Pentagenarians & Bayond: W/B 11/23

[fox2star]

Good morning,

Busy Saturday with errands and running around. Now have to focus on getting stuff down around here.

Lori, love the pic! They are so cute ! Feel the same about my car starter. You are so ambitious with planning on painting duringyour week off!

Valerie, that's terrible about the leak (I guess it's some sort of leak?)...but good that you found it early! How will you figure out where it is coming from?

Hi to Josie, Lynda, and Judy

Have to come up with a workout for today, not sure what I feel like doing. I took the HRM off at noon yesterday, have to drop it off tomorrow morning, then I guess the cardiologist will read all the test results and I'll get a call.

Take care and stay warm!

 

[Traildoggie]

The doggies are adorable Lori!. and so was the dog video.. yes, that fits with my experiences with golden labs. not a disciplined dog!.

yep, it's a leak. it must be small and recent because the stain on the carpet just appeared. when we pulled carpet back it was wet, the pad and the wood under. also slightly wet on the wall after we crow- barred off the tile. we have talked about a bathroom re-do and now we have to dive in. a leak upstairs will cause problems everywhere below so no negotiating on this one. we looked at some tile yesterday and apparently the world has shifted away from any kind of small tile like 4',6",8", to 12" or 13". never worked with big tile before so time to learn. we need to get a plan for the entire room. carpet is going. new sinks, countertops, plus new tile. want to keep the jetted tub if possible and work around it. we use it but not terribly often and don't really want to spend to replace it.

I'd appreciate any input about what has worked or not worked for all of you. or even good sources of information?
bathroom countertops... I think I want quartz with single pull faucets, undermount sinks. I will look at corian but I thought it was not very durable for a high use area. (our bathroom is 25 yrs old and looks it!) it's a large room with a walk in closet , separate toilet room. very bright with a huge window and a skylight so very bright. I do NOT want carpet but not sure what I do want. we want to do most of the work ourselves but we have done tile before.

Deb, good luck with the Holter. hope you get good news.

 

[irongrl]

View attachment 4023 Good Morning Everyone,

Lori-the dogs are adorable! Last week I ended up doing more cycling workouts than weights. Monday and Tuesday I did Spinervals. Thursday I did Cathe's Live Cycle Fit class and Friday I did the Cathe Live Cycle class from a couple of months ago. I also did Horizontal Conditioning on Friday (30 minutes) and I'm still sore. I also did a short SB leg workout. Wow, that was tougher than I thought it would be!

Deb-I hope you get good results from the Holter test. Lots of housemax for me this weekend too. Just getting caught up on cleaning and projects. I think we will be going to Indiana for Thanksgiving, as long as the weather is good.

Valerie-good luck with your house projects! DH has a book on tiling, he got it from Home Depot. We are planning on doing some work in the kitchen, probably after the holidays.

Here's the latest home gym photo. I added some more floor tiles and a small dumbbell rack.

Hi to Lynda & Josie!

Judy

 

[garance]

Hi Deb, Josie, Valerie, Lori, and Judy--

This morning I did my new BarreAmped Cardio workout--the whole thing (74:00).

A lot of food shopping for this week. I am making a pumpkin cheesecake with a gingersnap crust this year and a sweet potato casserole with no marshmallows as new recipes.

I went to see Mockingjay Part 1. Now the long wait for Part 2. I really enjoyed it.

Good luck on your renovation, Valerie. I'm not handy at all, so I cannot advise. We do have a Corian counter in our bathroom and it is in very good shape still after about 20 years. We also have a double sink that is the height of kitchen counters, which I much prefer to the lower ones they usually put in bathrooms.

We are expecting a warm-up tomorrow to the 60s no less. Weird weather.

Enjoy the rest of the weekend everyone!

 

[labnick]

Good evening ladies!

Was very nice hear today. Instead of working out this morning Chester and I went for a 3 mile walk. I may have pushed him a little too much as he was limping by the time we got home. His hip has been doing so well but this tells me I really need to keep him at about two miles. This evening I did about 40 mins of Cathe's Live Spin Fit. It was ok but I enjoyed her other live spin and her spin dvd's a little more.

So today was prep for the big paint job I am doing. Moved all the furniture, took the paintings/decor down. I then went to Home Depot and bought some supplies I needed. DH had to work today and he likes to be part of the color selection. So I picked out a bunch of color schemes which I liked and we both will pick from there. To me it is a win win ...I like everything I selected and he still feels like he is selecting too.

Valerie...glad you found the problem. Well at least you will have a beautiful new bathroom when it is all finished. I like single pull facets. Actually I think in Massachusetts that is now code. My tub is not in code as it still has the hot and cold faucets. If we sell we need to change that over. I love the look of the above counter bowl sink not sure how practical they are though.

Lynda...I love doing home improvement projects. My next project will be a backsplash in the kitchen. While at home depot I picked out some beautiful glass mosiac tiles to show DH. I plan to do this around christmas time. This will be a good project as I have never worked with tiles and grout before. Looks easy enough to learn. My mom was very handy and I grew up with 4 brothers. We couldn't afford to hire for home improvement projects so they just became a family affair. All of us learning. Of couse back then I hated it but now very happy to be able to do what I do! Yesterday I finally went to see Gone Girl. Loved it! I was with DS and no way was he going to see Mockingjay. I hope to see it before I go back to work.

Judy...your gym is coming along nicely! I have those same foam tiles all around my heavy bag and they feel nice. Very durable. No way could I do back to back spin workouts. Good for you!

Deb...when will you get the results back? Do you have to track when you were working out or keep some type of log? Keeping fingers crossed that all is well.

Have a great night all! Hi to Josie!

 

[fox2star]

Good morning,

No workout today, I am kind of afraid to push myself, waiting to see what the test results are.

I am off and it feels so good. I have a follow up appointment with the Urologist next Monday, so I took that day off too. Not sure if I will go to the appointment, just to hear him ask me how I am and I tell him I'm ok. $100 later....

Valerie, think of it this way, bigger tiles mean less grout! We have a small bathroom, and we put in 12 in tiles. It looks really nice. We had them installed at the diagonal, not square, if you know what I mean. I only wish they would have made the grout lines thinner. No counters for us, not enough room, we have a standing sink, old fashioned looking. I really like it a lot. we also got a soaking tub, minus the jets. I'll keep thinking of stuff that I like or not etc and post it.

Judy, you are a cycling maniac! LOL...I don't know how you do it. Your gym looks great!

Lynda, good job on that barre workout...74 minutes is a long time! It's 59 degrees here right now...you're right, strange weather...is this supposed to be Indian summer?

Lori, so when do you start painting? which rooms again? As for logging, they gave me a pamphlet that had a chart to log, but she said log if/when I get the palpitations, or feel very out of breath, put down time, and what I was doing...but I didn't log anything because I didn't really feel that happen. I think you are smart to limit Chester's walks to a couple of miles.

Hi to Josie,

I am meeting my friend for breakfast, then dropping off the monitor at the DR's office,

Take care,

 

[Traildoggie]

Deb that's the clear reason for bigger tiles... less grout. I know exactly what configuration. we will do "straight" with a row of decorative tile higher up. we are going to go ahead with 12 or 13 inch ones. we can rent a tile cutter from home depot or wherever we buy the tile. the bigger ones mean more cutting but we have done tile work before with small tile. we did a floor project with big tiles. similar technique. we need a plumber to switch the shower hookup to a single pull and also to install the shower pan. our old shower was not done properly ...amazing what you find when you tear down a wall... which is why there was some leakage. not a lot but enough to cause a problem. we decided not to pull the old pan because if there is a problem underneath or if the drain doesn't line up perfectly, we will need professional help and tools.

we have a formica countertop. the sink edges have rusted and discolored it, so goodbye to it. pricing things, it seems like granite and manufactured stone and corian are similar in price. Lynda, I know you said your corian has held up well.
more later.

 

[garance]

Hi Deb, Josie, Valerie, Lori, and Judy--

This morning I did Bootcamp Boogie (63:00).

Valerie, we have granite top in our smaller bathroom. It is newer than the Corian and has not worn as well. But we bought it from Home Depot, so maybe if you go to a specialty place you can get a better grade or quality of granite. I love our soapstone in the kitchen and we chose it at a kitchen design place where they also had much better granite.

It's now 67 degrees, but they are tentatively predicting a Nor'easter for Wed. into Thurs. I hope my sons have the good sense to come a bit early to avoid possible road problems.

Deb, hope you get good news on your heart monitor. Your co-pay is 100 dollars?!

Lori, we have a gorgeous backsplash of Italian tiles in our kitchen, but we had a kitchen design place do all the work. I just chose the tiles. They look wonderfully rustic. They are diamond shaped and basically surround the whole kitchen space--counters, stove, sink....

Beautiful workout room, Judy!

Hi to Josie!

 

[labnick]

Good evening ladies!

No workout today. Woke up early and started taking our border down in the living room. This was long over due and so happy to finally get rid of it. Was able to get most of the job done today. I have one small half wall that has the TV mounted on it. A good hour and I will be done. It looks so nice I have decided we need to paint the kitchen and the hallway! Oh it never ends!

Lynda...your tiles sound beautiful! I am going to have fun with the kitchen and looking forward to this project. Great job on the new SB dvd! What a good workout doing the entire dvd! I still am chuckling with bootcamp boogie.

Valerie...sounds like your bathroom will be beautiful when finished.

Deb...it's our living room I am redoing. Been 15 years since last painted so it really needed an update. We choose a Burgundy accent wall and tan for the other walls. Looks really warm. We love it. I do not blame you for not wanting to push things until you get the results back.. I would do the same.

Hi to Judy and Josie!

Have a great night all!

 

[fox2star]

Good morning,

Well my test results for the Echo came in on line. Basically it said I have nothing serious, lot of medical jargon that did not sound too positive, but then it also said that the test quality was bad, huh???? Also, that they stopped the treadmill part "due to fatigue", which isn't true. I did not ask them to stop, she asked if I was ok, I said yes, and she said "10 more seconds"...then she stopped it. I am going to call my GP office today and see what's up. The results from the monitor were not part of this, not sure when they come in.

Valerie, I was talking about the tile on the floor, we didn't do tile on the walls of the shower, we did a sort of decorative laminate, with NO GROUT! Love it. Also, opted to go back to a shower curtain, instead of doors. I was so tired of cleaning those doors, the tracks etc. I like the warmer feel of the shower curtain.

Lynda, it got up to 68 here yesterday, but then the winds started and it was horrible last night. I thought parts of the house were going to come off. It's still blowing like crazy out there. Yes, tell your sons to get there now if they can. We don't have co-pays, we have co-insurance. You get $800 up front to use for all "non preventative" things, ( preventative are all free), and when that is used, that, and any other charges, go towards your deductible. Once that is met then there is a 80/20 pay amount. The insurance pays 80% of the charges and I pay 20. It's a little complicated, but better than nothing.

Lori, that sounds like a nice color combination. What kind of border did you remove? I think all that painting and prep work counts as a workout.

Hi to Josie, and Judy,

Lots and Lots of house stuff to do between now and Thursday....plus defrosting 2 birds, one we will cook tomorrow and the big one for Thursday...
Take care,

 

[Traildoggie]

Deb, that sounds confusing..the test results, that is ....and then there is your insurance! why does all this have to be so complicated. I agree , take a few easy days until you find out what the test results showed as interpreted by your doc. .

my yoga friend is home from the hospital, having survived intensive chemo in good spirits, and is now scheduled for several weeks of radiation. I don't know what she has and am not about to ask.

did a little more looking at products yesterday and realized after scrutiny of plumbing fixtures that there are many, many choices for sink handles and spouts, but not nearly so many for roman tubs ( a Jacuzzi tub) and shower handles. so if I want things to match .... I don't have that many choices. it will be very obvious if they don't. this after I looked at umpty dozen farucets and deciding on several options, none of which were available for tub or shower. of course I realized this after looking for quite a while at different manufacturers ( whose web sites worked pitifully) and thinking I'd made progress. nothing like realizing you've wasted 2 hours. we've decided to rip off the rest of the tile because it really distorts how colors look in the room, and I am trying to get away from things looking too pink-ish. and then it would be one trip easy to the landfill.

Did 30 on the elliptical and an ab workout. our weather has deteriorated to crummy winter wet, and we have gotten a ton of mountain snow, so ending hiking for the year. your weather sounds equally miserable... nothing like several feet of snow followed by rain and flooding. I'm glad we didn't set up for any holiday travel.

Lori good luck on your project. I'm too timid about color to do anything but off white walls. Lynda, tile options are so lovely and so varied. almost too many choices.

 

[garance]

Hi Deb, Josie, Valerie, Lori, and Judy--

This morning I did XTrain ch, ba, sh (51:16).

Deb, your results sound very confusing, and frustrating. I guess it will be best to wait for your doctor to interpret what it all means. Are you worried about exercising?

Lori, you must be very brave to even think about redoing your kitchen. My BIL, who is an experienced do-it-yourself person has had nothing but headaches for over a year now trying to remodel his kitchen. Even though we hired a designer for the layout and I chose colors, tiles, flooring, etc., we had problems with the cabinets, which seemed to arrive with something wrong all the time. I think cabinets are the toughest thing. Try reading plenty of reviews because there is some very shoddy work out there. I chose painted cabinets, which, in retrospect, was a mistake because of the humidity where we live and we don't have air conditioning.

Valerie, I would recommend Kohler because they honor their guarantee. Does it really matter if they match if they have the same finish? I like brushed nickel. Hope your friend does well with the chemo and radiation!

Two more days until Turkey day!

 

[fox2star]

Good morning & Happy Turkey Day Eve!

Slept from around 9:00 to 4:00 this morning, only woke up when John jumped up and said " we lost power!".....funny, his light went on when he tried it, and we found that it was my book covering the clock radio..."thanks hon".

Valerie, glad your yoga friend is doing ok. I guess I don't understand the deal with the single faucet....we got a new Kohler sink when we did our bathroom and we have separate faucets for hot and cold water.

Lynda, yes, I am a little afraid to do anything too strenuous until I get the results from the monitor. The Echo test results were very confusing. I tried to get an appointment with the DR for Monday, since I am still off, but they were full. They will call me if they get a cancellation.

Hi to Josie, Judy, and Lori,

Lots of stuff to do here today, including cooking the first turkey,,,

Take care,

 

[labnick]

Good morning ladies!

Yesterday was Cathe Live Cardio and Weights. Really liked this one. Took Chester for just about 2 miles yesterday and he did very well so we will keep him at this distance. He loves his walks so much I hope some day it doesn't come to not being able to go. That will be a very sad day for both of us.

Living room is done and all put back together. Looks beautiful and we are very happy. We christened it by lighting some candles, lighting a fire, having a glass of wine....then dicussed our plan for the snow coming today! Well that certainly destroyed the mood!! Lol!

valerie...good to hear your friend is doing well. Praying this continues. Sounds like you have a lot of decisions to make about your remodel. We'll be in the same boat when I start the kitchen. Like lynda my cabinets are painted so I am going to attempt to redo while doing the tile backsplash. Going to change my sink and faucet at the sametime. My neighbor is a plumber so going to ask his advise about that before I touch the sink.

Deb...ha ha funny on you DH waking you up. Sometimes you just can't win! 9 to 4 is still pretty good for you though? I would be very confused by those results too. When will you be speaking to your Doctor?

Lynda...when it comes to remodeling I know what to stay away from and what I can handle. Would never attempt installing cabinets. I would make a complete mess of that. The tiles will be a big project for me but I plan to watch a million DIY videos by the time I start. These videos are amazing. It is already snowing here. Last report I saw it looks like about 6 to 10 for us. So it begins!

DH and I are leaving this morning for snow tires. We both are getting them and they could not come soon enough!

Have a great day all!

 

[Traildoggie]

We had a good day shopping yesterday. went to a carpet/flooring place and met a very nice lady who was able to give some opinions and advice and came home with some more samples. the issue is still pink surfaces in the room that make it hard to tell what will blend. we will finish taking off tile and carpet today maybe, though DH has some dental stuff scheduled so maybe not til the weekend.
also went to a plumbing supply house suggested by our plumber. have everything displayed clearly, all major brands, and can tell you immediately what you need to know. it took us under 5 minutes to decide and agree on plumbing fixtures. brushed nickel. sink faucets have separate hot/cold handles. shower controls are now almost exclusively single pull but I wanted a hand held to attach to it. it would have taken us weeks to accomplish this at Lowes/Home depot and maybe would have ended up ordering pieces from 5 different places. we are getting a plumber to do all plumbing. we have not had good luck with plumbing projects and some big things need to be changed like the shower pan possibly the size and drain location.

Lori, we 've had good experiences doing tile. I would run from installing cabinets! Deb, I think I was talking about "single pull" faucets compared to two handled ones. sinks are widely available either way, but showers seem to have changed to a single center control handle. sort of how tile has mostly switched to large tiles to minimize grout. ETA I missed where you said that single pull might be code in MS. I wonder why? If the single pull ones aren't marked, I can get confused which way to turn them to get hotter or colder. they don't seem to always be the same.

I got a letter from my cardiologists office saying they wanted me to schedule a stress echo. I thought, where did this come from? I don't need anything like this. totally out of the blue, but it was hand written on a letter they sent me. called the office and sure enough, someone coded it wrong but I could have easily gotten scheduled for an expensive test I don't need. when I called the receptionist was eager to schedule it but I insisted this was the first I'd heard of it and there was no reason for it. I wonder how many people get unnecessary tests and how many important tests get missed? It really pays off to pay attention and ask questions if something sounds funny.
Deb, hope you can get the test results clarified. so hard to get in with a holiday pending. everyone wants time off.

 

[garance]

Hi Ladies!,

This morning I did Dancin' Abs (58:00).

Snowing here and we are expecting 8-10 inches.

Sounds like your plumber headed you in the right direction Valerie. I think I read in my AARP Bulletin that a stress echo test is one of those expensive tests that is seldom needed but a moneymaker. Our health system is so screwed up.

Made my cheesecake yesterday and my dressing and a sweet potato casserole this morning. I will just have to heat them up tomorrow. Mashed potatoes and green bean casserole tomorrow. Dhaka does the turkey and gravy.

Yum!

Enjoy the holiday everyone!

 

[Josie]

Hi Ladies,

The traffic madness has started in LA. I'm glad that I'm not going anywhere . My pies are done and my carrot cake loves are also done. The kids went to Disneyland yesterday with their mom so it gave me a chance to do my baking.

Lori, I have the same colors that you described in my living room/dinning room. I will see you a picture.

Valerie, we also have a bathroom that needs remodeling, but we will not be doing it ourselves. We are not good at that

Deb, that is so frustrating about your test results. I agree with Lynda and hope the doctor can explain what is going on.

Garance, I will be pulling my stretchy pants for Thanksgiving . The kids might be leaving on Saturday, so I will get back to working out by Sunday.

Hi to Judy!

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving everyone!!

Josie

 

[Traildoggie]

wanted to get a workout in today and I'm missing upper body because of the sore spot on my right shoulder. wish I knew what I did! it's been a month at least now. so I did 15 on the elliptical..the arm levers work my shoulder gently but it's not like weights. did bi's and tris plus core 1 the shorter premix. not getting better by doing nothing, so I'll try gentle workouts. backed off a little on weight and the premix is shorter. power went out twice for no particular reason right in the middle of things. hate that. amazing how dark it is at 4:30.

Lynda, I know my doc would have talked to me about a stress echo if I needed one. this was a clerical error but still could be troublesome in many ways if I wasn't skeptical and had gone ahead and done what the letter told me. so far we're pleased with the plumber even though we haven't met yet. this plumbing place was fantastic, and I don't even care if it cost a few more dollars, and maybe it didn't. looking all over to find matching pieces was awful.
Deb hope you get some feedback soon. waiting and waiting is hard and I always construct some pretty terrible scenarios that are never true. My cousin & his wife have a fox terrier like your little guys but they've had an awful time with him. he got crazier and crazier and bit them, snarling and growling. they spent a fortune trying to get treatment for him but nothing worked so they finally put him down. so sad but he was completely out of control.

I got my pie done today and DH did most of the cleaning. we want opinions from cousin on the bathroom since his condo has a lovely shower. I want it to look nice and work well.

Josie the traffic is insane here.... we are getting up in the statistics close to LA. lower gas prices and just holiday frenzy makes it AWFUL to travel anywhere, and coming home is even worse since everyone does it sunday.

 

[irongrl]

Hi Everyone,

Deb-I hope you can talk to your doctor soon and get some clarification on your test results. It is a good idea to take it easy with working out until you get the ok from your doctor. DH also stopped working out and running for a short time when he was going through his issues and waiting for test results. I'm sorry you have to deal with this over Thanksgiving

Lynda-wow, 8-10 inches of snow! I'm not ready for that much but I'm sure we'll get some snow soon. I agree, our health system is very screwed up.

Josie-traffic is crazy here too. I made the mistake of going to the grocery store this morning and it was nuts! I should have known better than to go to a grocery store the day before Thanksgiving.

Lynda-I got a letter from our insurance company telling me I needed to get a new doctor since my doctor wasn't in their plan anymore. The problem was I had never seen or heard of the doctor that they said was mine..I called them today and the rep said they have been getting calls from other people with the same letter. Must have been some kind of innocent mix up but very confusing.

Lori-I bet your living room looks awesome! Glad you got your snow tires today, it sounds like you will need them. That is a lot of snow for November.

We are going to Indiana tomorrow to spend Thanksgiving with DH's uncle and cousins. We'll be coming back tomorrow night, hopefully will be home by 10 or so.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving everyone!

Judy

 

[labnick]

Good morning ladies! HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Oh boy we got snow tires just in time. Not sure how much total snow we received but it was plenty enough. Snow max is on the agenda at some point today.

Yesterday we picked out paint for the hallway and foyer. Going to try and get this painted today. We picked a really nice olive green. Our colors seems to be very tuscany and we love it. Once this is done then going to start the kitchen on Friday! Never did I expect to do this much this week but I have the bug so going with in. We picked out new window treatments for the livinging room. It is amazing how paint and curtains transform a room.

While at Home Depot we bought new molding to go around our front door since Chester trashed what is there now. I am replacing this morning before I paint. The home depot guy looked at our cart and looked right at DH and said "boy the wife has you doing a lot of home improvements tomorrow. What you work and she cooks?" Lol!! Once again we chuckled. Little does he know.

Not sure what workout if any I will get in today. I am ok with this as I am being very active throughout my home improvements.

Judy...good that you are going to Indiana. This will be good for your DH. Will be thinking of you all today.

Valerie...my shoulder flares up every now and then. Bugs the heck out of me when it does. Then it goes away as fast as it comes on. So of course I never do anything about it.

Josie...I can't even imagine the traffic you have!! Oh to be at Disneyland right now!

Lynda...The only thing I am cooking today is greenbean casserole. My DH's favorite. He loves the basic original recipe. He is working today and he is bringing home all the fixings from the restaurant. So we will have our dinner when he gets home. We are looking forward to it.

Deb... Hope you were able to get everything done you needed. Wow two turkeys! Way too much cooking for me!!!

Enjoy the day all!!!