Sunday 10/18/2020

Hi from OBX! The ocean is beautiful here. I love the architecture of the homes, but they are awfully close together in many places. It has been super windy here and was freezing last night. Yesterday we drove to the north end of the Outer Banks and today will go south. Pictures below are of a house on the bea*****orolla, the decks leading to the beach behind our hotel and the gazebo behind the seafood restaurant we ate at last night. Time to get cleaned up and go out!

Have a safe, healthy, and social day!

Haha, define freezing. No actually I know what you mean, a damp wind chills to the bone quickly!

I am over trying to cope with the cold while eating outdoors. Yesterday we ate at a restaurant that had a tent of sorts and a million heaters on their deck. The tent sides were flapping, so I felt comfortable that lots of air exchange was happening, but my, it was so much more comfortable. We stopped at a distillery. I didn't want a ****tail enough to sit outside drinking it, so I stayed in the car while DH had an old fashioned and DD had a hot toddy. Probably no wineries this trip after all..

The selling point for a northern vacation during a pandemic is that the fall colors are incredible, breath taking, really. But it also reminds how, without a pandemic, we could have dined inside at charming inns, dipped into cozy coffee shops to warm up while shopping... but no use dwelling on these thoughts, that is not the world we're living in right now.

Time to pack up and start back to Minnesota!

Another .2 down. I know I said I was fine with it being slow because I wasn't punishing myself with super low calories, but this is slightly frustrating in practice!

Yesterday I made $30 on my junk! And a lady is asking about my perfectly good mesh wifi system that is incompatible with my new internet installed yesterday. My friend said I'm nuts because I don't need the money, but it's satisfying and makes me feel less guilty about getting rid of stuff.

I've been on a roll with audiobooks downloaded from the library. I just counted and I've gotten through 7 of them this month. One I can highly recommend to those dealing with clutter. It's called Decluttering at the Speed of Life by Dana K. White. It's definitely focused on decluttering and not organizing which is what I need, and I like that she speaks from clutter experience (way worse than mine, hearing her describe it) rather than being someone perfect telling me I could be perfect too if I just tried harder. She also has a blog and a podcast I need to check out. Very practical, doable advice.

I think that's all I have today. Hope everyone has a good day!

I will check out that recommendation!

Good Morning All

Start of the working week and our first day in next stage restrictions - I cant tell you how much I am looking forward to getting my hair cut and coloured after work. Its the little things right

Busy week this week - with the easing of the 5km rule I will be able to go and do the things I have been waiting to do - Like a trip to Costco etc

No weight

Liz - looks beautiful - it reminds me of Grace & Frankie when I look at the house and beach etc

DD- Hope you had a safe trip home

Cec - You are on fire girl :) Well done

Well I had best keep working - big day today. DH has to head into the office to pack up his desk- they are getting a removalist in to take all their stuff to the new office. They have allocated time slots and only 2 ppl in the office at one time. Hes going in on the train - Im a bit nervous about that but we shall see

Love to you all

S

So glad to hear restrictions are loosening, at least a bit. Haircut and color, priceless! A trip to Costco also, in my viewpoint, one of life's treasures.

Greetings All

Well lets see. What mundane trivial stuff can I ***** about today? I know! My neighbor's power tools! They are building some kind of deck cover and seem to be running saws, drills, sanders and whatever all the time. Hope they finish soon.

If thats all I got, I am pretty lucky. I am indeed blessed.

Quick gallery trip today to drop off stuff. Its beautiful fall weather and people are out and about. The rains will start soon so I'd better enjoy it.

DH wants to get this really high end air purifier for the house since covid won't be gone any time soon. Fine by me but I told him he has to get rid of some junk. So there is room for more junk. I am hoping it will help with mold and pet smells which are issues.

Liz your trip looks so great. Lovely places. Enjoy.

And Cecily you are my hero - junk disposal and even getting $$ for it. Way cool. I am going to get the book you recommended. Someday.

I made the egg face ricotta bake last night. So good. Of course I added extra parmesan. Why not. More tonight.

Cheers. Diane S

I thought about you with the book - my sister in clutter! She even addresses what to do when it's not your clutter but your spouse's clutter. And when a family member dies (something that gave me hives with the idea of clearing out my dad's house of my mom's clutter). Her response made me snort: "Your parent dying doesn't mean your house magically doubled in size. If you want to keep your mom's pasta pot, you have to get rid of your pasta pot." Logical, and somehow gave me permission to part with a lot.

That makes me want to double down on getting this book. My DH is the king of saving every sentimental (to him), thing. He used to fish stuff out of the trash the kids threw away. Argh! What I have done to have some sanity: I've carved out, you can't put stuff here zones, and turned other zones into, go ahead, stack it to the ceiling if you must. If I find his clutter in our can't put stuff here zone,(he does try hard to respect the zones, but sometimes...) like my office or kitchen cupboards, I just place move it back to his clutter zones (like his office). I look forward to what else the book recommends.

Diane, I feel your pain. My DH is overly sentimental about items. I attribute some of it to losing his parents so young, he clings to "things" in place of their physical presence. Same thing with anything our kids ever touched...sigh. Example, daughter bought him a Statue of Liberty on her first visit to NYC. The arm broke. Her next visit, she bought him a new one to replace it. Now he has both, because he couldn't throw away the broken one, because it was a gift from DD.

And extra parmesan should just be a way of life.