I did enjoy the movie but I was puzzled by a lot of the references, not having the back stories of the characters.

Dagmar

Here's a substitute for your ice cream dessert, Dagmar. Get this Nestle Zero hot cocoa mix. Mix 8 grams (1 serving) into plain greek yogurt (150-180 grams or so). If you want it to taste like 'smores, crumble one graham cracker on top. 90 calories for the yogurt, 25 calories for the cocoa mix, 65 calories for the graham cracker. YUM! And a lot of calcium too.

Alice

Thank you Alice I'll try that!

Dagmar

Happy Fall and Happy October, everyone! 🎃 🍂
JayEll, I hope you and your partner are okay in the aftermath of Helene. What a terrible mess!!

I had a busy September with two trips away from home, for two nights each. One was a dog training retreat with my Conservation Detection Dog group, and the other was a lovely backpacking trip into the Tablelands of Sequoia National Park. I'm happy to be done with the trips. Now if the weather would just cool off! October started with a record heat wave, and we'll be around 100 for our high all week.(37.7 C)

I'm starting the month with the good intention to drop 5 pounds by my 70th b'day which is in December. I'll report on how it goes!

Good to hear from you Alice! Glad you enjoyed your trips and good luck with the weight loss plan.

Dagmar

Alice, Thanks for making me look up Conservation Detection Dog. What a neat partnership with a dog! Good news That you're enjoying our National Parks.

Dagmar, Hope all is going well your way.

Am alive and kicking here. Had house guests for three days - just the right length of time. Challenge was to eat sanely at a family gathering to meet with our guests when there was plenty of food for anyone to have seconds.

Glad you navigated the food challenges successfully Bill!

I looked up Conservation Detection Dogs too - neato! I', going to play a game with Holly doing some of the things in the training. She is going to go to scent detection classes at "dog school" but I have a large area of the backyard that I can use to work with her at home.

We will be doing this strictly for fun.

Dagmar

Bill, I agree that three days is the right length of time for guests to stay.

Dagmar, I'm happy to hear the dog school includes scent work. I think all dogs enjoy it and benefit from it. Sniffing is such a stress-relieving activity for them .
We are training just for fun, also. I had hoped to use Greta on native plant surveys, but my local Native Plant Society chapter doesn't seem to conduct any (false advertising). Then I wanted to search for morel mushrooms, but never could find any.in the forest to begin the training. Right now we use pieces of red Kong as our odor. We're only practicing at home this month. It's deer hunting season in California, which makes me reluctant to hike, even with orange vests, because there's a huge lack of common sense in this State!

Has the pickleball craze hit Canada yet?

I'm worried that assuming JayEll came through Helene okay, she'll be harder hit by this new hurricane. Hoping for the best!!

Good idea to work Greta at home during the deer hunting season Alice. Our dog school has 3 levels of scent detection. Not sure how far we will take it.Not sure what Holly and I will be using in class but I think I'll use slivers of chicken weiner for the backyard. Holly is not keen on non food items. I'll probably do a combination of detection and tracking.

I hope JayEll and her partner are OK after Helene and weather Milton too.

Dagmar

Hello folks,
It has not been fun in Florida. Helene flooded people whether they had expected flooding or not. Then came Milton out of nowhere, literally. We had to evacuate from the senior living complex. My partner and I were lucky to get space in a motel only 6 miles away but located outside any evacuation zone. One person we know drove all the way to Macon, Georgia to find a room. (That is not something we would have considered--the roads were packed.)
When we got to the motel, a crew was boarding up the windows with plywood. I am now a fan of plywood. When the storm hit, we lost power. We did have our storm lanterns, a battery-powered fan, and a power source for recharging phones. We heard the wind and rain--unbelievable--and branches hitting the roof, the ground, and the plywood! We also heard the transformers blowing out. It was very frightening, but the motel stayed intact.
People in our building who had nowhere else to go were evacuated to another facility outside an evacuation zone. There they had a chair and were fed, and were safe. We came back on Friday, and our apartment building had some outdoor damage but the rooms were fine. We had some power outages still. The dining service was up and running and kept us fed. Grocery stores are just barely opening.
We feel fortunate. So many people, including some we know, had a much worse time.
Hoping you all are well!

Glad to hear from you JayEll and that your storm experience resulted in little physical damage. I hope things remain fairly easy as you and your partner work your way through the aftermath.

Dagmar

JayEll - You were, indeed, fortunate to both avoid personal injury and personal loss of your living space. So good to hear that.

I can understand becoming a fan of plywood.

Got through 2 Thanksgiving dinners without really overeating.

Now it's time to buckle down and lose enough weight to get into my "winter fat pants" comfortably.

Poor Holly wound up with the poops despite not getting anything special to eat. I learned that lesson long ago - no holiday food for the pets. I always have rice, broth, and Pepto on hand so I'm hoping Holly will be on the mend soon.

Dagmar

JayEll, so glad to hear you made it through the storms relatively unscathed! I hope your life gets back to normal soon.

Today was the first day it felt remotely like fall. I think it only got to 73F (22C). But next week it will back up around 80 (27C). Nicer than 100 but not fall-ish.

Going to get a massage today - my second "treat" since I've been here. Thought I'd do that for myself since DH is scheduled to get a tooth extracted tomorrow so I'll be busy with him for the rest of the week.

Dagmar