I am, indeed, back from seeing and touching the GIANT Redwoods of California. And back from seeing Gray Whales off the coast of Oregon.

Both of which make me feel HUGE - in need of shedding some fat red-line pounds that have become sticky. I've always believed that my maintenance level of eating would automatically ditch the small poundage that creeps back. Not so. Seems like the body begins to feel entitled.

Here's hoping the the Costa Concordia parbuckles as planned today so it can be towed away and dismantled.


[Note to self: notice that all topics you mention today are LARGE.]

Bill You saw the giant redwoods AND whales - COOL!

And yes, the lbs. we put back on gradually creep back and require more effort (for me at least) the second time around to lose. Could be that I'm not so motivated either due to aging and exhaustion. Fitting into the skinny jeans doesn't seem like such an important life goal any more.

I feel kinda sad lately . Probably due to regret that my father and I had to have such an adversarial relationship all our lives, particularly at the end of his. Some good did come out of all of this though - my older cousin and I are still communicating with each other about once a week.

I better go feed Mudpie again - she's yelling very loudly.

Dagmar

Good morning!

Good morning, Bill. I guess you should join us in the other thread Maintainers getting 5-10 to fall off. And rest assured that you are no way as large as any of those things!

Another quiet weekend under my belt. For someone who usually sees a movie every weekend, it's been strange to not see one for three weeks now! Granted we've been watching movies at night on TV but it just isn't the same. Instead I've been reading quite a bit which is good as my Kindle is full of unread books and I keep downloading more.

Welcome back Bill! Your trip sounds amazing.

Like you-- the pounds have crept on and stuck. I'm tired of complaining about it. I started back to tracking today. I've resisted it because I hate it but I need to get a clear picture of what I'm eating to see if I need to alter anything.

My foot is mostly better. I still don't know what I did so I'm babying it but it seems almost okay. Now of course other things hurt like the side of my leg because I've been compensating.

My classes start full force this morning. Wish me luck. I think the hardest part is trying to train the new parent volunteers that arrive with the classes. Sometimes they "get it" and other times they just don't seem to understand how a library is laid out. Some of them I never see again and others become friends. I went to a friend's house on Saturday-- she had been my volunteer for many years and now her son is in middle school. It was great to catch up.

Allison-- I did see a movie this weekend with dh. We almost never see movies! We saw We're the Millers and enjoyed it. We joked that we were having a high school date because we had pizza first (thin crust organic by the slice) and then went to the movie.

I have dining room furniture being delivered today. It's living in the back shed until the flooring is installed. The flooring arrives Saturday and starts getting installed next Monday. I think we ARE actually going to have a house by the end of October.

Dagmar

And do we get before and after pix ?

I tried to take pics but the rooms don't lend themselves to the digital camera. Everything was blurry, even at the widest angle setting. Or the flash washed it out so much that you couldn't really see what was there.

I'll see if I can take some "after" pics with my old manual camera and transfer them to digital format.

Dagmar

Oh, the joys of home ownership. So much awaits you, Dagmar. It's only just begun.

Here I am at quarter after eight, awaiting a contractor who was supposed to show up at 8 A.M. to measure the three-part bay window in my bedroom and determine whether pre-made screens will fit into it. At least I've got a cup of coffee to console me against the chill of still being in sweaty gym clothes on a cool September morning. I really want to shower & change but he'll show up the minute I'm naked.

Back in 2011, after the flood, during salvage operations we popped out the screens in the bay window so that we could remove my sleigh bed expeditiously for restoration. The screens stayed propped against the outside wall and in the sorrow & hard work of salvage, I never remembered to put them back in the window. I thought the maintenance guys would take care of this. But there was a lot going on and the screens must have gotten tossed in a dumpster along the way.

I hadn't been in a hurry to get new screens because I wasn't using that bedroom -- because there was no bed in it -- and I knew the sleigh bed would have to come back in through the window. It's really cumbersome, made in two massive parts, and hard to angle through the hallway.

But now the bed is back, and I'm measuring it twice and then again, to order a custom mattress. I'll be sleeping it by Christmas, I hope. So I want the windows complete with screens. Now it turns out the screens were custom-made, and not cheap, and the building management, which is responsible for them, is still trying to replace them, but is really, really hoping that something premade will work.

Anyway, it's now 8:23 AM & no sign of the contractor. If they thought they were doing me a favor by showing up at 8:30 AM, they weren't.

I really want a shower before work kicks in & I can't get away from my laptop till lunch hour.

Morning all,

I had a first read-through with my cast last night and am very happy. There's a lot to do, but I don't feel too behind yet and am also really happy with the crew I've recruited so far. Plans are coming together. Work... same. I'm trying to keep my head above water with work, keeping the dog and myself exercised, the usual house chores and prepping healthy food. I'm getting a little tired of romaine lettuce salads. I get to go to the good grocery store later this week and am going to try to break out of my vegetable rut. I was on a great food place (eating the right stuff and right amounts) for the last two weeks and got a little derailed over the weekend. I can get back there before it becomes a big deal and I get way out of balance. We're supposed to get our first cold front of the season tomorrow and I'm really looking forward to cooler weather.

Saef, I'm hoping you can at least get something else productive done while in contractor purgatory and they actually show up today! I have such a dismal view of repair people that when they do show up and get anything done I'm overly impressed.

Dagmar, if you do manage to take pictures of the house please do share! At my grandmother's funeral I saw aunts and uncles I hadn't seen in years. At least some good can come out of events that are traditionally seen as negative. Glad you and your cousin have renewed your relationship.

Bill, redwoods and whales both sound wonderful! Got any pictures?

Allison, I have a bookworm friend who reads a combo of digital and paper books, which is what I do right now, too. If I can borrow it, not buy it, I don't care what form it's in. Right now my night stand is quite full of books waiting to be read. It's nice to catch up sometimes.

Michele, glad your foot is feeling better. I've trained a few volunteers, too, and completely understand. When you find the good ones, you want to hold onto them!

Have a good day and good week all.

I am now the proud owner of dining room furniture which is one step closer to the new house. It is stored, dismantled, in the shed at the back of the new house and will proudly be put inside (and cleaned and oiled once sanding of walls is finished) when we have floors.

Which should be the end of next week. Just in time for me to go off on a dog sit for 11 days. Guess I'll come and visit my first ever dining room for awhile.

I had a bit of a problem telling the movers (who I just booked) how many rooms of furniture we have. I'm not sure a shed full of plastic bins is furniture and, at this point, I'm not sure whether the old living room couch is moving with us or whether the new one will be at the new house first.

It's going to be a weird, fractured, experience. But the ticking clock of month end will NOT be happening. I'm giving myself (almost) a week off to do this. And I'm taking a lot of stuff to the storage unit and over to our sheds before the move.

And I have now gotten rid of over 1/2 my clothes and shoes, all stuff I haven't worn (some things never worn) in over 2 years. Surprising how easy it is to do whim shopping on the net and then wind up with a bunch of stuff that's never used. Someone at the local charity clothing place will be very glad to get my burgundy taffeta evening dress with matching shoes and purse, I'm sure.

Dagmar

Bargoo-- how are you feeling?
Thinking of you a lot....

Good morning! Work is going nuts here so I will not be around much. Just wanted to drop in and say hi. Also for those not on facebook, here are a few photos of my girls. (Actually I didn't put these on facebook, so it's a first glimpse! )

Happy Wednesday everyone,

This is my PSA for the day: Back up your hard drive!!! I'm sure you can guess where this is going. My laptop at home made a horrible screeching noise, followed by not much of anything. I managed to find a local computer guy who came highly recommended and sounds competent and reasonably priced, which is great since I don't want to drive 160 miles round trip to the city at least once to get it fixed somewhere. He said it sounds like a hard drive, which he said is easy to replace but recovering my stuff is questionable. He's out of town so I won't know until Friday-Sat if my stuff can been saved so I'm not too upset at this point. "Buy a portable hard drive to back up laptop" was even on my to-do list and hadn't been done yet.

The front is coming through and fall is in the air. I see pumpkin in my future. Maybe if fall comes it will alleviate my allergies. I can only hope.

Jessica, how cute! What smiley girls.

Dagmar, way to purge. It's much better to get rid of this stuff now and not move it, right?

Saef, surely if you get on the management now they will have those screens replaced by Christmas. Surely.

Michele, how are classes going?

Bargoo, I had a couch party last night and thought of you. How's it going?

Happy hump day everyone.

Happy hump day has rather a double meaning for me Megan.

Dagmar