Good grief, make it stop. Today I fear will be just as the R of T&R forecasted … we are in for a wallop of snow. It’s Grey County in all its glory.

T&R are the earth angels who live down the street. They are my lifesaving chauffeur into the bright & booming village to buy my supplies. They have truly been wonderful since Tim passed. So many up here have abandoned me to the wilds of the Lake, but T&R have been true and faithful friends. R has been like a Mother, or Big Sister to me. Pouncing on me about how I’m eating. They care, and I am so thankful that they do.

Went into the LCBO (Liqueur Control Board of Ontario) for the first time since Tim’s death. Let me just say, we were regulars and the staff knew our likes and dislikes and basically probably more than LCBO employees should really know. One of the primary reasons I have lost the weight I have is due to this aversion to libation over the last four months. Last night excluded, I am not a solo drinker by nature.

As I explained to one of our LCBO pals who was working the cash yesterday, “from my experience, these situations have their advantages – since I wasn’t going to feel like eating I might as well lose some weight too”. She had commented on how much I’d lost, with the concern in her eyes (like everyone). Now I just have to maintain.

I am petite and extra weight makes my heel-spurs flare up. So I think I’m probably where I should be – just needed 20lbs off. Eating right and Bloggercizing is doing its job. So no worries, I like food and make it a regular habit to indulge once and awhile. It’s the nature of the ingredients I consume now that I must continue to monitor. Dark Leafy Greens is my big stumbling block, so I went out and bought some almond slivers for a garnish.

Back during my separation with my ex-husband that was my Mom’s advice “just because it’s just a salad, doesn’t mean you can’t garnish it however you like”.  I’m more concerned really with the quality of what I eat, not the calories as much or the fat. Good fat is something your body can work off, but in moderation. Everything in moderation.

During my separation back in 2000 I lost around 30lbs, and kept it off for almost six years. Until rotten Ingram Micro and their catered luncheon events. I swear, what is it with sales people and food? They’re like vultures. Appropriately we really had Vultures that circled the building. They really went round and round during Government year-end (January – March) and Vulture mating season coincided. Big HP deals went out the door in those three months.

So I polished off all 6 of my Guinness Extra Stout bottles last evening … gleefully doing the 12oz curl and even managed to publish a not so bad post in the wee hours of this morning. Well, that won’t be happening again for some time, but I had a fun time. It was nice to let loose abit and look through those big city girl photos I have. Country bumpkin that I am, I am enamored with Toronto, the BIG SMOKE…but GAG couldn’t live there. Mississauga was close enough.

London Ontario, thankfully, is 1/3 the size of Toronto and god help me, I refuse to work in that sort of sales environment again. So the agenda today will involve gazing out window at the fricken snow and packing.

Oh, and praying my dear sister gets her act back on track and maybe cleans out the attic {pretty please, so she can shove me and some of my stuff in there}. That probably sounds odd that I want to be in anyone’s attic, but ours really is where the old servants quarters where. Now don’t think this is some old mansion, it’s just a middle-class Farm House. It was common around the turn of the century for even mid-middle-class households to have 1 or even 2 servants. This attic though is now just dry wall and storage space, the room dividers themselves were taken down decades ago. Our Great Great Uncle Joseph (bachelor his whole life) made money on real-estate, so when his parents got older he moved them, and his sister and himself into this house we own today. They had farmed in a little place called Banner, Ontario one county over for decades.

Living in the attic would give me lots of juicy material for this blog, eh? Lady of the Cellar turns Lady of the Attic? Could serialize it.

And holy smokes is this a rambling post. Someone had to take an Advil this morning because her little heady hurt. I just felt the need to sing T&R’s praises, and to acknowledge that yesterday was a good day. People care about me, real people, not just my BBF’s online. Feels sometimes like so many have just forgotten about little ol’Paula here stranded & grieving on her lonesome, at this beautiful lake. Well, enough of that, butt getting in gear…Vvaarroooom.