Oh yes.... inservice days. I always pray I'll have some time to actually work but oftentimes that's not the case. If I sit for too long listening, I tend to get sleepy so it's a battle!

I'm looking forward to our inservice day in October. We have a half day the day before Halloween (complete with parade). Then, Friday is an inservice day, so no kids on Halloween! Hooray! Then, hopefully by the time they return on Monday, they will have sufficiently detoxed most of the sugar out, and be little humans again!

Saef-- that could be fun but hopefully you can mostly stay out of the casinos. Boring! So much else to see and do there! Half price show perhaps? We saw funny comedians there doing the half price thing. First time we went, we renewed our vows in the Elvis Chapel (but weren't married by Elvis), and saw Siegfried and Roy.

Andrea-- sorry about the dreaded holidays. My Jewish dd reminded me. It wasn't even on my radar screen. Since the girls have moved out (and one is now Mormon) and my dh is Catholic, we haven't really been practicing anything. I feel a slight guilt, but not enough to do anything about it at this point.

I don't know what the heck is going on with us for Rosh Hashanah. MIL is hosting something at her house tomorrow night I think, but I don't know when, and DH and the kids have a cold, so I don't know if we'd go anyway. Plus they go to sleep at 6:30 so unless she's planning to serve dinner at 5 we wouldn't be able to do it anyway. I wouldn't mind some challah though, maybe I should make some this weekend.

I have not been on track with eating this week. Or last week. Trying to get my exercise shaped up again now that my 12 week program is over and not doing a very good job of it. I went for a run Monday so that was good at least! Will try for the same today I think.

Just ... too much to do at work. A 10-page document in Japanese English to rewrite, that dropped on me over the weekend, on top of several other writing assignments.

Hard to imagine I'll be on vacation in Las Vegas next week. It's like I've got to climb over a mountain to get that land.

The work always seems to pile on before a vacation doesn't it? I thought I had a weekend off this coming weekend but I'm now doing 4 pet visits on both days. Since money has been tight this is good but I was so looking forward to having a bit of time off. Oh well..

Dagmar

Lots to do here, too. I've been out of action for almost two weeks nursing this cold, and my to-do list took off exponentially. Despite great weather providing opportunities to get outside and take care of all the pre-winter prep, it's been me that's under the weather. Thank goodness we've got another terrific weekend coming up; maybe with some decent planning and even better execution, I can climb back on top of the pile.

Our in-service was actually good! One every ten years or so it has to happen. A doctor from the local university who specializes in autism, aspbergers and all those different brain issues was the speaker. She was a great speaker and I learned a lot.

Saef, have fun in Vegas. Relax and enjoy time with your mom.

We are really enjoying Nattie's company in our home. She's been with us for 2 months and, now that we understand she's the boss , things are good. We have routines, rituals, and a reasonable adherence to a few house rules.

She does continue to amaze and astound (and sometimes horrify) me. Yesterday morning was horrifying. I was calling and calling her, trying to get her in before I went back to my longer stint of daily work. Suddenly I saw a cat way down at the corner scurrying along. I thought it was Nat but no. A second cat came into view, chasing the first cat. That was Nattie. She cornered the other cat by a fence and launched herself at it, spitting and screaming and puffed up like an adder! Then the other cat bolted down the driveway and my little demon gave chase, screaming like a banshee.

I was more than a little and hurried down the drive after them. They were gone. I went back to my house and started locking up. Nat came sprinting down the street, panting a bit and with long black fur caught in her front claws. ! She herself suffered no damage and I'm hoping the tuft of fur was all the other cat sustained.

I've never, ever seen such aggression from a female cat. DH was not surprised - said he kinda thought she was a "thug" at the Humane Society but small enough that we could deal with it.

I'm going to get a quote for pet insurance this weekend. I'm pretty sure Nat will come to grief at some point in the future and I want to be able to get her fixed up if she's fixable. We can't make her an indoor cat - her drives are too high and she'd be totally mental in about a month. She is who she is and we have to minimize the occasional mayhem that causes.

Something new every day I guess.

Dagmar

That would freak me out, Dagmar! She's one tough cookie!!

That reminds me of a story about my Jozi (my Great Dane that just passed away). One of my two kitties (Charlotte) was terrified of Jozi but she showed it with aggression. She would chase Jozi, puffed up and hissing. One time when we lived in South Africa, Charlotte attacked Jozi, hitting her repeatedly on the head while screaming (mind you she is declawed in the front so it didn't hurt)-- Jozi jumped into our big tub and wouldn't come out. She was shaking like a leaf. We couldn't stop laughing.

I'm so tired of all the food temptations at my school. We are welcoming a visiting teacher from China this morning (we have dual immersion classes in Chinese/English) with 5 giant boxes of donuts. I have zero sense of smell and the sugary smell almost knocked me over. Everyone was raving about the "cinnamon sugar waffle donuts". They looked quite tempting. I wish I didn't have to go through the break room every time I need to go to the bathroom. Ugh. Not. Going. To. Be. Weak.

I used to have to deal with donut days when I worked at the hospital. Glad that doesn't happen much here. I think in the (what is it now, 8 or 9 years?) that I've been here we've had donuts once and bagels twice. Bagels are harder for me to pass up (although they aren't nearly as good unless toasted and I don't know where the toaster ended up when we moved).

I am terrified of letting the cats out unsupervised. But DS thinks we need to let Culley out. He's been inside 100% of the time since we moved him into our house and that was at the beginning of August--so almost 2 months. The other cats have been out, supervised, twice in that time. Although Culley might leave, I trust he'd return but I'm so afraid of him getting caught by a coyote. He really doesn't complain (much). He's a very vocal cat so just what he's talking about at any given moment is up to anyone's imagination.

I wish Ringo would just let Bogey have it again (he did it once and drew blood on Bogey's nose). I know that since we left them all alone, mostly unsupervised, for a week while we were on vacation that there was some sort of altercation that has caused Ringo to be terrified of Bogey again. Bogey has a habit of "startling" when one of the cats moves unexpectedly. That startling move makes Ringo really uneasy and he tends to dart away which causes Bogey to give chase. I just need Ringo to turn and attack to make Bogey stop. Before the vacation, Bogey wouldn't come near Ringo and everything in the house was wonderful. I finally got Ringo up on my lap last night and he purred (not as deeply as usual, though). So maybe he's starting to come around.

That said, DH is trying to make Culley a lap cat and Culley won't have anything to do with that and ended up slashing DH in the face (one small cut--nothing serious). DH has no instinct when it comes to cats doing their famous about-face when they're about to attack. I can see it a mile away (therefore I have very few battle scars!).

Stay strong against the donuts, Michele! Today I'm enormously glad I don't have a temptation like that, because the past month or so my sweet tooth has been out of control.

The weather forecast here is for an almost summery weekend, so that should be a treat! TGIF!

Allison-- I would NOT let Culley out. Inside cats live much longer, healthier lives. There are too many bad things on the outside (predators, cars, diseases from other cats), so if you can keep him in, do!

Now that my cats are coming downstairs (they lived upstairs exclusively when Jozi was alive), they are showing some interest in going outside. They are not allowed though!

Thanks Iris! I'm staying strong! I haven't had a donut in so many years, I think I'd go into a diabetic coma....

I find that on the few occasions that I've given in and eaten a munchkin at work, I was extremely disappointed. Definitely not worth wasting any calories on. Now if there were warm, fresh donuts, that might be a different story.

But I'm still not not like my DD. We dropped by out local farm stand today. Got some honeydew melon, grape tomatoes, big bunch of fresh basil, etc for myself and some fresh-baked raspberry-chocolate crumble squares for her. She ate about half a square, decided it wasn't doing anything for her, and left the rest. She weighs herself a few times a year, fences 4 nights a week, and her weight naturally stays in a 5 lb range.

Speaking of which, gotta run now and drive her to fencing...

George Clooney's tying the knot? I'm crushed. And to a lawyer!

That's what happens when I'm sulking in my cave - world shaking events of which I'm totally unaware!

Dagmar

Dogs or donuts ? What will we talk about ? I vote for dogs. My in house helper brought her shih tsu to work with her yseterday. What a sweetie I hated to see her leave
Now to the donuts. WhenI was overweight and gaining, every morning I would get in the car and drive to the store and buy 4 donuts, take them home and eat them immediatelyWhen I moved fthat neighorbood store didn't have donuts but they had turnovers,yum. I no longer go on a donut or turnovers run. A donut or turnover has not crossed my doorstep in quite some time.

Maintainance is physically much like dieting but emotionally it is different.I have found that I still have to count calories and budget my food choices but can let up a very little bit.
Gone is the excitement of getting on the scales and seeing a dramatic loss but in its place is the satisfaction of seeing the scale not go up.The trick is not to get too cocky or complacent.
I realized that I treating my food much like wine seems to work for me.
I would love to drink 3 glasses of wine every day and get that warm buzz,but common sense says I can't do that so I limit my wine to 1 or 2 glasses(5oz) a day.I approach my food the same way and though I would love to eat larger portions and go for seconds,my common sense says to slow down and stop.I guess this is the "in moderation"principle at work.
I have settled into a comfortable warm maintainance without the ups and downs of unrestrained eating.