Congratulations Watcher!!!!

Good Grief!

A fitness program like that and you'll be looking like....


before long. I mean I consider myself in pretty decent shape for an old guy with 37% skeletal muscle and 16% body fat according to my doc but your workout sounds insane!

The birthday party sounds wonderful though...

Hi UrsaMajor, FaithWalker.

Yes that was a very nice evening in Frankfurt UrsaMajor.

I took her out to dinner the other night. The ring box was really to big to hide and I didn't want to remove the ring from the box.

So after dinner we went back to the car and I told her that I had the ring, the box was to big to hide and I would love to propose to her down at the pier along the waterfront if she were up for it. She was surprised.

8.5 years ago she took me down to that same pier during the first weekend we met back in 2018. That pier means something special to the both of us so that's why I chose it.

The weather was beautiful and the sun was beginning to set a bit. We held hands and looked at each other while I stated my intentions. I got down on one knee and she said yes.

We were caught by a couple in a car on the way back to our vehicle and the woman said that was beautiful to watch and she congratulated us.

After our 2018 encounter we went on separate paths for a few years but always circled back to one another at times. We were always friends on some level as we did still communicate.

I told her I had no clue what was in store for us after April 2018. I would have never guessed we would be standing on that pier 8.5 years later getting engaged.

We tried everything possible to not make us work at times. Sometimes the universe placed obstacles in our way and sometimes we just did it to ourselves. Yes she had a little more faith and hope than I did at times. She had faith and hope while I really had no clue what I wanted.

So we are both excited as we begin this next chapter of our lives together.

MD, I am so sorry for the loss of your M and also this young man that was so special to all of you!  For all the ways that it's tough for me, dealing with my M's dementia, I've been so grateful at how slowly it's been progressing and need to remember to cherish the time I have with her.

I'm so glad that you, D and S have each other and that you have this wonderful gentleman in your life as well!  And I'm glad that your F has you all too!  Sending some virtual ((((HUGS)))) your way.

Hello UM, the new job is going great, but yes, I have been working some long hours and have not used enough vacation time.  I will try to use a couple days in October and then some longer breaks in November and December, but I might have to write my boss and ask for her to allow it to be carried over.  I did that last year and she approved, but at the last minute, I was able to take the last couple days I needed carried over and didn't lose any. 

I think I pushed myself too hard the last couple weeks and now am sick for it, so I need to gain back some work/life balance.  Next week is pre-payroll craziness for my position so I'm laying low this weekend trying to recover so that I can get done what is needed next week to get everything ready for Payroll.

We fished up on the Grand Mesa, first lake was across from the Visitor Center, at Cobbett Lake, but didn't catch anything there.  Then we went and ate lunch at Mesa Lakes Lodge and I brought some cheesecake in and a little cake with pearls for Mom and we sang her happy birthday and she had some free ice-cream compliments of the Lodge.  And then went over to Ward Creek Reservoir.  They had recently stocked that one so the fishing was good.

How fun that you got to surprise your Mom for her birthday!  Vegas in December seems like a great time to go!  Although I do like going when the outdoor pools and lazy rivers are still going.

The 75 hard is 75 days of 2 45 minute workouts a day, one of which has to be outdoors no matter the weather; a gallon of water a day; find a diet program and stick to it, no cheat days; no alcohol; read 10 pages of a non-fiction book every day; and take a progress photo every day.  If you miss any of it, you start over at day 1.  I figured, any progress was good and it didn't bother me when I had to start over lol!  I did have to keep resetting my streak, but sometimes it was for the silliest things.  One day, I forgot to take a progress photo!  Another day, I had everything in and then went to do my 2nd workout and 30 minutes in, I really had to go to the bathroom!  hahaha.  So I drove home and didn't go back out for the last 15 minutes because it was dark out.  Other times, the smoke from the fires made it hard to workout outside.  And then silly me started working 10 hour days the following week in so I would go home on my lunch break and do my first workout for 45 minutes of the hour lunch break and then eat lunch at my desk.

I kept it up pretty good all through summer until school started in August, the last 3 weeks have been a slump, probably why I'm sick!  I do want to get back to it but I might do the 75 soft, which is the same thing, except only 6 days a week of exercising instead of 7 and only 1 45 minute workout a day.  I knew it was extreme and that I probably couldn't carry it out, but just trying to do it was giving me results.  Failing at it was still producing results!  I've been upping my protein and fiber intake and trying to limit added sugars.  I was following the IIFYM diet (If It Fits Your Macros) and was doing pretty good with that and the water intake.  Some double work-out days I was sore and so the first work-out I picked, I did something fairly mild, like vinyasa yoga or pilates, knowing my body needed some stretching.  During the fires, my friend gave me a little Deer Run treadmill and I would find a 3k video on YouTube of some great footage, like walking through Switzerland or Hawaii or Scotland and pretended I was outside.  But the hill by my house is a wonderful place to go every evening and hike up.  I take the whole hill, then loop around into the neighborhood that comes out halfway down and go up the steep part again and then cross and go down into the other neighborhood and loop back up that steep hill, sometimes looping in a 4th steep incline."

I also added in 3 days of weight training with kettlebells and dumbbells at home here.  And have been using a vibration plate to help with lymphatic drainage.  I've also joined an active singles group that is more about getting out there and doing things together than meeting to find a partner.  If it happens organically, great!  We've been playing pickleball every Thursday for the last 3 weeks and I'm having fun learning that!

I really tried to mix up my workouts without joining a gym.  So the hill climbing was one of them, but I've also been doing things on YouTube, like cardio boxing, different types of yoga, pilates, etc.  I've slid backwards a bit so just talking about it is getting me psyched up to get back into it after letting it slip since mid-August.

Hey Ready!  Sounds like you had some great trips!  I had my 30 year H.S. Reunion over the 4th of July.  I did take a few extra days off to make almost a week long vacation.  We had some paid holidays in there which helped.  It was nice to get back to my hometown and reconnect with some people.  We were in the parade and got drenched by the firetrucks and threw candy to the kids and just had a great time and then met a classmates house for a big BBQ later that night.  The only thing that put a damper on things was some smoke in the air from Ouray and no fireworks allowed.  The fires this year were really brutal and now we've been having lots of bears.  I encountered one a few weeks ago at 5:45 am when leaving for work.  I live in a townhome community in the middle of town!  I looked over and under the streetlight I thought to myself "wow, that's a big fluffy dog" and then I realized it was a bear.  I followed it and called dispatch (from my car, I'm not crazy!) but they weren't in a hurry to respond and told me to go to work.  3 weeks later I'm pretty sure he's still wandering around neighborhoods above me.  Probably has been a good thing I HAVEN'T been walking the hill much lately!