working out for Disney

[StarWarsGirl]

I can see that. My parents are still passholders and were at WDW a little earlier this month. I know they went into the parks, but they don't buy into Genie+ or do long lines. It's really become a stop and smell the roses sort of experience, as well as making daily decisions to return to their resort if the crowds, heat, or anything else makes park time a less than magical experience. All of the highlights I heard about for this most recent trip were pertaining to dining, resort time and a special experience they booked. This time they did a catch and release fishing trip from the Contemporary. Some of their biggest excitement was catching the EWP from their balcony and MK fireworks from the area at the end of their hallway. I think listening to your body and mind and giving it that downtime could lead to more enjoyable WDW visits in the future.

I had three things I wanted to do at WDW earlier this month: ROTR, GOTG, and float around the lazy river at BC.

I did all three and spent plenty of time on the last one.

 

[Sans Souci]

Speaking of the storm, saw someone complaining on Reddit that they were checking out today and are now complaining because Disney won't give them a room.

Uh...you've known about this for a while. You had time to get the hell out of there, even if it means renting a car and driving. Not sure what to tell people who don't watch the news and figure out what they need to do.

My husband's boss and a few other people my husband works with flew down Friday for an IT training course that was being held at Saratoga Springs (Why does my husband not go to these?) He rode it out there, because the training course organizers didn't cancel until the very last minute. I guess he couldn't get a return flight until Saturday. My husband is in Manhattan, so I haven't spoken to him yet today, but I am curious about his experiences staying at Saratoga Springs during a storm like this.

 

[Sans Souci]

Good morning

Checking in with a "unilateral upper body workout." which was about fun as it sounds. It was doing an exercise one side at a time. It's boring because it is repetitive, but it also made me see one side is a lot weaker than the other. I will give this program a couple of more weeks to see if it picks up. It is only the first week and I know sometimes these programs start out easy and progressively get more challenging.

I've attached some photos of the feral cat who lives in our yard, because she is too cute.

We have a shade-tarp thing over our deck and she seems to think it is a cat hammock. That is what the second photo is. It is now very saggy and you have crouch to get around under it.

 

[Songbird76]

Good morning

Checking in with a "unilateral upper body workout." which was about fun as it sounds. It was doing an exercise one side at a time. It's boring because it is repetitive, but it also made me see one side is a lot weaker than the other. I will give this program a couple of more weeks to see if it picks up. It is only the first week and I know sometimes these programs start out easy and progressively get more challenging.

I've attached some photos of the feral cat who lives in our yard, because she is too cute.

We have a shade-tarp thing over our deck and she seems to think it is a cat hammock. That is what the second photo is. It is now very saggy and you have crouch to get around under it.

Are these workouts things you need a bunch of equipment for? Like weights or bands or something?

I have some sort of infection in my rotator cuff in my shoulder. It's been stiff and painful for a couple of weeks, but I wasn't too worried about it. But it's getting worse instead of better and it's hard to find a comfortable position to sleep, so I went to the doctor. It feels like the bursitis in my hip, but in my shoulder, but the doc says it's the rotator cuff. So he gave me a prescription and hopefully that will take care of it.

 

[Sans Souci]

Are these workouts things you need a bunch of equipment for? Like weights or bands or something?

I have some sort of infection in my rotator cuff in my shoulder. It's been stiff and painful for a couple of weeks, but I wasn't too worried about it. But it's getting worse instead of better and it's hard to find a comfortable position to sleep, so I went to the doctor. It feels like the bursitis in my hip, but in my shoulder, but the doc says it's the rotator cuff. So he gave me a prescription and hopefully that will take care of it.

An infection in your joint? That sounds awful. Are you feeling sick? How does your doctor think this developed? Are the meds helping you?

The workouts I am doing require weights, a long loop, a short loop and a bench or chair.

 

[Songbird76]

An infection in your joint? That sounds awful. Are you feeling sick? How does your doctor think this developed? Are the meds helping you?

The workouts I am doing require weights, a long loop, a short loop and a bench or chair.

I guess...he said specifically the rotator cuff. I thought it was probably bursitis, because it feels like my hip does when that flares up. I can move it, but it's painful at a certain point, and if I have to put any weight on it, it's really bad. Like if I want to reposition my pillows...lifting my arm with the weight of the pillows is really painful. But he said he thinks that the rotator cuff is like swollen and irritated, so there's friction when I move it. So he gave me meds that are both a pain killer and fight the infection. I THINK it's helping. I've only been taking it for two days, but it didn't hurt as badly last night. No idea how it happened....probably just overuse. The doctor asked if I'd fallen or anything, but I haven't. But we just started the new tasks at work, and one of them involves pulling crates full of merch off the belt and carrying them to your table to fold the stuff and then you have to lift it back onto another belt. So it's possible that that movement over and over and over, sometimes with heavyish crates, might have caused it. That's the only thing I can think of.

I'm mostly not really sick, but I did wake up early this moring with my mouth full of bile like I was going to throw up. I didn't feel very good then, but I'm ok now. The med to protect my stomach is supposed to work for 24 hours, so I only take it once a day. I think it was just wearing off. But I hope the meds work, because if they make me ill AND it doesn't help, it will be really frustrating.

 

[Sans Souci]

Good morning

I did a lower body workout. I liked it a bit better than the others I have done this week. It's not that the workouts were bad, they are actually very solid. I just prefer something that gets my heart rate up. I used weights heavier than I usually do to challenge myself and I liked it. I might regret it in the morning.

My brother reached out last night and said he is still in Fort Lauderdale. He said the house he rents is a word I can't repeat here and he is homeless. He was kind of obliquely asking my husband for some money. I don't know. My gut is telling me to give him enough money for food, a few nights in a hotel until he can get help from FEMA, but nothing more than that. I am not in a position to give him more than that, since we have to pay for my grandmother's funeral. That money is ring fenced. Let's just say my brother is a grasshopper from the fable of the ant and the grasshopper. He has always been enabled by my mother and grandmother when things go south for him. He's never had to be an ant.

 

[Songbird76]

Good morning

I did a lower body workout. I liked it a bit better than the others I have done this week. It's not that the workouts were bad, they are actually very solid. I just prefer something that gets my heart rate up. I used weights heavier than I usually do to challenge myself and I liked it. I might regret it in the morning.

My brother reached out last night and said he is still in Fort Lauderdale. He said the house he rents is a word I can't repeat here and he is homeless. He was kind of obliquely asking my husband for some money. I don't know. My gut is telling me to give him enough money for food, a few nights in a hotel until he can get help from FEMA, but nothing more than that. I am not in a position to give him more than that, since we have to pay for my grandmother's funeral. That money is ring fenced. Let's just say my brother is a grasshopper from the fable of the ant and the grasshopper. He has always been enabled by my mother and grandmother when things go south for him. He's never had to be an ant.

Might I suggest not giving him cash? Order some store giftcards for groceries that he can use for food and maybe some clothes, but that he can't waste on luxury items. My brother does the same kind of thing. My mom always bought his clothes and everything, and he was really good at manipulating my dad into giving him money. He'd come up with a sob story about how something broke and now he couldn't afford his car insurance because he had to pay to have the washing machine fixed, or he had to buy a new water heater. Or one of his best was when I called off my engagement and asked if I could move into my brother's spare bedroom and he told me he didn't remember exactly how much his rent was, but if I gave him 350, that should cover my half. Then he called my dad and said that he was letting me live there for free, but couldn't afford the rent by himself (that he had been paying for for years already) and could dad send him 500 for my half of the rent. Then I found out rent was 465. So he was getting $850 per month from dad and me to pay half the rent on a $465 a month apartment and he was just pocketing his entire paycheck to buy fun things for himself. He even used my car because he didn't have one that ran, and I paid for all the gas, the insurance, etc. He was living for free. When I was planning my wedding, he was wanting to move into a house and needed money for a down payment. He asked me to "loan" him money, because he knew I was saving money for my wedding, so he knew I had cash on hand. He wanted me to get money out of my wedding fund to pay for his house. He's never paid back a loan and I knew he wasn't good for it so I told him I had already used all that money to pay for the reception hall and DJ and such.

Listen to your gut. His house might be absolutely fine and he's just using the hurricane as an excuse to milk you for money. You aren't there to see if his house has been destroyed, but the world knows Florida was hit. But not everyone lost their homes....some didn't even lose electricity. You have no way of knowing whether he's telling the truth or not. If he is, in fact homeless, he'll get help to repair or rebuild. And unless he didn't trust banks, he should still have money in an account that he can use for food and such. That can't have been washed away in the storm. I'd be very wary of giving him actual money. With a gift card for say, Publix, he can only get groceries. He'll be able to eat. But he won't be able to go out and buy a new car, or iphone, etc. And if he's asking YOU for money, he's probably asking others as well. And if everyone sends him a couple hundred bucks, and he gets a trailer from fema, and he gets insurance money to rebuild his house, he doesn't have to use his own money to pay for anything and can then use his own money for luxuries. If you DO help him out, I'd make sure he knows it's a LOAN and not a GIFT. He either agrees, in writing, to pay it back, or you won't send it.

But that's just me, and I'm jaded because of my own brother. Your situation might be different, so if you think it's right to help him, you know your own situation and family better, so absolutely judge for yourself. But if I were in your shoes, that's what I'd do. Or actually I'd probably just tell my brother sorry, I can't help you. But I can totally understand that some people might feel heartless doing that if there's a chance he actually does need it.

 

[Sans Souci]

I guess...he said specifically the rotator cuff. I thought it was probably bursitis, because it feels like my hip does when that flares up. I can move it, but it's painful at a certain point, and if I have to put any weight on it, it's really bad. Like if I want to reposition my pillows...lifting my arm with the weight of the pillows is really painful. But he said he thinks that the rotator cuff is like swollen and irritated, so there's friction when I move it. So he gave me meds that are both a pain killer and fight the infection. I THINK it's helping. I've only been taking it for two days, but it didn't hurt as badly last night. No idea how it happened....probably just overuse. The doctor asked if I'd fallen or anything, but I haven't. But we just started the new tasks at work, and one of them involves pulling crates full of merch off the belt and carrying them to your table to fold the stuff and then you have to lift it back onto another belt. So it's possible that that movement over and over and over, sometimes with heavyish crates, might have caused it. That's the only thing I can think of.

I'm mostly not really sick, but I did wake up early this moring with my mouth full of bile like I was going to throw up. I didn't feel very good then, but I'm ok now. The med to protect my stomach is supposed to work for 24 hours, so I only take it once a day. I think it was just wearing off. But I hope the meds work, because if they make me ill AND it doesn't help, it will be really frustrating.

Would beveled pillow help you? That might make help you take the weight off of your upper body. Is there anyway to see a physical therapist who can help you find a more ergonomic way of doing your job? You would think they would have you switch the types of tasks you are doing within a shift to prevent overuse, or at least for a new task for each shift.

 

[Sans Souci]

Might I suggest not giving him cash? Order some store giftcards for groceries that he can use for food and maybe some clothes, but that he can't waste on luxury items. My brother does the same kind of thing. My mom always bought his clothes and everything, and he was really good at manipulating my dad into giving him money. He'd come up with a sob story about how something broke and now he couldn't afford his car insurance because he had to pay to have the washing machine fixed, or he had to buy a new water heater. Or one of his best was when I called off my engagement and asked if I could move into my brother's spare bedroom and he told me he didn't remember exactly how much his rent was, but if I gave him 350, that should cover my half. Then he called my dad and said that he was letting me live there for free, but couldn't afford the rent by himself (that he had been paying for for years already) and could dad send him 500 for my half of the rent. Then I found out rent was 465. So he was getting $850 per month from dad and me to pay half the rent on a $465 a month apartment and he was just pocketing his entire paycheck to buy fun things for himself. He even used my car because he didn't have one that ran, and I paid for all the gas, the insurance, etc. He was living for free. When I was planning my wedding, he was wanting to move into a house and needed money for a down payment. He asked me to "loan" him money, because he knew I was saving money for my wedding, so he knew I had cash on hand. He wanted me to get money out of my wedding fund to pay for his house. He's never paid back a loan and I knew he wasn't good for it so I told him I had already used all that money to pay for the reception hall and DJ and such.

Listen to your gut. His house might be absolutely fine and he's just using the hurricane as an excuse to milk you for money. You aren't there to see if his house has been destroyed, but the world knows Florida was hit. But not everyone lost their homes....some didn't even lose electricity. You have no way of knowing whether he's telling the truth or not. If he is, in fact homeless, he'll get help to repair or rebuild. And unless he didn't trust banks, he should still have money in an account that he can use for food and such. That can't have been washed away in the storm. I'd be very wary of giving him actual money. With a gift card for say, Publix, he can only get groceries. He'll be able to eat. But he won't be able to go out and buy a new car, or iphone, etc. And if he's asking YOU for money, he's probably asking others as well. And if everyone sends him a couple hundred bucks, and he gets a trailer from fema, and he gets insurance money to rebuild his house, he doesn't have to use his own money to pay for anything and can then use his own money for luxuries. If you DO help him out, I'd make sure he knows it's a LOAN and not a GIFT. He either agrees, in writing, to pay it back, or you won't send it.

But that's just me, and I'm jaded because of my own brother. Your situation might be different, so if you think it's right to help him, you know your own situation and family better, so absolutely judge for yourself. But if I were in your shoes, that's what I'd do. Or actually I'd probably just tell my brother sorry, I can't help you. But I can totally understand that some people might feel heartless doing that if there's a chance he actually does need it.

I do think his house was destroyed. He lived in Cape Coral, which took a direct hit.

My brother is one of those people who spends money as soon as it comes in. I don't think he has much in his savings. He owns his own business and has seven work trucks for it. So, he had a cash decent flow coming in until this. I don't think he's on the level with his taxes, which makes me think he's not going to try to get help from FEMA. My brother once got in serious legal trouble in IL and he needed bail. It even made the local news in Chicago. (That was not any type of assault or anything like that--there was nobody else involved.) He was charged with a class of felony that was just below murder, so his bail was $$$$. Anyway, my mom came to my husband and me for money. We just didn't have it. My mom said, "But you've got money to go to Disney every year." My husband said, "Why should we give up our vacation? We didn't get arrested doing something highly illegal." Besides, I knew we'd never see that money again. So my mom dug into her savings for him and never saw that money again. If something beyond his control happened to him, like losing a job, or some devastating medical diagnosis, I would have helped without question. But he was living the high life with expensive cars and going on high end vacations every month, so no.

Anyway, my husband said my brother was complaining on Facebook that nobody reached out to help for help. So, my husband reached out to him and offered him our spare room in our house for a few weeks, until the dust settles and he can figure out his options. He offered him money for gas, food and lodging to get up here. He has two dogs, so he'd rather drive. While he's here, he wouldn't have to worry about where his next meal is coming from or paying for another night in a hotel. Anyway, he came back to my husband and said, "Thanks." So, I am guessing he's weighing up his options, because it is a bit of drive to get up here. I do have the feeling he will pass on it, though.

When my husband lost his job in London, he was unemployed for 9 months. Nobody in my family offered any kind of help. We wouldn't have taken it, but it would have been nice to know someone cared.

 

[Sans Souci]

Hello-

Checking in with a kettlebell/bodyweight interval workout. I wanted something that would get my heart rate up. We're getting remnants of Ian today and tomorrow, so I am going to be stuck indoors and not outside doing yard work, going on a walk, etc.

I've got a baking itch today, so I am thinking of making some dark chocolate brownies or banana bread.

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

Hello-

Checking in with a kettlebell/bodyweight interval workout. I wanted something that would get my heart rate up. We're getting remnants of Ian today and tomorrow, so I am going to be stuck indoors and not outside doing yard work, going on a walk, etc.

I've got a baking itch today, so I am thinking of making some dark chocolate brownies or banana bread.

Why not bake both?!? Sounds awesome. I got a banana muffin from the coffee place in my town, it was delicious!

 

[Songbird76]

Would beveled pillow help you? That might make help you take the weight off of your upper body. Is there anyway to see a physical therapist who can help you find a more ergonomic way of doing your job? You would think they would have you switch the types of tasks you are doing within a shift to prevent overuse, or at least for a new task for each shift.

Oh, they do switch up the tasks to a certain extent. I only work 4 hours at a time. When I first started, we were hired to do one specific task. You either worked in receiving, returns, or orders. If you worked in orders, you only compiled and sent orders. If you worked in receiving, all you did was fold and count the clothing items. They sometimes trained a couple people from another department to fill in when it got really busy, so if you worked in Orders, you might be trained to fill in when receiving got bogged down for a couple of days. But you mostly only did the one thing. But there were SOOOOO many people who worked in Orders who got heel spurs from all the walking, and a bunch of people in receiving with shoulder issues, etc, so they decided they should train everyone to do everything so they could all rotate every few hours. I never got trained to do receiving. I kept asking, but it was never the right time, according to them....it was always too busy, they couldn't spare anyone to take the time to train me, or it was too slow there wasn't enough work for me to practice, or they had just hired a whole new batch of people who all needed to be trained and as soon as they were trained, it would be my turn, but by then they had hired another batch of newbies. I just never got my chance. Well, one time for 3 hours and then never again. Then LAST year, I kept asking and the one supervisor scheduled me there twice. And now we no longer have receiving. But there are only a couple of different tasks now. You either work in Processing or Big Tickets. Processing, you either unbox the clothing and put it in crates, or fold the clothes in a crate and put them in bags, or you scan the items in each crate, or you move pallets full of crates that have already been scanned into the system. Big Tickets, you pull a pallet around and stack the ordered items onto it....it's all big stuff like boxes of diapers or wipes, or a highchair, or a razor scooter. But you literally just stack the boxes onto the pallet and print out a mailing label to stick on them. That's it. So there aren't a whole of tasks anymore. Before, there were so many different things. You might be stocking the shelves, you might be checking returns, or processing them, you might be putting returns away in the shelves, you might be compiling orders, or checking the orders and sending them, or repackaging orders where an item was missing, or didn't fit in the box, or you would be putting the boxes of orders into postal carts. There were like 15 different things you could be doing since we moved to the new warehouse a few years ago. Now there are like....5. They try to switch people around, but there are only 5 scanners for the big tickets, so you can't have many people doing that, whereas there are probably about 35 tables in processing just for folding clothes, and then there are several for scanning those things into the system. So the probability is that you will mostly be folding clothes, unless you are in that inner circle who kind of manage the different departments but aren't actually managers. I'm not in that inner circle. I've been there longer than most people, so I AM one of the first people who gets trained on something new, and I'm trusted to do the more complicated things, but not so much that I get to manage others in that department. I don't work during the day at all, so the top people have no idea who I am. I get passed over for all the major things. But the shift managers know I'm a good worker, so they give me as much responsibility as they CAN, but it isn't much because the bigger bosses aren't giving them my name when it comes to the jobs with actual responsibility that lack the physical labor. I might be asked to show someone how to do one task or another, but I'm always still going to be doing the lowest level jobs that require no particular skills. Unfortunately, those are hard on the body.

 

[Songbird76]

I do think his house was destroyed. He lived in Cape Coral, which took a direct hit.

My brother is one of those people who spends money as soon as it comes in. I don't think he has much in his savings. He owns his own business and has seven work trucks for it. So, he had a cash decent flow coming in until this. I don't think he's on the level with his taxes, which makes me think he's not going to try to get help from FEMA. My brother once got in serious legal trouble in IL and he needed bail. It even made the local news in Chicago. (That was not any type of assault or anything like that--there was nobody else involved.) He was charged with a class of felony that was just below murder, so his bail was $$$$. Anyway, my mom came to my husband and me for money. We just didn't have it. My mom said, "But you've got money to go to Disney every year." My husband said, "Why should we give up our vacation? We didn't get arrested doing something highly illegal." Besides, I knew we'd never see that money again. So my mom dug into her savings for him and never saw that money again. If something beyond his control happened to him, like losing a job, or some devastating medical diagnosis, I would have helped without question. But he was living the high life with expensive cars and going on high end vacations every month, so no.

Anyway, my husband said my brother was complaining on Facebook that nobody reached out to help for help. So, my husband reached out to him and offered him our spare room in our house for a few weeks, until the dust settles and he can figure out his options. He offered him money for gas, food and lodging to get up here. He has two dogs, so he'd rather drive. While he's here, he wouldn't have to worry about where his next meal is coming from or paying for another night in a hotel. Anyway, he came back to my husband and said, "Thanks." So, I am guessing he's weighing up his options, because it is a bit of drive to get up here. I do have the feeling he will pass on it, though.

When my husband lost his job in London, he was unemployed for 9 months. Nobody in my family offered any kind of help. We wouldn't have taken it, but it would have been nice to know someone cared.

Sometimes I swear we have the same family!! My brother didn't ever need bail, but he did almost have to declare bankruptcy and got my dad to bail him out of that jam. He's the same way....spend money as soon as he has it....sometimes BEFORE he has it. And he is an instant gratification person. He can't stand to wait and save up for something he wants. He's got to have it NOW, preferably a few weeks ago. He was working for the IT department at the university, and they were going to buy all the IT people palm pilots. My brother couldn't wait, so he went out and bought the exact model they were getting from work 2 weeks before they were set to come in so "he could learn how to use it" already and then when he got the one from work, he'd just resell the one he bought. Absolutely ridiculous....just wait 2 weeks and you'll have it and NOT have to waste hundreds of dollars on it! He got in trouble with credit cards, because he was an absolute sucker for free stuff and those CC companies target college students by offering a free tshirt or a 2 liter bottle of soda if you signed up for their guaranteed acceptance card. So he ended up with 10 to 15 of those pre-approved CCs that have really high interest rates, just to get a bottle of pop, and then he maxed every one of those cards out and couldn't even afford the interest on them. My dad had to put down a large amount to consolidate the debt so my brother didn't have to declare bankruptcy at 22. He also almost ruined his best friend's credit, because they shared an apartment and the best friend put the utilities in his name because my brother's credit was awful....then the best friend moved out, but let my brother keep the utilities in his name and my brother just never paid the bills. The best friend called my mom and told her he was worried about my brother and could she talk to him and help him. My mom was mad at the best friend for "Leaving my brother in the lurch" with the apartment. He had given my brother NINE MONTHS NOTICE that he was moving out when the lease was up, so my brother could find a new roommate. My brother didn't even look, and didn't tell my mom until a couple of weeks before his best friend actually moved, so she blamed the best friend for just moving out and leaving him without a roommate, and then got mad at me because my brother decided I was the answer to his solution. I had just decided to move in with my fiance at the time, and so my brother decided that I should move in with him instead. I said no, I already HAD a roommate, so my mom called and reamed me out for leaving my brother high and dry so I could live in sin. My BROTHER left my brother high and dry....he had months to find a new roommate. It's his own fault that he didn't look. But my mom always bragged about how smart and how responsible my brother was, he was just this golden child who could do no wrong, and I was such a screw up and my mother didn't know WHAT to do with me. Yet it was my brother who almost went bankrupt, ruined his best friend's credit, and declined to look for a new roommate, while I had perfect credit, a car that worked, and I paid my own way through college, and -I- was the screw up. My brother's problem is that everything was always given to him. He never had to work for it. He got good grades without working at it, so he got a full ride scholarship for college. My dad all but gave him his first car. My mom bought all his basic necessities through high school because he never had money to buy things himself, but I was expected to buy my own clothes, shampoo, my cheerleading uniform and letterman's jacket. We were poor and mom couldn't afford that stuff, so I had to buy it myself. But my brother always spent his money as soon as he had it, so when his pants ripped and he needed new ones, he didn't have the money for them. So my mom would have to buy them for him, but never made him pay her back. He was used to other people paying the bills so he could spend his money on fun stuff, and he was good at manipulating people, making them think they owed him for something. He was never your friend just because you were his friend....it costs you something to be his friend. You're involved in theater? You'd better get him free tickets to whatever show you are in. You're involved in some community organization? He expects your help with some project he's working on. You just got a raise at work? Congratulations....you now owe him dinner at a nice restaurant to celebrate, because of course you'd never have gotten that raise without some "favor" he did for you. If you DON'T, he's not going to waste time hanging out with you. He's a classic people-user. If you've read the Harry Potter series, he's Professor Slughorn. He likes his creature comforts, and he "collects" people who can get him those things. If you can't be of benefit to him, he has no time for you. And my mom was the classic enabler. She thought the sun rose and set out of his rear end every day and I couldn't possibly compete with him. She always thought I owed him for everything and gave him credit for my accomplishments. She told me I would never have gotten into college if it weren't for my brother, and she said I'd never have made it through my first year of college if he hadn't tutored me. But I was a music major and my brother knew NOTHING about music. He hadn't tutored me at ALL. I got straight A's my first semester, and I only had 1 B in the second semester, because -I- went and got help when I needed it....and NOT from my brother. But nope, it was actually my brother's accomplishment, so I owed him!

Your husband was totally right....why should you give up your vacation to pay for your brother's mistake? You know he'd never do the same for you! Is your brother older than you? My brother is the oldest, so my mom just thought he was perfect and I was the bane of her existence. I suspect you are right, that your brother will decline the offer, because it's not what he wants. What he wants is for you to just send him money to spend as he wants, not a place to lodge and eat under YOUR terms. He's probably holding out, hoping you'll come up with something more, or he's planning a counter-offer. I don't know if he's like my brother in this, but mine always throws everything back in your face....every favor he's ever done. "I printed out the mailing labels and maps for your wedding invitations! The least you can do is......" and he tends to forget all the favors I ever did for him, like that I got up every day that week to work the pride table for coming out week on campus because none of the actual members of their organization wanted to get out of bed to work the 8:00 slot. He figures the 30 minutes it took him to set the printer up for labels and print them out is worth way more than the hours I spent at that table early in the morning. My mother always reinforced that idea that I owed him and that he deserved more. So he grew up lazy and expecting everyone to do everything for him because he was taught that he was owed it by everyone else in the world. And it sounds like your brother was kind of enabled in the same way by your mom. So he's probably not going to change. If he gets knocked down, whether it's because of something he did or because of a natural disaster, he's going to expect someone else to get him out of it, because they always have.

Is he married? Have kids? I have to say my husband's spouse is AMAZING and has been SO good for him. I won't say my brother is completely reformed, but he does do more than he used to.

 

[HouCuseChickie]

Good morning. There hasn't been much working out over the last week, unless you count lots of walking around softball fields and lugging stuff. I did at least get in a few mini workouts in the office with my kettlebells and my husband and I decided to go for a walk yesterday evening. It wasn't anything major, but 2 miles can't hurt either.

We also went into stress mode last week with Ian. My parents and brother's family are all Miami/Ft. Lauderdale area, so it was mainly some heavy rain (a bit scary because they have a lake on one side), TS force gusts and tornado warnings that were a little too close to home (closest touched down about a mile from my parents). I know a few of their neighbors lost some tropical trees, but that's about it. Our cousins that we met up with before our July cruise are in central FL and had to contend with some inland flooding, but no water in their homes. We have friends and family on the west coast who were a mix of issues, including some who were just down there for vacation and were trying to get out. It took some nudging, but our close family friends in the Tampa/St. Pete area ended up evacuating closer to my parents, so that was some relief. Our family in Punta Gorda is supposedly fine, which is also good. Other friends in Tampa and Bradenton had minor damage...fences and car ports blown over, trees uprooted, etc. The rest is a confusing mess. Our friends in North Port showed pics of bad flooding and moderate wind damage, but no word on what was their level of damage. They had a small motor boat that they were using to survey the neighborhood, but that's all they shared. We also have friends in Cape Coral that I don't think fared too well. They live in a neighborhood just off of the Caloosahatchee River and like much of Cape Coral, the neighborhood has lots of little canals. Said friends' parents are insisting the home did well and no real issues, but it seems impossible to believe. The friends in question work in a hospital in the area (I believe the hospital is in Fort Myers) and couldn't get home immediately since most roads were impassable. So, they were sheltering in the hospital where they work, which had no water and no functioning sewer system. So, who knows. I guess at least all of the people are good, so that's peace of mind. It's still mind-blowing to see all of the damage. My parents vacationed in Sanibel just a few months ago and now look at it!

 

[Songbird76]

Good morning. There hasn't been much working out over the last week, unless you count lots of walking around softball fields and lugging stuff. I did at least get in a few mini workouts in the office with my kettlebells and my husband and I decided to go for a walk yesterday evening. It wasn't anything major, but 2 miles can't hurt either.

We also went into stress mode last week with Ian. My parents and brother's family are all Miami/Ft. Lauderdale area, so it was mainly some heavy rain (a bit scary because they have a lake on one side), TS force gusts and tornado warnings that were a little too close to home (closest touched down about a mile from my parents). I know a few of their neighbors lost some tropical trees, but that's about it. Our cousins that we met up with before our July cruise are in central FL and had to contend with some inland flooding, but no water in their homes. We have friends and family on the west coast who were a mix of issues, including some who were just down there for vacation and were trying to get out. It took some nudging, but our close family friends in the Tampa/St. Pete area ended up evacuating closer to my parents, so that was some relief. Our family in Punta Gorda is supposedly fine, which is also good. Other friends in Tampa and Bradenton had minor damage...fences and car ports blown over, trees uprooted, etc. The rest is a confusing mess. Our friends in North Port showed pics of bad flooding and moderate wind damage, but no word on what was their level of damage. They had a small motor boat that they were using to survey the neighborhood, but that's all they shared. We also have friends in Cape Coral that I don't think fared too well. They live in a neighborhood just off of the Caloosahatchee River and like much of Cape Coral, the neighborhood has lots of little canals. Said friends' parents are insisting the home did well and no real issues, but it seems impossible to believe. The friends in question work in a hospital in the area (I believe the hospital is in Fort Myers) and couldn't get home immediately since most roads were impassable. So, they were sheltering in the hospital where they work, which had no water and no functioning sewer system. So, who knows. I guess at least all of the people are good, so that's peace of mind. It's still mind-blowing to see all of the damage. My parents vacationed in Sanibel just a few months ago and now look at it!

I have a friend in Fort Myers, but he said they were never without electricity, but still don't have water. And my best friend's husband lives in Fort Meyers, but he was in Greece for work when Ian hit, so he missed it, but can't get home because the airport there isn't open, so he flew back to Denver and is with my best friend and their daughter this week. He's like some big CFO for Hertz and gets sent all over. They moved so many times and were sent to Australia for a couple of years and were supposed to go to London after that for a couple of years, which I would have loved because I could have visited her much more easily! But then I guess they sold the company and the new ownership didn't support US people being sent all over the world, so they got sent back to the US to Denver with the promise that they wouldn't have to move again, for at least a couple of years. So they bought a house and enrolled their daughter in a private school, etc and they hadn't even settled in yet when the company changed their minds and told him he needed to be in Florida in like 2 weeks. My best friend refused to take her daughter out of school again, especially as it was right at the beginning of covid, so he went to Florida and got an apartment there and they travel back and forth in school vacations and such. So when he couldn't fly back to Florida, he just went "home" to Denver for the week. But apparently his apartment and car are fine. Everyone I know in Florida is ok.

 

[StarWarsGirl]

I have a friend in Fort Myers, but he said they were never without electricity, but still don't have water. And my best friend's husband lives in Fort Meyers, but he was in Greece for work when Ian hit, so he missed it, but can't get home because the airport there isn't open, so he flew back to Denver and is with my best friend and their daughter this week. He's like some big CFO for Hertz and gets sent all over. They moved so many times and were sent to Australia for a couple of years and were supposed to go to London after that for a couple of years, which I would have loved because I could have visited her much more easily! But then I guess they sold the company and the new ownership didn't support US people being sent all over the world, so they got sent back to the US to Denver with the promise that they wouldn't have to move again, for at least a couple of years. So they bought a house and enrolled their daughter in a private school, etc and they hadn't even settled in yet when the company changed their minds and told him he needed to be in Florida in like 2 weeks. My best friend refused to take her daughter out of school again, especially as it was right at the beginning of covid, so he went to Florida and got an apartment there and they travel back and forth in school vacations and such. So when he couldn't fly back to Florida, he just went "home" to Denver for the week. But apparently his apartment and car are fine. Everyone I know in Florida is ok.

Yikes...as someone who's in accounting/finance... there's not enough money in the world to be shuffled around like that. Our CFO pretty much works from home and comes in when he needs to.

 

[StarWarsGirl]

I finally made it back to the gym today.

When I came home from WDW, I came home with bronchitis that apparently was so bad that they were worried it was going to turn into pnuemonia, so they put me on a really powerful antibiotic. It too me a while to recover. Then the remnants of our friend Ian hit, which left me with a six day migraine.

I did 35 minutes on the elliptical and then some circuit training. I bought this thing for my knee that's basically a strap to support the knee cap, which most of my pain is when the knee cap moves around. They tried taping my knee at PT, and the tape refused to stay, so I figured this might do the same thing and work better. I did really well with it at WDW, so I decided to wear it at the gym (it's designed so you can wear it while working out).

I probably do need to restart my asthma control medications (well, probably just one of them for now). I've been completely off of them for a while and I just treat my asthma when I'm sick or have an attack, which is less and less frequent since working from home. But today I after I got off of the elliptical, I got into a terrible coughing jag, and I've been coughing ever since. I haven't coughed in over a week, it feels like an asthma cough, and this didn't happen pre-bronchitis. I'm probably just going to start with one puff of the one inhaler (so a half dose) and then up it to a full dose if I need it, and then I'll add back the second one if I need it. My asthma is tricky with controllers because some have been known to make it worse, so my doctor had my on one called Alvesco that had a really small particle size, and then he put me on the lower of the two available doses and started me on a half dose, then we upped it. Then he added on Dulera when I needed it for a while. So we know they work; I just haven't needed them in a long time.

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

I finally made it back to the gym today.

When I came home from WDW, I came home with bronchitis that apparently was so bad that they were worried it was going to turn into pnuemonia, so they put me on a really powerful antibiotic. It too me a while to recover. Then the remnants of our friend Ian hit, which left me with a six day migraine.

I did 35 minutes on the elliptical and then some circuit training. I bought this thing for my knee that's basically a strap to support the knee cap, which most of my pain is when the knee cap moves around. They tried taping my knee at PT, and the tape refused to stay, so I figured this might do the same thing and work better. I did really well with it at WDW, so I decided to wear it at the gym (it's designed so you can wear it while working out).

I probably do need to restart my asthma control medications (well, probably just one of them for now). I've been completely off of them for a while and I just treat my asthma when I'm sick or have an attack, which is less and less frequent since working from home. But today I after I got off of the elliptical, I got into a terrible coughing jag, and I've been coughing ever since. I haven't coughed in over a week, it feels like an asthma cough, and this didn't happen pre-bronchitis. I'm probably just going to start with one puff of the one inhaler (so a half dose) and then up it to a full dose if I need it, and then I'll add back the second one if I need it. My asthma is tricky with controllers because some have been known to make it worse, so my doctor had my on one called Alvesco that had a really small particle size, and then he put me on the lower of the two available doses and started me on a half dose, then we upped it. Then he added on Dulera when I needed it for a while. So we know they work; I just haven't needed them in a long time.

Sorry you haven't been feeling well. I hope you are on the road to feeling better, at least you have those cute kitties to snuggle with .

 

[Sans Souci]

Why not bake both?!? Sounds awesome. I got a banana muffin from the coffee place in my town, it was delicious!

I had three very blackened bananas, some leftover sour cream and some mini dark chocolate chips, so banana bread it was. It was so good, very moist and and chocolatey. It was just my son and me when I made it and it was gone within hours of baking it.