Back in Business

Today’s post title has a couple of different meanings. The first is about my weigh in.  As I posted yesterday morning, I actually stayed on plan ALL week this week!  I’m really proud of myself for that.  And, I’ve been meaning to mention this for weeks now, but I have another victory to share with you all.  I’m a big fan of the 100 calorie packs of Cheetos, though I hate their price.  I always knew that buying a big bag of Baked Cheetos and dividing them into my own 100 calorie packs would be much, much cheaper, but I never trusted myself.  I knew that having that bag around, even if already portioned into individual bags would be too much temptation.

Unfortunately, several weeks ago, I was unable to find the 100 calorie packs anywhere.  Every store I went to was out of them.  They have them back in the stores now, but you see,  I haven’t needed to buy any, because I bought a bag of Baked Cheetos back when I couldn’t find them, and I’m still working on the same bag!!  Every time I’ve dipped into it, I’ve actually weighed out my portion.  Even on those weekends when I went totally off plan.  Go me!  I even bought a bag of Baked BBQ Lays and am doing the same with them, because I was craving them, and I haven’t binged on them!  Though the portion is pitifully small, so I probably won’t be buying them as often.

Anyway, as to my weigh in today.  I lost…… 3.8 pounds this week!  92.3 pounds lost.  It’s amazing what sticking to plan a couple of extra days will do.  Of course, a wee bit of that could be the fact that I cut off about an inch and a half of hair over the weekend, too.    But that can’t account for all of it!  So I’ve officially lost everything from that big gain a few weeks ago and am 1.3 pounds lower than my lowest since getting back on track.  Also, at 250.6, I’m about out of those damn 250s….AGAIN.  Unfortunately, I see myself gaining next Tuesday after my trip, but I’ve proven that I don’t have to let it derail me.

The other area in which I’m back in business is my blog.  One of the reasons that I haven’t been posting nearly as often over the past several months is because I’ve been having massive issues with my blog.  Every time I would go to add a new post or new page, my browser would lock up, so I’ve mostly been having to use old drafts to create new posts.  Talk about a pain in the ass.  But luckily, with my host company pointing me to the problem, and a bit of research, I was finally able to get it fixed today.  I’m not sure what caused the problem, and noticed that the underlying issue is still there, but at least I know how to deal with it now and keep it from getting out of control.  So I’ll be able to annoy you much better with more frequent posts now!    You know, if I’m not slacking off.

Unfortunately, I do have a couple of pieces of bad news that I have to impart today.  One is that I’ve been feeling crummy the past couple of days and have been home from work sick.  Hopefully it will get out of my system by Friday!  Speaking of, it’s supposed to be freaking 86 degrees in DC on Friday AND rain on Saturday!  Of course!!  Hopefully it won’t screw with our sightseeing.  And if it does rain, hopefully it’ll make it a bit cooler and I’ll still be able to get some decent pics somehow.  The tour should be interesting.

The other piece of bad news you may have already heard about.  It’s the flooding in middle Tennessee and Nashville, in particular.  I’ve mentioned before that I went to college down there and then I spent a couple of years after graduating there.  Overall, I really love the city and have a lot of good memories there (of course, some bad ones, too, but the good outweigh the bad for the most part).  But Nashville was the city of my dreams – it’s where I entered the real world and grew up a bit.  Here is a great piece about how the flood has taken a back seat to some of the other (equally as important) current issues.

And here are some links to pics of the flooding:

• While I’m glad the Ryman Auditorium is safe, the Grand Ole Opry House (home of the Grand Ole Opry since 1974) was terribly flooded.  Click here for a picture.
• General pics of downtown
• Even more powerful pics of downtown Nashville.  It’s so sad.
• Flooded Nashville landmarks
• Of course, many other areas than downtown Nashville flooded.  You can easily do a search on Google if you’re interested.

And here is a special report by Keith Olberman with footage:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

And a beautiful piece:

And the poor Opryland Hotel:

To help, click here for the Nashville Red Cross, or Text REDCROSS to 90999 to make a $10 donation on your mobile phone.

And here are even more ways to help.

These people certainly need it.