Happy Birthday, Mom.

She would have been 75. Three quarters of a century.

(Photo: Mom, some time in the '60s.)

Happy (but confused).

Or ... thank you, Jenny?

I lost a pound and a half while on vacation.

After I stopped laughing, I turned to my counselor - not my regular guy today - and said: can you explain to me why I lose only half a pound or gain while I follow this plan to the letter - but left on my own for a week I lose a pound and a half???

I think the bottom line was "lots of activity" - which is probably true. Certain lots of walking in NYC, but also in and around Philly. Airports. Train stations. Shopping. Etc. OK. I'll buy that.

So I guess instead of being frustrated ... I will simply be grateful that clearly, being on this program HAS taught me a thing or two about good choices.

And may I continue to make them! I'm only 2.4 pounds from my halfway weight. I had hoped to be at my halfway weight before this trip, but ... I guess I'll take it! :)

Home again, home again ...

Flight was a little delayed but otherwise painless. Delay was actually the order of the evening - luggage was delayed, shuttle to the parking lot was delayed ... yadda yadda. But still, fine. Home. Played with a really happy dog. (Not that he doesn't love his Aunt Patty!)

Back into the grove.

Anyway, as promised, here are some photos of the trip.

Dick and Alexis

Giant Swans!

The kids at the zoo.

The kids eating Chinese food. They know how to use chopsticks. I don't.

Answer: about 8 hours

Nope, the question is NOT "how much longer before you're in your own comfy home again?" Although that's certainly close to an accurate number.

No, the question is: "how many hours can you put into a project at your parents' insistence before they change their minds and say they'll just do it themselves?"

Wheee. :)

Family joy.

When I started this blog in my head, I was going to say something pithy about how family was such a delight, and then admit I meant that about 50% genuinely and 50% tongue firmly planted in cheek. As time has worn on this week, that number altered to about 5% genuine and 95% ... not. The number has bounced back up again a bit but ... oy. And not even MY family - by blood - my in laws.

This week has been so completely out of my hands, it's been ridiculous. Vanished were any ideas I had of what I wanted to do, or when I might hit the gym, or ... or ... anything.

Anyway. Hi. I haven't been able to blog for a bit - it was easier at Bill's place, as he had a spare laptop in the living room, and a wireless connection (and not to mention being awakened at the crack of dawn, and needing to keep myself occupied). Not so back in Philly - not only is there one computer (and I'm grateful for it no longer being dial-up!), it's in the room that the kids sleep in when they're here - meaning completely inaccessible after 8pm.

Good fun. So ... when last I left you, we were on our last day in New York (boo). We headed down to the village to meet Dick's friend, Hope; lucky for us she had just moved to town from Boston. Like, just moved. The week before. So, cool! That was fun; it was good to see her. Then back up to Bill's neighborhood for a quick trip through one of my favorite stores; nothing worth even trying on. Boo.

And then the train home. Bill had hoped we'd make the drive with him, but for a variety of reasons - not to mention wanting a little peace and quiet for Dick and I to work on our respective scripts (as opposed to being in the car with the kids for two hours) - we opted for the train.

And home again, home again in Philly. That night was supposed to be Dick's birthday dinner - only his mother was having trouble getting it together for that day - so it was more like ... Dick's presents, with dinner to follow on Saturday. (Heck, he and I celebrated it a week prior. He really knows how to stretch it out ...)

Saturday was when things started sliding a bit - or at least seemed to start. The family was going to the fireman's museum, and then to lunch. We were asked to go - I think it was HOPED that we would go - and all I could think was ... we're EXHAUSTED. We've been getting only a handful of hours of sleep on a sofa bed, hey, let's sleep in and see how we feel. I slept in, anyway. Til 11:00. Joyous. Right about then, my niece was melting down because she really really really didn't want to go to that museum ... gratefully, we were excused from the excursion, which was good, as it'd be a while before we were ready to leave.

Instead, Dick and I drove up to New Hope, where I'd never been, which was lovely. Hot, of course, but lovely. We walked around, and watched people, and did some shopping - there were a number of Indian clothing shops and I just wanted to take home the store! But I settled on one skirt. I'm not big into buying clothes right now, but I figured a "one size fits all" skirt was a reasonable investment, even with the weight loss. (It's a fabulous skirt. I wore it today, actually.)

Dick's birthday dinner was lovely; it was something German that I can't pronounce or spell, so I'll refrain. And dessert was what will from now on be called "Renate's Chocolate Cherry Mistake," because something went wrong in the baking of the cake - but it turned out not only excellent (from my perspective) but BETTER (from the perspective of those who had had it before).

I think it was on Sunday when the family unit at large started melting down a bit. I won't go into detail. So it goes. After it all melted down on Monday morning, it all worked itself back out again. Everything's hunky dory, everybody loves everybody, and it's all good ... you know, til next time. (Just to make it clear that this is not a criticism: When my mother was alive, she and I had a MAXIMUM "under one roof" time of four hours. Two hours was when things started getting tense. Four was the point at which the fighting started and it was time for the visitor to go home. Seriously. You could set a watch by it.) :)

And tomorrow we leave. We'll be back home tomorrow evening, snuggling with our sweet Waldo. (Yes, I miss my dog. Sue me.)

I'll post pictures of the trip in a day or two. No real way for me to download and post as we go. C'est la vie.

It's been a good trip, though. No, seriously. Family drama is just a redundant phrase, isn't it? And when it comes right down to it, this is a family that actually ENJOYS family time ... so unlike mine. Family time for me, growing up, was something you would tolerate til it was over. It still is.

I love New York ...

I just do.

Not ready to go back to Philly.

(Just as a side note - right now, as I type this, my husband is barking and my niece is meowing.)

Yesterday was a good day. Lovely weather (still a little sticky hot but compared to the day before, really can't complain). Walked around the neighborhood for a while, and then met Denizen/Cellmate Alexis for lunch. First time we'd met after years of online communities. She's incredibly cool, and we had a great time.

We then headed off to the TKTS line. We'd heard about this new "plays only" line, which I'd not only heard about from a friend, but read about on their website. Much shorter line - yay! Well, we just barely made it - right after we jumped into this ultra short line, they declared that there was no such thing as the plays only line and all lines sold all tickets. Not entirely sure what the point was, then, but we were glad we'd been able to hop into it.

From there, back to the apartment to cool off ... where, after having gotten up way too early in the morning, we both promptly fell asleep on the sofa.

Bill cooked a fabulous dinner ... majorly not on my diet, but it was yummy. We ran off to the theatre, where we saw Harriet Harris and Margaret Colin in OLD ACQUAINTENCE. The play was a little dated and left more questions than it answered, but the acting was fabulous.

Then back to the upper west side, where we sat down for coffee and dessert (ok, so figuring my diet was shot to hell for the day, I had a few bites ... yum.) And we just sat and watched the endless parade of people and their dogs, and just soaked it up. We acknowledged how much we wanted to live there some day, and at the same time, how if we did, we probably would never remember to take the time to sit and people watch ... or at least, we'd do it about as often as we go to the beach in LA. Life gets in the way. I know that.

But we started being very specific in telling the universe what we wanted, and how we wanted to accomplish it. An impromptu wish list. Wish list? Is that right? Maybe more ... list of goals. Short term. Long term. Out loud. For the universe to hear, clear as day. And if it was too vague, we'd narrow it down ... 'cause we wouldn't want the universe to come at us sideways, leaving us beaten, going "well, technically it IS what we asked for ..."

And the evening ended with us getting into the elevator with a woman walking a golden retriever-standard poodle mix ... a gorgeous, sweet, slightly goofy dog.

Now that's a good day.

Greetings from New York

I know, you're thinking - doesn't she have better things to do in NYC than blog?

Answer: well, of course. But it's 7:40 am, you see, and I've been up for an hour and a half. Because when you're sleeping on the sofa bed of a smallish apartment that already houses a family of four, there's no sleeping past the time the first person gets up and starts making coffee. Which was around 6. And there's really very little we can do until the kids are off to camp and the adults are off to work - only then can we get the shower and stuff.

I'm not really grumbling. Well, I might be, a little, when I need a nap around 3pm. But really, I'm just so happy to be here in New York ... and grateful for the free bed ... that it's all good.

I love New York. When I'm away from itmy memory of how much I love it fades a bit ... then I get back and it takes mere seconds to be reminded.

Not that I object to the path my life took, heading west rather than east. Most importantly, meeting my husband in LA and all. :)

But I love it here. People walk. Restaurants are still going strong after 10pm. People out walking their dogs. I like the hustle and bustle.

Of course, staying with my brother in law and family affords us an opportunity to live in NY in a way that we could never actually afford to live in NY ourselves, if you get the idea. So I realize that the way Dick and I would have to live here would be drastically different and considerably less fun.

I can still be a little wistful.

Anyway ... we actually arrived in Philadelphia Tuesday evening. A five hour flight becomes an entire day lost to travel. A relatively sane 11:15 am flight means being at the airport at 9:15, which means being at the car park at 8:45, which means getting up really early. Then a three hour time difference puts us here at 7:30pm, and by the time his folks pick us up and we get home ... Day shot.

But I gotta tell you - those No-Jetlag pills really do work. I only ever took them when we went to London, but it occurred to me it might be great for even just a three hour difference. And sure enough, we were in bed before midnight (no matter that it was 9pm our time!) and up at 8:00. In the right time zone and everything. Crazy.

Anyway, we visited with his folks that evening, and over a leisurely breakfast in the morning. It was so freaking hot though ... I know I grew up with humidity and everything but ... ugh. No central air, just window units in each room. So you'd open the door to the hallway and this wall of wet heat would greet you. After a shower I kept feeling like I couldn't get dry.

Once we finally got it together, we headed off to Trenton to grab the train to NY. I like trains. Not something I get to do often.

Hopped on an express subway by accident once we got here which put us out about 10 blocks early - but rather than wait for the local, decided to just walk. Because we're in NY. And people walk. And it's nice.

Luckly, we arrived just an hour or so before the heavens opened up and a thunderstorm hit. Thunder and lightning. I miss thunder. But good thing we got inside when we did - because it actually flooded out the subway station we had just been at ... so we would have been royally screwed.

We got ourselves reacquainted with the kids (6 and 3), and enjoyed a little family chaos. Then off to Astoria for a Greek dinner (adults only).

And this morning, as I said, up way too early. Any minute now, the apartment will clear, and Dick and I will begin our day. Or maybe I'll nap again. All I know is, right now, the kids have both just melted down COMPLETELY. Isn't it early for that? :) Days like this I'm glad we only have Waldo to take care of. :)

Weight loss ads and other things

I'm sitting in the waiting room at Jenny Craig, looking at the ad with the slimmer Valerie Bertinelli proclaiming that she lost 18 pounds in 7 weeks! With an asterisk that says "results not typical".

No kidding.

I'm following the diet to the letter, I exercise like a madwoman, and so far I'm at 4-1/2 pounds in eight weeks (including a half-inch off my waist, a quarter-inch off my hips, and untold weight off my belly causing my jeans to nearly fall off).

Which is not to say that I'm complaining. And as has been pointed out to me, if I'd started this diet when I was needing to lose 20 pounds, the first 5-10 might have fallen off at a more rapid pace. But I didn't start until I was at my wit's end with this last 10 (which, by the time I started, had made its way back up to 13-1/2). And I have, truly, changed my relationship with food. So it's all good.

I think, more than anything, I'd be happier if I didn't have to go buy new jeans for this middle weight, but since it's going to be a longer journey than I'd anticipated ... I guess I'd better. Grumble, grumble.

Meanwhile, in other news, after living here for two and a half years, we're finally starting to do what I've wanted to do from the beginning - add some color to our all-white-all-the-time walls! We're starting small - the guest bathroom. It's small, no furniture has to be moved, and it's the only non-carpeted room that doesn't actually need the flooring replaced (rant for another time). We're doing Florida Mango for the walls and Carmelized Orange for the trim.


It's the little things. I'll post the before and after pictures when we're done.