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.