Bill seems to have left the building, so I thought I'd start the thread.

Hi, everyone!

By the fortunes of working in the auto industry, today is a corporate holiday. Man, I love the 3 day weekend!

Kicking off the week with a new hardwood floor in our bedroom; installer should be here in less than 10 minutes! Woo! I had a major maternal pride moment yesterday when DS15 knocked his vocal duet out of the park at church - they did a wonderful job with a very tough piece - "The Prayer" by Josh Groban. Naturally, it's posted on my FB and I have a Youtube link for anybody who'd like to see it.

Yesterday's scary black ice has melted, according to the TV weatherman, and I can hear cars on the parkway speeding toward the city for the day, though fewer than usual because of it being Martin Luther King's birthday.

I've got the usual physical therapy appointment scheduled for later today. My favorite physical therapist, Arvin, said he'd put 3-lb weights on my ankles for today's session. My routine is nearly all leg lifts at different angles, trying to prevent atrophy in my leg muscles. Don't know if it's working -- today I can see loose folds of skin in my calf and that leg is visibly smaller than the healthy right leg. So it seems I am not doing enough -- or else this is inevitable, no matter what I do, in my current state.

I wish I had a three day weekend. I miss the long weekends we had during the holidays.

Work will be interesting today. Most of the country clubs we work in are "closed" for the holiday so we'll have a bunch of guys hanging around today. And they'll get to meet our new employee. I hope it goes over okay.

I'll have to go watch the video, Becky. I'm sure you're very proud!

Good grief - you're right, it is Monday. Thanks for getting us started.

My goal for today is to eat rational snacks. There's a bunch of unplanned time in my day loosely scheduled for catch up. Unplanned time can lead to unplanned eating.

Happy MLK Day everyone! Looking forward to finally seeing "Selma" with Karen tomorrow. Even Glenn Beck liked it.
January is often our most depressing month. Karen's Mom died on January 24, and my Mom died on January 24 years later. Psychologists have also declared January 24 the most depressing day of the year: failed resolutions, post-holiday credit card bills, dead of winter, low light for a long time, etc.
All that said, this is also the first January in three years that I jumped right back on the horse diet-wise after the holidays. And with all the challenges we face in life, and with all the things that happen that are out of control at our jobs and family and health etc, I feel much better physically -- and much better emotionally -- when I can keep my eating under control.
Wishing us well. The sun will return!

Good Monday morning all. I'm also lucky to have the three day weekend but I'm battling loneliness. I think I got used to dh and other family around for the holidays. The house seems quiet and lonely with everyone gone. I have a dental appointment today. I'll also go to yoga and If I'm up to it, body pump later. My plan was for 7:45 yoga but I slept in for me.... 6:15 which would have made it hard to make... Especially for my breakfast to digest somewhat. So, I'm taking it easy and then going to 9:30.

Congrats Becky! I'm sure you're a proud mama!

Good luck with your weights, Saef!

Glad your year is starting well, Chris. I hope you can spend January 24 thinking of what you're thankful for this year.

Yesterday was the 29th anniversary of the day I met dh. We were never apart after that night, so we've been together for 29 years. Hard for me to fathom. Way over half my life.....we met when I was 18 and he was 22.

Hello to everyone else! Here's to a great week!

The two jobs I had before this one got MLK day as a holiday. This one doesn't. That has made me sad now for the entire eight years I've been here.

Several years back, on President's Day, I realized that for the second or third year in a row we weren't able to send most of our guys out to jobs because of the holiday. I talked to DH and said that this was a stupid waste of everyone's time and he agreed so we made President's Day a paid holiday for everyone. So far this is the first time we've been dealt with closures on MLK Day but if it continues we may make it a holiday as well. It's nice to be "the boss."

I forgot to tell you--I had a golf lesson last week. I went golfing both Saturday and Sunday like usual. I was kind of afraid that this one lesson would mess up what was working for me but I decided to do my best. Saturday I had some good hits and some bad hits but overall about the same score as usual. But Sunday, I tied my FIL on the front 9!!!! I had the best score of the year (not a personal best but it felt really good). I can't wait until my next lesson on Thursday.

Meanwhile I might get interviewed for the local news on a totally unrelated topic. That'll be scary!

My post this morning was eaten. Finally got on the scale - first time this month. Just under 140 lbs. This is not news or but I am now determined to start inching down to my red line of 135. when I get there I'll stay there until spring (all two weeks of it ) and then try to get down to 130 as my "summer" weight.

Good week all!

Dagmar : is coming!

I finally reached a point where I am unswayed by how Karen eats. Generally, she does much better than me (a 30-year Maintainer!!), but yesterday she had one of her rare mini-binges and I just stayed on track. Usually I use her as an excuse: she overeats and she's so skinny, so I will too. The problem with that twisted logic is that she weights 107 and I weigh 207, so I still need to lose at least another ten pounds to be in a good maintenance weight range. Onward and downward!

Good for you, Chris for not caving with Karen! I find it a tad humorous that you weigh exactly 100 pounds more than your wife (I hope she is super short!!). I had always weighed at least 50 pounds less than dh until my weight started going up and up. His was going up too but not at the same pace as mine. I started to panic that I'd weigh more than him which was one of the impetus' (impeti?) to lose weight. Now I weigh approximately 75 pounds less than him-- he should really lose 10-15 at least though he lost a big chunk when I was losing.

In weird news... we've been agonizing over what his next position will be as they are interviewing to fill his China spot. There hasn't been much open at all which has caused much anxiety for dh. Yesterday he got word that one of his colleagues died-- same age roughly as dh (around 50)-- very unhealthy guy but his death was sudden and unexpected. Dh was quite shook by it (another of his colleagues around the same age dropped dead a few weeks ago too)... and then he told me morosely-- I guess I know my next position now.... Not for sure obviously but it would make sense for dh to step into his position. That would keep us here. We were debating heavily the pros and cons of moving vs. staying, so that decision looks out of our hands for now.

High five, Chris!

We got new bedroom furniture from Ikea - replaced a 20 year old Rooms to Go bedroom set that was a wedding present to myself and my XH from my parents. I do have to say, it is nice to get replace it with something that DH and I picked out together. Being Ikea, we had to assemble it all. In the assembly process, I learned that my carpet was full of dust and my Dirt Devil didn't do anything to help with it on Saturday. DH has asthma, so I let him help assemble on Saturday, but then finished the three remaining chests and bathroom cabinet myself on Sunday. The dust was killing him, and as he has been sick for two weeks and had just started swinging up middle of last week I didn't want to make him sick again. The dust did drive me to buy a Dyson - I was amazed at how much dust it picked up in the room I had just vacuumed. I don't know how I lived without it.

Michele - sorry about DH's coworker. That is sad. Hope the job works out well for him.