Just a little one for now.

Mark bought an internet package on the ship, the Carnival Pride. He still has two hours left on the last day, so he's asked me to use some of them up.

Short version is that we have had a wonderful time on the cruise. I got to hold an alligator and an opossum and pet a dolphin. That's pretty cool.

We ate and ate and ate and ate....and ate and ate....and ate...OMG did we eat. I am scared to get on the scale when we return. I did not hold back in the eating department, plus this is the first cruise I've ever taken where I didn't make any attempt at all to go to the gym or walk the track. Oh, it's going to be a sad morning back in my house Wednesday morning when I step on that scale.

Here are a few pictures of our cruise.

Carnival Pride

Today is the DAY! Around lunch time we will be boarding the Carnival cruise ship Pride with our friends Rudy and Georganne for our seven day cruise south. We are hoping for warmer temperatures and no rain as we sail to Pt. Canaveral, Florida followed by two stops in the Bahamas: Freeport and Nassau. We have never done a Carnival cruise before, and the reviews are mixed. Mark and I are going on with an open mind, hoping to have a great week.

This cruise is very ironic. I'm sure the majority of you who read this blog have heard this story before, but here it is again anyway. This cruise ship has been in Baltimore for quite a number of years. We all thought it was very cool when Baltimore finally got a few of these big cruise ships in the harbor. It felt like our city had "arrived." So I talked to Mark for a long time about going on the ship. I also thought it would be very cool to sail under the Bay Bridge and all the way down the bay into the Atlantic Ocean.

When I was a kid, my sister Flyn and I spent a lot of time on our dad's sail boat, the Fog Dog, going around the Chesapeake Bay, but we never sailed all the way down to the ocean. We did go under the Bay Bridge a number of times. There was always something magical about looking up at the underside of that bridge as our little sailboat glided below. Also, at various times, Mark and I took the kids on vacations that involved being at both the source and the mouth of the Bay. Its source is the Susquehanna River, which begins in upstate New York in Lake Otswego, near the Baseball Hall of Fame. Evey was only three years old and Lowell was eleven when we went there. Many times we vacationed in Virginia Beach, near the mouth of the Bay. There's an old lighthouse right at the point that we visited one time.

Finally, a couple of years ago, we saw rock-bottom, dirt cheap, nonrefundable, early bird special prices for an inside cabin. We snagged them for October of 2010, about a year away at the time, thinking the fall foliage would look good as we cruised up and down the Chesapeake. We thought it would be so easy to cruise out of Baltimore when we lived in Laurel, just 30 minutes south of the dock. Well, as you know, "People make plans and God laughs at them." Instead of going on the cruise, I did chemotherapy instead.

Our good friend and travel agent, Dave, fought on our behalf with Carnival and convinced them to leave us a majority of the money on credit for one year. We could have used it on any Carnival cruise, but I still wanted that trip down the Bay and under the bridge. Today is the last possible chance to use that credit, so off we go! It's ironic because now we had to drive over 900 miles north to get on this ship that used to be just a half hour away. It's even more ironic that its first port of call, Port Canaveral, is just a bit over an hour from our new house. LOL!! Yes, God laughed at these plans, BUT He also saw to it that I came through my cancer treatments, bought a wonderful new house, had fantastic friends like Jeff and Sara who would put us up (or put up with us!) for these past four nights, and the health and strength to drive up here and take this cruise today. We are also grateful for our good friends Rudy and Georganne who will join us for the week and give us an overnight place to stay after the cruise. Things don't always work out as we plan; sometimes they work out even better!

Meanwhile, last night we attended a concert at Mishkan Torah of the New Klezmer Quintet. I posted some pictures of it here today. The sound was amazing and so was the opportunity to see so many of our MT friends. The group was started by Brian Choper, son of longtime MT congregants, so everyone has a fondness in their hearts for them. The guest violinist was Alan Oresky, brother of our good friend Saul, also a longtime member of MT. It was a packed house, full of our friends, fantastic music, and plenty of ruach (spirit!).

Once I post today's blog, there will not be another one until next Sunday night. I do not plan on buying too many internet minutes on the ship, so I can't upload anything. I will be putting our pictures on the laptop and captioning them before I forget what they are, but I won't be able to send any around or put any on the blog until we have free wi-fi again. I hope everyone has a fantastic week, and I'll write again when I get back.

Another wonderful day for many reasons.

Last night's Simchat Torah parade was nice, but in the old days I remembered there used to be over a 100 people and a lot of kids. Last night there were 35 people and maybe 4 or 5 kids. Then this morning, the services were fine, but again not the crowd that we remembered. Oh, well...

Afterwards we went back to Annie and Marc's house and enjoyed another delicious lunch courtesy of Annie. Her Marc and my Mark had a lot of time for nice conversation before Marc had to go back to work. Arlene, Robin, Annie, and I played Mahj for awhile and then Debbie joined us. I won only one game, thanks to Robin throwing me the tile she knew I needed. Thanks, Robin! Otherwise I would not have won anything today. Of course, I returned the favor to her later. After two days of Mahj, about three or four hours worth each day, I think we are all glad we are NOT playing again tomorrow. LOL!! Thanks, ladies, for coming out to play with me. It was wonderful!!

Tonight we are having dinner back at Jeff and Sara's house with the Herschlers, Oreskys, Frank P. and Sheila A. Sheila's husband Don just has quadruple bypass surgery yesterday and is doing very, very well. Thank God!

No exercise and lots of food. Yikes. It's not going to be a fun time on the scale when I get on the ship. I'm going to weigh myself Monday morning in the ship's gym. I bet it will be way up. I can do nothing else except try to eat less and exercise more. So far, I'm not doing that. LOL. I'm eating more and exercising less. Ha Ha!! Not the right direction at all. Ha Ha!!

One more bit of good news: No doctor called me today. That's the good news. I had blood drawn for the tumor marker test on Monday. The oncologist said the results would be back in a day or two and if I didn't hear from her by today then I could assume it was normal. OK, no phone call means I'm still NED, No Evidence of Disease! Whoo Hoo!! I'm good for another four months.

Well, all the guests have arrived at the Rosens. Dinner will be served pretty soon. It will be time to do kiddush and get ready for Shabbat. Have a peaceful and restful Shabbat, everyone.

Shemini Atzeret

We had services this morning for the holiday, and it was just delightful. It was such a pleasure to hear the tunes that our Cantor Phil does. Our new cantor in Orlando has a beautiful voice, and I always enjoy hearing him, but his tunes are mostly unfamiliar to me. Now that we are going there regularly, we are starting to learn these new tunes. Still, it was like coming home to hear Phil and sing all the "old" tunes. It was so much fun. It was wonderful seeing our friends, too. It really did feel like coming home.

Then I played Mah Jongg at Annie's house with Wendy, Sue P., and later Debbie. There were a lot of wall games; I won two games; and Sue won one game. It was a lot of fun. First we had lunch at Annie's house: chick pea soup, salad, whitefish salad, crackers, strawberries. Yummy! After having lunch with us girls and Annie's husband Mark, my Mark spent the time exercising at the gym. Tomorrow we are going to go back to Annie's for my lunch and Mahj. I guess Mark will get an extra dose of exercise this week!

Now we are making dinner back at the Rosen house before heading back to Mishkan Torah for Erev Simchat Torah services. Tonight is the night that usually draws out a big crowd because it's so much fun to take all the Torahs out and carry them around the streets of Greenbelt. The only thing is that it's freezing here tonight. I'm not sure Mark and I brought warm enough clothing. I actually found a pair of little gloves in my car, and I can layer my sweater and my hoodie. Mark is going to put a t-shirt under his dress shirt with a suit jacket and a his light jacket over that and hope it's enough.

I got an email from my neighbor Ken this morning. He saw a bobcat in our back yard on Tuesday. Wow! I would have loved to have seen that bobcat. He also saw a deer in our front yard. I've seen a lot of deer in the back yard and in his front yard, but I have not seen them in our front yard. I love my neighborhood! As homey as it feels to be here at shul with our friends, I do miss my Poinciana house and neighborhood. It's so lovely. I feel so very relaxed and happy there.

Made it to Maryland

We had a busy day yesterday getting ready to get to the train. Once we got on the nearly empty train, we totally just sank into the chairs and relaxed. Dinner was fantastic. I had lemon pepper cod with rice and mixed vegetables followed by cheesecake. Mark had a huge plate of veggie lasagna and sugar free jello. Both dinners were just delicious. Then they run a nice movie in the lounge car. Last night it was The Perfect Game about the only perfect little league game back in the 1950s by a Mexican team. It was a fantastic movie, plus they serve unlimited coffee, fruit, and cookies.

Because the car was so empty, we were encouraged to spread out all we wanted in our coach car. I took the seat behind Mark to sleep, so we both could spread out. I didn't sleep as good as at home in bed, but I didn't do too badly either. The train arrived early at the station; we got our car by 10 a..m. and headed to Maryland.

Since we were in no hurry to get to the Rosen house, we did several little errands and some shopping on the way. We also treated ourselves to a delicious kosher lunch at Max's in Silver Spring. I think it's been years since I was in there, and it brought back some delightful memories.

Once we got to the Rosen's house, we hauled all our stuff inside and promptly fell asleep. This is when I discovered how tired I really was. I slept on the couch for two solid hours! Jeff came home eventually, and he served us a fantastic dinner that he had prepared. Wonderful times!

I didn't bring my scale with me on this trip, so I'll probably be very upset when I get home. I'm going to try to behave, but it's not going to be easy! I was 252.2 Tuesday morning. I wrote that down in my book, so when we get back I can see what's up. I'm not happy about being in the 250s the last several weeks. I really can't blame it all on the Arimidex because I know I'm overeating most of the time and doing no exercise. I know what I need to do and don't do it. That was the whole point of that "bridging the gap" blog I wrote a week or so ago. Sigh.

Seroma

If you don't know what a seroma is, then you can be on my team. I never heard this word before, but I've now looked it up. It's fluid building up in the area of the breast where tissue was removed. It's not a big deal, but usually happens shortly after the surgery and gets reabsorbed. If it doesn't get reabsorbed after a year or so, it might need to be aspirated if it is causing an infection, pain, or tenderness. It can also be a sign of arm lymphedema.

Yesterday at my oncology check up, the doctor told me my ultrasound from July 14 showed that I have a big seroma. Well, first of all, I HAVE arm lymphedema, so maybe this should not be a surprise. Second of all, why is she telling me in October? Why didn't she call me in July when she got that result? Not that I would have had time to do anything about it in the summer with so much travel and the wedding. My lymphedema therapist told me I had lymphedema in the breast as well, and she would do a lot of manual drainage on it that was very painful. I could tell the difference in how it felt when she was done, though. I do not do that sort of drainage on it myself, mostly because I would never hurt myself that much. I sometimes try to do a little bit on the breast, but I am wondering if the fluid has built up this much since I stopped my therapy.

On the other hand, the day I had the ultrasound was also the day I had my last appointment wiht the lymphedema therapist. She had been regularly draining the breast, so it's unlikely that the seroma showed up on that ultrasound if it was lymphedema related. Maybe it would look worse on an ultrasound NOW, after being out of therapy for so many months. My next ultrasound will be in January, so it will be interesting to see the difference.

So now she wants me to make an appointment with a surgeon to have it looked at and possibly aspirated. My prescription to see the surgeon says "abnormal ultrasound." It is causing me NO trouble, no pain, no infection, no tenderness, so I am not in favor of any procedures. Still, when we get back from our cruise, I will call the surgeon and go in for a consultation.

Other than that little surprise, my doctor visit seemed fine. She did not see anything else as a problem. Blood was drawn for tumor markers. Her policy is to call only if there is something wrong. There was nothing wrong with the blood at my last visit, so I am expecting it to be normal this time, too. I am scheduled to have another mammogram and ultrasound only on the left side in January and follow up with the doctor again in April. I am just a little disturbed that this seroma was there in July, but she did not call to tell me. I console myself with the thought that it means she is extremely UNconcerned about it.

I asked her about weight loss and Arimidex. She almost laughed out of her chair. She said no one loses weight on Arimidex; it definitely causes weight gain. Oh, goody.

Yesterday I was the only one of the seven women playing Mahj NOT to win at all. Just not my day, I guess. I'm going to be playing on Thursday and Saturday in Maryland with my other girlfriends. Maybe I'll have better luck there.

I'm very excited to be getting on the auto train today!! The storms coming here and going up the coast are going to be pretty severe. Half of Osceola County is expected to flood. Fortunately, I don't live in that county (although it's next door to us and where all my doctors are) and neither is the auto train. We have to drive through that county to get to the train station, though, so the sooner we do that the better. Then the train will be running a bit ahead of the storm all day and night. I'm so happy that we can relax on the train!

We are taking our laptops on this trip. I will be able to blog in our friend's homes when we are there, but not on the train or the cruise. I will definitely be able to blog until Sunday and then we board the Carnival Pride in Baltimore. Gonna be great!

Tropical Storm

I went to bed so late last night that I did not set my alarm; therefore, it was 7:30 when I woke up. When I came out to the lanai to join Mark with a cup of coffee in my hand, he informed me the forecast said a tropical storm is on its way. It's going to give Orlando rain later today, then start up the coast. Well, guess who else is going up the coast?

Mark and I planned to leave tomorrow morning to drive to Florence, SC, and then Wednesday we would drive to Silver Spring, MD to Jeff and Sara's house. Hm...I really didn't think it sounded like a good idea to drive in a tropical storm over 900 miles across the course of two days. We kicked around the idea of leaving early this afternoon, canceling my Mahj game and Starliters rehearsal. That seemed like just too much to try to get ready to head out ahead of the storm today, and I really want to play Mahj and go to the rehearsal. So...Amtrak Auto Train to the rescue. Yeah! Now we are booked on the train. No worries. I only have to drive an hour and a half tomorrow afternoon, in the rain, up to Sanford. Then we can relax and arrive in Lorton, VA at 9:30 Wednesday morning. It might even not be raining up there by then.

Whew! Now I can relax today and get back to what we were scheduled to do.

I have my medical oncology four month check up today. I don't know what she will do to check me other than ask me questions and give me a quick physical look-over. I suspect she will write the prescription for a mammogram and ultrasound. I have to have that every six months, so it's due in mid-January. She will also want a blood test, I think, for tumor markers. I just had blood drawn last week for my primary care, but he doesn't test for that. I'm hoping they can just draw the blood today right in their office and get that over with. I'm also going to try to get the flu shot sometime today because I'd really like to have it before we go on our cruise. After all this, I will be playing Mah Jongg at 1 p.m. and at 6:30 the Starliters' rehearsal starts. Wow. Another busy day.

Last night we had a most marvelous time with new friends Wendy and Henry from our synagogue here. They are two absolutely delightful people! We laughed and talked for hours! Thank you, Wendy and Henry, for honoring us as our guests in the succah last night. It's going to be an annual event to have you over from now on!!

Dinner for Eight

Years ago Mark bought a kosher cookbook called Dinner for Eight. All the recipes serve eight, and at the back there are full menus for dinner parties, including Jewish holidays. That's what he made for Wednesday night's Succoth dinner: Cincinnati chili over pasta (five way includes chopped onion, shredded pareve cheese, kidney beans, and crackers as toppings), broccoli soup, salad, honey cake, mini cupcakes, fresh honeydew melon and other fruits. Somehow this dinner for eight served eleven!! Mark and I just finished the chili (no pasta or beans left) and the salad for dinner tonight. Those are very generous portions in that book. We ate the same meal four nights in a row and did not mind at all. Yummy!

Going to services three days in a row is always tough, but we made it. Mark read Haftarah today and did a great job. We also thought we would have no other guests in our succah, but today a young couple that we had invited who originally declined for work reasons changed their minds. She isn't working as late on Sunday as she usually does, so they are coming tomorrow night. It will be fun to have them join us for the final night of our succah. Mark has to take it down Monday morning in preparation for our trip to Maryland. We leave Tuesday morning.

My weight is steadily climbing. All those chili on pasta dinners and way too much delicious raisin challah, coupled with absolutely no exercise, is not conducive to losing weight. LOL!!

One other thing that we've noticed down here is that no bees have bothered us in the shul succah or our own. I always remember lots of yellow jackets in Maryland buzzing around our food in the succah. I can't say the same for the mosquitos. Despite spraying Yard Guard out there every night before dinner, I came back in tonight with about 8 new bites on my legs. Not fun. These mosquitoes bite right through my clothes. Nasty little bugs!

I finished reading The Help today. It was excellent, and now I'd like to see the movie again. I'm sure it will come to the Solivita Thursday night movie sooner or later. I hope we are in town when it does.

Finally, tomorrow Mark and I are going to audition for the synagogue talent show in December. This is the one where potential performers had to PAY to audition. What a concept! Why did Mishkan Torah never think of that?? LOL!! I hope we don't get too nervous and do a good job. Last we heard there are only 6 people who signed up for the auditions, and Mark and I are two of them. Maybe the whole thing will fall apart. Also our new rebbitzin spoke to me today about choirs. Hm....I should have just walked away, but NOOOOO, I stood there and had a conversation about a small choir for Rosh Hashana next year. What was I thinking??

Succoth Day Two

We had a lovely time at shul this morning. It's always nerve-wracking on the second day of these holidays to find out if there will be a minyan (10 people) there or not. Today we got there 15 minutes after the services started and made numbers 11 and 12. We were also the last to arrive, so 12 was it for the day, but on a second day and a weekday that's not bad. The service was lovely and a little kiddush in the huge succah out back was nice.

We came home, had lunch in our own succah, and then decided to kill the afternoon by the pool. I read a lot of pages in the novel The Help. I borrowed the book from one of my neighbors, so I don't want to keep it too long. It's really excellent, and I'm hoping to have it finished by Monday.

Tonight we will have Shabbat dinner in our succah again. The weather is spectacular for it.

On Wednesday Mark and I saw a big alligator in one of the Solivta ponds. We have named him Wally Gator after an old cartoon character. He was just swimming slowly from the center of the pond to the edge. I actually pulled the car over so we could watch him for awhile. We had been told that if we saw a body of water there was definitely an alligator in it, but they are still hard to spot. When Wally was up at the surface and swimming to the edge, it was an event not to be missed. In fact an A/C repairman parked his truck and started to walk up to the edge with a camera. We had more sense. We stayed in the car and took this shot out the window on Mark's iphone. It came out pretty good.

Another nice animal story is about a turtle. As we were driving to shul yesterday morning, we saw a man stop his car near the stop sign that we were approaching. He got a towel and went to the storm drain. Next thing we know he is carrying a HUGE turtle, scared completely up into its shell. He walked it over to the big pond nearby to release it. I guess either the turtle was headed down into the drain or maybe wedged there; that part we could not see. I am so proud of our community that they take care of their wildlife here! This morning we had to slow down and wait for the Sandhill Cranes to cross the street. I love this place!!

Succoth Day One

Mark and I had a fabulous time yesterday. He built the succah and then our new friends from SOJC came for dinner. It was so much fun having the five of us out in the succah. We had dinner early, well before dark, because we didn't want to sit out in the backyard in the dark. There are no fences back there like in our old house; there are also no floodlights on the back of the house. It's DARK out there at night, and we have seen too much wildlife to want to be sitting out there in the dark. No one seemed to mind that we ate early. Karen, Jules, and Ilan enjoyed seeing our house for the first time, eating Cincinnati chili for the first time, and having fun conversations. They were our only guests for the holiday, so we really made the most of it. Thanks to the three of them for coming to our succah!

I had a terrible night last night with hours of leg cramps. I got up at 1:30 a.m. with a horrible inner thigh cramp on the right leg, followed by a terrible one on the top of left foot running up the shin, followed by the right inner thigh again, followed by the left inner thigh. I spent the hours from 1:30 to 4 a.m. working through these cramps in the living room. I had eaten my usual banana before bedtime, so I was sure it wasn't a lack of potassium. Around 3 a.m. I decided it might be dehydration, so I quickly downed three coffee mugs full of water and then sipped a fourth over the next half hour. Once the cramps subsided enough to get in bed, I hopped up out of bed every 20 to 30 minutes until 6 a.m. peeing the water out. When my alarm went off at 6:30, I just turned it off and actually fell into a deep sleep. I finally woke up at 8:20, already too late to make it to shul on time. We did our best and got to the services during Hallel, about 10:30.

There was a pretty decent crowd and almost everyone had a lulav and etrog. Mark had pre-ordered one, as always, so it was waiting for him. I took one turn to walk around with it during the Hoshanas, and there was a respectably sized parade of folks carrying them. We shall see if tomorrow has an equally big turn out of people for second day services.

Then we had kiddush in the succah. What a succah!! It was HUGE!! All wood with great scach/roof covering. They had taken out tables and chairs, so there were maybe four long tables and plenty of room to maneuver around all of them. We were really impressed with the size of the thing. Mark did point out that it had no decorations to speak of, but I honestly hadn't noticed since the sheer size of it just caught my attention.

We have spent the entire afternoon catching up on our TV shows that we have missed this last week. I have downed two big mugs of coffee to fight the sleep that wants to overtake me. Tonight we will eat leftovers from last night by ourselves in the succah. It will still be nice.

Enjoy a few of these pictures of Mark building the new succah. I never had time to scan any pictures of previous succah building days with the kids. Maybe another time. I never understand how blogger puts up these pictures. No matter that I select them in some logical order, the blogger decides the order! I'm sure you can tell from these how the progression went even though the blogspot decided to mix them up! LOL

Singing is so much fun.

Last night I went to the Guys and Dolls rehearsal an hour early to audition for a solo. I haven't auditioned for anything in decades, literally. This show has several small solo parts, and I liked the little one at the beginning of the song "Believe" from the movie Polar Express. I know I saw the movie, but I didn't really remember the song. Once I got there, I also went up and auditioned for one of three solos in a song called "O Sifuni Mungu." Kind of fun. Then I stayed a half hour afterwards to audition to be part of a six-woman descant in two other songs, "Song for an Unsung Hero" and "God Bless the U.S.A." I'm hoping I get at least one of those things, but there were actually a lot of good singers going up for these parts. That's really the other reason I went out for this. I wanted to hear and see who else came to try out. I enjoyed listening to all of the other people. I won't be at all upset if I don't get anything. The whole process of trying out was fun for me.

Oh, my, it brought back so many memories of being on the other side of the audition process when I was the one sitting and listening to all the kids coming up one at a time to try out for solos. Our director is doing these auditions on two nights, but I'll be driving up to Maryland next week. She videotaped all the auditions in order to listen to them once the two weeks of auditions are over. No announcements will be made before then, so I can just sit and relax now. I'll be missing the next two Tuesday night rehearsals.

Today Mark will build that new succah. I'm going to take pictures of its various stages and post them later, maybe on tomorrow's blog. If I'm able, I might drag out some pictures from previous succah-building days when the kids were young. I should be able to scan them into the computer and then post them, also. We'll see if I'm successful tomorrow.

Like so many Wednesdays, I'm down a pound and a half today. I'm starting to see a pattern there. I think I see a horrible number on Tuesday's weigh-in, eat right that day, and drop one or two. Now if I can only sustain that good-eating habit for an entire week! Tonight's dinner is heavy on calories, so I am eating my usual good breakfast and lunch in preparation. The key to eating right tonight is portion control. I can have some of everything, just not a LOT of anything and definitely no seconds. You know the drill. I'll tell you tomorrow how successful or unsuccessful I was at that.

The landscapers are mowing the back yard right now. Usually they do it on Tuesdays, but for some reason they are doing it now. That's good because it will be short when Mark is putting up the succah. Around 3:45 or 4:45 (I can't remember which one) the sprinklers are going to go off. Our company is coming at 5, so I can't put the table and chairs out and set the table until I've seen those sprinklers go. They run only about 10 minutes, then we can go out and dry the succah and drag out everything. If it's the later time, our guests will be helping with that task. Back in Laurel, I tried to have everything ready and the table set before the guests arrived, but there were some times when that just didn't happen, usually because of coming home from work late. We always had our guests help bring everything back in. I hope these guests will be as amenable to helping out. I think they will. They seem very nice, down to earth types.

I am enjoying my memories of all of our years of dinners in the succah in the past. In some ways I used to dread the week because of all the work involved, although admittedly Mark did most of the work and he always loved it. Now I'm thinking back with great fondness on all the many guests and dinner parties we had in that old double succah. I hope tonight will be the start of a new tradition down here. Maybe some of our former Maryland guests, or even our kids, will join us someday down here for dinner in the succah.

If you are building a succah, or have already built one, I hope you have some lovely dinners in them and not too much rain to wash out the fun. Our temperatures will be in the 80s today with low humidity, a lovely light breeze, and little chance of rain; however, if you are up north, you might be bundling up. I can remember wearing coats and shivering in the succah, too! Enjoy the holiday.

Tuesday and Succoth prep

Last week I was so excited about having Saul and Phyllis here that I forgot to write down a weight report. I went back and checked the weight from two weeks ago, and I am down two pounds since then. That's not really an accomplishment because I don't like any of these numbers. I am 250.3 this morning, but I am not satisfied with that. I had a good day yesterday, so maybe I'll be rewarded tomorrow with a slight loss. That's what happened two weeks ago.

After writing my comments about bridging the gap, I'm trying not to beat myself up so much for every day that stays the same or goes up a bit. I would like to tell myself that everyone does that and that I can pick myself up and start again. Yes, I'd like to do that, but it's so hard to do. I have beat myself up and obsessed about weight for so long, that breaking that habit is almost as hard to do as breaking the binge eating/overeating habit. LOL! Just what I need! Another habit to break.

I played Mah Jongg yesterday and won two games. I was close on a couple of others, so it was a good afternoon. I really enjoy playing and getting to know all the ladies that play. It's a wonderful group of women, that's for sure! In the evening I went to my first rehearsal of the Starliters group. They perform a big show in the spring, all music memorized. I'm a bit nervous about trying to memorize all this music, but I'm going to give it a shot. This group is much smaller than Guys and Dolls, which rehearses tonight. I really enjoy singing in these groups, which is a good thing since I'm now going out Monday and Tuesday nights for it.

Succoth is coming tomorrow night. Today Mark is going to cook a soup and a chili for tomorrow night's dinner. The broccoli soup (pareve) and the Cinncinatti chili (NOT pareve!) over pasta will be the menu, along with salad, challah, and wine. For dessert we have mini-cupcakes and honey cake, both ordered online from NYC. We have been ordering our meat from NY, despite the high price of the meat and the high price of the shipping. We find the convenience, speed, and quality of the orders have been fantastic. We really got tired of driving an hour or more to the store and not finding what we wanted. It's just easier to order online.

Tomorrow Mark will be putting up our new succah. Somehow the poles did not get moved down from Maryland. We think they might have been thrown out by the contractors by accident. We have the roof, sides, and carpet. So Mark ordered a new one and will assemble it tomorrow. It's small, so we hope we can seat five or six in there. We are having a family of three from our new synagogue over tomorrow night to join us. It should be delightful weather, but I hope the sprinklers don't mess up the succah too much and that the succah doesn't kill the grass under it. LOL! I don't think our landscapers will appreciate that too much. At least the timing is such this year that the mowers will not come on any day that the succah is standing.

In Laurel, Succoth was a big deal in our house. Mark started out with the small succah, but as the years went by it was too small. He bought a bigger one and linked the two together. We could seat 12 in there easily. Every night for all 8 nights of the holiday, we had between 8 and 12 people for dinner. Mark would cook like crazy every day when he got home from work. It was a frantic 8 nights, but every night we had a great time. We loved connecting with all of our synagogue friends. Sometimes we'd get invited to other people's succahs, and then Mark got a night off from cooking! We started this tradition before we had kids, and it continued until we no longer lived in Laurel. I have some great photos of the kids at various ages helping Mark to put up the succah. I have great memories of our friends and their kids coming to the succah, each year a little bigger, older, more mature, until they got too grown up to come with their parents anymore to our succah. Last year we were at Cindy's house while I was having chemo. It was the first time in decades that Mark could not eat all of his meals in a succah. This year we will have the new succah up for five of the eight days, and then it has to be taken down so we can start our drive back up the coast to Maryland. Even though it's an abbreviated Succoth with only one family joining us on the first night, I think Mark is very happy that he can go out and eat all of his meals in the succah. Of course, I will join him, so it should be nice.

Happy Succoth to all!

Happy Columbus Day

When I was working in the Baltimore County school system, Columbus Day just sort of came and went like any other Monday. Teachers and students there do not get that day off. In fact, I never had it off as a kid either in the Anne Arundel or Prince George's County schools. Our kids never had it off either in the JDS unless it happened to coincide with a Jewish holiday. As a federal employee, Mark always had the day off and celebrated it alone. He remembers that the Italian community in Baltimore held a parade, but sometimes it was on the weekend instead of the Monday holiday. Mark would watch the parade on TV if it was shown, and sometimes he looked for movies to watch about Columbus, although back in those days our cable system wasn't as extensive as now making it hard to find an appropriate movie.

As a child in Brooklyn, NY, he said the holiday was a big deal in the Italian community. He can't remember for sure if his schools were closed, although he said he's tempted to say they were, but he does remember that there were lots of parades.

What I remember about Columbus Day was looking forward to dinner that night. Mark would always make something Italian, often followed up with spumoni ice cream, which I love. Tonight he is making a low-carb, low-calorie Hungry Girl recipe involving vegetarian pepperoni on an egg, sort of a "pizza." There will be no spumoni either. On the other hand, I'm home now on the holiday, so maybe I'll find a parade or a movie about Columbus to watch. It had better be over by 1 p.m., though, because then it's time for Mah Jongg.

Does anyone reading this blog celebrate Columbus Day?

Building the Ark

Wow! This is the heaviest, steadiest, and longest-lasting rain that has happened since we moved down here. It started yesterday morning and has not let up. There is flooding in some areas but fortunately not in ours. Because of the rain, we have decided to forget going over to Downtown Disney for a movie and just stay indoors all day. So far, I have worked on my puzzle, read my book, and ate Mark's homemade low-carb pancakes with scrambled eggs and veggie sausage links. Now we are watching Bambi on a very old VHS tape. It will be good to stay in and catch up on some of the many TV shows we missed this past week.

Yesterday my Yom Kippur fast seemed to be the easiest one I remember. For once I didn't get a caffeine (actually LACK thereof) headache in the middle of the day. This new shul doesn't skip a thing in the prayer book and completed two sections of the service, the Avodah and Martyrology, that our other shul regularly skipped over. On the other hand, they did not read the long list of names during Yizkor. Anyway, we didn't get out of shul until 8 p.m. The heavy rain turned our 45 minute drive into an hour, but we still drove home in the middle of the day. We had a three hour break from 2 to 5, so we went home to nap and change clothes. I was freezing all day, so I put on a lot of warm things to go back for the last three hours.

When it was over, we wanted to go to Olive Garden since it was close by and I had a $25 gift card, but the wait was 40 minutes. No, thank you. We were too hungry to wait for that, so we walked to the Denny's next door where there was no wait at all. I had my usual senior tilapia dinner and added the new petite key lime pie dessert with a scoop of ice cream. After you eat nothing all day, I figured those extra calories couldn't hurt. I was down two pounds today, but I think that's because I was so empty inside! LOL!!

Since we now have this long drive to and from shul, we actually talked about booking two nights into a Disney hotel next Yom Kippur so the drive will be shorter! Only Disney nuts like us would consider that. LOL.

Outside Hearts

This morning, as we do every morning, Mark and I turned on Good Morning America at 7 a.m. Each day this week they are doing flashbacks to pop culture from the '80s. Today's show is going to focus on one of our favorite films, thanks to Evey's teen-aged obsession, Princess Bride. The cast is being reunited for interviews, or at least all of the cast that is still with us since we know Andre, the Giant passed away years ago as well as Peter Falk. That movie had a great cast, so we are sitting here in front of the TV right now eagerly anticipating this segment.

Meanwhile earlier in the hour they did another segment on Steve Jobs and his last days. He spent the last months saying good bye to family and friends. How incredibly sad for all of them. At least he had the time to do these good byes, but it must have been so hard for him to say and them to hear. The show quoted one thing Jobs said to a friend about his kids that made me tear up and pierced my heart. It's so true, but I'd never heard it said like this before. I don't think I'll ever forget it. He said, "Once you have kids your heart is forever outside of your body." Wow! Profound and true! I know that every one of you reading this blog who is a parent will understand that quote.

Yesterday I changed the look of the blog just for fun. Blogspot had been suggesting I take a look at the new options for days now, so I finally had the time to poke around at all of the new templates. There was no reason why I had to change anything, and I think I can put it back if everyone hates it. If you can post a comment (and I know that's a big IF because even my tried and true posters haven't been able to get one out lately), please let me know what you think of the new look. You might have noticed the slide show got moved to the side and that the little things at the bottom (rabbit pictures, NASA news, and health tips) are all gone. I took them off because they didn't come in properly on this new page and also brought ads in with them. I have tried to avoid having ads on my blog. Since I'm not trying to make money from it, I see no reason to clutter it up with ads.

I got a lot of comments about the content of my blog yesterday in private emails. Thanks to those of you who gave me feedback. I'm glad I touched your hearts with my words.

Today is going to be a busy day leading up to Kol Nidre tonight. We are going to do water aerobics, get Mark's car jiffy-lubed, pick up my new pair of glasses at The Loop, have lunch out during all these errands, buy some challahs, pick up fresh fruits and veggies at the Farmer's Market, and cook and eat a big dinner (our last meal for about 27 hours), all before we have to leave at 5:40 p.m. to drive to the synagogue for Kol Nidre services. As I often say, "WHEW!!! I'm exhausted just typing up my agenda for the day, let alone doing it all." Well, I'd best get started by having breakfast, showering and dressing, so we can head out and get this started. I wish everyone a great day and an easy fast. I will blog again when Yom Kippur is over.

Bridging the Gap

Yesterday, Saul left Poinciana to head back to the Ocala area. Before he left, he took us out to breakfast at Denny's, and we had lots of time to talk. Since he is preparing to write his Yom Kippur sermon, we talked about an idea he had the night before based on some conversations we all had about weight loss. Saul, Phyllis, and I have all struggled with weight loss. Mark has struggled with keeping himself off insulin and keeping weight ON. Those are totally different issues!

Anyway, yesterday morning Saul came out and announced the idea that was forming and a title, "Bridging the Gap." I asked him what that meant, and his answer was eye-opening and brilliant. He will write the sermon about the ability to bridge the gap between recognizing a problem and acting on it. WOW!! That's profound.

I have written a lot of blogs about how to lose weight over these last two years. I feel like I know a LOT about it! I know what my triggers are, and I know what good food choices look like, both at home and in restaurants. Yet, I consistently do NOT act on them; I do NOT bridge the gap between knowledge and action. Why? I don't know. If I knew how to bridge that gap, I would write a book and be a gazillionaire!

Saul and I talked a long time about these things. One thing he suggested was a mantra, something to say or recite at the right moment to help slow down a poor choice or bad behavior, maybe even a blessing. I have read something like that before and tried it. I think it's a good idea, but I'm not sure I have the magic bullet mantra yet. Years and years ago when I was successfully dieting in the late 1980s, I used to recite a Bible verse to myself. I used to know where it was, but I've forgotten. I think it's somewhere in Deuteronomy, but don't hold me to that. I'm probably paraphrasing the verse, too, and I know that it did NOT have anything to do with dieting or food choices! It's just that one day that particular verse spoke to me, so I used it a little like a mantra. The verse is (and I'm doing this from memory!) "Man does not live by bread alone but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God." Probably remembered it from the old translations! LOL! Anyway, I used that verse to help remind me that I don't need the food sometimes. Sometimes, I need to think about God, or other people, or anything but food. It helped at the time, but then I just stopped using it. Could be time to bring that back!

We also talked about 12-Step programs and how people are encouraged to turn things over to a Higher Power, whatever that might mean to someone. Certainly a food addiction and binge-eating disorder can respond to that concept. I think Overeaters Anonymous uses a similar program to AA and asks people to find that Higher Power to help give them strength to walk away from bad behaviors. I have never joined that group, but sometimes I think there is something to it. Of course, just going to group meetings like that one or Weight Watchers gives you strength from the support of a group of people struggling with the same issues. I sort of think that's why the phone app of Weight Watchers isn't working for me. I might need that actual group meeting to have some accountability with real people.

This year at Rosh Hashanah, the classic time for new beginnings and turning over a new leaf, I noticed something in the new prayerbook that spoke to me at the time. I can't remember the actual lines from the book, but the intent was that it's important to find peace in yourself and to think about what causes you NOT to be peaceful so you can try to change it. At that moment it hit me that the only times now that I am EVER NOT at peace is when I overeat. Every single time I make poor food choices and gain a little weight, I am mad at myself and beat myself up about it on this blog. When I thought back to the times in my life (twice on Weight Watchers and once on my own) when I successfully lost lots of weight, I realized that those were the times I was most at peace with myself.

At this stage in my life, I am at peace with everything else. I have basically no stress in my life. I am at peace with my husband, my friends, my kids, my house and community, my neighbors, my finances, and even my health. How many people in the world can say something like that? It's almost scary to write it down and contemplate how truly blessed I am! Yet, I do this ONE thing that consistently upsets me, makes me hate myself, makes me mad at myself, makes me NOT at peace with my life. Why can't I bridge that gap? Why can't I find the way to cross over the bridge from knowledge to action on the food choices? I don't know, but I do know that recognizing it is the first step. I did spend over a decade not even recognizing it. Obviously, weighing 200 at my 40th birthday in 1990 to weighing 322 in 2003 meant that I was not paying any attention at all to the food choices I was making. No one can gain over ten pounds a year for that long without overeating, yet I was oblivious to it. When clothes no longer fit, I just bought all new ones. When I wanted to eat, I ate. I never checked the scale. Mentally, I had just checked out entirely.

So this is a new year. Yom Kippur begins Friday night. The time from Rosh Hashana to Yom Kippur is just about over. That's the time to make amends for past offenses, both to fellow human beings as well as to God. Any offense to a person is an offense against God, but offenses against YOURSELF are also offenses against God. I offend myself every time I make that wrong food choice. I can apologize to myself and to God over and over, but until I actually STOP making the wrong choice and START making the right choice, consistently and every time, my apology is meaningless. To do true tshuvah, to make a real change, when faced with the same scenario, you MUST MAKE THE RIGHT CHOICE. You can't continue to do the wrong thing in the same situation or your apology, your tshuvah, is wasted.

I can only say I'm going to try again. Pick myself up and try again. What else can I do? I'd like to find myself a year from now at peace. At peace would mean I have dropped some weight and feel good about my food choices. I will go to services this weekend and pray, sincerely. I will try to turn myself over to that Higher Power and do true tshuvah. Only time will show if I'm successful.

Meanwhile, if Saul reads this blog, I hope I did justice to his idea. I also hope he sends me a copy of the sermon because I'd love to read it.

To all who are approaching Yom Kippur Friday night, may you have an easy and meaningful fast. May you all be written and SEALED in the Book of Life for another happy, healthy, and peaceful year.

Bye Bye Phyllis

Phyllis had to go home today, so we had a very relaxing morning before driving her to the airport. Bye Bye Phyllis! So sad to see you go.

Mark, Saul, and I had a little snack at the airport Starbucks before heading to lunch at the pizza place at Solivita. Then we had a nice afternoon of doing some catch up chores on the internet, banking business, reading, and hanging out on the lanai talking. Saul was also working on his Yom Kippur sermon. What a wonderful afternoon! The weather was also really perfect.

Tonight I had rehearsal with Guys and Dolls. It was a great day!

Here are some pictures of our time with Saul and Phyllis. It has been fantastic.

Happy Potter Day

Yesterday with Saul and Phyllis was spectacular! All three meals were eaten in great restaurants; we swam and relaxed by the pool; and we took an airboat ride on Lake Toho! Whoee!! I am in love with airboats. Anyone who ever comes to visit us now will be dragged down to the Boggy Creek Airboat Ride facility, which is only about 25 minutes from our house, to take the half hour ride, whether you want to or not! Trust me. You won't regret it.

Today we are going to go to Universal Studios' Islands of Adventure, mostly to see the Harry Potter land. The weather will be beautiful, not too hot and very dry. We are just also hoping that the crowds are also low today. I guess I'll let you know.

I have taken a lot of pictures these last two days, but I have not had the time to upload them on the computer yet. Once I get them uploaded, I will be sure to post some on the blog. I definitely have several airboat pictures! Right now, we are getting ready to head out early to Universal. Of course, there will be lots more pictures taken today. I hope all of my friends who read this blog also have a wonderful day.

Saul and Phyllis

Mark and I got to SOJC for services earlier than we ever did before, 9:40. It was nice. Saul and Phyllis arrived, and it was just so exciting to sit in shul next to such good friends. We enjoyed introducing them to the the new rabbi and his wife and some of our new friends during kiddush. Still, it was even more fun driving them back to our house and showing them around.

We had a leisurely lunch and afternoon of just talking and catching up. Then we drove them through the community, past The Palms, and up to the Village Center. We walked the entire length, mostly so I could turn in my two library books, then we settled in at the Riviera Spa and Fitness Center. We showed them the indoor track, the gym, and dance studio, and then we swam for hours. Phyllis and I went into the indoor pool and swam some laps. I had never swum at the Riviera before, either indoor or outdoor, so this was great fun for me. After swimming some laps, we went to the outdoor pool and just hung out with the guys, floating on wacky noodles and paddling around. As it got closer to 6 p.m., it also got cooler, so everyone went to the hot tubs. Well, I went over and sat on the edge. I was naughty and actually put my feet in to just above my ankles. "Here wolfie, wolfie." This is a reference to that time that my lymphedema therapist said don't go in a hot tub because it was like calling the wolf. I love that expression. Hopefully, the wolf didn't hear me!

We came home for dinner, more leisurely talking and enjoying each other's company, before settling down to watch an animated film called How To Train Your Dragon. It was really cute. I don't know about the rest of them, but I fell into bed exhausted around 11:30.

This morning we are going to take them to Mosaics for the buffet breakfast and after that, who knows. We kicked around a lot of ideas: long walks, air boat rides, more pool time, mini golf, Gator Land, Cirque du Soleil, and other ideas. When I went to bed, I was still not sure what they will pick today. It doesn't matter to me. It's their vacation, and I want them to do what makes them happy.

I am very happy just having them in the house. Although we are enjoying meeting new people and making new friends in this community and in the synagogue, there is nothing like sharing time with people you have known over 30 years. It's a very warm, fuzzy feeling. I like it.