G'day all,

We have had rain overnight and it is nice and 'fresh' this morning.
Not much has happened, today is the fourth American's Cup Race. It is an all day live broadcast on TV, your dh would probably like it Ann but I can do without

Good effort of your dh to make himself some scrambles eggs Lily Lucky you getting fresh flowers as well for Valentines Day. I just love fresh flowers and eventually I want to have a garden that I can always pick some fresh flowers for in the house.

I wished I had some scales, you would all be very impressed with how I am keeping on track The biggest help is that there are heaps of WW items on the super market shelves and also that each day I go to the supermarket and get what I need for lunch/dinner that day. No stocking up of what I might need for a week and then eat the lot in three or four days. DH has been able to tighten his belt 2 notches, going by that, I am sure I would have lost a bit as well. I certainly don't feel as bloated.

Off to the rugby tomorrow night, goodness knows why I am going but there must be something in Rugby that I am missing, rugby and the Americans Cup is all that they talk about here in the paper and on TV.
Received an email from our d-i-l, she was again selected for the Australian netball side. DH has always dreamt of having a 'Scholz' play for Australia, she wanted him to know that on the back of her new Australian uniform is her new name;- Scholz
The newly weds don't get much time to spend together, d-i-l is off to Jamaica for training for the World cup, the first 2 weeks in March. It is a bit tough on both of them.

Auckland for the weekend, hope I will have lots of posts to read on my return.

Cheers
Maria

Hi All:

So Maria: tell us about Rugby. How is that related to American football? Your shopping one day at a time is good for keeping on plan. My DH tooke me out to Olive garden for Valentines Day, several days late, as we had so much going on here in the park. It was very good, and of course I'm sure that much of it was not 'on plan' But we each made two meals out of it. We each brought home half and had lunch the next day.

Big surprise: my DH made home made bread the other day. He used to bake many years ago, and decided to try it again. It turned out very well. He was happy about his success :
Now that we are retired, he does cook now and then. Lucky me.But I have to clean up the kitchen, after he cleans it up.:

Hope everyone is all shoveled out from the snow. My granddaughter was snowed in in Baltimore for 2 days. Thats unusual for that part of the country.

The month of March here in the park is very busy. We have a big St. Patricks Day dinner and dance. We have a Toodle0oo party for saying bye bye to all the snow birds leaving to go back north again. A card party, a concert, my chorus show, our players show, so so it goes. Never a dull moment. All the full time residents are actually glad when the snowbirds decide it is time to go north. Then things calm down, and we get the roads back.

Talk to you tomorrow. Ann

Hi everyone, Maria hope the changes in the wind are not India. NZ sounds so nice. Ann you sure do keep busy. Do the same snowbirds come back year after year? We have a lot of snow but luckily not as much as east of here. And we are supposed to get more over the weekend. Blech!!!!! I am so ready for spring-a month from today. Been busy painting. Ann how was the homemade bread? That is one thing that I would keep eating till it was gone. I love to smell it baking. My dh does most of the cooking now that he is retired. He even does the shopping. Sometimes it is not diet friendly. I have been doing the Idita-walk. Have to walk 30 minutes a day for a month. That would come to the amount of minutes that equals the amount of miles that the dogs are running. Didn't anticipate all the snow and ice we have been having. Some days is really hard to do. Gotta run,

Peggy: I think we will all move to your house then and your DH can cook for us I didnt know the Idita-walk was going on. I forgot to check. I did it last year. Helped me to make sure I did my Walks every day (threadmill)

Maria: Congrats to your DIL. Thats great she got selected again! I would love a garden where I could pick flowers to. But ALAS it wouldnt survive here as I always forget to water

Ann: Sounds like you have a very busy schedule next month. Im curious to, do the same people come back each year? Do new ones come to?

Well its Springlike here today. (dont any one hit me) Its in the 60's and just beautiful! We are going shopping in a little bit and out to a new place for Dinner. To nice to stay inside.

Later!

the Idita-walk?????????????
What is that all about?

Well we had 2 count them 2 beautiful day here in Minnesota. Now we are back in the deep freeze for a while again. I just hate when it is so cold that your eyes sting from it.

I'm going to making some quilted top pillows today for DD birthday. We gave her money eariler this month when she went to Cancun so now she gets pillows for her bed. She going to be 36 on Thursday.

My manager dropped in on one of my meetings this week. She need to evaluate my job and how the members react to me and the way I run a meeting. Didn't get fired got a good evaluation. I did tell her that by August this year I wanted to be down to 4 meeting a week. I already have some lined up to take over 4. I wanted to cut back so I could get used to being at home a little more. Thought I'd be able to join Curves for Women then.

Got to get off this and get busy or my day will be gone.

Karen

Karen: The Idita walk happens in Nome Alaska. But any one can join the money goes to the Nome Volunteer Ambulance Service. You get a nice Tshirt.
You can read about it here:

http://www.idita-walk.com/

Good for you giving up some meetings.
I have heard Curves is really good. Alot of people rave about it.

Later All!

G'day all,

We had a great weekend in Auckland, what a beautiful city, very many similarities to Sydney but on a much smaller scale and hence a lot more enjoyable.
Lots of hype about the American's Cup Yacht Race. Again we saw some beautiful scenery and took some photos.
I bought a couple of books on Photoshop which were not available where I live.

Well the Rugby on Friday night will be the first and last game that I will go to. I don't know what the similarities are with American football Ann but it just 'bash, crash, run and try and score a goal' Not my idea of fun. I was really amused by a fan who was in a 'cherrypicker' (a high crane) overlooking the field with a chainsaw which he started every now and then to rev up the crowd, I'd never seen anything like it.

Since getting back I have been spending the day practicing and learning more about some of the great effects you can achieve in Photoshop. The books were over $200 but are really worth it and I am learning heaps.
I have also updated my webpage and there have included some of the 'tricks' ie; an animation of my children on the front page and a photo of myself with an urn.
Go and see for yourself on the New Zealand page, http://www.users.bigpond.com/amscholz , I thought I was terribly clever
I have had so many hassles getting the site uploaded due to the ridiculous speed I can connect to the internet in my motel but I finally achieved it.
I have not been able to come here either and send an email to those of you whose email address I have to let you know of my updated site.
I am back in an internet cafe at the moment posting this message.

DH flies out to Wellington very early on Friday morning, I will fly out at a more respectable time of 10 am! (couldn't get on the same flight). DH is doing a presentation in Wellington, we will overnight and then hire a car and drive back to Hamilton, another great opportunity for us to see as much as we can of this land.

My weight continues to go down (well at least according to my clothes), my s-i-l in Adelaide has joined WW and she is really doing well. I bought the latest WW magazine and there were some great articles, very inspiring The reason I can get so many WW groceries here is because WW products for the Asian Pacific Region are produced in New Zealand, you gotta be happy with that!

I hope the weather is becoming more kind for some of you.
I have about 10 minutes left so I will be off and check what the idita walk is all about.

Cheers
Maria

Hi Everybody
Maria you did a great job with the photo's and your web page. When you mentioned the picture of you and a "urn", did you mean you and the turtle??
Today has been a very unsettling day for me. I usually have tea time but today I didn't. Trudy is in the process of getting some dental work done, and another gal is in Cuba on holidays. I thought I would just cancel tea time until we could all be together. Another friend had called me a few days ago saying she hadn't seen me for some time so I phoned her yesterday morning and invited her to come to my place for lunch today. As it turned out, her and her husband were going to a funeral today so she couldn't come. She said to invite her again. I will. I kept busy, but the day just didn't seem right. Boy am I ever a creature of habit. I did manage to hang out at my computer more then I would normally, so that was fun. Tomorrow I will go out with my friend for a day of lunch and shopping so that will be nice since I missed my day with my friends today. For a short month, this February seems to be very long. It's the first time in 12 years I think, that I have not been away and also I think, it's the coldest February we've had for I don't even know how long.
We are having Salisbury Steak for dinner tonight with mashed potatoes. A real comfort meal, and I'm looking forward to it.
By the way, did any of you manage to watch "My Big Fat Greek Life" on TV last night, and what did you all think of it?

Hi all. Slavika: I watched it and was a bit disappointed. It seemed contrived and stiff in some spots. Maybe it will pick up after the first episode with all the hype, is now over. I was really looking forward to it.

Maria: Loved the photos on your Web Page. How clever to reverse yourself by the big urn. My dh saw it and wanted to know if you were identical twins.

Karen: Glad you are going to have a bit more free time. We don't have a curves here. I wish we did, as I would like to try it too.

To answer you all. Most of our Snow Birds come back every winter, as they own their homes here. 6 mo. here 6 mo. north. But we also have new people every year as there are some homes for rent. The month of March is our busiest one. It is the last push before everyone starts north. They usually leave in order to be home for Easter. So there is some activity every week. My Spring chorus program is in 2 weeks. Then I'll be a bit relieved, one less thing to be concerned about.

Peggy: I don't do the Idit walk, but do walk about 25 min. most days. A friend and I bike about 5-6 miles as often as we can. Have to keep up the exercise.

Looks to me like it is time for bed. Hope to talk to you later this week. Ann

Hi all: You must think I am really losing it. Maria my monitor is "getting sick". It's difficult to see pictures as clearly as I used to. They are not as bright, although the rest of the stuff looks ok on the monitor. When my son was here on Monday, he said , yes, it looked like it was on it's way out, but maybe not just yet. I knew in the picture that you had done your" magic", but what I didn't know was that was an urn you were standing beside, hee hee both of you. I didn't know until I read Ann's post.........so thank you Ann

Maria I agree you are clever. Thanks for sharing NZ with us. I'm off and running for the day.
Karen

Love your pictures Maria. It looks like a lovely place to visit. I looked at the picture of you and the urn... if i squint really hard, I can almost see Slavika's turtle.. It is true, her monitor is very dark.... but a turtle?? ..did you think he was standing on his hind legs with his little arms stretched out?? hee hee
Not much new with me.. still in Root Canal ****. As you can tell I am getting a bit stir crazy. Since my front tooth is in question I haven't been out since Monday. Tomorrow should be the last visit, I can't wait for Thur at 3:00, I just want it to be over already. One good thing about being home all the time, I am getting caught up with a lot of things I was putting off, like the ironing, doing a lot of baking and I did clean up my 'puter room. The worst part is not getting out, and not working out and doing a lot of nibbling.
We did baby sit on Saturday night. It was heaven. Our little angel is smiling and doing so well.
On Sunday we were at my brother's for din dins. It was my niece's 22 birthday. So hard to believe she is 22 already.
It is really cold here, even I am complaining about it. However we have been very lucky, sunny skies and no snow. The east has been just battered with one storm after another.
I didn't find The Greek Life too funny. The best parts were in the flashbacks between Nina and her father. I think they had to explain the movie to anyone who hadn't seen it. I am hoping next week will be better.
Did anyone watch Michael Jackson's interview? Now that was scarey. He sure has been getting a lot of attention lately, wonder if he has instigated it just to get back in the news. Tonight Barbra Walters interviews Robert Blake.. might watch that.

Ta Ta for now...

MAria: You have done excellent on your page! I saw the Urn photo was pretty cool! All the pictures of New Zealand were awesome. Its very pretty there. I will be there tomorrow to visit! You cant take me places

Slavika: Your probably just not use to being at home at this time. Your always on the go and your 2 favorite things got cancelled. Next week is another week and it will all be back to normal. Turtle? I must say you do need a new Monitor Love salisbury steak. So does DH. Havent made it in a while sounds so good.

Ann: I was disappointed in the Greek life to. Do hope it gets better. I thought it would be as good as the movie with most all the same people but it sure wasnt. Hopefullt next week will prove different!

Trudy: Yes I watched Micheal Jackson. Dont know why. I found him to be lair. To say he has never had Plastic surgery cept for twice on his nose. Please........ His nose is so badly deformed right now, it cant be this skin diasease he is always saying he has. I just dont beleive the guy anymore. Found the whole thing rather shocking. The only thing I found he said that made sence was that parents dont raise, pay attention and love their children enough these days. Nuff of my rant on him
I feel for you and all this Root Canal. Im sure its awful. Just a few more days and it will be over. Hang in there. Take care of yourself.


Later!

All, I have been "out", at least mentally because of this darned dislocated elbow. It is better--get the cast off tomorrow. Now I can finally curl my hair and put contacts in without help. We have had snow and ice all week. If I fall on this arm, I want someone to just shoot me. Have worked, but not very effectively. Will look forward to having the time and coordination to look at your page soon, Maria. I have been sort of depressed lately for me. Just the weather. Never take your right arm for granted.
Glenda

Maria loved your NZ pictures. It is so pretty there and there also seems to be sun. Haven't seen that in weeks. More snow is expected tonight. I like your magic-didn't know that you were twins. I didn't watch Michael J. I am so sick of him and Joe Millionaire. Seems like every time you turn on the tv one of them is on it. Of course if I watched intelligent shows...... Trudy hope your tooth is doing better. Really hate root canals. I bet the little angel is growing. Glenda hope you get out of your funk. I think we need some spring or something. Karen did you doubt that you would get a good review? Slavika I forgot that you are allowed to visit Cuba. Did your friend like it? I would be curious to go there sometime. Lily have you gone on your business trip yet? Not fair that you are having such nice weather. Did you feel any of the earthquake last week? Forgot to watch the Greek Wedding show but it sounds like I didn't miss anything. Sometimes they should just stop when they have a hit. Not going to be a grandma yet. My dil had in vitro and lost it last week. It has been so hard on her. See you all later,