Time to say good-bye

Well Friends,

I've had a run at blogging and I enjoyed it, but I think it is time to shut things down here. I hardly post anymore and I just don't have it in me much anymore. Thanks to all who read and commented and let me know they liked what they read. Maybe one day, I'll get the blogging bug and blog again...

Jenny

SICK OF MAINTAINING!!!

Man, I have been so lame when it comes to WW the last few months. I've not done well at all, though I haven't gained much either. What I've gained, I also lost, so I've pretty much maintained. But that's really since APRIL and that is just crazy. And I've attended meetings, I've weighed in most weeks and so I've been doing it, but ignoring all the rules.

This week, I went back in and bit the bullet and weighed in. I'm back up to 186.8 pounds. Sigh - I have no one to blame but myself. But in a way, this has motivated me too. I've gotten back on track and am going to do my best to keep it that way.

I had a busy day on Saturday with Church and when it came time to eat out with friends, I got what I thought was the healthiest choice, I ate what I thought was a reasonable portion and packed up the rest to take home. I tracked everything. I tracked most of the Sunday's food (what I could remember) on Sunday and Monday. I tracked Monday and today so far.

Even though my walking buddy was sick, I picked up her dog (Foster) and my dog and we all went walking. We did 4 laps around Duncan Park and 1 lap around the parking lot. This was to get me and Foster another lap. Foster was having nothing to do with one more lap around the track so I walked him around the HUGE parking lot and letting him think we were trying to find the car. (I wonder if I can do that again) It was funny, he wasn't taking any chances once we got back to the car. I opened the hatch to get something and he jumped in and climbed over the back seat to get into the back seat. I had to get him to get out just so he could drink some water. Silly boy.

This weekend will be a challenge for healthy eating as I will be spending the weekend with the Yarnsters at SAFF (Southeastern Animal Fiber Festival). My splurge meal will be Friday night. We are going to CARRABA'S. I love that place!!! I hope they have Sausage & Lentil Soup. But, I'll just make sure to do a lot more walking around the arena and grounds to keep up some exercise and I'll be careful with breakfast and lunch. Though that too depends on what is served at SAFF.

I can agree to this

A friend of mine sent this as a funny, but you know, its not too far off the mark. I modified the list to be more fitting to my personality.

This may be the best living will I've ever seen

I being of sound mind and body do not wish to be kept alive indefinitely by artifical means.
Under no circumstances should my fate be put in the hands of pinhead politicians who couldn't pass ninth grade biology if their lives depened on it, or lawyers/doctors interested in simply running up the bills.

If a reasonable amount of time passes and I fail to ask for at least one of the following:

• Glass of Wine
• Sex
• Margarita
• Apple Martini
• Lasagna
• Mexican food
• French fries
• Chicken fingers
• Chocolate
• Pizza
• Ice Cream
• Steak
• Chocolate
• Sex

It should be presumed that I won't ever get better. When such a determination is reached, I hereby instruct my appointed person and attending physicians to pull the plug, reel in the tubes, let the "fat lady sing" and call it a day.

Occasionally, the news is good

I was waiting on hubby this morning and half watching the news. Until a story came up and a Puppy Caravan. It appears that Georgia excels in one more bad thing - we have the 4th highest number of abandoned pets. Well, someone is doing something about it. It appears that there are is a shortage of rescue pets up north so the Georgia Puppy Caravan comes to town. They are bringing food and supplies for our shelters and we in turn are giving them our rescued dogs that are in dire need of homes.

Here's more

http://www.animalrescueflights.org/georgiapuppycaravan/

THANK YOU!!!!

Homemade Bread

Mom was not a woman to make homemade bread. Matter of fact, none of my friend's moms were either. So, where I got my love for homemade bread, I don't know. Now most of those who know me know I am NOT PATIENT. So making bread for me is a trial because of all the steps and waiting. Beer bread was a great experiment but because I don't know beer and therefore, don't know the major ingredient, it was a bit frustrating. And it made Thunder24 very, very carb crazy.

Well Thunder24 - LOOK AWAY NOW. There are no pictures, but lots of description.

OK - I was listening to the Splendid Table Podcast months ago and they did an episode with these two bakers that just came out with a book called - Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day.

And they gave us the master recipe on Splendid Table. (see link) My interest was perked and I tried it with some success, but I put it it in the back of my head and, of course, forgot about it. But not before I put it on my wish list on Amazon.

Almost a year goes by and I remember it and I go out and get the book. I make the master recipe, give it to my hubby and he's in love. He used to make his own pizza dough when he worked for PieWorks Pizza and when he stopped working there, he forgot the recipe and any recipe he looked at didn't "look right". Well, lo and behold, in the book is a pizza dough recipe and he's hooked. And now he's making bread from this book too.

All the recipes make about 4 loaves of bread. And the dough can be stored in your refrigerator for up to two weeks. You can also freeze some of the dough to pull out and defrost overnight in your fridge and then when you are ready to bake with it, you let it rise like you did before and bake away.

If you leave the dough in your fridge, you can use it to make whole loaves or you can use it to make mini loaves, Naan, Pita, flatbreads, pizza, rolls or ... It boggles the mind.

This past Sunday, I made the Challah recipe from the book. I took one bite and said - "I can't believe I made something this perfect." And we promptly ate almost the whole loaf.

Since my interest was still perking away, I started surfing Yahoo Groups and ran across a Yahoo Group for this topic and in their archives is a Nutella Challah recipe. Now this I can't wait to try.

But I have to because when I made the Challah dough on Sunday, I "used up" the rest of the dough. I braided up two loaves and froze them and the 3rd loaf is dedicated to making Pecan Sticky Buns. I did this so when I got that call from church that asks me can I make something for a potluck, I can pull that bread down and volia. Or those sticky buns. Can you just imagine how well that will go over??? They'll be swooning in the aisles.

If you like homemade bread. My recommendation - go out and "get" the book. I wouldn't go so far as to say you can have fresh bread in 5 minutes, but their method lets you take already prepared dough in your fridge, let it rise on the counter and then bake it.

By the way - the Master recipe is not the recipe you use to make Challah. There is a master Challah recipe in the book and it may also be on their website.

"I want to ride my bicycle, I want to ride my bike"

Hubby had to go to Raleigh a few weeks ago for work and so he visited my family and came home with my mom's bike for me. So, we went riding once and tonight, I needed to exercise, so I packed my bike into the Fit and took off for Duncan Park.

I did 10 laps around the track and 4 laps around the parking lot. The lot probably a little bigger than the loop around the track, but it also has a slight incline to give it a little more of a climb and then a lovely little coast.

I'm not sure how many miles it is, but I rode for about 30 minutes.

Back on the WW Wagon

April, May and June were crazy between vacation and preparing the house for Mom to come and do our re-org, well, I was very busy and didn't want to really deal with my weight goals. I stayed mostly on track and only gained a few pounds during that time, but the last few weeks, things have been feeling very out of control. And, we had trips and other things happening and the next thing I know, I've missed at least 3 weigh ins and my eating habits were much worse. I did good for breakfast, but dinner and lunch were not so much. I knew I hadn't gained too much because my smallest sized pants still fit, just more snug.

So, I decided on Thursday it was time to put my life back in control very many ways. I decided I would go back on wagon and weigh in on Saturday and just deal with any of the weight gain. So, I went this morning and weighed in and GUESS WHAT! I have only gained 2 pounds.

I also tracked my food today. I had a healthy breakfast (though late because I went to the 9:30 WW meeting and I don't eat before meetings). Since my breakfast wasn't till about 11am and I was going to Panera to knit with the Yarnsters, I decided that lunch would be the Largo Lowfat Strawberry Smoothie (5 points). It is surprisingly filling. Publix has a special this week on Ranier Cherries and I had LOTS of those to nibble on today. Mmmmmmmmmm. And dinner was Tilapia cooked in a tomato "relish". Basically its cooked fresh tomato, onion, red pepper and mild banana pepper. Then, when its mostly soft, you add the tilapia (frozen filet) to the skillet, top it with the relish and let it cook. Mix a little of the relish with some cooked brown rice and throw in a salad and you've got a great meal.

So I have just a few more points for the evening and I'll call it a day.

Home Repair 2009

We've had this house for about 6-7 years. We haven't had much done except what had to be done. And its time.

So this year we did the following:

1. Cleaned out the house, installed new shelving in garage and closets. Purged a lot of shit we don't use anymore.

2. Got two trees chopped down, the tree canopy thinned, and underbrush cleaned out. Still more work to do on underbrush and back yard.

3. Got the septic tank pumped out. Technically, its the right space from the back of the house, but we now know that we cannot build out to that side of the house. Hall County Ordinances say that the septic tank cannot be within 10 feet of any structure. Also, it is buried too deep, so we had to get an extension put on the top of the pump out.

4. Working on the sink hole.

What's on our big ticket items to be done - Well, we are working on the list. So I'll tell you more as we finalize it.

A sinking feeling

Back around the early fall, hubby called me outside to show me where our land seemed to be sinking into the earth. Normally, it wouldn't bother me, but this was VERY close to our house foundation.

We kept an eye on it and noticed over the past months that the hole was getting worse and was sinking further back along the house line and into the back yard. And it was sinking enough to cause fissures in our land instead of just a slight depression. It was also near where we thought our Septic tank sat. I also noticed that our neighbor had a few holes forming too. Well, this couldn't be good. I happened to be out in the yard one day and saw the neighbor and asked her if she saw what was happening and she said yeah and they were keeping an eye on it too. She also said she had a son-in-law that did dirt work and could probably help us out. Well, that works for me and we called him. But, other priorities came up and we put it off until this weekend.

Around 9:30 a dump truck full of fill dirt and truck hauling equipment showed up. The dump truck released its load and that's when the real work began. We asked them to dig up the hole a bit to see if we could find what was causing the settling.

1 foot down - nothing
3 feet - nothing
6 feet - nothing
8 feet - Pay dirt! (sorry - couldn't resist the pun)

This is what we got

He kept digging and digging and finally reached the bottom

If you look at the foreground of the next picture, the first pile of dirt is what we had dropped off. The pile that you see beside the machine is what he pulled out of the hole and way in the back is the debris pile. Oh and we told Sammy Boy - don't get any bright ideas about digging holes to "help".

And here is a picture of the final debris pile.

This picture doesn't even begin to convey how big this pile is. The debris pile is probably about 20 feet long. It is on a slope, but if I stand behind it - it is over my head (I'm 5 feet 4 inches tall). There are stumps there bigger than me. There are pieces there that have to weigh at least 200 lbs. Some of that dirt contains smaller logs and tree pieces and cannot be put back into the hole without filtering it which he can't do. So it doesn't go in the hole at all. Mike and I might be able to do some of it over the next two weeks, but if it stays this hot - no freaking way.

But we aren't done yet.

So, he starts filling in the hole with the dirt we have and guess what, we need more dirt. At least another dump truck full. He's going to set that up, but it will be at least 2 weeks before he can come back and fill in the rest of the hole and pack it down. Packing it down is very important. We don't want loose dirt that will sink with the next good soaking. We want SOLID EARTH.

Because the debris pile is so HUGE, we have to have it taken away. If I were less ecologically aware, if I had a different moral compass, I would have them push the debris (since its mostly tree debris) back into our woods. But due to its amount of stuff and because there is a creek below our property. Something that big rolling into the ravine and, most likely, into the creek would probably not only damage the ecology of the creek, but also cause flooding to the people in the lower sections of the neighborhood. People who moved to the lower area to enjoy the creek feature.

So, our guy is arranging a dumpster and he will come back with ANOTHER machine that will pick up all the debris and pile it into the dumpster. They will then haul it away to the landfill. At least most of that debris is wood and it will degrade over time, so I'm not filling the landfill with awful stuff that will last forever.

So that is the current saga of our sink hole. I'll let you know more when we get it done. (Hopefully)