Sudokuaholics Anonymous 8

Heidi, I hope the people IH invited over didn't stay too late so you can get your evening chores (including feeding the dogs) done.

They didn't show up either, 'cause the fireworks were canceled.

Now I'm off to feed the dogs. They'll like that.

I did not go to watch the fireworks in Montevallo. Instead, I watched the Boston Pops fireworks on TV. Pretty good show and fireworks over the water are always nice.

Good night Sudokuland, I think it is time for bed for me. I have lost a hubby, he went back out to work some more. His customer is happy with what he is drawing for them, that is good.

Good Night, Heidi and MizTricia! Good Night to others who may be about. I'm going to call it an early night (for me). Hope everyone has had/is having a terrific day and hope to see everyone tomorrow!

MizT and Julie.
Once the dogs are done eating, I'm going off to bed myself.

Afternoon all!
I've just been trying to set my mother up on facebook. It had her working for some weird company and would not delete it! Hopefully it's working now after getting her to log off and working with it from my end.

Bummer to the people who missed out on fire works and yay to the people who got to see them!

Off to fling things around that horrible room...

Good afternoon folks.
Julie I agree....the China I visited was very different to the one that Rolanda is visiting.
When I look at current photos of Shanghai, Beijing and other places we visited it is hard to recognise the street scape... We visited back when westerners were a novelty... we were mobbed everywhere we went by people of all ages wanting to practice their English. We were not meant to or allowed to wander off by ourselves...but somehow or other Pete and I managed it on one memorable occasion.

We had to be accompanied by a CIT's guide everywhere we went. Having said that the guides were very accommodating and worked hard to fulfill all our requests. I wanted to go to Tienanmen square to see Chairman Mao... an unusual request that our guide hadn't had before but he managed to get the necessary permission. Don't know how much red tape there is now but there was plenty then.

Our Beijing guide was a 'Mr Lee' and he was so great with the jokes...
"what is the highest building in China"..
... the public lavatory....and that was one of his better jokes!
I will never forget the look on his face the day he lost half of the group on the Beijing underground...Hate to imagine the punishment for a crime like that...

I think it was at Wuhan that I expressed a desire to get inside a medical facility..in preference a maternity or obstetric hospital. There was another nurse in our group and on one of the rare free afternoons [they kept us so busy that we didn't have time to go poking around where they didn't want us to go]they took us [and partner's] to one of the hospitals. It was absolutely fascinating. I wish I had prepared a translated questionnaire before leaving Melbourne. The interpreter was unable to cope with medical nature of my questions. Despite that the very welcoming staff were able to answer a lot of my questions via sign language.

Some of the villages we went to had never had a visit before.. it was a big honour to be chosen as a destination for foreign visitors. Our 'white' skin was fascinating. The villages were very undeveloped with minimal facilities and utilities. No such thing as washing machines in a lot of the homes... people were washing things in streams and it certainly made you think twice about putting your clothes out to be washed at the hotels...

When Pete and I escaped their clutches it was because I wanted to see what was sold in the department stores that the locals used... I wanted to see something other than all the mass produced goods on display for the tourists. The prices of the 'luxury' goods in the department stores would have placed such items as washing machines well out of the reach of the everyday locals. Back then the washing machines they were selling were the tub type with a wringer on top [museum pieces] that my parents had used 20 years previously...

All in all a fascinating experience.

Good evening - just calling in quickly after a busy day.
Sounds like most of you topsiders enjoyed your celebrations. Sorry about the volleyball and the fireworks, Heidi. Had a smile about sending IH to look through the trash! Onya!
Bean - thanks for that detail on your China trip - so interesting. I have always wanted to go there but I doubt that I will now - same as Peru. Maybe, maybe not - never rule anything out, I suppose.
No news from Brenda re her friend?
Thanks for the birthday wishes for Col. He had a good day - it's so nice to be able to have family celebrations with ALL the family and to see everyone getting on well together - especially my 2 kids.

Bean, I love your China story! What an interesting trip!

Cyn, it is so great that your family is getting along so well. I don't think it will ever happen with mine.

Night everyone!

Going to have a quite night in front of the other idiot box...
All set [glass of red in hand] to watch Miss Marple solve yet another intriguing mystery and then off to bed ... early I hope for once!
Night everybody....

BEAN, loved your reort on China, your trip sounded amazing! Would love to see if you get your photos scanned, would be most interesting, a real history lesson, if you and Rolanda visited some of the same places, photos of before and after. Thanks for sharing your comments.

Good Night Bean and Suzy and Hello to the topsiders! A good sleep here, today is overcast with T storms North of us. They might fall south as the day progresses, we could use some rain, but please, no strong winds to being down trees. Forecast is for mid 80's for temp today, that would be nice.

I am having problems getting fully awake this morning, a cup and a half of coffee, make that a MUG, which holds 2 measuring cups of coffee, and I am still not fully awake.

Question for anyone else who checks blood sugar. Do you see your fasting numbers run higher on mornings you cannot get fully awake and going? I have noticed this, and one friend suggests that what wakes us in a slight rise in blood sugar, and if you are not yet fully awake, numbers will be a bit higher. From her readings, she says many people will wait an hour or so to take morning test for that reason. Well, I cannot go an hour after waking without my coffee and my coffee is very light with milk, and milk has calories, and after coffee would not be an accurate fasting test. Just wondering how many of us do check blood sugar readings.

OK, medical stuff over for this morning.

I LOVE this site!
I can learn SO much here! Bean, that sounds like the trip of a lifetime!

That's cool.... I posted exactly 10 hours after my previous post. (I watched a movie after signing off here).

everyone. It' damp and gloomy outside. That means I cannot mow the lawn. What a shame.

Good morning all. Hubby took the kids for a swim and I chose to stay at home. I am still looking at cameras and want to do some comparison shopping on line. Easier and cheaper than going store-to-store. Thanks to everyone for the camera advice. It gave me a good place to start.

It sounds like a great start to the day, Tami.

You got that right Heidi. Me, my coffee, my pooter and NO beastie boys. A rare treat.

I'm v..e..r..y slowly waking up. IH won't be back for another 20 minutes. Then I need to go outside and unload some poultry feed.

We're having yet ANOTHER thunder boomer! It came up suddenly, so Dennis's tranks haven't started to work yet.

HEIDI, hope your thunder boomer is passed and poor Dennis is m ore relaxed. If this keeps on, you might need injectibles, wouldn't they work faster?

Looks like most of the storms are between you and me, with you still getting a bit of drizzle at the moment. We just have clouds and therefore cooler temps. I actually set the AC temp HIGHER, cause I got chilly while reading a bit ago. Outside temp is nice, just the humidity is high again. Have I mentioned I do not enjoy high humidity?

Gooday MizT Heidi and Tami.
Bean..that was a real entertaining post on China,Thanks.
I'm doing the late/early shift,so catch you all later.Have a good day/night all.

Dennis absolutely trashed the main bathroom during the storm. His brain just snaps. It may take an hour to clean it up.

Morning all!
MizT, good luck with the blood sugar thing. If you can work it out maybe you can test after a cup of coffee because you will be able to predict results.

Tami, I don't envy you your camera shopping. We looked at dozens before we bought. I'm not a good shopper. When we bought our lounge hubby and I went to every store in town that sold them. By the time we got to the last store I would have bought a purple one - anything to get me out of the stores and home!

Suzy, I actually found a good deal, I think. I found an Olympus Stylus 840 it was originally $249 and is on clearance for $119. I may get it later this week. Hubby needs some auto work done first.

Heidi, sorry to hear about your bathroom. I hope it doesn't take too long to naelc up.
Bean, thanks for the updates on Rolanda. I also enjoyed your story about China.

Tami that sounds like good value. Olympus is a good brand and the price is great.

I agree. It sounds like you found a good one, Tami.

Happy Days All,
I've been enjoying a string of absolutely beautiful weather here over the last several days....sun, great temps and low humidity...
I spent a quiet 4TH and watched fireworks from my patio...I was able to get some pictures of them, but I don't know how to download them to my computer....It was mentioned here during the camera convo, that someone had a Sony Cybershot that required something special to download to the computer...hope some one can help me out here. I'd really like to share some of my pictures, especially from the upcoming Fiona fest ......
To those who had bad weather..I know the feeling...but this too shall pass. I'm still sorry that you had a wash out this year though.
Had to smile about collecting all of my "wise" comments....That would be quite a feat....just remember...that when you live as long as I have managed to live and can still put two words together that seem to make sense...we are said to have wisdom...My take on that is a little different....we all have knowledge, wisdom comes from that which is remembered and practiced...thus..we all have wisdom...so share it...collecting it in one place to quickly refer to it is good too...just let me know, and we can add to that...

Hey...for any of you who don't know...I'm on facebook too..join me, be my friend...and come play farkel too.....

I already spend WAY too much time on the computer. I don't need to add another site.

Hello, Everyone! I'm just popping in for a few minutes.

Bean, I loved your China report! Looking forward to the piccies when you have time.

Speaking of piccies, Tami, your camera find sounds great. Hope you can get it at that price after hubby's car fixing takes place.

Heidi, sorry to hear about Dennis trashing the bathroom. Thunderboomers should be required to give at least an hour's notice.

MizT, glad you enjoyed Boston's Pops and fireworks. It is usually a great display! (Hubby was watching a car auction, so I checked email and visited my favorite on-line place.) Sorry that I can't be of help in the blood-sugar testing discussion.

Suzy, how cool that you have set up your Mum on Facebook! I hope she enjoys it!

CynB, I hope Col had a wongerful ! Is any left - or was it all eaten by the family members who attended?

Nola, sometimes I think you must work enough for two of us. You seem to have some crazy work schedules! I hope you get your rest and come back for a visit when you can.

Now, I need to be off and do some ffuts.

Hi, Mamacita! You must have popped in while I was typing. Happy 5th of July!

I hope everyone is having a great day!

I think I forgot to thank everyone for the book suggestions the other day. Hopefully I'll find some time for reading in the next month or so.

Bean. thank you for your experiences in China. Yes you would find a big difference. Ken went to Shanghai back about 75/76 and when we went back a few years ago an area that had been all farming land now has the tallest building and many other buildings. They are demolishing all the old areas and putting up high rise apartments for everyone. We were allowed to get about some places by ourselves. We went out for a meal by ourselves on quite a few occasions. I had friends who went a couple of years before us and they felt they were watched the whole time and followed if they left the hotel.

Good morning,
Suzy, I have resisted face book. I spend too much time here as it is.
We are now having the winter weather I like. Very cold mornings but warm sunny days.
Tami, that camera sounds a good deal.

Julie, I'm not seeing evidence of Mum on facebook yet, but I do see evidence of another friend trying to get her going. She's due back here in another week or so and I will get her to sit down with me to give it a go. I found it confusing when I first got on there and I was already computer literate - she is just starting out!