Hi, sorry I'm still here, just trying to get a handle on who's who.

I did beat the cravings quite impressively, and I've been eating relatively decent stuff, with no chocolate thankfully! This time next week though, I'll be well and truly off plan in a taverna in Greece hopefully though!

(OK, I'll try to be better than I usually am on holiday, but I'm not going to be strict. After all I know I can get it back off again...)

Morning all,
I'm sitting here at my desk watching the good people of Brisbane go about their daily business and a few leaning on the railings having a smoke and not doing any business as well. The cop shop down the road a bit is busy, some action going on there today - makes a change!
I shouldn't be doing this, but hey, by the time I get home brimming full of ideas of what to say in my posts, get my dinner, feed the pusscat, do the daily chores and turn on the computer and tv, the ideas are gone and the brain is saying things like - get off the grass, I want to go to sleep, not think anymore.

Good to see you again YP - it seems we have the habit of frightening off folk - don't know why, we are fairly harmless and always friendly - apart from the odd times of strife and passion - usually to do with religion or politics when we get into strife, so I try hard not to make comments about presidents, prime ministers, mp's or the church.
Actually I did put together a piece on who was who at one time for some one else. Wonder if I could find it again. Basically we have Canadians (Holly and Meadow), we have Americans (Happy, Mel, Tig and Roseblush), we have the Brits (Teel, Linus and now you and on occasions Mooz from Northern Ireland). We know the Poms are not to be confused with the Scots and the Irish or the Welsh if we had any with us. And now you come from the North which is not to be confused with the rest of England either. There's me, holding up the flag of the Antipodes and the weight of you lot up top - being a New Zealander living in Australia. Sometimes there are others but they come and go. I'm sure you will sort us out soon.
I went to your blog earlier and see you are a traveller like me. That's great. I wish sometimes that I lived withing flying distance of a place to go to for the weekend like you have. Here is takes five hours just to get to the other side of the 'island' while flying. 24 hours straight driving and you should get to Perth or somewhere in Western Australia.

Holly - so nice to get a great compliment like that. Should lift your spirits tremendously.

Meadow - thank you for the nice words in my journal. How about just pretending that I am standing behind you bullying you on to exercise and eating well. I'm the voice over the shoulder when you shop and the pain you feel behind the ear when you pick up something off the shelf I don't like. Get on the bike and give me five minutes - that's all, I'm not asking for a lifetime commitment, just 5 measly minutes 300 seconds if you like the sound of that better.

Teel, I hope you took some pictures of the place before he started as well. I like the before and after shots to show me how well I have done and how different the place looks. Have a good time with the folks tomorrow.

Roseblush - you do need to walk in that forest in Glenariffe. Not someday either - one day soon. It is a beautiful peaceful place - one of the Glens of Antrim in Northern Ireland. Mooz lives at the end of the last of the Glens - 7 or 9 I forget how many there are. Lovely, lovely place to visit.

Happy - enjoy that tour of the facilities. It may give some insight into why you are doing what you do. It is also a day out of the daily grind of the office - not to be missed. Sleep well my friend.

Better get off here and go do some work. A is yelling for my grammatical skills. Prepositions, adverbs, future imperfect, pronoun, noun and verb. Best I go remember what they are. See you.

Shad-you know I wish you were behind me telling me to "put down the cookies and move it!" Rub off on me will you? Please!! Too bad my head voice doesn't have a sterner disposition sigh, only had three cookies today, two less than yesterday. When they are all gone, not by me alone, stop that laughing... I will channel my frustrations and feelings of lameness into some other focus. Rotten sugar, temporary relief with not much satisfaction.

YP-OH! off to Greece! Nice, very nice. I hope you have a splendid time and get lots of time on the water enjoying the scenery. Shirley Valentine movie just flashed through my head, I love Pauline Collins

Holly-you know you are fabulous as a person, mommy and wife. Nice to hear it said by people outside the circle though isn't it? Sounds like more responsibility is headed your way, do you want it? Remember you can say "NO" it will not hurt but a second and then you can plan your own schedule of stuff to do

Happy-are you in the car? are you still driving? Yikes, keeping Shad hours would do me in, I hope you had your vitamin this morning and are keeping your energy up with a nice crispy apple. Back away from any sugar offerings, don't let them catch you

Teel-your builder sounds so helpful and listens to you. You are very lucky! Mine is a big headache that I'm not allowed to talk to in case he winds up hospitalized as a result of some of my punctuation What a clever idea to make a cubby hole to put your scooter in, very cool.

Mel-did you get out today? How goes it? Did the sun shine? Breathe.

Linus-Hey, what are you and the little passenger doing? Are you sleeping any better? Hope you are eating better anyway. ((((Good vibes))))

Nae-:waves: Drinking more water and riding the bike four times a week sound like doable goals for a go-getter like you! Good luck! I am cheering for you

Tig-Way to go with the 5k just because you can! What a glorious thing to know you can run and sweat and feel good doing it! Revel in your accomplishment and pat yourself on the back for being such a wonderful, fit person who uses their body and pushes the limits. Does it feel great to know you can?

I am trying to get my head and my body in sync, funny how they thwart me. You would think they would be on my side

Beautiful sunny Wednesday morning!
Power snooze!! I love deep sleeps!!! No barfing children!
Yesterday was great. Fun with the kids. I started to dig a new flower bed along the shed.I will mostly put day lillies in I think and let them spread. It is 40 ft long and it is messy and ugly right now. It is more of a border to make it look nicer.
I found a roll of garden edging that at my Grandma’s that bordered her beds for ever and I will use it !!!
Got the floors washed yesterday. Went bike riding after supper. Still not eating much. Weird but nice. I went to the fridge a few times last night and turned around and sat down, uninterested. I had a small supper. Is this how other people eat?? Wow!!
No plans for today!
5 kids for the morning. DD and me for the aft.
I may go out an bask in the sun.


Here is today’s epiphany...I am honestly and truly the happiest I ever remember being in my entire life and parts of my extended family think I am abusive and off my rocker. Do ya think they would know happiness if it jumped up and bit them on the ***??? I dont think they want me to be happy.......It would be better if I was stuck with my head up my butt and be the same as them. I just realized how much I shake up their shaky foundation and they are scared and isn’t fear what all the negative stuff in this life boils down to?

Yesterday I had a chance after food shopping to see another Dr for a 2nd opinion of how to handle everything. We seemed to be on the same page.....time is needed for the bus thing and "get used to it" was the advice for the back. He was also impressed with my outlook, health and weightloss. We have crossed paths before but never as Dr/patient. I need to keep spreading out the heavier tasks and not do too much all in one day. Take the pills when I cannot stand it or so I can sleep if it worsens. He finds that if our roles were reversed that he would not be as happy as me. I told him that if I were a man I would be happy just to pee standing up and not worry about what position the toilet seat was in!!! He was cracking up and when I left there were a lot of nurses wondering what was going on. I came home happy and changed chairs and went for a lovely ride. Weather here is just right....not too hot or cold.
I need to get cooking this weekend and decide on another routine.....something to fit my new needs.(sigh)

Teel~ Hope the friend is better and sure she is with visits from a good friend as yourself.

Nae~ Good to see you here and getting ready to ride!!!

Tig~ I will cheer you on for May 28th thanks for the hug.

Happy~ Hope work eases up a bit.....are you sure you and Shad are not working for the same company??

Shad~ Hope you get a break too. all this lamb talk is making my mouth water.....could I be the 102nd use for the leftovers?!?!?

Holly~ Just always remember that YOU matter!!! People who love and RESPECT you will let you "grow" to your heart's content and be happy for you.

Linus??!?!? YP?!?!?!? hello to you too

Miss Mooz~ Always a pleasure to see you here and thanks for the Motivator!! A good reminder. Loved the bluebells and wish I was driving through the hillside myself!!! Take care.

Well kids......... That's all folks

Holly, go plant those day lillies! We have a number of them that popped up behind the bushes. They are so pretty, it's a shame they are covered by the bushes. What were they thinking when they planted them where they did? And I think you are right, some people who are miserable love to be miserable and hate anyone else to be happy. Foo on them! As you know attitude is everything...

Meadow, are those cookies gone yet? Take a walk outside and hand them out to the neighbors -- anything to get rid of them. I admire people who can pour mustard or salt on things so they don't eat them. Me, I just can't bring some things into the house. Period.

Nice to hear that you're out crusing again Mel. Talk about someone with a great attitude - it's you!

Well I got up at 4am today. actually I woke up 15 minutes before the alarm so it made getting up easier. Ok, so I will admit that yes, it is nice to get up early, get things done and still have the day well ahead of you. So Shad's got a definite point there that can't be argued. However, I got home from my trip and had to take a short nap as I was really sleepy. Maybe I could force myself to be a morning person, but do I want to?

We are having some landscaping work done out back. They removed the old broken railroad ties which they said were full of termites Now there's a stone wall that curves around the back and a nice stone pathway. Some new grass instead of the mangy mudfest and it's looking quite good. They even tilled an area for the climbing roses, clematis and will till the garden area for me. Not sure I'm going to get anymore veggies in - most of the plants are long gone from the nursery, but I can transplant my tomatoes that are in sore need of a bit more room and a nice trellis to climb on. The yard is starting to look quite the peaceful Zen garden that I hate to leave each morning on my way to the car and another fun day at the "zoo" we call an office.

Keep the faith chickies, I'm off for 40 winks...

Happy~ I gotta dig up the rest of the bed first!!! It is a long weekend for us here. Queen Vic's Birthday. 3 days of gardening and good weather coming up!!!
Teel~ you sounds wonderful!!!! Nice it was a lovely visit. I am glad you stayed in bed and rested this morning!!

HUGS to everyone!!!!!

Teel~ Glad the day was OK and hope the weather warms up! It's cool here a bit but great "driving" weather!
We both could use some "magic" pills!

Holly~ Hugs back to you!

Happy~ I will think of you at 7am when I am rolling over! Woman....get those buns exercising you Southern Wench!!! Termites! YIKES!!!! Hope they left the property with the ties!!! Happy gardening!

Shad~ I was a good Sis today. Hope your day was better and you didn't bleed the company for too much overtime. glad you got permission from the High Mucky Muck. WTF
Bet you'll be glad to see the weekend come!!!!

I went shopping and the PRICES are just getting more ridiculous all the time. Tuna steak is over $8 a lb now and there were no grapefruits in sight! I got ground turkey and chicken breasts instead along with strawberries, grapes and apples. I am going back on my plan on Monday so I'll cook over the weekend and get ready. I really want to see if I can jump start the metabolism one last time! ROFLMAO One more load of wash bit the dust today and I should be done with the Mountain of Wash by Xmas!!!
:merry: One can only hope! At least all the sheets and knickers are done!!! Those are the most important. I also spent a lot of time outdoors but this damn wind was a bit much today.
Have a great night and good Morning Sunshine!

Meadow~ I am not sure how I do this but I mised a bunch of posts somehow! Hope the body and mind got in sync today or at least made a great attempt at being friends!!!! good luck....I too go that route from time to time!

YP~ Good to see you back and have a wonderful time in Greece. I envy you too as I had always wanted to go there......or Egypt. I think I have had many past lives! Hope it's a grand time!

Now I see Shad wad daydreaming ou the window and saw uniforms and I missed it all!!! How can that be as I usually smell a uniform at forty paces!!!

Holly is amongst the lilies and I am just glad that I am NOT pushing up daisies!

OK I am really going this time! Love to you all one last time!

Oh give me a home, where the wild critturs roam, and the flowers and veges will grow.
I don't wish to see On Demand or SAP
As long as I last on this earth.

Sorry, having some 'magic moments' here between, SAP, OnDemand, the Portal and Microsoft. Apparently (according to St Guru upstairs) Explorer is having a rights to territory and space battle with OnDemand and the Portal has corrupted the bus (hello, earth to guru). I just got a message that said - aborted, Pure Virgin Function Call. Excuse me? I wouldn't have thought that virgin and aborted went in the same sentence! Oh I see, its a fancy way of saying the system is stuffed! Hmmm. Now why didn't I think of that.

Didn't post last night because of having to have a 'few words' in my journal. There was someone who needed a bit of a speech. I think, there were a few raised eyebrows judging by the comments as well. Also last night was a series of storms and hail stones. We never got the hail but the young guy here at work was telling me the hailstones damaged his girlfriends car. He lives a bit north of the city. I went to the hairdresser and got the wool shorn and the rain was so heavy I could hardly see to drive. Thunder and lightning were the order of the day.

Having some problems here with bodily functions - sorry if this is too much information. But it is becoming painful. I've tried to be good and I haven't really worked out what is causing the problem, but it is a dratted nuisance. Time to get it sorted before it gets too painful.

Weight is up and down again!!! I know I shouldn't worry about it every day, but it is a habit and I don't care too much until the end of the month. I seem to be static again.
JASON !!!!!!! Mind you if I didn't eat the birthday morning teas, and I didn't munch from time to time then maybe..............

Holly - way to go on those day lilies. You can get some really lovely ones now, lovely colours etc. Need a picture of the fruit salad basement and the day lily border one day.

Mel - glad to see that you have decided to behave today. Haven't been in to look at many comments so far, but haven't seen you there either so that's good. Have a good drive in the park or shop or whatever you are doing today. 1 load of laundry per day is plenty for anyone.

Happy - landscaping sounds good. Pics when done please - got some bird pics from your DH this morning. Love those woody woodpeckers, what marvellous colours and feather patterns. You watch the sunsets, I'll keep you posted on the sunrises - that way we will always have something to talk about. It's our differences that set us apart from each other. Still I'm glad you did see some good in the early part of the day.

Teel - good to see you up and about and I'm glad the visit to the folks went okay. I love going to the beach and cliffs when the wind is blowing hard and whipping up the waves etc. It's a purely primeval elemental feeling and I come out of it all hyped up and ready for action. Pity there are not many cliffs around here. Have to travel to find a cliff or two, or go 'overseas' to Moreton or Stradbroke Island. They have the odd one or two.

Right better get off here and find out what A wants me to do next along with 4 chapters of G's work and a whole heap of my own.

I'll leave you with a couple of quotes which seem to sum up the situation.

In politics, if you want anything said, ask a man. If you want anything done, ask a woman.
Whatever women must do they must do twice as well as men to be thought half as good. Luckily, this is not difficult.
and:
A man's got to do what a man's got to do. A woman must do what he can't.

So as the saying goes: The impossible I can do straight away. Miracles may take a little longer.

'Bye

Weekend is ALMOST here. The Dearest Thugs will be picked up by Slim tomorrow afternoon at the "Half-Way Point" so their parents can work on their house over the weekend. So far they've done Painting, Cleaning Out the Toys and .... hmmm... I don't remember what the Excuse for This Weekend is.

I have been so consumed by the project at work that I've really gotten behind in my treadmill time and running time. I know that my Sweat Time really makes a difference as far as my ability to deal with the stresses at work. Good thing that tomorrow is Friday so that I can ponder that Exercise Fact. (Okay, I don't know what that means either, but it sounded, well, Profound. )

It's great to see you back, teel & mS'Melly. I'm missing Linus+Bump. Is something going on that Linus is reluctant to tell us because we were so Fussy last time? Somebody check, please. But don't promise that we won't be Fussy.

Shad, I love that you are so handy around your house. You are absolutely my hero. If I come to visit you, I won't be afraid to pick up one of those tools to help out. And you can always count on me to clean. I drive my cleaning ladies crazy when I clean after they do. A good day for them is when I can't find anything - well, much - to clean after they've been here. A Comment - about to your too personal in reference to body functions: If it weren't for running, well... So you are doing great with your food and fiber and water. I spend a lot of my time in meetings. Running is the only thing that really makes a difference for me. It must be gravity and moving the lackadaisical intestine around... okay, TMI. But still, 5Ks are worth more than just a t-shirt!

Dear Happy, Holly, Meadow I'm fading fast so just wanted to give you a special salute.

To every one else: Keep after it. Reat, as Linus says.

Just a quickie because the kids are hounding me today. I got my period yesterday so I am blaming hormones as well Funny how the cookies don't appeal anymore. The power of the human innards

Mel-good to hear you are out and about allowing your hair to fly in the wind. Sounds like a grand time. Sorry the tuna steaks are so dear, there must be a shortage, blame the dolphins

Shad-you sound done in! rotten tech stuff, silly people I hope your weekend is marvellous and you get lots of sunshine.

Holly-doing anything for the long weekend? I'm not nothing much ever happens here. My clematis "nelly moser" is blooming like I gave it manure (I didn't) huge blossoms. Gave one with a couple of the "joseph coat" rose blooms to my daughter's teacher, he was looking done in and in need of something to cheer himself up.


Teel-talk about a flying visit. Was there a timer on you guys. It all sounds like you had a check list and were like the "carry on gang" scrambling to fit everything in. Poor dear with the tummy passenger giving her the urps. That must have been fun on the car trip Hope you are relaxing and taking it easy today.

Happy-OH! a landscaper... I want one!! How terrific, does he listen to you? What a handy kind of person to have. I am picturing gravel pathways, hostas, bluebells... wait, wasn't that Mooz's field? You going to create one for yourself? Your garden is sounding like a park to me, just beautiful. Congratulations on moving to such an awesome place.

Got to go, I'm getting as bad a Mel

Meadow~I will be gardening, gardening ,painting the storage area floor??? and gardening. May 2-4 is all about the veggie patch.Still digging the new bed. The oldest bed is ready to divide and share. I planted my first clematis last year and it did nothing. In fact it looked dead but it springing to life!
A little more even keeled today. Literally 1 hour sleep last night.I was directed to a "therapy" site for disfunctional families. I read A LOT gave me some peace actually.
Season finale of ER tonight, Carter's last show...SOB!!

Tig~ waving back. Have fun with the thugs.
Mel~ consider yourself bombarded with snowballs.Christmas???? Already??? Can I have summer first????
Shad~ I have pics I need to mail them to a friend to get scanned. I am very last century in the camera dept.

HI to everyone!!!!!!

Hi Everyone, shad the critters live here with me on the hill....come sit awhile and let that tension roll right off your back. Love the quotes. My Quad friend is speaking for the graduating class this year and I heard her speech yesterday...wow everyone could use a copy of that one for inspiration and possibilities.
I have been doing great on the water this week....hurrah for me! I have a nice bottle that actually hold 16.8 oz so I have been drinking and filling it 5 times during the day. Today I have to fast and only have ice chips til I get my blood drawn at the Health Fair.... I am working too so I will have to slip out of the office somtime this morning and go get poked!
My buddy Bill, a former patient came up yesterday and is going to help me spray for knap weed...it is a blight on the western landscape so that will be nice. Bill is the greatest guy...... I wish I was older or he was younger.... but his intelligence and kindness are so attractive to me.... whenever I am with him it is always so interesting....thinking of having him up for dinner on Sunday.
Mel so glad you got out and went shopping and those dr. should be impressed with a great courageous and spirited woman like you. What are yo cooking for the coming week?
Do hope that LInus is fine and that the move goes smoothly....report in so we can stop worrying about you and Bump!
I am riding in a bike fun thing on Saturday....hope I can still walk after it. Trying to figure out a pack so Teeka can ride along. We'll see! I got my old schwin running good now.
Am anticipating the birth of my robins under my deck this weekend too I think. I love having something so great in view and the mother sits so patiently even when I am out on the deck banging around with my plants. Hopefully the nasty racoons will not come a callin'.
Everyone take good care this weekend.
Blessings to all,
Nae