Hi all, I'm still here too. Inspite of the ammount of food I ate this week, I am another pound down. This is a psychological breakthrough for me as it puts me in the 40's. Knowing I have to fight to keep it will hopefully give me incentive to say no to the little extras I let slip in. McPeg being idle is hard. I don't know where you work. Could you bring something to keep you fingers busy like quilt squarers, needlepoint or a crossword? It helps me that I made a rule that I cannot eat anything while doing something else. Reading,television,at the computer,outside, talking on the phone....if I eat I must focus on that alone unless dining out with others of course. Otherwise I would be thoughtlessy inhaling my food. Erica, hope things perk-up for you DH (and you) soon. Kathy, use your time with DH gone to do something nice for yourself. Oh how we love them, but sometimes I dream of how easy it would be to be single. Then reality hits and I realize how much we both need each other in so many different ways. Fortunately we are both ones who need alone time and understand that. Alice I just discovered Diet Rite sodas are now made with Splenda and have no calories or sodium. It sounds like you really like your gym. Which do you belong to? I would like to go but I don't like the way most are run today. Everyone have a great holiday weekend. Be safe, eat as healthy as you can and play hard.

Hi Yellowhair, I've been missing also. Don't even wanna mention the computer problems *sigh*. Both the telephone co. and the cable co. have been digging up the streets around here and I'm lucky to have hone service. My "high-speed" dialup is so slow it can take MINUTES to just change pages on this site when I have a connection at all. So sorry to read of your loss of your mom. It's hard I know. I am currently maintaining my 35LB. loss. Life has handed me a series of blows so the ability to maintain my weight is truly a positive right now. My DH put his foot thru our ceiling while up in the attic. He had surgery to repair some small bones. Two weeks later his foot became infected and after 2 surgeries to get the infection out he is now in a skilled nursing facility for a month recieving atibiotics through a PIC and intensive oversight to prevent more infection from lodging. Within days of the drywall incident, my son was t-boned (broadsided) while riding his motorcycle. He is ambulatory but has deep tissue damage and hairline fractures at his knee and lower femur. This femur is already plated and pinned from a previous accident. He will be having reconstructive surgery on his knee using cadaver parts on the 18th of October. All this happened the first week of Sept. In the last week my daughter discovered a tumor in her pet rat. Saddest of all is the fact that my 7 1/2 year old Bullmastiff/Lab mix collapsed last Sat. A night at Animal Emergency and much testing later, we have learned she has a tumor on her heart and nodules in her liver. Hemangiosarcoma of this kind is not curable and generally is not diagnosed before it has matastasized. It is a very fast spreading cancer. I lost my Black Lab, Max, to this same type of cancer a year ago March. After seeing the pain he went through after surgery, and watching him develope pnuemonia later that night I made the promise that part of his legacy would be that no dog of mine would ever suffer that fate again. So I have allowed a procedure to drain away the blood from around her heart ( the tumor had bled, causing the collapse) and now we wait. She is full of all the energy (that a Bullie can muster) for now and I intend to love her and spoil her for her remaining days. She could have an hour, weeks or months before another bleed or rupture. At that time she will be allowed to go to her final rest. It is what I owe her and I am crying as I type this. She was always Max's dog, not ours until his passing. If there truly is something after they will be together again. Not a day goes by that I don't mourn him. We have a Black Lab puppy of 16 months that is another part of Max's legacy....a love of hard-headed, hyperactive long-legged Black Lab boys :). Belle will have left her own memories and the things she taught us about gentle loving affection and a fierce protection of all she loved may one day have it's own legacy in a new life of a Bullmastiff puppy for our little black lab boy to play with. So I do lurk here and I am cheering all on their weight loss journeys. Welcome to anyone who is new. I sure miss McPeg and hope she is doing well and will be back on these boards soon.

It is totally normal. My chlorine generator (pentair) does it too. Only out of the two jets closest to the equipment. The chemical reaction was explained to me, but I forgot it. I like it, because I can tell if my generator is working without going over and looking at the lights.

arkansas_girl, and I only say this because I care, they have decaffeinated brands now that taste just as good as regular! :) lydia1959, While they don't carry Fritos® *brand*, they do carry corn chips, their generic/store brand is Clancy's. And no they don't carry Diet Rite® brand cola, again, they have their own diet cola. They have very few brand name items however quite regularly have Oscar Meyer® bacon, Miracle Whip® salad dressing and a few other name brands at times but the whole point of the store is that about 95% of the products are generic/store brands. One rep said they will get a brand name if they can't get the quality or price they want or they just won't carry it. They guarantee the items so if you don't like it, they'll refund your money and replace the item on most items. Since you want brand name items, discount stores like these are not for you. I've found some of their products to be better than brand names, most are equal to and a few are not as good IMO. But I'm not a brand-loyal person on too many things so I find Aldi and the comparable type stores to be great. Keep in mind the average Aldi carries about 1400 SKUs so they're obviously not going to have as big an assortment of major things. They also go for items they get the right price and the right quality so produce can be hit and miss. Aldi is a store you shop first then go to another store to pick up the things like zucchini. Onions will vary. Sometimes they'll have red but sometimes they'll have white or yellow. Again, it varies. If you want a *guarantee* they'll have a particular type, then it's not for you. But then, no store can guarantee it! LOL (I see more out of stocks and perpetual OOSs at Malwart than any other store.) I'm surprised about the salsa. Around here they always have it and it's usually in the aisle as you come into the store, by the chips. Casa Mamita is their brand name, however if you're going to look for a variety of "heat" and a variety of flavor, don't expect it. Generally they carry one of each types. Green onions are hit and miss. Generally I think it's because they spoil quite quickly so I seldom see them there. Shredded cheese is in the cooler, most stores it's against the back wall with salads, sausage, milk, eggs, sour cream, etc. You need to get used to what they *have*, and know they will *not* have 50,000 to 80,00 SKUs as a large grocery store nor 100,000+ SKUs like a super center to cover all needs. (In fact, that's one of their advertising bits You don't have to search through aisles of camping gear to find your ketchup.) Nor will a Trader Joe's or Whole Foods for that matter. People that shop these stores realize they're not going to get *everything* in one stop. They're specialty stores. Whole Foods for "natural" stuff, TJ's for yuppy stuff and Aldi for low priced staples. I'm not surprised you didn't find green onions, red onion, zucchini and canned green chiles. They do carry a substitute "Rotel" tomato and chilis though. And of course your brand names are pretty much a given, though they do carry diet cola and corn chips, though not the flavor you were looking for. Frankly you could simplify your trip for those two things by picking them up when you get gas and you're not really doing an additional store. Most gas stations carry Diet Rite and Fritos. I'm very surprised you didn't find salsa and shredded cheese. I take it you didn't ask someone about it? I started making a list of things they have that I would buy. I check my Aldi List before going there, then do an Aldi trip. Although I pretty much do the same for any other store. I keep a price log so I know which stores have better prices on certain things. Keep in mind, Aldi is about a 10,000 square foot store with about 1400 SKUs as mentioned. They cannot physically carry the variety an 80,000 sq ft common grocery store would nor a 130,000-150,000 sq ft "super store". Their model is to carry bargain basics and some special things. An air conditioner for $60, cast iron pans for $30 and under, flash drives cheap, lawn chairs, and more. But they won't have it all the time. I consider it garage sale shopping in that you never know for sure what you can get, just like I experience at Malwart for that matter! LOL All stores run out. Not all stores carry "everything". They can't. No one store is for everyone, that's why there's so many. And as I mentioned earlier, rumor has it that Aldi gets its pop/soda from Dr Pepper Snapple Group, who make Diet Rite. Can't verify this yet, but wouldn't surprise me. BTW, while they don't carry a 100' aisle of various breads, they carry white, wheat, a few buns, and they also have a 12 grain bread that I really like and it's about $1.69. Considering the comparable bread at any other store is $3-$4 there's times I'll make a stop just for a few things that they have that I like better or save me lot. I don't like having to stop at multiple stores to get what I want, but unfortunately these days it's nearly a requirement. I can't get decent produce at a Walmart here, they just don't have it in stock or the quality is SO poor I wouldn't feed it to farm animals. (They don't get anything locally.) Cub and Rainbow are hit and miss. When Aldi has produce, I've had 95% good luck with the quality and of course the prices are substantially less. I got used to the Aldi concept long before Aldi came into this area. We had a store called Save-A-Lot owned by Nash Finch and it basically was the same concept. No frills, bag your own, store brand mostly and closeouts/special purchases. Again, not the place to buy everything but a great place to save money. I was saddened to see them close but I understand when they saw Aldi moving in, they gave up and closed the doors.