Crone Cronies - If You're Happy and You Know It, Thank Your Meds. March 13

[sciencelady]

The Cronies is a place for women who are mature in age or attitude. The group is highly diverse in that we have ages ranging from 30s to 60s, some are moms, some are single, some are teachers/professors, and some have jobs and work outside the home and some don’t. We do our own thing and are happy when life doesn’t get in the way too often. Some are training for a marathon, some don’t even do vids, you get the picture.

Life and exercise are what we report. A thread is started every Sunday. Some report every day, others whenever they can.

Bottom line: we are a diverse group and very supportive of each other’s goals. Oh, and we’re funny as heck. If you’d like to join us, just come on down.

[sciencelady]

Good morning!

Thanks, Laura, for the great thread title!

Planning on walking Gus and enjoying a bit warmer weather - today we'll be getting up to 40F! 50's later in the week! I'm definitely aware of Adelija being gone, but not seriously missing her to a point that I want another student next year. Mondo festival yesterday was a lot smaller than normal - they did their show in the gym instead of on stage - bit more difficult to see without lighting and only a handful of professional performers compared to the dozen or so on other year - still good! They had changed the show date by a month or so, so the high school stage they used probably wasn't available. It was good to see my friends . Tomorrow morning will be an early one as I have to take Gus to the vet for a dental cleaning at 8 am.

Laura, I feel lucky that I have a good shoe store nearby that specializes in comfortable shoes for older people and accommodating all the inserts we use. I use them for everything for my feet. I'm glad you escaped the east coast snows! Polly has a special bed already! You're becoming cat people! Adelija wants to do a Florida get-away this spring - it's possible that one of her Greenheart friends and their family will be going so she'll have some adult supervision - I wouldn't feel comfortable with her going on her own.

Paula, I'm hoping this will be the end of winter weather, but frankly we end up with blizzards in April or early May... The clay cookware I had wasn't glazed, just clay finish, so it was recommended that they be oil conditioned before use. I didn't do it . The cookware should come with instructions - this is one set that I found online "Submerge pot and lid in water overnight. Wipe dry, and rub interior with a very thin layer of neutral oil. Place lid and base separately on rack in a cold oven, and heat to 325°F. Bake 2 hours. Turn off oven, and let cool completely without opening oven door, at least 4 hours." This is one on pizza stone trays https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vkn89A6iAp8.

Waves to all!

Anita

[Laura S.]

Anita - Thanks for getting us started. This theme is classic Maxine!

It's a bright and sunny day outside, but chilly. I haven't been outside yet today, but want to take a walk, even if it's short. My back has nagged at me more than usual this week because I've aggravated it by doing more physical things this week with DH feeling so bad. But, a short walk sounds good. Other than that, I've done some crafting and a little cooking so far today. I have several notes to write today. And we went to church this morning.

Paula - Last night, I ordered one pair of shoes from Amazon from their "try before you pay" program, the first time for me with this option, and one pair from Zappos. I've ordered shoes from Amazon before and always have made sure they offered free returns on what I ordered. They are making it easy to clothes and shoes from them. I never have seasoned a clay pot before using it. I forgot to mention my current clay pot is glazed on on the inside on the bottom and that makes cleaning it easier. When I was looking for a new one, this one was the only one I could find that didn't seem outrageously expensive. The one before that was not. All I ever did was soak them in water before using them (just the top for the current pot).

Anita - Ugh. Having a 8:00 a.m. appointment on "spring forward" Sunday? You're tougher than I am! I'm glad you're enjoying having your house to yourself. I'd think it would be a good check on whether you want to do it again next week. Of course, this year, you got someone who seems like a total extrovert and I'm guessing you're an introvert? It would add to the tiredness, if so.

[Paula]

Good evening. Workout this morning was Pahla B Body Shaping Day 27 Walking with Weights.

I was lamenting to DH that we didn't have anything fun planned for my birthday. He suggested I see if we could still get a Mexico cruise even at this late date. Turns out we could. I was surprised we could get something this close to departure date. Anyway we're doing the Mexican Riveria on the Princess Majestic leaving Saturday. We need passports, proof of vaccination, (no problem on those two) and a negitive COVID test no older than two days. I got us test appointments for Thursday.

I guess it's too late to chose a specific cabin, we could only chose a type of cabin (balcony) and I guess they'll find us one somewhere on the ship.

Anita, thanks for getting us started. Love the theme (thank you Laura). You're not enjoying the surrogate Mom role enough to do it again - why am I not surprised. I think Laura may be right - you're an introvert and Adelija is a social butterfly. But many teenage girls are. Perhaps it's simply you're used to people with a bit more life experience. Teens aren't known for their depth. Thanks for the link on how to season a pizza stone - I never seasoned mine, didn't know you were supposed to. I haven't used it much. I have seasoned cast iron pans, but honestly I got rid of mine as they were just too heavy and besides I never thought they cooked better than my other pans. Surprised Adelija doesn't want to visit CA - I thought seeing Disney, Universal Studios, and a surfing beach was on every teenagers list if they came to the US.

Laura, Hope your back is feeling better. Glad it's getting warmer where you are. I ordered some clothes on Amazon's try before you pay program. The only problem I had with it was the return on the items I chose not to keep wasn't free and that bugged me. I haven't used that program since. I think it's easier just to buy what I'm interested in and return anything that doesn't fit.

[sciencelady]

Good morning!

Today is Gus's dental cleaning day - I have to drop him off at the vet by 8 am. I might walk him there (20 minute walk away) so he takes a good poop this morning. Snow will be drizzling down today, but melting on contact - it's 35 F out there now. Yay to no shoveling and no winter coat! Otherwise a nice quiet day here - I'm enjoying the peace and quiet of not having Adelija here. I might try painting on some walls over some scuff marks - washing those areas didn't work because the texture of the paint smoothed out and looks slightly different from the rest of the wall. Tonight I have a game of Spades - hopefully Gus pickup will be before that.

Laura, sorry about your back pain - hopefully that will pass. Yeah, you're right - I'm an introvert and Adelija is an extrovert. She would love to be in a house with twenty people all the time - I'm anticipating that when she goes to college she'd be in a sorority and living there. I'm glad I have this week to recover a bit.

Paula, yay on your cruise to Mexico! Hopefully Covid is now pretty much gone and controlled on that ship. Frankly, I mostly just do frozen pizzas that don't use a stone or pan - just putting it naked on the rack. I still have a pan, but haven't used it in years. Adelija is obsessed with Florida, not California and will likely spend time on the beach or by the pool - she can fill out a bikini in a very sexy way! I'm glad she dresses pretty modestly for school. I've been avoiding doing business with Amazon as they closed down a women's bookstore here in town that I loved that had that name - it preceded that company name, but they were going to get sued so shut down .

Waves to all!

Anita

[Laura S.]

It turned into another busyish day. I took DH to a medical appointment in the late morning. We came home and grabbed lunch and then I had a Zoom training session at 2:00. That turned into a 2.5-hour marathon. The Zoom info I had sent her didn't get through, so part of that was getting started late. I have a little more work to do this evening and then I'll be caught up on my work.

Paula - Yay. Enjoy your cruise. It sounds really nice to get away. I took a quick look at cruises this afternoon to see if I saw anything interesting. Given how DH is feeling these days, I don't see him having the energy to go on vacation. Plus, our first trip will need to be to WV to see his mama. But someday.

Anita - Hopefully, Gus had a good dental visit. It sounds like a good thing that Adelija is gone to give you a break. Assuming appropriate adult supervision, I'd encourage her to go to Florida...

[Paula]

Good evening. Workout this morning was a long Yin Yoga practice with Travis Eliot. Went flying today then came home and through what we need for formal nights. Gratefully I don't need to buy anything.

We then decided to do some of the online check in, what a disaster. We've taken many cruises and never have had the trouble filling out the paperwork as we've had with this one. It won't take my name, keeps telling me it's an invalid name, the page keeps crashing and all in all Princess Medalion program is just awful. Was interested to see the reviews of Medalion app are awful, it doesn't work for anyone on apple or android.

Anita, you'll be walking Gus in drizzling snow but a winter coat is no longer needed! I had to read that twice. I hope Adelija is enjoying her time away - she's in DC now right? We try to do touch up painting at least once a year, but really we need to repaint but we're too lazy to do it. This ship requires everyone be fully vaccinated (including children)and have a negative COVID test within two days of departure. We have to sign a statement that we are willing to wear a mask in all group settings and whenever requested to do so. I'm not sure what more they could do. Same rules as on our Alaska cruise and we didn't have any problems - fingers crossed we have the same here. Good luck to Gus on his ordeal. Will he have to stay overnight to sleep it off? I remember you telling us about Amazon making the bookstore close. I agree it was unnecessary - I doubt anyone would get the two confused.

Laura, it's harder from where you are to take a last minute cruise because you have to travel to another state first. I suspect your DH would be relatively comfortable once he was on the ship but the inital travel to get there and get boarded might be a bit much for him. I hope he's feeling better soon. Yay, on getting Zoom students again. We haven't used our pizza stone much and we really never make pizza anymore.

[sciencelady]

Good morning!

Gus is pretty well recovered, I picked him up last night about 20 minutes after he got off the anesthesia - he was pretty drunk at the time, but they let him go as they know I'm a veterinarian. He ate dinner late last night about four hours after anesthesia and is eating breakfast now - no problems. I'll be taking him for a nice walk today, maybe with friends. We ended up with about half an inch of snow yesterday and it was melted away by afternoon - it'll be in the 50s today!

Laura, I use Zoom for our card meetings secondary to the game program - I thought you could only do about half an hour for free, but need to pay for hosting longer - I don't have that but have two friends with that capability. I like being able to have a face to face talk with friends in Milwaukee and Chile. I'm enjoying the quiet around he house without Adelija . I hope your DH feels better soon!

Paula, I think I'd need to buy stuff for formal nights on a cruise - I've got sweat pants, jeans, leggings, and summer capris. I haven't tried on my dresses, but would likely need to buy more, especially if they have to be formal. Sorry about the application nightmares registering for your cruise - what else is there besides Apple or Android? Adelija will be coming in Friday morning at 8 am - I'll be picking her up and taking her home - she won't be going to school that day, even though she could, maybe missing out on her first hour attendance. Me? I'll go work at the WRC after dropping Adelija off - they will be very short-staffed Friday, so I'll try to help and feed my bats and other creatures. Adelija didn't do the at home Covid test before getting on the plane - I assume she wasn't asked about it. I wish she would have one it as I feel bad having the free test just sitting in my kitchen. DC is having everyone wear masks in all the Smithsonian museums still, so Adelija does have several with her. Best of luck getting everything done for your cruise!

Waves to all!

Anita

[Laura S.]

I can't believe it's almost 9:00. Today just melted away. Mainly, I putzed around the house. We had a bunch of boxes and I started stuffing them in the recycle bin. And I got trash gathered as well. (Tomorrow is the day we have to put all that out....) I got a couple of pairs of shoes (including the Amazon Try Before You Buy pair) and tried them on and liked them both (so no return). DH and I hung out a lot and I did some art journaling. I got an email about cruise deals, so I spent time looking to see if I could find one that would be good for us, but struck out.

Paula - Everything I have seen is that Try Before You Buy has free returns. I don't know why you would have been charged? I'm sorry that the online check-in just didn't work. What an aggravation! I hope they can help you out when you get there or things improve before you leave.

Anita - You can do 40-minute sessions for free if you have three or more people. My family can generally get all the news in before we get dumped off. If you have two people, you can have as long of a session as you want. It sounds like Gus did well. Hopefully, you both enjoyed today's heatwave!

[Paula]

Good Evening. Workout this morning was Pahla B Body Shaping Day 1 Push/Strength followed by Karen Voight Standing Stretch. This is round 17 of the Body Shaping Series for me.

Spent the day trying to complete the paperwork for the cruise. I got it done but it took longer than it should have. Princess is starting a new pre-check in process which requires an app that we had a hard time downloading. After too much time trying to make their system work I called their 800 number and was able to get things done over the phone.

Anita, glad Gus is feeling back to normal after getting his teeth cleaned. I wonder if he can feel the difference. I spent some of today trying on my summer clothes just to make sure they still fit. On a week long cruise there are usually two formal nights. For one formal night, I have a pair of black velvet pants I've literally had over a decade. I wear a white lace blouse and a small jacket with some bling on it. I have a black cocktail dress I used to wear for the second formal night but it needs strappy high heels to look good and I don't want to be bothered to shop for heels - or wear them for that matter. So I'll wear the velvet pants for both formal nights. Maybe I'll see if I have a different top I can wear for one night. My experience has been over the years "formal night" has gotten progressively less formal. Instead of a tux or at least a dark suit men are wearing sport coats and dress pants. Fewer women are wearing gowns or cocktail dresses. So I think what we're packing will be fine. For the rest of the cruise I threw in some summer dresses, a pair of Docker type slacks, shorts, T shirts, and sandals. I tried on my one and only bathing suit and it still looked good (it's only been worn a few times). So I think I'm done with clothes selection. DH went out and bought a new sport coat and says that's all he needs to buy. Tomorrow I'll put together the lotions, potions and medications, plus the necessary charging cords. Oh and I want to download some books onto my Kindle. DH probably needs to do that too. Hope Adelija had a good time. I also hope in the end you're glad you hosted Adelija.

Laura, not sure why I got charged to return items either. I can't remember all the circumstances. Anyway it's good you liked both pairs of shoes. What do you do on formal night when you take a cruise? I hope you can find a cruise near you that will work out.