G'day all,

It was certainly good to hear that Ann and Karen are OK, thanks for letting us know Ann and also updating us about Karen. Hope her dh is fine again and rearing to go to get their new home set up.
The devastation is just unbelievable, how scary that must have been even for those on the edge as you were Ann let alone the people that were directly in the path of 'Charlie'.

Peggy I hope you soon will have some luck with your house sale. Yes the Aussies are doing well at the Olympics I thought the opening ceremony was quite spectacular the way Greek history was depicted. Such clever people who think of the concept and then are able to produce it in such a stunning way. I thought it was a breathtaking spectacle.

Not such good news on the weigh in front , I remained the same. I am quite disappointed and cannot understand why but I will NOT give up and I am trying a few different tacks this week.

Cheers
Maria

Starting weight: 94.9 kg
goal weight: 72 kg
todays weight 87.6kg
0 from last week
total loss till now 7.3 kg

Hi Everybody

Karen and Ann I am so happy that both of you are fine. That storm you had in Florida was just awful. There was a lot of coverage on it on the TV. It's unbelievable how a storm like that just rips the roofs right off buildings and uproots HUGE trees, as if they were toys. The reports we heard were that 16 people lost their lives and that there is over 11 billion dollars damage done, and countless people left homeless with only the clothes on their backs. I feel so bad for all of them.
Karen do the doctor's know what caused that rapid heart beat that your DH had and how's he doing now?
I've sure been thinking about you all.
We have been out at the lake and got back this evening. The weather really wasn't that great but we had a nice time anyway. We are not able to get away this coming week for our little road trip as some business stuff has come up for DH. We'll see how things go and try to plan it for another time....soon I hope.
Maria don't worry too much about the weight thingee...who knows why that happens, but I sure know it happens to all of us. Next week will be better I'm sure.
Bye for now.

Slavika: How sweet to get a wrist corsage. I have never had one either. It sounds so pretty! Your new Haircut sounds easy! Will be great for Hawaii to The lake I so envy you.

Peggy: Glad it wasnt serious. I use to lay out all the time in the sun. Cant believe I did that. Wish they would of said back then about getting sunburned.

Maria: I love Dasiy's to. I bought some at Trader Joes today. They are so pretty. Sometime I just cant resist Yep Drugs are not cheap anymore. Health care for that matter isnt cheap. Since hubby is only Contract we lost his Health care which we both use. They wanted 500$ a month to keep it going. Hello........ I dont have that kinda money. So we are living on mine which isnt easy either. We use to have to Dentists health care. Now Just one. I end up Paying more as mine doesnt cover it all ~sigh~ Dont worry about the not losing. It happens. Just keep going. You are doing so well

Karen: Would like to know also if they found out why your hubby had the rapid Heart rate


Not much new with me. Same old same old. We went out to Lunch today and shopping. Didnt buy anthing fun. Under clothes stuff and that isnt fun but needed

WW came out with a new Palm Program. Its pretty nice. Sad thing is you need to be an Etools subscriber to get it. Its is tied to etools. But I used it for the first time today and quite like it! I get Etools free as Im a worker Bee. but I really wouldnt pay for it. Dont like being tied to the puter. But now that I can have it on my palm which goes with me any where, Im a happy camper

Hope all is well with everyone. Sorry I dont check in much. Just been so busy lately

Miss you all!

I got so nervous when I read about the hurricane. So glad to know that you, Anne and Karen, were not hit. We live with tornadoes here in Oklahoma and they can be pretty awesome too. I wasn't very scared until 1999 when OKC had a level 5 tornado, the biggest one ever recorded. Now I pay attention. Mother Nature is pretty awesome when she can make our homes and buildings look like children's toys. And there is so much heartache and loss, we just need to remember those affected in our prayers.

Peggy, I hope one of your houses sells soon and it is the one you want to sell. That must be kind of disheartening, just not knowing.

Maria - don't take the staying the same too seriously. Our bodies just sometimes need to get balanced and decide we are serious about weight loss. Plateaus come and go, but we can outlast them. I watched the Olympics last night and was kind of disappointed to know that there were so many empty seats at the different venues. It is all quite a spectacle, but I imagine people get so tired of the scandals, drugs and payoffs that we have heard about lately. In regard to drugs, US citizens are so ripped off. My brother orders his prescriptions from Canada and saves a lot. They make it so that some people have to decide between medicine and food. Not right.

Slavika, how are you doing using your pedometer? I just got serious about walking and have been averaging about 12,000 steps. I feel so much better than I did last year when I could not walk 7,000 steps a day.

Our schools are all starting and the college (OSU) starts next Monday. Everything is getting all energized.
Glenda

Hi Everybody
Nice seeing such a long post from you Lily . Yes, I thought if the hair cut turned out to be something I liked I would continue getting it cut short like this and certainly for Maui. I will likely see Trudy tomorrow, and I was wondering what she will think of it.
Peggy good luck to you in selling either of the houses. I sure hope you have the perfect person walk into your house and say, "I'll take it'!
Glenda way to go with the steps pedometer. You are doing really well. I think just puting it on encourages you to take extra steps.
DH is in a golf tournament today, so I don't have make din dins for him...
Talk to you all soon. Bye for now.

G'day all,

I agree Slavika it was nice to see the long post of Lily I am now waiting for one from Trudy

What a wonderful result for our champion swimmer Ian Thorpe , he is the most mature 21 year old I have ever heard speak. It was also great to see the sportsmanship that was shown with his arch rival Pieter vandenHogenband who won gold at the Sydney Olympics. There should be more of it!
It is a shame to see the empty seats at the various venues, I personally feel that some of the excitement has left the Olympics with the drug cheats etc.

That is quite amazing Glenda the cost of life saving drugs in America, so the documentary was fairly well correct that Americans get their drugs from Canada. I also find your health insurance quite amazing, it is expensive here and many people choose not to have insurance but the premiums are nowhere near like they are in your country.
Good for you getting back into the walking again!

A bit of news on the work front......dh is off to Tokyo next week for about 7 to 10 days. He is quite excited, it is not a country that is on top of our list for a holiday but an opportunity to go there for work is great.
He also received an email from America about a person leaving...dh emailed back 'does that mean there is a vacancy' the answer 'yes' dh emailed 'when can I start' He has now received an email asking how serious he is!!!
He has replied that he would be very interested so who knows..........
We had a quick look at the rental of apartments in New Jersey, not cheap!
All a bit of fun and you never know what will eventuate.

Have a great day all,
Cheers
Maria

Hi: A busy day raking and bagging all the twigs, leaves, etc. from our yard. Now that we have our electric power back I can at least come inside to cool off a bit, since it has been very warm. We collected about 7 large leaf bags full and tomorrow will finish the side yard. Also collected two partial bags and a box of shingles from various houses, including our own.

We tried all day to connect with our insurance agent, but I suspect that their phone is not working yet. Will keep trying or go to the office tomorrow. We called a roofer to come and give us an estimate. Since we have to have a new roof, we are thinking about putting in some solar tubes, to give some extra light in our living room and kitchen. Those rooms are bit on the dark side. Of course, our insurance won't pay for those, but we can do that ourselves. The telephone for FEMA keeps coming on our tv, for people to call for federal aid, but we haven't called, as we can't really feel that what happened to us can even compare to the devastation that others have suffered.

There are still thousands who don't have power, and ice and water and fresh food is getting to be a big problem. Many stores have been able to get generators going, and they are trying to help people get what they need. The paper today told about a Walmart in Lake Wales, a place badly hit, opening with a generator, and taking people into the store one at a time to get what they need. A worker escorting each person, so if the power and lights go out, they can be escorted out okay. Restaurants aare serving food, because they have no freezer capacity at all. It is certainly showing the way people can work together to make the best out of a bad time.

We just feel very blessed that we had such a small amount of damage. A positive for me is that when I got on the scale this week, I have lost a pound. All that nervous energy, I guess, plus all the outside raking. :
But I wouldn't advise that as a good way to have a loss.

Our neighbors just got home today, to find the problems with their home. So they came over for dinner. I tried something new for dessert, as my kitchen is getting bare. I had some blueberries that had thawed, I added a diced apple, and one can of peaches, juice and all, diced. Added about 2tbs of sugar. Brought that whole mixture to a boil, and then dropped dumplings in the boiling fruit. I put some cinnamon and a bit of sugar in the dumpling mix. Made with reduced fat bisquick. Served it warm and with some cool whip. It was really quite good.

I am happy to get back to cooking, and using my new stove. It really works very nice. I also made a loaf of bread, since there is not a lot available in the stores. The oven bakes like a charm.

Glenda: I think this hurricane acted very much like a tornado, except that it lasted a long time, and my understanding is that a tornado is quite fast and cuts a swath. We were in the howling winds for nearly an hour, then the eye passed and the it was another 40 minutes or so of more wind and rain. They both are pretty serious business. I don't want to be in either type of storm ever again. It was too scary.

Maria: Australia is doing well in the Olympics. Great swimmers. How exciting that you could be coming to the U.S. That would let the business take care of part of your trip over here. I think that for your life, you have to be very flexible and be a bit of an adventurer.

Hi Slavika, Lily, Trudy, Peggy. Hope things are well with you all. 'See' you tomorrow. Ann

So glad to hear that Karen and Anne are all right. That had to be a very scary thing to go through. Hope that Karen's husband is doing better. He sure didn't need Charlie to deal with. Anne glad that you didn't have a lot of damage but most importantly that you all are okay.

Lily don't you just hate the cost of insurance. Ours went from $80 a month last year to almost $500. We can't really afford it so that is why dh does the theater cleaning. I think it is going to go up again next year. The police and fire need to do something about this. At least we have a prescription plan and they usually run between 5-15 dollars. If they didn't I wouldn't be taking Zocor.

Maria don't worry about staying the same. That happens and can be very frustrating but when you least expect it you will start losing again. Just don't give up. Exciting about the possibility of coming to the states. New Jersey-you will have to learn to pronounce it New Joisey. I think the A&E channel has a show called Growing up Gotti. It is a realty show about the godfather John Gotti's dd and her kids. From the promos I have seen they speak New Joisey. Personally have never watched the show.

Have to get ready to go to the dr and have some more of the thing on my neck removed. Wish he could have done it all at one time since the spot was little.

The realtor came and took picture of the house [both of them] this morning and will be putting them on their website. They do interior shots so I had to hide things away and now have to go figure out what I did with them. lol

Hi Everybody goodness sake, Peggy and Lily I can't believe what you have to pay for medical insurance. That's absolutely ridiculous. If you are paying $500.00 per month does that then cover ALL your dental work, ALL your prescriptions, ALL your doctor's visits, tests etc and of course hospital care.
Since DH has been at the bank he has contributed to a "group" medical/dental plan that is now costing us around $1500.00 per year. This plan covers 80% of dental work EXCLUDING anything that is considered cosmetic like those titanium implants I had done a couple of years ago. That was around $7000.00 but we had to pay for that ourselves. The plan would have covered 80% having the teeth pulled and a partial or full denture made. It covers 90% of all our prescriptions, totally covers all doctor visits and tests and hospital care. We also pay a little more so that if in the hospital we would have a semi private room, and we are allowed $200.00 per day for things like having a TV in the hospital, and cab fare etc for our mate or family member to travel back and forth if they didn't have a car. The plan also covers us for I think around $200.00 a year for glasses/frames. It also covers us for 30 days if we are travelling outside of our province. When DH retires, he will keep the coverage and we no longer have to pay the $1500.00/yr. It's a little perk that is included in his retirement package. The thing we will have pay when he retires is medical coverage when we travel if we are away for more then 30 days, but it is a reasonable amount, but I forget how much it costs.
I know from listening to your politicians speak that health care is always a big topic. Having said all that, I have to say our health care system is in trouble too. People have to wait too long to have tests done and to have surgery done. I have a friend with a very sore back who is in a lot of pain and she had to go out of province to have testing done and has been on the waiting list for surgery, which is finally going to happen at the end of this month. She just wants this over and done with...because she has put her life on hold for so long.
Maria It would be nice if you could go to the US for awhile, but I guess you would miss your children if you were away too long. Keep us posted.
Today is WW weigh-in day, and I don't think I have done very well this week either, so Maria you have me for company.
See you all later.

Hi Everybody
I'm back again.
Weigh-in was better then I thought it would be. I was down .4# and happy with that.
Every little bit helps.
Tea time was great. Trudy is back now from her little holiday and she liked my new haircut and so did the other gal that was over.
Bye for now.

G'day all,

I didn't have you for company long Slavika , good for you recording another loss. I am NOT going to weigh myself during the week but will wait for my 'official' weigh-in on Monday but I do FEEL thinner

Peggy that is unbelievable what you pay for private health insurance, how can young families on an average income afford that
We pay $US85 per month (we also pay a compulsary levy out of our wage towards public healthcare) and that gives us a private room in a private hospital, our choice of specialist, a rebate on any physiotherapy or chiropractic treatment, a dental rebate up to $AUS 800 per year.
For those people who choose not to be privately insured it means they pay full price for any services such as chiropractic etc. treatment, private dental care. If they need emergency treatment/surgery they are treated by our public hospitals but if they need elective surgery they would have to go on a waiting list that seems to be getting longer and longer
I don't know of any companies in Australia that cover health insurance for their employees. The Americans I have met through dh's work always mention the fact that they have their health insurance paid for by the company.....same company but different country, we don't!

Ann Boy you have been 'lucky', compared to those around you. At this end of the world we have 'cyclones', not sure why yours are called hurricanes and ours are cyclones, both are horrendous with similar results.
Christmas 1974 Darwin was completely flattened by cyclone Tracy. We lived in Darwin for 12 months in 1978 and the scars from cyclone Tracey were still very evident.
We don't seem to have tornados but of course we have heard of them striking your part of America Glenda

Peggy Sounds like your new Realtor is a bit more pro-active and getting your homes on the net, who knows both might get sold and then you have to buy something completly new

DH is getting quite excited about going to Tokyo, he is leaving next Monday.
Haven't heard anything more about a temporary transfer to New Jersey.

Those Olympic swimmers are just sensational. I remember being in Sydney and the apartments we stayed at had a 25 metre pool (1/2 the size of an Olympic Pool) I thought I would do a few laps , I struggled to make half the length of the pool so it has put the efforts of these swimmers in quite a different perspective for me, I just find it unbelievable how they 'zoom' through the water and don't even seem to be out of breath
It might have something to do with my age/lack of training etc.

Have a great day all,
Cheers
Maria

Maria, we too have been mesmerized by the Olympic swimmers. I am so impressed. Last night the American relay team won gold, yours silver. I know those young men from Australia were disappointed, but they should be so proud. I just love watching these young athletes. My husband only cheers Americans, but I love seeing excellence from any country, especially if they show good sportsmanship.

Gotta go. Have any of you heard anything about the new WW program?
Glenda

Just a quick Hi: The clean-up goes on. Today there was another cherry picker truck up and around clearing hanging tree limbs, and pulling down aluminum from damaged screen rooms, and the like. The hardest hit spot in our park makes one think of the pictures you see of war zones.

We did have a ladies lunch today. i think that everyone was ready for a little time away from the whole mess. and there are still thousands without power, and it is so hot.

I never did understand the difference between cyclones and hurricanes. I think it must be the part of the world we are from.

We were paying $735 per month, and we couldn't afford that anymore and that was for Medicaare supplimental ins. so we went with AARP and have very good coverage for 394 a month. I think that the charges for health care and hospital care are obscene. As well as prescription drugs. We have a prescription benefit on our insurance. 50/50 after a deductible. and one med. that dh takes is still $69 per month. I think of those people who have to take all these meds with no help at all. I see that the state of Illinois is going to make it possible for all their residents to get prescriptions from Canada. I don't understand why the American companies can sell the drugs to Canada for such a much lower price, and then here in the U.S. where they have been developed we get the "shaft" so to speak. guess I better get off my soap box.

have to shut down as we are going to get another thunderstorm. Goodnight all. Ann

G'day all,

It was really annoying me not knowing the difference between cyclones and hurricanes, below I have found the answer to this 'important' question:

Do you know the difference between a hurricane, a typhoon and a cyclone? Honolulu Community College Professor Richard Brill does.

The Caribbean Sea is the spawning ground for hurricanes in the Atlantic and eastern Pacific Oceans. They are called typhoons In the western Pacific and cyclones in the Indian Ocean, but the physics is the same.

A cyclone is any mass of air that spirals around a low pressure center. It is an organized collection of thunderstorms embedded in a swirling mass of air.

At the center of the spiral is the eye, a vertical tube of clear skies and calm winds; the more intense the storm, the smaller the eye.

Although the main upwards flow of air is around the eye, the entire air mass is unstable. Spiraling rows of thunderstorms with relatively clear areas between them extend outwards for up to two thousand miles from the center, gradually diminishing in intensity.

I am sure you will all sleep better knowing this

Ann Politics.....who can ever make sense of it but your health service does seem to be extreme compared to Canada and Australia.
The lunch must have been a welcome relief from all the cleaning up that must be done. How long before all the electricity is restored? When we lived in Darwin so long ago, they were still upgrading the electricity after Cyclone Tracy and there were many days we were without power because of it. I found it very difficult with 2 young children on my own in a strange city, dh was working very long hours and weekends. There was just nothing you could do without power and the heat..... In Darwin you cannot swim in the sea because of the box jelly fish which is deadly especially for small children.
All in all, not a good experience.

Glenda It was unbelievable that Australia won silver by 0.13 seconds in that race. Australia with a population of just over 20 million, I think we are doing incredibly well and deserves a cheer from your dh!!!!
Not sure what the 'Dream Team' is thinking, perhaps they thought they only needed to turn up to collect gold.
The gymnasts I also find just awesome, the strenght and control displayed is beyond belief.
Another one of our gold medallists in the pool is Petrea Thomas, she has had 3 shoulder reconstructions, ankle operations and is now in her late twenties and has managed to so far have gotten 2 gold medals.
I need just a little of their dedication to shift this weight!!

A sunny day here today, spring is in the air

Cheers
Maria

Maria, my hat is off to Australia without even knowing you have only 20 million people. Your swimmers are just awesome. I think track and field starts today and you all usually have some great people in that too. We watched last night the all-around gymnast competition and could not believe our guy won gold after fall down and sitting down off the vault. He really had to be perfection from there on out.

Ann, I hope this bad time passes soon and everyone gets back power. We had no power for 5 days a few years ago, but it was in the dead of winter and we at least had a wood-burning stove. I don't think I will ever again take quite so granted electricity again. And your discussion of health care makes me think I will never be able to retire. Why is your medicare supplement so high? I have talked to people who retired from the university and theirs is $150/month.

Maria, so typical. You really are an inquisitive type. I thought about exploring the differences, but it went right out of my mind. By the way, I finally got my sound fixed on my computer and so yesterday I heard your voice and Slavika's. I probably would sound a little like Dolly Parton, but with an Oklahoma twang. You did sound Aussie to me, not like Dundee, but in that vein. Sure was fun listening to you all. Maybe if you get to come to New Joisey, we could all meet somewhere inbetween. Would be fun.
Glenda