Oh dear, the last day of the month – it’s back on those wretched pills again tomorrow, April 1st – so it’s sort of like a cruel April Fool’s Day joke, on me! 😦 Oh well, it’s only 10 days of fluid retention… and I have until mid July to get under 90kg… So… today… well, most of this morning was spent in organising a new, non-Free, blog Template. Once again, the last of the Big Spenders (me) coughed up $24.00 for a template that (so far!) seems to work (cross fingers and touch wood!) I hope you all like it – it’s a little different, and apart from the fact that the blog text and the header seem to be a little… off centre? on the page, I quite like it… In the process of getting the header done, and because I’m still searching for Art Nouveau and/or Art Deco elements for my desktop wallpapers, I didn’t get as much Rifting in as I’d have liked, this afternoon. I did start, and I did get Satai up one level to level 21, but then I felt too restless to continue, and I went font hunting again. You’d think that 2000+ fonts would be enough for anyone, wouldn’t you, but not to the truly dedicated fontaholic that I am. I started off Googling “Art Deco fish images”, and then “Art Nouveau fish images” (I’m still looking for something that I can incorporate into a Pisces symbol) and actually found quite a nice lot of Art Nouveau images… and then somehow or other, (I wasn’t deliberately looking, I swear! 😉 ) I ended up on a site that had a lot of Art Deco corners and frames fonts. I downloaded, and installed, fifteen of them – fourteen, actually, as I found I already had one of them, but they’re going to be a big asset in my font arsenal! There are so many things you can do with corners and frames – use them “as is”, or chop them up and “whiz” them around in a kaleidoscope (the graphic equivalent of a blender) to make “interesting” patterns… all sorts of things. Thinks: I used to do a lot of that, way back when, with photos of flowers, and abstract patterns, and stuff – the resulting images made very nice repeatable tiles (if you can count pixels and know exactly where to cut things to form an even and seamless edge! Ahhh… the good old days! 🙂 ) So, after all that reminiscing, I might just be tempted away from Rift again tomorrow! 🙂 Then again, I might be tempted away from Rift tomorrow by the Great Outdoors! Yes, himself has to go out on a foray, and I might just invite myself along – I’d like to go to Office Works – I need to get something that (knowing my weird wants and needs) probably doesn’t exist. I want to get a clipboard with a “thingy” on the back so that it’ll stand up, like a photo frame, if you know what I mean. I also need to get a second warm jumper – at the moment I only have one, and it’s not even mine! It’s Julian’s, and I’ve been wearing it for a couple of days and it really needed to go to the Dry Cleaners before it got up and walked there on its own – so I don’t even have that any more… and it’s getting cold, Garfield! I have plenty of T-shirts (most of them too big now!) and low necked tops, but my neck gets terribly cold and I don’t want to get a chill or a stiff neck (I do have lots of scarves though… maybe I should start wearing them again… it’s certainly getting cold enough for them!) So… tomorrow I shall either Rift… or Graphick… or go shopping. Speaking of shopping, the rug that we ordered from a shop at The Glen isn’t available. We got our deposit back, and now we have to start looking, all over again. I also need to get a new coffee table for the lounge room, and have the Italian tiles from the old coffee table turned into wall panels, or hangings. Now that the spare room is all but finished, I don’t want to lose the re-decoration momentum – the lounge room is still unfinished – hardly even started, actually! All we’ve done there is replace the entertainment unit and the matching side tables. The curtains have to be changed, and we need a nice big “neutral” coloured rug. We need a new, and much bigger coffee table (on castors) and the small round table has to be carted over to my favourite youngest daughter’s place. The window wall that’s eternally kept curtained needs to be turned into a wall, so that we can eke back some desperately needed hanging space (for all the pictures that are still in storage!) Yes, perhaps I’d better go along tomorrow…. (*evil laugh* 😉 )

Weigh-in this morning. A little disappointing – I didn’t go down at all… however, I didn’t go up, either! I stayed the same, at 97.1kg. And tomorrow morning I start on the fluid loving pills *gloom* I thought I had until August to get down below 90kg, but I don’t… I only have until mid July. At a rough estimate (counting on my fingers!) I have about 12 weeks? If I lose approximately a kilo a week (but sometimes a fair bit less), let’s say that I could, theoretically, get down to – what? 75kg? My goal weight? Impossible! I don’t believe it – my maths was always hopeless… let me work it out again – on paper, this time. There! See?! I was wrong! (well, I did tell you my maths was hopeless!) I carried a “1” where I shouldn’t have – so, in fact, I could, theoretically, get down to about 87kg. That sounds a bit more reasonable… Oh well, as long as I’m under 90kg…

And that, gentle readers, was “My Day” – oh, I also filed my nails down, to try to match the extremely short thumb nail that tore off the other day. I must say that it makes typing a whole lot easier and more comfortable! How do secretaries and receptionists manage with their great long (usually acrylic) talons? Anyway, come and visit again tomorrow night – who knows what marvels and surprises might await you! Will I have gone shopping with himself, and found my up-standing clip board? Did I stay home and get Satai up another couple of levels? Have we managed to find a nice replacement rug for the one we liked but is no longer available? Will we ever decide on what style of curtains we want to get for the lounge room, and where will we ever find the sort of coffee table that I want? I can’t promise that all of those questions will be answered by this time tomorrow night, but some of them will be! The thing is, which ones will be answered! Stay tuned to find out! In the meantime, please try to curb your impatience 🙂  So bee good, don’t drink too much coffee, and above all…. stay safe! 🙂 ciao, all! 🙂

Hmf! Well, here I am this morning with “Part 2” (30.2) of last night’s blog – no thanks to Word Press! As you can see, I’ve had to purchase another theme – one that would allow me to put in a personalised header that actually worked! See?! Miracles do still happen, after all! (especially when it involves the exchange of $$$’s!)

So, where was I last night? Oh yes, that’s right, fruitlessly attempting to get a header to work on a Free Word Press template! I eventually gave up. I had ended up not having time to write my nightly blog, and in Rift, I didn’t have time to do more than check my Minions – I didn’t even have time to put a bag’s worth of items up on the Auction House – items which might have earned me virtual $$$’s (erm – well, platinum, actually, but at the moment, $$$’s, + Word Press are a bit of a sore point with me) But apart from wasting a great deal of my time, what else occupied me yesterday? Let’s see…

I had my hair done in the morning, and at least I’m looking human again now 🙂 Then sat and chatted with a friend until lunchtime, when I set off on my three floors Stair Walk. I think it’s doing me good – I was starting to get a bit complacent just doing the two floors – it was getting just a bit too easy (hehe! “Two too easy”! 😉 a fun pun!) – this third floor is making me work a fair bit harder, especially coming up the very last eight steps to the fifth floor. This is good, and it means that I’m slowly getting fitter! The day before yesterday I did something that I haven’t been able to do for goodness knows how many years! I put my slacks on without having to sit down to do it! I’m quite proud of that achievement! 🙂 Oh! I just had a thought! It’s good to have goals, and to aim for a particular end point, right? And it’s nice to receive acknowledgement and a pat on the back for milestones passed… In Rift, when you accomplish something that’s not exactly quest related (though they can be, sometimes!) you earn an “Achievement“. They don’t really do anything, other than make you feel good about it, and you don’t get a plaque or a Blue Ribbon to hang on your wall – but they’re things you can look back on and say things like: “Oh, I remember having soooo much trouble finding the exact right place to jump off that bridge, to get that one!“, and “That one was so hard to get – I reckon I must have fluked it! Tell you what, I’m never going to take any of my other characters to try getting it!” (and then, of course, you do! In fact, you take all of them, and even with 57+ characters, you’ll probably never manage to “fluke” it again!) So I think it would be a good idea to create some sort of “Achievements” (or similar) for the Dieter – like a little card saying something along the lines of “I’m Standing For It!” An Achievement for having put your slacks on standing up, for the first time in 25 years“, along with a pretty little icon to stick on your desktop calendar, on the day that you achieved it. Well, I think it’s a good idea, anyway! Someone ought to tell Weight Watchers and Jenny Craig to trial it! I reckon it’d be very popular! 😉

We also got the news yesterday that my favourite eldest daughter’s back was no better – in fact it was a lot worse! She had to get a locum to come in and see her last night, as she was in too much pain to get to a doctor herself. Apparently it started when she and Neale went out to play cards, and she had to perch on a stool all night (she’s a very big girl!) – she probably pulled a muscle, or stretched a ligament, or something, and it’s just got steadily worse from there. She’s decided not to start her VLCD* until after Easter (I wonder why she decided not to start until then?! 😉 ) She has an appointment to see the Doctor on Thursday evening, to which himself will have to become Mr. Taxi Man again, as Neale won’t be home in time to take her. Unless stricken down by something like this, she is mobile, and would do well to go and see Ian Anderson (the Personal Trainer I used to go to until I decided that exercise was just… “not me” ) at Bounce Health Group in Blackburn. *sigh* Why is it, that no matter how old they get, you can never stop worrying about your offspring?!

Weigh-in this morning. Wonderousness!! Down 4 points, to 97.1kg! But, never fear! I shall pay the price tomorrow – I’ll probably bounce back up to 97.9kg, or something stupid and horrible like that Innit always the way? A big drop, and then wiggle, wiggle, see saw up and down, but mostly up, or the same! I wish I could skip over that wiggle, wiggle, see saw up and down bit, and just get on with the big drops down (and if wishes were horses, beggars would ride! 🙂 ) So let’s wait and see how much I go up, but hopefully go down, tomorrow. Don’t forget, tomorrow is my last day before I go back on those fluid loving and retaining pills! I hope I do go down – I really need to get as low as possible before I start taking those ‘orrible pills again!

And that’s about it from me for today (well, yesterday, really, but we’re pretending it’s still “today”, aren’t we! 😉 ) Who knows what tomorrow will bring? Apart from me struggling with wretched Word Press’s recalcitrant free themes (and their refusal to either tell you the correct size for their headers, or to work properly even without a personalised header) that is. Hopefully I’ll find a bit of time to get back to Rift – poor Satai has been sitting around, twiddling her virtual thumbs, for the past two days – it’s about time she started her sprint to level 40! So stay tuned for what happens tomorrow! What news, scandal, or comedic muddles will we have gotten (*cringe*  “gotten” – I really hate that word!) ourselves into, I hear you wondering – well this time tomorrow night, you’ll know! So until then, bee good, don’t touch that book!, and above all…. stay safe! 🙂 ciao, all! 🙂

VLCD* = Very Low Calorie Diet