Hi! I am here, just in a funk and slowly coming out of it. DD moved last week to Lousiana and it hit home that I now officially have an empty nest. At least while she was at school, I knew she could come home any weekend she chose. Lousianna is just so FAR away. But they made it safely (in a U-Haul towing her car!) and I have kept in touch with her almost daily. So the comunication is there, but I miss her. I have been keeping busy reading, scrapbooking and cleaning out DD's empty room. It has been so HOT here, that I have been content to stay inside with the AC on. It is supposed to be nicer tomorrow and I am going with DH to a car show (he will drive his 62 Nova). Besh - I have read so many books this summer that I would have a hard time listing them all. I did read "The Glass Castle" and loved your comment about it being a "real" memoir! LOL I too thought it was an amazing book and marveled that she and her siblings survived at all. I am reading "Thunderstruck" by Erik Larson right now. I love his writing and attention to detail. I also read "Isacc's Storm" and "The Devil in the White City". He must do an incredible amount of research before he starts a book. I just finished listening to "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close" by Jonathan Safran Foer. I have to say I cried. Other notable recent reads are, "Water for Elephants" by Sara Gruen, "Left to Tell" (about the genocide in Rwanda) by Immaculee Ilibagzia, and "The Butterfly House" by Marcia Preston. Next up, "Lean Mean Thirteen" by Janet Evanovich. DeeMarie - I have been doing exercises to strengthn my back and keep the muscles stretched and it seems to be helping. I can't sit for too long at the computer, so I haven't been logging on as often as I used to. I can't even sit and read for too long without needing to get up and stretch and move around. I love getting books on tape at the library and listening to them where ever I am. I am considering getting an MP3 player and using my library's resources to download books. Have you read LM13 yet?? Jen - Poor Erica! One time my DS broke his finger and I didn't take him to the doctor's until the next day. He also needed 2 pins to reset the finger. I felt like the worst mother of the year that day. Glad to hear she is on the mend. Patti - Glad Dave got a good report and you can go forward with your trip to TX. I never did get to see those pictures of your DGD! If you get a chance, email me. NHSuzanne - We had such severe storms the last few days too. Trees down in the neighborhood all around me, but we didn't suffer any damage. I am glad you got the brakes fixed and were able to go to VT. I don't have much of a backyard, but I did get some pictures of our local wildlife last week. Can you tell what this is a picture of? DH's is letting me know he is hungry, so I am off to the kitchen. Later, Marci

Thanks for the fitday link, Joann...I'll give that a gander. :-) Nice to see there are people who do the "moderation" eating as well! It's weird - this week, my fiance started the Atkins induction period. I cook for both of us, and had planned on just cooking one meal for both, then a carb for me. What I've found is that when I eat with him, I really don't need the carb until later - and not at all at lunch (we have chef salads for lunch - very filling). So while I'm not following his atkins thing as strictly as he is (I still have my morning breakfast shake, and snack on a carb before bed, eat sandwiches when we go out, or french fries), I'm finding that it's pretty easy to just kinda "fall" into the low-carb thing without any thought on my part. LOL I can easily see myself eating low to moderate carbs right along with him when he gets past these first two stages of the diet - he's enjoying it so much that he thinks he might stay with the maintenance phase of atkins after he's done with this month. But to be honest, I don't think it's even really "low" carb for me...it's just that my portion sizes are small, so I don't need all that food at once. It's more of a "natural moderation" thing, if that makes any sense. Amazing how the "answer" is so easy for most people and they don't even realize it...everything in moderation, exercise, and be healthy. Weight doesn't come on in a month, and it won't drop off in a month either - such simple concepts. Maybe that's the problem...we need something more complex to wrap our heads around. LOL Thanks for the comments, gals!

I made it! I swam a mile! March 22, 2004! I'm over 50 and over 200 lbs, so that is a triumph for me! I've been swimming since late January. I worked up to a half mile and now I'm up to a mile! It took me 40 minutes, but not bad for someone who quit smoking in June. Also to burn fat, you don't want to be in a fast heart-target range. I was at 195lbs. when I first quit smoking and I want to get down below 200 as a goal for the time being-then work on losing more. Being over 200 is no fun. I 5'4", but have always been solid and muscular, medium boned. Still, I need to be thinner for my highth. I swim 3 nights and one weekend day a week. I work 2 jobs, so every night I'm not working the 2nd job, I have made it part of my routine to spend an hour in the water! I keep reading more and more that exercise is a key to almost everything...less cancer, less heart problems, better everything...just MOVE and SWEAT at least 3 or more times a week. So my lungs are getting stronger, my stamina is increasing and my muscle mass is increasing to help my metabolism burn more fat! I sure do sleep good - I go to sleep earlier too! ha ha! You guys have helped to keep me motivated! I really appreciate hearing all your feedback and reading what keeps you motivated!! June

Thank you, Jess and Khalid for your comforting words. I went to the PA (physician assistant) on Jan 20. He checked my ears and found the right ear badly blocked, same with the left ear. When the cold virus attacks the body, it inflames the Eustachian tube. Some info. from Mayo clinic: "With plugged ears, your eustachian tubes — which run between the middle of your ears and the back of your nose — become obstructed. You may experience a feeling of fullness or pressure in your ears. You may also have ear pain, dizziness and muffled hearing. As swelling from the cold subsides, the obstruction usually resolves." My experience is very much like what the below doc. went through: http://www.healthxchange.com.sg/healthyliving/SpecialFocus/Pages/a-common-cold-can-cause-vertigo.aspx " Dr Young, 33, started an otherwise ordinary day with a mild sore throat and a runny nose – like he was coming down with a cold. However, by the third evening, he started to feel light-headed and awoke the following morning with severe vertigo. He felt as if the room was spinning around him. “For the first two days after the vertigo set in, I couldn’t eat, drink, turn my head or even move my eyes from side to side without vomiting or feeling the room spin around me,” he said. It turns out that Dr Young had labyrinthitis, a condition where the labyrinth (the inner ear) is inflamed and not functioning normally. Dr Young, an infectious disease specialist from Britain who works at a local hospital, self-medicated with vestibular suppressants and anti-emetics. These are prescription drugs to suppress dizziness and nausea. “But they had little effect." he said. “The acute vertigo usually lasts from a few days to two weeks. As it resolves, the patient experiences slight imbalance or unsteadiness while walking. This rehabilitation phase may last for one or two months. The hearing function may or may not fully recover. The recovery period is fastest during the first month but the patient may still recover up to six months after the onset of the disease,” said Dr Tan. Labyrinthitis is often spontaneous and idiopathic but can occur after a cold, flu or upper respiratory tract infection (URTI). “These infections don’t usually affect the inner ear. More often, in URTIs, the middle ear is affected when bacteria and nasal secretions pass through the eustachian tubes to the middle ear causing fluid accumulation. A bad middle ear infection can lead to the spread of infection to the brain, or in rare cases, labyrinthitis as well,” said Dr Tan. **** From Straw, the P.A. who examined my ears recommended an MRI of the brain (magnetic resonance imaging scan) to show the inflammation. The cost? $1,000. I said, "NO way, I'm going to rinse my ears with hydrogen peroxide". I went home, fill a glass-dropper with hydrogen peroxide, rinsed my left ear. That cleared out completely. The right ear which bled, I had to rinse it 3 times with hydroxide peroxide ... and my vertigo went away !! I was able to stretch my head backward in all directions. Hydrogen peroxide kills all three: bacteria, fungi, and virus.