Thanks, everyone, for all of the welcome back greetings!
Yes, I am definitely committed to maintaining this body, especially after starting the reconstructive skin removal surgeries.
It's been a whirlwind-I go back to teaching belly dance classes next week-just 4 weeks from my surgery date. I just signed up to get certified as a Leslie Sansone Walk Leader next month...and the certification is next month, only 7 weeks out from my surgery! I also just signed my husband and I up for the Run For Your Lives zombie 5K in June...and I have just enough time to retrain with running after I am cleared to do so at my 6 week post op appointment! Luckily, my dr. is a marathon/triathalon competitor, and one of the best surgeons in the midwest, so he has been AMAZING with me, and being sensitive to the fact that I needed to get back to exercise and dancing rather quickly. He said he got a feel about me at my consult...and he knew I wouldn't be down for the 6 weeks he tells most patients.
Shannon-do you like the raised wooden garden beds? I've been thinking about getting some myself. Also, did you try the LTM jeans yet? I LOOOOVE them!
Hi alinell and bargoo!!!! Glad to see the familiar faces are still here!!!!!
DH still hasn't gotten his formal offer for the new job. We are (very quietly) quite stressed by this.
Dagmar, this could mean nothing. I've been involved in the last few new hires in my dept., and have waited for weeks sometimes while a series of managers signed off on the offer letter and HR then prepared and sent on the paperwork. If your DH's prospective employer has similar HR processes in place, this always takes so much longer than one might think. While waiting, we rarely have buyer's remorse; we are generally also anxious on our side, worrying that the new hire might rethink the acceptance or take another job. We do not particularly like hunting for new employees -- drawing up the requisitions, getting the advertising out, talking with HR, doing the resume screening, interviewing, etc. We have lots of other stuff to do. So when a hunt seems to have successfully concluded, we rejoice. But there is no hurrying through these steps.
What I am saying is, do not take a neutral fact -- processing a new hire takes a long time -- and project fears and concerns into it so that the situation grows darker and darker, when actually it's the same as it was several days ago.
Shannon probably will have more insight on this -- when she is not holding a garden hose or a camera, she is probably holding fat packets of this kind of paperwork --- but as I said, please do not let your fears cloud up your life. It could simply be processing time.
Dagmar - Saef is right, the hiring process takes so much longer than one would expect. Gathering the formal offer letter and paperwork requires a lot of legwork on the part of the HR department, some companies even require offer letters be reviewed by corporate counsel. So don't panic - it will come. I also tend to worry during these times from the other side - I've lost prospective employees who got tired of waiting on us or thought that we weren't seriously going to make an offer and took something else. When was he given the unofficial notification of the job offer coming?
Aphil - I haven't tried the jeans yet, but I covet them. I think I'm just about ready to take the plunge. And I like the raised beds so far, though they are still new. They were so easy to assemble and to plant.
Jessica - I'm sorry you are having trouble finding a dog sitter.
The pollen count in Atlanta today is 9,369. Yesterday was 8,164. The previous record for Atlanta was 6,136 in April of 1999. We've blown that out of the water. According to the Atlanta Allergy & Asthma Clinic anything over 500 is considered high and will cause discomfort. Yeah. The pollen is so thick that you can actually see it in the air. I'm so hoarse I can barely talk.
Shannon, take my advice , if you have not already done so , DO NOT PLANT ZUCCHINI.....zucchini is very prolific, very, very prolific. We planted zucchini one year, we took zucchini with us everywhere we went. I know when people saw us coming with a brown paper bag they were saying "OMG, here they come with more zucchini".
Bargoo - thanks for the heads up. I did put in one zucchini plant, and it is already standing up and growing more than anything else. I was beginning to wonder if I need to move it.
One zucchini plant is enough. I don't even know why they sell them in the 6-packs! But, if you get zucchini, be sure to harvest it when it's small. The bigger they get the more seeds they seem to contain--or perhaps the seeds just get bigger. You don't want that.
Best use for zucchini? Use it instead of spaghetti! YUM! (And low calorie, to boot!)
In the race to create these "supervegetables" that have ridiculously high yields, I firmly believe that there is a niche for whomever can breed the low-yield, bush zucchini that would output maybe 3 squash per week. I'd be all over it!
Good afternoon. Not much new here I am headed to the Naples area tomorrow do do some bird photography, visit friends, attend a photography conference over the weekend while my DW is going to be baby sitting our twin granddaughters while our DD and DSNL go to a wedding. My posting will be somewhat spotty the rest of this week.
Michele- wow sorry to hear abut your fence!!
Shannon- for those of us that do not plant a garden should we send you our address so yo can send us produce ( !!
Dagmar I hope everything works out for you DH
to everyone else have a great day!!!
LOL - looks like I'm going to be getting zucchini palooza, so I should start a list of people to send them to Steve, absolutely! My little plant has doubled in size since yesterday. Looks like it is one of the bushing variety instead of the vine, so I'm going to relocate the little pepper plant that I have apparently put too close to it and see how it goes.
Apparently DH and I must be the only ones on the planet who cannot get zucchini to produce. Probably related to the fact that we don't use pesticides! Our zucchini plants tend to get borers (little bugs that mess up the stalks) that kill them off before they produce much. On the other hand, we grew a lemon cucumber that produced so many cucumbers we didn't know what to do with them.
I did get a couple recommendations for new dog sitters. One of them actually lives around the corner from us, so that seems like a potential good fit, and our prior sitter said she knew her and she was good.
Shannon, love the garden!! Last year we had a yellow squash and zucchini plant. Amazingly enough, the zucchini did not produce well, but we were inundated with the other squash.
Question for you guys . . . It's been so hot I'm thinking of switching out my hot oatmeal in the morning for something cold for the summer. However, it took me a while to settle on the perfect formula of oatmeal to keep me feeling full all day. I'm trying to match up a cold breakfast that will have the same nutritional content.
The obvious thing to do is make the oatmeal the night before and eat it cold in the morning like muesli. My question is, what's the best way to do this? I typically have 1/2 C oats, 1 C water, 1 Tbsp flaxseed, 15g walnuts, and a small fruit (banana, apple, etc.), which I cook together, and drink a glass of skim milk with it. If I took the oats, water, flax, and milk, and mixed them the night before without any cooking, would it come out okay? Then add the nuts and fruit in the morning? Or should I just cook my oatmeal like normal and then eat it cold from the fridge?
Luckily, my dr. is a marathon/triathalon competitor, and one of the best surgeons in the midwest, so he has been AMAZING with me, and being sensitive to the fact that I needed to get back to exercise and dancing rather quickly. He said he got a feel about me at my consult...and he knew I wouldn't be down for the 6 weeks he tells most patients. 
And I like the raised beds so far, though they are still new. They were so easy to assemble and to plant.
