Hi everybody... just had to come in a minute & wish all a good weekend.

Wow..Willow...you've really started the weightloss, now ! :cb: :dance: I'm proud OF you & proud FOR you!

Fatpuss...congratulations on your loss too! :bravo: :cp: Glad your cat is feeling a little better. Also, glad there's a little peace at home, for awhile, maybe.

Sheila, my daughter has been in the process of painting her house, also. I know it's a big job...but I'll be glad when ours is ready for painting.:dizzy:

Something has gone wrong with my graphics...I'll work with them when I'm feeling better. Thanks, all, for caring....I'll be ok by the middle of next week. Right now, though, don't even feel strong enough to be up. The pain & stiffness bothers me...but the fatigue is almost more than I can handle. I'll be back, when I feel a little better. Take care, & have a good weekend. :)

The happiest excitement in life is to be convinced that one is
fighting for all one is worth on behalf of some clearly seen and deeply
felt good.

Ruth Benedict
(1887-1948, American Anthropologist)

I'M BAAAAACCCCCCCKKKKKKKKK!! Feeling rested, relaxed, fished out and glad to be alive. Back to work tomorrow, but I am ready. My computer shut down with the Northeast Blackout, and didn't come back on before we left for vacation. When I called the 800 number for AOL, I was told it might be the middle of the week before it was up and running again. It took me almost an hour to read all the posts between laundry, the telephone, and IM's. Glad to hear everyone is doing OK. Puss, I really know how you are feeling. Hope Alfie is on the mend. Years ago, I remember pulling off the side of the road after I had to have my Min-Pin (miniature Doberman Pinscher) put to sleep. She had a brain tumor and we took her to Cornell Univ, but to no avail. I was crying so hard I couldn't see. It tears a little piece of your heart out everytime. I did the same thing when I lost FatCat. Now I just have fun with OPP's - Other People's Pets :dizzy:
Willow, sounds like you are back on track. Way to Go! :strong:
When I got home, my stretchy bands were waiting for me at the Post Office. I had ordered them on line. Can't wait to try them out in the morning. Or maybe this afternoon when I get the house back in order. I have a real "one that got away" story for you. I hooked on to something that I could not reel in. Started swimming away from the boat, then went under the boat and snapped off my 8-lb test line like it was thread. Sure wish I could have seen what it was. General consensus was that it was a big Lake Trout. Possibly a Northern Pike, but the line broke - a pike would have bitten it off right at the hook. We did catch a lot of bass and many, many large perch. They are delicious.
Angel, hope you are feeling better soon.
Sheila, hope you didn't do too much "damage" on your vacation. I managed to keep it at only a half pound gain. Probably the big ice cream cone, or the can of cashews. Oh well, manageable, and only once a year. Back to the program!! Still have some catch-up work to do with company coming on Thursday. I'll be back later or tomorrow. I missed you all. Sue

I liked this, .....
 

I bookmarked this to use for reference at "those" times.

http://my.webmd.com/content/article/72/81680.htm

Just a quickie - off for a siesta after gardening with DH. Welcome back Sue, both you and Sheila were missed during your holidays. Just wanted to say how much I like you ladies and our group (though new members always welcome) and I wished we lived in the same town and could meet for lunch once a week!

Welcome Back Sue!
 

Hello Ladies! I'm glad everyone is back and feeling refreshed and relaxed.

I have to go to Mayo again tomorrow and on the 4th of Sept. for tests and exams etc. pertaining to a malignancy from June of 2000. So far, ... so good. We'll see what the MRI's and CT scans etc. say this time. It's always a kind of a nervous couple of days before I have to go. Only this time it's going to take longer. Usually I have all the tests on the first day, then see the Drs to find out the results the next day, but, this time one of the Drs will be out of town so I won't see them until the 4th of Sept. to find out the results.
Anyway, today I'm just sitting around and surfing the net. Found a couple of good articles too.
I had never looked into the South Beach Diet because I just figured it was another restrictive plan that had a person giving up a whole part of their foods. But, after reading this I've changed my mind about what kind of plan it is.

http://weightloss.about.com/

Then scroll down a bit to the article on SBD and Exercise.

Sue, isn't that just driving you crazy wondering just WHAT that was? I have had large mouth Bass do that to me too, ... take it into roots and snap the line. It sure is fun though, isn't it? I'm so jealous!

Wow! If you only were up a half pound after a weeks vacation, you did fantastic! Good job Lady!

Puss, I agree. How nice it would be to all meet in person. What a gab fest that would be!
I too truly like our group. It's so nice to have understanding people and supportive friends.
There are so many other aspects of our lives that effect our weight gains and losses, and it's nice to be able to talk about those things too.
I'm also jealous of your siesta's. I'd never sleep at night though. I need to find something that will allow me to sleep all night through instead of waking after a couple of hours and not be able to get back to sleep. It saps my energy.
I've wondered if I might have a bit (or a lot!) of depression, but, I'm afraid of the drugs they give people. I've heard that some of them make people worse and they end up committing suicide after going ON the medications. You never know if you're going to get a Doctor who knows what they're doing when it comes to prescribing those drugs either. Sometimes I think I'd rather go sleepless, but, that takes it's toll after a while too.
And sometimes they want to get your family involved too, and there's no way in **** that I'd let my family in on my personal gut feelings. They're all adults now, and it's none of their business.

I still think this all has something to do with the thyroid thing because I was ok until they radiated that, and then I started gaining weight and not wanting to go anywhere, etc. But, that all happened at the time of menopause too. But, my gut instincts tell me that menopause has nothing to do with this.

Anyway, I hope you're feeling ok Charlotte. Just rest until it's time for the Dr. visit. Prayers for your quick recovery. I know you get wiped out for a day or so after the meds, but, we understand. Just post when you feel up to it, but know that we're thinking of you and hoping for the best for you.

See everyone later! Have a great day!!

Ashamed to say I am ready again for my bed. Had an hour and twenty mins siesta then DH and I were out in the garden again until 1930 then I soaked in the bath whilst a casserole ( "one I prepared earlier"as they say on all the cookery shows) heated then we watched some tv. I do read for over an hour in bed at night though so that probably makes me sleep well too. You may be right about a touch of depression, Willow, I think sleep patterns are affected such as waking before dawn when a person never used to. I know my mother used to have siestas before her depression but says she can't now. It's a shame you don't see your doctors until the 4th for results of your tests, you would be less than human not to have it on your mind but I will say a prayer that all goes well for you. Sue, my son would quiz you to death on that fish of yours! His last two girlfriends have been chosen carefully, I think, graded on their willingness to sit quietly at his side while he fishes all day! I remember when he was a school boy and was fishing on the canal at the back of our house and he caught a pike and a man came from his garden and traded him some home produced honey for it - said he was going to eat the pike! I know exactly how you must have felt with your little dog having to be put to sleep. It's a sorrowful business and I have done it before with my childhood cat years ago.
I had salad for lunch (good) but with mushroom/garlic pate and french bread too (bad) and cake (very bad) and this evening had pork fillet casserole/new potatoes/broccoli/home made onion gravy (not too bad) then I am ashamed to say....TWO whopping pieces of chocolate coated swiss roll and a chocolate covered caramel wafer (very, very bad). I use the excuse that it's that time of the month but it's being at home. I really will get back on track when I go back to work on Tuesday.

Just a quick hello....VERY weak....hope they move the treatments up to 6 wks. I go tomorrow.

Be back in a couple of days...Take care.:)

Angel, I am so sorry you are feeling so unwell. Good luck today - hope you get something to make you feel better.
Weight is up by 3lbs today from the 146lb so must get back on track starting today, I have been gorging since my mother's visit. Hope everyone is ok, xx

Good Morning Everyone!
Angel, hope all goes well for you today. We're all here for you and pray that you will be up and about soon.
Puss, you should have packed those 3 pounds in your mother's suitcase. :lol: Sounds like stress eating. I do a lot of that. I like the idea of a siesta. While we were at camp, we took naps in the afternoon. One day we lay on the bed for a quick nap (not to be confused with a quickie) and woke up 3 hours later. Guess once in a while the batteries need to be recharged. I wonder if my boss would let me take a nap from two to three in the afternoon. NAH, I doubt it. I liked the comment about your son. I think if I was ever single again (Heaven forbid!) I would put an ad in the personal columns - not with a picture of me, but with a picture of my boat. :lol: The first pike I ever caught, a friend of mine, an older Italian lady, cleaned it, stuffed it, and baked it. It was delicious. I did catch a 21" trout last year and gave it to my mother who thoroughly enjoyed it.
Hello Willow. I tried those stretchy bands. I will have to find a way to make a "handle" of some sort. The arthritis in my hands does not enable me to hold them tightly enough. Maybe if I wrapped the ends around a bit of broomstick or something. I do like the concept though and my thighs know I used them!!
Sheila - Hello to you too. I have a guess as to channel siding, but am awaiting the reply with baited breath :lol: I think I fish too much.
Have a great day all.
Sue

Sue, you crack me up! Just so you'll go brush your teeth and get rid of the baited breath, I'll tell you that channel siding is a board and batten kind of thing (although it's all one piece of siding) you see on ranch houses sometimes--the siding is vertifical rather than horizontal like lap siding, and there is a wider board, then about an inch channel that's recessed, then the wide board, then the channel. I didn't know what it was called until the remodelers had to find some. It's a bear to paint because if you spray, it sticks on the bigger boards, but doesn't go into the channels. Then if you spray the channels, you get too much on the bigger boards and it drips like crazy. So we rollered the bigger boards, and I'm hand painting the channels.

Glad you had a great time fishing. Sounds very relaxing! I haven't fished in ages. I like catching the fish, but I don't like cleaning them, and sometimes I feel bad about killing them, although I'm not a vegetarian so I know I shouldn't feel bad. But it's easier to buy a filet at the store than look at them wiggling at the bottom of the boat. Luckily, my son loves to fish and doesn't mind cleaning them. He smokes fish, too. Yum!

Charlotte, I hope everything goes well today and that you are feeling well enough to post soon.

Puss, that does sound like stress eating--or maybe eating because you've been tense and now you're relaxing. I think the hardest thing we face is learning new behaviors around eating. I still eat to comfort myself when I'm not feeling well. Sometimes I eat when I'm bored, but that one is a lot more under control. I had great intentions when I went on vacation, but I didn't stick with them. Oh, well. Like you, I'm back on track, and working towards getting rid of the Final Fifty!

Oh, darn, I'm late for an appointment! See you all later!

How does the saying go? "The road to **** is paved with good intentions". So much for getting back on track. By 11.00 I had eaten my packed lunch - a sandwich and a banana - and felt like I had lost my appetite and found a horse's. I had a pear and a nectarine at 12.00 then nipped to the supermarket and bought a salmon and cucumber sandwich at 1330. Not too bad, I hear you say.. Then a male colleague FORCED his persuasive charms upon me bearing gifts of cut-price, slightly out of date bargain-of-the-year handmade white chocolate truffles filled with Bailey's Irish Cream ...and three truffles later I was calling this young man the divil himself with a shaven head. See what you have to put up with in a Government department! It was downhill all the way then, spaghetti bolognaise (home made not too bad) then so out of character, I had a frozen yoghurt in a wafer cone and I don't even like them that much! Briskly followed by a small packet of low fat cheese and onion crisps which I never normally eat. I just don't know what's going on with me, Puss Cat is still eating and drinking and acting ok so far, my abscess' are much better, Mother is keeping her calls to 15 minutes (because I sneakily call her during her favourite programmes) so I can't understand it. Sheila, I hope you are right and this is just reaction time. I really will try to be good tomorrow, DH flys to Holland so have only myself to cater for. Sue, you made me laugh about your nap/quickie faux pas! I used to use that expression to DH if I fancied a siesta and it led to sorrowful misunderstanding many a time, ha ha. This afternoon about 1430 I could have just put my head on my desk and snoozed for England. Sheila, I am with you over gutting fish. I did it once when the kids were small and caught some mackerel but it made my innards heave. How is your garden doing with all the iris' planted? At the weekend I discovered a rhododendron and an azalea I had planted 5 years ago at the very back, dark recess of the garden. They looked dead and had never bloomed so DH re-planted them in sun spots and within hours of soaking them the leaves plumped out all glossy so I have high hopes for them next year. Willow and Angel I hope you are both ok now after your tests. Angel, I hope you are soon feeling a little better, we miss your posts and lovely icons. Willow, hope your tests went ok and they were able to give you a little reassurance before getting your results through.

Hi Girls!
 

Well, I guess this makes it unanimous, ... I've been a bottomless pit too. Maybe it's the time of year, or, .... the internet, ... or, .... Awww shucks, who knows??

Charlotte, I hope you're ok. I know you had to go for your treatment today. I hope everything went well.
A friend of my sons was diagnosed with rhumatoid arthritis when he was in his early 30's, and his sister had lupus. Anyway, he was told to change his diet drastically, with no red meats, and very little other meats either, and also some vegetables too, and I'm thinking that tomatoes was one of them. At any rate, he was so very, very ill that he did what his Drs told him to do, and slowly he started feeling better. He was here in our state a few years ago to visit my son and they went hunting like old times. He could at least walk around which he hadn't been able to do at one point.
Have your Drs ever said anything about eliminating dairy or anything like that from your diet?

Puss, I don't even know what some of those foods are that you've been having, but they sound delicious just the way you describe them! :D

Sue, maybe if you cut a piece of broom stick about 4 inches long, then sand the edges smooth, then drill a hole through each end about 3/4 inch from the end then thread the end of the band through the holes and tie the end back onto itself(the band).
OR,..... just drill one hole in the center of the piece of wood, then put the band through it and tie it back on itself, kind of like the handle on a lawn mower starter, then do that at each end. But, you'd have to sand the edges good so they don't cut into the band.
OR, how about just tying a loop in each end to slide over your hands so you don't have to hang on to the ends so tightly?

A 3-hour afternoon nap!! Ooohhh, that sounds so heavenly! Makes me think of my youth when I could do that.

Sheila, thanks for the explanation on channel siding. I never would have guessed. I was thinking horizontal all along. That's probably why I have so many kids. :o :D

I like catching fish, and it doesn't bother me to clean them, and I like to cook them.
When I was a kid, I used to go fishing with my Dad all the time. We had setlines and would go out in the wee hours and fish till daybreak, then go check the setlines, rebait them, then spend the rest of the day fishing and go back in the evening to check the setlines again and rebait them for the next morning.
I used to go spearing carp with him too, then we'd soak them in a brine and then Dad would smoke them and we'd sell them. To this day I absolutely LOVE smoked carp with homemade bread.

As for reasons we eat when we really don't need to etc. I think that I developed a really bad habit when my kids were small and have never concentrated on stopping it. That is eating too fast. I can remember of doing that so I could hurry up and get dishes done so I could get laundry folded, or clothes ready for the next day, or even at work, with a 20-minute to a half hour break, by the time you washed up and walked to the break room, you only have a few minutes left, so you inhale your lunch so you could have a cigarette, which I did up until 4 1/2 years ago.
Well, now that I have all this free time on my hands at dinner time, I still eat too fast, but what's worse, I eat more because I don't give it a chance to register.
I'll concentrate on that I guess, and see if that doesn't help the icky stuffed feeling I sometimes get half an hour after I eat.

As for my trip to the Clinic yesterday, it wasn't all fun and games, but neither was it totally bad.

I guess you all know by now that I'm afraid of storms. Not the storms themselves, but I'm afraid of wind, and that's what I'm always fearful of happening during a storm. I'm OK as long as I'm home, but, anyplace else, and I get real nervous. At the same time, I can sleep like a baby when it rains and there's just a garden variety thunderstorm.
Well, it stormed all the way up there yesterday morning. I told my son that by the time I got there my fingers were frozen to the steering wheel with white knuckles and my eyes were like golf balls. :lol:
I had to be there at 7:15, for a CT scan, and usually I know what's going to happen and how long it takes. Well, they did one scan, and then they just let me lay there for a LOOOOONG time and didn't say anything through the speaker like they usually do. Then, finally they did another scan, waited the usual length of time and came and took me out of the machine. I've been having these done every few months for over 3 years, and that has never happened before. So, I kind of was wondering about that the rest of the day.
Then, the last test was an MRI at 2 in the afternoon. Well, when I first started these tests in 2000, they had me put my arm up above my head while lying on my stomach. Not up in the air, but stretched out in front of me on the mattress in the machine.
Then, after that first time, they have always had me lay with my arm beside me in the machine.
Yesterday, they said they wanted to do it the original way because they needed to get a good scan. Soooo, me being the pessimist that I am, I started thinking that maybe something was seen on the CT scan of my lungs and they wanted to get a good scan of the arm to see if there was anything there too.
Now watch, I'll be all worried till next Thursday, and there won't
be anything wrong.
One time they called me back in to get another shot of my right lung and I thought for sure they had found something, but, it turned out that it was just off-center on the first x-ray and they had to get all of the right lung in there. I know, .... I'm nuts! :dizzy:

Then it stormed on the way home too. :lol:
Nice day! I spent over two hours driving in storms!

I had to be fasting before the CT scan, so about 10 AM I was getting hungry and went to get breakfast at a cafeteria that's in the campus complex up there that has good food. Well, as my luck goes, they quit serving breakfast at 10 AM and don't start serving lunch until 11AM. All they had left was some oatmeal and a breakfast pizza and some bran muffins. I was so hungry, so I got a big piece of breakfast pizza and a muffin. That pizza was so darned good! It was a big round pizza crust with scrambled eggs and sausage, with crumbled bacon, peppers and mozzarella cheese. Very thick with these ingredients. I'm going to make it the next time my grandkids are here. I bet they'll love it. So, my foods weren't so good yesterday either.
Nor today. I did ok until after work. Then I had swedish meatballs and mashed potatoes. But I did pick up a broasted chicken to make sandwich of tomorrow and a chicken pasta salad tomorrow night.

I better get going and get ready for tomorrow and get ready for bed. Then I'm on vacation again for 6 days.
Everybody have a great day/night. See ya later! :wave:

Willow, you certainly had a scary time on that scanning machine but as you already said, we always think the worse of things at times like this. I had a lump in my breast about 3 or 4 years ago and swore my husband not to tell the kids if the result was bad. I drove myself and went by myself for the scan and biopsy because I knew that that way I would have to stay strong if the news was bad and I had to get myself home afterwards. Fortunately it was just a fatty lump (bit like the rest of me I suppose ha ha!) but you are wired so tightly over every procedure you end up imagining that they are doing something a little bit different to the way they do other people. Please God your result will be the same as mine. Food wise I was good until I got back from work and after dinner had too many jelly babies and a thick slice of hot toast spread with green peppercorn and garlic pate. Funny thing is, after the gorging yesterday, I lost a pound this morning. Doesn't make sense though I know I shouldn't weight every day but I think it was Sue said she does the same just in case she gains 10lb overnight! Hope everyone is ok, especially you, Angel, hope your appointment was good for you.

Hi, all--

Sounds like you had a very stressful day, Willow. Having medical tests is awful, but waiting for the results of a medical test is truly horrible. Your mind always imagines the worst. Driving in all those storms doesn't sound like a lot of fun either. Driving in snow always made me white knuckle it.

Fatpuss, jelly babies sound good, but green peppercorn and garlic pate, well, all I can say is--yuck! Then again, I love anchovies, which most people hate so I guess we all have our food quirks. Now, the jelly babies sound really good. Good for you for losing that pound, even though you felt you didn't deserve it. Our bodies are weird things, aren't they? Did I ever mention my friend who had a major heart attack, followed by a triple bypass, and was in the hospital for weeks, barely eating, and almost dying? She got on the scale after that ordeal and discovered she'd gained a couple of pounds. Almost caused another heart attack!

I finished painting my share (the lower half) of the addition to our house, so now have about 2/3 of the "main house" left to go. I was hoping to be done before my DH got home tomorrow, but I probably won't. He won't care, but it was my own goal.

He sent me an e-mail and he only has to go on one international trip next year--to Cannes! I want to go! It's not so much the money (hey, what is plastic for?), but traveling is painful for me. This is such a once-in-a-lifetime thing that I really want to just suck it up and go anyway. I've never been to Europe and his share would be paid for so we'd only have to pay for me--it would be wonderful!

It's really sunny and nice here--cool. Hopefully I can see Mars tonight.