Friday AF 12 Sept

[treetops]

MAE folks. Thanks for the kind wishes (and the lovey dovey comments too:l) for my birthday yesterday but I am sure glad its over. Thanks for the suggestions. Bear = takeaways just don?t do it for me as I don?t like most of the options here and it would just be an excuse for my OH to pig out. (whereas I am more of a piglet species:H). We also can?t get home deliveries where we live. No what I wanted was simple TLC. I have been very clear about this in the past. Partner was very apologetic in the evening and purchased expensive gifts ? but that's not the bloody point! Besides any gifts come out of a joint account to which muggins contributes the lion?s share. I?m not going to celebrate on another day as for me I can?t see the point.

Maybe the fact that my birthday falls almost on the anniversary of my mother?s death contributes to things. I try to see that as a time to remember her warmth and love but its still also a sad time because her death was not in very warm or loving cicumstances.

But I left the pity party soon enough and actually was quite focused and productive with doing some pressing work matters instead.

Sorry you drank again Pauly. At least I guess you are stopping ? (before you start again) so its not binge style. Just keep trying ? and don?t keep putting yourself down. Maybe you shouldn?t try to see it as a fight or a battle ? you know ?either/or. Instead just slip into that AF seat and try to enjoy the ride. But as Lav says - don't keep doing the same things. I would add - don't assume that you will fail. Its like you set yourself up for a fall

PPQP I see that the snow in Calgary has even shocked other Canadians.

Hope the running is going well SL.

Hi there to everyone else - Sam, Mick (thanks for the PM ), Det.

You all have a good Friday ? often a tiring day of the week I know ? since I am bang in the middle of it.

[Mick]

Friday AF 12 Sept

mae all...how are we today then ?tis the weekend...lets start it early..a real early poets day..no snow over here ..temperatures have been ace...and are on track to be nice for a few days..was at the docs yesterday, and got my blood results back...all good tho my cholesterol is 6..now depending who you talk to that is high....for others its low...Also levels of potassium are high kidneys are ok, and I dont eat bananas! lots of tomatoes and I mean lots so maybe thats it..dunno.
answers on a postcard for all you medical peeps out there!!

meanwhile tea and coffee on the go.

hiya tt...how are you?must be into Saturday now...have you any plans for the weekend?agreed the late pressie idea is crap..hence thats why I said go and do something you want..you will be paying for it anyway...sometimes its just recognition from those we hold dear that we need.not just to bury our heads in more work..(got you sussed madam! )..anyways have a great weekend whatever you do.

hiya Sam ...how are you today then?all good?is it market weekend for you?was listening to a radio prog the other day...going on about the increase in ferrule bees over here..heard of ferrule cats n dogs ...but bees???maybes theres a job going here for you mate!

hiya Lav...bbt...how are you this fine day?did you do anything yesterday..apart from your nana nap?no doubt if we are starting the weekend early..then you are going to be "kid invaded"so be prepared ..anything from Superman to Thomas the tank!!!Im going to build a cold frame at the back of the greenhouse..thats on next weeks list...

Julie has just shown me this...

Look at this!!!!.. Live: Manchester Dogs' Home fire - Manchester Evening News. look at the age of the little shit that did it!
no doubt there will be millions of people queuing up to say its his background,lack of social interventions/skills,lack of opportunity,boredom,lack of education, and every other bloody excuse under the sun that made him do it!!Sorry ..I dont buy that!!just thinking of the poor animals!!

rant over..apologies!!

hiya ppqp...well did you get to work ok?now thats a new one ..tree dodging!!hope all goes well for you today..heres your Friday brew...thanks for the bloods confidence

Pauly,Pauly ..what are we gonna do with you?yep each time you dont drink..it helps your health..but thats not really what we are after izzit?thats just minimising it all..can I put something to you..see if you agree..you are bimbling down the no alcohol road doing good ...then suddenly you are tempted to drink..its at this point it goes wrong ...the transition between not drinknig and drinking is too easy for you..you arent testing yourself or making yourself think about it ..when you get to this point your brain is still fresh with the idea that you need a drink and takes on all of your focus..what you need to do is remove that focus from the number 1 position in your thought process..challenge it..it might take 5 minutes at a time or an hour ..who knows..ok heres the deal..next time why dont you.when you get to that point,

make yourself sit down and write over and over again the benefits of having that drink and the benefits of not having it..really blast those ideas out as mad as you want them to be.keep going until the craving subsides...and have drink of water etc while you are doing it.the point being that after a couple of times of doing this,your brain starts to think "hey if I start thinking about needing a drink,then Ive gotta sit down and write all this guff out"forget it!

or do some real exercise until the thoughts go...some real cardio stuff jogging on the spot,into sprints then jogging, squat thrusts,star jumps ,the lot..or even go for a walk if you have no kidz that day.

or simply post on here that you need to drink any suggestions as to how not to..and dont touch anything till you at least get a reply back from the site!

just some ideas for you...and make it visual...big calendars with stickers ..use the drink tracker on here etc.I aint no expert believe me..these are just my thoughts..

hiya bear hows you today?sussed out where the heat is coming from yet on the car?

hi pie nice to see you hope all is well.

hiya SL...yep its Friday here...look on the bright side ..its Saturday in the morning..something to look forward to unless you are on call!how are you doing?any weekend plans ..assuming you are not on call?

right then me merry gang of boozee busters ..have a good one wherever you are...

An Amish boy and his father were visiting a mall. They were amazed by almost everything they saw, but especially by two shiny, silver walls that could move apart and back together again. The boy asked, "What is this, Father?" The father (never having seen an elevator) responded, "Son, I have never seen anything like this in my life, I don't know what it is." While the boy and his father were watching with amazement, an old lady in a wheel chair rolled up to the moving walls and pressed a button. The walls opened and the lady rolled between them into a small room. The walls closed and the boy and his father watched the small circular numbers above the walls light up sequentially. They continued to watch until it reached the last number and then as these numbers began to light in reverse order. The walls opened up again and a beautiful 24 year old woman stepped out. The father, not taking his eyes off the young woman, said quietly to his son, "Go get your Mother".

A woman on her death bed asks her husband to rush home and get a wooden box out from under their bed. The man retuns home, gets the box out from under the bed and opens it to find 3 eggs and $7000.00 in cash.
He returns to the hospital and asks his wife: "Honey, why are there 3 eggs and $7000.00 in cash?" She replied: "Well, over our 35 years of marriage whenever we had bad lovemaking I would put an egg in the box." So, immediately the husband thought of himself as a love machine.
And he asked her then: "Well, what is the money for?" And she replied: "Every time I got a dozen eggs I sold them!!!!"

Teacher: Billy stop making ugly faces at other students
Billy: Why??
Teacher: Well, when I was your age, I was told that if I kept making ugly faces, my face would stay that way.
Billy: Well, I can see you didn't listen.


The Matchmaker goes to see Mr. Avery, a confirmed bachelor for many years. "Mr. Avery, don't leave it too late. I have exactly the one you need. You only have to say the word and you'll meet and be married in no time!" says the Matchmaker.
"Don't bother," replies Mr. Avery, "I've two sisters at home, who look after all my needs."
"That's all well and good, but all the sisters in the world cannot fill the role of a wife."
"I said 'two sisters'. I didn't say they were mine!"

A wife comes home late one night, arriving early from being out of town and quietly opens the door to her bedroom. From under the blanket she sees four legs instead of two. She reaches for a baseball bat and starts hitting the blanket as hard as she can. Once she's done, she goes to the kitchen to have a drink. As she enters, she sees her husband there, reading a magazine. "Hi, Darling", he says, "Your parents have come to visit us, so l let them stay in our bedroom."

Airman Jackson was assigned to the induction center, where he advised new recruits about their government benefits, especially their GI insurance. It wasn't long before Captain Haverty noticed that Airman Jackson was having a staggeringly high success-rate, selling insurance to nearly 100% of the recruits he advised. Rather than asking him about this, the Captain stood at the back of the room and listened to Jackson's sales pitch. Jackson explained the basics of GI Insurance to the new recruits, and then said, "If you are killed in a battle and have a GI Insurance, the government has to pay $200,000 to your beneficiaries. But, if you don't have a GI insurance and get killed in the battle, the government only has to pay a maximum of $6000." "Now," he concluded, "which group do YOU think they're gonna send into battle first?"

A man called home to his wife and said: "Darling , I have been asked to go fishing up in Canada with my boss & several of his friends. We'll be gone for a week. This is a good opportunity for me to get that promotion I've been wanting, so could you please pack enough clothes for a week and set out my rod and fishing box, we're leaving from the office & I will swing by the house to pick my things up. Oh! Please pack my new blue silk pyjamas."
The wife thinks this sounds a bit fishy but being the good wife she is, did exactly what her husband asked. The following weekend he came home a little tired but otherwise looking good. The wife welcomed him home and asked if he caught many fish? He said: 'Yes! Lots of salmons, some bluegills, and a few swordfishes. But why didn't you pack my new blue silk pyjamas like I asked you to Do?" The wife replied: "I did, dear. Your new blue silk pyjamas are in your fishing box!"

A man was sitting on his back porch, crying. His wife comes out and asks: " What are you crying about?" The man sniffles, and asks his wife: "Remember when we were just dating, and your dad told me I would have to marry you or spend the next twenty years in prison?" The wife says: "Yea, but why are you crying?" The man says: " I would have gotten out of prison today!"

and todays crap joke is......

This guy, Artie, gets tired of working so hard and not getting anywhere, and seeing all these guys in the Mafia in their fine three piece suits and fancy cars, decides that he has to join the Mafia.

He goes up to one of the guys and says, " I want to join the Mafia."

The guy answers, " You ever kill any one for money?"

Artie answers, "No."

The guy says, " Well, you either got to be born into the mafia, or you gotta kill somebody for money."

So Artie says, " How much will you pay me?"

The guy says, " I'm not gonna pay you."

Artie says, " C'mon, just pay me a dollar so I can get in."

The guy says, " Okay, I'll tell you what. You kill somebody, tell me about it, and if I see it in the morning paper, I'll pay you a dollar."

Artie says, " Oh thank you, thank you!" and heads off on his mission. He goes to Ralphs Supermarket, sees an old lady pushing a cart, and decides that she's lived a full life, goes up to her, grabs her round the neck and chokes her to death.

The bag boy sees him, and chases after him. Artie realizes that he can't out run the bag boy, turns around, grabs the bag boy by the neck and chokes him to death.

In the morning paper the headlines read, " ARTIE CHOKES TWO FOR A DOLLAR AT RALPHS!"

[bear73]

Friday AF 12 Sept

morning TT - glad you managed to get some positives out of yesterday.

Hey Mick - glad your bloods are ok,not sure what potassium level means - is it a bad thing that it's high,I know too little can be bad for the heart rhythm?Hope you're ok. Car goes in today - fingers crossed,love driving it - it's diesel and there was a load of stuff on news about taxing diesel cars more - see what happens.Saw the thing about the dogs home,awful awful thing,I do think who ever did that is a person with big problems,but that doesn't excuse it.Poor animals.

Today is car to garage and using that as an opportunity to run/walk back to home from garage - think it's about 2 miles. Other than that,working from home,planning chat with boss re how to tackle work issues and pushing for answers/agreeing a way forward rather than 'that's great well done' and 'I'll sort it' and nothing happening.

Pauly - good advice there,I agree with TT don't beat yourself up/convince yourself you can't do it - that's something I do too with making changes and it doesn't help anything, then I feel demoralised so am more likely to turn to the behaviour as a comfort that I am trying to avoid!I'm trying to tell myself thatI can make changes,that I am making changes and I just need to make small steps(say no to the first drink).Take care and have a good day.

[Lavande]

Friday AF 12 Sept

Good morning Abbers & happy Friday to all!

TT, sorry your birthday didn't work out the way you wanted. Some spouses just don't ever seem to get the right idea - believe me, I know
Dropping any & all expectations where they are concerned has saved what was left of my sanity :H

Mick, that's such sad news, poor animals. Looks like the community is really rallying around with so many donations. The question is - what do you do with a 15 year old arsonist? He's got to have some screws loose or something
A cold frame sounds like a great idea. I fondly remember my Polish speaking grandfather showing me the tiny plants growing in his cold frame. He didn't use a lot of words, just a lot of smiling & pointing

bear, hope you are having a great work from home day!
Staying positive is essential for our success.

Pauly, hope you are OK & redrawing your plan!
Let's get your thinking going in a positive direction too!

Greetings to everyone, I'll stop back later.
Have a great AF day!

Lav

[porqoui]

Friday AF 12 Sept

MAE ALL....

TT....thanks for kicking us off. Yup this snowstorm was unexpected. Most of the snow is gone and with rain in the forecast for tonight the rest of it should go.

Mick...thanks for the brew and glad the blood results were good. Glad it's Friday, what an exhausting week this has been. Temps are supposed to increase to low 20's for the following week. We'll need it as we're putting in the in-ground plots and children's keyhole garden next weekend.

Bear...you're sounding great these days. Keep that positive attitude going. I know how frustrating it is to hear the "I'll sort it" and then nothing. Pretty soon I'll be able to say that and actually do something about the situation.

Lav...morning to you. So are you not wearing the "boot" at all anymore? Bet you haven't been to curves for awhile. Have a great day.

Off to get a second cuppa....have a great AF Friday all and all to come.....PPQP

Mick....here's my Poet's Friday contribution...

[scottish lass]

Friday AF 12 Sept

Just an early hello - not a good back to school night last night - first time in a long time I thought about drinking - just to get rid of it all, doesn't work though does it.
High K Mick? how high? it can also cause heart rhythm changes. If the kidney beans are ok, it is likely diet related...
Back later - time to do school runs...

[Lavande]

Friday AF 12 Sept

The Cat in the Hat is very wise PQ :H

SL, push those nasty thoughts right out of your head!
Don't let them sit there & influence your decisions

Mick - I was still half asleep when I read your post this morning.
It just dawned on me that you said your cholesterol level was 6. What?? I had to look that up:
Total cholesterol

Below 200 mg/dL US
Below 5.2 mmol/L Europe/Canada
Desirable

200-239 mg/dL US
5.2-6.2 mmol/L Europe/Canada
Borderline high

240 mg/dL and above US
Above 6.2 mmol/L Europe/Canada
High

Were you lectured about diet & exercise? Offered a statin? Good luck

As long as your kidneys & adrenals are functioing well - sometimes a high potassium level could be caused by the blood sample being improperly handled. If the blood sits long enough to clot before it's put in the spinner (to extract the serum), you sometimes get false high K results.

By the way - Listening to the BBC news on NPR this morning has me wondering - which way are you going to vote next week? Yea or nay? You can tell me to mind my own business :H I find the whole idea of Scotland moving out on it's own to be fascinating & quite historical.

[treetops]

Friday AF 12 Sept

SL - flush those drinking thoughts down the toilet. If I could get through my pathetic birthday without a drink - then so can you (actually I did not think about drinking although I thought a lot about how AL was a quick way to numb sadness, loneliness and pain in the past).
Last night (Friday) I attended a drinks reception and I had to treat it as purely work-related. Made good contacts but there was only water for me and hardly any vegetarian (let alone vegan) food. Of course a small fortune had not been spared on the AL but thats the society I live in. No-one was drunk but after an hour I could feel my boredom level rising - so I left.

Lots of hugs SL and just ride it out - back to school/homework/teenage angst is a global plot to derail otherwise fantastic Mums (and Dads) :H:H

Last night my daughter was extra kind to me though and she promised that when i am ancient she will 'paint' my face for me:H and remove my makeup. I said I expected her to have her life and to be too busy with her own family to do that by then.

[scottish lass]

Friday AF 12 Sept

Hi - not really thinking of drinking, just thinking of ways to escape - and of course it came to mind. I am not faltering, just want to make stuff go away.
I need her tested for learning disabilities, but getting a call back is not working - sitting waiting for a call two days in a row now, and as I wait time marches on and things get worse:upset:

[Determinator]

Friday AF 12 Sept

Aloooha Friday ABeroooos!

been a super busy dude and haven't had much time to poke around. just trying to manage stress
properly so I don't get myself ground down into depression. happy to say it's working and I'm happy in my AF self.

TTops, didn't get the back story but heres some extra hugs xxxxxx

SL, good job staying on top of the wagon. just never know when a craving is going to rear it's ugly head so we need to keep our tool kits handy.

not one, but two trade shows next week... egad! better get my laundry in order

best of luck to Scotland and their bid for freeeeeedooooooom! (painting myself blue to celebrate)

be well peeps

[Samstone]

Friday AF 12 Sept

Evening all
winding down so I can wind up tomorrow at 3 AM. Worked up at our family cabin. Started realizing how long we've been going up there. I learned to swim in the pond here when I was 4 years old. Closing in on 60, so it has been a while. Any way, tradition lives on... my son and his cousin have their annual birthday parties up there so we were up there cleaning up.





SL, hope you're doing ok.
Be well all
off to sleep land soon.
Sam

[Lavande]

Friday AF 12 Sept

So that's a Yea vote for you Det? :H :H
Good luck next week, looks like it's going to be a busy one for you!

SL, don't fret about your daughter. Sometimes you just have to go looking for help outside the walls of the school itself. I was worried to death about my son when he was in middle school. He was a smart kid but his head had always been all over the place (ADHD Dx when he was in 1st grade). The school wasn't coming thru with anything for him so I found these people:
Sam Alfonsi's College Bound - SAT Tutoring Broomall, PA
They not only tutored him but gave him the study & organizational skills he was lacking. What a huge difference. Yes, I had to pay out of pocket for it but it was worth every penny. By the time he got to high school he was self-propelled & completely independent with his school work. He sailed right through school & right through college too. Can you look around your area & see if you can find something similar? It took a load of worry off my mind

TT, I tell my kids I'm going to make them change my diaper when I'm old - paybacks are a bitch :H :H

[Lavande]

Friday AF 12 Sept

Aw Sam - what a pretty picture

[scottish lass]

Friday AF 12 Sept

Very pretty Sam

Thanks Lav - I took her to Sylvan, but was not impressed.
She was also diagnosed ADHD in 1st grade, and did fine until high school. Last year was bad, and this one is starting even worse - I need to get it turned around soon. The psychiatrist called and have appt on Tuesday - so hopefully we can see if she is on the right track, or if there is something else that needs attention. It seems as if school won't do anything until they have to, so hopefully this will get on right track.
I will look more and see if there are other options around here - don.t mind paying, I see that it is just investing in her future which i have to do.

I probably talked about drinking too much, tonight felt a bit like an old FridayHopefully will get the train back on the rails before it gathers too much speed