Sheep Guarding Llama

Medifast Status: Day 149, Down ~60.5lbs

We are heading towards a high of ninety-nine again tomorrow.  After that the weather is supposed to break and it is supposed to be nice from here on out.  This is pretty hot for “nearly October” though.  Dominica and Nicole are taking the kids to the Fort Worth Zoo tomorrow.  Once again Dominica manages to pick this hottest possible day for that.  We only seem to go when it is really hot.  At least this time, in theory, there will be no one else there.  From the zoo she and the girls are hitting the road directly to drive down to Houston.  So I will be a bachelour as of tomorrow morning.  Just Oreo and I for the weekend which is probably good since I have just loads and loads of stuff to do for RIT.

Work was very slow this morning so John and I hit the cafe on the corner and had some coffee and worked from BlackBerry for a little bit before returning to the office.  Totally silent morning, just nothing happening at all.  Just the way that I like it.

Oreo has a doctor’s appointment today so I worked through lunch and then ran home just in time for Dominica to take him to the vet at two and I watched the girls for a little bit and then ran back to the office once his appointment was over.  His mange is getting really bad and his eye really is not improving.  But other than the somewhat superficial issues, he is in very good health.  The vet felt that he was reacting poorly to the level of medication that he has been receiving so we are taking him off of that for a little bit.

After work I had my second week of the Cocktails and Connections at La Cima.  We had another pretty good turn out this week.  We have a good group that is beginning to form.  We had a really nice time hanging out for about two hours and then several of us headed in to the dining room to have dinner together.

Dominica, Liesl and Luciana joined us in time for dinner and everyone seemed to really enjoy getting to meet the girls who really were on exceptionally good behaviour all evening.

We were at the club quite late tonight.  It was well after ten when we got back home.  Liesl asked for one episode of Dora before going to bed.  Luciana was asleep on the drive home and ended up spending the night sleeping in her car seat.  That is probably not good since she is going to be in that all day tomorrow too.

We all went to bed as soon as we could manage it.

Medifast Status: Day 148, Down ~60.5lbs

Very little to mention today.  It was a quiet day.  Warm but not too bad.  I went jogging again this evening.  I’m sticking to the plan and feeling pretty good.  Hopefully I will start seeing the weight loss pick up again sooner than later.

I was able to get home early today.  That was great.  I had a call at six that lasted for two hours.  Not stressful at all, though.  Mostly we watched demos on SugarCRM.

Medifast Status: Day 147, Down ~60.5lbs

Temperatures were back up into the nineties today.  Nothing like we had during the summer but warmer than it normally should be at this time of year.

I got into work this morning and things were very slow.  I got caught up and then John and I went over to La Cima to get coffee and he breakfast.  No breakfast foods for me for a very long time yet.  I sure hope that this part of my diet is long over by the time that we go to Europe in the spring or I am going to be horribly disappointed.

Dominica and the girls ended up meeting me for lunch too so it was a double day at La Cima.  Lunch was good and we were able to eat pretty leisurely.  It was a nice, relaxing morning.

The afternoon was a bit busier at work, but things wrapped up promptly and I was able to go home at a good time.  The evening was very hectic, as it often does.  Between attempting to eat, trying to watch something, take care of Oreo, entertain the children, etc. it gets really crazy really quickly.  It’s amazing how little we are able to just sit and relax.  Every few minutes one or both of us is forced to get up and do something.  Watching a single show can end up taking several hours.  It can be quite frustrating because the time to relax is so stressful rather than relaxing.  There is no end to “accidents” that need to be cleaned up as well.

I decided, after much cajoling from Dominica, that I would take tonight off from running to let my body catch up.  The program is supposed to be one day on, one day off for three cycles then an extra day off per week.  So I’m doing a much more strenuous program.

Medifast Status: Day 146, Down ~60.5lbs

The weather was decent enough this morning that Dominica and I decided to get up and sit outside for the entire morning.  We just made coffee and camped out on the patio.  Liesl watched cartoons and would periodically stop out to see what we were doing and would then return to the house.

We spent much of the morning talking plans for our trip to Europe as we like to do while sitting out on the patio.  The patio has become the de facto “discuss our vacation” place.  One cup of coffee after another and one European tour book after another.

After much discussion we are currently leaning away from touring southern Italy while we are over there.  The distance to cover with the children being so young is too much and we are pretty sure that we will be living in Italy in the not too distant future and that will make weekend excursions into southern Italy trivial so doing it now would be a waste of our resources.  So our plan is to go no farther south than lower Tuscany – unless we end up flying from Rome then we will see Lazio and probably Abruzzo as well.

The more that we look the more that it would appear that our long term plan is to look for a home in Piedmont – the northwestern province of Italy bordering France and Switzerland.  The area to the south east of Turin looks to be especially inviting with rolling hills that are reminiscent of Tuscany but far easier access into Europe.  Just two hours from Switzerland and an hour and a half from the Riviera and three hours from Tuscany it is quite the spot.  It looks like it will be the perfect blend for us and the prices look pretty decent for the areas in which we are the most interested.  So our current plan is to make sure that we spend several days in that area.

It is really, really hard trying to plan a trip of this magnitude with so much to see and do and so many potential variables.

I spent the afternoon and evening working on homework.  The work isn’t so hard but there is just a lot of it to be done.

While I was in my office tonight, Liesl ran in to get me and told me that Luciana was having trouble and needed me to come right away.  So I ran with Liesl from the office to my bedroom where Dominica was rocking Luciana in the dark.  I was all like “What is wrong?” and Dominica is like… “I told Liesl that Luciana was having trouble falling asleep.”  Liesl replied “Oh no, Luciana is having trouble! I will go get daddy!”  And that is how that happened.

After my homework was all turned in I went out for my run.  This is my third night in a row that I have managed to go out jogging.  I felt pretty decent tonight.  I’m getting stronger and catching up with Dominica really quickly.

Medifast Status: Day 145, Down ~60.5lbs

This is our weekend at home.  Next weekend Dominica and the girls are going to go to Houston while I stay home to work on homework and other things that need my attention.  I don’t have a lot of free time while working on my Masters so I need some quiet time to get things done.

Today was mostly relaxing.  We did some work, some cleaning, some relaxing.  No one really went anywhere.  I did some class work today too.  This International Project Management class that I am doing keeps me a bit busier than most classes that I have taken.

I did have to work for the office today but very little.  I’d say less than an hour total.  No big deal.

This evening I went out jogging again.  I am doing Week 3 Day 2 of the program tonight.  I’m going through them much faster than Dominica and Francesca are.  I’m hoping that doing then at a fast, but reasonable, pace will let me catch up pretty quickly.

I have been going out jogging late at night after everyone goes to sleep.  That seems to work out pretty well although it is really hard jogging when you cannot see where your feet are going.  That is a little dangerous.  And I am hoping that I don’t end up stepping on any lizards.  I see them scurry away pretty frequently on the rare occasion of there being some amount of light.

I really need some way to hold my iPhone.  I have to jog with it in my hand and that really does not work.  It is hurt my arms and throwing off my stride because I can’t swing one of my arms like the other.  Very awkward.  And it makes me warmer than necessary since one of my hands cannot ventilate properly.

We will be home tomorrow.  Nothing planned except for homework.