NIK, those are all great updates

1. Great day at work today -- I was super prepared for a meeting and saved my boss a couple of times. I have the best boss ever (the big boss is another story...) To celebrate, we are skipping out of work for a few hours for a "meeting" tomorrow but really going to the art museum :)

2. My lizard is peeling, and I love helping him take off his excess skin. It is so much fun! He is turning back into his gorgeous self and shedding his drab 2013 skin. Which will slowly turn drab, and then I get to do it again next year.

3. I did my first meetup -- a fantastic book club. I think a few of the ladies will become friends, and it's so much fun to talk about a book we've all read. Should help me to meet my goal of books read this year (I've been slacking a bit this summer because I've been going out instead of reading!)

2) I'm leaving for Paris in 5 weeks

3) I have a second date with a guy on Saturday that I really like a lot

1) my job isn't so important that I can mess up with little damage to the universe

2) there are only 3 more hours until the weekend

3) my big cozy bed and the latest season of the Good Wife await me at home

1. I have a well-paying job that many would envy and that allows me to have a great house and fun hobbies. (It's been stressful lately so I keep repeating this to myself...)

2. My parrots have been extra adorable lately. They frequently are, but I've been appreciating them instead of viewing them as flying irritants, so that helps. Also, I realized that one, the little guy, has been talking like crazy for the past several years but too garbled for me to understand. Now that I'm listening, I can hear him demanding kisses and telling me he loves me. So cute!

3. I am getting a massage and a pedicure paid for by my work tomorrow. Of course, I am working all weekend, but I am trying to be positive here!

1. I have made two new female friends.
2. I am getting to choose where I will be moving to and when.
3. I actually downloaded/uploaded pictures from my SD car to the computer. Big accomplishment for the not so computer savvy.

- I managed to save up some cash and paid my solicitor, so I'm still in the black

- The chocolate milkshake was reduced in the store & I'm drinking some right now

Isn't his bright new skin just a perfect metaphor/inspiration for all of us? Soooo:

1) I'm in the middle of my best crop of tomatoes ever - red and yellow big guys, orange and red cherries.

2) Started a new class this semester that is stretching my brain, and it feels good.

3) I have been salsa dancing lately and can't even tell you all how much I love it.

Here's to shiny new lizard skins!

1. Friends who took my children to school and collected them when I couldn't get out of the house

2. Having got the shopping yesterday, so we've got enough in the house

3. The doctor on duty phoned my prescription through to the chemist and convinced them to deliver the tablets to my house! (not usual in the UK)....Which they did within 1/2 hour of her calling them. So amazing & lovely!

“The most difficult times for many of us are the ones we give ourselves.”
― Pema Chödrön

ds5, ds7

Took a while, but I like the me I am, without him

1) learned today that the first grant I've ever written was awarded!!

2) one of the first SI friends I made is blissfully just married and she has just moved near me.

3) the sun is setting over the mountain I live on and all seems well

2. At the conference, the last dinner is a super informal buffet as people return from their activities. Our guest speaker -- who is an incredibly intelligent and interesting person -- was sitting alone, so I went over to chat. We wound up talking for over 3 hours and I had one of the best discussions of my life. I told him he didn't have to stick around to talk, but he wanted to and we exchanged e-mail addresses as we both had some book recommendations for each other. This made me realize how much I missed living in a house with insightful, interesting, intellectually curious people -- since I left to go to college. (Why did I marry WXH again?)

3. Weather has just been perfect lately. Trying to enjoy this for as long as I can!

phmh, I LOVE the story about your lizard! And since when do you even have a lizard?

WXH bought two lizards from a pet store that was going out of business. In 2007. We were there to make sure they were still feeding the parrots (I'm quite involved in parrot rescue) and we overheard the clerk saying that if no one bought the lizards, they were going to release them outside (to their certain death.)

Without discussing it with me (I didn't want to support such a place), he bought the two remaining lizards (mali uromastyx). He just showed up at my work one day and we had to scramble to set up cages and do research on how to care for them. They were quite sick initially and the female never fully recovered -- dying 3 months before D-Day in 2011. The male is super healthy.

I wanted WXH to take him, but he refused, so I have him. He's super easy going and no trouble at all. But not really interactive or what anyone would consider a normal pet!

2. Huge compliment paid to me by a really senior guy in my office who is in line to be the top guy. He stopped me as I was walking in and said that he was thinking about me on his commute and what a great fit I am for the team (I am a newbie at 2.5 years experience), what a great job I did at the conference, how he sees great things for me ahead, etc. I had a terrible Fall 2014 at work so this was huge.

3. Succumbed to peer pressure and signed up for the 2015 Boston Marathon AND a friend offered to let me stay with her aunt so I can save $ while going. Last time I did it was with WXH, so will be nice to have my last memories of that race be with someone pleasant!

1. Great workout - finally getting faster at running

2. EXSO asked if I remembered to buy hornet spray and I said no he brought some for me, last night rented a carpet shampooer and did rugs so that today I wouldn't be embarrassed when realtor came by as well as bought me a rosemary soy wax candle to help me study because he read it improves memory

3.My teens are healthy

2. I'm getting used to being treated with respect and kindness.

3. I feel like it will only continue to get better. This truly is my new beginning!

2) Had a tough 5 mile hike that left my legs trembling but my heart so happy!

3) Yesterday was the 3 yr anniversary of d- day and my primary emotion was gratitude. So much better than soul crushing sorrow and the projectile vomiting of the past

Finally getting some more work done on my SO's condo. Goodbye nasty carpet! The downstairs flooring and trim is all finished;

And I've been refinishing the stairs;

Not the best pics, but I've redone the nose of the bottom step, about a 1 inch by 8 inch section with putty and paint, and just finished staining and coating. I still have to finish painting the risers white. Then maybe add some trim. I'd been delaying refinishing until my SO fixed the squeaks, but got tired of waiting and thought this might jump start him. Well, the paint is fixing the squeaks so thanks for nothing SO

[This message edited by Crescita at 11:03 AM, September 16th (Tuesday)]