Eeeks! well, I guess I'm glad I'm on Earthlink.

Kathy, good to see you! Glad the surgery went well.

Oh. Is that why I couldn't get into anything? Stoopid Time Warner.

It did get me off my ass enough to start the mushroom and beef stew (with smoky chiptole! and blue cheese!) which I will finish baking tomorrow. I forgot to make a roux for the gravy but oh well. I'm still winging it.

I lost 30 pounds a few years ago doing Atkins. I felt really good on the very-low-carb diet, but Stuff Happened and I got really stressed and went back to the comfort foods and gained about 15 pounds back. Now since I've moved here, back to the Land of Dumplings and Pie, and I'm horribly sedentary, and I've gained back everything I lost. This isn't the heaviest I've ever been, but it's about 85 pounds more than what I want to weigh.

I've considered just saying, screw it, I'm never gonna be thin again and I don't care; it's not worth the mental turmoil. But I'm not happy. My back hurts, my feet hurt, my legs hurt; I physically cannot do most of the things I want to do, and even more than wanting to look good and be sexy and wear pretty clothes, I want to dance and hike and spend a leisurely couple hours walking around a mall or a museum, and join my thin little sister and nieces and friends on the fun things they do, and I just can't. I'm trying to keep that in the front of my mind as I embark on yet another attempt to lose about 80 pounds.

(I just watched Percy teh Emo Cat get up on the fridge, open the cabinet door, and disappear inside. Now I know where he hides! And I totally can't reach him, either. He's not so dumb as he pretends to be.)

Mom reports her internets are back. Might not help LA yet, but it's a start.

billytea, please explain your mutant manimal making continent.

What's to explain? Australia rocks the evolution, and rocks it hard.

It's back! I'm back! And my phone switches orientation too, now, but I swear less often than it used to.

In the interim, however, I totally convinced myself I wanted a G2. I'm pretty shameless. What don't you like about it, brenda?

I can't say how long it will last, but I am on a new drug for diabetes. Not all insurance co cover it , not every one can tolerate it. For me it has been a miracle. the concept of eating until you felt full was an interesting idea. I didn't know what that meant until now. I never felt full. Now I do . I Just don't eat the way I used to . It is odd, but amazing. and , well , easy. I suspect I'll hit a plateau, but that might mean pay a little attention to what I am eating.

Happy your surgery went well, Kathy!

If only I had thought to embroider toilet paper. That table made a bunch of money selling $5 rolls of toilet paper.

What the French Foreign Legion??

Time Warner here, too. I thought it was just us because Time Warner blows and we get brownouts all the time. But for 5 min I got in and saw the tweet from their CS. I actually feel less bad knowing I have company...

Bad RSI day today so I've done very little, even though I need to exercise.

Speaking of which, losing weight when I was young had to do with feeling attractive. Now losing weight has to do with health. Some folks can carry 80 extra lbs on them and be healthy - I'm not one of them. I've got back problems, knee problems, gastric problems... So while I'm not that good at managing it all, especially in the displaced stressful situation I'm in now, it *is* worth my time because it's about quality of life and it's also about $. It costs me less if I'm not having to see the doctor about any of these problems or, god forbid, an ER.

Kathy! So glad things are going well!

I lost weight and felt really good on Atkins. It was hard but I'd do it again if I still ate meat -- Pescetarian Atkins is nigh on impossible. That 40 stayed off for quite some while.

My other successful diet was being fired by satan and eating fairly junky food once a day for the next few months (eggpland parm was a biggie). Weight FELL off me, I was getting enough sleep... awesome. After about a year that 40 came back. The experience has made me fairly cyinical about dieting -- I liked that pizza diet that made me skinny, why can't I do THAT again, huh?