Afternoon all,
Hot, hot, hot. 37C inside the house (approx. 103F) and outside you could fry eggs on a paint tin lid. I'm about to shut up the house and turn on the air con so we can get some relief. Drinking plenty I can tell you.

This morning I went for my last blood test before the operation next week. I also donated a pint of blood in case I should need a transfusion. Better to get your own back rather than someone elses which may be compromised. I know they test, but they don't test as rigorously as they used to. I used to donate blood every couple of months but haven't done so much since I came to Australia. Should do tho'. They used to use my good red stuff for haemophiliacs (bleeders) because it has a high clotting factor.

Have I mentioned it is hot yet?

Happy - whatever decisions you need to make, I am right behind you. I know you will think long and hard about the what, where, when and why and make the right decisions.

Susie - well done on the weight loss. Going well. Keep it up.

Laura - I had to look up Heywood Wakefield. Very 1960's stuff there and some of them appeared to be quite expensive. Might be worth having the top refinished properly.

Ceejay - sounds like you have had a nice time with the nephews - good fun. That looked like a nice icecream sundae that you posted a picture of on Facebook.

With that, I better go and find out what ODDU is upto. Sorry you lost your post Annie. Hate it when that happens.

See ya

Good Morning Going to try this again.

Let's see...hmmm, The ice storm stayed south of Indy by about 20 miles. All was great around me. Made it to Saturday morning meeting and made my Intergroup report to the girls. Saturday meeting is a women's only meeting. Ran errands and fixed dinner for me and C. A chicken/bean type soup mess. Got the recipe off of FB. Probably won't fix that again, altho I like it, C was not to happy about it but ate two bowls anyway. Laundry of course.

Sunday was church, since Sam was at her yucky boyfriends, C at work and the boys with their dad, I went by myself at the 9 am service. Sat with my adopted momma and family. Then went to lunch with them. She invited me to her house at 5 for dinner. They have Sunday afternoon dinner every week. C was home but didn't want to go. Bleh on him. That kind of was disappointing really that he would not go. She serviced veggie soup and veggie lasagna. Both good. Ate a 1x2 piece of lasagna and a bowl of soup. Yum on both! Came home and everyone was back home.

Monday was a holiday from work. MLK day. Sam and I took the boys to see Monster Truck. I liked it. It was very much unbelievable but not a bad movie. The boys got restless at times. We then went to lunch at Hooters. Best salads around. Then to Kroger for groceries. Home again to make dinner. Bad Annie. Fried chicken, mashed taters, mixed veggies and coleslaw. So good.

Tuesday WI with my co-worker. Well that sucked. Me up 3.6, her down 3.2. I am trying harder this next couple of weeks. Yesterday was better eating. Not great but better. I will take that and move on. Boss called off sick. I worked my arse off getting things done. A real productive day for me at work. Dinner was chicken salad made from Monday's chicken, mac n cheese (I didn't eat) and leftover coleslaw. Also made crescent rolls for the rest of them.

Here we are at Wednesday. Going to post and do personal next.

LAURA...have you heard anything on your mammo? Great catch on the stockpot/strainer. I love those snuggly wrap naps whenever I do get a nap. bleh. Did you all get your artwork hung in the bedroom? Is your mom's coffee table in the basement another project for refinishing for you? Levi's are never have coupons or rewards. Ole Harry Levison company doesn't make enough money to involve discounts...not. Key West sounds great about now.

CEEG...whew we escaped the ice here. How was your lunch date with the kiddos? Who doesn't like pizza? Darn sinus infection, has it cleared up yet?

SUSIE...down 2.8! Yahoo! What is your total now? No room for ANYTHING in my house anywhere. Glad DH is feeling better.

HAPPY... -22 is cold. Dry cold, heck any cold is just cold to me. No thank you. Hope you get to your soup class. How is Meadow feeling? You are always in my prayers, my dear sweet sister.

SHADDIE...gladly trade some of your heat for some of our cold. Maybe find a happy medium. We are supposed to be at 65 on Saturday. Weird weather we are having. Global warming? Oh no that is hot flashes. bah haha. Is the pergola done yet? Hope it is ready for your recovery time. Poor ODDU, get him a new pool please. I wouldn't donate blood to myself for nothing. I have bad blood. lol.

Hello to all

Hugs

Morning all. Not a bad day today for weather - no precipitation and temps are in the 30’s. Hope the sun comes out later as forecast.

Happy – How did the thrift shop go yesterday?

Shad – Smart to get the blood banked and ready should you need it for the surgery.

Ceejay – Sounds like you had a nice time with your nephew and grand-nephews.

Susie – Were you trying to coordinate your exercise with dh or just your post-workout shower schedule? I do understand not wanting to get started & finished later than a certain time. They have 8:00 pm fitness classes at the recplex, but those don’t work for me – it would be a late night by the time I got home and showered and got wound down. == The new cube is working out alright. People are finding us (the admin moved too), and so far the boss isn’t popping over any more or any less.

Shad – You’ve got a pretty high cutoff for turning on the AC, but it does eat up the electricity once you get it going. But IMO, it’s worth every penny! == Heywood Wakefield has a lot of furniture that’s “mid-century modern” but this coffee table is more colonial looking. Not usually my style, but there’s something I like about it.

Annie – I’m glad the ice storm stayed clear of you and you were able to get out and do your weekend activities. You sure kept busy!! – Bummer about the weight gain. Perhaps it was a lot of water weight?? At least you’ve got a couple more weeks before the next one to make some progress. == No word yet on the mammo. I will pester them again later in the week. == Artwork not hung. Will see if bf gets to Home Depot today – we have a list of things we need from there now. == If the coffee table stays in the basement, I won’t be doing anything more with it – looks good enough down there where it’s not well lit, haha. – What makes your blood bad??

==
As usual these days, nothing much to report on my end. Wearing my contact lenses today since it’s my pilates class tonight. Easier to do if my glasses aren’t slipping down my nose. I wish I’d remembered to make an appointment with the eye doctor yesterday as I believe they aren’t open on Wednesdays. I’ll try calling anyway. I want a checkup and see if there’s any change to my contact lens rx. I’m resigned to the fact that I now need to wear readers with my contacts (wearing a pair of bf’s castoffs as I type this), so I will have the doctor determine which strength I need instead of trying to figure that out for myself. I also want new eyeglasses, but I’ll hold off on that for now until I get a chance to look around at some new frames. Definitely going back to neutral colors this time. I’ve gotten tired of the purple by now.

I find I’m getting tired of the taste of Splenda, but that leaves plain old sugar as my only sweetener option, since I don’t like stevia, honey, or agave nectar. Nor the old school artificial sweeteners - sweet n low or equal. Maybe I need to try and go without any sweetener, or change up the type of tea I drink.

That’s it for me. Have a great day everyone.

P.S. Had a photo of the HW table on my phone because I was considering listing it on craigslist last summer when I was at mom's in MO.

Morning
Haven't done to much this morning except clean the kitchen. I also put out mu bird feeder. I saw two unusual birds this morning at the old empty feeder.
Kept my doctor's appointment even though I had gone to the walk in clinic last week. My sinus infection is almost gone but there was a diagnosis that the APN gave me that I wanted checked further. I'm glad I did cause he gave me a good check up and decided that the APN heard something due to my sickness.

Susie
Did your dh get over his fever? Glad you are sticking to your plan.

Annie
Yes, my sinus infection is almost gone. Don't be hard on yourself. Our weight didn't come on us over night so it will take time and a little effort to get it off again. I need to get into gear myself. My problem is eating to late at night.

Shad
That's to hot for you to be with out air condition. Do you have some fans that will help circulate the air?

Laura
Could you use that table as bench to set by a window? I 've gone back to regular sugar but don't use as much of it.

Good Morning Girls!

BLTs with no Ts for dinner. Homemade baked fries with a bit of olive oil and garlic powder. I had a half sandwich and about 10 of the baked fries. The rest of the crew lapped up the rest of dinner. I did dishes and 3 loads of laundry. One of which was Sassy's bedding. Watched a couple of episodes of Traveler's on Netflix, what a good series. Only one season so far. boo. Far fetched kind of si-fi. We also watched a couple of weeks back OA. Another si-fi. Only one season of that too. Boo.

Things are crazy at work. New associate on-boarding, ordering, approvals, reports, never-ending...job security. Maybe. For the moment which I am sure is brief all the fires are out. haha. Got my hose ready tho!

CEEG...glad all went well at your doc appointment. Glad what the APN heard was just you trying to get better. What did the birds look like at the feeder?

LAURA...I am sure the weight gain was unhealthy eating and the fact that I had not been to the toitie in about 4 days at the time of WI. Of course I had a major break through in the bathroom that afternoon. Oh well. Keep on keeping on. I have all levels of readers but find 2.0 is about the best for me. Go to Dollar Tree and get you some once it is figured out. Buck a pair. Can't beat it and if I treated them with a little more respect they would last longer than 6 months. I have 3 pair on my desk now. One pair in my desk that needs a screw as the arm fell off...came unscrewed...lost screw floating around. Yes, my screws are loose or lost at the moment. lol.

Hello to everyone...hugs.

I am glad I learned about parallelograms in school instead of how to do taxes. It will really come in hand this parallelogram season. bahahahha

Morning all. The morning flew by due to two meetings and an issue to sort out.

Annie – Yum, BL no T’s. Tomatoes from the store are usually nothing great anyway, so no big loss there. Sometimes I wonder how restaurants even have the nerve to serve their customers the crummy tomatoes that are available. == Hope things stay under control at work! == I just made my eye dr appointment and it’s not until Feb. 11th, so I will make a trip to the dollar store for some cheap readers and buy a couple different strengths. I was thinking about that today, so thanks for reminding me. Yesterday I was wearing a hand-me-down pair with a missing part that holds a screw in and they wouldn’t sit right on my face and it was a real PITA all day. === LOLOL re the parallelogram vs. tax education. The only reason I know anything about taxes is because I have a degree in accounting, but I never did taxes as part of any of my jobs. All I’ve done are my own. Haven’t even been thinking of taxes yet until you mentioned them in your post. Why’d you have to go and do that??

Ceejay – Glad the sinus infection is almost gone – it really lingered. – Re the coffee table – I always thought it looked sort of like a bench, but after doing some research online, I’ve learned it is a coffee table and I wouldn’t take a chance using it as a bench due to sturdiness. My mom had it by a window and used it for her plants, so it was a bench - for the plants, LOL.

Hellos to the rest of you.

==

Nothing much to report. Pilates was good last night and my abs feel sore today. When I got home from class, bf was just finishing up with hanging the canvas art on the bedroom wall above our headboard. It's a bit too high. He’s going to lower it today. I hope we have leftover paint for the bedroom – there’s going to be a nail hole to patch and touch up.

That’s it for me. TTFN.

Hi ladies,

Sorry I have been MIA. Could not close the door to the 3 Season Room. The whole structure shifted and they had to do something to shore it up again. They blamed the snow at first - really you build an outside structure up here and you think 3 inches of snow messes it up???? Get serious. DH was planning a trip up north to the birding bog to get some pictures because our weather broke and it was actually sunny and in the 40s. The guys coming for the door yesterday messed up his plans but they finished after 30 minutes and need to come back in the spring so I encourage DH to go take his trip. Best time to get pictures of birds and owls are early morning and just before sunset. It's a 3 hour drive up there so I told him to spend the night and then he could get just before sunset AND early morning. Of course Travel Agent Happy had to find a room, make reservations, identify some places to eat, print maps, etc. After he left my sister called and we had a marathon "phone visit" for almost 4 hours. Before I knew it, the day and night flew by. Sis called me again this morning to make sure the deer did not eat me last night when I went out to feed them in hubby's absence. As I walked outside just like zombies they came walking from all directions. Started with 3 and when I was done putting corn piles out, there were 11 of them there. Some of them tried to follow me like they do DH but I am not into the hand feeding like he is. I tried to sleep in my own bed last night but I don't know what it is, I just seem to have a big problem getting to sleep there. I tossed until about 4:30am and then slept in until 9:30 today. Wanted to get a few things done before he got home - again the day just blew past me. Now I need to get ready in about 10 minutes for bingo tonight. They will have the newly renovated kitchen which I am curious to see at the Senior Center.

Laura - I am not keen on the dollar store readers. I have my prescription glasses up by my computer and I use the (more expensive Foster Grant) cheaters when I am on the main level of the house or away from home. I can see my eyes adjusting and I think the cheap cheaters are messing them up. The guy at the glasses store said the cheap ones are not cut to the curvature of a prescription and you can wind up over correcting your vision. That happened to me right after surgery last year. And now that my eyes are setting down again, I can see a difference when switching glasses. The ones I paid $1,000 for (3 pairs) now need tweaking again. *sigh*. That coffee table is really nice - I can see why she'd use it as a plant stand as the back rail is handy. Glad the boss is not using your new move as a reason to "hang over the cube" and spy on you. Good luck finding a sweetener option. I'd rather use one teaspoon of real sugar than any of the artificial stuff. Sugar's not that bad - certainly better than high fructose corn syrup or any of the concentrated things. The trick is to learn to live with just a bit of sweetner, not the 7 spoons you get in a can of soda. I have tried some teas with "sweet spices" like cinnamon but I still want a touch of sugar or honey. My sister said you will eventually get used to unsweetened tea. I think she lied to me.

Annie - I'm glad you are prepared for parallelogram season. I AM glad though that I paid attention to algebra because I do actually need it to figure out the weekly bingo prizes. I agree with the tomatoes - although I do like the small grape tomatoes - even in the winter they have the best flavor. I'm sorry your screws are loose. Maybe you need a nut to hold them on tight

Ceejay - part of the fun of moving some place new is getting to see the new flowers and wildlife and sometimes even the new seasons in the area. How fun that you have bird feeders. Glad you are starting to feel better.

Shad - over a hundred degrees in the house before you turn on the A/C? Remind me not to visit in the summer. 80(F) is about the max when I'm ready to turn it on, especially when it comes to night time sleeping. Today it was 44(F) and sunny in the house and I actually opened the kitchen window as I was too warm cleaning. Of course it was much warmer inside the house than 44. I LOVE the pic of ODDU as a lap dog. That was so funny!

Susie - tsk tsk on DH cutting out on the exercising. I myself would never want to work out after eating so the stuff would have to sit in the warming mode in the microwave and wait for me to get done. I imagine like most husbands, it's like dragging a mule to get them to work out. Don't know why that is. DH says he is supportive but it's more on the stuff he wants to do - like brisk walking - which I can't do. I am glad you are not letting anything get in the way of your plans.

I have to go get ready now. Will try and catch up later or tomorrow morning.

Tomorrow is the big inauguration here. Strap on your dumbrellas folks, it's going to be raining stupidity. I pray for us as a country like I never did before.

Hi Ladies,

Quick post tonight. I need to get to sleep as 4:45 p.m so I can be in the office by 7:30. Big meetings for the VP start at 8 a.m. and I want to grap her to sign some documents she asked me to get ready for her.

I am happy to report a 1.8 lb loss this week Since December 22, I have lost 16.8 lbs. I was dropping it like crazy when I first started eating low fat because I wasn't eating more than 700 calories a day.

I wasn't doing that on purpose, I just was trying to stay around 15-20 fat calories for the day and I didn't know what to really eat that wouldn't make me feel sick.

I don't remember if I told you all that right around Christmas, I think I had a pancreatitis attack. So, I backed of solid food for about 5 days and then started eating low fat and it is doing me well. I started exercising the last week of December and it is doing well for me now. I am no eating around 1200 calories a day and I'm seeing a 1-3 lbs weight loss. This is where I want to stay in losing the weight 1-3 lbs per week.

I'll do personals tomorrow.

Shad: I want you to know that I am praying daily for your surgery and your recovery. May it all go very well, with minimal discomfort afterwards and you heal quickly.

I wanted to be sure to tell you now in case you find yourself busy trying to get things done at the last minute and you don't make it here very often until Jan 24 (which is the date I think?)

Ok..see you all tomorrow.!

Happy Friday/evening!!!

Made homemade pizza dough in the bread maker then a cheese and mushroom pizza. Less is more. The boys will eat cheese pizza really well so I made a section of the ZA cheese only. Jacob ate 1 1/2 pieces and Ro ate 3 pieces. Jacob did eat a helping of yogurt and a hot dog cut up. Weird eaters. Royce has a place on his heiny that filled up with pus. Sam took him to the doc and it is staph infection, doc lanced it also. He is on an antibiotic plus a cream for his bum. So we were just glad he ate something. C cleaned up the kitchen which was not much. I cleaned as I went and we ate off of paper plates. E for effort on his part.

Don't know what was going on with sleeping last night. Usually the Gabapentin keeps me asleep or puts me right back out when I wake up. Not last night. Stayed in my bed and it was after 2 am before I zonked back out. Alarm went off at 5 am and I could of thrown it across the room. Might have except I use my phone as my alarm. Me thinks I was having sympathy HAPPY no sleeping issues. Bleh My back is a bit achy this morning. Sucks not being able to take anything due to this liver BS...Liver biopsy is next week on the 26th. Have to lay flat for 4 hours after. Hopefully they will keep me doped up and asleep. I believe SHADDIEs surgery is on the 25th?

Was at work by 6:45 this morning. Had a lot to get done by 9. Finished the fire projects by 8:30. Went and made me some green iced tea (no kind of sweetners LAURA). Don't like anything in my tea or coffee just straight up. May have to move to a cup of half calf coffee in a few. Need a pick me up. I brought some leftover chicken bean soup I made last week. I like it, C says it is ok. bah humbug, more for me.

SUSIE...wow you are rockin' the WLoss. Congrats on the 1.8 down and 16.8 total. I AM VERY PROUD OF YOU! Is the pancreatitis what got you motivated and in gear to lose? We were both on an early schedule this morning. Sure makes it for a long day. How is DH feeling?

HAPPY...HA, I saw the picture of the one eyed owl that DH posted. Boy is that a beautiful owl...Owls are so pretty one-eyed or not. All and all he posted a good story and sounded like he had a nice adventure. Good for him. 4 hours on the phone would make me a nut bag. I can't concentrate that long. I start thinking of things I should be doing rather than sitting there on the phone. What was the kitchen like at the senior center? Worth the renovations? Don't need any more nuts to hold my screws tight, got enough of them living with me. lol. I am sure the deer were glad to see you as long as you had food. Never alone are we....spooky music inserted here.

LAURA...probably need to make me an eye appointment for readers. I believe I will forego the bifocals. I tend not to wear them even tho I need them. They just drive me crazy so I don't wear them. C really needs a new pair of glasses. His lenses are chipped and it has been two years since his last check. I am not excited about taxes either. We always have to pay, huge amounts too. Fingers crossed taxes go easy on us all.

Hello to everyone. Make it a wonderful weekend. Hugs

Cracker Barrel’s Hash Browns Casserole

2 lbs of frozen hash browns.
½ cup of melted margarine or butter.
1 (10 ¼ ounce) can cream of chicken soup.
1 Pint of sour cream.
½ cup of peeled and chopped onion.
2 cups of grated cheddar cheese.
1 tsp of salt.

I also added mushrooms.

Mix all the ingredients together in a large bowl then transfer to a sprayed 11×14 baking dish.
In a preheated oven to 350° bake for 45 minutes.

Annie
That recipe sounds good. May try it next week. Not really sure what those birds were. They were greyish white and fuzzy. Glad you've gotten the fires put out. Ouch on Royce's sore bum. I get those from time to time. My doctor in Jonesboro wanted me to clear up my blood by taking fish oil. BLT's sound pretty good except I don't have a tomato or lettuce.

Susie
Congratulations on the 1.8 pounds weight loss. I really need to get my eating habits under control.

Happy
Sometimes I wonder what these contractors are thinking when they tell us these weird things. Guess they have to come up with an excuse. How was bingo last night?

Laura
I need to make an eye doctor's appointment and a dentist appointment. I hate going to both.

-------
Nothing exciting yesterday. Will be going to Branson tonight to spend the night at the condo with sis and bil. Look forward to these overnight outings. I want to go to shopping this week end to see if I can find some new clothes. My jeans are to loose. I put on a size 16 this morning and they fit as my aunt used to say like a glove. I've been wearing a size 20. The inches are coming off quickly but not the pounds. I realize though that I do go over my calorie limit. And like the woman on the show My 600 Pound Life commented I don't think I need professional counseling, I just like food and at times I don't know when to quit eating. I do need accountability. My sis helps with that a lot. I've gotten her started exercising.

Morning all. Glad there was no rain during my AM commute. Last night's commute was rainy. Just glad it wasn't snow!

Annie – That casserole looks like a calorie bomb, probably yummy though. Homemade pizza sounds great. Have to make that sometime soon. – Eeeew re poor R’s staph infection. Hope he feels better soon. -- Yay for C cleaning up, even if there wasn’t much to clean up. Bf will rinse dishes and then put them in the sink to drain off, but won’t actually put them into the dishwasher. Sigh. –Bummer about your poor night’s sleep. I woke up around 4-ish and never got back into a sound sleep. We both might be a bit raggedy this afternoon. == Not a green tea fan at.all. == When I replace my glasses, I will likely be getting bifocals. Bleh. As if my glasses didn’t already cost me enough…

Susie – Oh gosh, an early start to the day for both you and Annie. Don’t suppose you get to leave right on time today?? == Big congrats on another great loss! And now you’ve lost 16.8 total – that’s awesome!!! Keep up the good work!!

Happy – Can you still use your 3-season room? That’s where your hot tub is, right? == I’ll have to check out FB for your dh’s photos from the birding bog. == I plan on the dollar store readers being a temporary fix until I see the eye doctor next month. I’ll see what the eye doc says about a source for quality readers after he determines what strength I need. I wonder what it would cost to have him (well, the lab he uses) make up a pair for me using a pair of my old frames? == Re sweetener for my daily tea, I might just end up using sugar all the time. Currently I use Splenda at work and sugar at home on the weekend. I use sugar cubes, and I like that it measures the portion for me – I use no more than 3 of them for a mug of tea, and each cube is a half teaspoon and 10 calories each. I guess I could spare 30 calories a day for something that tastes better than Splenda.

Ceejay – Enjoy your weekend in Branson. Congrats on wearing a size smaller!! Losing inches is good – muscle taking up less space than fat! I’ve heard that the weight difference between one size and the next is about 15 pounds, so we use our weight/scale to measure our progress because we can identify progress in smaller increments that way. Otherwise I wouldn't care if I weighed 500 pounds and wore a size 10 in clothing, LOL.

Hello Shad! Are you ready for your surgery?

==

Last night after work I went to the monthly health lecture series that the park district hosts at the recplex. Actually the instructor of my Pilates class gives these lectures (she’s an RN, but now works in the fitness field). Anyway, the topic was “Getting on Track”. It was nothing earth-shattering - about resolutions and goals. I’d hoped it might address making smart goals/resolutions. You know, instead of just saying, “My resolution this year is to lose weight.” Instead, making it specific – number of pounds, target date, etc. But nope, so I guess I’m on my own. I’ll have to work on that because I haven’t really drawn up a plan for myself. But so far I've started to log my eating on My Fitness Pal again. It’s a start, especially since seeing the numbers is a reality check. Not always a pleasant one, lol. Oh, one thing that resonated was the tip to share. Meaning share your plans and your progress. People might not like to share because then no one (except you) will know when you’re not doing well. But the upside from sharing is getting support and motivation from others. I’ve had the tendency not to share lately, but I’m going to work on that!

Tonight I have two dvds to watch, “Hell or High Water” and “The Secret Life of Pets”. Tomorrow I have a dentist appointment. A month or so ago, I received a letter from my dentist announcing the addition of a new dentist to the practice. The letter didn’t specifically mention my dentist retiring, but it did say something to the effect of him reducing his time and offloading his workload to the other dentist. So I’ve decided this will be a good time to start seeing a dentist out in my neck of the woods. (My current dentist is back in the city close to where I used to live.) I’m almost certain I’ll use the one that bf uses, since it sounds like he’s got a modern office with all the latest technology. So tomorrow when they ask me if I want to make my next appointment, I'll decline and make one with a new dentist. I hope it's not awkward...

That’s about it for solid plans this weekend. Bf will be going to a friend’s home just north of the state border in WI on Sunday to watch more playoff football and will stay there overnight, so I’ll be on my own for a big chunk of Sunday.

No more to ramble about, so I’ll get this posted. Have a great weekend everyone.

Howdy ladies,

It's a heavy soaking misty rain out there. DH went out walking in the woods in search of the magnificent rack of antlers from his favorite buck - Chuckie. The buck lost his antlers a couple of days ago and this year he had an especially nice rack. (they just drop off after rutting season). He just came back, soaked, said he didn't find anything. It is a bit of a crap shoot because unlike the turkeys, we are not sure where the deer hunker down although I think they always keep moving because of predators.

We are going to dinner tonight - my favorite dish - Eggplant Parmesan from my favorite Italian restaurant. Yum!!! Tomorrow we are going out with friends to a German restaurant. This week is not turning out to be diet friendly especially since I missed yoga and one session of Tai Chi this week. I have tried to minimize the damage by eating only one treat meal and limiting that to portion size and skip the fatty accompaniments.

I had a bowl of super grains oatmeal this morning with a small slice of banana and a handful of fresh blueberries but as usual, within an hour I was starving. I'm going to have a scoop of cottage cheese hoping that will tide me over to dinner tonight and will have a tossed vegetable salad with my eggplant tonight.

Laura - in the 22 years I lived in AH I probably had 5 different dentists. It's really hard finding one that you like. You're right, this is probably a good time to transition and find one closer to home or more convenient for appointments. Also I have known 2 occasions where a dentist brought another one on because he was planning on retiring and selling the practice to them only to back out (mostly I'm thinking because when they run the numbers they figure they can't really afford it??) It makes for an awkward situation. Let me know how you like Secret Life of Pets. I wanted to see that and I'm not much into animated films. Enjoy your Sunday to yourself. As for the sugar, in my opinion you are better off taking something into your body that is real as opposed to a chemical composition (Splenda) - even if it is made with real sugar - still additives in it. As long as you carefully control the portions and the sugar cubes are a great way to do it. Yes, I can still use the 3 Season room. We have an entry off the deck outside (the door that is sticking) but you can also get into the room via the laundry room inside the house (which used to be our side entrance). I come in and out through the laundry room and rarely use the outside entrance although our original plans were to use that as a hot tub room AND a mud room. So that means *sigh* DH still has the dining room area clogged up with 5 pairs of shoes/boots, coats, gloves, etc. Although with no heat in the 3 season room, I would not want to keep my cold boots and coat in there with the ice'd up windows either. Sounded like a good idea at the time...

Ceejay - bingo was good last night. The jackpot ($654) was won by a young girl who came up to sit with her family who are regulars. She was astounded. There will be more rumours that this family is somehow cheating and winning too much. Life goes on The "new" kitchen was not all that impressive after all. They installed a new 5 rack commercial convection oven, a sort of stand up type freezer box except it's used for storing cold salad items (I guess it used to be called a refrigerator ) and a new stove top. They said they took away one of the prep tables so they have even less space to prepare the food which is insane. Not sure I agree with what they did but that is not my call to make. I'm glad you have a partner in your food plan with your sister and congrats on the new jeans. That's a lot of sizes to skip down!

Annie - do you use the regular bread maker recipe for pizza crust? What about a sauce? Thank you sister friend for the solidarity on not sleeping nights but you need not do that at all. Sorry the back is hurting you. All my joints hurt today which is why I skipped Tai Chi - I think it's the weather. Usually I can work out the kinks but everything today just aggravated it more. Believe me, I was tired of being on the phone after 4 hours myself. My biggest marathon call was with Mellie - 5 and a half hours. And I spent the last 90 minutes trying to end the call. 2 hours is about good for me. Sorry about poor Royce's heiny. I understand that we have staph all over our skin naturally, that's why we have to be careful if we get a cut. I hope the little guy is feeling better.

Save your cheaters - when we move into the commune we will throw them into community tray and then just help ourselves to what we need We have about 5 optometrists/doctors up this way and it still takes about 5 months to get an appointment.

Susie - congrats on the 16+ pounds down so far - bravo - BUT I was very concerned to see you only eating 700 calories a day. That would really mess up your metabolism nice as the quick weight loss might be. Good to see you in more reasonable numbers. Wishing you continued success.

Shad - still trying to send you some coolness although it has pleasantly warmed up here for a bit so somehow your breezes must have found their way across the pond and landed here. I sincerely thank you for that. Is your surgery on your 24th which is about the 23rd here (14 hours behind). In any event I can check my phone as I have us synchronized. Sending your good wishes and a very speedy recovery. I hope you get what you want to done before you need to sit on your butt and recover!!!

I should get off the computer now. Been on it FAR TOO LONG and I need to figure out what to wear to dinner tonight. DH and I talked - I want my NuStep recumbent stepper and he wants a new camera and giant lens so I guess that is our presents to each other for this year. Once I get skinny he can take glamour shots of me.

Have a good weekend chicks.