I'm with DW visiting her elderly mother and other relatives. All meals are extended affairs with multi-generations. And many, many dishes including pastas and carbs of all flavors. I'm trying to make sane choices within the chaos - with partial success.
But there was joy in the heart when the three year old adopted me to read me a series of 'her' books. I was the only adult around who hadn't heard the books read a dozen times or more. Kids are good at finding new humans to serve their needs. I got to watch kids stop eating when they didn't want any more - trying to remember if I ever stopped eating when food was still visible, LOL.
Last edited by BillBlueEyes; 10-09-2012 at 06:34 AM.
Reason: Typo
I'm with DW visiting her elderly mother and other relatives. All meals are extended affairs with multi-generations. And many, many dishes including pastas and carbs of all flavors. I'm trying to make sane choices within the chaos - with partial success.
But there was joy in the heart when the three year old adopted me to read me a series of 'her' books. I was the only adult around who hadn't heard the books read a dozen times or more. Kids are good at finding new humans to serve their needs. I got to watch kids stop eating when they didn't want any more - trying to remember is I ever stopped eating when food was still visible, LOL.
It sounds like a very lovely family time Bill. I find I don't have difficulty walking away from the table when I am full if I take care to put small portions on my plate initially.
We are having our first "winter eating" holiday today - Thanksgiving. DH and I are going kayaking this morning. I'm squeezing in a cat sit around noon. Dinner will be quite simple - the turkey is already made (I buy amazing rotisserie ones from a portugese place), I'm steaming green beans with dill (leftover go in my lunch tomorrow), and the lower cal version of scalloped potatoes I do will be prepped in about an hour and then popped into the oven at the appropriate time.
I am going to relax and catch up on some reading in the afternoon. I gave Lucy (the dogsit dog) my all for 10 day and need to recharge. It was fun though - loud, exhilarating, exhausting fun.
The best moment of the sit was yesterday afternoon. Lucy and I went for a walk along a very underused portion of the beach (due to a long treacherous scramble down a steep rocky hillside covered in fallen trees to get to it). I wish I had taken a camera along (pic = 1000 words) but I don't know if it would have come back in one piece.
The hillside that runs parallel to the beach is very steep and covered in brush and trees, some of which are turning with their fall colours. There are a series of man made lagoons with outcrops of big boulders piled quite far out into the lake. On our way back from our 2 hour hike Lucy had calmed down considerably. I just let her run all over the place and swim and sniff and just be a dog. This relaxed her enough that when I climbed out to the end of one of the boulder outcrops she came with me (nimbly jumping from rock to rock like some strange spindly legged goat) and sat down on my shoes. The lake was mirror smooth and there was a lone canoeist way out on it. The sky was amazing - huge with all sorts of different clouds and many shades of blues and grays. The lake's colour mirrored the sky. Lucy leaned contentedly against my legs as I surveyed this beautiful serene setting. AAAHHH - breathing room. Hard to believe there was a city of 3 million people minutes away from us.
I will recreate this feeling in my mind time and time again the next few months. I hope to "borrow" Lucy some weekend and do this walk again. It makes her calm down like nothing else can. I would like to share that feeling with her again.
Dagmar, that sounds like a moment that will stay & stay. When people say jokingly, "Go to your Happy Place," you'll know exactly where that is.
My mother will be leaving today, which always leaves me with mixed emotions: Relief, but also, after a little while, a kind of emptiness. I need to remember the mantra that food won't fix that.
My apartment finally coalesced this weekend, as we hung curtains, a mirror & brackets and a big architectural pediment, and we finally unrolled my living room carpet. We're still not done, with three other major things to hang, but these may require the intervention of a carpenter to ensure they stay on the wall, as one is a repurposed fireplace mantel, which I am turning into a shelf, one is a hanging corner cabinet and the other is a bed crown, from which curtains are going to festoon around the head of a bed. So the place remains a work in progress, but I'm much further along than I was at this time last week.
I'm working today, despite Columbus Day. Really working. I need to finish up a PowerPoint presentation draft ("preso," in work lingo), listen to a recorded session in preparation for writing a report on it and meet with an analyst about a writing project we'll start later in the week. Already I am missing the weekend.
Good morning all and Happy Thanksgiving to our Canadian friends, including Dagmar! I live in NY, 30 minutes south of Canada, so we have had a ton of Canadians shopping in our area this weekend!
On the agenda today, DH and I are taking his 94 year old father out to lunch and then are going to pick apples. It's pretty chilly but beautifully sunny, so I hope it will be a great day!
I am holding steady at 117 pounds and am very happy about it. I am going to Ponderosa for lunch (yikes!) but since I ran 12 miles yesterday, I can afford a little over indulgence, I think. I'll start with a big salad to help fill me up some.
I have the meeting the MD scheduled with the nutritionist this week. I am anxious to see what she has to say about my weight and eating habits. I'm pretty confident and not sure that I need this appointment, but since insurance pays completely for it, why not go for it?
Once again I'm not quite sure where my weekend went. I did some fun things, but as I'm sure you've figured out I'm one of those people who needs to get some things done around the house to feel productive and this morning I'm left tired and feeling behind for the week already. Surely one of these days I'll pull myself together. Sushi night with the girls Friday was delicious and I got to see several friends I haven't seen in months. Yesterday I went to see "Crimes of the Heart" in the city with friends. It was a good play and very well performed. Of course it seems that the trip takes the whole day. I tried to stop by my friend's small town local grocery store on my way home since I was right there, rather than travel out of the way to my small town grocery store, and the produce section alone made me so annoyed and sad I just left. Instead I went home and ate too much pasta. I still need to go to the grocery store and didn't get enough exercise, nor did the dog. I caved and just dropped her off at daycare this AM, accepting I will take her twice this week. Poor thing shouldn't suffer bc I can't get myself together. I made no headway on gathering props for my play, set design, let alone tidying my house, and slept poorly once again last night, which is probably the biggest determinant in my current mood. Sigh.
Dagmar, Happy Thanksgiving! Your walk with Lucy sounds so nice. And hey, you got her to calm down and rest her head on you? Sounds great for this very active dog you've described to us.
Jen, I vaguely remember eating at a Ponderosa once during my childhood in PA. Do they have a big buffet? Have fun apple picking! I am curious what the nutritionist will tell you.
Bill, sounds like a really nice visit w your DW's family. Nice to be "adopted" by this girl. Spending time w the kids or the pets is always a good distraction for me as well, when I'm at loose ends and want to get away from the food.
Saef, glad to hear your apartment is coming together.
Good morning! Happy Thanksgiving to all you, Dagmar, and any other Canadians out there.
I made a wonderful pasta sauce yesterday and served it over ravioli. I bought a different brand of ravioli and they were much better than the old brand. Who knew the store brand would be better than the national brand I used to buy. It also claimed fewer calories.?
DH and I spent over 3 hours Saturday cleaning our back patios, furniture and grill. It's the one thing we do that make it feel like fall. Since everything was so clean, we ate al fresco both weekend nights. It is so nice to have that huge chore done (and even better that we can sit out there and not wonder what kind of muck we might be sitting on as everything is clean!).
My in-laws are scheduled to arrive back here on Tuesday for the season. It's been a long summer without them.
Happy Thanksgiving Dagmar! Sounds like you have a great plan for the day.
Megan-- my dogs could use some doggy day care too. They need more walks from me.
Hi to everyone else. I'm late getting started at work due to having to clean up a mess right before I left home-- my cat decided to projectile vomit from on top of a bathroom counter-- quite a mess to clean up!
Bill, agree that we can learn some good things about watching kids eat. When mine's done, no force on earth can get him to eat one more bite - he has actually left half a slice of pizza on his plate - "I'll finish it later". Weird ...
Dagmar, Happy Thanksgiving! It's good to know you have a happy place. Sounds like Lucy has one too! Did you get through Saturday all right?
saef, I'm glad your nest is coming back together. It will be a beautiful home again!
cherrypie, I think I can count multiple decades since I've been in a Ponderosa! Enjoy the splurge - if it makes FIL's day, that's worth a lot.
megan, it sounds like you need a weekend to recover from your weekend! Hope you can get to bed early tonight and have a "do-over" Monday tomorrow.
allison, congrats on knocking off the big fall job - it feels so good to check a major task like that off, doesn't it? How do you know it's fall if it's still in the 90's? Michigan has lots of clues - the trees are almost at peak color, and my patio is about two inches deep in leaves already. And we saw our first hard freeze last night.
All the priming is complete, and I think the ceiling may only have needed one coat. Hopefully I'll get home in time to see it in the daylight. I might throw the last pint of paint up there anyway - better on the ceiling than in the trash, I think. I'm taking tomorrow off to do the walls. The paint color is "River Mud" - doesn't that sound lovely? I don't know quite how to describe it; it's in the yellow color family but way off into the taupey/gray/brown. I'm not a big fan of yellowish anything, but that's what it took to meet my requirements of playing nice tonally with a red oak door and trim, a cherry-finished vanity, and very earthy shower curtain. And if I hate it, well, it's just paint, and I still have another weekend I can burn if I have to pick something else.
Becky~the telltale sign that it is finally fall in the desert: out of state license plates.
Oh! I went out back this morning at the office and the little feral kitty let me pet him! He actually ran up to me as I brought his food out and kept getting in my way to the point where I was afraid I'd step on him. Then I put the food down and he just let me pet him and pet him! He's so soft. Next we'll need to trap him to get him neutered. I don't know how he'd react if we tried to pick him up at this point.
Oh! I went out back this morning at the office and the little feral kitty let me pet him! He actually ran up to me as I brought his food out and kept getting in my way to the point where I was afraid I'd step on him. Then I put the food down and he just let me pet him and pet him! He's so soft. Next we'll need to trap him to get him neutered. I don't know how he'd react if we tried to pick him up at this point.
Slower is better with ferals. Although this little guy doesn't sound so feral any more. It would be best to feed him in his transport crate, without shutting him in of course, a few times and then take him to the vet. This way he associates the crate with a good thing and doesn't get scared of people picking him up - good for future adopters.
Michele~he's a ticked gray tabby. His face looks like a regular tabby, but his body is more ticked rather than striped. He has a black line along his spine and the rest is ticked. He had a sibling that looked a lot like him, but the sibling has been missing for a few months, so I'm pretty sure he or she died. He's about 6 months old now, so still a kitten,
Good idea on the crate feeding. Thanks, Dagmar. Right now his "house" is the little trailer we have for hauling the golf cart around. He eats and sleeps under it and sometimes hangs out in the corner where we have some skylights stored. We're going to have to use the golf cart trailer tomorrow, so maybe I should get a carrier and put it out there today.
DH is going to take a video today of me feeding and petting him--I'll post a YouTube link to it later.
Good idea on the crate feeding. Thanks, Dagmar. Right now his "house" is the little trailer we have for hauling the golf cart around. He eats and sleeps under it and sometimes hangs out in the corner where we have some skylights stored. We're going to have to use the golf cart trailer tomorrow, so maybe I should get a carrier and put it out there today.
DH is going to take a video today of me feeding and petting him--I'll post a YouTube link to it later.
Watching the video I can see he's very comfortable with you Allison. a lot of cats don't like to be touched while eating. His tail shows that he's a bit nervous but just a bit. I would definitely get the carrier there ASAP as moving the trailer will probably cause him a great deal of stress. Most ferals do not like being exposed and you are taking his "hideout" away.
If there is something else that's quite large that you can put the carrier under all the better.
Dagmar - Your rotisserie turkey sounds yummy; I'll have to search to see if that's available around here.
We returned home with a couple of silver serving spoons. I just tried to polish them. What a pain! Anyone have tips on how to polish silverware without going bonkers?
Maintainers Weekly Chat October 8 - October 14
from the table when I am full if I take care to put small portions 
on my plate initially.
rotisserie ones from a portugese place), I'm steaming green beans with dill (leftover go in my lunch tomorrow), and the lower cal version of scalloped potatoes I do will be prepped in about an hour and then popped into the oven at the appropriate time.
and catch up on some reading in the afternoon. I gave Lucy (the dogsit dog) my all for 10 day and need to recharge. It was fun though - loud, exhilarating, exhausting fun. 
Sounds like Lucy has one too! Did you get through Saturday all right?
I don't know quite how to describe it; it's in the yellow color family but way off into the taupey/gray/brown. I'm not a big fan of yellowish anything, but that's what it took to meet my requirements of playing nice tonally with a red oak door and trim, a cherry-finished vanity, and very earthy shower curtain. And if I hate it, well, it's just paint, and I still have another weekend I can burn if I have to pick something else.
