Losing a part of me

Category: Weights and Measures

  • Day 134

    This should be easy math: Yesterday I did not (really) cheat, and therefore my weight this morning was down. While it is certainly the case today, it frustrates me that it does not always work this way. Yes, my measurement on the bathroom scale was a good one (not quite my lowest weigh-in, but close). I am not unhappy with my progress. I simply wish that every day that I do not cheat, my weight would be down. Such is not the case. Oh well.

    On April 9 I was thrilled to drop below 350 lbs. It is nearly two months on, and I have not dropped below 344 lbs. I am sick of that, and hope that last week’s revelation about peanuts will allow that to change… and no, this past weekend’s terrible cheating did not help one bit, but if I can stay the course for the next few days then hopefully I will drop below 340 lbs. I know that in two weeks I am flying to Dallas, and after that will be my birthday, and after that a quick jaunt to Long Island to celebrate a friend’s wedding. I know that I will likely be back to the 340s for most of those… I just want to get below them to prove to myself that doing things the right way will show results.

    It might seem strange to many that I speak in pounds, and yet my official weigh-ins are in kilograms. Of course, if you are following along on my blog then you will not see that… I do not post my weights there. Yes, I grew up in a household where we were taught pounds and ounces; the 2.5 years I spent in California did not hurt that. Fortunately, my physician’s office is Canadian, and they work in the metric system. While I cannot convert pounds to kilos as seamlessly as I can do miles to kilometres, I do understand both systems. I should eschew the antiquated and senseless imperial system in favour of the completely logical metric. Old habits do die hard though, so I still do both.

    Leslie finally received the right birthday gift yesterday, and I decided to pull the trigger and buy myself the same Ninja dual-zone air fryer that I bought for her. Before I did, I made sure that I was able to return the essentially no-name one that I had bought previously. I still had a few days left to return it, so all is good. I am glad that I saved the box for it… I will pack it up and drop it off at UPS on my way to the golf course later this morning. Amazon asks you to select the reason you are returning something. This, dear reader, is an IQ test. If you answer, “I do not want it anymore,” or something similar, the return shipping cost was $65. If you go back and change your answer to, “It did not perform the way I had hoped,” then the return shipping is free. What can you do, right? The new machine will cost a lot more than the old one… but I really did not like the old one.

    As I alluded to briefly in the last paragraph, I am golfing again today. I must be a sucker for punishment, right? Hopefully today’s round will be slightly better than my last one, which was abysmal. If I had any brains on the subject, I would sign up for golf lessons… or at least spend some time on the driving range before heading out on the course again. At least the weather forecast for the day is not nearly as extreme as it was Monday, with a predicted high temperature of 21°c. I will not be as hot as I was… although heat had never bothered me.

    I was paid for two separate and unrelated payments for work done yesterday, which was a bit of a relief. It is not that I am running out of money, it is simply that I do not like having to chase the companies that I contract to. There are still a couple of outstanding payments owed, but the oldest of those is less than 60 days old, and so I am not entirely concerned. That is also owed to me by a company that a) loves me and wants me to continue to work for them; and b) paid another invoice yesterday. Again, not worried. It is just nice to see money going into my bank account… especially knowing that my actual day job has been stagnant for the past two months. I exchanged emails with them about that yesterday, and there is progress on the horizon… I just wish it was quicker!

    Two weeks from today I am flying down to Dallas to see my baby, and I could not be more excited. Monday afternoon I took delivery of my new threads that I ordered in March. Unfortunately, they all still fit perfectly. Yes, that sounds weird… but I do wish that by now I would have lost enough weight that they would already be loose. No such luck. I am hoping that by the time we get married in November, I will fit into my older suits and shirts. Here’s hoping and praying!

    Have a great day folks… I’ve got a couple of errands to run before hitting the golf course, but that’s what I have planned for the day. Whatever you have going on, try to enjoy it!

  • Day 128

    I hate bathroom scales. I think I am going to move into my doctor’s office so that I can get an accurate read every morning. I got onto the scale, and it was flip-flopping between two numbers that look very similar to yesterday’s number. I stepped off, nudged it closer to the wall, and when I got back on, it read that I am 2.4 lbs down from yesterday. I got back on twice more to confirm, and that’s where it stands. Unstable floors suck.

    So yes, I still hate the floor in my apartment. That is the biggest reason my bathroom (sic) scale is unreliable. I hope that in the bedroom it is more accurate, and some days it is… and then there are days like today, when I get this crap. My cleaning lady was here Wednesday and quipped to me that the landlord is going to have to replace the floors when I move out. Funny you should mention it Kerry, but I just told the landlady the other day that very same thing. I also said that if they (the owners) try to deduct it from my security deposit, I would ask her to testify to my lifestyle, which is mostly clean and orderly, and certainly not destructive. She can also testify that HRF Princess Sophie has not once ever had an accident in the apartment. I do not think it would ever come to that though… I informed the owners in the first month or two of my lease that the floors were literally coming apart in places, and when they were showing me the apartment before I moved in, even they pointed out some places in the floor that were weak and uneven.

    Yesterday was my first peanut-free day. That is not to say that I did not cheat. Thanks Gilly. No, I am not blaming my son the younger for my cheating… it only sounds that way. He wanted to go to Lone Star Grill for dinner, and so we did. He ordered a plate of Buffalo wings and an order of chips with queso… which from what I can tell is a sort of Velveeta dip that while similar to cheese is actually mostly a liquid. I stole as many as a dozen chips from him throughout the course of the meal, which for me was a chicken Caesar salad, which I had to send back once because even if it was just for show (which it is not), I cannot in good conscience sit in a restaurant wearing a kippa (yarmulke, Jewish head covering that resembles and is sometimes referred to as a beanie) while eating a salad with bacon bits. Yes, it was a pretty decent salad… and what with me asking them to go light on the dressing and without the bacon, it was much less even than the 560 calories listed on their menu.

    The menu also listed a Buffalo cauliflower option, but that was 720 calories, and the reviews online were not great. With that said, I am thinking of trying to make it in the next few days… We’ll see.

    This morning I promised Leslie I would look at something for her (really for us), and then I will make a reasonable lunch. Eduardo might come over later in the day for a cigar, and it would be great to see him. However other than that I have no real plans of straying far from home today… and certainly not to Bulk Barn!

    Oh, also I am hoping that my diet buddy reschedules our meeting for later today. I was with my son when we were supposed to meet, so I missed our regular time slot.

    Have a great day!

  • Day 123

    Mornings like this are why dieting is so frustrating. Aside from my peanuts (which were not excessive), the only straying I did from the program yesterday was that I made my final meal replacement shake very late at night. Normally, I would like to be done with it by 9:00pm; last night I came in from smoking cigars at 11:30pm. I should have skipped it, but I did not. The results? A full 2.4 lbs increase on the scale this morning.

    My plans for today: While I do have a lot of preparation to do for tomorrow’s class that I am teaching, I first have to go visit my son the younger. That sounds wrong. I love visiting with him and would be thrilled to be taking him for breakfast. That is not what will be happening. His mother (my ex-wife) told me that she has information about an assessment for him, which we need to discuss. She suggested I just come over, and we have breakfast there. Really, the timing could not have worked out better, as I have spent much of this week trying to figure out how to tell her that I am getting remarried. This will be that opportunity.

    Yesterday was an absolutely gorgeous and glorious day… if you can discount the one hour when the winds picked up to 100 km/h and the heavens opened up as if expecting me to build an ark. The morning was hot and sunny, the afternoon was hot and sunny… and from about 12:30pm to 1:30pm, Hurricane WTF came through Burlington. I had gone to visit with Lyle, and Ryan, Josh, and Dean were there too. We were sitting out on the patio (basking in the sun) when Ryan said they should hit the road because of the weather. I figured I would do the same – I stopped off to do a couple of errands, and I parked the car in front of my building in time for the rains to start… and my hat and yarmulke both flew off immediately; lucky for me they were caught in the tree in front of the house, else they both would have been long gone. I got into the building with just a few drops of wet… I turned around and saw that I escaped the deluge by three seconds. It was raining sideways.

    Needless to say, I made no further plans to venture out of the apartment yesterday.

    HRF had gone for her walk but was begging to go out again. I smiled inwardly… I showed her what the weather was like outside, and she immediately decided that she did not want to go out, but that a treat was in order. She got one, and we stayed inside and dry until the weather front passed.

    I was shocked when, at 4:00pm or so, I looked outside. Not only was it sunny, but there was no wind. It stayed like that until 9:00pm, and shortly thereafter it started raining again… sans wind.

    Knowing that I am going to the doctor’s office for my official weigh-in this week, I am hoping that my weight loss hiccough of this morning was just that… nothing more than a reminder that A) I should never eat late at night, and that B) Weight loss is neither linear nor predictable… at least, not the points on a graph. Over time, the trend should be predictable, based on honest weight management techniques. It is not abnormal to starve yourself on a particular day, only to discover that you gained a pound the following morning.

    My friend Rabbi Barclay is a very difficult man to reach, except in case of emergency, at which point he is always there immediately. While I had very important need to speak with him these last few weeks, it was not an emergency. We finally connected last night, and had a great conversation about the wedding, including the requirements and possibilities. Yes, Leslie (who lives in Texas) and I (currently living outside Toronto) are going to fly to Westlake Village, California to get married. This is partly because I want him to perform the ceremony, but also because I have a lot of people in that part of the world. I have a few people here, and Leslie has a couple of people there… in SoCal we will have a lot of people who will be thrilled to be able to witness the nuptials. Of course, I might have to fly a couple of people into town… but we’ll see. All in all, I am thrilled that my good friend will marry me to the love of my life. Stay tuned for details… there will be no invitations, but you are welcome to join us in our celebration!

    Have a great day folks! I’m off to see my sons… and my ex-wife.

  • Day 122

    Another day, another 1.6 lbs down. I definitely have no complaints about the bathroom scale this morning! I still have a couple of pounds left to get back to my lowest weight from May 5, but I am making good progress. I am still relieved that the week of vacation did not set me back much further than it did… which is to say, it kept me where I was!

    Yesterday was a stressful day. Those will happen, and I accept them. I did, at one point, decide to completely fall off the program. I was quite that upset with things. It was only Leslie who talked me down from that ledge. I was nearly out the door ready to go pick up Chinese food… and not the healthy stuff. Yes, I have bad days. In the end, I did veer from the program: I had peanuts (which I seem to be doing every day), and I had a second meal of chicken for dinner, rather than the tuna salad I was going to have. While I will not make a habit of it, I guess doing it the once did me no harm, with the numbers on the scale agreeing with me.

    I will say that I had a tremendously satisfying bowel movement this morning. While that is not something I generally discuss, there are days when you finish on the toilet and say ‘Wow, I must have lost weight there!’ It was a healthy BM, just a large one.

    The plan for today is to stick to the plan, and yes, I will have my peanuts. I am off to Lyle’s to enjoy a cigar with him and Ryan – it is a fabulous day out, and I cannot imagine not being outside enjoying it. Princess Sophie and I went for our walk earlier, and I’ll head out to Hamilton now.

    Have a great day folks!

  • Day 106

    Isn’t that the way that it always goes? Yesterday morning, I weighed myself on my bathroom scale before going into the doctor to get weighed for my ‘official weigh-in.’ Based on that number, I was not at all surprised to find that I was less than one kilogram down from my previous official weigh-in. It was lower, and that is great… it just was not a significant loss. This morning when I stepped onto the scale, I was a full two pounds down from yesterday! Had my doctor’s visit been today instead of yesterday I could have been a full 2.5kg down. Okay, I take these things in stride. Weight loss is a marathon, not a sprint. The interim check-ins matter less than the final result. On the other hand, those interim check-ins are the encouragements that push you forward on those difficult days; it feels great to be able to punch your fist into the air proclaiming ‘Look what I did this time!’ I will have to save the air-punching for my next weigh-in.

    Speaking of my next weigh-in, it is three weeks from yesterday. While we will be back from two weeks from yesterday, we are landing late the night before (and really, early that morning), and I do not see me getting into Toronto at 2:00am (which means I cannot possibly be home in bed before 3:30am), then waking up to be at the doctor’s office just a few hours later. Let’s put aside the fact that I will have been off my diet. Thus, I opted to defer my office visit by a week, choosing to maintain the regular Wednesday cadence… just pushing it out by one week.

    I just got the call from my bank that the Euros that I ordered are ready to collect. I do not think I need anything from the store, so I might decide to walk to the bank, which is a little further than the supermarket… but not by much. Actually, according to Waze, it is 2.4km from here, which means the round trip would be around the same 5km that I have walked very well a couple of times. The weather seems to be agreeable, so I just might do that.

    I made a different dinner than usual last night. I defrosted a couple of salmon filets and rubbed them with sesame oil before putting them in the air fryer. When they were ready, I put them on a plate, and put a line of Tabasco sauce down the middle. I then spooned salsa onto it. Served with a side salad, I think it came out very well! It is definitely a dish that I will be trying again. I got the idea after my breakfast out last weekend, where I really enjoyed the pico de gallo on my omelette. When I mentioned this with my beloved, she told me that she had suggested I cook with salsa, and she is right… and she was right! I will be doing more of this for sure.

    Okay, it is time to do a few things, then I will change into my track pants and head to the bank. Have a great day folks!

  • Day 85

    I splurged a little bit and picked up some peanuts when I was at the supermarket yesterday, but that was really my only cheat. Oh, and I had a bunch of lozenges again.

    I am completely fed up with my bathroom scale. This morning I got ten different readings in a six-pound range. You would be fed up too. I decided in the end, after moving the scale into the bedroom and trying again, to keep two measurements in my journal – the one from the bathroom that was about the same as yesterday’s reading, and the one from the bedroom (which has me one pound heavier than yesterday). I am not going to move simply because I live in a nice apartment with absolutely terrible floors… but there are days when I am tempted to.

    My eye has now been bothering me for three days. It was because of that I thought to walk into an optometrist near my barber to make an appointment for a checkup. That will be next week, which is not a problem… or is it?

    It was supposed to be a relaxing day, and when I got back from having my haircut and doing some shopping, I made lunch (the usual), and then decided that I might like to take a little nap. I was not nearly asleep when Leslie called on video chat, and she asked about my eye. She told me that she could tell it was getting worse, and I decided that I would go to the walk-in clinic to see if there was anything seriously wrong with it. Sure enough, it looks like there’s a minor scratch on the eyeball. I have to put drops in twice per day (blech!) for the next five days, and I am wearing an eye patch for a few days to try to rest that eye. Hopefully it will be completely healed in time for my appointment with the optometrist, but I will ask her about it anyways.

    I defrosted chicken for dinner and had the usual chicken leg quarters and a salad. I had a shake for breakfast and another for my evening snack, and so aside from the peanuts, I did exactly what I should be doing. Even though the temperatures were pretty warm (I wore a short sleeve shirt out today, although it was a bit chilly when I walked from the barbershop to the bank and optometrist… in the rain) I did not have time to sit on the patio with a cigar… the surprise trip to the clinic fixed that. Hopefully today I will be able to do that.

    Today is Thursday. I have some reading to do, but aside from that, it is only my class this evening. The forecast predicts rain until around 1:00pm, at which point the sun will come out. I will stay inside until then and will go outside for a cigar and some reading once the weather is a bit nicer. I decided to wear Leslie’s favourite shirt today, and I hope that when the sun comes out it will be warm enough that I can show it off for her. Other than that, the plan is to try to enjoy the day. I hope you enjoy it too!

  • Day 80

    Woohoo! The bathroom scale registered me below 350 lbs for the first time in a very long time today. While I suspect the next few days will have me above that mark again, it is indeed a banner moment. I had not mentioned it in any previous article, but that is the magic number – the maximum weight on my doctor’s medical scale. Of course, when I get weighed there, I am fully clothed, and so I have to plan for 3-4 pounds more loss before I can weigh myself on the imperial scale there. (On the metric side of the scale the maximum is 160kg, which is 352lbs.)

    Leslie and I decided on seared tuna for dinner last night, and if I do say so myself, it was quite nice. The fish monger only had frozen tuna steaks, but they defrosted in time for me to prepare them. It was the first time I ever cooked seared tuna, and I think it came out well… although there is plenty of room for improvement. I heated the frying pan to the hottest the burner would go, and then I seared each piece for 15 seconds on each side. Leslie made the rice, to which we added furikake (a Japanese seasoning that she has been raving about, and which I really enjoyed). I sprinkled black sesame seeds onto my tuna, but she did not. We finished the presentation with a dollop of pickled ginger. It was, if I do say so myself, an amazing meal! Yes, tuna is a fatty fish (as is salmon), but it is very healthy… and I like that we are experimenting in the kitchen.

    While I do not mind the boring chicken – salmon rotation that is my usual dinner, I do not want to drag Leslie into my boring meal routine. I have a friend in California who would come over with her dog, and she would make fun of me for it. ‘Let me guess… you want to make chicken and salad for dinner? Wow you are so predictable!’ I stick to the routine because it is easy, because I like it, and because I know that it does not hurt my diet. However, I do not mind expanding beyond that… especially if it helps my culinary knowledge! The first time I bought salmon I was really hesitant, and it came out really well. Now I have expanded even further and can keep going if I like!

    Cam and Amanda had to cancel our plans for today, which is too bad, but makes our life a little more convenient. We will probably drive to Cambridge to spend a few hours with Ryan and company, but Cambridge is a 40-minute drive each way, whereas Strathroy is a 100-minute drive each way. I would have loved to introduce her to my friends and my godchildren, but that will have to wait until a later trip. In the meantime, I am sure that Cam and Amanda will invite me to see the kids in a few weeks, which is just fine by me.

    I wanted to try my next size of pants down on this weekend. Leslie said that I shouldn’t; knowing that I have a huge scale victory today, I am going to see if I might also have a non-scale victory to report. We will see. I think I am going to… if only to see how far I have left to my next size-switch.

    Speaking of sizes: Leslie brought the shirts and bathing trunks that I ordered to her address for our Cuba trip. Of the six shirts and two bathing trunks, half fit. That’s right, three shirts and a bathing suit fit. The other three shirts were still too small… but the other bathing suit was way too big. Okay, no problem… we will return those to Amazon, and we ordered new ones – this time different patterns of the styles that we already know fit properly. We are very excited to be heading out on our first vacation together… we leave one month from tomorrow and could not be more excited!

    Whatever your plans are for this weekend, have a great one. See you tomorrow!

  • Day 78

    Another day in the books, and another day that my bathroom scale is not being nice to me. Yes, I had a small package of peanuts yesterday… but I had skipped my morning shake in my rush to go to the doctor, so I really should have been pretty on track. It is the uneven floors in my bathroom that are the real culprit, and I have no good solution for that.

    Speaking of the doctor, he gave me a prescription for the medicine that will prevent gout attacks. If I recall, my father was on that pill every day for thirty years. If it helped him, I hope it will help me too. I am taking the first one this morning… I thought about starting last night when I picked them up, but I prefer taking pills in the morning so better to start today.

    Leslie arrived last night, and her plane landed nearly an hour early. I asked her if the pilot had an important date or something, but I am sure the tailwinds were just extremely favourable. Our reunion was as magical as it always is, with big hugs and kisses before I put her cases in the trunk of the car. I decided that when I picked her up, I would be playing music that she loved. To be clear, there is plenty of music that we both enjoy, but Taylor Swift is her jam. She noticed immediately, and as happy as she had been, I am sure that gave her at least one more scintilla of happiness.

    The drive home from the airport was extremely difficult – the visibility was really low and focusing on the road for that length of time really tired my eyes (and the rest of me) out. No matter, we arrived home safe and sound. Once we got her settled, Leslie pointed out a couple more non-scale victories… ones that might be inappropriate to mention here.

    It is wonderful to have Leslie here, but we both have our days to go about. She has meetings, I have work, and this evening I will teach (for the last time in this session). I will mostly stick to the program today, although I am looking forward to one sweet which Leslie brought for me.

    I noticed one vital bit of information regarding the bathroom scale. Despite the fact that it does not seem to be cooperating, my doctor’s office weigh-ins are consistently down over the last three visits, and yet my bathroom scale has not been following the same trend consistently. Yesterday it had me down 2 lbs (under 1 kg) from my previous weigh-in at the doctor… not nearly the 2.5 kg (5.5 lbs) that I was down from the doctor’s office. I am glad that I have been using that for my records, and not the bathroom. Accuracy is important… and if I have to use my semi-weekly doctor’s office visits as my benchmark, then so be it.

    The weather is gorgeous, so there might be a cigar in my future this afternoon. I have some reading to do to prepare for a course that I have to create for the end of the month, but that can easily be done while sitting outside if the weather is agreeable… and it is.

    Have a great day folks! You do what makes you happy!

  • Day 77

    The nurse weighing me directed me right to the ‘heavy’ scale this morning, but I asked her if we could see if the regular scale would do yet. It was not quite… but within a pound of it. We stepped onto the heavy scale, and I was half a kilo over… so I have lost another 2.5kg since my last weigh-in. A lot of people would poo-poo a 2.5kg drop over a two week period, but if we add it onto all of the other similar losses, and I am down 18kg, or 40 lbs over the past 2.5 months. It is slow progress, but it is significant progress. Add to that, my blood pressure is 112 over 70, making me the healthiest morbidly obese person I know.

    Of course, I cheated a little… but not intentionally, and it couldn’t be helped. I was taking my time this morning, and suddenly realized I had the appointment. I took HRF Princess Sophie for her walk, and then made a quick cup of coffee before I headed out the door. Normally, I would have had my second cup of coffee and a shake before heading out. I do not know what effect that would have, but I am taking the win.

    By my next appointment (in two weeks) they will be weighing me on the regular scale, and I will never look back. The one nurse is usually very nice, but there is another who is quite judgmental, and having to follow her into the other room and then have her standing over the other scale counting how far my weight went over the ‘max’ to calculate my true weight… I could always hear her silently clicking her tongue at me. Yes, I will still be fat… but there will be no more of that, thank you!

    The countdown until I pick Leslie up at the airport is down to hours now, and I am really excited. I hate that we live so far apart, and that we can only see each other every month or every six weeks. I think at some point I am going to have to do something about that. It is just not a tenable situation for me. In the meantime, I can’t wait to see her tonight! HRF is excited too… but I think she will be excited to see her, whereas my anticipation is bursting through now.

    I have some work to do today, but I might find the time for a cigar on the patio before I start teaching my class this evening. We’ll see.

    My goal is to stay the course today… and if I do pick up peanuts. To pick up less. I know that I am going to eat whatever I buy, so maybe if I only buy a small handful (50g has 284 calories!) then I will only eat that small handful.

    Have a great day folks!

  • Day 63

    HRF Princess Sophie asked me very politely to take her out at 6:00am. She does not wake me to go out very often, so when she does, I take her seriously. The last time she asked, I was much heavier; it probably took me fifteen minutes to get dressed. This morning, we were out the door in under 6 minutes… and that included time for me to pee. I will chalk that up as a non-scale victory. The times she has awakened me at 3:00am I always go right back to bed. While my alarm does not go off until 7:15am, I decided not to lie back down right away this time. I had a couple of appointments that I needed to reschedule.

    I decided that Friday I am going to drive to Montreal for the weekend. I realized as I was going to sleep last night that the Princess has a vet appointment for Friday, and I have an appointment in the evening. Both were booked online, and so I sat down at the computer to rebook them. My appointment was easy, and I was easily able to create another appointment for tomorrow morning. I will have to wait back from the vet for confirmation, but I cannot see this being a problem.

    Coupled with the early hour, there was a bit of freezing rain when we went out, and Princess did not want to spend more time than was strictly necessary outside, so the walk was a brief one.

    My diet yesterday was again mostly good. I was out and about for a few hours when I realized I was hungry, so I stopped at Bulk Barn and picked up a small handful of peanuts. When I got home, I prepared my dinner – a piece of salmon with lemon juice, salt, pepper, and fresh dill. It was delicious! I have not yet stepped onto the bathroom scale, but I anticipate good things from it.

    I have an appointment to get weighed today, and I am looking forward to being down at least a few kilograms from my last weigh-in two weeks ago. Yes, doctors in Canada use the metric system, which does not bother me at all. In fact, the only reason I use the imperial system for my weight loss is because a full pound lost is less than half a kilo, which does not sound or feel nearly as impressive. In truth, despite the big switch to the metric system in the 1970s, I was always taught pounds rather than kilos, and while I try to get excited about the more sensible metric measurements (where a kilogram is the weight of a litre of water, and not based on a weight found in a Paris vault for hundreds of years), but I confess I still think in pounds. I doubt this will change, but I hope my children will understand kilos better. For the record, I think in kilometres (although I can do the conversion to miles in my head).

    I can already feel it… there will be a nap in my future. I have a couple of errands to run today, but I should be home by noon. The forecast high is only 6°c, and there might be a little wind still. Hopefully my phone appointments will be considerate and work around my need for a mid-afternoon nap. They are restorative, after all!

    I will write more after my weigh-in, but in the meantime, have a great day folks!