Sistah Pat

Still feeling down today but really appreciate all the wonderful, supportive comments! Actually, it might be because I’m sick to my stomach that I’m feeling so icky this morning. I ate pancakes for dinner. With lots of butter and syrup. I feel a little green this morning.

I’ve had to be down in the cafeteria at school all week because I’m showing a collection of PowerPoint projects my students did for their finals. I told them they would be shown down in the cafeteria during all the lunches (such a large school, we have back to back lunches from 10:10 to 1:00) but I didn’t stop to think that I would have to sit down there to safeguard the laptops and projectors. Anyway…yesterday was our cafeteria’s version of Thanksgiving dinner and several of the teachers talked me into joining them. Sure hope the kiddo’s don’t think that’s a real Thanksgiving dinner. Pretty bad stuff.

After lunch, I met with my students and one of my new kids was feeling pretty bad. He asked to use the phone to call home and I gave him a note to go to the office. Not something I like to do but you could see that the kid was sick so I let him go. He came back and said someone was supposed to come and pick him up. I let him sit at a table by himself with his head down. About 15 minutes later, he jumps up, throws a stack of books across the room, emits a string of profanities that would make your ears bleed and says he’s leaving. I could tell he didn’t need for me to mess with him so, even though I asked him to sit back down, I didn’t go ballistic when he walked out and slammed the door. I called the office and they said they’d get him. Later, I went to turn in a referral and the AP said the kid has a horrible life and there’s a reason he acts the way he does. I didn’t have time for the details but did find out that he’s labeled BD (behavior disorder) and this is the first time they’ve put him in regular classes. Just my luck (sigh).  I asked the AP what I should do and he said, “You really just need to love him, Pat.  That’s one reason I put him in your class.  He really needs some love.”  Crap!  Today, I’ll have to follow up and see how I need to deal with him if I’m going to be seeing him every day for the next 12 weeks.

I had a doctor’s appointment at 4:00 and didn’t get home until 6:00 and then had to take Steven to CAP so I rushed in and then ran back out. To make a long story short…by the time I got a chance to grab something for dinner, I was in a stinky mood and I couldn’t find anything healthy but there was a big box of pancakes staring at me so I had them for dinner. WTF??? If I didn’t know better, I’d think I was PMSing.

Quite a bit of drama and demands in my life right now with some things going on at work and with friends. I just feel tired. DH sees it. He keeps asking what’s wrong and all I can tell him is that I’m tired of dealing with stuff. He’s got a lot going on right now, too. Someone hit him and totalled his car a couple of weeks ago. We try to always buy good stuff and then use it till it’s dead. His car was a very nice black Lincoln and he took great care of it. It was paid off and we were hoping to use it for a few more years. Of course, the insurance companies don’t give you anything for a ten year old car no matter how great it looks or runs so they gave him $3,500. to buy a new car. He really doesn’t want to buy a new car and take on a bunch of payments so he’s been shopping for something and not finding what he wants at a price he wants to pay.  So, I haven’t gotten to spend much time with him this week.  He’s out looking at cars every chance he gets.

Oh, lookit! It’s time for my shower. Gotta run. Don’t think I’m going to weigh myself this morning. I’m already depressed.

Not really into things this morning. I didn’t do my final 15 minute workout last night. I’m feeling really discouraged because I’m working so hard and my weight isn’t budging. Yeah, I know, I may be “building muscle” but let’s face it, I SHOULD BE LOSING WEIGHT. It’s not like I’m even close to my goal so I shouldn’t be having such a difficult time dropping a couple of pounds. I may go back up to 1,200 calories. It doesn’t seem to make any difference. I was hoping a few really intense days would kick start something but it doesn’t seem to be happening. Haven’t weighed myself this morning but I’m sitting here blogging when I ought to be doing my morning workout. I feel really heavy and sluggish this morning.

6:00 a.m. - 166…no wonder I feel heavy and sluggish.  I am.  Shaved my legs and underarms but it doesn’t seem to have helped.

We’re on a trimester schedule here. Yesterday was the last day with my students. Today is the start of a new trimester and I get new students. There was one in particular that I’m glad to see go. Very moody, arrogant, and unpredictable. I managed to get along with her most of the time but she definitely tried my patience. sigh…there’s one in every class. At least one…

Yesterday got away from me. I was supposed to go out to dinner with the Sistahs but it didn’t work out. I ate yogurt for breakfast and skipped lunch. As a result, I had a butt load of calories left yesterday evening and didn’t quite know what to do with them. I was busy because I brought work home with me and wound up eating three slices of frozen pizza. Not very nutritious but I kept it under 1,000 and squeezed in three short workouts. Let’s see if I can do it again today.

6:20 - Did my 15 minutes, scales say 166. (sigh)

4:00 p.m. - Didn’t get a lunch break today so I had to come home and do a quick 15 minutes.  Now I can relax for a little while.  I want to get one more quickie in before I go to bed.  Probably around 7:00 or 8:00.

Met my new kiddos today.  They were a very quiet and introverted bunch.  Looked like deer in the headlights. Wonder how long that will last?

I’m craving pasta tonight.  Gotta figure out something light that has a bit of pasta in it for dinner.  Hmmm…

Breakfast:
Lite Yogurt (80)

Lunch:
protein bar (140)

Dinner:
Chicken Pasta Salad with Romaine (500)

Snack:
Kashi Go Lean with soy milk (200)

Total 960

5:15 a.m. - Brrrr! Took my coffee out to the spa and it’s definitely not summer anymore. I had to make myself get out and thought I’d freeze getting dried off and dressed out there. Definitely time to change from the summer routine to the winter one which is to get undressed in the house, wrap up in a huge, fluffy, bathsheet, get in some flip flops, and then go outside, open the spa, and hop in. No more going out barefoot and getting undressed and dressed out there. It’s time to hop out of the spa, wrap up in the bathsheet, and run back in.

Used up my blog time in the spa and I want to get my 15 minute workout done so I’d better run. Scales say 166. Damn! What is with my body??? Starting on my fourth perfect day in a row and not showing a loss.

6:15 - Okay, did my 15 and burned 126.

7:00 - Well, alrighty!  The monitor shows I’ve burned 358 calories in the last 64 minutes.  Good start to the day!

11:15 - I’m stuck here at my desk - captive–The monitor shows I’ve only burned 10 calories in the last 30 minutes.  That can’t be right…can it? 

Breakfast - Lite Yogurt (80)

Dinner:
3 slices frozen pizza (360)

Snacks:
2 protein bars (360)

total 800

5:00 a.m. - Going to hold firm to my plan today. I’m up early so I can squeeze in a 15 minute workout this morning (although I’d much rather take my coffee and go sit in the spa) and I’m not going to let anyone cheat me out of taking 15 minutes to work out for my “lunch”. No matter what happens, I’m locking my door and doing 15 minutes of high intensity aerobics halfway through the day. Now, because I’ve got to get moving, I’m laying out the weight, 165.5 again, and heading upstairs to workout.

6:15 - Got my 15 minutes in. Burned 140 calories. Off to a good start!

5:00 p.m. - I had to make myself squeeze out 15 minutes today and I’m proud of myself for doing it. I ate my lunch while I worked and then I kept working and, at some point, I realized that it was 1:00 and I still hadn’t taken a break. I went in my office, locked the door, took off my heels and blouse (don’t worry, I kept the cami on) and plugged in my MP3 player. I don’t have to worry about anyone walking in because I’m responsible for safeguarding lots and lots of laptops so no one has a key to my office but me, Pitiful, Arrogant, Upchuck Lowlife, and the librarian. Since I told them I was going to workout, they knew not to bother me. Even the principal doesn’t have a key to my room. I was about ten minutes into my workout and my phone started ringing. I looked at the caller ID and saw that it was my principal. Ready, chickies?? I didn’t answer it. I had promised myself that I wouldn’t let anything interfere with my 15 minutes and I stuck to it! I happened to stroll past her office about 15 minutes later and she grabbed me but, guess what, it wasn’t anything that couldn’t wait.

6:50 - I’ve got to quit pushing myself so hard. I was going to go upstairs and do a quick 15 minute workout but I was feeling good so I went for week 2 of C25K after 20 minutes of step aerobics and did high intensity aerobics during the “cool down, brisk walk” periods. Worked like a dog for 50 minutes and felt like I should keep going and get at least an hour in. Still, it’s getting late so I used a little common sense and stopped. Don’t know why I feel like I quit before I should have. There’s a skinny little bitch inside me somewhere that won’t leave me alone! Always pushing for more. I refuse to feel bad for stopping after 45 minutes. Enough is enough. I’ve had a perfect day and I’m going to crash on the sofa and watch The People’s Court. BTW, burned 410 calories and it’s still pumping.

Breakfast:
Lite Yogurt (80)

Lunch:
Lean Cuisine (310)

Dinner:
15 bean soup (500)
Wedge salad (100)

Total 990

8:00 a.m. - Had a great day yesterday and I’m stepping up to the plate again today. The plan is to weigh, record food, stay under 1000 calories, complete one long workout and two short ones.

DS and DIL came over yesterday evening with Jake and Scout, cute little grandkiddies. Scout handed me a squashed up and mangled package of Whoppers with a big grin on his face and said, “I saved these for you, Nana! I got a whole lot of Halloween candy and I saved this for you!” I thanked him profusely, waited till he left, and tossed them out. They were all squashed up in the package so he must have been carrying them around all week in his pocket or something. Bless his heart, I don’t think I could have carried a package of Whoppers around all week without succumbing to the temptation at some point. Way to go, Scout! You rock!

I’m weighing in with my old friend 165.5 this morning. Maybe I should just have it tattooed on my forehead.

8:50 - Well, damn! I’ve been sitting here reading and blogging and I finally decided to put my HR monitor on. I keep staring at it and wondering if it’s broken. My HR is at 44% and it says I haven’t burned a single calorie in 5 minutes. That can’t be right? Can it? It’s showing my HR at 44% and that’s floating around between 43% and 44% and it’s showing my BPM at 72 to 73 so it seems to be working. Wait–it shows I just burned a calorie. One calorie in 6 minutes??????? That’s not possible, is it? I’ve had three cups of coffee. I should be doing something…Okay, that’s it. I really want to just sit here and read the paper but I’m going to do a quick 15 minute workout to get my metabolism moving.

9:20 - Did high intensity step aerobics for 15 minutes. HR Monitor (henceforth known as HRM) says I burned 148 calories in the last 18 minutes (8.2 per minute). Now we’re cookin’! I don’t know what to think about all this. The HRM has given me some insight into how my metabolism works but it’s some scary stuff. How long would my heart rate stay at 44% if I didn’t do a workout? Is this normal? I mean, the doctors tell me I have a low metabolism but I’m not sure what that means with regard to a lot of stuff. I know I have to be really careful with my diet but what does “really careful” mean? On the one hand, common knowledge is that you shouldn’t go below 1200 a day but I don’t seem to be losing at 1200 a day. I followed that advice for quite a while and didn’t go anywhere. I think I’m going to go back through my blog and try to figure out what happened when I went to 1200.

10:00 - I wish I’d kept putting all my daily menus in the correct category. That would make it real easy to check. Unfortunately, I quit doing that a long time ago and now they’re all mixed in with the general category. I’m having to go back and move them all to the Daily Menu category. Made it up to the first of October so far. In the meantime, I’ve burned 180 calories in the last 43 minutes (4.1 per minute).

12:00 - Doing great so far. Went out and raked leaves and burned 205 calories in the last 40 minutes. Surprisingly, DH is the one who needed to take a break and then we’re going out to do the backyard in a little while. I was the one raking and all he was doing was standing over the bag and scooping the leaves into it.

Took a look at all the daily menus and realized that I’ve been pretty negligent about keeping track of everything. Lots of times, I recorded breakfast and lunch but didn’t enter dinner. I know I do that sometimes when I know I kept to my calorie count and didn’t bother to enter the last little bit but it makes it difficult to see a correlation with the calories and weight loss. As far as I can tell, I bumped it up to 1200 calories sometime around the middle of August. Of course, that’s when I started back to work and wound up sitting on my behind a lot instead of running around so it’s difficult to tell if it had any effect on the weight loss.

Whoo Hooo! 46 minutes and 229 calories gone! That’s right at 5 calories per minute!

1:30 - Raked leaves for another 40 minutes. I’m going to count leaf raking as my long workout today since my arms are killing me and I burned up a bunch of calories doing it. Only one more short workout to go. Think I’ll save it for this evening when my metabolism is real low again.

4:00 - I’ve been fixing dinner. Slicing and dicing. Dang! I’m down to around 2 calories per minute again. Time for another quickie workout and then I’m calling it a day on the exercise.

4:46 - Okay, burned 170 calories in 20 minutes. Got that heart rate back up there to 8.5 per minute. Hopefully, it’ll stay up for a while because I am done, Done DONE!

5:20 - Burned 150 calories in the last 30 minutes so I’m still doing 5 per minute. I HATE having this low metabolism but I love feeling like I can do something about it! Now, I’m going to chow down on some delicious fresh summer rolls that I stuffed with strips of leftover pork tenderloin from yesterday, edamame beans, rice vermicelli, red pepper, cucumber, carrot strips, romaine, and cilantro. Top it off with a little Spicy Thai Chile Sauce and I’m in dieter’s Nirvana.

Breakfast:
Lite Yogurt (80)
Fiber One Bar (140)

Dinner:
5 Summer Rolls with pork tenderloin, carrot, cucumber, red pepper, rice vermicelli, edamame beans, romaine and cilantro (250)
Sweet Thai Chile Sauce (40)
Wedge Salad with Fat Free Ranch, low fat blue cheese, and bacon bits (100)

Snack:
Murray’s Sugar Free Chocolate Bits Snack Pack (70)
1/2 cup Vanilla Light Silk Soy Milk (40)

Total 720 (Think I need to eat something else before I go to bed. That’s awfully low)

Protein Bar (140)
Apple (100)

Total 960

Okay, I’ve got to get back on track. Going for a perfect week, starting with TODAY! I’ve been running wild for a week and it’s time to come back. I was being a total slob last night, propped up in front of the TV eating ice cream when it occured to me that the ice cream was not really that tasty. I was sitting there thinking that it wasn’t really what I wanted while I continued to eat it. I’ve had that feeling several times in the last week. Eating something junky, not really wanting it, and still eating it. I think it finally sunk in. I got up and threw out the ice cream and went to bed.

This weekend, I’ve got to kickstart myself again. Isn’t it funny how easy it is to get off track? I gave myself permission to splurge over the four day weekend with Rick and Pam last week, then I kind of piddled around the rest of the week because, having gotten off track, it’s real easy to stay there. I’m really sick of seeing 165. I’ve done the mid 160s to death! I was losing pretty good in the beginning of this journey and I’ve got to think about what I need to do to get back to losing. I know I have a very low metabolism. Several doctors have told me and the heart monitor has shown me. I know 1,000 calories a day is low for most women. Is it too low? Maybe not for me. Maybe I can’t lose on 1,200 calories a day. At least, not without working out like crazy. I’m going to be really tough on myself this week. One week to get things moving again. So…here’s my plan for the week:

Saturday - Weigh, eat 1,000 calories, one full workout, two short workouts

Sunday - Weigh, eat 1,000 calories, one full workout, two short workouts

Monday - Weigh, eat 1,000 calories, at least three short workouts.

Tuesday - Friday - ditto Monday

Joy, you were writing about trying to find the spark again. My favorite motto is the Nike one, “JUST DO IT!” Just one perfect day, followed by another, followed by another…I don’t think we can always find the fire. Sometimes, we’re just staring at the ashes. I think it’s pretty easy to do what we have to do when we have the fire burning hot. The tough part is continueing to do it when the fire just isn’t there. We’ve all proven that we’re powerful women with the strength to do what needs to be done. Sometimes it isn’t easy and there’s no motivation to do it but we have to keep pushing. I guess you could call it Tough Love…for ourselves…and that’s not always easy.

Me, I’m gonna love myself today. I’m going to end this day with a glow of satisfaction that I’ve done what I need to do. Just for today…

Sistah Pat’s Guide to a Perfect Day:

9:30 - Weigh in - 166.5 - Put on HR monitor - 5 minute calorie burn = 14: burning 2.8 calories per minute while getting dressed to workout.

11:15 - Did a 70 minute workout. Burned 569 calories so that got me up to 8.12 calories per minute. I did 40 minutes of high intensity aerobics with 1 1/2 pound wrist weights and then did week 2 of C25K. I don’t think I’m going to be able to keep doing C25K. It really bothered my left ankle. The right one (that’s had a kazillion surgeries) held up great but I had to take the walking intervals on C25K and get off the treadmill to do aerobics to ease the left ankle. Doesn’t bode well for the jogging bit. Still, I think I’m going to keep going with it until I’m ready to accept that it’s not going to work. I’m really not that upset about it since I discovered that I burn more with aerobics than jogging anyway.

4:50 - Did a little shopping. Picked up some stuff for a wedge salad for dinner. Someone brought one to the potluck Thursday and everyone seemed to know what it was except me. Anyway, it was good and relatively healthy so I picked up stuff so we could have it with dinner.

Heart rate is down to 1.8 calories per minute so I’m going to do a quick 15 minute workout.

5:15 - Did 15 minutes of high intensity aerobics. Managed to get the old heart up to 80%. HR monitor shows that I burned 117 calories in the last 15 minutes so that breaks down to 7.8 calories per minute. Only one more short workout to do today!

Breakfast:
Lite Yogurt (80)

Lunch:
Fiber One Bar (140)

Dinner:
Wedge Salad (150)
Pork Tenderloin (300)
Green Beans (75)
Corn (75)

Snack:
Protein Bar (140)

Total 960

I was so tired last night I slept like a rock. Granted, I took two Tylenol PMs before I went to bed but that was because I was miserably tired and wanted to make sure I got a good night’s sleep. It worked. Unfortunately, I’m a little groggy this morning. Good thing it’s Friday. Maybe I can coast through the day without too much turmoil. Also, on Fridays I can almost beat the kids out of school. I don’t stay late for anything or anybody on Friday.

I’ve been off the wagon since last Friday. An entire week that I haven’t watched what I ate or exercised. Gotta get with the program again.

4:00 _ Home for the weekend and Little Sis got to go home today!  Now she can moan and groan and wish she was back in the hospital.  She called Carnival and they changed her room to a handicapped accessible room.  I suppose she’ll be feeling a lot better by the time we go on the cruise but she can rent a scooter chair if she wants and race down the gangplank!

I was up way too late last night and I’m up way too early this morning. Didn’t get to bed until 12:30 and then had to get up at 5:00. Maybe I can come home and take a nap after my doctor’s appointment although I’m not very good at napping.

Little Sis called last night and said the doctor says things look okay. He doesn’t think he’ll need to do any more surgery but wants to keep her around a couple more days just to make sure. Poor baby, I know she wants to go home. I’d hate to be stuck in a hospital bed for 8 days.

I went to the ROTC Booster Club meeting yesterday evening at 6:00 and it didn’t end until 8:00. Stopped by the store and didn’t get home until 9:00. DH baked a turkey yesterday and I came home to a wrecked kitchen and a big turkey. Turkey’s are really cheap right now so I’ve been stocking up. I have 4 of them in the freezer. DH decided he wanted one so he set it up in the roaster oven before he went to work yesterday morning and my job was to turn it on and get it going. Ever think about how weird it is that we can have a turkey bake all day and then automatically shut off and go to warming mode when it’s done? Anyway, I came home to a wrecked kitchen and DH in bed. He has to get up at 3:30 each morning so he hits the bed early. There’s a note on the table, “I saved you some dinner.” Yeah, you saved me dinner alright…a dirty, greasy roaster oven, a pan full of green beans on the stove, a pan of corn on the stove, a pan of mashed potatoes on the stove, a pan of gravy on the stove, a pan of dressing in the oven, and a kitchen full of dirty dishes and overflowing trash. I was tempted to get his butt out of bed but it was easier to just clean it myself. After cleaning the kitchen and putting everything away, I felt like I deserved down time so I propped myself up and watched TV for a couple of hours. Just as I was getting ready to hit the bed, it dawned on me that today is Potluck day at school and I promised several people that I’d make summer rolls. Crap!

Making summer rolls is not that big a deal, broil a couple chicken breasts and slice them into strips, slice some red peppers, cucumber, carrots, romaine lettuce, cilantro, boil some rice vermicelli, and then start soaking the wrappers, filling them, and rolling them up. After I finished, I had a dirty kitchen again. Double Crap!!

Anyway, I finally hit the bed around 12:30. Now, here comes the truly icky, crappy, disgusting stuff. Those with an aversion to TMI and gross body stuff, kindly skip the next paragraph.

I’ve had a few episodes of bowel incontinence over the last year and I’ve waited almost three months for an appointment with a specialist. That’s why I had to have the colonoscopy in July but it didn’t show any problems so I’ve been referred to a specialist. Prior to the appointment, at 5:00 a.m., I had to get up to give myself an enema. OMG! The only thing worse than that would be asking someone else to do it. I mean, how could you possibly ask anyone to do that for you? I would never be able to look at DH or DS or anyone else in my life the same way and I’m sure they wouldn’t want to even think about it, much less do it. So I’m sitting here, running back and forth to the bathroom, filling out 6 (yes, SIX) pages of medical history and insurance info, and trying to get the boys ready for school so I can go to the damn doctor. Anybody got a gun?

11:00 - I now know more than any woman should ever have to know about bowels and rectums and anus muscles.  The doctor assures me that this is very common in women my age.  I told her I don’t know anyone else who has this problem and she says it’s just because they don’t talk about it.  Seems like the kiddos do a lot of damage during childbirth and we’re able to function just fine until we hit the 50s when everything goes to Hell.  She says the baby’s head pushes against the bowel during childbirth and it creates an area that’s stretched.  Then the episiotomy comes along and actually cuts muscle that shouldn’t be cut.  In the long run, it all catches up with us.  Sitting in a wheelchair for 9 months out of the last five years hasn’t helped me, either.  My problem is not severe so she suggested some home remedies but said we’ll probably wind up doing surgery at some point unless I want to continue to deal with it and I DO NOT!  Home remedies: exercise, daily doses of Imodium to actually create constipation or daily enemas.  Ewwwww!  No, thanks, it’s not that bad.  Further testing that’s too disgusting for even me to talk about (and you all know I’ll talk about anything) lies in my future.

Who the Hell said “Life begins at Fifty?”  My ankles are torn up, my back hurts, I’m getting all wrinkly, and now my damn butt doesn’t even work right.

4:50 p.m. - Back to work today. I got used to staying up later and paid for it this morning. I did NOT want to crawl out of bed and waited till the last minute. Didn’t have time to blog or do even a ten minute workout. Hour and a half long faculty meeting after school so I just got home but I only have 45 minutes till I have to turn around and go back to school for an ROTC Booster Club meeting at 6:00. Hope it’s a short one.

I got the carpet all scrubbed up in the RV yesterday and got some drawers cleaned out.  It’s looking pretty good but Manny still needs a bath.  There are bugs all over the front grill.  Gotta get him looking good before winter sets in.

Little Sis isn’t doing as well as I would like.  She’s still in the hospital and they did some tests this morning.  She may have a bowel blockage and need additional surgery.  She hasn’t been able to eat or drink since yesterday evening and is NOT a happy camper.  They did the tests this morning at 10:00 and still haven’t told her anything.  I picked up her dirty clothes yesterday evening, washed all of them and took them back up to her last night.  I know she wants to go home but she’s having a lot of pain.  Wish she’d find out something and give me a call.

Breakfast:
Light Yogurt (80)

Okay, what’s the damage? 165. (sigh) That’s okay. It’s real life. I’m going to take breaks and have long, relaxing weekends with no diet in sight. The trick is to be “on task” all the rest of the time. So…I’m on the healthy road again. Don’t know when the next detour will occur but I’ll just keep trying to stay on the road as much as I can.

Little Sis is still in the hospital. I’m going to try to go see her today. Hopefully, she’ll get to go home soon.

Stuff going on with the Butt Sistahs. I’m not sure what. Sistah Pam is wanting to bail but I’m not sure what’s behind the decision. She says she doesn’t want to be the leader but she doesn’t seem to want to follow either. She stopped going to water aerobics with me but wanted me to nag her to help keep her on track. I tried but she just kept cancelling until I gave up. We set up a dinner for this Wednesday but she sent an email and said she can’t make it. She said she’s just can’t worry about weight right now and just wants us all to meet for dinner as friends. We could certainly do that but I don’t see how an emphasis on supporting each other and eating healthy when we do it would be a problem. I don’t know if she’s upset with Jana and/or me or what. Sounds like the Butt Sistahs are going down the toilet.

I tried to catch up with a lot of blogs this morning but time’s running out and I need to get moving. I want to clean out the RV today. It hasn’t had a thorough cleaning since May. DH, the packrat, has filled the drawers with Visine, nuts and bolts, screwdrivers, chap stick, CDs, aspirin, National Park Brochures, etc. I also need to shampoo the carpet and clean all the dusty blinds. Even though it only has two double beds and one queen size, I bet there are a dozen sets of sheets out there because I take clean ones out everytime we go somewhere and then I wash the old ones and throw them in the storage bin. Well, duh! Why don’t I use one of those sets next time and stop taking new ones out there?

This Thursday is the Potluck Club at work. The theme this time is Fit and Healthy. It’ll be interesting to see what other people bring. I’m taking off work Thursday to go to the doctor but I have to take the boys to school so I can drop off my dish, and I’ll just go in around 1:00 to have lunch and pick them up after school. I hate to take a sick day for a doctor’s appointment but I waited almost three months for this appointment and it’s at 9:00 in downtown Louisville. I’d get to work at 7:30 and have to leave at 8:15 to make it downtown and find a parking spot in time for the appointment and then I probably wouldn’t be able to get back until 11:00 or so. I decided it would be easier to just take a sick day.

Okay, girls, I’ve got lots to do. Later!

1:00 - Dag!  The day is eating me alive.  I went to vote and then went to 3 (three!) different stores trying to find a scrub brush on a pole to clean the carpet in the RV.  I never did find one.  I’d hoped to spray some carpet cleaner around and just scrub it in with a broom/brush and vacuum.  Guess I’m going to have to lug the big carpet cleaner out there and deal with all that because I’m sure not going to get on my hands and knees and use an hand held scrub brush to clean all the carpet in a 37 foot RV.

That’s how I feel…smooth and rested and relaxed. Had a wonderful, peaceful retreat with friends. We left late Friday afternoon and drove up to Edinburgh. Rick and Pam followed us in their SUV. We set up the RV in our usual place across from the Outlet Mall and Pam and I left the guys setting up the satellite dish and went shopping. We hit Coldwater Creek and I was shocked that I didn’t find anything I wanted that I didn’t already have. They did have some summer shoes on sale for $2.99 and a 30% off sale on everything in the store so I got a couple pairs of shoes. I mean, for $2.00, who cares if they’re past the season. There’s always next summer (or the cruise!). Pam and I don’t go shopping together often because we have very different tastes and that quickly became evident. Pam hit the Levi’s and Bass shops and bought a couple of plaid vests, flannel shirts, and sweatshirts. I hit Liz Claiborne and Bon Worth and bought a pair of classic grey slacks and a pair of brown slacks and a grey jacket. When we were tired, we picked up Arby’s and headed back to the RV to find DH and Rick watching TV and trying to drink each other under the table.

We had a little bit of drama when Pam got in the shower and shampooed and lathered up real good only to find out that we didn’t have any hot water for rinsing. What a wimp! They must have heard her screaming all the way back to Louisville. Turns out DH had already winterized the RV and forgot to put some little plug back in so the hot water was running out just about as fast as it was heating. Pam had just enough hot to get lathered and then had to rinse in cold.

We got up early Saturday and drove about 45 miles to Bloomington, Indiana. It was a beautiful drive through the forest with all the trees brilliant in golds and reds. I love Bloomington. It’s a college town and we spent some time wandering through artsy shops and galleries and had lunch at a greek restaurant called The Trojan Horse.

After lunch, we headed over the river and through the woods to Oliver winery and proceeded to sample half the wines they offered. I bought three wines and Rick and Pam bought three. DH is more of a beer guy and didn’t get into the wine too much but he enjoyed the gourmet samples and wandered through the beautiful grounds and gardens.

We headed back toward Edinburgh but made a pass through Brown County Park and hiked through the woods for a couple of miles. It was really beautiful. Perfect weather. 73 degrees, blue skies, and falling leaves. The woods were absolutely gorgeous and so tranquil and quiet. I took some pictures but they’re on DH’s camera phone and he doesn’t have internet on his blackberry so I don’t know how to get them off the phone and online. Maybe I can figure it out tomorrow.

By the time we got back to Edinburgh, it was getting into the evening and Pam and I went shopping while DH replaced the plug in the hot water heater. Again, the differences in Pam and I became apparent very quickly. I bought a pair of black heels and a pair of brown alligator skin pumps and Pam bought a pair of hiking boots. I got a white tailored shirt with plum and rose pin stripes to wear with my new jacket and Pam bought two new pairs of jeans. I don’t know how we’ve remained such close friends for thirty years. We have a lot in common but we have a lot of differences as well. Again, we picked up Arby’s because we walked right by it on the way back to the RV park and had a gourmet dinner of Arby’s Ultimate BLTs and a lot of merlot wine. Actually, we had a lot of dessert wine as well. Pam had hot water for her shower but I don’t think she would have noticed if she hadn’t.

Sunday morning, we all went across the road to Cracker Barrel for breakfast. (Have you picked up on the total gluttony this weekend featured?) After breakfast, we drove down the road a little ways and hiked around a small lake in a local park, spread out a blanket on the ground, and shared another bottle of wine. I know…it was only 2:00 in the afternoon but it felt right.

Rick is an attorney and he had to be in court Monday morning so they packed up and headed back to Louisville Sunday evening. DH and I decided to stay another night so we had a wonderful, quiet evening to ourselves. We slept in this morning and walked back across the street for another gluttony breakfast at Cracker Barrel. It was nice to be feeling so relaxed and it was so good to be together. Just the two of us. I don’t have to work tomorrow but DH does so we headed back to town and got home about 6:00 this evening.

I feel so mellow. I went out and had another glass of wine in the spa and now I’m ready for bed. A lot of calories this weekend but I don’t regret any of it. Maybe I just won’t weigh myself for a few days.