Good Morning Ladies,

Mooz - Good to hear from you. I'm sure your pretty exhaused not being able to sleep throught the night. I can understand not wanting to put her in a home. I think I would probably be even more worried if she was getting the proper care. You take care of yourself though.

Woke up late today. Trying to decide if i'm going to go anywhere or just stay in. We're do for another 100 degree day and besides that just spent $ 800 on car so I really don't have extra money to shop. Think I'll just make a good breakfast and read the paper.

Hope everyone is having a good day!

Hal--the WW thing fits right in with the EAT. You have to eat at the table (unless it would be really ridiculous like a stand-up buffet), no TV, no reading (the hard part for me) and you write down what you eat. The idea is not limiting what you eat, just to be aware.

Oops--Patty, sorry about the extra $200. Sure hope that will be it!

Hi to everyone else!

Good morning Ladies.

Well it is Sunday here and it is grey and overcast. I do hope we get some rain out of it. We badly need rain, however we don't need the tropical deluges we get here in the summer as the ground is so hard it would just flood and run off to the creeks and rivers - such as they are at the moment - all drying up and going nowhere. We will be facing further water restrictions soon because of the bad drought situation.

Sunday the cat is still intact, she had a brushing but decided against the manicure (pedicure???) and obviously picked up the vibes that this was going to happen. She disappeared for the entire day yesterday, emerging only when I was outside and digging weeds (and observing the new neighbours moving in - geez I am nosey) Today may well be the day. Those claws of hers are razor sharp and she will insist on digging them into me while settling down for a sleep on the lap. The fur is everywhere, I seem to spend forever cleaning up the furry bits lying on the mats and under the beds. So brushing will be a common occurence until she stops shedding her winter coat.

Had nephew over for the footy last night. The niece was living it up at a party. Our team won although it was a nail biting finish and only 4 points in it at the end. We had a fair amount to say about the ref - who I suspect has a degree in knock on rules but not in offside rules or some of the other rules of the game. Added to that he was French, excitable, and had a good set of lungs. The whistle was the main feature of the game. That annoys me when they won't let the game flow. I wonder what the new neighbours thought about the noise from next door. Wait till we get a few more in for dinner and game for the final finish next weekend.

My weight is still static - anywhere from 73.5 to 71.5 depending on the day, and it is weigh in day on Wednesday/ Thursday. And for now it is time for a gym appearance (scarce last week because of holding up the db's spirits and visiting the dsil who is now home by the way - thank you for all your good wishes. We will have to tie her down to stop her from trying to do things too soon. DB is on leave for another couple of weeks - his employers gave him 4 weeks leave and all his sick days to use as necessary while she was in hospital and recuperating and they sent her a huge bunch of flowers. Nice folks where he works.

So I'm off to get changed, go to the gym, come back to sort the cat, sand some more and do some more weeding out front. Oh and I had better attach the photos of the orchids. There is the Pastoral and a new one I picked up yesterday called Tropical Fantasy. See if you can pick which is which. Um I can't upload it because it keeps telling me I have already done it on another thread. So if you want to see the pics, click
here

Shad--glad DSiL is back home. She will have to understand that if she gets sick again she will just make MORE work for everyone else. As for not getting to the gym, sometimes there are just needs that are more important--the main thing I think is that you pick up and go back when things are better.

So it's Monday morning and back to the grind again. Still didn't get the cat's claws clipped - everytime I thought about it, she disappeared but this morning - thank you Sunday - she is in full view, sleeping on the end of my bed.

Didn't get as much done as planned yesterday, due to the fact that the DB1 was on the phone several times to ask questions about e-mail. Then the DB2 arrived for coffee and cake (didn't get any - tea instead, no food).

Been to the gym this morning. I have rescheduled my days/ nights and am now going early mornings for cardio on Monday/ Thursday and afternoons for weights/ resistance on Tuesday/ Friday. I find that cardio late in the afternoon is absolutely no good for me at all. I shall also do the Body Balance/ Weight routine on Saturday or Sunday. I have a list of all the jobs to do on the board separated now into easy, medium, hard/ expensive. So hopefully I will get on with things in a more settled way. I have a couple of weekends coming up where not much will get done, so it is best to do as much of the housework as possible during the week.

Roses - I've been searching for a rose bush for this Golden Wedding Anniversary as you may know. Went to the biggest rose nursery down our way and all I could find was a climber - Gold Bunny, a couple of standards - Golden Girls and Friesa, and a bush called All Gold. The latter two are fragrant. Spoke to the lady at the nursery about Golden Jubilee and Golden Anniversary and she referred me to another rose nursery about 20kilometres away. I rang the place from home (after I brought an All Gold and a Friesa) and chatted to the owner about the said two roses. She doesn't recommend Golden Jubilee at all. Has Golden Anniversary and another one called Golden Years. She also has one called Happy Anniversary which is orange (also known as Orange Kardinal as opposed to the Red Kardinal which is popular down south). She says they are both okay for the climate however Golden Years blooms much more profusely than the Golden Anniversary. So next Saturday she will bring all three plants into her shop and I am going to check them out. So now I have 2 new roses for the garden. Where am I going to put them?? I'm sure I can find somewhere.

Hope everyone is doing okay. Enjoy what's left of your weekend. Mooz, my thoughts are with you and your Mum. Please try to rest when your mum is resting. You need to snatch what downtime you can.

Okay time to get on with the day. Reporting. Reporting training. Report documentation. 52 reports - 6 down 46 to go.

Hello Ladies,

Can't believe how fast time is going by.Soon it will be Sept. The weather is still hot here. We'll actually today was a little cooler. Doing ok on my eating, still need to drink more water and do some type of exercise. I have been real tired lately and i'm guessing it due to the lack of carbs.

Shad - OH, your roses sound lovely. My mom has several in her yard and they are just beautiful. I love to go by and pick some of her blooms.

Hal - are you getting any of the hurricane rains? I hope your staying safe and dry.

Hope everyone is having a good day!

Hello Ladies,

Just bringing us to the top!

Sending 's and prayers to everyone that might have family in the Hurricane Area. Looking at the pictures on the news it's so devastating.

Well, my where is everyone?

I saw the new dr today and I really liked him. So I said send over my records from my old dr's office. Perhaps they'll be glad to see me go. Their customer relations . . . are very poor.

Yes--one terrible thing is that the hurricane damage is not over. Some people in NO who rode out the storm now are flooded with the break of the levees. There was a shelter established that they can't get in touch with now. Flooded? Must pray for all of them.

Hi Everyone,

Sorry I haven't been in touch for a few days. In fact, I stopped getting e-mail alerts that someone had posted. It is probably because I was absent so many days.

It is extremely hot here in Phoenix and as a result I am not in the diet mode and haven't been for several weeks. However, I agree with what Oprah said about being ready to do it! I thought the WW meeting was going to start this Wed. but they have put it off untl next week. I have been really out of control and this morning I just threw out a couple of items I had been binging on because I know if they are not in the house, I won't be tempted to indulge. My DH got his surgery date--it will take place on Sept. 15th. Today we had to take him for a CT of his lungs because the chest x-ray had showed some abnormality. Between my DH's medical condition and the heat, I am not a happy camper. However, when I see what those people are going through in NO, it makes me very sad and seeing all that destruction in such a short period of time is very scary. I told my DH how lucky we are to be living where we do--far away from water.

I received a coupon in a mailer today regarding Contours Express--similar to Curves--and they are offering a "free trial workout." It is less than 3 miles from where I live so I definitely am going to check it out.

You ladies are sure encouraging and hopefully you will not give up on me.

Take care,
Anita

Our mission is not to give up on anyone Nita. So you are definitely not on a hit list.

My thoughts are with the people on these threads who live in New Orlean, near or anywhere in the path of Katrina who may be suffering from the weather. It is not pretty to see the news and the destruction and loss of live and living arrangements. Having lived through a couple of cyclones and very bad storms I can sympathise with these people and I gape in awe at the power of Mother Nature. It seems she is in a very bad mood these days with drought, floods, fire, cyclones and hurricanes all around the world.

Glad to hear you liked the new Dr., Cat. That always helps. Sometimes the receptionists are a bit on the harsh side at medical centres these days. However I think it works both ways. Our surgery has a notice about not harrassing the nursing staff - what the **** have we come to that we have to put notices up about the behaviour of patients and staff in these sort of places?

We've had a spot of rain over the past couple of nights. Certainly not enough to fix the drought but it was nice not to have to go out and water the pots when I got home from work or gym. And the plants just love rainwater. They much prefer it to tap stuff. So some of the petunias and pansies are on the move again.

Weigh in day today. Always at the end of the month. Yes although I am 'resting from my regime' at the moment, I still weigh in and measure at the end of the month. Still sitting on 73, measurements more or less the same. I will document these when I get home tonight. No gym tonight - Wednesday is rest day for this old body so I will be able to answer some of my email letters then - and about time I can hear some of my friends mutter.

Anyway I had better go. I have 46 reports to finish, 2 more training classes to go. The reports come in three parts. I had 52, I did all three parts of 6 of them, I have now done one part of 23 more, so I am moving along even if dead slow.

Have a good day and stay out of the rain if possible - in Nita's case maybe started a rain dance to cool off the place a bit.

Hello Ladies,

Still doing good on my eating. Have to work hard on the water... same old story.

This morning they stated that Dallas had opened two shelters for the hurricane survivors. We're about 10 hours away from New Orleans but there driving this far north. Didn't know what I could do... kept thinking, called a girlfriend who has been waiting and praying to hear news from her cousins and grandmother(90) who live in Hattisburg MS. I said what can we do, we brainstormed and decided to put our past volunteer efforts to work. She called several vendors and I called several to get food donations for the local shelter. She was able to get a local dairy to delivery milk and juice today and not only that they were willing to donate for a week and I was able to get Whole Foods to donate 10 cs of fruit, that I will be picking up this evening. It's not much but it helps, meanwhile as we're making calls she received a phone call from her cousin, they were ok, shaken but ok. I told my friend Deb, see Gods works in mysterious way, you stopped to help someone else and he answered your prayers. Just my thinking.

will post more later

Well spring has sprung, today being the first day of spring, however I don't feel too overjoyed about it all.

I feel for those people in New Orleans and would love to line up the looters against the wall and give them a dose of lead poisoning. They deserve shooting. I just hope that the damage to the heritage areas is not such that they must be destroyed and rebuilt. Such a lot of history there, not to mention the one of the city's few chances to recoup with tourism and sport etc. It's not only the initial devastation that is so bad, its the aftermath as well, the realisation that some folk are not coming home, that those precious remnants of past life are lost forever. My thoughts are with them. For those of you close enough and able to hold out a helping hand, then do so, it maybe all they have to keep them sane.

Also in the bad news brigade last night, you all know that I said my friend Chris (the friend I travel the world with every couple of years) who lives in Japan was to go for MRI scans etc., well I haven't been able to get in touch with her despite leaving messages on her answer machine, sending emails etc.etc. Last night I rang her ex-husband to get their daughters number in NZ as I only had her address and not phone number. I left a message on Jenny's phone and she rang me back some time later. It appears Chris is in hospital and has been diagnosed with Churg-Strauss disease. Never heard of it??? well neither had I until I looked it up on the net last night. It is no longer fatal but only just. The only cure appears to be varying doses of steroids namely prednizone and to bring it back to remission, large doses of the stuff, some folk can't take the dosage. It apparently strikes mainly females, not usually more than one in the same family, and is often preceded by asthma in mild or chronic form. Now Chris has been having lung troubles for years although she swore it was not asthma. The doc over in Japan had prescribed Prednizone for the ailment and I think the dosage has masked the Churg-Strauss for years maybe for the good, maybe not. Anyway, before she came down to see me and go to NZ in July, the doc thought she was well enough to come off the prednizone and take aspirin or a derivative of aspirin. She came down with a lurgy and was not completely well when she left here. So, 3 weeks without the drug and she gets back to Japan with numbness and tingling and is now in hospital. Ummm what more can I say without disolving into floods of tears again. I tried to ring the hospital last night to talk to her. Jenny gave me the hospital number and her room number, but my Japanese is too limited to understand what the man was trying to tell me and I could only repeat the number and name. Come to that I don't even know if I got the hospital, it could have been the drainage department for all I know. I'd better see if we have a Japanese speaker in the building and see if I can get some more direction. Other than that I'll just have to get back to Jenny and get information that way.

Sorry to be a doom and gloom merchant today. I'll try to cheer up and come back tonight a brighter soul.

Patty--
I think what you did is great! I know it doesn't seem like much compared to the devastation, but still it's a real contribution.

How sad that these people who are in the Superdome have nothing better to look forward to than the Astrodome.

Meanwhile a minor note on the importance of using the same scale--at my old dr's, I was 196, at the new dr's 198, on the scale at the drugstore 191. I think I should stick to measuring!

And Nita--of course we're not giving up on you. We know you're going through a rough time--our prayers are with you. Maybe going out to Contours Express might help you to deal with the stress. Hope it works!