Keeping up appearances.......

HappyNow

Stripes_The_Elephant wrote: »

Hello Happy, found your diary and now subscribed! Love Stripes x :j

Hello Stripes, thanks for dropping by. I see you have a diary too so I will nip across and have a look at you later today. Love the avator

Honey_Bear

• About three and a third mugs of coffee and could I get to sleep? Could I heck. It wouldn't be a bad thing if those two things were related, but I suspect I was just too hot.
• Maximum of one hour reading on-line newspapers a day:
  Didn't have time to read the papers until about 6.30pm when I was too tired to do any more. Extremely unusual, as it's how I start the day normally.
• Started drafting a new piece of work for the business which wants me to ring back 'after Easter,' which I'll do next week. I like what I've done so far. (I suspect she meant after the Easter Holidays when things have calmed down a bit.)
• Lights out by midnight. Success again. OH has joined in this one with rigid self-discipline, and we're both feeling the benefit.
• Shower room and two bedrooms ready by the time new lodger arrived. He's lovely, an utterly delightful person - the reason we enjoy doing it so much.

HappyNow

Honey_Bear wrote: »

I hope you all had a thoroughly lovely time with plenty of Easter eggs, although after the works gorging do, I imagine you're not quite so keen now!
Thank you, lots of chocolate has indeed been eaten . It's one of those things that however much I eat, I never get bored.
Mr Bear is much more body-disciplined than I am. He goes to the gym twice or three times a week, and he's also a member of a running group that incldues older people who walk and talk more than run, and go out for a breakfast blow-out rather more frequently than I would have expected for fitness fanatics.
Sounds like my kind of group! I do a three/four mile run with a friend every Sunday morning, but again there's far too much walking and talking goes on. We don't do the breakfast blow-out though, I will have to suggest it to her

Honey_Bear wrote: »

I am a Sloblady, which is why had to join the Flylady thread
Ooh, I'm a Sloblady too. I didn't know there was a term for us. I feel like part of a gang now. Yay!
The Walkaway Dress is coming along very, very nicely. It's rather heavy because I've lengthened it by 7" so it looks fine with Mary Janes and now needs a little black hat to top it off. I'm not someone who is even slightly interested in fashion, but this is for a friend's very special birthday and if he wants us to look as though we've stepped out of the '50s that's what I'm going to do.
I had to google Walkaway Dresses because I'd not heard of them, but now I really, really want one! They are sooo pretty and flattering and just beautiful. You have a real talent if you can make things like that. I am going to put it on my 'one day' list.

My ironing board is my great aunt's, and she died in 1976, so mine is even older than yours! OH removed the asbestos pad from where the iron stands, which I'd been happily using for decades. *cof* She lived to a right old age so I'm hoping whatever it was she had works for me. *cof cof*
I've just gone scurrying in to check the pad on mine (I don't see it often enough to remember!) and I think that might be asbestos :cool: Best get it checked, it hadn't occurred to me before

Can't stop, supposed to be working. Back later with a proper update.

Honey_Bear

Good to see you posting, Happy. *checks calendar and tuts*

There is a Sloblady Thread! I've posted on both, but because the house makes me my tiny living, I kind of have to be a bit disciplined about it.

Just came on here to say I was wrong about something. I like being wrong about things, because it means I can still learn. I found a cordless steam iron in a chazza shop yesterday for £6 or £7. The base was marked at one price, the top at another, but as it's for a local hospice I gave them the upper amount. Still bargainacious!

And I also wanted to say that I seem to remember much discussion of a kettle with a blue light in the early days of your thread. When our kettle blew up (it happens to us all) OH went out to get another one, and guess what he came home with, crowing about it!

HappyNow

Honey_Bear wrote: »

Good to see you posting, Happy. *checks calendar and tuts*
I know, I know..... Little Miss H has gone back to her uni town today so I'm due a bit more 'me' time. She's back next Wednesday though, so I'd best make the most of it.

There is a Sloblady Thread! I've posted on both, but because the house makes me my tiny living, I kind of have to be a bit disciplined about it.
I searched for it yesterday and spent a giggly hour reading it before bed. Bookmarked to finish off today.

And I also wanted to say that I seem to remember much discussion of a kettle with a blue light in the early days of your thread. When our kettle blew up (it happens to us all) OH went out to get another one, and guess what he came home with, crowing about it!
YESSS!! I certainly DO remember my blue-lighty kettle. A lovely Russell Hobbs one that I bought when I thought I could afford it. And Pinotgrigio (who used to post on here and still pops on occasionally) had one too. I hope you love yours as much as I did. I have just made a mental note that I will buy another one the day I become debt free. Although at the rate I'm going, electric kettles will probably be obsolete by then!

Honey_Bear wrote: »

The big push this week has been to get ready for the foster dogs' arrival tomorrow. Very excited. At the moment my only concern is how Devil Cat will deal with two dogs. Normally he 'disciplines' each dog as it arrives, and they realise he's the boss. With two of them I fear that strategy will not stand him in good stead. I've read up as much as I can on how to introduce them to each other, cleared all the large glass vases off his high perch and discussed how we're making the introductions with Mr Bear. Fingers crossed.

Wowza, TWO dogs coming today????? You kept that quiet! Are they on the Oldies Club website? Short-term? Longer-term? Hopefully they're used to cats and you won't have a big problem, and Devil Cat sounds like he knows what he's doing. Good luck, I hope they settle right in and feel at home, whilst giving DC the respect he deserves. I will be checking for updates all day now, but of course you will be too busy to spend much time on here :)

HappyNow

Embarrassingly faily update:

• Signature updated in readiness for next week's payday. Minimum payments on all cards which has reduced the overall debt by £439 this month. Minimum payments came to £592 which means I have paid £153 in interest. What a waste, but at least it's going down. I will be paying for our holiday in full next week and covering the balance needed for the weekend with my parents. We are going to have a really, REALLY tight month, but somehow that feels OK because we have a holiday to look forward to for the first time in years.
• No money wasted - there is none to waste. YNAB looks a little sad!
• Still not done any of my planned toning exercise. I will be beach blob instead of beach bod if I don't get cracking! The diet/no alcohol stuff isn't too bad, but I could do better.
• Spring cleaning. Hmm. It's going to turn into Autumn cleaning at this rate! I really need to take a week off work, but that seems like a waste of leave so I'll just have to accept the slow progress.

Honey_Bear

It sounds as though your last couple of days have been busy and full of the 'keep on truckin' mantra that gets you through. Sorry to hear it's going to be eye-poppingly tight this month, ut with the holiday to look forward to and Miss Happy back home in a couple of weeks you'll get there.

Well, the dogs are a bit more challenging than I had realised they were going to be! They have gorgeous temprements and are very well behaved in a, 'I mean well, you know that, don't you, but could we have a game now, look - I've got a ball, a ball a ball aball, aball, aballabllaball' kind of way. One of them has shown a very few small signs of stress, which I totally understand in the circumstancse but they're both such happy dogs I think they'll settle. I stupidly didn't look at the 'routine' I was given by their previous owner until we got them home, only to discover she'd told me nothing about what their daily routine actually is! Fortunatley she told Mr Bear they were fed at 5.00 pm, so at least we have that to go on. Early stuff done, carrot bonios given and both dogs resettled after a calm, clean night.

Honey_Bear

• Hopeless. I think I had three, but it may have been three and a half. Not too bad.
• I think it an hour or less; slightly spaced out for the latter part of the day.
• Lights were out by midnight, and despite worrying about whether I have bitten off more than I can chew, I slept incredibly well!
• I'm not planning on doing a lot of flying over the next few days, fingers crossed. This pair will shed like crazy, but a light sprinkling of dog hair gives the place a homely feel. Once our delightful chap leave on Sunday we're lodger free for a couple of weeks which gives me a bit of a breather on the Flying front.

HappyNow

Ah Honey, my stalking shows me that it hasn't worked out with these particular doggy guests. I'm really sorry to hear that, but it has to be 'safety first' both for you and Devil Cat. Well done for making the decision early, before they had time to bond with you. There will be a home somewhere just right for those two, and another dog somewhere just right for you and DC.

HappyNow

Today's progress. Poor.

• Had to buy more horse food plus cat flea stuff. Cost £50. Needed a supermarket trip and managed to spend £57 on essentials, which sounds a lot but we were out of loads of stuff that just couldn't wait until Wednesday when we get paid. That's all on the overdraft and I hate it, but it's only temporary.
• Rubbish diet. No exercise. Tomorrow is another day.
• Spring Cleaning. Good news at last! The oven has had the clean of its life, as have the cupboards on either side of it. My rubber gloves were too big and leaked so now my hands are red and sore and smell funny. Germ-free though