November 17

Happy Birthday Alec!!

What a weekend. Seems like it's always packed with activities and always flies right by.

Our exercise room is all put back together again and looks awesome! The floors look fabulous, if I do say so myself. No more aching body parts for me and I rode the spin bike for 30 miles this a.m!

Friday night was game night. We had three other couples over, so it was a full-house, full of fun. I made my chicken in phyllo dough, which always seems to be a big hit, along with my turtle brownies. Yum. We played a new game called "Fact or Crap." For me it was "guess if this is true or not." It was fun, but we went back to playing Catch Phrase, which everyone always seems to love.

I'm almost done with Berserk. It's nothing to write home about. Next I'll be starting a book that a friend recommended, we'll see.

Time to make some beads.... have a nice week!

November 11

Somebody please just kill me now and put me out of my misery. We started the process of staining the concrete in the exercise room downstairs on Sunday. Good grief. First of all the exercise machines were a pain and a half to move out of there. Carpet came out next. Next my friend Kelly came over with a saw and a sander. he removed the tacks and boards left from the carpet and then he sanded the entire floor until it was smooth. Next he and my DH acid washed the floor twice. It had to be rinsed with water and shop-vacuumed up each time. (Thanks for your hard work Kelly!) I then washed the floor on my hands and knees twice. Before staining the concrete had to pass the "white glove" test. Yesterday morning I started the staining process. Four layers of stain with drying time in-between and I was finally done. Then came the fun part of dusting every single item in the entire house b/c it all had a thick white dust on it from the sanding. Even the stuff we covered with plastic and taped had dust. Ugh.

It's been a long two days and there's not a bone in my body that doesn't ache. I now know the reason that it's so expensive to have someone else stain the floors. We saved a ton of money, but ooh, I'm dyyyyyin'. I say if you can afford to pay someone else, do it!

I've got one coat of top coat down and I'm waiting for it to dry. I think I'll have six top coats down by the time I'm done. Fun, fun, fun! It does look nice though.

Wah, wah, wah. Enough of my complaining. Still reading Berserk and its good so far. As much as I love to read I was cursing every book on my shelves as I dusted them yesterday!

I'm going to be happy to watch someone else do the work when we can finally get the wood floors put into the rest of the basement!

November 6

November already? Time keeps on slipping, slipping, slipping. Before we know it it will be Christmas again. Better get those beads ordered to get you gifts made in time!! Hint, hint... :)

We're having to deal with a problem in our basement. Apparently when carpet is installed in a basement the cement should be sealed first. Well ours wasn't and water has been seeping into the carpet. Not tons, just enough to make it smell a bit mildewy. A friend of ours is going to help me figure out how to stain the concrete in one of the rooms. Can't wait, but it sounds like it's going to be a big ol' pain in the you know what. Next we'll be doing the reading area and the TV room, but we've decided on a wood floor in there, so that should be a whole lot easier than the stain.

I started reading a book called Beserk by an English writer. It's a horror story. Haven't gotten into it very far yet, but it's interesting.

October 28

Happy Birthday Gumby Man!

Happy Halloween!

All is well here in beautiful TN. We discovered a new bike trail on Saturday and rode 33 miles.

Getting ready to get on the Bay again, watch for me!

I finally put out a single Halloween decoration today. It's the life-size mad dog that I got over the summer. Too cool. I can't believe how late I am this year. Usually I put out as much gore as possible by the first of the month. That trip we took just threw everything out-of-whack.

Sounds like our dear little Lucy and Ethel are in good hands. I got a call from the new owner saying that everything is A-okay. Apparently they were a little distraught for a few days, but now there are as happy as can be. Yea!

I got the nicest compliment today! I went out to get the mail and one of my neighbors asked what I did to stay so thin!!!!!! I've been killing myself over some blasted weight gain over the past few weeks. Previously I was working out two hours per day to keep the tonnage down and had slacked off to sometimes 1/2 hour as of late. For me that's Trouble (with a capital T). I few days ago I kicked it in gear and I'm back up to 1 1/4 hours, soon to increase back up to 2, so this compliment came none too soon for me!! Just goes to show you that it's all relative, what I see in the mirror vs. what the rest of the world sees. And I pray they are opposites!!!!

Friday night was dinner at Swank's downtown with a couple of friends. I had a huge steak and enjoyed every bit of it! Of course the scale hasn't budged in a few days so I'm paying the price.

Still reading You on a Diet and enjoying it so much.

My DH just finished taping the music portion of a video that he and some other guys are doing for work. It's a spoof on the Police's Don't Stand So Close to me. It's for radiation safety. My DH plays two guitar parts in it and background vocals. Since I was around for the taping I got to get in on the action with some background vocals. If you want to listen: http://s109096171.onlinehome.us/radpolice/. You'll hear my melodious tones on the last chorus. I'll post a link for the actual video when that gets completed.

October 23

Happy Birthday Chris, Jackie, Tom, Gumby and Will!

I finally bought the Halloween candy today. Every year I try to wait later and later so that I don't have that temptation hanging around. This week was insane. I had orders up the wazoo (trust me, that smarts,) and I spent every minute torching away.

I finished reading Koontz's Frankenstein. I had started it before we went to Spain. It was good, but like I said before...tons of characters to keep up with. It also ended in the middle of the story. What's up with that? (The author tricking you into buying the sequel is what's up with that.) I already have the second book, but I might wait a few months to read it b/c the third book of the series doesn't come out until next year. I don't want to be left hanging a second time. Not to mention that I'm worried that I'll forget all the goings-on with the characters. Still reading the China Study and trying to get through that Continuing Ed that's connected with it. I need to move it to my nightstand so I can get with it. Right now I think I do about two questions per week and I'm always forgetting that it's there waiting to be completed and turned in. Another book I picked up the other day is You, on a Diet by Dr. Oz. It's fantastic! I've had a few people tell me that it's good, but I didn't really think I'd like it. Sounds vain, but there never seems to be much more for this Dietitian to learn from another diet book. Even if I wasn't a Dietitian I think I would say that, (wow, that was vain,) but this one is different! I'd recommend it to patients if I was still working in a hospital setting. Go get it!

October 13

Spain was AMAZING! We had such a good time. And I've never walked so much in my entire life. I came home to find that I had lost two pounds without even trying. No wonder the people in Europe can eat like they do and still stay skinny, they walk it all off! We mainly stayed in Barcelona, but we traveled to other small cities by taking the subway, train and yes, walking!

This weekend was our big Smoky Mountain Wheelmen Century bike ride. My DH did 100 miles and I did 100 km (which is 62 miles). I ended up riding 65 miles and felt like a train had run me over by the time I was done. The hills on the ride were excruciatingly steep and my legs were rubber by the end. Now I can say, been there, done that, ain't ever gonna be stupid enough to do it again! :D

I read Good in Bed by Jennifer Weiner while I was traveling. It was good, but a little to realistic for me. A lot like her last book In Her Shoes. I started reading Black Cross by Greg Isles and it's so hard to put down, a real page-turner.

Thanks for being patient in my absence. I have all the bead orders lined up in order and I'm ready to start on them today. Have a great week! PS: today is Columbus Day, no mail today.

September 26

FYI - I WILL BE AWAY FROM THE TORCH 9/29-10/9!! I will not be able to process website orders or answer questions until the 29th. Thanks!

Check out October's Freebie, they're pretty cool! I had to do September's drawing a bit early b/c I'll be away. Any votes I get from today until the 30th will be put into the pile for October's Freebie.

Don't forget that my Autumn Sale is still on until tonight at midnight. Any ready-made beads and jewelry on my site is 10% off.

The next few days are jammed with activity for me and somewhere in-between all of that activity I have to pack. I'm lucky enough to have a good friend (former bead student) who will be staying over to take care of Zoey for us.

We'll, sadly, have no piggies to care for. I found out a few weeks ago that I'm allergic to little Lucy and Ethel. I had no problems with them when they were babies. I have always had bad allergies and a touch of asthma so I was careful to screen the pigs before I brought them home. I even visited them twice and spent at least an hour with them on each visit before I adopted them from their owner. I’m allergic to cats and rabbits so I wanted to be sure before I took them in. Now I get a rash whenever I pick them up and even sometimes when I just get near them I get hives. We have tried bathing them, changing bedding type and switched from Timothy hay to compressed hay chunks to see if it is the hay that I’m allergic to, but no luck. I still seem to have problems with them. I’m at the point where I can’t pick them up (and I want to!!) and I rarely pet them. It’s hard on me and I know it’s not the best situation for them.