Great start to the week being greeted by the moonbeam on my kitchen floor when I went down to the kitchen to make morning coffee. That means, of course, that there're no clouds and no snow with the promise of a sunny winter day when the sun decides to rise.

It's President's Day in the U.S.. It's weird to explain to rational folks that we group three of our presidents together to celebrate with a holiday. Groupon has added Alexander Hamilton as a president - so no reason not to celebrate him today also.

Good morning! LOL about Groupon Bill. I only knew it was a holiday because the school zone lights weren't flashing on my drive in to work this morning.

Saef, your weather on last week's thread sounds crazy! We have a forecast today of "maybe sleet, maybe freezing rain, maybe snow." Needless to say, I took the all-wheel-drive car to work. The guy on the radio said ice accumulation of up to 1/10 inch, or maybe snow accumulation of 1-3 inches, or maybe both.

It's supposed to get up to 60 on Thursday though so maybe some of this snow will finally melt! Usually we get snow, then it warms up and melts, then we get some more, then that melts, etc. This year it's just been piling more snow on top of the snow already there since it doesn't manage to completely melt in between. The snow on the sidewalks is up to my knees, as I discovered when I took Carter for a walk yesterday. We walked mostly in the street, but I let him run around off the leash by the woods to get him some exercise and because I didn't want to trudge through that knee-high snow since I wasn't wearing knee-high boots. Of course he ran around like a maniac and then decided to poop out in the middle of the field, and I had to trudge through the snow anyway to clean up after him! It's okay because it wasn't super cold and Carter had a lot of fun and got to burn off some energy after being cooped up indoors all week.

We had a pretty good weekend. My mom is here to help out, and even though she can't actually pick up the babies it's really helpful just to have someone around to sit next to them and occupy them when they need attention but we have other stuff that has to get done. C has slept through the night with no interventions required for maybe three nights now. A only needed one intervention last night! On the other hand, even though they don't need as much intervention they will still cry for maybe 20-30 seconds while rolling over, which is enough to wake up me and DH, so we don't get uninterrupted sleep. I wonder if we turned the monitor off how it would go.

It's "Family Day" here today. I'm working but only 2 dogwalks and two cat visits. Dinner will "make" itself in the slow cooker. I'm all caught up on household stuff so will relax this evening and do some reading (if DH will let me). Apparently his boss has now finally decided on a date to finalize the sale of her business.

This Thursday. So poor DH has to go nuts and probably work like a maniac all week to get this done. Going to be a stressful week in some ways but at least we finally have a decision and DH can start to move forward with his own plans.

He's been waiting for this to be finalized since November of 2013. This is the fourth time a date has been announced. We are both really hoping it goes through this time.

Good Monday all!

Dagmar

I'm enjoying the holiday today! We slept in and are going for a late breakfast before a game of golf. Our Saturday golf was a mess. MIL thought she had made a tee time but there was a tournament going on so of course we couldn't golf. Instead we golfed the "back nine" which is a teeny tiny course with the longest par 3 only 89 yards and three holes of about 44 yards. I had a lot of trouble with the short distances and didn't do well at all. And it was 85 degrees and humid due to some strange storm that didn't give us any rain.

As many of you may know the President is here for the weekend and he golfed Sunday at Larry Ellison's place called Porcupine Creek. It's one of two or three private golf courses here. Traffic is all messed up because several roads are closed for his security.

We're gaining great strides with Bogey. He doesn't jump nearly as much and is getting better and getter with the orange cat (Louie). Ringo is still really leery of him. Yesterday after a long walk we bathed both dogs and they stayed outside the rest of the day. Bogey was laying on a rug outside the screen door and Louie was on the inside. It was hilarious--Louie was rubbing Bogey through the screen (I think he liked the smell of the shampoo).

Dagmar... Will dh lose his job with the sale of his company?

Allison... Glad Bogey is doing better.

I had to laugh at my in laws and their dog. They had no business getting a puppy and got a flat coated retriever puppy. They've had a horrible time teaching her manners because they don't follow through and she needs way more exercise than they give her. They decided to drop her off for three weeks of training. After two weeks the trainers called them in for a parent teacher conference! They were told to bring her home. They were basically told they were the problem, not the dog, which we knew. They confuse her by calling her the dead dogs name half the time so she doesn't really know her name! They were advised to have a trainer come to the house to work with them all together, and to give her way more exercise! We recommended a dog walker so hopefully they will do that too. I'm just afraid we are going to get stuck with an ill behaved dog if something happens to them. When my mom died, we got stuck with her nasty Yorkshire terrier... He was mean and nasty and pottied everywhere.

Speaking of dogs, I got my exercise today with my dogs! Something has happened to my back to make it worse and my chiropractor isn't in today. It felt worse yesterday so after bikram yoga today, I tackled operation clean dogs! Took them both to petco for a nail trim. I asked what they would charge to bathe Jozi (100 plus pounds) and they quoted me $40-50! Whoa! Brought them home and bathed Jozi outside and Dewey inside. All clean now but my back is screaming!

My weight is continuing to cooperate thanks to calorie counting. I tried zoodles for the first time (zucchini noodles) and had a huge plate of food for approx 200 calories.

I'm hoping to catch some breaking bad today after I donate blood. Very thankful for the day off today.

We went out for a late breakfast today followed by golf but the weather was so warm that we were tired and no one did well. Funny thing, #18 is over water and I'm usually so tired that I hit two into the water and quit. Today I went first and overshot the green (almost went into the water in the back) and everyone else put two in the water and quit. Still in all, a bad round for all of us despite MIL getting two birdies on the front nine.

We opted to come straight home which was a good idea. We got home and saw our front gate open. No one inside. Scared that Bogey had gotten out and DS and his friend (who's car was out front) were chasing him down somewhere. Nope. The boys were out playing with the dogs and DS's friend needed to get home to finish packing (DS drives him to and from UCLA before going down to UCI) and when he opened the back door, Louie--who had been pining to go outside all weekend--escaped. The escape wouldn't have been a problem except Bogey was out there and chased him--right up a tree! DS had gotten out a ladder to get him but was having trouble and we arrived right on time. DH got him down, but on his climb up he really tore up his pads and tore out several nails. Poor kitty. We cleaned him up with hydrogen peroxide and some EMT gel for pets (first aid in a tube!). He is obviously in pain but ate dinner and is walking with his tail high. We'll clean him up again in a bit and put some "socks" on him (cutting off the fingers of my jogging gloves for socks). Poor DS is distraught. He loves this cat and hates to see him hurt.

Michele, congrats on getting back under goal. What calorie count have you been aiming for the last month?

BTW- we have reached the magic 500 limit on the current getting-back-to-maintenance thread without picking a name for the new one. I am not going to foist my pick on everyone but I still like "Maintainers getting back to goal."

Andrea

Poor Louie kitty!

Andrea... My app tells me to eat 1500 calories a day but I'm trying to stay under that as I estimate some of my portions and would rather err on the safe side. I've been eating approx 1200-1300 most days plus doing daily exercise.

Poor Louie!! Are your cats indoor only, Allison? All of our cats are indoor, but we have a couple who try to get out whenever they can!!

Maintainers Springing Loose the Lard?

Some of us have never reached goal so we can't get back there - yet.


Michele I just read ("O" magazine so take with a grain of salt) that adult women should aim for 100 cals per lb. of body weight to maintain a weight. So if I want to stay at 135 I should aim to eat 1350 cals per day.

This is why "one size fits all" definitely does NOT!

Dagmar

5 more inches of snow have fallen during the night and another 2 are expected to keep swirling and falling this morning. I used to love going to work. Now I dread and fear it in conditions like these. Add the shoulder injury and .

I sometimes wish I could take a "snow day" which, in my case, would be totally accurate.

Dagmar

We're cloudy, cold, but snow free at moment. Snow predicted at 100% - to 5 inches. The snow thrower is ready.

Sleet and freezing rain here yesterday, followed by another inch or so of snow. At least it's supposed to warm up starting today! When I left my house this morning it felt wonderfully warm (a balmy 32F ) and there was a bird singing in our flowering pear tree.

Allison, I hope Louie recovers quickly from his escapade!

Baby C slept through the night again last night. A almost did -- DH went in to her once, but I think if he had just left her alone she would have settled down in a few more minutes. They didn't nap well the past couple days though since they want to be crawling and standing up as much as possible. We're trying to transition them to a 2-nap schedule but the hardest part is keeping them up for 2 hours in the morning.

It's snowing steadily. Of course it is, what else could it be doing, except icing over? We're going to get about five inches by noon, and then we'll send those clouds along to the Boston area, where they'll leave something lying around for Bill's snowblower.

This is always a work-from-home day for me, so I'm just a spectator, after picking my way home from the gym along the very narrow trail others' snow boots have worn in the bank that represents the sidewalk.

About to drink a cup of coffee & get on my weekly managerial meeting, where talk will turn to replacing the employee who died last week.

I can't wait till work is over and I've seen my therapist at 5:15 PM and can just watch an episode of RuPaul's Drag Race online, as that's about all I can take today of seriousness and duty.

Yes, both our cats are indoor cats however they are both allowed outside (backyard only) supervised visits. They like to roll in the sand and hunt lizards. The way Louie was pining to get out should have made me put the dogs in and let the cats out for a while. Louie is doing okay--I'm sure it's painful. He slept with us for a couple of hours last night and he was back in the cat room this morning so he can get around just fine. He's eating, drinking, peeing and pooping. He seems to like the attention I give him so I think he'll be okay. Everyone said to keep an eye on his feet and if there is any discharge or he isn't walking right I should take him in.

I have an appointment for Bogey tomorrow and I'll ask the vet about him, too.

Bogey's obedience class is tonight. I hope he knows his sit stay well enough to do it with all the distractions of the other dogs.