Time is Rushing By - A Fast Post Today

The pool is calling to me, and I actually slept until 2:58 am, so only two minutes early before my alarm was scheduled. That, unfortunately, leaves me with minimal time for my blog. My friend Jack was back in his own car yesterday. They did a GREAT job with the repair. I asked him about the cost, and he said the deer cost him (or rather, cost his insurance) $6700 dollars for repairs! OUCH! Insurance is expensive, but SO worth it. 

Money seems to fly away when major things like auto 
repairs happen unexpectedly. Jack was quite grateful 
for his insurance. He owed very little on this expensive bill. 

I didn't have anything major on my cooking schedule yesterday, so worked on other things - computer things, mostly. I did head to my co-op first thing in the morning, needing one item, and hoping they might have a second one. They did! It was a diet supplement that I'm adding to my pill regime, and it's going to be costing me $2 per pill. OUCH. Still, if it helps and does what I think it will, the cost will be worth it. I picked up two 30-pill bottles of it, at around $60/bottle. Crazy expensive! But probably worth the expense. 

I've added this into my daily vitamin 
regime. Horribly expensive, but there are 
components within it that I can't get easily 
through diet or my other supplements. So, 
I'll give it a 60-day trial and see how I feel 
at the end of that time. At least I got it at 
the co-op, so I got my 10% off. Score! 

In the late afternoon I remembered that I had some Mandarin oranges and two apples that had to be used up. I also had a fresh pineapple that I had picked up at the grocery store earlier in the day. So I quickly got to work, cutting up the pineapple and the apples, and peeling and separating the oranges, tossing them in a small amount of maple syrup, adding some chopped nuts, and putting them into the oven for 25 minutes to cook. I ended up with nine containers of breakfast fruit and can't wait to eat my first one today. I also fed my hummingbirds at the same time, so the end of the afternoon was a bit hectic before I settled down for my weekly "schmooze" with Aearwen. Then, after we had talked, I made the chicken and put it into the oven, then cleaned up the kitchen. I was barely finished when DH walked through the door - in a bad mood, as usual *sigh*. 

This is what all the fuss is about - Lord Stanley's Cup. 
Every team wants to win it, only one will succeed. 
Such a great time to watch hockey! 

But, I refuse to be in a bad mood. We've got lots of hockey to watch - the playoffs are firmly in place and the games are wonderful. We've got Middle Earth to explore in "Lord of the Rings Online", and I've always got "this and that" on my to-do list to keep me busy. Life can be good sometimes - LOL. Have an excellent Thursday, I'm off to the pool. I'll try to catch up with everyone's posts and comments when I set the laptop up at the shop later this morning. Slava Ukraini and חיים למען ישראל. 

Today's Plan - Accentuate the Positives, Pass Along the Love

It's going to be a good day. I'm determined that it will be, and I'm alive, the birds are singing (actually, not quite yet. The birds are intelligent enough to not sing for another hour or so.), and I'm ready to head to the swimming pool. I actually slept until my 3:00 am alarm went off - a rarity these days of tension and too many thoughts for deep sleep. I'm going to have a tremendous day today - are you? 

Today is going to be a GREAT day. You're alive, you're 
safe, you have food on your table and friends around 
you. Frankly, that's really all that we need for happiness. 

There are many things that can make a good day. Simple things - a loving pet, a child's smile, a silly joke or a funny antic by a pet or wild animal. There are always good things around us that can make a day special and lift our spirits. The problem is the negatives that surround us, smothering us, dampening our joy at living. Don't allow those outside negatives to dampen your glow today. Instead, allow your glow to lighten the lives of others with whom you'll have contact today. Spread that light throughout the shade and darkness encroaching in from the sides. 

I don't think my dog was ever this comfortable with my 
cats, although they got along well enough. The cats could 
easily have made mince-meat of my pup, and she was wise 
enough to know that - LOL. 

Look at your life. What can you positively impact today? It's not going to be earthshaking. We're normal people in our own small circles of interactions. But can you bring a smile to someone's face? Can you help someone in some small fashion - reaching something down for them that they can't reach, or simply smiling. Smiling is contagious, after all. That simple act actually changes the body chemistry for the positive, pushing away the negatives - at least for a small time. 

Smiling is contagious. Sometimes we forget 
that, going through the day gloomy or simply 
lost in our own thoughts. But today, pull yourself 
out of yourself and spread a small bit of joy to 
others - one-to-one, one by one. 

Do one thing that you love to do today. Do you like listening to music? Listen and dance for five minutes. Do you enjoy gardening? Plot, plan, dig and clean - make those plants happier and they'll reward you with oxygen to breathe. Wave to a neighbor, smile at a stranger. Pass along positives, they'll reflect back to you ten-fold. 

Accentuate the positives today. It's be a benefit to 
you and everyone you come into contact with. 

I'm going to put up two shelving units that I got in yesterday's Amazon shipment. I also got a small extendable garden rake that DH had been wanting. He was VERY pleased - put it right down with his gardening stuff. I'm sure it will be used on Thursday when he's back in the yard. So, I passed a little sunshine into DH's perpetual rain cloud mood. Even those who have dark skies above them can smile with the right reward. Let's spread love and happiness today. We need it. Slava Ukraini and חיים למען ישראל. I'll be back tomorrow. 

Spring is Time For New Projects and Ideas

Yesterday I started again with my new concept of how to work our Swarovski sale. It might work, can't say for sure yet. I'll work on that some more today and have a much better idea of whether or not it will work well. Here's hoping I finally nailed how to handle a huge department like this for a clearance sale. As one of my more popular products, we'll need something easy for us to use and keep track of what people want us to pull for them. It's going to be a challenge. 

Making a checklist that the customers can easily use and 
that we can easily use, is challenging. With a department of 
100's of items, there's no other good way to get a handle on 
what the customer wants and what we have available to sell. 
I think I might have figured out the best way to deal with it, 
but it's a lot of work getting a test together to see if it will 
work the way I envision. 

I never did get to "catch up" on my sleep, but at least I didn't feel like a complete Zombie. I wasn't 100% though - not by any stretch. Today (hopefully) will be better. I slept until a half-hour before my alarm was set to go off, so I'm pretty close to time. Of course, all of this sleeplessness will catch up to me at the end of the week. I can get away with it at the beginning when I still have my Sunday sleep-in hours to bank on. By the end of the week I'll be running on empty. 

The fact that I awoke more than two hours ahead 
of time yesterday will cause me to drag by the end 
of the week. It's rare for me to lose sleep over 
things. But it really disrupts my life when it does. 

My veggie soup that I made last week has been awesome! I couldn't be happier with it. Every day it's more flavorful as the spices settle into the broth and veggies. This is a definite winner and I'm for sure doing this again. "Doing the Happy Dance." 

This soup has been SO good. I'm delighted that I made 
a double-batch. I'm looking forward to dinner every night 
when I get home from work, and it only takes a few 
minutes in the microwave to be ready to eat. My body is 
happy with all of the veggies. I'll definitely make this 
recipe again. 

We seem to be out of whatever ridiculous excuse for a Winter we had this year, and firmly into Spring. The trees are all gaining their Spring leaves, the first flowers are starting to bloom - yellow daffodils decorating the fronts of the college buildings at Hamline University - a block from my shop. Spring is officially here, even though Winter barely stopped by at all. That leaves more funds in the roads budget to do some major fixing, and the orange road signs have cropped up sooner than usual. It's detour here and detour there - but we'll have some wonderfully rebuilt roadways when Winter returns later this year. And it will return - this was a temporary vacation for Winter - he'll be back with gusto later this year. Have an excellent Tuesday, I'm off to the pool (yippee). I'll be back tomorrow. Slava Ukraini and חיים למען ישראל. 

A Sleepless Night, Hockey Playoffs and It's Monday!

It's going to be a difficult day today. I went to sleep at my normal time, after watching three of the four playoff hockey games - great games, such fun! I went to sleep right away, because that's what I've trained my body to do. BUT ... I awakened at a bit after 2:00 am, did a quick bathroom run, and then couldn't get back to sleep. ARGH. I finally gave up, did a longer than usual meditation and started my day. I'll be a zombie by the time I get to sleep tonight. 

I'll be a total zombie by the time I get to bed 
tonight. I'm just grateful that today wasn't 
a swimming day. 

It's playoff time for hockey, and that's great - it means really good games and on-the-edge play. My Avalanche played really well, but lost to the Jets 7-6. Two of the other three games also were won by only one point, the fourth game was won by 2 points. It's going to be an excited playoffs time, for sure. So, we were glued to the TV yesterday, watching game after game while doing our computer things. Today we get four more games in Round 1. I won't be able to be glued to the TV, but hopefully DH will turn them on to the TV in the back room and I can at least listen to them. Until I get home, when I might be able to catch the final game of the day. Playoffs - Whoot! 

The Stanley Cup is highly treasured and a unique 
prize for the winning team. The Wild aren't in the 
playoffs - it was a "challenging" season for us. But, 
my secondary team, the Avalanche are right in 
the mix. 

I'm turning things over and over in my mind ... how can I make the Swarovski clearance easy for both the customers and the staff? I think I might have come up with how best to organize things overnight - maybe that was what awakened me at 2:00 am. I'll try to do a bit of computer work on it today, or at least write down my ideas in a way that I can tackle them tomorrow when Chickie is on the sales floor. I know it's no use thinking DH will be convenient if I need someone to help out with customers. Mondays are a chore for me, and Wednesdays and Fridays are a chore for Chickie. 

Sometimes breathing is all you can do. On those 
days, concentrate on making each breath the 
very best breath you can take. Follow the 
flow, get into the rhythm. Your body is trying 
to tell you something - listen to it. 

So, I'm wrapping this up and heading up for breakfast and then to the shop to do a few things before we open. I hope all of you have a truly wonderful Monday. Smile at those you meed, try to make their days just that little bit better. We all need positives in our lives. Trump's trial starts today, so that's one positive - LOL. Slava Ukraini and חיים למען ישראל. 

Hobbits and a Recommended Book

Yesterday was a lovely "day off". I decided I needed to relax, so after general housework and a run to the grocery store, I made my weekly rations of "Ogre Juice" and settled down to the computer. I did a few necessary things, then set up my laptop and went back to playing my current "new" character on "Lord of the Rings Online". It's always fun to play new characters. You're not fighting a never-ending battle against the Dark, you're helping Hobbits and other free peoples of Middle Earth. Instead of going against the Servants of the Dark, you're just killing goblins and wild beasts. It's much more user-friendly at the starting level, and less depressing. 

The Shire, in "Lord of the Rings Online" is a lovely 
place of rolling hills, lots of houses and hobbit holes 
and green - very green and verdant. Things start 
changing quickly when you leave the Shire. Bree isn't 
nearly as green or welcoming, although it's still quite 
benign. I've been playing LOTRO now for 17 years, 
and I still love it - although I don't play it consistently. 

I think what always seems to stop me at the upper levels is that thought that I'm going against a Great Evil - the Dark Lord itself - so the lands are also dark and depressing, the dungeons are dank and filled with dark corners, and generally, that bright sunshine that I get in the Shire and the other free lands isn't there any more. I have enough darkness in my current world - battles here and there, wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, and idiots who are horribly short-sighted in positions of power throughout governments. That's depressing, so seeing that I can do a little bit of good for a Hobbit's life is a positive ray of sunshine in my life. 

I highly recommend this book. It's got all 
of the medical information, but it's presented 
in a way that's VERY readable and interesting. 
I'm finding things out about nutrition that I 
suspected, but didn't actually know. Now I'm 
learning new things, and it's fascinating. 

I've been reading a book called "Grain Brain" by Dr David Purlmutter and it's fascinating, easy to read, but big on details. I can't put it down, and I highly recommend it to all of you. I know everyone reading my blog has times when they wonder if they are doing and eating the "right" things for their health - physical and mental. He goes into the science of what may contribute to "brain fog" and other brain-related conditions, and can tie them directly back to food choices. One of the major culprits is sugar. Are you aware of how much sugar you actually eat? I'm not just talking about the spoon in your morning hot beverage. There's sugar that you add to things, and there's natural sugars - both play into brain issues, and I'm amazed at how much mental acuity is influenced by sugars (and not in a good way). 

It's time for breakfast, then onward to the shop. I'll probably 
kill a few goblins in LOTRO before starting a day filled 
with entering and printing out price tags. At least I'll be 
busy at the shop - LOL. 

So, I'm wrapping this up, eating my breakfast "toast" and baked fruit, and then heading to the shop. I've been told that I have a LOT of price tags to enter and print out today, so I'd better get to it. Have a fabulous Saturday and weekend and I'll be back on Monday - at least, that's the plan. *Hugs* to all! Slava Ukraini and חיים למען ישראל. 

Old Friends and Memories - This and That

Happy Friday, everyone! It's a "day off" for me, so I'll be making my next batch of "Ogre Juice" and working on the computer. If it's a non-windy day, I might try out the drone again. BTW, the store tryout earlier in the week ended up with the drone crashed on top of one of my taller display cases - fortunately reachable without grabbing a step stool, but probably an experiment I won't repeat until/unless I get much better at controlling the little devil - LOL. 

I keep hoping for the perfect day to get some practice 
in with my drone. I might put it into the car, and if I have some 
time, drive to the park and try it out where I won't be hitting 
trees or people. 

I have stacks of paperwork that I have to work on today, and some longer-term projects that I'd like to wrap up (if it turns out to be possible). It's helpful to have goals, but "methinks I have too many of them". More or less. Still, my day started out with a lovely hour+ of meditation and my refrigerator is full of vegetable soup for the next week's meals, so all is golden. 

Yesterday was my ex-fiancee's birthday, so I sent him out a quick text. Seth and I are still friends - very good friends. He lives in the mountains of Colorado on a large tract of land framed by the mountains directly to his West. Ir's a gorgeous spot in the South-Central part of the lower quadrant of the state. Stunning scenery! He's got horses and dogs and his wife, Stephanie. He reads my blog (shout out!), and we keep in nominal touch. I sometimes wonder how very different my life would have been had I chosen him to marry instead of DH, but that's a choice long gone and I'm having a good, if frustrating, life up here in the Frozen Northlands with DH. 

Seth used to travel a lot for his job, and we were able to get together for drinks or just to meet and chat for a few hours if he was passing through anyplace where we both were at. We reconnected while he was on the road crew for a specific singing star (I truly forget who it was - but is was an impressive name). I was in Milwaukee for the Bead & Button Show, and he was passing through Milwaukee for a two-night concert with this musical star. I actually broke my arm that day, so I was in a lot of pain, but I couldn't NOT see him for drinks in the lobby of my hotel when he was able to get away from set-up for a few hours. We've stayed in touch ever since, and I'm very grateful to have his friendship. I've had two extraordinary men in my life (and several who are best tossed into the dust bin - LOL). I've been quite lucky, even if DH often frustrates me. 

Speaking of DH, he worked in the yard yesterday, and got the fallen fencing cut up. We'll reuse the vertical boards for the compost bin, and the cross-pieces will have to be tossed. We're in a bit of a cold snap for the next few days, so I'm sure he'll be happy that he's working at the shop today. It'll only be a high of 41F  (5 C), so a bit chilly for outdoor work. We might even get a small flurry of snow, depending on where you are in the state. It's been a REALLY WEIRD WINTER all around - the "Winter That Wasn't". 

So I'll be trying to diminish the piles of paperwork that I have on my desk, pay some bills, do some computer work, and make Ogre Juice (which only takes an hour). I have an open day of possibilities ahead of me. SCORE!!! Have an excellent day and I'll be back tomorrow on a more crowded early morning - LOL. Slava Ukraini and חיים למען ישראל. (pictures are being a problem today, so it's an almost texT-only blog today. Sorry!) 

My Oldest Grand-Niece on TV, Swimming Sound and Cooking

I'm going to start out by being the proud Grand-aunt of Lexi, my oldest niece's daughter. My Grand-niece has been featured in several broadcasts and I shared a shorter clip of this on Facebook within the past week, but yesterday my niece posted the full interview, and I wanted to share. Here's the You Tube link, and I hope you enjoy meeting my Grand-niece. She'll be graduating next month with a 3.8 (out of 4.0 possible), and continuing onward in her educational goals to Augsburg College - a private and rather elite local collage. She has a full scholarship for her advanced education. So, here's the link: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i24GgGQ_uNA

My new Aftershokx headset arrived at the shop yesterday, and I instructed Chickie to "Make Sure he brings it home with him". So, DH walked through the door last night with a small brown box in his hand with a note, "Make sure you bring this home with you", attached. I immediately got it out of the package, dumped the packing materials and plugged it in to charge. Fortunately, they do arrive pre-charged, at least 80% charged, so that took minimal time. I downloaded my book onto it, counted out the hours, and started it playing. It's played overnight. I know I'll be re-listening to some chapters, but hopefully it won't be a lot of do-over. At least I have a book to listen to again, instead of just counting laps. Hurrah! 

I'm delighted to have my headset back. I'll be re-listening 
to parts I've already listened to, but I'll let it run until I'm 
finally at the new parts of the book. At least it's better than 
counting laps, which I can do while listening to something 
more interesting than my breathing and the sound of the 
water. 

It was a lovely day yesterday. As I was driving around on my errands, there were green leaves sprouting from trees and bushes everywhere. Spring is most definitely here. A year ago yesterday, we had a 9-inch snowfall - the last snow of the 2022-2023 winter season (which ended up with more than 90 total inches of snow). This year's snowfalls amounted to less than a foot! We've been getting some lovely rain, which is great, and we're not quite through our drought yet, but the ponds and cache ponds are full, and the birds are coming back. I filled and hung my hummingbird feeder yesterday. They are very terrirorial birds, and I want to catch a male (they're always the first into the areas, followed by the females). Once I have a male calling my area home, he'll keep all of the other males away and I'll have a busy feeder with his females and their chicks. I'm already looking forward to this year's hummers. 

It might be a week or two early, but I decided to go ahead 
and put the hummingbird feeder up. It's a very early 
Spring, and the weather - although cold now for a few more 
days - is totally in Spring mode - no more Winter. Time to 
tell those little, wonderful birds, that they are welcome. 

My fence company should be receiving my paperwork and downpayment today. I went to my bank yesterday and got a new check-card to replace the one that had been compromised. I'll have to try a small purchase to make sure it's working properly and that it's attached to the correct account (I have four accounts with my credit union), but I'm 99% sure everything is perfect. Then I came home and started cooking. I had started the day at my co-op - so many WONDERFUL veggies. I ended up with WAY more than intended, and doubled the batch of vegetable soup I had been planning to make. I have a bunch of wonderful, flavorful soup in the fridge, and if I want to add meat, it's an easy add. 

I decided to make the recipe called "Seriously Good Vegetable 
Soup" by Cookie and Kate. The co-op had some serously 
wonderful veggies, and I WAY overbought. I made enough 
soup for an army! I'll be eating this for a week or more, and 
I won't mind at all. I can add anything to it and it'll just 
bring more flavor to the broth for that day's portion. Yum! 

So, I'm off to the pool, my new headset draped around my neck, ready for the day to come. It'll be a busy one - DH got a shipment checked in yesterday, and I'll be making and printing price tags for much of the day. I hope you have a wonderful Thursday and I'll be back tomorrow. Slava Ukraini and חיים למען ישראל.