Cathy from southern Ontario

Hi Cathy - Thanks for thinking of me and our friend! He is progressing each day. He is so young to have had this happen. (Late 50's) It did paralyze his right side, but we don't know how bad the paralesis (SP) is.

How is the project coming? I am really looking forward to seeing some pictures when it is completed. I bet it will be just beautiful!!!

Have a great day, Cathy!

Thank you, Cathy!

Cathy - in regards to your comments on Hard: You sound like me. I will cook with them and leave them in large pieces so I can pick them out. Flavor that they add to a sauce or meat is one thing, but don't make me eat them.

My husband was thankful for that because he got all the mushrooms, onions & peppers. A lot of cooked peppers, onions get thrown out now. Don't cook with mushrooms unless there for company. Like whole mushrooms in the Turkey Dressing.

"there" s/b "they are". "Like" s/b "ie:"
leaving them whole allows easy removal from my serving - everyone else can enjoy them. I will even serve marinated mushrooms to my guests - then they will have to take any left over home with them. Funny thing - none are ever left.

Cathy, Thanks for your visit, and for keeping me in your thoughts and prayers...I haven't been posting as often since I have been spending lots of time away from the house, and a whole lot less at the computer...However, I'm doing okay...good days mostly, but still having a few bad ones. I am making progress thought since the good days are more frequent.
Looking forward to going to the Jazz Festival next week. Things are brightening up a bit. Good to know folks remember even when a one is not around as much....Thanks for that!

Did I hear the "F" word? As in finished??? I am Soooo jealous! (But I am also knocking on wood & crossing my fingers for you!)
We are getting our furniture delivered on Thursday and we have NO PLACE to put it! I don't even think that the room will be finished when we go to Wales on Sept 3rd.
But our patios look great! (Gotta look on the bright side, don't we????)

Wouldnt ya know!!! Why am I not surprised? I thought I was the only one whose cabinet doors did not match! Mine are stained, not painted (how DO you screw up paint????) and the top doors don't go with the bottom doors... on the SAME cabinet, mind you!.... I've been trying to ignore them, but I don't know if I can!!!!

Hello Cathy - I just can't believe the nightmare you have gone through with your kitchen! It probably seems like an eternity to you. Hopefully this is the last hurtle you will have to deal with. Hang in there. Someday you will be able to look back on all of this with a smile.

Cathy, thanks for taking the time to write to me about your long saga with the kitchen designer. Just goes to prove that even when you pick someone with a good track record things can still go wrong. We were told we should get at least three bids from three different contractors, which we have done. But although it's nice to have different suggestions on the layout, etc., it does get very confusing to decide which ideas & which person we like best. One wanted to knock out walls & do major renovations, one had a less ambitious plan but better quality cabinets, one was consistently late for appts., one left the company to take care of her sick mother, etc. Lots of pros & cons for each. And then the more we looked at tile, cabinets, granite, appliances, etc. the more confused we got about EVERYTHING!!! I never dreamed it would be this hard! The only thing we have figured out for sure is that we will start with the master bath instead of the kitchen & see how that job goes. Maybe that will help us decide whether to choose the same co. for the kitchen job. At least we have another bathroom to use while the one is being torn apart, whereas we do NOT have another kitchen to use! I do hope your long ordeal will be over soon. I completely understand that the first anniversary of your mother's death will be hard to get through. For people like you & me who were very close to their mothers, the days when we think of them most, their birthdays, Mother's Day, & the dates of their death, bring back such mixed feelings. Even though we know we were lucky to have them for as long as we did we never get over missing them. My mom's birthday is coming up on Sept. 1. I have been missing her since Jan. 28, 2001. All things are relative, I guess. Being without a mom is ever so much worse than being without a kitchen. Hang in there & keep up the good wine therapy to ease the tensions! I'll remember that idea for future use! Thanks again for sharing your experience.

Cathy, for your kind thoughts. I am counting down the days till I get to hospital for tests (next Tuesday. The prognosis is good, and they say that once I get the medication, the fatigue will just drop away. At the moment my eyes feel like lead balls which is a result of the weakness caused by myasthenia gravis.

Hi Cathy! Just wanted to say that I know how frustrating it is getting those renovations done! :( I am still waiting for my shiny new fridge, because the the people doing my beautiful parquetry flooring, after originally saying "3 weeks" then turned around and said -"we'll finish it when everything ELSE is done." And this means the fridge has to wait - meanwhile the old fridge is tripping the safety switch with alarming frequency, turning off the power at the most inconvenient moments (in the middle of my sudoku game!) If they'd just told us at the outset to wait on the parquetry till everything else was done - well, we still wouldn't have our fridge, but we would be several weeks closer to completion! Meanwhile I'm terrified that something will get spilt on the floor and ruin the parquetry before it's even finished!
Sorry for venting like this, just wanted to let you know - I feel your pain! ;)

cathy, we went to fiji in august and it was perfect for us. i hear sept. is the best though. we flew into the main airport in suva i think then took a small plane to the island taviuni. it was amazing. we had beautiful accomodations and a very culture and local filled experiance. the snorkling was amazing and they even took us to a private island to do it. i can't remember the name of the resort but is was small, and just a short walk to the beach (3min?), but not right on it. the best travel experiance of my life! let me know if you want more info.

Our neighbour was successful for another cat insulin shot! Whew! Nigel's not even skittish around her now! Hopefully that will continue while I'm gone.
I am HOPING your designer gets things in hand for you. Our builder suggested this morning that we order replacement doors for the cabinet where the doors don't match! He pointed out some scratches and called the company... We are hoping the replacement doors will match better! He had forgotten we were going to Wales tomorrow! He will work while we are gone. Hopefully the cats won't sneak into the room before the polyurathane is dry! He promises to figure out a cat-proof barrier. He has to cover an archway.
Here's hoping we will both have our projects finished when I return!

also, we are building so i'm sypathetic to your remodeling woes. you are scaring me a bit though as we haven't gotten to the kitchen part yet. although i do have my faucets and sinks. i can hardly wait to start using them! i may be waiting forever! oh, my avatar is a pic i took on taviuni. very unique flora and fauna there.

the island is actually spelled taveuni. the resort is called the maravu resort or maravu plantation. the staff was amazing! when i told them i didn't drink coffee they made sure to have cocoa for me every morning. also, they made sure to not put an onion on any of my food for my whole visit. a small group of men came at dinner time every night to drink kava and sing. the food was supurb and the music was too. they had personalized excursions and would pack beautiful lunches and set them up for us on the beach of the island we were snorkling/hiking at. also, it was very clean- a must for me. i am gushing i know, but i really loved it. it wasn't that expensive when we went 5 years ago. we stayed three days, but i wish we would have had at least one more day. good luck planning!

Cathy, I would think any time during their summer is a good time to visit New Zealand. I am going to be there the first two weeks of December this year. When are you planning on going? As for Fiji, I would imagine the same time of year.

Hi Cathy, thanks for visiting, and for the hug, gratefully received and returned . Yes, it's hard and I miss Mum so much. Hard to believe it's almost 4 months, I have been keeping very busy doing things I wasn't able to do while caring for Mum. Have visited my sister in Adelaide, son and my friends in Sydney, had a week skiing and now I am almost at the end of my daughter and son-in-law's month long visit from Dubai, hectic, but have loved every minute and will miss them when they leave on Saturday.

Hi Cathy - Thank you so much. We were very happy to hear he had come home! How is your project going? I can't wait to see pictures when it is finished. I bet it will be just beautiful!

Hi
best advice I was given was to watch till pretty near the auction time, though not too close to miss it. Bid to the max you want to pay. The price only goes up in set increases so as long as no-one else bids you should be OK and if it goes for more it is over your limit anyway. Also take a look at the sellers record before bidding. There is a number, (usually in brackets) which tells you how many transactions they have had with good feedback. I am 180 with a 100% positive feedback at the moment. It is riskier if you buy from a newbie. If you use Paypal you have cover . It is worth reading up about it as it may differ to european rules. Sending a personal cheque gives you no cover they could cash it and never send the goods. Once you have used Paypal it is easy to keep a small account. I use my small profit to pay all my subscriptions like Sudoku and it makes life easier as I have set up a regular payment.
The only trouble I have had is when someone phishes - sent me a spoof email saying they were Ebay but I just reported it as I never give details to anyone unless I instigate the transaction and they were demanding them which Ebay and Paypal never do.

Cathy... I read your question about eBay. I buy a lot of stuff there. In the last 2 days I bought 5 imported Goldfish and a new Canon Digital camera (for taking pictures for Sudokuland). I have never sold anything on eBay, yet, but I have experience buying. I have panic attacks in crowds, so prefer shopping by catalog or internet. If there's anything you need to know (like setting a limit, and sticking to it so you don't overpay), just ask. The most important thing is research. Know what the item is worth, and set your maximum at that, or just below it. If you're lucky, you'll pay less, or a lot less, than that. I just got the camera for $100 under market value. In that case, I bid no more than I wanted to pay, and kept getting outbid. So I bid on the next one coming up, and got outbid. Eventually, nobody outbid me, so I got one at my price. But I had to bid on a dozen, or so, cameras to do that.

Oh, I'm at a feedback rating of 289 with a 100% positive positive rating.

I hope you win! I hope you win!

BTW, that's a movie quote. Have you ever seen Blake Edward's "The Great Race" with Jack Lemon, Tony Curtis and Natalie Wood?

Cathy, thank you for your kind wishes. Getting well wishes from all around the world has been so lovely.

Cathy, thank you for your thoughts. I have had a bit of a hiccup during the last couple of day, but it seems to be nothing to worry about. I continue to make slow progress.

Cathy - didn't know if this was too racy to post on Easy...but thought you'd get a kick out of it:
A man was in a terrible accident, and his "manhood" was mangled and torn
from his body. His doctor assured him that modern medicine could give him
back his manhood, but that his insurance wouldn't cover the surgery since
it was considered cosmetic. The doctor said the cost would be $3,500 for
"small, $6,500 for "medium, $14,000 for "large."
The man was sure he would want a medium or large, but the doctor urged
him to talk it over with his wife before he made any decision. The man
called his wife on the phone and explained their options. The doctor came
back into the room, and found the man looking dejected.
"Well, what have the two of you decided?" asked the doctor.
The man answered, "She'd rather remodel the kitchen."

Thanks for your lovely messages concerning the arrival of Zeke, Cathy! He will bring so much joy to our lives. After a lo-o-o-ng nap this afternoon, I've returned to the Land of the Living! Your caring means a lot.

cathy, it sounds like my doors. i ordered them in dec. they told me the order was ready and flew me to calif. to inspect and confirm that everything was done right. well, the order was almost ready and what was done was done wrong! it has been 9 months! i threw a fit there and had the place hopping. hopefully i see results within the week. if not, i won't be paying them and they can eat their costs. i think you should fire your designer right now and go somewhere else. you know your design so you can transfer it to a more reliable cabinent maker without going through a designer. good luck to us both!

Yes, hubby gets to take over injection duties when I go to Italy. Should be interesting. He's a little squemish about needles. They've even asked him not to donate blood any more! Anyway, our neighbor said that if he had trouble, she'd do it! Is that a dedicated friend or what???

i saw no snakes. however, the frogs would come out at night.

Thank you for the birthday good wishes.

Cathy, you are in my thoughts.

How are you going Cathy? I hope the mass was a lovely tribute to your Mother.

Thank you, dear friend.

Cathy - thanks so much for your kind comments! I, too, have been too busy to spend much time on the site. My brother in Michigan was diagnosed with esophageal/stomach cancer just a little over a month ago, and I've been out to see him once and will be going again in two or three weeks. Sadly, he has elected not to seek treatment even though I've tracked down two survivors whose history mirrors my brother's. They're even willing (happy, actually) to talk with him about their experiences. But, as I said, my brother has already made his decision. So, unfortunately, my next visit will be to say good by to him. My only solace is in knowing that I did my best to try to help him. He had a full and happy life and is blessed with a loving wife, three beautiful daughters and eight wonderful grandchildren.

How casual is casual?
I can 'come as I am' which is dressing gown and slippers, or I can get changed into trackie dacks and a sweatshirt if
you'd prefer. Just not sure how casual to go...but I will be there in spirit one way or another!
It has been a long fought battle!

Congratulations on the finished Kitchen

WOO HOO

Cathy! What would I do without you!
Going to miss you all! Hope to hear you've got everything taken care of in the #$*%@^% when I return ...OR lots of buffing parties while I'm gone! ..."We'll get this taken care of one way or another!"

French maid outfit... in the oven??? I thought I packed it!!!!

Thank you, thank you, thank you, Cathy! You wonderful girl you! In these pressing times, I feel I can face the world after those messages of warmth and caring! My mom is recovering nicely so that one down and many to go take care of!