Hi everyone! It's been raining in Scotland this weekend. Yesterday went to a motor show and froze my tail off with high winds...I was starving (think it's getting on to that TOM...I am always hungry before it starts. Doubt I have lost any weight but I am comfortable in my current reduced clothes. I know I ate too much yesterday - too much. Another week of good eating and yesterday - oh oh! Struggling but not giving up. Today going for a walk to the garden centre - ran out of compost and have a ton of seed packets so needless to say will be placing another delivery order. Might drag my wheely bag with me and get some smaller bags of compost that I can drag home...and of course if there are any plants that need to be rescued! Today is a new day and I have to get outdoors, get moving and get planning some soup for the next few days, get some lighter meats out and have some yogurt. Really did not want to post yesterday after everything...I felt so bad about myself afterwards but this morning I thought - get yourself back on the board, be honest, get it off my chest and get moving today. I have lost 14 - 17 pounds which puts me at the halfway point of my overall goal and struggling to get things moving. Here we go - glad to read everyone is still sticking with it and making progress. No matter how small the steps are they still put us one step ahead of where we were. Looking forward to the garden centre, going to get moving and scrubbing things today. Biggest challenge next week - staying active mentally at work - some days are boring and I could munch all day - so I drink lots of water and go to the loo a lot. Have a fabby day today! McPeg

I've spent parts of 3 days haunting an estate sale on estate in area that was once well outside the Mpls-St. Paul boundaries but is now embedded in a second tier suburb. Ad said "prominent St. Paul family" and rumors said they were related to a RR baron and were Ivy League educated, etc. Tried to pick up as much of the sociology of the place as I could. 1930s was the rumored provinance, but I think it was the colonial revival of 1920s. White Cape Cod shake siding house with dormers, now with double garage. Overlooked a large wetland and probably was a former farm or hobby farm. Owner sold land surrounding it to subdivisions of 1980s-90s wealthy buyers. Former "barn" is now modified into Dutch Colonial house. May have had servants quarters? The thing reeks of Williamsburg & Wallace Nutting pretenses. Wood paneling, curved staircase, 18th and 19th century antiques, wide plank repro floor, large formal dining room with multiplane windows. But the sale crowd also revealed what moderns would consider flaws of the house. Everything moved through a series of narrow necks: long nasty driveway that provoked many troubles during multiple snowfalls during sale, long slim paved walkway to front door, small front hall, one person at a time on stair, little bedrooms, narrow butler pantry passage into kitchen, narrow faux-Palladian porch-walkway under extended roof. Kitchen was probably updated in 1960s or 70s or 80s but was always restrained--Kenmore range with metal hood mounted onto ceiling above, off white painted old cabs, modest refrig., synthetic floor tile that resembles cork. One replacement light fixture over table and one old ceiling fixture and one light over sink. There was a sink in the passage from dining room, embedded in a 5-foot run of metal countertop, very likely original to the house, with frumpy cabs above and below and on opposite side of passage. An eating area with view could hold a family of kids--this may have been an add-on when double garage was attached. A "library" with lots of windows and knotty pine walls and beaverboard ceiling was the casual room. Probably had hunting & sporting prints on walls and akin items lying around. Imagine the owner smoking a pipe and surveying his grounds from there. We didn't see part of upstairs--closed off, including bathroom(s?). This was a high-end estate of the pre-WWI period. There were obviously dinner parties and cocktail parties and garden parties and pool parties. Metal lawn furniture and a modest 2-burner Weber grill. Lots of panoramic views of the wetland in distance below. Servants very likely. All the images of Hollywood scenarios from the B movies about New England made just before my 1950s childhood came screaming back to me, esp. the ones about worldly writers working on a manuscript for a Broadway producer. This place is 15-25 minutes from downtown St. Paul by freeway. Comments by sale attendees used words like "horrible kitchen" and "screwy floor plan." DH said "I can't imagine anyone wanting to buy this place" after digging me out of the ditch for the 3rd time. Charm just doesn't cut it much any more. But I think it's been sold anyway. Postscript: I couldn't afford the $25,000 Pennsylvania highboy, the $12,000 Early Republic self-storing dining table, or much else, although I coveted it all. Oh, except an 1810 eliptical-front mahogany chest which is now blocking the walkpath in our in-progress new addition. DH is barely speaking to me.

David - have a great time with your group! Sorry about the Sooners and sorry about Sam Bradford. Hope the shoulder heals quickly. Claire, happy gardening! I have daylilies and hostas to move too, but I am waiting until it cools off here a little first. We are finally getting warm summery weather this weekend LOL! Sharon, I am so jealous of your being able to spend the fall at the cottage after the summer people are gonw. That was always my favorite time of year in Ogunquit - saying goodbye to the tourists! Enjoy your time and Clive bcskye, sounds like a blast! What sort of horse show is it? I used to ride hunters (and a few jumpers) back in the day, but I love all sorts of equestrian competitions. Have a great time with the family too. Linda, OGM! 1200?!?!?!? There are going to be some happy pooches and you are a dear for the labor of love. Katie - sounds like a wonderful way to spend the weekend. As David says - dance like no one is watching! Annie, glad to hear those beanies are going to good use. And happy canning! I can't wait to start my next project, I just have to find a little time. Dedtired - enjoy the Cape - as I mentioned before, fall is the BEST time to go anyplace touristy - the crowds have thinned. Lyra - Good luck with the projuect. I know how that goes, seems I can always find something else to do rather than what really needs to be done. Somehow it all does get dome though - an enjoy your time off, you deserve it! I had my second jewelry class on Friday - I just love it. Working on a multi metal (copper and brass) pendant to learn my skills. I will post photos as I complete projects. Fri night was out with friends for Happy Hour, yesterday was relaxing at home and getting totally caught up on Mad Men. I am TOTALLY addicted to that show now! Today we are having another couple over for a BBQ - sometimes it is nice not to have a gang and just sit and enjoy a quiet evening with grown up conversation. Tomorrow we are thinking about going to the NJ shore (I am cringing at the thought, I don't care for the shore) so we'll see. Maybe I will send the men folk off and have a canning day to myself. Stay happy and safe everyone! Alexa

When my dad died, my mother and dad had been married 46 years. Jody and I were married 46 years last January. Katlan, I have a good friend who was 13 when she got married. I asked her, "How old was your husband?" She said he was "Twelve years old...." I said "WHAT???!!! He was 12 years old?!!!" She said "No, he was 12 years older than me....he was 25." Oh, boy. He would have gone to jail....if he lived past my daddy beating him to a bloody pulp. By the time she was 19, she had 3 kids and a hysterectomy. I can't even imagine that. wow.