Goodbye, Phatland

This is most likely going to be my last post. I believe it's post number 656. Considering this is just one of 7 blogs that I have (only 3 are posted to regularly, though), that's a lot of writing!

Thank you all for reading this past year and a half. Your support to me through this journey has made all the difference.

I started this blog to document my journey into healthy living, and at the time, that was very closely related to getting lap band surgery. Getting the lap band was a much needed helper to me in my weight loss journey, but after 18 months, it is just a small part of my life and overall quest for health.

I've been working on a project called Choosing Joy, and I'm moving on to a new blog that documents those efforts. You can find me at: www.i-choose-joy.blogspot.com

See you soon!

Kayaking!

I went kayaking today! It was absolutely wonderful to be out on the water again! I think the last time I went was September. My arms were not used to kayaking, and I got tired *much* quicker than my last trip, 7 months ago. I am looking forward to building my strength up again!

Brooke is coming over Thursday night, and we're going to go kayaking, and I'm going to grill out. It's just so much easier to live healthy in the nice weather!

I had a nice light breakfast of cereal with skim milk, and I had a steak tip salad for lunch. I felt much better, and I had lots of water. For some reason, I started feeling really tired and sick this afternoon, and I ended up having pizza for dinner.

Now I feel gross again. That was dumb. At least 2 healthy meals out of 3 is better than nothing! I'm going to clean out my system tomorrow. Even though we are going away this weekend, I'm not going to make bad food choices. I just don't like how I feel when I eat unhealthy food. It's a welcome change. :)

I feel like this kitty

Yuck! Darcy's birthday has been an indulgent few days for both of us. I've had WAY too much salt, and I have eaten my normal healthy foods. I feel absolutely disgusting.

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We checked into the hotel yesterday, and it was supposed to be pet friendly, but they don't let you leave your pet in the room. So our plans to go out for a nice dinner and the concert (that I had tickets for) were kind of thrown out the window.

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No problem - you just gotta go with the flow. We went for a walk downtown with Henry. He loved it, and he made lots of friends! When we got back to the hotel, there was a piano bar with hors devours, so we decided to put Henry in the room and go there for a bit. It was nice - overlooking the bay, big floor to ceiling windows, etc... We had nachos there because Darcy was really hungry.

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We came back to the room and ordered room service for dinner. The food was actually fantastic. I couldn't believe it. We had chicken scallopine with wild mushroom risotto and grilled asparagus.

I had way too much salt and sodium yesterday, and we went to bed early because we were both so tired (I had been up since 4AM working), so I went to bed with a full stomach of rich foods. I woke up feeling bloated, fat, and completely sick to my stomach.

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Her birthday is over (ish), so I want to get back into our routine. Also, I must be getting better if I was able to get up at 4AM yesterday and last until 10 at night! I got up at 7 today, and I wasn't tired - just FULL.

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I think I'm going to take little Henry for a walk while Darcy sleeps. It will be good to get moving. I think today is the day I break out the kayak!!!

Birthdays...

At what point do we stop loving birthdays, moving along to dreading them? I'm not sure, because I haven't reached that point yet. I was always in a rush to grow up and be older, and I'm sure someday I'll look back and wish I were younger. We so often want what we can't have - I suppose we'd be much better off just enjoying what it is that we have right now. :) I try to do that now.

When I was young, my birthday appeared to be a holiday. I had a class party, a party with friends, and a family party with all the relatives. The festivities seemed to go on and on. My parents always made my birthdays so special. They made amazing 3d cakes, before there were ever pans or tools for such things, and they treated me like I was a princess. I loved it, and I looked forward to every birthday...still do.

Now that I'm an adult with my own money, I like to treat myself for my birthday. I'm sure those of you who know me best are wondering how that's different from any other time...touche. ;-) But I really like to go overboard for myself on my birthday. LOL. When I turned 30, it was a first class trip to Key West. 31 I skipped because it was right before surgery, and that was the only thing I cared about at the time. When I turned 32, I bought me and Darce a trip to FL. I was thinking of doing the same for my 33rd birthday, but shhhhh....I don't want to ruin my surprise!

I think birthdays, like so many other things in life, are what you make of them. It's easy to get hung up on age, and getting older, and making the event of the birthday a bigger thing than it needs to be. It's the only day of the year when you are allowed to celebrate YOU! Take advantage of it, and have fun with it! Have fun with your friends and family. Give yourself an indulgent gift - it doesn't have to be expensive - it can be an afternoon without the kids, or a day of skipping chores to curl up on the couch with a good book or an Arrested Development marathon. (hilarious show - tragically cancelled)

So now that we're all over the hang up on birthdays , what is it about getting older that causes so many of us anxiety? Are we afraid of dying? Of our bodies deteriorating? Of losing our looks? Of missing out on something fun? Is it bigger than that? Are we afraid of getting older because we feel we are wasting our lives? I don't know - I suspect it's different for everyone.

I do try to live my life to the fullest, and by many measures, I succeed in doing that. I'm not where I want to be, though. I want to be monetarily self sufficient so that I can make a positive impact (friendly footprint, if you will) with the grandest scope. I don't want to work for the rest of my life. I just want to earn enough money while I'm young so that I can live the way I want to later on.

It's easy to say, and nearly impossible to do. I have to be very careful. I could end up making the money I want, and just decide to keep making more money. That's not what I want for this life. If I did that, I would probably panic when I started hitting the milestone birthdays because I would feel like I was getting on the wrong side of the hour glass and I wasn't on the right path.

I think it's important to be true to yourself, and take inventory of your life. Don't let too much time pass without spending time reflecting. If we find the things that will give our lives meaning, and if we strive to achieve those things, I think we will be fulfilled. Life is full of distractions. It would be very easy to be distracted your entire life - especially in this ridiculous day and age.

I'm turning 40 in seven and a half years. I plan to be happy about it. I love the wisdom my years reward me with. I know I'm still young, but I'm trying to cling to each lesson. I hope I will keep my open mind, and I hope I will always be able to look at things with a fresh perspective. I hope when I turn 50, I'll be even happier and more content, and the same goes for 60, 70, 80 and maybe even 90!

I know that by being in the top physical health I can be, it will make each milestone that much more enjoyable. I have decades of bad habits that I need to overcome, and I'm still rewiring my brain. I know that I will be drastically more healthy at 40 than I was at 30. That is something to be happy about.

Happy Birthday, The Darce!!!!

I promised I wouldn't mention your age, so happy anniversary of the day you were born in 1969!!!!!

Let them eat cake!

Darcy and I are going to Portsmouth for her birthday tomorrow, so I made her birthday meal yesterday. She wanted roast beef and fixins, so that's what she got. It was good. I made a mushroom gravy to change things up a bit, and it was good.

Her favorite cake is a lemon cake with vanilla frosting. I decided to do a butter cream frosting with a freshly squeezed lemon glaze on top of that, and it was an indulgent, yet deletable, addition. I'm not sure if you can see the cake properly in the picture above. Here is another one:

I used the lemon rinds to decorate the cake. Why not, right?

I'm not a cake person, but I've been eating too much of this cake. I'm craving sweets lately, and I'm just not myself. I'm still not back to myself yet. I fell asleep at 10 last night, and I had to drag myself out of bed at 8 this morning. I had a pretty relaxing weekend, so there's no reason I should be this tired.

I should be doing much better by the end of this week, and if I'm still feeling tired and weak, I'm going to see my MD. I'm getting the rest I should, and I'm taking it easy.

PS - Today is Krissy's birthday - Happy Birthday, Li'l K!!!!!!!

Hooray for spring!!!

The spring is finally here, and I couldn't wait to grill out. Our grill was old, and we should have replaced it two years ago, but we never got around to it. I wanted an upgrade, but I didn't want to spend a huge amount of money. I'm really pleased with the purchase!

Last night, Stephanie and Carolyn came over for a little BBQ. I made steak tips, chicken strips, corn on the cob and asparagus. Everything came out well, and it was so nice to eat on the grill! We ate out at the picnic table by the water. The winter is FINALLY over, at long last!

I used a marinade that I always use, especially when I'm in a rush. I just tenderize the meat and marinate it in fat free italian dressing and low sodium soy sauce. When I have more time, sometimes I add in spices, etc, but it's really not necessary. The two ingredients blend together really well. People often ask me if I get my meat from a meat shop. I used to, but not anymore. It's low fat/calorie and tasty!

For the corn, I just spray it down with butter spray and a little salt, wrap it in tinfoil and grill. It's ready to eat when you unwrap it. I always buy Bearnaise mix for the asparagus, and I spray the asparagus with butter spray, sprinkle on the Bearnaise mix, and grill it in tinfoil. It's easy and delicious.

It's cool and overcast today, but after the weekend, it's supposed to be sunny and warm all week. I'm hoping I'll be better because I'm planning on hiking, kayaking and biking in the nice weather!

Sweets

I'm sorry, chocolate lovers. That was probably mean to post. LOL

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It's easter this weekend (right?!), and that means easter candy and sweets. Thankfully, I'm not weak in the knees over chocolate the way most women are. That's not to say I can't appreciate it from time to time, because I can/do, but I don't crave it and drool over it (or flip out wanting it - LOL) as the case may be.

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My parents abandoned me years ago (apparently a geriatric needy cat is no competition for live little boys) to be near my sister and her family. Darcy's parents have other plans, so POOR Darcy and me have no plans for Easter.

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To deal with the pain and overall feelings of abandonment, we will be forced to swallow large quantities of cadbury eggs and peeps to overcompensate for our sorrow and lonliness.

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Actually, I don't think Easter was as big of a holiday for me (grew up Baptist) as it was/is for my Catholic friends. I'm not sure why. The Baptists love their sunrise services, easter egg hunts and ham with cheesy potatoes just like anyone else. I *think* it was more of a church holiday for us, though, than it was a big family thing, but that may just be my impression. My parents may think I'm crazy...who knows. It's also entirely possible that I was never that into Easter because I never really liked ham. I did like sunrise services, though, and I definitely enjoyed searching the house for my easter basket, even when I was in high school.

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My Catholic friends seem to equate Easter with Thanksgiving almost, and it just didn't come close to Thanksgiving on my family holiday radar. I don't think anything of the fact that we have no plans for easter, other than apparently to devote the majority of today's blog to the topic - LOL. Darcy suggested going to church, but I don't want to be a holiday church goer. That's just not me. I would like to find a church I like in the area, in general, but I just haven't yet.

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I'm *very* picky when it comes to organized religion. I think that's a good thing. In general, I try to avoid all things organized. Sometimes, organization leads to homogenization which can lead to insanity. Sometimes not. :) I think that part of being a healthy person is to have spiritual health as well, and I realize that people find faith in their own private path, and it's not the same path for everyone. For me, I need there to be more to this life than the dimensions in which we live.

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So yeah, last year, we had a lovely Easter at Lanie and Billy's. The food was fantastic! I loved celebrating Easter with good friends. This year, if we're so inclined, we may make a nice meal here at the house. I want a turkey, though, and I'm sure Darcy wants a ham. Maybe I'll make a hamurky. That's a lot of leftover meat. I'd rather just work at the soup kitchen.

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Do you have any idea how hard it is to get a call back from a place you want to volunteer? I have my name out to every place I can find in Manchester. No one ever calls. I've heard the same from other people as well. I guess we're all set for volunteers in NH!

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We'll think of something. I won't feel deprived not having a basket full of candy. I could totally go for cheesy potatoes though. ;-)

What are you craving?

I'm tired, a little sick still, PMSing, bloated and just feeling gross and fat. Yesterday, I emailed Alison that I was starving and craving a big list of food. She responded that she only craves losing weight now. LOL. I wanted to club her over the head with a giant turkey drumstick. Role reversals? ;-)

I know exactly what she means by that, though, and I felt like that many times throughout my journey...just not now. It's hard to feel like that when you're feeling fat, bloated, and on a terminal plateau. I read my charts yesterday from the MD, and I weigh a few lbs more now than I did last October. Ugh. I know I'm bouncing around the same weight, and sometimes I weigh a few lbs less than I weighed then, but other times I weigh a few lbs more...this is one long plateau.

I long for the feeling of craving being thin. I don't normally crave bad things in general, so that's not a big struggle for me, but just having the high that she's on is something I miss. I miss feeling like I'm doing all the right things, and everything is just coming together beautifully! That's just not the case.

I haven't been able to exercise regularly all year for a myriad of viable reasons, but that's just not helping me. I've been sick and sick and sick, and that's not helping either. I am going to get to the bottom of the reason I'm sick all the time. If it's due to the region, I'll move. If it's due to milk, I'll stop consuming it. If it's my cat - BUH - BYE!!!! (jk) I want to be well. I want to be on a high. I want to move past my plateau.

I'm going to find a PCP near me. My current PCP is an hour away. I'm going to address all the obstacles that are getting in the way of me exercising and losing weight and being healthy in general. Hopefully I can be a loser again soon!

On a positive note, I've been on a plateau for over six months, and I haven't gained over all. I've gone up and down, as I will always do, but I've stayed about the same. If nothing else, that is a good thing, and I'm glad!

#5

I read the 20 healthiest states list online today, and New Hampshire was #5. In fact, 5 of the 6 New England states were in the top 10 (Rhode Island was #11 - just missed it). Oddly, last week they published the safest states to live in list, and 5 New England states were in the top 10 as well (Mass missed this list by a ways...).

If we are healthy and safe, why is the Northeast so grumpy? I'm doing some research on that very subject on my new blog (www.servicerater.blogspot.com) - don't worry, I don't expect people to read it regularly. It's kind of boring. :) It's more of a way for me to track my experiences with service personnel in my travels to see if NE is really as grumpy as I think they are.

I think that being happy and friendly are components of overall health and well being. I try to stay positive, but it's not always easy. :)

Adjusting my expectations

I'm super sleepy still. I tried to go to bed at 10 last night, but it took me hours to fall asleep. My alarm was set for 6:30, but that was a laugh. I promptly shut it off (not even an attempt to snooze it) when it rang out this morning. I finally got out of bed at 8 AM, and I feel exhausted. I did not do yoga as soon as I woke up, as I had planned.

I didn't sleep well while I was in CA, and I'm still recovering from pneumonia, which just makes you tired and weak, so I need to readjust my expectations of myself. I thought yesterday could be my day to take it easy, and I could just hit the ground running today. Wrong.

I had big plans for yoga, the gym, getting a ton of work done, getting caught up on bills, cleaning, making plans to record a CD (yet another side project of my insanity), but I've quickly whittled that list down to work and going for a walk. If I have time for anything else, I'll do my bills.

I'm crossing my fingers hoping that by tomorrow, I'll have the energy to be on track with my schedule again. If I feel like this again, though, I will take it easy. I don't want to prolong this illness.

We are in desperate need of groceries. We were so tired yesterday and had nothing in the house, so we ordered in. I'm hoping Darcy will be feeling up to making a quick grocery store run today, to at least get us enough to last us for today.

All in all, I was up 3 lbs from my Saturday weigh in (and 5 from my low point right before I left), when I got home yesterday. I was down a lb from all that today, and I can tell I'm clearly bloated, and that the other 2-4 lbs will be gone in no time, and then more will follow.

I have my appointment tomorrow with my potential new lap band MD. I hope she agrees to take me on, because I know I'm overdue for a fill, and I just don't feel like going on a 5 hr trip to get one.

I'll let you know how it goes!

Home at last

Our plane landed around 6:30 this morning, and we got home (with puppy in tow!) around 8:15. I checked my email and went to bed around 9AM and took a 3 hr nap. We are both so tired, and it's not helping that we're sick. It's good to be home, but I already miss the sunshine.

We had a nice last day in California. We left Palm Springs just before noon, had lunch on the way back to San Diego, and arrived at a Mission Beach in San Diego around 3PM. It was neat being at an authentic California beach.

They had a paved boardwalk for people to rollerblade and bike ride - just like in all the movies based in California:

There were surfers and kite surfers at the beach. I've wanted to try kite surfing since the first time I saw someone do it a few years ago in Nahant. I wouldn't have been physically able to do it then, but now I'd love to try. I'm afraid of going out too far, falling into the water and being attacked by a shark, but sometimes the fear makes the experience more fun. :)

I have some kind of heat rash or sun poisoning or something. I have bumps on my forearms, legs, and forehead. You can see them a little in this picture:

A nice stranger offered to take a picture of me and Darcy at the beach:

Here is a picture of the beach. I thought it was nice, but it didn't seem as charming as the beaches I visit in New England (Cape Cod, Ogunquit, etc...), or as beautiful as the beaches in South Florida:
After spending time on the beach, we checked out some of the beach side shops and went for an ice cream. It was fun, but the area we visited was a little bit rough around the edges. I think it's a big party spot for tourists.

For dinner, we went to an Australian restaurant in San Diego. It was fantastic. Everything in the restaurant was imported from Australia, and all the foods and beverages are Aussie favorites. We weren't that hungry, so we just split two appetizers - a mini pizza and prawn spring rolls. Both servings were very small compared to appetizers you'll find in most US restaurants, but they were just the right size, and very tasty.

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One of the comedians we saw in Palm Springs was a funny British comic. She was talking about how when Americans get fat, they get FAT - like cartoon fat. She wasn't being mean - her point was that the culture here creates overindulgence, from the constant commercials advertising foods to the portion sizes, to the overall culture of instant gratification. She's right - we get bigger here than people get in other countries and we've gone from having 15% of the population as obese in 1980 to 30% of the population obese in this decade. In under 30 years, we've doubled our rate of obesity. Obviously - this has got to stop. It's not that easy though...

I'm hoping as we continue to become a nation that wastes less, we will continue to move in the direction of consuming less, in all areas of consumption. It is healthier, more fiscally sound, and less wasteful.

I had a mask partner with me on the plane today:

It is hard to wear, but worth it. I'm probably going to wear one on all flights because it seems to be the only thing that keeps me from getting sick on planes. I bet in the years to come, more and more people will do the same. It's hideous, but it works.

I'm taking today to rest, but I'm starting up my yoga again tomorrow morning, and I'm looking forward to it!

Fun!

Determined to make the most of this beautiful weather, we headed out to the water park yesterday. It's probably not the first thing you would want to do when you're sick, but we still had a great time.

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The first water slide we went down was scary, but fun. Well, Darcy disagreed on the "but fun" part - she just thought it was SCARY! It was all enclosed in the dark, so you couldn't see where you were going, and it was steep, twirly and fast! I closed my eyes for most of the ride.

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After that, we went in the wave pool. In the deep end, the waves get up to be 8 or 9 feet high. Most people were on floats, but I prefer to be able to jump up and down in the waves. Poor Darcy almost drowned. She wasn't near me, and she got in over her head, and she couldn't keep her head above water. She was really rattled after that. Poor kid.

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We laid out in the sun for a while, and then we went down another slide that was nice and open - we both loved it. It was also very fast. The slides are fast, and if you have some weight to lose, it propels you even faster. At one point, I was going so fast and sliding up the sides, I thought I was just going to slide out and over the side. LOL

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After that, we got Darcy a float and did the wave pool again. This time she loved it. We both forgot how much work it is to climb to the top of the slides. LOL. Normally, it would be good exercise, but with our respiratory problems, it was a bit challenging - still, we had a lot of fun.

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When we finished up at the water park, we headed into town for lunch and shopping. There are so many cute shops downtown. Before we headed back to the resort, we took a horse and buggy ride through town, and we had a nice history lesson of the area. We saw where Lucy and Desi used to stay, where Norma Jean used to live, where Doris Day used to bring her 14 dogs...you get the idea. It was a really cute ride, and it's always neat to hear about those kind of things.

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Both the water park and the horse and buggy ride are things I couldn't/wouldn't have done before I lost the weight, and it's always fun to discover more and more things I can do now.

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We head home tonight, and I'm looking forward to cooking healthy meals when we return.

Old Blue Eyes

Poor Darcy felt terrible yesterday, so we went for Italian food for dinner again, so she could have her comfort food. We picked a place that has Frank Sinatra's old chef. Naturally, they didn't mind when I ordered my meal, my way, as opposed to the options on the menu.

I had Chicken Saltimbocca. I've never ordered that before, but Alison always gets it, and loves it, and it sounded fantastic, and it WAS. After my salad and the bread, I wasn't hungry at all, but I managed to get through half of it! Their portions weren't as obscene as many other Italian restaurants, so I guess that wasn't thaaat bad...

I had way too much salt yesterday, even though I worked out and walked 2 miles and drank a ton of water, I was up a half a lb today. As of this morning, I'm the same weight I was last Saturday, so I didn't gain any weight this week (except for the 3 lbs I'd lost during the week! :( ), and that's a good thing.

I have 2 more days of this trip, and I'm looking forward to getting home Monday, and eating my healthy foods. I really want to lose weight before my MD appointment on 4/8.

We didn't end up doing any of the things we were planning yesterday. Poor Darcy was so sick. She finally got up around 11:30, we went to lunch, came back to the resort, went to the pool area for about 2 hrs, came back to the room and watched a movie, went to dinner, went to a comedy show, and then went to bed around 9:30, which has been pretty much our bed time this entire trip.

I'm going to try again today to drink lots of water, avoid salt, and hopefully be down that 3 lbs again by tomorrow. That would be a nice going home prize for me. :)

I blame you!

Darcy was in the mood for Mexican, so we had lunch at a charming Mexican restaurant in downtown Palm Springs yesterday. I ordered the taco salad with steak. Holy Moly. It was huge...and I ate the whole thing! (Except for the shell, but I had a few bites of that too!) I skipped their homemade red pepper ranch that came on the side, although I tried a bite and I LOVED it.

The steak was so tender and marinated to perfection.  The pico de gallo was fresh and fantastic. The whole meal was just a delite!

But today, I'm up 3 lbs from yesterday. LOL. It was funny that I could eat such a big meal! Between all the coughing and being sick, I have gotten foods stuck a lot lately, and I haven't been able to eat that much. However, foods without carbs that are wet are apparently no problem at all! I was very full after, but I just couldn't stop. It was the best Mexican food I'd had in my entire life.

For dinner, we went to an italian restaurant. Poor Darcy needed comfort food. I had a spinach, chicken and fontina cheese risotto. It was fabulous! ; Darcy had the bolognese, and she almost licked the plate - it was THAT good. I didn't eat much of the risotto. I felt bad, but I did enough damage at lunch. I had a few tastes and that's all that I needed. The waiter thought there was something wrong with it - not one bit!

When I knew I wanted to stop eating my risotto, I pulled my pepper trick, and peppered the whole dish so that I wouldn't be tempted to eat more of it. That has saved me from many an episode of overeating!

I also haven't been drinking enough water. When I'm on vacation, my big treat is always diet soda. Plus, I've not been feeling well, and diet coke helps wake me up sometimes. Also, I bought a 6 pack of diet IBC root beer for the room, and I've been enjoying those too!

I'm going to eat light today, and drink lots of water, and hopefully the 3 lbs I'm up today will be gone tomorrow. I worked out this morning. I didn't dare do cardio, because I still can't breathe from the pneumonia, but I lifted weights. I took it easy, and I only did 25 minutes, but it's a step in the right direction! I think I'll be ready to start up my yoga again by the time I get home.

I'm not sure what's on the agenda for today. It depends on how Darcy feels. I feel better and better each day, but I'm not myself yet, at all. I feel like I have a cold or allergies, but that I'm just really tired on top of it - I'm not terribly sick, just a little sick and fatigued.

Darcy took nyquil last night, and I'm hoping she gets plenty of rest. It's 7:30 AM here, and I've been to the pool, went for a walk, updated my blog (obv), and did some work. Now what? :)

Depending on how Darcy is feeling when she gets up, we're going to do one (or more) of the following today:

• local water park
• visit Joshua Tree
• Jeep tour through a canyon
• visit and tour a vineyard
• take a tram up the mountains

I know it's silly to go to a water park, because we can do that anywhere, but it is HOT out here, and it would be nice to be in the sun and do something fun. The resort is sold out for the weekend, so I'm sure the pool is going to be slammed. A water slide sounds like a blast to me. I want to do at least one of the other things as well, and again, it all depends on how the Darce is feeling.

Bit O Country

Poor Darcy is sick. She doesn't have pneumonia, but she's definitely coming down with a bad cold. We went to a grocery store this morning to stock up on cough drops and cold medicine. I asked the woman at the checkout if she recommended any breakfast places, and she said she and her boyfriend really like a place called Bit O Country, so that settled that!

It was a cute little diner, and *very* reasonably priced - something that was a first for us since we arrived in CA!

This is what I ordered:

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Yikes! LOL. I ended up having 1 piece of bacon, 1 and a half eggs, and the english muffin. My plate still looked full when I was done with it, but I had managed to eat 10 points worth of food! I'm going to have to be careful the rest of the day.

I have been within my points every day since I've been here. I finally found a scale today, and I'm not sure if it's the same as the one at my house, but I'm sure it's close enough, which means I'm on the right track. According to this scale, I'm down about a lb since I got here. If that's true, I'm pleased because eating out is always dicey.

I'm not sure where we're eating for lunch, but I get obsessed with food on vacation. Going out to eat is one of the most fun things to do on vacation (for me at least), because you get to see different pieces of local color, EAT, people watch, etc..., I just love it. At breakfast, the couple behind me was paying their tab and already talking about where they were going to go for lunch - Those are my people! LOL

Darcy is sick, so we'll go wherever she wants - whatever she thinks will make her feel better. It's almost 10:30 PST right now. I'm supposed to wake her up from her nap at 11. If she's up to it, we're going on a tram ride to see the sights from the sky! I think that will be fun!

Pictures around the resort

The Adventures of Phat-So?!

After breakfast and our morning walk, we sat out by the pool for a while. I wanted to check out the area by the water, so I went for a walk.

These trees were scattered throughout the Marina Park I toured.

There was a military base nearby, and their boats were speeding past me in the ocean.

There were a bunch of cute shops and restaurants along the boardwalk.

Here are some of the ships in the Marina that was attached to our hotel:

Here is a view of our hotel from the other side:

We had lunch at a cute little Hawaiian style restaurant. I want to go to Hawaii!

I got a free upgrade from a Sebring to a Mustang convertible. Gotta use that smile God gave you! ;-) I learned that from my Mother.

We have a ton of pictures of the resort in Palm Springs, and the pool area, but they didn't come out great - I'll do a better job today. Here is a bed that they have out by the pool area - there are several that you can use, if you really want to redefine the meaning of relaxing by the pool!

At dusk, I took this picture from the pool area. You can see the beautiful backdrop of mountains in the distance.

The resort is fabulous. Truly. The room is amazing.

We went to downtown Palm Springs last night, and walked just about the whole main drag. I did okay at first, but after a while, I was having trouble breathing, and I ended up having a bit of a coughing fit, but I recovered!

I had a yummy dinner of pot stickers and asparagus. We met a friend at the resort who was meeting up with her friends tomorrow, but didn't have anyone to have dinner with, so we invited her to join us. It was great because she's been to Palm Springs before, and she showed us all around!

She, like everyone else I've met from the West Coast, is super nice. She's also 45, and she looks like she's younger than me. I swear there's something in the air out here...

When we were in San Diego, we were surrounded by people from all over the country because of the hotel's proximity to the convention center. Now that we are in Palm Springs, it's a different crowd. Everyone, almost everyone, is thin. Whenever I visit areas where everyone is thin, I always want to move there.

I know that some overweight people may feel the opposite, but I just feel like it's a healthier environment. People are really health conscious, and I think it's a good element to have in life.

The last time I was in California, I weighed at least 160 lbs more than I do now...maybe more...and I was in LA! I still wanted to move out here then, so that I could have a better shot at living a healthy life.

Darcy loves it out here. She wants to move to Palm Springs. Two days ago, she wanted to move to San Deigo, and 2 months ago she wanted to move to Key West, but that was a few days after she wanted to move to Ft. Lauderdale. LOL - everywhere we go (that's warm), Darcy just wants to stay.

I don't blame her, I'm the same way, although I didn't feel inclined to move to San Diego or Palm Springs. I really do want to be in a warm climate, at least for the winter. If I can consult full time, I would really like to live somewhere warm (palm trees are a must) for the winter, and live at home in the summer and fall.

Then I can always do my cardio outside! It's a dream come true.

Speaking of cardio, I can't wait to get back to working out. I've been walking more and more each day.

Yesterday, between our morning walk, my midday walk, and our evening walk, I definitely got a few miles in. Nothing heroic, but I'm trying to build my strength back up.

It's 6:30 AM now, and I'm going to try to hunt down some breakfast! :)

Tales from the City...

We got a recommendation for a breakfast place from the hotel, and we were off to find it. I had heard of the restaurant in a magazine I'd read of local cuisine, and I was excited to learn it was in walking distance of the hotel.

The directions we were given were a bit off, and we ended up seeing a bit of the city on our way...no complaints here!


The people here are sure nice! We were trying to find the restaurant we were looking for, and we ran into a man in the street who we asked for help. He told us we were a ways off, and asked us if we wanted a ride. Why not. I know that's crazy, but he seemed nice enough, and there were three of us.

We walked down the block with him, and he brought us to his ride:

So we had our own personal bus delivery to our restaurant! How funny! He was so nice. We tipped him, but he really didn't even want the money!

Darcy ordered the silver dollar pancakes. They were so cute (and yummy!):

I ordered corned beef hash, and 2 eggs with dry toast. I didn't like the hash, so I didn't eat it. I'm not going to waste calories if it's not good, unless it's good for me! I wasn't really hungry anyway, I had one piece of toast and a little bit of the eggs, but now, of course, I'm starting to get hungry!

We went for a nice walk after, and TJ took a picture of me and Darce in front of this sculpture:

I noticed the sculpture was called "Breaking the Chains." Here is some information I found on it at: http://www.viva-city.info/archive/walk_0904.htm

“ Breaking the Chains,” created by Melvin Edwards in 1993, was directly inspired by Martin Luther King, Jr.’s provocative quote, “Along the way of life, someone must have the sense enough and morality enough to cut off the chain of hate. This can only be done by projecting the ethic of love to the center of our lives.” Edwards hopes his memorial will “remind viewers of the great human struggle and creative accomplishments of which we are all part.” Shiny stainless steel shapes lean against each other for support while a metallic chain creeps up one side of the artwork. The chain is broken open at the top, symbolizing a termination of the brutal shackles of hatred. Strokes on the metallic circle next to the broken chain convey the idea of fireworks, erupting in patterns over the circle’s face.

Here is a picture of our hotel from a few blocks away:

This VW bug was painted by a bunch of local kids a few years ago, as an art project. I thought it was neat.

As we were walking after breakfast, I couldn't help but thinking how nice it is to be a person who can just walk through a city I'm visiting. I know it's not a big thing to most people, but when you can't do it, and suddenly can, it's a huge deal. I'm still grateful every time I notice a way my life has been enriched by living a healthier life.

Okay - I'm off to the pool now!