Yeah, yeah, yeah -- here I am again. Just looking for the "patting self on back" smiley, or failing that the "high five" because I added an extra 10 mins to my run today I'm going to register for the Breast Cancer Run for the Cure 5k (I so appreciate people who limit races to something I can -- just barely -- do!) on Oct. 2, and ran 5k on Saturday. I did something like it today, but it was in the woods, so I don't know exactly how far it was. Anyway, at the end, I thought "I could do a sprint" and did! Time to start throwing in intervals, I guess.

Congrats to Kaylets for releasing .4 pound into the wild, and big congrats to Arabella too for losing over a pound and for making the bold decision to enter a 5K! Oh and for adding an extra 10 minutes to her run. Love that!

Another good day for me [so far]. I feel like I'm coming back to my senses. Making every effort to do what I know works for me. I wish that I weren't so "all or nothing". I know I've mentioned it before, but when my food plan goes off I don't work out, and vice versa. It's inevitable that I'll have slips; I just want to get it firmly in my mind that I can get right back on track if I want to. A week or two doesn't have to pass.

About today's question: I'm really trying to limit myself to one cup of coffee per day [and Garry makes the BEST coffee, so it's difficult to limit myself], that 2nd cup isn't as good as the first and sometimes leaves me feeling a little green. Last week while trying to decide if I should try substituting green tea for my afternoon coffee, a gentleman taking the art class at work gives me 150 bags of different varieties of Twining's green tea out of nowhere. I took that as a sign that I should give it a try! Not as rich as my beloved coffee, but I think I could get attached to it.

Forgot to mention: I read an article in "People" last night interviewing Oprah. And she said that she was doing Pilates now, she'd had a session every day this summer and Miss Winfrey is looking really nice and lean these days!
Guess who's off to do a little Pilates right now, while I have the strength!

Hello all!

Just filled the kettle for tea as I know I have to stop after the one cup of coffee and noticed a tiny rust spot inside the kettle... HOW ANNOYING! Must be that sometimes I let water sit in the kettle... I know for a fact that nothing but water has ever touched the inside of the kettle....
Ah well....

Arabella- Thanks for mentioning Anagram's wardrobe...I nearly missed that post.. Pink is such flattering shade for nearly everyone...for me, the more pastel the better...
Yes, looking better in clothes certainly is motivating...
And Arabella-- congrats on the run!! You are amazing to me as I sometimes have trouble walking... and lately have noticed knee twinges at unexpected moments... Hats off to you!

Eydie- Its DEFINITELY something but DH and I have discussed lately... to rely on what we know best, even though other avenues seem more appealing or profitable... My point is... we do best at what we do best....
in fact... I think that's today's thought of the day....
You know Pilates, you have had great success w/ Pilates, you have a great way w/ people... you are very interested in helping folks feel uplifted and positive ( I remember the "You're wonderful" cards!) ...
Pilates has SO many pluses .... including btw, "putting yourself out there"...

Oh, don't think I don't understand that tickling feeling in your stomach everytime you think of facnig the "class".... As soon as I turned in my "employemnt application" to my WW's leader and she said "This will get faxed to headquarters first thing!" my stomach tightened up.... But...
what am I thinking?? turned into... I KNOW WHAT TO SAY! This is an issue I've been dealing with for a long, long time.... In fact, I am the "slow learner" success story.... took me almost 30 yrs .... and how many other leaders can say the same thing...

So....
bet you're all wondering how many cups of coffee I've had...
Just one... but I do feel motivated this am... was stressing a lot last night about what's on my desk ... AS I booked next week off for vacation ... just yesterday... have the time coming, need to use it or lose it... And there is lots to do here at home...


anyway...
Hugs and Hello to ALL ROYALS! Its the first day of fall ( isn't it?) and we are on the next leg of The Great Adventure!


********
Thought of the day:
"We do best at what we do best."
--Kaye

Question of the day :

"Now that you know the outcome, what one thing would have done differently?"
*****

Kettle is on!

Hello lovelies,

Yes, me again, back from yet another MIA episode...

Don't have much time, but I really miss you guys - I think about you all everyday.

WSW - I see you're ok! I've been thinking about you especially with everything going on down there!

In a nutshell -

~ We've been busy working on the paperwork to become a certified woman/minority owned business (tons o' paperwork). Not sure what it'll get us in the long run, but we were asked to by one of our clients since my mom and I own more than 75% of the company. The application is 12 pages long and requires us to submit 24 pieces of paperwork/documentation to "prove" we're women and own the business (no joke, they want birth certificates that say we'er female).

Life stuff - all of which contains more than a bit of serendipity/"coincedence"...

~ Early August I lost a friendship (NOT one of my CA girls!). I still have mixed feelings about it really... You see, I almost lost my youngest cat, Maia - she'd had 2 seizures in front of me, they found nothing the first time - the second time she went in to the vets for almost 3 days. They did a GI series and found an impacted hairball which was cutting off her air and blood supply to her brain when she tried to cough it up. The surgery was going to cost me $800, which I was ready to pay in a heartbeat. Maia's my baby and I was in no way ready to loose her. I was extremely upset and worried though so I called a "friend", the one who had the mama cat of my Maia, and before I could even tell her the whole story she said - 3 times - "hun, you need to let her go" - as in "it's too expensive and inconvenient, put her to sleep". No support, no words of encouragement or sympathy, just "let her go". Needless to say I mumbled something about how I needed to calm down and I hung up on her. A week later she emailed me berating me for doing this *to her* and ended the friendship. I'm still a little sad, but mostly really pissed that she thought SHE had the right to end the friendship. If anyone should have told anyone to bugger off, it should'a been me - for her lack of support, caring and TACT. I don't need friends like that and I haven't missed her yet. Just holding a **** of a grudge I guess...

Oh, and the morning after I hung up on the "friend", Maia miraculously passed the hairball. The vet was in shock and couldn't explain it - he said the hair mass was huge and shouldn't have been able to pass. I knew Maia had done the whole thing to help me end a toxic friendship - she's been fine ever since... but she still has to endure extra brushings and Laxitone for the rest of her life juuuuuuust in case!

~ My last grandparent, my Papa passed away a few weeks ago. He'd lost control of his truck crashed down a 30 foot cliff on his property (he had 25 acres, mostly hilly) and by freak chance someone almost 1/2 mile away heard him yelling for help. He wasn't carrying any emergency contact info so the hospital just started calling people with his last name in the local phone book - again, freak chance, they found my Papa's nephew who had *just* been found a few years ago to be living by him. He, in turn called us, but by then it'd been over 24 hours since the accident. My mom and stepfather took off for CA and in the time it took them to get there the hospital found that my grandfather had had prostate cancer for a very, very long time and that it had metasticized into his spinal column. Because of the swollen prostate he also had a bladder and kidney infection which had spread to his blood. In the accident he'd fractured one vertibrae and dislocated another. My mom, stepfather and his sister spent 2 days with him before they moved him into hospice care - he died not 45 minutes later.

But, there's good news too... Bo-Beena and I (and her hubby and daughter and our other girlfriend and her hubby) all just got back from our annual houseboat trip. Bo-Beena wasn't feeling too good 2 days later and yesterday I got a phone call I've been waiting for for YEARS. BO-BEENA'S GONNA HAVE A BABY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yup, I'm gonna be an auntie again! It really makes what seems to be a year of constant losses not so bad anymore. New life.

So, with all the above, and more I haven't mentioned, weight wise I'm doing my best to hold steady. I haven't regained it all by any means - but I'm still nowhere near goal yet either. I'm feeling the change coming again though. Time to get heathly, support my Bo-Beena through her pregnancy (which they'll consider high risk because of her daughter being born 9 weeks early) and get movin' again towards my goal...

Missed you all bunches, will make every effort to not disappear again!

Terri

Flying by again! I've got my writing group coming to the house for a potluck and writing session tonight and -- of course -- work to do as well I scheduled the evening when DH had a business trip scheduled (meaning I would have more time on my hands, wouldn't have to get up at 5:30 the next morning, etc.), but then his plans changed. Oh well. I'm still feeling a bit under the weather and tired, so I think before I do anything else I'm just going to go lie on the couch and look at magazines for a bit. Otherwise, I bet I'd end up not only not getting much work done, not being ready for the potluck and also find myself stuffing my face mid-afternoon (and maybe again tonight) out of fatigue and stress.

Punkin's back!!!

Welcome home, Sweetie. So sorry about your grandfather; so happy about Bo-Beena! Life and death, huh.

K -- that's my status! Let's make this a good one -- love to all, mentioned or unmentioned.

Hello all!

Punkin! So glad you stopped by! Was definitely wondering and worried.
Very sorry to hear about your grandfather. My best to you and your family.

Please try not to be away so long again!

And now, onto ME ME ME!!

Getting ready for next's week vacation from work has had a few teeth grinding moments. We also had visitors which meant lots of treats which wound up on a desk right in front of me... And of course, the 2nd day the leftovers sat there is when I felt my knee jerk reaction ... But I resisted but its fraying my nerves... mini danishes, fruited breads, etc... we had a potluck "snack day" and I brought an apple cobbler but there wasnt much left so there was nothing safe yesterday... Insteasd I ate a bag of baby carrots...
in about 20 minutes...

anyway...
all in all, this is nothng... I need to put this food stress thing in perspective and focus on the great weather!!, good friends!!, growing garden !!

***************
Thought of the day:

"We need to learn to set our course by the stars, not by the lights of every passing ship."
--General Omar Bradley

Question of the day ;

"Can you identify any constellations?"

**************

KETTLE IS ON!

Hollywood Squares

If you remember the Original Hollywood Squares and its comics, this may bring a tear to your eyes. These great questions and answers are from the days when Hollywood Squares" game show responses were spontaneous and clever, not scripted and (often) dull, as they are now. Peter Marshall was the host asking the questions, of course. Enjoy !

Q. Do female frogs croak?
A. Paul Lynde: If you hold their little heads under water long enough.

Q. If you're going to make a parachute jump, at least how high should you be?
A. Charley Weaver: Three days of steady drinking should do it.

Q. True or False, a pea can last as long as 5,000 years.
A. George Gobel: Boy, it sure seems that way sometimes

Q. You've been having trouble going to sleep. Are you probably a man or a woman?
A. Don Knotts: That's what's been keeping me awake.

Q. According to Cosmopolitain, if you meet a stranger at a party and you think that he is attractive, is it okay to come out and ask him if he's married?
A. Rose Marie: No; wait until morning.

Q. Which of your five senses tends to diminish as you get older?
A. Charley Weaver: My sense of decency.

Q. In Hawaiian, does it take more than three words to say "I Love You"?
A. Vincent Price: No, you can say it with a pineapple and a twenty.

Q. What are "Do It," "I Can Help," and "I Can't Get Enough"?
A. George Gobel: I don't know, but it's coming from the next apartment.

Q. As you grow older, do you tend to gesture more or less with your hands while talking?
A. Rose Marie: You ask me one more growing old question Peter, and I'll give you a gesture you'll never forget.

Q. Paul, why do ****'s Angels wear leather?
A. Paul Lynde: Because chiffon wrinkles too easily.

Q. Charley, you've just decided to grow strawberries. Are you going to get any during the first year?
A. Charley Weaver: Of course not, I'm too busy growing strawberries.

Q. In bowling, what's a perfect score?
A. Rose Marie: Ralph, the pin boy.

Q. It is considered in bad taste to discuss two subjects at nudist camps. One is politics, what is the other?
A. Paul Lynde: Tape measures.

Q. During a tornado, are you safer in the bedroom or in the closet?
A. Rose Marie: Unfortunately Peter, I'm always safe in the bedroom.

Q. Can boys join the CampFire Girls?
A. Marty Allen: Only after lights out.

Q. When you pat a dog on its head he will wag his tail. What will a goose do?
A. Paul Lynde: Make him bark?

Q. If you were pregnant for two years, what would you give birth to?
A. Paul Lynde: Whatever it is, it would never be afraid of the dark.

Q. According to Ann Landers, is their anything wrong with getting into the habit of kissing a lot of people?
A. Charley Weaver: It got me out of the army.

Q. It is the most abused and neglected part of your body, what is it?
A. Paul Lynde: Mine may be abused, but it certainly isn't neglected.

Q. Back in the old days, when Great Grandpa put horseradish on his head, what was he trying to do?
A. George Gobel: Get it in his mouth.

Q. Who stays pregnant for a longer period of time, your wife or your elephant?
A. Paul Lynde: Who told you about my elephant?

Q. When a couple have a baby, who is responsible for its sex?
A. Charley Weaver: I'll lend him the car, the rest is up to him.

Q. Jackie Gleason recently revealed that he firmly believes in them and has actually seen them on at least two occasions. What are they?
A. Charley Weaver: His feet.

Q. According to Ann Landers, what are two things you should never do in bed?
A. Paul Lynde: Point and Laugh

Kaylets, Garry and I both thank you for this morning's Hollywood Squares post. That was great! And it gave us a chance to do our Paul Lynde impressions!
That's so great that you were able to rsist the goodies right in front of you--I always try to tell myself I'll be okay if I JUST DON'T START. If I have a taste then I'm lost, the floodgates are open. Yesterday at work I baked 160 'brownie' cookies and had to remind myself to not have any, not even those little bits that break off.
I'm feeling good about cutting drastically back on sugar. I'd gotten to the point where I'd have about 4-5 sweet treats every day. Yesterday all I had was a little chocolate-bran muffin as my sweet. Now that's not to say that the cravings are gone. All I have to do is swing open a cupboard door and see a granola bar or a box of cake mix and the old urge is right there. Hoping it'll get less with time. I can say that my energy level is way up---I haven't crashed in the afternoons.

Punkinseed! When I saw your name I gasped--yes I did! I was so happy to see you again. Very sorry to hear about your Grandpa--how's your family doing? Delighted to hear that Maia is well! And I know all to well the relief/regret thing that goes with HAVING to get rid of a toxic friend---so if you ever need to talk about it, well, it'd be good for me too! Even after 2 years, there are aspects that confound me. Ahh, I'm so glad you're back. Never doubt that you were missed!!!

Arabella, how was your book group? Geez, I'm such a food hound. My first impulse is to ask how the grub was, not the title of the book!!! I'd love to know the answer to both. The order's up to you!

Have a great day, friends!

Punkin's back! Tra la, happy happy! Now if we could only persuade Cerise and Zadie back. And Mom Frogger? What's the word?

Forgive me, Arabella--I wasn't paying full attention. Didn't get that it was your writing group, thought it was abook club thing. We're having the author Sharon McCrumb at the Homestead this Sunday and she must've been on the edges of my little monkey brain--that and the fact that I have to do a reception for about 100 people at the event! Sorry, I'll try to be more mindful! And congrats on not indulging in the sweet treats there. My current favorite sugar stand-in is a very ripe banana cut up into bite-size pieces with a blop of cashew butter on top! Yum indeed.

5 good days for me. Woo-hoo!

Tomorrow we're going to an event called Mayberry Days in Mt Airy, NC---it's Andy Griffith's birthplace and TVLand is putting up a bronze statue of him there. Anyway, it's an annual event and it's so corny and completely charming. Don't know if you've seen the old Andy Griffith show but the town will be crawling with Barney Fife, Floyd, Aunt Bea, etc. imitators! It's a blast! Corny to the extreme but loads of fun!

Good morning!

I did it -- registered for the Breast Cancer Run for the Cure. Mixed feelings of excitement and trepidation, but I know I can do it and it's for a good cause. The route is great, right along the waterfront, which is my favorite out-of-the-woods place to run. Also, now I know that running that route is 5k, for future runs.

Eydie! Yikes! I just realized that my yell about it being a WRITING group could have been construed to have been directed at you. Nope! Omigosh -- if I started dinging people for things like that -- well, I could open myself to a lot of similar dingings. No, it was just about the group, and our "forgetting" the purpose of what we were gathered for when we got around a table of food and drink I think I'm going to have to try to do it again, with an agenda, just to prove I can! Banana and cashew butter sounds yummy! And Mayberry Days sounds adorable -- wish I could go. I adore corny, nostalgic kinds of events. Parades? Oh my!

Congrats on the five days!

Kaylets, thanks for the Hollywood Squares jokes! They really were quite hilarious, weren't they. You're going on vacation next week? How wonderful! Are you just staying home? In some ways, that's my idea of a vacation, just having TIME, blessed TIME, at home.

Ceara, darn that munch monkey! And they're so tenacious, too, the little buggers! Shoo!

Might Punkin drop in and pronounce this Friday?

K -- off to get brekkie. Love to all! Let's make this a good one!

Hello all!

Some of my favorite shows were on last night... set the vcr to tape ER but I woke right up when the Apprentice came on and wound up not going to sleep till midnight!
You know what happened this am!
Nearly "talked" myself into a second cup of coffee but realized I'm better off CALM and tired than JAZZED and tired. Need to clear off the rest of my desk today so I can leave w/ a clear conscience...

Boy oh boy has this been a hungry feeling week for me! Even when I know I just ate a big bowl of soup or oatmeal... Really think my body is in super overdrive trying to "save" me from starving ... HEE HEE...
Bob Greene, Oprah's trainer says if you can resist those "oh so hungry" moments, that's when you're body than goes to the fat reserve .... Hope he's right!

***
Thought of the day:
"The size of your success is determined by the size of your belief"--
Vic Johnson--

Question of the day:
"Salt or pepper?"

****

KETTLE IS ON !
To a great Friday!


Just think, next week I'll be near the home computer all week long! YIKES!
Not to worry, I am making a list, inside and out and am going to do lots and lots of 15 minutes to knock lots and lots OFF the list!

We got up at the crack of dawn today to go to Mayberry Days, it's only 1 1/2 hours away but we wanted to walk for an hour before the unveiling at 9:30. We took our own healthy breakfast and snax with us too. [So virtuous...] I don't think I mentioned in my last post that Andy Griffith was going to be there to "accept" the statue, so we got to see him and that was fun. He spoke for 30 minutes and what a gracious speech he gave. I actually got a little teary once or twice. I know, I'm just a gooshy marshmallow. Anyway, huge crowd. but everyone was really friendly as always and I'm glad we went. Garry took lots of corny pictures of me with the mayberry look-alikes too.
Only splurge was having some homemade ice cream from one of the vendors; at least it had some microscopic fragments of fruit in it.

Arabella, when is the 5K? Is it a 'flat' run? I ask because everything's so hilly here.
About your frustration with the writing group---I've had a similar experience with a meditation group, unfortunately it just kinda faded away. It's hard to get a group to focus. I love the 'herding cats' analogy!