After a horribly long day yesterday due to the fact that our office server went kaput, I'm having a frustrating day today.

My IT guy was here for 6 hours in the morning and then for many more after we were home. He didn't leave until 3 am! But there are things that aren't working right and he hasn't responded to my emails about them yet. We're able to access everything but can't make changes to files that are stored on the server. We can work them without saving, but what is the point in that?

Meanwhile my financial advisor for the past 14 years left the institution he was with and went to a new one and we're going with him, but that means all new banking stuff. Just getting that stuff put together is a bit more of a headache, but it's finally starting to come together.

All this means the day seems to be flying by! That much is good. I certainly prefer being busy as opposed to yesterday when we couldn't do anything (not even internet). I feel a bit more in control today!

Don't you just hate when things don't fit quite right, Michele? Things like that drive me crazy! Several years ago my Mom knit me a beautiful sweater (she knitted a lot and I have several). I've never been able to wear this one despite it's beauty. It has a neat swirl pattern to the body of it (I'd have to take a photo to show you) and that causes it to pull on that side and I can't stand to have it on for more than a minute. It's really a shame.


It makes you feel loved when your animals follow you around after you've been gone, huh Dagmar! I love that!

Glad you have new friends, Megan!

Megan - Yeah, that's the sensible thing to do, but I find it extremely hard to eat anything when I feel like puking as soon as I lift a finger, so there was anyway no chance of that turning into a binge.

Michele - A matter of getting used to it, I'd say? I wear such ones fairly often, and now it's the regular ones that make me feel at unease.

4 hours of staff meeting tonight. Four. Frelling. Hours. In a row. Still, I'm glad I found enough energy (or was it frustration?) left to head to the gym and run the treadmill for a good 30 minutes. Heading straight home would probably have led to food!catastrophe. Now I'm just feeling zen.

Kery thanks for the new word - frelling - no need to give me a definition

I am totally beat after work today. I think my body has forgotten what it feels like to be out in the (relatively) hot sun all day because it's been so long since we've had this weather . I enjoyed every minute and even remembered to wear sunscreen.

Dagmar but

I don't claim maternity on that one, Dagmar. It's from Farscape.

And I have a usage for it already.

Five. Frelling. Times. In one hour DH came upstairs to "use the bathroom" (we have one downstairs where he is working) last night. He was so hopped up on caffeine and anxiety that no concentration on his project would have been humanly possible.

Why not go for a walk dear? "No, no time for that".

We all have to get through 8 more days of this. Even the cats are cringing away from him in the evening (when he is at his most agitated).

I'm afraid that if I say anything he will scream at me to get his anxiety out.

I ate last night. I've been home from the pet sit for 3 days but it feels like 30.

There is nothing I can do but hang on and try to distance myself from DH's anxiety. That's kinda hard when I'm sleeping in the same bed with him (he tossed and turned and muttered all night last night).

These are the times I wish we had more money and a bigger house with a guest bedroom.

I will force myself to take my little frenchie protegee out for a tracking practice tonite and then go to bed at 9 p.m. No more eating! Think I'll also dig out my swimsuit as a reminder.

Dagmar

Dagmar - Sorry things are rough with DH again.

Allison and Jay, sounds like Medifast is working great for you both! (Jay, you are doing Medifast too, right?)

Hi Kery and everyone else!

Last day of the conference. I'm skipping the 8:00 talks but plan to go to the ones starting at 9:00 after I've had some breakfast. I think I've gotten more out of demoing our product to customers in the booth than attending the talks actually. I had a fun night out last night with a couple coworkers from a different group (too much food & drink, but it was good).

Health is still kind of up in the air. I've been taking the extra thyroid medication and the vitamins and feel somewhat better. My wrists haven't been too bad this week, but OTOH I have been at a conference instead of at work. Everything does seem a *little* better though (esp. energy levels). The only thing is that the rash I had, which I have been told by doctors multiple times is just a skin irritation, is spreading. And I'm starting to think it might not just be a skin irritation because I didn't actually wear any of the clothes that normally trigger it (usually wool does it). I've also been having a little bit of rash on the bridge of my nose. I think I might go back to another rheumatologist and get tested for lupus again (I was tested several years ago and came back negative). It's not a disease I would want to have, but better safe than sorry.

Hey Jessica. I started out doing Medifast, but I had to stop using their foods because of intolerance to protein isolate. I'm trying to continue a "Medifast-like" program using whole foods plus vitamin supplements, however.

It's not a calorie-counting program, but I have had to figure out the Medifast meals. Each Medifast meal is around 100-110 calories and contains no more than 3 gm. fat, and about the same grams of protein as carbs (e.g., 14 gm. carb, 13 gm. protein). So, it's fairly easy to figure out substitutes for the 5 Medifast meals per day.

The "lean and green" meal is the same--no need to substitute anything since it's "regular food."

Thanks to Medifast, I have lost my fear of eating below 1200 calories. The way Medifast calculates total energy expenditure, my TEE is only around 1300 cals per day. So, it's easy to see that if I eat 1200 calories per day to lose, my weight loss would be soooo sllllooooowww! The main thing is making sure I have a good vitamin/mineral supplement.

I also now understand more about fat-burning metabolism. A calorie may be a calorie, but metabolism isn't like that.

Jay

I think being back at home (my house is 1/4 the size of my client's) and having the holiday on Monday has affected my mood for the week. I used to love when Monday came and I got to see the dogs again. Now not so much. And my client's house has space, and light, and it's beautifully decorated. My house, not so much.

One of the other dogwalkers has just bought a new, bigger house. I envy her. Her parents help her out with new cars, mortgages, etc. Ditto two of the other dogwalkers I know. I don't even get a birthday card from my dad any more, never mind any financial support. Poor me (get out your hankies and violins).

It seems everyone else in my line of work is moving forward with their lives and I'm spinning in circles (or trudging in my rut). SIGH.

So, to lift myself out of this trough of self-pity I've been wallowing in for several days, tonite I will list all the things I'm looking forward to this summer. I will also declutter our bedroom and put my summer clothes in the dresser. That should lift my mood (and prevent any further sulking related eating).

TGI(almost)F!

Dagmar

Hi all,

I lifted legs for the first time in about three weeks yesterday and I could feel that I'd gotten a bit weaker, am sore this AM, but it feels GOOD! The good sore, y'know? Gotta go to the city today for work so I'm stopping by the good grocery store to stock up on my healthy faves. I might go overboard on fruit for the long weekend but better to go overboard on fruit, right? I do love it! My friends from Boston are arriving late tonight and we've got a fun weekend planned, including a scuba trip! I'm very excited, can you tell? What's everyone else doing for the holiday weekend?

Dagmar, sorry you are so glum. I can definitely relate. I'm comfortable, but don't have a lot of $ to spend decorating or on "extras". And my parents paid for my education, but never bought me a car even though I was surrounded by those whose parents did . I think your idea to declutter sounds great. I was also going to suggest rearrangement of furniture, and maybe picking up a few lightly used pieces at a thrift store or flea market to give your house a new outlook. Maybe you could do a google search of ideas to brighten a dark room - lighter paint, mirrors, etc.

Jessica, well, I'm glad you're feeling a little better, and hope it continues when you get home and go back to your normal routine. How strange about the rash. Have you gone specifically to a dermatologist to have it looked at?

Kery, great job heading to the gym instead of going home and eating! I find the gym sooo calming, too. I miss Farscape, I enjoyed it.

Michele, lol, pantry trouble are really annoying.

Allison, how is the tech stuff going today? Sounds like a lot of trouble!

Happy Thursday all

I've been trying to balance three things simultaneously:

- The usual workload of projects on my job.

- My mother staying with me in my two-bedroom apartment & visiting me for a week, while I work from home on my laptop.

- My usual commitment to myself of gym-going & healthy eating.

Consequently, as is usual with multitasking, I am not doing any of these three things particularly well -- but I am doing what I can.

I have been getting up at 4:15 AM every day & trying to get to bed before 11 PM. Also, time of month is upon me. So my thinking is not completely rational. I was nearly in tears this morning on the arc trainer at the gym thinking about how to interpret an inscrutable e-mail from a Chinese analyst asking me to do something with a PowerPoint file (but what did she want? the reason she is working with a writer is because she is difficult to understand) and whether I can get away from my desk at noon to take my mother to Trader Joe's, which she loves & which doesn't have a store in Upstate NY where she lives.

This visit can't end soon enough. Despite last evening, when we went to the new nail salon down the street & got manicures & pedicures together (and my mother scolded me afterward over my tipping the workers too well) & then went to a nice little trattoria where I had grilled salmon & shrimp salad, with a tuna carpaccio & asparagus appetizer. And two nights ago, when we saw "Jane Eyre" at a renovated Art Deco era theater. That was nice. But seemed to come at quite a cost. I need a respite. I'm glad we're coming up on a three-day weekend.

Megan~the tech stuff is all fixed. Thank goodness! And it appears our internet, which has been extremely spotty for the past 2 1/2 weeks, is finally back to normal (no interruptions). My tech guy had to have spent over 15 hours in two days getting the server back up and running. Turns out the hard drive on our 4 year old server died, so we had that replaced. But then the whole thing had to be rebuilt so we didn't lose any files. We're still waiting for this weekend when he'll come back and work on our tape backup drive which isn't functioning at this point. And we CAN'T not have that! Granted losing a day or two of files isn't too bad, but the longer we go without our daily backup, the worse it could be if something else goes out.

Saef~hoping your weekend comes quickly so that you can get back to normal.

Dagmar~while you depress yourself thinking others have more than you, remember that there is always someone worse off. Keep a good attitude because it all works out in the end.

This weekend will be golf and movies. DD was going to go back home on Sunday, but since Monday is holiday, she'll stay for an extra day. She wants to see Hangover 2, Pirates of the Caribbean and Thor. I could pass on Thor, however friends say it's actually pretty good. I still think I'd rather stay home and read!

Hello maintainers!

Today I threw a student out of my class, because that moron had brought his hamster within a plastic ball and was having it run in the classroom. Granted, the hamster was cute and I really felt like pettting it, but since that particular guy had already been a pain in the neck several times, I just couldn't let it go. I mean, seriously, what the frell? (The student is 20, too... not 12.)

As a resultI just feel like studying some more Shakespeare. In order to be reminded that there ARE intelligent things in this world. (And no, the Nutella jar isn't part of them. )

But to think that... this is going to enter the workforce in a couple of months... *shudders*

Kery-- wow....

I have to tell you though. My dd (11th grade) told me a few days ago that they had a sub in one of her classes. When he left the room for a few minutes several students started smoking pot IN THE CLASSROOM! I just shook my head......

Kery Even though you see this student as disruptive he does have an imagination and a sense of humour, yes? Hamster in a ball? Too funny. And are his antics designed to undermine your control of the class or just to get some attention?

And are you trying to tell me Nutella isn't making me smarter - ! That's why I've been eating it (not for it's creamy, chocolatey goodness) .

Allison I'm not depressed so much by a lack of things. It's more a lack of a life. Eat, work, TV, sleep. Repeat - ad nauseum. The weekend is full of errands and house stuff that I didn't get around to during the week. There are few, if any, pleasures in my life.

So this summer (after my dad goes away) I will spend every weekend out doing things I like, rather than wasting time on errands and housework. I will force myself to do all the Saturday menial servant stuff during the weeknights (when I am too tired to go out for pleasure).

Saturday and Sunday will be "me" days. Rather than "maybe having and hour or two" on Sunday to myself I will consciously seek out events and things and go to them.

TGIF!

Dagmar

Nutella~am I the only one that doesn't like this stuff? I keep stumbling on recipes for Nutella this and Nutella that. I doubt I'll ever make them.

Three weeks of Medifast down and I seem to be at a plateau already. It might be something else, though. But I'll keep plugging away.

I rarely go out after work. I think I'm more of a homebody. Weekends are when I want to go out and do things, but we're normally in on the evenings unless we go out to dinner and we haven't been doing that because of trying to lose weight. I don't really shop that much unless DD is home and then I spend too much! We went to Ulta yesterday and it was close to $300! I do want some new clothes, but until I get back to goal, that is not going to happen.