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.