Hello, hello! I'm back from vacation in St. Maarten in the beautiful Caribbean! It was great. We didn't do what I normally do on vacation, i.e. run around taking tours, going here and there. We mostly vegged out by the pool and the bay. The food there was awesome. There are many, many gourmet restaurants there. Well, I weighed myself this morning and I'm up 1.5#. It could have been worse, but I ran and walked almost every day while there.

Melissa, sorry you've been so busy; maybe it will slow down soon.

lala, hugs to you. I'm so sorry about Mr. Jacques. Gosh, you've lost two of your family so close together.

Pam, you've had a cool spell there.

Susan, congrats on the weight loss--great!! I love Filene's; I hope you found some good deals.

Hi everyone,

Late check in.

Lisa - welcome back! Sounds like tons of fun and thanks for your thoughts.

Its been a hard weekend. It should get better right? Trying to stay out of the house as its quiet without my four footed ageing duo. They were really quite something. I think DP is really bummed. I can't figure out how to make things better, but hopefully time will heal things.

We did talk about getting another dog, probably a rescue basset youngster and a kitten. I don't think I can handle housebreaking a dog, cats are sooo much easier.

Sunny and warm here. Hot actually. I can't wait for it to cool down.

lala

Good morning. Back at work for - ahem - four days, then I'm outa here til September. Yippeeee!!

lala: So sorry for your loss. One is hard enough; I can only imagine how eerily quiet the house is without either of them. My heart goes out to you both.

Lisa: Welcome back. Sounds like you had a nice relaxing vacation.

Hi to Melissa - hope things slow down a little this week - and to Pam - is your back better?

Had a nice time with my parents and family despite four days of driving rain. The weather is really messed up, isn't it? The sun finally came out on Sunday, so we were able to celebrate Father's Day with a bbq. We gave Dad a printer for his computer; he was pleased.

I'm up a pound from last week but ready to buckle down this week and get into the groove. DH is on the west coast until next Thursday, so there's no excuse.

lala, it must be so quiet in your house; that's sad. : ( Congrats on the new job. I know that you were feeling down about your last position.

Pam, how's the back doing? Did you go to the chiropractor?

Susan, the pound could be just retaining water. I wouldn't worry about it. You're right about the weather, it has poured here for the last few days. It's not our normal Florida weather. I'm surprised that you'll be off work; I thought you had said that there was a possibility that you wouldn't be able to take off.

Hi, Melissa.

Hi Ladies,

Beautiful day here in New England. Should get quite warm this afternoon with temps projected to be in the mid 80's. On days like this I really resent being stuck in the office . Yesterday was Lauren's last day of school and she commented that it would be "nice" if I could take the summer off too. I've got 4 weeks of vacation time remaining so I'm thinking of taking the last week of July and 2 more weeks in August.

Lisa Welcome back! Sounds like you had a nice relaxing vacation and managed to get some exercise in too! My back is feeling much better, thanks for asking. I think the cause of the problem was actually the position I was sleeping in at night.

Susan I'm so envious that you have the whole summer off. That's wonderful, enjoy yourself. That was a nice gift you gave your Dad. I gave mine a bird bath for his garden. Since his retirement, his two hobbies are gardening and bird watching.

Lala How are you doing. Things will get better it just takes time. I would probably go with an older dog versus a puppy also. They are cute, but a lot of work to train. I'm a cat lover and agree they are such a low maintenance pet. How is your new job going?

Well ladies I'm off to the local social security office. I'm (finally) officially changing my name from my maiden to my married name (long story)..anyway wish me luck..they tell me the wait can be up to 2 hours!! Talk to you tomorrow!

Hi all. A bright sunny morning here but we're expecting a little rain this afternoon. No problem - won't have to water the hanging baskets this afternoon

I snuck on the scale this morning, even tho I'm trying to restrict weigh-in to once a week. I'm down from yesterday, so it must have been water. The 6 km run last night helped too.

Pam: It's nice that Lauren still likes to hang out with you. It won't be long before she's spending more and more time with her friends. The good news is, that stage doesn't last forever. How long was your wait yesterday at social security?

Hi Melissa, Lisa and lala. Will check back later.

Hi everyone!

It's been crazy here--Monday was nuts; I came into work at 7:15 and the phones didn't stop ringing until I left at 4:45. I'm hoping this next Monday is a little better. We had lots of things going on with orientation so the day flew by. Yesterday was spent catching up on everything I didn't get done on Monday. Today is nice & quiet--my boss took the day off so that means I can get quite a bit done w ithout many interruptions.

Lala: Time will help with the emptiness. The weather has been on the cooler side this past week but it's supposed to get a little warmer the rest of the week. DH and I planted on Sunday and my body was still stiff yesterday but the rock garden looks great now.

Lisa: Things should be a little less crazy now that we've gotten our first orientation under our belt. The sessions are much bigger than last year so with that comes more changes, etc. Sounds like you had a great time on your vacation. I'm looking forward to some time off once our programs are done. You'll drop that 1.5.

Susan: I'm jealous--enjoy the summer off! I'd probably sneak a peek too at the scale and it sounds like things are moving along for you. Keep plugging away like you're doing.

Pam: It's been cool here and this morning it's pretty cloudy--our high is only supposed to be 73 but it doesn't look like it's going to get there at this point. The rest of the week is supposed to be sunny & warm. Yesterday was pretty nice so I squeezed in a walk before work to clear the cobwebs.

DS #1 has an appointment on Friday and hopefully he'll be getting the cast off of his wrist. He's ready for it! Not much else happening here. I'll check in later.

I am so busy since my return from vacation--lots of overtime. Proposals (don't we love them lala?) I'm ready for another vacation.

It has rained and rained here, so it's not so bad being at work.

Pam, okay some time you need to explain the name thing and Social Security.

Susan, it's easy to take sneak peeks on the scale when you're losing. We all need those PV's.

Hi everyone and I mean its nice to hear from everyone.

I'm really cranky and prissed right now, mostly because I'm bummed that my dog is gone. It was different with Roya.

I think its also because DP is very down also.

Hopefully things will get better, right?

Susan -- way to go! Things are moving in the right direction!

Melissa -- calm is good, but its nice to be busy as it can make the time go faster.

Lisa -- did you take any pics from St. Maarten. I would love a quick 3 day trip anywhere. We are having rain too, but is a bit cooler here. Good slug and sweet pea weather.

Pam -- We're doing a kamakaze 2 day trip to Woods Hole in the middle of July to get DP's stuff that she couldn't get done because of Jacques emergency. Yikes, two full days in an archive photocopying stuff. Should be fun. I hope to actually see something in Cape Cod, never been.

I'm hoping the sun is shining in your neck of the woods. Its raining here, but should be nice later. I'm hoping to do some gardening (weeding) and then clean my house for the cleaning guy. Strange concept that is. I did call him to tell him about Jacques as I know it would be hard on him to see his beds removed.

Talk to you all later.

lala

Hi Ladies,

Weather here is a little crazy today. Temps are in the 70's but every so often the sunny skies fill up with clouds and we get a torrential downpour.

I was not very successful at the social security office. I sent in all my paper work several weeks ago and am just waiting for my new ss card. I thought I would stop by and check on the status since every time I tried calling I got a busy signal. Well...I walked in and the first thing you do is take a number (like in a deli)...there were close to 100 people already waiting in the room. I was told the wait could be close to 1 hour and 45 minutes... I decided to leave. So, still no resolution hopefully I will get the new card soon and I can officially become McCarthy in the eyes of the IRS.

Lala I hope you get to do some sight seeing while at the Cape. If you like I can give you the names of some good restaurants and local attractions. I love going there, but we tend to go either in May or September (off season) the summer months can get quite congested. When we go we almost always stay at Ocean Edge Resort in Brewster. If you get a hankering for some awesome ice cream try the Four Seas in Centerville. It's the best.

Melissa Yikes you've been busy. Are you going to be taking any vacation time soon? I hope your DS gets his cast off soon. Having an itchy cast on in the summer months is no fun.

Susan I usually sneak a peek at the scale during the week too. Congrats on having it show a lower number.

Hi Lisa!

A quiet evening planned for tonight. Lauren is going to a concert and then sleeping over a friend's house. Maybe DH and I will take in a movie. Talk to you ladies tomorrow.

lala, Oh, girl you'll do better soon. I agree with Pam, Cape Cod is great, but summers are pretty crowded. Yes, I took photos in St. Maarten, but haven't had time to download them yet!

Pam, that SS office wait was ridiculous. Did you see a movie? My mother saw "Cinderella Man" and raved about it. I saw the Star Wars movie and liked it very much.

It's a beautiful sunny morning here...yesterday was misty most of the day but it finally cleared up late in the afternoon.

Lala: Things will get better soon...it's hard to lose 2 pets so close together. I need to finish planting tonight.

Pam: The SS office here is the same way--it's so frustrating to have to have long waits--there should be a better way to service the public. Hopefully you'll get your card soon! The weather here has been crazy too--we had a hot start to June and now we're cool. Temps are supposed to heat up tomorrow with a high in the upper 80's.

Lisa: It's always hard coming back from vacation at least you're busy and not bored thinking about how you'd like to be off I'm looking forward to time off at the end of July.

Susan: Hi!

Things have quieted down here and I was able to tackle some correspondence that needs to be done and I'm a little ahead of schedule so that's a good thing. We have a little break after this orientation before the next one (July 10-11) so that'll be nice. Tonight I need to go and get my driver's license photo taken care of since my current one expires on Saturday--nothing like waiting until the last minute!

Hi everyone,

I love mornings that start with 7 am conference calls.

At least I can leave at 3 or something. I am still in a bad mood and its not helping my home situation. DP told me that she wasn't sure she wanted to replace jcdm and roya. I was not pleased. I'm sure she'll change her mind, but right now I'm not very happy with her.

Pam -- sorry to hear about the entanglement of red tape/large scale beauracracy that is the gov't way (i can say this as I work for it ). I often wonder what all those folks are doing at the SSA, most of them are probably there for benefit stuff. That has got to be hard to deal with. Hopefully they'll get your issue resolved soon. I guess they tell brides to keep their tickets in their maidenname for their honeymoons unless they are going to change their passports. Immigration is not too happy with mismatched names.

Lisa -- How goes the proposal writing? I get to write them now, but my funding is not based on them, so the pressure is off.

Melissa -- Its nice to be ahead. Happy birthday!

ack, looks like a ticket i bought to san diego got mucked up. I get in at 6 pm on saturday and leave at 9 pm the same night. Not a week later. What a dork, good thing the ticket was expensive enough I didn't incur any charges for changes.

Now, off to find data for a model.

lala

lala, I'm sure that DP will change her mind. Right now she's probably thinking "I don't want to go through this missing our loving pet situation again." 7 a.m. conference call? That's an early one.

I got two proposals out this week; that's enough for anyone to worry about.

I can relate to the ticket thing. I did that once, but was at the airport at 6:00 a.m. for a 6:00 p.m. flight (talk about dorks!)

Melissa, Happy BDay.

Hi Ladies,

I think I'm going to schedule another little jaunt to NC soon. I just got off the phone with my friend and we decided its time for another little get together. Lauren and I went to visit her at the end of March, then she and I met at a conference in Boston at the end of April, so we're due to get together again and now it's my turn to fly.

Lisa yes we did go to the movies last night and saw Mr&Mrs Smith. It was OK and I must admit Brad and Angelina do look good together. Actually we had a hard time deciding between that and Cinderella Man. We will definitely see that one next.

Lala I've got a question for you, does your office permit you to wear capris pants and sandals to work?? Also can you not wear hose in the summer? My office HR department just sent out and email that does not allow any of the above. I mean come on, why not?? I'm not talking denim capris or flip flop sandals they won't allow any.

Melissa Happy 43rd.

Hi to Susan hope you are enjoying your summer off.

Well ladies I must stop by the market to pick up something to make tonight..I'm thinking chicken on the grill. I'll talk to you later.