California Dreaming here! EZ and Angie, you are soooo fortunate! I remember going to the Fish Market restaurant; we went there twice it was so good! The halibut in California is so much better than the halibut we get in Ohio. I wouldn't have known it was the same kind of fish!

I think pizza will be a challenge for me this year. I probably overdid it yesterday, but it had been a while since I tasted it. I need to remember, "nothing tastes as good as thin feels." I can handle challenges though. I am back on course. I already am winning the challenge of chips and ice cream. I've had a little bit outside of our home, but need to keep them out of mine, unless someone else takes the leftovers home of course.

The guitar thing was a lot of fun yesterday. I've never played that game before. Does anyone have any suggestions of which game, brand of game station if best? I've heard of the WII(?), but don't know much about it.

I've started to get some summer clothes out for Hawai'i. It's 3 weeks away!

I do think the vitamin thing can just keep going too. It is so easy to keep adding more. We joked to the kids, that's what happens when you turn 50. We have always taken a supplement and I added the calcium somewhere in my late 30's. My mom advised it, and she has very good bone strength, (and I listened!) I am feeling pretty healthy and strong, so I would like to believe it is working.

I'm off tomorrow for Martin Luther King Day. Planning a new soup recipe to make amongst other things. I do like to cook when I have time.

Have a great day!

Well, my Monday was thrown off the rails by my partner getting sick. After being up much of the night in the bathroom (I think it's stomach flu) she woke me up and said she wanted to go to the hospital, which is about half a mile. So, we went. She was afraid of heart attack because women's symptoms can be so different. Anyway, all of her tests and the EKG were normal, so the dr. said she probably has either food poisoning or a virus. They filled her up with an IV (she was dehydrated) and sent her home.

She's been sleeping every since, with me being the irritating nurse who wakes her up every so often to drink Gatorade or clear chicken broth.

As for me, I'm undernourished for the day, which although it is more on track than overeating, is still not good. And soon it's time for the gym. Jeez! What happened to my work hours?

Hope you're all enjoying MLKJr.'s birthday!

Jay

Linda - hope you enjoyed the shopping trip - the sunshine is precious around here - so little of it this winter!

Jen - my boys accused me of following them too! I really did work in their building every single year they were in school.

I wonder if the tv guitar thing is like our "Rockband" or "Guitar Hero" games on the wii. DS2 has been playing daily. It is kinda fun to watch.

As far as the gaming systems - the major ones are Xbox, Playstation 3, and Wii. They all have their pros and cons. And they all have loyal fans. True gamers prefer the Xbox or PS3 - they have better graphics and are more robust computing systems. I prefer the Wii - mainly because it is more interactive - it is the first system where you do things with the remote besides exercise your thumbs. I figure I am burning an extra 100-200 calories a day just playing with the thing.

Lori - if you can get through the next couple months with the exercise, spring will be here and it is sooooo much easier once spring has sprung. Walks, gardening and yard work, etc.

Jay - hope she is feeling better soon! And - take care of yourself! If it is the flu, you don't want your resistance down right now! Hope you still got in your gym workout - how is the new facility?

Busy day here for me - meeting tonight (district school improvement) so I just got home. I DID fit in a workout before I left for the meeting. DH made supper so I could exercise

Hope you all have a GREAT Tuesday!

Our weather is pretty much back to seasonal levels again -- unfortunately seasonal seems to be mostly sunless.

Nothing exciting around here . . . but, like just about everybody on both sides of the border . . . it is exciting to be able to watch history as it unfolds.

I have been watching history unfold all day long!

It's cold here. It's going to get down to the low 30s tonight with a wind chill into the 20s. I hope our plants don't freeze! I'm not in the mood to try to cover them up, so I guess they're on their own... Perhaps the cold won't last that long. We can hope that the sun comes up fast enough.

It will be cold tomorrow, too! I'm tired of this cold stuff.

My SO is still sick but getting better. At the ER they suspected viral enteritis, aka stomach flu... I hope I don't get it! Argh!

Today's food has been OK calorie wise, but not very good in terms of nutrition. OH WELL.

I'm liking the new fitness center, and tomorrow I'm having one of my free sessions with a trainer for a fitness evaluation.

I recently bought the "Crunchless Abs" DVD from the website... now, mind you, I do weight-machine crunches regularly. Well, these exercises don't use weights, and they are pretty easy to do--but they have really made my abs sore... in places I didn't know I had... This is a good thing!

Hope everyone is staying warm!

Jay

Hi Linda - I'm very tired of winter (and it is still January). We had sunshine today along with the cold. That sun felt sooooo wonderful!


Jay - I took my lunch at noon so I could at least watch the ceremony and speech. What a historic day!!

I'm with you on the ab exercises. Every time I try something new, they are sore. I really hate ab workouts - but, I love the results!

I tried a yoga workout on "My Fitness Coach" yesterday - it was quite good. Got in an hour on the Wii Fit balance board tonight after work. I'm happy that the scale is staying where it is, since we have another getaway this weekend. I'm sure lots of restaurant food is on the agenda! Hopefully, we will find some nice ethnic places - I think DH said that an Ethiopian restaurant is within walking distance of the hotel

Hope everyone had a good day! Jay - hope the session with the trainer goes well!

Hi to all,

Jay-I hope your partner is feeeling better. I know here in MI there's been an outbreak of salmonella linked to peanut butter manufacturers. It's crackers, cookies, ice creams etc. I assume it's nation wide. There's a lot of flu too. I hope you stay well.

Laurie-I'm looking forward to spring too! I've been on the elliptical machine everyday, trying to get faster and faster so hopefully I'll see some results soon. I went to a bridal show with my daughter and made the committment that I would not sample any cake or other treats and I stuck to it. I'm taking that as a success.

Jen- I wish I was going with you to Hawaii, we'll want to hear all about your trip.

Have a great day everyone.
Lori

Hi Eveyone,

It's still cold here, burrrrrr. They PROMISE it will get up to 30 tomorrow. but i'm not holding my breath on that one. Not much to do today, but have to get a hair cut. My chin lenght bob is turning into a shoulder length bob. I need it colored too but no time right now.

Did eveyone watch the iniguration? I think it was watched world wide. And now, important, what did everyone think of what Mitchelle was wearing? petty I know (my husband told me) but we're women, we care about these things. And she got such negative feed back from that red dress.

Jen, just how big is that suitcase you're taking to hawaii? think I could fit in there?

Lori, I LIVE on peanut butter. Thankfully, it's not in the jar peanut butter. Remember the scare not too long ago? You had 2 sucesses. No cake and got your exercise! Yeah for you!

Laurie, Add me to the group that hate abb exercsises! The worst. Vital, but I don't have to like then, I just have to do them! And i agree that we should get most of our neutrition from food. And i do make an effort to eat healthy. I add the ground flax seed to the food I eat too. I ground just enough for a couple of days (coffee grinder) and store it in the fridge, as it goes bad quickly.

Jay, hope your SO is feeling better and you remain well. Remember to wash your hands a LOT! First line of defense and all that. It really does help. I take care of sick people all day long and I haven't been sick all winter (now, saying that I will come down with something tomorrow).

Freda

Lori - on the shower success! And on continuing with the elliptical - you should be proud of your progress and tenacity in sticking with it. I can't handle repetitive workouts like bikes and treadmills and the like. Thankfully, I do well with the wii and with DVDs and walking outside. Exercise has become such a normal part of my daily routine, I really feel weird when I miss a day.

Freda I have a separate coffee grinder just for flax seed and do the same thing. Sooo much cheaper to grind my own. And - I hope it got warmer for you today. It got all the way up to 25 degrees up here

Jay - hope SO is better and that you are staying healthy - take care of yourself!

Jen - I agree with Freda - take me too! This is the longest winter EVER!

I'm looking forward to the trip to Ann Arbor this weekend. I'm hoping for decent weather so we can do some walking. I'm making my Trader Joe's list already - and I noticed that TJs had a couple peanut butter recall items. The list is still growing! I'm glad that fda.gov is keeping a list that is up-to-date.

Hope you all have a GREAT Thursday!

Laurie

Hi everyone,

I signed up for 6 weeks, 12 30-minute sessions with a trainer at my new gym. He wanted to sell me 24 but I said no. It's really pretty expensive--but if I learn a few things and move up in my fitness, it will be worth it. My BMI and body fat % is still not great. So, I figure I can use some of the money I'm getting back from my health insurance to pay for it!

He's a relatively young guy, but I think he's OK--unlike the last trainer I worked with.

We did the fitness test on the treadmill. This is where you walk on the treadmill at increasing speed and incline until your heart rate reaches 65% of maximum, and then stop and stand still until your heart rate drops back to normal. I had a great reading--basically, my body has become very good at treadmill. I think that's partly why I'm in a rut!

Freda, since you asked--I thought that Michelle Obama's yellow outfit was gorgeous on her. Wow. But I didn't care for the white gown. I don't care for most of what passes for fancy event gowns, though. I personally loved that black and red dress she wore when he won. I can't imagine why people didn't.

This is a really interesting article about the Obamas--it was written in 1996 as part of a photography project on couples:

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2...act_cook?yrail

Too bad about the Salmonella scare with peanut butter! That's not the cause of my SO's illness, though. She's getting better, but still has trouble eating.

Guess it's time to go start a fire... brrrrr! We are still down in the 30s at night, even into the 20s! People have covered up some of their plants. Mine are having to fend for themselves...

Have a good one!

Jay

Nothing too exciting for me . . . right now the sun is shining but there's snow and colder in the forecast for this afternoon.

Woke up this morning to overturned chairs and an overturned garbage can under the sink. The cats were definitely busy last night. Think I'll go buy a kitchen garbage can with a lid. Purrecious will likely figure out how to open it eventually, but it might slow them down for a little while. Don't imagine there's much I can do about the chairs except nail everything to the floor.

Have a fun day, everybody.

Jay - so glad you decided to continue with the trainer. Sounds like just the thing to keep you moving toward your goal. Mixing it up with exercise has been essential for me. I actually over-trained a couple muscle groups and had to back off a bit, but I'm back at it full-tilt

Stay warm! Enjoy that fire!

Linda - LOL - we had to buy cans with heavy lids to keep the cats and the dog out. The dog actually learned to step on the foot pedal of one and we had to put a weight on the lid. We keep the cat food in a small metal covered can since the cats tore the bags open. You would think weight control hard cat food was chocolate the way they worked at it!

Hope you all have a great weekend - we take off tomorrow, so I won't be back posting until Sunday or Monday. Looking forward to getting some things a Trader Joe's. And I will probably have to check out the sale racks at Kohls, TJ Maxx, and the mall I'm trying to convince DH that we need to stop in Birch Run (mega outlet mall shopping), but he's not convinced - yet.

I've successfully got my weight down another lb (which was the goal) so I'm ready for a few nice restaurant meals (smart choices of course).

Not much happening around here. Trying to keep up with not falling behind.

Yes, it is a pretty big suitcase we are taking to Hawaii. We thought that maybe we would have to do a load of laundry there, but I don't see a problem, so far. I just hope that if we get stuff while we are there, it will fit in on the way back!

I am planning on redecorating the main bathroom this spring. Yes, spring is on my mind! (and most of us northerners, I'm sure!) I've picked out a shower curtain, and we will go from there. When we redecorated the kitchen, I bought a picture first, and sort of decorated around it. It worked out very well. People always comment how well the picture goes with our kitchen decor, I have to giggle! I love to decorate!

I need to get some books for the plane ride. Tomorrow we will probably go to Borders and look around.

Laurie - My sister and I were at Birch Run in November. Shop till you drop!!! Does anyone go to the Ann Arbor Art Festival in July? I do every year! I don't usually buy much, but love to look and walk around. My legs definitely get a good work out!

Have a great weekend!

Hey Jen! This might help--you do not need a lot of clothes in Hawaii! You won't wear half of what you bring!

Another tip--be sure to take your favorite sunscreen and plenty of it. That sun will cook you in no time--it's no joke. Some people end up spending their vacation in the hospital...

Today I'm going to watch a step class at the new gym. My thigh muscles are still too sore to participate!

CD, you got your weight down a pound??

meowee, cats are so clever, aren't they? I had to install latches on some of our spring-loaded cupboard doors because ours is soooo curious. It wasn't that there was much he could get into, but he would pull the door, and then it would slip and go bang in the middle of the night. Over and over.

Freda, I think you would like the Crunchless Abs-type exercises. They are not hard at all but they really work.

My SO is pretty much all better now. I figure once someone is back to eating ground round with cheese and green beans, they are feeling pretty good.

Jay

Quiet around here . . .