Sudokuaholics Anonymous 9A

Welcome home June!

Glad you are safe at chez cockatoo Broni!

Tami what out for those super people down there!

Heidi we get wild cockatoos too. They're fairly common, and sometimes a pest, out here.

Welcome Home June.
Gail and Broni enjoy the week ahead.

Welcome home June - we've missed you.

Feel better Heidi.

Broni and Gail - have a great time!

Having trouble sleeping, so I thought I might as well make some coffee and read the comments. Off to get groceries today. Tomorrow off to the in-laws for belated Thanksgiving dinner and to celebrate FIL's 87th birthday. Pot luck - I'm bringing vegies, snacks and the cake. Yikes, it's going to be a busy weekend!

Theresa, I think you said Thanksgiving was at a different time of year in Canada than the US and I had forgotten. I am thankful for my SA friends!!

Hey Rolanda!

Hubby is off trying to find some wood. Who would have thought we'd still need it! Our "feels-like" high was 7.2C today, down to 1.8C now. Brrrrrr.

Suzy don't tell me the weather is that cold it might put me off coming over to Australia.

Good to see June is back from her traveling, looking forward to hearing about it.

Brenda, last week our temps were ranging from 17 as a low to 24 as a high. Wonderful spring weather. Now this has hit and we are all in shock! Where I am is mild compared to some...

Brenda, here in the West the weather is warm, and getting warmer !!! 29C tomorrow, 32C on Monday...

Hey Brenda, I haven't seen your niece on FB in a while, hope all is well with her.

Everybody.
COLD morning here .... 37℉ / 2.7℃. My strawberry plants are finished for the season. Cold shock.
I NEED to go run those errands this morning. I'm out of a couple of my meds and out of cat food. None of us are happy about it. Plus, IH will be back here in 4 hours. That'll be stressful. I've been on a rampage lately over his goats. He's been letting them run loose around the neighborhood, destroying people's shrubbery, damaging the siding on their homes and obstructing traffic on the road. The gates he's left open for them have been letting my cows out as well. Nothing I say to him has had any effect. The neighbors have been swearing at me, because he's never around for them to yell at. So he was told one last time that I will shoot any goat that is out. Shortly thereafter, I got complaints about 40 goats being out on the road on a dangerous curve. So I shot some of them. He's furious with me, but he hasn't let his "valuable" goats out loose since then. (BTW... has anyone noticed that I have NO goat smilies?.... and I won't have any.)

It has now gone up 30 degrees. Pretty Fall day today. And I finally got my errands done.

But Heidi, it wasn't the goats' fault!!

Morning all
Theresa, we used to have a neighbour whose goats were out a LOT. Sometimes his sheep too. There were many near miss accidents on the road among other things. The Rangers were pulling their hair out. It was driving everyone who lived here or drove this road nuts. He left, the new people have goats - they haven't been on the road once. It may not have been the goats' fault, but I know where Heidi was coming from, especially if it was something as simple as closing a gate.

IH INTENTIONALLY left the gates open so the goats could go out to graze, despite objections from neighbors. Nothing I said to him, and nothing anybody else in the neighborhood said to him, made any difference. The road that we're on is generally travelled at 55 MPH /88 KPH, with a blind curve right where the goats like to stroll onto the road. I'm surprised that nobody has been seriously injured or killed yet. This wasn't a one time thing, he lets them out every day. If he isn't there, his employees let the goats out. My neighbor, George, has recently put in landscaping. The goats attacked it. They climb on his vehicles, scratching the paint and denting in the tops and hoods. Everybody complains to IH when they can, but he's hard to track down. So they yell at me. A LOT. This action was a last resort. Words had no effect on him. I had to do something that he'd pay attention to. He used to keep the goats on his cousin's property, and let them run loose there, but he made enemies of all the neighbors. Yet he kept it up until a deer parasite.... meningeal worm... started killing the goats. He was losing several a week. So, much to the relief of those neighbors, the goats came over here. The sheep they have on his cousins property don't wander loose or get the meningeal worm. But the neighbors are no longer friendly to them. Normally, everybody in the country watches out for neighbors. Not any more, there. Last night, some lowlifes backed in a big truck and emptied out IH's cousin's house. They had to have been there for hours, but no police were called.

Same here Heidi, blind corner, deliberate release, neighbours' rose gardens - even pulling down fences so they could get to them... Goats are okay, it's their owners who tend to suck.

No, goats are not OK. They are filthy, destructive vermin. They chew through all electrical wiring that they can find. They relieve themselves everywhere, constantly, including all over themselves. They look for anything that they can destroy.... they're not looking for food. If someone wants to own the things, they need to keep them locked up in stronger-than-concentration camp security. To me, it's like allowing a gang of criminals loose unsupervised. If they're not kept under control, you have to shoot the criminals for your own protection.

Good Morning my friends, will be heading out for lunch soon, cannot wait to meet everyone.

Have fun, Broni, Gail, and everyone else.

Greetings friends, home from a long day out today and glad to be home so I can rest. I think this next week should be a stay home week for me, hubby has a few errands to run but does not need my help. I should get caught up with the care and feeding of the sloshy thing, and some other things I have put off this busy week. Also have a LOT of phone calls to make, bummer.

Heidi, I can understand sometimes you have to do something really outrageous to make a believer of some people. AND if it were me getting yelled at, I would give out Gil's cell phone number to the yellers, let them yell at the person respinsible! Heck, I would probably even dial the number for them hehehe.

Gail and Broni, have a great visit, and enjoy your lunch out with the other Sudoku friends.

JUNE, so glad you are home safe. Too bad about the 2 days of rough weather, did you or any of your Probus group get sea sick?

HEIDI, I am glad you mentioned cold temps! I had forgotten, we have a frost advisory for tonight, I need to bring in or cover my plants that are still blooming. Some containers of the petunias that i cut back and let come again are getting so very pretty once again, I would like to keep them as long as I can. I had best run and get them covered, Hugs to all.

I HAVE been giving out his cell phone number to everyone who gets mad at IH. He ignores what they say to him. He thinks he's too wonderful for them to really mean it. Seriously!

Hello, Sudoku Friends! Woo Hoo! It's not quite 9:00 p.m. Maybe I'll get caught up tonight!

Hi, Rolanda, Heidi, CynB, Tami, Suzanne, V Viv, Gail, Brenda, Theresa, MizTricia, and Suzy (page 392)!

It's so much fun reading the comments made as the last of the miners and the 6 rescue workers were brought up. Hopefully much has been learned by this ordeal! Now, if we could only get the people from around the world who prayed for the miners to begin praying for peace, do you think there would be a chance?

Tami, I hope you and your family are having a wonderful time with the mouse! You all certainly deserve a break! (BTW, when I commented that I found it difficult to take a day off from students, I was just referring to me. Guilt has been well taught; I even found it difficult to be gone a day when I was sick and wrote EXTENSIVE lesson plans, especially when I was teaching a multi-grade, multi-disability class. It was easier to be in school than to try to write lesson plans for someone who didn't know the kids and the curricula used! Plus, I'm a bit O-C.)

Theresa, I hope your temperatures warmed up a bit and chased the seirrulf away!

Cyn and Vicki, I hope the rain has moved on!

MizT, I hope you and Al got all of the errands done and you're having a chance to relax a bit this weekend!

Heidi, I hope trimming all the weeds away from the repaired (again) fence and getting it electrified will keep the cows away from it!

Suzy, I just visited your page in the hopes of seeing hour new hairdo, but no pictures were posted yet! We're looking forward to it! I hope you're loving it and finding it much easier to take care of!

This is part of an e-mail I received today about the miners. I think it needs to be shared.

Rescue of Miners Reflects Value of Human Life By Susan Estrich


It was one of those moments. My son, a would-be engineer, saw it as a triumph of the very spirit of engineers: the can-do, we-can-solve-anything guts and genius that could figure out how to keep 33 men alive for two months while forging a plan to hoist them up from half a mile underground in a bullet-shaped device linked to a pulley.

I still don't know how they did it, but that wasn't what kept me glued to my computer screen. I couldn't understand a word they were saying, much less the mechanics.

For me, it was more a religious experience than a scientific one.

At a time when we see the value of human life cheapened every day — when thugs would kidnap a woman aid worker who spent her life (and lost it) trying to help others, when suicide bombers target innocent people, when every day brings news of horrors and threats too awful to contemplate — the world watched and wept as 33 men were pulled to freedom.

That is the world I want to live in, the world I pray my children will live in.

There was much talk about how the new president of Chile had staked his future on this rescue, how his advisers had told him not to promise too much, not to get caught creating expectations he couldn't meet. Politics. What else is new?

President Sebastian Pinera did it anyway. To quote my old friend Jesse Jackson, he kept hope alive.

Hope triumphed over politics and budgets and naysayers. Experts from around the world pitched in. Thirty-three lives commanded the best and the brightest. This is what human life is worth.

Thirty-three men thrown together by disaster formed a different kind of social network. No "Lord of the Flies." No survival of the fittest. No every man for himself.

"No one wants to be first," someone said of the discussion of the miners about the order of rescue. Last was the position of honor, reserved for the leader.

The men in that mine were not rich or famous; this is a job for those who don't have better ones. Had they perished, few of us would have stopped to think about it, much less learn their names. We see it every day. If it bleeds, it leads. Terror alert levels. Senseless killings. More at 11.

And then there is a moment when the better angels triumph, when the president of Chile waves the flag of Bolivia as a Bolivian, trapped on his fifth day in the mine, is pulled to freedom while his young wife stands waiting for him at the top.

There are days when I wonder what has become of us. It's ugly out there, we say to each other. Man's inhumanity to man. Anniversaries of horror. People made famous for their hate. Kids without hope ending their lives. Sickness and sadness, cruelty and indifference.

Hard hats on their hearts, the Chileans sang their national anthem after the last man was rescued. The world let out a collectiv

Hard hats on their hearts, the Chileans sang their national anthem after the last man was rescued. The world let out a collective sigh of relief. The engineering worked.

This is what it means — what it should mean — to be human. In God's image, at our best. The strength and courage of the 33 are a gift to the world, ours to cherish or discard, ours to hold on to, to remind us that, yes, we are capable of something like this. This is what it means to have a soul.

It was a good week for the world. God bless.

Here I am reading page 393! Hi, Everyone!

Hi, Rolanda, Tami, Heidi, Broni, Gail, Suzy, Brenda, V Viv, Bean, CynB, Suzanne, and June!

Rolanda, I hope you enjoyed your lunch with the Mum of S#1's girl friend!

Tami, I hope your family is having a wonderful time!

Suzy, we're anxious to see the new you! I'm wondering just how short you decided to go. (I also keep my hair short, except the one time I let it grow for about 2.5 years and it hadn't even reached my shoulders - more like chin length. My hair is naturally curly/frizzy as well. I thought I had finally accepted it and quit fighting it, but in the last month I'm back to blowing it dry to straighten it and using a curling iron to smooth it. It's crazy - and I guess another example of O-C.)

Rolanda, I hope you enjoyed the fundraiser morning tea!

Welcome home, June! We're glad you arrived home safe and sound! We've missed you! Hope you had a wonderful time while away!

Heidi, I hope you're wrong about the possible return of mono! That should just not happen to anyone! If it's any consolation, hubby and I are also dragging about, feeling unfocused and tired all them time.

I see you on line, Tami. I hope you're enjoying your visit with the Mouse.

Hi everyone. Just a quick hello. I am just back in my room after being in Disney World for 12 hours. We got there just after 9 am and left around 930 pm. Long day and I am tired. Driving home tomorrow. Talk to you all tomorrow night.

I saw on Easy that June won a Sudoku competition on board ship on her Hawaiian cruise.

Hooray! I'm finally caught up! Warm greetings to all of you!

Hi, Suzy, Rolanda, Theresa, Brenda, Heidi, Broni and MizTricia!

Theresa, I hope you sleep better tonight! You'll have a busy day tomorrow with your belated Thanksgiving with in-laws and FIL's birthday! Happy Birthday to your FIL!

Rolanda, it seems about time for you to start sharing your warmers temps with those struggling to get warmed up!

Oh, dear, Heidi! I hope things go smoothly when IH gets home! Has anyone ever commented that he seems quite irresponsible? He has to take responsibility for the goats if he's going to raise them. I can understand that there seems to be one way to get his attention, and it has to do with his wallet. How many goats is he willing to lose?

Heidi, I'm glad the temperatures warmed up and you had a beautiful fall day! I'm also glad you were able to get your errands done! It took hubby and me 2 days this week to get caught up with errands, but of course we'll have most of them to do over again within a week or so.

How awful for IH's cousins that their house was ransacked! Do the lowlifes blame them for IH's goats' actions? Do you think it was a random act, or do you think they were targeted?

Broni, Gail and those you met for lunch, I hope you all had a wonderful time!

MizT, I hope you are finally able to get some rest after a very busy week! I hope the frost doesn't destroy any of your plants tonight!

Heidi, that was a wonderful email you shared! It really helps put things in perspective, doesn't it?

Gotta do some ffuts, but hope to be back later. and {{{HUGS}}} to all of you!

Oops! Sorry I missed Tami as I typed. Have a safe trip home! So glad you had a great day today!

June, congrats on winning a Sudoku competition while on your cruise!

Tami, I hope all goes well tonight and tomorrow!

The State Police have spent some time at IH's cousin's place. They believe the robbery was committed by Meth people. They stole all the household cleaners, all the alcohol, and a bunch of family heirlooms and collectables. Total value of about $5,000.00, as far as they can tell. They left the TV, VCR, and things like that. Some things, like a ship's bell, with the name of the ship on it, can be located if it shows up for sale at a scrapyard.

I am doing my best to share my warmer temps with those that have the cooler temps..
today exp 29C, tomorrow 32C current temp 28C...

Heidi, I'm so sorry for IH's cousins. My heart goes out to them, especially with family heirlooms taken. They could easily have replaced a TV and VCR. (I think they would have been easier for them to fence, as well.)

Rolanda, thank you for trying to share your warmth!

It's midnight here, and I'm heading off to bed. Good Night, Everyone! {{{HUGS}}} and positive vibes!

Well, if that's lunch, I've had it! We had a wonderful time, and as always, great fun catching up with our friends.

Thanks to Gail and Mr. Gail for making today such a wonderful time. I ate way too much but Dag was able to help me with dessert hehe!

Hello everyone!
Yes, the lunch was lovely, and the people were lovely - we had a great time! I really look forward to these get-togethers, and I think Rob does too. :D
Heidi, thanks for sharing the email about the miners - it was really very moving. And sorry about your hubby's goats ... :(
Hope everyone is well, and enjoying life. :)

I should have gone to my details and changed my name to Green from Greener before I posted.. Your lunch sounds wonderful!

Heidi, I love that email! I hope some of the genious is applied to the two smaller collapses I read about today...

Julie, it's great to see you! I miss you when you're gone, though I understand it's different for those of us with a life... While doing my pracs I noticed that few teachers these days are bothered about missing a day or two here or there, or a week or two...

MizT, I hope you get your wish and have a quiet week at home. I think we all need those for our sanity sometimes.

Tami, 12 hours at Disneyworld and you had enough energy to lift fingers over a key pad???? You are one strong woman! Looking forward to hearing about it when you get back (and are rested enough).

Our weather today has been back to almost spring like, with just a little wind to cool it down a tad.

I knew there was something else I wanted to say... Julie, Ally asked me for weeks and weeks if she could straighten my hair for me. Other people have also suggested it. I knew from seeing it wet that it wouldn't look good so resisted. In the end I gave in and let her do it. She saw what I knew she would and actually asked me to wash it so it would be curly again!

Farm daughter has to go away for two weeks marking art works for final exams. She needs us to stay at her place to feed the animals. Tonight she rang to say that she came home from riding her horse to find a metre long red bellied black snake (poisonous) in her bedroom. Hubby said he is not going to stay there!!!!.
She called the animal rescue people to come get the snake (they are protected) but they did not have anyone available so she got the neighbour to help and it is now a dead snake. (you can kill them if the pose a threat!!!)