What I like about this picture is the way it shows I’ve come a good long way, and still have some traveling time ahead of me. The years do start piling on with a certain heaviness after a while. Especially when the youngest of your children is 26, which isn’t a baby anymore by a long shot. I may have mentioned that my DD30 and her husband and little girl are flying out to visit my DS in Los Angeles - leaving this Friday, and will spend the school vacation out there. They’re all so excited, and I am - for them - as well. It’s awfully good to know that they are, and always will stay close to each other.

I’m feeling a little melancholy today for no discernable reason since it’s an unremarkable day, not unlike all the other days that came before, and probably not unlike many of the days that will come after.  Yesterday was our “pasta night”, and it lasted somewhat longer than might have been optimum, given that I had to get up to go to work this morning, but other than some yawning here in the privacy of my office, there are no really ill effects to speak of. Tomorrow the kids fly away, and I get to feed their two cats for the week, which I don’t mind a bit, of course, because when we go away, they feed ours for us. I’m still not sure what we’ll do later in the summer when we’re planning a trip together, but I’m sure we’ll figure something out. DH finished staining the two tower cabinet units on either side of the refrigerator yesterday to match the rest of the woodwork (they were unfinished) and they look sooooo gorgeous. He built a connecting shelf across the top of the refrigerator and stained that as well, and I put a whole bunch of random baskets up there and it really looks boffo, if I do say so. It’s a somewhat smaller refrigerator that we had in the old house, and we were considering whether or not to buy a new, larger one, but as it has turned out, this one fits our needs just fine and so we don’t have to bother with a new one. I was standing in the kitchen doorway when I got home from work yesteday just drooling over how good it all looks - very old and antique-y, but not of the shabby chic genre - more just old, well preserved and solidly-built stuff. But we’re coming to the end of the decorating needs - oh, I have plenty more ideas, don’t get me wrong - but our rooms are about as full as they can be without looking overstuffed or “too much of a good thing”. One must know when to put on the brakes, after all.

Ate well yesterday - this is beginning to feel more lifestyle-ish and less like a diet, the longer I do it. Counting calories, I mean. Now, I pretty much know the calorie content of most of the meals that I make, so I don’t have to add every single ingredient up anymore - I just know, based on how MUCH I’m eating, how many calories I’m getting. I’m staying right around 1400 a day, which isn’t the lowest I could go, but isn’t anywhere near the highest, either, considering some of the stuff I used to be cramming down my throat. One of the dead worst things about working here is the way people bring stuff and leave it in the employee lunch room for everybody to help themselves to. I have to say that unlike Lyn’s former company, mine doesn’t give a hoot about employee health and nutrition, and it shows, believe me. I think a good half of everyone who works here is overweight to some degree, and some are actually quite obese. It’s not unusual to find several different cakes, cookies, and other assorted sweet junque in the employee dining room, just sitting out there begging to be eaten. I have to confess to having indulged on occasion in the past, but always with an immediate reaction of disgust with myself for being so easily sucked in.

Now, I really am starting to PREFER good-for-you stuff as opposed to thinking that I *have* to eat like this just until I lose the weight I want to lose. That’s a little scary, eh? I’m beginning to feel a little too mature, you know?

ANYWAY, I still haven’t weighed myself, and don’t believe that I will just yet. Maybe next weekend, but definitely not this weekend. We have Monday off for Patriot’s Day. That may just be a local holiday - I’m not sure - but I’m very glad to have it, nonetheless. This place (my job) is starting to feel awfully tedious, which has a lot, I’m sure, to do with the fact that it’s in the sixties out there today - sunny, gorgeous blue sky, and what am I doing inside????? Earning some money, of course. SOMEBODY has to, after all. Ha Ha. Okay, just a little, teeny-tiny bit of grumbling at getting up for work every morning while DH gets up and stays home. Oh, poop. The truth of the matter is that I could just as easily take early retirement too, but don’t want to - I’m too greedy, I guess. I like watching my retirement fund build up. Hah! I’ll probably be one of those people who drops dead before they ever get a chance to sit back and enjoy it all, but I really and truly do think that I’d go mad around the house all day, and that’s the truth. And I’m not one to enjoy extended travel, either, so it’s not like we could just hit the road and travel around indefinitely, either.

Oh, I’m starting to even bore myself, so I guess I’ll go back to being bored writing stuff for work like they pay me for.

Take care, y’all,

Z