Frogger, my best thoughts to you and your husband.

Had an Allie MacBeal moment this morning as the auditors lined up at my desk to dump more work on me. Visions of talking heads on spikes lined up outside the castle walls...rather gory and medieval...it has been a LONG audit.

Arabella, I have always felt a connection with the trees...probably some druid background in my ancestors or somethings. ;) The neighbors think I am crazy because every night I give the tree that is on city property on the street side of the sidewalk in front of my house two buckets of water to keep him from wilting in this unholy heat we're having this year. I swear I can feel a whisper of relief and a soft thank you rustle through his branches. I'm out there watering my plants and trees...just can't neglect the poor thing. If this heat keeps up I may start watering the one two houses down, too! Gardening is great exercise, and your body certainly will let you know it for a couple of days after a good spell at it! Epsom salts work!

Yes, EBW is adrift, unfortunately not on an ice floe somewhere. She will come ashore for Monday.

Kaylets, sorry about the disappearing keys and the frustration of trying to find them. Better safe than sorry, though.

Frogger :grouphug: the first step to fixing a problem is admitting it exists. It was very brave of your DH to do that and to realize it is time to get control. I'm proud of him!

Wow, Amarantha...another 1.4 gone! This FitDay software sounds good...I've used the free website, but must look into this.

avwoolf, don't let the ups and downs discourage you. Just grab a No Guilt token and a Fresh Start card from the table near the door and climb back on the wagon! :queen: Kaylets keeps us in good supply, use as needed, no limits, no expirations!

:grouphug: Anagram :grouphug: Hope DH is continuing to improve and you are holding up. Think of you both often.

Hello to Eydie, wsw, ceara, Punkin (where art thou?), aria, and anyone I'm missing.

For your viewing pleasure:

My fat cat Salem, 22lbs of pure love and trust:

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y17.../SalemJuly.jpg

The first lilly to bloom in my back yard! I am loving all these garden surprises in our new house!

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y17...lock/Lilly.jpg

Frogger, I agree with Wildfire that your husband is very brave. What a gift to be able to see the truth about oneself!

Arabella, my husband says "nap" too. Funny.... :lol:

avwoolfe, I know that we all know how you feel about wondering how to keep the motivation going. Susan Powter said that 'the motivation is in the doing' and I've found that it's true for me. Alas, motivation doesn't just magically descend on us, we have to work at it, and the honeymoon does wear off. Preplanning meals and exercises the night before helps me a lot, and reading fitness books and magazines, perusing cookbooks with healthy recipes, checking in here, just generally having a fitness project of some kind going on all the time.

It's a quarter to three and there's no one in the place, excep' u 'n me ...
 

[color=blue][b]Well, actually, it's almost 4 a.m. and I can't sleep (again) so here I am ... :wave:

Work has got me upset (again) ... I need a life (again) ... anyhow, I digress, just wanted to say hello to all.

Avwoolf, re the honeymoon phase wanin' a bit here 'n there, we hear ya! :) Dunno, I use anything and everything to keep my head in this game ... fantasy diet challenges (which I mostly post on the journal in the land far far away), new diet software (I LOVE the Fitday PC, but have also tried Dietpower which is very good but messed w' my computer, but loads of people really like it ... I've also used spreadsheets to create food logs that auto calculate all the numbers for me ... that's a cheap way to go). The personal trainer I've used for years also helps, even if I can't really afford her, I'm not sure I can afford NOT to use her as I need to be fit 'n strong to face the future. Dunno, it's really hard ... sometimes when I fall off the proverbial four-wheeled horse-drawn vehicle, I just say ok I messed up there, but gotta get back on ... 'cause otherwise there's that slippery slope over there and I don't wanna go there ...

Hmmm. I am ramblin' because it is too early in the a.m. for me to be up.

Sometimes, :queen: s, I wonder WHO I am talkin' to when I am talkin' to my employers. DELETION ... hmmm. I typed the whole dang story of an incident at work but decided it would make me recognizable to someone who may (or not) lurk on this site ... paranoia abounds.

Going back to bed.

Apologies to all for wakin' anybody up ... I think K has a pot o' tea on the hob in the Great Hall if ye can't get back to sleep!

Good Morning Royals!

Thanks for all the well wishes and thoughts. DH appreciates all the support.

I did nothing yesterday when I got home. No excersising, no decluttering, no cooking (aside from throughing some green beans in the micro). DH grilled us some BBQ chicken and we had green beans. Was delish and I have left overs for today's lunch. (Should my day actually get that far. Supposidly boss will be leaving early and so am I if this is true...)

More to post later. Gotta grab some coffee. I hear the SF rasberry syrup calling!!!! :coffee:

Calories: 1870
Walking: 15 minutes
Decluttering: no, but admiring my new organization :)

Had only the time to find the new "digs" to say a brief "hi". Looks like lots of catchup to do someday.

Saga continues. But dh occasionally undrugged enough to give me a brilliant smile when I show up. Worth it all. Still critically ill. But they tell me - one step at a time. Unfortunately, it's one forward, one back sometimes - sort of like weight loss in a way.

Blessings to all!

Royals, I am not able to post from diet sites at work anymore ... for the nonce, we'll see 'bout that! :)

Let's keep boostin' this thread ... let's get loads of participation during this challenge period.

Sis boom 'n bah. Rah.

WHAT is this challenge about, again?

Oh, the SEVENTH MONTH, THE HUMP O' THE YEAR!!!

Hear, hear ... let's hear from everyone on that! :lol:

Seriously, I have a QOD: What does it mean to me to be more than halfway through the blessed year 2005?

"Blessed" is to be taken anywhichway ya choose?

I'll think of an answer to mine own question tonight!!!

Hello Queenlies!
 

Having somewhat of a frustrating day here, mostly to do with editing -- my assistant wants to write content and I'm trying to teach her the arcane secrets of our highly specialized content. She has little-to-no writing experience, and I'd rather just write it myself, but she wants to learn. So. She keeps submitting her attempts and I send them back to her full of comments and suggestions. It's so much more difficult than creating things from scratch. Hard to explain to her what's wrong. Sigh.

The other editing frustration is that the former site editor asked me to edit a script for our first audio presentation. Which I did, painstakingly correcting what was not a very promising document. Took a whole morning, just to edit it and it was no easy task. This morning, another editor sent me the audio file, looking for feedback (I suspect she didn't know I "edited" the file) and found that almost all of my changes had been ignored. I should have known from past experience -- I do love the former ed., but she has absolutely no ability to deal with constructive criticism, even if she asks for it in the first place. So -- the presentation was not well written and very poorly organized. And I'm mad because I wasted way too much time trying to make it half-ways acceptable.

Bah. Enough of that. I know I need to meditate, but am resisting. I will do it, though, because now I said I would. Am attaching my report for yesterday.

Anagram, hooray for the radiant smile of thine DH!!! Hang in there... :grouphug:

Amarantha, I will have to think about QOD.... :chin:

Wildfire, your lilies & kitty are beautiful! I've got the same kind of lily coming into bloom in my back yard (but my kitty is a big fluffy orange guy).

Eydie -- well, my husband always does sink into a deeeeep sleep eventually ;)

K -- back to the salt mines. I'm trying to work out a technical issue that makes it impossible for me to send email from Outlook to anyone that's not on my VPN. :rolleyes: So my day passeth. Love to all!

frogger-sending you and dh good thoughts during this challenging time. good for dh for recognizing a problem, and having the guts to deal with it, and for your support for him. hang in there!

kaylets-glad that you got new locks and that dh was understanding. it sure can be frustrating and creepy to lose keys. hopefully, their disappearance will be revealed soon.

hi amarantha-congrats on lbs. down! sorry work has your royal highness down. i have been waking up at 4:30am, 3:30am, etc. a lot lately, so certainly sympathize with being up in the wee hours.

arabella-loved your tale of your tree. i love trees too, and had almost forgotten what a calm they used to bring me until seeing what you wrote. when i was a little girl, i used to walk over by a creek near my home, and sit under this beautiful old tree, which somehow always felt like a soothing, supportive friend.

hi wildfire! good to "see" you. your cat is so cute. glad that you are enjoying the beautiful flowers and everything else about your new house.

ceara-glad that you are continuing well along your surgery recovery road!

anagram-as always sending warm thoughts and hugs, and hope dh continues to improve. thanks for checking in with us!

aria-congrats on all that organizing you did, and happy to hear you are enjoying the fruits of your labors.

hi avwoolf, eydie, and to all our royals, mentioned and -un. thinking about you!

yesterday, had 1490 cals, and day before, 1575. have stuck with exercise and meditation too. the other day, when i was able to get out on my own steam, i saw sweet film/documentary, "mad hot ballroom," which i really enjoyed. amarantha-thinking about your qod-mostly it scares me that i am half way through the year, because of how quickly time passes for me. on the flip side, it feels like a positive because now i still have almost half a year to still make some changes which i would like---so that's what i will concentrate on! thanks for that reminder, amarantha. i needed to hear that today. take care, all.

I am having a good day today.

Work is going pretty well, too. I work for a non-profit agency, and we have funding ups and downs as you might imagine, but we are coasting along pretty well right now. We had a meeting this morning on a particular project, just myself, and two other people. I asked them to come here, and have the meeting at my house where we can drink coffee from my homey, slightly strained mugs instead of styrofoam cups. It makes a difference to change the scene once in a while, and I think brains work just as well or better when they are on the screen porch being fed good strong coffee from a mug that belongs to somebody. Plus, my kids are home, and it's almost like take your daughter/son to work day!

I am doing well on the eating, exercise, and nutrition too--despite a couple of slips. I have to concentrate on what you said Amarantha, preparing myself and my body for all the things I still have to do and be.

Eydie, I also like what you got from S. Powter about be powered by motivation. It is a little bit like what my mother used to say "fake it till you make it."

Frogger, I was a good thing to give yourself that break. Sometimes in life, we can call a time out.

Wildfire, thanks for suggesting that I pick up a Guilt Free token. It is a powerful currency!

Amarantha. I will take up the challenge, and request (require) two things of myself for the balance of July.

1. Get to the gym at least three days out of seven (and work out at home at least 3)

2. Not complain about motivation, willpower, or weightloss

QOD--As I near the important birthday of the big 5-0 (about 22 months from now), each month that takes me closer to that date makes me pay close attention, and analyze what I do with every month and every day. I am excited to celebrate half a century of living and learning, but I want to have a clear head, a clear conscience and a strong mind when I do. It is like having to plan for a wedding or a big dinner party, and looking at the calendar, and realizing that you thought you would be further along by now.

Hello all!

ANAGRAM!!! Thanks for the update! We are thrilled to hear DH is making progress!! (((((((((((((((((((((((((((((HUG)))))))))))))))))) ))))))))) from all of us!

Q Avwoolf--- I am remiss in welcoming you ! Am glad you have joined us.
And yes, 50 can be very motivational... it finally motiavted me to get going and get it done b/4 51... and .... I am just realizing I was very close but did make that challenge.... I did make my goal B/4 my 51st bday and am thrilled.
Its not how important the tiny decisions seem that we have to make all day but how those decisions impact the finish line....

Keys are still lost.... I am using this as motivation for the 15 minutes of decluttering.... Literally emptying a drawer, box, shelf, etc, etc and doing my best not to just dump all "As is" back in.... Some of my results from Sunday are still suprising me when I see them...

Work continues to be crushingly busy... .not quite as many hours as what Wildfire is experiencing but still very busy....

Frogger... 1st step is on the way... There are very wise folks who would know what to tell you and dh .... If DH is concerned then, for him its a problem... no one can decide for him.... he cannot compare w/ how more/less is drunk compared to anyone else.... He is trying to be the father and husband the women he loves know he is....
I can tell you for sure, AA has helped 1000's and 1000's of folks who thought they couldnt stop drinking....and their families too...

Wsw! You always have such lovely, supportive, insightful things to say....
You always make me feel like you are patting me on my hand, saying " there, there dear... we'll see this through too."

Eydie-- Oh dear! Brownies... carob.... whole wheat flour? and..... did you wake up wanting more, more, more???
I think I must have this recipe....PLEASE!!

Arabella... Here in the states, those of us of a certain age group used to say when there was absolutely nothing else to say when AGAIN no one listened to the one who knew..... "F......'em if they can't take a joke." In other words,
you will have to remember next time and all future times, to limit your input and know that too will be ignored.

Aria! Glad you found us! I was getting ready to send the footmen to find thee....

Empress..... My job too won't let me come here.. I can get to the WW site but not here....Too busy to post here in the daytime but still, it would be nice to know I could if I had the time...
And we both seem to be on the same mind set.....

As Punkin said one time when I had announced "I've made up my mind"..... it's just a matter of time now.....

I need to hit the shower .....

Expect to see you all tomorrow evening....

****************

Thought of the day :

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do.
Explore. Dream. Discover."
-- Mark Twain


Question of the day :

"Share your last disappointment."

******************


Tea anyone?

Yo, :queen: s, I be braindead! Came on here to answer mine own question that I posed earlier but too tired and will do so tomorrow and answer K's QOD also ... there be so much good philosophical talk here in the Great Hall today ... if only I were not so tired ...

Avwoolf, I am really happy thou be amongst us. I know I said so previously but upon further acquaintance I wanted to say it again.

To all, mentioned or unmentioned ... I'll be back and respond when I'm awake!

Good morning, Queenlies!