Happy Monday everyone. How was your weekend?

We went out to dinner on Friday night and I overate (the meal was absolutely delish and I ate the whole huge portion!!) Needless to say, was in no mood (or shape) to weigh in on Saturday. So, it will have to wait until next week.

The trip to PEI was a bit of a bust. The pasta dinner prior to the marathon/half marathon was split up into different sittings and I arrived too late to join my friends. Ended up staying in my hotel room with a pizza and 2 Corona beer. I was so bummed out by the whole experience that I got up and headed for home the next day without seeing them at all.

We had municipal elections here in Nova Scotia on Saturday and a plebiscite on Sunday shopping. Wonder of wonders - the No side won! I still can't believe it. I'm very happy that most stores will remain closed; there's something about having one day a week when things slow down that really appeals to me. However, I felt sure that the Yes forces would win out, especially since every other province in Canada already shops 7 days a week.

Nothing much new here. Picked up a Christmas gift last week, so I guess that means the official madness has begun!

Hi Susan,

Back from a equally debaucherous and somewhat disjointed weekend in Chicago. I had a nice time, but didn't really relax. Guess that won't happen until DP finishes her comps and becomes human again.

More later,
lala

Had a fun weekend. DH and I went to the Florida State-Virginia football game. It was a blast; 83,000 folks were there. I haven't been around college kids for a while and the drinking that was going on!! I kept saying, "if their parents only knew." Then again, I guess their parents don't want to know. We enjoyed visiting our friends' daughter who is a student. She's a Senior, is headed to law school, and has her head on straight.

Food-wise, I blew it. It seems all we did was eat. I tried not to eat fried stuff, but somehow I did. Well, it's back to reality. DH is headed to Albuquerque for the Duke City Marathon (sans me). I'll head to my folks in St. Pete with my birds.

Susan, that was too bad about the trip to PEI. I don't blame you for going home. That vote sounded so funny to me. I guess we've shopped here on Sundays for a long, long time. I remember, though, when we didn't shop on Sundays; you're right, it was a slower, quieter day.

lala, did you have chocolate?? Did you end up seeing your brother?

Hi, Pam and Melissa.

toooooooooooooooooo much chocolate. Actually, not really. DP summed it up nicely, it was like cruise ship food, looked great, tasted average.

The chocolate soup was good.

Went up to MKE to see bro. That was fun. Dragged our friend up too, she had a good time. It was freezing and the wind blowing off the Lake was wicked.

Lisa -- I heart ABQ, I wish I was going to cheer your husband on. Tell him to have a
bowl of green chile stew for me, eh?

lala

Hi Ladies,

I had a really nice weekend. Went on a leaf peeping expedition to Woodstock Vermont, the foliage was peak! Had lunch at a nice little restaurant, bought some apples and another pumpkin, just a really nice fall day with my honey. I have decided that I am truly committing myself to following the WW plan deligently. The holidays are coming and I am not going to go into them 5 lbs over my "favorite" weight. So the journal is out and I am logging in everything that goes into into my mouth. Yesterday I was so proud of myself for skipping the pumpkin pie for dessert and I was also good with lunch itself, I chose a small bowl of chili and a tossed salad with a small piece of corn bread.

Lala wow that's a lot of chocolate, describe the chocolate soup please?? I bet you were freezing in Milwaukee.

Lisa glad you enjoyed the football game. I know what you mean regarding drinking and college students. My son turned 21 on October 4th and I hope he is not overdoing it now that he is "legal". He has a friend who in my opinion drinks too much. Always something to worry about with kids.

Susan bummer on PEI. Stores in this area have been open on Sunday for quite some time now. I agree with your comment regarding having a slow day each week. On Saturday I began my Christmas shopping also..yikes the season has begun.

Well ladies off to round up my daughter and make dinner. Don't forget to root for the Sox, they rallied last night after 12 innings to beat the dreaded Yankees. If they lose tonight there outta here until April.......................

We have finally turned off our air conditioner, but it might come on again tomorrow (supposed to warm up).

lala, yes please describe chocolate soup. That sounds interesting. I'm glad you got to see your bro.

Pam, Oh I've always like autumn. The leaves are so pretty and picking out a pumpkin sounded like fun. Good for you to pass up the pumpkin pie (one of my faves). Actually, there aren't too many pies that I don't like. Okay, I have one--mincemeat pie. Go sox!!

You people starting your Christmas shopping are getting me upset--I'm behind already!!

Chocolate soup was spicy, a bit like mexican hot chocolate, but a bit thicker and not grainy. The other thing I liked was proper hot chocolate with really good marshmallows. They had chocolate tapioca (DP's favorite thing), but they ruined it with whipped cream. Lots of little chocolate desserts including spice cakes, pots de cremes, petit fours, chocolate covered strawberries.. The champers was pricey (21 bucks a glass for not very good bollinger), we ended spending 110 for the three of us including tip. The rest of the gang (20 others) drank champagne, martinis and other things.. We left early, there is only so much reminiscing one can do about a trip to Shanghai where the majority of time was spent drinking to oblivion and then waxing poetically on the comparative beauty of each airport lounge on the way. I have only been to the AA lounge in Narita, it was okay, but I understand the United Lounge there has a beer machine. Whooo hooo.Ditto for complaining about not be treated like royalty on your free night at a 500 buck a night hotel that you earned using priceline stays...It sort of gave me pause for thought... Maybe I need a new hobby.

Other than that, things are stressful around here. My class is killing me and the estimates for putting in a new heating system were 10K apart.... One had no heat on the top floor where we currently have no heat and wanted it (hmm, what was he thinking) and the other one was turbo heating. So, hopefully we can come to some resolution...

Other than that, just sucked down non-fat plain yoghurt with shredded wheat (yech). Lunch will be DP's carrot soup and a salad. Dinner, I hope will be before 9 pm.

I hope Melissa and DH are enjoying their Norfolk trip!

Pam -- are you carving your pumpkin?

Lisa -- It was great seeing bro. He just went to NYC with my parents and told the story of how my parents came to the US with me as an infant and how they got to Chicago. It wasn't awful like the immigrants of the 1830's and 1890's, but it had us all in tears... I had heard the story before, but my brother said it was pretty moving when my parents told it in the immigration hall at Ellis Island.

Okay, now I am getting verklempt. I gotta go...

lala

A beautiful fall day here. I must pick up a pumpkin or two soon to keep the front step looking festive. Still have big pots full of perennials but the nights are getting cool and I don't think they'll last a whole lot longer.

lala: $21 a glass??? Better be damn good bubbly for that price.

Lisa: Don't be too upset about my head start on Christmas shopping. I usually do really well in October, then nothing until a week or so before and then go haywire in the malls looking for stuff at the last minute. Happens every year.

Pam: Your leaf excursion sounded lovely. I'm with you on getting real about weight loss. I'm starting strength training tonight. Also picked up a yoga video. My sister and I are meeting at 6:30 am tomorrow for a run. Should be interesting to see how I do at hauling myself out of bed in the dark, knowing it's about 5 degrees celsius outside (what's that, about 40F?)

Ugh, my pants are toooooo tiggghhht.

Hi Ladies,

I decided to jump on the computer for a late night post because watching the baseball game is making me too nervous. The Sox are ahead 4 - 0 but the sox being the sox you just know something bad is going to happen soon. Last night they came back to win in the 14th inning. The game started at 5 pm and didn't end until 11. I'm sure tonight will go into the wee hours of morning.
A really yucky day here weatherwise cold and rainy, don't think the temp got over 45.

Lala the soup sounds delish. I love tapioca but have never tried the chocolate variety. Reading your post tonight has made me hungry. Yup you've got some stressful stuff going on..I wonder what that contractor was thinking??? I've been to Ellis Island a couple of times. A very moving place, I remember my daughter and I looking up her great grandfathers name on the immigration list. He came over from Italy in the 1930's.

Susan yes the leaf peeping excursion was a lot of fun. We definitely will carve one of the pumpkins. Good luck with your early morning run. The morning hours are getting so cold. We've been waking up to temps in the low 30's F.

Lisa your turning off the AC and I've had the heat going for the past 3 weeks! That's just not fair! Yes, I like almost every variety of pie, even mincemeat. My grandparents came from Canada and I remember my grandmother making meat pie, I think she called it tourtierre?? Susan, please correct me if I'm wrong.

Hi to Melissa..hope you had a nice time in Virginia and DH is doing OK.

Well I should go back and watch the game. I don't hear DH complaining so the sox must still be ahead. Keep your fingers crossed, they haven't won a world series since 1918!!!!

Hi ladies,

We are moving into the 21st century around here. We now have DSL and soon will be wireless.... at home.

Pam --DP was watching the game last night. I'm rooting for the sox!

Its freezing here. I turned the heat on last night, but it never warmed up. We better sign a contract soon, I want heat.

Other than that, skipping the gym this am to go to kickboxing tonight. Must get my act together and get some work done today.

Did okay last night. Made a spag sauce for polenta tonight and made a recipe from flylady.net for garlic line chicken (core). I will post it for you if you want.

Okay, gotta split and start waking up the dog. He needs to be gently awoken.

lala

Pam, hooray for the Sox! The game tonight will be a nailbiter I'm sure. Brrr, it's cold where you are.

lala, yes post the recipe. I'm always on the lookout for chicken ones. I couldn't believe your contractor quotes. It's like the ones I'm getting here for hurricane damage--50% more than normal (ugh!). You do kickboxing? I tried it once, not for me.

We had to turn on our AC again--very muggy here.

No AC required here. It was a balmy 4 degrees when my sister and I hit the pavement at 6:30 this morning. Dark too. But it wasn't long before we were peeling off the gloves and jackets and marvelling at how beautiful the temps were. Gotta love running.

Pam: Yes, the common name in Quebec and other French Canadian communities is tortiere. My parents make theirs with meat alone, no veggies. It's one of the highlights at Christmas around our house.

Lisa: Prices went up a lot here during the aftermath of the hurricane last year. We were fortunate that we could wait to have the back stairs replaced. I think gouging is illegal, but it's probably hard to prove.

lala: How do you like kickboxing? It's likely a very good workout. I made the mistake of starting my strength training last night with a leg workout. Not a good idea when you have a run planned for the next morning. My legs were like two dead weights this a.m. Had to tell my sister to go on ahead. It took awhile, but I did eventually find a rhythm.

Took my measurements this morning so that I could monitor inches as well as weight. Ugh!

FWIW, the flylady has posted a guide to getting through the holidays at www.flylady.net.

Ugho. I am wearing my size 8 jeans which are tightish in the waist. These are three year old boot cut jeans, tighter than the current models of which the size 6s are too big and the size 4s are a bit tight. So much for sizing conformity.

So, my goal is to make these nice looking size 8s loose in the stomach and buy a pair of size 2s?

lala

Good afternoon ladies!!! Well, DH and I made it back safe & sound from our trip to Norfolk. We had rain on the drive down (can I say how much I hate driving in the rain through the mountains!!!) and on the way back on Monday. Getting away was great, we didn't get to do a whole lot of walking since DH's leg was still bothering him and he couldn't walk all that far. We did get to go on a tour of the Norfolk Naval Base (very impressive) and went to the lighthouse at Ft. Henry. We decided to climb to the top--all 169 steps...let me tell you my legs felt like rubberbands when we got done Nothing spectacular by way of restaurants--DH and I just enjoyed the time away. It was neat meeting the men that my FIL was with during WWII and his jump into Normandy. There were a couple of people who flew in from Holland and France to be at the reunion along with a lot of others who wanted to meet the men. They're a feisty bunch even in the 70's/80's.

Eating wise I did pretty well--DH and I split entrees a couple of times rather than ordering a huge meal. It paid off at the scale today as I was down .4 from last week. (I was up 1.2 before I left).

Pam: Go Sox! I'm pullling for them--I sure hope they can pull this off.

Lala: Hope you get the heat situation fixed soon. We had DSL installed a few months back and it was well worth the investment. We can also use the laptop (wireless) if we want to.

Lisa: We've had our heat on for a few weeks as well so it's hard to think of someone having their a/c still on.

Susan: Good for you for getting out early for your run! I was just getting into the shower at 6:30! It's a good idea to take measurements--it'll give you an idea as to inches lost.

More later on...

Welcome back, Melissa. I'm with you. I don't like driving in the rain in the mountains. How wonderful to see some of our heroes!

Pam, hooray for the Sox. What a comeback. I hope the Cards get in the World Series for a fabulous match-up.