Out of the habit

This morning I realized that I had not written a blog for awhile, but I didn't remember how long.  When I opened up the program and saw that it was April 4, I was pretty surprised.  Today is April 22, so that was a long time!  Sorry about that.

We have been very busy during this time, but isn't that how it always is?

Passover ended and much Mah Jongg has been played.  We had a two day bus trip with the Solivita Travel Club to Sarasota and Fort Myers.  We enjoyed some shopping districts in those cities as well as the Mystery Train and the Ford/Edison homes complex.  Everything was a lot of fun, and we would go back to the home because we didn't feel we had enough time.  We also discovered a great seafood house there called Pinchers.  They have several locations, but they are all on the West Coast of Florida.  Mark and I won the Mystery Train because we solved the mystery and named the correct killer.  Only one other person in our car knew who the killer was, but we knew the bonus question, too.  We won a mug and a certificate signed by the cast.  We really did enjoy that little outing.

Today we are heading up to downtown Orlando to the Lake Eola bandstand area.  Not only is it Earth Day today, but the Rosen JCC is also celebrating Yom Ha'Atzmaut, Israeli Independence Day.  My little SOJC choir is performing three songs at 2:50 p.m.  Unfortunately, the weather forecast is for scattered rain and thunderstorms.  I was going to have them sing with keyboard and Jonathan's EWI, but because of the rain, we are doing everything a cappella.  There is no cover there anywhere, so we are going to get wet if it rains.  Mark and I plan to take rain ponchos in a backpack just in case.

My weight hasn't done anything good.  On April 4, I reported that I weighed 280 after Passover.  I got busy and went down to 274 in the first days after the holiday.  Then I got busy in the other direction for the last week so that this morning I weigh 281.  I am totally out of control in my snacking.  I have a doctor's appointment next week, and she is not going to be happy.

Today we are eating lunch at the food trucks at the celebration.  We are hoping one of the food trucks is going to be kosher!  Then we are having dinner out tonight with Susan and Jonathan.  We also have dinner out Wednesday night with Jonathan. On Tuesday we will have lunch and dinner out because we are going to be all day at Animal Kingdom with the Solivita Disney Fan Club.  So I doubt if I'm going to lose any weight this week.  Sad.

The last time I uploaded pictures from my cell phone, Picasa could not seem to find them to upload to the web.  If I don't upload them to the web, I can't post them on the blog.  I have a lot of pictures from the Mystery Train trip, so I'm going to try to upload them and see what happens.

Enjoy your Earth Day no matter what you are doing.

PS  Nothing will upload from Picasa to the web this time either.  I'm not sure why, but it seems Picasa has finally died.  I'll have to find a new program to use.

PPS  The performance was great this afternoon.  It rained quite a bit for awhile, but around 1 p.m. it was clear and stayed that way the rest of the time. Good job, choir!

Still Passover

We have been having a relaxing time the last two days.  There have been many little chores inside the house like Mark working on the taxes, me doing a lot of hand laundry that I put off, lots of reading of books, working on music for SOJC and next year's Cove Singers concert, and hours and hours of TV watching.  We did not leave the house at all yesterday.  It was lovely.

Yesterday was also Evey's birthday.  She was 31.  She had a birthday party Saturday night, and last night Eric took her out to dinner at one of their favorite restaurants that they hadn't been to in a long while.  We called her and chatted for awhile.  It sounds like she had a lovely, relaxing day, too.

We are still eating Passover food, and I am overeating candy, macaroons, and matzah all day long.  UGH.  This morning I weighed 280, so that's 9 pounds gained since Thursday morning.  Still hoping I can make them go away when the holiday is over.

I can't post any pictures here of the seder after all.  I uploaded them from my camera to the Picasa program like always, but for some reason I cannot now upload them from Picasa to the web in order to share them with places like this blog or other people.  I have no idea why it's not working, and since Picasa is no longer supported, there's no one to ask.

So here are some fun pictures of Evey instead on the day after her birthday.

Me and Evey at her in-law's house in 2010 just before she and Eric left for California.

Wedding shower pictures at her in-law's house in NJ, 2011

At her second shower at Kip and Denise's house the next day.

Fun at Universal Studios

With her favorite Disney character

Our first visit to their new home and our first time with Kiwi.

Seders are over. Time for Mah Jongg!

First, our show Thursday night was FABULOUS.  The choir did a wonderful job, and I got a standing ovation for my solo.  Everyone had a wonderful time.

Friday we spent the day preparing for the seder, which started at about 7:30 p.m.  We assigned some parts to our guests, so Jonathan and Susan played some of their parts on flute and violin.  It was awesome.

Second night we had an easy seder with just the two of us.  It was the first time that just the two of us were together in a long time.  I was actually looking forward to it, and it did not disappoint.

We went to shul both Saturday and Sunday, and on both days we also watched a lot of TV to try to clear off the DVR.  Mark is a happy camper when there is lots of TV to watch.

My new 2018 Mah Jongg card arrived in Saturday's mail.  Today I'm playing at Susie's house in the morning and hosting it at my house in the afternoon.  I think a lot of people have the new card, so I'm excited to play with it for the first time today.

And the final bit of news is just how fast I can gain weight with a lot of food in the house.  There are chips, matzah, dried apricots, candies, macaroons, and cakes.  Passover is like Thanksgiving on steroids for food.  And the result is predictable.  I have gained an even TEN pounds since Thursday morning. 271 Thursday morning was my report in the previous blog.  This morning, just four days later, I weigh 281.  Pretty incredible.

There is a lot of sodium in some of the foods we have been eating, so I know there's a lot of water retention.  I had to take my diamond ring off because my fingers are all bloated, so it was too tight and uncomfortable.  I just hope it drops back off in the same amount of time eventually.

The Picasa photo program is being contrary this morning, so I'll try to post some pictures from the first night's seder another time.