I should have mentioned that the gym is just two blocks from my apartment. In fact, I would walk there, if I could. But that's beyond me, particularly with the frozen snow drifts and sheets of ice. It's an easy drop-off and pick-up.

And she managed it, I'm proud to say. YES! I got to my gym and did a workout there for the first time since early November. Granted, it was just pedaling at no resistance on a recumbent bike, and handling 12.5-lb weights while seated on a bench, and doing lat pull-downs with about 50 lbs. But I have to be careful, and I had to guess at where to start, after three months of handling nothing higher than the 5-lb dumbbells that I have at home.

Another victory in getting a small portion of my life back. Oh, and I talked my mother through parallel parking the car once we got back.

Saef, yay for the workout! That had to feel pretty darn good.

Good to be back, Becky, but discouraging to see that I've lost all of the gains that I achieved from six months of going through the New Rules of Lifting for Women program and the P90X upper body workouts that I was doing for a full year before I embarked on a systematic weight training program.

Breathing for a couple minutes here before I plunge into our first formal staff meeting since I've been back. I have to speak on camera and lead a brief discussion.

Discouraging yes, Saef-- but so many steps in the right direction-- figuratively and literally.

Sharon-- you are doing a lot of exercise these days! Is your weight continuing to drop?

Alice-- thanks for the before photo. When I show people my before photos (or my fat pants that I kept) if they don't know me from before-- they are shocked. I have to remember that when I "feel" fat...it's all relative.

My weight drop slowed somewhat-- so I'm down 3 of the 7 pounds-- I'm sure the last 4 will be tedious. I'm pretty sure we have one more meal out with the in-laws before they leave so I'll have to be super cautious. Not sure where we'll go, but I can assure you it won't be healthy per se.

Off for "Kindergarten Day"-- 8 kindergarten classes plus 2 fourth grade classes-- always wipes me out!

Well this will be interesting.

In January, our estimator quit (he'd worked for us for like 15 years) with less than 2 weeks notice. He'd been performing worse and worse lately, so DH wasn't sad to see him go. On his last day we had his replacement start so he could show her some of the things he did. During that day he said a couple things to the replacement (that she later shared with us) that made it sound as if he was less than happy with his position here.

In the past month the replacement has been doing very well. She knocks out two to three times the work (even though she's still learning) and seems to get along with everyone (not that he didn't).

Monday DH gets a text from the former employee asking if he can come in this Friday to talk after work. DH asks why, he says "about work. LOL".

DH asks current employees (some are friends of his) what's going on. Apparently the job he left us for isn't working out like he thought and he's going to ask for his job back. Um, yeah, we've already replaced him. The replacement is working out great. We don't have a position for him.

Meanwhile my assistant is back. She'd only worked 3 days a week prior, and she's doing the same now. She still has a bit of confusion but seems almost back to normal. Because of the confusion, I've limited her work in our accounting software to "view only". I am the only person who can do input. My IT guy can change that if anything were to happen to me. At this time she doesn't know that she can't input. She was confused when she signed into it today (even though I showed her how to sign in last week and she was in it all three days). We've dissolved our old company so there's no reason for her to go into the old company--I guess she thought she was in the old company even though I explained it to her. I am having her do payroll (something that took me all of 30 minutes to do while she was gone). She's been at it for 1 1/2 hours and is just to the point where she's printing the report for me to review before submission... We have a few jobs lined up for her to do that will take her weeks to complete but that is more "busy work" than I'd like to do on my own.

Saef, re the NRLW and loss of strength, do not forget or underestimate muscle memory.

Some long and challenging days recently. Now at my mother's. We're going to view a care home for my uncle tomorrow. I did a recce in December and was quite impressed.

alinnell, unbelievable that the former estimator has the chutzpah to think he could just get handed his job back.

I hope your "assistant" can manage to do some worthwhile work for you.

saef--yes, the body doesn't keep muscles that it isn't using. But, on the other hand, you are still alive and can build back up if you wish. Good news!

Too bad so sad for the estimator who quit, Allison. If you want to refer him somewhere, look on americasjobcenter.ca.gov for the nearest office. They can help him search for a new job. (I work at a similar office in Bakersfield). I hope your assistant improves.

Saef, take heart in the fact that you will get back to your former levels faster than if you'd never done the programs.

Michele, I'm only down 1 of my 3 but I continue to have faith. And I am staying away from high cal food today. That seems to help my faith Good luck finding a good choice at dinner. You may know this tip - ask the server to bring a take home container at the beginning of the meal and place half your portion in it before you eat.

Michelle - I am down to 140. It has been fluctuating between 138-143 and that is okay with me. The 138 is when I get too "ribby" as you put it, which is exactly what happens with me.
It seems like with all this exercise I can eat about 2500 calories - I'm not being too accurate but it's around that.

Saef- wow, I'm so impressed you went to the gym! I think you are in a very small minority of people that would go back that soon, just like you are in a very small minority of people who have kept off a lot of weight. You will get back your strength! I had to LOL at you saying that you "talked your mom through parallel parking". I think I would blow a gasket if I had to do that. When I was in Monterey with my DD last summer there was a lot of parallel parking and she has not driven much at all. She never had a car here in FL and now in NYC she certainly doesn't have a car. So out there, we had rented her a car and I had to try to explain parallel parking to her and it didn't go well. I think it basically ended with her saying "YOU JUST DO IT!". So the next time, I did. But she figured it out at some point when I wasn't in the car. I was a terrible passenger when my kids were learning to drive. I learned it was best to just shut my eyes because I was too nervous.

Alison- that does take some nerve!

My one year maintenance anniversary is tomorrow!!! I am actually down 10 from my original goal! I'm going to update my ticker to be like someone I saw on here that looked like it was pulled from a spreadsheet. Yeah, it's a little bit obsessive, but that's me.

My lenten goal didn't go so well today when I was talking to a friend of mine and another person came up... oops. I told my friend "oh no, I just broke my lent goal!" She said I better not talk to her until Easter. I sound like I'm an awful person, always talking about people. I'm not! I'm just trying to be more positive in general and that was the first thing I could think of doing.

It's zero degrees this morning, as I write this, with a wind tossing the tree branches which probably makes it really sting one's face. I will bundle up well later today when we head out for my physical therapy session.

Sharon, what has gotten me back to the gym is my deep resentment over how this injury disrupted my life, including my routine of daily gym-going. I have an almost righteous attitude about this -- I feel like I'm taking back something that someone tried to snatch from me.

And as for the parallel parking, it used to be (and may still be) required for your NY State Drivers License test. You had to show the examiner you could do it. And actually, living in Manhattan and near it has made me better at parallel parking -- one of my proudest achievements was managing it in bumper-to-bumper tight parking in Chelsea one Saturday afternoon, just in front of an artist's loft where I had to pick up an iron 19th century day bed. There were three guys hanging around outside a dollar store with clothing racks on the sidewalk and they were critiquing me: "More to the left -- no, cut it hard right." I managed in spite of them!

Allison, I hesitate to call your assistant an employee; rather, I think of her as a charity case you have taken on under the pretext of giving her "useful" work to do every day, to save her pride and to maintain a fragile fiction that you are getting something back in return for funding her health care. You are generous but it's your business, so you can afford to be. If it were me, with three layers of management over me scrutinizing how I was handling a nonproductive employee, that person would be gone.

And now back to bed, but not to sleep -- to lie there and do my morning weighted leg raises, to warm up my leg for this chilly day.

You haven't lived until you have had to parallel-park in San Francisco, on the left side of a one-way street, on a hill.

Also, you had to park within six inches of the curb or risk a ticket.

I have to agree that my assistant is more of a charity case than anything. I know if she were working for a large corporation she would have been tossed out long ago. I have to be quite diligent to make sure she isn't making mistakes. In fact, I woke up this morning and started thinking of something that she asked me about yesterday that at the time seemed correct but now I'm questioning that and that will be the first thing I look at when I get to the office this morning.

And as for the employee who quit, DH sent him a text yesterday that in essence said we have no open positions at this time so there's really no reason to come in. That also weighed on my mind as I lay awake from 3 AM. Fridays we leave early--3 PM and normally I'd be in the office until maybe 3:30 and then take the dogs home. Today, however, I have a hair appointment at 3 PM so will be leaving early and letting DH take the dogs home. After my hair appointment I'm meeting a dozen girls to celebrate two birthdays. I won't be home until after 8 PM so I won't hear from DH if the former employee comes in or not. Meanwhile, our IT guy had his work email forwarded to me so I can catch anything important. So far, only one thing of importance has come in but he also had all his banking stuff sent to his work email. I forwarded those to his personal email and told him it would be best for him to change his email with his bank so he gets the notices himself. He finally did that yesterday (but only after I reminded him again and told him his work email would cease to exist in a few days). I couldn't help but see what the notices were...lots of overdrawn notices. I'm sure he's really hating it, but we're not going to be offering charity in this case.

Good for you! Grown, able-bodied man with skills... He can figure it out.

Allison-- can't dh text you so you don't angst about it?

Parallel parking! Oy! Yes, I had to do it to pass my driver's test (in Texas), but my girls didn't have to do it here (in California). Not sure if it's still required in Texas or not. I can't do it anymore. Very stressful if I'm driving somewhere like San Francisco and there isn't parking. I will have to pay extra to find a parking garage or the like.

Sharon-- sounds like you've got this maintenance thing down!

Yes, too ribby.... such a small variance-- over 123 I have a "pooch", under 118 I'm way too thin... so about a 5 pound variance.... My "happy" weight is 118-120 but I rarely see that. I'm at 123.6 this morning which I'll take. Much lower than my 127.6 earlier in the week-- and under my 125 redline. I was also 123.6 yesterday so I'll take it as a double win-- my dinner out didn't spike my weight!

Dinner out changed my plans more than I thought. Originally I was going to yoga, then meeting inlaws for dinner. That changed when BIL and family decided to join for dinner before heading back to the airport. They needed to do dinner earlier so yoga was out. I raced home from work, intent on still working out. I made it to the gym and did 45 minutes on the elliptical while starting Prison Break. Loved it! Did pretty well at dinner-- avoided the yummy bread, no alcohol (never drink), got the appetizer I craved but shared with dh and left some... dh didn't want to share a dinner because we wanted different things so I ordered halibut with veggies. It wasn't a huge portion so I ate it all. They ordered my favorite dessert to share and I was sooooo tempted but I abstained. I just told myself that each bite was probably 100 calories....

Excited that we'll be done with the relatives after today. Dh will say goodbye to his parents this morning before they fly home. Dh and I are planning yoga this afternoon and then salads-- even though we don't like this yoga teacher-- she's visiting from Canada-- Dagmar-- I thought Canadians were known for their niceness? She's mean!

The weekend?? Who knows! I have a nail appointment tomorrow.... and reading! Staff is also counting our minutes for our read-a-thon so I have to make sure I'm getting my minutes in-- my minutes were announced for the whole school this week!

I plan on asking him to do so.

Grown man with skills...most of our employees are grown men with skills but you'd be surprised at how many have no clue how to manage their finances. Yeesh. And I'm the lucky one who answers the phone when their creditors call...