Good exercise shoveling the 3" of snow that reached Boston. We're so grateful that we were spared the 39" that hit some.

We're in mourning here that our New England Patriots lost their (American) football game to the Denver Broncos. Perhaps it will be easier to avoid too much snacking while watching the Superbowl if our team isn't in it.

Morning! Hoping for a better warmer week here. The inital stress of Trixie's injury has passed so that I'm not taking sleep meds any more. Having some very vivid and terrible dreams (I woke up from one with my fists clenched so hard they hurt) that have been suppressed for a week.

It's a relatively easy work week so I'm hoping the sleep will sort itself out before the next hard work week begins second week of February.

Dagmar

Sorry about your Patriot's, Bill, but we rooted for Denver. We also rooted for Arizona and you know how that turned out.

We are looking for a warming trend this week--up to 80 Friday and Saturday. We can't golf until Sunday, though, because I have an appointment to pick up my new car Saturday morning. Then next week, I have to go through the motions of returning my current car.

Dh was rooting for the same teams as you, Allison, so he is excited the Bronco's are in it. His birthday is February 3, so he always thinks the Super Bowl is all about his birthday!

New car! Fun! What did you decide on?
We were debating trading my car in and thought we found a car to lease, hoping the payments would be the same or lower than my current payments. They weren't, so we are cooling our heels for now. I like my car a lot, but we don't like the dealerships around here for maintenance and the like. My car will be out of warranty soon and we are constantly getting solicitations for my car being a lemon from lawyers. We've had minor issues but I'm worried that once it is out of warranty, it may start having more!

Wilbur is going in to the vet to have his teeth cleaned which meant that neither cat got food or water after last night. They were hilarious and miserable! Hopefully Wilbur just needs them cleaned and not pulled but his mouth looked pretty awful when I peeked inside.

I decided on an Acura RDX suv. It seats five. I could have gotten the MDX that seats seven, but DH's suv seats seven, so we don't need two big cars. I hope my older Lab won't have an issue getting in and out. And I am happy to report that we'll save about $600 per month on the lease!

New week, new opportunities! DS is in midterms and is seriously stressed. I am just supporting and staying out of the line of fire. Poor guy - all that plus a long show-choir rehearsal and two swim meets. I hope he prepared well over the weekend, because he sure won't have much time this week. Me, this week I am re-establishing the calorie monitoring habit.

Bill, I'm glad you dodged the bullet this year. Think you paid your dues to the snow gods last year!

Dagmar, it's good to read Trixie's injury is "better" and you are getting some natural rest.

Best wishes to Wilbur for keeping some of his teeth, Michelle. I am sure a predator feels the loss very keenly.

Allison, congrats on the lease savings! Heck, if you're SAVING $600/month on a lease, you are way out of my league. Leases in general are out of my league because I drive over 30K/year. My 2009 has 189K miles on it now and I am *just* about ready to consider my fifth car purchase. I like to buy them new and drive them to death.

Becky, glad to read that someone else racks up the miles like I do. My 2009 Corolla has over 225K miles. A new car is probably on the horizon for me. Maybe a Subaru Outback, which is more of a hiking car than the Corolla. I hate the Subaru dealership in my area for maintenance, though.

Dagmar, no fun about the bad dreams. I have them too, especially when I sleep more than 6 hours. Last night I dreamed that I was bingeing on waffles with syrup. I knew I should stop, but I just kept eating and eating. Funny that I don't ever have that urge awake. Most of my bad dreams are about interactions with people.

Bill, sorry about the Patriots' loss, but you have a good point about reduced superbowl snacking. There are many ideas out there for "healthy" superbowl fare for those who will be watching.

I really want to start gardening, but I think I need to wait another couple of weeks to give everything a chance to heal before I start shoveling. I'm already doing all normal activities with my surgerized side. It is a credit to the surgeon that my right shoulder feels so good already. But her instructions to begin overhead range of motion exercises on Week 4 are ultra conservative according to other things I've read. Some places say to begin on Day 4, not Week 4!! It doesn't matter, I've already got 90% of the range back with no pain, and getting better by the day. My walking is back up to 15K steps.

DH spent most of the morning at the ophthalmologist's office and now he has several more appointments scheduled, culminating in cataract surgery on February 16th. It's in a town two hours from here so I guess we'll take the day off for that.

I can't imagine driving as much as you do, Becky! My commute to work is about 18 minutes and is only about 8 miles each way. My lease stipulates less than 10,000 per year and I'm under that despite three 800+ long road trips. The new lease will have the same mileage, but the car is a lot less expensive so the lease is cheaper. I've been paying over $1000 per month for the Jaguar and we're estimating somewhere in the $300-$400 for the new lease.

I forgot to mention we finally sold our RV. We've been trying to sell it for almost a year and have had many interested individuals but nothing panned out until now. It'll be nice to be rid of the storage fee, insurance, taxes and license for a vehicle we haven't used in three years or more.

I told DH he needs to help me with my garden. I have two tomatoes--one with a large cage (and two tomatoes on it) and one in a small cage (with more than eight tomatoes on it). The small cage is in danger of falling over so he needs to help me shore it up. Too bad I didn't know one would out-perform the other. My peppers are all doing well, but my basil needs to be replaced.

Howlin', although I understand your desire, keep in mind that overdoing or doing too soon can lead to setbacks. That means reduction in activity again, along with more scar tissue. I would say shoveling out a garden probably qualifies as "overdoing."

Becky I'm in agreement with "buy 'em new and drive 'em to death" although mine are in terms of years of use rather then kilometers. Although I drive all day it's very low mileage. My Hyundai Touring is a 2011 and it has less than 70K on it. I'm hoping it outlasts the payments - - which stop in 2018. My Corolla ran for 14 years and then DH, who had it for the last 4, traded it in to the dealership. It had about 200K on it. We are NOT power drivers.

I'm going to meet with some dogwalkers at a sushi place for dinner tonite. Haven't been out with anyone except DH and family for a long time. I have been rehearsing casual conversation in my mind all day. Sometimes I crack myself up.

Dagmar

I'm going to start using an idea that is a paraphrasing of Dr. Phil's "how's that working for you?"

If it's not working change it.

I keep trying the same things over and over again in life, much like clicking the same icon over and over again on the computer, hoping for a different result. It's the easier way for me.

But it doesn't work. Doing something different may not work either but at least it's a genuine attempt at fixing the problem.

The first thing I'm going to address is sleep. I don't get enough of it. That has to change as I think a lot of other things wrong in my life come directly from being exhausted all the time.

So I'm going to change two things to change my sleep. The first is to eat a small fruit cup (we can't afford fresh fruit any more so are going with the prepacked in water canned fruit) and a small greek yogurt in the evening as my snacks. I will put those out on the coffee table after dinner and those will be what I eat. I find that eating anything sugary - like candy, cookies, jam - results in my waking up around 1 a.m. feeling physically sick.

The second thing is Natalie. I love my cat but I can't let her wake me up at 3 a.m. every morning and keep bugging me to get out of bed and feed her/let her out. I feel guilty squirting her but it works. And I need to sleep. So she will be wet for a couple of mornings and learn to not disturb me.

Dagmar

Dagmar, I think it's fine to squirt Natalie. Good idea. I shut all animals out of the room for sleeping. Unless I'm dead tired, I'm not a very sound sleeper.

JayEll, your advice is wise, and I won't be gardening any time soon. I guess I could start some seeds, and by the time they are ready to go in the ground I'll be able.

Allison, earlier in the month I bought several strings of xmas lights at a deep discount because I remembered how you use them to overwinter the tomatoes. My DH likes to put plants in the ground, but does no weeding or other necessary upkeep besides watering.

Alice I can't shut Natalie out completely. She screeches her claws down the wooden door repeatedly while vocally squawking like a chicken. And those training tips that say cats have a short attention span? We timed her a couple of times. She kept up the noise for over 15 minutes. So she comes in the room but so does the squirter.

Trixie is gated out. I can hear if anything is happening (I wear foam earplugs to bed) but she can't come in. I have many clients who happily sleep with their big dogs. I find hubby to be sufficient company in my bed.

Dagmar

Dagmar, I no longer get children coming in to my room at 3 am (usually), but I sure could have used the water squirter trick for a few years there ...
Also, frozen fruit usually has more of the micronutrients preserved than the canned kind, and doesn't typically cost any more. Do you have Aldi's near you? Good quality at rock-bottom prices.

Andrea No Aldi's in Canada, though there is an Aldi's Toronto in Australia.

We do get bags of frozen fruit from Costco but it usually stays in the freezer. DH was eating it but he'd eat a bag at a time. Fruit in a can is portionable. I know it's less nutritious but we're much more likely to eat it.

Dagmar