We're expecting rain in the wee hours and cooler weather tomorrow. That should be heading to you all in the east, soon. I'll have one more day of indoor exercise, today, and hope for a walk tomorrow.
BillBlueEyes: We took some genealogy classes at the library. One of the first things we were taught was to tolerate ambiguity. I sensed some underlying frustration from a man who had entirely too many conversations with people who weren't willing to grant that John and Johann might be the same person. Yep. It was a sad day when I learned the name of my first ancestor who enslaved people.
Monday - Constantine I is proclaimed Roman Emperor by his troops (306 CE)
Diet Coaches/Buddies - Excitement was a visit from the (2 yo) DFGD, DS, and DIL - despite the heat. We stayed inside where it was cool enough to watch the wee bit run in circles around the rooms of our first floor. Her sentences are becoming longer. She had done well on a three day vacation to the Berkshires - a favorite haunt of DS and DIL. They had a suite so she could be put to bed in the single bedroom and they had a place to sit up and enjoy their evening. They had chosen to eat all their dinners as take-out or delivery; just didn't feel like inflicting the DFGD or a restaurant on each other, LOL. When it was time for them to leave our house, DIL started singing, "Clean up, clean up, everybody does clean up." The DFGD joined the song and them made some contribution to picking up pieces of building blocks distributed everywhere. She is actually quite useful when I pointed to a piece far under the kitchen table that I wasn't that excited about crawling under to retrieve. No problem for her; she barely had to duck.
Eating was on plan with only the daytime snack of eating blueberries with the DFGD when they visited. Dinner was Impossible Burgers that had been in the freezer that had thawed. On Brioche buns with a homegrown Beefsteak tomato sliced over it - our first large tomato for the season. Grilled sweet onion atop that. Felt like a summer BBQ thing even if it were held in our kitchen with a fan blowing.
Joy (gardenerjoy) - Thanks for the link to your review of Neil deGrasse Tyson's book. I can't stop laughing at the memes resented by Dr. Rebecca Smethurst. Her British accent gives it an extra touch of credibility. Maybe I need to take a genealogy course just to get better at reading the works of others. I do worry about the slippery slope; folks can get deeply immersed.
maryann - Thanks for the reminder that diamonds have a very interesting history - especially their pricing. I got reminded how far from understanding pricing some folks are when I encountered a question on a science site where someone had just learned that there's a planet where it's raining diamonds. "Can't we go harvest them and then we'd all be rich?" they'd asked. Someone had to be told that ten tons of diamond appearing tomorrow wouldn't make us all rich. Kudos for using your wisdom to withstand a can't-let-it-go person trying to relive the trip to Canada. I find it hard when faced with someone who just won't let a subject drop.
Karen (karenrn) - It's great to not even feel like going off plan. Fun to realize that it was hotter here than there yesterday.
curlyjax - Kudos for choosing blueberries over ice cream. Good to remember that the blueberry season is limited - gotta eat them while they're here.
MommaMeli - Thinking of you and your family and sending supportive thoughts your way.
Readers -
Quote:
Chapter 6Stage 3 - The Challenging Situations Plan
challenging situation skills
At the Event
9. Use Resistance Techniques. At the event, if you are tempted by unplanned food, do the following: . . .
Distract yourself. Get involved in a conversation or activity.
Judith S. Beck, Ph.D., The Complete Beck Diet for Life (Green book), Pg 136.
Credit for going to yoga yesterday, although the yoga teacher never turned up. A staff member finally came and led us in some stretches. I was glad to be out of the house anyhow. I got groceries on the way home, forgot some essential items and hit another grocery store and treated myself to an iced coffee drink from starbucks since it was hot. Had too much sugar in it but boy was it good. I also did weights at home and did some hacking of tree branches that have been driving me crazy. Food ended up being different as DS was out for dinner and I saw no point in cooking for myself only. Ugh, big storms coming today including the possibility of a tornado. I would much rather deal with snow than damaging winds, so scary and destructive. Joy-interesting idea about tolerating ambiguity in genealogy. Hoping that cooler air arrives soon. Maryann- I’m so sorry you’re dealing with things from that “friend”. It sounds like she has decided to blame you for whatever is going on in her mind. Good for you using your forgiveness work, I love that idea. It’s definitely a challenge to deal with food choices all the time.
Bill-your visit with the family sounds so fun. Yay for getting started on getting the kiddies cleaning up early.
Food on plan and weight back to where it was. I was expecting rain overnight and this morning and figured I couldn't hike, but there was no rain and still is no rain. It was low 80's with humidity in the 60's which still felt a lot better than low to mid 90's and I did the hike I've been doing. My pulled hamstring (?) is still acting up and I'm not sure the PT exercises I'm doing are helping it or maybe hurting it. I have PT in a couple of hours. Of course I'm still hiking too, so maybe I should take a little time off of that.
Our friend who was widowed a few years ago is coming up from Tucson with her new partner and we are meeting them for dinner. Dh is not looking forward to it at all. I'm not sure if it's cause she kind of drives him crazy or because her former spouse was his friend and he just doesn't want to meet the new guy. Whatever it is we'll do it and then it will be over. Doesn't mean we need to socialize them and they live in Tucson so that wouldn't happen often anyway. I'm just glad for her that she has found a new companion.
GardenerJoy I'm glad someone is getting some rain. Thank you for your book review. I have listened to most of the book and need to finish in the next day or two.
Curlyjax Sounds like you had an active and productive day yesterday. I'd have to say I'm not sure I would do a whole lot of cooking for myself either, although my batch cooking of things and throw it all together works pretty well.
Bill That's great that dil has the little one helping with the clean up. I know we always had to clean up before Daddy came home from work everyday. It was just an expectation. Clean up, faces washed and Mom put on her lipstick before Daddy got home.
Maryann That has got to be a painful situation with your former best friend. I know we have all had relationships that changed or ended over time for one reason or another, but it is not easy even if it is the right thing to do. This seems to be a particularly tough time.
Waving to Penny and Nationalparker and keeping MommaMeli and family in my thoughts.
Back from Tahoe and lookin forward to puttering around the house today. I have about 25 hours of coursework study on my diamond class before Friday Morning when I head out. Should be doable. To-dos include shopping for just enough food to last until I leave in four days, mailing a pair of shoes I sold on Poshmark. They were a frugal fail. I lost about $60 on them. Decided to cut my losses. I also am bringing the pants I bought from Amazon to hem at a tailor. They sent a "tall instead of a regular. I was going to return but in deference to the environment, I decided against it. Amazon's free returns takes a tremendous toll on the environment and precious resources so I am sucking it up and paying more to fix what was not m error. Credit the Galapagos for my new commitment to reuse, recycle, use it up or do without.
Weight is nearly at ticker. i am going to take today to try to go to bed a little hungry.
Curleyjax: credit the yoga class that wasn't really yoga.
BBE: Love the stories of a group of adults focusing on the lil's. That is really all children need to thrive.
Karen: Nice of you to welcome the new companion. Also nice of DH to go along with it.
Tuesday - Dutch painter Rembrandt van Rijn declares he is insolvent (1656)
Diet Coaches/Buddies - The predicted heat arrived and sat upon us the whole day. It was at least 99F but several thermometers read higher. DW dismissed the predictions of massive thunderstorms and hail to break the heat. Just didn't believe. She walked to the community garden after dinner - walked with no hat, umbrella or outer shirt even. The "massive thunderstorm" arrived suddenly at 7pm catching her full force while harvesting cherry tomatoes. Unfortunately for our plants, it lasted for a mere minute and moved along. The gauge on our roof recorded 0.07 inches - not enough to make the gardener happy. She merely dried her hair and continued through the evening.
Eating was on plan with no daytime snacks, CREDIT moi. Dinner was three cold salads and a cold slice of spiral ham that we have to eat now since it was part of the food that became un-frozen. So good - especially slathered with too much coarse mustard from Trader Joe's. One salad was from a picture in the New York Times. It contained a chopped fresh plum - a delightful addition to a salad. Continue to savor the cukes and tomatoes from out garden.
Joy (gardenerjoy) - Hope you get your walk - despite the heat.
maryann - Such fun to think of your diamond studies. It's the sign of a good businesswoman to cut your loses on an item and move forward.
Karen (karenrn) - Good luck with that hamstring - a rather useful muscle for hiking. You were a good friend, as was your DH, for meeting your buddy's new companion.
curlyjax - Do hope your "big storms coming today including the possibility of a tornado" came with water and no damage. Good job hacking at tree branches despite the heat.
MommaMeli - Do hope the heat has decreased so that that isn't another burden for your kids.
Readers -
Quote:
Chapter 6Stage 3 - The Challenging Situations Plan
challenging situation skills
At the Event
9. Use Resistance Techniques. At the event, if you are tempted by unplanned food, do the following: . . .
Go to the restroom or outside to read your Advantages Deck and Response Cards.
Judith S. Beck, Ph.D., The Complete Beck Diet for Life (Green book), Pg 136.
Excitement yesterday was DD having a health issue that involved me and my car. It was a long exhausting day in the heat with both of us in bad moods. The good thing was it didn’t thunderstorm as predicted and there was amazingly no traffic on the way home. Somedays it seems impossible to stay on plan when life hands you challenges. I am so tired of dealing with everything on my own, especially parenting stuff. Today is my MRI which I’m a little nervous about, but less so because i’m still grumpy from yesterday Looking forward to coffee and a big glass of water afterwards.
I’m not even seeing the avatars today, but maybe that’s my slow laptop.
We had a rough night with a thunderstorm waking us up at one point and one of those loud emergency alerts on the cell phones waking us up at 3am. It was annoying, at the time, since it was a flash flood alert and we live on a hill.
I’m feeling more forgiving now that I realize that we surpassed our 24-hour record for rainfall in the first six hours of the day. And it's still raining. Every interstate going into St. Louis has at least one closure.
That reminds me of one of my nightmare scenarios – if an earthquake took out all of the bridges, I live on an island with a couple million other people.
We did get our outside walk done yesterday. Good thing. Our temperatures may not be that high today, but the humidity will be oppressive.
Here's my reminder that I know how to do exercise indoors and that food doesn't fix flooding.
Food was on plan. We had dinner at a restaurant that had plant based options, but I can guarantee it was not oil free. I had a wonderful ancient grains bowl that also had some mushrooms, sweet potato a slice of avocado and some kind of pesto or sauce. It was delicious. The menu said the calories were 590, but I would be surprised if it weren't higher. Dh order vegan ice cream and cookies for dessert. I had only a couple of bites and he ate more than 3/4 of it. Our friends new partner is a really nice down to earth guy which will be really good for her. The most endearing quality though is that he seems very smitten with her. I'm so glad she isn't alone any longer and hope it works out forever.
I'm meeting a guy friend for coffee this morning. He is a good friend who I met years ago when I was an open heart recovery nurse and he was a PA with the cardiothoracic surgeons. He moved here about five years after we did and we've done a ton of hiking together over the years. He was divorced when he moved here but met a gal in our hiking group and has been married for some time. There is lots of hope Curlyjax.
Credits
* I lost a pound on the scale.
* I exchanged my morning breakfast bowl for a smaller ramekin and weighed and measured pumpkin seeds, dried cherries and yoghurt. It filled it to the top. Very tasty.
* I shopped for food to bring with me to the hotel in Carlsbad. I found the mentioned delicious pumpkin seeds, dried broccoli, and dried chickpeas. I also have a non leakable (this time) container for my daily vinegar. My plan is free breakfast, packed lunch and low carb tortillas, precooked quinoa and rice and microwave veggies.
* I have now finished 8 out of 20 lessons to be done by Thursday. I finally understand light dispersion dependent on wave length during refraction. The optimal cut to produce fire (flashing colors), brightness ( interplay with white light) and scintillation ( white and dark patterns) is the round brilliant. Who knew?
Oh Well:
* no exercise.
Today I will head to see sister who is up from LA to visit Mom. Rox is 10 years younger than me and a hoot. It will make me feel a little better as I still am hurting at the break from my friend. I try to talk myself down from the "I'll have no friends eventually" drama voice. It is better when I realize all the love I have here and now. I will see a great friend for lunch tomorrow, I have travelled all summer with other friends and am very close with many family members. I must remember my gratitude list or I fall into the "not enough" insecurities. There is plenty of love all around.
BBE: Your "rain on the tomato story" brought back a sad memory of my BIL. He had a tiny rain on his field of tomatoes in August. They developed mold and became the last nail in his financial coffin. He declared bankruptcy. Life is so fickle it seems.
Karen: Great for planning ahead with your restaurant meal. That is really the secret.
Credit for all of you dealing with the stifling weather. We seem to be heading back into fire season. Fingers crossed.
Wednesday-Bugs Bunny debuts in the Warner Bros. animated cartoon "A Wild Hare" (1940)
Diet Coaches/Buddies - Eating was on plan with no daytime snacks, CREDIT moi. Dinner was consumed outside on the patio in pleasant weather. The heat wave appears to have passed. It was unusually complex dinner with multiple ingredients in each salad then to be followed by both fresh local strawberries and cantaloupe. Felt like royalty. The local strawberries are out-of-this-world sweet and tasty. Felt guilty to be dinning so well on a casual evening.
Excitement was stopping at the brick-and-mortar library to drop off a DGD book. We won't see her today because she tested positive for COVID; she's spending the week at home - missing her much-loved camp. Luckily, her mom, who didn't test positive, can work from home. At the supermarket only a handful of us wore masks. The rest, I assume, live in a post-COVID world. Maybe they don't read the newspapers.
Joy (gardenerjoy) - Yay for rain. Ouch for too much rain. I suppose that I'd be grateful to be woken at 3am for a flash-flood warning if I lived in the river valley.
maryann - Kudos for talking yourself down from the "I'll have no friends eventually" exaggeration. Losing a friend to her need to live in a make-me-feel-good-about-what-I-did fantasy is a bummer. Thanks for the sad story of your BIL losing his tomato crop to a slight rain that caused mold. It's painful to be reminded how many ways the weather can turn on a farmer.
Karen (karenrn) - Love the notion of full grown adults being "smitten." Hope it lasts. Neat that your buddy met a fellow hiker to marry.
curlyjax - Admiring that you march forward handling it all by yourself. Glad that you have some widow friends so that, at least, you know your feelings aren't unusual. Hope your DD is OK and back to classes. There was an update to the hosting software yesterday; most avatars are replaced with a link - not so satisfying.
MommaMeli - Hope some of the cooler weather found its way to your part of Texas. Continue to think of you and family.
Readers -
Quote:
Chapter 6Stage 3 - The Challenging Situations Plan
challenging situation skills
At the Event
9. Use Resistance Techniques. At the event, if you are tempted by unplanned food, do the following: . . .
Drink a no-calorie beverage.
Judith S. Beck, Ph.D., The Complete Beck Diet for Life (Green book), Pg 136.
Eating a quick breakfast before I head out the door to hike my last hike before leaving tomorrow. I'll be looking forward to hiking at a more reasonable time in more reasonable temperatures.
Bill I'm not sure it was the software update or what, but now the 3FC doesn't work well on my phone and still takes minutes to load on my laptop. They are both new devices and I've cleared cookies and done the usual stuff. I'm glad you had such a great dinner and outside too. Sorry about dgd getting Covid. I hope she has a very mild case.
GardenerJoy The video from the flooding in the St Louis area was just unbelievable. I'm glad you live on a hill
Maryann The diamond classes sound very interesting. They will keep you busy for the next few days for sure. What great timing for your sister's visit. I'm sure that will perk you up a bit.
Curlyjax Your avatar is the only one that I do see.
Waving to Nationalparker and Penny. Good thoughts for MommaMeli.
I may or may not be checking in while I'm gone. This computer connection thing is frustrating. I leave tomorrow and will return to Arizona on the afternoon of 8/22.
The MRI went well. The staff was very kind and talked me thru everything. I didn’t know I would have to hold my breathe a lot but it worked out. Work was busy. My colleague is out sick with covid complications, i feel very bad for her. She’s been very careful but probably picked it up traveling on a family trip. Today we’re having a lobster roll at work for lunch so its bound to be busy! Gardenerjoy-wow, that sounds scary. I remember feeling panicky when the kids were little the schools were across a reservoir and what happened if there was an emergency and I couldn’t get to them etc. Fortunately that of course never happened Karen- that dinner sounds lovely. Glad to hear there is hope! Decent men this age are in demand! Maryann-your food prep sounds good. I have a friend who lost a friend of 30 years due to some unpleasant encounters, and they’re both psychologists. Sometimes I think our brains get stuck on something and can’t let go. Bill-I can’t believe Bugs has been around since 1940, wow! DD is back to classes and doing okay.
Today, I'm dealing with the reality that were out of a couple of food items. That reality messes with the plan to shop tomorrow, not today. This is why I write plans in pencil.
Changing plans does not require extra calories for fuel.
I'm going to take a COVID test before going to the store. My symptoms are almost certainly allergies. But we have our annual doctor's check-ups early on Friday morning. I feel more of a duty than usual to make sure that I'm COVID-free before that appointment. They prefer a 24-hour cancellation, so I'll need to check today for that to happen -- it might as well happen before the outing instead of after.
Exercise +60, 1385/1600 minutes for July
karenrn: Have a great journey! I hope you can check in but, if not, we'll see you on the 23rd of August.
curlyjax: Like karenrn, I can see your chick and no other avatars. Weird.
Monday - Constantine I is proclaimed Roman Emperor by his troops (306 CE)
Looking forward to coffee and a big glass of water afterwards. 