Go to Walgreens and get a tennis elbow brace. It puts gentle pressure on the tendon that's inflamed and does offer relief. It just takes time to heal. Mine took a good month with wearing the brace.

My job will take money out of my check for charities, if I choose to do that. So, I literally "give at the office". It's pretty cool--there's a catalog of all charitable organizations and you can choose by county, or by type of organization, etc. I chose a local animal shelter, a food bank, a women's shelter and St. Jude's. Really, it's a pittance, but it's more than what I'd give left on my own. It's really easy to fill out the form and let the fiscal folks deal with disbursing it. And, since I never answer the phone if I don't know the person, no one's ever going to trick me! Ha! LOL

I've made her lasagna many times, but no one's proposed to me because of it, though. (It's the best lasagna recipe I've ever used)

https://www.fossil.com/us/en.html

Going back to school Being more conscious of how I'm eating and making better food choices as well as paying attention to when I'm full. Cut out sodas all together and drinking water and unsweetened iced tea. A coworker teaches Brazilian Jujitsu and has been encouraging me to try it. I don't know...it sorta scares me! I told him I wasn't sure old fat girls could do it. He looked around and said, "I don't see any old fat girls. But you come and give it a shot!" That boy's mamma raised him right! LOL

My oncologist told me that everyone has cancerous cells in their bodies. There are all sorts of variables that promote them to grow and sugar can be one of them. He told me that overall, healthy eating is always the best idea, but there are no diets that will prevent cancer.

I took my house off the market last week. It had been listed for 2 months, with a realtor who didn't show it once. It took her a week to get the pictures online, she gave totally incorrect measurements for one "room" (meaning: not a room, but a "space"). And she never once even showed the house. I get the market is slow right now. I get that our state is without a budget and I live in a high state-worker area. But I know of others who have homes on the market and they're at least getting showings. I'm leaving it off the market until February and starting with a new agent who actually wants to earn his commission, not sit on his a$$ and give excuses.

We never did the elf/Santa thing. When I divorced, I started some new traditions with my kids. DD was 8; DS was 18. We would go by Starbucks on Christmas Eve, get an overpriced hot drink, then go see Christmas lights. An old neighborhood in my town has luminaries up and down the sidewalks and it's just beautiful. Another thing DD and I do is go to the Festival of Trees in our town, look at trees, get an overpriced gingerbread man, and buy a small ornament in the gift shop. I'm not always able to pull it off due to prices, but I try to take DD to some sort of Christmas event--concert, ballet, something special. The day after Thanksgiving is when the tree goes up and it's followed by White Christmas.

Yes, I'm familiar with it.

No, it was the same last name as our pastor (not his wife). Hence her thinking she could do what she wanted.

HA! Not in my world. Once you've graduated college and have secured employment, you're on your own, baby.

You know what's sad? All it takes is one parent with bratty kids to ruin what could have been a child-friendly party. Some friends have an ornament exchange every year. The first few years, people brought kids and it was fine. It was understood that the exchange was for the moms and the gifts the hostesses gave at the end were for the moms, too, not the children. One year, a mom brought her kids and they completely wrecked the event. The hostess has a very nice home with beautiful Christmas decor. Everything was relaxed but very nice. The kids starting dragging out legos and blocks, making a mess. People tried to be gracious and just deal, but it was awful. The kids took ornaments from the exchange and took gifts at the end, at their mother's urging. There weren't enough for the adults who brought ornaments to exchange and there weren't enough gifts at the end. The hostesses were scrambling to find things in the house to offer as gifts at the end. Consequently, that mom was never asked back. It wasn't that she was new to the group and didn't get it--she absolutely knew what she was doing and what she was allowing her kids to do. She didn't care. She felt she could do what she wanted and to heck with anyone else. So, now, the hostesses specify on the invite that it's for women 18 and over, excepting nursing infants. There's always someone, it seems, who goes out of their way to be a jerk. And because of that, I think it's perfectly ok to be very specific with who's invited and who isn't.

Oh, wow, thanks! Yes, I've lost count. Let's just say I'm very close to being "mid-century" LOL. It was a good day. My coworkers surprised me with a lunch potluck (who am I kidding? It was an all-day potluck!), they decorated my desk with banners and balloons, I got a gc to a steak restaurant, DD got me a Yankee Candle and a mystery gift that is supposed to arrive tomorrow and then she came home with a box of cordial cherries and bridge mix (my faves!) Getting old is not so bad. LOL

I love this podcast! Edited, because the question's already been answered. I'm delighted to hear she plans to start them up again!

Pure Flix (Like Netflix but all faith-based programming) has many Jesus-focused Christmas movies. You can get a free month trial, too.

I went to the special Friends and Family preview day before it opened to the public and it was a MAD HOUSE. But, I felt it was well-handled and even though it was very busy and crowded, we had a great time. One of the staff said Mondays are the least busy days to go. If my house ever sells and we move, I have a big Ikea trip planned for DD's new bedroom furniture.

No one has mentioned the best feature of St. Louis. The new Ikea store! :D

What if...his stopping you prevented you from a terrible accident? As in, that few minutes of delay kept you from being in the wrong place at the wrong time? Weirder things have happened. I dunno; I'm just trying to put a positive spin on an annoying stop. I'd have been irritated, too. Tuesday morning at 4:45 am, an officer banged on my front door, rousing me out of sleep to tell me he'd caught someone breaking into my daughter's car. He got the guy before he could get anything, but the punk did have dd's back pack, duffle bag and wallet out on the ground. I looked over the stuff, determined nothing was actually missing and thanked the officer. Then he kept chatting. And chatting. And chatting. It's 30 degrees, I'm in my jams and a coat and he's chatting. Nice guy, but please let me go back to bed! I've never had an officer what to stick around and yap! Especially in the wee hours when it's cold, and I have morning breath! LOL

I take the GNC Women's Energy and Metabolism multi-vitamins, and I do notice that I feel better and can stay more focused. I think Sam's club even had them for a good price.

I doubt I'd even notice it. I say if you like the Ektorps, use them wherever you want!

We had no trick or treaters. I live off a dead end, that's off a dead end. But, our weirdness is my EX got married for the 4th time on Halloween and didn't bother to mention it to our daughter, who found out Monday from one of his students. He actually told her he was sick over the weekend and couldn't do anything with her.

The new episode had me holding my breath. I don't think I breathed until it was over!

I believe my mother 100% knew what she was doing. She got off on the power. I also believe my ex knew what he was doing. I think his motives were different, but both knew what they were doing.

I'm going to spoil House Hunters. If you want to stay in the bubble, don't read further! *~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~WHISTLING~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~* Ok. The buyers already have a house under contract when they do the show. The other houses they "look" at are totally staged showings. All the nitpicking is fake, phony, scripted. I don't know about the other home-buying shows, but I know for sure that this is how this one is done. My house has been on the market for a month. I've had ONE showing. The buyers wanted a bigger back yard. Can't do a thing about that one! I am selling as-is. The place is 85 years old. It has a brand new roof, new flooring in the bedrooms, updated flooring in the rest of the house, and a freshly painted porch and porch floor, along with updated electrical and plumbing. Anything that would need fixing is purely cosmetic and I am not changing it. It's so well insulated that you can't even hear the rain falling unless it's so windy that it hits the windows. It's a sturdy little place and is charming, but it's too small and I want something with no basement. Both realtors I'm working with say it's not showing because of the time of year and the fact we still have no state budget. Being a town with a huge state-worker population, no one's moving right now. So, here I sit. :glare:

What are they dressing as? Are you dressing up, too? My dd17 dressed as a Hufflepuff student for a costume contest at the CC she attends. She looked cute, but didn't win. I plan to dress as a fat, middle-aged, civil service worker. LOL