Per the recommendation of the DB of Silverbirch, I ordered Carl Hiaasen's Chomp from the library. It's for ages 10 and up, in which I fit. I'm ready for a good read about Florida.

Not only did our heat spell break, I actually woke up to go find a blanket this week. The cool weather makes walking such a pleasure. I'm harvesting cukes in quantity from our community garden and the tomatoes are just starting to ripen. It's bounty time.

Another advantage of cooler weather is that ice cream is easier to avoid, LOL.

I'm just back from vacation, and in that rebellious place where my former routine looks onerous to me, and I'm open to changing up my life. In my experience, this lasts about three more hours, and then I find out all the things that I missed at work and start to regret having been absent, and feel penalized for being out of the loop.

I also desperately need a trip to the grocery store, since my fridge is empty, which leads to irregular snacking rather than solid, well-planned meals.

Good morning! I'm still kinda MIA - 3 houses on the go for the rest of this week - and then I'm back to a computer on which I can see the stuff on the screen.

I am not stepping on the scale at my cousin's or here. Too much going on to worry about my weight right now.

Good week all!

Dagmar but

Good morning all. I'm in week five of my exercise and diet push and I feel better. We made it through a DSS weekend without giving in to eating the crap that he eats and ate real food, so that feels good.

Busy week coming up, I think.

Hi maintainers, think I am going to "leave early sick" and work on moving stuff this afternoon. I am in fact sick but apartment isn't going to clean and move itself.

Bill- I find that young adult and juvenile novels tend to have the most interesting plots! Enjoy!

Shannon... I'm so glad you're seeing some results. I need to get moving so I can see some too.

Dh came back from China and said he may need to drop out of the Tough Mudder we are signed up for. His knee is wrecked and getting worse. If he drops out I probably will too. But I can't use that as an excuse not to exercise.

I have a pretty quiet week planned. Thursday is our 26th anniversary and we are going out to a decadent dinner so I'm going to work hard until then!

Shannon, I'm so glad to hear about your good results.

I'm thinking of Bargoo this morning, as I didn't see any posts from her during my sporadic check-ins while I was vacationing. I hope she's resting up and receiving good care.

I've been thinking about Bargoo all weekend, too. Hope to hear something soon.

Krampus - I hate having to actually work when I'm sick. True though that things don't clean on their own. I was out sick last Monday and wound up cleaning all day. Would have gotten more rest at work.

Michele - why not stay in the Tough Mudder even if DH drops? Do you have other friends in it? I remember you enjoyed it last year.

My tomatoes have cutworms - any of the gardeners around have any suggestions?

Shannon - I have never dealt with cutworms (knock on wood), but my mother had them a couple years ago. I read that by wrapping aluminum foil around the base of the plant (pushing it down below the soil line) works. It worked perfect for her!

I also have read that spreading diatomaceous earth around the plants works. If you've never heard of the stuff, read up on it. It's pretty fascinating and useful stuff. We use it in the chicken coop!

Also, I know I started a separate thread for my one year maintenance-avversary because I assume most people here that are not yet in maintenance don't read our chat thread and I want to give hope to those who might read a lone thread.

But I want to sincerely thank every single one of you here for your support, love, TOUGH-love, and counsel over the past year. I've only been with your guys a year, but I feel like I know you all so well and I love you all. I truly am not sure that I could have done this without your support!! Sp big to you guys.

Jen

Ah right Jen, I used the foil trick on my parsley last year when it got caterpilllars. That will keep them from moving to other plants. Now I just have to figure out how to get rid of the ones already there. I just read something about steeping a solution of marigold and garlic. That should smell lovely. LOL

And congrats on your maintenance anniversary! Big high five, girl! Woo!

Ducking in to say hi. I think the last time I posted was about a month ago. Whoops. Highlights: work is still really busy, blah blah blah. My sea turtles have laid a record # of nests this year and I've been involved in several long training classes for grad students. I have felt that a few months of summer field work has really gotten me into better shape. I'm definitely stronger and feel leaner. I haven't bothered with the scale, but my pants fit. My sister came to visit for a long weekend with her two daughters, ages 3 and 10 months, and her husband. The girls loved the beach and the playground. It was perfect timing because I haven't seen them since Christmas, and was just thinking I can't wait until the holidays to see them again. My dog also got the award for the "most mature 3-year-old" in the room. She was so good and patient with the shrieking and teasing from my 3-yr-old niece in particular. I celebrated my birthday with friends and my boyfriend, and BF and I also celebrated our 8 year anniversary last week. Getting ready for a weekend in Mobile with my book club immediately followed by a week away for work. And all this running around has caught up with me. I finally took a sick day today after learning on Friday that trying to be tough and do field work in the heat with a bad cold is a BAD idea.

Whew. I feel like I've been busier in life, but have found more acceptance about this maintenance place I'm inhabiting. Yes my secret hope would be to be about 15 lbs thinner, but this place feels healthy without all the mental stress about it. I'm ok here.

I've been lurking occasionally, though, and am thinking of you bargoo! I'm sending you lots of good : and s.

And I can't believe that Jessica's girls are 3 months old already! I'm so glad they're growing and doing well.

Congrats on your anniversary, Jen!

Saef, I'm glad you enjoyed your vacation and got to do some relaxing. Your massage sounds heavenly.

Krampus, good luck moving and cleaning. It's never fun but hopefully you will end up in a better space when it's all over. Plus, moving totally counts as your workout!

Shannon, glad you got DSS to eat some real food. And high five for working out!

Dagmar, congrats on finally getting keys!

Silver, I love that you and DS are doing a butterfly survey. Are you reporting your results to anyone? Take any good pictures?

Bill, I haven't read Chomp but have enjoyed a few of Hiasson's other books. They are fun, light reads. And I think I find them even more amusing because there definitely are these types of wacky characters actually living in FL. They are always entertaining.

Hi to everyone else!

A dusting of any powder containing Bt will help with a lot of types of caterpillars. The trick is figuring out what type you have. I have used Bt on my tomatoes for several years running for outbreaks of army hornworms. Dipel dust is one of the name brands, but Bt is the active ingredient. The nice thing is that this is an organically accepted solution that just targets particular caterpillars, and won't harm other bugs, pets, or you!

Krampus... I must have missed your impending move? Moving locally?

Also thinking of and praying for Bargoo.

Shannon.... I'm not sure. I'll have to decide if/when the time comes.

Checking back in to say hi and catch up. Not a whole lot to report except that I went to Denver for 3 days with DS#2 to celebrate the Bar Mitzvah of a longtime friend's son. It was lovely to see her and spend time with her family. They always make me feel so welcome, even when they're as clearly busy as they were this weekend with all of the out-of-town guests and last-minute arrangements. And yes, I massively overate delicious Russian food on Saturday evening, but I will simply defer getting on the scale until Wednesday of this week to avoid seeing the carb-and-salt bump up, and hopefully will not have any real poundage to account for from just one meal.

Had to google "cutworm" since I'm totally not a gardener. Icky. I'll stick to buying my tomatoes from the local farmer's market, thank you.

Saef, I too was thinking about Bargoo this week. The nurse I work with has rectal cancer and is currently undergoing both chemo and radiation treatment. She is horribly miserably sick right now and hasn't been at work for 2 weeks. I'm optimistic that Bargoo isn't feeling as bad as my nurse, but I can see first hand that cancer treatment is never pretty. Bargoo- if you're reading, hope you feel better soon!

Hello all, this is my first chat post. I've been in maintenance for just over a week now