Afternoon Crackers!

A quick pop in.. I stayed the same today not really surprising all things considered and with Easter next weekend I'm aiming to maintain this week also. On a positive note I am 4 pounds lighter than this time last year and I am only 3.6 pounds from my target weight - however having read today the average child eats 8000 calories worth of chocolate over the Easter weekend I am going to try and be very sensible and indulge but not over indulge!!! Well that's the plan but I'm a chocoholic!!!! One more week and then I return to Austria looking forward to getting back to my routine and walking in the mountains - dragging groceries up the hill with cars roaring past just doesn't do it for me!!!

So pleased to hear you have settled Bracken one less stress. Good luck PB for tomorrow. LMV hope you're not knocking back the champagne and being careful with the cheese board?! BM where are you?

Be good Crackers!

Hello Crackers. I feel a bit discombobulated at the moment. The weather isn't helping either. After the lovely week when I was doing so much walking outdoors, it has changed to miserable- cold (as low as -4 daytime again), damp, snow flurries yesterday ,dreary, and tomorrow/Friday expected to be a mixture of freezing rain and rain. As said earlier, at least I have settled the insurance claim. Now I am still engaged with trying to negotiate a vehicle price and seem to have spent a large amount of time, either on the phone, the computer or waiting for return calls/emails. I have narrowed down to the vehicle I want but it is impossible to find one on the lot as I want a fairly straight forward version of the vehicle and they seem to want to make only the ones with all the extra options. The wait for a factory ordered vehicle will be 7-8 weeks. I'll have to rent a vehicle for part of that time but hope to get by at times with taking my brother up on his offer to loan me one of his. That was the plan for today when I had a morning appointment with a auto sales person and a meeting of my writer's group in the after noon. However, last night my sister-in-law phoned to say she unexpectedly needed her vehicle because of attending of funeral visitation for a former colleague. I cancelled the salesperson appointment but then decided to call one of the Writer's group members who had posted and asked if anyone needed a ride. She very kindly said she would pick me up. The group meeting was very enjoyable but once again there was considerable food on offer. Previously I have done well. Not so good this time. MITM, you will probably particularly appreciate this and I really think the largest part of my eating was because I did not want to offend the host. She had laid the large table at which we wrote with 3 separate bowls of nuts, a bowl of Lindt chocolate balls, some Easter egg chocolate candies, and some good sized chocolate chip cookies. She made tea and coffee according to requests. I had not eaten lunch really so thought a cookie and the 5 hazelnuts would be OKish. After the formal part of the meeting was over, however, the host asked who would like a piece of her carrot cake- one of the most decadent carrot cakes I've seen, not only very moist (lots of oil!) but in layers with a cream cheese icing in the middle and iced about an inch thick all over with the rich icing which itself was cloaked in a thick covering of walnuts. The thinnest person there (a very nice woman I'll add) refused a piece because she can't eat corn products or gluten. Another woman who is a little eccentric and somewhat abrasive, said rather loudly and abrasively, "No, not for me." (She had come carrying her own pita bread in a bag.) Two other women who are each a little overweight but still quite trim sat and looked dejected as if they were being asked to eat poison,
said nothing, but eventually accepted a piece of cake. The other person besides me said she would have a piece. I tried to be pleasant and pleased about having a piece. Why do these situations have to be so fraught? I felt badly for Maria who herself is rather overweight but is a very kind host who went to a lot of effort. She is a lovely person and I really admire her desire to improve her writing as she immigrated from Italy and English is not her first language. She is also clearly someone who has been brought up with making cooking and eating a central part of entertaining. When she volunteered to host this meeting at the previous one, she said since it would be in her home she would happily make lasagna! Everyone told her that was not necessary and that she shouldn't spend her time cooking for us but use it for her writing time. Well Crackers, the saga of my writing group has used a lot of time but not many calories. I'll be wearing that cake for awhile.

Good Morning Crackers!

Another quick pop in but I just wanted to say how amusing I too found your post Bracken especially the poison line and I agree with PB you should save it for a future writing piece! PB your Easter celebrations sound very serious (as I believe they should be) and moving. In my village it is a huge event far bigger than Christmas and sadly I shall miss it all as we don't fly until Easter Monday. Hope the singing goes well.

Be good Crackers!

Hello Crackers. Thanks PB and MITM for the encouraging words about my description of the carrot cake incident. Now all I need is the inspiration for a complete story of which that would be a scene! PB, you seem to have managed well in your meeting with the boss and probably did the best thing by not rising to her bait. I think there are some people who live for that and the best one can do is to not engage. Your church service sounds very inspiring
and the music must be so lovely. It must surely have required a lot of dedication from all involved. I must admit that I have not attended services much since my Mother died. At the same time, the Reverend who was a wonderful priest moved to another area. The new Reverend is someone I just can't seem to connect to. Some of my criticism are probably quite trivial; for example, his voice is extremely loud and he uses a funny mixture of formal language and quite extreme slang language that to me undercuts the beauty of what he is reading/saying often.
MITM, your suggestion about the cake is a good one and ultimately it really is my responsibility to find a solution. I like the idea of accepting enthusiastically a piece to take away..... I've not been as focused recently on solving my eating challenges. However, I expect before next weekend to put an order in for a vehicle as I now have narrowed down to a specific brand and options and am trying to decide between two dealerships.
Here we missed the worst of the storm that hit the Toronto area where there was an ice storm and about 100,000 homes are still without electricity. We did not get the lower temperatures so we had rain instead, but it was a huge amount, lasting from Wednesday night until this morning. Now it is colder and this morning there was a little bit of snow in the yard. It seems to be making the birds extra hungry and I am filling the feeders regularly. Nellie is bummed out that she can't be out more and has to content herself with barking at the squirrels at the feeders through the window. Of course, the squirrels completely ignore her.
I hope everyone has a Happy Easter. My youngest sister has invited me to dinner for Easter Sunday.
Regards.

Evening Crackers!

Home, sweet, home.... The daughter is home with me for the Easter holidays which of course means various Aunts and Uncles of hers especially those with a religious connection.... wish to see her. The first with her family arrived the day after we got back (ringing to let us know late in the evening) which I wasn't very happy about (the husband didn't think to consult me first) as the house was an absolute tip and strangely enough we were absolutely exhausted having been up since 3am... Still this Aunt (my sister-in-law) said she would bring a cake she had made with her and just as well as she also invited another two nieces and a nephew to our house... so I was mightily relieved I busted a gut cleaning late into the night... Tomorrow the next Aunt is coming with our young nephew/godson and staying overnight, when she rang the husband and informed us of her plans, she also issued orders our godson would like a cake made! I have 3 weeks worth of ironing piled to the ceiling that still needs doing, I have picked up my Mother's lousy cold she brought home with her from her holiday and I'm in no mood for entertaining - so alas I fear I could be diving into the brownies I've made for the godson TONIGHT! I'm writing my confession now in the hope I will get a grip!

Be good Crackers!

My Friends Mum died at 8.45am this morning.. As my Goddaughter just said she has left a beautiful day - leaving a trail of sparkles as she goes up to heaven.

A very quick pop-in as this den is quite cold so I am not even reading the posts! I'll just say that as I look out the den window, it looks like a Christmas card. Trees and bushes covered in snow, the lawn also. Nice if it were December. But today- very depressing!

Oh dear - can we all move to the Okanagan? Its perfect anytime of year (imho).