Pink is not MY favorite color!

Kids get pink eye...

Adults don't....

Or so I thought! Yep, I have pink eye. It started up last week with me feeling yucky and by Saturday it was going strong. Sunday couldn't open my eyelid because it was glued together. Hum, maybe I should have put a warning on this blog (especially yucky one!). Weird thing is that it affected my nasal passages and my lungs. I don't have much of a voice and I keep coughing, like bronchitis. I've been to the doc and got medicine so the eye looks better but I don't wish this on anyone... well, not anyone I like! (lol) The only thing I have to say on the subject is... WASH YOUR HANDS or use the hand sanitizer.. alot of it!

Oh and I went to a wedding two weeks ago.. this pic is from that event. I think you can tell from it that I like green... I got the shawl from online and I was amazed at how well it matched. Thank heavens for Amazon.com!

Weigh in this week... argh!

Wow.. 4 months since I wrote!!!

Wow.. hard to believe its been 4 months since I updated this! A lot has been going on in the past four months so let me try to catch you up...

Right before the holidays my next door neighbor got sick. I started helping her with her meals because she needed to watch her sugar and salt and liquid intake. I asked a bunch of friends to say some prayers and I'm happy to report she is doing better! I don't have anything to do with her meals any more, except on those occassions when I'm fixing something at home that I know she likes. Still keep her in your thoughts and prayers because she's a special lady and friend.

So in February we celebrated Sherry's birthday... she didn't want to do anything special so I fixed dinner here and that was about it... except for a trip to Park Ave. Boy oh boy is that a good place to eat. If you live in the OC area, I highly recommend Park Ave. It's located on Beach Blvd in Stanton (yes, Stanton... as a friend at work said, when the bullets start just duck.. lol). The restaurant has some of the best comfort food as well as some game type meat (venison, duck, etc).

Now we get to March - and as you all know, thats my birthday MONTH. I can't just have a day... I need a whole month. So at the beginning of the month Sherry and I went to dinner at Revolucion in Fullerton - don't go there!! Horrible food, lousy service, etc. We decided not to get dessert and started towards the car when we remembered a place on Commonwealth called the Twisted Vine. Its a wine bar and so we decided, "What the heck!" and went right on in. Amazing.. absolutely amazing. I asked for suggestions on a red wine and the waiter, Scott, brought me samples of 3 of them.. and I don't mean just a little taste, I mean a couple of nice swigs! I found a new red that was amazing... its from Domaine Alfred and it's called "DaRed".. so very, very good.. smooth.. etc. Sherry wanted to try something sweet and ended up with Warriors Port - she liked it but I thought it was a little sweet for my taste. Anyway, for the next couple of weeks we were there either on Friday or Saturday. I've now tried some amazing red wines because they also have a tasting available each night of a red and white... really good stuff.

So the night before my birthday I had a ladies only party - a Hush party! Yes its one of those naughty lady kinda parties and we had a lot of fun. I'm just going to leave it at that... after all, you never know who might be reading this!!

The next day was my birthday and I had friends and family here. I got some amazing gifts, especially my I-Pod. I've been using it with my exercise machine (did I mention I got a Glider to do exercises with?) and its helping me to keep a nice rhythm. I try to walk on my days off and its nice to be able to listen to music... I also got a whole bunch of gift cards for stores where I can buy new clothes.. because I need them!!

The weekend after my birthday Mom got sick. She was diagnosed with atrial fibrillation and advanced emphazema. She was in the hospital until a few days ago and is doing much better. Again, thanks for the prayers and good wishes. We went shopping the other day and I bought a new pair of jeans - "Not your daughters jeans" from Nordstrom... um.. these jeans are amazing. They are suppose to make your legs look thinner and "lift your butt" and they DO! I felt good in them and they're so comfortable. I also got two new dresses and two pair of shoes (okay, so I'm a shoe whore.. sue me!).

I'm going to get another picture taken soon but this will at least give you an idea of how I'm looking now... want to see something weird? Look at one of my first posts and then this one.. I had already been on the diet for a few months at that point but tomorrow makes one full year. As of this morning I've lost 91 1/2 lbs... and I'm feeling good! And dang it, I look good too (lol).

I promise to be better about updating this blog.. and sorry it was sooooo long this time.. be safe and be happy!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Well, when I weighed yesterday morning I've officially lost 79 lbs... wow! That's since 4-1-06... not bad huh? For New Years Eve, Sherry and I went to the Westin Hotel in Costa Mesa. It was a package deal, with our dinner included. We had a great time - thanks to Bryan, our bartender! He was so funny and kept us in stitches making comments about other people who were extremely annoying... so anyway, here's the newest pic.. taken just a little after midnight, in the bar area of the Westin.... 1-1-07! Oh I almost forgot a funny thing - I read online that if you wear red underwear on New Years Eve it's supposed to bring you good luck in the romance department for the entire year. Well, you all know what kind of romance I've had this past year... zero! So I figured I'm not taking any chances... (if you're a guy and this is too much info.. stop reading now!!).... So anyway, I had this really pretty red lacy bra and I got some new undies and I was getting ready for the evening and put the bra on and started laughing.. it didn't fit! Sherry came to see what I was laughing about and she started laughing too... I put the dress on just to see if I could "make it work" (as Timm Gunn would say), but there was no way.. so yes, that's my black bra you can just see at the corner of the dress in this pic.. and yes, I still wore the red undies!!! I figure I still held true to the original intent.. red undies on New Years Eve!! Be safe and Be happy this year people!

Well Thanksgiving didn't hurt my diet... I didn't lose, but I also didn't gain. I weighed in on a Friday morning and that night I went to a play. Well, there was a flu bug going around work and I caught it - I had to leave the play after 15 minutes and spent the next 30 minutes in the bathroom.. being extremely sick! Sherry helped me get home and the next morning, after many visits to the bathroom, I weighed and I'd lost 6 lbs! I've kept the 6 off so I'm pretty darn happy with myself.

You'll note a new hair color - don't adjust the dials on your screen, its really that red. My hairdresser decided to put some blonde in it and streak it, then add red on top.. well, in the front I'm almost completely gray, so it really turned out red. When my hair isn't soooo poofy on top, you can still see some shades of brown. Hey, I wanted red... I got red!

In case I don't see or talk to you in the next week, have a wonderful holiday and a safe one!

and a diet update!

I weighed in last week and the official total is now 70 lbs. I feel great and I'm looking a lot better. This picture was taken last night, when I went to a wine tasting dinner. Oh.. did I tell you about the restaurant in Stanton? If I didn't then you must not live here! It's called ParkAve and its outstanding. They have comfort food that's kicked up a notch. Great staff and the restaurant is one of those places where you can dress up or be comfortable in jeans.

Anyway, if I do say so myself... I think I look pretty darn good in this pic!

Crazed Look?

Someone made a comment about Sherrill's "crazed look" in my last post... so I thought I'd share a really "crazed look."

Mini Vacations

Okay, as a big time vacation type person, I whole heartedly recommend taking even little mini vacations. We spend too much time working and not enough time playing. With that in mind, I went up to Northern California and visited with Maddy and her human companions, Ron and Sherrill. They are building this beautiful house on a hill and I'm very, very envious! We tasted some great wine (hey, did you know its stronger there!) and had a great visit with each other. Yep, I definitely recommend mini vacations... you come back to work at least able to breath a little easier.. for a day or two!

These are some of my pics...

Sherrill and I had tea at this small place in Sutter Creek. They had a small shop next door and I spent.. um.. a little money!











This is the night time view from their property. Wow!
Now you know why I'm envious!













Doesn't she look relaxed... the *itch!! (lol)

So now I'm back at work... at least for a few weeks.. hum.. when can I take off again???

Whew.. what a few months!

Okay, so I had good intentions to put stuff here as often as I could but you know, I don't always get the time! Anyway, I went to weigh in last week and I've lost 65 lbs now. I'm really proud of myself. My belt wraps all around the front of my pants and around the entire left side. I've had six new holes put in it and my cobbler said he'd be proud to make even more. I had to have my pants taken in again and she said she can't take them any more or else I'll have one big pocket across my butt!

I'm doing the diet but I've also added exercise. Yuck! I get up at 0500 hours to go and walk the hill down, then up.. then I come back inside and do ab crunches on The Bean. I've got a pair of jeans I want to fit into on Saturday, so I've really been working hard this week.

So this is me, 65 lbs lighter... personally, I don't think the face has changed a whole lot. But I can see the changes in my waist and backside... from a 32 pants to a 24 pants.. 2 X shirts now instead of 5X...

What do you think? And no, its not the best picture ever... but I didn't take it (lol)...