Butterkase is awesome. A lot of our flowers have started to bloom - periwinkle, daffodils, crocus, forsythia, grape hyacinths.

I love Adirondack chairs! So comfortable! We did shopping and errands.

I agree!

And we will! 😄

@sls631 How are you doing? Hope things are going well for you! Maggie

Hope you are well, Susan, and enjoying the season.

Welcome back, Susan! 💕

@sls631. I think it is great that you looked over your records and figured this out. It sounds like you're tackling this well. Definitely re-read your last comment when April 1st rolls around!

@MorticiaAddamsMSFS Off topic, I Googled MSFS -- a Master's degree in Foreign Service? I never heard of a degree in foreign service, not that I would know, anyway! Have you had a job in Foreign Service; that sounds very interesting. (I'm picturing Bond movies here!)

On topic, oddly, for a non-athletic person like me, I have gone to a number of gyms over the years. I regularly went to Vic Tanny in the 1980's in Ohio. Moved to Michigan for three years in early 1990's and didn't go to a gym (small kids, busy), but brought a Nordic Trac (like a treadmill, only like cross-country skiing). I used that thing like crazy, to the point I had rubbed skin raw around my hip bones and needed to apply gauze bandages before using, lol! We moved back to Ohio and sporadically went to Vic Tanny again (a different location) through the mid-1990's to mid-2000's. During that time, Bally's bought out the chain and renamed it Bally's. Of note, this is when I put on a bit of weight...hmmm...a possible correlation, causation even more so!!! I didn't go to a gym again until ~2013 (Workout Anytime), when I started at mfp. It was one no more than 2 miles from our home. I liked this one the best, really small, sufficient equipment, no pool, no classes (both available at the Vic Tanny/Bally's), could come 24/7, although I only ever went there mid-morning. At that time, I worked early afternoon into early evening (kids had left the nest for some time), so the timing made sense for me. I hired a Personal Trainer there for 10 sessions. She was super helpful; I saw improvements because I incorporated weight lifting. Anyway, fast forward to now, in Colorado. We joined our nearby (8 miles or so, close for a mountain community) Community Center, which had everything, but then Covid started. We hadn't gone there very often, though. My husband and I purchased two machines during COVID, an elliptical and Bowflex (weight lifting machine with bendy rods, sounds odd, Google to see it, but really easy to use). What a difference. We use the equipment (along with yoga) almost every day and actually enjoy it (ok, the elliptical and I have a love/hate relationship). We joke that we have become different people! My husband has back problems, so the elliptical was better for him than a treadmill. I forgot, we had one of those in mid 2000's. I used it, but never liked it.

I'm not sure why I shared all of this (and I do realize that I am rambling). We exercise to keep the weight off (and, in theory, lose some more), but to also maintain muscles for core strength (for now, but especially for our later years) and to hopefully keep dementia at bay. We saw 3 of our 4 parents in their later lives with dementia and it was so painful to experience, them as well as us. We feel the we are doing what we can to prevent/delay it.

Oh, also for full disclosure, with me having just had COVID (5 weeks out), I've yet to start the weight training back up, but will soon.

Well, I guess I now understand your username here at mfp. I guessed it was related to the TV show, The Addams family, but I wasn’t sure and I had to Google it sometime ago. I didn’t really watch the show, maybe once or twice when I was little. I remember that it was in black-and-white. I have heard they made a new movie or TV show since, though. The Cheyenne Wyoming zoo recently had a baby giraffe and named it Wednesday. My niece had to explain to me that the name was from the Addams family
show. Some people (me) are just clueless, I guess!

I forgot to mention earlier...I was impressed hearing about your ski trip. I am so bummed that my bit of scare-dy cat-ness has made me decide that even though I am not far from ski resorts that people from all over the world come to, I am not a downhill skier. I want to try cross country skiing with my husband this year, but we are running out of time, lol. We went snow-shoeing this week for the first time with my husband (gear was a Christmas gift to us from me). Although we didn't go far, I really enjoyed it. The snow was a foot deep (we were an hour west of our home, we only have a couple inches, which are melting fast) and we sunk down about halfway. I thought we would walk exclusively on top of the snow and we did get the correct size gear (the footprint gets larger with increased weight, so my husband's shoes are larger/longer than mine). I am trying to embrace winter sports, being here in Colorado.