It is nice to see some new posters joining us!
Lynn, I’m glad you can get service on the chair and it is under warranty! You would not believe what I went through trying to get service for my mother’s chair when it broke (while she was in it, in reclined position!

) It took three months to get a service person out, after a LOT of searching the net, and phone calls, etc. I had to pay $150
first for the tech to even come out, paid online when I made the appt! I’d actually forgotten about it, it took so long, but when he showed up he had some part in his truck that would only fix the mechanical part, which was just the lift and recline feature. Fortunately my brother had diagnosed the electrical problem on the electrical panel, and a neighbor/friend who is an electrician was able to get the part for us and throw it in, so the vibration massage and heat and worked again. Thankfully it’s been fine since (and is DH’s main chair now). But I was surprised at how difficult it was to get a chair tech out today! (Sort of like trying to find a cobbler!) My elderly friend who I visit just bought herself a new chair (they are pricey!) and she’s unhappy with it, it’s too short and she is tall, so her legs are hanging off in an uncomfortable position. She had a previous one that was really nice, she should’ve just kept it. I hope you can get a fix or replacement for Mr L.
BTW, I love onions so I love the strong onion flavor of the dish! And I really love a good French Onion Soup! (My salt splurges.)
Taking a break for a few mins because DD is on her way home from a night shift and I’m going to make her a healthy breakfast of oatmeal and berries. (DS joined us, as well, which was nice! He worked a crazy second shift till late last night! Wound up making dropped eggs on toast because there wasn’t much oatmeal left - it took me longer to clean up the mess than it did to make it!

)
@footballmouse In our house we understand how taxing those overnights can be!

DS worked just one overnight last week and he was dragging for a couple of days; couldn’t sleep the next night and was up until 2am. DH just

when we’re all walking around the house chatting or making toast at 3am on our off days, he is a definite morning person.
Glad the fish seem to be ok,
@bobbiwoz! Would love to see some pics of your pond if you want to share! (I love pics!)
Had to go back with a notepad to write things I wanted to say. Hard to be away for days! Will try to be as brief as I can as I feel this is getting lengthy already!
Easyas

for difficult decisions. Never fun. I say you keep all the flip flops! I always lose mine somehow so keep a lot on hand.
Flyingdumbo, glad you got the nice tablecloth! I lIke it! I was talking to DH about the crossword puzzles and he seems to think that papers have the same crossword puzzles in different papers. We’ll have to make sure we send them on different days!
Snowysmom, it must be bittersweet looking at new places. I was going to add that a second bedroom might be handy not just for grandchildren, but for (perish the thought, i know, but leave it to me) if you need a caregiver to stay with you some day. We built our in-law apt when Mom was just 69. She lived with us for 25 years. It was only in the last year or so that the handicap features we’d put in came in very handy! (Like the wide shower with seat and hose, and one level living, etc.) I LOVE the I Got You Babe story!! (Will think of you and Chris next time I hear it!) Oh, and I love the idea of a flex room - that would be fine in place of a second BR! So many good furniture options today for rooms like that. (I think about these things, too, for retirement.) Sounds like you’ve made real progress cleaning out the house. That must be a relief.
PollyannaMom, Carol, bobbi, taz, love your pics! There can never be enough pictures! Love the hawk - but they scare me a little. Never felt that way till I got a small dog! Had to learn to be careful when he was out in the yard, which kind of freaked me out a bit. Now he’s too much of a load for a hawk to carry away, I think, lol, but I still keep an eye out! Hope your GS is better, Carol. Have you tried using a keyboard for your iPad? I always had one, and they work well. Logitech makes good ones if you do a search. I like the combination case and keypad.
dazed, thanks. I agree that having the right dog is so much better than living with a dog that isn’t a good fit. I think I’ve told the story of what our trainer used to say about a little old lady that used to drive into the class parking lot with a young border collie jumping all over her
while she was driving. He’d shake his head and say, “That’s not the right dog for her!”
Frog, I agree, some of the rescues can be difficult to deal with. I understand they are mostly volunteers so I fully appreciate the work they put in, But from this side, it can be hard.
Kirby, how awful about the situation with your DD. Keeping them in my prayers.
B&B, good luck with your househunting! Video made me laugh!

I agree the
loungefly bags are nice. I actually think they’re pretty good quality for the cost - something I think that has been lacking with a lot of Disney merchandise for a while.
Judique, I like what your friend had to say about pet nutrition. Will go back and quote it if I can. (When I try that these days it jumps around, so I can’t always do it.)
She reminded me that pet food is marketed to humans not to pets. So if the proper nutrition is there and the pet will eat it, your good to go.
I hope the situation with pet food availability improves. I think I mentioned Toto has been itchy since DH substituted a different food for him when they were out of his usual. What a pain! He never had that before.
Auntie, sorry about your family’s second pet loss. You’ve never a downer!
Taz, saved you for last! Thank you for sharing your trip with us! You did a nice job, felt like I was there! It sounds like you are very prepared for everything that comes your way, but with just yourself to help carry all that stuff, it became very difficult. We had to take Mom with us two years running (we went down for baseball which we weren’t going to miss) because she couldn’t stay alone anymore and someone else watching her turned out to be harder than just taking her ourselves. But boy, it was challenging! She had the wheelchair and walker (her own) and hats and sunglasses she didn’t want to wear, and bags she didn’t want to carry, and on and on. The picture of your DH reminded me of a couple of classic pictures we have of Mom from those trips. In one, DH is standing in front of Spaceship Earth with Mom and all this stuff hanging off the wheelchair - but, get this - he’s holding an umbrella over Mom’s head in the pouring rain!

We got her on a lot of rides but it wasn’t easy! Sometimes we had to lift her onto or into a boat or car (thinking of Pirates and Test Track) people’s mouths were agape watching us. Then one day she decided she didn’t want to go on another boat ride (in Mexico where the wheelchair rolls right on, which she didn’t understand), and she jammed her foot down to stop while DH was pushing the wheelchair and her leg bent pretty good. She yelled and then blamed DH for hurting her leg!! Mind you she was 92 and 93 on these trips! Back at the hotels DD and I were getting her in the tub and bathing her, doing her hair just the way she liked it, cooking her food she liked and making her coffee, like a freakin princess! Then she’d complain her hair didn’t look good in pictures or the food was just “so-so”. ! It was really unbelievable! I was completely exhausted by the time we got home!! On one of the trips we had the same flight as DS’s team, and the flight got delayed and didn’t take off till 2am! So we had Mom in the airport next to DS and his whole team, thankfully he was a good sport about it. But yikes, I can relate to how difficult it can be caring for someone disabled on a Disney trip. And it sounds like you didn’t have any help, either, right? Doing all that by yourself is tough. It sounds like you’ve had to sort of grieve the loss of the idea of future Disney trips with Jim (who is handsome, btw!). I hope you can find a way to enjoy trips in the future, whether you re-think the trips with him (more hands on deck, maybe?) or take some solo trips. As I said, that picture I could relate to. DD and I talk about patient care a lot, and as I tell her, if it’s hard on us caring for them, it’s hard on them being disabled, as well. Sure, they can be total pains at times, but it’s still got to be hard being the one who can’t do anything, where they know are inconveniencing others, even if we want to do it. But we are fortunate when we still have them with us and to still get to enjoy these moments together. For that, we can be grateful. Some of those moments, now that Mom’s gone, I can really appreciate, knowing she had some great vacations before she went downhill, especially since she hardly ever went on vacations - probably at least not in 20 years or so before that. I think I mentioned here before that Mom thought Small World was like “being in Heaven” since she loved dolls. I like thinking about that now.