Trying to catch up here...

So lucky on your car, Dagmar!

I've never been a wall paper kind of person, so I can't comment on that, but as for drawer pulls, there are always too many to choose from. Thankfully my house isn't the "type" that needs any kind of decorative knobs, so I don't have to look at them.

Bargoo~my DD got rid of her bar stools, too. No one sat on them, ever. I have a type of bar in my kitchen, but it is actually our kitchen table, but at bar height. I bought more of a bar chair than a stool and we use them all the time.

I know Meg is in NM with her daughter and grandchild and last I heard from Pat she was traveling somewhere again. A couple of you are FB friends with Pat, right? Perhaps send her a message. As for Meg, I'm wondering if she is even still a moderator here? Is there any way to tell? Perhaps Mel will chime in and let us know....

Tomorrow is our last vacation day. We hope to be home early enough to get all the laundry done before heading back to work on Thursday. DS missed school registration on Monday so has to do make-up registration Thursday for school to start on Monday.

It is hot here! We're in Mesquite Nevada and I'm sure it's around 110 but it is hotter at home. But at home we aren't at the mercy of the RV AC system. Our house AC is much more efficient.

Everyone have a good rest of the week. I may not be back until sometime on Thursday when I'm back and work and have everything caught up.

I am fb friends with Pat and I'm pretty sure she has been posting here occasionally? I think retirement is keeping her busy and she is traveling a great deal.

I don't know about Meg but I miss her posts as well.

a small adventure
 

I signed up for a day-long bus trip to Niagara Falls and surrounding areas, starting off with a visit to a winery :celebrate: and Niagara-on-the-Lake. I assumed it would be for older adults as they seem to be attracted to these types of excursions. It was offered as a "Groupon" online.

Turns out it's run by the "International Student Exchange". My first impulse was to cancel but then I thought, what the heck! :shrug: I spend my days among white, middle-class adults, and come home to DH. Why not spend a day with some younger people from other lands? I might learn quite a bit from them and get a chance to practice my rusty social skills at the same time.

Plus there's the magnificence of Niagara Falls, and all the tacky tourist stuff (which I love). And I'm going to splurge and get myself an ice cream cone :drool: at a place I remember from when DH and I went 5 years ago. Might even cross the border and pick up some american bourbon (if that's allowed - not sure).

Good hump day all!

Dagmar :dizzy:

I'm tired today.

I'm FB friends with Pat as well, and she seems to be just fine. Her cat got a bird on her porch this week. No idea about Meg, but I've wondered about her as well.

Dagmar - enjoy your Niagra Fallls adventure!

Allison - enjoy the last day of your vacation!

Megan - sorry about the carpet adventures, but at least everything is all nice and clean now. :)

Yeah, I'm also FB friends with Pat and she checks in now and again with her adventures! Meg has been super busy with her adorable granddaughter and last I heard she is doing well.

Feeling melancholy today.
Today is the first day of school for my dd. It is her Senior year. After this year I will have no children at home. Sigh.... the good and the bad of having my children young.... when my mom was my age, I was 4.....

I will probably be hanging around here this evening. Day 3 when I'm OP is always difficult for me. Add to that my "policeman" DH is away :devil: at band camp tonite so I can have free run of the kitchen. And I had a frustrating :stress: day due to major traffic and construction tie ups. Recipe for disaster :eek: but I'm totally aware of that.

I have the plan to take my new dress out again and put it on, complete with all the trimmings whenever I want to eat this evening. That should break my pattern nicely. :chin:

And I will probably lurk here. My posts will be pretty boring - I want to eat AACCK! - so I will keep those to a minimum. :p

Dagmar :goodscale:

Trying on the dress will help, Dagmar. Be strong!

Ugh. Just returned from vacation to the hottest day of the year here (119). Thankfully it's only a 2 day work week for us. Although I wonder what we'll do until the temperatures return to normal (105-ish).

Yesss!
 

Day 4 OP :flow2:

I tried on that darn dress 3 times last night (compete with undies, pantyhose-those felt pretty weird after a summer of bare legs, and jewellery). And it worked :yay:.

It helped that I only had the TV on for 1 specific program and spent the rest of the night reading. And that there were no trigger foods in the house. I thought about going to the grocery store a couple of times and then it began to thunder, lightning and rain!

Good to know I CAN still break these negative patterns (with a little help from Mother Nature and 3FC).

Good Thursday all!

Dagmar :dance:

Dagmar, about those negative patterns, what seems to help me is changing them up in some way. If it happens because I am alone, I try to call up someone who I've been meaning to check in with. If it happens because of empty time, I do something that I've been putting off doing. If I can really become absorbed in that thing, I mean genuinely absorbed, beyond "this is my distraction from mindless eating," then I'm safe. The greatest safeguard against binges due to anxiety or boredom for me is entering into that "flow" state. Also those brief moments when I feel I have peace of mind, when I'm not remembering or anticipating anything that gives me anxiety. Sometimes, though, it doesn't work. Sometimes I just feel like I'm distracting myself with one thing after another, till I have to go to bed, and I feel I'm engaged in an ongoing battle, and it's tiring. I can't do that forever. I can only do that for a few hours at best. But if I do attain that state of "flow" I know that I'll be all right.

Up three pounds from my vacation. Back on it today as I must lose as much as possible before my next vacation that will be a week filled with bathing suits. While on vacation, I bought several trigger foods. Granted none of them have been opened, and as long as I don't open them, I won't be eating them. But just having them in the pantry is in my mind. I'll stop at the store for some leafy greens this afternoon.

We came home to the hottest day of the year--119 in Palm Desert. Granted it was low humidity, but even that hot we can't run our evaporative coolers as they just can't keep up. We usually can run them up to 110, but even then it's pushing it.

I may have to run hime this morning to take DS to school for registration. He has his car, but at the moment he is blocked in by the motor home. I don't know when DH plans on taking it back to storage.

Allison-- personally I would get those trigger foods out of your house. If you are thinking about them, you may end up with a weak moment.... or at least I would!

Allison - I would also have to get the foods out. I find that once I start thinking about them I'm going to eat them if I can get to them.

Dagmar - glad that the dress technique worked!

I imploded a little with food yesterday, still kept the calories at the high 1900 range, but didn't do it with good for me food.

Oh, and Dagmar, I want some luck from you -- please send some my way -- the kind of luck that spared your car from a falling tree.

I'm extremely concerned about the wind and particularly the rains that Hurricane Irene may send my way. I'm not on the coast, but I live in a low-lying area. Back in 2007, my apartment -- not owned by me yet, and empty, as it was part of an estate -- flooded after a similar storm and was completely ruined. The water rose within a few inches of the ceiling. The neighboring garden apartments, all occupied, had to be evacuated. People stayed with the upstairs neighbors. Finally, people were evacuated from the complex on boats and rafts. It was an expensive & time-consuming cleanup, and the apartment I now own was completely renovated afterward. Therein lay its appeal for me: A prewar apartment, but completely redone, rewired, refloored, etc. I knew about the history of the storm but everyone said that was a once in a lifetime event & so I gambled.

Was I wrong to gamble? Were all my neighbors who moved back into these apartments or bought the newly emptied apartments all wrong, too?

Now that I'm back in town from visiting my mother -- just hours after my arrival -- I went up to get the NY Times from this past weekend and discovered that the building's management had posted two pages of instructions and listed precautions about the storm. One thing they made clear: Residents of garden apartments (like mine) should be making arrangements to stay with someone through the storm on Saturday night through all of Sunday and through the cleanup afterward. My God. And I just got here today from Upstate, after a nearly five-hour drive. I'm supposed to go back to work on Monday.

I am feeling sort of sick over this.

I need some luck and yes, perhaps prayers.