Good to hear from you Toddson! Stay well.

I work part tiem - DH works closer to 50 hours - but his travel is at 75% Now - so the house stuff is mine. If I worked full time the house would be better and worse. I'd make less mess, but there would be less time for cleaning big messes. and someweeks I have a clean house - others are disatorous. 2 Sundays ago I hurt my right hand, and could do nothing. It was much better yesterday - but I walked in to a kitchen with water everywhere last night. disaster on top of disaster. what I like to do is make a list - things that have to get done this week - and then the regular chores Even if I only get the have-tos done , I feel more in control.

resigning ourselves to a certain level of mess and chaos

This is required if you have kids. I worry about people with kids and neat houses. Somethin' ain't right.

Watching shows on the treadmill is the best way to justify tv time.

Off to see what is up with Toddson....

I note in passing that knitting is also a good way to justify TV time.

Now I'm contemplating the practicality of knitting while treadmilling and watching TV. Seems like it would be doable.

Yikes Toddson! Many wishes of quick and complete recovery being sent your way.

Much health-ma, Toddson. Hope you don't have to revise your day-to-day habits too much as a result.

I'm glad things weren't worse, Toddson. Much recovery~ma to you!

I am a very social person, but I like my alone time. It's why I often get a room by myself at the F2F. If I need to, I can escape to decompress when I am overwhelmed by the foamy. If/when I get married, the future Mr. Vortex will have to realize that there are certain times I need to be alone, and he will just have to deal. I had a conversation with a good friend about that yesterday, and I was like "oh, yeah, totally -- first fifteen minutes after you get home, maybe 1/2 an hour before bed" he said "why doesn't my wife get that?"

Had something confiscated at the airport recently? You can buy it back!

The Pennsylvania Department of General Services is auctioning off all the knives, lighters, knitting needles and Leatherman tools surrendered at a dozen airports, including Kennedy, LaGuardia and Newark Liberty.

The department began the program two years ago, reaching out to the airports and picking up the items. Switchblades, hockey sticks and pucks, a fishing trophy with a large hook, nunchucks, a sausage grinder and six-foot electric palm tree have all come into their possession.

"We have a number of wedding knives that honeymooners used on their wedding cake; some of the knives actually have the cake hardened on them. And we once got a container of about a dozen fuzzy handcuffs," he said.

Since new restrictions went into affect on airlines after 9/11, new businesses have sprouted up to accommodate people who accidently bring prohibited items to airport check points. Transportation Security Administration spokesperson Ann Davis said the T.S.A. doesn't keep track of how individual airports dispose of surrendered items, but Pennsylvania's operation is definitely a big one.

Alone time. live in a place that is about 400 sq ft. in a place that felt like middle of nowhere. Alone time is a head space place. Dh used to need silence to work. he was going to grad school - so when it was paper time - I stayed in the bedroom and read. - but yes I would get up and get a cup of tea. however if you hadn't said a word, I wouldn't have said a word and the 15 min we spent argueing wouldn't have happened. Alone time with an SO takes some working out, but you'd be amazed. DH is less interested in alone time, but we seemed to have found a fairly easy compromise. even before he traveled so much .