October Optimism

[Lavande]

Good morning all & happy Hump Day!

I am definitely scheduling in a granny nap this afternoon. Between hot flashes & thunder storms I was awake from 1-3:30 am so I need to catch up on some sleep.

Glad you enjoyed your conference SnoopStar!
YB is flying to Florida tomorrow for a nearly week long work conference. I was invited to go but I declined. Too big of a pain finding someone to stay here for animal care.

Wishing everyone a wonderful AF Wednesday!

Lav

[papmom3]

Evening all. Hump day for sure.
Star-glad to hear the baby is somewhat better. hope the rash and fever go away soon! I like conferences too-they are energizing!!

Dill-I could definitely be a hermit!!

Fly! great to see you again and good to hear you had a good vaca. Don't you wish you had the time to do all that hiking and activity every day?

Lav-I can't remember if my nephews were like Will at 3 years old. Too many years ago and I was probably lit most of the time anyway (except when I was the sitter of course). Hope this nekkid phase goes by quick!
Your millet and stuffing recipes looked good. Unfortunately I won't have anytime to do any cooking for a bit due to working. Maybe someday.

Has not been a stellar week so far. yesterday on the way to work, about a mile from my house I sideswiped a woman in a little Eclipse. I seriously thought I hit the curb-if she hadn't beeped her horn I would have kept going!! My jeep is like being in a tank! We were both OK-my car sustained nasty scratches but nothing else-her left front fender is toast. I did not need this at all. My insurance payments just went down this year 4 years after my last fender bender. This time I admit I was totally distracted and rushing. Crapola.

On an up note, i took my neice to her first college fair! It was pretty small, just the state schools but I don't think too overwhelming for her. She really stepped up and actually answered the rep's questions about what year she was in, what did she want to study etc (she was diagnosed with selective mutism when she was 6 or so). She brought home lots of reading materials that's for sure!

Hope the rest of the week gets a bit better.

[SnoopyC]

Good morning...

Pap, so sorry you got in a wreck, that stinks! Glad you did not get hurt though. Recently I had someone rearend me and take off. I was so upset. But, little damage to my car and the neck and back pain went away in a few hours. This time of year is OK because we have time off to look forward too...Thanksgiving and Christmas and New Year's. Do you get any significant time off? I hope so. Sweet of you to take your niece to a college fair, sounds like you enjoyed it.

Lav, really, you had a chance to travel, go to Florida and you turned it down? I understand it is a pain to make arrangements, but it is also fun to get away. Who would help you with the animals if you decided to go? None of your kids? We were just discussing what we would do with our cat if/when we decide to get away. A house sitter was suggested and I thought that was a good idea. No money saved up yet, no time off yet, but I do want to make a point to get away, I think it is healthy for me, helps me get a fresh perspective. I really like Florida and right now the weather is really comfortable down there. Oh well,maybe next time. It was nice to have been asked.

Dill, now you have time to finish that book,hope you continue to like it. I read a horrible book last night, it was haunting and I had to put it out of my mind. A trip to the library tonight is definitely in order. Still continues to be beautiful down here, so happy I live where it is just a little bit warmer. I too have gained about 7 lbs and working to get it off. I am just trying to eat healthy carbs only, lots of veggies and protein. Fat is my friend, carbs are not. That is me though. The hard part is sticking to healthy eatiing...

Busy again today, slept well, AF is the only way to go! Have a good one.

[dill]

Oh my! Papmom, so sorry for your accident! I can totally understand how it could happen tho. I've had a fender-bender or two myself. What a pain!

Star, yes I am still enjoying the book. It takes much longer to get thru a book when listening instead of actually reading, so I'm still in the middle of it. It is beautifully written and takes me to a completely different world. I love that!

Lav, did you get your granny nap? I have a terrible time sleeping during the day. I have to be really, really wiped out. I suspect the same is true for you. Hope you are feeling more energized.

I've been out with my girlfriend today for an excellent Autumn walk and then lunch. We talked about our lists of things we want to do now that we are retired. It was fun!

Have a peaceful AF evening.

[Lavande]

Good evening friends,

No Dill, I never did get that granny nap in yesterday.
YB came home after half a day at work to get ready for his trip today only to discover that he doesn't leave until tomorrow (Friday). Duh!
I'm not interested in going on this trip for many reasons, animal care is only one reason.

Papmom, sorry about your fender bender ~ stuff happens. Glad everyone is OK.

I could do without some of the carbs I consume too Star. I feel they are my last remaining source of 'comfort' & not yet ready to completely give them up

Well, I passed my physical this morning just have to get the blood work done.
My daughter & granddaughter were also here for most of the day so it's been busy.

Wishing everyone a comfy night!

Lav

[SnoopyC]

Good morning, happy Friday!!!

No big plans, just work and going out to eat this evening. Looking forward to a pretty nice weather day. I love fall.

[Lavande]

Good morning kids & happy Friday to all!

YB is on his way to the airport, I hope he's got the right date this time

I'm heading to Curves shortly then back here for some work. I'm looking forward to some backyard cleanup time this weekend. I still have lots of perennials that haven't been cut back yet.

Wishing everyone a great AF Friday!

Lav

[treegirl]

Hey everybody! thanks for your nice wishes, sorry to be out of touch, but screen time is precious right now - can only do a little at a time, and have lots to accomplish.

Lav and Dill - thanks for the recipes, you girls keep me going in the kitchen - a much needed kick in the pants. It's hard cooking for 1 and keeping it interesting. The other night I nuked a potato and put canned baked beans on it. That was only because I was out of Grape Nuts! Oh well, at least I ate something. I've finally gotten to the point that eating the wrong stuff makes me feel so terrible that it's just not worth even having it in the cupboard. So there's only healthy stuff in the cupboard, but that's not exactly fast food. I cook barley and white beans as part of the dog's home-cooked food routine, and sometimes that's what I have too, with a little yam thrown in. Not exactly culinary central here...

Star - so sorry to hear about the baby; hope all turns out well. Glad you were able to be there for your daughter.

Fly - so glad that you had a good time on vaca. Nothing like moving through space, is there?

Pap - Hooray for your 5K! And sorry about the little accident - it's par for the course, we're about to finish up Mercury retrograde - done tomorrow, so that will be good. i've had plenty of weird things go on the past 3 weeks.

I know it's getting dark early, but let's just get more candles and light them often, and bring in some nice fresh flowers. It won't be long now, and the light will start to get stronger - we're close -- hang in there everyone.

Terrible head today, so that's all I can manage tonight - I'll be thinking of you all this weekend... Cyn

[papmom3]

Good evening fellow abbers.

Cyn-so good to hear from you! So sorry your screen time has to be limited for now. Hopefully whatever is bothering you will improve?

Star-glad to hear the baby is getting better. I would like to move somewhere a little warmer too. I'm not looking forward to this winter for sure. Although my neighbor said he will make sure I'm shoveled out -I'll make sure he gets paid.

Lav-I totally get the whole not going to FLA thing. Travel is just a great big PIA. It is nice to get away but if you don't enjoy the company and are worrying about what is going on back home, then its not worth it.

Dill-I am so envious of you right now! I can only dream of being at the point where I can make a list of what I want to do each day instead of what I have to do. Enjoy!

Thanks for the condolences on the accident. I'm trying not to think about it. After a couple of days of playing phone tag with the adjuster, he hasn't returned my last 2 calls. I also got a call from the other ins. co today but didn't return it. They can talk to my ins company if they need any info.

The bad karma continues tho. Yesterday one of our admins stormed out of the office and said she would be back on Monday. Maybe. My boss had questioned her on an attendance entry, basically accusing her of lying. She did it by IM but the employee chose to make it public by replying to her verbally. After the exchange she went to HR then came back and said she was leaving. It was pretty bizarre. She is one of the 2 in the office that have abysmal time and attendance records. Oh, and after HR she went to the President!! Not a smart move. The President now knows about her record and she is on his radar along with the other one. Unfortunately they are both long time employees and in a very strong union. I'm sure my boss will have a grievance filed against her and I might be dragged into it as well. I just want these 2 gone. They are really bad for the environment. I would gladly take over both their jobs until we could hire others.
Today it was just the other one and me. I did nothing all day. No motivation.
Got home and LM had gotten out of his room-second time in 2 weeks after 11 years. He must really be feeling good LOL!! The top pad on his belly band was soaked but not the bottom pad. But the band itself was totally soaked through and the whole kitchen/bedroom area smelled like pee. I can't find the pee tho!! Then I went to load up my car for tomorrow and stepped in a pile of crap (had to be from the neighbor dog next door). I took my shoe off, carefully looked for the poo, couldn't find it but managed to step in what was left. Decided to do more laundry, went down to take last nites load out of the washer and once again it never spun. This time I couldn't get it to work so I have a basket full of soaking wet clothes. Guess I'll be spending most of tomorrow nite at my dad's doing laundry. Bummer.
I don't know what to do about LM. The fluids he's getting make him pee a lot and often and most of the time he goes through the band and I come home to a big puddle in his room. double pads haven't done the job so far. I'm at a loss. He needs to be let out every 2 hours but that's impossible. My babies need me home. :sad: On the good side he's gained a pound!! Whoopee! :welldone:

A shoutout to our old friend Sunnygirl on her one year anniversary!! Such a great accomplishment!! :sohappy:

Well, lets hope tomorrow kicks off a better week. At least the weather will be gorgeous after 4 days of torrential downpours.

[SnoopyC]

Good morning...

I am up too early, couldn't sleep for some reason. So, I just got up and made some coffee and came to visit MWO.

Getting my hair done at a new place, then some things to do around the apartment, then going to babysit for the evening. I love having the day off to take care of me.

Hi Cyntree, sorry to hear you are not feeling well...take care of yourself.

Hello Dill.

Lav, you might be liking having the house to yourself?

Pap, the joys of pets, they are like children sometimes. I hate drama at work and try to stay out of it and positive. Works sometimes, although this new gig is run by a person who is mature and knows what they are doing. I am really grateful. Wondered if you could help me out by telling me what type of diet you went on when you lost weight and how much exercise is expected daily? Thanks, I need to get it together.

Have a great Saturday to all.

[dill]

Hello All,

My goodness Star, you were up way too early! I woke this morning at 3 am and couldn't get back to sleep for the longest time. But it was so cold in the house I didn't want to get up! Have fun with your grandson and enjoy your day.

Papmom, work drama is such a pain! Next time channel me and you will hear me saying, "This too shall pass". Then get out a piece of paper and start your retirment wish list! LOL! And then to come home to so much extra work. What a bummer. Poor LM. I wish I had a solution for you. How long must he be on the fluids?

Cyn, those meals may not make it to the Food Network, but I kind of thought they sounded good! Nutritious, filling, simple. I like that when I'm cooking for one. I'm a fan of peanut butter sandwiches and a glass of milk when I'm alone.:happy2: Really good to see you! I hope you can check in more often even if it's just a line or two.

Lav, how great to have the house to yourself for a couple of days! How long will he be gone? How do you feel about it? Inquiring minds want to know! LOL!

Today is grandson's birthday. He's 9! He wants to go to Magic Castle with some friends and of course the whole family is going to join him there. We'll have pizza, cake, etc. I don't enjoy places like that but oh well.....this too shall pass! I have lots to do. I bought his presents from amazon so I need to get to the post office to pick up the parcel. The mail lady will not deliver parcels to our door because she is afraid of Tessa. I can't say as I blame her. Tessa is a formidable looking dog! Anyway, then I have to wrap them and get a cake, etc....Will be nice to enjoy the event fully aware, present and accounted for!

[Lavande]

Good Saturday morning friends

I had a crappy night myself - must be moon related? That & my old dog with her tendency to wake up between 4 & 4:30 needing to bark, yuck.
I am on my own until Wednesday & that's perfectly OK by me. I had developed my own routine during YB's 4 year absence & learned to enjoy the quiet & decreased clutter, LOL

Great to see you Cyn. I hope your headache has gone away. This is the beginning of sinus weather for me. I need to figure out how to turn on the humidifier on this new heating system - damn mystery to me!!

Papmom, do your best to stay out of the work drama. YB has been reporting problems at the college where he works for the past few weeks. At this point the president has been banned from campus due to some sort of raunchy behavior & several vice presidents have been fired!!!! What a mess!
I think I would start to discontinue those fluids for LM. Sounds like he is feeling well enough. If you've ever had IV fluids yourself you would know they run straight thru you - there's no holding them back, LOL

Star, have a great day & I hope you like your new hairdo! Babysitting is a splendid way to spend your Saturday night

Dill, happy birthday to your grandson! Big boy at age 9!!!
Kiddy birthday parties are a pain - I hear you on that one. Enjoy your day as much as you can!

I'm just going to be putzing around today - nothing special & that's OK by me!
Here's today's new recipe:

http://www.foodmatters.tv/content/cheezy-vegan-broccoli-quinoa-pilaf-recipe

Have a great AF day everyone!

Lav

[papmom3]

Evening all!

What a gorgeous day it was today! Although I really enjoyed the demo today (halloween party) I kept wishing I was home and working on the yard. For the first time since the ice storm and beetle invasion, I have leaves again on my lawn! Going to have to get the nephew over to mow them up as I am pretty much working the next 3 weeks straight except for Veteran's day on the 11th which we get off as state workers.

I truly wish i could stay out of the drama this time but unfortunately I'm being pulled in. As one of 2 managers (even tho I don't have any of them as direct reports) I have to be in the mix on this one. Not that my boss will do anything to change things but I'm the one she'll vent to (along with about 3 other people on campus I'm sure). All I know is that this woman is now on the President's radar and it's going to be really interesting on Monday. If her son wasn't enrolled at a state college, I would bet she would hand in her resignation notice (free tuition - which come to think of it is less than $1K a year. It's the fees that get ya and there is no fee waiver as a state employee). Hmmm, maybe she will hand it in after all. I would not be sad.

Lav, can't say I'm surprised about what's going on on YB's campus. With power comes abuse and there have been a couple of bad presidential "eggs" in MA as well. The era of those in academia being immune to taking responsibility for their actions is now over. We are all accountable as it should be. More and more the academic environment is becoming like a business. not sure that's a bad thing at all.

Star-I used http://www.sparkpeople.comto help guide me and keep me on track. I plugged in my ranges for calories, fat, cholesterol, sat fat, sodium and a few other things. I logged everything I put in my mouth and at the end of the day I could see where I needed to make adjustments. The huge surprise to me was that now that I wasn't eating all the fast, junk and processed food, I was having trouble getting my protein, fiber and fat in!! I did this exclusively for a month because I was too scared to exercise on my own. I did a lot of walking around stores tho. I think I lost close to 15 lbs that first month. Then I added cardiac rehab twice a week plus walking on the treatmill, exercise videos and yoga on my own at least 2 more times during the week. Once cardiac rehab was done, I relied on the gym membership solely and worked out at least 3 times a week. Then I started doing the C25K program again, then the group wogging. My weight training fell off as I wogged more and more and added water bootcamp. This past week I did a hard strength training session on Monday followed by 30 min of wogging on the treadmill (also did 30 min at lunch). Haven't done a thing since then. got lazy and was sort of depressed and tired. I found that the more and harder I exercised, the less the weight would come off. This plateau lasted for about 4 months. I backed off on the exercise a bit and found that I didn't feel like I was starving 24/7. Then my Maine weekend came and went and I lost 3 more lbs. Now I'm back on a plateau and starting to feel like I need to constantly snack. I think I'm bored and with all the stress of this past month, the emotional eating is rearing it's ugly head again. Need to do some reevaluation and adjusting. I've still got 20 lbs to lose but at least it isn't 60 anymore and I'm not in a great hurry. I don't want to have to get new clothes again too soon!!
I don't believe in "diets" anymore. What I did was a lifestyle change that followed well known nutritional and exercise guidelines. The Sparkpeople tracking tool is easy to use but it does take dedication and consistency.

Lav-the conventional wisdom on the CRF dog FB page is that CRF is not cureable but that fluids can go a long way towards making our pups more comfortable and that they are needed for the rest of their lives. I don't think LM needs 100 ml every other day now but I'm hesitant to cut it down too much without lab results so I can see where his BUN, phos and Creatinine are. Its going to cost about $160 which I just don't have right now. I still owe about $230 to them. The other problem is that everyone is saying the fluid bags should only be used for 10 days max. After that there is too much risk they will go bad. I use mine for at least 20 days and now I'm thinking I will have to throw away half a bag. If I cut down to once a week, I'll only be able to get 2 sessions in before I have to throw it out. They are about $7 now so it adds up if I have to buy a bag every other week. Of course the chance of giving bad fluids outweighs the cost but still....
LM was waiting for me in the kitchen again today. I think he is actually jumping over the gates!! He has never done that in 11 years so he must be feeling VERY good these days! I'm actually thinking about bringing him to the playdate tomorrow. It's going to be fairly warm and I know he will enjoy the socialization but I'm also worried because he's quite the table surfer so I'll have to keep him on leash. That's doable. My friend who is hosting invited me to bring both dogs to the kennel before my demo so they didn't have to stay in the car. The kennel/playdate location is only 15 min from my demo so I'm taking her up on this offer!! I'll let you all know how it goes. He hasn't been to a playdate in years because of his table surfing and grazing.

Well, better get these guys fed and all of us tucked in. Up early tomorrow for a Sunday!!

[Lavande]

Good morning friends!

Woke up with a true sinus headache, yuck.
I haven't been able to figure out how to turn on the humidifier attached to the heating system & totally forgot to plug in the room size humidifier I have. I will get that thing out right now so I don't forget for tonight. These forced hot air heating systems are sinus killers. AND my dogs had me up twice last night, Grrr.

Papmom, I hope your demo day goes well! Do you store the IV fluids in the fridge? They last longer & remain safer that way but you do have to warm them before use

My DIL & grandsons are looking for dinner today so I guess I'll get a pot of meatballs going for them. I've been using turkey to make meatballs & turkey sausage to flavor the pot for years - they don't know the difference, haha!

Greetings to Dill, SnoopStar, Cyn & everyone!
Have a great AF Sunday!

Lav

[SnoopyC]

Good morning...

It's Monday and I am not ready to go to work. I really want to stay home and sleep. I couldn't fall asleep at first, now had a hard time getting up. Oh, well.

Pap, thanks for all the info. You took your weight loss and used all the evidence and information possible to get the results you wanted. I did horrible this weekend, so starting today, again. Kind of discouraged. Once you mess up and put on too much weight, it is so hard to get it off. Darn. The exercise is so important, I thing starting out 2-3 times a week is enough. You are so sweet to take the time for me. Thanks. Plateaus are a pain. Sounds like work is a big mess right now, I agree with Lav, stay our of as much as you can. Working in a bigger office now, I am taking my own advice and staying out of any drama at my work.

Lav, had a peaceful weekend, good for you. I had a pretty good one, just tired now. This weekend, will have more time to take it easy. The weather here is gorgeous, but by next weekend a 30 degree drop. Winter is on the way.

Hello Cyn and Dill, have a good Monday to all.