LOSING WEIGHT - THE HARD WAY!

I haven't posted for awhile because it seemed blogger was having a problem and I got tired of waiting. In the meantime, we took a trip to Illinois, Wisconsin, and Minnesota. We had dinner at Gibson's in Chicago with Todd and Stephanie on Tuesday, June 12 before they left for Europe the next day. We also had dinner with Trent and Amy in Madison, WI on Monday, June 19 and to re-acquaint ourselves with our granddoggies and kitty, Hobbes, Athena, and Heineken. The main purpose of this road trip, though, was to visit our 13-month-old twin granddaughters, Justine and Lauren - oh, and of course, their parents Troy and Connie too. Troy was running in a 26-mile marathon in Duluth, MN on Saturday, June 17 and we were going to babysit overnight.

But during this trip, I was very unexpectedly attacked by a vicious intestinal condition that I've had a couple of times before in the last three years. After eating, my intestines seem to get tied in knots and the pain is unexplainable - double over, can't do anything pain. The first attack was after our Chicago dinner. It seems to hit about five hours after eating a late dinner and generally awakens me. I have pills to help relax the intestines, but they don't take affect for 6-12 hours, leaving me in horrible pain until they kick in.

The problem this time was that we were on our way to Minnesota and I had to get in the car and work through this while we drove six hours north from Chicago. I was okay when we arrived and didn't eat much of anything for 3-4 days. When we left Minnesota, I thought I was okay again and this condition has never occurred more than once a year or more in the past. So when we reached Madison, we had a very nice dinner with Trent and Amy at a neat restaurant on the Capitol Square. I didn't drink any wine because I've thought that might trigger the intestinal knotting, but I ate brats (my favorite when we're in the Midwest) and frozen custard with chocolate and nuts for dessert (another favorite). We headed back to the hotel and I went to bed as usual when, yep, unbelieveable - another attack five hours later.

We had to check out of the hotel the next morning, so I get settled in the backseat with our bag of dirty clothes wrapped in one of Bob's shirts for a pillow and were on our way home to South Carolina, a two-day drive under the best of conditions. After about 15 hours, I was almost 100% intestinal-wise, but felt like I'd been run over by a truck! I lost another 5 lbs (heck, I wasn't eating anything inbetween these attacks), so am now down 12 lbs - but I'll tell ya, I don't want to lose the weight this way ever again!

We had a great time with all the kids and the grandbabies, but I will certainly not be eating much on our next trip - which will be in September when we babysit again for the babies.

WEIGHT LOSS and THE BREAK-UP

I can't believe after all the stuff I've eaten lately that I actually lost another whole pound and now I've lost of total of 7 lbs. It doesn't sound like much, but when you're only 5 ft. tall, it's a lot. People don't notice you've lost weight, though, until you've lost at least 15 lbs, or at least that's been my experience. Seems that at 15 lbs, your face is thinner or something.

Anyway, I'm pretty happy - so happy I ate an egg salad sandwich at the golf club, with potato chips yesterday and tonight we went to IHop and although I got eggs, they came with pancakes and I ate about 2/3 of them with syrup. I walked 1 1/2 miles on the golf course before we ate and then walked another 1 1/2 miles afterwards. I know just fast walking up and down hills doesn't work off enough calories to offset what I ate, but maybe it increased my metabolism. I've really got to watch it tomorrow!

Not much musing while I was walking today. Mostly I was thinking about how much I'd eaten and how much I hated the movie The Break-Up with Jennifer Anniston and Vince Vaughan. Bob wouldn't even go with me - he went to X-Men. The Break-Up just made me mad. I kept waiting to be affected enough to care about these characters. But I didn't like either one of them. Both characters were immature and annoying. Vince's character, Gary, was a jerk and Jen's character, Brooke, was humorless. They both deserved to break-up. It was an unfulfilling movie and you left the theatre feeling weird - like you'd just wasted a couple of hours. I imagine it will do well at the box-office because people will want to see Jen and Vince more than anything else. Maybe they're staying together until this movie is promoted - after that I wouldn't be surprised to see them split. They don't seem right for each other - just like the characters in the movie. If you like to watch two people yell and scream at each other for a couple of hours, go see The Break-Up.

GOLF AFTER 7:45 PM?

We drove to Augusta to the Farmers Market. Were disappointed. Decided we'd been spoiled by the Markets in Torrance, CA and Madison, WI. We expected lots of fresh produce, kettle corn, flowers, tons of bakery goods, etc. What we got were booths with homemade jewelry, artist sketches, candles that looked like desserts, other assorted homemade crafts, a few booths of produce, a couple of food vendors, and that was about it. Not impressive. We didn't buy anything.

We walked a few blocks on Broad St. before going home, though, since the weather was so nice. Musings while walking: Why the city of Augusta is having difficulty upgrading the shops on Broad St. The area has great potential and many of the existing store-fronts are remodeled, but a lot more clean-up is needed. We noticed quite a few people strolling the sidewalks, but there just wasn't much there: a few coffee houses and some antique stores, many of which were closed - and on a Saturday yet. Made no sense.

We drove home and after dinner we walked the 9 holes on the golf course behind our house. It's about a 2-mile walk up and down hills, so a good workout for us. Musings while walking: Why are people still playing golf at 7:45 PM? The club closes at 7 PM and we thought all the golf carts were supposed to be turned in by then. Guess not, because there was one on the course. Then there were walking golfers. It was a beautiful summer evening and we were trying to have a nice leisurely walk on the course, as were a number of other couples, but we had to either walk very fast or very slow to avoid getting hit by a golf ball. The walking golfers obviously hadn't checked in at the club before going on the course because the club was closed, so they were just interlopers.

I'll add pictures to this blog when Google gets their act together and repairs the glitch that prevents you from uploading photos. This has been going on for about 4 days now. I was reviewing the Group Help section and it sounds like there are a lot of very frustrated people out there. Everyone knows that an interesting blog is one with photos in it.

INTRIGUE on the GOLF COURSE

I've been walking the golf course lately with Bob and when we do that, I don't "muse". We take our ipods and I'm concentrating on the music, we're walking a lot faster, and we're trying not to get wet when the course sprinklers suddenly start up. When I walk the course alone, I'm usually hunting for lost golf balls in the out-of-bounds areas, so I'm only musing about where a golf ball could be hiding. I found nine new golf balls one morning.

I did have a bit of an adventure yesterday on the course, though. Bob and his golf buddies were teeing off on the same course that I was going to be walking by. I look bad when I'm walking, and I'm still fat, so didn't really want to meet up with these guys. But when I reached the street that passes the green on hole #1, I realized they were on the green. So I hid behind the trees until they passed. When I started out again, I almost bumped into a straggler who was late and was driving his cart like crazy to catch up with the others. As they were teeing of #2, I ran (literally) up the hill and was on the street parallel to the same hole.

As I slowed to a more comfortable gait, I realized that if I didn't hurry, I would be crossing the fairway on hole #3 just as they were teeing off. I would be the only thing they saw on the fairway as they set up their ball.

So that meant more running - well, part running, part speed walking. I crossed the fairway at hole #3 while they were finishing #2. I managed to get to our backyard and then the safety of our back porch without being seen. I was soaking wet with perspiration and exhausted - could hardly get my breath, but, HURRAY, I had successfully avoided them.

I then ran into the house, dried off, fixed my hair, grabbed a book and returned to the back porch and sat down. As the guys were driving by, Bob waved. Later he told me I looked nice sitting up there reading! Ha!! What an adventure! Actually, I loved it! A little excitement - and intrigue - never hurt anyone, right?

Oh, and on the weight loss? I finally got on the scale after a week. I lost another 1/2 lb. Not much, but with all the cheating I'd done, I was just happy I hadn't gained any!