Bonjour!

It's been way too long since I posted.  Lots has happened in the meanwhile, but basically, I'm in good shape and have kept up with my eating plan and my exercise.  Except for the past two and a half weeks when DH and I caught a Space A flight to Europe.  We spent most of that time in France.  We had a marvelous time.  Really, it was probably our best vacation ever.  We enjoyed French cuisine (crepes, omelets aux champignons, pommes frites, boeuf bourgingnon, and creme brulee, plus generous samples of pain au chocolat and croissants from the local boulangeries) but, generally, we tried to be fairly circumspect with respect to eating.  I didn't do any formal exercise, but I'd guess we walked at least 5 miles per day and climbed a gazillion steps up and down various castle towers, church spires and, yes, the Eifel Tower.  Long story short, I gained 1.2 pounds from the day we left to this morning.  Not bad, or "pas mal" as the French would say.  I'm back to my routine now and hope to whittle off the French pounds plus a few more of their recalcitrant American cousins.

Hurricane Sandy hit this area (metro DC) with a rainy, windy bang yesterday, but we managed to get home safely just before the worst of it hit.  Long story, we got a Space A flight home, too, so decided to accept a ride to Charleston, SC.  We landed at 10:30pm Sunday night, rented a car, and drove through the night (9 hours) to get home.  We were lucky not to lose power and our basement crawl space is dry [whoops, I spoke too soon.  It had about a foot of water in it, so DH has the hose set up to siphon it out]  and our trees are still standing.  We were fortunate.  Others were not so lucky.  Our heart goes out to them.

Some of those steps we climbed were at the end of the 30 minute walk from the parking lot, the climb up to the top of Mt Saint Michel.  Here we are, about half way up.

With hopes of being back on track and posting and catching up with you all much more often!

Tish