You'd be surprised, it's as I'd they run over them with the delivery truck. Sometimes I'll go through an entire box just to find one. If I can't find one, I don't buy from them.

holy *&$^&@*#^&@*#&^* :eek: whoever told me (Mern, was that you? I can't find the post anymore, it's well and truly BURIED lol) that I shouldn't worry about trying to respond to everyone gave me VERY sage advice. merciful heavens, y'all have been busy!! LOL

To everyone who gave me such a warm welcome, THANK YOU! :D y'all have all been so open and friendly and supportive, I already feel very comfortable here—I hope this is exactly the kind of environment that will make it easier for me to stick to my goals. It's not that my family aren't supportive; they just don't seem to have the same sense of urgency I do. and local girlfriends? fuhgettaboudit. I feel like I have very little in common with most of the women where we live; with 2 exceptions, all of my close friends have always been men, anyway.

BTW, I got a wild hair earlier and started rummaging about in our basement, and I found my old tank suit—it's a tight fit to be sure, but it does still fit! So now I really don't have any excuses (like "I don't have a swimsuit that fits") to put off swimming. I think I'm going to make this a M-W-F kind of thing, so that means I need to start TOMORROW! I have to run to Walmart here in a bit to pick up a few groceries, so I've got swim goggles and a swim cap on my shopping list, too. BOOYAH! I'm actually excited to get started!

RE: email security (Quinn? Ann? I forget who got hacked, sorry), Lifehacker had a really good post about passwords the other day, you can read it here. I used to work in IT, so I'm probably geekier than average {G}, and I've used most of these criteria for passwords for a while; I also have 1password Pro on my iPhone because otherwise I'd never remember user IDs and passwords to log into anything, there's just too many of them! Fortunately, as digital security requirements become more complex, more tools are developed to make it easier on the humans ;)

oh, someone (Rose, maybe? gosh, this is awful, but I can't find anything! lol) asked me about my furbabies: Stormy and Einstein are our kitties—we rescued them as babies (maybe 3-4 weeks old) from a snowstorm last year right before Thanksgiving. They're not quite a year old, but they've gotten so big! They both have quite a lot of Maine Coon in them (definitely more noticeable in Stormy, our blue striped tabby, than in Einstein, our tuxedo), so they're very social and quite vocal. I'm allergic to cats (and dogs and birds and pollen and mould and just about everything else under the sun), but we manage—I wouldn't give my girls up for anything! <3

Must go run my errands now so I can get dinner started at a decent time—I'll try to check back in again later :)

I'm glad you enjoyed that. I have a special streak for evil retaliation, comes from having 2 younger brothers. BTW I cannot take credit for the saying. One of my college roomies had a family cottage on a lake which had that saying done in embroidery complete with flowers and hearts, hanging in a little frame at the perfect eye level above the toilet tank. However when you sat down on the toilet seat there was another little piece of framed embroidery that said "If you sprinkle when you tinkle, be a sweetie and wipe the seatie". I always thought that if I were to take up embroidery I would make me a pair of those signs, well actually I probably would get fed up with the knots and end up with a pair of signs that were considerably more rude.

Gee, here I was with the unavoidable mental image of Mike fondling pimps.

You're not a-kidding about dancing bananas, at the reception I got hit on by a friend of the family, well truthfully a friend of the groom. He can't be more than 23-24. Good grief I went to school with his mother, anyway in my drunken state, I sort of got the clue, what eluded me was that he made it clear as glass to everyone else!!! :eek: I hope he was looped enough to not remember it the next day, poor kid. A stunt like that could make you a laughing stock for decades!

I don't drink very much caffeine either, just 2 cups of coffee (okay rather large cups) and then maybe a little diet coke or some tea later in the day. I have in fact had a couple of brands of green tea that kept me awake, so that could be a factor. If you can find a decaf green tea that fits the need you might give it a go. In England I got addicted to raspberry tea, but that was bad because now I keep wanting some and it's been 10 years since our last visit. We're all a little different, so good luck, hopefully something will help.

I'm so glad to hear that everyone is OK, 2-3 feet of standing water is A LOT. Holy cow, that's up past the top of the washing machine!!! Good luck honey and I have to say your attitude is amazing!

Okay earlier I shared my fish story, but the cyber-space monsters must have eaten it. A few years ago we went camping with the in-laws. Our youngest was just learning to walk, so at the beach MIL and I pulled a couple of those lounge chairs into the water for us to sit on and for the baby to cruise around. We were above the water at first, but the tide came in and before too long we were maybe waist deep in water while sitting on the ends of the loungers. Then the MIL gets bitten on the leg by a fish and without any warning jumps up off her lounger and bends over peering into the murky water. I'm laughing my butt off, seriously I had no idea the woman could move that fast. It happened several times and I just laughed harder and harder over her reaction. Anyway so there I sit, laughing and all of a sudden a fish bites my girlie goodies - hard. It was so startling that my thighs clamped together and I jumped up off the chair like lightening. And there I am bent over staring into the face of the fish that I've caught between my thighs, so I shout "If your going to bite me there, you should at least buy me a drink first!!!" And then I sort of have this delayed "I'm touching something sort of icky" reaction and do the shimmy shake trying to dislodge the traumatized fish. And MIL has been laughing at me ever since.

Tuesday Report Card

Health Goals:

1. Calories 1,400 (wish me luck). 1,500, 1,289
2. Exercise 7 hours. 75 min, 75 min (total 2:30)
3. Water 100 oz. Y,Y
4. Deficit 3,500 for the week. -1,337, -1,552 (total -2,899)
5. Keep protein at or above 25%. 19%, 24%

Non Health Goals:

1. Housework, 30 min/day + 1 load of laundry. Y,Y
2. Finish BTS shopping. N,N
3. Clean out dressers. N,N
4. Weed garden, get veggies picked. A little weeding, lots of picking. No
5. Clean out & organize coupon binder. N,N
6. Pick blueberries and make jam. N,N
7. Pick peaches and make jam. N,N

I spent most of today trying to catch up on all the veggies we picked yesterday. I'm about 1/2 through the beets and 1/3 of the way through the beans. I had unexpected visitors and 5 extra kids today, so I did the best I could. I don't know how many quarts of pickle beets I'm going to end up with, but it's looking like this batch will be 12-15 quarts and the patch is only 1/3-1/2 picked right now. They are a ton of work, but honestly the store bought ones don't taste right and they are $5.99/jar. FOR BEETS? YIKES! Plus they have a ton of calories in them, the home canned ones are pickled in a sweet vinegar brine, not simple syrup.

I gotta get going. You guys are cracking me up tonight.

Tanya, welcome aboard! It's nice to have you here. :)

Okay -- so busy I can't breathe, but this is a promise, that I will check in.

So okay, maybe this is TOTALLY COMPLETELY UTTERLY FALSE HOPE . . .

But I have eliminated Gluten/Wheat from my diet since Sunday and, uhm . . .I have NEVER HAD SO FEW CRAVINGS or desire to eat.

I mean, virtually NO "need to feed" feelings. I had a huge day today and it was only at 7:00 p.m. that I realized I had one Greek Yogurt with fruit. 5-6 Rice Crackers and a handfull of Corn nuts ALL DAY, while cooking!!! (see: Kitchen Darlings to check out my much neglected website -- but my biz just the same) And I wasn't HUNGRY. Came home, cooked 5 oz of beef, made some instant type rice noodle bowl (seriously? instant things usually send me into a tail spin of gorging!!!) and I am not hungry??

Has anyone experience a "gluten free" lifestyle change? Is this temporary? Is it a fluke? Is this a HUGE PIPE DREAM FOR A FOOD ADDICT?

Inquiring minds NEEEEEEEDDDD to know!

Peace out, gotta turn the brain off. Catching up tomorrow, I hope!