looking forward to tomorrow!!
I have the keys in my possession.
I have a car for the day!!
I have a few small plans. I am going grocery shopping, ICK!!
I will be picking one kid up at school, we are going to go grab lunch and take the other kid lunch at his school. I will then drop her off.
It is supposed to rain tomorrow so I will wear my rain gear. I want to head to the lake and just watch the waves for an hr or so. My soul needs to reconnect with the water.
I will take my cam tho I would doubt I will get any spectacular pics but then again you never know.
Looking forward to feeding my soul,
ju

I took my daughter to the allergist today.
Remember her "allergic" reaction to the cold a few weeks ago?
After taking her history and dicussing the possibility of being allergic to the cold and its dangers as well as precautions to be taken he decided to test her.
This is where it gets really technical so put your thinking caps on if you want to follow along.
The Dr. left the office for a minute and came back in with 3 items, an orange freezie, a plastic bag and a piece of tape. He put the freezie in the bag and taped it all to her inner arm and left with strict instructions not to touch the freezie with her other hand causing it to melt. He then left us for 5 minutes and said we wouldn't likely see any change untill her skin rewarmed.
When he removed the high tech testing kit she did have quite a red welt he thought looked promising. Wait another 5 mintes or so and by the time he came back in the red welt had disappeared. The good news is she isn't allergic to the cold. The bad news is we still don't know what caused that case of hives and the ones that are still appearing if she doesn't take her meds but at least we know how to deal with it now. She is to keep taking her meds stopping now and then to see if hives come back. If they do I will be taking her for bloodwork apparently a thyroid problem can cause hives in some ppl and there is a history of that in my family. She still has to be extra cautious getting into cold or cool water and must keep her epi pen with her at all times.
In this case the KISS principle was the best, she was terrified of having skin tests.
Somewhat relieved,
ju

I met this guy in chat. He wasn't very talkative but bit by bit we got to know each other. I couldn't figure out why the hell he wanted to retire in a place such as Sudbury but he explained to me that he liked to hunt and fish.
Fast forward many many months if not a year or more.
We spoke off and on in chat but then as we felt more comfortable we moved to msn. This was when I got the opportunity to meet his bride, the love of his life.
The three of us, their cats, my kids spent many many hrs usually on a fri or sat night having audio cam chats. We allowed each other into our personal lives.
Last spring we had an opportunity to meet. We all were exactly as we had appeared online. Maggies was here and we all had a very relaxing and fun time chatting, getting to know each other and even more fun laughing at many many things that were similar and yet different.
Later that summer myself, my kids and what Al called the "loaner kid" were invited to Sudbury. Initially we were only going to be gone for a week but that stretched into two.
I have never encountered such gracious hosts. They not only opened their home for us but they opened their hearts, wanting to make sure all had a good time.
We played scrabble and crazy pool, we went swimming in both the neighbours pool and at the nearest beach. My son and I went fishing for the first time ever. The "girls" went shopping.We visited the mine,and the arctic watershed. We went to Onnaping falls and from the top looked down and from the bottom we looked up. We went blueberry picking and we shared some amazing meals. (the kids will tell you there were a few things that were gross but what do kids know about escargot, king crab and moose steaks?)
Conversation never for a minute lagged.
We went to the Sudbury fire station which was a highlight for my son. He not only got to try on all the firefighters equipment and sit in all the trucks he was brave enough to speak up and ask to sit in the ambulance at which time they brought out the paramedics to explain it all to him.
Many, many things were pointed out to us as things of interest in the area. Some the kids and I did on our own, some Nita the kids and I did together and some Al the kids and I did. Many many more times the 5 of us did everything together.
I was the designated driver at least one way when they went out for their anniversary dinner.
Two weeks was a little too long for all of us. It wasn't snippy it was just a need for us all to have our own space.
It was a holiday I don't think any of us will ever forget.

******
Nita is no longer with us, a loss I feel and am still having trouble understand how Al is coping with.
Al asked me to post this pic for him, as a memorial but he didn't ask me to say anything in particular.
This post is mine and mine alone.
Memories, damn good ones.




Thank you, Al and Nita,
big D

One of the many features of premium is the supposed lack of advertising that you have to endure.
So WHY am I seeing special notices for upgrading? I am a lifer and I don't need to up grade.
I see my nudle balance everytime I log in cluttering up the top right of my screen. Nudles are useless to me, I am a lifer I neither want nor need them to "upgrade"
When I had nudles they were of no use, I waited for ages to be able to purchase merchandise and that never came to pass so I gave them all away.
As far as the you have a new friend thingy lighting up, you are assuming I really want to see that as soon as I log in. I don't.
If I want to visit that part of the site I know where it is.
At the very least as a premium member I should have the option to shut all of this off in the same way I can shut off emails telling me I have a PM (rolls eyes)
Come on NN not all new features are "benefits" give us the option to judge for ourselves if we want them or not.
Regards,
ju

It has been an interesting 24 hours. I got to meet many NNers I only knew by screen name before. Nice ta meetcha!
I have learned that the NN grapevine is probably far more efficient than CNN for spreading the "news"
I found out I have a body guard or perhaps negotiator, he didn't apply for the job and I didn't hire him, seems he has been appointed. So much for democracy I suppose.
I do however wish to go back to my corner and enjoy the site in my own way. I dislike having to take a stand like I did last night but I always will if necessary.
Chillin,
ju

Even if your chid requests stew it is prolly not a good idea to make it when the temps have finally hit the high teens. It won't get eaten no matter how much they beg.
My son has a spring cold, and a low fever,poor kid. Here is hoping he doesn't give it to the rest of us. Lysol!!
Friends who have all the tools you might ever consider borrowing should at least live in the same city. Remember I was going to make something out of nothing? Well I tried, with the help of BNG's dremel but it didn't work the way I had hoped. Purolator is making some money here.
It seems as though spring has settled into this part of the country for now anyway. It is all I can do to leave the garden alone for another month. To quench some of my desire to "play in the dirt" I have planted a few things indoors.
Bottled water is a huge environmental issue. All those plastic bottles headed to the land fill is not a good thing. It is far cheaper to get a filter for your tap and have a reusable water bottle.
Random,
ju

I wish I could remember where I put my nudle link all that time ago. Every week or so I get another .01 of a nudle. If I knew where the damn thing was I would up date it so I too could participate in the next teabag auction.
ju

the "lull"
NN seems stagnant.
I am sure the powers that be are scrambling to keep up.
Once, NN was unique on the net.
Now you can get everything premies paid for and more, for free, else where.
I am not disatisfied, I have gotten my moneys worth.
There is more, much more that could be done to get NN back to number 1.
Just a lil more than slightly bored and wandering the net,
ju

What an absolutely gorgeous late April day! It feels more like late May. We are supposed to have this weather untill at least Wed. I haven't seen the forecast beyond that.
I HAD to be outside today, there was NO way I could possibly stay indoors.
I put shorts on about mid morning, by lunch I decided I was going to bbq. Quick in and out the back door one would think not requiring shoes at all. Light the bbq take a wander around the fence, check out the lilacs and note the buds are coming along nicely. Venture a little further to take a good look at the tiger lilies which are now up a good 3".
Back to the bbq.
I went back into the house when the meat was cooked and made potato salad and a carrot salad, dinner was prepped before 1 pm.
I had to go out front now because the sun had come around. I really only intended to sit on the step for a bit and enjoy the sun but that damn garden looked like it needed a good raking. Grab the rake and proceede to rake not only the garden but half the front yard and all of the back yard.
Time to think about starting a few seeds indoors.
Open the garage, haul out the planters, back into the house for the seeds, garage again for the potting soil. Get all of that sorted with the help of a couple of little hands.
Back to the step to have a another beer and just enjoy the sun a bit.
I now have a bit of a sunburnt face and very dirty feet because not once did it occur to me to put shoes on.
After the winter we had it feeels soooooooooo good to not have to worry about something as mundane as shoes.
I know it can and probably will get cold again before the opressive heat and humidity arrive.
However I thoroughly enjoyed my first day without shoes this year.
Slightly sunburnt, smiling and with very very dirty feet,
a happy ju

Rather than tell people there is no cam room on NN you have to be cute and say hit alt f4 for cams.
Really, what kind of pleasure do you get from that?
I have seen some mods use that line regularly.
Isn't that nice?
Welcome to NN and now get the fuck out.
Tempted to boot every asshole that tries to pull that one, it might just be disrupting chat.
Angry,
ju