Ten days ago I heard the distinctive sound of metal hitting the floor, and discovered that something broke on my manual wheelchair while I was sitting in it. Believe you me, this is disconcerting at best. About 5 days later, I got a return call from the company and the tech walked me through a remote inspection using LogMeIn on my phone. The part that broke is one of four metal supports for the seat and the screw that held it in place broke in half. They suggested I use my power chair as much as possible because the other one wasn’t particularly safe, though they couldn’t actually tell me tha ..read more

I may be a choir person to my toes, but I’m also a cataloger at heart. I worked as a technical services librarian in university and law school libraries for almost 40 years, starting as a cataloger and moving into management, acquisitions, serials, and electronic resources. And systems. Lots of systems work. It all suited me because I love order and structure and solving puzzles. Catalogers solve the bibliographic puzzles of describing materials in all formats and making them findable in online systems. There are international standards and rules for doing this so that descriptions are consis ..read more

I joined my first choir when I was 6. My huge Presbyterian Church had a music program for all age groups, starting with first-third graders, then fourth-sixth graders, junior high girls (the boys’ voices were changing), and high school, plus of course the Senior Choir for the adults. Returning college students sang for Christmas Eve and sometimes in the summer. There was even a Choir Recognition Sunday every spring where choristers moved up to their new choir, getting an age-appropriate hymnal with their names in gold. Moving to the high school choir meant getting your own copy of Messiah. I ..read more

Today I’m celebrating the loss of 90 pounds in 9 months. It’s astonishing. NINETY pounds. That’s the weight of a newborn baby calf or baby hippo. Or two SUV tires. Or six bowling balls. And my BMI is down 16 points. I’m still morbidly obese (oops, that’s now Class III so it sounds less terrible, but it’s still the same) but I’m closing in on “just” obese. The last 10 pounds came off slowly but they still came off. To be honest, I’m actually glad the rate has slowed down. Oh, it’s wonderful to watch it just fall off almost by magic, but it takes the brain a long time to fully process that your ..read more

Last week I wrote a post with a list of action steps I would take to start turning around my sloppy eating habits. Here’s how I’m doing a week in: Throw out frozen chocolate covered raspberries – Done. Ooof, it was hard. They’re so tasty. But they’re gone. Throw out Quest chocolate peanut butter mini cups – Not done, but hid them in the fridge and limiting myself to one after dinner which I count (38 cals, 2g protein, 2 carbs, 3 fats). Eat in the Dining Room 3-4 days a week instead of 6-7 – Last week ate there 4 days and brought leftovers home for extra meals. I’ve marked up this week’s weekl ..read more

My next door neighbor is very dear and very close to me in age. She also has advancing Alzheimer’s and is probably a few months away from a move to memory care. There are so many things she can’t do anymore and I help her with many of them involving words, electronics, money, and as a sounding board. In return, she helps me with physical things like getting my mail and taking out my trash, both of which I greatly appreciate. It’s balanced. We went shopping at Home Goods today. Since most outings are to a doctor’s appointment or to the grocery store, this was a real treat. But I found myself g ..read more

I’ve lost 88 lbs in 9 months which is a ton of weight, but my eating has gotten sloppy. As a result, the pounds aren’t falling off as quickly as they were when I was paying better attention to what I was doing. Oh, I’m watching it and I’m tracking everything. Well, almost everything. Maybe not a few of those chocolate covered raspberries in the freezer. But I’m using my tracker for food, liquids, vitamins, and more, and I know where I am with my macros. Mostly. So why is this so hard? Because I’ve gotten complacent. I’m not watching my portions as carefully as I did when I started, and that’s ..read more

I chair the Culinary Committee at my senior living community because, of course I’m doing it. I am super organized, have great computer skills, and served on committees on many levels for most of my life. Plus I’m kind of bossy and like to be in charge rather than function in chaos, and I write good reports. For the past month I’ve been working with my committee, the Culinary Director, and the Executive Director on rolling out a new program called MyChoice as well as the new menu that goes with it. I call it the Points Thing. Instead of paying a lump sum each month for $10.95/day for food, we ..read more

During RootsTech last month, I watched as many online classes as I could about using DNA and analyzing matches. But that wasn’t enough, so I hired my friend Jennifer Zinck to walk me through applying the techniques to my own DNA results. Actually, we looked at my father’s DNA results and lately I’ve been working with my mother’s matches. I was lucky enough to test both parents’ DNA eleven years ago before Mom died, and I usually look at their test results rather than my own since they’re one generation closer to any common ancestor than I am. Today my father has 80,771 DNA matches, which is a ..read more

My gastric sleeve surgery was 4 months ago today and I just got back from my check in with the medical team. Bottom line is I’m doing great! No problems or questions, just a chance to brag on myself a bit and get praised for doing things right. I’ve lost 84 pounds, 49 since my surgery and 35 in the months before that, and I’m losing at a steady 12-15 lbs a month, which is perfect. I didn’t see a huge loss immediately post-op because I started seriously working on the weight loss just before my July birthday. I have a target goal for this year’s birthday but haven’t set a target overall weight ..read more