve as toter-in-chief.

#17: That reminds me that I need to go by B&N to pick up some books that I need for teaching next week. I'll go order those right now so they're ready for me.

#13 Woot!!!

Tonight is a Farscape viewing. Tomorrow is the post-mortem for the Samhein ritual (yuck) and then to Monterey for dinner with friends visiting from out of town. On Sunday, I am blowing off a reading group that my hubby joined. He promised that November would be quieter but he keeps on signing up for stuff. I already have too many books on my TBR.

Just returned from a couple of days in Sweden and leaving for Thailand on Monday so washing and packing will consume several hours this weekend. The in-laws arrive on Sunday so big food Sunday evening - Roast Lamb yum

I now have a plan! I plan to play on Second Life with my sister and get ready for the job I'm starting Tuesday! Yay!!

I'm cleaning up for my housemate's birthday tomorrow. She's having open house and therefore lots of visitors. I don't want to be blamable for mess. A bunch of people are going to turn up later on for dancing, but she doesn't know that yet...

Then tonight I'm doing a dance display in the great hall at Parliament House. There's a conference dinner there, and we're dancing the Renaissance. It's a lovely dance floor, and we don't get the chance to dance on it in never, so we're going to take the opportunity.

Congrats on starting the new job, bluesalamanders!

No plans set for the moment. This is the last week that my husband is performing in a local production of Sondheim's Into The Woods. He just left the house about ten minutes ago. So I'll pop in a DVD, finish a letter to a pen pal, or otherwise fritter away my evening.

Tomorrow is under negotiation; grocery shopping is a given but we don't know what we'll do past that point. I really just want to keep Patrick's spirits up -- there's always a let down when a show finishes its run.

#27 -- I love Into the Woods! If I lived anywhere close to you, I would definitely come see it.

I am planning on cleaning the house and working on my NaNoWriMo novel. Not much excitement.

Went to the presale for my college's library's annual book sale, and bought a number of things including 2 Dean Koontz novels, and five American Library books, including their two volume sets of 19th century poetry and 20th century poetry. Tomorrow I'm spending the morning putting laundry away, doing laundry, etc. In the afternoon my aunt is picking me up and I"m heading to Powell's to sell some stuff and buy more. :) Sunday will then be spent working on my thesis, as I've gotten next to nothing done on it since Wednesday.

I don't even want to begin my list. Let it be enough to say that my bazaar is next week-end and I am not ready; another bazaar tomorrow that I might be selling stuff at or not depending on whether I get other stuff done. And then Sunday a celebration for our minister's tenth anniversary of starting our little church.

Too much!!!!

After next weekend, life might be more normal. I hope.

Congrats on the job, bluesalamanders!

Barry - Thailand; is it vacation or work? Whichever it's nice weather there at the moment, at least compared to Sweden ;-)

Right now I'm putting off having to house clean... The rest of the family went to the indoors swimming pool and I expect them to have company (one of son's friends) when they get back, with the possibility of dinner guests.

I'd much rather be in Thailand or even sorting through a friends bookshelves than my reality of store hopping in search of a new refrigerator this tax-free-appliance weekend.
Also have to find somewhere to get a British standard passport photo so I can then pay the British consulate ridiculous amounts of money for the privilege of being allowed to travel home for a visit.
Groceries, clothes shopping (ick!), yard work, knitting, reading, and hoping for another leg aching Sunday afternoon walk.
Have a good weekend everyone!

Thanks Jill, thanks Busifer!

It was funny, actually, both temp agencies I'm with called me within about 5 minutes yesterday to talk about available jobs, so I actually had a choice (I chose, surprise surprise, the one with slightly better pay and a shorter commute)

#31 Busifer, sadly it's work but during the week I'm staying in Ayutthaya and I'll be in Bangkok for the weekend (coming back next Wednesday) so I hope to have some leisure time too :-) I'll be back in Sweden again the first week in December, hoping to see lots of snow!!

BritAnnia, good luck with the passport photo hunt, we need to do the same for my daughter at the moment, then despite living 10 miles from a European capital we need to send it to Paris. Don't forget you'll also need to find a reputable Brit whose known you for the past couple of years to sign the back - also quite challenging in my past experience when you don't live in the UK.

shopping cleaning raking, all the usual

Barry, I'm sorry to disappoint you but these last years the snow has waited until February... True, we can have some light snowfalls but nothing that stays on the ground. Except when we get the annual 'snow chaos', which is usually about now, when 3-4 decimetres of snow falls during an hour or two. The snow usually melts within 48 hours, though.

I'll be having a birthday celebration. :)

It's been a doozy of a week -- had two root canals (on the same tooth!) and am now trying to wean myself off the pain meds so I can go visit my ex, who was diagnosed with a brain tumor this week (put those root canals into perspective real quick). He's in good spirits, but has a long road ahead.

After a few miserable rainy weekends here, it's finally a beautiful (if cold) Saturday. Going to walk into town to buy a few things in a bit. Then have some business stuff to tend to.

Everything I made for church bake sale went. Folks kept coming back around in circles to look.

Organic? Yes, all the ingredients I used are organic (to include explaining what that means).

Carob? What's that? Again more explaining.

Why are these cookies flat? Because they are crisp and that's how they come out.

Banana bread? Yes I used real bananas not flavoring.

Lets see what folks say tomorrow at church after eating the goods.

There are people who make banana bread without real bananas?!?! Remind me to always ask before I buy it in a cafe. I'll just have to keep making my own.

This weekend has beenthe usual round of work, and avoiding my essays, and avoiding even looking at my notes for my equity and trusts exam next week. *sigh*

I have a pot luck dinner tonight for which I'm probably cooking way too much. Then I'm meeting up with the boy for coffee (assuming there's any coffee shop open in Canberra on a Sunday night...I'm not hopeful.)

Unfortunately there are far too many things made with only flavoring in them. That's what has gone wrong with our eating habits in the last two generations.

All the flavors added to make something taste like something, are developed, tested and made here in New Jersey.

My husband and I got back from our week in Las Vegas this afternoon (Saturday) so the rest of the weekend will be unpacking, sorting, laundry, catching up with the mail and newspapers, cuddling the cat (who was so well looked after by our kids that he doesn't actually seem to have missed us), grocery shopping, house cleaning (the kids didn't trash the place, but they never washed a dish either LOL). I have a TON of email to get through, too, because we didn't always have good wi-fi in Vegas (too cheap to pay so had to find free places).

Hi, all! I accompanied my father on a trip to the bustling metropolis of Grass Range, Montana (pop. 150). 2 days of driving (with no working speakers in the car). Dad has a house here that he grew up in. He drives here and back once or twice every year.

We arrived last night. We spent all day today in the basement and crawlspace fixing the plumbing. Ugh! But we accomplished it. This house is decrepit, and that's being generous. But, the countryside here is photogenic.

It's been pretty cold and mostly clear here in central Montana. I like having lots of subjects to photograph, but the deafening silence and the removal from friends and my girlfriend will get to me. I'm glad I fly back on Thursday.

Astonishingly, I've latched on to a weak but steady Wi-Fi signal here. So, at least I can stay somewhat connected to the rest of the world. Hopefully tomorrow will bring more photographs and maybe an adventure or two.

Got a whopping 6 pages of my thesis written today. Although part of that was realizing I'd forgotten to add a whole section from when I'd been writing it piecemeal, but whatever. Watching Heroes on the internet and reading Time Pressure by Spider Robinson. Not great literature by any stretch, but a fun little book. Tomorrow its off to Powell's to sell some books and probably buy just as many. I'm on the lookout for Library of America books, as well as a copy of Warbreaker, a good HP Lovecraft collection, and anything else that happens to catch my eye.

The good news is that my overly busy life is nearly to the point where many of the commitments will be complete and my life will be more leisurely, as befits a retired lady. The bad news is I fell over my own feet last week and hit the ground with my arm under me, bruising or breaking a rib or two (osteoporosis). Ouchy! I have spent way too much time this weekend resting and moving slowly so that the hurt rib(s) will stop biting me. Darn!

Ouch! Messed up three ribs back in my twenties. Know that feeling.

oh dear, my husband has also had broken ribs. The pain and discomfort he had was hard to watch. Hope you heal soon!

Take care of yourself, maggie!

OldSarge, I think you should start an Organic thread here on the Dragon, and I'll add a link to it to the main page. Maybe 'Organic is not a dirty word' or something along those line. What do you think?

I was trying to explain to my son why McDonald's cheese burgers taste more like what he thinks of as 'burger' than the Buffalo meat burgers I make at home. When I told him they add 'meat flavor' to their meat he was speechless. But he still thinks theirs taste better. :o/

Feel better, maggie. When my mom busted a few ribs they made her keep moving! Take some Advil or Aleve and get on your feet if you can.

clam, you've got me thinking.

Dangerous...

When I busted up three ribs I was in Korea at the time. We were off duty and off base drinking soju. Someone decided that renting bicycles was a good idea.

Somewhere along the road a Korean cab driver tried to hit me. I plowed into another soldier on a bicycle and then went flying into a ditch like Superman.

Can't remember how they snuck me back onto base past the MPs with a shredded bloody shirt. We were drinking remember.

Luckily one of our medics was in the barracks. I stayed drunk while he dug the gravel out of my side and cleaned me up.

Couldn't go to the base hospital because they would have called the MPs as it was an alcohol related incident.

Our friendly medic treated me for weeks on the sly. Kept the wound area clean and my torso wrapped.

I have never drank and biked since. LOL.

Ah, youth and foolishness. The things we did would raise the hair on your head.

Two late nights this weekend. First after the display we did for the conference it was a late night dancing. Then last night was a surprise party for my housemate. I got to sleep at about 1.30am. Too late for me. Getting up for work this morning was a bit of a trial.

Just got back from Powell's. Anyone know if there's a current acquisitions thread in the Dragon? Maybe a link?

Yes, it's called November Nabs and here is the link (I hope) http://www.librarything.com/topic/76192

Yay, it worked!

Ouch maggie!! Please take care of yourself!

((((((( maggie )))))))) giving you some air between the hug ;-)

Hope you start feeling better soon.

#52 OldSarge, your story of youthful foolishness reminds me of some of mine (which I am not going to share!), but brought a smile to my face nonetheless. Thanks for sharing yours :-)

There are a number of things that don't mix well with drinking, some of which I have discovered the hard way. Walking comes to mind.......

Maggie, dear heart, I am sorry to hear of your injuries. Take good care.

Well we managed drinking and public transport - another combination with possibilities of poor outcomes, but it went very well.

We managed to catch our once-a-week train, from the local station. That's right, once a week, you can get one train in 1 direction. 6months later they reverse the direction. After two repvious attempts where the train didn't show, we've finally managed to ride on it. The end of the line is an old Victorain Buffet Bar, with log fire and real cider. We then caught a bus to some other pubs serving real cider, including the most delicious Perry I've ever tried. Only a few more pubs to get to before next weekend in order to enter the competition to win more cider.

Saturday was visitng OtherHalf's parents now that we'd cured our colds with the cider. Very pleased that it looks like they're feeling a lot more healthy than they were.

careful {hugs} to ill people, and congratulations to healthy and working people!

Oh Maggie please take care of yourself! Heal quickly.

Flew back home late last night from my visit with my daughter. It was in the 80's all weekend and came home and just got up for work to 30's. Now I know why my daughter moved down there. It 's wonderful and I miss her so much already. Back to the old grind.

#58 - We managed to catch our once-a-week train, from the local station. That's right, once a week, you can get one train in 1 direction. 6months later they reverse the direction.

Where do they keep 26 trains until they are ready to turn them around?

#61 LOL! The stations at either end of our line connect to other lines, so the trains rejoin the network.

The train operating company would love to close our line altogether, but it was established by an act of parliment long ago, that specified a weekly train service. They'd need another act to close it now (not easy to achieve nowadays!), so they run what they define as a 'weekly' service. It's a shame because if they ran it properly loads of local people would take the train instead of driving into the already congested bits of manchester.

Had an amazing weekend, celebrated my BD with my sister and niece, then went to a friend's all-night party that last till dawn. Man I am TOO OLD for that, LOL! Got to see an old pal I haven't seen in 12 years!

I'm still at daughter's. Grandparent's Day is tomorrow.

Ran into Omaha (Just across the river bridge) to the CrossRoads Barnes and Noble. Got to meet goddessladyj for a few minutes. It was nice to meet her and so nice to put a face to her name. I also got to admire her diamond - truly lovely. Then I talked up LT to another B&N staff member, and she may join. I hope so.

I'll bug her some more. :)

*giggle* Resistance is futile. You will be assimilated.

Oh, I just love hearing about Dragoners/LTers meeting in real life. :o)

Thanks for sharing, you two!

Message edited by its author, Nov 12, 2009, 10:12am.

Hey clam, just got back from your neck o' the woods - spent the day at your hubby's workplace again!

Cool, drn00t! Our weather was pretty dreary today, but I guess it wasn't that different from yours. I'll bet you flew over my house again!