Got home late yesterday afternoon from my week in New York. It's so HOT here! I couldn't fall asleep last night -- too much on my mind, thinking about work and a million other things. I had the alarm set for 4:15 to get up and run but after midnight - I decided running on <4 hours sleep would not be a good idea, so I pushed it back to 5:30 and then finally fell asleep.
It was such a fun week; hard to come back to reality!

But, I will be up there again to get DD settled into an apartment at some point. Her job starts in mid-July.

We ate and drank a ton the last week. But I did run 2 times, biked once (a leisurely bike ride with relatives on Long Island) and walked tons. One day Fitbit said 35,000 steps! Feet were sore that day! I was very happy to see I had not gained over the week. I wasn't sure what to expect because I didn't eat very healthy at all.

Have a great short week!

Good morning. I didn't do the best job with eating this weekend, but other than Monday I was pretty active. Walked around at an outside festival on Saturday, yard work on Sunday, then yesterday we decided to watch movies all day so lots of sitting. And snacking. TOM this week, so snacking is much easier for me to reach for.

We are supposed to go to a concert tonight, but it is at an outside venue and there are very likely to be thunderstorms all night starting at 7pm. Sigh.

Great week everyone!

I was just about to go online yesterday to buy a plane ticket to visit my 21 y.o. son at Ft Eustis in Virginia the last weekend of July. But (fortunately) the phone rang, and my son announced that he and his gf (from here in Calif) will be getting married in Virginia in early July, so that she can accompany him to his next duty station in Korea. I guess absence makes the heart grow fonder, and all that. Good thing I hadn't bought the ticket, because I have no interest in visiting the two of them during their honeymoon period! Besides, they'll be back home in Calif on August 10, which I didn't know either until yesterday. They will probably stay with us for three weeks. Plenty of time to visit. None of us in the family think this is a good move, but DS will just have to learn the hard way.

Other than that, I had a nice weekend with two hikes and two days at home. I didn't manage to even scratch the surface of what I wanted to get done, but there are a few things that I actually accomplished. Like harvesting a lot of arugula and drying the leaves, planting an Anaheim chili seedling, and ordering a few things online.

My weight is back down a pound to 126 despite eating a few too many peanut butter m&ms last night.

I was just sent a listing of what used to be my family home. They are using the same realtors as I did when I sold it to them. I kinda always knew they bought the house to reno and resell and I was really curious how they would go about bringing it into the 21st century.

It looks gorgeous! I asked the realtors (who are also dog park friends of mine) if it would be OK to come to one of the open houses this weekend. I have no regrets about selling the damn place - too many evil ghosts and awful abusive memories for me to ever live there. And I had no money left to do anything with it except the most basic repairs - my dad had bled me dry for 4 years paying various expenses there.

So these people have done a bang up job renovating (at least from the realtors photos which CAN be misleading). It's listed for 200K more than I sold it for and I think they have made it worth the price. Took them 2 years to do it.

Dagmar

Silverbirch...mud pie & saef have got it spot on for making a house looked lived in. Talk radio on low volume on a timer is good too. Is the wiring aluminum? If it is, it seriously needs upgrading and can be a fire hazard. Just a 'heads up.'
Liana

Thanks, everyone. Your support is helping me as I walk this very busy path.

The grass and garden is organised (grass being cut as we speak, I think, and lined up to be fortnightly). Post redirected and flyers organised. Windows are all locked. I've also put up a new pair of curtains in exchange for some ancient Dralon curtains which had perished in the sunshine. Neighbours alerted.

Yes, Liana, exactly. It's the wiring I'm concerned about. That's why I'm not at all sure about having anything electrical on for any length of time. I think I'll ask an electrician to come and have a look. (A few years ago this house had a slow gas leak, ignored by most friends and relatives and reported by me....) I'll get the SO, who is with my mother at present, to go round and turn the lights off, I think.

No surprises today although I did have a brutal telephone session with a financial institution's bereavement department. More training needed, obviously.

Food OK-ish but not enough fruit and veg which is so unlike me. Will look for some good veg to buy this afternoon. The DB made an Indian stew (beef, spinach, yogurt, spices) last night which we'll have tonight with rice and perhaps carrots.

Did flexibility exercises this morning and have arranged a sports massage for Saturday afternoon.

Alice-- congratulations? I was going to ask how you felt about it but I see you have reservations..... you never know....

Dagmar-- that is pretty cool about your old house. You should definitely go by and take a peek. I bet you'll barely recognize the house.

Birchie-- a sports massage sounds divine!

I still have a day I need to take off this school year and I keep debating which day to take. I'll probably take Monday as dh won't be able to go home mid-day to take care of Ellie that day. I'd love to take it on a day that he is around but that doesn't seem likely. He's going to Arizona mid week next week to drive with dd back from college. She is taking one summer class that is only 3 weeks so she'll be done then.

Birchie, I hope today is going well. It is draining to deal with everything you've got on your plate along with normal daily things. Hang in there!

Michele, yeah, it sounds like Monday is going to be your day off. I do a similar "taking care of animals" dance with my DH. I think he's going to skip my family reunion in July near Lake Tahoe because he's so worried about the cats being alone. We haven't found a house/ranch sitter because we live so far out of town.

Dagmar, I'd definitely be heading over to the old house to see the inside. Fun!

This weekend I'm backpacking to Maggie Lakes which is at almost 9000 feet. I'm going with a trail maintenance group and we'll be doing an inventory for the upcoming planned trail work. In a few weeks I'll hopefully get to use one of those giant two-man crosscut saws to remove downed trees. Chain saws are not allowed in the wilderness areas. Seems kind of silly to me, but that's the rules.

Hidey-Ho, all.

Alice, that hike sounds nifty. It's great that you are able to do it. I like to think I could keep up with a trail survey group, but I tend to be slow. But sounds really great. Are you a volunteer in trail maintenance, or is this a side-gig for pay?

Birchie, still following along. Best wishes that things come together for you well in the coming weeks.

Dagmar, glad you have a healthy view of your old family home (not clinging to the stuff of the past). I hope you do get to visit just to see what they have done with it.

Sharon, welcome home. I was in NYC last year, and wow, it was really nice.

I am again feeling discouraged, as this is my official weigh-day and I continue to just barely maintain. I am eating fairly normally, not too much, until I get home from work at about 2pm. Then at home I feel stressed and driven to eat until basically I run out of time and have to go to bed. I'm choosing better, so it's not going up, but still am running head-on into the reason I gain weight in the first place...my drive to eat and eat and eat. And that's not going to get me into those cute summer sundresses that I'm dying to wear and am afraid won't fit anymore.

I'm thinking more and more about restricting in the evening, but I'm scared of rebound gain. Also, I don't know what I'm going to replace the food with at night...and I definitely feel like I can't go hungry without a substitute of some kind. I'm not sure what I think will happen? Will I explode? Will I start lashing out at my family? I think I'm just afraid of feeling my feelings.

Georgette-- hmmm... so you are eating dinner and then eating later? I find that if I want to eat later, I drink hot tea or diet hot chocolate. I also chew sugarfree gum. Usually helps me past my cravings.

My weight is up. Frustrated. Not giving up. That's my mantra today. I feel my sciatica-- in my hip, leg, foot.... I seem to be able to tie it to sodium and swelling sometimes so I'm hoping my weight and my sciatica are simply sodium related.

Been up since 4:00 with Ellie so I'm exhausted and hoping the cravings don't get the better of me....

Michelle, I tend to go back for 2nds and often 3rds. It's like, once dinner starts, ending it is painful for me. I've tried lots of systems, and right now I'm trying to have my cake and eat it too. If it volumetric, it doesn't matter, but I don't have enough recipes in my repertoire that can be made fast.

Georgette: https://www.pinterest.com/astuartstu...etric-recipes/
Also, I buy bags of pre-prepped veggies at the supermarket, and make a dip of 1/2 hummus and 1/2 chunky salsa for a super-quick-to-make first course alternative to salad. Those same pre-prepped veggies go into a wok with a tbsp. of sesame oil, some soy sauce and a bag of shirataki noodles (many brands; the most common in a regular supermarket is called "miracle noodle") for a 5-minute, 100 calorie veggie feast. I'm just like you: I can't bear for dinner to be over, and my danger time is always the period between dinner and about 9 pm, when I want to graze and graze and graze if I'm not super full.

Thanks Andrea,
I guess I'm finally going to have to sign up for pintrest. Been fighting that one.