Hi guys:

I'm really busy, but wanted to say a quick hi to everyone and to wish Sandy a very Happy Birthday

Will check in with you's later or tomorrow my friends.

Hugs,
Dianne

Happy Birthday Sandy.
Doing anything special?

Terri, thanks for checking out the website. You too Jen.

He's working so hard to have it opened by Jan. 4th. He keeps saying he wants me to manage it but I can't give up my job. I'll help him out Fridays & Saturdays. This is his dream come true. I'm very happy for him.

Zoe, now this time of year is really hard for me. Too many goodies everywhere we go. I haven't exercised in a week. Gotta get my butt in gear. I've been so busy but that's no excuse. I have to make time.

I feel so bad for David. He went out on a date. They were planning to go to a lounge but his date asked him would he mind if they went dancing instead. When he came out his window was broken & his radio, coat & sweater was stolen. Now, I was going to buy him a CD player for Christmas. He just finished paying bills so he was short of money so I gave him the money to fix his window. That's the money I had set aside for his gift.

Always something. I thank God he's okay & they didn't beat him up for it. It could have been worse.

Well, I'm going to start wrapping a few gifts.

Have a nice evening my friends.

Janie, I'm [email protected]

Hugs,
Es

Es,
That just stinks about David's care being broken into. My niece's ex- boyfriend was shot and killed this year when he confronted thieves who were breaking into his car. Thank God David wasn't around when it happened, you're so right about it could have been much worse.

It's so cool that you'll be helping your brother on the weekends. You've always been the exerciser in our group, you know you'll get back to it.

~Jen

Hi Buds,

Thank you so much for the birthday wishes, I think all your cakes came through the ether and landed right here, caloriewise. I had a fairly good birthday considering the events of the day. But I only had 2 real cakes to contend with (thank goodness). But I couldn't say no to sampling them especially to the homemade one. We are delaying celebrating with the whole family until David, my older son gets home from college for Christmas. We will probably go out for dinner then. Mike, my husband, was rehearsing for a Christmas concert last night and I had to chair the meeting of our church board.
I was surprised to find the minister had arranged for one of the church ladies to make a cake for the meeting. It was really something to have the whole board singing happy birthday as we began what I was afraid would be a grueling evening. The meeting actually went well, we had to spend some time discussing a church employee who may eventually be demoted or let go. Everyone was quite caring in their approach as to how to handle the situation.

The reason that I had stayed away from you guys for so long was that November was a really tough month for me. My Dad, who has suffered from Parkinson's for about 14 years, lost his battle and died on November 10th. We were also in the midst of Greg, practicing for his part in "The Odd Couple". Between those two events, I felt swamped.
Things are slowly getting back to normal, and here are the holidays!

I'll have to try to catch up with all of you later. Be Well!


Hugs,Sandy

Sandy.
I am so sorry about your dad. I wish we were there for you.
It must have been so tough. My prayers are with your family.
Have you seen the Odd Couple yet? I'll bet he does great. Tell him congrats again. Happy Birthday again. It was great they all remembered you.

Jen.
That is awful about your niece's boyfriend. Was your niece there?

Es,
That is great that you will help out. So sorry about David. That must have been scary. I have 1 thing stolen before out of my car and it made me soooo mad. I can't imagine this.
TTYL,
Terri

Sandy,
I'm very sorry about your Dad. You are in my thoughts. Glad to hear you had a good birthday. Was the play already performed, or is it coming up?

Terri,
My niece's boyfriend was her first love, from 6th grade thru senior year; I really don't know why they broke up, but they had remained good friends. In fact, his family asked her to come and be with them throughout the wake, funeral, etc. Thank God she was not with him when it happened. Such a tragic loss, and to make it even worse, if that's possible, is that they never knew who did it.

We're having a "heat wave" here, in the upper 40's and sunny, it's really beautiful. I'm heading outside for a walk, to see if I remember how

HI to everyone!!
~Jen

Mornin' everyone:

Sandy - So sorry to hear about your father. My thoughts are with you and your family. How was your birthday?

Es - Sorry to hear about David's troubles. What creeps! But thank God, he wasn't there while it was happening. I haven't been able to open up your brother's site - don't know why, but all I get is a black screen

Jen - So sad about your neice's ex-boyfriend too. Its too bad the bad guys weren't caught - maybe someday.

Well, we're making contingency plans here in NY for a possible transit strike on Monday -- I like my university's plan - we will CLOSE Well, our Brooklyn campus will close - Long Island and Westchester campuses will remain open. All finals will be rescheduled, etc. If that actually happens for a week, then I'll actually be off for 3 weeks with the holiday break in there as well I know I shouldn't sound sooooo happy, but 3 weeks would sure be cool! I'm sure last minute Sunday nite they will reach an agreement.

Well, gotta run - hi ZoeGirl, Terri, Ruth and Janie!!

Hugs,
Dianne

Hi Buddies,

Thanks again for your kind wishes. We are all coming along ok now.

Es, I hope you will be feeling well soon, keep checking in here for support, this is one of the kindest places on the web. I wanted to chime in...Thank God, David didn't have to confront the thieves.

Jen, that was simply dreadful about your niece's ex-boyfriend. My heart goes out to his family and friends.

Dianne, Willie is so thoughtful, you are really lucky, sounds like you had lots of fun. Congrats to Justin.

We also get our tree really late, as we keep it until Jan 6th too.
So we are just starting to get ready. Usually my birthday is when we get started with decorating and lights. In my neighborhood, everyone else puts their lights up the Sat after Thanksgiving.

Greg was absolutely fabulous as Felix Unger. The performances were on November 21, 22, 23. On the third night almost all of our extended family came to see him. We had 27 seats in the 3-5th rows. The little cousins were thrilled to see Greg up on stage, and after the performance they were all having our future star sign their programs.
I think that Greg is finding some of the celebrity factor at the high school hard to deal with. People he doesn't know are all coming up to him and still congratulating him or quoting back lines from the play.

Zoe,
You are in high gear, congrats on your WW success! A new wardrobe for Christmas, perchance?

I am getting back on track, I tried a new breakfast, a light yogurt and wheat germ. I want to at least hold the line during the holidays.


Hi Janie, Ruth, Teri, and everyone:

Sandy

Sandy, so sorry for the loss of your Dad. I lost both my parents & I will always miss them. Especially around the holidays. It must have been exciting seeing Greg up on that stage. Good going on getting back on track.

Dianne, I can't understand why you can't get into my brother's website. I'll have to check it out. I'm so glad I work out here & not in the city. If they do strike it's going to be a nightmare. Like you said, they'll probably settle at that last minute. It would be nice to be off for 3 weeks.

Jen, so many tragedies. Most of the time it's the young people. A secretary I work with, her nephew was shot while he was at a stop sign & they never caught who did it. He was 23 yrs. old. How was your walk. I gave my sister Walk Away the Pounds for her birthday & she hasn't mentioned anything about it. They're probably still wrapped!

I'm looking forward to tomorrow. At 10:00 I have an appt. with my hairdresser & then in the afternoon I'm going to spend it with David Christmas shopping. I love when just the two of us hang out. I'm going to try & finish it all by tomorrow. I don't have much left.

Have a nice evening everybody

Love,
Es

Es,
Have fun shopping with David tomorrow! That's the best of Christmas...with someone we love, and finishing the gift-buying Yep, I've got to begin again with the Walk Away The Pounds videos...I feel so good when I do them!

Sandy,
Sounds as though you've got a budding actor on your hands. What a great review! I loved what you said, "this is one of the kindest places on the web".....I feel exactly the same about everyone here

Dianne,
Fingers crossed that you get more time off but also that Es can get where she needs to go! Are the two of you geographically close? Is it possible to get together, have you ever done so? It would be so cool to do lunch w/someone from this thread!

Shopping is finished Now to clean, then do some baking next week. I am only keeping one plate of cookies for Joe and I...the rest I'll give to Jess, Joey, and bring to my brother's on Christmas. I'll cut back on what I bake, but it wouldn't be Christmas without cookies on Christmas Eve.

~Jen

Happy Friday!

Jen, I don't have to commute. I work 20 minutes away from where I live. I'm in Eastern Long Island, Suffolk County. Dianne is West, Nassau County or is it Queens? We're about 1 hour away from eachother, which isn't much. I never go into the city. I'm a real country girl. It would be nice to meet someday. Yum. Christmas cookies What kind do you bake?

Sandy, I love it here. I check out other websites but I never post. These are my girls

Well, I have a busy day ahead of me. I'll be back tonight.

Have a great day.

Hugs,
Es

Es, you're right it's too quiet around here!

This evening we're going to Joey's for fondue...he's also invited my brother and SIL, first time they're seeing his apt. Joey wasn't even going to get a tree until his sister bugged him about it
It should be a nice evening, I'm looking forward to it.

Hope everyone is enjoying their weekend.....ho ho ho

~Jen

Hi everyone ~

This sure is a busy time of year. I just keep going and going and going......we had our annual company Christmas party Friday night and I wasn't happy that it was the night before my weigh in but what could I do As it turned out, I only lost .8 but I guess losing anything at this time of year is good. There are foods and desserts ALL OVER THE PLACE!!! I hope I can survive the next few weeks.

Sandy ~ sorry I missed your birthday. Hope you had a great one.

Gotta run. Another Christmas party at 6pm. Have a great Sunday afternoon and I'll be back tomorrow for sure.

Love you's guys,
Me <><

Hey you's guys

ZoeGirl - you party animal you! Sounds like you're having a good time. Losing .8, especially at this time of year is great girl! Its so hard with all the food around.

The women in my office and in other departments in the University get together and go out for a holiday dinner every year - there's about 10-12 of us. We have a great time and by the time we're on our second drink, we're talking about everyone's boss and whomever, lol. Its our time to let loose after all the tension going on at work. This year, one of the vice presidents who usually gives each of us an amazon gift certificate decided he wanted to pay for our dinner instead. Well, it came to a little over $400!! We thought that was really generous of him. Let's see what happens next year

So how is everyone else doing? Everyone done with their shopping? I haven't started But since I made the HUGE decision (and believe me it was a huge decision) to give gift certificates and money, I don't have to do much else. Something for Willie and a couple of things for Justin and Alana to open up on Christmas morning - we're giving them money too.

Hi Es, Jen, Terri, Ruth, Sandy and Janie - hope everyone's okay. It is kind of quiet around here lately - such a busy time of the year. Well, we'll find out tonight after midnight whether we can get to work tomorrow or not. I'm pretty sure they will NOT strike. There will be huge fines associated with striking for everyone involved.

I hope to get back in here tomorrow - have a great Monday everyone!

Hugs,
Dianne