Steroids Whistle-blowers Need To Get A Life....

Oh yeah, there he is....Big Papi. He's just hit a home run and he's pointing to the crowd and saying, "That's for my fans"....or is he saying, "You, you over there...you got my steroids? I know you do!" Yes, the news is that David Ortiz tested positive....in 2003? OK, let's see, that was....6 YEARS AGO! Get over it people! Can you imagine the stress they are under to perform and entertain? It's no longer about a family going to a game for a nice night out...although I realize Boston has the highest price tickets in the country...the only way we get to go to a game is if the tickets are given to us. Literally if we wanted to go to a game as a family of four the night out would cost us about $400. Many people from Boston go to other teams parks to see Boston play because it's cheaper. Anyway...I digress...
Now, I don't normally write about sports because, well, I wouldn't know what the hell I was talking about. And I don't really know all there is to know about the whole steroids issue so I'll apologize for my ignorance right up front. All I want is for the baseball league to just come out...all at once....and say, OK, every player has used performance enhancing drugs. There. We said it. Now can we all just MOVE ON! Seriously. I'm tired of hearing about who else tested positive! I don't know if this is true, but I heard that some of the "substances" are things contained in over the counter stuff like you would get at your local GNC - like protein powder. I found a list of the banned substances: http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-mlb-banned-substances,0,728091.story
I googled a few of the items and most did come back as either a steroid-type drug, a weight loss drug, or some type of stimulant. And how about the name of this one:

Dehydrochloromethyltestosterone

My point is, can we all just agree that everyone, or almost everyone, in baseball has used a banned substance at some point and they all promise to be good from now on so going forward if anyone tests positive, then we can say"shame on you...you didn't share! I mean...you are going to get in trouble!" Don't come to us with old information expecting to whip us into a lynch mob frenzy out to get the players...as a matter of fact...if anyone else tests positive for banned substances, don't come to us at all; keep it to yourself...we're tired of hearing about it.

Get Your Head Out Of The Clouds....Or Not?

We have admittedly had way more wet weather than we deserve here in New England. We've hardly had a summer at all, as far as this area is concerned. Instead of people opening their pools at the end of May/beginning of June, most people were taking their first dips mid-July. We did have a few weekend days that turned out to be beauties and I was blessed to be able to sit poolside and fully enjoy them. When I was young, I can remember laying on the lawn with my two neighborhood girlfriends and just watching the clouds go by. Why do we stop doing these things? Uh, Karen, hello....the neighbors, they might see us...grown adults, laying on our lawns staring at the sky....and maybe they will think we are drunk or have lost our minds? That's too bad because I think we all need to refresh the kids in us once in a while....and it doesn't have to involve margaritas!

Just look at this crisp, blue sky!
OK, I know there are no clouds yet, although you can see one peeking through the trees...

This was my view most of the few weekend days we have had so far that have been nice...

Then the lazy clouds start to roll by....

Aren't they great? Now the next one is from yesterday. We spent the day at Canobie Lake Park in New Hampshire (an amusement park) and there was a small storm that rolled through just before we left.
So when we exited the park, we were treated to this magnificent sight:

Since I don't have photoshop, please ignore the vast space above the rainbow and the car clutter below...although it does kind of put it into context.

Speaking of storms, in between the nice days, we had many stormy days. We had one storm, in particular, that scared the bejesus out of me. I really thought it was going to turn into a twister right above my neighborhood:

That is a really dark cloud on top and much lighter clouds on the bottom....

I was ready to pack up the family and head for the hills...although funny how that didn't stop me from standing outside to take pictures of it!

So take some time to lay on your lawn and watch the clouds...except the storm ones, especially if it's thundering and lightening. Don't worry about what your neighbors will think...just don't do it naked or anything...then we all just have to walk away whistling, pretending we don't know you.

Taking One For The Team On This One....

Let me preface this by saying, if you were there and you had a camera, you would have taken a picture too. And afterward, most of you would talk about it and laugh...but I'm taking one for the team and going as far as writing about it. I will say I used to work with mentally handicapped adults, so in no way am I making fun of them here. I'm just bringing to light how they sometimes make life a little more interesting for all of us.
Yesterday morning me and the girls were on our way to visit family and friends on the Cape (for those of you not from the New England area, that means Cape Cod). I decided to go through Dunkin Donuts drive thru for a coffee. The line was a little long, and while we were waiting I noticed this lady kind of walking in circles in the parking lot next to us. Every town has them, you know as soon as you see them they a little short of a full deck. They are usually having conversations with someone that is not visible to us (as this woman seemed to be doing) and sometimes they walk differently or wave their hands around for no reason (as this woman was doing). Regardless, we usually just handle these people with kid gloves and make sure not to take offense at anything that might come our way.
So.....when it was finally my turn to pull up to the window to collect my coffee and munchkins for the girls, this woman scooted right in front of me, right up to the window. Maybe she just couldn't find the door on the other side of the building?.She began having a very animated conversation with the Dunks worker.....and I couldn't resist:
I know, I know, I'm going to burn in hell....yeah, I get that a lot. Anyway, she obviously has enough of her faculties to know she had to pay for the coffee she got, although she did make a grab for the bag of munchkins, but the worker made a quick save. I drove away smiling that this woman added a little bit of character to my day....

Quiche Me, Baby....

I'm getting brave in the cooking department now that I've passed the 40 mark! You may want to sit down for this one, and I know your first instinct will be to laugh, but I'm not joking...and your next instinct will be that I'm lying...but I'm telling the truth. I....made.....a.....quiche.......without......a recipe! Seriously...this is a person who not only needs a recipe, but normally needs to line up all the pre-measured ingredients on the counter, in the order that they need to be added...and triple check each one before adding. Check this baby out:
It's got ham and cheese and onion and garlic and ....eggs, oh yeah, lots of eggs. I used those refrigerated pie crusts and guess what? It was delicious! I can't say really what possessed me to actually act on the idea of doing this...I must have stood in front of the microwave too many times that week....

Real Wives of The Middle Class....

So it has occurred to me that almost everyone has a reality show of their own. I think I could have my own reality show and people would watch. I've always been intrigued with the "reality" shows. I remember that first season of Survivor. I watched faithfully. I don't remember which ones came next, but there was Big Brother, The Osbournes and I'm sure I'm not even remembering many of them, but once the family ones started, it seemed everyone was on board. Gene Simmons family had one, there was one with a supposedly famous punk rocker guy, but I had no idea who he was, there were/are? a couple with famous skateboarders...but the real kicker, I mean the one that made me say, OK, if they can do it, so can I...was "Tori and Dean". Tori Spelling and her husband. I suppose people watch them, as with many of them, to see how famous people live behind closed doors. I guess that's why I was watching...and because it's repeat season for CSI and Desperate Housewives and there was really NOTHING else on any of the 5000 channels we get. I mean it. Nothing. OK, maybe I was watching because I wanted to see their flaws. I wanted to know that they aren't perfect. Boy did I get what I was looking for! Why would they show her husband passing gas on national TV? I don't think we needed to go that far.
So the cameras can zoom in on my alarm clock going off at 5:15am and me hitting snooze until it's about 5:45am. Then there's plenty of action getting myself and the two girls ready and out of the house by 7:30am. There's some heartwarming yelling and screaming to get our days started! Then they could follow me to work and watch the camaraderie around the coffee maker as we all load up on caffeine to get through the day. The cameras would hardly be able to catch the dust as I ran out the door at 5pm, only to sit in traffic to get home. Evenings would be a real treat. That's when all the action happens. One night it could be running errands after dinner and arguing with the girls that they are not buying something at the store, another night it could be arguing with the girls about going to bed. Oh, and we have the garden, so people could watch us picking the veggies from our garden and then cooking the veggies. Then when the kids are finally in bed, around 9pm-ish, ok make that 10pm...the cameras could watch me doing laundry, cleaning the kitchen, paying bills and finally getting to bed around midnight. I think people would watch. I think rich people would watch to feel good about themselves and laugh at what a pitiful life we have...and I think poor people would watch and end up realizing we're not so different. I don't think I could fart on TV though, sorry.

Blabbity, Blabbity, Blab....

Wow, I didn't realize it had been so long since my last post...I guess that was a really long moment of silence!
Anyway, I'll post more later about what I've been up to, for now, I need to vent.
I follow a few blogs that I thought were interesting. One of them is dooce.com. She used to be funny, although was a bit too disgusting at times, but overall had a funny perspective on life. Then she wrote a book and does all these speaking engagements. Then I saw her on ...either the Today show or Good Morning America. They said it was reported she made over $40K A MONTH! doing her blog! I was all...WHAT! Seriously, I can blog better than her! But then again, she hires people to make her website all fancy shmancy, etc. I still followed. Then she got pregnant. There is nothing worse than having to read every detail of someone's pregnancy AND see pictures of the progress! So I stopped following her. Every once in a while I'll take a peek at the blog to see if there is anything interesting...pictures of the perfectly decorated baby's room that most of us couldn't afford...more pictures of her getting bigger. Then she finally had the baby...thank f@#%&ng God! Things might finally get back to normal on her site. No such luck. Only worse. Now people can read about baby poop and spit up and breast feeding!
Now comes the parts that aggravated me. She was telling the story of her labor and how she had decided to have natural child birth because she read these books about home birthing, etc. She couldn't go as far as home birthing, but wanted to do the natural birth so hired a doula or something like that. Then goes on to say how wonderful it was blah, blah blah. To make things worse, there are all these comments from people saying "Oh you're so inspiring", "Thank you for sharing your story"...I'm all like, "ARE YOU KIDDING ME????" MILLIONS OF WOMEN GIVE BIRTH NATURALLY ALL THE TIME AND WE DON'T HAVE TO HIRE SOMEONE TO HELP US!" I gave birth to two children without the help of drugs or anesthesia and really, it was NO BIG DEAL! I still don't understand what you have to hire someone for in this process anyway? Whatever, I got over it. So today I checked her site and she told her readers how FORBES has named her #26 on the list of 30 most influential women in media!!!! You have got to be kidding????????????!!!!!!! I guess I'm doing something wrong because that just seems wrong...UGH...let me go crawl under a rock and contemplate all of this....

Let's Have A Moment Of Silence...

Today was the public Memorial service for Michael Jackson. I know, I know, you're probably all sick of hearing about him, but let me be serious for a minute. As much as he may have seemed to turn into a freak later in his life, the guy knew music and boy did he have the moves. I, like most of us, had to work all day so I couldn't watch the two hour memorial service that was broadcast over every TV station out there. I called home and asked very nicely if someone could DVR it for me. After Mike and the girls drew straws to see who would have to walk downstairs to actually push a button, Mike called back to say it was recording. I didn't want to miss one minute. People around me at work were getting updates about it, and when it was over they said the end was a tear-jerker and I heard one say his daughter spoke. So tonight, while I sat on the couch watching the recording, I couldn't wait until the end. Guess what? Mike stopped the recording BEFORE IT ENDED!!!!! Oh yeah, missed like the last 15 minutes of it! Thank God for You Tube, right? Anyway, my thoughts on the service...Jennifer Hudson's performance and Brooke Shields eulogy were the best parts. I had to keep reminding myself that this was a memorial service, not an awards ceremony, everytime I would get tired of hearing the different Reverends summons the Almighty and the fans yelling out they love Michael.
With that being said, I have to share a thought by one of my co-workers today. Before the service was under way, a few people were talking about it and he proposed "What if this was the start of his tour? Everyone gets into the Staples Center, ready for a memorial service, and instead they have the best seats to his first concert?" I thought that would be AWESOME! No one but Michael Jackson could ever pull anything like that off...I mean to dupe all those people and then come out swinging...that would be the best comeback EVER!
Instead we will keep trying to do that moonwalk....

All Is Right With The World Again....

When I woke up this morning and felt this beautiful, magnificent breeze blowing through our bedroom, I just had to get up and drink it in. We have had our windows open pretty much since April, but it's been raining for so long, all we get is dampness. This was a refreshing, come-and-enjoy-me kind of breeze. Yesterday, July 4th, we had an entire day without rain. There were some clouds, but there was also plenty of sun. It's amazing how much you take it for granted...

Speaking of taking things for granted....2 days ago I took Bethany to a local cemetery for a bike ride. I guess that might sound kind of weird to some people... but we have this huge cemetery that is kind of locally situated and tons of people drive there to go walking and biking. So when we were done, I had the back of my minivan open to put Bethany's bike in. I had put my keys and my cell phone down...right in the little well where the latch for the lift gate is. This was my first mistake. After finagling the bike in there, I grabbed my keys and closed the back lift gate or hatch...this was mistake number two. Now, I have one of those automatic back hatches where you can open and close it with a button, and it is supposed to reverse direction if anything is preventing it from closing. Both the automatic open/close and auto reverse functions are broken...my third mistake was not getting those fixed. However, the motor that automatically grabs and locks that hatch with a vice-like grip as soon as the two parts touch, is fully functioning. As soon as the bottom hook grabbed the latch I saw my poor, helpless cell phone being crushed, but all I could do was watch until it was done. As soon as I opened the hatch, it spit my cell phone onto the ground like a bad-tasting nut. I've had this cell phone for almost three years and at first, I thought it had survived. A few scratches, but relatively ok....
I even opened it and it looked fine! I thought how can this be? It's a cell-phone miracle! Then Bethany pointed to something...what? A really big scratch? A dent? Oh no....there it is. All the horrid destruction.

Oh yeah. This baby wasn't working for beans. But...but...what will I do without a cell phone? I mean I always say I don't really need one, we lived without them for so long, what's the big deal...but now I'd actually have to DO that..at least for a few days...this was Friday night before a HOLIDAY...it would probably be Tuesday or Wednesday before I'd have a phone again! Hmmm...might not be such a bad thing. I'm kidding really. Anyone who knows me knows I hardly use my cell phone. I use the camera on my cell phone more than I make calls. So with my fears calmed down, I left Mike a note next to my broken cell phone on the counter. He actually had to work on the HOLIDAY so I didn't want him trying to call my cell and becoming frantic when I didn't answer...

Now I am emphasizing the word HOLIDAY because many people may not realize we use to live in a world where a HOLIDAY meant EVERYTHING is closed and EVERYONE gets to enjoy the day off. I can remember from when I was little. Since at least the late 1980's, this has not been the case...I can remember my brother working on Christmas when he was in college. So when Mike got home from work and said we should go right then and there and get me a new phone, I looked at him like he was a nutcase. OK, why would the Verizon store be open on a HOLIDAY? Seriously, there is no cell phone emergency that can't wait until Sunday (remember when everyone was closed on Sunday's too? Don't get me going!). Now Mike looked at me like I was a nutcase...he called our local Verizon store and, and....someone answered! And they were open until 7PM! Are you kidding? On a HOLIDAY!????? OK, so they must be bored out of their minds...we're going to go and give them something to do...because I have lots of questions before I pick out a new phone. As we pulled into the shopping plaza, I could not believe how many people were out shopping on a HOLIDAY! Well, the Verizon people will be happy to see us, I'm sure they are bored out of their minds.....I actually stopped to pick up my jaw when I walked in...the store was packed! We actually had to wait to be called when it was out turn! They had about 7 guys in there working! Are you kidding? Once I got over the shock of it all and picked out my new phone - thankfully I have a plan where I can get a new phone free every 2 years - I picked out this beauty...

Mostly because it has a good camera on it, but also because it's a pretty blue color...then Mike insisted I get this hard, clear protecting cover on it...good thing because I dropped it last night...not kidding! It's pretty simple looking...but what's this?

oh yeah, I'm up with the times now! Not that I will ever use half of this phone's functions and if anyone can tell me why there are five buttons on the keyboard highlighted, that would be great. But it's cute and that's all a girl really needs, right?

So now I'm going to get back to enjoying this delicious day...

Here's Hoping For A Sunny 4th!

This is a photo of the flag cake Mike has made several times for 4th of July celebrations. Fairly simple (because I don't make it) yet still cool looking. Here in New England we are all just hoping to have some sun for tomorrow, July 4th. We have had rain almost every day since the end of May. I heard them say on the news that June was the 4th cloudiest month EVER...like in history...going back to the 1800's! Unfortunately for us, rain accompanied most of those clouds. We normally spend the 4th with my parents at their summer place which happens to overlook the Cape Cod Canal...very nice. Due to the economy, many fireworks have been cut out of town and city budgets, but apparently that doesn't hold true for Joe Citizen. Right now as I write, I am listening to one of my neighbors light up a small arsenal of fireworks. Anyhoo...I hope everyone is able to enjoy the day with family or friends, but also remember countries that are still struggling to have some kind of independence and realize how lucky we are.