Pentagenarians & Beyond: W/B 12/19

Hello again. Today is a rest day for me as I continue to work on Christmas preparations. We finally have the large main tree up in the family room and I need to wrap a few gifts. One of my daughters is arriving this afternoon and older daughter will be here tomorrow. I’m very excited to have them both here.

Valerie, I hope that you have an nice flight home. It sounds like you had a good vacation.

Waves to Cathy, Judy, and Diane Sue. Have a wonderful afternoon everyone.
 
This morning I did P30 Upper Body. The next two 1/2 weeks are likely to be hit or miss for workouts as there are lots of appointments happening. And once Nick is back and in the basement I won't even have a chance at doing early morning workouts. I just hope he gets on the darn plane. His advisor is giving him a ride to the train station, then the train goes to the airport. I only flew in and out of Grand Rapids once like 25 years ago, an we'll be getting him after dark, so hopefully that all works out okay.

Usually we go get our tree soon after Thanksgiving, but were waiting till Derek got home and then last weekend we had the horrible wind storm. The tree farm we were going to was closed for the year already, so we ended up just going to TSC. LOL They had a dozen or so left. Picked one and crossed our fingers it was okay as they were wrapped, so other than finding one with a straight trunk it was a roll of the dice. Plus they could have been cut weeks ago. I dropped a dust pan full of needles, and doesn't seem inclined to open up. But we have it and it just needs to survive a week!

Carolyn enjoy your time with your daughters!
 
our flight home was delayed by an hour but otherwise Ok. Dh is so nervous before flying it's ridiculous. I'm edgy too but am OK once I get going. he had me up at 5 am. we had a 45 min drive to the airport so got there about 4.5 hours early. BIG time cushion but we didnt want to stay at the condo anymore anyway .
I always get a security pat down because of metal body parts, both directions this time. after we went thru the line, I was putting boots, belt back on. DH was behind me. I thought I saw a glimpse of something falling to the floor. I said clearly "you dropped something". he started tossing around the plastic bins saying he'd "lost his wallet". I said again, "you dropped something". I finally walked around the bins looked down below the bins on the floor, moved the stack, there was his wallet. I handed it to him. he was so nervous he didn't know he'd dropped it, and didn't hear me say he dropped something, twice loudly! I thought I saw something but was not sure what.
after 2 weeks of being talked over by his cousin and by DH, I was not a happy camper. his cousin is awful terrible that way. he monopolizes ALL conversations, with everybody, but is especially rude about talking over me when I start to talk. he is a nice guy, kind and means well, but it is extremely infuriating to be bulldozed over and over by a louder voice. he always hogs the conversation, and I think its why he has trouble connecting with people. he is very outgoing but cant build freindships. nobody likes to be ignored and talked over. as a female, it is always a problem. Ladies? it always happened at work. I dont imagine this! men ignore and talk over women all the time and if we get angry and demand to be heard, then we are "nasty controlling bitches" or similar. this is not a new thing for cousin but after 2 weeks of it in person, and then DH not listening to me either, I was volatile. I should not have to shout and stamp my feet to get a sentence finished. that is my big complaint. I have held it in for two weeks.

conversations happen when I talk, you answer, and then you talk, I answer, back and forth. an exchange occurs. Cousin talks over DH too, but is particularly rude with me. he talks really loud and goes on and on with stories and is a physically big guy besides. it is a terrible habit he has! I was almost to the point of screaming "shut the F*** up about 1000 times" but that wont fix anything.
I felt like a hero yesterday because happened to see a flash of something heading for the floor. when Dh didn't listen either ....it triggered 2 weeks of feeling dismissed and talked over. so vent over!

my email on my phone is still not working but will deal with it tomorrow.
 
Last edited:
This morning I did Low Impact Sweat workout one for 28 minutes and 161 calories burned. Average heart rate was 124 and maximum heart rate was 150. I have been frustrated in my shopping efforts over the past few days. I was planning to make the German chocolate cake that is always requested, but I can’t find the chocolate anywhere. I have checked every grocery store around here and no one has it! I looked on the internet and the company website and people are complaining about not being able to find the Baker’s German’s Sweet chocolate. It’s one of those shortages that makes no sense!

Cathy, great job with P30 Upper Body. At least you were able to find a tree. There seems to be a shortage of those too.

Valerie, I’m glad that you made it home safely. Your husband should feel very lucky that you spotted his wallet when he dropped it. That could have been a big disaster. I totally understand your need to “rant”.

Hello to Judy and Diane Sue.
 
Valerie-that happened to me at work. I was the only woman in the group at that time (late 80's) and I could never say anything in a meeting without getting talked over. I had to learn to be loud and almost pushy in order to participate at all in the staff meetings. It was ridiculous. My favorite was when I would make a suggestion that would of course get ignored, then a few minutes later one of the men would come up with the same suggestion and he was praised for having such a great idea. I don't miss those days at all!
 
I am doing pre-op at the bone and joint hospital tomorrow and then the surgery Wednesday. I am not sure the time yet, as they said they will tell me after pre-op. I was wondering why I had not heard anything and then I saw on my portal there was a message of schedule for post op on Monday the 27th. At first, I thought they changed the date, and I was upset as my husband took off the next 3 days from work for this. Thankfully I spotted the other appointment and then right after the bone and joint hospital called. It was apparent that was the first that they had heard of my scheduled surgery, so she worked me in for pre-op doubling up appointments.

Carolyn, I keep having that problem with particular items that I am looking for. I went to order dog food for my dog and Chewy was out of stock and I checked other places and they were out. Finally, I checked Amazon and they had two bags left. I really do not care for ordering from Amazon as I have had some that smelled stale. This is a new product, so I was not worried about it that much. A while back, it was peanuts. How funny that no one had peanuts and Amazon had other sellers selling the Planters for huge prices. Finally, I found Amazon Happy Belly peanuts really cheap. Although my husband took them and put them in a colander to shake out hulls and salt before eating them. I just find it odd that an item will just be gone everywhere. Maybe I need to start looking for German Chocolate before my husband's birthday in February.
Enjoy the family.

Valerie, I am glad you caught the wallet dropping. That would have been a terrible situation.

Cathy, we did that one year and got a great deal on a tree for getting it the last minute. It made it through a week, and we took it down, so it served the purpose. My husband is generally ready for it all to get put up as soon as Christmas say is over. I hope things went well with you picking up Nick.

Hi to Judy

If I do not get back by Christmas day, Have a Very Merry Christmas!
 
thank you for your support guys! I remember meetings like that judy. I would make a statement and it got ignored and 10 min later some man would say the same thing and it got all kinds of attention. one of those universals for most women. yep, pushy or bitchy. being familiar with the process doesn't make it more pleasant. cousin will get called on it soon. I've shouted him down before and it's time to do it again. he does it when we zoom too. seemed unkind to do it when they were being so nice to us. He has a personal issue he doesn't deal with. he talks WAY WAY too much and won't cede the floor, to anyone. His wife kicks him under the table, but especially if he's had a glass of wine, he just won't shut up.

Dh gets so nervous flying I let it go, just glad I saw it happen. I thought it was a granola bar or wrapper at the time. lucky for both of us!

carolyn I dont remember what chocolate gets used in the cake. I looked at www.KingArthurbaking.com but didnt see anything that matched. it is weird how common items go missing for no reason. I could not find saltine crackers for several months and suddenly they were back.

diane sue best of luck on your upcoming surgery.
 
This morning I did P30 Perfect Pump Upper Body for 34 minutes and 162 calories burned. My average heart rate was 116 and maximum heart rate was 156.

Diane Sue, I will be thinking of you tomorrow. I don’t know if finding the German’s Chocolate was an issue at Thanksgiving. I already had some and didn’t notice what was available in the stores.

Valerie, the recipe uses Baker’s German’s Sweet Chocolate in the green box. I use the original recipe that was always on the package, but has not been there in recent years. Now you have to get it from the company’s website, but I have many copies saved in my recipe card box. I started making the cake when I was a teenager. I will make another cake for Christmas.

Hello to Judy and Cathy.
 
Carolyn I LOVE german chocolate cake. have not made it in probably 30 years. I have the recipe but would not make it unless I had a whole lot of guests to eat it up. its one of the things I cannot leave alone. almond roca is another.
 
No workout yesterday because of lack of sleep. This morning I did my Finished Combos workout. This will be short because Nick's flight is in the air and we leave soon to head to Grand Rapids and pick him up.

Valerie people like that are always SO hard to deal with. Diane Sue glad to hear that everything is falling in place for your surgery Wednesday! Hi to everyone else and I promise to catch up tomorrow!
 
No workout again today because...ever popular refrain...bad sleep. Well actually I had four hours of good sleep, I just then woke up and never went back to it. Shopping tomorrow, so maybe Friday. Had a few bumps getting hooked up with Nick, but he's home now. Here until the 5th. Hoping to find the shelves still decently stocked tomorrow, and I'm going to grab extras of all the basic cleaning stuff, and more dry goods.

My Grandma used to make German Chocolate cake, but it was the one chocolate cake I didn't eat because her recipe had a frosting filled with coconut! Do most recipes for German Chocolate cake have coconut? Now her brown sugar frosting cake and lemon meringue pie I was totally down for! Yum My Mom is no more of a cook than I am, probably less and she could never get them right, but then it wasn't her Mother's recipe. Dad lost out of quite a few foods when he married her. LOL

Derek and I managed to put bulbs on the tree and if you don't look at it or in anyway touch it, the needles seem to be staying put. Just have to make it another 5 days!

Diane Sue I hope everything goes smoothly today and tomorrow!
 
I am having trouble sleeping too, cathy seems to go in streaks , and right now I'm waking up early and can't get back to sleep. woke up at 3 or 3:30 and that was it.
yesterday I did a 40 min spin, set of pushups. my upper body for last 2 weeks has been lifting my suitcase a few times and lifting both mt bikes up onto truck tailgate. we do it together. I stand on the ground and lift the bike as high as I can, DH leans over and lifts it up from there. same thing on the way down. we had to keep bikes in the condo so this was 2 bikes 4x a day. mt bikes are heavy! this way nobody had to reach too far and strain something. we rented a truck so we didn't have to deal with a bike rack. not sure how people do that with rental vehicles. I read people get bikes delivered to trailhead by the bike company but sounds too expensive and complicated. this worked well and we were free to ride as long as we wanted and where we wanted. a couple places didn't work so this way we could just go elsewhere.

I should let carolyn answer but I will jump in anyway. coconut is a big part of the german choc cake recipe. there was coconut in frosting and in the cake itself. I LOVE ADORE coconut. DH doesnt feel the same. my mother could not cook but she could bake! we always had desserts around all home made. sort of explains the reason weight issues ran in our family. my father didn't like very much so it was always a challenge. he didnt like any spices or seasoning or tomato sauce, and only wanted meat and potatoes. very boring and unhealthy. must have been discouraging to try to cook for him. very german/irish fare. bland and boring, vegetables boiled to death and floating in butter and cream sauce. I never ate like that again after I left home.
 
Today I did JS Steady, Ready, Go which was 31 minutes and 221 calories burned. My average heart rate was 132 and maximum heart rate was 150. I’m baking Christmas cookies today, and I will give many of those to my next door neighbor. She has 5 young grandchildren and 3 of them live with her. Her husband passed away in March and one son and his family moved in with her. When I do a lot of baking I share with them.

Cathy, that’s tough about the disrupted sleep. I’m glad that both sons are home now. German chocolate cake is actually not a favorite of mine even though I make it two times a year. Yes, the coconut pecan frosting is a part of the recipe, but no coconut in the cake. I like the chocolate cake part but I scrape most of the frosting off if I eat it. I will always choose a slice of pie over the GC cake if we have more than one dessert.

Valerie, all of that lifting of heavy items sounds like upper body work to me! It probably feels good to get back to your routine.

Hello to Diane Sue and Judy.
 
carolyn maybe coconut in the cake was my mothers addition to the recipe. I remember making it years ago and eating too much of it. DH thinks pecans are a migraine trigger so I have not made it. we have lost family over the years and for guests was the only time I make big desserts. I do love coconut. cousins moving 2 years ago were our last close-by family. everyone has scattered around the west.

I made an apple sharlotka yesterday, a variation on WW recipe. only 5 points for a decent slice. I don't like artificial sweetener. weird not sweet taste. this has a cup of sugar, no fat except egg. I can get more than 12 servings out of it so a nice fruity dessert.

I did stacked upper body yesterday, 2/3 of it anyway, some push ups and x-train core. I feel a little "worked" today but not sore so it looks like I did enough work in AZ to maintain.
 
Today I did P30 Perfect Pump Lower Body and the Extended Stretch. My time was 39 minutes with 155 calories burned. Average heart rate was 109 and maximum heart rate was 141.

Valerie, the GC cake is definitely something to make only when there are other people around. When I was growing up it was a special occasion cake only, usually at Christmas time. Many people don’t care for coconut. My youngest brother won’t touch that cake because he hates coconut so much. My family had a pecan orchard and we always had more than enough pecans. I still hate to shell them! Great job with Stacked Sets Upper Body, push ups, and X Train Core.

Cathy, I hope that you got your shopping done today. I went to Kroger’s for a few items this morning and it was already crowded—and not enough cashiers. These stores all have “hiring now” signs out and none have enough workers.

Diane Sue, I hope that everything went well and that you are resting and starting to recover.

Hello to Judy.
 
I had my surgery yesterday. They did a nerve block with ultrasound to help with pain the first 24 hours. They shaved off a bone spur and some arthritis that was causing the damage and didrepair. Connected the tendons with a plastic screw. The pain really started up this afternoon. I am icing every hour and have 3 pt moves to do.
Thanks for thoughts..
 
Today I did a 30 minute Peloton ride and 10 minutes of Peloton arm work.

Carolyn-Great job with Perfect Pump Lower Body and the extended stretch.

Valerie-Nice job with Stacked Upper Body.

Cathy-I'm sorry about your lack of sleep. I have nights like that too.

Diane Sue-I hope you have a quick recovery from the surgery and that your shoulder will feel much better soon.
 
Shopping went okay yesterday. We got there fairly early and it wasn't crazy busier though more than usual. Decided to do Love Me Some Cardio Kickboxing this morning. It's 57 minutes long and I needed to let out my frustrations. DH isn't feeling well, he pretty much never feels well, but was worse than usual. Should go get a COVID test but he's being resistant to the idea. Boys have appointments next week, and I'm not inclined to expose other people. None of us have any symptoms. So, may see if I can get the 3 of us tests on Sunday. Can't find home tests around here right now. It's one thing when he doesn't care enough to deal with his own health issues, but this can impact other people.

Diane Sue, glad that your surgery is over with and I hope your pain level is decreasing.

Judy great job with the Peloton workouts!

Carolyn great job with JS Steady, Ready, Go and P30 Perfect Pump lower body!

Valerie great job with the spin workout, and pushups and Stacked Upper Body and core work!

Happy Christmas Eve everyone!
 
Good morning. I did Rev'd up rumble yesterday. haven't done anything but ride or spin in a while for cardio but went OK.
we found out last night the cousin we just spent two weeks with is sick, and has been since tuesday. (Great!!) he was seen by a doc who thinks it's a plain old head cold but tested for covid to be safe. we are glad we have been isolating and didn't have xmas plans. we last saw him saturday. his wife has no sxs. he is terrible about contact and rubs his face constantly. a bad habit. led to many upper respiratory infections over the years. we are all vaccinated and boosted. still, prefer not to test the science.

Cathy, I understand your position completely! we have been isolating since we got back on sunday. all I did was grocery shopping while distancing and masked. hope you all are OK. with travel back in full swing and the more transmissable omicron, no place to hide.

diane sue, good to know your surgery went well and that you are recovering. must be uncomfortable for sure, but knowing you are repaired and will get better is positive news.

Carolyn I think every business here has a "help wanted" or Hiring Now" sign on the front. what a windfall for people looking for jobs. IMO grocery stores are cutting numbers of workers. relying on self checkout and customers bagging their own groceries rather than waiting in line forever. I'm good at bagging groceries. put myself thru college as a grocery checker.

Judy strong work on the peloton workouts.
 

Our Newsletter

Get awesome content delivered straight to your inbox.

Top