Hiking

While much of the country is suffering with record low temps, we are delighting in wonderful weather here in the Southwest! Our high temperature was about 72 and the sky was blue and clear. And today was hiking day! We hiked the Tanque Verde Ridge trail as far as the Dome. What a great hike this was!

Today would have been Michael's 67th birthday, and I thought that this hike was a fitting tribute. Here is Michael in San Francisco, getting ready to do one of his favorite things! .

I just love this photo of him! I have so many wonderful memories of Michael and our lives together. I am very happy now, but I know that a big part of who I am now was built by my time with Michael. He simply adored me. And that love is a treasure that I'll always have.

Delicious Day

Yeah, this was a day I ate my way through. I guess we're all entitled to one of those, now and then, aren't we? Well, here we go: Breakfast was good -- Cheerios with bananas and skim, OJ, and 1/2 C of cantaloupe. Lunch -- 1/6 of a great big pizza at New York Pizza, with pepperoni and green olives. And dinner was a zucchini half stuffed with chicken, onions, and herbs, covered in tomato sauce, a green salad (no dressing), and 2 asiago cheese breadsticks with garlic butter. 16 oz of skim milk to drink. Also, during the day, I had 6 toffee peanuts and 12 tiny mints. And they were not sampling at Costco, so I didn't have anything there!

We didn't make it to the Health Nuts meeting, which is too bad. We were talking about goals for 2010 today, and I wanted to announce my health goals. You know one of them -- maintaining my 130 lbs, with a 3-lb leeway. I've made that; I'm just in the leeway part!

My other health goal is to get off my antidepressant in a healthy way. I am feeling very in control of my emotions and I am confident that this is something that I can do. I am now taking the pills just 2 days out of every 3. The primary reason for this is that my insurance company will not be covering my prescriptions, starting 1/1, so... here we are. I had to change to Michigan Blue Cross/Blue Shield, since I moved away from Indiana.

We went over to the storage lot and got the RV and Jack's car both started! We took his car back over here and he's charging the battery, getting it ready for the Nashes who will be borrowing the car for the winter. We drove the RV around a little, running a few errands, and then took it back.

We're signing up for dance lessons at a place in town. They're offering the first 4 lessons free, so we'll see how we like it.

A Fine Day

Today we went to church, where, after the service, they had a short presentation on the financial situation of the church. Being me, I'm not terribly interested in finances, but they did have cocoa and cookies. :)

Next we went to Sweet Tomatoes! There, I enjoyed a fabulous salad, a bowl of yummy soup, and a banana sundae -- my invention of a banana, chocolate sauce, and chopped nuts on top. Jack and I both LOVE Sweet Tomatoes!

We also both love shopping and we went to look for some clothes to wear for our upcoming cruise. That's right! We're going on a cruise on the 17th of January. We leave from LA and we will sail around and visit 3 ports in Mexico. After that week, we'll spend another few days in southern California, before driving back here.

So we came back here to put away our purchases, and then we left again -- this time, to go to our Pastor and his wife's Open House. It was a fun party, good eats, and interesting people!

Great Day

We enjoyed a wonderful day yesterday. We slept late and then had a good breakfast. (Mine was Grape Nuts with raspberries!) Then I readied the dish we were to take to Harold's party. I made my fabulous spinach artichoke dip. (Put spinach in the search line of my blog for the recipe!)

The party was fun, and the company amiable. One highlight of the party was Earl and Vicky's son Chris, who played guitar and sang for us. He did some good old songs, but also some very cool things that he'd written. He played along with Harold and Rob, we all sang, and a good time was had by all!

There was lots of great food, but I was able to eat with restraint. In the past couple of parties, I've found that a good way for me to limit my eating is to stick to water to drink. I think that alcohol, besides being empty calories, and lots of them, serves to heighten my appetite, along with diminishing my will-power. I don't "need" to drink to have fun, so .. why do it? A glass of wine is fine, so long as it doesn't turn into two!

And, as a reward for my restraint, I saw a new number on the scale this morning -- 131.6! Might I actually make 130.0 by the 15th of January?

I talked to Dave yesterday, and that was good. We always enjoy a laugh when we talk, and this was no different. :)

Happy New Year

Happy New Year! And it's gotten off to a very happy start for us. We went up to the clubhouse yesterday afternoon, taking garbage and recycling, and happened upon our Activity Director Lily working on decorating the Fiesta Room. There was lots to do, and we were happy to join right in! Jack filled helium balloons, I tied on ribbons, we covered tables, put out candles and confetti. It was very festive when we were done!

Last evening, we enjoyed a quiet dinner together, relaxed for a couple of hours, and then got spiffed up to go to the New Year's Dance. I wore a black (size 8!) jumpsuit in a sort of slinky fabric, and my gold collar necklace. I'll have a photo soon!

We were among the first to arrive for the dance, and we got the best table! Joining us were Harold & Kathy, Pam & Mike, Denny & Karen, Marv & Jean, and Kim. As the time passed, even more people joined us.

Of course, we were not just sitting around! The band was engaging and we enjoyed dancing just about every song. They even knew the Bunny Hop! Jack's asked every band we've had, and this is the first one to know it! What fun! I felt great in my new outfit, too!

I'd committed myself before we left to drink just a couple of glasses of champagne, but I did even better than that, having just a sip at midnight with Jack. We actually saved our bottle for another day.

Midnight came much sooner than we all thought it would, and hugs, horns, hats, champagne, and "Happy New Year" ruled the night.

New Year's Resolution

I love making New Year's Resolutions, and I'm pretty good at keeping them. This year, I'm resolving to write in this blog MOST days. I won't say EVERY day, because I don't know if I'll have internet access every day of the year, but I can make a promise for most days.

Life has been good and we're staying healthy and happy. We're loving our Wii! We have several games including the Wii Sport, Wii Fit Plus, and Mario Carts. I love the fitness stuff. The tennis feels very real, and the golf makes you feel like you're in the PGA. The coolest thing is that you're playing games, moving around, and you don't have to leave home to do it!

My weight is now at a new low! This morning, I saw 132.2 for the first time in a long time -- certainly before Michael died. I think that the added exercise has helped, and it's helped to keep my eye on the ball as far as food. I'm still measuring my cereal, eating no more than half of a restaurant meal, and am really enjoying every bite that I put into my mouth. Staying just a tiny bit hungry is working, too, though I don't think that this is really recommended.

We had a really merry Christmas. We went to Christmas Eve services at both St. John's and Desert Skies. I've joined the choir at St John's and we sang! What fun. Both services were really good, and we enjoyed the camaraderie.

Besides the Wii, we got ourselves some neat kitchen appliances, including a little omelet maker and an immersion blender. We also ordered a new cooktop to replace the one that we have here. The new one has continuous grates of cast iron. We received some wonderful gifts from afar, too, including the most beautiful vase of red and white tulips, which have beautified our table for the past 2 weeks. A photo frame will be good on our TV table. We still have to sort out some good photos to put into it. We got tumblers with J's on them, and we can't decide if the J stands for Jack or for Janee. I think that half stand for Jack and the other half for Janee.

We got a wonderful box of delicious meats, which we've begun consuming. The fruitcake is about half gone. We limit ourselves to one tiny slice every couple of days, so it doesn't destroy the weight-control efforts. Delicious trail mixes will accompany us on our hikes to come. And so.. what a wonderful holiday season we've enjoyed!

Another fine week!

This has been an especially good week for us. We got our storage bed completely done, including the lifts, which just came in yesterday. It works great, too!

Our hike ydy was really good. It was on Agua Caliente Hill, and included lots of ups and downs. I am noticing that I actually FEEL lighter than I used to on our hikes. Jack, Donna, Herb, and I didn't go quite as far as Duane, Mike, Pam, and Lee, but we had a great hike, anyway.

On the way back, it got very windy, and the wind continued into the night. Then it began to rain, and, this morning, we awakened to snow.. in the mountains, that is. What this means to you easterners is that we have a VIEW of snow without having to see it up close! There was reported to be snow down to 5000 feet of altitude. Mt Lemmon is about 11,000 feet, and we are down here at about 2500 feet. Now it's sunny and lovely (severe clear!) but cool, with a high today of 53.

Jack made us a fantastic dinner on Monday night -- ribs and his fabulous grilled vegetables, and rice. Last night we enjoyed a reprise, with mashed potatoes added! What a great couple of evenings of supper! We're also enjoying a chocolate orange -- just one slice at a time! (With a slice weighing in at only 42 calories, while a major splurge in mouth joy, that's just a minor splurge in calories!) Today I weighed in at a mere 132.8. That's a reduction, since August 25, of 14 lbs!

We played a bit of pickleball with Pam, Mike, Jill, Lee, Chuck, and Jane on Sunday, and that was fun. The weather has been great -- warm and sunny.

We're accumulating some pretty packages under our little tree, including some surprises, and some things that we already know about. And our fridge is full of delicious food. I don't think that life gets any better than this!

Building a Bed

For the past few days, Jack and I have been working on building our new bed. We're building a storage bed which will lift up, exposing a massive storage area. We're making a half-octagon headboard, too, and it will be covered in a leather-like fabric. All the wood is cut, the wood is sanded and polycoat is applied. The fabrics are bought and we're ready to start screwing things together!

The week's been otherwise good, too. The weather has finally given us some beautifully warm days, with highs in the 70's.

Hiking on Tuesday was the annual Donut Hike. Of course, with my current weight mission, I didn't want to eat 500 calories in the form of an apple fritter, which is mostly empty calories. Rather, I ate a banana, and it was delicious!

Speaking of bananas, if you like them, here's a wonderful dessert:

Cut up one banana into a bowl.
Cover this with Hershey's Chocolate Syrup.
Chop 3 peanuts and put these on top.

Eat slowly and enjoy every bite!
218 calories, but the best part is that it's the best part of a banana split! If your chocolate syrup is cold, you get the cold sensation, the crunch of the peanuts (6 calories each), and, hiding underneath it all, is the banana, which is actually GOOD for you!

This morning I was 134.2 again. I am very pleased with this! I know that I'd hoped to be 130 by Christmas, but.. that was sort of a silly artificial goal anyway. Now my new goal is to be 130 by 1/15/10. Another silly artificial goal, but should be attainable.

Christmas Lights

We got our Christmas lights put up in front of our cottage, and they look festive! We have a string of green and a string of red, and we've run them together, wrapped around the left steel agave and the bottom of its pot, over across the front of the cottage, and then wrapped around the right steel agave.

We also set up our little tree in the living room, right in front of the sliding door. (We don't use the sliding door for in- or e-gress because I don't think that they can be securely locked without a bar. So I installed a secure bar -- the screw-in kind -- and we use our back door and deadbolt.) We have a few things under the tree and it is just beautiful.

Tonight we went to a Christmas concert put on by the Tanque Verde Valley Singers, and it was great. It was at our church, with cookies afterward and they were plentiful and delicious.

Yesterday, we went to the play at the Gaslight Theater. It was good, getting everyone in the holiday spirit with laughs, a cute play, and singing along.

We're still enjoying our Wii. I recommend that YOU get one of these, whoever you are! It's a way to play games and get OUT of that chair. You can play tennis without having to put on one of those silly tennis dresses or drive out in the snow and ice. You can bowl, even if you can't lift those heavy balls. It's amazing the way the thing knows what you are doing, and can help you to be better.

We got a couple more games for it today. Jack got a WWII flying ace simulator, and I got a skateboard simulator. We also got another fitness coach disk.

Happy Hannukah to all of my Jewish friends and family! :)

Happy Day!

It's a happy day, but it is chilly! I guess our 55° compared to Big Rapids' 28° with snow.. is pretty warm, but it feels raw and cold here. At least we don't have much wind here today.

Last week was good. On Wednesday, we went out to dinner with Scott and Susan, and that was fun. Oregano's always has good eats, and this was no exception. We even got ours free, along with a free dessert, because we had to wait (a while) while they redid our dish. (It was served to us cold the first time.) Anyway, it ended up delish and we all had a nice time.

Thursday evening, we went to see Willie Nelson in concert, and that was great fun. We drove down with Harold and Kathy, and Rob and Ione took a van-full, too. He sang all the good stuff, along with new things. He's incredible. What a load of energy!

Saturday began with my going to the church for a ladies' brunch. The meal was good, the company was fantastic, and we did a gift exchange, which was fun, too. People got to "steal" other people's gifts, if they saw something that they wanted. The gift that I brought was stolen 2 times. :)

It was at this brunch that I talked to Susan (don't know her last name) and she told me about her Wii. Her enthusiasm for the thing was so convincing that I decided that this would be our Christmas gift for each other. So I picked up Jack and we headed out to Best Buy. We got the Wii Sport and the Wii Fit, along with the appropriate remotes.

Yesterday was good. We started the day going to the clubhouse for the music program (Christmas carol singing) and then we went to church and the potluck which followed. Even with us both working on our weight, we decided that one all-you-can-eat per week is ok. I'd brought my "glop," which is a dish that mom used to make for us. It's hamburger fried up with onions and garlic, drained, and then stirred together with tomatoes, tomato sauce, and macaroni. Although we brought a crockpot nearly full of it, we had none left.

We're having lots of fun with the Wii! We have not explored the Fit end of things, but we've enjoyed playing tennis, golf, and bowling! It's pretty easy to learn, and the feeling of play is very realistic.

We've been keeping up with our daily walks (since 11/20) and I expect that soon it'll be a real habit again. We're going to go do that now, in fact!