I say yes, you say no, OR People are Strange

Athena .. that is so wonderful that your friend is doing the Avon walk in your honor.  I agree with you that it is so hard on our loved ones.  The only time I've ever seen Tim cry was when he was removing my bandages after my lumpectomy.  I had no idea he would be so affected by what happened. 

Sunflowers .. you're right .. there are so many wonderful women in politics that we can support.  Betty Ford is an all time favorite of mine. 

I rarely used my KitchenAid.  It's a great machine, but it only works if you cook or bake.  I mostly used it for baking or bread making.  We had an expresso coffee business at one time, and I used it to make massive amounts of muffins and brownies for sale at our coffee cart.

Thinking of Allison this morning.  I hope she is at peace and comfortable. 

hugs,

Bren

Bren - I was just thinking a women alive today - Bety Ford is on my ALL TIME HERO list.  What a brave, brave woman. She was a good friend of Cokie Roberts, who spoke at her funeral, and morned not only BF's death, but he kindness and shared values even between people of "different " parties.  There wasn't the vitriol in her day.

I just called Steve a ratbag because you girls were fascinated by the term last time. He is clueless. I keep telling him not to watch video clips but he won't listen. We only have 5G data download a month and there are 2 of us. The good news is that this site seems to load quickly even though we've been slowed down, so I'm still here.

Sounds like Allison is a true fighter. I hope she's not in any pain.

Athena - lovely man you know - what a sweetie.

Sue

Athena-Though I am not a big fan of the pink, several of my co-workers did the Avon Run/Walk last year with my name on their backs. It touched me so much. There have been 4 people in my school building that have been diagnosed with BC in the past 5 years. Makes me wonder about the building. I've also had people put pink ribbon paraphanalia in my box at work. I just thank them, knowing that their hearts are in the right place. 

My husband still tears up when he thinks about my BC. He's such a softie.

Mary 

Kira!  I'm glad you're back with us.  I hope you're feeling much better now?

Scuttlers-That's a wonderful story about your daughter. I think most people's hearts are in the right place, and so many of them want to feel like they are doing something. 

Mary 

I hope Barbara is doing ok!

 I spent a week in the hospital with pneumonia. My system is still really low from the one chemo I had. I don't even want to think where I would be if I had had the other 3.

Good morning everyone! Happy Monday. Rise and shine!

Hi Everybody!

Hope everyone is doing well.  I've been very busy this morning.  Tim got in early and we had lots of errands to run, and thankfully, I got in two reports to do.

Athena .. I never heard one word back from the County job I applied for.  Those jobs are in high demand in this area of 24% unemployment, and I suspect they already had a candidate picked out, but had to follow policy guidelines of posting the job.

I love what I do, and I love working from home ... I just don't have enough work.  And I'm stymied as to how to increase my client base.  I've tried everything.  Tim says that once Obama's out of office, my work will pick up ... that's when I do Scoot's famous  "eye roll."

hugs to all,

Bren

Bren, I am sorry to hear that (not about Tim - hey, one makes one's compromises - he sounds like a wonderful person otherwise. :-) ) One hears that the unemployment level is down and that there is more job creation, but I wonder what/how/where.

I live in an area of low unemployment, because we have the federal government, but I would not want to be looking. It just seems as though the sectors that are picking up are very specific - there is far from an overall improvement. Some states are even seeing budget surpluses, and manufacturing is picking up in Michigan. But in many areas - including rural ones like yours--  there just isn't much place to grow. Haven't looked at detailed employment reports lately, though.

Had the stimulus been bigger, as the administration initially wanted it, we would be better off. Still, the US is in a far better place than Europe, which has adopted the anti-Keynesian policies of budget cutting and no spending. At least we are growing. We do have a worrisome fiscal crisis, but cutting spending is not the answer. ONE of the answers is a fairer taxation system. Fiscal tightening has to be planned over the long run, but it is not the way to get an economy out of an immediate slump.
Diagnosis: 3/2009, IDC, 3cm, Stage IIb, Grade 3, 3/8 nodes, ER+/PR+, HER2-

So interesting about the KitchenAid vs the Cuisinart - I have had Cuisinart's for thirty years - I am on my 3rd one - gave the other two away because they were too small - anyway 5 years ago DH bought me a KitchenAid for Christmas - I was thrilled to get it - first time I used it to make cookie dough the bowl GOT STUCK and nothing would move it - nothing - I got  on line and found out other people were having the same problem - phoned the hotline and they replaced it but it took them 8 weeks to do so - I used it once - and gave it away to a friend of mine who'd had one burn up on her - I have made bread dough, cookie dough, pie dough and everything in between with my Cuisinart, when I have to whip cream I either use a wisk or my electric hand mixer - I guess it just what I am used to.

Here is my Team Top Hat sand sculpture which represents one of my company's core values.

The other team building thing they did was building a boat out of cardboard, duct tape, foam swim noodles and PVC pipe. What a riot that was. I have video on FB if you are interested. That's me third from left freezing my patooty off.

About ten miles up the beach. We had a cold front Friday night. Brrrrrr.

Thinking of Allison.

Still holding Allison's hand and wishing her comfort and peace. 

Glad to see you back Barbara ... we wondered where you wandered off to.  Sounds like you enjoyed your 'team building' stuff.  We used to have those.  Ours weren't fun though ... mostly just stupid.  They didn't send us to a beach though ... that would have helped.   Government always goes with the lowest bidder so we got some ugly conference room.

Did my taxes yesterday.  Usually have my refund back by now but had motivational problems getting started this year.  Was afraid that might be a bad omen but all turned out well.  The state of Indiana has the most ridiculous tax forms.  I think Mitch Daniels must have stock in a paper company or something.  They changed a simple two page form to about 12 pages ... most of which have only 1 or 2 items on them.   You really don't need a separate piece of paper to check the boxes that you have 2 exemptions.  I'll be darned if I can figure out what in the world they were thinking! 

Sister in southern California is reporting sleet and snow last night.  Here in Indiana we are warm and sunny.  What a role reversal! 

Waving 'hello' to all ... hope it's a good day for everybody!