This and That

It's Friday morning, a beautiful day on the lanai. I wish all of you were here, too. Hm...I guess it would be a little crowded back here on the lanai if ALL of you were here at the same time. Maybe a few at a time! LOL There are 7 chairs out here, so if there are more than that someone has to stand up. Oh what the heck, I'll just drag out some more chairs!

I'm looking forward to next spring/summer when we anticipate hosting guests here in the new house. You'll be amazed at how nice it is on the lanai around 7 to 8 a.m. The grass is glistening with dew; the sun is coming up just off to the right; occasionally a bird flies over. Hot coffee, a laptop on the table, and the sounds of birds chirping in the trees make a peaceful start to any day.

Mark is going to do a ton of errands and chores outside of the house today while I work on unloading more boxes. I sort of made a mess in the guest room last time by covering up the bed with photo albums and pictures as I discovered them in other boxes, not to mention the four or five extra boxes I tossed in there as well. Today I plan to load up the white bookshelves in there, which should clear the bed and empty another four boxes. After that, there are two brown bookshelves in the hall that will get filled up. Boom, just like that another two boxes are gone!

In addition to all that, we will go to The Palms for weight lifting and The Riviera for the track. I expect to have a healthy day today with exercise and healthy eating.

I'm actually down to 217 this morning. Ssh...don't tell Mark I got on the scale on a Friday morning. LOL Sorry, couldn't resist! At dinner at The Lakeside Restaurant (the one that gives you free wine on Thursday), I had pan-seared grouper, a plain baked potato, and cauliflower au gratin plus the wine. We sent the bread basket away untouched. Oo...that is so hard to do!! I was proud of myself for that one.

Obviously 217 is not a great number for me; well, actually it's still a LOT better than 322. Right? LOL!! I mean it's not the best I have done LATELY. 208 is still my lowest since the whole weight loss journey began in 2009. It's just the best I've done in the past few months, but I'll take it. There is no reason why today will not be a well-balanced day since I'll be eating all three meals at home. Although Mark has not yet planned the menus for these four days at home, I'm sure he'll be making an excellent, low-carb, low-calorie Shabbat dinner tonight. As long as I stay on track for breakfast and lunch with the right sort of afternoon and late night snacks, I'll have a wonderfully healthy day.

Tomorrow will be the usual. My regular readers know that means shul and pool! I bet it's finally crowded at the pool tomorrow since it will be Labor Day Weekend. Last week almost no one was in the pool. I'll let you know. I hope all of you have fabulous Labor Day Weekends. My Maryland friends don't even have to worry about Hurricane Earl after all. It looks like it is already going to be far to the north by tomorrow. So enjoy the weekend, everybody!

Solivita bound

After a restful night and good breakfast at the Sleep Inn near Savannah, GA, Mark and I are heading out soon for our home. We have to swing by the airport to pick up his car, but we still think we'll make it home no later than 4 p.m. That gives us time for dinner and the free movie tonight.

There will be a new USA Today in the lobby for us!! Can't wait.

Drivin' down the highway.

Easy peasy lemon squeezy. I know I must have said that before, but that's how getting my blood drawn this morning was. I had an actual appointment at LabCorp, something I never did before. I didn't even KNOW you could do that. Wow! I also went to a different one than I usually do. No waiting and the lady slipped that needle in without even a pinch. I love it when it works like that. I also got a Garfield band-aid and a Nemo sticker for being brave. Aren't you all jealous?

Our drive to Savannah, GA was also EPLS!! There was no traffic and perfect weather. The 600 miles from the LabCorp in Laurel took 10 and 1/2 hours. Not bad at all.

The best part was USA Today. I feel compelled to share some of the state stories we read today, starting with the BEST one. The Phantom of the Fox! I know you're intrigued.

Atlanta, GA says Joe Patten, 83, has lived rent-free at the Fox Theater since the late 1970s. I say not a bad gig if you can get it. He is now having health problems, but the board has decided to let him keep living there until he needs round the clock care. They actually do call him the Phantom of the Fox. Of course, the implication is they are booting his butt out when he gets too needy. Hm..

Also be careful in Fairbanks, Alaska. The Fairbanks Shakespeare Theater board of directors asked the artistic director to take a pay cut to only 12k. He counter-offered and asked for 15k. So they FIRED him instead.

In Denver, CO there will be a protest against offering citizenship rights to fetuses. Hm...Do you think any fetuses will show up to protest the loss of their rights?

And finally in Carson City, NV there was a story about James Van Winkle, Rip's lesser known younger brother, that was a real snoozer.

See, USA Today CAN be fun!

Pre-Op Physical has come and gone.

I'm posting tonight because there will simply not be time tomorrow morning. I have an appointment at 8:30 a.m. at LabCorp in Laurel, an hour's drive from here, to have my pre-op blood draw. The fun never ends.

We are heading to Savannah, GA tomorrow, which is over 600 miles from Cindy's house, and we have to make the stop at Lab Corp first. Oh, well...

So I'm not going to fire up the computer in the morning to type a blog. Sorry!

Pre-op went well. I LOVE Dr. Marino! She's an amazing lady. Mark and I have been her patients for probably 25 years and have followed her hither and thither as she kept changing offices. She was so solicitous of me today, even offering me sleeping pills or tranquilizers! Ha Ha!! She didn't actually put it like that, but I think that's what it would have been. She also was the first doctor to say quite bluntly that radiation will make me TIRED!! She said it's killing cells in your body and it's cumulative and you will feel very tired. Everyone else hems and haws about how some do, some don't. I bet she's right. I bet everyone feels tired. Your body is being bombarded with deadly radiation. How could it not be tired trying to fight back from the inside?

Mark and I took a walk at noon today before we went to the doctor. We walked Cindy's mile and a half track and were shocked to see that it took as long as it took to do two and a quarter miles in the indoor track. We can only guess that the hills, uneven sidewalks, curbs, and excessive heat and humidity just take more out of you to do less distance. Weird, yet we enjoyed ourselves.

Tomorrow there will be no exercise, just driving, and driving, and driving some more. Fortunately, Mark and I like driving together. We buy USA Today and he reads aloud all the articles, especially the little paragraphs from every state. They are always amusing! You just have to wonder sometimes if really NOTHING else happened that day in that state that they had to print THAT story!!?? If you've never read the states in USA Today, you really must give it a try at some point. Especially if you're driving and someone else is reading.

Squatter's Rights

The flight to BWI from Orlando is remarkably short. It was amazing to be leaving our house around 1 p.m. and arriving in Baltimore by 6 p.m. There was more driving and waiting than flying. If it wasn't so expensive, we would do it a lot more often! LOL

As soon as we left the airport, we drove right over to Lowell's apartment and had a nice visit with him. I always enjoy seeing him and his two roommates. They are wonderful people plus they have two great pets, Logan the German Shepherd and Pip the tabby cat. It's fun to watch them play together. We have watched Logan grow up from a puppy to this huge, friendly, nine year old dog. He's just a great dog. Mark and Lowell had fun talking about the Baltimore Comicon that Lowell attended. I had fun talking to Chris and Allison about their house-hunting expedition. We also collected mail that had come for me to Lowell's address, medical bills and insurance forms.

It was kind of odd coming into Cindy's house without her there. We knew she wouldn't be here these two days, but it still felt odd. We made a nice dinner and finally sat down to eat around 9:20 p.m. She is so amazing. Not only is she allowing us the use of her house now and for months to come, she also remembered that I wanted the bedroom re-arranged. We planned to go up there last night and move the furniture, but she had already done it. I need to be mindful of my left side and arm post-surgery. I will need to sleep on the other side of the bed than usual, but that side was currently too close to a wall for me to get in and out easily. By moving the bed, I could be on that side and have easy access in and out. Cindy, you are AWESOME!! All in all, a very good day.

This morning was weigh-in day. Last Tuesday I weighed 218 and told everyone on the blog that I expected to behave, exercise, and lose some weight. I also promised to be honest, so here's the honest truth. I started out well, and I did exercise as documented in previous blogs; however, I gained a pound and a half. This morning I was 219.5. Hm...I'm thinking it was the penne salmon in vodka sauce Thursday night and the fish 'n chips and pizza Sunday night, not to mention a lot of alcoholic drinks. Even yesterday I had about 2000 calories.

So here's to the start of another new week, another opportunity to eat right and exercise. I promise not to weigh myself for the entire week again. We are driving back to Florida tomorrow and will be there for Labor Day Weekend. When we drive back up, it will be for Rosh Hashanah services and five nights at the Rosens' house. Fun times ahead, but September 16 is looming. I'm still feeling positive and trying to focus on the here and now and not worry about what might come in the future.

Lots of eatin', lots of walkin'

Our perfectly planned day yesterday almost went south at the beginning when we got to the movie theater and there was no 10 a.m. show. I KNOW the website showed one, but they said the first one was 11:20. So...what to do! Hey, at Downtown Disney there's lots to do. We strolled from one end to the other, went through shops like World of Disney and thought about all the things we'd like to buy, sipped sugar-free lattes from a sidewalk stand, and then went to the movie. Unfortunately, during the stroll we passed Cooks of Dublin and drooled over their fish 'n chips lunch menu. So when the movie ended at 1:20, we decided to skip the drive up the road to the JCC. Who needs free, kosher food anyway? We walked back to the Pleasure Island side and ate fish 'n chips. I also got a small bowl of vegetarian curry lentil soup. OMG, it was SO good!

Animal Kingdom provided lots of opportunity for walking. In fact we walked about 2 hours through the Pangani Forest and saw gorillas, kangaroos, meerkats, all manner of rodents, lizards, snakes, and amphibians, as well as okapi and other hoofed creatures. I took a lot of pictures which I'll try to post later on. Exhausted and hot, we walked back to our car and drove to Epcot where we walked over one mile just to get to Mexico from our car. The new tequila bar was really worth it, though. The ambiance was great, and we each ordered a Tequila Flight of 3 half-shots. It was a delicious and fun tasting. From there it was an easy walk across the pavillion to ride through the Grand Fiesta. It used to be River of Time, but then they added Donald Duck and the other two birds in a cartoon in there. Not an improvement in my book, but Mark likes it. The most fun thing was that it was the first time we had been in the Mexico pavillion or ridden that ride since we had actually been in Mexico. It really made the views of Acapulco in the ride much more real, and I had a better appreciation for the country and its culture than before.

We then walked up to Italy to the new pizzeria. The water they use to make the pizza is supposed to be just like the water they use in Naples. We ordered a house salad and the Orotano pizza, which included cheese, tomatoes, zucchini, mushrooms, artichoke (fortunately not many), and red peppers. It was thin crust and absolutely delicious. Mark had his usual Merlot with that, and I chose Sangria for something fun and different. There was also pistachio gelato with coffee for dessert. Hm...hm...good.

From there it was nearly a mile and a half to walk back to the car, so that's what we did instead of taking the tram to the parking lot. We figured it was the least we could do after all we ate. By 9:30 p.m. we were home and doing laundry. We LOVE that we can spend a day at Disney and be home in less than an hour. Unbelievable. I also got to chat with Evey about wedding plans for about half an hour last night, so that was just a wonderful ending to a wonderful day.

This morning we will go to the gym for the weight machines and walking the track, but that's the good part. Unfortunately we have to fly back to Maryland for my pre-op physical tomorrow. I really go hours and hours without remembering the cancer when I'm here. It's also weigh-in day tomorrow morning. I didn't exactly stay on my diet this whole week, so I just hope I didn't gain anything when I hit that scale at Cindy's house tomorrow morning. We are only staying two nights there before driving back down here for Labor Day Weekend, so I don't have to get too upset about leaving, YET.

Fun, fun, fun

Yesterday was great. We got to shul late, but so had the cantor, so they were still on the Torah service and Mark even got an aliyah. We left promptly this time instead of schmoozing until they kicked us out. Then we decided to try our local pool. Solivita has two huge pools as part of the two rec centers, The Palms and The Riviera, but many of the "neighborhoods" also have their own pools. Our neighborhood is Flora Vista, and our pool is less than .2 of a mile down the street. We drive by it every time we go out to shop and never see anyone in it, so we decided to walk down and check it out. It was empty and beautiful, quite big with restrooms and shower facilities, lots of chaise lounges and tables with chairs. The depth is from 3 feet around the edges to 5 feet in the middle, perfect for Mark to do his water aerobics. We floated and swam in the warm water for a half hour or so before anyone else came, but then we met some more Flora Vista folks. They were surprised to see anyone there because they often come and no one is there! It's like having your own private pool. Amazing.

Today we have a big day planned. Mark is currently making his Sunday morning pancakes for us, but we have to eat and run. Downtown Disney runs the first show of the day for only $6, so we are going to see the Jennifer Aniston movie, The Switch. Then we are going to the new JCC just up the street from WDW and next to the synagogue we attend. They are having a "Taste of the J" to celebrate their one year anniversary. We registered online for the free event, all the free food you want! That's our lunch today. After lunch we are going to walk around Animal Kingdom to see the animals and get some exercise (especially after what we'll probably consume at the JCC), then we're going to Epcot to check out the new tequila bar and pizza parlor.

I put on a new pair of shorts today which surprised me. I bought these months ago and never wore them because I didn't think they would still fit. I feel like I've gained 10 pounds recently, but they still fit! They'll be perfect for walking around the parks today because they have pockets.

Oops, got to go! Mark just said my pancakes are ready.