mary

Good morning, Y?all.

?

It?s a rainy, nasty morning here in New England.? Micheal?s taking off work at noon, and we?ll be heading for the airport.? We?ll have plenty of time to get there, just as long as some idiot doesn?t do something stupid along the way to cause a traffic jam!? Maybe the rain will let up before we leave.

?

Micheal picked up my picture yesterday on the way home from work.? It looks nice.? I have it hanging in the living room right now, but we?ve already decided that when we get moved into a permanent place, it?s going in the dining room.? Yeah, I?m gonna put a picture of an outhouse in the dining room!

?

I probably won?t even get on the computer this weekend!? Got a lot to do and only a couple of days to do it all in.? I promised Micheal we?d go find a shipping container for his golf clubs so we can put them on the plane.? That mad-woman saga has him stressed and he needs something to put his energy into.? He can go hit a few balls and imagine they?re her head!!!

?

Speaking of the mad-woman saga.? She?s still there.? They?ve scheduled a meeting with her on Monday morning at 10:00.? They invited Micheal to attend, but we?ll still be in Fort Wayne, or on the plane back here, thank goodness.? We found out yesterday why nothing?s been done yet.? She?s suing the company for some stupid reason, discrimination or something like that.? She says she?s been mistreated.? And they found out she definitely owns guns.? So they?re being very careful to do everything legally, and as safely as possible.? I think I?d have just called the police and had her removed from the premises and slapped a restraining order against her coming back on the property.? Of course that wouldn?t help if she was determined to do something stupid, but at least it might possibly get them a little faster response from the police if she does show up.? But hopefully, by the time we get back, it will all be over with.

?

Ok, enough with that.? I?m still staying within my calorie range and drinking my water.? But I?m still not losing any weight.? Maybe I just need to take a little break.? I think this weekend I?m just gonna say the heck with the diet and start back up Tuesday.? We?ll be eating out all weekend anyway, so I won?t have to worry about choices if I take a break.? I won?t even get all my calories in today because of traveling.? We?ll be leaving the apartment about 12:30 to head for the airport and won?t get home in Fort Wayne til about midnight, so what I eat before we leave will probably be it, unless we grab a sandwich or something during our layover in Detroit (if there?s time for it).? And I?ll be getting a lot of walking in at the airports, getting to the gate and changing planes.

?

But when we get back here, I?m gonna start looking at changing things up.? I?ve gotta figure out a way to start losing again.? And I?m gonna get an appointment with a doctor (gotta find one of those).? Maybe they can figure out what?s going on and help me out.? Haven?t been to a doctor in over a year, and that was just for the sciatica attack.? Before that it had been another year!? Guess it?s about time to go get checked out.

?

Well, I guess I better go read some blogs, then get off here and get ready to go.? I don?t have much to pack cuz we?re not taking much with us, but I still have things to do.? Housekeeping will come before we get back, so I have to pick things up and put things away.

?

Y?all have a fantabulous day!

Good morning, Y?all.

Major news break?I didn?t go shopping yesterday!  I haven?t been shopping all week, and not gonna, either!  One of the ladies from my Weight Watcher?s thread wanted to meet me for lunch, so I didn?t take Micheal to work cuz she came and picked me up.  But I did make two trips up and down the stairs.  That?s a lot for me.  I went down to meet Candy when she got here, then back up.  When I got home, I had a note saying we had a package at the office.  I thought about just waiting and letting Micheal get it when he got home, but decided to go get it myself, so that was another trip on the stairs.

My package was the DVD collection of Stephen King movies that I?d ordered from Amazon.  After I picked it up, I checked Amazon to make sure the movies that were advertised were in the set.  I got a big shock.  The price on the set had doubled!  Guess my timing was pretty good.  If that had been the price when I ordered the set, I wouldn?t have bought it.

And I got a phone call yesterday evening saying that my picture was ready at Michael?s (the outhouse pic I had framed).  So Micheal is gonna pick that up this evening on his way home from work.  I?m excited.  I can?t wait to see it.

So that?s yesterday.  Today is gonna be a bit more laid back.  We?ll be doing a lot of walking in airports this weekend as well as doing things at home, so I?m gonna take it easy.  We had a non-stop flight to Arkansas the first of the month?over 1200 mile flight.  The one this weekend has a one hour layover in Detroit, and it?s only about half the distance and will take us longer.  Go figure!

That?s ok.  It will be nice to sleep in our own bed for a couple of nights.  And we?re going to go through some of our stuff and get things more organized so the movers will be able to categorize their packing when the time comes.

Some possible good news?the lady I had lunch with yesterday told me about a house next door to hers that?s been empty for a while.  She said the lady that owns it might be willing to rent it instead of letting it sit empty.  (It was her mother?s house, and she couldn?t decide what she wanted to do with it after she died).  It will be a lot more room than an apartment, and hopefully cheaper.  Doesn?t sound like too bad a deal.

Even going out to lunch yesterday, I did good.  Had a bagel with fat-free cream cheese for breakfast, a BLT (easy on the mayo) with a few seasoned fries for lunch, and homemade beef stew for dinner.  Gonna have leftover stew for dinner tonight.  This weekend may not be pretty, though, since we?ll be eating out.  But our plane leaves at 4:00 tomorrow afternoon and we won?t get into Fort Wayne til after 11:00 tomorrow night, so won?t be eating dinner, and the same Monday?leaving Fort Wayne about 4 and getting to Boston around 11 then another hour or so home from there.  So it may not be so bad afterall.

It?s chilly here this morning.  I?m seriously contemplating turning the heat back on for a bit.  It rained here yesterday afternoon, but today?s supposed to be a good one, with rain again tomorrow?.ouch, gotta drive to the airport in the rain!!!  At least the weekend weather looks good.

Oh, and the mad-woman saga where Micheal works?that?s being taken care of today.  HR and Legal informed Micheal yesterday of the time and told him to stay clear.  It?s a different building, so maybe it won?t get anywhere near him.  The reason for the delay?  They didn?t realize things were as bad as they were til they started talking to supervisors and co-workers.  When they realized people were actually scared for their lives, they decided they?d better take action, but wanted to make sure that she couldn?t come back on the legally.  Moot point if she went ballistic in the meantime.  But Micheal said she?d been fairly docile the past couple of days.  Hopefully this won?t send her over the deep end.

Well, that?s about it for me.  Gonna go read some blogs.

Y?all have a fantabulous day!!

Good morning, Y?all.

Yesterday was absolutely gorgeous!!!  The temp got up to 84, there was a breeze blowing, and the sun was shining.  This morning there are actually leaves popping out on some of the trees.

Didn?t sleep well last night.  Our apartment faces the train line and they were rather busy over there last night ? coupling and uncoupling cars and who knows what else.  We had the window open all the way and it was quite noisy.  Guess tonight we?re gonna have to close the window and turn on the air.

Not much going on here today?still working the plan and chugging the water.  Well, last night and today it?s chugging the cranberry juice?I think I got a bit of an infection, and want to wash it away!

Well, don?t know what?s going on with the witch at Micheal?s work.  She?s still there, but yesterday she was quite subdued.  She was pumping the e-mails out like crazy, but she wasn?t terrorizing people?pretty much keeping to herself.  I guess they just gave her a warning.  But you?d think, since this is a major insurance company, that they?d have gotten rid of her very fast!  Guess not.

So normally tomorrow would be a shopping day, but not this week.  I decided since we?re flying home this weekend, I need to take it easy during the week.  I?ll have even more walking during this trip than during the last cuz it?s not a non-stop flight.  We?ll have a layover at Detroit, but only about enough time to get from one gate to another, so it may be at a run.  Great.

Well, I?m off to read blogs.

Y?all have a fantabulous day.

Good morning, Y?all!

This weekend was Be-U-T-ful!!!!!!!!!!  I spent more than an hour sitting on the balcony, soaking up the sun, Friday afternoon (and I?m gonna do it again today, too).  Then we spent Saturday and Sunday out driving around with the sunroof open and the windows down.  Saturday we stayed right here in Worcester.  We didn?t take a map, just drove by our wits.  When we got ready to come home, we started looking for street names we knew.  We?ve found that?s the best way to learn our way around a new place.  And we?ll have to rely on that here since the streets go every-which-way!  Sunday we headed west, out of town, then went up to Vermont and over to New Hampshire.  The temp was up to 77 the last time we checked.

During our drive, there were some areas where the thermometer in my truck showed it to be in the 70?s, but there was still patches and piles of snow on the sides of the road and ice on ponds and lakes!  It was just a gorgeous drive.

Since we were out running around, Saturday and Sunday were gonna be splurge days.  Wrong!  I tried.  I had a burger and fries for lunch both days, but didn?t eat breakfast or dinner.  So I was within my calorie range.

Well, I?ll have my splurge day this weekend.  We?ll be flying out Friday going down to Fort Wayne for the weekend.  And there?s nothing there to cook, so we?ll be eating out, cuz we?re not gonna go buy groceries for two days.

We need to bring back some summer clothes and a few odds and ends.  Micheal wants his golf clubs so we?ll pack them up and ship them.  But everything else we bring back, we?ll pack in suitcases.  (We?re gonna take 2 empty suitcases with us, one inside the other).  We won?t need to take anything down there with us, so we?ll take the two empty cases to pack everything into.  And I have a huge old suitcase in the shed that I?m gonna put some cookware and stuff in.  I need my large stew pot, a large mixing bowl, and my boom box, so they?ll go in the big suitcase.

And we need some paperwork, especially our birth certificates.  Got to have them so we can get our passports in time to go to India in October.  Oh yeah, I do need to take some paperwork back with me so I can shred it, unless I just bring the shredder back with me.

So next weekend is gonna be a busy one.

Oh, don?t know what happened with the woman at work.  Micheal said he didn?t hear anything before he came home.  He?ll find out what happened today.

Well, I?m off to read some blogs.  There?s plenty to read since I wasn?t on this weekend.

Y?all have a fantabulous day!!

Good morning, Y?all.

Well, it?s gonna be one of those days.

There?s this woman where Micheal works that?s a bit?well, I guess you could say she?s nuts.  Her cube is full of packs of cigs and bottles of pills.  She?s either bi-polar and off her meds, manic-depressive, or both, or maybe even something else.  One minute she?ll be just as nice as she can be and the next minutes she?s going off on a tangent and really causing a scene.  She?s made veiled threats to several people.  Half the people there are afraid of her and the other half give her a wide berth.

Well, Micheal called me a few minutes ago, and he was told to inform his people that they should watch their backs as HR and the company lawyer are going to be meeting with her today to take care of the situation?permanently!  I just hope they have the intelligence and good sense to wait til the end of the day when the place is clearing out and keep her in the meeting long enough for most everybody to get away from there.  Everybody is really afraid she?ll do something drastic, as she?s made half-threats to that effect in the past.  Micheal said one of his guys told him he heard her make a comment about the VT incident sounding like fun.  This woman is NUTS!!!!!

I told Micheal, since he?s had several heated encounters with her himself, he?d better watch his back as and I can live without him, but I sure don?t want to.  So, needless to say, I?m having a very tense day.

Not much else to report.  Woke up hurting this morning, and felt kinda out of it.  I must not have slept well last night.  So today I?m TRYING to take it easy.  That?s hard to do when I?m sitting here worrying about ?other things?.

The good thing is I haven?t felt like eating!

This weekend is gonna be a busy one.  We have laundry to do, and need to get groceries.  It?s supposed to be a beautiful weekend, so we?ll spend some time out running around and getting to know our new hometown a little better.  We haven?t had a lot of time to do that as every weekend since we?ve been here, we?ve either been out of town, or the weather?s been really nasty. 

Well, I?m gonna go read some blogs.

Y?all have a great day and a better weekend.

Good morning, Y?all.

Spent all day yesterday out shopping and running around (and getting wet!)  Got my hair trimmed (no coloring yet, Dawnie?I?m still contemplating).  Got the picture of the dogwood tree and outdoor facility enlarged and printed and it?s at the framers.  It turned out pretty good.  I?m anxious to see the finished product hanging on the wall, but it will be a few days yet.

I did a lot of walking, as I usually do when I go shopping.  I bought some yarn and I?ve already started a new afghan.  But I didn?t buy much else except necessities.  Well, I did get my nails done.

After I picked Micheal up yesterday, we went to O?Connor?s for an early dinner.  I was at odds trying to decide between the Irish Lamb Stew, the Shepherd?s Pie or the baked seafood plate.  Since I almost always have seafood, and I?d never had the Lamb Stew or Shepherd?s Pie before, I decided to opt for something new, but was still trying to decide.  Finally I asked the waitress which I should go for.  She suggested the Shepherd?s Pie, which is what I ordered.  Not bad.  It came with a side of veggies, but I didn?t even touch them.  They looked nasty!  I couldn?t even eat all of the pie!  Actually, I didn?t eat much at all.  I ate my salad, and by the time my meal came, I just couldn?t hold that much.  I guess my stomach is still shrinking (I wish the rest of my body would shrink along with it)

Well, I?m not giving up on that.  I?m definitely NOT quitting like I have in the past.  Eventually, I?ll find something that works?short of pills and surgery.  I refuse to go either of those routes.

I commented in a previous blog about the genetics of being overweight and how most of the women on both sides of my family are overweight.  I was watching the video of my reunion and realized something else?none of the women over 60 are overweight.  It seems for some reason, after they reached 55 - 60, the weight came off.  I remember my mother fighting her weight for years and years, but all of a sudden it just fell off.  Coincidence?  I?m not sure, but I don?t really think so.  Most of the women in my family started off as slim, or just slightly overweight as teenagers, then started gaining in their early 20?s.  Then, for those that are older, lost most of it after they hit 55 or so.  Maybe there?s hope for me yet!!

Well, I?m off to read blogs.

Y?all have a fantabulous day.

Good morning, Y?all.

Another quiet day here yesterday.  Started downloading video that we?ve taken over the past year.  We download it to the computer, edit it, and then burn it to DVD.  I have roughly 7 hours that we?d accumulated so it was past time to get it done.

Didn?t do much of anything else.  Today is going to be spent downloading the rest of the video and maybe doing some editing.

Tomorrow will be spent out shopping.  I?ll have to take Micheal to work, and since our apartment is on the second floor (stairs only), I won?t be home til after he gets off work.  But we?re planning on going to O?Conner?s for dinner tomorrow night, then get groceries, so it will be a late evening?and no blog.

Ok, I?m gonna throw my 2 cents worth in?

About the VT massacre?On the news they keep on with ?why didn?t they? and ?why DID they?.  The thing is, who ever knows how they?re gonna react during any stressful situation?  Consider a tornado.  They pop up out of the blue, sometimes literally.  People say ?if we?d only had some warning?, but they sometimes pop up so suddenly, there?s no way to prepare.  And sometimes when you think the worst is over and you?re standing around scratching your head and wondering what to do next, another hits.

The thing is, nobody is ever prepared for something like that, and nobody can plan their reaction.  After the first shooting, they had no idea, or reason to believe, that another would occur across campus 2 hours later.  Initially, they thought it might have been a murder/suicide.  So why would they suspect anything else would happen?  Who would have expected someone to shoot a couple of people then wait 2 hours and go on a total rampage?  Nobody can predict what will happen in situations like that.  And nobody can plan ahead for every scenario that might occur.  I think they did a great job with the situation as it was.

Now that?s just my opinion. 

Ok, I?m off to read blogs.

Y?all have a fantabulous day!!!

Good morning, Y?all!

Not much going on here.  The weather is nasty?rainy & very windy.  It snowed yesterday, but there wasn?t any accumulation.

We took a drive down into Connecticut Saturday and ended up at the Mohegan Sun casino.  We spent several hours there, mostly just walking around and looking at the place.  Very impressive.  We didn?t come back any richer, but we didn?t lose much, either?at least not more than we could afford to lose.  But we did do a lot of walking!  Probably a couple of miles at least.

I took the weekend off from my program and just ate what I wanted.  But I?m back at it starting today.  I like to give myself a day or weekend off once in a while, and since I did good last weekend during my family reunion, I figured it was time for a weekend off.  I did get all my water in.  I don?t seem to have any trouble doing that anymore.  It?s become a habit to chug a bottle of water without even thinking of it!

Other than that, we had a fairly boring weekend.  We stayed in yesterday and watched Stephen King?s ?The Stand?.  That lasted all day!  The funny thing is, I?ve been looking for the DVD for a while now, but haven?t been able to get it cuz it?s out of print, but I did find a copy of the book.  Then Saturday, I found the DVD on Amazon in a set with 4 other movies, so I ordered it.  That was before I found out it was gonna be on yesterday!  That?s ok.  The DVD will be uncut, and I know there is a lot they left out yesterday.

So that?s my exciting weekend.  I hope yours was more exciting.

Have a fantabulous day!

Good morning, Y?all!

Another nippy morning here in Massachusetts.  It was supposed to snow here yesterday and last night, but luckily we dodged the bullet!  All we got was some rain with a little sleet mixed in.  It?s pretty dry out there right now, but they?re anticipating the possibility of canceling the Boston Marathon because of the weather.  If we get what they?re forecasting (a lot of wind and rain), they may just call the whole thing off for now!

Still pretty sore and run down from our weekend trip to Arkansas and all the running around I did Wednesday.  Since we?re going out this weekend, I?m just gonna stay in and rest today.

And speaking of the weekend, I managed to get some pics posted of my granddaughters.  And there?s one I posted that?s a bit different.  I thought it was nice, though.

Not much going on here.  I?ve been sticking to the plan, as usual.  And the scale is sticking, as usual.  But I?m not gonna worry too much about it, as long as I don?t start gaining.  My jeans aren?t getting tighter, so I?m not too worried.

While Micheal and I were watching the news this morning, they were talking about a gene they?ve discovered that they?re calling the ?fat gene?.  Then I found an article on the net.  The article said there were actually 2 fat genes.  Either of them would make it harder to lose weight or keep it off, but if you have both, it?s even worse.

Micheal said, after meeting my extended family this weekend, he believes that?s my problem.  He thinks I got one from each side of my family.  Most of the adults on both sides of my family are overweight to some degree?and most of those are quite a bit overweight.  Maybe that?s why I?m struggling so much trying to get the weight off.

No, I?m not using that as an excuse to quit trying.  I?m just acknowledging the fact that I may have had the misfortune of being one of those with both fat genes, and that will make it a lot more difficult for me to get the weight off.  But I?m still gonna work it.  I have to.  I don?t want to live the rest of my life like this.

But, I did notice something this past weekend.  While I was holding my new granddaughter, she needed a diaper change.  I laid her across my lap and changed her diaper.  Yes people, I now have a lap!  I can?t even remember when the last time was that I had one!  So I am doing something right.

Well, I?m off to read blogs.

Y?all have a fantabulous day!

Good morning, Y?all!

I?m back.  It?s been a busy week.  We got home very late Monday night and spent Tuesday recuperating from the trip.  Then I spent all day yesterday out running around taking care of things that hadn?t been done since before we left.

I didn?t do too bad food wise while we were gone.  I probably ate a little more than I should have, but I also got a lot more exercise.  But I definitely didn?t get in all the water that I should have.

The trip was an adventure, to say the least.  The plane was a small 50 seater.  My knees were pressed up against the back of the seat in front of me, and the person in that seat, both ways, just couldn?t sit still.  But the flight was only 3 hours, so it was manageable.

When we got on the plane in Boston, the jet way was broken, so we had to go down to the tarmac and get on from there.  It was 5 flights down, but they took me down in the elevator (I?d taken my cane because I knew there would be a lot of walking).  And when we got back, it was still broken.  There were stairs, but no elevator, and they insisted on walking me around to the doorway where they take the baggage out.  So I definitely got in a lot of walking?probably at least three or four miles total, just in airports.  At least the jet ways in Memphis were working properly!

I did get to see my kids and granddaughters.  My son and his daughter and wife were with us most of the time.  His daughter even spent Friday night with us at the hotel.  My daughter and her two daughters?well, that was the drama of the weekend.  I?d not have gotten to see them if my Dad and son hadn?t both ripped into her?my Dad on Friday night and my son on Sunday.  But the time spent with them was also spent with her ex-step-mother who is a real piece of work.  She kept telling the baby it was ok to be scared of me because I was a stranger.  I finally told her if she would shut up for 5 minutes maybe MY granddaughter would learn to recognize MY voice.

And no, seeing my daughter and her two daughters without the ex-step-mother wasn?t an option.  I tried.  They wouldn?t allow it.  She has to have total control over them.  But the worst part is my daughter allows that.  She even informed me that if anything should happen to her, she has already made legal arrangements to give her ex-step-mother custody of the girls!  They?re even all moving to Minnesota with her.  Guess I lose again.

I was gonna post some pics, but I?ll have to edit them.  They?re too big to upload on here.  Hopefully I?ll get them on here tomorrow.

I?m gonna go try to catch up on blogs.  There?s no way I?ll be able to comment on all of them.

Y?all have a fantabulous day!