A very small pinhole, and that’s the truth. I, too, stepped onto that dastardly scale several days ago, and was not a happy camper. In fact, the term “happy” is so far from what I felt that on a scale of one to ten with one being as unhappy as they can possibly imagine being and ten being as totally ecstatic as one can possibly imagine being, I’ll rate myself as a minus-five. Oh, such gnashing of teeth and feelings of impotence and powerlessness! Oh, such an UNFAIR condition to be in after years and years of battling with the scale, trying to eat properly, and ending up, every time, weighing more than I want to be weighing! I have managed to gain back 12 pounds over the course of this freaking, stinking, no-good rotten winter! No WONDER I didn’t want to weigh myself, eh? So what now? Well. Let’s see. What are my options? Give it all up as a bad job, eat all the crap I want, give up on the exercising, crawl into that great big chair in my living room, put my feet up on the ottoman, wrap my great bulk in a comfy blankie and let the world go by while I nibble on chocolates and read trashy novels all day long? Hmmm. Sounds good - for awhile, anyway. But when I finally crawled out of my cocoon, I’d be a lot worse off than I am now, right? (Right). Okay, so spring is actually on it’s way, DH & I will be able to get out and do some hiking again together, and in the meantime, if I want to look forward to that, I guess I’d better keep on walking with that loud-mouthed Leslie Sansone every morning even though the next time she says “We’ll just walk - and talk - YOU know <giggle here> I want to throw something at the screen. And I’d better keep on making healthy meals and just eat a little less of them - oh, and I guess I’d better throw away those chocolate-covered macadamia nuts that I have in my glove compartment to nibble on when stuck in traffic, doncha know? Oh, I’ve developed some TERRIBLE habits over the course of this winter! And BESIDES, I have some rather nice summer clothes that I’m wanting to wear - some that I’ve never even worn at all - and they are NOT in elephantine sizes!!!! So, it’s back to behaving better for the umpteen thousandth time….(damnit!)

On a more pleasant note, some of you know that my middle daughter is the executive director of the American Heart Association here in central Massachusetts - oh, and her territory includes southern Connecticut, as well. Bottom line, they had their big black-tie fundraising gala and auction last weekend, and she had asked DH to donate one of his paintings for the auction, which he did do. Turns out some bigwig from New York bought the painting for a huge amount of money, and has invited DH, my daughter and I to attend a cocktail party at his apartment overlooking Central Park in New York City at which time he plans to “unveil” the painting to his many friends and business associates. He asked DH for a brochure or something displaying some of his other work, and plans to give them out to the attendees. We’ve already gotten several calls from folks he’s talked to asking if DH does commission work because they “need something with green (or red, or blue, or whatever) in it for this spot in their house….  (YES, DH does commission work, and if he didn’t, he’d better start, right?) so this could get rather interesting to say the least. HOWEVER, since painting doesn’t require him to leave the house, this does NOT get him off the hook for keeping the house clean. He can either do it himself, or if he sells a painting or two from time to time, he can HIRE somebody to do it. That’s my decision, and I’m sticking to it!!!!! And that’s also the pinprick of light at the end of MY tunnel that I referred to above

Tomorrow - President’s day here in Massachusetts - (I don’t know if it’s the same everywhere?) I’m having all of my local kids and their kids (or at least the available grandkids) over for brunch. A very healthy brunch - Fiber One brand pancakes with fresh blueberries, turkey sausage, bacon (oh, you have to give this bunch bacon, but I won’t eat any); eggbeater omelets with FF cheese, onions and peppers, whole wheat bagels and cream cheese, banana nut muffins made with Fiber One muffin mix (I LOVE the Fiber One products!!!) and fresh fruit, juice and coffee of course. I will have my regular Sunday breakfast of two Fiber One blueberry pancakes, sugar-free maple syrup and two turkey sausage links. (Back to my oatmeal on Tuesday). It’ll be fun to have the kiddos all together - we usually only are ALL together on holidays, a few summer cook-outs, and of course dinners and such together whenever my son is home visiting from sunny L.A. He won’t be here for this brunch, but we’ll do another one (breakfast is his favorite meal) when he’s home at the beginning of May. He’s coming May 1st for TWO reasons - the twins will be here by then (my daughter is scheduled to be induced if they haven’t been born by April 19, which is, coincidentally, MY birthday!) and he is to be Godfather to them, and My Heart-daughter’s spring Heart Walk is on May 2nd, and her brother ALWAYS comes for her Heart Walks, helps with the heavy lifting, which there’s a LOT of behind the scenes - and then emcees the whole thing. He has a real fan base among the walkers, and I think some of them just come and do the walk so they can see - and get a hug at the finish line - from him. (He’s a rather charismatic chap, and not too shabby in the looks department, either…oh, that’s my boy!!! LOL!!!)

Well, time to do a stem-to-stern cleaning of the abode - have to banish every last cat hair from the premises so that nobody, God forbid, should find one in their banana nut muffin tomorrow.

Work again on Tuesday. Ugh. How many days before I can retire, anyway?

Hugs,

Z