Morning all. Happy Friday. And payday for me, even better.

Michelle – Glad the kitties got off to their new home and are settling in nicely.

Happy – Sorry to hear about your fall. I hope you aren’t too bruised and achey. Surely not the best road trip you’ve taken – I hope the next one is much better and the scenic areas are more accessible. Aaargh re those “man directions”. Based on past similar experiences, when bf and I are going somewhere new in an unfamiliar area, I now try to get the route set up in google maps on MY cell phone so we don’t run into problems…and arguments, hahaha. Re our tulip tree – it’ll bloom, just don’t know what color the flowers will be. I think we’ll be happy to have paid for a slightly larger sapling instead of waiting for the tiny little freebie of whatever variety the village chooses to plant. It might be a good idea for you to give a personal trainer a try, but I always thought the biggest benefit to me would be that they would work me harder than I would by myself – so more of an ongoing thing than a jumpstart. Nice to know you have bus service in your area. I wouldn’t have thought it existed in that kind of area (rural). Three Metra lines were affected by a Metra locomotive derailment earlier this week – thank goodness it wasn’t the one I take. However, a woman in our department had to take a $75 taxi ride home (to Glenview)! She could have saved money by taking the CTA to Skokie, but what an inconvenience regardless. I think I should try to learn more about our suburban Pace bus system. All these years out in the ‘burbs and I’ve never taken it. Usually if there have been Metra issues, I could take the CTA Blue line to Rosemont & have bf pick me up from there, but I would be in a real pickle if he wasn’t available to do that. So probably a good idea for me to figure out which Pace route could get me home.

Danielle – So we have another person on board to commiserate with about winter weather, lol. Aww, Tinka, I like that name. What other pets do you have? I love dogs, and my bf and I have a 12-year old Labrador Retriever mix named Coal. We adopted him as a pup from a Lab rescue organization. A little bit about myself: I turned 50 last July. My bf and I have been together a long, long time. Our only child is our dog, LOL. Both my bf and I grew up in Chicago, but we’ve owned a house in the NW suburbs of Chicago for the past 15 years. I work in downtown Chicago and take the commuter train to work. Re health and fitness goals – I’d like to lose about 30 pounds for vanity purposes, lol, otherwise I feel pretty healthy. I have trouble with the “eating” part of the equation, but I don’t mind exercise all that much. Right now I’m logging my food on My Fitness Pal, and I go to group fitness classes a few times per week. I like classes because they are a certain day & time and I can’t just put them off like I would with working out on my own at the gym. Good luck to you on WW. Are you going to meetings or doing the online version?

Shad – I hope you get all those chores accomplished before you have to get back on the plane again. Safe travels.

Terra – I don’t know how far in advance you have to schedule, but all I meant by possible disadvantages with scheduling your bus rides is that it might not be as flexible if your schedule were to change and you were finished at school earlier or later than expected.

Susie – You’ve had long workdays this week! So when you do that, do you and your hubby commute separately? Nice that you’ll work from home today. Congrats on the loss this week!! Great that you got a tax refund. How cool that you’ll get a recumbent stationary bike!!! That’s good low impact exercise. I hope you can quit the PT and just do the exercises on your own. It’ll be more convenient. Have you been with us a year already??!! How time flies. Re exercise – it’s taking classes that helps me be disciplined. Exercising “on my own” doesn’t always happen!

Ceejay – Glad your drive to Little Rock and flight to Dallas were uneventful. I hope you have a good drive to Houston. How many of you are making the drive?? Enjoy your weekend!

Hellos to Annie & Dee!!

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Well, my intentions to try and use up the rest of my exercise class punchcard haven’t gone as planned this week. Before I left work yesterday, bf phoned and said a cable broke on our overhead garage door and the door wouldn’t open – and the car was inside the garage. A garage door service came over shortly before 6 and finished shortly before 7. If I’d changed into workout gear while he was working, I might have been able to hurry and get to my 7 pm exercise class, but I’d figured he wouldn’t finish on time, so I didn’t bother. So I didn’t get to class. Oh well. I finally got my taxes started online. I didn’t get very far before I stopped to eat dinner & relax, but it’s a start.

The garage guy replaced both cables, the spring and the rollers for the door, so now everything is working well and is actually much more quiet! In spite of the inconvenience and the $350 cost, I’m glad it’s done and not something we have to worry about failing in the future.

So I still have 3 punches on my group fitness passport to use up by Sunday. There’s actually a class tonight at 6:15, Total Body Challenge. If I do that, I probably won’t want to go to a class tomorrow morning….but there’s a Zumba class tomorrow morning which is only cardio and not strength training, so that might work for me…There’s also a class on Sunday morning, but I’m not keen on doing 3 classes, 3 days in a row. And Sunday’s class is categorized as advanced. Forget that! So I’ll try to get two classes in and that’s that. I will lose a class on my punchcard, but actually I don’t because I remember I went to one class where the instructor didn’t punch my card.

Tomorrow evening bf and I are going out with friends to a place that’ll have a St. Paddy’s celebration, and afterwards we’ll do something else. Otherwise, this weekend will be the weekend I finish my taxes. And there’s plenty of other work to do around the house.

That’s it for me. Everyone have a great weekend. TTFN.

Hi, I have to drive to a new home for a client today, their electrician screwed up w his wiring blueprint. It clearly showed 3 outlets in the master bedroom walk-in closet & he overlooked it. My client frantically phoned me to go to the job site. It's a hour away so I'll b back tomorrow for personals.

Thanks to whoever put the 3 peanut butter cups in my handbag today I'll b sure to offer 1 to calm down my client & the electrician

Back for a minute.

DEE...Arby's actually has a pretty good reuben, don't always have it but I bet they do right now.

LAURA...I had the spring thing break on my garage door. Cost me 100 bucks to get it fixed, not so bad.

HAPPY...yikes on the fall. Geez I think it takes me twice as long to recoup from a fall or illness, get old, bleh! Hope you are not too bad off. Hugs

CEEG...our traveling girl this week. Hope you are having fun in Dallas/Houston and at the wedding.

SUSIE...glad you are getting a refund and spending a little on yourself. Good job!

SHADDIE...welcome home, doesn't sound must like a rest up with all you are doing at home.

DANIELLE...let's see..I am 54 and hate exercising and don't do much of it. Need to lose about another 20 lbs. I am up from my siggie line but cannot make myself remove it. lol Married for two years next month to a wonderful man. Sheese time flies. Was married the first time for 21 years and have two wonderful kiddos and 3 grand kiddos that I love to the moon and back. Was divorced for 9 years in between.

TERRA...what's cookin' in class this week?

CHELLE...how did Santa's appt come out?

Have a great weekend all.

Hugs

I'm in my hotel room in Houston. Whew the traffic in spots was giving me a panic attack. This hotel is elegant older hotel. The name of it is Hotel Icon. I think I've been left alone for the others to get my other niece and her daughter.
I'll be back later for personals. I'm tired.

I might not make it here tomorrow and DH is up watching basketball, so I'll spend some time with my Chickies.

I went to see my Ortho today as a follow-up to my PT and also to see if he would give me a cortizone shot in my knee and consider doing the gel shots in the future.

I am doing well with my therapy and hitting my milestones like I should. He said maybe I will be done at the end of April. I told him that while the pain has gone away in the groin area, I still have some stiffness and soreness towards the outer side of the hip. He explained that might never go away. It is from the arthritis that is there. He told me to start taking the Aleve (prescription) every day 2 times a day, no matter how I was feeling. If that seems to help the stiffness and soreness then he will try me on something that is not so harsh on the stomach.

He did give me cortisone shot in my knee. I haven't had one for 2 years. He said, if it lasts for a month, then I am a good candidate for the gel shots (they last for 6 months) and he would get it ordered for me. With my knew it is the worst grade it can be, and I'm just buying time until I have a knee replacement. I would like to make it to at least 55-60 before I have too.

I am so like my grandma...she had osteo-arthritis in her hip and knee, she had thyroid issues and they didn't have a name for the bladder disease that I have but she had it too. She lived to be 83...and I know understand what a strong woman she was. Back in the day, they didn't have all these meds to help manage these conditions.

Enough about my aches and pains.

Tomorrow night we are going out to dinner with friends to celebrate a birthday. Sunday, we are going with my nieces to see the movie Cinderella that came out this weekend. I'm very excited about seeing it!

I have house cleaning and about 4 hours of work to do. I have to have the Org Chart updated and the Enrollment report done for Monday.

Ceejay: Glad to hear that have arrived in Houston. Traveling always makes me very tired. I hope you sleep well tonight and then have a fun time at the wedding.

Annie: I hope you have a great weekend.

Dee: Did the peanut butter cups help? Why did you need to go to the house for your client? I didn't know you handled contractors for them as well.

Laura: It is payday for me too. That always makes Friday better. I am paid bi-weekly. I had 18 hours of OT on this check...that is a nice little added bonus. I told DH it is for my spring shoe fund!

I am glad to hear that while the door garage fix wasn't cheap, things are working now and you won't have to worry about it in the future.

I have always heard that Chicago has the best St. Patty Day celebrations. Do you think so?

I hope you get your taxes done and that you get a refund!

Happy: What did you do today since it was so nice out in your neck of the woods.

I am heading to bed. See you all tomorrow or Sunday.

Laura ~ Oh okay now I understand what your saying.

Annie ~ We made Taco Soup

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Woke up at 7 a.m. Its now 9 a.m. I'm gonna do my 40 min. chair exercises at 11 a.m. and then at 1 p.m. depending on the weather I'll go outside and walk for 30 mins to an hour and then tonight before bed I'll do my 20 min. 1 mile walking dvd. Besides working out I plan to do laundry and take a shower before we go to church today.

Afternoon all. Quick hello.

Dee - Did you get the contractor straightened out, and your client calmed down?

Susie - I hope your knee feels better after the cortizone shot. Enjoy the movie tomorrow. Sounds like a perfect outing for the girls.

Ceejay - Glad you’re now in Houston. So did you drive your car there from Dallas? Nothing like big city traffic!!

Annie- Huh, I'd rather have paid $100 instead of $350, oh well, not to be. We paid nothing for 15 years. Good enough.

I probably forgot someone - enjoy your weekends. TTFN.

Hi everyone,

Yesterday we headed up to Duluth to hit Target and get some coffee - Green Mountain brand Island Coconut. It's a special edition coffee, comes out in the springtime, they only make so much and when it's gone, it's gone for the year. Obviously they don't have it here in town and the vendors on Amazon gouge you by charging 2 to 3 times the actual price of the coffee. It was a nice day for a drive so we headed up that way and stopped at one of the state parks which has nice waterfalls. I figured with everything warming this week, the falls would be nice and full. What I did not realize is that things have been mighty cold and there is still a lot of ice and snow, despite the sun and warmer temperatures - although it was only 43 degrees up in Duluth and got to the upper 50's here. I have some pictures on FB of the frozen falls. And I got 4 boxes of k cup coffee so I am good to go.

Terra - yum I love chicken tortilla soup, did you make the taco soup with ground beef?

Susie - you seem to have a lot of pain in your knee - why would you considering waiting such a long time to have the knee surgery? Just wondering... I hope the gel injections will give you some relief. It's really difficult to get around when the knee is bone on bone pain. I would not want to have to take daily painkillers as that is so hard on the stomach after a while. I saw your note on getting the org chart updated and it reminded me of one of those joke posts you see on FB - Organized people are just too lazy to look for stuff How nice that you can use the overtime pay for the spring shoes. One of the things about working is good that you have extra money but then again bad because since you're working it's hard not to pass up the temptations of clothes, jewelry, shoes

Ceejay - glad to hear you made it safely. I hope you don't run into more traffic. Atlanta was a place that really made me nervous driving, I'm sure it's much busier in Houston than your town. Enjoy the wedding - hope you get to see some fun sights.

Annie - hope your son is recovering nicely. Are you heading back over there this weekend? Are you getting some nice weather too? Time to think about gardening. Or cleaning the yard after Sassy - our animals are starting to make a mess out in the yard too.

Michelle - did you get all your web projects completed? Are you finding that the dog park is a good outlet for both (human) social opportunities as well as getting exercise chasing the dogs? I'm glad I don't have to volunteer to clean up our local Bark Park - I'd rather clean kitty boxes

Dee - you're welcome for the PB cups I hope they tamed the beasts and made the day go smoothly

Shad - did the rain let up long enough to get a few things done around the yard?

Laura - regarding getting home from downtown - my Mom lives not far from Midway airport so when they have occasionally bunged up the trains, she was always my Plan B when I was working downtown - and I did use that a few times. You are right about people not being familiar with other methods of transportation. When the tunnels flooded long ago and shut down the "El" train - people had no idea how to get home. And who wants to pay for a $75 cab ride? Never a bad idea to map out an alternate - just in case. Also I agree with you about the personal trainer pushing you to work harder. I used to tell my trainer it was his job to push me and my job to whine about it Did you get all your classes in before you punch card expired?

Danielle - please don't worry about "catching up" with us, just join in the conversation. We were all new at one point in time. You say you are reluctant to turn 27 - wow girl - that was the BEST year of my life. At 27 I finally gained some confidence in myself and I was still young enough to take on the world. And I can only imagine all the body parts that worked better and didn't ache at 27 Please enjoy it. Time goes by very quickly after 21. And if I could offer a bit of kindly advice - work as hard as you can to get off the extra weight now because the older you get, the more difficult it becomes. I wish I had worked harder in my past when the scale started to creep up. I am very happy to hear that you are an animal lover - just about all of us here have pets and even if we don't share a house with them, we all like them lots! WW is a very good program, accept the fact that you have to do planning ahead and put some work into it and you will do well. My biggest obstacle was when I'd be in a rush, would be starving and would grab anything just to eat something instead of having lunch and dinner and snacks prepared ahead of time - or at least on a list on the microwave to check.

As for me I am 60 years old (don't know how that happened so fast). I am originally from Chicago, lived in Memphis for 8 years due to a job change and when both my husband and I eventually got outsourced from our I.T. jobs, we made our last move to retirement in the far northern reaches of a beautiful place in Wisconsin. Our yard is full of wildlife - we have a flock of 30 wild turkeys, upwards of 20 or so whitetailed deer, lots of birds and the occasional fox, raccoon, groundhog and coyote that passes through. We also live in a forested area and have black bears that have been known to frequent our yard and take out the birdfeeders - that's how we know they have woken up from hibernation. Some are little bears newly kicked out of Mom's care, some are great big bears big as a one car garage. We both keep a respectful distance. We are cat people, mostly because DH does not see the sense in having to walk a dog every day in a place that has winter for 6 months out of the year. I do a lot of volunteering for our local Humane Society and it's fund raising efforts like the thrift shop we have in town. We have 2 kitties we adopted 2 years ago - a 9 year old calico who looks like Grumpy Cat's sister and a 2 year old Lynx Siamese who is full of too much spirit at times but is adorable. I am married, have been with my husband since I met him at age 18, we celebrated our 38th wedding anniversary last week. This is a wonderful group of ladies - all are loving and supportive. When we first started hanging around, it began with a bunch of women from many different countries - Australia, England, Scotland, USA, Japan - hence the name "The Worldlies". Over time people have come and gone and Shad pretty much holds up the part of Worldly Traveller for us. And she uses our version of English so we understand her Right Shad?

I really need to get off my duff and get some housework done and then I hope to spend 20 minutes outside on the deck in the sun when it actually hits the high temperature for the day. The sun is shining brightly but today we have a bit of a breeze and still have a lot of snow on the ground so the winds passing over that do chill up things. Have a good weekend everyone.

Morning all,
Quick chat before I get sorted for breakfast this morning. The DS2 and Partner are coming to get pancakes, blueberries, maple syrup (real stuff from Canada) and yoghurt, plus bacon, and eggs and toast. Should set us all up for the rest of the day and I need to use up the eggs and blueberries. I'll take a photo of the table when it is all set up. Oh yes and I am serving Bellini with it as well as tea and coffee. I can see google getting a work out with Bellini. Nothing like a bit of education on a warm and sunny Sunday morning.

Happy - sometimes I wonder if you lot understand me, but I'll reserve judgement and just keep educating you all. And yes I got the grass mowed, the roses pruned, some weeds done, watered the lot and the laundry done, hung out and brought back in again. Todays jobs are a bit more weeding, and packing. I guess there will be rugby football on the tv tonight so I will be watching. All my teams won yesterday (that played yesterday) so I am a happy bunny today.

Susie - I'm with Happy, you need pain relief now. Those tablets are going to mess up the insides something chronic. For that reason I hate taking medication. Get the knee fixed permanently and you will be much more likely to lose the weight and take the stress off the knee.

Laura - our exercise queen. Sorry you didn't get the last of the card punched but as you say, you have done the exercise. Good for you.

Ceejay - enjoy the time out. Nothing to stress over. I do it twice a week - in an aluminium tube, down to Melbourne drive through rush hour traffic and reverse the direction on Thursday. Hope the wedding goes well and you get to catch up on the family.

Annie - glad to hear DS is on the mend. Hope he is improving daily.

Michelle - good to hear that you are walking for an hour at a time now. That's awesome.

Terra - Taco soup sounds nice.

Dee - you must be the fixit go to girl up there, that I seem to be down here. Goodonya girl.

Gotta go. Table to set, preparation is nearly done. Time to get on with it.

Hi there ladies,

I'm going to try not to worry about catching up and just start chatting.. kind of jump right into it.

The thing I am really liking about weight watchers so far is that I feel like it is keeping me accountable, and I am not just thinking I have to eat better, but that I have to track what I'm eating and actually make sure I am under a certain amount of number. I love the weight watchers app, it makes it so easy to track everything and to just scan food and it'll give you the points right then and there, too. I have already lost 7lbs since Tuesday, but I know our weight fluctuates and that who knows what is REAL about this loss, but we'll see when I weigh in on wednesday. I am just trying to stay on point with my eating right now and then I'll throw in some workouts soon. I haven't even been doing my 10,000 steps a day on my fitbit- been super lazy with that. I like that with weight watchers theres so many things that are zero points, like all veggies and fruits, pretty awesome.

Annie - I hate exercising, too, it just isn't my thing and has never been O.O 21 years is such a long time to be married, but I'm happy you are remarried and that you love your new husband and he is so wonderful. Time does fly, I totally agree.

Laura - Along with my girly Tinka.. I have two other dogs, one named Stubbie and the other is a puppy we got just recently named Winston.. he's a chihuahua. We didn't really want or plan for a third dog but he's only going to be 4lbs full grown - so we figure he's not going to be adding much more responsibility :P We actually have training classes with him every sunday morning.. he's slow at learning because he isn't as much treat motivated as my others are/were, so it's definitely testing my patience. I also have kitties - I am a foster mom for a local rescue here and sometimes I've just grown so attached to the babies and haven't been able to let go so I'm at 7 cats right now... which is over my limit I had in my mind, but it has worked out and love them all very much. (Eechy, Boogeyman, Sophie, Ramona, Luigi, Sampson and Henry) Then of course I have my small animal loves, Jerry and Snowy who are love-buns, and house rabbits. I also have 2 senior ferrets, and 2 guinea pigs... I also have hamsters. All of my animals are rescues, even my hamsters which have been offered for free on craigslist. (Usually end up as snake food) Is Coal a black, brown or yellow lab? I've always loved labs.. my boyfriend claims he's not a lab person, but one day I will have a chocolate lab.... I didn't really picture him as a chihuahua person and we have a pure chihuahua and a chihuahua mix haha. I give you credit for taking the commuter train to and from work, I'm just not able to do that, even though there are so many jobs in Boston I just couldn't do it. I'm glad you like your job, though. I used to use My fitness pal, too, on my last weight loss effort last year.. I liked it a lot, too. I also like doing the group fitness classes, too. What kind of classes do you do? I am not doing the meetings with weight watchers, just the online weight watcher program, I didn't want to pay $40+ a month for the meetings when I could pay $20 for the online version... I already pay $20 a month for my gym membership.

Susie - Not to make you feel old but it's scary that you've been married for aslong as I've been alive! haha, congratulations! I have no kiddos right now either, but I have 2 neices who live in colorado who I prob. will never get a relationship with but my cousin Ashley just made me the god mother of her newborn daughter Vivianna, so I am an auntie to Vivi, and her brother Brody. Makes me happy - I have some kiddos to spoil until I have my own.. although I'll never stop spoiling Brody and Vivianna, too haha You have got to be a work-a-holic and love your job if you travel that long to and from work and you're okay with it I'm happy for you that you have a job you love. I know you are talking a lot so far that I've seen about your hip and knee, I am a medical assistant at an orthopedic office.. so I'm in that field.

Happy - I guess I am just reluctant to turn 27 because it's so much closer to 30 than 20... and I don't want to let go of my 20's yet, haha. I am trying to enjoy every single day, right now I am going through a lot of crap and am an emotional mess.. so it's hard. But I am definitely working hard for my weight and I am really all in at this point, hoping I can stay this motivated and eating this good. Thank you for the advice Your backyard sounds pretty amazing - I would love to see all of the wildlife, except I think I'd be terrified of those bears... not sure how I'd survive with letting my dogs out in the backyard knowing bears could be lurking around. It's awesome that you do volunteer work for the local humane society... I am a foster mom for a local rescue but am currently taking a much needed break. I also am a volunteer at the MSPCA but with that I can go when I want and haven't gone in maybe 2 months because of our new puppy Winston... maybe next weekend I always enjoy helping all of the small animals there. Thank you so much for the welcome. Congratulations on such an amazing and happy marriage! I am already starting to enjoy my stay!

Welcome Danielle. I'm on vacation in Houston, TX. I came down with my sister and her dh for their son's wedding. I turn 65 in August. I live in a small city about a hour north of Memphis, TN on the Arkansas side of the Mississippi river. I'm a water treatment plant operator. Been doing this for the past 22 years. I've never been married and have no children, just nephew and nieces. No pets either.

Yesterday we went sight seeing of downtown Houston. It's beautiful. I got in 9,800 steps. Some of us ate a Greek breakfast yesterday. They are wanting brunch today. The food that they are wanting to eat is to spicy and heavy for me and my body is beginning to respond to that. I can't eat a salad every day because of the problem I have. I'm miserable.

I hope this will be a quiet day before the wedding. I'm thinking very seriously that I'll be wearing my pants even though most of my nephew's fiancé's family had on dresses yesterday.

We are supposed to meet in my sisters room before going to brunch. They are trying to decide on the best option in getting to the weeding. Their is no a lot of parking space at the location of the wedding.

Once I get back to Dallas tomorrow maybe I'll have more time to chat.

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Danielle - Here's my guy Coal. He's obviously black, but with age he's getting more and more white hair/fur.

Just checking in again, because apparently I have nothing better to do; or maybe I'm just procrastinating and putting off the whole cleaning of my bunnies and ferrets :\ haha but we just got back from training my little Winston, and he did pretty well. I can't believe how hard it is to teach him simple things - on another note we are going to start basically re-doing this training class with our boy Stubbie at home, too, because we had taken him to this class and maybe we just didn't dedicate a lot of time at home with training him but he has most of it just not all of it down and he's 50lbs and needs it down more than my 2.5lb Winston :P On another note, I was in such a rush running out of here this morning that I didn't even have an opportunity to hop on the scale - which I wish I wasn't so obsessed with.. weighing myself everyday. It's probably a good thing, we'll see what tomorrow brings. I am going to my aunt's house today, which will be hard for me because she always wants to feed everyone... always. She knows I just started weight watchers, so I'm sure she'll understand when I bring my own packed lunch over there, haha.

Laura - Coal is so adorable. I just wanna give him a big hug!


Hi Ceejay - sounds like you're having a good time on your vacation, sight seeing is always a great time! I'm not a huge fan of spicy food either, so I can hear you there. How come you can't have salads everyday? Aside from the fact it can get boring.. :\ I think you should wear what makes you comfortable, definitely and hope you have a wonderful time at the wedding, don't let it stress you out, just enjoy yourself! I'm sure you're a wonderful aunt to your Nephews and Nieces.. sometimes it's better to only have kids you can give back to their moms, haha.

Oops, really big photo. I'll delete it in a day or two, hope it doesn't bog down the thread too badly.

Howdy all,

It's supposed to get to 63 degrees today but it takes all day to get there which is a bummer. Nina my younger cat likes bugs and she is going nutso because with the warm weather we've been having, an occasional black house fly shows up from who knows where. That just makes her insane when she sees one - she starts "barking" and chattering and running all over looking for it. Sometimes when there's no fly and she just wishes there was one, she starts looking at the ceiling and running all over the place being a pest. My back does not like these long car rides we've been taking - I've had a pinch for the last couple of days - yesterday was really bad, I had a hard time walking. Today it's moved down to my knee - I just keep trying to stretch it out.

Ceejay - I say wear whatever you feel comfortable wearing to the wedding. After all, it's the bride everyone should be looking at. Sounds like you had picked out some dressy clothes for the reception - dressy doesn't always mean dresses, I'm sure you will look pretty. I do feel for you on the spicy tex/mex food they have down there. I have the same problem with the chain restaurants like Chili's and even Famous Dave's BBQ - I don't know why they have to put spice in EVERYTHING! Some of us just can't handle it. And I do mean everything. I hope the wedding will be nice and you can carpool to the reception as much as possible. The bride should have thought of that when planning the event.

Danielle - I weigh every day too - keeps me in check. They say the only time you should really weigh once a week is if you let the scale dictate your feelings - ie. you are maybe up 2 pounds due to a salty meal and then let that affect your eating (badly) for the rest of the day. I'm sure you're not like that but we are all eager to see super fast results when we've been being good, right? You do have a lot of animals - what a kind soul you are. We once "adopted" a black lop bunny that showed up in our yard years ago. She was the cutest thing, we had her for 5 years and while she wanted to play with our cat, Kitty wanted no part of her. Good for you for packing your own lunch to your aunt's house - now that is smart thinking which will help you be successful. As for all the wildlife in my back yard, one has to choose between dogs and wildlife - those people with dogs generally don't have deer and turkeys in the yard, although our next door neighbor has a dog but he doesn't let her run loose. There is a bar/restaurant we go to - best chicken wings - and they have 3 cute Chihuahua dogs. A set of parents and their baby I think. The owner was telling us that the dogs are fearless - they don't realize they are tiny and she has to be careful as one of them keeps going after the bears in the yard. You would think an 800 pound black bear would not be intimidated by a Chihuahua but the owner says she just loves to run everything off the property

Shad - isn't Bellini some sort of sparkly drink you put in orange juice for a mimosa type brunch drink? I have heard of it on the cooking channel but if it's sparkling, that's why I probably never tried it. Did everyone enjoy your lovely breakfast? Yes it is true, many a time I have to Google what you are saying but then again, I have learned many a new phrase or word thanks to you. I am still convinced if we ever visited your side of the world that we would not be able to communicate with the locals. I told you of the bar keep up here that was Australian - we were talking about words one day and I said "salad sandwich" and she got all misty eyed and said - oooooh now you're making me long for a good salad sandwich.

I am really having a hard time getting to sleep with the time change. I've been wide awake at 2:30 and I swear some times it's close to 4am before I fall asleep. I do get sleepy around 8pm but not enough to go to bed and unlike DH, I have studiously avoided afternoon naps because I know that complicates the problem. Even with all the fresh air we are getting, still not tired. Once I do fall asleep I am down for the night. I usually wake up around 9 so sometimes I get 6 hours of sleep, sometimes 5.

Hello to the rest of the chicks, hope you are enjoying your Sunday. I hope the sun comes out so I can go outside for a bit although it's getting rather muddy out there as the slush melts.