Such a pleasant time of year. Yesterday's walk in the comfortable Fall temperature was a joy. I was stopped by a neighbor to talk about the snowblower, a conversation that I'm not ready to have yet.

My eating is falling victim to snacks as if I wasn't responsible for what my hand is putting in my mouth. Some days I long for having my teeth wired closed so that I can only eat soup for a few months to get my brain back in working order around snacking.

Early morning in my house today. DH has a new 7-3 work schedule, and DSS is on fall break and has a skateboard camp that doesn't start until 9am. Found out when I got up that I have a meeting at one of our restaurants (boss sent me a text message at 11 last night after I was in bed) at 10am about an hour away, more if there is traffic. I'm working now to figure out how to bend space and time to get there on time. Didn't sleep well, as often happens when I have a change to my routine in the morning. It is going to be a fun day today.

Bill - as none of my clothes looked right this morning the jaw wired shut idea looked better and better.

On Monday morning, the week to come always looks daunting. I have to remind myself to take it hour by hour. Also, I am trying not to brace myself for something unplanned and unknown that hasn't happened yet and may not happen -- because the anxiety of watching for it is generally worse than the apprehension of having to complete it once it lands on me.

I'm also trying to think, now and again, of the good things in life:

On Friday, I booked a flight to New Orleans for late October.

And though I've lived in a construction zone for nearly a year now, our flood wall is FINALLY complete around the apartment complex. Work continues to repair the trashed grounds and re-pave the crumbled pavement.

And I'll go for another x-ray of my leg today. I think my time in physical therapy may be running out. I'll need to be diligent in my gym-going, but hey, that's been my second job ever since I lost weight and joined this site.

I have been to 2 weight training sessions and have done 2 more at home and boy there's a difference already. Talk about a motivator! I haven't had the urge to binge eat in the evening and don't drink beer on the weekend - the workouts with the trainer are on the weekends so I don't want to go in there with any kind of fog on the brain, caused by booze or food.

My fall dogwalking pants were loose this morning. Two weeks ago, when I first crammed myself into them, I could barely zip them.

I'm starting the fall in a good place!

Dagmar

Time to fly back home, after the motor coach tour and a few extra days visiting in SLC. Not sure I'm ready to face "daily life" again, since that concept has become rather vague over the past year.

Also pretty tired. As the tour guide commented, "It's a tour, not a vacation." That's a good thing to keep in mind. On the tour, you do have a set itinerary, and you have to get up in the morning and get on the road. The extra days afterward were good.

We won't get back home until close to midnight, I expect.

Weather here is humid with a very good chance of rain for several days this week. We really need it, so I hope we get a lot although I dislike the humidity.

I'm missing having my son around. I hope he remembers to call often.

Our work schedule is always 7-3 although we're doing mandatory overtime 4 days a week as we're so busy, so I stay until almost 4 each day. It makes it a little harder to get things done after work (I have a huge list of things to accomplish every day--the joys of being a pet owner!). I'd like to be able to get off earlier to get more done AND fit in some exercise but I feel like if we have to make the guys work OT, I should, too. I haven't been sleeping well at all lately--too much of what must be hot flashes--so my old routine of getting up at 4 to work out hasn't been happening for weeks. Thankfully no weight gain but the needed loss is ever so creepily slow.

We had our trees trimmed last week and Sunday, as we were leaving for golf, we noticed one of our huge agave plants had toppled over. After golf we inspected it and it looks like it rotted out from the inside. A neighbor suggested we might have a family of rats that decided to make it it's home. I think he's right as the dog was quite intent on sniffing something out in that vicinity. We'll have to wait until Saturday for our gardener to remove it and until then it looks really bad. But these things are kind of dangerous--they have 1 to 2 inch "stingers" on each leaf and they can stab you (I've had it happen). This plant is (was) about 6 feet tall and 8 feet in diameter. Sad that it died. I hope there are babies underneath it that will continue to grow (that's how they propagate).

Allison Sometimes it feels like you and I are living on different planets. I've never been to California so your descriptions of what are quite mundane things to you - agave plant - sound totally exotic to me.

I just finished pulling out my dying petunias. Not nearly so interesting.

Dagmar

agave plant

For those unfamiliar. This is what an agave plant looks like. Mine had the middle fall out of it.

Busy chat this morning-- love it!

I'm already running around crazy at work so just a fly-by for me.

Overall good weekend... got tons done.... was exhausted last night though and grouchy with my puppy who wasn't cooperating. Dh comes home Wednesday and I'm ready for him to be home!

My weight is about 5 pounds less than last Monday! Changed my eating plan slightly. I'm sticking to that plan this week and hoping for a little more of a drop-- at least not a gain hopefully! I've also been lifting weights-- so that may be boosting my metabolism. Hoping to get to body pump tonight-- the classes were all cancelled last week as they were renovating the group exercise room....

The weather is HOT today (100) but dropping way off starting tomorrow... no rain here.... so dry....

I believe it's the blue one that makes for the best tequila?

Dagmar

I'm not entirely sure. I think you may be right.

Yes, tequila is made from blue agave. There are very specific regulations on the agave that you can use and the locations in which it can be manufactured.

It turns out that the extra dry summer causes the snout weevil to lay more grubs in these plants and the grubs eat the roots and that is what caused the plant to die. Two of our gardeners (one a friend, one who does work at our office) saw the photo and both agreed it was the grubs that killed it. We'll have our house gardener remove it and then we have to treat the soil before we put in a new pup.

my agave

Very quiet chat thread this week.

TGIF!

Last night we had a notary come to the house to complete our refinancing of our house. I was proud that I managed to squeeze in a gym session before even though it wasn't a full one-- better that than nothing.... tonight will be nothing so I didn't want two days in a row of nothing...

We've never refinanced before but we had no choice. When we bought our home, we assumed we would only be here for a few years. Homes are so expensive here (Northern California) and we were advised to take an interest only loan for 10 years to lower the payment. We've been in the home 10 years as of this week-- which is the longest we've ever lived in one home! So, we had to refinance before the loan skyrocketed. Very nice lady came to the house and we were debating what to do with the dogs as Ellie is still having fear issues with new people and situations and we never have company..... The trainer has suggested having neighbors ring the doorbell and just give her a treat when we open the door to show her that random people are nice, or have neighbors give her treats when we are on walks.... but I'm so inherently shy that I'm afraid to ask my neighbors that I barely wave to.... Anyway, we tried to put her in her crate with a Kong and she went ballistic... meanwhile Dewey (the dachshund) is barking! So... not a good start. We ended up with Dewey in my lap and Ellie with dh on a leash..... The lady was a dog lover and has a pit bull, so when we finished, I asked her if she would give the dogs each a treat and she happily obliged. The dogs were thrilled and it ended up being a good experience for Ellie, so I was pleased. I have no idea what I signed, but.... oh well....

Tonight dh and I are taking the dogs to the vet. It will be interesting to see how Ellie does there as she hasn't been in a couple of months since she was spayed. She is 7 months old today and we are going to discuss her baby teeth that aren't budging (ugh), get her and Dewey's nails trimmed, and discuss her fear situations with the vet. Dh doesn't think her fears are as bad as I do, but she is more confident when he is around and he doesn't see it....

Weekend plans consist of sushi tonight after the vet, yoga and possibly a hike with dogs tomorrow, and who knows what else... just spending time with dh.... love the weekends when he is home :-)

We've refinanced things so many times! What I dislike is when the notary goes into great detail about each document. I say just let us sign and get it over with--I'm sure they wouldn't put anything in there that would harm us! Our latest was refinancing our building which we had on an adjustable loan and we were facing a balloon payment and an interest increase--neither of which we wanted.

DS decided to come home for the weekend. I think he's already homesick.

We're golfing again this weekend as the weather didn't end up stormy as predicted. We were supposed to have four days of clouds and two of those days with rain and we ended up with two days of clouds and no rain. But since it passed, we no longer have humidity so golf is going to be good. Next weekend, if it is good weather, we'll golf at a regulation course (which takes twice as long) because our normal course will be closed for a month of reseeding the grass.