The birds are chirping as if it's Spring. Saw some Snowdrops racing upward. The snow that blocked on-street parking in front of my house is melted sufficiently for two cars to be out there right now. We saw a pair of American Black Ducks mate on open water on Saturday <blush - get a room, LOL>.

My dream now is to walk to gym without wearing warm-up pants over my gym shorts.

Hello all! You may remember me ...

Now, on past experience, this is probably going to be a pets/weight/support thread. This is more than a wild guess on my part.

Some of you may know that I'm involved in research. This sweet appeal for help from a 10-11 year old scientist came my way and I immediately thought of you all as potential respondents. Her research question concerns whether "orange tabby cats" tend to obesity more than other types of cat. All you have to do is to submit your cat's weight, colour, etc. http://ow.ly/iddzb

Thank you in advance for helping out. We all need support and young scientists are no exception.

Spring is on the way here. We have snowdrops and a few daffodils. Also lambs in the field. The sun is out.

I am doing reasonably well. Other priorities have emerged (fun!) and so I weigh more than I'd like but I am certainly not beating myself up about it. I take action when I can and, of course, "Hope springs eternal in the human breast." (Alexander Pope)

Love, love and thanks again.

Silver, of course I remember you, so good to hear from you. I have missed you.
I loved Ilse's blog, what a bright young lady. I am sorry that I don't have a cat so I can't participate but I wish her well in her project.

I did post both my cats' info to the young lady's project - Mishi is now almost 2x Mudpie's size

Bargoo I think you need to get another pet.

Bill Shorts? I'm dreaming of a windbreaker rather than a parka right now. And shame on those ducks!

A new week. I have been OP for 3 days and lasted through the weekend! This week's project is a reduction in caffeine. I will substitute a cup of spice tea for my second coffee of the day and have an herbal tea in the late afternoon, rather than a caffeinated one.

I am now starting to actually believe that the house is sold and that there will be a first house of my own on the horizon. Making an appointment to talk to a lawyer about the closing helped nudge me along.

Good Monday all!

Dagmar

Good morning, all. I think I am finally over the stomach virus so I am ready to start eating "normally" and exercising again. Fingers crossed that no one else in my house gets sick.

My cat is not orange but is still a bit fluffy. :-)

silver! Thanks for stopping by and giving us an update! No cats at my house, just bunnies.

Bill, it was 6F this morning when I got up. I've heard it will be in the 40s later this week. Maybe that will buy me some time to get my ankle-length down coat into the wash. I think I've worn it more this winter than in the past three years combined. Good to know that the ducks think spring will arrive soon! DS13, now studying reproduction in his biology class, mused the other day, "Can you imagine the chaos if humans went into heat once a year?" DH laughed so hard he was actually snorting!

dagmar, it's good to hear that you're seeing a light at the end of the tunnel on the house thing! Bravo on the caffeine cutback, too!

ward, sending you positive thoughts for a speedy and complete recovery.

Morning all!

I sent DH a link to the blog as we have 10 cats and 4 are orange tabbies.

Had a great anniversary with DH yesterday - started out the day with an 11 mile run. Then we went out for a late lunch where I indulged a little but didn't go all crazy.

I leave for my conference on Wednesday and it will be difficult to find a healthy eating routine and exercise might prove to be a challenge.

It is freezing cold here this morning, but the weather people are promising more moderate temps later this week. Spring just cannot come soon enough!!!

Happy Monday everyone!

Jen

Hi Silver! Good to "see" you! Unfortunately I don't have any cats so I can't participate, but good luck to your young friend!

Bill, I am also eager for spring. At least we've had a couple sunny days now, after a week straight of overcast skies. It's amazing how much of a mood lifter it is to see the sun!

I think I may have caught the cold DH had last week. At least it only lasted a couple days for him, so hopefully there won't be anything too bad. Right now it's just a little bit of a sore throat.

This weekend DH and I assembled the cribs! I also took a trip to the fabric store and picked up some fabric for curtains and pillowcases (for chair cushions), which is about the extent of my sewing skills anyway. I made a pillowcase yesterday and felt very accomplished. Now all the crafty folks who sew their own clothes are laughing at me.

Why do messages disappear!
It totally went away and I'm short of time this morning. Ugh....

The short of it-- pollen is everywhere here.

Jessica-- take care of yourself.

Fun birthday weekend for me. Up too many pounds. Gotta work hard.

That's the short version.... book fair and daughters coming home this/next week so going to be hectic!!

Bill, what a great dream! It's funny, though, when it's July how quickly we forget how cold we were. But I can stand the heat better than the cold--at least that's what I tell myself now.

Silverbirch, hello again, and I look forward to participating in the cat research. I volunteer at an animal shelter so I have access to many cats if she needs additional.

Dagmar, congrats on the OP weekend.

Wardhog, glad you're feeling better and

ICU, and greeted each other the way dogs do.

Jen, sounds like an excellent anniversary--more activity, less eating.

Jessica, I'm impressed with creating pillowcases and cushions. What's the fabric look like? Pink, right?

Michele, pollen, already? The arrival of pollen for me just means that cool stuff is blooming, but I feel for those (like my DS) who are miserable.

A friend invited me to go see Pilobus on Saturday night--her treat. They are an awesome modern dance troupe, and if they come to a venue near you, I urge you to go see them. It's incredible and amazing to watch that limber group of dancers--they do stuff you think is impossible. They had some fun numbers, some acrobatic numbers and some sensual numbers. My DH thought my friend had invited him, too, and you should have seen his face brighten when I told him she'd only asked me. Some people just don't appreciate "kultur!"

Silver, I'll participate! Not only do I have a cat, but I have an Orange Tabby! And he's really skinny! I'll have to do the measuring tonight and fill out her questionnaire.

I'm running a little late this morning and am so busy I can't really comment on everything.

It was beautiful here this weekend! 82 degrees and made for the perfect back yard party for MIL's non-birthday (Feb 29 so no real birthday this year, LOL). Sunday was golf in the afternoon, and perfect shorts weather. We're currently under a wind advisory, but it's still warm and nice and the wind keeps the sky clear.

Birchie! Hey there! I have firsthand knowledge of 9 cats and will go report on all of them right now.

Sheila - I looked up the dance troupe, looks interesting.

Michele - we have pollen all over here, as well. A few days in February broke records for the month.

Ward - I hope the virus is really gone for you. It has been a hard season for illness around here.

Jessica - cribs! How exciting! I saw your pillow pic, it looks fantastic.

Jen - sounds like a great anniversary! I love that you started it with a long run.

Becky - reading your morning temp made me shiver in sympathy.

Dagmar - scheduling a closing attorney really makes it all feel real. Congratulations.

Bill - we got a spit of snow this weekend and it was freezing this weekend, I thought about you and shoveling snow for exercise. I hope spring comes along soon for you.

We had a busy busy weekend. Celebrated DH's birthday in a long round. Friday night with DSS, Saturday lunch with MIL, Saturday dinner with our neighbors, Sunday dinner with a coworker and his wife. We have one more out meal on Wed for the neighbor's birthday, then I hope to be back to normal. And, back to normal tonight and tomorrow. I'm a pound up from Friday, which is actually down from yesterday. I'm not sure what tomorrow will bring.

Morning all,

It has been very cold, er, for here for a solid week combined with approaching gale force winds. It's really the wind that gets me. Brrr. On Saturday I ran my first 5K in about 5 years. It was a little painful and really tough in the wind, but I had a few friends doing it with me and most of us kept close to each other for the run. I feel like I'm getting a little more fit, but at a snail's pace. But as long as I'm moving forward, I just need to keep moving. The cookoff was a lot of fun and the fire department made a pretty good profit (all volunteer fire department - they depend on this event for most of their finances for the year). I drank mimosas and some beer Saturday during the day, but didn't enter a bar once during the weekend or end up going out later, though my friend who was staying with me did. It was too late for me. I can't party like I used to. I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing.

I am as usual trying to get to grips with upcoming events and keep eating my veggies and exercising in the meantime. I'll have book club, at least one guitar night this week, leave early Sunday for a work conference out of town for 4 days, come home to clean up for my parents' annual spring break visit... you know, life. Today I feel like I just need to take one day at a time and get in one workout at a time to get through.

Michele, sorry your message disappeared. I hate that. Glad you had a fun birthday weekend!

Jessica, sounds like your nursery is coming along nicely. Curtains and pillows is about the extent of my sewing ability, too. Being able to hem pants and sew buttons back on is handy, too. I don't know how to sew clothes. Who does? They can laugh at me, too.

Jen, glad you had a nice anniversary weekend. I'm impressed by your 11 mile run!

Becky, I can't post my response to your son's query. It's not PG. But what a funny thing for him to say.

Ward, glad you are feeling better. Stomach virus, ugh. Not fun.

Hi Silver! I don't think the feral cats on my street would submit to weighing and measuring, but what a fun science project. I wish I could help.

Have a good week all.

I'm so tired of winter! Yesterday I went running through the snow :-P

I have two cats (neither orange tabby), so I was more than happy to fill out the form. My cat Chloe weighs twice as much as Linus!

It's hard to measure the length of the cat. And I was disturbed to see that she's lost weight. It's hard to tell with so much fur, but, as we all know, the scale does not lie (assuming it's not broken).