Made our way to a different restaurant last night - vegetarian Indian . My take is that if all the folks in the world who say they don't like veggies would take one trip to such a place they'd convert immediately. Can't say that it was low calorie though. The Dosa (crepe) covered beyond the edges of the plate and was delightfully crisp. Crisp, of course, comes from the oil in the pan. But what a tasty way to go! And the chick pea appetizer was worth being the meal itself. Thank goodness we only ordered one to split.

Isn't this the food porn thread?

Bill You are an early starter this week! Glad you enjoyed your vegetarian meal. I love Indian food but yes it's definitely not low cal.

I started April OP - one whole day now! Good thing as I'm waaay over my red line - been in a major slump/crash for a couple of weeks. Time to start rallying now - my shorts don't fit!

Good Monday and week all!

Dagmar

Morning all,

I feel like I've been in a whirlwind over the last 8 days. Now back to almost normalcy. Well, busy/stressful days at work today and tomorrow, but more normal that the last week. I did so much driving over the last week I want to stay firmly at home this week. The bachelorette party was fun despite the bride being something of a party pooper (we really didn't want to do anything too horrible to her, just wear a sash and tiara!) to the point it was a little offensive to the person who organized the event. But... not unexpected, and I think everyone had fun despite this.

My big project this week is cleaning my closet. I've actually found mold or mildew growing on a few of my clothes and several pairs of shoes so am washing every item, wiping down the walls (not seen any there but just in case), etc. I'm taking the opportunity to get rid of things I don't wear, which is long overdue. It's also a good kick in the pants to get my rear moving to try and get into some of my smaller clothes that don't currently fit. Mold seems to grow everywhere in FL but I guess I will try to find some kind of dessicant to keep in the closet too. Does anyone know if those vacuum clothing storage bags keep mold out? There is no air circulation in the closet and no good way to create it, barring construction of a vent fan.

Lastly I've sent my ipod off for repair and am lost without it. I don't care so much about my cell phone but am lost doing exercise and walking the dog without my ipod. I suppose we all have our technology addictions.

Bill, Indian food is delicious! Glad you enjoyed it.

Shannon, sorry you're having more troubles w DSS. Hope his lost spring break doesn't make your life more stressful also. Re: XW keeping DSS on a night you & DH were supposed to have him - what kind of custody agreement do you have? I'm not trying to pry, merely pointing out that if she & DH have a court-arranged agreement she may be in violation, perhaps something for you & DH to think about.

Saef, glad you got your hair cut! There is nothing like it.

Have a great week everyone.

My CPAs are Indian. They recently returned to India for a trip (she had not been back for 29 years!). They invited us to dinner Friday night and I asked how their trip was. She said that mostly it was terribly expensive and overly crowded. They went for 3 weeks with their kids who are both in high school and with her mother. Apparently her mother was born in Kenya and had only been to India for a short while. Her mother hated the entire trip! Anyway, she said the food was incredible! No GMO modification on any of the vegetables and she said the tastes were out of this world. It kind of makes me want to move to a farm and raise all my own food.

I cleaned my closet this weekend, too, but not because of mold--because of dust! Every time we want to wear something nice (you know, something you wear once a year or so) it's too dusty to wear. We weeded out the stuff that we've been hanging onto for no reason (things we'll never wear again, so why keep) and things we don't fit into any longer. I still have one shelf of purses that needs to be gone through. Next weekend we'll finish and make sure it's all dust free. And I bought two nice zippered cases to hang our nice stuff to keep it dust free.

Haircut for me Wednesday! I had decided last fall to grow it out and it's suddenly at "that stage" where I can't stand it. And thinking forward to the Hawaii trip, do I really want longer hair that take two to three times to dry and style? No! So I'm cutting it short again, although this time a different style.

Megan - unfortunately last week wasn't an 'official' night for us, it has however been accepted practice for almost five years. She takes a dance class once a week and he is at our house that night. Even after all this time she still sees that night as something she is giving to us, so it can be taken away at a whim. And I have no idea how to keep down the mold in your closet - ouch. That is aggravating.

Bill - I love Indian food... I'm sure it is terrible for me, though.

Dagmar - high five on the OP day! You can keep it up!

Allison - I had to put my 'fancy' dresses in zippered bags last summer. I had never thought about dust until I pulled out a cream colored dress for an event and the shoulders had dark, dusty lines across the coat hanger lines.

I had an okay weekend - didn't get much productive done, but did get some rest. Ate mostly okay. That's a plus.

Good morning everyone. Back in Ohio after uneventful trip home, except for traffic on I95 Friday was bumper to bumper and at some points 35 mph. I77 was fine. Everyone was headed home- March 30 & 31 are the when most snow birds rentals expire- bad days to be on the road!! I cleaned my part of the closet yesterday go rid of a lot of clothing ect.
Bill- we had Indian food last night at a dinner we were successful bidder at a charity event. We had so manyy different dishes I have no idea about the calories in them!! I just know it was way too many.
Shannon good luck this week with your DSS.
Darmar- sorry to hear about your lab.
Sorry all of you did not win the lottery- what the heck it is only money (!!!

Steve

Good morning everyone!

Megan-- I had forgotten about mold on clothes-- I had that when we lived in Houston. I remember putting some sort of dessicant (sp) in the closets. Gross....

I still need to go through my closet. I feel like I don't have much in there, but it is stuffed to the gills. I miss my big walk in closets-- dh and I have to share a fairly small closet now.

Allison-- where in Hawaii are you going again? Dh and I are trying to plan a scuba trip (still) and are having trouble agreeing on what to do. I was thinking a cruise would be good and was almost ready to book. Dh said he really doesn't want to cruise this time--- he would prefer a resort where we could relax at, walk around town, etc. I found two last night on the internet that looked promising-- one in Florida and the other in Hawaii so I sent both to him to see what he thinks. One would be more casual, small and relaxing (Florida), the Hawaii one looks more fancy.

Gotta get busy-- I leave Wednesday night to see dd to go to a specialist in Seattle. So between now and then I need to pack, work, exercise, clean, etc. And maybe plan a summer scuba trip!

Bill - I had a HUGE dosa on Saturday, a "spring" one filled with onions and carrots and masala. Definitely in my top 5 favorite foods!

Dagmar - You'll be back in those shorts by the time it gets warm again. One day at a time...

Megan - the iPod is a big one, I feel lost trying to exercise without it too.

alinnell - What kind of short style will you go for this time?

Why is it so hard to get anything started on Monday mornings? Instead of fresh and ready for a new week, I just want to go back to bed and stay there.

Michele~it's an NCL cruise that starts and ends in Oahu with trips to Maui, Hilo, Kauai and Kona (not necessarily in that order). We have 2 days in Maui and 2 days in Kauai. So far we have three excursions booked: 2 zipline tours and one ocean kayak and snorkeling. I bought disposable underwater cameras for everyone!

Krampus~the short hairdo I had last summer was very asymmetrical--the right side extremely short and the right side much longer. I'll see if I can post a picture. This time it'll just be short, but kind of spikey.

THis is a link to Facebook, I'm not sure if you can see it or not. If not, I'll upload it to Photobucket and redo it. Let me know.

Here's the photobucket link:

The link doesn't seem to work. I am a big fan of spiky though!

Allison, you and I have got similar haircuts and maybe even similar hair color. (Well, last year we did.) Only you look tanned & my face has the pallor of someone who's worked on a laptop during all the daylight hours of a long East Coast winter.

Krampus, I'm with you on the difficulty of Monday mornings. I feel as though I need a weekend to recover from my weekend, too much of which was spent driving. I drove down through fog and drove back through sleet and snow. I've decided to take off Good Friday, though.

Megan, I went without an iPod for about four months, and at first, I felt as if I'd had a limb removed. Gradually I got acclimated to it. I think I ran more slowly out of doors without music -- but the tradeoff was hearing the spring bird song everywhere I went. One of my gyms plays loud upbeat music, and I found I was okay there. But the other gym plays sulky college radio emo music, and I really missed the four-on-the-floor dance beat for those sessions.

I seem to be the only one who's not cleaning out her closet. The flood did that for me at the end of last summer. I do have some clothes lingering at my mother's that could use some thinning, though.

alinnell - That looks lovely! I always imagined you being tall and starkly contrasted light skin-dark hair for some reason, but I stand corrected.

saef - Driving and other forms of moving yet sitting are all energy-zappers. I hope you have a good Good Friday off.

My boyfriend lives beneath an obese mom with an obese daughter. The other day he overheard the mom screaming at the daughter "STOP EATING! JUST STOP EATING!" and while some would find humor in that, I think of times when I've been parked on the couch in the twilight zone of binging, shoveling all my bad emotions into my face, and it made me profoundly and deeply sad. I saw them this morning and the daughter had a lacrosse stick.

That's because you're equating me with my avatar! LOL

Hey folks! I did not buy a lottery ticket, although I thought about it. Oh well!

Megan, mold is pretty gross. Can you get a dehumidifier or something, leave the closet door open, and put the dehumidifier near it?

Nice hair Allison!

We had a couple people over last night for our cooking club (small crowd, only two guests). Ate too much, but it was tasty. For the most part anyway -- we had an "April Fool's" theme, so we had food with unusual ingredients, and one person brought chicken liver mousse. Totally not a fan of liver. I tried it, but ended up giving the rest of my portion to Carter.

Speaking of Carter, I'm going to talk to a potential new sitter tomorrow. Also thinking about trying him out at the doggie hotel. Do any of your board your dogs? I'm not sure if he'd be okay with it or not. It would certainly be easier for us though.

Bill, I used to be a vegetarian, and some of the best veggie foods are "ethnic" foods like Indian in my opinion. However I actually weighed MORE when I was veg because they are not usually low-cal choices.

Megan, we don't have a mold problem here (too dry in the desert) but I do keep extra blankets and things in those plastic storage bags to keep them dust-free. As long as there's no moisture already in the clothes/bags I bet they'd help with mold, too.

I could do with a major closet cleaning myself, I'm just always so indecisive. Now and again I wish I still had clothing I've previously gotten rid of in one of my spurts of cleaning, which makes me hesitant to get rid of things now.

My BF spent $5 on the lotto the other night, matched a number or two so he got 3 back... for a net loss of $2. The kid who cashed in his ticket jokingly congratulated him on his "winnings."

Jessica, I have not boarded a dog but I have worked in a kennel where I took care of dogs who were being boarded. Some take to it better than others... it can be really stressful for the dog if they are not used to/comfortable with lots of other dogs around them. Other dogs seem just fine, and soak up all the attention they can get from all the different people working there. I think it depends on your dog's personality - if he's kind of "outgoing" or the "I love everybody" type I bet he'd do just fine.