Erin Go Bragh! Happy St. Patrick's Day.

I apologize to whoever is reading regularly (although I suspect there is no one in that category anymore!) for not writing yesterday after I just said I was going to start writing every day.

My calories have been great every day so far.
Tuesday 1202
Wednesday 1222
Thursday 1250

My Lose It! program is allowing 1684 calories to lose two pounds a week because it still thinks I weigh 295.  I want to keep them as near as 1200 as possible to have a more rapid weight loss at the start.  When I was losing so successfully back in 2009, I also keep the daily calories close to1200 as often as possible.

Today I currently have 1567 programmed because it's St. Patrick's Day, and we are having company for dinner and a big crock pot Corned Beef with cabbage, carrots, and potatoes along with a homemade asparagus soup, challah, wine, and dessert of mini green cupcakes, honeydew melon, and green grapes.  Because dinner will add up to approximately 1307, I am obviously going over my self-imposed limit.  To keep within the program's limit of 1684, I will only eat a yogurt for breakfast (80 calories) and a little cheese sandwich (180) until dinner, so it will be a little like Yom Kippur, fasting most of the day with a big dinner at the end!  LOL!

This morning I weighed 285, so I'm pleased with how the program is going so far.  There will be a lot of sodium in today's dinner because of the corned beef, so I might not see a big drop tomorrow, possibly even a little bit up.  I'm not worried about it though because Saturday I will eat all my meals at home, so the calories will be back to the 1200 range.

Our friend Rudy arrived Tuesday afternoon, as planned,  Mark and Rudy always have fun talking!

I played Mah Jongg yesterday, and that was a lot of fun even though I did not win even one game.  Some days are like that.

Meanwhile, here are some more pictures from the March cruise.

We went to St. Kitt's on day five.

It was pouring down rain when we left the ship, (on the left), but it stopped quickly.

As we drove to the train for our shore excursion, we passed Brimstone Hill Fort, which we visited last year.  It was the site of many battles between the French and the English.

Eustis, our bus driver.

We took a two hour train ride on an historic narrow gauge railway that used to be used for transporting sugar to the port.  It covered about 2/3 of the perimeter of the island.

Free drinks on board.  I had a pina colada and two daiquiris.

These girls sang a cappella in each car along the way.

Great coast line views as we traveled, especially where the Caribbean and the  Atlantic meet.

The end of the line, back on the bus for a short ride back to the port.

We had some down time after dinner that night and read books in the  library for awhile.

Barbados was our next port.  We went to Harbor Lights on Carlisle  Bay.

We all got a free drink on the way in.

We were on the first bus, so we had our pick of chairs.  Later every chair was filled!

We didn't get to swim because it was too rough.  Lifeguards eventually put out a red flag, and we watched several rescues. After we got back to the terminal, Mark bought rum and rum cakes.

Since we had our bathing suits on, we swam in the solarium pool before  dinner.

Dinner with our table mates, starting on left going around the table back to me: Rod, Judy, Dave, Evey, Brina, Brian, Mark, me.

We skipped the theater production show (already saw it last year) to go to the Glass Show.  Always spectacular!