I forget -- do our weeks start on Sunday or Monday? Since we're all in our 40s, I'm guessing the "old fashioned" way of starting on Sundays...

PresMaggie - I really thought that our last cat was our LAST cat, espec. with DH being allergic. But after a couple weeks, I really missed him, missed having a cat. So we got our new LAST cat, who was a 4 year old from the shelter. What an absolute sweetie! Don't be surprised if another cat works his way into your heart... I'm glad you had a good Friday, food-wise.

PatchworkPenguin - too bad about the Microsoft upgrade -- I agree with PresMaggie -- write to complain!

CruiseCAT - thanks for the ideas on where to get more information on the Alaska trip; I came across some new ideas looking at those sites, already. I can't wait to hear all about your trip...

We had a very nice day as a family yesterday. We took our bikes into Pittsburgh and did a 5 mile bike ride along the rivers, stopping for dinner when we were done. It was a great way to spend the day and everyone had a great time. DS8 is begging to do it again today, but I don't see it in the cards...

Its been miserable out today. Its suppposed to rain for the next week, so its very humid,, plus the heat index is near 100* I just checked a weather map and it has a 70* over Memphis. I can look outside and tell them THAT is wrong! Hubby and I went to church, the library, Dollar Tree and TJMaxx and called it quits for the day.

newleaf123 - thanks for doing the new week thread; I guess I should have done that this morning. About getting a new cat, it's already on my mind, but the last one was so sick that I'm a bit worried about that happening again. We adopted him from the pound last November not knowing that he had multiple tumors in his tummy. He was the sweetest cat I've ever had and he never took out his pain on others. I think I just need a little rest and then I'll be back to the cat shelter.

patchworkpenguin - that sounds pretty hot! We had our first rain today in weeks and we were really glad to get it. There are a lot of forest fires in the region and there have been some small brush fires in the park close to us, but the firefighters were able to put it out. The fire danger is "extreme" everywhere and outdoor fires have been banned for weeks.

We went to our local museum today and there's a visiting exhibit from the British Museum in London. The British Museum is my favorite museum and it was great to be able to show our boys a real Egyptian mummy and Roman era artifacts without traveling all the way to England.

It was great to be able to walk all around the museum without getting tired like I used to. Chalk it up as another NSV.

Pres. - All the extra clothes for layering was my problem with packing for this trip. Being a desert dweller I'm chilly when the temps drop down in the 70's, 50's is just down right cold. I was just reading about the fires and apparently they have made for some smokey conditions for the last couple cruises. I just checked the weather forecast for all our ports and rain is in the forecast for EVERY one of them for the next week..... OH JOY!!! I like the rain but this might be a little much.

Heidi - What ports are you doing on your cruise?

You bike ride sounded great. How nice that your DS enjoyed it. I bet you passed several GeoCaches on your ride and didn't even know it. Kids and adults alike really enjoy the hunt. With the price of GPS's dropping it has become a very reasonable activity. The thing I love is finding stuff in my own community that I would have never known was there. Here is the link if you are interested if checking out what is in your area: http://www.geocaching.com/

I am cleaning house today so Mack doesn't have to worry about it while I'm gone. Tomorrow will be spent running around and Wednesday I have an early flight out.

I'll check back later.

Hi, everyone! I'm behind on the threads again. There's just some days where I can't face being on the computer for one more minute - I do a lot of stuff at work on them, and at home it's managing all the bills, dealing with email, and sometimes my eyes are tired and my neck says "ENOUGH"!!! It's such a great way to connect, though ...

presmaggie - we're "resting" all this year. Next spring, DH wants to get another Gordon Setter for bird hunting. DS10 is old enough to help. I got to meet a leopard gecko yesterday (omg - so cute!), so you can see that we have separate ideas about what makes a great pet ... lol!

patch - agreed with the others that dropping Microsoft a line would be a good idea. Could it be possible, though, that like with the Office 2007 conversion, they just put the feature somewhere so totally un-intuitive and stupid, that no reasonable person could find it? I'm still trying to figure out the new Excel, and for a long time, I thought I was decently computer-savvy!

newleaf - I've heard that Pittsburgh is a good spot for a long weekend and is really friendly to biking. If it has kid approval, it MUST be good! I'm hoping to take my son to Wash DC, maybe this fall. My GF there is a fitness FANATIC and has really made the city her own playground. Oh ... I did get my Isle Royale pictures uploaded to Photoworks, finally, so I'll get that link to you.

We had a great day yesterday - spent a day on a non-power private lake (it was a blazing, humid 94 yesterday), and I was able to swim across the middle of it without feeling like I was taking my life in my hands from powerboats and jetskis. Wow! DS caught 3 turtles with his swim team friend who'd invited us out, and we had a lot of fun just hanging out. I'm just a little pink from the sun and just a smidge tired from the swimming. Life is good.

Cindy - Y'know, we had cold and rain just about the whole time we were in Alaska. Funny, I don't think about it much at all when I'm remembering the trip. Honestly, I think if you can stay warm and dry (I spent almost the whole time in a technical T, a fleece sweatshirt, and my Marmot Precip jacket), the input coming in from the sights will overwhelm all your other senses. It's so far beyond awesome ... and Alaskans are incredible people.

Newleaf, Our week start whenever someone starts the new thread. Let's hope Jacquee finds us! Your bike ride sounded fun. St. Louis has a trail downtown near the river. I'm thinking we might try that this fall sometime.

Patch, very humid here also, makes you want to stay inside! Walked this morning and I was drenched!

Presmaggie, What a great NSV! Noticing things like that really help this journey along. Keep up the good work!

ICU, your day at the lake sounded wonderful! We had a leopard gecko when my son was much younger. In addition to our dogs, we have also done guinea pigs, fish and my DD has the cutest dwarf hamster.

Time to get back to business. Weighed 183 this AM. I will need to adjust my ticker. I have been wavering between 178 and 185 most of the summer. I know what I need to do, so here I go!

Hiya Everyone...

Battening down the hatches here for another onslaught of Sever Tstorms and a Tornado watch. Was up all nite with Geriatric Dobie.. about 3 hours sleep. Not functioning well, but I am eating well. Dobie is napping on the couch.. Lucky pup..

For those of you wanting to go to Cuba one day. Fly out of Canada or Mexico. You do not get a stamp in your passport. YOu get a paper "visa card". That gets stamped and they take one half when you get there and the other half when you leave. No trace of you going to Cuba!

Ok.. off to try and clean house in 100 degree weather.. well 90 but 102 with Humidex... ick..

Happy Hot Monday Ladies!!

My Brilliant Hubby found a easy way to change the print size on my computer!!!!

We downloaded Windows EX 8. In the bottom right had of the screen, right above the date, is a arrow. Hit the arrow and a list will pop up of precentages. This list controls the size of the print on the screen. I'm using 150%!

Hubby is so smart

"Hubby is so smart" Don't tell him that! LOL Glad he was able to fix that for you!

Today is my last day of summer vacation. Back to work tomorrow! This has been such a good summer! I slept in a little, felt good!

Penguin! THank Hubby for me! He just made MY life easier with that little secret! And, yeah, Don't tell him he's too smart...then he and the other men will start thinking they can rule the world without us!! THEN where would they be?? Going to work hungry with two different colored socks on!lol

Onmyway: Last day of vacation...oh nooooooooo..> But at least you got to sleep in! Has the weather been good in your area? Enjoy the rest of your day, I hope you get to have a BBQ and do some fun things!

The expected T-storms didn't show up today. SO I am happy. And the weather is beautiful. I went to my big veggie patch and actually found 3 ripe tomatoes out of about...ohhhh 300? But I got a nice big Lemon BOy! Gonna make a Toasted T'mater Sammich with Cheddar Cheese!

Anyone else get what I call, "Summer Cravings"? For me it's always Watermelon or Tomato sandwiches...

Penguin - so glad your font size issue is resolved - that must have been a pain. And it was probably fun for your hubby to come to the rescue - they need that sometimes, don't you think?

hotsplashes - I'm jealous of your homegrown tomatoes - no garden here so I try to hit the farmers markets when I can but it's not the same.

Am doing the yucky part of a Costco trip - bringing everything inside and putting it all away (portioning, bagging, freezing etc.) and it's too hot so I'm taking a quick break.

Hi all, I’m back home and perhaps can get back to my normal life – like visiting 3FC on a regular basis. I felt lousy on Sunday and still had to do chores as DH is away for another month again. Then when I was done with all the stuff I didn’t even look at my computer. Yesterday at work was swamped with the “how dare you go on vacation – we have needs you know” stuff. But now that I’ve whittled the ASAP list to a normal amount, here I am. I’m glad to be back.

Newleaf, biking with kids is always the best family activity. I walked along Eugene’s river in June and kept thinking how great it would to ride my bike there on a summer afternoon. How wonderful your son liked it so much.


Penguin, I’m glad your DH figured out the size change for the new windows.

Presmaggie, great NSV. Isn’t the energy we’ve covered in fat cells for too long so wonderful to find. I love my go button.

Cruise, I hope you’re having a great time on your cruise. On our Alaskan cruise, it was forecasted to rain every day and it did, but just for brief periods. It was also sunny every day, but way too cold for us desert girls.

ICU, I love the new Office formats. I agree that they made if difficult at transfer but I always use Google to figure out where what I want is now hiding. I truly love the Chart templates they added. It made my job so much easier that I wouldn’t go back. My work counterpart hated Office2007 so much he dictated to our district that it wouldn’t be deployed. Except I kept creating databases in it so for people to use it, he had to deploy it. I’m devious.


OMW, here you go and we’re right there with you. I hope you had/have a great last vacation day. Our teachers return way too soon for my liking. I love that my phone rarely rings. But since it’s the teachers that make a school…


Hotsplashes, I’m sorry about geriatric dobie. Isn’t it amazing to what lengths we will go for our 4 legged loves??? I hope you didn’t melt yesterday. I love heat and HATE humidity. So the desert is the right location for me.

Dancer, I feel your Costco pain. That is the bad part of the bulk good deals. But I LOVE Costco!!!

The munchie monster is chasing me and seems to be winning. I still can end my day on plan calories but I must be very good. I hope giving my stomach a decent lunch will get the monster to leave me alone. I successfully lost .5 pound on my trip so I’m happy.

Another NSV – I’m wearing an outfit from the GAP. I’ve never shopped the GAP before. I was too fat. And it’s not the largest size they sell. I look so hip today…


Marie

Just wanted to pop in before I leave tomorrow. I have been running around like crazy trying to make sure Mack and the pups have everything they need while I'm gone.

I'll be back the 20th and ready to get back to some serious working out.

wow, it sounds like everyone has a lot going on! I'm fairly new to the site, struggling to lose weight while dealing with insulin resistance and a herniated disc. starting physical therapy tomorrow and hoping I can get back to the gym soon!