Taste Like Chicken Fri-YAY! 2/22

Photo of  Scottsdale on the news with house and kandscape covered in snow last night.there is one I saw measuring nine inches of snow. 
That is only 25 miles north of where I am in Tempe...think ASU. Two weeks ago there was a major golf tournament!
I work at a city historic festival outside the museum Sunday...and it will be 39 degrees at 7AM! This should be interesting. three years ago we were in the 90 degree range.

Flagstaff set a snow in one day record by five at 31.5 inches, it was 33 by ten and it snowed all night.

Here it rained and rained.,,finally got dog out at two AM and half the yard was a lake. But it will be 34 or less Sat, morning!

Thanks for getting us started, Karen. I hope you were able to get some deeper sleep last night. How is the pain level? Still addressing it holistically? I listened to the latest “Wait, wait, don’t tell me” podcast from PBS and Matt Smith was the guest. I haven’t seen him as the doctor but he was great as Prince Philip on The Crown. He is going to play Charles Manson in a movie.

Linda, you must all be feeling cheated this year. You should be in the seventies with sun. That is what I remember about Phoenix this time of hear. I can’t believe Scottsdale and Vegas both got snow. Teachers don’t get enough respect. I loved training adults but you couldn’t pay me enough to teach the under 18 crowd. I had a few trainees between 18 and 30 and they were different to train than the over 30 crowd. A lot of people think teaching is an easy job with short hours and summers off. I sure haven’t seen the short hours from any teachers I know. I know one inner city teacher and the stress she has is unreal. She is looking for a job outside of teaching.

Kathy, I don’t know of too many places that have pensions any more. I will get one from my company but not a large one because they stopped the pension and went to a 401k plan. I just got a statement and at this time it is still fully funded. Doing nothing sounds about right for your first day of retirement. Who needs a gold watch anyway, huh? Lucky you to get out of a couple of hours work.

Becky, cleaning house is a bear with a bad back. That is why I usually do it in small spurts. I hope yours has recovered. My back is fine today but with all the dust I stirred up with my spring cleaning, my allergies are on full attack. 

Liz, I hope today is not a full on assault of evil forces.

Linda, I'm shocked that winter weather is so close to you. That's an incredible amount of snow for Flagstaff. Did you hear what their total was? How long will it take your soil to drain? Will you have no lake by tomorrow when it gets close to freezing? I hope you have warm enough clothes to be working outside at the festival in a couple of days. Or will they cancel it due to the cold weather? Be careful if you venture out onto the roads today. It's very unfortunate the way public school teachers are under appreciated. Colleges and universities are different. We got gift cards for anniversaries, $25 for 5 years, $50 for 10 years, and increases with additional 5 year increments. We always joked that the pay wasn't that great but the bennies were nice.

I guess you don't mind their power outage too much, Kathy, even if it costs you a few hours of PTO. Will it be a problem so far as getting everything done that you promised to do before you left? So, what did you do on your unplanned day off? I'm sure your former home office looks quite different without all the equipment. Are you going to do any redecorating or repurposing of space now? Four more days.... Enjoy your warmth. Do you have sunshine to go along with it? At least we're in the low 50s but it's raining again and will be for a while. All the rain is bringing the lake level up, though, so that's a good thing. It's gone up more than 13 feet--yes, FEET--since Sunday, and it's supposed to go up another 10 feet or so by Sunday. If it wasn't so muddy, we would take out the kayaks, provided if the rain stops for a while. Why do Milennials seem to love working in cube farms? No, thank you.

Chele, I got 38 whole minutes of deep sleep last night, which was 38 minutes more than the previous night, so I'm not complaining. Tonight is the last night I will have to wear the boot to bed, so better sleep should start tomorrow night. I did take an Aleve before bed last night, but have been managing holistically so far today. Right foot is improving and not as much pain in the left. I'm really anxious to see what it looks like on Monday. It's realy sad how many good teachers who could make a real difference get into other professions because of what are basically lousy working conditions. I have a niece and nephew-in-law (married) and she is a kindergarten teaching assistant and he teaches welding at the high school. So, of public school jobs, they have some of the best options, with the very young ones with open minds and teaching a marketable trade that can earn some bucks after graduation (eldest great nephew is one of his students; eldest nephew's son). The only benefit to those in other grades or non-occupational areas get are summers off. That sounds really good to people who don't work in the schools, but it's small compensation for what they have to put up with the lest of the year. It always amazes me that people think watches and clocks are such good retirement gifts. Why?? It's not like you are beholden to time unless you want to be. Are you getting ready for Iggy's return? When does he leave Singapore? I can see Matt Smith playing Prince Philip. Not sure about him as Charles Manson, but his eyes do look a little crazy sometimes.

How's the back doing, Becky? Is it ok when you're on the bike? Is your weather good enough to be outdoors today? Congrats on the loss. You are adept enough with the WW plans that you can mix and match as you need to. That's a good thing. Are you going to continue to double track? That can be time-consuming.

Liz, it's Friday. R&R on the weekend? Got snow? What have you heard from DS?

Foot is doing some better and I am looking forward to some shoeless time. I puth the colorful sock on this morning because some of the tape on the bandage is loosening.I found a pair of Merrell sandals online at TJ Maxx that I think are open where my scars are. I may be wearing sandals before sandals season. I am rather anxious, however, to be able to get my regular Crocs on without pain. Speaking of pain, Arya has been one this afternoon. I think she needs a nap. Dale just took her out so that's not the issue. I worked on the next newsletter for a couple of hours this morning, as I did have several items to put in. The deadline won't be until the Wednesday after next, so I'm not expecting much more until then. Hopefully certain people will be a little more punctual this time.

Karen I hope your foot feels better soon and you can get better deep sleep.I always get much more light sleep than deep sleep.I will continue to double track with ITB and MFP.You can make foods favorites in ITB so it's easy especially if you eat the same thing for a meal from day to day like I normally have the same breakfast every day.So I just hold my finger on the food and copy it to the next day.MFP is easy too so it doesn't take too long to double track.On PP I didn't feel the need to double track because 40 calories roughly equals 1 PP.They have never figured out the calorie equivalent of SP so I double track so I make sure I'm getting enough calories in.It's 55 anc cloudy so no walk today.We may have rain tonight into tomorrow morning some time and then hopefully sunny in the afternoon but gusty winds so I am hoping to get in one walk because we aren't going to Elgin tomorrow.I hope it gets up to 70 like they have predicted.

Karen, it was only 2 hours of PTO, so that's not going to make much difference in what I was planning on finishing. We've had a lot of clouds at times, but no rain so far. I plan on doing some redecorating and moving things around, but need to clean out first. I was working in cube farms before the millennials were even born! I don't think anyone likes them, but they're cheaper. My current place doesn't even have cubes, so a cube would be an upgrade. Maybe the clocks and watches for retirees are about all that time that has passed since they started working there. That's amazing on the water increase in the lake. Hope you get a good night's sleep tonight.

Chele, I watched the first season of The Crown and thought Matt Smith was really good too. The actor they switch to when Prince Philip gets a bit older was one of the main actors on Outlander, so I'm curious to see him in the role too. I need to catch up with season 2 first.

Becky, I think we're supposed to get a little bit cooler on Monday, but spring has definitely sprung here. Flowers are blooming and the pollen is everywhere. That's interesting that you were hungrier on points plus. Congrats on the loss.

Linda, I've worked with several ex-teachers and they all left mainly due to the pay. The other thing was dealing with parents which I think is very different than it was when I was in school. Hope the gel shots get approved quickly and give you some relief.

Linda, the boot is really difficult to maneuver in bed. I have to be very careful, however, that Arya doesn't make contact or I don't hit it with the other foot when the boot isn't there for protection. But then in a couple of days, I'll be down to a bandaid anyway, so it's short term. We are fortunate that there is no income tax in TN. But you are so right about insurance. Medicare is a lot more expensive than I ever imagined and I am fortunate that NC picks up the tab for my United Healthcare supplemental policy at no cost to me. It's sad that a lot of the good people who go into teaching are the ones who don't stay in teaching. That's an incredible amount of snow for Flagstaff! I remember some of those accumulations when I was growing up but haven't had to deal with more than a foot of snow for the last 25 years or so. You just got rain, including hail? I hope you don't get any ice when the temps turn cold. The people at the spring training game we watched today sure were bundled up. I'm glad you had your plants covered and I hope they didn't get damage. Is that a tile roof to the right of your hibiscus? I hope you will get better results with the shots in the right knee than you did on the left. Beyond knee replacement, are there other options? I have that flabby blubber as well and hope that my "new feet" will let me be more active in getting it toned up.

I am also a light sleeper, Becky. Most nights I get between 50 and 60% light sleep. Sometimes it takes me a while to fall asleep and then I wake up between 2 and 3 am and have difficulty getting back to sleep, so 10-15% awake is not uncommon. So that's probably where I need to concentrate my efforts. If I could get to sleep faster and not wake up in the middle of the night, even if I'm not in REM or deep sleep, I think I would feel better overall. I hope you have good walking weather tomorrow. Enjoy not having to go to Elgin.

Kathy, you have an open office environment where you are? Oh, that's the worst! No privacy whatsoever! Happy cleaning before you can redecorate. Enjoy your spring. I know it tends not to last long there.

I got a shower after dinner so I feel like a new person. It's so inconvenient because I can't shower by myself due to not being able to stand on the injured foot (think flamingo showering). So Dale is there to keep me from falling. Fortunately, my balance is pretty good, but not as good as usual because the right foot is also still healing. I'll be able to shower on my own again (on 2 feet) after the follow up appointment on Monday. In fact, I may come right home afterward and hop (well, probably not literally) in the shower. Looking forward to getting back to a little bit of normal. Got to do a load of laundry tomorrow and we have a system where Dale does the lifting and I push the buttons, so not too much time on my feet.