Kathy, am so pleased to hear your recovery is going well.

I lost about 25 lb the year before last and have kept it off so far. Moving to London really helped as you've no choice but to walk everywhere, and if I'm not forced to exercise, I won't.

My goal is to lose another twenty lbs or so, but I'd be happy with 10-15. Calorie-counting is the only thing that's ever worked for me. I just make sure I don't go over 1600 a day or so when I'm actively trying to lose weight.

It took me a long while to admit that I needed to lose weight. I'd always been skinny, like really skinny, that girl who everyone would say 'I don't know how you can eat all that and not put on any weight!', and it was hard to admit that I was not that person anymore.

So much diet info is poorly understood and faddish. We went through the sugar = bad in the 70s (but honey was apparently ok), fat = bad in the 80s and 90s (so let's load everything down with salt and sweetners), and now we have so many competing theories that a diet based on blood type almost looks sensible. "Almost" being key there.

I work out at least three times a week, try to cook most of my meals using lots of veggies, berries, and whole grains, stay hydrated, and try to eat to satiation, rather than for emotional or social reasons or to finish off the last bit of something. Which turns out to be pretty good portion control for me. (Although fries can be a downfall--there's no satiation point there.)

It seems like a sensible plan. My doctor seems to think so, too. And it also seems to be keeping me at about 50 pounds above my supposedly proper weight. Can't really think of a healthy way to change that, so I'll be the middle-aged fat chick with the cat. There are worse niches to fill.

Still a work in progress for me, even with the nightly sleep meds. But I'm not AS sleep-deprived as I used to be, so that's kind of nifty.

SO MUCH WORD. But it's getting a wee bit better.

Off to work! Hey, first time in a long that that Friday has MEANT something!!!

beth, glad the new med is working for you!

Suzi, seriously, someone embroidered toilet paper? And people bought it? So very not your market, there.

Timelies, everyone.

My students are doing work today. I'm astounded. Still chatting, of course, which I am 100% OK with, but I feel the need to knock on lots of wood that this trend continues.

Y'know, I appreciate my body's ability to purge the dead things from my lungs and sinuses, but I'm not really 100% on board with 30 minutes of hacking and nose blowing in the morning. Cold is abating, but really? I didn't need to pull that muscle in my back.

This morning one of the world's most annoying professors has called me 3 times from the plane she's on. During this last phone call, which was to tell me to tell another librarian to check their voice mail because she'd left a very important message (I doubt that very much), I could hear her being admonished to put her phone away.

My colleague told me the craziest story yesterday: He had just started a new job here (but had already been an employee in a different division) when he had a planned family vacation. They get back to their hotel one night to find a note that his boss had called and it was an emergency. Needless to say, it was not an emergency. When he got back, he asked how they knew where he was staying, and they had called every hotel in the town they knew he was going to, until they found the right one.

In other awesome-boss news, mine just asked if I knew how to do a mail-merge, so I can help her with her personal Christmas cards. Seriously.

I once had a professor who wanted me to figure out what toy store in London had a toy he'd seen for his kid while wandering around. He couldn't remember exactly where it was, but he thought it was on (some street he named). Oi.

Last night I was watching L&O:UK On Demand and playing online when suddenly the tv and the computer both went out. No Comcast. (I didn't check to see if my phone was still working. . . I assume that it was out too.)

Thank goodness it's back this morning. (Didn't have time to check if internet is working at home.) New Supernatural tonight and I must have my cable tv!