What a week! I tell you, I don't know where 2006 has gone so far...can you believe it's the 3rd day of February already???? Today should be a lighter day at work- my Roid is leaving at 2:45 for the day, and our LC will be in from 12 or 1-ish until about 3pm. Will make for a nice, quiet afternoon. Just me, and the new girl. And I'm being nice, and making small talk, and making sure that I don't say anything that could even possibly be miscontrued and twisted & put before our LC.

Water was excellent yesterday, and I must have really needed it, because I woke up last night thirsty, and needing to get a drink. The body is getting used to the added fluid, and my ankles are less puffy. Excellent! Breakfast and lunch were good, dinner was kinda thrown together and not the best choices, but better than they could be. Today, Breakfast is done. lunch is planned, I'm ready to refill my water, and slosh my way back to the desk.

Either tonight, or early tomorrow will be the jaunt to the new house. Hubby has so much work, he may have to stay behind this weekend. I'm going to have to be there to deal with the cable guy, and make sure that gets hooked up, and we can be ready to go. I may take my work laptop home, and bring it to the new house & see if I can dial up and check in. If I can't, I can definitely type up recipes & save them on the hard drive, and then post them when I am back here / online.

Elisha- congrats, and good luck on your closing! Now the fun part starts- I'll send you some ben-gay for the muscle aches.

Julie- great incentive there with the pants. And good planning with your fruit & cheese & yogurt!

Joy- Keep up the good work! Lately it's hard to stay up past 8pm, so I'm at least not eating past then!

Rosie- loose jeans are always good! Welcome back- and hello!

Lisa- way to go with the loss and all that exercise. Sorry about the sick kiddos. I LOL'd here at the snow rituals & the ice cubes- too funny!

Betani- chin up, chickie. Looks like we're both struggling with job-related stress issues. Let's lean on each other- we'll get through this, and try to take those deep breaths and make time to take care of us!

TBJ- good luck on the weigh in- fingers crossed! How long until the bar exam?

MsRD- I totally understand. been there, just did that myself this last year. It was a journey, it was just a round trip. This will be our year. Any requests for specific asian dishes?

Seriously. Prepare for a rant. Or two.

Well, if you noticed the fact that I am posting right now then you certainly realize that I am NOT currently closing on a house.

Why not, you may ask? Apparently there’s a lien on the house that nobody did anything about or even told us about until yesterday.

Umm… isn’t that exactly why they took an entire freaking month just deciding whether or not to accept our offer in the first place, because they were trying to figure this stuff out? Shouldn’t this all be determined *before* they try to sell a house?

I am so freaking mad I just want to scream and throw things and stomp my feet. I wish there was someone I could fire, just to make them lose their job for being so damn incompetent. It does NOT take over 4 months to sell a house! Period. I could learn everything I needed to know about the process AND complete the process AND probably even get certified to do so in less than 4 months, and I’m a terrible procrastinator. And the real pisser is that apparently the most serious problem there was for us to fix took us all of 30 minutes, and we had it done within a week of them telling us we had to fix it, and that’s working around our opposite schedules and the freaking weather. They get paid specifically to do this 8 hours a day, every day, and they can’t manage it in less than 4 months?

I want to growl at someone. Grrr…

And to top it all off, Steve yelled at me because I got mad. He said there’s no reason to be mad, because there’s no one to be mad at. Grrr to him too!

So yeah, yesterday was not the best day for me. Can anyone say “comfort food”? I know I can.

And today… I don’t know. I refuse to eat out for lunch today, whether I feel like eating my frozen dinner or not. I did bring a couple of caramel Hershey kisses to keep me from buying a chocolate bar though. Better 50 calories than 280, right?

The other lady who does share my job is gone for a couple of days. I don’t know of anything going on at the moment, but I’m sure something will come through. I’ve got my own stuff to work on, but I got most of it done yesterday, so it’s not too bad.

But just as another rant, because I’m just generally in a pissy mood… One of the things I take care of is business cards. I create them for the new employees, I update them for the old employees, I do all of the ordering, the delivering, etc. And I’m supposed to take care of the invoices, meaning that I enter the expenses into the system and then turn it over to accounting. Well, all of that would be just fine and dandy, except that for some reason I don’t get all of the invoices, regardless of the fact that they have MY name on the envelope and it’s a federal offense to open someone else’s mail, and regardless of the fact that I’m supposed to own the entire process, and regardless of how many times I tell everyone in the freaking office to make sure I get at least a copy of all the business card invoices. Seriously, I do about 4-5 orders a month, generally, and have done 4-5 orders per month since August, and I have received 5 invoices, all of which I have entered and turned in correctly. Now, they are being paid, according to our printers, so that at least is good. But when there’s an inconsistency in the pricing it’s somehow my fault for not catching it. 1. I wasn’t told how much they are supposed to cost, as that was all settled before I even started working here, 2. Isn’t accounting supposed to notice things like that, and 3. How in the **** am I supposed to catch inconsistencies when I only receive about 15% of the invoices? So the CFO herself calls and yells at me because we’re still being billed incorrectly and the next thing I know I get one additional invoice for business cards that’s already been sent through accounting and another invoice that has absolutely nothing to do with me.

*sigh*

But alas, I am the low man on the totem pole here at my office, and no one listens to a word I say, because obviously I don’t know what I’m talking about, even if it IS my job.

OK, I’ll stop ranting for now.

Today was supposed to be a happy day.

At least it’s Friday, and no incompetent jackass on the planet can change that.

~Elisha

Elisha, I'm so sorry. I can only imagine the words you want to type over & over right now. This may or may not help, but as you know, I do this for a living. Call the title company who is supposed to be doing the closing. you want a copy of the title work showing the lien that's there. Check your public records to see if there might have been a release that is recorded.

And yes, there are people at fault here. The title co would have noticed the title defect on the title search, which they have no doubtedly had for more than 1 day, and the lender would have also had the title work, and couldn't prepare a closing package without clear title.

The good news is that if they get payoff info for the lien, it can be paid off, and recorded as a part of your closing, so that you don't lose that much more time. Hound them. Daily. If they missed something this big, they will need some babysitting and prodding to follow through. PM or email me if there's anything that I can do- heck, I can conference call them with you and take turns reaming them out.

OK, update.

The lawyer said that the lien release is being taken care of and whatever needs to be done is being done. We've got an offical time for the closing: Wednesday at 10.00 am. Better late than never, I suppose.

On the bright side, perhaps I will get to take Thursday AND Friday off from work next week. I'd much rather be cleaning and painting my new house than sitting in my office being yelled at by people who blame me for things I didn't do.

Jennifer, thanks for your offer to help. Personally, I think part of the problem is that my name isn't on the loan so I don't get to hound them at all. They don't even bother to talk to me. I guess they're not aware that if I'm not happy, Steve's not happy. But he's not so good with the hounding, or the reaming. But yes, I think if there had been a bit (ok, a good bit) more hounding from the beginning, we'd have had our house months ago.

OK, back to work! It's turned out to be a busy day.

~Elisha

Haven't been able to tally up calories the last couple days. Last night DH and I were playing computer games, and this morning was taken up preparing the crock pot for tonight. I have everything written down, though, and I will wrestle the computer away for a few minutes tonight to get into my Fitday.

I did my library laps today, even though I didn't want to. I had to, though, and I need to walk more tonight because I secumbed to 2 chocolate covered oreos today.

I'm trying to mindlessly coast through work today, but it's difficult with the arthritis in my back acting up. My heart just doesn't seem to be into anything at all anymore. I just can't pull myself out of this funk.

***

Elisha-- Yikes! On one hand, it's great that things are finally getting taken care of, but on the other hand, doesn't it just bite to have the wind taken out of your sails when you need some kind of release? If I'd been in your shoes, I'd need to do 2 hours worth of jumping jacks to get the anger out of my system. I hope you get both your days off next week, you deserve them!

Jennifer-- Sounds like things are going well! It took me quite a while to get used to all the extra water, but I finally did, too.

Lisa-- Sounds like it was a nice getaway for you. That was so nice of your MIL. I can just picture her making up that story to the kids!

Julie-- I'm a little low myself on positive vibes, but I'll cut mine in half and share them with you. Fruit is very sweet! You'll be just fine

Joy-- You're doing great! Keep it up!

***

Shoot, time to get back to work...

Check out my avatar. 'Nuff said.

***

MsRD -- Re: your journey... life is a circle.

Joy -- Sounds like you had a nice, solid day.

Julie -- <Bzzzz> <-- Feel the positive vibes.

Lisa -- What a kind MIL. Heh heh about your hubby... he sure got you exercizin'.

Jennifer -- Wow, you're being so careful at work... maybe the new chick has some redeeming qualities? And the bar exam date... TOO SOON! Feb. 21 and 22.

Elisha -- Aw, Whoah, MAJOR incompetence. Uh, a lien on the house? Uh, hello, major issue? Uh, hello, freakin' negligent agents? Rarr. And why can't men just let us be mad sometimes? Gad to hear that you have some of the issues sorted out now.

Betani -- Hey, you're being responsible by slugging through the day... shows that you can accomplish what needs to be done without having to be motivated right at the particular moment.
***

My January loss was 3 lbs. On track for Elisha's wedding. (255 days...) My Febuary goal will be to lose 2.5 lbs.

Onwards...

Happy Friday!

I am soooo glad it is Friday.....it has been a long week and I am bone tired. DH dropped some lumber on his foot Wednesday and went to the doctor today (without my prodding, so that should have been my first clue!) and doctor diagnosed major infection......halfway up to his knee....and if it isn't better by tomorrow AM, I have to take him to ER. Sheesh.

Joy.....It sounds like you had a good day, and if you have enough of those in a row, you will be shopping in the junior department!

Julie.....These Michigan winters are enough to drag anyone down....one gray day after another! We should be used to it by now, right? If it is halfway decent tomorrow, I will take the dog for a walk....that always helps elevate my mood!

Lisa.....What a sweet MIL! And I had to LOL at her ice cube theory! You got 1) time away, 2) time with DH and 3)a workout at the health club.....what a great day!

Jennifer....With everything going crazy in your life, you are still managing to keep the water and food on track! Way to go! And I am counting packing and unpacking as major exercise workout too!

Elisha....Grrrr! You have been patient so long with this nincompoops and now they drop the ball at the last minute! Glad it got put back together for you.....and you sure do deserve a few days off!

Betani.....Yep, I diagnose you with the dreaded February Funk. It's everywhere! Ok.....shoulders back, head up, just keep plowing through! And you get extra points for doing your library laps when you really didn't want to!

TBJ.....Love the new avatar! You go girl! Did you say you were taking the bar exam February 21/22? This year? Yikes. Back to the books, girl.....make us proud!

Water was good today. Food was good.....with perhaps a slight indiscretion of a hot fudge sundae, as requested by DGS. I haven't added them up, so I think the calories are still in line. Did 30 minutes WATP......I can tell I have been skipping exercise of late, as I am really stiff and sore. I think I may wait a day or two before I kick up the intensity.
have a great weekend!

in my coffee...no sugar tonight in my tea...la n da la n da la n da da...la n da la n da la n de...(some of you may remember that tune...)

YES! I did it! I went the whole day without any sweets/sugar! I didn't even want any. I handled chocolate chip cookies sevaral times at work (the resident sold them), had chips and cheese dip with the residents and didnt' even look in the freezer at work for icecream (I know there's some n there)!!! I'm so proud of myself! I forgot how much of a headache these withdrawls can be! I'll be gentle on myself, though!

Tomorrow I will have my Latte (maybe 2) in the morning...and will NOT have sugar again tomorrow! Can I do this two days in a row??? I know all your positive vibes helped! Thank you so much!

Hugs to everyone and I promise I will do comments tomorrow!

Morning chicks!

This weekend wasn’t too bad. I kind of… what’s the word?... ignored my diet from Wednesday through Friday, so I tried to make up for it over the weekend. But, this being Superbowl weekend, I only managed to do so-so.

Saturday was good. Could have used a bit more water, but overall it was pretty good. And yesterday was ok. Again, more water would have helped, but it wasn’t too bad. This morning the scale is at 214.4, so still up overall, but down from where I was Saturday morning.

Food today will be good though. Breakfast was decent, I’ve got a Lean Cuisine Thai-style chicken and some pumpernickel bread for lunch (and I know I’ll actually eat it, because it’s just plain yummy), and fruit for a snack. And I’ll get in lots of water today too, because I’m starting to feel that dull headache that tells me I’m not drinking enough.

My back is still killing me. I don’t know what I did to it to make it give me this much trouble. I think perhaps it’s how I sleep. And I’m still not sleeping well, or enough. *sigh* This Sunday, I’m not going to do anything major, just some slight unpacking. I may even skip bowling just so I can go to bed early.

So we’re closing Wednesday morning, unless something else comes up (which honestly would not surprise me at this point), cleaning and painting Thursday, moving Friday. Saturday we’re supposed to go to Pittsburgh, though we may reschedule those appointments so we can finish moving.

I’m kind of in a mopey mood today, but I think I’m just tired. But anyway, I’m going to cut this short and try to get something done, because I’ve got a lot to do today. Have a good one, chicks.
~Elisha

Morning, chickadees! Happy Monday. Well, yeah, ok, Monday.

This weekend wasn't quite what had been planned. Poured all night Friday night, and all day Saturday. Cable dude stood me up on Saturday, even after calling and getting him at 2pm, confirming he'd be there between 1-4pm. He assured me he'd be there, and then, no show. I called several more times, and even had hubby call from back at the townhouse. After more than an hour of being routed from person to person in different departments, he worked his way to a supervisor, who wouldn't even call the dang cell # of their installer, giving us the runaround. Grrr. So, no cable, so the only channel we get is NBC, with rabbit ears. Not a lot to choose from, right?

Hubby stayed back in order to get caught up with work, and that didn't go as planned, either. He was supposed to come up Saturday night and bring my briefcase, so that I'd have laptop battery & cables, and more importantly, be able to get online over the weekend. No such luck. He decided that he was too tired to drive an hour to the house. So, I was stuck & only had about 2 hours of juice on the laptop battery (it's my work laptop that I took home so I could bring it up) so I basically speed-typed as many recipes from my cookbooks (South Beach, Sonoma, Mediterranean) into a document, and kept saving, not knowing when the laptop would die. After that, I called it a night, and never made it past the 11pm news.

I'll update the recipe thread with the newest recipes- I don't think there are any duplicates, but it has been so long since I added to that thread, I might take a quick once over....

Zone bar breakfast done, diet coke quick-starter done, and into my first 32oz of water. Lunch is going to either be a turkey breast sammitch (delivered) or chicken breast & yellow rice, (also delivered) as I forgot that I have to cover the front desk for the receptionist's lunch.

Have a great Monday everyone!

You're not going to belive this!!! But..it's been snowing here! HOORAY! Giant, beautiful flakes all morning long! I think it is the prettiest snow I have ever seen . Well..now the rain has come, but at least we got to see snow, and it turned everything white for a few hours at least .

I did poorly this weekend with my eating, although exercise was super. Did 1 hour on the treadmill on Sat. and 45 min. on the treadmill on Sunday. Today, I am planning to get in at least 45 min. And, I am back on track with my eating! It's about time! Why I can't get a grip on the emotional eating is unknown to me . Thank goodness for starting anew.

Well, my house is upside down....I didn't do much this weekend at all, and I need to go catch up. Hope you all have a marvelous day!!!!

Hello!

Saturday was green and yesterday was yellow. Today should be green.

Jujitsu is really good for cutting down on late night eating. I have to eat dinner by 5:00 so that I don't have food in my stomach when I roll around on the ground and have people throw me. And by the time I come home and finish showering, it's past 9:30, and I'm pretty much ready for bed. No lame excuses from me tomorrow, I promise!

Morning chicks!

Well, yesterday was a good day. 1272 calories (7 calories under budget!), water was 108 oz or so, but still no exercise. Right now I feel like I’m just waiting until we move. I know that’s a pitiful excuse. If I want to exercise, I have to clean my room, and I don’t really want to do that since I’m going to have to do it in a couple more days anyway. *shrugs* Yeah, I know.

But the scale is down to 213.2 this morning! Yippee! And if I start exercising again either today or tomorrow, I can still make my goal of 20 days this month… if I exercise every single day. But frankly, I’m going to count moving and cleaning and so forth as exercise, and I have every intention of taking daily walks, so it’s not entirely out of the scope of possibility.

Other random good news… I’ve picked up my writing again. I’ve even started (yet another) blog to keep up with it and post some pieces. Sort of. I’m sure there will be random rantings and ravings on there as well too. Actually, there already is. Expect more. Not really much writing type stuff up there yet, but I promised a friend I would get some up today, so I’ll work on that. But I feel good about it. Writing is sort of a release for me. After writing a bit last night, I’m in a much better mood today than I have been in a while. That’s a good thing.

http://miss-elisha.livejournal.com/

OK, that’s pretty much it for me today, because I’ve got a bunch of stuff to do. Have a good one, chicks!
~Elisha

I'm home today! I just felt like I needed a day off and I kept DD home with me too. Hubby just called and he just "doesn't understand" why I would keep her home!!! Whatever! Men...they just have to have control over everything or it's "wrong"!!!!

So...in the food department. I did two days in a row last week without sugar of any kind (Friday & Saturday)!!!! Then on Sunday, it was just a bad, bad, bad day! I took a nap in the afternoon and when I woke up, I wanted to make brownies! So I did! And I had two of them! And on Sunday night, I put them all in baggies in the freezer. Then yesterday I went all day without any kind of sugar (and I was tempted to have some ice cream from the freezer at work) and at a good dinner, then last night the frozen brownies were calling...I broke one in half and ate that! Then about 20 minutes later went and got the other half! So...that's it for the sugar! I'm going to try again today to stay away from the sugar!

In the exercise department...it's been ZIP (well, aside from a quick walk around the block with DH and the dog on Sunday...as well as a brisk walk to the car on Sat. night from the Hockey arena)! I have not felt like exercising, I have not felt like doing much of anything actually (which probably explains why I am home today!) I really think I need to get on something for this feeling of being down. Who was talking about something natural here on this group? I would much prefer to stay away from RX meds, but really think my (growing older) body is in need of SOMETHING to help me feel better! I have an appointment for my annual physical coming up next month and will ask my Dr. about something. I'm pretty sure my hormones are changing and if I remember my Mom when she was my age (45), she became a real BEAR to live with (might have had something to do with raising 7 kids alone...4 of us were teen agers then!)

Anyway...sorry to be such a downer today! I will TRY to go exercise this morning before I get showered! Maybe I can get in 25 minutes. Might do me some good, too!

I weighed myself yesterday, just to see how things were going over the weekend...and while I am watching my carb/protein/fat regimen, the scale didn't show a loss. I will weigh again on Thursday as that is my "weigh day"! We shall see! I'm sure if I could get this metabolism of mine going, the weight would come off a bit easier! Maybe some green tea would help...I have read lots of good stuff about it! Can anyone else attest to that?

I haven't made comments in a while, so here goes...

Elisha...you sound like I feel, chickie! But you have a lot going on inyour life, too...dont' let it all overwhelm you! Just take one minute at a time...write down some things that you want to get done (short & long term) and start plucking away at them (I'm so good at giving out advice, eh? )

TBJ...CONGRATULATIONS on reaching that 30# mark!!!!! Determination is your middle name, I think!!!! WAY TO GO!!! And good going on all those green days! YAY!!!

Lisa...SNOW???? What????? I hope you and the boys enjoyed it! I know you have been wanting it for a while....maybe there is some truth to the MIL theory about PJ's & ice cubes!!! LOL! And you are doing awesome on that treadmill, chickie! Keep it up!

Jennifer...oh what I would give for a night alone!!! LOL!!! Those darned cable guys!!! Stood you up...I hope they got an earful from you! Did you have time to do any sort of a workout..WATP? Your lunch yesterday sounds healthy!

MsRD...Hope the hubby is ok. Sheesh...you sure have been spending a lot of time making trips to the hospital lately! Hope you have some time for yourself soon! You still manage to keep an upbeat positive attitude through it all! You are awesome!

Betani...What's with this mid winter funk, huh??? Geesh...what do we need to do to get that zip back in our minds, hearts and mostly bodies? Maybe we could have a mini challenge the rest of this week. I'll try to come up with something and post it later. Good for you on walking even when you didn't feel like it! Maybe we could call this mini challenge the "Act as if" challenge! As in..."Act as if we are feeling wonderful and full of energy..." Maybe it's worth a try!

Joy...Where are you chickie?? I miss you and your wonderful posts! I hope you are doing well! Just because this isn't the accountability challenge, doesn't mean you don't have to check in.... Hope all is well

OK...chickies...I need to go do something productive...I have a bazillion things to pick from, but need to just pick ONE! Maybe ride the bike???

HUGS to all!

Eh, not much activity on this thread. *shrugs* Come back, people!

Yesterday was a green day. I ate too much for lunch today, so I am facing the prospect of rabbit food for dinner. Promised Hubby I'd make a new recipe, but I really want to stay in my calorie limit, and the way things are going, all I can eat for dinner is a salad!

I have only myself to blame... need to cut down on the big lunches like I said I would.