Scott ended up working in Fort Worth yesterday, so I left work at 4pm, and drove the 30 miles out there. He called me when I was halfway there and said, "You're never going to guess who I just talked to!" I asked him who, and he said the Smothers Brothers!! They had just pulled up and were getting their stuff out of their car, and he told them we were looking forward to the show and they said good, and were friendly to him, but obviously didn't want to hang around on the street too long.

Scott checked us into the hotel, then went across the street to Chili's to have a drink and wait for me. I got to the hotel at about 4:45 and parked my car, and walked over there, where I had dinner. We had time to kill so we went to a club and shot a few games of pool, and then walked to the Bass Hall to go to the show (bear in mind, this is all in a two block radius).

The show was awesome. They were on stage for about 90 minutes. Other than being a bit older (imagine that!), they look exactly the same. Their comedy hasn't changed at all, except for being a little less political than they used to be. Ten minutes of the show was a video montage of their CBS show...boy, did that take us back! Tommy did his "Yo-Yo Man" routine, which, if you're not aware, is where he does a few yo-yo tricks...and he's damned good! I was sad to have the show end!!

After the show was over, we walked outside and there were a few people standing at the stage door. I asked Scott if he minded if we hung out for a bit and he said no, so hang out we did....and I got a nice payoff!!

After waiting at the stage door for about 45 minutes and watching people go in and out (some with their older record albums, which they brought out signed!) I was going a little crazy. I wanted to meet them so badly and was afraid I wouldn't get to. But finally, they came out! I had the envelope that my tickets came in and I pulled that out and asked Tommy for his autograph first (I've always loved Tommy and that was the signature I wanted most!). He signed the envelope and then...and then....he posed with me, while Scott took our picture with my camera phone (left my regular camera at home)! Unfortunately, the picture is pretty blurry, but if you know the SB, you know this is legit!! That's Dickie on the far right in the background.

After Tommy signed the envelope, I turned to Dickie and asked him to sign. I told him he could use the other side if he wanted to and he said "I'll sign the same side, I wouldn't want you to have to play favorites"...I laughed and said "No offense, but I always liked HIM (tilting head towards Tommy) best!" Everyone around us roared! :)

I was higher than a kite after that...pure adreneline!

Despite eating myself silly all week, I woke up this morning and found that I'm now down a total of 35.3 lbs, weighing in at 191.7!! Yeeehawww!

Boy, the body sure is a strange thing! ;)

Last night, Scott and I were watching an old Dana Carvey special on TV. As he moved into his Katherine Hepburn routine, I watched him shaking his head in imitation of her and I suddenly turned to Scott and said "Katey!!!" Thank God he's been with me long enough to pick up on the fact that I was referring to the Baby parrot. lol

He liked it too - naming our quaker parrot after quaking Katherine Hepburn. So Baby is now being called Katey, and it's close enough to Baby that she's responding to it. The only thing subject to change at this point is how I'm spelling it. I may go Katie or Katy.

Katie (hm...easier to type) is also working on her "I'm queen of the roost" routine. She routinely dominates the finches and the cockatiel, and she's now trying to dominate Ziggy, the other Quaker. She seems absolutely fearless - a strength of her namesake - and will rush him. He isn't quick to back down - but so far, he is backing down.

Due to being dominated, Sammy, the cockatiel, wants to stay pretty close to Mom (hey Mom, mind if I sit on your head? You have some hairs that I could pluck!), so this is a nice little side benefit - he doesn't like to do that often.

Stay tuned to see what happens in the bird world next ;)

I'm struggling with my diet this week. I keep putting food in my mouth that I know doesn't belong there and I'm up .3 lb right now, instead of being down under 190 where I should be. I went through this when I broke 200 too. It's like there some major war going on when I get to these milestones. I probably need to examine that...and soon.

We're going to start looking at residential care facilities for my mother in law. We'll see our first one or two this coming Saturday. But before we do that depressing task...

Friday night, we have tickets to the Smothers Brothers who are playing at the Bass Hall in Fort Worth. The next morning, we're going back to the Bass Hall to pick up our tickets for Alanis Morrisette! I love Alanis, and Scott, surprisingly, likes her too. She's coming June 30.

So, fun Friday night, and then Saturday we visit the residential care facilities. Then home to finish cleaning my house before my Dad and his lovely wife Kathy come to visit me next week! ;)

Problem: Scott's mom is not doing well at all. Since falling and breaking her hip in March, she's been hospitalized again, and since coming home, seems to be falling apart. At 62, she just seems too young for all these problems, but the lupus is a big contributor to it, I guess. We're considering assisted living for her, since we both have to work all day, and my sister in law is getting WAY burned out. Unfortunately, to get any place decent, we'll end up having to pay them in addition to her disability check.

Problem: We had to give an attorney $1000 today, to file a motion for a modification of Scott's visitation with his daughter. His ex-wife is jerking him around HARD...and what affects him, affects me. We've tried and tried to negotiate with her, but nothing works...she's just got to be "in control" of things.

I don't think we're ever going to be able to buy our house :(

I've had two Fudgecycles tonight...only 40 calories each, but still not good. This is addition to all my regular food. *sigh*

OK...tomorrow will be a better day, I'm positive.

Wasn't really a "word", but it was definitely human. As I bent over her, smooching my way towards her beak, she reached up and smooched back!

She's decided the cockatiel's cage is more to her liking...she keeps getting over to his cage, and he ends up on hers. They're eating the same food, her's has more toys...I'm just not sure what the attraction is. I'm thinking about swapping some cages around, since I've clipped Baby's wings as short as I dare or want to, but what if she hurts herself trying to get over to his cage?

Ah, the joys and perils of motherhood...lol

On the weight loss front, I'm down 34.6 pounds...hopefully, by tomorrow morning, it'll be a solid 35 lbs gone! Weight as of this morning was 192.4, so almost in the 180s. But, I slipped this evening and had a very small piece of pizza...but drank another bottle of water. Crossing my fingers!

And it's a girl!!

The new baby Quaker Parrot, that is...I sent her bloodwork off last Monday, and received the news today that she's a girl! I'm still trying to figure out a name but I'm leaning towards Bailey or Casey.

Weightwise, the scale is moving again...I'm down to 193.2, a total of 33.8 lbs lost!

Ah, Baby is growing up. Still doesn't have a name which disturbs me, but we're working on it. We're also waiting for Baby's DNA test to come back, to tell us whether he's a he or she's a she.

Baby is getting very adventurous and appears to have bonded quite nicely with me. Baby's main goal after I get home is getting to me just as quickly as possible. Even with clipped wings, Baby's determination is so great that lift is achieved and the foot between cage and my chair is easily manuevered ;)

It is also fun watching Baby learn to climb up the cage, and learn to play with toys. No words yet, but then I haven't been working on it much either. My bad :P


Baby

As far as my weight loss, I've been stalled at 30-31 lbs for a couple of weeks now, so I finally met with my counselor last night and we went over my food diary. He determined that I wasn't eating enough, so he gave me a few ideas and told me to go ahead and get my food in, even if I go over 1200 calories. That's harder than it sounds, believe me. I'm mentally programmed now for that 1200 and it's brutal to watch my calorie count increase past that! Hopefully though, I'll start seeing scale movement again and soon!

When we got to the breeders', there was only one baby left...thankfully, it was bright, alert, friendly. It's down to two feedings a day and the breeders really believed that with our schedules, the two feedings a day would work...so it came home with us :)

(It was older than I thought. I thought they said they had hatched in late Feb/early March, but it's actual hatch date was 1/21.)

At my request, THEY clipped it's nails and did the DNA sample and clipped it's wings for us (so the baby didn't have to associate those things with us right off the bat). It's a 2-1/2 hour drive from their house to ours, so Scott and I split the driving, with me spending the first hour with the baby.

It's a real snuggler, and very trusting of us...had no difficulty trusting me enough to take a nap on my chest :)

It will be called baby or sweetie until such time as we get the DNA results back, and then we'll pick out a name.

After helping my husband pull a possum out from under our mobile home, who was not playing dead, but actually dying, I've come in here for a quick post.

We're leaving today to go to Oklahoma for the day, to see his dad and maybe do some fishing. Will be a challenge for my diet, for sure. On our way home tomorrow, we'll be stopping in at our breeder's and picking out our new baby Quaker Parrot...woohoo!! I'll try to get pictures and post them when I get back.

Good news...my sister has decided to join Nutrisystem as well! The girl looks like Sandra Bullock...good thing I love her, otherwise I'd hate her ;)

It'll be nice having her with me on this journey...sometimes, specially when I look at my 120 lb husband, I feel so alone, even though I have a forum full of people doing it too. It's just the same though as having someone close to you going through the same things.

I was kind of stuck this week. After hitting 196 last weekend, I was bad on Easter and jumped back up to 198.6. I finally hit 195.9 this morning, but dang, one bad day and I paid for it for a week...how am I ever going to lose another 55 lbs??

Scott and I tune into the TV tonight, just in time to catch the performance of a comedian named Mitch Hedberg on Comedy Central. We really enjoyed him and so I (as usual when I need info) ran to my computer and googled him (yes, it's an acceptable verb now, just as Miriam Webster).

Sadly, what met my eyes was the news that just yesterday, Mitch had died at the age of 37. What we caught on Comedy Central must have been some tribute show on him.

Completely bites that just as we found him...he's gone.