Oh, Megan, so sorry about your laptop! I do back up mine, but not nearly as often as I should. I guess it's too inconvenient to carry it from the kitchen where I use it the most into my bedroom where the equipment is located to get it done. I hope they're able to recover your stuff.

I remember when Meg's MacBook took a dive and she had to get a new one. Once purchased she was able to plug it into to her backup and restore the new one with all the stuff from her old one with ease. I try to keep her in mind when I delay doing my own backup.

I enjoy all the photos you post of your girls, Jessica. Good luck with work!

So sorry Megan. Been there, done that. In fact, at work! I thought everything was backed up automatically to our server and found out the hard way that it wasn't. I lost several years of saved stuff. I now use dropbox to save my files. Which reminds me-- my dropbox is full so I either need to upgrade or open another account.

My classes are going pretty well so far. Day one I had a puker in the library though. Lovely way to start. Today is Kindergarten day (plus we have Transitional Kindergarten for the first time) so these kiddos won't have a clue. At least most of the others have been to the library before. I won't have time for a lunch break as I have other classes after Kindergarten but we have dismissal at 1 so I can eat then. However, I have a library meeting at another site from 2:30-4:00 so I'm trying to figure out how I can juggle that, making sure I find time to let the doggies out and feed them, and hopefully get to yoga before 4:30. Dh has a big dinner meeting so he won't be home or available.

I tracked for the second day and my weight was the same. I was so sure (ha ha) that I would lose a pound a day. We had an Aidell's chicken sausage last night which was high sodium so that may account for the lack of movement. Of course, I need to develop a little more patience too!!

And most importantly--- Jessica-- your girls are way too cute!! Love their big smiles!

Anyone ever lost a toenail or fingernail before? I'm limping around the office today in white sandals with a bandaged little toe. I dropped something on it a few weeks back. When I got a pedicure, I noticed it was a little dark around the edges but thought it was just a bruise. Last week, the toe became painful, and in the last few days, excruciatingly painful. The toenail came off when I was cleaning it with peroxide. There is an ugly tiny new nail starting up there in the nailbed but in the meantime I can't stand to have anything touching it. Wondering if it is infected because I was sick yesterday afternoon & through the night with a fever & chills.

I've lost my big toe nail twice and my DS's little toe nail fell off yesterday. All were from trauma (stubbed toes). I don't know about the fever and chills being associated with it after a trauma, though. I have had infections on my fingers and toes and if I remember correctly I had to take a pretty strong prescription to wipe that out, but I never got an infection from having a toenail fall off. Of course, if there were a small cut and you picked up something along the way it could happen.

Michele - I had chicken sausage in my stir fry last night, thank you for reminding me that the sodium probably caused my weight spike today.

Megan - sorry about the laptop. Been there too many times myself.

Jessica - love the baby pictures!

Dagmar - I need to clean out my closet as well. I keep putting it off.

Saef - I hope they get your screens installed quickly.

Welcome back, Bill!

Allison - we haven't gone to a movie in ages. I have been reading more, though.

Saef - I've lost a toenail, but never had any fever. Yours might be infected, keep an eye on it.

How darling but which one is which ?

Bargoo, the first two are Allison and the second two are Cecilia.

Saef, definitely keep an eye on that toe and consider going to a doctor to check for infection. My aunt is in the hospital right now for an infection that started from a banged up elbow, so infection can be a serious thing!

Michele, what is your target with the tracking? Are you aiming for a certain calorie count per day, or points, or grams of carbs/protein?

Jessica, they are adorable. And with a very mischievous gleam in their eyes, that I suspect bodes trouble for you when they start being able to get into things ;>)

Dagmar, I'm jealous of your ability to weed out stuff. I need to do waaay more of that (not just in my clothes closet- extraneous stuff all over the house). There's actually a book with the title "does this clutter make my butt look fat?" based on the premise that people who have trouble de-cluttering also have trouble with the discpline needed to lose weight, and living in clutter somehow lowers your will power. Dunno how true it is, but it makes for a catchy title.

Thanks for answering my question about your meals. Yes, that's what I was asking.

For now I'm counting weight watchers points as that is how I lost my weight. If I don't make any headway, I'll look into other methods.

I'm going through my father's "papers" right now - making room for DH's stuff in the storage unit.

Boy my dad had an ego - and no regard for anyone. He describes his half-sister and her daughter as "anemic": and "simple:'", when meeting them for the first time. I don't feel so singled out now. I guess he heaped contempt and abuse on me mostly due to proximity.

I am finding out all sorts of things I didn't know - not about my dad but more about the Estonian relatives and what he did there for 18 summers. I'm finding I do have some recollection of the language and can haltingly make my way through a letter written in Estonian, if it's typed. I also quickly scanned all of his "diaries" - 14 of them - and they are hand written mostly in Estonian so I had little success with them. No need to read them - they are all about him.

There are some things that make me mad - like a letter of condolence for my mom's death addressed to both of us that my father never bothered showing me. It was written by someone I would have gotten in touch with, had I known about her and where she was living.

And there are some things that belong in my family time capsule - if we had one. My grandmother paid $69.27 income tax to the Canadian government in 1955 and got $7.05 back as a refund. My dad hated his mother-in-law so I imagine that bit of paper got in there via stuff of my mom's.

There are 4 boxes and I made my way through 2 last night. Our recycling bins will be very full for the next while. I also turfed all of his "hate" books - an interesting collection written by people as twisted and negative as himself. Again no need to read them - just the titles were scary enough.

Dagmar

Hi all,

Ooh, it feels like fall in the air here. It's windy and cloudy but also cooler and lower humidity. I'll take it. I'm watching this tropical disturbance in the Gulf and wondering if it will come this way. If it brings us some rain, it may interfere with my weekend plans to go boating on the last weekend of scallop season and clean out the garden to make way for fall planting. I'm trying to keep it in perspective. The effects of the extreme rainfall in Colorado and Mexico are terrible. A few rainy days here doesn't matter.

I need to do more weekend food prep than I've done in the last two weeks. Next week play rehearsals start in earnest, 3 nights per week. Last weekend I didn't really do that and now I'm staring at my bare fridge blankly, wondering what the heck I should eat. No good comes of this. I've eaten a few of my freezer burritos and they are delicious! I'm thinking a big tray of weight watchers turkey eggplant casserole will make good dinners next week and maybe black bean soup for lunches. Does anyone have any good "cook once, eat all week" type recipes to share?

I also need to continue to remind myself that getting enough sleep is key. I can never tell myself that enough. "Getting my s!@# together" seems to be the theme running through my thoughts this morning.

Dagmar, I'm sure going through your dad's papers is confirming your knowledge that you didn't need such a toxic person in your life, relation or no. Could you could attempt to contact the person who wrote the condolence letter now? Enjoy the gems you do find, like your grandmother's income tax receipts.

Michele, gl with your slim down attempts. Sometimes getting back to basics is exactly what we all need.

Have a good Thursday all.

I wondered this too. Great work with the Estonian, Dagmar!

Megan, good luck with all the theatre stuff. And get enough sleep - you know it makes sense.

Andrea, what about healthy fats? They'd be a good thing to fit in to prevent yourself self-destructing. I know Becky can't operate without a fairly high fat level and I definitely need them.

[I'm on the main frame so I can do bold. Yes, I did write the main frame, I really meant the desk top. Old habits die hard ...]

Michele - I'm trying to get back to my basics, too.

Birchie - main frame! I find myself occasionally using that word, from when I was young and my dad had early computers in the house. People always look at me funny.

Megan - I love the slightly cool feel in the air. We can finally start using the porch.

Dagmar - that is an interesting history to be going through, even with some of the crazy! I like the tax info.

I'm tired. Tired tired tired. I begin to think I will never be well rested.

I second this, good advice Silver! I'm another one who needs to make sure I include healthy fats to prevent some crankiness/craziness/hard falls of the wagon.

Shannon, sounds like you need to keep up on sleep too. And that you need a hug. And have you eaten any healthy fats today?

A mother always knows when something is wrong with her (fur) child. The dog's urinalysis culture came back positive for a MRSA-type staph bacteria and she will start 3 weeks of antibiotics tonight. Apparently this is rather unusual and the vet actually asked me if anyone in the house has been to the hospital lately (no) bc it's not something you usually pick up out and about. I'm so glad I took her to the vet, though I felt a bit silly and overprotective at the time.