Susie ~ Yeah I use the bus twice a week

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I woke up at 5:00 AM so I would be awake and ready to go on my 30 min walk outside this morning. I just got back inside from my walk. I have a meeting to go too at 9:30 this morning. I'll be sure to get my evening walk in tonight as well and thats all of my plans for today. Of course I got my daily duties done this morning also.

Good morning,

Lots to finish before I sit down at the computer so hopefully I'll be back later. I am doing ok as far as tasks, just a lot to do and the clock seems to be ticking by quickly. Later chicks.

Good morning ladies,

I woke up to a very unusual sight. The street was wet! My first thought was it must've been the street sweepers because it doesn't rain in August. Then as I left the house and stood on the covered front porch, I noticed the sidewalk and driveway were also wet, and it was still raining (or more accurately sprinkling). Very unusual weather for August, but we so desperately need the rain, even though this is just a little bit, we'll take what we can get.

Last night's yoga class was good, and after class I took Santa to the dog park. Today after work, I'll ride the bike at the gym and take Santa to the dog park after.

Not much new and exciting in my life, but with last weekend being so hectic, I don't mind a bit.

==========================

Terra - Bummer that the CD Trade post wasn't going to give you much for your DVD. I hope you can do better on Craigslist. Wow, up at 5 am? and walking for 30 minutes? Very impressive! Well done!

Susie - Wow, you get a crazy amount of email. I'm glad I don't get that much. Good for you for getting on the treadmill. And for letting your managers know that you would be away from your desk at lunch time! Like you, I need to incorporate more strength training. To answer your question, yes, I was able to say no to the cookies.


Shad, Annie, Laura and Happy:

I'll try and check in later to see what's new with everyone.

Much love,

Morning all.

Ceejay - Glad you resolved the popup issue. What an annoying thing. Nice that you got rid of the furniture. It feels good to know something perfectly useful is going to get a 2nd life somewhere and stay out of our landfills for a bit longer.

Michelle – I can certainly empathize with you on the constant challenged of resisting the food temptations all around us. I did succumb to the salty snack urge on Monday, and not with a single portion package either, groan. Yay - you were able to resist the shortbread cookies!! Just pretend they've been sitting in the vending machine for ages and are stale and yucky, lol. Good for you signing on for the training sessions. I think you’ll definitely work harder with a trainer than without – they’ll make sure of that, LOLOL. Just be sure not to overdo it with your back!! Yeh, I think I agree with you about keeping quiet to avoid getting into discussions about your surgery decision – people can be so judgmental, and they don’t even know you well enough, or about the surgery either. Re the rain – now I have that song in my head – It Never Rains in Southern California. I know you’re in northern CA, but still, it popped into my head. Just thought I’d pass along that earworm to the rest of you who might remember that song.

Terra – Shish kebobs (I’m not sure of the spelling either) are yummy. I like the kind you can get in Greek restaurants – probably because I like the cucumber sauce they serve it with, LOL. Anyway, maybe in one of the cooking classes coming up they’ll teach you something you’ll enjoy cooking at home and it’ll become part of the meal rotation. I agree with you trying to sell the dvd for more money on craigslist than at the trading post. I love finding stuff on craigslist!!

Susie – Good for you that you told your bosses you’d be taking a lunch hour away from your desk. You need that break during the day!! You’re really ramping up the exercise – that upcoming race is motivating you!!

Hi Shad!!

Happy – Hope you get everything done that you want and/or need to!!! If you don’t get back here (or I don’t), wishing you safe and happy travels. I look forward to getting together with you during your visit!

**
The wrap-up party was at a restaurant the next suburb over from where I live. It was no biggie to take a slightly earlier train home from work, go home and change clothes and drive over to the restaurant. The restaurant used to be something else that bf and I had gone to several times, but since it changed, we’d never been to this one. It has a nice menu and a large beer list, so I think it will be a nice place for bf and I to try on our own. On Tuesdays it’s build your own burger night, so all but one of our table did that. I ate the entire burger, which was large, and my side of tater tots (which I feel I got shorted on in terms of quantity, but that was definitely a good thing) – I should have taken home part of the burger instead of eating it all. Live and learn. Or that’s the hope. Anyway, the party was nice and a lot of ideas were tossed around for a better fundraiser next year. The best idea - IMO - is switching it from Friday night/overnight to Saturday day/night. We figure more people would come because they could work it around there other weekend activities, and there would probably be more kids who could come than on Friday nights. I hope that's one idea that gets implemented.

I did 10 more knee pushups this morning and the last few came more easily today. I’m going to dig out that plank workout I found in the magazine a while back and take a stab at some of the moves tonight.

Probably a good thing my friend cancelled our lunch date today. I can choose someplace/something better than I would have done otherwise...

I have to crank on the budget work today – the boss wants to go over it tomorrow morning and get it to his boss on Friday.

That’s it for me. TTFN.

Laura - Thanks a lot for the earworm! Thankfully, my trainer is aware of my back issues and with every exercise he had me do, I told him whether or not it hurt my back (they didn't), and I also assured him that if my back objected to any of the exercises, I'd let him know right away (just like I do with my yoga teacher).
Oh, and thanks for getting me drooling with the talk of Greek shish kebobs and cucumber sauce. You're two for two, young lady! Nice that the wrap-up party was convenient and had yummy food. Well done on continuing with the knee pushups. Good luck on the budget work.

Happy - I can imagine how busy you are preparing for your trip. Are you flying? If so, which airport are you flying out of?

Morning all. Don't know who's been adding stuff to the computer but I wish they would stop. Guess that when the friend/boss left they thought all things were okay. I'm still unsure of one thing, but I'll ask J when he comes back from lunch.

Michelle
I agree with Laura about the personal trainer. The rain in California reminded me of the song Laura mention also. How are the fires doing out your way?

Laura
I need to do some Pilates and stretches. Might try the Yoga DVD tonight instead of the bike.

Terra
When will you start your cooking class? I've always wanted to take one.

I'm like Michelle there is nothing going on in my neck of the woods.
Have a good day.

Morning all,
Got caught up yesterday dealing with maintenance problems in the house. Landline phone doesn't work, just makes a crackling noise and won't ring with incoming calls. n So I have called the company who assure me that there may be a problem !!!!!!! thought I had already figured that out. Anyway they are supposed to be here before 7pm today to check out the outside line. How they are supposed to see in the dark at 7pm I don't actually know but I will wait for enlightenment. Then it was haircut day. Since my normal hairdresser is on maternity leave I had a new one. She was very nice and the hair looks just fine. Following on from that was a trip to the vet for Miss Puss who definitely did not want to go. I have been wiping up the blood and changing bandages. Miss Puss then had her claws clipped and I went to wash the car only to find out that the carwash is out of order. So I went to visit DS2 who is on leave following an operation on his hand to remove a large cyst or ganglion. By the time I got home from there was just time to dig a bit more garden and clean the loo before it was time to get dinner ready after which I watched a bit of tv and went to bed. Miss Puss got over her snit around 10.00pm and decided to sleep in my part of the bed so there wasn't much room for me and a whole stack of free bed over the other side.
I still have a long list of things to do around the house but I am slowly working through the list and not stressing about it.

On the weight loss front, I seem to be losing weight reasonably steadily at the moment. I came home from NZ at 86.4. Some of that was aeroplane gain. One tends to collect fluid up in the clouds. But since then it is going down and this morning I weighed in at 83.9. That is 2.5kg or about 5.5lb. Not sure where it is coming off but don't really care too much. My appetite is just about gone but I do still eat well. Just not as much and having the garden back in production will be a blessed bonus.

Happy - good to know that the tag day wasn't too bad. Hope you made a reasonable profit on your effort. Things are getting so tight now that people just can't afford what they used to be able to.
Hope you get everything done before you go.

Laura - Hope the budget comes out right for you. Back to the pushup challenge I see.

Ceejay - good to know the furniture is gone. Nothing like space to make life easier.

Michelle - You don't have to justify yourself to anyone. You are the one in charge of your life. It doesn't matter what they think. Just smile politely and say - thank you for your opinion, however I must do what is best for me.

Annie - Sounded like you had a nice dinner (facebook) Hope you get something to do shortly. It is always a pain doing interviews. Can you get temporary work which might get you an in, somewhere in the corporate world.

Susie - Back in the world of go, go, go I see. Glad you had a nice break and good for you blocking out an hour for rest and relaxation during the day.

Terra - thank you for setting up the thread - hope we all do burn up the calories this month.

Okay - garden calls. Coffee is finished, gotta go.

Morning all,

I'm leaving on a jet plane... that song is running through my head. Just hoping no one with Ebola was on my tiny transport and that it won't be a crowded cattle car. Oh well if it is, it's a short flight and I have a pill to ease the tensions although it probably won't take effect until I deplane

I thought I had everything under control yesterday but DH wanted an unplanned visit to a door showroom in a town a distance from here. Turns out they have to come and measure before we can proceed anyway so while we had a nice lunch outdoors at a roadside stand, it was still 3 hours out of the day I could have done better with. And then when I got home the clock sped to double time - was after midnight when I tried to push out both cats who decided that my bed will be theirs for the next 3 weeks and they were taking residency last night. Sleep was short and fitful as it always is the night before I have to leave - so afraid I will oversleep.

Finishing coffee now and I need to jump in the shower so I must apologize for no personals. I will be back on when I get to my sister's next week. Till then have a good August and I will be thinking of you.

Quick hello. Finishing up budget work and meeting w/ my boss shortly. WW meeting after that. I'll try to get back later today.

Good morning ladies,

Yay! It's Thursday! If I stand on my tiptoes, I can almost see the weekend! After work yesterday, I rode the bike at the gym for 45 minutes, and then took Santa to the dog park.

Today, I'm leaving work at lunchtime to go to a workshop on WordPress (which is what I use to build my company's website), and then I have an acupuncture appointment, followed by the gym and the dog park.

Please, if you don't mind, keep my friend Bob in your prayers. He got some very bad news at the doctor yesterday. I'm too upset by the news to type all the details, but best case scenario is he loses the use of his right leg, second best case is he loses the right leg, right side of his pelvis and becomes "half-arsed" (his words), and worst case scenario....I lose a good friend.

==============================
Ceejay - Thankfully the fires aren't near where I live. They had some near Yosemite National Park which is about a 3.5 hour drive east, and now there are fires burning in the Shasta and Lassen National Forests, both of which are several hours drive north. When I drive to Washington State (where they've also been having fires), I'll be driving near and possibly through the Shasta and Lassen National Forests. The little bit of rain we got yesterday was nice, but we need so much more. And we especially need rain that doesn't come with thunder and lightning. Lightning strikes hitting our dry forests and mountains is just bad.

Shad - Congratulations on that great weight loss! Well done!! I hope the phone line is now fixed. Glad the substitute hairdresser did a good job. So sorry to hear about your son's hand. I hope he's doing better. Thank you so much for your suggestion about what to say to people who want to tell me what decisions to make about my own life and body. I really appreciate that.

Happy - Wishing you a smooth and relaxing flight, and a lovely visit with your family!

Laura - I hope both meetings go well (boss and WW).

Terra, Susie and Annie -

Much love to all,

Afternoon all.

It was a busy morning for me. I worked on the budget and then walked the boss through it all - took much longer than the one hour he allotted for the meeting, but now he knows what I do for that, and we made several adjustments on the spot. I finished with the rest of it after the meeting, and now I just finished eating a late lunch.

I missed both of the two WW meeting times that were options for me today. There's a meeting at noon tomorrow I can go to.

It's bf's birthday today. It will be up to him to go out to dinner tonight or tomorrow night.

It feels like today is a Friday, but alas it isn't. At least the day is going by quickly.

==
Michelle - I hope the WordPress workshop is helpful. That's really bad news your friend got. I will keep him in my prayers. I'm glad your trainer is aware of your back issues and will watch that during your sessions.

Happy - I guess you won't see this for a while, assuming you're enroute to your mom's as I type this. Hope you're having safe & smooth travels. Enjoy the time with your mom.

Shad - You sound busy as heck! Whose blood are you cleaning up and whose bandages are you changing - yours or kitty's???!!! Bummer about the phone - everything just goes to heck while you're gone??? At least the hair appointment went well. Speedy recovery wishes to DS. Yay for the weight loss!!! Must be all the gardening! I bet you're having a ball now that you can get your hands back in the dirt. I'm doing some pushups, but not doing an official challenge at the moment. Just trying to not be such a sloth since the sum total of my weekly exercise lately has been one Jazzercise class. Today I managed 13 knee pushups.

Ceejay - Have you figured out who's adding stuff to the computer? Maybe that's what was causing the popups?? Is today your Friday??

Hellos to Terra, Susie & Annie!!

That's it for me! TTFN!

Good morning ladies,

I just found out late last night that a dear family friend passed away. Very sad. He was in his 80s though, and his health had been failing the past 6 months so his passing was not unexpected Hard to believe he's gone though...he was always the life of the party. For my dad's milestone birthdays (50, 75 and some in between) this man would dress up in costume and jump out of a cake! He was always quick with a joke and a laugh, and he was very kind and caring as well. I'm going to miss him. I'm going to the viewing on Sunday. The funeral is Monday morning and I'm not sure I can take time off work to attend, with my vacation coming up in 4 weeks, I don't have any vacation time to spare right now.

The WordPress workshop went well. After the instructor went through his presentation, there was time left and he asked if anyone wanted to demonstrate their WordPress site. Since my company's site uses a lot of cool WordPress plug-ins and functionality, I volunteered.

After that was acupuncture and then I went to the gym. I only rode the bike for 1/2 hour though...but better than nothing.

Not going to get to the gym today. I'm picking Bob up after work and we're going out to dinner and then I'm dropping him off at his parents and I'll be getting together with some women friends.

==============================

Laura - Glad you got the budget sorted with your boss. Happy belated b'day to your bf. Did you go out to dinner last night or will you tonight? Any fun plans for the weekend?

Pretty quiet around here...so I'll check back in later today to see what y'all are up to.

Much love,

Michelle ~ Yeah I wish I could of got 10 for the dvd but I hope I have better luck on Craig's List, I didnt make it 30 mins, I have to work up to it but I will.

Laura ~ Thats cool that your like Kabob's also, We just made white chicken chili on Wed. night and that is a recipe I got from school, We made it in the first cooking class I joined, Not the one Im in now, The meal turned out really good.

CJ ~ I've been a member for my cooking class for awhile now.

Shad ~ Im glad you like the new thread title, I hope we all burn up calories this month too.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I woke up at 8:00 AM this morning. So far today I've let Clyde outside and I've taken my pills, I have also cleaned my tube and mask and thats all I've done today. Im gonna do laundry today and do my 5 mile walk tonight and thats all my plans for today. Im Bummed, Im back in the 290's....Grrrr.....Oh well I'll just have to try harder.

Afternoon all. Happy Friday! Still doing some more tweaks to the budget info, and I also submitted my input for our department’s July report. The boss is under the gun today – trying to finish up the budget data and get it to his boss before he’s out next week for meetings/vacation. I have a feeling the tweaking will be going on all day. Also had a meeting that ran into the time for my ww meeting, so I guess I'm just going to miss this week.

==
Michelle – So sorry for the loss of your family friend. He sounds like he was a great person to know. You had a busy day yesterday, and another one today. Your posts make me tired just reading them! Enjoy your weekend.

Terra – White chicken chili sounds tasty. I’ve heard of it before, but never made it. Ever since my bf found an award-winning chili recipe, he’s used that one. I don’t even make the chili in our house anymore! Get back on track with the exercise and eating and your weight will go down again. That’s the big lifelong struggle – keeping at the good habits the vast majority of the time and not letting the bad ones take hold again. In my ww meetings, even the lifetime members (who’ve made goal and maintained their weight) say it continues to be a struggle. Just know you’re not alone in this!!

++

After work last night I picked up the book “Gone Girl” from the library – it’s the next book for book club. The movie version of this book is coming out this fall, so I’m looking forward to reading the book first.

Bf and I went out to eat at the restaurant I went to for the fundraiser wrap-up party the other night. They have an extensive beer list and small $1 samples, so we tried several. Two of the three I tried I enjoyed - Crispin Pear cider and Lost Coast Tangerine Wheat. Bf and I each had a cup of soup, and we split a sandwich and truffle fries between us. It was nice not to fill up, because we both wanted to eat the slices of birthday cake my sister sent home with us last weekend. She made a really delicious carrot cake for my birthday.

This weekend I will go to Jazzercise class on Saturday morning and then meet a friend for a late breakfast. Nothing else planned. BF is having a friend over on Saturday evening, and on Sunday he’s going to a car show with some friends. I plan to spend some time doing yardwork over the weekend. I need some new sneakers, so I might go out and try on some of the Brooks brand shoes since I hear they're very supportive.

That’s it for me! Everyone have a great weekend!!

Terra - Laura is right about getting back on track with eating and exercising. Portion control is key, as well as tracking. I track what I eat on MyFitnessPal, even when I'm not making the best food choices, so I can clearly see what foods I need to do a better job of limiting. It also helps me see that if I want to eat the (insert high calorie food here), I'll have to do so many minutes of exercising to balance it out.

Laura - Your dinner last night sounds yummy. I've never heard of truffle fries. Those beers sound mighty tasty. Have a great time at Jazzercise tomorrow and at breakfast with your friend.


I'm having the munchies today. I really wanted something crunchy, but thankfully I have a couple apples that I usually save for the afternoon snack, but I cut one up and it seems to have satisfied the need to crunch. I'll have lunch in about 90 minutes. Unfortunately, since I'm not going to have time to workout today and since I'm going out to Chinese food tonight with my friend Bob, I'm going to go over my calorie allotment for the day. :-( I'll just make sure to get to the gym tomorrow and Sunday for at least 45 minutes. These last 11 pounds are being quite stubborn, and I just can't have that. I want to have surgery in November before Thanksgiving, which means I should try and get these pounds off by the end of this month (or mid-September at the latest). And yes, if I have surgery before Thanksgiving chances are I won't be able to eat most of the yummy Thanksgiving foods....but I'd like to visit my sister and relatives in Southern California for Christmas...and the doctor doesn't approve of travel for the first 4 weeks post op, which means a pre-Thanksgiving surgery (just gotta lose the pre-op weight).