Good afternoon all! Beautiful day here today with a reasonable temperature and sunny skies. The annual winter festival has started here and the downtown area is full of festival goers and skaters on the canal and lake.

I'm having a 3 day weekend to rest up for starting my new job on Monday and tomorrow will be DH's annual Superbowl party.

What is everyone else up to this weekend?

We're having a Superbowl party too. DH is origianlly from Indianapolis, so it's a big deal. I'm making Rachel Ray's turkey chili recipie which is really good and no one ever knows it's turkey unless you tell them.

Now I just have to keep cleaning the house.

Hey Mauv, how did the first day on the new job go?

Just wanted to say hi, I'm still here (somewhere!) Going to Dallas this weekend to look at apts, wanting to move ASAP! Just very hectic and stressful. Haven't been eating right, lots of junk, I haven't gained anything but I haven't lost either! I'll try to touch base when I can, let you know how the apartment hunting went!

Well, my first week on WW went well - I was only hungry on the first day, and otherwise it's been pretty easy. Today though - sheesh!! I've been craving muffins and cookies and just solid junk food all day long. I did cave and had half a big oatmeal cookie (which was within my calorie range), but I'm starting to think I'm going through junk food withdrawl! Yet another reason to avoid junkfood - it's addictive.

The one thing I want to do with this diet though is eat real food. I'm tired of eating tv dinners and freaky prepared foods just because they're lower calorie. Which of course means, I have to actually cook (ick). But, I have to admit, I made a nice meal for myself tonight, and enjoyed the process. I'm happy about that.

Weigh in is tomorrow - I think I've lost a little. Wish me luck!

Paganfroglady - Welcome to Dallas. Where are you looking for apartments? I'm up in the Lewisville area. Just be warned traffic is always horrible.

YAY COLTS!!!!!!

So glad they won! They are mine and DH's adopted CFL team. We work at a couple of conventions in Indiannapolis and since our town doesn't have a team we picked the Colts as our team. DH got to go to a home game there last year and a few years before that we got a tour of the convention centre and stadium and got to stand on the football field. I didn't realize how spongy the field is - it was really weird!

Spideranne -New job is going well so far. First two days were a bit slow and not everything was in place for my arrival but everyone seems very nice. I get more work tomorrow so that will be good. I'm sure I'll be swamped in a few weeks and longing for the good old days when I was bored

Paganfroglady - nice to see you back, good luck with the move!

Sillymonkey- how did your way in go? One of the things I found with WW is that I started preparing meals more, simple yet WW friendly, and I ended up rediscovering my love of cooking. A couple of good WW cookbooks are the 15 Minutes one, Take 5 and Dining for 2. I have found them to have some good and relatively easy recipes that my hubby and I both enjoyed. I also found some good ones in the WW website free newsletters and the points are provided for you - makes life a lot easier.

Weigh in went pretty well actually - 4.5 pounds down (though it's the first week, so it's a bit higher than normal). But today was terrible - work was busy, WW meeting was hectic, 1st french class of the season (J'aime mon nouveau professeur ! Il est tres intelligent et gentil !), and I had my front-of-house shift at my local theatre company. Too Busy!! I didn't track a single point all day (though I will before bed), but I think I'm way way under. I just didn't have time to eat properly, and I'd be surprised if I end up making my lunch for tomorrow. Sigh - life just gets in the way sometimes.

This week, I want to track my points more closely. I think I may have been eye-balling things a bit more than I should have been.

Thanks for the cookbook suggestions Mauvaisroux. I'm not much of a cookbook cook, but I do like using them for inspiration - I'll try to check out what's available next meeting.

Way to go!

Are you taking a government French Course?

Thanks!

Yes, it's a government French course, 3 hours per week, which means the acquisition is slllllloooow! Still, I'm a lot better at French now than I was this time last year, so I guess it's sinking in.

WW weigh in was today - I thought I'd gained weight, but I actually lost 2.5 pounds (of course, I also purposely didn't wear a sweater today - freezing was worth it ). Last week wasn't such a great week - had a fight with the bf (nothing major, but the stress lasted for days), stress at work, novelty of the new regime wearing off a bit. I found I stayed within my points, but my food choices weren't very good (few veggies, little dairy, etc. etc.). So, I'm happy that I had a loss this week, but I feel like this is a grace week, and I'm really just getting a second chance to get my butt back in gear. I'm trying to stay very very goal oriented so I'll keep my motivation up. Apparently I don't like losing weight for it's own sake, but if it means I can't buy that CD I want, well fine! I guess I'll lose it!

I hope everyone else is doing well. Hope your new job is going great Mauvaisroux.

Happy Valentine's Day chicks!

I am around, just my head has been some place else most days. Things with the BF are wonderful. I am really happy about that. Everything else is...blah. My weight is rather bad, dieting is happening in spurts, exercise is happening in spurts, work is not as thrilling as I had hoped, and I miss my family and my old job. I do get to talk to my old co-workers and my family quite a bit so that helps a lot.

Congrats on the loss Sillymonkey!

How is the job Mauvais?

Thanks Squeaker (funny, that's my rabbit's nickname!). Happy Vday to you too!!

New job is going great, how is yours Squeaker?

Good luck with your French course sillymonkey.

Just a fly by as I am wiped out and need to get some sleep. I have to get up early tomorrow to go to my drum lesson.

Is anyone else just crazy busy?? I don't know what it is about this time of the year but I am always swamped at work and buried under in chores at home. Next week I have 2 trips planned. From Sun-Wed I'm in Orlando, Fl for a convention at the Disney convention center, by myself. I'm thinking of getting a ticket for Sun. anyways and doing Disney solo because I'm getting in early enough, the rest of the time I'm in meetings all day. It just doesn't seem fair that I'll be at Disney for 4 days and its for business. Then I fly from FL to OH for the Arnold Classic. DH is competing in the weightlifting sessions and my sister lives up there so we get to visit. So now I have to figure out how to pack for 8 days, Florida weather with business attire and OH weather with casual wear. AHHH!

I've been crazy busy too!

Cool - 2 trips! Good luck to your DH for the wieghtlifting sessions!

I know what you mean about packing - I had the same issue in November when we went to California but I have to wear a uniform at the conventions. The hard part was packing for hot days and very cool nights. I felt like it was high summer during the day but fall weather at night. then of course you had to wear winter clothes leaving Canada and returning. ACK!

And I guess you need to bring twice the clothes if you need business and casual wear.