Charging into summer here without the temperatures that make it so much fun to eat dinner outside on the patio. I'm still juggling what shirt(s)/jacket to wear when out for a walk.

Avoiding snacks was working so good a week ago - not so good these last few days. I got sent to the corner store for an emergency green bell pepper for dinner's recipe which I did buy but also found a pint of Häagen-Dazs dark chocolate covered almond ice cream. Ouch! That was a habit of ten years ago that I need to restrain to a one time event.

Bill I hear you about the ice cream. There's a small shop near my dogsit that makes its own ice cream - both for cones and in pints. Since it was I Scream weather for the first time here on Sat. I walked down and got a pint. Pistachio gelato. It was amazing . But I won't get another pint until the end of June, when I'm dogsitting in the area again.

I figure 1 pint per summer month won't put the weight on but I have to limit it to that and I will get the quality pint, to make it a "special treat". :

Dagmar

Ah, Memorial Day. A day off of work. So nice! DH and I got up with the sun (it's up before 6 AM here) and got on the roof to clean all our solar panels and skylights. Now we're enjoying coffee and newspaper with the evaporative cooler keeping us cool. We're expecting temperatures in excess of 105 today which will make our cookout rather miserable and we'll have to eat indoors.

Tomorrow we're back to work and the old grind but today I'll savor.

I'm going to London in mid-July for a conference, and getting pretty excited about it. I've never been outside of London proper, except to Oxford and Cambridge, so this time DH and I are planning overnights to Canterbury/Dover and York/Leeds with a daytrip to Bath as well. I thought I was doing well for having bought our plane tickets already, but was just informed by friends that I had better book our hotels/B&Bs and even trains because it's tourist high season, and all the cheap fares sell out. Ugh. Nothing takes the joy out of travel for me like having to plan the minutiae. I would infinitely prefer to just go to the railway station and get whatever the next train is after I show up, but apparently that isn't very practical.

Also went out to see The Lovers with DH last night. Sort of a sad romance story, but well done. If you don't mind a movie that deals with infidelity, it's worth a watch. Debra Winger is now 62 years old. Like Meryl Streep, she has allowed herself to age normally (without surgeries), which makes her both beautiful and natural-looking. Every time I see a film with people over 50, it makes me realize all over again how much Hollywood hates aging. They are SO rare, especially women.

That sounds great, Andrea! All lovely places with interesting history and great architecture. Your friends give sensible advice as most schools break up for the summer holidays in the first or second week of July. Yes, it's a touristy time of year.

Sounds like a nice trip, Andrea. Enjoy!

Last night we had a BBQ (which my DS informed me was actually a cookout because we did not employ BBQ sauce). Burgers, corn on the cob, baked beans and watermelon. It was nice. And DS invited his new boyfriend so we got to meet him. A very nice young man who starts law school in the fall. They're cute together.

We got ice cream yesterday -- I actually ate the ice cream for lunch. DH had taken the kids to his parents' house while I worked on a sewing project with plans to meet up for ice cream later, then he texted me at 11:45 with "meet us at 12:30 at the ice cream shop" and I hadn't had lunch yet. I figured calorie-wise it would be better to just eat the ice cream for lunch than to eat lunch and also eat ice cream, because I can't eat just one bite of ice cream.

Then I saw a photo online of chocolate cream pie and was killed by a craving for it the rest of the afternoon, until I caved and made myself a mug cake late in the evening. Ended up around 2000 calories for the day, which I suppose isn't terrible, but is way more than I need to be eating to lose weight.

Only two more weeks until my vacation! I am so ready to be on vacation you have no idea. I haven't taken a vacation more than a week long in YEARS.

Jessica--where is your vacation to? With kids?

Allison-- sounds fun! Glad you got to meet the boyfriend. We are looking forward to getting to know dd's boyfriend when they come in July-- we met him briefly at Christmas but they will be staying with us for a few days and dh plans to have some "guy bonding" time.

We spent some bucks this weekend that I didn't really want to spend! We bought a mattress to replace the twin in dd's bedroom-- don't really think the twin will fit two people! And dh bought himself a new grill-- the old one was falling apart-- I told him Happy Father's Day!

In California, it is very hard to get rid of your trash. When we lived in Texas, you could put just about anything on the curb and it would disappear-- either by people driving by or by the trash service. Here we have very strict restrictions-- we have one small trash bin, one recycling bin and a yard bin-- each collected once a week. A few times a year we have "big trash" day where you can put extra stuff out-- still with restrictions, and today is the day! So, yesterday we (mostly dh) worked hard to dismantle his old grill and dd's old mattress and frame-- praying they pick them up today.

Michele, we're going to California for two weeks (yes, with the kids). One week will be spent with my parents (who moved up to the bay area last year), and one week will be road tripping down the coast. We're flying in to Oakland and out from San Diego. My hit list of must-do activities in the road trip portion so far is the Monterey Bay Aquarium, some beach time, Catalina or some similar island, Legoland, and the San Diego Safari Park I think. I don't know if you remember me mentioning before, but I grew up in LA so have been to all the LA stuff previously. However, I think I only went to San Diego like twice, so it'll be nice to get down there.

Wow, I was just poking around 3FC and noticed my join date is February of 2005. I've been on and off this site for over 12 years! That's pretty crazy. Not coincidentally, when I'm not on this site, I gain weight. Hmmmmm......

Jessica-- so you'll be in my neck of the woods! Sounds like a fun trip!

This site does help to keep us focused....

I had to do fasting bloodwork this morning. I have such a headache now even though I've had coffee and breakfast. Blech....