My Random Musings | Peaches Prattlings

{August 11, 2013} TANG

It’s the drink of astronauts!

Ever since I was a kid, I have loved to drink Tang. It wasn’t something that my parents had in the house all the time, but when we had it, I loved it.

As an “adult” I have bought Tang from time to time. It was good when you an get a smaller tub, then it doesn’t go bad, and by bad I just mean that it gets moisture trapped in it and then it gets hard and solid, hard to get back to powder.

Even I have to admit, Tang can be too sweet sometimes. (What? Did I just say that out loud?)

The last few weeks I’ve been wanting some Tang, but I always forget when I go to the grocery store and then I want it. Today, we were at the grocery store and as we were leaving, I remembered! We went back to the juice aisle, I got some Tang!

As soon as we got home, unloaded the groceries, I made a bottle of sweet and refreshing Tang…ahhh, a mechiah!

Then I made some later, not as refreshing, still good, but way to sweet! But that first drink, hit the spot, made me happy and isn’t that what it’s all about?

{August 6, 2013} Goodbye, work, travel, delays

The day started with my sister waking me to see if I wanted to say goodbye to the girls, what do you think?

I dragged myself out of bed, brushed my teeth, (I thought that would be best for everyone) ran downstairs to say goodbye to my girls. Never gets easier, but knowing I’ll be seeing them sooner than later helps. MG wanted to know where I was going and why I wouldn’t be there when she got home from school, then she wanted to know when she would see me again, I told her as soon as I could. My favorite question at that point…”how many minutes?” How could you not love that?

EJ let me kiss her on the cheek and forehead, didn’t look up, I’m kind of used to that, she doesn’t like it when I leave so if she doesn’t look at me, it’s not real and I’m ok with that, feels good, to be honest. And I’ll see them soon enough during FaceTime, I’m not worried, ah technology!

They left and I checked my email, then took a quick shower and GES and I got down to work. There was a call and reports and emails and spreadsheets, oh my! AS, my sister’s sister-in-law (did you get all that?) came over to help out, it was nice to see her, since we missed each other Sunday when they left. She is a great cook!

About 3:15, we headed out to the train, I had a conference call at 3:30, I gave my sister one of the headphones and we listened together, that was interesting. It went well, I got on the train and headed to South Station, got on the Silver Line bus to the airport, which hit traffic, fun. I was, however, early enough that I could get something to eat, a Fuddrucker’s veggie burger, yum! I need to find out if there is a Fudd’s in Colorado.

Boarded the plane about 6:40 for the flight that was supposed to leave at 6:45, hmm…we finally took off at 7:30, at least that’s what I think the time was. Then…let’s just say, I watched the last half of one movie and another full movie and possibly could have watched part of another one. We were supposed to land in Minneapolis about 8 something, after circle for what I heard was an hour, we landed about 10:20, 10 minutes before we were supposed to land in Denver, and 45 minutes after we were supposed to take off, go figure.

I did sit next to a very nice woman and we chatted for a bit on the way, we had a seat open between us, that was nice, we could share a tray table and sort of spread out. As we were coming in for a landing, the woman to my right asked me what I had been watching. It was the original “Yours, Mine & Ours” starring Lucille Ball and Henry Fonda. That took us down the road of classic movies and actors and favorites and sharing, the woman in the seat ahead of her joined in. I always love those conversations, you know, about movies, imagine that! (I’ll give you a review of that movie another time).

The good news is, all flights were delayed coming in, so my flight was probably delayed. When I got off the flight, the board said my flight was leaving at 11:20, as of about five minutes ago, we were told we might leave at 11:50, fingers crossed.

I was lucky to find an open charging port, my phone was almost dead, you know…DED dead! My iPad is at 39% and the flight is about 2 hours, lets hope for the best. I am going to post now and tomorrow I’ll let you know if and when I got out of Minneapolis!

{August 2, 2013} Time zone consideration

Ok, so…my original topic for tonight won’t work because it’s tied into something else and I need to finish it before I can share, so, I promise, when it’s finished, I’ll share.

Tonight, I want to talk to you about time zones and consideration of those time zones. I’m sure wherever you live, you believe the world revolves around you and your time zone. Hey, when I was a kid, growing up on Staten Island in New York, I thought everyone had to know that there were five boroughs that make up New York City and they are…? (Staten Island, Brooklyn, Queens, The Bronx and Manhattan, and now you know. Did you know that Staten Island and Manhattan are the only two true islands? Little bit of trivia for ya)

I have to tell you, and I think you’ll laugh about this. I went and looked at the title of this post and it was originally time zen!

So, back to my point about time zones, being in the eastern time zone, I looked at everything in that zone, EST, I knew that Pacific time was three hours behind, Paris, France is six hours ahead and Hawaii is five hours behind. I was always a bit wonky on central and mountain time. I know that Central is one hour behind and now, because I live in Mountain Time, it’s two hours behind eastern. See, I can be taught!

Moving to Colorado and MT has been an adjustment, for everyone, people back east have to remember not to call me at 9am on a Saturday, and who’s going to do that anyway! because its only 7am for me and I need to remember that when it’s only 9pm in Colorado, it’s 11pm back east! It’s confusing when watching some shows, things that come on at 9pm eastern are coming on at 7pm mountain, so prime time TV starts a little early. How about the night time talk shows, watching David Letterman, Jay Leno or Conan O’Brian at 10pm is a little unsettling! (Good thing I don’t watch them!)

I remember when DCM moved and didn’t always remember the time difference, so when he would text me at 11pm MT to say goodnight, it didn’t translate that it was 1am EST for me! Sometimes I had already fallen asleep! Ok, who are we kidding, not very often, but it happened!

One of the cool things I did, sort of, I think I’ve told you, is I have kept my east coast hours, 9-5pm eastern is 7-3pm mountain, so that means…I get up at 6am to do a few miles, then start my day at 7am for calls, etc. but then…at 3pm, it’s bathing suit time (sometimes I might go for a walk/run, mostly when I don’t seem to wake up at 6 with the alarm) down to the pool for a few hours of sun, reading and usually a nap, very underrated activity! until DCM gets home and we get dinner started. Not too shabby!

Now, I don’t mind having calls at 9am eastern, that’s 7am my time, I’m up and ready to go, but 6:30am mountain? That’s not fair. So this morning, I got up with my alarm at 6, well, ok, 6:15, the snooze button is too convenient and got on a call at 6:30am, I was not exactly my normal bubbly self, sorry.

I know I’m very aware of other people’s time zones when I schedule calls, why can’t other people be so observant?

I need a nap!

{July 31, 2013} Duck Dynasty

I tried people, I really tried.

One of the good and bad things about moving in with DCM is that we have cable all the time, so I get to see some TV shows I have missed (Criminal Minds, Leverage), basically the shows I can’t find on Netflix, Hulu or online and a lot of movies, which was what I was doing before.

So, here comes reality TV, why? I still don’t get giving rich people money so we can watch them be obnoxious, vile, rich, useless. You’ve got people thrown together in a house, summer camp, n a bridge, would they do half of that stuff if weren’t watching?

And then there is the flip side, there’s the exploitation of toddlers, white trash and rednecks, when did watching the type of people you would find on “the people of Walmart” live become big business?

We as a society become obsessed with certain shows, I’ll admit, there was a time that CKM and I were addicted to Hoarders, we’d sit on the phone watching in our respective homes, “did you see that?” “OMG!”

My mom! My mom, for those of you who knew her, might be shocked by this, but she la la la loved The Osbornes! That cracked me up!

I think I told you that one of the things I enjoyed about traveling for work was staying in hotels and having cable and being able to flip channels. Now, please keep in mind, on my last contract, I wasn’t in any one city more than two nights, so there wasn’t a lot of sight seeing to be done, sometimes I got to my hotel in enough time to grab some food and sac out for an hour or two before crashing, so TV it was, a good way to wind down and decompress.

There is always a new reality show that people talk about and right now, it’s Duck Dynasty, a family in the Louisiana bayou, staying true to their roots while building their empire of duck calls and decoys, Duck Commander. We got through about 15 minutes, it was the very first episode and there were a few funny moments, sort of, and then they lost me when the guys went out to find frogs because the momma was going to be filming a cooking show the next day. Um, not something I can handle, I once saw frogs legs at a grocery store and couldn’t eat for three days!

I just don’t think I can do it, I hear so many people talking about it, they talk about how funny it is, it’s just not for me. I have heard that the women are ga-ga for their guys, they don’t have a lot of the same drama as the “rich people” reality shows, something to be said for that.

But when I watch some of these reality shows, I feel like my I.Q. drops a lot, so I think I will be skipping the majority of these shows and leave them to everyone else who is fascinated by them. Just like they say there is someone for everyone, there is an audience for the reality show market and more power to ’em!

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2229907/?ref_=sr_1

{July 29, 2013} A waste of time, follow up and “really?”

Ok, so today is going to be a serious, “Really?” kind of post, so bear with me. But there should be a big belly laugh towards the end.

Today started like any other Monday, get up, started working, entering my time, got everything done and then headed out to my follow up appointment. This appointment was the follow up after the EMG, if you remember, that was the nerve test they did to see if I had carpel and/or cubital tunnel syndrome. I was hooked up to some stuff, they sent shocking signals to different parts of my arm, then the acupuncture needles, same test. The process was cool to watch and learn about, the feelings from the shocks, not so much!

Turns out, no carpel or cubital tunnel, wahoo! So, what’s next? Well, it turns out it’s something to do with my shoulders/neck, tension. Thorasic something? I’m so sorry, I’m having a moment, I left a voice mail to see if someone could tell me exactly what it is, I apologize.

The first available appointment with the original specialist, after the EMG on July 12th was today, July 29th., ok. Off I go, about 40/45 minutes in the car, get there, wait about 10 minutes to get into a room, then wait for about 25 minutes for them to get my records, what? I actually heard the nurse calling the other office, where I had the EMG performed, got transferred about 6 times, forget mispronouncing my last name, I’m used to that.

[As I was arriving to the doctor’s office, I got a call from the vet about my cat, Jymy, to see how he was feeling after his appointment last week. I said she was doing better, ha ha, yeah, happens all the time; I spelled her name that way for a reason]

So, after waiting about 25/30 minutes to see the doctor, he came in, this is the one I told you about before, didn’t have a lot of time, I’m sure he’s very good at what he does, just very busy. He spent approximately 6, maybe 10 minutes telling me he couldn’t do anything else for me, since it’s not carpel or cubital tunnel, it’s not his area of expertise, so he suggested I go back to the doctor I saw who did the EMG for further care…what?

So…I now get back into the car, get on the phone to call the other office for an appointment. After 10 minutes of “your call is important to us, please stay on the line” I was disconnected. I called back and finally spoke to someone almost 10 minutes later, I have my appointment for my shoulder issues a little over 2 weeks from now, it’s a good thing I’m not in debilitating pain! It was only 3:30 and there was traffic, it felt like I was back in Atlanta, but unlike Atlanta, eventually the traffic cleared and it was smooth sailing home.

Let’s sum up…40/45 minutes there, 35/40 minute wait, 10 minutes with the doctor and 45 minutes home, Nope, not a waste, right? Good thing I don’t go anywhere during the day, it wasn’t a total waste of gas, especially since I’ve lived here almost 2 months and only filled up the tank in my car twice, not too shabby.

I realized I was a little hungry, so I thought I’d grab a quick bite at Del Taco. When I got to the intercom to order, since I had never been there, I asked what the rice and beans were cooked in. [I learned a tough lesson a while ago, I need to ask, just because it’s not a meat product, what the food is cooked in, once I asked if the beans on the menu were truly vegetarian, yes. When I got them, I asked if they were cooked in a meat stock, they taste like beef. The response, yes, but they’re vegetarian, not served with anything, yes, but they are cooked IN beef stock! that’s not vegetarian!] and her response to my question “In a pot” WHAT? “REALLY???”

In a pot???

That should have gotten a good belly laugh. I was so done!

{July 26, 2013} More tomorrow

This doesn’t happen very often, but…I am too tired to write and I’m not sure what will end up in the posting if I continue.

I did do 4 miles today, ok, 3.98 and it felt great! For dinner, we had pasta; DCM had meatballs with his and I sautéed some spinach with butter and garlic, wow, it was awesome!

I’m off to dreamland and I will talk to you tomorrow!

{July 17, 2013} Grody!

If you get wigged out easily, please don’t continue, I’m kind of venting here.

So, this week I’ve had the “grodiest” experience at a Hilton property.

I checked into a Doubletree Hotel, everything started out fine, or s I thought. There was a hair on one of the towels in the bathroom, ick, but ok, it happens.

Yesterday when I got back to the room after work, there was GUM on the peephole on the door! There are kids all love the hotel, so I am sure it was one of them, I called down to the front desks and they sent someone to take care of it.

Listen, I’m not normally a squeamish person, but I’m at a hotel, a high dollar one at that and there is a certain level of expectation.

But wait, it gets better… I came back to the room tonight, pulled back the covers to get into bed and found a very very very long black hair (and a few smaller ones, definitely from the head) in the bed, for those f you who don’t know me, I have very short red hair. ICK!

I called down to the front desk to let them know what happened, they were very apologetic and wee going to send someone to clean it up, I told them they didn’t need to, I just wanted to let them know.

Bottom line, this was, well, ick! I know it’s not reflective of all hotels, let alone Hilton, I stay primarily in Hilton properties when I travel, and I know the level of quality I get, this was an isolated incident.

I just wanted to vent and say..ick, grody and ewe!

{July 13, 2013} Membership has its privileges

Today I was upgraded to first class and I loved it.

A few years ago, I was flying enough that I upgraded from just a skymiles passenger on Delta to Silver Medallion and not everyone was Silver, as it seems they are now and I was upgraded on almost every flight I took.

In three years, I think I flew coach about three times and I realized I went a fan! I didn’t want to sit in steerage! Ha ha . Well, when I lost my status a few years ago, I was back to steerage, sigh.

Since I’ve been Silver status again for a while, I am automatically added to the upgrade waiting list and today, when I was boarding, a new seat assignment popped up, 1A, wahoo!

So, there are a lot of advantages, one being more leg room, only two to a row and the customer service. I imagine when you’re paying those prices, you want a little extra. The flight attendants were very nice, and to be honest, I think these flight attendants were genuinely nice, they seemed that way when I get on the plane.

There is always a bottle of water waiting at your seat, along with a blanket and pillow. The flight attendants always ask if you want something else while you’re waiting to take off. Then when it’s time for food, for some reason, they were serving lunch on this flight.

There was a linen placemat (they called it a table cloth, since we had tables), then the food came it on a bamboo tray, real cutlery, wrapped in a cloth napkin, along with a salt and pepper shaker set. The food was very good, a Mediterranean salad with a side of grilled chicken, which I gave back, breadsticks and a giant oatmeal raisin cookie and if you wanted something else to drink, it came in a real glass.

There is something very nice about this level of service, it makes you want to fly and fly with them again. As we were landing, the flight attendant thanked each passenger individually for flying with them. This the of service is reminiscent of when people first started flying, they took pride in the way they looked for flying, you dressed, skirts for women, suits for men. There is something to be said for it, besides just nostalgic.

Not to worry dear friends, I promise not to get a big head about all this, it would be nice if it happens again or all the time, but if its only once in a while, it will be worth it, it feels good to be treated well, like you matter, but…

Why can’t this happen all the time? Why can’t we treat everyone like they’re someone all the time?

{July 12, 2013} I do not have carpel tunnel!

Today, I had my appointment for a nerve test on my left arm.

The nerve test was to see if I have carpel tunnel and if I need surgery. This was not my most fun experience, it wasn’t horrible, but it wasn’t something if volunteer for. Dr. R was very nice, he walked me through everything he was doing.

If you haven’t experienced this, they put sensors on your arm, then send some signals (wish i could remember exactly what they were called) to different parts of the arm to see what gets triggered. After the sensor and the shocks to different areas, then comes the acupuncture needles. The cool thing about the needles is that they are connected to a machine and the electromagnetic whatevers (I am so pathetic!) register sounds on the monitor, louder as I make different movements.

Half way through the first part, I don’t have carpel tunnel, great! Then after the second part, I don’t have cubital tunnel, great!

Wahoo…I don’t have carpel tunnel or cubital tunnel, awesome! So what do I have?

I have a pain in the neck! What? The problems are stemming from my neck and pectorals! Huh? He pressed down on my neck and pecs and said it was tight and when I talk to the referring physician, it would probably be helped with physical therapy. Wow.

So, no carpel or cubital, I have a pain in the neck, ha ha. (See, GES, it wasn’t actually you, so I guess I have to take back all those things I said about my baby sister!)

It still comes from being on the computer all day. I’m happy to hear that I don’t have carpel tunnel, therefore no surgery to correct that issue.

Hopefully the road to recovery is simple for my arm, because it hurts! And I am starting to get the same sensations in my right arm, uh oh.

{July 11, 2013} The pool was…open!

Yeah! The pool was open!

I decided it was time to get off my arse and get back to running/walking, so yesterday, I set the alarm for 6am, I walked the path across from the apartment, found out its half a mile to the end, so I did back and forth twice and did two miles. It felt good to get moving again.

The goal…two miles to start, add a third if I have time (in the morning), then start running it and be able to run the full three miles by December, I think that’s reasonable. There are a lot of walking paths around, but this is perfect for the start of my day, since I have to start work at 7am.

On my walk, I met Muskoka, a very cute six month old golden and her dad, John. I think I’ll be seeing them every morning, since they are in puppy training mode. I am meeting more and more dogs on my daily outings, it’s fun and then I get to meet a new neighbor, they’re usually attached.

Another reason I wanted to get up so early to work out, is so that I don’t feel as guilty when I go to the pool at 3:00 after work! Before when I didn’t go walking after work, I felt bad, not anymore! Yes I know I could go walking/running after work, but it’s a lot hotter at 3 than 6!

I did check after my walk and the chains were gone! The chemicals did their trick! I suited up, fit perfectly after fixing the straps, loaded the bag, applied sunscreen and off I went! There were two other people at the pool when I got there and two more showed up after. I ended up striking up a conversation with Holly and Christina, both very and live in the next building, we talked about Boulder, restaurants, shopping, skiing and college, yup, that about covered it! I made two friends!

So, the method to my madness paid off and I got to go to the pool and relax and enjoy myself, what could be better?

nice and

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