Britesea - Living the good life in rural Oregon

Awesome! Ten K is 10K and will definitely ease any monetary pressure! So happy for you.

Sounds like you had a good Tday!

My vote - Turkey Noodle ... no...Turkey Barley... no... They both sound good!

No shopping here either.

I try to avoid shopping on Black Friday if at all possible.

Those pies sound good. That's the one thing I don't have and I'm too beat to make one.

Phew! It has been a busy time for you as well!! Glad to hear things went well and kudos on the extra!! D

Hmm, it may be too late to vote but I choose turkey noodle! (Simply cause I've never had turkey barley!) And pies sound divine!

Hope you are the beneficiary of those surprise funds! Enjoy. Brings that retirement day closer.

We had steaks for t-day. No desert. Geeeesh...how non traditional can I get? Was nice, no fuss.

Black Friday shopping? When feed store & Lowe's are your main shopping locations, what's to worry? LOL I didn't even start my truck on Friday -- just the tractor.

Relaxing a little between batches of dishes and laundry...
DS and I have been working on getting his disability income and such in order. He is now paying us some rent which is income that is very welcome. We are working on finding a dentist that will accept his insurance, and we need to get an eye doctor as well. That's not usually covered, but since he has no lens in his eye due to a childhood accident we are hoping that they will allow either a contact lens or surgical implant of a new lens. Glasses don't work.
He is so excited to have some income of his own! He took his friend out to lunch today to celebrate. Said friend is also ASD, and in the process of getting his disability income as well so DS has been able to let him know what to expect.
We found out why the initial award was lower than expected: it's because he lives with us at home, and no one mentioned that he would be paying us rent- so they reduced the standard amount by 30%. Now that we have clarified that, he should get a correction to his award.
I was a bit surprised to discover that most parents in this position don't report the income they are getting from the rent they receive from their child. I had assumed that since it is income, you are supposed to report it as such. According to my tax person I'm correct, but most people don't report it because the risk of getting caught is low. Well, my luck has never been the best, so I'll be reporting it.

DH's work has been something of a roller coaster lately. The maintenance group at work is exactly 4 mechanics; 3 mechanics and a lead. Back in October one of the mechanics apparently had a couple of seizures at work when no one else was around- when his wife found out, she insisted that he go to the hospital. While he was there, he had a grand mal seizure. So now, his Commercial Driver License has been revoked, which means he can't work there.
He gave a verbal indication that he was going to retire, since he's been eligible to retire for several years and it will be something like 5 years before he can try to get his CDL again.

In the meantime, J, who used to work there when DH first started there, has come back saying he'd like to work there again. So when this happened, he was contacted and said to come in and they would get the paperwork started. As a result, he gave 2 week notice to the place he was currently working.

Along comes L (the guy that had the seizure) saying that he isn't going to retire yet. He wants to collect all his sick pay first. When you retire here, you only get 50% of your accrued sick pay cashed out. He has something like 6 month's worth, so it's a significant chunk of money. I can understand why he doesn't want to lose it. BUT... while he's on sick leave, no one else is allowed to take time off because they don't have enough people to cover the shifts. AND... this screws J, because he won't have a job in 2 weeks since he had been told he had a job here.

Well, it appears that the boss was afraid he would have a full-blown mutiny in the maintenance department if he allowed this situation to continue. He can't do anything about L taking his 6 months of sick leave, but he was able to come up with enough money in the budget to hire J on a part-time basis until L leaves for good. So everyone is happy- the guys can start taking vacations again, J won't be left high-and-dry, and L gets all his money. Only one NOT happy is the boss since he is spending more money on the department than he wanted.

By the way, DH has 267 days until he can retire!

This morning, I made apple fritters using some of my dehydrated apples and sourdough batter. YUM!
I'm cooking another turkey today- the guys allowed as it had been enough time since they last had some that they wouldn't complain. I also have a pumpkin that I baked whole, waiting for me to puree and freeze. I think I'll make another pumpkin pie for tonight as well. I have one more pumpkin to process, but that will have to wait until tomorrow.

Well, time to go do some more dishes.

My hubby keeps saying he's going to retire. I keep asking myself, what am I going to do if he does?

You know what they say: Twice as much husband, half as much pay

So true!

I've started printing out the recipes that I have on the computer so that I won't lose them all if my computer dies the True Death. Once they're printed, I'm putting them in a 3 ring binder with page protectors. Hopefully this will make it easier for me to use the recipes too-- I won't have to trot back and forth between the kitchen and the living room to check whether it was 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg or 1/8 teaspoon and so forth. I figure I can print out a few pages each day without too much trouble.

I also got caught up on the kitchen (yay!) and made a good dent in the laundry as well. It's a little harder because it's been raining this week so the only place I can dry my clothes is the laundry room. Most of the clothes I have no problem with that, although it gets old having to duck damp clothes to get things out of the refrigerator (no room in the kitchen for it, so it sits in the laundry room). Sheets are the hardest because they are so large, so I washed them and will take them to my girlfriend's house tomorrow to dry them in her dryer (she's nice that way!)

Ive been having trouble doing much more than dishes and laundry, because my SAD has kicked in. It gets dark by 4:30 now, and I've been feeling sort of restless and unfocused, and I'm eating too much. I know it will only be a little while and the days will start getting longer again, but right now I just want to tuck up with my seed catalogs and dream the days away.

I've often wondered if I have SAD. I have so much trouble getting motivated to get stuff done, but normally once I get moving, I'm OK.