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Old 12-26-2011, 05:24 AM   #1  
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Default Maintainers Weekly Chat December 26 - January 1

So glad that the day of eating is over. I did OK on our big Christmas Eve dinner, then ate way too much at our festive Christmas day brunch. But feel like I'm capable of being sane again with the celebrations behind.

It's six days left to get centered before facing New Years Eve.
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Old 12-26-2011, 10:40 AM   #2  
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I made it through the Christmas eve celebration without too much food. I did not eat any sweets. I had salad (albeit with full fat dressing), one slice of ham, and small helpings of the potatoes and baked beans. My three healthier appetizers were a hit!

Christmas morning, I had prepared a French toast casserole, of which we ate half. There were six of us and it stated it served six. Perhaps if it were the only thing served. I also did plain scrambled eggs, hash browns, bacon and mimosas. We didn't have lunch. And we didn't snack much, either. Dinner was prime rib, potato cakes and green beans. My neighbor brought over a pie with candles for DS's birthday--they all came over singing just as we were carving the roast! We did eat the pie, but seriously, I had three bites and threw out the rest as it had no taste whatsoever.

Today, we're going to the Living Desert which is a kind of zoo/arboretum. We'll walk around there for a bit and then take the trailhead that starts inside and do a 6-mile hike around Mount Eisenhower. It's going to be a beautiful day like yesterday. It's starting out brisk but should get into the mid-70's by this afternoon. We just need to start out on our hike early enough that we can finish it before the zoo closes as they'll lock us in!
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Old 12-26-2011, 12:54 PM   #3  
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Yesterday was rough eating wise. I started feeling sick saturday afternoon-- I had my flu shot Friday and I've never had a reaction before but I felt terrible. We went to church in the afternoon and I didn't think I'd make it. So yesterday I was no help with cooking though dh and dd didn't want any help anyway. My downfall was the amazing cookies dd made for Santa. I skipped the pumpkin pie and had more cookies! That plus too much dinner and no exercise and my weight is way up. I'm hoping I feel well enough for some kind of exercise today.

I'm hoping Costco won't be crazy today???? Dh and younger dd have left for the mall already. Older dd hasn't emerged from her room yet but her cat has!! He is turning our house upside down! For six years our two cats have lived peacefully upstairs while our great Dane lives downstairs. Dewey arrived and he has both upstairs and downstairs privileges but he can't do the stairs himself so he is always supervised. Wilbur likes him and Charlotte tolerates him more or less. Dd's cat has been staying in her room but has been venturing out a bit in the evenings but going back to his room. Last night before bed, her cat, Toby, made it halfway up the stairs where my two cats were. They had a staring and hissing episode on the stairs. I woke up this morning to weird noises and found all three cats in my room! Charlotte was hissing and growling, while Toby and Wilbur just seemed curious. We eventually put Toby downstairs and tried to go back to sleep. Charlotte was so worked up she was hissing at everyone even Wilbur. It will be interesting to see what happens in the next three weeks while he is here!

I'm typing on my new iPad that I got yesterday!!! anyone else get anything fun??

Anyone with an iPad that can recommend some good apps? Perhaps recipes or healthy eating related? Or just fun?
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Old 12-26-2011, 02:02 PM   #4  
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I lost all control Christmas Eve at the sweets table at my cousin's and then again Christmas Day at home. I had wine yesterday too. I did not weigh myself this morning and will not do so until Wed.

I have two chocolate treats to eat between now and New Year's and that's it for extras. I also have a dinner and a brunch to attend. I am hoping to be at my red line on Jan 1 and will try to compensate with eating less during the day to make up for the extras.

The good news is that I haven't had any kind of pop or energy drink since Dec. 23rd. I am right OP with that. And I'm not increasing my tea consumption to compensate for the lost caffeine. No headache so far. I feel a bit "weird" but no real cravings for the diet soda.

We're almost at the "holiday finish line" everyone. We can do it!

Dagmar
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Old 12-27-2011, 01:23 PM   #5  
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And have I mentioned that the rotisserie turkey I bought from the portugese resto is the best turkey I have ever eaten? I usually can't gag down any turkey breast (like eating sawdust and glue combined) but this turkey's breast is moist and delicious, without any gravy (one of the few things I don't like to eat). I just had a turkey/light mayo/tomato on whole wheat sandwich and it was delicious.

On a bit of a sobering note DH and I ventured out yesterday to do some Boxing Day shopping. I bought towels (not on sale) and he tried for some clothes. I felt so sad for him. He's at the very limit of the size range in the department store and could hardly find anything to try on. I asked him his pants size to help locate some khakis and he glared at me. The shirt size I had more success with but again so little selection due to his weight/size.

We couldn't even find leather gloves to fit. When that happened he lost it and said we had to go home. I went willingly - hard to see him so humiliated.

He's started the new job and is finding it difficlut to dress for work. He's been slobbing around in jeans and sweats for close to 2 years now and suddenly the "grown up" clothes that everyone wears at the new workplace don't fit.

But he's still starting his diet on Jan 1 . I don't get that at all but I'm going along with it. I'm now preparing healthy meals and suggesting fruit for dessert. We will have bubbly on New year's Eve and some chocolate but that's it from me.

I'm off to see a matinee of Puss'N'Boots with Antonio Banderas. Popcorn yes, diet soda no. I wonder what else they have to offer in the way of bevvies - guess I'll find out when I get there.

Good day all!

Dagmar
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Old 12-27-2011, 01:57 PM   #6  
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Good morning good morning! or good afternoon I guess.

I made it through Christmas. I ate way too much sugar and junk food, and still have at least 15 pounds of candy plus some baked goods at my house. I recognize that I will eat more in the next two weeks, and am working now on keeping it in moderation and controlling it. Once it is gone it is gone.

We had a good Christmas - we got to keep DSS overnight on Christmas Day at the last minute, so that was nice. Cut down on the crazy stress somewhat. I still wasn't invited to the morning party at XW's, but DSS made my presence known. When mommy opened her present she asked him if he picked it out himself - he told her that I picked out the gloves (Agloves for use on iPhone, cool as heck, bought myself some) and that I took him shopping for the jewelry and that he and I picked out something pretty for her to wear that we thought she would like. LOL. She apparently took it in stride and gushed over the jewelry. I steered him away from the feathers and bright gaudy things he wanted to pick out and towards something silver and black that would fit her look better.

My mom got me a GoWearFit, so I've had that on since about 2:00 pm on Christmas Day. Man, I don't burn many calories during the work day.

Michele - I also got an iPad! DH got it for me. I've been playing with it the last few days. The new Livestrong Calorie Counter app is cool, still exploring the rest. Are you feeling better?

Dagmar - that had to have been tough for DH. I've had shopping trips like that, too. High five to you on your caffeine quest!

Bill - I'm hoping that NYE will be noneventful for us and not a holiday crazy.

Allison - the desert trip sounds fantastic!

Wish me luck this week - we've been with our current payroll company for 28 years and I'm switching us to someone new. The old company isn't current, has service and technology problems, and has caused a lot of work for me over the years. But we tend to be 'devil you know' people, so it has been hard to get people to buy in to the switch. If it goes badly it could set us back years in our willingness to look outside the comfort zone...
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Old 12-28-2011, 10:39 AM   #7  
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The upside of working entirely at home now, being reclusive at Christmas and blowing off the traditions of baking and decorating means I didn't go to anyone's house for any kind of festive gathering, no one sent over any cookie platters and I wasn't out in the mall walking past the Hickory Farms kiosk or the gourmet chocolate shops. So, no, I didn't eat anything that I ought not to.

I did partake of what I've heard Birchie call "high-quality protein": Roast lamb, standing rib roast, shrimp.

But no treats. Well, once or twice, a small handful of cocoa-dusted almonds.

Again, this isn't due to any superhuman restraint, but rather a byproduct of my mother's and my ambivalent attitude toward Christmas and its trappings, as we are still figuring out what our one-on-one holiday minus my father ought to be like.

I'm trying to count the small pleasures in life. This morning, it was my mother's cat grooming my hair at 4 AM. He settled down on my pillow, just when I ought to be getting up, and proceeded to roughly lick & smooth down my hair with his right paw repeatedly. A strange sensation, but I felt cared for. But pet him away after a time because I started worrying whether any remaining hair styling products of mine might make him ill. (So far this morning, he seems fine.)
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Old 12-28-2011, 11:11 AM   #8  
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I have been eating more than I should and exercising less. Nothing special related to the holidays besides more candy than usual, but lately "usual" has been "not great" so there we have it.

This year I only asked for one thing for my birthday and Christmas - a four-day pass to a metal music festival in Maryland in late spring. I got that, and a bunch of other nice things, including dish/silver/glassware for my new apartment whenever I can move out of my parents' house.

I have been stressing about work in the "I cannot live on this little money" sense, and have some applications and placement interviews in limbo. It will get better. It's just discouraging when you grew up thinking simply going to a good college would automatically equal a fulfilling job that pays well.
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Old 12-28-2011, 11:56 AM   #9  
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Hey guys, I'm back from LA. About five pounds came along for the ride. It's all good though, I am confident that I can get rid of them. I expect about 3lbs are water weight and will evaporate quickly and 2lbs are real fat that I will need to work on.

Vacation was good. As usual though, a week with my family begins by being relaxing but is stressful by the end. To be fair though we didn't have any major fights this time around which was nice. I'm worrying about my parents since I think that their driving is getting worse. My dad is in his late 60's and my mom turns 65 next year, so it's not like they're ancient, but they were never great drivers to begin with. On the way home from the airport our first night with my dad driving we had 4 close calls with other cars. Most of them were the other cars' faults, but still.

Leaving aside the negatives, here are the good things from my trip:
- seeing my elderly aunt who is still chugging along despite a laundry list of physical ailments for which the doctors have no cure or treatment (she looked better than I expected)
- an enjoyable conversation with my cousin and her husband
- my sister-in-law making for the first time her family's traditional oustakaka, which is a Swedish dessert that involves making your own cheese using raw milk and rennet -- it turned out great
- playing with my sister's two dogs, although one of them has a lot of anxiety. They are cute playing together. One dog has an extra toe!
- spending some quality time with two dear friends from college who I don't get to see nearly enough (that whole living in another state thing really gets in the way )
- not fighting with my parents

I am back at work today after getting home at 1:30am last night. Carter was super sleepy. I was worried at first he didn't seem too excited to see us, but then again when he is sleepy he doesn't get very worked up about anything. We'll see how he is when we get home from work today.

Unfortunately when opening our mail we got a letter from our homeowner's association saying that effective immediately they are instituting a new vegetable garden policy, which is restrictive enough as to basically outlaw the gardens and make us dig up our veggie patch which we have had for four years with no problem. The rules at first seem innocent: no more than 100 square feet, must be behind the back corners of the house, not visible from the street, no more than 36 inches tall, no fencing of any kind. And they must be approved in writing by the board.

Okay, but then think about this: there is no part of our backyard that is not visible from some point in the street due to the layout of our neighborhood. Our neighborhood is rife with bunnies who will devour anything that does not have fencing around it. Tomato plants, which are the most popular backyard vegetable, easily grow to be more than 36 inches tall. The board are a bunch of dictators (3 person board, last time someone left they appointed their buddy to the open space instead of having and election) who hate gardens and don't know anything about them. There was no referendum or vote or anything on these new rules.

In any case, it is too frustrating for me to want to bother fighting them. We tried before but there isn't much we can do. It's possible if we could get signatures on a petition of more than 50% of the homeowners we could change it, but that's a lot of work. So our options are: 1) move, 2) give up growing vegetables, 3) ignore them and wait and see if they complain, 4) attempt to grow vegetables within their rules, 5) just stick veggies in with all our other plants rather than having a veggie "patch", and grow all our tomatoes in pots. I guess we could plant flowers in our current veggie plot instead?
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Old 12-28-2011, 12:30 PM   #10  
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Jessica~I looked up a recipe for ostakaka as my Mom was Swedish and I'd never heard of this dish. Her tradition was for julekaka or Yule Cake which is more like bread and quite similar to German Stollen which is much easier to find in stores. Basically it's a sweet bread with a smattering of candied fruits and raisins, but not nearly the amount as you'd see in a fruit cake. Anyway, I did find the traditional recipe for ostakaka and it sounds interesting (more current recipes used cottage cheese rather than trying to find raw milk and make your own). And that's really sad about your garden. Seems to me that HOA's shouldn't be able to dictate on stuff in your back yard whereas I can understand them not wanting a vegetable garden in the front yard. The point being that the HOA wants to keep the neighborhood looking nice but what goes on in the back yard really isn't their jurisdiction. Do they have rules against hot tubs or pools or swing sets or trampolines in back yards?
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Old 12-28-2011, 01:26 PM   #11  
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Allison, hot tubs, pools, and swing sets are allowed if you get them approved first. You also have to get approved fences and decks and any "structures" you build. Trampolines are supposed to be only allowed for day-use (you are supposed to bring them in at night and not leave them there all the time) but while they send out reminders I don't think they really enforce it. The subdivision is new enough and the trees are young enough that you can see everyone's backyard, which I guess is why they want to regulate it. If we had put in a fence you couldn't see through and put a veggie patch inside our fence, they wouldn't ever know we had it and therefore wouldn't be able to enforce the rule.

More what annoys me is knowing that there are enough people in my neighborhood who care about crap like this to make a stink about it.
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Old 12-28-2011, 03:07 PM   #12  
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Quote:
Originally Posted by paperclippy View Post
The board are a bunch of dictators (3 person board, last time someone left they appointed their buddy to the open space instead of having and election) who hate gardens and don't know anything about them. There was no referendum or vote or anything on these new rules.
Do you have a copy of the HOA's rules and policies? Of course any HOA wrote their own rules, but this sounds like a totally illegit way to appoint board members that no sensible person would approve of. My theatre group is a non-profit "LLC", and our rules state that the board must be elected at a membership meeting annually. There are also provisions that a quorum must be present to conduct business (so two people can't have a secret "board meeting" and vote on a bunch of things the other 9 board members aren't part of). And we all get along - we just made sure that everyone is involved in the decision making process in case of future discord. You might not want to get that involved... but I would be really mad if someone told me I had to get rid of my garden! Maybe you could get existing veggies gardens grandfathered in?

My BIL does have an elliptical machine in the den where I'm sleeping. 4 out of 5 days I've started my day with a cup of coffee and an hour on the elliptical, some ab & BW exercises. It's been nice having it right here! My food has been ok, a little too much in quantity but nothing over the top. I've made some better choices and am trying to eat as many fruits & veggies as are available. I've had some dessert and turned some down. I'll be stopping by the "good" grocery store when I fly home, so I've checked what's on sale, made a list, and will stock up healthy foods when I get home. "New Years diet" is so cliche but I need one! I've been a good maintainer, but I need to be a better dieter right now.

My visit with my family is sort of mixed. Like Jessica said, it's nice and relaxing to see my family at first but then as the time goes on we start bickering. My parents have once again told me how I should go to grad school, and subtly critiqued my relationship w BF. Even though these interactions took all of 5 minutes out of 5 days, they put me on edge. It's also really hard for me to say that though I love my niece, I'm not a kid person. I feel really guilty that I'm not and like it makes me a bad person, and of course here I am in my sis's house with her 16 month old, what do I expect. She's a great mom whose kid is the most important thing to her, as it should be, but I end up feeling out of place when the other 4 adults are all totally focused on the baby. So there it is... FWIW. I was hoping we could get out and see some sights but we haven't done that.

I will try to be on my best behavior, not start arguments, not criticize anyone for the next two days (bc my Mom told me I'm being critical). I need to learn my lines for this play I'm in and have been using this "free" time to do so. I'm going to take a cue from Jessica and try to and focus on the positives of this visit.

See, while I type this my DS calls and asks if I want to go shoe shopping tonight. Now I feel like an even worse person. Happy thoughts, happy thoughts.
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Old 12-28-2011, 03:23 PM   #13  
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Jessica, if the HOA doesn't enforce trampolines, maybe they won't enforce the garden thing and you can just leave yours where it is. I mean, really? Where are you going to store a trampoline? Some a rather small, but some yard trampolines are huge! They sound a tad unreasonable.

Krampus, I think the bad economy is really discouraging for many job seekers right now. Hang in there! It sounds like Santa was very nice to you this year.

Saef, animals are funny. I doubt the cat got too much of your hair product. My dog really likes to lick lotion off me. I try to discourage her bc I'm worried it will be bad for her, and I was hoping of course that it would stay on my skin for moisturizing purposes. Your high quality protein sounds delicious!

Shannon, GL w your new payroll company. It was very nice of you to help DSS pick out his mom's gift. Ooh, have fun with your new ipad!

Dagmar, great job staying away from the soda. You can do it!

Michele, are you feeling any better? Have fun with the new ipad! Great gift!

Allison, have a fun hike. It sounds like a neat place!

Bill, I'm so glad the holiday season is almost behind us. As you say time to get "sane" again, on many levels.
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Old 12-28-2011, 05:02 PM   #14  
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Megan, they need a quorum to have an election, and they planned to do it at the last meeting but not enough people showed up. So for some reason rather than having a mail-in ballot election this meant they got to appoint the third person? I don't get it. I consulted a friend who is a real estate lawyer and sent her our HOA contract and she said basically all HOAs design them so that they can do whatever the heck they want and you can't do anything about it. I can tell you though if we ever move, we will move somewhere with no association!

And I hope things will cool off with your family! Funny how we always manage to annoy our families, no matter what. At least on my trip I didn't get any more requests to move back to LA from my dad. Probably because I had a big fight with him about it last time he came to visit me. Anyway if your fam doesn't want to go sightseeing, you should totally go yourself.

Last edited by paperclippy; 12-28-2011 at 05:03 PM.
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Old 12-28-2011, 09:11 PM   #15  
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Yes, I'm feeling mostly better-- thanks for asking. Not perfect, but better. My computer went to the apple store for a couple days so I didn't check in. I guess I could have on my ipad, but I didn't. So much stress with dd..... stressing dh and I out totally. I didn't sleep more than an hour total last night, so I'm very grumpy today.

We asked in-laws for a couch (or loveseat) for Christmas. I gave them other options but that is what we really need. We were going to replace our used, falling apart one when Dewey was housetrained, but we've had no money for it. They sent cash so tomorrow we're going to go look hopefully. I'm not sure what material to look for that will be doggy friendly. We have a leather sofa and chair that have held up well..... anyone have experience with Ashley Furniture? I've never been but we're going to try there.

My dearest friend sent us gift certificates for a spa so we are getting massages Friday afternoon. I can't wait!!!
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