Good morning from very chilly Delta. We seem to have had a sort of spotty killing frost. My basil plants are black but the eggplant is still fine. I really wanted more basil but am "done" with eggplant. The last lot of slices is taking forever to dry in the dehydrator.

Fun evening with the "girls" and kids last night. It's nice to get back to our monthly "family" dinners. It was cool but we sat on Karen's porch and sipped wine, enjoying the dregs of summer. It sure felt like fall although it's not officially here until Wednesday, I think.

Today? Well, I need to clean out my buffet and a china cabinet as my recent extravagance is arriving from the antique dealer. (I bought a set of antique Noritake china - service for 12 and not a piece missing. Strange because I sold my good china about three years ago, thinking I'd not use it again. I guess I'm really a china addict.) Now I need to plan some elegant dinner parties.

Also this morning will be "men and machines" as I am having half or more of my veggie garden put into lawn. The lawn lads will be here with a "brush hog" to tackle the 6 weeds for starters. Next spring I will try very hard to curb my enthusiasm when I think I can plant a half acre of veggies and look after them.

Mill Board meeting this afternoon and I must cobble together my in the red financial report.

A busy week ahead so I'd better just get on with it.

How does your day/week look?

Good morning It's chilly here but I think we avoided a frost again.

Ruth - Hm, I wonder why your eggplant is taking so long? Mine usually dries faster than squash, usually 6 hours +/-. It sure feels like fall around here too. I put my capris and tanks away Friday and didn't even pack short sleeve shirts for the visit to Mom's.
My too much garden to maintain answer this year was 4 squash plants They ate up last year's tomato bed and I ignored them once they got bigger than the weeds. Of course my gardens are much smaller, I just was too busy this summer.

So today is Dad's adventure day. He has another relatively long drive planned to a butterfly conservatory. I think we've all stressed planning ahead enough this time to make it less stressful than last time. I hope the plan works, looks like a fun place.

Happy Monday, hope it's excitement free (Monday excitement is almost never good in my experience )

It's chilly here, but not cold enough to have a frost yet. It is too cold to enjoy my coffee on the sunporch, though.

We spent yesterday closing up the pool and cleaning up the veggie garden. We throw everything but the weeds into the compost pile. The eggplants, peppers, and Swiss chard are still going strong, though, so we'll enjoy them for a while yet. But all our tomatoes are a lost cause, they just couldn't survive all the rain this year.

Ruth, what a great find on the Noritake! I love pottery and china, and that would be hard for me to resist, too. I bet it will look lovely on your gorgeous diningroom table.

Another fresh start to a brand new week. I think I'll have another cup of coffee.

Good morning, Cyndi! A visit to a butterfly conservatory sounds absolutely delightful! I don't know how far your parents are from it, but there's a wonderful conservatory just over the border on the Canadian side of Niagara Falls that is well worth the trip. Have fun!

Cottage - this place is much closer to you, I think If you stick a pin in the middle of NY that's just about where my parents are.
My tomatoes quit too and have gone to the compost. The kale is still going strong and will until the s**w covers it. I just hope my butternut squash holds out long enough for the three not quite ripe squash to ripen!
I borrowed Debbie's idea of roasting peppers and have been roasting and freezing the lovely red and yellow peppers from the farm stand.

Good Morning -

Back to work after a couple days, and early at that. Tired, but it feels good to be productive after a LAZY weekend! We ended up not doing any chores or busy work around the house because gf didn't feel like it...she said she'd do it all today because she is off again Fine by me!!!

I think I need to not be weighing myself every day. I never did in the past, and it's such a head game to watch all the fluctuation from day to day! I'm guessing a common interval is once a week? I should just pick a day and stick to it.

Jenne- SO sorry about your cat, how devestation. Hugs from me to you.
Cyndi - Have a fun adventure with dad! s**w HAHAHA!! That made me laugh out loud...even while I'm still borderline asleep
Cottage - I never got more than 3 red tomatoes from the probably 50 on the plants! What the heck?! New spot for them, maybe not enough sun? We've been contemplating looking for a house with a pool when we buy...do you think the work is worth the enjoyment?

Well, off to be productive! Have a fantastic day, all.

Good Morning

Despite good intentions (I have lots to do) we managed to sleep until 5. Kirk is joining me at the church ladies low impact aerobics class (a first) since we need to be back by the time the tree trimmers get here. We went to the pool last night for a hot soak. It was a nice balmy evening...maybe that's why I slept so well.

Anyway, time to get running!

Good morning everyone... I'm new and starting Phase 1 today, yayyy! I have lots of questions and want to know all the ins and outs and hope I'm not too much of a pain. I bought the wrong soy milk, so no coffee for me this morning instead I opted for 1% milk with sf choc syrup, is that ok?? I'm going to eat breakfast in a bit.

I'm in NJ and loving this cool weather! Although most of my night was filled with cleaning up after my dog... poor thing keeps getting sick and the steam cleaner took a dump, so imagine how much fun that was!

Anyway, I'm gonna read as much possible and learn from all you knowledgeable women and lose some weight!

I woke up with a case of the Mondays this morning. All I really want to do is go back to bed but I'm not going to. I'm going to go in the kitchen and choke down my 3354562218 vitamins that I have to take, drink my caffeine, and eat some breakfast and pray that my Mondays go away.
I was so sure I'd broke 240 today even if it was just 239.8 but nope, I'm actually up a .5 lb. I realize .5 lbs is not anything to whine about and just so you know this is not why I have the Mondays. But I was really hoping and feeling I had finally went down after being at 240 for a whole week now. I'm 80% on plan, and what I mean by that is I haven't had any cheats & I've eaten all on plan foods but I just haven't got all my veggies in mainly because it was the weekend. So today I'm going to focus on being 100% on plan.

Just a fast check-in. It's a crazy busy day -- tomorrow should be easier.

I was UP 3 pounds this morning. Since I know for sure I didn't eat an extra 10,500 calories this weekend, I'm going to call it 'water weight', but it is so frustrating!!! Happy Monday, darnit!

Just another day in Cali, I'm doing well.

hey, I hope these go thru o.k.

Bakery.jpg

Chartres.jpg

NotreDame.jpg

take care
sophie

Hi
I was testing, thru much difficulty, I did it.

picture one is me getting breakfast at the bakery every day, can you tell I am happy
2. Is a picture of a stain glass window from Chartres Cathedral, which has over 150 stain glass windows which were all taken down by hand during the World Wars. We both appreciated the cathedrals so much more this time after reading Pillars of the Earth.
3. moi at the side of Notre Dame Cathedral.
take care
Sophie

Hi! I actually have a moment and thought I'd try to say some hellos!

sophie, great photos! I am amazed they took down those stained glass windows during WW2.

BellaLucia, are you still on line to move?

Chelby, busy busy….running like a hamster on a wheel. Yes, it's weekend water weight.

hpnodat, I hope you are feeling better! Tomorrow is Twosday. The scale will move, it's just frustrating at those important numbers.

jerseygiiirl, welcome to the daily! Sorry about your sick pup, though. Glad to see you made it through your catering event unscathed!

Angie, regarding the scale, I think we all need to find what works for us. I think it's whatever it takes to "take the power away". I like everyday because I see the daily fluxuations. I log it on a graph (livestrong) and watch the downward trend. Once a week for me makes a temporary 3# gain far more painful.

Cyndi, anxious to hear about the conservatory!

Linda, another pool season successfully ending! You all sure have had fun!

Ruth, eggplants were on sale at the store...I passed! What Noritake pattern did you get? I love china!

Well the tree is finished and Kirk and Mom are napping. I think I'll sit and knit awhile.

Sophie, welcome back from vacation! From the pictures, it looks like you had a wonderful trip. I wonder how long it took to take down and then put back up all those windows, and where did they store them? That's pretty amazing! Thanks so much for sharing with us.

Angie, too bad about your tomato plants. I know they should get at least 6 hours of sun at the minimum. I know the rain is what did ours in this year. As for pool maintenance, it takes us only about 10 minutes a day, as long as you keep up with it. If you get an automatic vacuum, it'll take even less time. I think the enjoyment of the pool is well worth the effort.