Good morning from the Jersey Shore, where the sun is shining for the first time since we got here on Saturday afternoon! I drove through seven and a half hours of downpour on Saturday, a miserable trip. Sunday was overcast and rained a bit, but we managed mini golf and the guys went in the ocean to boogie board. DH and I took a long walk on the beach, something we hadn't been able to do for the past few years when my knees were bad. Today looks like a gorgeous day!

We're here until Saturday, so my goals are to catch up on sleep and reading (and to go home weighing the same!)

How was your weekend? What's coming up this week? Wish you all were here!!

Good morning, Meg! I wish I were there, too! It's going to be a quiet week here, I hope. Gym in the mornings, pool in the afternoons.

Meg, have fun at the beach! It's great that your knee replacement has given you that much more mobility!

About the house cleaning/lawn maintenance that we were talking about last week . . . My parents have gardeners come to mow their lawn and take care of basic yard maintenance and they have since I was a kid (maybe 8-10 years old). Their lot is smaller than ours. DH doesn't want to consider hiring people because he's too afraid they'd mow his precious plants by accident! And we don't think it's worth the expense.

As for housekeeping, I admit it. I am a terrible housekeeper. I don't clean once a week. I don't even clean once every two weeks. I clean either when it gets so bad I can't stand it, or when we have company coming over. Dishes and laundry get done regularly of course, but vacuuming? Only if the dog hair tumbleweeds are so bad the dog can't stop sneezing. Scrubbing the shower? I admit it, I do it when I can visibly see mildew but not before. Sigh. I wish I cleaned more often, but it's just not worth the time and energy when I have so much other stuff to do.

I'm up 2 lbs after eating too much junk, again. My weekend was busy and fun, but food choices were not good and I slacked on exercise. I wish I could go back to when I was losing, and lose an extra 15 lbs, so that when I gained 15 lbs I would have been at the right place instead of stuck here. Ugh.

Meg, sounds like you're having fun at the shore despite the rain.

Wardhog, quiet is always nice, IMHO.

Jessica, I tend to clean really well if I have guests coming. So if I want a clean house, I invite some people for dinner. Needless to say, we don't have company often. Glad you had a fun weekend.

The first day of summer was cold! Not even up to 70. But it's supposed to be 94 by next weekend.

My son got through his first Father's Day without his daughter--difficult, but okay. We made personal pizzas (it's 100 calories burned for all the kneading I did, according to the President's Challenge website) and topped them with stuff everyone had chopped up, then played hearts and talked, of course.

Today I'm taking the Zumba class at 11:00 am. I hate putting off my exercise for so long, but that's when the class is offered. I'll go in early to lift weights before the class and do a little on the elliptical.

Have a good Monday, everyone!

Good morning!

Meg - enjoy your beach time! Even if it is raining, it is still the beach! Rain over the ocean is always pretty to me.

Ward - a quiet week sounds great!

Jessica - I'm the same way with the cleaning.. if people are coming over I clean. Otherwise, I delay as long as possible. I'm planning to clean the downstairs floors as my exercise today, only because I picked up two pounds of cat hair over the weekend... I also have to clean the bathrooms this week because I now have visible scum in my tub... I'm such a slacker - I think I have only done the floors three other times since Christmas. Maybe twice. And I don't really spot sweep in between, I just pick up cat hair and maybe clean up sand from DSS's shoes once or twice... I did buy those gel toilet stick in things, can't remember to save my life who they are made by... six applications in a tube, sticks to the inside of the bowl, really helps keep it clean. I'm fond of the shortcut kind of things like that.

Sheila - I'm glad you guys had an okay day yesterday. I know it was hard for all of you. The pizzas sound great! Enjoy your Zumba class.

My weekend was exercise free, but I did exercise all five weekdays last week, and I did a lot of up and down the stairs and hiding with DSS yesterday, plus did some laundry, so wasn't totally sedentary. Food was okay all weekend, until last night when we had coffee toffee twisted frostys from Wendy's after DSS went back to mom's. We were worn out, I had slept about 3.5-4 hours Saturday night, it just called me. Put me about 300 calories over my budget for the day, every other day last week was either on target or a little low so I'm not too worried. I'm planning to clean the floors for my exercise, might have enough time to get in some treadmill time too, depending on how fast I am with the floors.

Good day everyone!

I checked for this thread a couple of times early this morning but was too chicken to start it up.

Glad to hear you're on vacation Meg. Hope the weather is nice for the rest of it.

DH is on the second day of his diet and it's going pretty well all things considered. He is finding recipes online, researching, etc. so I think this will be a successful venture for him.

I maintained under 135 while away at the dog sit and weighed in at 134 this morning. We now have a chart in the bathroom where we will both record our weekly weights.

We are determined to go kayaking tonight - first time this year - so I hope the weather holds out. It's absolutely gorgeous outside right now - sunny, warm, blue sky, summer!!!

Back to work. Have a great Monday all!

Dagmar

Good Monday morning!

Next Monday I'll be flying to Washington, DC for the week, so I'll probably be a bit scarce. We got a full meal package at the hotel, so who knows what all that will entail.

Today I'm going to look into getting tickets to see Spamalot! That will be fun.

This weekend was great! My DD and I went bargain shopping. First to DSW where I got two pairs of flip-flops and she got tennis shoes for her pickle ball class. Then to TJ Maxx where I got two tees and she got 4 dresses and a couple of tees. Next was Marshalls where she got shoes and I got shorts. We would have gone to Ross, but I figured we'd done enough damage!

Sunday we went to see The Hangover (hubby's choice). I would have much rather seen the Proposal (which my GF went to and said she laughed so hard her face hurt). The to dinner at an Italian Restaurant. I wasn't too impressed and it was horribly expensive, but it was a nice change of pace.

And I mentioned that I do hire cleaners and gardeners, but that never stops me from cleaning something that needs it. I vacuum often because of dog hair and I don't mind going out to pull a weed or two if I see it, but the big stuff? That's for the hired help. lol

Good morning everyone!!

Allison-- what the heck is pickle ball? Glad you guys got some great bargains. Old Navy was having a tank top sale on Saturday for $2 tank tops! Dh and dd went as I was working and they brought me back some. Don't know if I would have chosen the colors/styles they did, but for $2 I'll wear them! Marshalls is one of my favorite stores but now that I'm smaller I can rarely find anything (especially pants or dresses) so I'm planning on hitting the Marshalls when we go to Texas (no offense to Texans because I am one, but they tend to be larger so I'm guessing I may find more of the smaller sizes than here where most people are smaller). Did you like the Hangover even though it wasn't your choice? The reviews I read said it was hilarious. We saw Up and Year One over the weekend. LOVED Up, Year One was mediocre at best, though 14 y/o dd thought it was one of the best movies ever-- guess it was more geared to teens than adults!!

Add me to the cleaning discussion. I would LOVE a house cleaner. I asked dh over the weekend how much more $$ I would need to make to get a house cleaner and he said A LOT! I know we can't afford it....sigh.... our expenses are so much more here in California and we have a dd in a private college so things are very tight. But.... we lived in S. Africa before moving here and I was very spoiled there. We had a full time maid living with us. I miss Joana so much! She did everything-- she dusted the whole house everyday, cleaned all the floors everyday, cleaned all the toilets everyday.... did all the laundry including ironing everyday..... and our house was HUGE....sigh.....

Dagmar-- glad dh is on board with you. Have fun with the kayaking!!

Shannon-- those frosty's sound very dangerous. I need to stay away from Wendy's. Come to think of it, I don't know if we have any around here. Since I NEVER eat fast food anymore, I don't really know what is around here. When someone tells me about a place near Burger King or McDonald's (like a store), I always give them a blank stare because I don't pay attention to where those are anymore.

Sheila-- hope you enjoyed your zumba class! I'm hoping to get some more/different classes in this summer now that my work schedule is somewhat freer (no working for the school for the summer-- yeah! but still working Weight Watchers). Glad you were able to help your son get through Father's Day as well. My dh said that Father's Day was bittersweet yesterday as it was the first one without our older dd who is away working for the summer. She did call but he was still melancholy that soon our girls won't be with us for holidays anymore.

Jessica-- it was you who did the triathalon, correct? Are you planning on ever doing another one? I am tossing the idea around in my head but know so little about them/training, etc. Where would I go to research what is involved? I don't even own a bike.... I have recently started running but have only run a 5k in a race. I swam on swim teams when I was younger but nothing in years and years.

Meg-- hope you have wonderful weather for the rest of your trip. Sorry your drive was miserable-- that can make the trip so much longer. So cool that your knees allow you to take long walks on the beach. Life is good....

My weekend.... good and bad but mostly good. We had bought season tickets to Six Flags and thought we would go yesterday afternoon to get them activated and play for a few hours, then come home to do our Father's Day grilling. I guess the rest of N. California had the same idea. We ran into the worst traffic and realized that everyone was going there. We crawled past the exit and tried to evaluate and realized that it would probably have taken us at least another hour just to get off the freeway and try to find parking. Then probably everyone else would be activating their passes and we would be there all night without even playing. So... we drove home. Waste of two hours..... We'll have to go back when it isn't a weekend or when the park is just opening (I worked in the morning so we couldn't go earlier). I also started feeling crappy last night and still feel crappy-- cold or allergies..... I don't have time to be sick though. Dd and I leave Saturday for Houston and I have so much to do to get ready. I am excited about the trip though concerned about the food so I'm trying to be extra good this week in preparation (though yesterdays Father's Day dinner didn't help).

Speaking of Father's Day dinner-- I made a variation of the cheesecake strawberry bites-- it was simple and a huge hit!!!! I made the filling and lined it on the bottom of ramekins. Then I made an upside down cheesecake by adding fruit and then graham cracker crumbs to the top and finished it off with a little cool whip. It was delicious! I'll definitely make again and would be great for company. I think next time I'll put the graham crackers on the bottom though but I was afraid they would get too soggy. They'd probably be fine though if you did it right before serving.

I need to get busy working on my class I'm taking so I don't have to bring too much work to Houston-- I've got papers to write, projects to do, uggh..... Also working WW this afternoon and hoping to feel well enough for my boxing boot camp class tonight-- it is my favorite class!

Michele, yes, I did a sprint triathlon. I'm thinking of doing another in August! If I can get my butt in gear and get back to training, that is. :P There is a website called beginner triathlete (you can google it) that has a lot of info and beginner training plans. We also have a chat thread over on the exercise forum. Anne is our resident triathlon expert though!

Funny thing about the housekeepers -- DH's mom has a housekeeper who she originally hired as a nanny to DH and his brother and sister when they were little, rather than sending them to daycare on the days she worked. In any case once the kids were old enough to take care of themselves they kept her on as a housekeeper (I think she comes once or twice a week). MIL keeps suggesting that we hire this person to clean our house too -- DH finally said to her, "Mom, I'm not comfortable with the idea of having hereditary family servants!"

Pickle ball is all the rage with the retiree-set. It is played on a tennis court with a wooden paddle that's a little bigger than a ping pong paddle and an oversized wiffle ball. Tennis players hate pickle ball players and vice versa! Anyway, DD signed up to take a class at the community college. She texted me the first day saying that she was probably the yougest in the class--all the rest were over 50! It ended up that there was one girl a little younger than her that came with her mom. She had fun but found that running shoes don't do well on the courts.

ETA: I just bought tickets for the four of us to go see Spamalot! It's playing at LA's Ahmanson Theater and John O'Hurley is the star. We go for a Sunday matinee. Can't wait!!

Hi everyone,

I had a busy weekend. Fun and almost entirely OP! Friday night I was at a get-together and everyone ordered pizza and was drinking beer. I ordered a grilled chicken salad and drank soda, but ate 5(!) breadsticks with it. It wasn't hunger, it was just carb cramming. Last night I roasted a small chicken and the skin was so yummy and crispy looking...yup, ate that too. It was more OP than many weekends, so I'm striving to do better next weekend but am semi pleased since everything else was OP. And I've got healthy food planned & prepped for this week and am rearing to go to the gym this afternoon, so I'm hoping for another good week.

I went kayaking on a spring-fed river Saturday for my friends annual "soakdown". I tandem-kayaked with a friend, and we've discovered a good method - one person paddles, one person is the "gunner", so the gunner can focus solely on soaking other and reloading water guns and other water-flinging implements. It's always a blast. We saw about 7 manatees, too - so fun! Sunday I went blueberry picking with a friend at an organic blueberry farm. They're delicious! I'm going to eat most fresh, but made a batch of blueberry walnut protein muffins and put a big bag in the freezer too.

I must admit I just clean when I notice something needs it. My standards of "when something needs it" are rather high, I'll admit, but other than dishes and laundry I still don't end up cleaning that often. I guess BF and I just don't make a whole lot of mess, and we don't have any kids or pets contributing. Sometimes I do wish I had a dish-washer (not just the machine, though I wish I had room for one of those in my little kitchen, but someone to actually just take care of all the kitchen mess since I cook so much!).

Michele, maybe if you try to get some extra sleep it will keep your illness from developing? That's what I do - usually works.

Allison, your shopping trip sounds a lot like my Mom & my shopping trips. We hit TJ Maxx, Marshall's, Ross, sometimes Kohls but only if they're having a sale. Seeing as I don't have a huge clothing/accessories budget I love to buy my clothes at those stores.

Dagmar, I hope your DH's diet is successful! I know it would be much less stressful for you if he stuck to healthier habits. I hope you get to go kayaking! Sounds like a lot of fun.

Shannon, Wendy's frosties are a weakness for me. I'm glad I don't have a Wendy's within an 80 mile radius of my house!

Sheila, I'm glad your son made it through Father's dad alright. Enjoy your zumba class!

Meg, have a wonderful vacation! How nice you can enjoy walking on the beach with your DH with your new knees.

I hope everyone has a great week!

Hi!

Count me in as a "when it needs it" cleaner. I do laundry, dishes, kitchen counters, etc. regularly, but vacumning - ick. DH often does it these days (he's much more tidy than I am). I dust when I notice it; and usually do the toilet/bathroom sink once a week. We had a housecleaner for several years, but when she quit, DH decided "we" could do it ourselves and to be fair, he does do a lot of it.

Had a fun fun weekend quilting with my GFs, but OMG I ate way too much. I'm back on track today, and plan to stay that way til my vacation starts on Friday. I'm planning to come back weighing the same, avoiding as many food traps as possible! And my gym clothes are already packed!

Allison, your trip sounds like fun. I really like DC to visit, though it's been horribly rainy there this summer.

Michele - I've had other friends who've lived overseas (mostly oil company folks) and they've all raved about the household help. One friend is now in Indonesia with her DH and two DDs and they have all sorts of help, and live in a huge lovely house.

Gosh - how does lunchtime go so fast - time to get back to work.

. . . opened by me this evening. Got everything ready for kayaking and went down to the club. Beautiful evening for it and no one there or on the water.

Except DH left the key to the lock for his boat "somewhere" other than with his stuff. I only asked him 3 times to check his kayaking equipment.

We had our dinner sandwiches in that beautiful setting and then came home. I am checking everything twice tomorrow night to make sure this doesn't happen again.

But must I hold the hand, find the keys, wipe the (never mind) of a 47 year old man every day ? Pffft!!!

Dagmar (not eating but severely p'od)

Dagmar, why is it that grown men often act like children? Sometimes I tell DH, I'm your wife, not your mom. Sorry you missed out on the kayaking (I would have been tempted to send DH home and go myself!). I hope you get to go tonight!

Megan, that sounds like lots of fun! Manatees!!! I am an animal lover, but I've never seen a manatee except on TV. Why don't they have them in zoos?

Went to my bootcamp class last night. It was SO HOT outside. Beyond hot. The numbers on the temperature scale may not have been as high as the desert folks get, but with the humidity it was a killer. Everything was 100 times harder, even though I was drinking a lot of water and coated in sunscreen and wearing a hat. Tonight is doggie bootcamp (fingers crossed it won't rain), so I need to bring a huge bottle of water for the dog. If I'm that hot I can't imagine how hot it would be in a fur coat!

I think this is one of those age-old questions women wonder about the men they're in relationships with. I sometimes ask myself the same type of question about my boyfriend...

Hope you get to go kayaking tonight, and good job for not eating when upset!

Jessica, I totally heat you on the heat and humidity. Good for you for pushing through it anyway! My semi-educated guess would be that manatees not being in zoos have something to do with them needing warm water, year-round (they aren't even in this part of Florida during the winter), and lots of foraging space because they eat so much seagrass & aquatic vegetation all day, every day. But I don't really know that for sure.

POP yesterday. Workout done this morning, everything on track for another OP day. So glad I get to spend at least part of the day in my AC-ed office. The sun & humidity are still brutal here. I'm beginning to think this "heat wave" is not going away for the entirety of the summer.

Have a great day everyone!