I’ve been whining about my weight most my life. Looking back from where I am now, for no good reason. Most my younger years, I was at a good weight – not perfect, but I so wished I could be back there NOW.

In 1998, I tried Atkins. When I started out, I did not think this would ever work, but it did. Within 3 months, I dropped over 30 lbs, and it was the easiest thing I’ve ever done. I ended up weighing around 130 lbs, which for my 5’9″ is pretty darn slender. I actually bought a pair of size 4 shorts (K-Mart had a sale – and they were pretty tight, and I only wore them once or twice, but by gosh, they zipped and it didn’t require pliers!!)

It gets hot and dry in the summers here in San Antonio. In the summer of 2009, we broke the record of number of days where the temperatures went above 100° – and I loved every single one of them. Unfortunately, this kind of heat and severe lack of rain also drastically depletes our water supply. If the Aquifer Levels get to certain lows, certain stages of water restrictions are put into effect.

Last year, we made it to Stage 2 Water Restrictions – and actually, for a very long time, we were just inches away from Stage 3. So responsible resident alien that I am, I looked up the rules for Stage 2, and found the one day per week that we were allowed to run the sprinklers.

….however, according to court records, as of March 23rd, I have been. And that’s not even counting failed attempt # 1 that lasted almost 10 years (on record – not real life). So TWENTY years with one man is a long time. And we’ve come a long way. We met in my home town Crailsheim, Germany, in 1988 (May 21st, I think) – I was 26, he told me he was 22. It was just supposed to last until his Army time was up – but plans change. And here we are, all those years later; me still beautiful, he’s lost a lot of hair; me still rebellious and swimming against the stream, he still pretending to be nice; he having come a million miles professionally from where he was back then, me still typing something; The kids are grown, there are 2 grandkids. It just does not seem real.

January started great with my parents visiting and me on vacation. They were here for Christmas (’08 along with Melanie & Co – but they had to leave before 2009) and stayed through New Years. I had fun showing them how a real winter looks like – a real San Antonio winter, that is:

In February (the 18th to be exact), my second grandson, Liam, was born. I’m still pretty sure I’m way too young to be a grandmother, but apparently, what I think here (or there, or anywhere) doesn’t matter all that much. And they are beautiful:

March 2009 was a fun month – Eric’s Mom and Dad and an uncle (MIL’s brother) and wife who live in Indiana and Minnesota, respectively, came to wait out their winter with us. It was great fun and great company, and they can winter with us any time they want to. Sadly, while they were here, we had to say ‘good-bye’ to Fred, our beautiful, strawberry-blond, long haired, haunted cat.

Early October, I had dinner with a friend and told her about a book I really liked. After I got home, I checked Amazon.com, found the book, ordered it to be shipped to her, and told her it was on its way. That was on October 6th.

I wondered why I didn’t hear from her about getting the book, but an email from Amazon on October 24th – that’s 18 days later, said: