Taste Like Chicken Monday 2/15

Happy President’s Day!

Chele No water because of the pump. It is currently 8 degrees and I have no idea what the feel like is. We have had rolling blackouts since 3:00. I am wearing sweats and a jacket under 2 blankets because it’s 47 degrees inside. I still feel fortunate to have a house to live in and not living on the streets.

Hope to bbl as I can.

Happy Presidents Day and Happy 4th Birthday to my Sweet Potato.

Becky, I was watching TWC this morning and they had people in Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio. None of TX looks good. And the worse is yet to come. They talked about the rolling blackouts in Dallas but it sounds like it's well beyond there. Do you have a way to keep the cows warmer? This is unprecedented for them, like it is for you. Do they have a barn to get out of the elements? We had times at the other house when we had power outages for several and it got into the upper 40s/low 50s inside and that is not fun. Keep warm!

How much more snow are you expecting, Chele? TWC had someone in Cincy as well, so I know it's not good in your area either. Yay for Iggy feeling some relief with his recovery regimen. Being able to use the snow blower would be a step in the right direction. LOL on "exercise den". We call ours "the pain cave". I need to check to see what's available on Prime when our wifi becomes normal again (it's been out since Saturday afternoon). I think I only have 1 more season of NYPD Blue and then I need to figure out how to proceed.

Kathy, are you having t-storms today? It looked like you might from the weather maps I saw. With all the rain we've been having, they have another rockslide on the Spur in G'burg. That is becoming more common in the last few years.

How are the allergies, Linda? Is the new dishwasher working well? It's good that it's so similar to your previous dishwasher to decrease the learning curve. How is Micki?

Liz, did you see more law enforcement presence on your a.m. commute? I heard there were a number of stabbings with fatalities and they seemed random. I believe they were on the A Line and I don't think that's yours. They said they planned to have an extra 500 officers but they didn't say they would be concentrated on one particular line.

Are you having weather issues as well, Denise? It's strange how these storms are being so hit or miss. They are having ice in Nashville and some areas to the east of middle TN, but we are just expecting rain here, but it will get into the 20s tonight, so the roads could be dicey.

I listened to an interesting podcast this morning from the doc in charge of the national weight loss registry. He says you can lose weight without exercising, but to keep it off, you need to exercise. He said 93% of the over 10K people on the registry exercise at least an hour a day. He blames the obesity epidemic on our environment, where we have as much food as we want and no real incentive to be active. So for weight management, you have to be sure you burn through exercise as many calories as you take in. He also said most of the registry people do some sort of resistance training. I have been thinking about upping how long I exercise (right now I'm doing 40-45 minutes at least 4 times a week plus 30 minutes one or twice more. The doc, Dr. James Hill, was being interviewed by Chef AJ and she says she spins an hour a day while she watches Netflix and if the show is good, she goes longer. She also walks her dog an hour a day. Arya and I walk more when the weather is a bit warmer, but not when it's too cold because she tends to lolly-gag and it's just not comfortable for me to be out for so long. I just need to get up and move more. Tonight is a MG meeting night and we have a plant sale committee meeting before to figure out what we are going to do to improve on the sale this year, since it will still need to be socially-distanced. With the rain we're supposed to get, it's good that it's a Zoom meeting so we don't have to be out on the highways.

Chele, I may eventually upgrade my camera, but it's not really on my list at the moment. I haven't really been doing enough photography to justify it right now and my newer camera has a pretty good zoom capability. Wow, that's a lot of snow! So bizarre that we're in the 80s while the rest of the country is freezing. Some of the cold air will make it down to us this weekend, but the forecast doesn't look too bad. There is a tornado watch in the panhandle, so I hope that weather doesn't make it down here. Glad Humpty is doing better.

Becky, I hope your water and power come back soon. That's really cold inside the house. I was wondering about the cattle too. Sending warm weather vibes from FL your way.

Karen, we might get some storms tonight, but it's dry right now. What's causing the rockslides to increase? I saw Memphis on TWC this morning and it looked like they got a lot of snow. That's interesting on the exercise. Do you schedule yours out for the week? I've been trying to get at least 30 minutes for 5 days/week with longer sessions on a couple of those days. I've been neglecting the treadmill in favor of yoga and Jazzercise, but that would be something I could do while watching TV. That's good that you don't have to get out on the highway today. Happy Birthday to Arya! Can't believe she's 4 already.

Linda, same here on heat pumps and exposed pipes. We were visiting relatives in South Florida one time and heard there were pipes bursting in Central FL due to an unexpected hard freeze. We left right away to check on our houses. I don't know how cold it actually was in my place since the thermostat only went down to 55 and that's where it was at. Luckily, none of us had broken pipes. Hope the knee isn't too sore.

Liz, how are things in the big city? Stay safe out there.

Karen, too true on the human diet. Forgot to mention that I watched Men in Kilts last night. Have you seen it yet? This one concentrated on seafood and Scottish whisky. I'm hoping for more scenery and history in some of the future episodes.

Karen, there is some scenery in the episode, but it seemed too short to show much. There was some intro stuff with Outlander, so maybe they'll have more time in future episodes. I hope to get back to Scotland someday. We mainly saw Edinburgh, but didn't get up into the Highlands. You could spend a couple of weeks just seeing everything in Edinburgh, so we barely scratched the surface. It is a beautiful country. I have thought that maybe scheduling workouts would help, but I'm not sure I'd stick to a schedule. I can see where you'd have more motivation with the triathlete goals.

Sheesh, I would not want to be on international news for unusual and dangerous weather.

Karen, I forgot to mention that Iggy’s chiropractor cancelled all appointments for the whole week. 🤷‍♀️ He is rescheduled for next Tuesday. He did go out and throw the ice melter on the driveway. My back is in that stage where it feels better but it tells me immediately when I need to stop doing what I’m doing. I got my workout in and made lunch before it got testy.