Maintainers Weekly Chat April 9 - April 15
 

Yesterday I saw one of the worlds great tomboys scooting about in an Easter egg hunt - in a dress wearing a bonnet, no less. I salute all mothers who daily face the opposing forces within their growing daughters.

I didn't buy any Easter candy and would have avoided it except that I helped with an Easter egg hunt where loose candy was loaded into plastic eggs. Some leaked my way - Ouch. Fortunately, there's none at my house.

Good morning!
 

I avoided all Easter candy this weekend - not even one little egg! Despite that I am now up to a whopping 139.8 lbs. When I saw the number on the scale this morning :yikes: I felt like I'd been slapped in the face. I was OP 2 days out of 3 on the weekend. :tantrum:

I'm going to spare everyone the whining and get right down to dieting again. I got my food log out (last recorded entry was last September) and am weighing, measuring, logging, etc. as of this morning.

I will probably mostly lurk here :o and post in the "slim for summer" thread until I get this under control. :D

It is indeed a "battle of the bulge" :drill: until I get down to 132-135 range again.

BRING IT ON! :cb:

Dagmar :dizzy:

Good Monday Morning!

Easter was beautiful here. We played a round of golf in the morning and watched Bubba win the Masters in the afternoon. It was really sad seeing Phil take a 6 on a par three, but that's about how my entire game was yesterday! I did manage two pars, but one should have been a birdie. I missed a 2 foot putt.

Weight is the normal blip up for the weekend. Must get that under control by Tuesday! We leave Thursday for a weekend in Phoenix--golf and a housewarming party in store for us there.

No Easter candy here, but I did make a really good cake. There are just three servings left, enough for DS, DH and I to have for dessert tonight. I did buy Reese's eggs for DS, but he still hasn't seen them! LOL

No Easter Candy for me, did have some cookies for coffee break and ice cream at lunch, scale was still kind to me this morning, hope it doesn't remeber the cookies and ice cream and record them tomorrow.

I overate all weekend, but I also spent a lot of time outside being active and didn't totally overdo it. As a result my scale says I'm only up 1 pound since Friday morning. I do fear the "remember and record tomorrow" like bargoo mentioned.

There was no Easter candy, but there was a lot of birthday cake - my boyfriend's sister's birthday was yesterday and his mom made an incredible chocolate cake soaked in real Chambord.

Looks like a lot of sweets came everyone's way!

My dd complained that she didn't get an easter basket (she is Jewish, though my dh is Catholic). So I bought her 4 reese's bunnies-- I figure I won't be tempted if there are just 4 (small) of them.

We went to church and then had a lovely Easter Brunch. Ate too much, but went to Bikram Yoga afterwards and had a very light dinner. Scale was up slightly this morning.

It is my Spring Break so I'm going to try to get a lot accomplished, get plenty of exercise in, etc. Saturday night is our fundraising event for dd. She will be coming into town Thursday night. I've got tons to do-- shopping, planning, etc. I think it will be fun but there's a ton to do! I have to meet someone at the temple today (where we are having the event) to find out what they have in their kitchen, etc.

Hi folks! No Easter candy -- yet -- but I have a Cadbury egg in my closet awaiting the end of Passover. I always allow myself 1-2 Cadbury eggs every year.

Weather here has been beautiful though! I slacked yesterday and didn't do the bike ride I'd planned but we got out with Carter for a nice long walk. (Carter then spent the rest of the day fast asleep. :lol: )

I spent like half the day yesterday struggling to come up with a week's worth of Passover-safe recipes. That just goes to show how I could never handle a low-carb diet -- I eat tons of grains and beans all the time. I actually made matzo granola yesterday so I'd have a breakfast alternative to matzo brie.

In pet sitter news, we are still working on finding a new one. The first people I contacted have been extremely slow to respond which is enough for me to not want to hire them. Their hours were really great (they would be with Carter 6pm-7am) but if they can't respond to emails and phone calls within 24 hours it is just not going to work out. I contacted a second person who has been extremely responsive so we are thinking about hiring her. She suggested that since Carter isn't crated he might do okay with three daily visits rather than overnight, or a mixture of overnights and daily visits. At first it sounded like a good idea, but then I realized that three visits alone means he'd be on his own for 22 1/2 hours of the day. Only an hour and a half of human interaction seems really small -- he'd get more than that if he went to the dog hotel. I'm also considering trying to do some kind of hybrid of overnights and visits with my MIL. DH's aunt also gave me the name of another person she uses who is not a full-time sitter, just does it on the side, but is way cheaper and spends more time with the dog. What to do, what to do. I need to get this sorted out NOW so I can buy plane tickets.

Jessica Early on in my petsitting job I did the 3 visits per day at the request of a new client. The dog went crazy after the first night alone. he chewed through the couch in the room where he was left and his mouth was all bloody when i came to feed him the next morning. I didn't know the people well but I decided to stay in their house the other 2 nights and not charge them for it.

I think your best option at this point is the hotel. Carter will be in the same place with the same caregivers for the whole time you are away and he will have lots of company. These peole are pros. Most dogs are pretty stressed when their humans are away so consistency and routine is the best thing for them. As long as the people at the hotel are firm and fair I think you'll be pleasantly surprised at how well Carter behaves when in the new situation.

Dagmar

No Easter candy here. After dining on prime rib, cauliflower, plain sweet potato and steamed asparagus, I had a sugarfree Jell-o pudding which I'd stuck in the freezer the day before. (Tastes like a fudgesicle.)

I was in low spirits this weekend and after my gym sessions, lounged on the sofa watching TV of the time. I felt not very energetic. I've had several busy weekends in a row. I'm in a bit of a funk, and as I write this, I hear my mother speaking with the mechanic about my car. I need a new alternator and they're speaking of other problems. The car is 11 years old but I'd hoped not to buy a new car while my apartment is still being renovated.

I've forgotten to inform you all. DD has decided to graduate and move to Austin, TX for grad school. She got yet another rejection today and isn't hopeful on the other two or three. Even better--she has three friends lined up to move her out of her Fullerton apartment AND help her move her stuff to Austin and move her in! My worries are (somewhat) abated.

I woke up this morning with a stiff neck and nothing I did helped. It got stiffer and stiffer as the day wore on. Once home, I found my old "massage mouse" and attached it and am getting electrical stimulated "massage" to the stiff neck. A few hours of this and I hope I'm better for tomorrow. I can't turn right or look up and right at all.

Congratulations to your DD Allison. Austin is supposed to be a great place for younger people - so I've read - and I'm sure she'll enjoy her time there. And having her friends help with the move is great, although a bit bittersweet for you. She is pulling away a bit more from you to create her own life. Although it's hard to let your kids go you can step back a bit and enjoy watching her become her fully adult self.

Dagmar :D

Morning all,

Today is my BF's birthday. Yesterday I was feeling very frustrated and sad for him bc no one in his family could be bothered to answer the phone when he called Sunday to wish him a happy Easter, yet yesterday they could text him to ask for money (that I'm hoping will be used for what they said it was for... but I doubt it). And he sent it. Because he's a good person. I'm really hoping at least one of them calls him to wish him a happy birthday.

Allison, congrats for your DD! This will be an exciting new chapter for her in her life.

Michele, good luck planning. Hope you find time to relax a bit on your spring break, too.

Dagmar, you can do it! :carrot:

Hi everyone. Back later. Gotta run to work now. :)

Allison, congrats to your DD!

Megan, sorry your BF's family is like that. :hug:

Dagmar, after your post I was all set to try Carter out at the hotel overnight . . . but this morning I looked online and found a couple negative reviews of the owner's previous business (another dog hotel in another part of the city). Now I'm afraid to trust Carter to them! There are no bad reviews of the new hotel yet, but it's only been open a few months and there are no good reviews yet either. Meanwhile the sitter we were looking at has only positive reviews, and a lot of them. But for an overnight + afternoon dinner break it's going to cost us $78/night, which is $13/night more than our old sitter. I'm talking to her about possibly having her just do the overnight part ($60, 9pm-6:30am) and having my MIL feed Carter his dinner, but there are insurance implications to that.

Meanwhile meanwhile, I finally got an email from the other sitter we had been trying to get in touch with, apologizing for the delay. She said she'd be happy to meet us and Carter any time after this week, because her daughter is about to have a baby pretty much any minute this week. Now #1, I'm upset it took so long to send me an email about this (why couldn't she just email me immediately and say she was busy this week?), #2 I figure with a new grandchild she may not really be able to devote that much attention to Carter. OTOH, her overnight is $65 for 6pm-7am which is very appealing.

GAH, what to do, what to do.

Okay, after calling up the hotel and talking to them I feel better. They said that the issues with the old business is why the owner left that business, and that they run things a lot differently at this place. I signed Carter up to stay over there Thursday night and try a 1/2 day of daycare. We are going to be in town so I told them if there are any problems with him after we drop him off Thursday morning to call and we will just come and pick him up.

Megan,
Happy birthday to bf. I hope his family calls, but at least you will give him a special day.

Allison,
Congrats to dd! I think she'll love Austin.

Off to bikram yoga for the third day in a row. Very rainy day here. Dd and I will get pedicures this afternoon, and I work Weight Watchers this evening.