Happy New Year Bill. I hope your cold leaves as quickly as mine did. Yes, I do have coffee :coffee: and will be heading out as soon as it is light (and after I wake DH, who drank very little and came to bed around 10:30 last night :eek:)

Happy New Year to everyone! Let's make 2013 the best year ever for continued maintenance!

Dagmar :coolsnow:

Happy New Year all! Karen and I went to a great downtown restaurant, watched fireworks, listened to Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, and went to bed at 12:30 am. January is the month the world will support us in our efforts towards food sanity. Looking forward to a great year for all of us!

BTW if anyone's interested they can go to Facebook and check out or even Like the Foothills Chapel page there. Not that I expect to perform anyone's wedding from this group, but some of the stuff I post may be of some general interest.

I sent you a friend request. :)

Chris, I am not planning on getting married but this looks like a beautiful place for the ceremony.

Beautiful chapel, Chris!

I had a wonderful round of golf yesterday! I finally got my groove back after having it leave me for the past two weeks. I shaved 13 off of my score from the previous day! Going back out this morning, but it will be cold!

We turned in at 10 PM last night. No party for us, but I have to admit, I gave into my sweet tooth and had a bowl of ice cream. This doesn't stress me, though. I probably won't have another bowl for at least two more months!

Today is the birthday celebration day. My FIL's birthday is today, DH's is coming up on Friday and of course DS's was on Christmas. Today they get to unwrap their birthday presents that the cats have been slowly unwrapping for the past four days. And today my DD comes home to pick up her two cats. We'll have normality this week!

Out of curiosity, I went back to my journal for New Year's Eve in 2011 and 2010, and found that usually I'm in the blackest of moods that evening but that as New Year's Day wears on, I end up feeling pretty good. Also that I have a habit of long tub soaks with Lush bath bombs before bedtime, that I am always using up Christmas ham in a Hopping John soup recipe with black-eyed peas and collard greens, and that I usually see a movie. And this year was no exception. Everything played out as it usually does. I feel a little sad to live so predictably, following the same old patterns, but it's not as if I didn't know that about myself already, that I run on a set of pre-laid tracks.

I am trying to be nice to myself today but I don't yet know what that will entail. Not eating and not overshopping, though.

Saef.....aren't those called "traditions"?....nothing wrong with that :-)

Gary, I really like your way of turning that around in a positive direction.

But mostly, I just like to see you posting here. ;-)

Wishing you a happy new year ... you deserve good things to come to you in 2013.

We will always appreciate Gary's postings! And I love how positive how he always is--here and on FB. He is an inspiration to us all!

The good: The concert on New Year's Day was enchanting - turns out it was broadcast live on PRI (Public Radio International) so we had to applaud on cue, LOL. At the intermission when FREE champagne and FREE chocolates were available, I had neither. A major achievement since I'm such a sucker for FREE. (They weren't Belgium dark chocolates, but more like Hersey's wrapped stuff from Halloween.)

The bad: I was bummed to miss my midnight New Year's Eve party due to my cold, but happy to have missed all the calories. Ooops ... the host sent my DW home with a plate of the best foods to make my "cold feel better." Yeah for good friends; Ouch for consuming the plate for lunch to get those calories back.

Today feels like Monday, so I'll be confused all day I suppose.

:D So true Gary :D

Dagmar :dizzy:

Bill I too an confused. I'm back at work today and, thinking it was Monday, was looking for a new weekly chat thread. :dizzy:

I got a New Year's "gift" from one of my clients - she moved without telling me! I found out from the "alternate" dog walker who was taking her dog out over Christmas. We have been expecting this move for some time (my client has been taking stuff over to her new condo since September) but she could have worked all of this out with me beforehand. It involves security clearance, a keycard, and a key to her new door.

I imagine I won't see the dog this week now.

Dagmar :crazy:

Dagmar, there is so much stuff to remember when one moves, it is almost guarenteed that something important will be overlooked.

Morning all,

It was surprisingly easy to get up so early this AM after sleeping in on vacation. Especially considering I was wide awake until midnight and did not want to go to sleep last night. I'm hoping the inevitable crash later isn't too bad, but know getting back on a work schedule will take some harsh adjustment. Tonight's yoga class will be my first day of project do more yoga in 2013. I think I'll even make a chart to keep track of my practicing. My cold is much better but my stomach is still sort of wonky, but is lessening as the days go by and wasn't enough to keep me in yesterday. BF went out for a bit new years eve, and was home with me by 9:00 to watch the Goonies (a favorite of ours!). We tried to stay up, but were in bed when the movie ended at 11:15. Last night I was going to cook pork, saurkraut, and greens to honor my German side, but discovered a leak in my kitchen plumbing. Not a huge deal, luckily, but by the time BF had figured that out it was rather late, kitchen cabinet contents strewn everywhere, and we ate leftovers. Is it still lucky if you eat it Jan 2?

I had an epiphany this morning. I've felt like I've been in a bad mood so much more over the last year. I hate posting it here, bc I feel I've been posting it so often (probably not that bad, but it feels like it for me), but maybe some of you have noticed. I've also been struggling to get in my exercise and my strength training really fell off about 2 years ago. I KNOW that I get mood-enhancing benefits short term from single workouts. How about long term from many workouts? I feel silly for not considering this sooner. Yet another incentive to get my exercise program together. Perhaps there are some other things I could be doing also for my happiness, but more consistent exercise could certainly help.

Dagmar, hopefully everything will be sorted out and you will see this dog next week.

Saef, I had exactly the same thought as Gary. Just because you don't have the same traditions as everyone else doesn't make them any less worthy of being called a tradition. Hopping John soup and a bath sounds like a great evening.

Allison, I could use some normality in my life, too. It's really nice to have time off but certain parts of me like my waistline benefit from routine.

Chris, Ward, Bargoo, Gary, Krampus, Jessica, and everyone else out there, Happy New Year!

It really does feel like Monday, doesn't it? But then, I guess that's okay because we only have a three-day work week!

We're starting on our moving checklist now. Today I need to get the utilities moved to our name so we have electricity in the new building. I need to send some photos out to get quotes for a sign on the monument outside the building. I have no idea what to expect for a price on that! DH is getting workers lined up to get the various repairs done. No packing will be done until next month, though.

DD came home yesterday with her boyfriend for our annual birthday celebration. As the day wore on I asked when she planned on leaving. Oh, Thursday! I hadn't gotten the bed made up. Oh, well, that was easy enough and I am really glad she's here for more than just one day. But I wasn't prepared. Now I have to go to the grocery store today to pick up stuff so we have enough to eat!