The weather outside is delightful! It's hard to believe it's December 31st. Its 79 degrees today. What a great day to walk on the beach. There were people out fishing, sun bathing, feeding birds and walking on the beach. This is why we live in Florida.


There were lots of birds working on their tans:


We've had a lot of Nor'easters this year and it's caused a lot of beach erosion. The erosion is really bad in Flagler Beach. It's threatening to wash away A1A. That's the way I go to work and they have the road closed. We have to detour around the area. Flagler Co. is going to put up a steel sea wall to save A1A. Here are some picture of the erosion by my house:

Well, we got past Christmas time. I had to work Christmas eve, Christmas day and the day after. That takes the fun out of Christmas. I hate to leave Dave home alone on the holiday but that's life as a nurse. Actually, he went to Betty's (next door) for Christmas dinner and I went over after work.

I have to show this picture of Larry waiting for Dave to come in from work. Check out his tail wagging. He knows there is a walk coming!

I found a new place to walk today. They made a 2 1/2 mile walking trial by Highbridge park (by the draw bridge). The trail follows a creek then into the woods and scrubs. It's a great walk because you go up and down small hills (hills in Florida? Wow!), a long path of deep sand and its mostly shaded. You can really get a work out! Here are some pictures I took on my walk:

I really love nature and God knows I need more exercise so I think I'm going to start picking different scenic sites to walk at on my days off and post the pictures on this blog. We're very lucky to live in such a beautiful part of the country and its a shame that we don't take advantage of what we have here. OK, I talked myself into it. I'm going to start posting pictures of my walks. Maybe that will motivate me to get off my big butt and exercise!

My niece, Katherine, just graduated with honors from Georgia Tech with a degree in Engineering. How impressive is that? We're really proud of her.

Whew! I finally finished that little stretch of work, now I'm off for the next 6 days. Working 12 hour shifts has it's advantages and disadvantages. The disadvantage is that 12 hours in the ER kicks your butt. I'm wiped out when I get home and I don't feel like doing anything and, God forbid, I have to make another decision. But, the advantages majorly outweigh the disadvantages. I love having 4 days off a week. I get more done when Dave's at work. When we're both off on the weekend, I just want to hang out with him. So I can do chores during the week and play with Dave on my weekends off. Another advantage is that you can take little stretches off without using your PDO time. I'm off for 6 days and they're regular days off. That's cool.

I'm still sticking to the Atkins diet. In the past I would go on Atkins and loose al ot of weight in the first few weeks then hit a plateau and loose nothing for a few weeks or more). I'd get disgusted and quit the diet. Well, I came up with a good solution for that....I don't weigh myself. That way, if I don't know that I'm plateauing then I won't get disgusted. If my clothes fit better then I know I'm doing ok. Makes sense to me!

I feel pretty pathetic. I don't have anything to talk about. But, you know what? Boring can be good. The last thing I want in my life is drama! I've been off work the last three days. Sort of....I went in to work on the Cerner project for a few hours this morning. Cerner is the new computer system that our entire hospital system is converting to. I'm the ER Team Lead for our three hospitals. Right now there's not a lot to do but in 3-6 months we'll be very busy. It goes live in August 2006. My meeting was at the old ER I use to work at. I love those guys soooo much. Everytime I go there I want to transfer back but their nurse/patient ratio is so high that I don't feel like it's safe. They work their asses off. But what a fun, fun, fun group of people. I'm going to go on a train ride to Winter Garden and shop with a group of them just before Christmas. Maybe I can recruit all of them to my ER????

I've been working on some Atkins recipes for my diet. Thank God for the internet! My weakness is sweets and there are low carb candies and desserts out there to be made. Today, I made licorice. It tastes great, just like the real thing except I don't know if there is black food coloring out there so it was a pale beige color....like a big tape worm. I also made some cheese cake balls rolled in crushed pecans and dabbled with peanut butter cheese cake.

It's ultra windy and dreary outside so it's hard to get motivated to do anything. The temp is still in the 60-70s but it's so yucky. I have to work the next 5 out of 6 days. Then I'm off for a little stretch. Maybe it'll be nicer then.

Dave put up Christmas lights tonight (NOT Holiday lights). Here's a picture. Hey JoAnn & Terry...how about the "See Rock City" bird house?

Boy oh boy, days like today are why I love living in Florida. The weather is perfect...high 70s, crisp and clear. I rode my bike by the beach, washed my car bare-footed and I'm fixin' to go out in the yard, sip some wine and soak up some sun. This weather is our reward for putting up with the hurricane season.

Last night we went to dinner and a movie with Terri and Kevin. We saw "Walk the line" about Johnny Cash. It was ok. The actor who played Cash was a hotty (a lot better than the real Cash).

The ER has been really busy for the last few weeks. I'm sure it will be that way until next Spring. My pups are really sore when I get home. I know it's because I'm too damn fat. My little size 6 feet have to struggle to support my fat ass. So, back on the Atkins diet for me. I'm starting tomorrow. I get disgusted with myself cus I start a diet, plateau, get discouraged and quit. Hopefully this time I'll stick with it. Being fat is sooooo bad for you. I hit the grocery store today and got all the basic Atkins foods (bacon, sausage, cream cheese, cheese, etc). Christmas is bad around the ER cus all the doctors, drug reps, etc send food, candy, popcorn, pasteries, and all kinds of high calorie stuff. At least if I'm doing the Atkins diet, I can't eat the bad stuff.