Dr Mom's Wednesday Weigh In

Despite considerable back sliding - involving crisps, cake, chocolate, nuts and general snacking morning, noon and night - plus multiple visits to restaurants (last Wednesday I had meetings involving coffee, lunch, coffee and dinner) - I came out this morning at 149.4 lbs, which is just about the same as I have been for the past month. Must admit that's quite a surprise! I was fully expecting to have broken back through the 150lbs barrier.

It has also been raining pretty much continuously for the past two weeks, which means that I have only done a couple of long walks with Ruby. We were at Arasteradero yesterday for an hour but it was quite the mud bath. Today the rain has set in again.

Today I am at a conference all day, which will involve food at multiple opportunities. I plan to arrive this morning near the end of the "breakfast and networking" session so I don't eat anything. Well, anything much.

More Sinned Against Than Sinning

Little Starlet and I went up to the city today to the Sundance Kabuki Theatre see the National Theatre live broadcast of the Donmar Warehouse production "King Lear" with Derek Jacobi. He was outstanding. In fact the whole play was fabulous, there wasn't a block of wood attempting to act on the stage at all. A fine avoidance of teapot Shakespeare. Little Starlet more or less followed the play - I had forgotten, and so didn't explain, the Gloucester/Edgar/Edmund sub-plot - though she thought that Derek Jacobi had been replaced by another actor in the final scene. Quite why, I have no idea. There you are, the mind of a 9 year old.

The relevance of all this to this blog is that it meant I had a rather odd eating day. I began with a bowl of granola. We headed out at 9am. The play/broadcast started at 12:30pm and ended at 4pm, which meant that lunch would not be happening. So we stopped at the Fillmore Street Cafe for a breakfast bagel at 10:30am. I had a latte and the 49ers, consisting of ham, egg, and cheddar cheese on a plain bagel. Little Starlet had the Fillmore Special, with sausage, egg and cheese. Very hot and tasty.

We then headed up to the Japantown shopping area. It was freezing cold, icy wind blasting poor Little Starlet's uncovered legs (she never will listen when I tell her to put more clothes on), so we went inside to look at the stores. After walking though the Japanese language bookstore and admiring the plastic dolls with penises, we found ourselves at the Anderson Bakery. Little Starlet had a slice of chocolate ganache cake, while I toyed with a light, fluffy, delicious slice of coffee creme cake. As I always say to the girls, if you MUST eat food that's bad for you, at least make sure it is high quality. This certainly was worth every calorie.

We went into the theatre food-free, but once the intermission came along, it was clear that Little Starlet required yet more sustenance. So we went to the Peet's Coffee concession in the theatre and bought bags of popcorn (and yet another latte for me).

Hubby and Deep Thought have spent the week in Bear Valley. They got back this afternoon just before Little Starlet and I returned from the city. We were all exhausted and lacking imagination, so we tucked into Whole Foods' frozen pizza for dinner: pepperoni, hawaiian, and chicken quesadilla (note, three pizzas between four of us, so a small concession to thinness there).

All in all, a very fun day, but a bit peculiar on the dietary front.

Mmmm, Bacon's Up.

It's Wednesday, and that means cleaners at our house. They take over the entire house and clean every room simultaneously for a total of four hours. That might make it seem like we live in some kind of mansion, but we don't. We do have a nice house, but the main factor is their obsessive need to clean every surface, move every piece of furniture, and even tidy up inside drawers and cupboards. My usual strategy is to go out for lunch as it is impossible to eat while other people are working so hard.

Generally on a Wednesday, the diner at Stanford - the Palo Alto Creamery, Fountain and Grill, to give it its proper name - calls to me. And Ruby. We typically go for lunch, or brunch, or whatever you want to call it, and Ruby enjoys a little under-the-table treat, before we head off for a walk. The wait staff often bring her out a bowl of water and a dog biscuit, which she never eats as she doesn't like "milk bones" as they are called. Today lunch was two poached eggs, hash browns, four slices of crisply cooked bacon, and a slice of cracked wheat toast with raspberry jam, plus decaf coffee. This comes to a princely 14 Weightwatchers points, and worth every one of them. Ruby enjoyed her morsels of bacon and potato. In the past I have bought a side of bacon just for her, but I think we need to watch her weight too... and having an extra side of bacon on the table is no inducement to good behavior for Dr Mom!!

We rounded off our lunch with a 50 minute walk at the Palo Alto Baylands (worth 3 points).

Another startlingly bad beginning to the week

First of all, today is Dr Mom's weigh in day. 155 lbs today, which is half a pound up on last week. Not a big surprise - see previous post.

Today I ended up at the diner for lunch (with Ruby dog) because the cleaners invaded our house and it is impossible to stay in when they are cleaning every room simultaneously. Don't get me wrong, they do a fabulous job and I want them in the house very much; it's just difficult to sit around eating a sandwich when they don't stop to eat anything. (I have the impression that they eat in the car between jobs.) So I had an omelette with bacon, cheese and tomato. Not so low calorie, but very tasty. Ruby shared it with me (a bit). Plus hash browns and wheat toast. Ruby shared those too. She does like her food. We walked it off for an hour at Arasteradero Preserve afterwards.

This afternoon I had a business meeting which always ends with dinner. Twelve of us went out to Estrellita Mexican Restaurant close by our meeting place. I had an Enchilada Azteca, which came with refried beans and rice. I didn't eat all the enchilada or the beans, and didn't eat any of the rice. I did tuck into the home made tortilla chips and salsa rather, but maybe they don't count because of the air inside them...?

I am proud to mention that I have eaten no cake and drunk no coffee today. Such virtue.

Now, where is OEM? I am getting lonely.

Not a Very Successful Week

I have got to the end of another week, and my points score is -2. That means I've eated all the points for each day (29) plus all the points for the week (49) plus all the points I've earned through exercise (16 this week). Not a very good result.

I can tell you exactly where the problems arose. First was that hazelnut blackberry muffin at Peet's Coffee on Wednesday: 14 points, more than a whole meal. Then there was the meal out with my friends on Thursday, that I calculated at 29 points all by itself. Saturday lunchtime was also a rather scary 21 points, a result of eating a bacon cheeseburger and a few fries at the cafe near Windy Hill. My excuses for that one are (1) the kids needed to eat at the end of a walk, and (2) the cafe only sells pizza and burgers.

By today I had lost hope. I ate some chocolate and a brownie bite at lunchtime because I knew I had gone over my allowance. For some people, that knowledge would make them stricter with themselves. Doesn't work that way for Dr Willpower.

Layang Layang, Eating Eating

Today has been troublesome. First of all, smallest daughter is running a bake sale at school tomorrow, in support of Pennies for Peace; which meant that I had to spend the whole day baking fairy cakes and cookies. In the afternoon, Little Starlet brought her three co-conspirators home, and they continued the process by making gallons of lemonade (they squeezed 126 lemons), making another set of cookies, and icing the cakes. The house smelt delectable, but I didn't eat any of them.

It was just as well, really, because at lunchtime I went out with five friends to a Malaysian restaurant in Saratoga/San Jose borders called Layang Layang. It wasn't a very beautiful place, but the food was decent enough - a kind of cross between Thai and Indian, fairy spicey but with a curry overtone. We ordered far, far too much and ate far, far too much of it. I ordered three items: Mouse Tail Noodles (just for the name!), Sarang Mango Chicken (which turned out to have a punch, though billed as not spicey), and vegetarian steamed spring rolls. We ate family style. I brought home two boxes of noodles for Hubby to eat for lunch tomorrow. You can tell how naughty we were, lunch took two hours.

We completed the meal with two desserts, a deep fried ice cream with fried bananas, which was just okay; and a sticky rice with coconut milk and something that could in all honesty have been blackberry jam. It wasn't, I think, but we didn't really go for it.

I didn't have too much meat, and I eschewed the fried foods, but I imagine I ate every point available and for most of the rest of the week! This evening Hubby and I were out at a nonprofit event - a panel discussion on new media and high school education - which provided a finger buffet. We managed to eat just small plates of nothing very much. Virtue seemed obligatory.

Weekends are Hard

Not having such a successful day today, though not for lack of portion control or not over-eating. The problem today is that the options have been too calorific.

Breakfast - rice chex and milk (while I cooked the kids a cheese omelette with beans)
Lunch - whole wheat bread stick with sunflower seeds (9 points!), cheese, and one slice of ham
Snack - Starbucks nonfat milk latte and a biscotti (which was 5 points all on its own!!)
Dinner - Quesadilla, for which the tortilla came in at 5 points too.

So today (so far) I have eaten my daily allowance, plus exchanged all my activity points, and eaten one point off my weekly allowance of 49. (For those who don't know, the Weightwatchers system gives you a daily allowance of "points", in my case 29, plus a weekly allowance, which I think is 49 for everyone; and you can earn points from doing exercise which you are then allowed to exchange for food points. You can either save your activity points and spend them at the end of the week, or you can exchange them on a daily basis. I chose the latter, as it seems more honest.)

Despite this discouraging total, I have to express some satisfaction at my willpower in Starbucks. They had holiday gingerbread for sale, which I really like. 440 calories per slice, with 74g of carbohydrate, adding up to a mighty 12 points according to the Weightwatchers calculator. That is more points than I have been eating for either lunch or dinner this week.

Given that I'd got into the habit of eating a cake or pastry every day, no wonder I had hit 160 lbs.

Gurgle Gurgle

Bad luck, OEM, on the wonky back; though it does sound like a pretty good strategy for being unable to get at the snack food. Are you taking it to the doctor, or are you actually showing stiff upper lip and just soldiering on?

Yesterday I had another vegetarian day - that's three in a row - but with all the consequences you might expect for someone with insides like mine. As a person with Crohn's, fiber has an interesting effect on the innards. By bedtime, mine were protesting severely.

I did persuade Hubby to go out for dinner last night (on our date night) before going to the movies. We went to a Turkish restaurant in downtown Palo Alto called Baklava. I had a starter made of potatoes, peppers and eggplant with yoghurt, and then my main course was yet more vegetables in a tomato sauce with cheese. We also had warm pitta bread and their special dip. Drank water. It was tasty but, as I indicate, possibly too fibrous as a choice given that I'd had beans on toast for lunch. I should also note that I only ate a few spoonfuls of the rice that accompanied the main course. I actually felt TOO FULL to eat it.

I also managed an 1 hr 45 mins walking yesterday with the dog - we went with Hubby to Windy Hill in the afternoon - so overall a pretty good day. Exercise-wise, having a dog is a good thing, as it makes you go out every day.

Life and Death Adventures

I went off to my San Jose meeting this morning sustained by nothing more than a bowl of rice chex and a cup of chamomile tea. By leaving the house ten minutes later than I intended, I prevented myself from stopping off at the Starbucks next to my meeting place. Of such confluences of unintended actions are diets made, methinks.

After that meeting I headed back to Palo Alto for my lunch meeting at Lavanda, on University Avenue. My host was already there, so we got straight into business and ordering. After he chose a club sandwich, I felt compelled to order from that part of the menu too - and my eye alighted on the croque monsieur. I am very partial to croque monsieur, and I was awfully hungry. It was tasty too. (For those who do not know, a croque monsieur is a grilled sandwich with ham in the middle and cheese melted on the top. A croque madam is the same, but with the addition of a soft-yolked fried egg on top. Extra yummy.) My concession to health was to reject the side of French fries in favor of mixed salad leaves. I drank fizzy water and a filter coffee sweetened with Splenda (bleugh).

Alas, Weightwatchers thinks that the average croque monsieur comes in at a hefty 12 points, so maybe it wasn't the best choice. Cheese rarely is. But it was worth it!

After lunch, I was almost run over. For real. I waited at the lights at the crossing. The lights changed, and I had the walk signal. i stepped out into the road - at the same moment that a large mom-mobile hurtled towards me, screeching its brakes, and ending up in the middle of the intersection with cars coming at it along the road that was on green. I just stood there, somewhat surprised. It literally missed me by a foot or so. If I had been walking slightly faster, I'd have been in hospital now. It turns out that a woman I know was actually in one of the other cars at the intersection, and when I saw her later in the day she commented on how impressed she was by my cool reaction: No banging on the offending car, swearing or anything. Well, it's that famous British stiff upper lip, isn't it?

Groaning Waistbands

Oh my goodness, the fondue meal. Talk about excess.

We started with the ridiculously large and unnecessary salad that comes as part of the meal. Hubby warned our guests not to try to eat it, most of it, or even any of it, but they didn't listen. Then came the cheese part. Yummy. Bacon/Cheddar/Buttermilk and beer mixture, with bread and veggies. Delicious.

Then came the meat part. Two Fondue Feast Combinations, comprising scallops, prawns, tuna, boar, duck, beef, other fish, ostrich, and other things I've no doubt forgotten about, all grilled (or as Brother John pedantically pointed out, fried) on the hotplate in front of us.


And then the piece de resistance, the chocolate fondue dessert. After much discussion, I took charge and ordered the Triple X, which is milk chocolate and fudge; eaten with fruit and bad for you bits like profiteroles.

We also downed a bottle of wine.

This morning I rose from my bed with a strong sensation that my body had not succeeded in digesting anything at all during the night. I think we were all suffering a bit. Little Starlet said it served us right for not taking her with us. However, I should point out that she and her babysitter made a chocolate fondue in our own kitchen, which they ate with strawberries and apple slices, so she isn't having too deprived an existence.

Food Poisoning: An Effective Weight Loss Strategy

On Wednesday, the family and I headed off to Disneyland in Anaheim, California, for a few days during Spring Break. We flew down to LA without incident - ate a rather nice bangers and mash lunch at the fake British pub in the airport - and booked into the Disneyland Grand Californian Hotel. Wow. What a place. Not too many mouse ears, but the whole Californian Arts and Crafts look gone into overdrive. Actually pretty impressive with an enormous lobby/seating area next to the check in desks.

We spent Wednesday afternoon/evening in the Disneyland Park (following Day 2 of the two day touring plan taken from The Unauthorized Guide to Disneyland). I particularly like "It's a Small World", a gentle ride designed to bust blood vessels in the head with sensory overload. We went back to the hotel, watched the fireworks from the balcony, and went to bed (all four of us in one room, which was the only downside).

Thursday we went back into Disneyland at 8:30am (Magic Morning for multi-day pass holders) and were able to get round most of the headliner rides before 10am. The Haunted Mansion has very good effects, and The Pirates of the Caribbean ride seemed longer than at Disneyworld. Just after noon, we headed out into Downtown Disney for pizza, then back to the hotel for a few hours by the pool. About 4pm we went back into the park for round three of rides...and the big mistake.

We ate dinner at The French Market in New Orleans Land. Deep Thought and I both had clam chowder in a sour dough roll and grapes. Little Starlet and Hubby had roast beef and veggies.

All seemed well until 1:00am, when I woke up with the most appalling food poisoning. I won't go into the gory details, but suffice it to say that by 5:00am I was as empty has a person could be, had taken two showers and was in a pretty feeble condition.

On Friday, Hubby took the kids out to Disneyland's Californian Adventure - which you can enter through the hotel to avoid the gate queues - while I lay limply in bed. He provided me with a couple of bottle of Coca Cola, some ice, and some Imodium and left me to it. I pretty much didn't get out of bed all day. The vomiting had more or less stopped by Friday evening, and I managed to sleep okay on Friday night.

The journey home on Saturday was uneventful, except for the plane being faulty at LAX so that we were delayed an hour. A lot of deep breathing and additional doses of Imodium got me through it. I was a bit concerned that the bus - plane - bus - car experience might be too much, but I survived. (I did fall rather pathetically onto the sofa when we got home and had to be revived by multiple cups of tea.)

This morning I am feeling fine and may be willing to tackle some soup or something. I must be very dehydrated still. My current weight is 149.6 lbs.

Death By Eating Redux

We spent the weekend at Hidden Villa, a youth hostel about half an hour away from us. It's the oldest youth hostel in the USA, and easily contains the 21 of us in our party (10 adults, 11 kids). It rained on Friday, was dry and windy on Saturday, and has absolutely bucketed down today. On Saturday we managed to do a walk over the hill, then toured the farmyard to look at the chickens and pigs. Friday was board games; Sunday was Easter activities for the kids. ("Why do we have to do so many stupid craft projects?" asks my grateful younger daughter.)

That gives you the basic shape of the weekend.

The main story of the weekend is the amount of food we brought and ate (and, to some extent, brought home again). Friday was baked potatoes with chilli and cheese, followed by fruit; then evening crisps and Roses. Saturday was cereal breakfast followed by bagel lunch - so far so good - but then we had roast chicken, roast potatoes, roast parsnips, carrots, brussel sprouts, peas and gravy for dinner (with seconds), followed after the kids were abed by mango upside-down cake and ice cream, with a chaser of cheese and biscuits. I may have managed to eat some chocolate and rich tea biscuits in among that too. We collectively waddled to bed at midnight. This morning began with everything bagel and cream cheese; then lunch was bacon, sausage, fried egg, mushrooms, and half a hot cross bun with butter.

We haven't had a great couple of nights sleep - the beds at Hidden Villa are really titchy and, of course, sharing with the kids feels strange. So we're all rather tired. I had a bit of a nap on the sofa this afternoon... We attempted to go out for a pizza for dinner, but everywhere was shut. We ended up at Il Fornaio, which is a fancier Italian restaurant. In a moment of restraint I had cannelloni con pollo, resisting all the heavier pizza type foods, though the fact it came in cream sauce probably negates all the good intentions.

Death By Eating

Sunday was a ridiculous eating day.

First of all the kids begged us to take them to the diner for breakfast (see last post), which we didn't finish till about 10am.

Then we were heading up to San Francisco to see a ballet at 2:00pm, so we had to eat an early lunch. At 11:30am we were forcing ourselves to eat sandwiches.

We ordered drinks and snack for the ballet intermission - experience tells us that we need something with caffeine in it to revive us at half time - and the only small thing on offer was a plate of chocolate dipped strawberries. Hubby declared that he felt queasy afterwards.

Then at the end of the ballet, which was only 4:30pm, we headed to Max's Opera Cafe on Van Ness, as we had promised the kids we could eat dinner there. Pointing out the early hour, I suggested that we drive back home and go out to eat downtown, but Deep Thought revealed an urgent need for the loo - which she had failed to mention while we were in the theatre - and so Max's it had to be. I think the kids mostly like this restaurant for its desserts, but on this occasion they were forbidden to have any. We ordered our entrees which, when they arrived ten minutes later, proved to be as enormous as any we've ever seen. I had the crab cakes with fries and coleslaw. I didn't eat any coleslaw - too much onion - and only one of the three crab cakes. Deep Thought had half my fries. She had ordered a BBQ pork wrap, which provokes images of a healthful sandwich substitute full of salad, yes? How wrong can you be? She ate about a third of it, and an untouched half came home. Little Starlet, who is currently in a meat and two veg stage, ordered the beef brisket with mashed potatoes and roasted carrots. There was enough mash for at least four people. She bravely made an igloo in the middle of it, then most of that came home too.

What is it with restaurants? Why do they insist on giving such big portions? I imagine it is so people think they are getting value for money, but all that happens is that you bring the excess food home, keep it in the fridge for a couple of days and then throw it away, complete with the extra refuse created by the "to go" plastic boxes. Really quite ridiculous.

Incidentally, the ballet was "The Little Mermaid" which was the first modern ballet that we'd taken the kids to. They didn't like it much, especially because the music was discordant; but Hubby and I enjoyed it more than the traditional fru-fru ballets like "Swan Lake". We actually found it emotionally affecting, which is definitely a first for us with ballet.

Good and Bad Choices

I am also eating too much, dear OEM. I've fallen back into the trap of evening snacking. Yesterday was brazil nuts and a biscotti. We were watching a very dubious movie on the TV - "Appaloosa" with Jeremy Irons playing a most unconvincing cowboy baddie - so some sustenance was required.

This morning we succumbed to the appeals of our children to go to the diner. I didn't have my usual bacon, poached egg and hash browns meal, but instead had french toast with fruit and a little syrup. I skipped the butter. I'm not so stuffed as I am usually after a trip to the diner, but I can't help suspecting that this morning's meal was less nutritious than the usual one. I guess I did have fruit, and that's unusual for me.

Hubby has a new theory based on something he read somewhere.... That we should avoid processed foods, but that animal fat is not really bad for you after all; which probably means that bacon is bad, eggs are good. But then again, if bacon tastes that good, how can it be bad for you?

Rain is Bad for Your Diet

There's something about rain that makes me want to eat. I guess it's pure comfort eating. It rained a lot today. I've eaten another almond croissant today, at a business meeting in the Coupa Cafe this morning. Breakfast was modest rice chex and lunch was modest carrot and ginger soup and a pate sandwich with bread made of old ropes.

My impulse purchase of the day, at Whole Foods, was a pot of strips of fresh coconut. I have no idea what I'll do with them, but seeing coconut reminded me of the times when I was a child and we would have a whole coconut that my dad would attack with a hammer. It's funny dry stuff when you start to eat it.

Days of Relative Goodness, Nights of Coughing

By the time we got back from Death Valley at the weekend, I had a stinky cold. I've now had it for a week and I Am Fed Up With It. The worst part is the cough, which is pretty bad during the day, but keeps me awake at night. Hubby says I was wheezing attractively in my sleep yesterday. Lovely. So I am tired, but trying to stay in good humor. Sickness is the reason I've not been posting.

Our house remodel has also reached some kind of tipping point. This week has been ghastly - activity in every room in the house - but we also got the kitchen back! Hurrah, no more obligatory restaurant food.

For the past two days I've been very abstemious with the eating. Cheerios for breakfast, caesar salad with a little chicken for lunch, a granola bar for snack, a nonfat latte for other snack, and a modest dinner. On Tuesday my modest dinner was a cheese sandwich. Yesterday it was pasta with salmon in cream (not so uncalorific, but not a very big portion). Today I whipped up pasta with egg and bacon (again not a big portion). I did also give in to the temptation of a chocolate croissant at Douce France, though....while I was watching Deep Thought do some of her homework. I couldn't bear the idea of going back to the worksite formerly known as our house, so we hung out for over an hour. You've got to buy something, n'est pas?

Also snacked on crisps this evening. Well, I'm sick!

No exercise this week. One, I'm sick (did I mention that?). Two, it's been raining. Three, I've been crazy busy with volunteering, food shopping, moving things around in the house, and so on. Like OEM, I have every intention of getting back to the exercise, but just for now I think I need to focus on shaking off this cold.

Back Home and Into the Calorific Stuff

Today we drove from Calico Ghost Town near Barstow on I-15 to the San Francisco Bay Area. The drive took about eight hours. We stopped at the China Town Buffet in Bakersfield for lunch, and at Starbucks in Merced for the 3:30pm stretch-the-legs stop. Far, far too much was eaten at the buffet. I only had one plate of food (whereas many people in the restaurant had four or five) but it was that calorific, cheap Chinese food that you just know is furring your arteries and killing your brain cells even as you chew it. Well, never mind, it tasted good!

By the time we got home it was 6:00pm. Our kitchen is still out of action - though close to completion - so we headed into town for a pizza at the California Pizza Kitchen. Yum. Yes, I know I should have had the salad but the pizza was calling.

No exercise of any kind today. Yesterday we spent a couple of hours ambling around the Calico Ghost Town, which doesn't count; and the day before we spent an hour and a half walking across the sand dunes at Stovepipe Wells in Death Valley, which does. I am determined to pick up the pace a bit with exercise now we are back.

I've finished reading the pink health book "Younger Next Year", or whatever it's called, and I'll review it soon.

Crazy for Fondue

I've had another ridiculously busy day, prepping for our RV trip and also the building work in our bedroom while we're away. After my Multi-grain Chex breakfast - which didn't happen till after the kids had gone out to school with Dad - I visited Safeway to buy 15 gallons of drinking water. Then I took popsicles to school for Little Starlet's birthday snack (she turns eight on Sunday), then it was back to the supermarket to do the shopping for our trip.

Hubby appeared back home with our rental RV at about 11:30am, after which I traipsed in and out of the house with armfuls of stuff: pans, bedding, towels, medicines, shampoo, etc etc. I employed several shopping bags, but it was still many trudging trips up and down the plywood path across our battlefield front yard. I truly think it counted as exercise.

The highlight of the day was Little Starlet's birthday dinner at La Fondue in Saratoga. OEM will remember it well, I know, as we went there during the Christmas holidays. We had the cheddar, bacon, buttermilk and beer cheese fondue first course; followed by the meaty grill second course (Little Starlet decided she liked buffalo, but did not care for wild boar or savage duck); and then the course we were all waiting for, the Decadent Chocolate fondue dessert. Yum. About a million calories, but well worth it. The children really enjoyed having a "fun food" experience in a fancy restaurant. We sang Little Starlet "happy birthday" and she seemed pleased by the whole experience.

Frantic Day

I'm having a seriously frantic day. This morning I had the weekly site meeting for our remodel which took two hours. During the day I received multiple visits from the Site Supervisor with many questions. We also lost our water supply twice, because the landscape men dug through the water pipe, and the phone was out of order.

I began to work out what we will take in the RV, heaping pans, plates etc on the dining room table. I also sorted through our food box to see what we might like to take along, and to compile a shopping list for tomorrow morning.

At the same time as this, I was trying to sort through the closet in the master bedroom, as it will be demolished while we are away on our RV trip. I filled up a black garbage bag with ancient bras and unspeakable knickers, emptying two out of my four drawers in process. Lunch was a bowl of chicken tortilla soup and two Karvla crackers with a bit of cheddar.

At 2pm I had to head over to school to help with a Valentine's Day project. I obtained the materials for this from our family room by waiting for the builders to have their lunch break and then climbing through the construction work from the garden.

At one point I was so wound up by all the things I needed to do that my hands were shaking. The day ended well though: Little Starlet had her class play, in which she was the star, and she did a fabulous job, funny, loud, expressive, the lot. We went out for dinner afterwards to Mike's Cafe in midtown Palo Alto. I had lasagne, which was tasty.

No coffee shop stop today - no time.

Too many lentils

I had lunch at a friend's house today: lentil soup, wholewheat bread, and cheddar cheese. Tasty, but I've been suffering ever since. Have I mentioned that I have Crohn's Disease? Which means that too much fiber is A Bad Thing. We made up for that with a visit to Zao Noodles in downtown Palo Alto for dinner. I had bought bread and soup for dinner, but couldn't face Round Two of nutritious virtue. Maybe we can eat that tomorrow when I am scrambling between the end of Deep Thought's medical clinic appointment and the start of my dance class.

In the interests of mutual education, I have just started reading "Younger Next Year for Women: Live Strong, Fit and Sexy - Until You're 80 and Beyond" by Chris Crowley and Henry S Lodge. It's aimed at women in the late 40s who are menopausal - so not quite me just yet. So far the main ideas seem to be (1) give up eating fast food of any kind and (2) exercise six days per week. I'll report further when I've got past chapter two....