Wednesday Weigh In is BAD

This morning my weight is very high, 261.3. I am almost back to what I weighed when I went to NYC to sing in Carnegie Hall in June of 2009. I was 265. At that point, I was in the process of losing regularly, was very in control, and walked a lot. I was feeling good because I had just dropped from 295 to 265 in about two months. I was on a roll!

Sadly, now I feel terrible. I am just going up, up, up. I gained 10 pounds on the two week trip in October with the cruise, going from 248 to 258. Now I've gained about three pounds on this Thanksgiving trip. I lost none of the cruise weight. What is going to happen when I go on the next cruise, January 2, if I don't lose this before then? I can guess, and it won't be pretty.

There are so many BAD things that can happen/are happening to me with the weight gain. One that's really getting to me is the back aches. Weighing over 300 pounds meant that I could only stand up about five minutes before my back was raging. I started doing far less things in the house and almost never wanted to walk anywhere unless I knew there were convenient benches everywhere. Once I got down to 205, I could walk over an hour or stand up and never have a back ache. Right now I'm in a show that requires me to stand on risers to sing. It's a two hour show, but there are some breaks when we get to go sit down for a few minutes in the middle of each act plus a ten minute intermission break. Even so, my back is starting to hurt during the show. Yesterday, Mark and I took a thirty minute walk, and I wanted to quit after fifteen minutes because my back was hurting. This really takes the fun out of the day when walking is painful.

You would think the back aches would be enough motivation to stop eating!!

I started out yesterday morning thinking that it would be a good diet day because I ate all my meals at home. Even so, too many calories found their way in to my mouth.
Breakfast: 4 links (160) and yogurt (80)
Lunch: soup (300), tuna (100), carrots (35), Baked Lays (130)
Dinner: veggie ribs (220), broccoli/cauliflower (35), cole slaw (360)
Late Night: banana (130), sugar free pumpkin pie with Cool Whip (285)
TOTAL: 1835

Nobody is losing weight on 1835 calories a day. Looking on this now, it's easy to see where I could have cut calories; eating MUCH less cole slaw and NO pie would have saved over 400 calories! Since I didn't weigh in yesterday morning, or for several mornings recently, I suspect I probably stayed the same for the last few days.

I did walk 30 minutes and go to a rehearsal for over two hours that involved standing and singing on risers for most of that time. Surely, I used a bunch of calories doing that.

Well, today is a new day. I have had a good breakfast of 3 links (120) and a yogurt (100). At noon I have a two hour beauty appointment for a mani/pedi and lip waxing. Holy cow, I never thought I'd get into the waxing thing, but the Arimidex is a hair-growing drug in disguise!! I have never had so much facial hair before.

I'm not sure where or what lunch is going to be, but I know that dinner is going to be at Olive Garden. We have a rehearsal at 6:30 tonight at our synagogue for their annual talent show, which is Sunday afternoon. We thought we would have a late dinner tonight at Olive Garden because we still have a $25 gift card that someone gave us last year for the holidays and Olive Garden is just one mile from the shul. I know it's possible to eat reasonably well there because they have a fish dish. I need to say NO to the bread, which is hard because they are so delicious, but Mark will help with that. He never eats the bread. I also need to say NO to any alcohol or dessert. That's the plan. I'll let you know if it works out later.

Back to Routine

First, if your pictures are lined up from top to bottom when you log on, here is what they are:
1. Mark and me in front of the Babcock House Bed and Breakfast in Appamattox,
2. Me, Flyn, and Katie walking on the Richmond-Lynchburg road to the McLean house where Lee signed the surrender agreement with Grant,
3. Mark setting up Katie's new wireless router,
4. Jackie, me, and Cindy at breakfast in the hotel,
5. The table in the McLean House where Grant sat when he signed the surrender agreement.

We had a relatively easy drive up from Farmville to Lorton on the Sunday after Thanksgiving. Yes, there was heavy traffic, but it moved right around the speed limit the whole way. We arrived at the Lorton Auto Train station about 1 p.m. and found an unusually large back up trying to get into the station entrance from three different directions. In fact, it was clear that no one was moving or had been moving for quite some time. People were walking around outside of their cars.

About 1:20, cars started to inch their way up to the station, and we finally got our car number about 1:50. On our way up there, we were able to ask an Amtrak employee who was directing traffic near the entrance if this was normal for the holiday weekend. After all, even though we have used the auto train several times, we had never done it on a holiday weekend. She said, no, this was due to an early morning accident.

The northbound train was just a few miles away from the station near the Quantico marine base at 7:30 a.m. and on the way to arriving at Lorton early when someone suddenly committed suicide by jumping in front of the train. At that point, the train was held up until 11:30 while the authorities came and did what they had to do with accident investigation and removal of the body. This meant that they didn't start unloading the previous train until it was the time when they should have been loading the new train; therefore, a long back up ensued. To Amtrak's credit, all of the employees were cheerful and polite as they tried to get a super packed train unloaded and reloaded. We actually left right on time at 4 p.m. Amazing.

We had the chance to talk to a second Amtrak employee while waiting in line and learned from her that the engineer who was in the cab at the time of the accident may retire/resign. She said he was very upset and might not be able to come back to work. So sad for everyone.

Meanwhile, we did spend two great days with Flyn and family after the holiday. After eating breakfast at the hotel with Cindy and Jackie before they went home Friday morning, we hung out with Flyn, Jim, and Katie and ate leftovers for lunch. Mark got Katie an early Christmas present of a wireless router for the house and set it up for her. She's thrilled to be able to use her laptop at home now.

Then we went to see the new Muppets movie, which was really cute. We ate a nice dinner of turkey leftovers with them before going back to the hotel that night. On Saturday, we again had a nice lunch at their house, and then Flyn drove us all over to the Appamattox Historical State Park. That was quite a lot of fun. We had never been there and neither had Jim. We walked around the whole park and also drove to some of the other historical markers along the way. We went in the McLean house where the surrender agreement between Generals Lee and Grant was signed. It was pretty cool to do that.

That night we had a fantastic dinner at an historic bed and breakfast in Appamattox called the Babcock House. Everyone enjoyed the dinner. The next morning we said goodbye to the Windlemeese clan and started that trip north to the train.

No problems on the train once we took off. I always enjoy the ride. Mark and I worked on updating the photos from the trip and added some picture captions. We read books, enjoyed the nice dinner, and slept better than we had anticipated we would. The train was absolutely solidly booked. In fact, the engineer announced that we were the longest passenger train on record, 16 passenger cars and 26 car carriers plus 2 engines.

When we got home, we went right to Downtown Disney in sunny and 80 degree weather. We had a boat load of fun picking out two Disney toys (one for a girl and one for a boy) at the World of Disney to give to Toys for Tots. Then we had lunch at our favorite fast food place there, Fresh A-peel/Pollo Campero. We had a fallafel-veggie burger with humus that was amazing. Then, we finally went home. Wow! Does it feel good.

Even though I was tired, I unpacked everything, showered, dressed, and then it was suddenly time to go to Denny's (no food in the house) for an early dinner because I had a 5:50 call for the Guys and Dolls rehearsal. It was exhausting, but it was so much fun to get together and sing with everyone again! They have a truly amazing director and support staff. The stage set-up and sound/light crew and tech was unbelievable!! The show will run for three nights from December 2-4 and has sold over 300 tickets for each night. In fact, the Saturday night show is sold out. I'm pretty excited to be part of this. We have a 6:15 call tonight for the last rehearsal, and tonight is my night for my "Believe" solo, which I will sing Friday night. I hope my voice holds up. It was a little shaky last night after fighting a cold for over a week at the start of this trip.

Today, Mark and I are going to practice for the synagogue show numbers that we are doing on Sunday. I have two shows to do that day. I know it will be fun but completely exhausting! We were going to go over to the outdoor water aerobics class at 10:30 this morning, but it's only going to be a high of 69 today. Hm...not really an outdoor aerobics kind of day in my mind. Instead, we might go play some mini-golf! Hope everyone reading this has a great day, too.

Happy Thanksgiving

We had a most enjoyable day today at my sister Flyn's house. We had Kip, Denise, Logan, Jim, Flyn, Katie, Cindy, Jackie, Jim's son Scotty,and Jim's friend Ron and me all around the Thanksgiving table. Flyn worked really hard to make a beautiful table and a great dinner. Thanks, Flyn, for all that effort!

Jim and Ron had prepared some buckets of dirt from their gold mine. We watched them pan for gold. Kip even took a turn and found a few little bits. The weather outside was especially nice.

I did miss my kids, though. This is the first Thanksgiving that I spent without them. I called Evey a few times on the phone. We both had wi-fi so we were able to see each other on our iPhones to talk. That was fun. She spent the day with Eric at Eric's aunt and uncle's house in Mission Viejo, near LA. She had a wonderful time, but I sure missed her.

Lowell spent the day with Emily at her parent's house. I spoke to him on the phone finally, late in the evening. I know he ate well and was surrounded by people who love him, but I still missed him.

We are going to spend two more days here with Flyn, Jim, and Katie. We hope to go see the new Muppets movie tomorrow.

I hope everyone had a great time with family and friends today. I know that even though I missed my kids, I was thankful that they were both surrounded by people who love them as much as I do. I am thankful that I have so much fantastic family. We are a blended, mixed up bunch of people who love each other dearly. I just hope that everyone who reads this blog had as wonderful a day as I did.

Traveling Again

The weather yesterday was just atrocious. It was one of those days when the clouds were low, gray, and pouring rain all day long. Driving around the Baltimore-Washington area is never easy, but in that kind of weather it was especially odious.

We spent a lot of yesterday on the road. First, we drove to Silver Spring to visit our friend Rudy and exchange holiday gifts. Then we drove back up to Pikesville for our kosher Subway lunch. That was completely out of our way, but a luxury we could not pass up. After lunch, we drove south again to the Woodlawn area to visit my cousin Irene.

She surprised us with how well she looked. Last Thursday she went to the emergency room with a stroke. They found an 89% blockage in her left carotid artery, but it only affected her speech a little bit. Her strength in her limbs was miraculously unaffected. She really was blessed. Now she is home on drug therapy to try to shrink the blockage somewhat before surgery, which will be in about four weeks. She is on blood thinners and under orders to rest and take it easy until the surgery to clean out the artery. Sitting around and just giving orders is NOT Irene's way, so this will be a challenge. She is a nurse, so she knows the implications of not following orders. Her husband Gary and granddaughter Heather will see to it that she complies!

We spent about two hours visiting with her and Gary and their great-grandson Kevin. Kevin is already 10 years old! So hard to believe. I thought it might be full of other relatives, but they had all gone back to their homes. We had Irene and Gary all to ourselves, which was fantastic.

I have included some pictures today from Evey's college graduation party in May of 2010. Irene, Gary, and their granddaughter Heather attended. I posted a picture of the three of them. I also posted some pictures of my family. I was depressed looking at the pictures of myself. It was a month before I found the lump in my breast. I was back from a fantastic seven week vacation; Evey had graduated and was planning her move to California; our house was cleaned out and up for sale. I was forty-five pounds thinner and had my long hair. I look so different. I had no idea that day what I was facing in just a few months time.

Dog Cuddling

We had a wonderful time playing with the dogs yesterday. Kip and Denise have three Australian Cattle Dogs: Sydney, Roux, and Wallaby. It is such a pleasure getting to play with them.

Here are a few pictures of the fun!

Meeting the Parents

Lowell and Emily have been a couple for over a year, so it was time for the two sets of parents to meet at last. We had a fantastic time getting to know Pat and Phil. They live in Ellicott City, so Emily made reservations at a lovely restaurant in an historic building on Main Street. Portalli's had excellent Italian food! I also loved the atmosphere in this building, which was built in the 1700s. Main Street in Ellicott City is just one of those "must see" little streets full of buildings from the 1700s and eclectic little shops.

Our table was on the third floor of this narrow, old building. We had to walk up two long, steep flights of stairs to get there, so that was pretty interesting. Mark and I almost never go up stairs anymore in Florida! LOL! I don't know if that's good or bad, but I do know Mark is complaining his knee is hurting this morning as he goes up and down the stairs in Cindy's house.

Mark and I both had the salmon with string beans. I also ordered a side dish of spaghetti squash that was just wonderful. We all had some lovely drinks, and the conversation flowed well. I really enjoyed their company and getting to know more about them. After dinner, we all walked a block down to the Bean Hollow Coffee Shop for dessert and coffee. This was the spot where Lowell and Emily met for their first date in the fall of 2010, and then they took the Ghost Tour of old Ellicott City. Walking down to the coffee shop, we saw a crowd across the street. Lowell pointed out that they were on the Ghost Tour! I just found it absolutely delightful to see where Lowell and Emily had their first date! How cool.

Today we are heading back to Greenbelt to an Adult Ed lecture on the environment led by a friend of ours, Lore R. Then we will do some shopping and conclude the afternoon and evening at my brother Kip's house for pizza and a movie and a chance to play with his three Australian Cattle dogs, Sidney, Roux, and Wallaby.

There is only one thing that is not good. My dear cousin Irene had a stroke on Thursday and is still in the hospital. I have talked to her granddaughter and hope to go visit her tomorrow or Tuesday. They are still thinking she is going to be released tomorrow, but I will call later tonight and find out the updates. Irene is a generous, warm, loving woman. She has five children and many grand and even great-grandchildren. She is being surrounded by all of them right now, so even though I can't be there with her yet, I know she is being well cared for and receiving all the love and attention she deserves. I have included the picture that I took of her and Lowell together at Kip's house in July at Evey's wedding shower. Irene, you are in our prayers for a speedy and complete recovery.

Good times

We had a long two day drive to get to Cindy's, including some slow back ups involving overturned potato trucks and rush hours. Still, we have had a nice time once we got here.

We especially enjoyed having kosher Chinese food for dinner Thursday night, with leftovers for Friday lunch. Shopping at Seven Mile Market for kosher food was also highly entertaining.

Shabbat dinner with Ken, Cindy, Lowell, and Emily was fantastic. We served matzo ball soup, kishka and gravy (and everyone agreed it was wonderful!), challah and wine, barbecued chicken, brussel sprouts, brocolli, potato kugel, and cupcakes for dessert. Delicious!!

Today we went to services, and it was fun to catch up with everyone. Then I played Mahj with my girlfriends. Annie is always so wonderful. This is the third time she has provided us lunch and a place to play Mah Jongg after services. I can't thank her enough. I had no luck today at all, so I didn't win a single game. I don't care. It was still fun.

Soon we are driving to Ellicott City, about an hour from Cindy's house, to have dinner at a restaurant with Lowell, Emily, and Emily's parents. I am looking forward to meeting them.

I've been fighting a nasty cold all this time. The urge to cough is very strong, but I know it will destroy my voice. I'm sucking down Cold-Eeze and throat lozenges like crazy. Also all this food! OY! You know what that does to me. The tons of sodium in the Chinese food really has me retaining fluid. I was up four pounds this morning since we left the house on Wednesday. I ate well for breakfast and did well at Annie's for lunch, too, but I still have dinner tonight to get through. I don't like the pictures I took of myself here at all. It's really showing all the weight I've put back. From my lowest point, I've put back almost half the weight I took off. Not good.

Stayed the same

That says it all. Last Wednesday: 257; today: 257. Hm...I used to feel reasonable about saying the same, but not so much now. It was bad enough when I was waffling up and down from 245-250, which I have basically done from last February when we came to Florida for good until mid-October when we drove to Maryland to go on the Carnival Pride cruise. Now I'm waffling ten pounds higher. I am carrying the ten pounds I gained on the cruise and making no progress.

I guess part of it is that we have spent a lot of time going to the Epcot Food and Wine Festival and Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party, both of which involved a lot of calories. I suspect all the walking involved kept me from gaining and allowed me to maintain the weight for the week. It's still not good, though.

Rhonda, I sang my solo last night in front of the whole group. I was nervous, but I guess it went ok. Lots of people complimented me, but one lady that I sing next to regularly commented that I sounded nervous. She was RIGHT! I was nervous, and the solo is so short that there's not enough time to get the butterflies out as it progresses. Sigh. Well, it was good enough for the first time in a rehearsal. I have one more rehearsal to sing it in on November 29 and then the show is December 2. Two other ladies sing it on the other two nights of the show. That makes it easy for me!

Today we are heading north to Florence, SC. We hope to leave by 8 a.m., and so far it seems we are on track to do that. Tomorrow night we will be back in Cindy's house. I'm really looking forward to seeing her again. I am taking my computer and will always be able to write blogs and check emails on this trip. I'm also taking my scale this time. I am going to try really hard to spend the next two weeks staying the same, or even losing. I do NOT want to come back the Monday after Thanksgiving and find that I am in the 260s. The cruise in January is going to be no fun at all if I don't lose some weight before I get on that ship!

Dave Barry again

Everyday I think of Lowell. One reason is that I start every morning with the Classic Dave Barry calendar page that he always gives me for Hanukkah. Last week there was an especially amusing one, at least to me, and probably to anyone who has ever had a dog. I have been meaning to share it with everyone, but other things have taken up the blog instead. Today, I'm going to do it!

This is from November 9:
"If a dog really likes you, he goes and gets his Special Toy. This is something that used to be a recognizable object--a stuffed animal, a basketball, a Federal Express driver--but has long since been converted, through countless hours of hard work on the dog's part, into a random wad of filth held together by seventy-three gallons of congealed dog spit. 'GIVE ME THAT!' you shout, grabbing an end of the Special Toy. This pleases the dog. It confirms his belief that his Special Toy is the most desirable item in the universe, more desirable even than the corpse of a squirrel."

I thought this was pretty cool. It really reminded me of Casey! He was a master at congealed (and uncongealed) dog spit. We had dog spit EVERYWHERE!! We also played tug with a lot of nasty "special toys."

I wrapped a lot of presents yesterday, and I will do more today. It's kind of a good feeling knowing that almost all of the holiday shopping is over. There are only a few things left to order online. We are driving up the coast tomorrow, so I will be delivering things on this visit. Fun times!

I'm not doing anything about the weight. That's so sad. Mark and I went out to lunch at the Gateway Cafe, which we often call the Upper Crust, in our neighborhood. We each had a big custom made salad and two pieces of pizza. Neither one of us needed two pieces because those pieces are BIG, but we were both especially hungry and the pizza was especially delicious. Breakfast and dinner were reasonable, and I did not snack. Tomorrow I will weigh in. I hope to keep today under control, but the day is young. LOL!!

As I already said, we are driving up the coast tomorrow to Florence, SC on our way to Baltimore. It will be nice to see every one again. I know we were just up there for the cruise not long ago, but we will be staying with Cindy this time and seeing the rest of my family for the holiday. We are also going to meet Emily's parents for the first time at a nice dinner in a restaurant Saturday night. I'm looking forward to that. I have had a few email exchanges with her mom Pat, but this will be our first face to face meeting. Can't wait.

Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party

We had a l-o-n-g day yesterday. When we left the house at 8:30 a.m. to go to the synagogue for a rehearsal, we knew we wouldn't get home until late, but I never suspected it would be 1 a.m.!! Wow!

The rehearsal was fine, and then I went to the salon for my appointment. That was fine, too. I am letting my hair grow out a bit, so Angel only trimmed the bangs and the back. She had it all poofed up in a very glamorous style, but that only lasted until we got to Epcot. It was sunny, so I put my hat on and that was the end of the glamorous hair.

We had the Australian moscato, which was excellent, but the ice cream was sold out. I had the coconut cake from Australia instead. Mark got the macadamia mousse from the dessert pavilion. After a quick trip up to the UK for some last minute shopping, we started our trek over to the Magic Kingdom. If you have never tried to go from one park to another, you may not know that it can easily take an HOUR!! By the time we walked from Epcot's World Showcase, rode the tram to the car, walked the long aisle to the car, drove to the Magic Kingdom, rode the tram to the Ticket and Transportation Center, rode the monorail, walked to the park entrance, and got to Cosmic Ray's in Tomorrowland for dinner, over an hour had elapsed. We left World Showcase at 4:00 p.m. and arrived at Cosmic Ray's at 6. TWO HOURS!! Distances are amazing here.

This was my first time at Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party, and it did not disappoint. It was just so much fun. You have to buy a special ticket for it, although our season passes did get us a nice discount, also going early in the season is cheaper. The park actually closes at 7 for the party, and then people come in with the special ticket and get a wrist band.

The usual shows, most of the restaurants, and some of the rides are closed, but the special things that are open are awesome. Pecos Bill and Cosmic Ray's are the two main restaurants where you can get a dinner. In some of the other restaurants, you can only get four things: hot chocolate, sugar cookies, apple slices, and apple juice. BUT, these things are free and unlimited all night! We did our share.

It was a great time! I think we will be making this an annual event.

Shul, no Pool. Too cool.

Yes, we are having that cold snap. We actually turned the heat on two nights ago, although it didn't have to kick on. Mark keeps it at 68, and this morning the thermostat read 69. Close. In general we find that this house is very well insulated.

After shul, it was pleasant on the lanai with a sweater on. I worked on my new jigsaw puzzle for quite a long time and made a lot of progress. Eventually, I fell asleep and enjoyed my afternoon nap, too. When I woke up, we watched the next Disney movie in the line up, The Three Caballeros. It was a lot of fun. Now I'm watching the next episode of Star Trek: Enterprise. Also fun.

There really isn't anything else to report today. Kind of a lazy day, although I think I really needed it. I have been fighting off a cold for a week, and today I think it might be winning the fight. I could barely sing at shul this morning. That's not good because I have a rehearsal at shul at 9:15 tomorrow morning and have to sing Monday and Tuesday nights. Tuesday night is my night to sing my "Believe" solo for the first time in front of the whole group. UGH! I really want to sound good then, so I am going to nurse this throat along as best as I can.

Veterans Day in Solivita 11-11-11

Today is one of those "once in a hundred years" types of dates, 11-11-11. It's also Veterans Day.

Last spring, Mark and I attended the Memorial Day services where I saw the choir singing patriotic songs and the theme songs of the various military branches. I said to Mark that I wanted to do that. Well, today I got my chance. Members of the choir, Guys and Dolls, directed by Ellen Factor (standing with her back to me in blue in one of these pictures), came out today to sing the same things for the Veterans Day celebration. It was very similar to the Memorial Day salute except shorter since there were less speeches. It was a chilly morning, but there was still quite a crowd. I felt very proud to be out there singing with them.

Mark's father and my father were both in the army during WW II. Our country's freedoms have always been, and will always continue to be, won and maintained by the brave men and women in our military. They deserve all the honors they receive, and much more.

After the ceremony, Mark and I made a quick trip to Epcot for a few more foods and wines. We had a moscato from Portugal today that was very disappointing. It wasn't at all sweet. Mark also wanted to eat another Greek griddled cheese, but they were sold out. Bummer for him. The best things we had today were the pumpkin mousse and a Portuguese desert that was like a sweet egg custard in a light crust. It looked like a tart, very warm and sweet. So good! We both had a second mahi mahi for an entree. I took a second bunny chow and Mark took a second salmon for our other entree. The rest of the day was drinks and desserts. We plan to go back one final time on Sunday for just about an hour. It's the last day of the festival, then we are going to the Magic Kingdom for the Christmas Party. Sunday we plan to drink a moscato from Australia and eat maybe one more dessert. I think mine will be ice cream with Grand Marnier sauce.

We were so exhausted that we both took a forty minute nap when we got home! We're such old fogeys.

Survivor

Yesterday was an incredible day for many reasons. First, we went back to Epcot for the second day in a row in order to shop and eat some more. Oh, yeah, it's good.

I shopped in England, France, the USA, and Germany yesterday. We are DONE!! I have only to finish a few things online for a few people, but all the actual shopping at Epcot is finished. I had sent an email months ago to all of my family and some friends asking which country at Epcot was most interesting to them. I asked them to pick one and that's where I went to get a holiday present for them. It was a lot of fun for Mark and me because there were shops in those countries that we had never explored. I hope people like what we picked out for them from their country of choice, but more than that, we had a BALL going into all the stores and exploring them in detail, looking for that one special present.

As for eating, we are still going two more times just for fun and eating, so we spaced our food and drink out a bit. Mark and I both started off with Mai Tais from Hawaii and Mark also ate poke, a raw tuna dish on seaweed salad that is extremely representative of that state. It's literally their "comfort food." While he ate that, I had salmon from Canada. We both also bought our favorite griddled cheese from Greece for the third time, but it was not prepared well this time. The cook barely left it on the griddle, so it came out cold and not crusty on the bottom. Bummer. Had it been like that the first time, we would not have gone back for a second time.

The next thing I had was the Godiva liqueur iced coffee from Belgium. We also bought several boxes of the chocolate truffles to take home for later. The coffee wasn't very alcoholic or very big, but it was extremely delicious. I might have to have another one of those tomorrow! Mark got his cannoli from Italy, and we both had the cheese fondue with sourdough bread from the Cheese Board booth. Neither of us cared for any of those items. That concluded my eating and drinking for the day, but Mark rounded off his afternoon with a Berry Colada from the Caribbean booth. I will probably get that Friday when we go back. It looked great.

So shopping and eating was one thing that made yesterday great. The second thing was meeting our Facebook friends Barbara and Al. Mark's cousin had set Barbara and me up as FB friends because she knew us both and knew that we both shared a love of Disney. I must say Barbara and Al are MUCH bigger fans than Mark and I , if you can believe that! She has posted so many pictures on FB of the two of them at Disney with various friends, eating wonderful foods, including the Mickey ice cream bars. So yesterday, through FB messaging, we just decided it was finally time to meet.

She called me on the cell while I was shopping in the USA gift shop. We met a few minutes later in Italy! I recognized them right away from all the pictures of them I had seen on Facebook. Wow! It was so much fun. We all hit it off right away and were never at a lack for conversation.

We have more in common than just Disney. Barbara and Mark actually graduated from the SAME high school in Brooklyn, in the SAME year! Neither of them remembers the other from those years, but still...what are the odds? Also they both met through computer dating back in the early 1970s, like we did! It was a different company and different type of plan, but still...what are the odds? They are the ONLY other couple we have EVER met who used a dating service in the early 70s. Most people didn't even know they existed back then. One more coincidence: we share birthday months. Barbara and I are both August birthdays, and Mark and Al are both March birthdays. So I think we are destined to be friends.

We spent the rest of the afternoon together before it was time to go to dinner with some other friends. That's the third great thing about yesterday. We were invited to dinner at the home of another couple we had met around the pool. We actually had met them a few years ago, but now that we live here, they called to invite us to dinner at their home. Right now, there is another friend of ours, Susan, who is staying with them for her job. She is actually from the northern VA area, which is where we met her first, but now she is working in Kissimmee and staying with Fred and Lana. The five of us shared a fantastic salmon dinner that Lana prepared. Great food, great company, great conversation.

Susan is a breast cancer survivor. She and I have had several conversations about that when we run into each other now and then. Last night she presented me with a fantastic cross stitch sampler, all framed in glass ready to hang on the wall! It is now on the wall in the kitchen, just to my left as I sit at the table using the laptop. I can see it every day. On the back, she hand wrote me a lovely note: "Becky, You are now part of a sisterhood of SURVIVORS. Keep our love and support in your heart. If the day comes that you want to pass this on to another survivor, feel free. The chain of survivor support is strong. Love, Susan." WOW! Amazing, right? Thanks, Susan, I love it!!

Yes, yesterday was a great day: eating and shopping at Epcot, meeting Barbara and Al, having dinner with Fred, Lana, and Susan, and receiving the fantastic "Survivor" sampler. Days like yesterday don't come along all the time, so I am really savoring the memory this morning.

Wednesday Weigh In

Well, I think Wednesday Weigh In has a better ring to it than Tuesday Weigh In. There's that alliteration thing going on.

257 this morning. Down two for the week, which means up 3 in the last two days since I had been down five. It's not good. I just cannot hang around in the 250s for the next six months before bumping up to the sixties.

Meanwhile yesterday we ate lunch by walking around Epcot's World Showcase for the second time at the Food and Wine Festival. Yesterday's menu started at Brazil with the grilled mahi mahi with rice in coconut lime sauce and a special alcoholic drink called Lebron Caipirinha, a frozen drink that reminded me of a margarita. Lebron is a brand of cachaca, which is fermented sugar cane that seems a bit tequila-like. It was YUMMY! Mark had a Cabernet from Argentina with his fish. Then we walked to Norway and had the BEST rice pudding ever. It was not sweet or full of cinnamon like most. It was very thick with rice, not sweet, and topped with fresh strawberries. Mark and I really enjoyed it.

Our next stop was South Africa. We were really looking forward to the Bunny Chow. It was a wonderful vegetarian curry inside a little bread bowl. Just scrumptious. Mark had his with a Chardonnay.

Right next door was the Cheese pavilion near Germany where we ordered the cheese platter. It had three pieces of cheese and three crackers. They were all delicious. I ordered a Riesling to go with it, and Mark had the wine pairing recommendation of a pinot noir. Just across the way was the German pavilion starring a fantastic warm apple strudel with Werther's caramel sauce all over it. My plate accidentally included a Mickey head in caramel. LOL!! How appropriate. Wait, maybe Mark's plate was the accident and mine was normal. Maybe they are supposed to get a Mickey head and Mark's was defective! Who knows? Maybe we should get it again today and find out!

After shopping in several pavilions, we were making our way around France when we heard my name being called. Ha! We were surprised to run into Angel, Marlene, and Maggie. Angel is our nail and hair person, and Marlene and Maggie are the receptionists at the salon. How cool!! They said that this was their first time walking around the Food and Wine Festival together. They said it would NOT be their last time!! That was so much fun to run into people we know.

As we went around the lake, we decided to buy the Irish cheese platter again. It was excellent the first time, but I ate it very hurriedly because it was pouring rain and I was talking on the phone to Evey at the same time. I really wanted to taste those cheeses again, and they were worth it.

Finally, we stopped at Greece again to enjoy the griddled cheese, and Mark also had the special white wine pairing with it again. He really enjoyed that white wine, which is odd for him. Mostly he only likes reds. The first time we had the griddled cheese we thought it was on bread. Again, it was pouring rain and we ate it very quickly. This time it was sunny, so we sat on a bench to savor it. There's no bread. It's just a big slab of cheese that is cooked on a griddle so it's crusty on the bottom, warm but not runny on top. It's topped with chopped pistachios and drizzled with honey. We have never had anything like it! So delicious.

Summing up, Mark had FOUR glasses of wine yesterday: Cabernet, pinot noir, chardonnay, and something white and Greek. I can't remember the name of that one because it was odd and is only just now coming to the U.S. We had never heard of it before. I had a Riesling and a frozen Brazilian concoction. This was lunch for the two of us and it came to $73. I guess that's not too bad considering all the alcohol. On Sunday, which was also our lunch, we only spent $57.25. I'm sure we have spent that much for lunch for two in some restaurants when tax and tip are added in.

Today we are going back for the third time. I still have some shopping to accomplish in two or three pavilions. We are really cleaning up all of our holiday shopping at Epcot this year. I have not shopped in real stores for so many years that I had forgotten how hard it is to walk around carrying packages! LOL!! Online shopping is so much easier! Point, click, and it shows up at the door. Not this year. Most of my shopping is all being done these days at Epcot. Mark and I are having a lot of fun going in all the shops and trying to pick out just the right thing for our family and friends.

As for food today, we will eat Greek griddled cheese bread for a third time! I wouldn't mind the Canadian salmon again either. I still have some frozen drinks, a Godiva chocolate liqueur iced coffee, and a few moscatos to drink. We didn't try the cheese fondue with sourdough yet, either. Mark plans to eat the poke, a raw tuna dish from Hawaii. We actually both had it at the luau in Maui in March of 2010. I didn't like it then, so I don't plan to try it today. Also, Mark doesn't want to miss the cannoli in Italy, so that's on today's agenda as well.

Well, this surely explains why I weigh 257 today.

Second Time

Mark and I are going back to the Epcot Food and Wine Festival today. There are lots more countries to visit for lunch today, including the Brazilian mahi mahi and the South African bunny chow. I can also do some more holiday shopping.

Yesterday instead of Mah Jong, 10 of us went to the Hadassah Luncheon and Fashion show. It was OK. The fashions came from a local department store called Belks. I've never been to one, and I wasn't inspired to go there by the fashions yesterday. The lunch was egg salad, tuna salad, waldorf salad, and bagels and cream cheese followed by gigantic cookies and brownies. Oh, it was yummy, and I ate way, way too much.

Mark made me a terrific dinner from Hungry Girl, but I blew it by eating a ton of saltine crackers with margarine. I am up four pounds today, so the five I lost have turned into only one. My weigh in last week was on a Wednesday morning, so I think I'm going to shift my weigh ins from now on to Wednesdays. I'll see how it goes tomorrow morning after Epcot. I'm counting on the walking again.

I'm feeling depressed about it because for six months I've been in the mid to upper 240s and whined about it constantly. I have not been able to get back to something lower. NOW I have hit the upper 250s!! How horrible that's going to be if I don't get out of this range before the next cruise in January. Before I know, it I could be worrying about getting out of the 260s or 70s again. From there it's just a hop, skip, and a jump, or possibly two cruises, to the three hundreds. OY! This has got to stop.

This morning Mark read on our local forum that there was a PANTHER sighting last night just a few streets away from us. Really? A panther? That is huge news because they are so rare. I hope they eat the wild hogs!!

Epcot Food and Wine Festival

Mark has attended this event two different years. Evey attended it every chance she got during her months here working at the Disney Wide World of Sports as an Athletic Trainer Intern. Lowell and I had never been here, but now only Lowell still has to try to get here. I want to create a new holiday for my kids, "The Epcot Food and Wine Festival Holiday." It will be every year in October, and I'm hoping it will turn out when the Maryland teachers have a Friday off so Lowell and Emily could fly down for a three day weekend. I'm sure Evey and Eric could find the time then as well. How much fun would that be for all six of us to eat our way around World Showcase!

We went there for about four hours. It was so much fun. Of course, when you don't eat meat, there are a lot fewer food options, but there were still plenty. We plan to go about three or four times total, so we didn't have to stuff ourselves with every food in one day. That was a good thing!

There are 28 pavilions from countries around the world. Today we hit only a few. First we went to Greece and had a griddled cheese bread. It was simply amazing and probably our favorite food from the whole day. I also ordered the Greek yogurt strawberry parfait. Mark got a white Greek wine with his. From there, we walked to Canada and got the salmon with barley salad. The salmon was wonderful, but I didn't care for the cold barley salad because it had too much vinegar in it for my taste. While there, we did some shopping in the Canadian gift shop.

Next was the United Kingdom. I shopped in several shops at the UK, but we also went to the Ireland pavilion for the fantastic cheese platter that included a wonderful apple chutney and a slab of a thick black bread. I had the warm lava cake as well. The only thing that made eating these foods challenging was that it was raining pretty heavily at the time! We felt silly because we had not taken our rain ponchos nor did we bring a backpack even though we knew we planned to do shopping. Sigh. We felt like rubes.

From England we moved to France. Mark got a merlot, which he didn't care for, and I got a cosmos slushie that was sensational. The rain stopped, and we sat in the sun enjoying our drinks before heading to Belgium for the waffles with berry compote and whipped cream. Unbelievably delicious. I also got a little box of chocolate truffles to take home for later. Although they sell a wonderful sounding Godiva chocolate liqueur iced coffee, I decided to try that another day.

I shopped in Japan and Mexico and then we headed home. There are 28 food pavilions altogether, so when we return on Tuesday we plan to hit several more delicious ones. Hopefully, we will also come back Wednesday and Friday! By then we should have tried everything we want to try. For vegetarians, there are many more desserts and drinks than main dishes, so we have to space them out! South African has a vegetarian entree called "bunny chow" that we are looking forward to trying. There is also mahi mahi in Brazil and another cheese assortment and fondue in the special cheese pavilion near Germany for some more main dishes to have. I'll let you know how they go.

Another special treat today was seeing the new Chinese acrobat show. This particular group has just recently come to Epcot, so we were very excited to see that our timing was perfect for catching their show today on our way home. What a fantastic day!

Now we are home watching a Disney movie called "Victory Through Air Power." How appropriate to watch a Disney movie after spending the afternoon at WDW. Mark is cooking a nice grilled salmon with baked potato and salad for dinner. I walked several miles today, so I'm hoping those calories got worn off!

Treeful

When Evey was an infant, we found a wonderful daycare lady in our neighborhood. Mrs. Jan kept her from the age of four and a half months until just past age 3, when she could start full time pre-school. On her last day with Mrs. Jan, Evey was given a little gift to take with her. It was a small cutting in a styrofoam coffee cup from Mrs. Jan's philodendron. Evey was so proud of it. She named it Treeful.

Over the years, Treeful graduated out of the styrofoam cup into a small pot, then a bigger pot, and a bigger pot, and a BIGGER pot. He is now 21 years old and lives on our lanai.

We used to keep him in the living room where the temperatures never fluctuated too much. It ranged from 66 to 80 degrees. (The only exception was the blizzard of 2010 when we lost our power for 26 hours and the temperature dropped to 52 indoors.) Treeful is a philodendron, after all, which means he is a vine native to the Amazon jungle areas. He likes low light because his relatives in the Amazon grow near the bottom of the forest. He likes to climb and spread out looking for that light at the top of the tree tops. He loves humidity, and he does not like the temperatures to go below 65, although up to 105 is just fine. Our lanai is perfect for him most of the time!

NOT NOW!! This morning it was cold out there. The thermometer says 62, so I'm sure he is surviving. It's going to go up to a high of 74 later today, but tonight it's going down into the fifties. The lanai tends to stay warmer than the outdoors, but I'm thinking it is time to bring Treeful indoors today. After all, I left him indoors last winter because we were in Maryland. I didn't want him freezing out there with no one at home to bring him in, so I just left him on the kitchen table the whole time.

I don't want him on the kitchen table now because we use it everyday! And did I mention that Treeful is BIG!! So this morning, Mark and I have mulled over several places we could put him that would give him light but not have him in our way. So far, the best choices are the living room, behind the kitchen table on the floor, in the bedrooms by the windows, or in the master bathroom in the giant tub. I'll let you know tomorrow which one we pick. I'll probably not experiment because he's BIG and HEAVY! We will make our decision, and then move him only once. I'll take a picture tomorrow and post it. Meanwhile, here's a picture of him on the lanai this morning.

I also have a small plant that was a holiday present to me from one of my English teacher co-workers at Catonsville High. Thanks, Marie! Your angel plant is doing just fine, too. He's also had some transplants over the years. I think he's about five years old now. I have never given him a name, but I think she said it was called an angel plant. I think I just named HER Angel! LOL! I never thought about that plant being a female before. Treeful is definitely male, but I think Angel is female. I plan to bring Angel in as well because I don't know that she's going to like cold weather either. (FYI: The first picture is Angel, the one in the little pot sitting on top of a microwave oven. The second is Treeful, sitting on a box in a big green pot and growing up a trellis!)

Also, this morning the biggest tom turkey I have ever seen in our neighborhood strutted through our back yard. He looked like Thanksgiving dinner for 50!!

Time to eat breakfast because soon we are leaving for synagogue services. There is a bar mitzvah today. I had best be careful if we stay for the luncheon. I'm doing fairly well. I had about 1600 calories Wednesday, 2700 Thursday, and 1500 yesterday. I walked about 20 minutes yesterday and swam a few laps. This morning I am down a bit over five pounds since Wednesday morning. The weather today will be very nice for a nice long outdoor walk. I hope I actually get out there and do it!

Have a fantastic day.

A sad morning

As soon as I woke up this morning, I checked Facebook on my phone and saw the sad news. Mark's former co-worker announced that her beloved husband passed away last night. He had ALS and had been fighting it bravely for a number of years. This was not unexpected news in that he had just been released from the hospital a few days ago so that he could die peacefully at home. Sharon has been a remarkably brave, strong woman throughout these past few years with him. Mark and I had the privilege and pleasure of visiting them in their beautiful Florida home just this past summer. In fact, we took him a Duffy bear, which Sharon said he liked a lot and cuddled with in his bed. That's what I do with mine! Somehow Duffy is comforting when you are ill. I'm so glad we got to go see him one last time. He was a career naval officer in the Navy band and quite a remarkable musician. Sharon will be having him buried with full military honors in Arlington Cemetery.

Sharon worked for many years in different offices with Mark at Goddard. She and Gordon attended our wedding back in 1975, the two of them came all the way up from their Florida retirement home in 2007 to attend Mark's retirement party.

Rest in peace, Chief Gordon Beckwith, 1941-2011.

Losing Mark's cousin Lisa, age 50, and now his friend Gordon, age 70, within just a few months of each other is a reminder of how precious and short life is. Lisa's husband Allen reminds us regularly on his Facebook posts how much he misses Lisa and tells everyone to be sure to tell those around you how much you love them. Don't take their presence for granted because it might be gone all too soon. He is so right.

Mark, I love you and NEVER take you for granted. I feel so blessed to have found you for my husband. No one could have a better life partner than I do. Of course, I certainly hope that everyone feels the same way about his/her own life partner!