Good Morning!

How is everyone doing? Almost a new month and one closer to spring!

I'm a happy camper this morning. I'm only up one lb. from the dog sit. DH's cold abated a bit yesterday so I was able to get some sleep and then moved to the air mattress in the gym and got another 4 hours there.

It's pouring rain outside but I'm hoping most of it will be over by the time I leave for work. Better than snow

And I hope DH gets it together and orders me the new keyboard (he has a business account at work) tomorrow. I'm finding hunt and peck extremely difficult to do on a slant!

Time to go and stretch (after I put my "bed" away).

Good Monday all!

Dagmar

Yay for the last day in February - the longest month for sure.

And even longer next year when February 29th shows up again.

Hope to get some work done today so my mind will be free to finish gathering the data for my taxes. I suspect that I worry about doing taxes more than the effort itself, LOL.

When do you Americans have to file your taxes? We have an April 30 deadline here in Canada (although apparently as a self employed person I can file later).

I always have everything ready by the end of February but I rarely get a chance to take the full day I need (I'm really slooow ) to sit down and do all the math until April.

Usually I do tax on Easter weekend and then reward myself with a Belgian chocolate bunny. This year I think I will buy myself several bunches of spring flowers instead.

I'll have my 4 year anniversary of being a member of 3FC this May and it would be a good idea to at least get to goal by then . I don't think the bunny will help that effort.

Dagmar

Hi everyone!

I needed to take a break from 3FC for a while. My life was running out of control, and I needed to concentrate on some other things for a while. I've gotten past a few obstacles and am now ready to re-engage.

The good news is that after 8 years of the new lifestyle, maintenance is a habit. Lots of ups and downs because that's life, but after about 6 months of being totally maxed out, I'm only a couple pounds above where I started.

A couple of health issues I'm dealing with now. Migraines have spiraled out of control and I'm working with the docs on some suppressive therapy for them. I've also had some knee damage, and the whole enthusiastic runner/triathlete thing is looking like it's history.

Hope you all have been doing well here. Hoping to see some old friends and connect with some new folks.

Anne

Good morning!

Anne, welcome back!!! We've missed you! Sorry to hear about your health problems. I hope you can get some relief from the migraines and knee issues soon.

Dagmar, our tax deadline is April 15. DH and I managed to get all our paperwork together but we haven't actually started working on it yet. Hopefully we'll be able to manage on our own as I think it's probably too late to find a trustworthy accountant to do our taxes for us. This year will be our most complicated yet as DH exercised a lot of stock options.

Bill, this has definitely been a long February!

Our weather has been absolutely nuts. This winter has consisted of snow, ice, more snow, more ice, suddenly warm, more snow, and now last night we had severe thunderstorms and all the local rivers flooded. On my drive in to work I pass over a little bridge over a river that has a big park on one side and a farm field on the other. The farm field and the park were both just part of the gigantic river this morning!

Relatedly Carter was up half the night because he was scared of the storm. In general he's doing much better. He's not knuckle walking anymore and the cadence of his walking is getting more normal. He's also not falling nearly as frequently (although last night he did trip and fall, landing his sharp hip bone directly on my foot, ouch!). Our biggest problems with him at the moment are that he keeps scraping up his feet since they're not back to normal yet so he has to wear booties to protect them, and he tore off a scab on his elbow, leaving a nasty mess. We think he had some pressure sores from being at the vet's that had scabbed over. On one leg the scab came off on its own and there is just pink skin underneath, but on the other I think it got pulled a little, then he licked it until it came off. So he's back in his cone and we've been treating it with neosporin per the vet's instructions. This morning it appears to be scabbing over again which is good, but unfortunately he has to be in the cone until it heals. We also bought a couple baby gates so we can keep him confined to our "bedroom" (aka the dining room that we moved our bed into) during the night. Our goal is to get him sleeping through the night again without us having to get up. Having the gates in place means that if he gets up and starts wandering around, we can safely ignore him knowing that he's not going to try to go up the stairs or jump on the couch. I think at this point he doesn't need to go to the bathroom during the night -- at this point he's waking us up because he wants attention (evidenced by the fact that he stops whining if we pet him, and starts whining when we stop petting him). We had problems with him doing that when he was healthy too. The plan is to just completely ignore him for a few days and hope that he gives up.

One of our dogs has problems with storms, too, Jessica. There is something you can buy, called a Thunder shirt, which helps calm some dogs when there are frightening noises (like thunder or fireworks). Glad he's healing but sorry about the sore.

I had a nice weekend, but no golf. We had a party Saturday and we had invited 14 people and only 4 made it. We normally have the party outdoors, but it was cold and rainy so it had to be moved indoors so I guess it was better than it was smaller. Next weekend we're going to try and golf both days.

My weight is up after an experiment. I tried not weighing for a week to see if I could continue to be on track. Unfortunately, it backfired and I actually gained several pounds back. So this week I'm really buckling down and I hope to start walking Chico after work now that it stays a little lighter later.

I overslept this morning after staying up watching the Academy Awards & then getting online afterward to read what the Internet was saying about them. (I'm a vaguely embittered "Social Network" fan who believes David Fincher was robbed.) So I'm working from home today, rather than in Connecticut.

It's now lunch hour & I think I can get in some vacuuming during the last half-hour, if I can get my salad assembled quickly enough.

We've got a gray drizzle outside & a half-dozen blue jays acting up underneath a 70-year-old tree whose species I can't seem to determine. It's not a sycamore & it's not shaped like a maple. It hasn't got an elephant-ish trunk like a beech. It's not one of the few remaining elms that some properties here somehow manage to nurture along. It's a bit like an oak but I don't remember it raining acorns on my head last fall. Maybe an ash?

My mind's on my flight out of here to Charleston on Friday morning. Much to do between now & then.

Allison, what is a "thunder shirt?" I had a shepherd when I was growing up who was terrified of thunder/gun shots, etc. He had a big fenced in yard behind our house with his dog house against our house. When a storm started brewing, he'd crawl on top of his dog house (like Snoopy - only much bigger) and look in the window at us. If I didn't let him in soon enough, he'd fall between his dog house and our house and get stuck there... poor thing (but admittedly rather comical to see).

Bill & Jessica, I definitely agree that this month has felt loooooong! Glad to see it ending and excited at the prospect of planting in the garden soon.

Hope you all have a great week!

Good morning all!
I only have a minute so I hope to catch up more later.

Welcome back Anne! My dd has been having a terrible time with migraines. I so feel for her (and you).

Dagmar-- I thought your dh quit his job? Is he still working?

Allison-- did you not weigh yourself or not weigh your food? Wasn't sure which experiment failed.

Busy weekend for me. Saturday night dh and I went out to celebrate his AMAZING performance review and raise. I also gave blood Saturday which left me feeling a bit peaked for the rest of the weekend. Yesterday, dh and I went into "The City" (what they can San Francisco here!) to meet a friend of mine who is here on business. She has been my friend since 3rd grade so it was great seeing her! We went to Chinatown and my weight didn't suffer too much-- just had hot and sour shop and veggies. My weight is still up 5 pounds from where I want it to be though with my birthday looming. I like to evaluate my weight on each birthday to make sure I'm still maintaining and I'm not too pleased that it is still up. Working on it though..... My birthday is Thursday and I'm pretty sure my family knows not to give me cake, cupcakes, etc.

We are still looking at breeders to get a puppy this summer. The internet has exploded since we last looked for pets so it is a whole new world out there. I found two breeders that look good and respectable but neither has responded to my emails. I might just call the one because she says all over her website to call her anytime. The other one doesn't list a phone number so I guess she is out of luck. Dh is totally on board with the puppy which is funny as he said "NO MORE DOGS" and last night he showed me carriers that he wanted to buy for my birthday so I could take said puppy on the plane this summer when I go to Houston. I told him we should wait to see if we even get a puppy!


Hello to everyone else-- gotta get back to work here!

Thunder shirt got my curiosity also, so gooled:

http://www.thundershirt.com/

Allison, we actually do have a thundershirt and probably should have used it yesterday, but I'm still a little wary of putting things on him over his incision (on his back) even though it's pretty well healed up. That would have been our first chance to use it in a thunderstorm and see if it worked! Oh well. I'm sure we will have plenty more thunderstorms.

Saef, can you post a picture of the tree? Tree identification is one of DH's hobbies, I'm sure he could figure out what it is for you.

Michele, congrats to your DH!

Hi Bill and Iris!

I didn't think of the healing incision...you'll have to let me know how it does work once you are able to use it. I doubt we'll get one for Buddy as he really can't hear that well any longer so he doesn't get as scared.

Michele~I didn't weigh myself and I gained several pounds in the week. I'm quite upset at myself.

My MIL suggested something that I might try. She said that instead of eating my yogurt and piece of fruit at lunch, to wait until about 3 PM to eat it. That way I'm not increasing what I'm eating, just spreading it out more and perhaps I won't be as hungry at dinner and perhaps I won't eat as much at dinner. I'll be giving it a try starting tomorrow. (I would today but I'm starving as it is and can't WAIT for lunch!).

Anne! How lovely to see you. I thought of you on Friday when we watched an ancient video about deserts. It showed the Arizona desert after rain - so beautiful. Bad luck about the migraines and knee. Does it mean you just can't be as hard core any more rather than you have to stop?

Saef - ash has distinctive black buds before it breaks into leaf. (Ah, but does an ash in North America??)

Getting back to normal after a challenging week away. I've weighed myself and my weight is startlingly down but a tummy upset can do that. We'll see.

Morning! Well, afternoon by now! I spent the morning doing my part of our corporate tax return and getting it mailed.

Good weekend here - pretty weather, great time at the circus. Of course it is supposed to rain on Sunday for DSS's birthday party... And today is the first day of TOM and I am frakking miserable. First day with my Diva Cup, which is working okay so far.

Megan - just saw your post from last week. Yes, I have to be above that, so thanks for having my back!

Anne - welcome back! Sorry about the migraines - my SIL & mom have them, and my brother has cluster headaches. I know people who have had great success with botox in treating migraines, interestingly enough.

Dagmar - I thought DH quit his job? How does he still have a business account? And high five on small increase after dog sit!

Bill - enjoy the taxes..

Jessica - sorry Carter kept you guys up all night. My parent's dogs used to be afraid of storms, too.

Saef - we didn't even watch the Oscars... our neighbors invited us to an oscar party which we declined, so we promptly forgot that they were even on.

Allison - the daily weighing makes me crazy, but if I don't do it I find I get complacent. Sorry it didn't work well for you last week!

Michele - congrats on DH's review and raise! Woo hoo! And sounds like a great weekend!

Birchie - tummy upset.. ick. Sorry. Glad you are on the mend.

I ate a half salad & soup from Panera for lunch, with a nice 300 calorie count total. I then threw in a chunk of baguette, a mint crinkle cookie and a lemonaide to the tune of 680 more calories. I feel all kinds of gross. Urg. Maybe I'll fast the rest of the day...