Friday, August 19, 2022

Let's see if DD and I post at the same time again, LOL.

We are relaxing in our suite on Lake George, drinking coffee and looking out at the sun over the water. What a beautiful place! We completed our day yesterday drinking a glass of wine and sitting at a lit outdoor fireplace with the lake as the backdrop. I would definitely come back here again!

Mike wants to hike today which I am okay with though it is supposed to be a somewhat difficult hike and the temperature is supposed to be in the mid-eighties. I think I will save my hair washing until later in the day. After the hike we will drive to a hotel in Albany to spend the night and tomorrow we will move to Providence for one more night. All to avoid my kids and their friends filling up my house over the weekend. Hmmm...how did this happen?

Have a fun Friday!

Ah, Friday of the first week of my new gig as a music teacher. I am certainly not unhappy! Actually, I am loving the new job, though I am having normal getting the hang of it feelings and am a little more tired at the end of the day than I am used to being. It's been a long time since I have worked with first graders. I had forgotten how busy 6 year olds need to be so that they don't get fidgety and into trouble! Next week I am going to have to keep them moving and busy going from one thing to another without down time. I am also teaching a "mild to moderate" K-2 combination Special Day Class. That group, though small - only 8 students - is my toughest. 2 students are non verbal (so I'm not sure why they are designated as mild to moderate), one is speech emergent, one is a "runner" and non participatory, which leaves me 4 kiddos who are "there" with me during the lesson. Today looks to be my easy day, but I won't know for sure how it all shakes down on Fridays until the fourth and fifth grades choose between band and general music.

Weight and eating are "normal" for me, which means maintenance eating with still too much sugar consumption for steady/constant weight loss. I'm still bouncing up and down, but the bounce keeps getting slightly lower.

Still working on the paperwork for GOAT v3.0. It's funny to me what one dealership doesn't require, but the next one does. The blessing in disguise was my credit got checked and we discovered a discrepancy which gave me a score in the upper 600s!!! I'm usually in the 800s, so that was shocking. It had to do with the transfer of my mortgage and my request for a lowering of a credit limit on my Visa Card. Who knew that asking to have one's credit limit lowered on a card would have a negative effect on a credit score. But seriously, I didn't want a card with a 30K limit if it got stolen or hacked. So I asked for it to be reduced to 15K. Boom! down went the credit score. Second reason for a lowered score was that my mortgage was transferred and has not been reentered by the new credit union.... UGH.... Got it all squared away, but sheesh.... Clearly, it stressed me out, but no one else. The finance lady said it was all good and they could "see" the reasons for a lowered score and helped me in the process of fixing the score.

I am definitely looking forward to the weekend! No dog shows and only 2 dogs on Saturday morning! Funny thing is I'm actually going to have to lesson plan over the weekend - something I haven't had to do in years!

I love hearing about your new job! Sounds like it's stretching planning and strategizing muscles. I think that's so important for our brains and even though it's exhausting in the short run, it's kind of invigorating longer term. Like changing up your exercises when they become too easy!

The credit score thing must have been alarming when you were expecting that part of the process to be a moment for a pat on the back for exceptional credit!

You are going to be so fantastic for these kids! I can hear it in your enthusiasm! The credit report stuff can be so baffling. I retired a credit card, a car loan, and a mortgage over the last few months and my score went down. So weird.

Greetings all

Another day that started out foggy but now is sunny and breezy. I put on an old t shirt which is way too big but it still astonishes me that it used to fit. Its a dog show shirt from the border terrier national specialty in 2001! So its an old shirt indeed.

Peps its good to hear you are enjoying your new work. Does it require more time on your feet and moving around? I remember being in first grade we had to do "rhythm band" which involved marching around banging wooden sticks together along with a few other percussive instruments. Now I know that it was to get us to move around in an orderly way. It all sounds good - those non verbal kids may be absorbing more than is apparent. Looking forward to more kid music stories. Bet its fun to discover new talent!

CC I hear you on the blather on and on people. My peeve too. I remember shopping for a new kitchen sink and the sales person insisted on telling me about her chiropractic experiences. Hope the new home stuff moves along at a comfortable rate.

Credit scores Peps! Amazing that lowering a limit would impact that. But nothing makes actual sense these days.

DD love the description of the plantation tour. It makes sense that enslaved people had to find supplemental food. Did the brick factory have any remaining kilns? Glad you were able to find a tour that did not "white wash". Good on these people for preserving some history, however ugly.

I visited the studio today for a bit and did some grocery shopping at the hippy coop. I had not been there in awhile. It has not changed. I got a decent checker (read: not stoned).

Not much else. DH brought home pepperoni pizza so guess what's for dinner.

Next week I will take more steps on the new floor project. Back to the store with my cabinet door. And the fence fixer will be back. She is replacing bad boards plus putting some wire fencing along the bottom to discourage the diggers. Held in place with treated lumber. Should work.

Well time to be a personal chef for the dogs. The old one is stalking me. Diane S

From what I understood, the Plantation bricks originally dried in the sun. When they got the kiln, it increased production tremendously. I think you could still see where they fired the bricks, but we weren't able to go on that part of the tour because of the rain. It was far from the house, and they take you on a wagon to see it, but too slippery yesterday. :(

Hi everyone, We finally saw the sun in Charleston! It was sunny all day, but then there was torrential rain around 8pm. We were getting ready to leave downtown when it broke loose. Being sea level, it floods easily. And it did as we were heading to the bridge for Mount Pleasant. Today we ate many, many delicious things. Charleston reputation for good food is well deserved. We walked around quite a bit, and it's just one pretty street after the other. We toured an historic home, and a museum in what had been the old slave mart. Very informative exhibits. Hard to fathom standing in a spot where other human beings were sold for profit. Our last stop was a Brazilian steak house, we didn't do the churrasco, we just sat at the bar and had caiparinhas and snacks. I got to practice my Portuguese, the bartender and the general manager were from Brazil.

Peps, I know that first Friday of the year feeling. Whew, you made it, but it was exhausting feeling. I always think, every day gets a little easier from here. I am doing an excellent job not thinking much about school. They can start taking up space in my head when they start paying me.

Liz, your hike looks incredible! My hikes involve meandering very slowly (the sun!) through antebellum streets, not quite the same challenge.

CC, I once got direct and forceful with a banker who was not solving the problem to my satisfaction. He said he would get it resolved and the said, I always say, happy wife, happy life!??? Was he meaning if I was happy, my poor husband would have a better life (being married to such a witch and all), was he just throwing out random phrases? At any rate, much too personal, so I to!d him, that really doesn't apply here because I am not your wife.

Diane, good luck with your floor re do. That is a big undertaking, but really updates things. DH put a wood floor in the dining room/kitchen at the beginning of Covid, and it still makes me happy every day.