Good morning, Chickies. I'm back to 5 AM wakening. It's a gorgeous starry morning out there and not too cold so join me on the deck for coffee and watch a gorgous fall day unfold!

Yesterday went by in a flash because of the puppy excitement. They are absolutely adorable, of course, but not very photogenic yet. My digital shows a big ink puddle which is Lucy with ink blots attached! When they get their eyes open and start moving around I can get better shots. The little darlings will be ready to go to their homes by the end of November so soon Morna and I are going to be "interviewing" the lucky people who will be "allowed" to buy one. We are selling just the males and keeping the one girl for breeding if she passes all the tests. If you want to see picture of previous litters, go to the website and look at the picture section.

Anyhow I did get the wading pool drained and cleaned while Hershy gave me her WTF look! I'll refill it if it gets hot again because it does make her more comfy. I also got some of the basil and tomatoes into the house. That's a start anyhow.

Today we do not go to Hersh's job at the Nursing Home as she is now officially on maternity leave. When she lies on her back, she looks like a watermelon with boobs! I'll do more jobs around the house and try, once again, to haul this damned knee out for a walk.

What's happening chez vous?

Good morning, Chicks~~

Ruth, congrats on Lucy's puppies! How many were in the litter? And just one girl? Can't wait to see the pictures.

Went to knit with Janice and Marilyn last night and wound up scoring some free yarn! A friend of M's sent her a bag full of stuff she'd cleaned out of a closet. I wound up with about 16 skeins of teal and lavender yarns as well as 3-10 gram balls of 100% French Angora.

Dinner last night came out great! Just some chicken breasts cooked in a simple seasoned tomato sauce and mushrooms. I threw in some zucchini, too. Yum!

Well, must get my shower. I'll pop back in later before I fly out the door.

Mamacita

Wow, I'm in early I know. Went to play tennis with Bry last night and we ended up going to a tie breaker. We usually only play one set to 6 because each game goes to Deuce anyway! We're both Sagitarius and quite competitive...the fact that our birthdays are days apart probably doesn't help the stars either! Anyway, out late didn't get a chance to walk. So there I was in the beautiful valley fog at 7 am this morning, huffing along to some Celine Dion...

Turns out Dagny is from our Upstate NY area here too. Laurie, she, and I will have to do lunch. How cool is that?

Dad actually made dinner last night, SB style....I was impressed. He made spinach stuffed chicken breasts. They were excellent. Just the protein I needed after a decent match.

Today should be interesting, my grand opening is Saturday, so I'm working on getting the place clean.......ahh, oui.

Ruth, congrats on the puppies! I bet they're all squirmy and squinty and bloody well adorable! I'm envious!

Mamacita, don't you just adore free stuff?

To the rest of you ladies, I'll pop in when I get to the office. Have a wonderful day in case I miss you!

Hi all,

It's a great day here too. Yesterday I was dragged and tired all day - I even had one of those deep and disorienting naps in the morning. Feeling much better today - a return of energy. This mid-life hormone upset is throwing off every cycle in my body. I don't know if I'm about to get a 21 day tom or if the one day of it will be everything. Draining. Worse since on SB, but it could be coincidence. I'm going to add in some soy products to see if it helps at all.

Mamacita, how is your daughter doing after her first day on SB? Does she have dinner with you? Sounds like a good chicken dish.

Ruth, what a joy it must be to have little pups around. I bet it's hard to let them go when the time comes.

Sarah, you're really dedicated to walk in addition to the tennis. I'd have said it was a sub. Exercise is a problem for me - hate it and can't seem to sustain a program. I'm trying to include strength training to build some muscle and have to consider dog walking my cardio for now. The dog is allowed to sniff through the park, then she must walk at heel so I can get some momentum. She's really pretty good about it as long as we don't see a squirrel.

It was like a scene from The Birds this morning. The playground was full of starlings and seagulls, with five large crows resting on the climber. Spooky. I let the dog have some leash so she could bark them away - tooooooo creeeeeepy!

Have a great day everybody.

Good morning everyone. I finally made it in early this time. DH has some contract work that starts early in the morning. Instead of taking 2 vehicles to work, he drops me off early. He actually thinks that I stay out of trouble when he does that. Little does he know....he hasn't dropped in to meet any of you people yet.

We are going to Calgary on Thursday this week (DH has some meetings there). I plan to look for some property on Friday - we are not sure if we want a house there or a condo at this point, but I will start to look. We are planning to retire there, so thought we would get into the real estate market while interest rates are still low. Soooo, hopefully we will be able to buy something that we like in an area in which we want to live.

Hope everyone is well today. Have a good one!

Good morning, gals! I'm going to be in a training session in 40 minutes so I may not be able to post as much as usual. The training is off and on through the end of next week. I will post as much as I can. I brought extra snacks to work since I usually eat lunch around 11:30 and the class doesn't break for lunch until 12:45. It's a teleconference class from my desk so I can snack as long as I remember to put the phone on mute (and don't need to heat anything up).

Brian had the last muffin for breakfast this morning so I am hoping that the pastry flour arrives today. I actually should have time to whip up another batch tonight after the chicken capri cooks.

Hope everyone has a great OP day! Hope you are feeling better, skherb!

Geez, very rare that I'm one of the first handful in here. Good morning everybody.

Another busy day planned. Have to train Kelly's assistant some more today, then go straight to volleyball. Argh. Gonna be a rough night, too, because we're playing a team called "40 Something." They started out as a team when they were "20 Something."

No motive yet from the shooter in town, but his mother came forth and said "Derek is bi-polar." Terry thought "great, now he'll get off on that" but I don't think so. I think if everyone with bi-polar disorder went out and shot up the town, then maybe he could get off, but I know a lot of people who are bi-polar, and they haven't killed anyone, so his mom is just making up excuses for the *******.

Better get going. Need to pack my bag for tonight. Have a great day everyone.

Good morning everyone!

I made it through day two just fine. I had 30 pistachios to help the hunger pangs, otherwise I stuck to the program like clockwork.

Ruth - Your dogs are adorable! I checked out the website. The puppies must be tinie tiny!

Mama - It would be nice to have someone in the house doing this with me. We have cookies on the counter that have been screaming my name since Monday.

This weekend is the annual "scarecrow decorating" contest and Art show at the local park. Everyone can make their own scarecrow however they want and they are posted on the street lights down for a week or so. People get so creative and it's fun. I promised myself if I do well on SBD this week I can buy something just for me at the art show (like I wouldn't do it anyhow ) maybe something "extra" just for me.

To everyone else - have a super SBD day!

Day 2 was great for me! I ate 3 good healthy meals, including scrumptious grilled salmon over fennel for dinner--did a his-n-hers side dish by steaming red bliss potatoes for DH and radishes for myself in the same pot--he didn't even notice that my small red vegetables weren't the same as his small red vegetables until halfway through dinner.

I was especially proud of myself in the late afternoon--I went to a reception in my department, 5:30-8pm, at which there was an open bar and copious delicious appetizers and desserts on a buffet--usually, in these situations, I would resolve to be "good," but then have a glass of wine, and then rebel against my own good intentions and dive into the buffet. But this time I stuck with sparkling water, had some raw veggies off a crudite platter first so I wouldn't be hungry, and then tried to focus on conversation, not food. Success!! I didn't revisit the buffet the whole time! Probably had something to do with healthy, filling lunch--and the fact that I had just worked out and felt like taking care of my body.

Have started off well today--smoothie made with SF soy protein powder and SF yogurt, plus slice of Canadian bacon--and hoping to stay on a positive vibe!

Hey Chickies! I have been up and goin since 6 just not on the pc. I have been on a roll decorating this morning! Still a loooong way to go but hey I'm gettin there! Had an OP day yesterday except for the spoon of potato salad I just had to have! That's behind me now. (or on my behind not real sure!)lol Well here comes the sun creepin down into my eyes again! If he does not get this puter in my office pretty soon he's gonna be in big trouble! lol Hope you all have an OP day!

Good Morning Ladies!

This week has been full of sunshine and I'm quite happy with this! Today's the 1st day of Fall and I love it...too bad it's supposed to be hot here today....Well I'm working 3-9:30 tonight...we're having a big sale....should be interesting....Now if I can figure out the cash register and stuff then I should be fine....lol...I'm scared of it lol....The scale has gone down 1lb....I'm almost in the 100's....but it feels as if it's taking forever lol....How's everyone this morning?? Anything exciting going on? I hope you all have a wonderful day!!

Just dropping by. Sounds like you are all earlybirds. I'm never one on purpose. Nothing better than sleeping in. Call me lazy. Ran the stadium stairs yesterday evening, felt like a great workout, then when I got home I got so sick. Not sure if it was the second day of phase 1 or the workout or what but I was flat in bed when I wasn't barfing. blechhh.

Anyway, I feel hung over this morning so I'm just going to chill.

Mama, congrats on the yarn. My mom is a big knitting addicted crazy lady. I hate to knit but love to crochet.

Ruth, give some puppy kisses from me. Don't they have the cutest breath?

Adiafaith, wow on the tennis and walking. Celine Dion would be inspiring to exercise to.

Heidi, sorry about the hormone garbage. Weapons of mass destruction do not rule the world, hormones do. Put Osama or Sadam in a room with pms women and things would be taken care of in a hurry.....

sweetooth, good luck with your trip this weekend. Sounds like a fun thing to do....think about retirement property.

Barb, you are doing so great, inspiring to me with the snacks. When I go to work tomorrow, I'm going to have things ready. I do OK until I go to work, then I lose it in the cafeteria. They have the best sugar cookies.....

Weezle, spike one for the fatchicks!

Anchor weight, way to go on the 3rd day! I'm watching you and being inspired!

Bellydancer, way to be smart at the buffet! It's such a great feeling when you win.

Bamiegurl, I doubt a spoon of potato salad in on your behind. You are doing good!

Well, cloudy and cold today, I've still got my tomatoes covered poor babies. I don't want to pick them and deal with them ripening in the house. Yuk.

Hope you all have a great day.

I'm so excited for you! Nearly in onederland! You'll do it!

Mornin' Chickies,

This week has been a lot more sane at my house. We're getting in to the "back to school" groove and the kids are getting to bed on time and out the door on time and not even too much grumbling about the homework.

So far so good on exercise. I've done my 45 minutes on the elliptical 3 times this week. I'm taking tomorrow off but will be back at the gym on Friday. Next week I want to add strength training back in two days a week. My eating hasn't been as great. I've been having these yummy muffins a friend made when I get back from the gym instead of an OP snack. I'm always starving when I first start back to exercise so I figure next week, no excuses on the food either. No movement on the scale but I'm not surprised. Once my body figures out the exercise is here to stay maybe it will burn a little more off for me

I'm off for lunch with some local friends at a local Chinese place with a lunch buffet. I'm going to have a snack (veggies I think) before I go so I am not so starving.

It is a beautiful day here - have fun on the beach all!

Good morning ladies! How is everyone this a.m.? Sounds like everyone is busy. Moi aussi, very crazy things going on at the office and at home. I am so tired lately, the LSATS are in a week and a half, and then finally, FREEDOM!!!! I cannot wait to have my life back, and go to the gym, and cook healthy food, and see friends, and family, and go back to doing my little odd jobs to supplement my future student loans account. So this is very exciting.

I fell in love yesterday. Totally, deeply, forever. A black cashmere sweater, with little ruffled edges, kinda sheer, ties at the waist in a loose knot, can be a little summer sweater over a dress, or with a turtleneck in the winter. Alas, it is $298. Can anyone justify this sweater? I have been struggling all night to come up with some reason that I should get it. =) I did get a little white skirt with purple lipstick prints on it, on super sale. It is not good for a girl's wallet to live near cute boutiques.

Anyway, today I get to stay home and study, and clean, and not take a test! Yay! You gals enjoy a graet day on the beach!