It's cool here in Boston this morning - WOOT WOOT for sure. Hope this "heat dome" has broken for everyone, wherever.

My week includes doing some painting - painting that got skewered last week because the paint acts funny above 90 degrees F.

It is pouring rain here right now and I'm so glad! It'll all be over by the time I leave for work and there will be a much needed deep watering for everything! Poor Mudpie though - she is hiding under my armchair from the thunder/lightning

I am DH's diet into high gear this week. He promised to walk every day and start a strict diet at the beginning of July. He's a little late in gearing up so now I WILL NAG!

I am taking this coming Friday off so will have an extra long weekend with the following Monday's civic holiday. We are going to walk, and bike, and kayak until DH's limbs fall off! Then he can drop back to the walking every night.

If I have to unplug the TV and take it out to the shed so be it. If I can harass DH into being OP for just 3 weeks he will start to feel and look so much better I think he then will continue on his own.

Good week all!

Dagmar

Good morning Bill. Glad your temps are cooling somewhat. I'm still waiting for summer here. They are predicting highs in the 90s later in the week, but just 73 and overcast today.

Dagmar-- good luck with dh! Glad you are going to have some days off!!!

My weight was much better today so I hope to keep going in the right direction. I ate quite low cal yesterday and did Bikram Yoga so I'm sure that helped. For dinner, I made portobella mushrooms and roasted cauliflower. I was full so I didn't have anything else.

This morning I'm taking Jozi (my Great Dane) in for her yearly physical. I'm a natural worrier, but she has some issues that I'm concerned about (she is 7 and they have a short life span). Wish me luck.

After that I have to bring my car to the dealer. When we got back from our road trip we found that one of my fog lights is gone. It looks like someone stole it/ripped it out?!?! There is a gaping hole and damage around it. I'm trying not to be too frustrated about it as we may have to claim insurance and pay a big deductible. I'm just trying to focus on the fact that we made it home safely and nothing horrible happened.

I had exciting news yesterday! We have a very small family. I am an only child and my parents are deceased. Dh has two brothers. His older brother lives in Hong Kong and has one 4 year old daughter (and probably won't have more children). Dh's younger brother lives in London and he and his wife have been very private about having children. We were pretty sure they were having trouble having children but they didn't want to talk about it so we just prayed they eventually would (they are both 36). Dh got a call from his brother yesterday that his wife is 16 weeks pregnant. We are thrilled. I just wish they were closer but I guess we'll have an excuse to go to London!

Hot and humid here this weekend. We were able to golf Saturday but not Sunday. I'm not sure when the humidity will be over, but for now we have to run the AC which has already eaten up the credit we'd built up over the past 8 months on solar.

DH and I went to see Friends with Benefits yesterday. Cute, funny, predictable. Also saw Captain America on Saturday. Cute comic book story that is totally unbelievable in that comic book sort of way.

Went to Macy's and picked up two more swim suits and board shorts so I think I'm set in that department for Costa Rica! I feel, though, like I need Smart Lipo on my bra fat. I can cram it into the suit, but as soon as I move my arms it all leaks out again. This is the kind of fat that dieting doesn't seem to touch. Perhaps a lot of it is just skin, though. Blech. Can't wear Spanks with a swim suit LOL!

Hot and humid weekend here, too. Going to be hot and humid today, as well.

Busy busy weekend.

Busy busy day today. Urg.

There was someone looking for protein bars! I thot it was on this thread but cant find her! lol
anyway here is one I found.
square unsweetened baker's chocolate
2 Tbls. butter
2 Tbls. heavy cream
3 pkts Equal (I used Splenda)
3 scoops (1 cup) Chocolate Designer Protein (or any other chocolate whey protein)
1 cup chopped peanuts (I used 1 1/4 cup chopped pecans)
1/2 cup unsweetened coconut (hence the above!)
2 Tbls. Sugar Free Torani Syrup or maple syrup (or water, in a pinch...) --I used the maple syrup, as that, our market had!

Melt choc and butter in mike 1 min; stir until completely melted. Add Equal and heavy cream and stir til creamy. Add protein powder, peanuts, coconut and stir till mixed pretty well, add syrup (or water), and mix thoroughly(you may have to knead with your handsat this point, as mixture will be very stiff). Line a bread loaf pan with plastic wrap and press in mixture firmly and evenly. Chill till firm. Cut into 6 bars. These were huge, so I made it into 9 bars.

Approx 5 carbs/15 grams protein per 1/6 recipe.

Good morning, all! Not a great weekend here. I'll leave it at that. But it's a new week, right?

Jealous of everyone's cooler temperatures and rain. While I love living in the South, and I generally love summer (yes, even the heat and humidity), August is when I start to get pretty tired of it.

Dagmar - Have fun kicking DH's rear! Also, I keep meaning to tell you I love all the emoticons you use - you find the best, funniest, most descriptive ones. I pretty much stick with smilies.

Michele - Good luck at the vet and at the mechanic. Those two things do NOT add up to a good day.

Allison - "Invisible Arm Spanx" would be a million dollar product. I would buy them in a second.

Getting some office and house work done today and tomorrow. I head to Kentucky on Wednesday for a family visit, and I'm looking forward to it. It'll still be hot and humid but at least there'll be a change of scenery!

Back from the vet and the car dealer. Both went okay.

Jozi got an overall good checkup. She had two lumps I was worried about but the vet said they aren't worrisome. She lost 7 pounds from 124 to 117 so I need to keep an eye on that-- I think it is from being at the kennel, but she is too thin at the moment. She had a couple of other issues but they are manageable for now.

The car will cost about $300 to fix. They said someone definitely hit me to knock the fog light out-- there is residual paint on the bumper. Because it is less than my deductible, I won't claim it so I'm out the money because of someone's carelessness (and rudeness-- didn't leave a note!).

Jen-- have fun in Kentucky! I'm heading to Houston in a couple of weeks to visit friends and family.

Knorris, that was me, thanks for the recipe!

Blazingly hot and humid here too. I hate when you step out the door and are instantly covered in sweat.

I had a bit of a misadventure today. I left work to go to the dentist to get a cavity filled, and took my laptop to finish out the day working from home. When I got home, the DSL wasn't working. I picked up the phone to call tech support, and there was no dial tone. So I called tech support from my cell phone and after the automated system and talking to a human, they tell me it may not be fixed until SATURDAY. I was really angry, but what can you do? Then about ten minutes after I got off the phone everything started working again. Bizarre, but I'm not going to complain. I bet the construction they're doing at the intersection near my house probably messed up a wire or something.

In other news, we are taking Carter to the vet for a follow up Wednesday morning to check him out now that it's been about six months since his surgery. DH thinks I'm nuts and it's a waste of money. I just want to make sure that his goofy walking is an expected result of the surgery and we didn't like accidentally break his leg during his recovery or something.

It looks like I will get a 4-day weekend this coming weekend . Of course I'll spend Friday doing all the household stuff and finishing whatever yard stuff I can get done at my dad's. But then I'm taking 3 whole days (!) to relax and do stuff I want to do.

DH and I had the diet/exercise talk again last night. He basically said that nagging him wouldn't work (I know that) and that he has to watch TV every night because he's "bored and there's nothing else to do". I made several suggestions and he shot them down. He can't go for a walk because "it's too hot" and he can't use the treadmill . . ..

I am throwing in the towel now. DH will have to have the major health crisis. SIGH. I hope we all survive it.

He is going to have to survive 3 days (see above) of going out with me and working out at MY pace. I have had enough of babying him along. Maybe this will also point out to him how much I have been indulging him and how out of shape he is. He knows it on an intellectual level but not on the physical one.

Dagmar

Morning all,

Summer activity has made me scarce around here! Last weekend BF and I got a last-minute invite to visit w friends ~5 hours here and go scalloping & snorkeling. It's an area of Florida we've driven through often, but never gotten out on the water and it was beautiful! This weekend will be more snorkeling closer to home, and I'm trying to arrange a diving trip with some friends. I've got to do it while the weather is right, right?

Even though we found a pet-friendly hotel for the weekend, we decided to leave Emma here at the dog-sitter's. We were worried if we left her in the hotel room, even in her crate, she would start barking and cause a racket, and the dog-sitter's has fenced in yards and all the dogs just run and play together all day. I figured that would be more fun. They're closed Sundays, though, so we got home Sun and I had to wait to pick her up until Mon. That was so hard for me! She came home tired and they told me she played all weekend. Even though I'm an obsessed dog mommy now, it was also nice to try this place out for a short time in case I have to leave her there for longer, and know that she has fun there.

Allison, don't worry about your suit, just think about what fun you'll have!

Michele, congrats on the news! What fun being an aunt again! And how annoying that someone took out your fog light. At least $300 isn't too expensive, in the grand scheme of car repairs.

Mmm, protein bars...

Ok I just got called to a meeting. Back later!

ETA: Back from my meeting. I had also wanted to add to Dagmar, gl w your DH. I know his health is a continual source of frustration to you. Don't let it stress you out too much and let yourself enjoy your long weekend!

Have a good week all.

Jessica, let us know how the vet visit goes.

Okay, I spoke too soon, the phone and internet at home have been going in and out since I posted last. Hopefully nobody is trying to contact me on the home phone for anything important.

Megan, sounds like you had a good time! And so did Emma at her dog sitter.

DH and I are taking an overnight trip to Chicago this weekend, since my sister is going to be there visiting some other friends. Hopefully it will be fun. DH's parents aren't going to be around so we hired a dog sitter to come stay overnight with Carter. I got our Chicago hotel with credit card points so the total cost of dog sitter + parking in Chicago will be about as much as I would have spent on a hotel otherwise. Oh well, at least someone will be at our house to deter criminals (in addition to a big barking dog).

Dagmar, I wish I knew a way that you could convince your DH to get with the program. I have been trying to hint to my DH that he may want to actually try getting some treatment for his depression but he just blows me off. He is convinced that nothing would help. Perhaps your DH is the same and thinks that nothing will help with his health so why bother?

So it appears that the Costa Rica trip is happening sooner rather than later. My friend (the one I went to Italy with) is in charge of the planning and has set it up for September 12. I knew she was thinking of either September or October, but I was secretly wishing for October for some reason. I think it may be because we'll be leaving DS to be on his own for the week and if it were October my in-laws would either be here or could come a bit early to be here in case of emergency. In this case, I'll discuss it with my neighbors just so he has someone to go to if there is a problem. I kind of wonder what they'll think of me, though. She's a teacher and he's a police officer and they may frown on my leaving a 16 year old home alone (not that he's prone to do anything other than go to school, sleep, eat, and hang out in his room!).

In other news, I don't know if I mentioned it or not, but I signed up for an attempt to be a taste tester for Lindt chocolate and I was one of 150 people chosen! Yesterday they announced they'd be shipping the chocolate starting today. Thankfully they're shipping it overnight in ice packed boxes otherwise everyone's chocolate will arrive melted. I'm looking forward to this--mainly to see just how much they send! But some of the flavors seem real intriguing (dark chocolate with chilis, chocolate with a touch of sea salt, intense orange, etc.). I guess we're supposed to taste it and then on our Facebook forum, we're supposed to discuss it. Should be fun. Could be odd--I haven't had good chocolate for such a long time!

I had a very busy day at work yesterday. Not the normal busy stuff, either. Our insurance renewal package arrived, so there was a lot to read, figure new payroll deductions for some employees, write letters and memos to everyone and then distribute all the forms, cards, etc. That took me most of the morning. I sure do enjoy being busy! Anyway, I now need to check out our payables and get going on that for month end. Everyone have a great day!

Here I am, finally, with mixed feelings today.

The day began with my opening the plantation shutters a little too violently in my dining room, so that one banged a plate rail hanging on the wall behind it. One of my 160-year-old blue & white Staffordshire saucers fell down & broke into six pieces on the floor. I hate when this happens with an antique object. Because there's not only the sorrow over having broken something, there's the guilt for being the person to cause its demise after it survived over a century & a half of other people handling it -- until it met me. Also now there's the problem of replacing it. (It's R.W. Hall's "Italian Buildings" pattern.) Replacing something like this can take me a couple years, unfortunately, as I have to track the plates down one by one.

Other news in my life is better. I got a pretty good midyear performance review yesterday, which pleased me. Also, I heard about a possible opportunity. Since I have done so much work with ESL analysts in the Asia/Pacific region, and have done some reading up on typical issues in Chinese English, my manager is thinking that I might be the right person to go to China in a few months & oversee my company hiring an ESL business writing instructor to teach a one-off course. But this is still very much up in the air -- only it makes me happy to think of possibly going to China & being able to expense it.

I'm mulling over applying for another job within this company. A management position has opened up in the department next to mine. I used to belong to that department but moved over about eight years ago. The manager there is a difficult person, and somewhat famous within the company for her tyrannous ways. I was glad to get away from her. Nevertheless, we have worked together briefly on other projects & have gotten along all right. She likes me or rather my work. If I applied for this position, I would be reporting directly to her. I'd be managing projects, which I have gotten pretty good at. I'd finally make the change to management. But the cost of that is working with a difficult person. Is that worth a promotion? Or will it be a source of unending stress? The person who vacated that job had been trying to get out of the dept. & out from under that manager for years.

Megan, what is involved in scalloping? (To me, "scalloping" means something you do with potatoes in a cheese-sauce casserole, or a way of cutting the edge of something with scissors to make a wavy pattern.( Is it like clamming? Do you dive & retrieve or dig in the sand?

Allison, okay, slap me down real good if I'm being impertinent, but I just have to ask: How do you reconcile being a taste tester with Lindt with being on the IDP diet?

Jessica, what are you going to do in Chicago? I'd be curious about the kimono exhibit at the Art Institute. And also about a Hwang play called "Chinglish" (in keeping with my recent interests ... see above). I have always meant to see the Frank Lloyd Wright houses in the suburbs there. (I'm trying to remember which affluent suburb is supposed to have a slew of them.)

Dagmar, I have no solutions to offer you. My father was an unhealthy eater who didn't exercise & carried a lot of abdominal weight. I talked with him a little after I became healthy. He wasn't interested in changing his way of eating or living. One day, after enduring nearly a year of discomfort, he was diagnosed with stage 3 stomach cancer. He was dead within seven months. I still mourn him. (But I watch my own nitrate intake.) What I mean to say is, with some things, people are just on their own. No matter how much we love them.

You can't really. But until I get the actual package, who knows exactly what they'll send. Will I get a 1 ounce piece of each type (there are about a dozen types)? Will I get one or two full sized bars? Will I get the whole collection? Will they give me a time line of when/how much to eat (to facilitate discussion better)? I have no idea.

But, we're all aware of the idea of moderation. Back when I was following the whole foods regimen, chocolate was part of the plan. I'd eat a 1 ounce square a few times a week. I think I can handle it.

A couple of weeks ago I stopped at the store and bought several tiny packages of Ciao Bella gelato because I wanted to try it. They remain unopened. I have packages of cookies and candies in my pantry that are unopened (and those that DS has opened I don't sample). I've developed a good bit of will power over sweet treats the past several years. I still struggle with will power over savory items, though.

And I feel bad for your antique. That sucks. But congrats on the job review!