DDFF/GBFR, Week 16

We're facing a busy, busy week...
A bunch of "honey-do's" to complete before starting South.
Our plan is to get on the road Thursday about Noon. Sara Jean will be working right up to that time. I'll have the car packed and ready to roll when she gets home. Leaving "Noonish" will put is in Destin around Midnight. While Sara Jean unpacks and settles into the Condo, I'll dash over to "Super-Wally World" for some necessities. I love going to Super-Wally during the wee hours of the morning... you can meet some "interesting" folks there at that hour!
Back to the Condo, my normal routine, no matter what the hour, is to grab a cold beer and take a seat on the balcony overlooking the surf, breathing in the warm, salt-laden air.
(It calms me now just to think about it.)

I haven't checked a calendar, but a bright moon should illuminate the surf during our stay, clouds permitting.
Flying last night it was clear, and the 1/4 moon (waxing) was bright enough to light the world up beautifully. I'm bettin' next week we'll have something close to a 3/4 moon, so the on-the-balcony or around-the-pool atmosphere should be mighty conducive to telling fibs and outright lies to one another.
Start your planning now!
If I've had enough to drink, I may tell tales about notes TD and Tools used to leave one another on their desks... but remember... only if I've had enough to drink! (Just kidding TD... did you EVER wear a cowboy hat?)

We will have Lucy in tow. Those of you who don't like dogs, plan on steering clear of Condo 3...
Little Lucy has poodle ancestors, so she is a licker.
Lick, lick, lick, lick, lick! Lucy LOVES strangers...
LICK!
Also, I'll be driving to Pensacola this Friday to pick up my Mom, and Sara Jean's brother and his wife are flyin' down from Chicago to spend a couple days with us. (They don't lick.)
They'll stay through Tuesday, about noon, when I'll take Mother and them back to Pensacola. The Chicagoans are our contemporaries... he's a former Marine Viet Nam Veteran... was at Chu Lai a year before I was there. Good people, both of 'em... they'll be telling lies with the rest of us in no time at all.

DDFF attendees, don't forget to bring:
-A great appetite and a smile.
-Swimwear, sunglasses, sunscreen, shorts, sandals, and "Hawaiian" tops.
-Digital cameras and the apparatus necessary to hook them up and download the pics to computer so we can issue intermittent reports and photos to less fortunate VK's.
-Some favorite CD's or cassette tapes (Oldies?) to share.
-Anything else we need to bring? Please remind us via the comments.
(Sara Jean says to tell ya the Super Wally is just ten minutes away, so if ya don't bring it you can buy it!)

Now, the GBFR:
You'll remember how disheartening last week's report was for me...
Coming home from Mesa I knew I was in trouble. The scale was supposed to read 190, but no matter how hard I tried it wouldn't go South of 193.
So not only had I not lost the scheduled pound, I had actually gained three...
a big detour on my road to success.
I resolved to do what was necessary... doubled up on my exercise regimen and tried to further limit my caloric intake. But then something occurred to me... something that should have been obvious-
Part of the reason it gets more difficult to lose weight is because of WORK. Consider this-
Park two identical cars at the base of a hill, both filled with gas. Then put 100 pounds of weight in one of those cars. Drive both cars to the top of the hill in exactly the same way, then refill the fuel tanks. Which will require more fuel? Of course the answer is- the one with the extra weight.
As we lose weight, our bodies have less work to do to motivate our mass. We naturally burn fewer calories to do the same job we did when we weighed more. So it's frustrating to go out and walk and walk, hoping to see big results on the scale, while our bodies are becoming more and more efficient at doing the work... there is just LESS WORK to be done.
The obvious answer was to force my body do more work. Not only did Sara Jean and I double up on our walks, I started wearing leg and wrist weights... adding a total of 7 pounds to my mass... not much, but better than nothin'.
So today I got on the scale, knowing it read 193 last week, in spite of wanting to look down and read 190. Today it read-
????????????????????????????????????????????
Click here.

So my 188 pound goal, (a loss of 18 pounds since 1 January), is still out there.
Next week's weigh-in will be two days early due to our Thursday departure.
Will......
GB.......
make it?
Check here Thursday!

UPDATE:
I just checked my datebook, and the Full Moon occurs on 2 May, honoring Sharon and TC's arrival. So when the sky is clear, we'll have a wonderful moon during our entire stay.

And one more thing-
If you find at the last minute you can come to Destin- COME!
I'll have my laptop with me, so email or leave a comment here.
We will make room for you.