I have seen some crazy weather in my day but the weather since Oct has been the craziest. Its raining today. Last night the snow was blowing sidways and today its warm enough to rain.

Its days like today I think I have lots of time until xmas but in reality there is only 11 days and they will go by so fast you will wonder what happened to them.

I don't know about anyone else but I find the year seems to finish fast then it starts. I find things go nice and easy from Jan to Aug. But once Sept. come the days go by much fast and your left wondering where the time went. I am sitting here wondering what happened to Nov. and if I slept through it its gone by so fast.

Does anyone else feel this way?

This is also when I start to wonder how I wasted so much time when I could have been losing weight. I guess I am feeling remorseful. I have wasted a lot of time this year and if I truly want to be 125 by 45 I better get my butt in gear and stop wasting time.

Is there anyone else here who has decided its time to stop wasting time and get working hard to achieve their goals before time runs out?

Year after year it seems that time moves faster and faster. I think it's a normal part of the aging process. When I was a kid it seemes so long between Christmas and my birthday (Feb. 25), now they barely seem a month apart.

Today we had a seasonally cold one (high of -2) but it was mostly sunny with a few tiny little flurries. Wonder what will happen tomorrow??????

Hey! Wait until you get to my age! Time just whizzes by.

Just back from a rather cruddy lunch in Brockville with some of the TheraPaws folks. I'm sure glad I didn't pick the restaurant! I got stuck sitting across from a very boring man who went on and on about what a good cook he was. I'm not sure if that was a come-on or not. I did notice in town that gas was 63.2. something I thought I'd never see again!

It's getting dark, the car is in the barn in case the temp change brings us freezing rain. I am going to wrap the last two presents and get some hand sewing ready to do when I watch Anne this evening. I wallow in Christmas hsows as much as I can - it's The Grinch tomorrow night.

Last night it snowed here in Vancouver. I'm orginally from a small town in the interior of BC so I'm used to -20 or worse winters and heaps of snow. But I LOVE snow here in vancouver, mainly because no one is ever prepared, and it seems to shut the city down. It was so quiet outside, I was on a date , when it started to snow, so we got hotchocolate ( mine made with skim milk and no whip) and we walked around enjoying the beauty of it all. I love first snows of the year. I'm sure i'll be singing another tune in feb, when I'll be whining about spring, but for now....

...and again I am saying that I am starting over.

So far I stayed on plan yesterday and exercise was daily chores. Dishes and stuff.

Today I have already done 30 min. on sister's treadmill, she needed me to watch one baby while taking a newborn to a mommy and me to weigh him in. He gain 7 oz in 6 days. My sister and her husband foster children mostly siblings and babies. She now has 9 children in her home. 5 of them are hers 4 are foster. The 4, are 3 and under.

Anyway, food wise I am on plan. I am not sure what supper will be for me but I am sure it will involve chicken and yellow beans.

2B, I'm not starting over - just stalled! Too much socializing is happening and it's accompanied by wine drinking. I had hoped to be OP yesterday but Anne made me open a bottle of wine - little brat!

We are practically steamy here today with a temp of 10C. I think the ice will disappear off the decks without my help which is great since they were pretty treacherous yesterday morning. We will be back to "normal" December weather tomorrow with snow predicted.

Hey, Natalie, what's with the snow in Vancouver! I'll be out there next week and sure don't want to have to wear boots. I've also got a car rented and sure don't want to be out there on the roads with West Coasters and their winter driving skills. Wanna pick me up?

Gotta get the garlands and lights out of the barn and get them up today. I want the house to look lived in when I'm away and today looks like the day to do it. I may call my tall friend Rob to help. Drat! Just did and he's not in so it'll be me and my trusty stool. It's just under the eaves on the porch and the hooks are already there so....... Fa-la-la-la etc.

I hate mondays Today especially! It's about +5C and raining. So now all than snow we got has turned to ice.

I had to skip brekfast because I had to fast for some routine blood tests. I walked to the hospital, because it's close by - normally, it's a 15 minute walk. Today, it took me a half an hour because the sidewalks were slippery as all get out. I would have mede better time if I wore ice skates! So, I got the blood tests done and headed home with more slip sliding fun. Fortunately, I didn't fall!

When I got home, I discovered that the roof has a leak. Great. And there's probably nothing that can be done until the spring - too much ice up there to repair it right now.

Grumble, gripe, groan...

I'm going to go back out to put a xmas parcel in the mail, then I'm heading back to bed for a nap.

I did get one smile so far today. I ordered a gift for a friend - a 'petri dish' of the common cold virus (Giant Microbes!), and it showed up today!

BP

We started the day with rain and +8C and now its Cloudy, -4.3°C, Wind: W 26 gust 37 km/h, so it feels like -11 with the Wind Chill.

Bopeep, I am all for naps. I love it when I get a chance to have a nap. I hope you had a wonderful nap. By the way you should be able to find someone who can put hot tar over the area that leaks if the temp gets above freezing. My Dh says that should hold it until spring and a proper fix.

LMB

2b - I feel muuuuch better now that I've had that nap .

And it looks like it wasn't the roof leaking after all! Good for me, but bad for my upstairs neighbours - it is their hot water heater that's leaking. . When they got home I got them to check to see if they had any water anywhere, and the floor under their hot water tank is soaked. It's the same age ours was and ours was replaced last year due to it leaking, so it fits. Plus when the guy had a shower and emptied and filled the tank, the leak got really bad for a few minutes... Poor them though - they have to move a TON of stuff so the tank can be replaced.

I thought it was the roof because water was coming through in the same spot it was when the roof sprung a leak from the big ice storm several years ago. It was the same weather conditions too (snow, ice and rain...), so it seemed a reasonable thing to worry about. If it was the roof, it would have been really complicated to fix - in downtown Montreal, where I am, most roofs are flat with tarpaper and gravel. If the leaky spot is covered in a foot of ice, you are out of luck at repairing that until spring, unles you want to throw $$$$ of money at it. We don't own the building (we rent), so we have the benefit of not having to worry about finding tens of thousands for major repairs when they're needed all of a sudden, but we don't want the landlord to have to find the cash either - major repairs like that usually mean a substantial rent hike!

I'll still have a lot of work to do in the bathroom (where the leak was). Water has been dripping down from a half a dozen places and bubbled the paint all over. I'll have to strip it all off and plaster and paint once it's fixed. Oh well, I'll just think about all the calories I'll burn with the work!

BP

Ruth, Don't worry, snow here looks good for a day, then melts as fast as it came in, I wore cute ballet flats today, and my toes are nice and dry- cold but dry, so no need for big boots.

Whew! I was actually planning to just bring a fall weight coat and a couple of sweaters. Namaimo is usually warmer than Van anyhow. Right? Please say yes.

Bopeep, we're back to cold weather too. Luckily I got all the slush and crud shovelled off decks and steps yesterday and the wind dried it up before it froze. I have snow in the yard and behind the barn but the higher up fielkds are clear of snow. It looks like April but sure doesn't feel it.

2B125, I actually managed to stick to my food plan yesterday. How's it going for you?

Today I made a big pot of veggie and meatball soup for a farmers' lunch at the Church tomorrow. We give them home made soup, sandwiches and homemade pie. I pitched a bunch of stuff into my pot - V8, beef stock, carrots, cabbage, kidney beans, etc. - and then spotted another packet of tomatoes in the freezer. I thawed it and pitched it in without looking - it was artichoke and black olive spaghetti sauce. The soup tastes surprisingly good. I'm going to throw in some meatballs and broken pasta and pretend it's an old family recipe from my Italian grandmother! Maybe I'll serve it with Parmesan to complete the lie!

Have a good evening, Canadian pals.

Ruth I have been on plan and exercised yesterday. Today so far so goo but I still need to get in some exercise.

On a weather note, the WC is calling for snow tonight. 5 cm before midnight and 5 cm over night. So I figure if it falls fast DH will get called into work to push it off the school parking lots. I'm not sure what it will do for us school bus drivers though. We may or may not get canceled which will screw up my day tomorrow or we could get a 2 hr delay. All I know is I am taking some Meletonin to help me sleep b/c winter weather and thinking about what it will do for the drive into school tomorrow will make me nuts.

LMB

Brrr.... It was cold and quite humid today, so it felt pretty chilly out there!!

My bathroom has finally stopped dripping - the hot water tank upstairs has been replaced and now everything has to dry out so I can see what needs to be repaired. Ugh!

Otherwise, I had my last dance class tonight - my oficial last class was a couple of weeks ago, but my instructor invited me (for free!!) to another class she teaches so I got a bit of an extra fix! Anyways, it was loads o' fun. I can't wait until they start up again in January!!

ruthxxx - that sounds like an awfully tasty soup! Funny how some of our mistakes can turn out better than our well thought out plans

2b - I hope you get your sleep! It's hard to stay on plan when you're tired and cranky!

BP

It's snowing here.

Just back from serving the farmers lunch where my screwed-up soup was a hit! I may have discovered a new recipe, not that I use recipes for soup. I think the black olives got mistaken for kidney beans.

Lots of snow and more to come for the next six days! I am soooo glad I have snow tires as I still have nobody lined up to plough my lane. I did some shovelling this morning and it's nice and light - so far. At least we are pretty sure of a white Christmas and the snow-mobilers will be delighted.