the Good, the Bad, No Ugly

The Good news is that we are heading out to Fort Lauderdale this morning to board the Celebrity Silhouette for our 12 day cruise to St. Thomas, St. Martin, St. Lucia, Grenada, Barbados, Dominica, and St. Kitts and Nevis.  It's very exciting.  More good news is that on Thursday night we discovered the good friends of ours here in Solivita, Norm and Lynn, are also going on this cruise!  So they are picking us up at 7:30 this morning, and we are driving down together.  They have Anytime Dining and we have fixed seating Early Dining.  We plan to try to change to Anytime when we get on board today.

More Good News is that I have lost a little more weight.  This morning I have recorded that I weigh 245.6 before heading out.  I will try very, very hard not to gain much, or ANY, weight in the next 12 days.  Of course, that is so hard to do on a cruise, but if I gain, I know I can get lose it again quickly before the next cruise.

The Bad news is that I'm positive that the Diverticulitis has already returned.  I have felt slight twinges for several days, but yesterday it was quite bad.  This morning it's the same as yesterday, which was a relief. I feared it would be as terrible as the day I went to the ER on November 8.  It's pretty scary to have it back only one month later because I definitely did not eat anything bad and took no NSAIDs.  The Good news here is that I have a full dose of Flagyl with me that I asked my family doctor for on Thursday.  Since you can't have any alcohol while taking it because it will make you violently ill, I'm hoping to hold off on starting to take the Flagyl until tomorrow so that I can at least have a Sail-Away drink today and a glass of wine tonight at our dinner at the specialty dinner, the Tuscan Grille, which is our eighth night Hanukkah present to each other.

So, off we go.  I'm not taking my laptop, so no more blogs until we get back.

Singing at Disney Springs!

I never EVER thought I'd have a chance to sing at Disney Springs, but it happened tonight.  My synagogue choir was invited to sing Hanukkah songs at the store, Luxury of Time by Diamonds International, in Disney Springs.  The owner of the store is a member of the our synagogue, and he actually had to get special permission from the Disney Springs board to let us sing AND light actual candles on a real menorah.  The Rabbi lit the candles and led the blessings.  Then he accompanied our choir.  There were 13 of us singing.  We sang 8 songs, and with some talking in between, it took a total of 25 minutes.  The store even served grape juice and donuts to the audience and performers!  The store personnel were so gracious to everyone, and we had a huge audience of congregants and random people who just came in to see what was going on. It was AWESOME.

When it was over, Mark and I went to dinner with our friends Jonathan and Susan. Then we took a nice long walk down through the Christmas Tree Trail.  It was a great evening.

In the morning Mark and I had our check ups with our family doctor  She was pleased at my weight loss. In fact I hit 246 this morning, so that is a FORTY pound loss since Memorial Day  I am very happy.

Last Friday I had a visit to the gastroenterologist to follow up my ER visit from the diverticulitis.  She wants me to have a colonoscopy in January once the colon has completely calmed down, so that is now scheduled for January 30.  I had blood work done for her, and it shows my white cell count is still slightly elevated.  My primary care doctor wrote me a prescription for more Flagyl, the antibiotic of choice for this sort of infection, to take on the cruise just in case.  I'll pick it up at CVS tomorrow.  That makes me feel a lot better just knowing I'll have it with me.

Mark and I both tried out for the Solivita Theater Group's spring play, Senior Follies.  We both got parts, so now we have to learn a lot of lines.  Guess that's what we will be doing on this upcoming 12 day cruise.  We leave Sunday for Fort Lauderdale to board the Celebrity Silhouette.  I plan on spending a ton of time just trying to memorize lines.

Tonight we light three candles.  Mark is putting the candles in our menorahs, so it's time to finish this blog and go light so we can have presents and settle down for the night.  It's been a long day, but a most wonderful day!  Happy Hanukkah to all.

Great week with Evey and Eric

We had a fabulous time with Evey and Eric over the Thanksgiving week.  We did everything we planned except go to the Science Center.  That day we were all tired from our three days at WDW and the day at Legoland, all of which were super fun.  We just stayed home and did a lot of catch up on some things around the house that day.  Then we went out to dinner at Celebration Town Center.  Thanksgiving was lovely and off they flew home the day after.

Because of my illness, I lost 8 pounds in that week and then stayed the same throughout the week that Evey was here.  I was very excited for that.  Then this morning I hit another milestone.  I weighed 249.6 this morning.  I have not been under 250 since 2013!.  I was 245 at Evey's wedding in 211, then I gained a bunch and lost a bunch so that I was only 236 in 213.  So hitting 245 is my next goal and then 235.

235 might take a very long time because a lot of cruising is coming up and then the big trip to Asia in the spring followed  by Passover immediately after.

I would like to lose ten pounds by the Asian trip, which would be super easy to do if there weren't five cruises between then and now!  lol  Well, the goal is not to gain any weight on any of the cruises,  but I don't know if that's possible.  On the 14 day Canadian cruise I gained 5 pounds, but I lost them in 5 days after we returned.  Then I put them right back on sadly.  The trick is not to put them back on if I gain them again.  We have the first one on December 9.  It's a 12 day cruise with the drink package, like in Canada.  All the other cruises do not have a drink package, so buying every drink definitely means less drinking!  If I gain weight on the 12 day cruise, I'll have to be super careful after it because we have a bunch of dinners out with friends at Disney and then in just 8 days we have the New Year's Eve cruise coming up.  There's just so much cruising in the next three months!

Just checking in quickly

I have not been a good blogger, and I'm not going to try to write details about everything that's been going on now to make up for it. I'm just going to hit a few highlights without any photos.

The cruise was great but COLD.  I gained five pounds on the cruise and then lost them quickly when we returned.  Then I gained them again and lost them again.  Story of my life.

After we got home, I got back on track for weight loss, and we got back on our rat race of activities at home.  It was also so nice to be back in the warm air!

I got a fifth attack of diverticulitis last Thursday and had to go the ER.  This was the worst attack I've ever had.  The really weird thing was that I don't know what I ate.  All the other times I knew that I had eaten popcorn or nuts.  This time I did not do that.  At the ER they took a CT scan, so they know it was diverticulitis.  They gave me Cipro and Flagyl and sent me home for a few days of rest and liquid diet. I spent four days in my recliner, and I just started eating regular food on Monday.

It did cause some more weight loss though!  That's a side benefit that I hope continues.

This morning I was 255.6, which is the lowest I've been in a long time.

That means I have hit another little milestone goal, my weight at Lowell's wedding in the summer of 2014.  I haven't been this low since then, so I'm pretty happy about this.

Yesterday I also got a cortisone shot in my right shoulder.  The last one was last December 4, so I got nearly a year out of it.  That's amazing.  So far this one hasn't kicked in.  In fact, I would say that this morning my shoulder actually hurts more than it did before the shot, but I think that will go away. I'm looking forward to many months of full mobility and no pain like before very soon.

Finally, Evey and Eric will be landing in Orlando tomorrow night and stay through the day after Thanksgiving.  We will be checking into the new DVC resort, Copper Creek, on the grounds of the Wilderness Lodge. They will spend two full days in three of the Disney parks while Mark and I attend two full days of D23 celebrations of Mickey's 90th birthday.  We'll meet up late Sunday night at the Magic Kingdom for the fireworks.  Next Monday we are going to Legoland; Tuesday we are going to the Orlando Science Center and other things around town; Wednesday we have a long day of fun things planned at Disney Springs.  Then we have nine people here for Thanksgiving dinner.  I absolutely have to be fully recovered from my diverticulitis by then, but I fully expect to be so.

I do not anticipate trying to write any more blogs until after they leave the day after Thanksgiving.

December 9 we begin our next cruise, 12 days on the Celebrity Silhouette to the Southern Caribbean.

So that's a quick catch up blog.

Happy Thanksgiving to all.

Celebrity Summit, here we come!

We had a great visit with Vinnie and Annette, dinner at a diner where we all chose to have breakfast for dinner, and then dancing at the masquerade party. It was fun dancing the Electric Slide and the Cuban Shuffle because those always seem to be part of Sail-a-way parties.  We got to practice them last night. We also danced one slow dance and four other fast dances, so I felt like I burned off all those home fries from dinner!

By 10:15 we were checked in to the Comfort Suites in East Brunswick, NJ.

We just finished having breakfast, and now we are back in the hotel room putting the finishing touches on our packing.  Mark is davening while I'm writing this blog.

Soon we are driving over to Leslie's house, which isn't far from here, maybe 10 minutes away.  She's going to let us leave our car parked in front of her house and drive us to the port.  According to Mapquest it's only 36 minutes up to the port from her house.  By 12:30 we hope to be eating lunch in the buffet of the Celebrity Summit.

I've been excited about this cruise for days, but finally last night, after getting into the hotel room, Mark said, "Well, I'm finally starting to get excited for this cruise."  Yay!  Now we are both excited for the cruise.

Heading to NJ

In an hour or so, we will head north to NJ.  We are having some socializing time in the home of our friends, Vinnie and Annette, then an early bird dinner, compliments of Vinnie, followed by a masquerade dance party at their clubhouse, before checking into the Comfort Inn near the Gaertner's house.  It should be a great day.

Since this is a masquerade dance, Annette said wear a mask but no costume. I brought a cat mask from home that used to be Evey's and Mark bought a Zorro/Lone Ranger type mask yesterday at Walmart.  While we were at Walmart, we tried on some Halloween masks.  Those pictures are below and were pretty funny looking.

Cindy got home about 3:30 yesterday, so we had a lovely time catching up on everything.  It surely wasn't enough time, since we had to leave at 4:45, but we'll see her again on the 21st after the cruise. Then she'll be here every day that we are.  Yay!  I love Cindy SO MUCH!

Dinner at Lowell and Emily's house was awesome.  The food was good, too good. I ate too much.  I am so predictable.  I ate exactly what I said I would with a few exceptions.  First, he offered to make special cocktails that he had invented called a Solstice.  It was a form of Cosmo, which he knows I like.  How could I insult him by turning this down?  It was delicious, so three of us had one, and he had Jameson's Irish Whiskey for his dad.  So thoughtful.  We checked out their new gorgeous, gigantic, recliner couch in their basement and how they have fixed up and beautified their little backyard.  Their house looks beautiful.  We had fun playing with Ozma and gave her a squeaky hedgehog like Kiwi's.  I ate what I planned for dinner, but I ate at least twice as much challah as I programmed, and before I ate any meat, I used some of the Kerrygold reduced fat butter on half of the challah.  Delicious.  Then Emily had thoughtfully purchased a sugar free Angel food cake for dessert, an excellent choice, but calories I had not programmed either.  When I got home, I needed some food to take my night time Advil with, so I had two Oreos.  All in all, I think I had about 1900 calories, which is 500 over my daily limit.   That should not be enough to gain weight. It should be a nice maintenance number.

My weight this morning was up only half a pound to 261.5, which could just be sodium from the deli wrap or hidden salt on the chicken cutlet that was cooked in the store.  It's hard to say.  Anyway this is the last morning that I will weigh in until October 22 after the cruise.  It just so easy for me to gain weight when I'm actually trying not to but when I'm not in the house.  I would be grateful to come back from the cruise not higher than 262!  That's for sure!

Enjoy these pictures from yesterday. I have decided to take the computer, and if I can post a blog along the way on the cruise, I certainly will. I might even have time to post one tomorrow with pictures from today with Vinnie and Annette.

Good morning, Baltimore!

We had a very lovely train ride up on Wednesday.  Everything was so smooth, and we came in ahead of schedule.  We even had a a bonus feature because when we got to the train station our friends Ralph and Phyllis Mollerick were there.  We spent the hour or so waiting to board having a fun time chatting with them.  We said our good-byes when it was time to board and went to our sleeper car.  It was a smooth train ride, great dinner.  We slept well.  I ate what I was supposed to.

The train arrived early yesterday morning. and even though our car came out as one of the final ten, it was only 9:15 a.m.  We did a little shopping at the Shopper's Food Warehouse across from the train and the kosher grocery store in Silver Spring then pulled into Cindy's driveway at 12:15.  That was the earliest we ever got to Cindy's house.  So very, very nice.

At that point we just jumped in to unpacking, eating lunch, paying bills, balancing checkbooks, taking naps, and generally getting all settled in.  Cindy's house is surely our home away from home, or as she said to us last week in an email "mi casa es su casa." She's not even here as she's visiting Jackie in WV right now.

Today we are doing a little Walmart run after breakfast and a few more little chores in the house.  With any luck, Cindy will return in the afternoon from her trip out to WV in time to see us before we head over to Lowell and Emily's house for dinner.  She will be gone again to Ken's house for the weekend before we get back from dinner. We won't see her again until we return from the cruise, so we might miss her until the 21st if she doesn't make it back by 5 p.m. today.  We are hoping she can make it back in time.

I did pack my scale, but I'm not happy with what I saw.  Last Friday I reported 260, a very happy five pounds down.  Then I reported every blog that I was holding steady on a plateau.  Actually I didn't write  down the fact that Wednesday morning before heading out to the train, I was down one to 259, so being 261 this morning is extra frustrating.  But there it is anyway.  My weight this morning is 261, an official gain of one pound for the week.

As an average, though, last week I lost five, then gained one this week, so I have averaged a two pound loss for the past two weeks.  Any weight loss group support system like Weight Watchers would be cheering me on. So I'm trying to cheer myself on.  Yay me.

The mentally sick me who does not have a normal relationship with food or weight is sitting here getting depressed over tracking every calorie, eating the exact amount allowed on my LoseIt app, and gaining two pounds in two days.  I just shouted and raged at Mark, who is not the source of my rage but takes it well anyway, that if I'm going to gain weight I'd just as soon do it by eating a big bag of Doritos and have a good time.  lol  Just joking.  Maybe tomorrow morning the pounds will be gone.  It might be the sodium from the Bacos on my salad last night.  I haven't had any Bacos in a long while.

Tonight we agreed with Lowell and Emily to make Shabbat dinner a healthy one.  We bought what looks to be very healthy, very bland chicken breast cutlets with no sauce or breading or anything.  Each cutlet is about 4 ounces.  We also bought something called a deli wrap that looked like a pastry roll up filled with corned beef and pastrami. It's one piece about four inches long by three inches wide that we will slice so that each of us gets about a one inch piece in in depth and about three inches wide.  That's a big unknown in calories.  We will have that with a roasted green veggie that Emily is making although they are using olive oil on it.  There will be wine and challah and no dessert.  I can make that meal work by taking only a small amount of challah like I do at home and not drinking more than a few ounces of the wine.  Unfortunately, they bought a bottle of a sweet white wine at a local MD winery that they are sure I'm going to love just for me to enjoy tonight, so it's going to be hard not to have a full glass to show my appreciation.  Usually I take two ounces of wine on Shabbat.  Tonight I'm going to program four to five ounces. Also that pastrami roll up thing is a huge unknown that will be impossible to guess and full of sodium, but my breakfast and lunch will be at home, very low calories, so I hope things will be ok.  Of course, that's what I thought about the lemon pepper cod on the train and look where I am this morning

So that's where I am and how things are going.  I haven't decided yet about taking the computer on the cruise.  Internet is very expensive on Celebrity cruises.  We have only 90 minutes each for free, and I don't know if I'll use it for blogging.  We shall see what mood I'm in tomorrow morning when we head up to NJ.  Sunday is the day we get on the ship. I'm getting very excited.

Simchat Torah amazement

Last night we saw such an amazing thing!  They unrolled the entire Torah around the social hall at SOJC.  It made big, loose, square around that huge room.  One person held the roller from Genesis and stood still as they unrolled it. It pretty much reached all the way back to that person when it ended, and then another person stood there holding the wooden roller at the end of Deuteronomy.  All along the way,  the congregants were given two paper towels to hold it up gently from the top.  The rabbi, cantor and all those who were going to read from it, and small children were on the inside.  Everyone holding it up with paper towels were mostly shoulder to shoulder on the outside of the circle.  Three or four people were farther outside because they did not want to participate for whatever reason.  Mark was one of those.  I thought that was sad because it was an amazing sight and feeling standing there holding it and watching everyone locate their reading and then reading.

The rabbi did a "Torah Tour."  He read the first sentence to kick it off. Then various people read a sentence on the way around the circle, and the rabbi translated it and put it into context.  The sentences were chosen well, I thought, to tell the story.  Eventually the last sentence was read.  It was an amazing way to celebrate the Torah on Simchat Torah.  Evidently our previous rabbi started this just a couple of years ago, but we had not gone to the night time service here in Florida before. In addition to this amazing site, they also did the seven Hakafot with lots of lively singing and dancing.  There were tons of enthusiastic kids and teens.  There was the whole usual evening service, three aliyahs read from the Torah, and a Sundae bar at the end.  I did NOT make a sundae.  It was a lot of fun.

Today we are not going to the morning services because we just have too much to do in order to head out tomorrow morning by 10 a.m.  Last night I made a To Do list for today and tomorrow and it ran two pages.  I have to get started.  Mark's list includes taking the succah down.  Mine includes going out to get a flu shot because I think it would be better to have it now than to get on a cruise ship in October full of over two thousand people without it.  lol

Meanwhile my plateau continues. I'm 259.8 again this morning after eating 1305 calories yesterday.

I will be taking my laptop with me on the trip, but there will no blogs for the two weeks while we are on the ship.  I won't write one tomorrow morning, but I can write one Thursday afternoon from Cindy's house.

Some interesting odds and ends

Yesterday we bought two new shower heads and two new pieces of luggage.  I chose a 25 inch soft side spinner bag; Mark chose a 24 inch.  We had read that in Japan no one uses large bags, and taxis and buses are not prepared to handle large ones.  In fact, people will stare at those with large bags.  Also on our China Eastern flight from Hong Kong to Shanghai the checked bag weight limit is only 40 pounds, not 50 like on US domestic flights.  We have gigantic bags and regularly are very close to the 50 pound limit. I'm a terrible packer, always taking things I never wear.  

So we decided we need smaller bags and need to pack lighter and smarter.  We are going to use this Canadian cruise to practice for the Asian trip.  We shall see if it works!

Picking new shower heads is harder than it sounds.  We have had some horrible ones in hotels.  I tried to read reviews, but I didn't want to go to stores like Bed, Bath, and Beyond that are far away yesterday.  I didn't have time to order online.  So we only wanted to get what Walmart had, which wasn't much of a choice.  We finally chose a Waterpik PowerSpray+ with a 5 foot hose.  I don't think a 5 foot hose would be long enough if I really had to be seated on our bench after surgery or if I was infirm, but fortunately that is not now the case.  It looks reasonable, so we shall give it a try.  Abdul will install it when we are gone. I hope it's better than what we have now.

We will be going to shul this morning soon.  Mark is reading haftarah.  There's Yizkor to say, and we change from praying for dew to praying for rain.  That's always interesting.  Then this evening we will pick Jonathan and Susan up at 5:30 up and go back for the evening Simchat Torah services.  SOJC does a very interesting thing, which we've never seen.  I'll write about it tomorrow.  They also do a  make-your-own-sundae bar, which I plan to avoid entirely.  All of that will be for tomorrow's blog.

Finally, there's my weight plateau.  Oh, yeah, I've hit my first plateau since Memorial Day. I called it Friday because I had dropped five pounds in one week.  Here is how the last four mornings have gone.

Friday, 260 after eating 1100 calories Thursday

Saturday, 259.8 after eating 1315 calories Friday

Sunday, 260 after eating 1387 calories Saturday

Monday, 260.4 after eating 1375 calories Sunday

So except for last Thursday when for some reason I was significantly under the limit, I had a good amount of calories each day, I have just hung right around the 260 mark.  That's a plateau.  At this point in my weight loss, I am probably going to have to get more serious about adding in some aerobic exercise like walking.  The good news is that my joints aren't hurting and neither are Mark's.  In fact, this morning Mark's leg looks normal.  No swelling at all, and he says no pain.  He's planning to go without the compression stocking today for the first time in over a week.  So we both feel like walking can come back into our lives.  Haha.  Probably not today or the next few days because we are just too overbooked, but definitely on the cruise and on our shore excursions.

Last dinner in the succah last night.

Our dinner in the succah was wonderful last night and so was the show.  It was really nice to have some company over  We had bought a new table, finally, and it is a little bigger and far more stable than our decades old one.  It was easy to put six people around it and have room for all the food.  The sun was low enough not to be blasting us with too much heat and a breeze was blowing.  Delightful.

Lunch today is the last meal in the succah for this year.  It was a lovely season.

Today we are heading over to Walmart to buy some new, smaller luggage for the Canadian trip to practice packing lighter and smarter for the Asian trip.  I'm also buying two new shower heads.  The one in the guest room has never been great.  It's the one that came with the house.  We used to have it in the master bath, too, so I remember it wasn't great.  I replaced it when we remodeled our shower and put a hand held in. I did not choose a good hand held, so I'm replacing both of them.  While we are gone, our cleaning guy is going to install them for us.  I hope I pick good ones this time. It's so hard to know when you can't try them out.  I'm going to read up on them and read reviews this time.  I'd still like to get hand helds, but I want them to have strong water pressure with good coverage and have the same coverage and pressure when used as a hand held, too, without having to be difficult to make it be a hand held.  And also not cost a fortune.  Is that too much to ask?  I'll find out soon.

I was also right about my weight.  This morning I"m 260 again.  When you lose five pounds in one week, the body stabilizes a little. I had a day of about 1400 calories yesterday. I planned the dinner and ate right, no seconds, measured the portions, and did not cheat.  I'm hanging in there.  I'm kind of hoping for a pound off by Wednesday morning when I get on the train.  There are things I can do at the dinner (no roll and butter, the sugar free jello for dessert without whipped cream) to make that day work) and at breakfast (take hardboiled eggs and just eat a little of their cereal with it) to make Thursday work), so things don't have to get too hard until I get on the ship on Sunday.  With a lot of walking and being careful on the ship, I hope to stay the same for two weeks.  I'd be very happy with that.

Yesterday went well except for the horrible traffic.

My day went as planned, and the MRI went smoothly.  The tube at this imaging center seemed larger than at the other place because my nose wasn't just an inch from the top!  It was bright white and more light inside, too.  Definitely not as claustrophobic and yet I was just exactly the same size as last November, just a different location.  So that was all good.

I got out back in my car. It should have been a 35 minute drive home, but it was 5 p.m. so it was a NINETY minute drive home.  UGH.  I was tired and had to pee.  lol

Then we had a lovely Shabbat dinner in the succah.  It was a beautiful day.

This morning we are heading out to shul very soon for Shabbat services.  At 5 pm. two couples are joining us for dinner in the succah.  Then we all have tickets for a singing duo at the ballroom this evening at 7 p.m.  We have all heard them before and they are great.  It will be another wonderful day.

I actually saw 259.8 on the scale this morning.  I know that .2 is within the margin of error on the scale, so I could still be just 260, but it was great to see a little possible crack under that.  Maybe tomorrow it will be a little more down.

GOAL

I made my little goal of 260 for the brain MRI today.

It also means I lost five pounds this week, which is an amazing week.  It just goes to show that eating at home and never cheating works.

From my year of dieting in 2009, I noticed that a great week like this was often followed by a week of no loss at all.  If that week was followed up by a day that might include a meal in a restaurant, as this upcoming week will, then a week with a small gain could follow.  That's how an average weight loss of two pounds per week happens.  That works well in a year like 2009 when a week with a great loss is followed by a week with a meal out and no loss followed by another week with all meals at home and a nice loss and the cycle continues all year. That's how I lost 122 pounds in a little over one year.  Unfortunately, that is not the case right now.

This upcoming week will include a lunch, a dinner, and a breakfast on the auto train.  Lunch can be Subway, which isn't bad.  Dinner on the train isn't horrible, but it's higher than at home.  Breakfast on the train is nothing but carbs. They give you orange juice, bagels and cream cheese, cereal and milk, a heavy syrup fruit cup, and muffins.  Because of that, Mark takes his own nuts and cheese.  Last time we did this, I took my own hard boiled eggs and ate some of their cereal. I think Mark also ate some cereal.  If I'm smart this time I'll do the same.  Lunch and dinner on Thursday are then off the train, and at our control.

Today I have a mani/pedi in the morning, a bit over two hours of work in the library, and then up to Kissimmee for the brain MRI.  Then back home by 6 with Shabbat dinner in the Succah.  It should be an interesting day.

So busy. So much done.

Mark and I were busy, busy, busy yesterday.  We got up and just got going on little things that had to be done.  I worked on emails for the Cove Singers and several emails for the SOJC choir.  I also had to make copies of music for both choirs, order some music and accompaniment cds online, send some files out by email to people in the SOJC choir, and prepare for a meeting today with the accompanist of the Cove Singers.  GEEZ.  Sounds like I'm still working as a choir director!  lol

Mark was doing NARFE work and doing things about our personal finances.  We even went up to the Palms to fax a form to sell 18 shares of Disney stock to pay for the Shanghai Disney resort and our Chinese Visas.  We also got confirmation yesterday that our Hong Kong Disney resort has been officially booked and confirmed through DVC.  We are slowly ticking off all the boxes on the big Asian trip for next March.

Around 3:30, we finally headed out to do the other big chores.  We went to the Comic book store, stocked up on the usuals at BJs, got gas (great deal through BJs), and picked up a few items at Publix.  We were going to get new luggage at Walmart, but the traffic was just ridiculous the whole way down from the Loop, nearly an hour and 45 minutes to go what's normally a 40 minute drive.  It was 7:30 when we got home, so we had to make dinner and eat it in the dark in the succah.  Thank goodness for bug spray!

Today I will play Mahjong in the morning and then meet with the Cove Singers accompanist in the afternoon.  Tonight Solivita is showing the movie Oceans 8, so we hope to go up there for that later.

Meanwhile I'm sticking to my eating plan.  This morning I was 260.8, and I think I will make my goal of 260 tomorrow morning for the MRI in the afternoon.

Also this morning I'm starting the 50 mg Topomax morning pill.  I seem to be tolerating it pretty well. I had that one episode last Friday when my right hand felt like I was holding a cactus, but it only lasted a few seconds.  Earlier this week my left hand felt like an electric current was running through it, very tingly, but again it only lasted a few seconds.  I did feel queasy for an hour or so in the morning the first week that I started these pills, but that seems to be over.  I think I might feel a little sleepier than usual sometimes, but it's easy to just work through and ignore.  Overall, none of these side effects are that bad.  This morning when I take the 50 mg in addition to the evening 50 mg, I will be at the dose that I will continue until I go back to the neurologist on November 9.  This is a very low dose in general, but I have also not had a single minute of smelling smoke or an ocular migraine either.  In that case I would have to say the pill is working.  Maybe it's helping me lose weight, too.  I can't say because I'm doing all I usually do to lose weight, watching the calories and logging it all in.  I still feel hungry in between meals when I go longer than three hours between meals.  I might talk to the neurologist about upping the dose for weight loss if she would allow it and if I tolerate this new dose as well as I have been. My friend Barbara is on more than twice my dose just for weight loss and is very happy with it.

Down AGAIN!

Eating 1350 calories more or less, all at home, works!  Even I'm stunned that today I'm an even 261 this morning, down 1.4 since yesterday morning.  I know that I'll make my goal of 260 by Friday morning when I have to go to the MRI machine Friday afternoon.  When I had the shoulder MRI last December, I was 260, and I barely fit in the machine.  They say it fits people up to 300.  They always ask your weight when you set up the appointment, but it might be tall, athletic men.  It's not short, round women!  That machine was barely one inch away from my face.  I just kept my eyes shut the whole time in order to stay calm and not be claustrophobic.  I surely did not want to go there weighing much over 260 for fear of not fitting into the tube at all.  I'm also going to a different location, so who knows if the machines are even the same size!  Maybe I'll get lucky and it's bigger.  Hm...probably not.

We had a great time at services for the first day of Succoth yesterday except that the lulav and etrog order didn't arrive on time due to flooding in the Carolinas.  It actually arrived in the afternoon, so they will be there today.  We had a lovely dinner again out there last night because it never rained all day.  We will be heading back for second day services very soon.  Mark is reading Haftarah today.

Chag Sameach

First day of Succoth, so we are off to shul.

I ate very well yesterday and all at home. I'm happy to report that I'm down a bit over a pound a half to 262.4.  Super  happy for that.

Today I'm wearing my orange dress with leaves on it. It's very fall like, so it's perfect for the Succoth season.  It's also already feeling too loose, and it's likely the last time I'll be able to wear it. I was somewhere between 8 and 14 pounds more in this picture below. This is the dress that I wore to the July wedding in Buffalo and found the lady that worked in the hotel wearing the same dress!  So funny.  She also got it in her Dia&Co. box.

We ate a lovely dinner in the succah last night.  Mark ate breakfast in there this morning, but I'm eating inside so that I can type this blog at the same time.  After dinner last night, my friend Donna came over so I could coach her to try out for a great solo for Guys and Dolls. I hope she gets it. I worked with her for an hour, and it was so much fun!

In the hotel in Buffalo!

Leading kiddish last night for the first night of Succoth.

Succah is up.

Despite Mark's leg problems last week, he was able to put the succah up this morning.  Last year the wind knocked it down and bent several poles.  He wasn't sure it would go up, but it did.  I have to say the wind is kicking up, so we are hoping it stays up!

We had a lovely time at the Tampa Bay History Museum yesterday. One of our NARFE friends, in fact the President of the Florida Federation of NARFE, was there as a docent and even ate lunch with us.  How cool!  We also went to a harp concert at the end of the day which was not only beautiful and musical but also educational. I learned a lot about both lever harps and pedal harps.  She played both.

Us is with docent and President of NARFE Florida, Terry Zitek.

With Susie and Ed waiting for a show about a Seminole chief and the Seminole wars to start.

Many great exhibits about various elements of the Tampa Bay area history.

What an amazing harp concert!

Tampa Bay History Museum and down a pound.

We had a super busy day yesterday of driving around doing errands like shopping and picking up Mark's car  It took FOREVER.  We didn't even get to the library.  Fortunately, our "boss" at the library was okay with that.  I sent him a note around 11 a.m. saying it looked like we might not make it until 2 instead of 1.  At 2 I told him we wouldn't make it at all.  By then, Mark's leg was really hurting a lot. I knew that once he got home, he would need to prop that leg up and ice it.  Mark got home at 3ish.  I didn't get home until after 4.  I never did even eat lunch yesterday.  When we were shopping at Winn Dixie, we picked up two packages of the birthday cake flavor special Mickey's 90th birthday Oreos, so I ate two cookies in the car driving to get Mark's car from the shop.  Mark then drove home while I finished the shopping at Publix, including getting his prescription NSAID.. I also went to Walgreen's to get him a compression stocking to wear today when we go to the museum.  Just shopping for an hour at WinnDixie made his leg swell and throb.  He was miserable.  We are wondering how he's going to get through the museum.  He says he's going to do what I do, sit down periodically.

I made the dinner and cleaned up everything last night so that he could stay in the recliner with his leg elevated and iced.  He took his first dose of the NSAID after dinner.  He'll take the second dose after breakfast this morning.  I hope by the time the 30 day course of it is up the whole thing is resolved.  The antibiotic should come in the mail by Wednesday, we hope, so that might help, too.  The swelling is less this morning, but if he puts pressure on the back of the calf,. there is still pain.

Meanwhile, I did drop a pound yesterday to 264.  I ate 1350 calories.  It was a good day of calories and lots of walking, 6500 steps, in three different stores and around the house.

Today we will be eating lunch in the Columbia Restaurant inside the museum.  Mark and are I are going to split the sandwich and I'm probably going to get the vegetarian black bean soup to go with my half sandwich.  That will be kind of high in calories, but it's the only meal this week that will be outside the house.  I think this will be a great week, and I'm looking forward to hitting 260 before I have to go in that MRI machine next Friday for for the brain scan.

Thursday I moved up to 50 mg at night of the Topamax. I have not noticed more queasiness, but this morning I got the very common side effect of tingling in the right hand. It was more like prickles. I reached for my toothbrush this morning and it felt like the toothbrush was covered with needles.  I realized it was in my hand.  It only lasted about 10 minutes because it's already gone.  It will be interesting to see if that's something that will be coming and going or if it's just a one shot.

Did I mention that I'm very happy to be 264 this morning?

Good weigh in after all. News about Mark.

After a week of eating out, I did have a little loss.  My weight this morning is an even 265, so that's a loss of a few tenths for the week and a maintenance since the last report on Tuesday morning. I am very happy to be down about half a pound after the six days of eating out every day. It's a relief.

We have had some lovely meals out, too.  The restaurant last night at Loew's Royal Pacific at Universal Resort was spectacular.  We would definitely go back there in the future to try some other things from their menu.  We also really enjoyed the two kiosks at the Food and Wine Festival on Monday, Olive Garden on Tuesday, and the Break the Fast at the synagogue Wednesday.

Before and after Yom Kippur on Wednesday, Mark had to go to the doctor.  On the first day of Rosh Hashanah, Mark had leg pain in the evening. I mentioned that in the previous blog.  We went to the doctor Tuesday because we were concerned he had a clot.  There was swelling in the calf and pain when he touched a certain spot.  At the office, the PA asked him to take his shoes and socks off, and we were stunned to see how huge his ankle was on that side.  She sent him for an immediate ultrasound, sure there was a clot.  Well, there was no clot.

So we had to move on to check into the hotel and go to services.  Services are long, both Tuesday evening and all day Wednesday, but the choir did well and everything was good.  Break the fast was delicious and social with our choir friends from the synagogue.  Then Thursday we went back to the doctor to see what it might be if not a clot.  The decision is that it is either a pulled/strained muscle or tendon.  Treatment is elevation, icing of the ankle, heating of the back of the knee/top of calf area where the immediate pain is, continued walking periodically so as not to be sitting too long, a prescription NSAID, which we haven't picked up yet, and an antibiotic on the off chance that it might be cellulitis.  We don't really believe it's cellulitis, but it's better to be on the safe side, so he's going to take the antibiotic.

Today we are doing some shopping and working in the library.  We are NOT going to a doctor or the synagogue.  LOL!!  How nice!

Tomorrow we are not going to the synagogue either.  We are going to go to the Tampa Bay History Museum and eat out at the Columbia Restaurant inside the museum.  Susie and Ed are doing the driving and treating us to lunch.  Well, we will pay them back for the lunch next week so that we don't have to handle money on Shabbat.  They very nicely volunteered to do that, so we were happy to accept the offer.  Then we have a concert here in Solivita in the evening by a professional harpist.  It's going to be an awesome day!  I'll have to be a little careful with the lunch, but I looked at the menu already.  I'm going to eat a mahi mahi Cuban sandwich that sounds amazing!  I hope it doesn't kill my calories for the whole day.  And the museum was FREE because it's part of a Smithsonian special free museum day if you printed out a coupon, so it was hard to resist going.

Kol NIdre tonight and Yom Kippur tomorrow.

There will be no blog tomorrow because we will be in the synagogue all day.

I am down the weight I put on the last two days and even a smidge more.  This morning I am an even 265, so I'm very happy.  We did eat lunch and dinner out, but I kept it reasonable.  Plus we walked miles and miles in sticky, hot weather. I sweated buckets and drank five giant bottles of water. It was a tough physical day, and my muscles ached all over when we got home at 8 p.m.

Today we will be checking in to the Comfort Inn near our synagogue for the next two nights in order to be close to the shul for the drive to and from the synagogue for the break in Yom Kippur service.  It's just too far to come home, as we found out the first year here in Florida.  We will eat dinner at Olive Garden this year and break the fast at the synagogue.  I hope that does not put any weight back on because I'm really excited for hitting an even 265 this morning.

Mark has been having leg pain in his right calf since last Monday evening.  Sometimes he limps.  Advil helps.  Now the leg looks a little swollen. I'm hoping he will call the doctor and go there today to see if it's anything serious, but I don't know if he will.  He has all day up until about 3 p.m. to have it looked at.  After that, he can't do anything about it until Thursday.  We shall see.

Here are some pictures from yesterday.

Yesterday I rode with my friend Barbara.  She always holds up her arms and encouraged me to do the same!

It was our fourth time at the Food and Wine Festival, so we  got our Mickey cutting boards.

Up two in two days.

Yup.  Two days of eating a meal out and I've gained two pounds.  That's how easy it is.  This morning I'm 267.4 and I'm about to go out and eat two meals out today.  The good news is that they are at WDW, so at least there will be at a lot of walking involved.  That might help.

We had a lovely time at shul on Saturday with the birthday party for one of my choir members. The choir sang very well, too.  Sunday we saw Gypsy at the Garden Theater in Winter Garden.  It was one of the best shows we've seen there.  Then we went to Hemingway's for dinner, which was also amazing.  I kind of did myself in yesterday because we got a bonus coupon at the theater for booking early.  It entitled us to 7 free snacks at the snack bar over the course of the season, so I got a pack of M and Ms and ate them during the show, 420 calories for the pack. UGH.  That surely helped add that extra pound yesterday.

I'm on my fourth day of the 25 mg of Topomax.  Each morning around 9:30 it has made me feel a little queasy to my stomach.  That seems to last about 90 minutes and then I don't notice it any more.  I'm a little concerned about how that's going to increase on Thursday when I double the dose and then next Thursday when it doubles again.  I'm not going to continue this drug if the side effects get bad because smelling the cigarette smoke every few days and getting an occasional ocular migraine is going to be better than feeling sick to my stomach every day.

No loss.

I really thought I'd drop a pound this morning because I was so especially good yesterday, but I did not.  I'm essentially the same at 265.6.

I ate 1299 calories yesterday with the sodium at about 1250 mg, which is excellent. I did my 40 minute water aerobic routine, swam a few laps, and did 13 minutes of weight lifting on the machines in the gym.  Oh, well.

Sadly I am now facing a stretch of six straight days when one or more meals will be eaten out.

Saturday....big catered luncheon at shul today for a choir member's birthday. Choir is singing five songs.

Sunday....dinner at Hemingway's in the Grand Hyatt with Goldbergs for the Magical Dining program.

Monday....lunch at Hollywood Studios and dinner at Epcot Food and Wine with the Nanesses

Tuesday....dinner at Olive Garden before Kol Nidre.

Wednesday...break the fast at the synagogue

Thursday.....dinner at Islands Pacific restaurant in Lowe's Pacific Hotel at Universal Resort with Goldbergs for Magical Dining program.

Friday....finally at home all day!

If I can just stay the same again this week, I'll be very, very happy.

Hurricane Florence and Topomax

So much to talk about today!

First, my weight report.  It was a tough week. I got out of control a bit and gained several pounds.  Then I lost them and just a smidge more, so my report is that I weigh 265.6, which is just a drop of 2/10s of a pound.  That is probably within the margin of error for the scale, so I might have not lost any.  Considering that I know I had gained a bunch, I'm happy if I just stayed the same.

Second, Hurricane Florence is pounding the NC and SC coasts right now. I'm watching GMA on TV and it looks terrible.  On Tuesday, Mark and Carol, who live in north Myrtle Beach, said they were not leaving.  We were all very concerned, but on Wednesday morning they called and said they were indeed packing up the kitties and heading to a friend's house about four hours inland towards the mountains.  Hopefully, their house, which is only about four blocks from the beach with a big pond behind the back yard, will come through.  They do not have hurricane shutters, but they cleared their back yard and are hoping for the best.

Third, I am now on a new medication called Topamax, actually the generic equivalent.  The neurologist prescribed this for me at yesterday's appointment.  I'm having a brain MRI on Sept. 28 and an EEG in early November before having my follow up appointment with them on November 9.

This all came about because of my olfactory hallucinations. I smell nasty cigarette smoke when there isn't any smoke there.  It started back in the mid-1990s, maybe late 1994 or early 1995.  It used to be infrequent and not last long.  Lately it's happening more often, lasting longer, and sometimes so intense that it made me feel nauseous.  I finally told my family doctor in the July appointment, and she recommended the neurologist.  I started a log of the times that I smelled the smoke, beginning on August 2.  I have had 9 episodes in five weeks.  7 of the 9 episodes were in the car.  Most lasted 15-30 minutes, but one day it was on and off most of the day.  The neurologist thought that was a lot.

The neurologist was very kind and very thorough.  She got me talking about a lot of medical history, so I told her about my ocular migraines.  Usually they do not come with pain or nausea, but occasionally they do leave me feeling queasy and tired.  As we talked, I realized they also started in late 1994.  And then I told her about the accident at the Laurel Mall in spring of 1991 when the big wall collapsed and hit me on the top of the head, knocking me to my butt and breaking my tail bone.  My neck wasn't broken, but the muscles were a MESS.  I was taken to the ER.  I left there in pain and in a neck brace and had PT for months.  I was on pain pills, NSAIDS, and muscle relaxers for nearly a year.

Well, she said it was NOT a coicidence that the migraines an hallucinations began a few years later.  She thinks the blow to the head caused a kind of brain injury that triggered those things!

WOW!  I have NEVER connected those three things before.  But it kind of makes sense.

Anyway she has prescribed an anti-epilepsy med that is also used to prevent migraines.  She thinks it will take away the smoke smell, and a happy side effect is weight loss.  That would be nice, but there are also a lot of nasty sounding side effects, too.  I am to start with 25 mg once at bedtime for a week.  On the second week I take 50 mg at bedtime. On week three and thereafter I take 50 mg at the morning and 50 mg at night.  That would basically continue for life.  This is a VERY SMALL dose, a child size dose, so hopefully any bad side effects won't happen.  Haha.  With my luck no weight loss will happen either.  It's suppose to suppress appetite as a side effect, not actually cause weight loss.  I'm not sure anything has EVER suppressed my appetite or desire to eat, even chemo or the flu!  I don't expect this pill to do that either, but it's nice to dream. lol

Running, running, running, and Rosh Hashanah

I haven't had a minute in the morning to write a blog since last Friday, and I've been too dogged tired to do it in the evening.

Saturday we went to shul, and then I had a meeting at the Cove.  Sunday we left early to go to Guest Relations at Disney Springs to renew our WDW annual passes followed by time at Epcot for lunch at two Food and Wine kiosks and a 2 p.m. lecture on watermelon. Who knew you could eat the whole thing, the rind and all.  Then it was back home to make Rosh Hashanah dinner.

Monday and Tuesday it was up and out early for services that started at 9 a.m. and ended at 2 p.m. My choir went up to sing 7 times (12 songs total) on each day.  That was a lot of work, but it keeps you on your toes for the five hours.  On the other hand, when we got home about 3 p.m. and had a very late (and very appreciated) lunch, we both just fell asleep right after we ate!

Today is another crazy day.  We are leaving in a few minutes to go to the gym for our weight routines (yes, I'm committed to getting back to that after a 10 month hiatus due to back and shoulder problems) followed by a NARFE Board Meeting at the Beef O'Brady's in Lakeland, followed by concerts and dinner and picking up our pass holder Mickey cutting board at Epcot, followed by choir rehearsal at the synagogue for a big event on Saturday morning.  When we get home at 10:30 tonight, we will also be dog tired!

Running and running and running.

Last Thursday night we attended the VIP Passholder Event at Epcot from 9-11 p.m.  We actually arrived around 8 p.m. and ate dinner at two kiosks before riding Frozen Forever, Soarin', Living with the Land, getting our picture taken with BayMax and seeing the fireworks.  Late night fun.  More running around.  Here are some pictures.

Good Weigh-in for the week. Down 5.4 pounds!

We had a good NARFE meeting in the morning, did our grocery shopping, took an afternoon nap, and headed to Epcot for the late night VIP Passholder Member Night.

Even though I ate lunch and dinner out, there was a lot of walking According to my Health App on the iPhone, I walked 18,480 steps (8.4 miles!) on Wednesday and 12,135 steps (5.4 miles) on Thursday.  No wonder my muscles ache.  lol

I tried to log the calories in with my best guess yesterday and came up with 1516.

This morning my official Friday weigh-in is 265.8, the same as Wednesday morning. I'm VERY happy with that because it's a loss of 5.4 pounds for the week!  Amazing!

Although it's highly unusual for us, we are eating dinner out tonight at the ballroom for a special Movie Night event.  We have prepaid for a fish and chips dinner and the remake of the movie Overboard.  Susie and Ed are going with us.  It will be fun, but it will be a lot of calories.  Saturday all my meals will be at home, but Sunday we are eating lunch back at the Food and Wine Festival and then Rosh Hashanah dinner at home Sunday and Monday nights.  Mark and I are going to keep those meals "normal" with just the addition of apples and honey, round challah, and honey cake to make it a holiday meal.  Wednesday we have a NARFE board meeting in the morning and Epcot in the afternoon, so that means lunch and dinner out like yesterday.  So losing weight this week will be a huge challenge.  I will be satisfied if I can just maintain this week.

Here are some pictures from the James Museum on Tuesday and Toy Story Land and Epcot on Wednesday.

Mark with Lewis and Clark.

This sculptor, Dave McGary, was my favorite.  There were  many of his pieces here.  That's NOT fabric or deerskin.  It's meticulously and carefully panted BRONZE.  It really looked like fabric!  

Dinner with Susie and Ed in the museum cafe.

This artist was doing a demo in the lobby at 5 p.m. 

Sunrise driving to WDW.

Heading back to ride Slinky Dog Dash for a second time.  Could be my new favorite ride at WDW.

Heading in to Epcot for the Food and Wine Festival, first of four visits to get a pass holder magnet today and a Mickey  cutting board on the fourth visit.

Completely made of CHOCOLATE!  There are  six  of these displays every year.

Time to head home for now.

So busy but having fun.

I had no time to write a blog yesterday because we were so busy.

We had a fabulous time at the James Museum of Western and Wildlife Art in St. Petersburg.  Mark was in heaven.  His plan is buy a membership to support it.  We actually had Subway salads for lunch on the way and stayed to eat dinner in the museum cafe.  They had a quinoa bowl with charred veggies and arugula.  It was far better than we expected it to be.  We also ordered tortilla chips and dips (salsa and guacamole).  I ate a lot of chips with salsa, but not guacamole.  I don't like it.  Yuck.
I was concerned that I would put on some water weight due to all that sodium. I did not, but I just stayed the same.

Yest,erday we left at 6:30 a.m. to head to Toy Story Land for one hour with limited attendance. It was a new thing called Passholder Playtime.  Amazing.  We told Slinky Dog Dash twice, and I loved it.  It might be my new favorite ride!  We rode the Space Aliens and Toy Story Mania as well.  At exactly 9 a.m. a ton of people showed up, and by 9:05 a.m. the line for Slinky Dog was an hour long. We literally just walked on!  It was worth it to get up early.

We went to Epcot, got our Passholder Magnet, and were logged in for our first of four visits towards getting a Mickey cutting board.  It's tiny!  I joked that you could only cut one cherry tomato at a time on it.  lol

After that we went to Winn Dixie, Trader Joe's, Walmart, home for a late lunch, the gym, ate an early dinner, and ran off to SOJC for choir rehearsal, which got me home at 10:30.  EXHAUSTED.

But it didn't stop there.  Between 2 and 4 p.m. I had sat at the computer booking flights for our Asian trip.  I got frustrated trying to do the SF to Hong Kong and HK to Shanghai parts, but I was able to use my American Airline miles to book the Orlando to San Jose part and the Tokyo back home to Orlando part.  At 10:30 I got on the phone with Evey and with her help and expertise, we found appropriate flights (much better ones than I was finding on my own, Thank you, Evey) and got them booked, too.  I shot those email confirmations and itineraries to our travel agent and to the Visa Central people in Houston who will be adding that to our application process for the China Visa.

Now we just have to book the hotels!

Wow,  As Evey said last night, "I guess we're really doing this!"  Yes, we really are.

Weight-wise, I have had a good week. I"m 265.8 this morning, so that was very exciting.  We are eating lunch at Beef O'Brady's for the NARFE monthly meeting in Plant City and then dinner at two of the Epcot Food and Wine kiosks.  I'm sure there will be a ton of sodium in those meals, but I'm hoping the calories won't be too far over my allotment and that all the walking and sweating will work those calories off.  We shall see tomorrow at the official Weigh-in.  As of now, I'm showing a five pound drop for the week, so I really hope that is still true tomorrow morning!

I had planned to post some pictures of the museum and Toy Story Land, but the computer is not uploading the pictures from my phone for some reason.  It's been trying for half an hour, and I just cancelled that.  I'm trying a second time, but it's time to go very soon, so I don't know if there will be time to get that upload finished. I'm sure it will work eventually, and I'll put up pictures in a future blog.  If you are a Facebook friend, you've already seen them anyway.

Upcoming fun for Mark in St. Petersburg.

Tomorrow's blog should feature a lot of pictures from today's visit to the James Museum of Western and Wildlife Art in St. Petersburg.  It is a relatively new museum, opening just this past April.  Mark is very excited to go!  We are making it a Tourist Tuesday (and it's actually on a Tuesday!) by going with good friends Susie and Ed Goldberg.

I won a LOT of Mahj games yesterday, 4 in the morning and 2 in the afternoon.  It was a good day for me.  But everyone won at least once, so that made it a good day for everyone.

I ate only 1200 calories yesterday and dropped another half pound, down to 266.5 this morning. I also went to the gym and lifted weights for the first time since last November.  I stopped going when my back went out last October and my shoulder was bad.  I went only one day last November, but the shoulder hurt too much and I didn't go back.  Recently, I read an article about muscle loss in seniors.  It encouraged weight training to maintain what muscle we have because aging alone is going to deplete it.  It got me thinking that I'd better get back to the weight machines.  I didn't do every machine or many reps or much weight, but ti's a start.  And nothing hurt. My back and shoulder all took it very well.  My plan is to do it three days a week when Mark goes.

No SeaWorld.

The forecast put us off yesterday after all.  We kept watching the TV local weather, and it just looked like there was a high probability that we'd be walking around SeaWorld feeling wet and soggy all day.  There was also a high probability that the night time fireworks/water pageant show that we especially wanted to see would be cancelled.  So around 1:30 in the afternoon we decided to stay home.  At around 9 p.m., Mark checked the weather app, which showed the Orlando area under heavy thunderstorms and rain.  We feel we made the right decision.

We were both a little disappointed that we didn't get to go, but as Mark said, "I would be disgusted if we went and it got rained out."  We watched the whole show on YouTube instead!

It was definitely the right decision for my food choices. I ate all my meals at home, and I'm down TWO more pounds this morning to 267.  I was actually very surprised at that.  It's nice, but it only puts me back to where I was on July 26 before we went to California.  So now I can try to lose some NEW weight.  lol.  Well nothing is really new until I get under 200, which I'm not even trying to do, but I'd love to get under 250.  Somehow that sounds better to me.

My lowest weight, back in early 2010, was 205.  My breast cancer surgery was at  220.  My move to Florida was at 250.  I've been as low as 233 here in Florida, but I didn't stay there long.  It was in early November of 2013, the last year that I did Starliters, and that involved a lot of dancing and a lot of being out of the house so no time to eat. lol

Today all my meals will be at home again.  I am playing Mah Jong at Susie's house in the morning and at Luanne's house in the afternoon.  At 6 p.m. Mark and I both are going to the SOJC choir rehearsal.  We are leaving a half hour earlier than usual because I'm afraid of the end of the Labor Day weekend traffic since it was SO BAD on Saturday morning.  Mark has to go tonight because we are working on songs for another choir member's birthday Shabbat on September 15.  We are also having an unusual Monday night rehearsal to try to make up one that was cancelled.  At any rate, I'll have no time to overeat today!

Tomorrow I cannot say the same.  We are heading out to the new Western Art Museum in St. Pete with Susie and Ed.  We will be eating lunch in the museum cafe and dinner at a Denny's.  Denny's won't be bad, but it's about 700 calories.  I have no idea what lunch at the cafe will be.  I hope it won't be too bad.

269. Heading in the right direction.

We tried to go to shul yesterday.  We were on the road over an hour, but we didn't get there because the traffic was insane.  We realized we weren't going to arrive until 20 minutes before it ended, so we turned around.  Labor Day Weekend traffic?  I don't remember it ever being that bad, so maybe it was an accident.  We don't know, but we left at 9:55 and got home at 11:15 having gone no where but out less than half way to the shul and then back home.  Crazy.

So instead, we had a lovely relaxing day at home all day.  I ate 1200 calories and dropped another pound.  That's a good day in my book.  We watched two Disney animated films, "Big Hero 6," and "Toy Story."  I actually slept through all of "Big Hero 6" when we went to the theater, and "Toy Story" was familiar but also there were lots of scenes we didn't remember.  It was a fun evening.

There were a few moments yesterday when I wanted to cheat on my diet.  I was really having some cravings and thought hard about eating more bread or breaking into the last Tortuga rum cake that I saw in the pantry, but I didn't do it.  I was able to tell myself no and mean it.  For me to brush off the Bad Idea Bear is a huge accomplishment.  lol

Today we plan to go to SeaWorld for the special evening entertainment.  This is actually the very last day that they are running this night time show, but we were never able to schedule a day to go until now.  Unfortunately, there's a 90% chance of rain all afternoon, although it's supposed to be over by 8 p.m.  We are going to check on what time the show is.  Maybe we can still go out there close to that time and miss most of the rain.  Or maybe the forecast will be wrong.  That happens.  It's summer in Florida.  Anything can happen.

270. I'm pleased.

I am pleased to be 270 this morning.  I did overeat challah at dinner, so even with the exercise calories from water aerobics, I was over my allotment for the day.  So to be down a pound this morning made me happy.

I'm still up about three and a half from August 3 when we flew off to Evey and Eric's house, so once I get back to the mid-260s, I'll be VERY happy. If I can stay in control through our many meals in restaurants and holiday meals throughout September, I'd be very happy to drop 10 pounds for the month and go up north on October 3 at 260.  I would ECSTATIC.

We are heading out to the synagogue for services in about half an hour.  Then we will have an easy day in the house, readying and watching TV.  There will be no exercise, but my calories should be good. I'm currently planning only 1100 calories, but that might change in the afternoon if I get hungry.  But I'm SURE it will not be over my allowed amount of 1483.

Friday Weigh-in is good.

I had a good day yesterday, eating 1550 calories.  There was no actual exercise, but my phone Health Data app said I walked 6,800 steps.  I actually found that hard to believe, but I'll take it.

This morning I weighed in at 271.2, which made me very happy.  That is down 3.6 in just one day.  I just KNEW it was mostly water retention.  That means I only gained 8/10 of a pound on the big vacation road trip.  For me that is outstanding. lol

Today should be a good day.  If it doesn't rain, I'll be doing my water aerobics routine for the first time in three weeks and then working in the library.  I'm also eating all my meals at home and will log them all in.  It would be so nice if the last 8/10 are gone tomorrow morning.  Today's weight put me back to where I was in early July. I'm clearly not making a lot of progress because I'm backsliding on each trip (Buffalo, Evey's house, FL's east coast), but now I'm home until October 3.  Well, sort of.  We have a road trip to St. Petersburg on Tuesday that will involve 2 meals out.  Sunday we are going to SeaWorld which will mean dinner there.  September has ALL the Jewish holidays this year, and that always means extra big meals.  We always stay two nights in the Comfort Inn near the synagogue for Yom Kippur with a big dinner out at Landry's before the fast and a break the fast at the synagogue.  So there's lots of opportunity for backsliding if I'm not careful even though we aren't really on any vacations.  Still, I'm determined NOT to backslide because when we leave October 3 on the auto train to board the cruise ship in NJ, I do NOT want to start out in the 270s.  My goal now is to lost about five to eight pounds in September so that I start the cruise trip weighing in the mid to low 260s.  I would love that.

In mid-March we will be going to Evey's and then flying to Hong Kong for the five week Asian trip.  That trip is going to involve 10 nights in hotels and 14 nights on the ship as well as a few nights at Evey's house.  It's also going to involve a LOT of WALKING!  Walking AND sitting have become a problem in the last week.  That day at Castillo de San Marco was very painful.  It used to be that the sciatica, knee arthritis, and spinal stenosis would flare up walking and go away immediately when I sat down.  If I sat for even just a few minutes, I could buy some more time of painfree walking.  Now that doesn't seem to work so well.  The amount of painfree walking was reduced to about one minute after sitting a little while.

But even more worrisome is the sitting!  Now sitting hurts!  It's a different pain, but I'm sure it's still related to the spinal stenosis.  Sitting is giving me a dull ache in my right hip and a throbbing ache from my knee to my ankle on the outside of my leg, mostly the calf area.  This goes away when I stand up, which makes me think sitting is pinching some nerve as a result of sitting.  So now I'm kind of like my friend Judi who has the same condition.  She sits awhile and then stands awhile.  She can't do either one for very long.  The only thing that doesn't hurt right now is laying down or pushing back in my recliner.

In fact, I've been sitting on the kitchen chair typing this blog for about ten minutes, and I can start to feel the hip pain. I'm going to close this out and stand up!

End of conference, Fort Caroline, then home.

We got home around 9:30 last night, tired but happy.

This morning I jumped on the scale to see how much damage I did.  I left the house 11 days ago weighing 270.6, and this morning I weigh 274.8, a gain of 4.2 pounds.  Actually that wasn't was bad as I feared.  Today I hope to be back to my normal eating habits with all meals at home and drop a little tomorrow morning for my official Friday weigh-in.

This morning I played Mah Jongg (won only one game), and after lunch we got all of our papers together for the China Visa application.  I drove it over to the FedEx drop box this afternoon, so that's a good feeling to get that chore done.

The final day of the convention was a four hour marathon business meeting including awards presented to outgoing board members, installation of new board members, Alzheimer's reports and other business type reports, Memorial service for members lost in the last two years, etc.  We sat with Bill and Pat, Laura, Evelyn, Franklin, and Terry, all NARFE friends from Florida that we have been attending NARFE events with for the last eight years.  It ran until 12:30 and then we ate lunch in the restaurant in the hotel that we had not tried.  I had blackened mahi mahi tacos and fries.  Tons of sodium.  We had planned to go to Denny's for dinner, but we ended up going to Sweet Tomatoes instead, which had so many delicious soups, all full of sodium, I'm sure.  lol

Here are some pictures from the final meeting and our visit to Fort Caroline in Jacksonville.

Selfie with me and Pat.

Forst Caroline Visitor Center in Jacksonville.

Getting another passport stamp.

Beautiful view St. John's river, outside of Visitor Center

Entering the fort, a re-creation on a site probably near the original.