Trying not to be the April Fool...

Announcement #1:

• One month ago, this chunky monkey officially kicked off her semi-annual, 'You REALLY need to get in shape' campaign. 
• I had last launched one last October, before our trip to Ireland & Scotland, as I really wanted to not rip the seams of my winter attire while there. It was fairly successful, with me shedding 5-6 lbs or so before the trip. 
• However, since we returned, I have gradually regained the weight, plus an added pound or two for good measure. And just like that- I'm back into 'Your clothes have given as much as they can give' territory, as I'm about 20 el bees heavier than my normal goal weight is. No bueno.
• And so- I am back. Back in business. I just wrapped up Week #4, and I think I'm down about 6-7 lbs. 

Announcement #2:

• If I can get closer to my healthy goal weight (15 lbs to go) around mid-year, that puts me right where I need to start Part 2 of my ambitious 2022 goals- training for my first big race in years, and the longest one I'll ever attempt. It's in San Fran, at the end of the year, and I'm over the moon excited about it.

In other less dramatic April news...

Although I go out to dinner quite a bit these days (hard not to when you work for a restaurant group), I rarely go out with friends! It was so nice to take a few of the girls I know to dinner this week, where we celebrated a birthday. Two of these ladies are women I met a few years ago, and have gotten closer to during COVID, and the third is Yuri, my BFF/run partner/friend of 20+ years, if you can imagine!

This little girl turned 5, and started ballet lessons!

We celebrated a few times, and here's one of them!

We hosted an Easter brunch for a few of Ryan's taiko friends, cousins, and longtime BFF

This was followed by the decorating of SEVEN DOZEN eggs!

Here are the older kid's five dozen...didn't get a pic of the nieces two dozen.

And we ended the festivities with a good ol fashioned egg hunt! The kids filled a few hundred eggs with candies they all brought/shared, and they all fared mightily well.

The end of the day, post clean up..."we" gave Ryan (cough! cough!) his Easter basket a day early, which strongly resembled a Bokksu from Japan, as all his goodies were from Japan (the local KTA)...ramune sodas in four flavors, ramune Hi-Chew candies, Calbee nori chips and Hokkaido butter potato sticks. He also got a new running outfit so he could run off the calories from all that junk food. ;-) Was he pleased? Oh yes. He was as enthusiastic as most teens would be over getting a basket full of their favorite overpriced, international treats from their loving parents...which is to say, not much at all. (Jerk!)

We continued the Easter weekend at my friend Ragni's house for an Easter brunch. She and her close friend are amazing culinarians, and the spread is always just mind boggling...and fills me with both wonder and shame. We ended the weekend with a group of improvers coming over for egg dyeing, berry shortcake and fun.

All in all, a solid weekend of fun and friends! Can't complain!