Thoughts From My Little Corner

For the Love of Sheba

2011-09-18T14:34:00.000-04:00

Our Beloved Sheba

Many of us have been through the heartache of losing one of their pets, so I have no doubt that enough of you can relate. Yesterday our dear boxer, Sheba, passed away peacefully during her mid-morning nap. It was such a shock when I found her as there was no indication that morning of what was to come. As a matter of fact, when I got up in the morning, still half asleep, I fed our dogs and only afterwards did I see Mike's note that he had already fed them...but Sheba was already done with her second helping before I could get to her...so she had a full belly and was peaceful when she went. I suppose what more can you ask for than to have her drift off in her sleep? That's the way I would want to go if I could choose.Then a little while later we went out into the backyard to try and decide where to bury her and the most magical thing happened. Literally 30 seconds after we walked outside we heard something in the woods, just beyond our fence and out comes this Doe and her baby, walking slow, munching on leaves here and there. We all remained still and quiet, taking in this wonderful scene as it unfolded. Just as I thought the pair were going to wander past, two of the smallest deer babies I have ever seen stumble up to where the other two were. I thought, "Sheba sent them to us to let us know she's OK". I mean really, what are the chances that this happens exactly when we walk out into our backyard?So Sheba's sister, Sasha, is having a hard time figuring it all out. The two of them have done everything together for 8 years. And I mean EVERYTHING. She kept waiting for Sheba to join her before she would eat breakfast today and when we let her outside, she keeps waiting for Sheba to come before going down the deck stairs to explore the backyard. Oh time will heal us, as it always does, but we will have some great memories of our time with our Sheba.

Missing The Hummingbird Whisperer...

2010-08-25T00:43:00.002-04:00

There are not many events that could bring me out of my sabbatical on the Island of Zanzibar. Two events have taken place to draw me back to reality for a bit. One of which I'll discuss in this post, the other will have to wait.
Had you been a loyal reader you might remember my posts back in May of 2009 about my garden and how my neighbor was a "true" gardener or my post from Aug of 2009 and My Neighbors The Hummingbird Whisperers". These neighbors built their house at the same time we did and have tolerated more than their share over the last 15 years from our side of the fence. It's so hard for me to even write about this, but our dear friend and neighbor, Kevin, lost his battle with cancer last week. He was 48. Like most people who lose someone they care about, it's not real yet. Kevin and his wife are two of the kindest people you could ever hope to live next to. They were not nosy and didn't complain when I was. As a matter of fact, they never complained when our dogs barked at them or when we were loud or ever for anything. Kevin was an easygoing, roll with it kind of person...as far as we knew. I wish we knew him better, I wish I had played more pool with him, drank more beer with him, etc.

I used to call him the Hummingbird Whisperer because we both had hummingbird feeders on our back decks, but theirs always had hummingbirds buzzing all around it and ours would be empty. After we found out he had passed away we were sitting on our back deck and hummingbirds were litterally buzzing past our heads and there were a bunch of them...like never before. I thought to myself, "Must be Kev's way of letting us know he's OK now"...of course he's probably up in heaven listening to this saying, "Sure, whatever you want to believe" and having a good chuckle over it.

Kevin always had a remarkable garden...he grew pumpkins so big you couldn't pick them up. One year they used 3 or 4 huge pumpkins in a Fall display in their front yard. One night Kevin heard something out front and woke in time to watch some kids try to lift the pumpkins they had rolled to the street, into a pick up. I don't think any made it into the truck and Kev got a good laugh. This year he had some help, but he still planted his garden. His wife gave my daughter one of the small watermelons from his garden. She kept all the seeds from it so we can plant them next year. Wouldn't it be cool if we could do that every year and 20 years from now we would still have watermelons from Kevin's garden? Ok, now Kevin is up there saying "Um, I've seen your gardening skills, good luck with that!"
It never seems to make sense when someone who is the epitome of "a good person" is taken from us too soon...I have to believe that God needed someone really special for some reason and chose Kevin...it doesn't make me feel better and it still seems unfair...I just feel so blessed to have known him at all. Thanks, Kev, for being a good example for us and our kids.

As Luck Would Have It....

2010-05-02T20:35:00.003-04:00

Do you know who this is?

I could not believe my luck! Just a few weeks ago we were a flood disaster zone here, but yesterday we were unseasonably warm in the 80's...so I decided to take the kids to the zoo! It was a bit crowded, but that was to be expected with the nice weather. When I got up to the entrance to pay, they handed me a pamphlet of the day's events. I almost had to read it twice...Dr. Jane Goodall was there speaking and doing a book signing event! Are you kidding! OMG...she is....wait...what did you say? Who IS she? OK, I can deal with my kids not knowing who she is, but my peeps? She is the woman who, way back in the late 1950's, went to Africa and lived with the gorillas and chimps! Amazing woman, to say the least. I got some eye-rolling and snickering from my kids and their friends...as much as I wanted to rush right over to where she would be speaking, we did go there to walk around the zoo. So I painstakingly walked with my 9 year-old to see each and every animal and let her take pictures of every one until we got to the event area. She was only scheduled to speak for 1/2 hr and only had 10 minutes left by the time we got there. I was still amazed by her and her dedication to environmental causes...in between yelling at my daughter for taking off on me while I was trying to take pictures of Dr. Goodall!

Philosophically Speaking....

2010-04-18T14:12:00.002-04:00

I'm taking a moment to climb up on my soapbox...run for hills, people! Although I originally began this blog so I could express my true opinions without fear of people judging me...I more or less ended up using it to find humor in everyday things. However, once in a while I feel I have access to this medium that could allow me to do some good.
Regardless of your religious afiliations or beliefs, there is no denying something funky is happening in the world these days; earthquakes, tsunami's, flooding, Coke Pepsi and Dr. Pepper all in the same commercial together. Those of us with any religious background thinks of all the verbage about the end of the world and wonders if this is it. Not sure I'm willing to go that far, but I do think it gives one pause to reflect on your own life. If you were to be taken out of this world tomorrow, would you be satisfied with what you had accomplished? I know, I know, a little deep, even for me. I personally feel as though I should try to leave this world a little better than when I came into it. I always tell Mike that when I die, I don't want my headstone to say I had a clean house, I want it to say something about how I gave back...I am still working on that. So maybe this week everyone can take a step back and think about this question..."satisfied" can mean so many different things to different people as well as what you have accomplished. I think our actions would have a rippling effect like the whole "pebble in the pond" idea...people see you giving back and they want to as well. Or they stand there saying, "What the hell are you throwing pebbles for?"

Recent Flooding Spawns Idiot Sightings....

2010-04-05T21:39:00.002-04:00

We here in the Northeast are just emerging from record flooding. Many people have suffered severe damage and loss during last week's flooding. As a result of the heavy rains we naturally have an increase in the amount of pot holes in our roads. Now I realize I tend to pick on stupid drivers, but when it comes to pot holes, you really need to be paying attention. I, myself, have hit a few "good" ones this season...and by "good" ones, I mean they swallowed my front end and I started looking to see where my tires would land after they popped off.
Here is the situation: you are driving down a street, there are 2 lanes, one going in each direction...there is a car coming the other way...you come to a large pot hole in the road...what do you do? Apparently the right answer is "swerve into oncoming traffic, close your eyes and hope for the best!"...because I can't tell you how many times I have had to stop for a car that has swerved into my lane to avoid a pot hole! Idiots! These are probably the same people that don't put money in parking meters and ride their bikes on the sidewalks...I can't handle the chaos!

Laser Tag and The Elevator of Doom...

2010-03-29T21:19:00.002-04:00

Oh yeah, I'm gettin' Mom of the Year for this one. Two weeks ago it was my daughter's 13th birthday. She had asked to take a few of her friends to play laser tag for her birthday, which we had agreed to. We would need to take both our cars to get them all there, but we didn't mind. I had never been but my daughter has been with friends before and loves it. It wasn't a problem until my father-in-law had to have emergency open heart surgery and my husband had to fly to FL a few days before the scheduled laser tag. Her friends had already responded to invites so I couldn't change it...no, I roped my Mom into helping me drive them there. The laser tag place is located in a city not familiar to us but we found the building OK...it looked like a huge, run down mill-type building. When we entered we noticed a man standing at the elevator on his cell phone - he told us he couldn't get the elevator to work...he kept getting on and the door would close, but it wouldn't move up or down so he was calling one of the businesses in the building to see what was going on. You have to understand, the inside of the building looked like it hadn't seen a makeover...ever...not since it was built...and the elevator was small...very, very small. My mother and I are claustrophobic so we both said "let's just take the stairs"...easy solution, right? No can do..the door to the stairs only opens from the inside. The elevator worked for a group of boys we let cut us so we could see if they plummeted to their death instead of us...I tried really hard not to show any fear...my poor Mother, however, wore fear like a badge of honor...she wasn't going to get on the elevator but I pulled her in at the last minute. We were 9 people squished in a small elevator that was chugging slowly towards the 4th floor when one of Jamie's friends jumped up high and came crashing down...because she thought it would be funny....we could all feel the elevator temporarily stop when she jumped and I thought I was going to pass out...the fear inside me took over and shrieked for her to please not do that again! We were all quite happy to make it to the 4th floor. The place is filled with a multitude of extremely loud games that kids can spend money on while waiting for their turn to play laser tag...when I say loud, I think my Mom and I had two totally different conversations even though we were talking to each other...When we went to leave, there was a line for the rickety elevator so it was an easy decision to take the stairs down and avoid the Elevator of Doom.

Life Is One Big Septic System...

2010-03-28T21:10:00.003-04:00

It's all about how you filter out the crap! We've been having issues with our septic system so I thought a septic themed topic would be appropriate.

I know, I know. You haven't heard from me in a while. 2009 was a doosey...it was a tough year for us. 2010 didn't start off so rosy either. I have been in such a funk, the motivation to write just wasn't there. My friend, Kori, asked why she hadn't seen anything from me, and I said, "Because life is really sucking right now" and she said that's what I should write about! I wasn't sure, but then more and more people have been asking where I've been....so here we go....

I know more about septic systems now than I ever thought was possible. I am on a first name basis with the guy at the Board of Health in my city. We were going to get it done at the end of last year and had signed up for a guy to do it without asking many questions...fortunately something sent a red flag up for me and when I started digging, I found out he was lying to me...nasty bugger! So I've read a ton online and asked a bunch of questions from a bunch of people. When we built our house 14 years ago, no one told us we had to do anything different with a septic system. Neither of us had experience with a septic system so all we did was get it pumped every few years. Now I know those little wipes we got the kids that say "flushable" should NEVER be used in a septic system and that we should have been using special toilet paper all these years...did you know that septic systems work by using bacteria so when you use ANTI-BACTERIAL hand soap or anything, you are killing the bacteria that make your septic system work? I know that now! Now that we get a puddle in our front lawn anytime someone takes a shower longer than 2 minutes! So we will be having our front lawn dug up and share the stench with our neighbors while the job is being done.
Life really is like a septic system...it runs quite smoothly when all the crap is filtered out...don't ya think?

How About Some Freebies With Your Order?

2010-01-19T21:26:00.002-05:00

I frequently peruse magazines for good deals and here and there I have tried to pass them on to you, my peeps. I read about this site: www.heyitsfree.net that supposedly lists all the truly no-strings-attached free deals out there. So I went on to check out the site...and I was hooked. I had to stop at some point because I was gaining such momentum in my freebie frenzy that I almost requested free samples of cooking spices! Me! They would look nice in the kitchen but I wouldn't have a clue what to do with them. Then I started thinking to myself..."in 6-8 weeks I'm either going to start getting all kinds of cool stuff in the mail, or my computer is going to start crashing from all the spam I'll be getting from these sites I just gave all my info to!"....so ask me how I'm doing in 6-8 weeks...

Another site I have mentioned before, but worth another mention is www.6pm.com
Sign up to get their daily deals emailed to you. You might get sick of seeing their email every day, but in the subject line is usually listed the 3 or 4 brands that are on sale for that day only. If you have children (like me) that will only wear certain brands or shoes or clothes, you can great some great deals. A good example: Dansko makes great shoes for people who need comfort, but they are expensive. This past Sunday they had a $115.00 pair of shoes for only $28! You heard me....a little word to the wise though, don't wait until later in the day to go back and order as they do run out of sizes.

My last little tid bit for you today is www.dailygrommet.com - this site features one little-known, yet useful product each day. At least that's how it was described in the article I was reading. I've checked it out...I would say some of the items should stay "little-known"...who needs an invisible belt?

Try To Remember People, I'm A Good, Catholic Girl...

2010-01-16T12:06:00.004-05:00

There is nothing I can do now but apologize to all my adoring fans. I was hacked. I had not been on my blog since my last post on December 11, 2009...you know how it is, the Holidays, the stress, etc....so I went on the other night with the intention of posting something new and I thought I had accidentally clicked into someone else's site...it took me a few seconds to figure out my blog had been hacked. There, at the top of the screen, was an inappropriate cartoon with an unGodly amount of html code. So if you did happen to view my blog while this was posted and thought to yourself, "Hmm, she seems to have changed the general undertones of her postings"...shame on you! Remember, I'm a good, Catholic girl. I hope viewing this posting didn't cause any harm to anyone's computer...I have no idea how hacking works so I'm assuming it was just random and for the most part, harmless. If you didn't view the post while it was up, I'm not going to tell you what the cartoon was...no I'm not going to refer to the cartoon Avatar and Smurf at all nor what they were supposed to be doing...

Elvis Is In The House!

2009-12-11T20:38:00.003-05:00

I know it's almost Christmas, but with so much going on, I completely missed Halloween. I had to post this photo of Bethany, my 9 yr old - she made a great Elvis! She had some moves and after each house gave her candy, she said, "Thank you, thank you very much".....of course.

My parents camp for the whole summer and the campground where they stay has a Halloween weekend we usually attend. They dress up and hand out candy, scaring all the little children....

Lovely couple, aren't they?

Supposubly, It's Just Allergies.....

2009-12-03T19:22:00.003-05:00

OK, for the record, I'm not perfect....I know, I know, it's a shocker, but I'm afraid it's true. So the venting I'm about to unleash is not done without the knowledge that I'm sure at times I can be annoying and ridiculous. Probably not, but I don't want to sound arrogant.

Anyway, in case people don't know, I do not live in the ghetto, I do not run with a gang or hang with hoodlums. I have a professional job and interact with professional people on a daily basis. It never ceases to amaze me that people like this can use words such as "supposubly" (instead of supposedly)...I know this seems like a minor detail, but if you are an adult over the age of say...4, you have no excuse in pronouncing your words correctly. Whenever I am talking with someone and they use that word, I start talking to myself about how I can't believe they just said that word and I end up not hearing another thing the person says.

Moving on. You may also not know I am an ex-smoker. Ex-smoker's are the WORST non-smokers out there. We can't stand the smell of smoke even more than people who never smoked...not sure why, but it's true. Now because I was a smoker for 20+ years, I know what a smoker's cough is. I also have allergies and I know what a cough from allergies is like. They are not the same...not even close. So when I hear someone coughing up a lung on a daily basis, in between their smoking breaks, suddenly claim their cough must be due to an oncoming cold or allergies...I want to walk up to them, laugh in their face and say, "Are You Kidding????!!! Your cough is generated from your lungs trying to rid themselves of all the goop that is oozing from them because of your smoking!!!"....I mean seriously!

I think that's all for now....

I Went, I Saw, I Was Dragged In Deeper....

2009-11-22T20:43:00.002-05:00

I will keep this short as I know I have some readers who are not big Twilight fans..I know it's hard to believe...but it's true. My friend and I decided to forego the opening night showings this time around in the hopes of escaping the screaming throngs of teenage girls every time the main character appeared on the screen. It opened Friday and we waited until today, Sunday, to go see the movie and I'm happy to say not only was there no screaming, but there were no lines and the theater wasn't even packed. Granted they were showing the movie about every 1/2 hour...anyway, at one point in the movie, I recognized the scene from a clip I had seen online and knowing the character "Jacob" was about to rip his shirt off and reveal quite a treat for us women, I said "here it comes" to my friend. As we were taking in this wonderful visual, my friend said to me, "I feel like a pedofile!". Yes that made me put the whole age thing into perspective...here we are, 40 year old women, gawking at teenage bodies...wow...when I actual put it in print we really sound like cougars! However, it's just a movie, nothing we would do in real life....we have some morals! So no matter what you think of us, we will continue to gawk and wait ever so patiently for the release of the next Twilight movie, "Eclipse" on June 30th....or maybe we'll wait until July 2nd....

I Have Failed Miserably.....

2009-11-21T12:04:00.002-05:00

OK, maybe Joan Crawford is going a little overboard, but I recently had a few situations with my daughters that caused me to realize my shortcomings with parenting.

Now I have talked to a few friends with kids in that 12-13yr old range so I know I'm not alone...but I keep looking for the switch....you know, the one that someone is secretly switching on and off causing my 12 yr old to suddenly turn into an irrational, screaming girl who cannot understand why her Mother does terrible, horrible things to her. Even when I wasn't there. For example, she has an Aeropostale sweatshirt that she wears all the time. It is her jacket, her blanket, her napkin, her candy hiding place, etc. You get the picture. We forced her to take it off the other night so we could wash it and I put it in the dryer, which I don't normally do for fear it would alter some way...but I was working under time constraints. Soooo....the following morning when she was rushing around like normal to get ready in time for her school bus, she put on her sweatshirt. Now, the zipper pull had migrated to the top of the zipper during the wash...and I might remind you she is an honors student, but that apparently stops at the book smarts. She grabbed both sides of the bottom of the sweatshirt and started screaming at me that I should never have put it in the dryer because now it was broken and she couldn't zipper it! I mean this was quite a tirade...as she continued screaming, she took off said sweatshirt and threw it. I almost felt bad, only because she was going to feel really stupid in two seconds. I slowly picked up the sweatshirt and right in front of her, pulled the zipper pull all the way down to the bottom...then handed it back to her. She immediately laughed and said she was sorry....oh, sorry, I was in my happy place again! She put the sweatshirt on and said I had shrunk it (it fit perfectly).

Now the next incident needs me to remind everyone that my 9 year old is nicknamed Dramatica for a reason. I also need to remind you that several times I have denied my children medical attention because I thought they were faking, only to find out they actually did have a fractured wrist and strep throat. OK, with that being said, one day this past week, instead of my alarm waking me at 5:15am as usual, I awoke at 6:30a - very bad. We have a strict morning schedule and we were all running around with our heads cut off. One of our dogs was acting weird so I asked the girls to let the dogs outside, and I turned to go get dressed. I had only managed to get my pants and bra on when I heard screams. I didn't panic, but then Jamie was screaming, "She's not breathing!" and Jamie was screaming and whining...when I asked who it was that wasn't breathing and she screamed, "Bethany!", I thought I was going to throw up. I couldn't imagine what had happened to cause such an accident! I raced to the other side of the house half dressed. Jamie is frozen in the kitchen, pointing to Bethany who is sprawled out on her back on the deck outside. Bethany is drawing in deep breaths and crying. It was at this moment that the lightbulb went on. We have seriously failed our children somewhere along the way. They are clearly grossly unprepared for life. I looked at Jamie, pointed to her sister and said, "That is breathing - clearly she is breathing!". So I wondered if Bethany had actually not been breathing, would Jamie just have stood there, doing nothing? Moving on....the slider door was still open and I looked at Bethany, still dressed in shorts, tank top, no socks or shoes...still laying on the deck in 30 degree freezing cold weather. I asked her what happened and she said she slipped. I kind of rolled my eyes (maybe a clue to the poor parenting?) and marched out to help her up...this is when I realized the entire deck was covered in a microscopic film of ice and I almost went down myself. I wished I could take the eye rolling back. I asked her what made her think it was OK to go out side dressed as she was when it was so cold? She had no answer for me. Had we done a better job, she would know this was a bad idea. So I ended up taking Bethany to the emergency room and she is fine, just sore. But does she know how to milk it!
As I was just sitting her writing this, she was making up songs while playing the piano (she does not know how to play), one song was about how the devil is coming to town to steal your soul. Something is just not right there.

Meep!....Cry of the Rebel

2009-11-12T21:31:00.003-05:00

My all time favorite muppet has always been Beaker, the bumbling lab assistant:

I always thought it was because he innocently tried to help and always ended up burning something or breaking somethng by accident...but now I really know why I could relate to Beaker...he is a wild child, a rebel without a cause and when he really wants to let you know who's boss, he cries......."meep"

Uh, excuse me? "meep?"

Yeah, meep. No one seems to know what it means, but the principal of a school in my state has banned kids from using this word. When I saw it on the news, I asked my 12 year old daughter what the word meant, figuring it must stand for something bad...a kind of rebellious code word. Nope. Just meep. You heard me, it has no hidden devil message, doesn't stand for some new drug...just a word apparently chosen by a group of kids to say repeatedly just to disrupt their classes. They planned this "meep" disruption through Facebook and the principal got wind of it and supposedly asked them to curb the meeping. I'm sure this only caused them to want to meep even more - so a letter was sent home to all children in the school advising kids will be suspended for using the word "meep". Is this the most ridiculous thing you have ever heard? I mean punish the kids for disrupting the classes, but to ban a nonsensical word used by a muppet? Are you kidding? If I were in that school I would stage a protest and invite Beaker to give a speech...what's a little suspension, right?

There Is Nothing Wrong With Being Weird...

2009-11-07T22:19:00.002-05:00

As a matter of fact, my oldest daughter enjoys when people think she is weird. I don't mean weird in the sense that she uses household objects as clothing or talks to friends only she can "see"...I mean she has a weird sense of humor and I believe it is one of the greatest gifts I have given her. I have come to this conclusion because there is this cartoon that some genius has created on You Tube that I find very funny....it's been out there a while and there are now at least 3 cartoons that I know of. They are called "Charlie The Unicorn"...please, go to YouTube and watch all three. I actually haven't watched the first two in a while, but the third one has this song that is sung under the water and is hysterical...especially the starfish....ok, just click this link or paste into your browser and watch the third "episode":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eaCCkfjPm0o
My daughter and I both think this is funny. Very funny.
Now, should you have just watched this and be thinking to yourself that your image of me has come down quite a few notches, well, I make no apologies. I'm weird and I'm OK with that. If you watched this video and you didn't laugh out loud at the starfish...my image of you has come down a few notches. Seriously...Starfish really loves you!

My Mom...The Beer Pong Champion!

2009-11-06T21:40:00.002-05:00

I'm going to give you a little background before this one...when I was growing up, it became apparent that my Dad was much more "in the know" about under age drinking than my Mom. This made sense since my Dad had to quit school after one year of high school to go to work and help with the family finances - he grew up quite young. My Mom was on the other end of the spectrum as her Dad owned a gas station and she was raised not to do any un-ladylike things. She told me the worst thing she ever did was squirt her friend at school with a squirt gun, except her friend ducked and instead she squirted a nun in the face...she attended a nice Catholic school. She was a nice Catholic girl. She didn't know about such things as sneaking booze from your parents or drinking games. Her innocence worked to my brother and my advantage when we were younger because my Mom just had no clue what to look for, what things we could be getting into. My Dad knew and for the most part he played it cool as long as no one was getting hurt..."I didn't tell your Mother about the beer in the backseat of your car...just get it out of there"...of course that would never fly in today's world of parents being sued all the time for the poor decisions of their children. My Mom is pretty funny and it doesn't take but a few sips of a pretty mixed drink to get her giggling...her famous story is from years ago when she used to like this drink called a "melon ball"...we were at a wedding and she asked the bartender (completely serious, mind you) "do you have melon balls?"...she ran into the ladies room without her drink she was so embarrassed.

So, this past Wednesday night my parents had our girls over and when I went to pick them up, Bethany and my Mom were playing a game on the Wii. I had to do a double take...it was beer pong! Except without the drinking part...but the characters were scantily clad girls and the location looked like a bar. I said, "Mom, what is this?" Bethany replied, "It's Ping, Mom"...I looked at my Mother and said, "Mom, this is a drinking game. It's beer pong." Of course this was the wrong thing to say because instantly my 12 year old wanted to know how it was a drinking game. I told her I didn't know, they didn't have this game when I was growing up. Which was true, we had anchorman...me and my brother were an excellent team by the way. So they continued playing and my Mom was really good at it. So I'm thinking we need a beer pong table for the holidays...beer pong for the Wii, what will they think of next!

This And That And Some Things In Between...

2009-11-04T20:33:00.006-05:00

As I said before, we had a lot going on the last few months. At one point, it was just ridiculous how much we were dealing with and our breaking point came when we were waiting outside a courtroom with a few other people and someone came in and said a truck in the parking lot was on fire...we looked at each other as we started hearing sirens...there was a truck parked 2 spaces away from us...we just started laughing...then we started seeing the smoke billowing in front of the windows so Mike ran outside to see if he could move our minivan...too late, they wouldn't even let him get near our car...by the time I ran out to take this picture, the fire department had it all under control so you can just see a little smoke above the cars...and all that was left when we went to our car later on was a pile of rusted rubble where the truck had been...but for a minute there we were like, "seriously? what else could possibly happen to us?"

Once a year my boss puts on this golf extravaganza for vendors and customers. I help to organize part of this event and it makes me crazy for about of month or so, but in return I get to spend a day at the golf course...ok I did get there at 6:30am and I did work via laptop until we had to set up, get everyone (160 or so people) through registration, then set up the prizes and tables, etc....but eventually I was able to sit for a moment and relax....

I know how you all love that I take pictures while I'm driving, so here's one of a nice sunset on my drive home from work one night...I actually took a bunch because I could visually see the sun sinking into the ground (in between making sure I wasn't driving off the road or into any fellow commuters!) and I thought it was cool....it didn't translate well on the camera though, so this is the best one...

While our computer was down we had Mike's semi-annual scans at Dana Faber to make sure everything is still looking good. While we were waiting, I realized how cool that particular area at Dana Faber is. Dana Faber is connected in many ways to the Red Sox by way of charity events, etc. This area at the bottom of the stairs has a whole wall of signed Red Sox baseballs and the walls themself are painted to look like the Green Monster at Fenway Park....if you don't know what "the Green Monster" is...too bad!

Anyway, here is a picture of the wall of baseballs and one of Mike sitting in actual old bleacher seats, getting his yucky drink ready...

More From My Missing Time.....

2009-11-03T21:38:00.002-05:00

OK, where was I...oh yes, I lost about 2 months of my time with you due to a computer crash and we were catching up. One of the big events this summer was my 40th birthday. I took no chances with this celebration and had started thinking about it months before. Yes, I would have loved to celebrate Oprah style with a 3 day extravaganza, however in reality a backyard BBQ would have to do. The date I picked revolved around when one of my best friends, who lives in Africa, would be here visiting. Once I picked the date, there is no turning back. Regardless of the weather, that date is yours. My theme was "favorites"...all my favorites, of course. Cheesecake being one of them...although I made a list of 40 of my favorites. Next was music. Throughtout my life music has played such a big role - I can relate almost any event in my life to a song or style of music. I went to a lot of concerts in my day. I spent hours upon hours jotting down specific songs then going through old CD's and other people's CD's, downloading songs, then compiling specific tracks. This was no small task. We have a karaoke machine, but you can use the microphone with it like a speaker. So the idea was, I would play all these CD's I burned throughout the day and would tell little stories to go along with some of the songs. I also had some of my favorite stories from growing up. When the day came, Mike couldn't get the CD's to play...not even kidding....the microphone worked and I remember I kept yelling at him "Fix It!" - the poor guy tried everything and I just kept yelling "fix it!" but we never did get them to play - I was mad, but the wine helped dull the pain. And even though rain was predicted all week, we had none.

Anyway, on my invitations I had requested that everyone bring something that is one of their favorites; a story, a food, a shirt, etc. The picture above is my friend who grew up on my street and she is telling everyone how she always loved these chocolate type pop tarts that my Mom always bought for me and my brother, but her Mom would never buy them...so now that she is a Mom herself, she always has them in the house.

I loved celebrating that I'm 40 with so many friends that mean so much to me. I still haven't grown up yet, so the number 40 doesn't really mean anything to me...at least not yet anyway. I ended the night around 1:30am by going swimming in our pool, then trying to walk off the room spins so I could go to bed without feeling like I was in a tornado...

I Should Have Been A Marine Biologist....

2009-10-27T21:33:00.012-04:00

We had maybe 2-3 days in between the girls having pneumonia when they were both feeling fine. My Mom wanted to take us on a whale watch. When I was younger my parents took us on a whale watch and I got the most amazing photos. The whales were literally jumping out of the water for us all day. It was very memorable. This trip proved to be memorable also, but for other reasons.

We set out from Plymouth, MA and it was a beautiful day...just the girls. This is a photo of my Mom with the girls...

Here is a rare photo of me and my girls, although this was actually taken at the end of the day, as you can see our hair has that lovely wind-blown look that is so appealing...

We had great seating on the lower level and there was almost no one else down there... except this nice woman (she had a really cool camera), her son (Bethany hung out with him) and I'm guessing her Mom. Then Jamie noticed this right near where we were sitting:

This could explain why the trip became memorable; that and the fact that we were at the back of the boat - right where the exhaust fumes were...anyway here are some cool photos from the day...

This is one of my favorites...

You can see they got pretty close...

Now I know you probably can't tell what this next picture is...but it's the whale going under our boat...cool, but a little frightening because even though you get lulled into their gracefulness and excited to see them so close, when they go under the boat you remember that all they have to do is nudge our boat and we will capsize...

For some reason though, this never happens; it's almost like they know there are marine biologists on all of these boats who's main goal in life is to protect them and make life better for them...imagine whale watching for your job!

Now it takes a good hour to get out to where the boat actually stops and does the whale watching. We, however, ended up meeting up with some whales on our way out to the watching area...so we had kind of a pit stop on the way. While me and the girls were excitedly running from one side of the boat to the other, snapping away in awe, I suddenly realized my Mom was sitting down, not really looking at the whales..actually she wasn't moving her head at all. Then I noticed she was a little pale...oh no! I realized she must be seasick...this is not good. We were only about 40 minutes into a 4 hour trip! And there is no way off the boat and nothing you can do about it...I never felt so bad for my Mom...she said she took some motion sickness stuff before she left home, but later realized she had mistakenly taken the stuff to calm her down before she goes on an airplane...so she was sick, but calm - ok very sick, but very calm...she kept telling me to go and enjoy myself, but I felt awful...then she leaned over the railing and got sick...I know she is going to kill me for blogging about this, but while it was happening I wanted to laugh so bad because it happened right when there were whales almost right in front of where she was...so everyone was on that side of the boat...watching....my poor Mom. After that she sat down and closed her eyes and stayed that way until the boat started the motors and headed for home. She wasn't the only casualty - there was a little boy who apparently was brought on the whale watch for his birthday because he got seasick and all he kept crying was "This is the worst birthday EVER"...then he got sick and was perfectly fine after that.

Here are a few more photos...enjoy!

This is another favorite:

Just Ride Lugia To School...

2009-10-26T21:41:00.002-04:00

File this under, "Huh?"

This is the conversation I had this morning while I was driving my little genius to school:

Bethany: "If I didn't go to daycare in the morning, would you not have to pay for it?"

Me: "Do you mean if you stopped going altogether (she goes every morning so I can drop her off at 8am instead of 830am)?

Bethany: "Yes"

Me: "I would not have to pay for it if you didn't go anymore" not sure I wanted to know the answer..."Why?"

Bethany: "When we were camping me and Jamie found these ball things in the woods and we pretended they were Pokemon eggs. We covered them with pine needles and leaves to keep them warm until we left, then we brought them home with us. I had a dream that when we brought them home, one of them hatched and it was Lugia (a Pokemon character).

Me: (blink, blink)"Umm, what does this have to do with not going to daycare?"

Bethany: "Oh, well if I had Lugia I wouldn't need to go to daycare because I could just stay with Lugia when you went to work and then Lugia could fly me to school."

Me: (blank stare)"Oh"....I was too afraid to ask if she knew Lugia wasn't real.

It's Good To Be Back At The Dexter Lake Club...

2009-10-24T21:43:00.004-04:00

Wow! What a vacation! Two months in the Carribean, living in a luxury suite only steps from the beach....oh wait, that's the "happy place" I've had to turn to during all the crap we've gone through over the last two months! (By the way, the title of this post is a reference to the movie "Animal House" in case you were wondering...or maybe you're just so used to my zany comments you didn't give it a second thought)

It will take me a few posts to get everyone caught up...I'm really amazed at how much can happen in two months! Let me first apologize for leaving you, my loyal readers, hanging for all this time, I'm sure you were going through withdrawels (as the reader says, "Hmph, didn't realize she hadn't posted for that long..) Secondly, you can blame my hubby for everything...he's going to love that!

It all started back in August when my husband decided to download some virus protection program from the web (I heard a bunch of you just exclaim "idiot!"). Now, let me preface this by saying the poor guy gets sucked in quite easily...all you have to do in dangle any shiny new gadget in front of him and he's sold. Also let me say that we pay for virus protection through our internet service provider and one other service, so there was no need for anything additional. He still cannot explain why he did it....but he did. Slowly we noticed things changing on our computer, but we kept thinking the other one was changing stuff. Things like color schemes or fonts...small stuff. Then we started getting this flashing pop-up with an alarm saying crippling viruses were detected and we needed to click here now to get rid of them and this window had the Windows symbol in the corner, but it was slightly different - enough for me to realize it was a scam. Within a few weeks our computer was completely shutting down for no reason, when we were in the middle of stuff. Eventually, we were not able to get in at all. It has taken several attempts and different plans of attack, but we finally (and just this morning!) have our computer back in working order....thank you, Ken, for all your hard work in helping us...and when I say "us" I mean me, because it will take a while for me to let hubby use the computer again without supervision.

Now also during this time, My oldest daughter had pneumonia for 2 1/2 weeks, followed by my youngest having it for 2 weeks and missing the first week of school. While my oldest was sick, she had another, unrelated yet more serious medical situation that we had to deal with and still are. It was probably a good thing that our computer crashed during this time, I had about all I could handle dealing with many other situations - I honestly don't think I could have blogged...it would have sounded forced...you know the ones...sometimes I get lazy, what can I say? So we also were dealing with a financial crisis, unexpected (and unwanted in my opinion) relatives coming for a few days which has turned into 1 1/2 months (so far) - can you say super stressful? I know there was a bunch of other stuff in there, but suffice it to say I retreated to my "happy place" so much, I really thought I was living there! I'm thinking "New Year, Fresh Start"...who's with me!

Seriously, Whose Kids Are You?

2009-08-29T23:47:00.004-04:00

So we have one week and two days before my kids go back to school. The end of the summer, a time when kids are trying to grasp at every last little bit of sleeping late and doing absolutely nothing for as long as they can...right? Not my little genius. She got up this morning and as I was eating my breakfast, she pitched her plan for how we would spend our Saturday. Doing math. You heard me...she wanted to do math. Her teacher said they should practice their math facts over the summer and she was getting worried because summer was almost over and she had not once done any math! So she proposed we spend our morning practicing math facts...I stared at her like a fly at the end of a frog's tongue...I knew I was getting sucked into something and I could only anticipate how bad it would be. Blink, blink...I stared at her blankly for a minute or so...did she really come from me? Did any of my genes really run through this child? I was seriously starting to doubt it...the mere mention of math when it was remotely summer like was cause for stomach upset and anxiety. She could tell by the blank stare that she was losing me so she backed down a little and said, "OK, just for 2 hours; for 2 hours we'll do math facts". My brain was arguing: the Mother side was saying "hello! this is your job...you want her to grow up and be able to make lots of mon...I mean do whatever she wants, right?". Then the part of me that has never grown up laughed, "Math! Are you kidding? Someone tell me she's kidding...this is a joke, right? Does she know it's Saturday?". The Mom side won out and we did friggin' math facts...ugh...the things we do for our kids!
Since it rained relentlessly today, I spent the entire day cleaning and decided to take a break tonight and watch a movie. It's one from Blockbuster that came through the mail. I had wanted to see it for a long time - I think when it came out years ago it got a bunch of awards. It was "Angela's Ashes"...wow...what a pick me up that was! That had to be the most depressing movie EVER! I could not believe how many bad things happened to one family...and it takes place in Limerick, Ireland and as far as the movie is concerned, it rained in torrents pretty much every day, all year round. Now I know this isn't true because I've been to Ireland, specifically Limerick, and it was not raining. So there.

Taco.......Polo!

2009-08-23T19:39:00.003-04:00

We were still experiencing steal-your-breath humidity last week when my Dad came over to spend some time in the pool with us. I don't know how I got on the subject of food (it's never far from my thoughts so it's not too difficult) but we were talking about the taco salad I make. Yes, I make it and no, there isn't much cooking involved so you can see how it is a possibility that I might be able to handle such a task, unsupervised even! Shortly after that, my girls begged us to play Marco Polo, so we indulged and my Dad was "It" first. I thought he kept saying "Taco" instead of "Marco"...so when he tagged me I finally said, "Dad, ya know it's "Marco" right? And he laughed and said that's what he was saying...so now I was "It" and every time I said , "Marco" the wise ass said "Chili pepper"....this, people, explains a lot about my warped sense of humor. So now, instead of playing "Marco...polo"...we play "Taco...chili pepper".

Back to the taco salad. I will admit the photo below is not the most enticing...as a matter of fact, you may look at it and think, "Eww...not too appetizing!"...sorry about that...I'm usually pretty good at the food photos...but I think I was tired and didn't want to try to find a pretty bowl to put it in. Every time I make it, people rave about and I can't take credit for it. About 12 1/2 years ago I worked at Collette Tours and my friend, Suzanne, and I were pregnant with the exact same due date. Our friends from work gave us a baby shower together and it was great. It was held at one of our friends' houses, Joanna. She was the one who gave me this recipe after I had some that day and had to be able to make it at home. I could not believe how easy it was!

So here is the recipe:

One head of lettuce, chopped up (I use a bag of the bagged lettuce, romaine)
One bag of Tostitos, crunched up
One pound of hamburg, cooked and crumbled (I usually use 2 pounds)
One green pepper, chopped up (I usually use a red pepper)
One tomato, chopped up
One bunch of scallions, chopped up
One package of taco seasoning (I use Old El Paso)
One package of shredded taco cheese
One bottle of creamy Italian dressing (large bottle)

Mix everything together and chill for about an hour before serving. A couple of helpful hints: don't mix together until you are ready to chill then serve right away - the chips get soggy. I sometimes cut everything up and cook the hamburg and store in the fridge overnight, then mix everything together right before serving. Also, leftovers dry out really fast; you can add lots of things to moisten the salad to eat the next day - I've added more salad dressing, even if it's not the same kind (see, I'm not even going by a recipe for this...I'm winging it! Me...the one who doesn't cook!), I've added a little mayo, or even tza tziki. (For those of you not familiar with tza tziki, I'll have a post on that at another time). Anyhoo, you must run out to get these ingredients and make this taco salad....like right now....ok not really...but you should try it soon...I know you'll like it, and people will tell you how great it is and that you are such a good cook...then they'll always want you to cook something fabulous for them...hmmm...I'm starting to see why I don't cook....ok maybe you can make the salad and just eat it all yourself? Anyway, enjoy!

I thought you might like to see some of my morning glories. I planted three packages of morning glory seeds in the Spring. Two of the packages have really taken off, winding their way up our fence. When I was growing up I remember these blue flowers growing around our garage door. I thought they were great. Up until last week, only one of the packages had bloomed and they are all hot pink and dark purple...very pretty...but I still wanted the blue ones. The buds are amazing the way they grow...they're all rolled up perfectly, then they gently unfold. I finally got my blue ones this last week:

Aren't they great!

This star-shaped one is one that is unfolding, but not quite there yet. Very cool.

Lots of Laughs at the Kennedy Schriver Funeral...

2009-08-19T03:42:00.004-04:00

Not the best photo, eh? Sometimes I forget that the rest of the world doesn't know who the Kennedy Family is as well as people in Massachusetts do. Whether we like it or not, they are like our Royal Family. Anything at all that happens within this family is reported in the news at a moments notice. We tend to treat their weddings like one of our distant relatives weddings, and the same goes for a death in their family. So I know I'm a little late on this, but a week ago, Eunice Kennedy Schriver passed away. I'm sure there are many of the Kennedy clan that have normal, regular jobs and lead normal, regular lives...but it almost seems that they all tend to do something fantastic in the lives. Eunice was no different as she founded the Special Olympics and did it way back when parents were made to feel ashamed about they special needs children. So not only did she do something great, she bucked the trend to do it. I had never even heard anything about her husband before last week...there was so much on the news leading up, and then after her death. her husband, Sargeant Schriver, was "the driving force behind the founding of the Peace Corps"! Can you imagine helping to found an organization as big as the Peace Corps and still getting trumped by your spouse!
So I hadn't posted anything on the passing of Eunice because I just didn't have an angle. I usually come across my own way of seeing a situation. Then last night my Dad gave me the gift of a story about the funeral. My Dad definitely has the gift of the gab and I love it. I may have mentioned in the past how my parents are well known in my church (and I use the word "my" loosely), and when I say well known, my Dad and his friend are like the comedic caretakers of the church and pal around with the pastor on a daily basis. Over the past year, there was a young priest wannabe staying at our church. I guess it's the Catholic equivalent of an internship in the business world. Nice guy, good sense of humor. So in June he was ordained and was given his own church to, to...work in? Guide? Find comic relief in? Which church? The church that was just host to countless famous people coming for the funeral of Eunice Kennedy Schriver. Can you imagine? What luck! Most of us would be thinking, "Is it ok to ask for autographs at a funeral?"...no, not this newly ordained priest. At Communion time he was standing halfway down the aisle with the wine in the goblet and noticed a man coming back from Communion still fiddling with the host (bread) in his hand (blasphemy!)...so he scolded him and told him not to play with it, that he should have consumed it right away! Who was the man? Jon Bon Jovi! This coming from the same priest that also said Stevie Wonder really annoyed him that day because he kept waving at him and Stevie wouldn't wave back....

Diapergate...

2009-08-14T06:59:00.004-04:00

Don't worry, I haven't posted a picture of diapers because I'm pregnant...I have to tell you about something bizarre that happened last night.
Last night as I was driving home from work and I was coming up to our house, there was a Chevy Blazer-type vehicle parked on the side of the street right before our driveway. Actually it was in between the house before ours and our house. Now this might not seem odd to anyone so let me tell you about our street. It's a relatively short, dead-end street and our house is almost at the end. There is a piece of land between our house and the house before ours which is all woods except for a strip of grass along the road, which Mike mows. I also need to tell you that we pretty much know every car that comes down our road, even if it belongs to a relative of someone that lives on the street. Now this vehicle was parked next to that woodsy area, up on the strip of grass which Mike mows. I didn't recognize the car so I slowed down to see who was inside - I could only see someone in the driver's seat who looked like they were kneeling on the seat, leaning into the back seat. As I turned into my driveway I could see the passenger back door was open and someone was standing there, leaning into the backseat. Since I am pretty much the reincarnation of Mrs. Kravitz from Bewitched (if you are too young to know who that is, Google or Bing it), this was killing me not knowing who they were and what the hell they were doing on my street, next to my house. So when I got in the house, I stood at the front door, staring at them to see what was going on...this was enough for Mike to go out there and yell to them "What are you doing?". I guess this startled one of the people, a guy, and he said "sorry" then ran into the woods to retrieve a dirty diaper he had thrown there! I assume the other person was the mother and they were there for quite some time. I was flabbergasted by this...who drives down a strange street and parks to change a diaper? And had they never changed a diaper before because it took an awfully long time to get the job done? There is a big BJ's plaza right down the street, with trash bins and everything. What kind of an example are they setting for their child, throwing trash wherever they feel like it...Mike didn't seem to think this was odd behavior at all, he said maybe they were on their way to a friend's house...I looked at him like he just changed into an alien. If you were on your way to a friend's house, wouldn't you just get the job done once you were there? And then, to throw the dirty diaper into the woods? Maybe this is the way they both grew up, with their own parents throwing trash all over residential neighborhoods. Mike said the guy probably threw it back into the woods after he came back in the house. I went for a bike ride later and I noticed they did leave some trash, right out on the grass in the open....now I'll have to go pick it up. I should have just gone over there last night, given them a plastic grocery bag and told them to put all their trash in there and leave on my front steps...would have saved myself the trouble.

Books and Coffee....Coffee and Books

2009-08-12T22:46:00.002-04:00

I have seen a world without coffee, and it's a very scary place. I go through phases when I'm trying to eat healthier and I will give up coffee in the process...I know, I know...what the hell am I thinking?! For those of you who are sitting there saying, "Silly woman, coffee is not bad for you, in fact there are studies which have shown coffee, in moderation, can be very good for you." To you, I say, have you ever seen the way I have my coffee? I cannot drink it black, which I believe is the only way it is healthy. I scoff at black coffee...no, somewhere along the way I found that a touch of chocolate in my coffee was quite delectable, even a little addictive. Yes, I have to drink coffee with all kinds of sugary-bad-for-you-goodness in it. And ALWAYS some kind of chocolate in it.

When I try to give it up, my body thinks I'm punishing it and gets very depressed. As I said this happened recently so I decided to cheer myself up. What is better than a cup of coffee with a good book? Almost nothing...minds out of the gutter people...I said ALMOST! Anyway, to cheer myself up I took the girls to the local Borders bookstore. This is one of the mega Borders, with the nice little cafe in the back and comfy lounging chairs all over the store. We all picked out books, then I got a nice mocha coffee and we sat for three wonderful hours reading away. Well, Bethany did more people watching than reading, but I read a whole book and Jamie read several smaller books. What a blissful way to spend an afternoon...

I've always loved reading, but in the last five or ten years, I've really loved having books. I love seeing them stacked haphazardly on a table or shelf and knowing that I have read them all or intend to. I love having books so much that one day when we "hit it big" and move into a big house, we'll have a room that will be called the library. The walls will be filled with books and it will have one of those ladders on wheels and when friends come to visit I can have the butler answer the door and say, in one of those snooty butler-voices, "Ah, yes, she's expecting you. She's waiting in the library".

What? It could happen...

Lazy Daze...And My Neighbors, The Hummingbird Whisperers...

2009-08-08T22:28:00.010-04:00

My apologies, I've gone and done it again. I haven't posted anything all week! You gotta cut me a break! It's summer! My computer crashed...uh, we lost electricity....I was locked out of the house...please forgive me! That was my rendition of John Belushi's famous "excuse scene" in the Blues Brothers....anyway, it is summer and the days do tend to get away from me. Especially since we have FINALLY had some nice weather in New England...so usually right after dinner, it's outside to check on the garden and then in the pool. This is usually when I notice the throngs of hummingbirds practically waiting in line to get at my neighbors hummingbird feeder.

We also have a hummingbird feeder hanging off our back deck, just like they do. We almost never had hummingbirds as we always used that red "food" you buy in the store. This must be the hummingbird equivalent of stale saltines. We finally asked our neighbors what they used and he said he makes is with water and sugar. So Mike dutifully made up a batch and like magic we have had hummingbirds daily. They are so amazing I could watch them all day. Now, even though we get them now and then, it's still nothing like my neighbors house...so I call them the hummingbird whisperers...but don't tell them, they don't know that yet....uh, I guess they probably know now if they are reading this!

So just as my neighbors are the hummingbird whisperers, my daughter is the dragon fly whisperer. (warning: close up photo of a dragonfly coming up-skip if you don't like them!) We love dragonflies....they do not bite, as many people think. Many times they will land gently on your hand if you let them, and look up at you curiously with their over sized eyes. With the pool, however, many of them end up in the water. The dragonflies view the pool as a huge bird bath I guess because we watch them swoop in for a drink of water and fly away. Sometimes they swoop too close and if their wings get stuck in the surface tension of the water, they're stuck there. Bethany feels it is her mission to save all of these dragonflies before they end up in the dreaded pool filter. Last week, it seemed that almost all of the dragonflies we came in contact with, were carrying eggs! We never noticed eggs before so I grabbed a photo of one on Beth's finger...she literally has it upside down so I can get a photo of all the little black eggs stuck to it's under side...it's like she lulled it to sleep and can make it do whatever she wants....

I guess it's touch to see the eggs in this photo, but you can see what I mean about her effect on it.

Along with the garden we planted this year, we also planted morning glory seeds. I grew up with morning glories around our garage door. If you are not familiar with them, their vines grow far and their flowers can only be seen in the morning. They literally close up in the afternoon and evening. My favorite part of the flowers are the new flowers that haven't opened yet. The bud is twisted up like this one...
and they have a nice, spiral look to them. I almost stepped in dog poop walking over to take this photo...the hardships I endure for you people! Here it is from a different view...

Moving on to the garden. Before we picked our first squash last week, I had been out checking on said squash, admiring how they were coming along and all the plants were nice and green and leafy. Then I went walking up my deck stairs only to see my neighbor walking up his deck stairs with an armful of nice, big squash and zucchini. My ego instantly deflated.

Since then, however, we have picked a few squash and cherry tomatoes.

Here is a photo of our Barbie peppers, as my friend, Julie, would say....ok not really, but they are still really small...

A few cherry tomatoes, almost ready for the picking....

And is that a cucumber I see hiding in there?

Now this character has been hanging around with his mate and we can't get enough of them. Cardinals are just so red and striking and fantastic. It's usually not that often that we see them, until now. He seems to come around every night after dinner...but he never lets me get close enough to get a good picture of him...

And this is what happens when hubby takes photos. I wasn't there, otherwise this would have been a great photo of my daughter and two of the Patriots cheerleaders at Gillette Stadium. Instead we have shadows in the clubhouse. Brilliant!

Squash That Thought....

2009-08-01T21:08:00.005-04:00

I know I haven't posted any garden updates lately, but the garden has been coming along nicely...very slowly...but nicely. I heard from someone that due to the copious amounts of rain we have had in the last two months, it's taking longer for the veggies to grow. So we have nice, big, green, healthy plants....but the veggies are taking their time....except for the squash! We picked our very first home-grown vegetable today! I was so proud...I mean we planted these tiny seeds and now I was holding an actual, edible squash in my hands...

Isn't it a beauty! It's huge! Not really...but we were afraid it would rot if we left it any longer...no idea why...we're new at this, remember? Here it is next to a pencil so you can see how small it actually is....

I decided to cut it up and saute it in EVOO (extra virgin olive oil) as Rachel Ray says and some salt and pepper....look at all the juicy goodness of the earth that flowed from it when I started to cut it up....

This is my home grown sauteed squash...yum!

We have tons of cherry tomatoes, but they just won't turn red....anyone out there know why? They are starting to get too big to be called cherry tomatoes - they already broke a couple of the sticks the plants are tied to! But they are all still green. Now the peppers and cucumbers have to catch up...don't worry, I'll be posting as soon as I pick the first of each!

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

2009-07-31T23:20:00.003-04:00

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?

2009-07-27T20:19:00.015-04:00

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....

2009-07-26T21:57:00.002-04:00

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....

2009-07-25T22:12:00.003-04:00

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....

2009-07-24T22:19:00.002-04:00

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....

2009-07-21T20:03:00.002-04:00

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...

2009-07-07T20:05:00.002-04:00

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....

2009-07-05T09:46:00.009-04:00

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!

2009-07-03T22:47:00.002-04:00

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.

The Secret Belly Dancer's Club....

2009-06-30T22:01:00.006-04:00

I recently had the good fortune to be able to spend a wonderful evening away with good friends celebrating our 40 years on this lovely earth. (Ok, by the look you're giving me you either can't believe I'm 40 or that I have good friends!) Three of us have known each other since 6th grade and the 4th, well she fits in so well it seems like we've known her that long. We talked about anything and everything...and it was that comfortable talk, when no one judged each other and we all made each other feel good....at least that's how I felt...the other three are probably reading this saying, "Shit, I feel bad now for talking about her after she left!".
Anyway, our group had a little initiation of the ever so important secret toe ring ceremony....and if you remember a blog I did waaaaayyy back with a photo of Bethany's feet...you could probably figure out which foot is mine....

This, of course, was after much good food and many, many raspberry lemon-tini's...don't leave home without them! And maybe some wine....and a beer or two...

But mostly it was about just taking the time to spend with one another and kind of rejuvenate our sisterhood. I only wish we could do it more often...just enjoy laughing and not have to explain what I'm laughing about to my 9 year old. Or go to the bathroom without someone knocking on the door the instant I've sat down. Or passing out and not have my kids trying to wake me up saying "Please get up mommy!"....kidding! Totally kidding!

These are some very special friends in my life...and I don't mean "special" as in...you know.....and why did I call this "The Secret Belly Dancer's Club"? I'll never tell....

And The Death Pool Winners Keep Coming....

2009-06-29T19:38:00.004-04:00

Well, people, I completely missed the boat on the David Carradine's scandalous death! He was found in Thailand in his hotel room, with a rope around his neck and genitals...they are saying it was some kind of sex thing and he died from asphyxiation. Quotes I read online from his friends and family, of course, say they can't see him doing this to himself. Really? I mean take a look at this photo:
You can't imagine this guy into any kinky shit? His friends and family are probably well aware of his closet habits and are trying to give him a respectful send-off. Freak....I mean..to each his own!

Now this next one, I have to tell you kind of freaked me out. Not because of who it was, but because last week at work when we were discussing the demise of The Gloved One and The Goddess, one of my co-workers actually said this guy was next! I'm serious....I saw it on the news and my jaw dropped. Billy Mays will undoubtedly have the cleanest funeral EVER!

Can you imagine if they do his eulogy "Billy Mays" style, shouting all the reasons we should remember him? That would be great!

Heavy Losses...Any Winning At "The Death Pool"?

2009-06-26T21:47:00.009-04:00

Sorry, was that a bit callous? If you are not familiar with "the death pool", it is an actual list of famous people who people bet on as to when they are going to die. People will bet on anything! Those crazy people....not that I have $20 on Charo biting the dust in 2015...her hip will give out during an onstage performance and cause her to careen off the stage, ultimately causing her demise. I do have some evil thoughts, don't I?

OK, on to more serious memories. It's always difficult when famous icons pass away unexpectedly or at an earlier than expected age.

With Farah Fawcett, when I was about 6 years old, you either wanted to BE Farah Fawcett, or you wanted to BE WITH Farach Fawcett.
This first photo is an early Farah...notice the photo is from an old "Teen Beat" magazine...weren't those the best!
Now this next photo was really famous and at one point in time you could walk into almost any boys' room and see this poster on their wall....my brother and I actually had mugs with this photo on it - but it was just her head. I will never forget one night we were both going to have some milk in our mugs, but after my Mom left the kitchen, my brother decided to have soda instead. When my Mom saw the soda she asked why he didn't get milk and he said, "Farah made me do it"...it doesn't seem that funny now, but I remember laughing about it back then...

This was Farah probably a few years ago - not so bad, but looking a little ragged. If we only knew the terrible disease she was enduring. Farah will be missed, but unfortunately I believe her death will be but a fleeting thought....

Mainly because she had the misfortune to pass away on the SAME DAY as Michael Jackson! What rotten luck! Her memory will forever be overshadowed because she died on the same blasted day as the King of Pop! That will be my luck. I will finally have my chance for 15 minutes of fame some day, and guaranteed some gigantic event will overshadow it. Not that I'm in any way comparing myself to Farah....I never could get my frizzy, curly hair to feather like hers! But we all tried, didn't we! (don't lie, I know you did!) Always had my comb handy in back pocket to fix my non-feathery hair at a moments notice! Or is was in my Bermuda bag. Or that pocket of my Barracuda jacket.

OK moving right along....I can remember meeting my friend Julie, who was my new neighbor at the time, and her playing the song "ABC, 123" by the Jackson 5.
This photo is when plastic surgery was just a sparkle in his eye...he was all about normal at this point in his life....

Then I think it was 8th grade when Billy Jean came out. I remember that video and thinking it was sooo cool...those moves! We all wanted to be able to dance like Michael Jackson. When "Beat It" came out, my friend, Lisa, and I actually took a break dancing class....we thought it would help us dance like him in that video. I was never one of the screaming Michael Jackson fans, never went to one of his concerts, but I definitely enjoyed his music....

This photo shows he has begun the face work, but it doesn't look bad, he hasn't turned into scary mask guy yet....

I even remember when the Thriller video came out. That was insane! No one had ever done anything like this before! Every time I would watch MTV (back when MTV played videos all day for 24 hours a day) and the Thriller video came on, I would pray it was the long version. There was the long version which was about 20 minutes long, then the short, more commonly played version that was about 5 minutes long.

Ok, now we get to the scary photo. I'm sorry, but the guy turned into a whack job! I read an article today that said his interview a few years back where he let the guy basically live with his entourage for a few months, really did irreparable damage to his reputation. I think if MJ didn't look so freaky, he would have been easier for the public to stomach. I'm assuming he had lots of bad plastic surgery; supposedly he had that pigment condition which was turning his skin white; and during his trial for child molestation he supposedly had back problems. I don't know, I think he made some crucial mistakes: marrying Lisa Marie Presley, dangling a baby over the balcony AND SLEEPING WITH CHILDREN! My husband thinks he hired someone to stage his death - fake body and all - so that he could just disappear; I said I thought it was very possible that was the case and he was living somewhere as a woman right this minute.
MJ (I can call him that because we go way back), your music will be missed.

Heeeeere's Ed! OK, I thought Farah had bad luck? Poor Ed McMahon died a few days before Farah and MJ and his memory was less than a blip on the news screen.
Who didn't like Ed McMahon? He came off as a clean cut, all-American guy...like your favorite Uncle or your best friend's Grandfather. Secretly he might have had a mouth like a truck driver and worn women's clothing, but what we don't know won't hurt us....right?

So I wonder if he's in heaven now following God around saying...."Heeeere's The Almighty!"

Dragons and Polar Bears and Ravens..Oh My!

2009-06-20T21:25:00.002-04:00

You may or may not know that I read a lot. Books, magazines, cereal boxes...you name it. I also strongly encourage my children to read. When Jamie was younger and became a voracious reader I decided I would read some of the same books so we would have something to talk about. Every now and then I would read one...and I usually enjoyed them. Now that Bethany is also becoming a reader, she is enjoying some of the same books Jamie and I have. I particularly love this set of books. I believe the fourth in the series is out now although we have yet to get that one. Dragons are brought to life in modern times and have all sorts of powers. These are an easy read so if you have kids, you might want to give them a try.

So You Didn't Think It Was Funny? Boo Hoo!

2009-06-18T21:12:00.002-04:00

I know the David Letterman comments about Sarah Palin's daughter is kind of old news - a few days anyway - but I felt it had been far too long since I have commented on any current events. First, can we please shoot the person who coined the term and the meaning of "politically correct"? I am really sick and tired of hearing that phrase - I'm not saying I want to be able to call someone a name that will degrade them, I just think different groups take things too far...Like in this instance. From what I read online - I did not see David Letterman's show when it happened - David mentioned that Sarah Palin had gone to a Yankees game and as part of his joke, said Sarah's 14 year old daughter got knocked up by A-Rod during the seventh inning stretch. That's it. Nothing more. And lots of people got very angry. Really people? I mean, her other daughter got pregnant when she was 17, so it's not really far off the mark, right? If you want to get technical about this. AND, I strongly feel that if you are famous by your own doing...meaning you became famous because you put yourself out there, then you and your family are fair game. I don't mean fair game to be stalked or anything like that...but if people like David Letterman WHO TELL JOKES FOR A LIVING, make a joke about you...BIG DEAL! You should not run and pout...it's actually a compliment that he thinks you are still worth commenting on! Sheesh!
OK, I think I got it all out....for now.

Me First! Hummus, Hummus, Who's Got The Hummus!?

2009-06-16T23:13:00.004-04:00

I keep meaning to post this before someone else does. This has happened to me a few times...I will be thinking about posting on something specific and I will read about it on another blog! The nerve of them! Anyway....this picture doesn't do this wonderful pasta salad justice. If you are like me (for so many reasons, start praying you're not)...you love, love, luv hummus! The first time I had hummus I was eating at a little restaurant in Sydney with my friend, Kath and they served it with pita bread wedges. Since then the need to constantly have hummus has only grown. Now you might want to sit down for what I'm about to tell you. I know I don't cook, but I made this up! You know as soon as I post this there will be people emailing me telling me they've been eating this since the dawn of time. I keep trying to think of new ways to incorporate hummus into my daily meals and here is one:

Cook a whole box of rotini or spiral pasta
In a separate bowl mix a few spoonfuls of hummus with a big dollop of creamy ranch or Caesar dressing - blend them together good.
Mix the dressing into the pasta.

Now this in itself is delicious, but I usually add cut up peppers and cucumbers, or chicken, or edamame, or tuna. Really it's quite versatile....don't I sound like Julia Childs?!

So if you like hummus, try it and let me know what you think! Unless you don't like it....I don't want to know...

In Preparation For Things To Come....

2009-06-16T22:58:00.007-04:00

I recently got together with friends and realized - mostly from the reaction on their faces I think - that I need to cut the 'ol strings a bit with my kids. I guess I know it's true...way deep down...where it will never escape into an action of actually doing so! I guess my feeling is, why take the chance that something could happen? But I guess suffocating them isn't the answer either. I guess...because people told me so. (kidding! it definitely could be the answer if it was a multiple choice question and the other two answers were "letting your 12 year old daughter go to a boys house for a party" or "letting your 12 year old girl go out with a 15 year old boy"...then suffocating would be a great answer...) Anyway, I still will not fly without my kids so Mike and I have never had the chance to go away anywhere far, just the two of us. I know, it's ridiculous. Either we all go down together, or no one goes! So a wonderful event happened the other day to prepare me for things to come. The baby robins in the nest just outside our door, flew the coop, so to speak! Jamie was actually taking pictures of them when it happened:

We thought there were only three babies in the nest, but after a week or so we were able to count 4 little beaks reaching up to be fed...

Then they grow pretty quickly and the nest gets VERY crowded. The parents start trying to get them to fly out of the nest, and then finally....

take off! Right onto the grass! After about 3 hours, all four babies had flown the coop. Quite traumatic for me...but I have to get used to it, I guess.

Birthday Bliss...9 Year Old Style!

2009-06-13T10:03:00.006-04:00

We all know there is no handbook to raising your kids; it's definitely a listen-to-all-the-advice-use-some-and-make-up-the-rest kind of thing. One thing I have learned...and this is still a hard one for me....don't ask your children something unless you are willing to accept the answer completely. When we celebrated Bethany's birthday with just a small family gathering, I asked her what kind of cake she wanted. I was flattered when she said she wanted me to make her cake....and before you get all "See, you do so cook!"...by "make", she means buy the Duncan Hines cake mix and supervise her while she adds all the ingredients to the mixer. Anyway, before I realized what had happened, I had agreed to let her decorate the cake! I do have control issues so I could feel the anxiety from sloppy flowers already creeping in. As a parent, I had to take a deep breath....then quickly think how to make both of us comfortable with this. She agreed to let me frost the cake, put on trim.....and do the lettering (the last one only because I told her if she messed up I couldn't fix it....I know, I know, that was playing dirty b/c you and I both know I could have fixed it, but I didn't think she would go for it!). So here is the result:
After all was said and done, what's a few globs of frosting going to hurt, right? It's OK that she got some on my lettering, right? So last night was her birthday party with 3 of her friends. Again she wanted me to make the cake....then she said, "Actually, I'm kind of sick of cake"....wh- wh- what? My brain does not compute. But before the look of terror completely takes over b/c I realize she must have been switched with an alien child, she removes all doubt and says, "How about we make cupcakes instead?"....I stare blankly....do I tell her cupcakes are just a big cake made into smaller cakes? I decide to keep quiet (no small feat for me) and go with the flow. I decided I wanted to try something I had seen in a magazine or two, but never had a chance. A flower cake made out of cupcakes. Here are the cupcakes with just the middle frosted:

Again, yellow cake mix and a can of white frosting can do wonders! Here is the finished product:

She chose the colors and didn't ask to help decorate this one...and I know it's my own fault they were up until 1am - with all the sugary goodness in these babies!

Holy Cucumbers, Batman!

2009-06-09T21:45:00.009-04:00

OK, just to re-cap: we've never grown our own food before; I decided it would be a good idea to start and to do it from seeds, not plants; I didn't really go by the directions on the seed packets when I planted them, but really, what are the chances that ALL the seeds will grow, right? Oh, and I don't cook so Mike will have to figure out how to cook all the veggies we will get...that's of course if the plants don't get eaten or attacked by pests since we don't have any guinea hens to ward them off....
So here is a photo I took in May just after we planted everything. I started the pepper seeds in the house in February, so those plants are already well on their way; and we were given four cherry tomato plants; and the cabbage plant is actually a school project. Other than that, it's all seeds.
Now here is a photo Bethany took last week...look at the size of that cabbage plant! And what do ya know, it looks like ALL the seeds are growing! My next door neighbor, who has a garden every year, said one or two zucchini and squash plants are enough to feed our whole family (like including distant relatives!) ....but look at all those viable little plants! Now this photo was taken, say June 3rd....

This photo was taken only a few days later, this past weekend, and look at these zucchini plants! Those little spiky leaves weren't there in the last photo!

Here are the cherry tomato plants...

And of course our red and green pepper plants....I have no idea which is which!

And lastly, the small row of cucumber plants!

I cannot wait! We'll see if I still feel this enthusiastic by the end of the summer!

Lordy, Lordy, Look Who's Forty....

2009-06-08T20:14:00.004-04:00

ME! Yahoo! Yes, ladies and gents, as of yesterday, it has been 40 years that I have been gracing everyone with my presence! Too pompous? Would you rather I wallow in self pity about the fact that I'm now 40 and life is over? I didn't think so. The weirdest part of turning 40 is that I still feel like it was just a few years ago that I was in college...high school, even! Technically, I know this to be untrue, but mentally, I just can't seem to grasp this concept. It started in my early 30's....I spent the good part of a year telling people I was 32 and finally Mike had to tell me I was only 31. I really didn't care how old I was. I still don't, not yet anyway...I think this is because I don't feel like I've grown up yet...I look at other people who are 40 and their lives are so organized and smart....I still live in day to day chaos...I guess that's what I get for having a "live in the moment" attitude!
Well, as luck would have it, 3 of my very best friends and myself all turn 40 within days of each other. We've known each other since 6th grade...this is when Lauren would pipe in and remind us that she and Amy have known each other since like birth or something and Kris and I would concede they win for being friends the longest. Lauren had a celebration at her home recently, and I'm sure I will catch an earful for posting these pictures, but hey, I'm in there too and I HATE pictures of myself...so no complaining.

Lauren and her husband are the ultimate hosts - everything is always spot on and fantastic. This is Lauren pouring some drink we all had to try...I'm not sure who the older woman in the photo is, but she brought the bottle with the drink we all had to try....the thing Kris and I couldn't figure out is...she showed up with the bottle and it was already half gone?! We thought maybe she just got really thirsty on her way there....she is leaning to one side...
Lauren makes a mean sangria, of which I had many, many refills by the time this photo was taken...or maybe not, I don't remember...but this is me and Kris

Amy is still in Africa but will be home soon to continue our celebrating! Happy 40th my friends!

Pretty In Pink...

2009-05-31T20:55:00.004-04:00

We had a baby shower for one of our co-workers last week and I said I would being a dessert. I know, I know, what the hell was I thinking? I don't cook so I have no right to let people think I can actually bring something that will be edible! Well, I saw this great recipe in Family Fun magazine and it looked so easy.....so why not?! It is for petite four cakes. Ok, it wasn't as easy as it looked in the magazine, but it wasn't too bad either. You buy a pound cake at the store. Step one and I was already having problems! I can't believe how hard it was to find stupid pound cake! I went to THREE grocery stores with no luck; where did I finally find it? WALMART! Figures, the land of everything goes. Anyway, the recipe says to cut the pound cake into 1 inch squares. My pound cake seemed really high and the top had a dome shape, which wouldn't help the petit fours have that square shape. So I started by cutting the dome part off the top. Then to add a little taste to it, I cut the whole cake in half, length-wise, frosted with white can frosting, and put the two halves back together. Now I cut it into squares. But the squares seemed too tall and I thought they would look funny once covered in pink icing. So I put them on their sides and the shape looked better, although now there was a line of frosting between the right and left halves instead of between the top and bottom...but I was going for looks so I forged on. Here is what they looked like before I covered them with icing...
So then I proceeded to make the icing from the magazine using powdered sugar, light corn syrup, water, vanilla and almond extract. Then I tinted it pink and began pouring over the little cakes which I immediately topped with candy silver balls....

They really looked great! I was pretty excited about how they were turning out. It was about this time my girls came foraging for scraps and I said they could each try one, and so did I. Uh oh. This icing doesn't taste all that great. It actually tasted a little cardboard-like! It was all sugary ingredients, how could this happen? Well, I still had about half the cakes to cover, but I definitely didn't want to keep using this icing. I had some melting chocolate and figured that would be a better option. So I covered the rest in chocolate and drizzled with white melted chocolate, tinted pink topped with silver balls.....

They seemed to go over well at the shower and everyone said they liked them...maybe they were just being polite, but at least they looked good, right?

Just Call Me Farmer Green Jeans...

2009-05-25T22:35:00.003-04:00

Ta-Da! Here it is! Our first veggie garden!
I know what you're thinking....how many damn veggies are you going to cram into that tiny garden? No? Well, seeing as this is our first attempt at growing veggies, we're not really into rules about how to plant our stuff. The green plants to the left are our pepper plants we grew from seeds - don't fall over, it's true! Way back in February....when we get that first pepper from them it's going to be like Christmas! Then the big, leafy guy to the right is Bethany's cabbage plant. She got it from school and in the fall there will be a contest for the biggest plant....I'm guessing at some point the cabbage plant may take over the rest of the garden. Then you can see two rows of darker soil...this is where we have planted cucumbers, zucchini and squash. We also have a couple of planters with cherry tomato plants and more pepper plants. Now this raised bed is only 8ft x 4ft. My next door neighbor has one that I'm guessing is about 20ft x 20ft and he is a true gardener - in fact he did tell me that pepper plants need 1ft of space all around them and I'm sure if he reads this he will become anxious as he looks at the photo, trying to decide if there is, in fact 1ft of space around our pepper plants. I'll save you the trouble, we didn't even measure...we are kind of taking the attitude that if we get anything, we're lucky, but we don't have as much time as we'd like to put into the garden. I'm sure this will get all the gardeners' out there riled up, but that's just they way it is. My neighbor always has all kinds of great stuff coming out of it and he tends to it lovingly. Believe it or not, he actually entrusts us with its care when they go away....what are they thinking? It's quite stressful because I'd never forgive myself if I ruined part of his garden because I forgot to water it...I mean really how hard is it to remember to water a garden, right? We go away and he feeds our cat, feeds our turtle and fish...all we have to do is water the garden! Thankfully, we have done so successfully each time, and he always rewards us with treats from his garden...maybe this year we'll do the treating.

These Are A Few Of My Favorite Things...

2009-05-24T21:27:00.007-04:00

I'm not really sure when it happened, because as my husband is sure to tell you, a gardener I'm not. We used to abide by the "you take care of the outside and I'll take care of the inside" rule...I suppose the fact that I don't cook and I don't have the knack for decorating kind of kills that rule. Somewhere inside me over the last few years, this need to garden has awakened...and I think I could get used to it. I used to love Stargazer lilies...I just loved their centers bursting with burgundy and pinks...and I even had some in our yard...however just as my husband likes to re-arrange our furniture every few months, he likes to re-arrange the flowers too. After one too many moves, the lilies never came back. That's OK, I found a new love....pansies. I don't know if it's all the different colors they come in, or their delicate little faces looking up at you, but I could not have a summer without pansies. We planted a bunch in our backyard last year, and I would have sworn they were annuals, but lo and behold, not only did they come back this year, but they have spread. I'm attributing that to my poor attempt at harvesting their seeds at the end of last season...I'm guessing many of the seeds ended up in the ground. Here are some of my favs:

You can tell in this next one it was starting to get dark out as I had to use the flash....

These rich lavender shades just get to me...

And then I turn around to find this character wanting to play....

Of course as soon as you make a grab for the ball, she does this....

pulls the ball away from you...what a tease! Now go out and get some pansies for yourself!

I've Got A Secret....

2009-05-23T21:38:00.006-04:00

I'm a weeping cherry tree about 12 years old...don't mind the unkempt ground beneath me...my caretakers are very busy and don't always have time to tidy up...I usually just stand tall, season after season....

But recently I've been hiding something pretty special...I have to say I feel quite honored that I was chosen, but I guess I do have the perfect hiding spot for....

A Robin's nest! My branches keep the nest safe from the elements for the most part, and it's just high enough out of sight so that the eggs remain undisturbed...

I think I've been doing too much gardening....I'm starting to think like my trees! At least the Robin's picked a better spot than last year...last year the nest was on Mike's ladder that was hanging on the side of the deck so we actually had to borrow our neighbor's ladder a few times so we didn't disturb the eggs!

The Strange And The Funny....

2009-05-21T22:28:00.002-04:00

THE STRANGE:

I did a double take the other day. We got the book of coupons from BJ's in the mail, so of course I was leafing through it to see if I could save $5 when I buy $100 worth of toothpaste or something idiotic like that...and I came across this:

I wasn't able to crop the photo but hopefully you can see the odd thing on this page is "personal watermelons".....huh? They realize this is going to make people go "Huh?" so they have a helpful photo of a "2 ct." package with 2 watermelons in it. I just don't see what the point is in having personal watermelons...it's hard to tell the size - maybe they are the size of an orange...all I can think is these were grown for really selfish people who can't eat a whole big watermelon and don't want to share it.

THE FUNNY:

OK, next I am going to tell you two stories, both true, both might make you cringe a little bit because they are a little gross, and both situations will require some time to pass before they are seen as funny.
The first involves me and my daughter. She recently got her period and it's still all new to her. I sometimes will try to impart a bit of wisdom on the subject to her, but she just tells me to stop talking - it is not a subject she will discuss freely. I have made a point of making sure she knows to dispose of her sanitary items by wrapping them in toilet paper and throwing in the trash in the bathroom. This is common sense. Well, I woke up in the middle of the night and stumbled to the bathroom. I didn't turn the light on (strike one) and I didn't have my glasses (strike two). After doing my business I had to blow my nose and the tissues are on a little table right in front of the toilet. When I grabbed for a tissue, it seemed like I had grabbed a bunch of them so I tried to shake out just one tissue, so as not to be wasteful, of course, and I saw something fall to the floor. As soon as it happened I realized I wasn't holding tissues in my hand...when I told my daughter this story I couldn't even get to the part where I was angry because she was laughing so hard.
The second story involves the family of my friend. It was when her niece was younger and still living with her Mom and Dad. No one was home and she and her boyfriend were in her bedroom having sex when she heard her mother come home. She immediately got up and started getting dressed...at the same time he whipped off the condom they had been using and also got dressed. Her Mother kind of figured out what had been going on and was trying to call her bluff on it, but she denied they were having sex; she kept insisting that's not what they were doing. The whole time both she and her boyfriend couldn't find the condom he had quickly thrown somewhere....that is until the dog came walking out with it stuck to his fur! Yes I can laugh because it's not my daughter!

Moonshadow Rising....

2009-05-18T21:41:00.002-04:00

OK, when I was growing up Cat Stevens' songs were a staple of any music diet. I realize music isn't such a part of everyone's life as it was and is mine...however, I can remember many, many nights when everyone in the bar would sing in harmony if the band started playing a Cat Stevens song. I remember a particular night spent at a bar or two in Faneuil Hall in Boston and when leaving there was a guy playing acoustic guitar and had a small, albeit drunken, crowd gathered around him...he broke into a wonderful version of "Cats in the Cradle" and the crowd tripled and everyone sang along with him.
So tonight I happened to be watching the Steve Colbert show - I've never seen it before - and who the hell does he have as his guest? Yusuf! Uh, Karen, we're not following you here? Yes, because Cat Stevens dropped off the face of the earth back in the late 70's and converted to Islam...and changed his name to Yusuf. For 30 some odd years he has deprived music fans around the world of his talent so he could pursue "educational and philanthropic causes in the Muslim community"...during which time we have had some major events leading the US to feel quite poorly towards Muslims...so apparently Yusuf realized he really sucked at trying to do good for the Muslims and decided to go back to what he suddenly realized he does best...create music. The Roadsinger is his new album, and the name of the song that I have included a clip of in this blog. I read he spends half the year in London and the other half in Dubai...so it's safe to say he's not returning to music...anyone who can afford to spend half the year in Dubai doesn't need money! Part of me wants to be happy he has returned to making music and the other half wants to tell him....well use your imagination...for leaving us hanging when we could have used more of his feel-good songs.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ilWPkgvDyNc

How Will I Ever Contain Myself!?????

2009-05-12T21:37:00.003-04:00

OK, please take a moment to get your planners and a pen, especially if you are in the Boston area, although even if you're not, it's well worth the trip. June 9th - 11th will be the annual Scooperbowl! What? You are not aware of this event?! Blasphemy! I guess there could be some people out there not as fanatical about ice cream as me, so here's the scoop! (couldn't resist!) For 3 days, you can pay $8 and EAT ALL THE ICE CREAM YOU WANT....let me repeat that in case you missed it...for $8 you can walk around to all your favorite ice cream creators (Ben & Jerry's, Breyers, Brighams, Hood, Haagen Dazs, etc.) and EAT ALL THE ICE CREAM YOU WANT!!! This is not a joke, I've been and now they actually have a pass for $15 that allows you to attend the event 3 different times! So for $15 you could EAT ALL THE ICE CREAM YOU WANT for three whole days! It's pretty awesome...yes each vendor has a limited selection, but there is always something for everyone....I am sad that I don't see Cold Stone among the sponsors...but I'm confident I'll get over it! The best part is the event benefits the Dana Faber Jimmy Fund so you can feel good about EATING ALL THE ICE CREAM YOU WANT! It's less than a month away....I feel like a kid at Christmas!

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY....

2009-05-10T12:10:00.002-04:00

This is to wish all the Mom's out there a wonderful Mother's Day! I'm not sure why I love this poem by Robert Frost, maybe because one of my favorite movie scenes ever is when Ponyboy recites this poem in the Outsiders:

NOTHING GOLD CAN STAY

Nature's first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf's a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.

I'm sure this poem means a hundred different things to everyone. One meaning I get from it is to enjoy everything while you can, because life is fluid. One fantastic moment today should be enjoyed for all its worth; once the moment is gone there is no retrieving it in all its glory.

Feel-Good Sites....

2009-05-09T13:09:00.003-04:00

I know I have posted one of these on my blog before, but these are worthwhile so have a look:

www.theanimalrescuesite.com

When you go on this website, there is a large, purple button to click on. Don't worry, you're not going to start getting emails from them if you click on it, you won't get entered into anything, but you will help shelter animals stay healthy until they find their "forever home" and it costs you nothing. They actually have a pretty cool shop on this site as well and a portion of the profits go towards helping care for shelter animals. I personally like the dog bone paper clips, but so many cool things in this shop!

www.freerice.com

This site is very cool in that you get to play a game while donating rice to help feed hungry people...all while doing something to keep your brain juices flowing. Click on the link or copy it into your browser and it's pretty easy. You just keep answering questions and the more you get right, the more rice you donate. To the right of the questions, the site keeps a running tally of how much you have donated. There are 60 levels to the game and if you get one wrong, it will just give you an easier question; for each correct question, you donate 10 grains of rice. I know, I know, this doesn't sound like much, but it didn't take me long to get up to 1620 grains of rice...then again, I am a genius! Kidding! I only stopped because I needed to get to some other things but the main page tells you how much was donated yesterday and total to date that has been donated...pretty powerful numbers, I must say!

These last sites are to help you feel-good about yourself. As I get older I'm learning more and more how important it is to make time for yourself. It took me a long time to learn that you have to love yourself before you can love someone else, but I'm just learning that as part of loving yourself, it means taking care of yourself so that you can love others....holy crap I sound like a self-help book! Anyway, you know what I mean and here are two sites that I think can be helpful:

www.naturefind.com

This site allows you to enter your zip code and find parks and events in your area. Maybe some you never even knew were in your own backyard!

www.presidentschallenge.org

This site can be helpful in making yourself accountable for getting in some much needed exercise if you don't already. I just signed up....I'll keep you posted. I'm trying to envision Obama logging in every day, keeping tabs, "Why didn't she exercise today? Maybe I should send her an email...I'll just wait and see if she get motivated tomorrow." I know, sounds ridiculous....but it's me we're talking about here....hi, have we met?

So do you think this makes up for, yet again, poking fun of my religion?

Sermon Cliff Notes....Anyone?

2009-05-05T22:05:00.002-04:00

Not sure why I used this photo...maybe because the flowers remind me of flowers you might see on the alter at church...they were actually sent to us when my Mother-in-law passed away..from my husband's employer...very nice.
Getting on with it...my co-worker and I were discussing church today. This is unusual for me, to say the least. I usually keep to a pretty strict code of not discussing the big 3 under any circumstances: religion, wages, politics. I have seen where all three of these topics, at different times, have made me view someone in a whole different light.
But, there I was, freely discussing my religion without a care in the world. I feel for the most part that this co-worker and I have similar views about the Catholic religion so maybe that's why I'm a little more free with my views with her. We were discussing different religions and she said how she had gone to I think a Baptist service and how it was fun!? Fun? At church? How can this be? Have they been hiding the fun church from me all these years? Do I have to get to a certain level of faith to be allowed in to the fun church...or maybe after so many good deeds you are granted a weekend pass? Damn this blog, I bet it's setting me back a few years from ever getting into the "fun church"! Oh, that's right. I'm Catholic. No fun church for us. All ritual, no fun. I remember in college one of my roommates went to a local church where they spent a few hours discussing how to put the scripture to use in today's world...how to actually apply it in every day life. Interesting concept. Every so often my church has a "class mass" where one of the CCD classes takes over the mass and say, all the 3rd graders will do the readings, bring up the gifts, etc. During these masses, the priest usually gears the sermon to the kids...so they can understand it. These are the best sermons, because I can finally understand them! Why aren't they all like that?! Usually I feel like I need the cliff notes to the sermon to figure out what I'm supposed to take away from it...hmmm, I wonder if I could market that?

Saving The Earth One Nip Bottle At A Time...

2009-05-04T22:46:00.002-04:00

Ok, ok, ok. I realize that it says "April 22" and it's now May 4th, I'm a little behind lately...so sue me! What did you do for Earth Day, huh? Did you even think about it? I don't know why they don't just make Earth Day the Saturday closest to April 22nd every year - it's kind of hard for us working people to do much on a weekday - it's hard enough just to get through work! The Saturday after Earth Day I noticed a man and his two daughters out cleaning up along the road for much of the day - they bagged an impressive 20 some-odd bags of trash! For whatever reason my town's official Earth Day clean up wasn't until this past Saturday, May 2nd. Bethany and I trekked into town to register and get town-supplied gloves and trash bags before heading close to home. We had decided some time ago to clean up this area off the side of a back road, next to a bridge. Many people park here throughout the day to go fishing off the bridge - when I say bridge, it just looks like the road with water on either side, but it is raised and low boats can go under it. Anyway, if you remember my photo of the swan a little while back? When we stopped to take photos of the swan, there were ducks walking around, and they were so cute, but they were walking amongst a bunch of trash. Bethany decided that was where she wanted to clean this year. After completing the cleaning, my guess is that the trash is not left by the people fishing, but by people that I'm assuming are stopping there at night for a little partying. There were many, many alcohol nips ( I realize I'm letting the fishermen off easy here) along with beer bottles, fast food bags, coffee cups, as well as some curtains that apparently disgusted their owners so much they were thrown from the car? The worst thing we found, and didn't touch, were the remains where someone obviously couldn't wait to get to a bathroom....and it wasn't a bear. We did get a few people slowing down to give us a thumbs up, and a fisherman thanked us. And we get to drive by every morning knowing we made a difference. Queue the sweet harp music in the background....

Hopefully I'm teaching Bethany something out of all of this - truth be told, after about an hour she was skipping rocks and just pointing out where I missed the $%&*@ pieces of trash...after 2 hours I pulled something in my back lugging some big metal things from the grass to the trash pile and we called it a day. Oh well...we tried!

Pet Peeve #19

2009-04-28T22:43:00.003-04:00

Ok, the picture might be a little fuzzy, but make no mistake.....I am the turtle. Here's the situation: when I leave work every day, I have to drive about 1/2 mile before coming to a rotary. If you don't know what a rotary is, you are definitely missing out; it's quite an exciting bit of driving. Anyway, if there is no traffic, it takes approx. 1 minute to get from work to the rotary. However, when leaving at 5pm, you are competing with departing employees from quite a number of companies. About 1/2 way to the rotary, there is a small industrial park on the left, then about 25 feet before the rotary there is a large company on the right. Now, we all know the rule about letting people out into your lane of traffic, right? I mean, one of us, one of you, one of us, one of you....it's simple people! If everyone would just do this, we would have no problem. Of course this isn't the case so many nights when I leave work, the line of traffic is so bad, it takes 15-20 minutes just to go the short distance! Now when I have been waiting in traffic for 15-20 minutes and just as I'm getting up to the rotary, someone from that large company tries to get out in front of me....sorry, Buster, ain't gonna happen! Why should I have to wait so long, but you just get right out? Wait your turn! To my horror (and yes, I know it sounds like a road-rage lunatic, but I was horrified!) one night I managed to leave a minute early and got up to that large company and the car in front of me stopped to let out a car. At first I was like, OK, we didn't have much traffic to get here so what's waiting for one car to come out, right? Then my blood started to boil as this car decided to be Joe Generosity and let out every car that was waiting from that company!!! It was at least 10 or more cars! I can't repeat all the expletives I was screaming in my head.
Now just last night I was behind a Joe Generosity Jr. We got up to that industrial park on the left - and usually there aren't many people coming out of there - but the guy in front of me decided to let a car go in front of him, then another and another! So of course he filled my quota and I didn't let anyone go. Who do these people think they are? How do they know I don't have to get to daycare before 530p or I'm going to be paying 5$ for every minute I'm late? Do they think of these things? No, they just think of their lousy life and how if they just wait and let another car go in front of them, it will be one less minute spent in their dingy apartment watching TV from the worn recliner with the grease mark where their head has touched one too many times.

How Low Can You Go?

2009-04-26T20:28:00.005-04:00

This is our dog, Sasha. Every since she was a puppy, we have noticed something unusual about her tongue...

It is freakish-ly long. I mean look at it! She is sound asleep and Bethany started pulling it out of her mouth...because she can't ever fit the whole thing in her mouth...she sleeps with a bit of it sticking out...almost like a little pull-tab! You just can't help but tug on it!

But when you lean down to pet her, and you think you are out of licking range....you better watch out..she'll get you every time!

For A Good Read...

2009-04-26T20:23:00.004-04:00

I just read "The Choice" by Nicholas Sparks. A friend said she thought all of his books are kind of similar...I haven't read enough of his books to make this claim...however I can say this book definitely gives you something to think about. I really enjoyed it and felt it was an easy read....and it's not very long....give it whirl!

My Apologies....I Had A Case Of BloggusBreakusMaximus

2009-04-26T20:16:00.002-04:00

In other words I just couldn't sit down to write for the last week...it happens sometimes - I hope you can forgive me! I will re-tell part of a conversation I had with my friend the other day. I told her sometimes I have so much I want to say, when I sit down to write, I feel overwhelmed because I just don't know where to begin. Many times I have this hysterical conversation with myself over some mundane topic while I'm out driving in my car or at the store...when I get home, it either isn't as funny as I remembered it, or I can't remember it exactly how I originally discussed it and then I think, "Ok, the more disturbing fact is that you are having these conversations with yourself....and you think they are funny!". I'm not kidding, it happens all the time.

Lazy Bones

2009-04-17T12:40:00.003-04:00

There has been a lot that I've wanted to comment on so wake up people, I'm going to be jumping around a bit here.

Let me start with a tribute to my oldest genius, Jamie. She is 12. She does not like to have to put physical effort into anything. She is proud of her crafty level of laziness. She is an A honors student, so how can we complain, right? She will deliberately put mental effort into how she can get out of physical effort...sometimes she is so good at it, it scares me..... Her clothes just pile up on the floor and under the bed; we will ask her to pick it up but it will sit there until I get mad I make her get down on the floor with me as I use a grabber to pull everything out from under the bed - all the while she is excited that I have found clothes that had magically "disappeared" weeks ago: "Oh I love that shirt! I was wondering where it was!" Then I realize she managed to get me to clean out under her bed. The other day she said something to me and I told her it should be her mantra. She said, "I like things near me so I don't have to move much". I just sat there in disbelief...

Feel Good Gloriana!

2009-04-14T21:09:00.001-04:00

Here is a great song/video by Gloriana....enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qv3PJ1YSHFs

If the link doesn't work, just search "Gloriana" on You Tube right from my blog and you'll see a few for "Wild At Heart".

Just a fun, feel good song.

Easter 2009 - In The Hot Seat Again!

2009-04-13T20:39:00.004-04:00

I'm going to preface this posting by saying the Easter Vigil Mass was beautiful and at times, a bit surreal. I thought it captured the essence of what Easter should be all about. Now that I made nice with our pastor and church community.....we all know Easter is about chocolate and coloring eggs. Lent and Easter Mass is kind of the test we have to go through to see how much chocolate we deserve. The more difficult and longer to endure the mass is, the more we are rewarded....or at least that's how I think it should be. Why is my seat getting warm? Oh well...moving on...after this year's Easter Mass, I feel me and the girls should be rewarded for a long, long time. (Seriously, it's getting really warm all of a sudden). Normally we attend Easter morning mass with about 5 thousand other families, or at least it seems that way. This year, I opted for the Saturday night show...I mean, option...I mean mass. The only reason I did this was because Mike has been away all week due to his step-mother's unexpected passing, and his flight came in Sat night at 1150pm so I did not want to have to get up early the next morning. I know, I know, where's the sacrifice on my part. I do know that you have to get to any Easter or Christmas mass very early if you want to get a parking space close enough not to need a shuttle. This mass was at 7pm so we got there about 20min early. That could be viewed as a mistake in light of the evenings events, but I still think it's worth it not to have to walk for miles to get to your car. What I was not aware of was that the Easter Vigil mass is similar to the Christmas midnight mass in that it lasts a very long time - 2 hours, in fact. The first half of the mass is all in darkness, except for the candles everyone is holding. At the very beginning, it's almost like a concert in that there are no lights and the candles are lit, one by one from neighbor to neighbor, growing brighter and brighter as they are all lit....just as we lit our lighters at the concerts back in the day. It was pretty cool, except that we had a family with two "spirited" young boys (read young boys with parents who felt no need to discipline them in church...or gave up after speaking to them twice). One of which was right in front of Bethany. He kept jumping around and we nearly had a Michael Jackson incident with his hair. There were little plastic cups on the candles to catch the dripping wax, however I noticed a few people holding the candles at an angle and melting their plastic cups as well.

Anyone who attends Catholic mass regularly knows that every mass has 2 readings and then the Gospel reading. I knew I was in trouble when there was a 3rd, then a 4th reading and still no Gospel reading! I looked at my cell phone clock and 1 hr 15min had passed! And we still weren't at the Gospel reading! I have to say my girls were really good, they asked when it would end a few times, but they didn't get whine-y. There were 5 readings before the Gospel reading. By the time we got to the snack, I mean communion, I was sure we would be rewarded with a few, if not a handful! I really think we earned it.

Another feature of this mass was many of the parts of mass were sung by the priest and deacon...and I don't mean sung as in "The Saints Will Go Marching In"...I mean as in Gregorian chant type stuff. And sometimes we were meant to respond in chant....but no one knew how so everyone was singing it different ways...

By the time the mass was almost over, Bethany was fed up with the boys in front of her - she couldn't understand why they wouldn't just behave. I was like, "Are you kidding? You are looking in a mirror, girlfriend!" After mass was over I had to wait around for my parents, which meant I got to see a lot of people...this is when I found out I missed the best part of the mass! Apparently the Serial Breast Feeder is back and I missed it! She was there, live and in action, and I missed the whole thing!

I have let my peeps down....ok, I really think something is wrong with the heater....

15 Minutes Of Fame....

2009-04-10T20:14:00.003-04:00

In case you don't know who this is, this is a photo of Carrie Underwood. She is a country singer. In case you didn't know, I like country music. I like Carrie Underwood. I bet you think I'm going to tell you I got to meet her and that she is really cool and down to earth and gave me her autograph while I smiled like a little kid on Christmas....well I'm not. But I did win her newest CD on the radio this afternoon! I know, quite a let down....but I was on the radio! There have been plenty of times I have called and never get through, plenty of times I didn't call because I figured I wouldn't get through. I always envision myself screwing up the station numbers or call letters...ya know you always here the DJ ask the winner something like, "Who gives away more free music every weekend?!" and I always feared I would forget who I was talking to, but I'm happy to say I knew and said it without making a fool of myself. It was WKLB 102.5 just in case anyone out there was listening around 530pm today and heard me. I was all by myself, too, I had no one to be excited about it with afterwards. But I was on the radio!

Garden Pest Control Continued....

2009-04-08T20:37:00.003-04:00

I realize my last post had dragonflies and lady bugs in the title, but nothing in the actual post about them. I was having some technical difficulties...my apologies.

Now to continue Garden Pest Control 101...hopefully you all know me well enough by now to know I HAVE NO GARDENING EXPERIENCE so you might not want to do what I do...capice? Anyhoo...pictured above is a dragonfly. Some are afraid of these bugs...I think because they think they can sting you...which I'm pretty sure they can't (AGAIN, NOT AN EXPERT HERE)...only because I love having them land on me in the summer...they will actually do this quite easily if you hold out/up your arm with your hand extended...almost like a little landing pad for them. They are so delicate and come in all kinds of cool colors...I get so sad when I see one in the pool filter. However, these wonderful creatures eat TONS of mosquitoes so they are great to have around. Here where I live, they seem to come in waves. Some summers we have tons of them, and some seasons we have hardly any at all. When they are around, at dusk on a nice day you can look up about the level of the roof of our house, and you'll see a bunch of them darting around eating mosquitoes. They look nice in the garden too, but mostly they're great to help with the mosquitoes. Supposedly you can purchase the nymphs through the mail...as well as lady bugs. Lady bugs eat aphids (where were they last year when I needed them to save my rose bush!) and other garden pests (read: I have no idea what else they eat) and are cute, of course! We get them here right about now, in the Spring, and then don't really see much of them the rest of the year...so I guess I will have to mail order some for the summer! Any other helpful animals or insects I should have around the Letendre Family Farm? Just let me know!

Lady Bugs, Dragonflies and Guinea Hens...Oh My!

2009-04-06T22:00:00.003-04:00

Aren't these little guys cute? These are going to be my new pest control method in the growing Letendre Family Farm. OK, so after hearing from my friend, Sue, on how easy it was for her to grow lettuce, I decided to add some romaine to our "little" garden this summer. Then I started thinking about bugs that might destroy all our "straight-from-the-garden-fresh-taste-dreams"...I mean I remember last summer when aphids marched all over my beautiful rose bush and turned anything green to brown and full of holes. So I remembered reading some different articles about using animals as a pest control method. Pictured above are guinea hens....these little beauties eat ticks, mosquitoes and other garden pests, as well as weed seeds. Sounds like a dream addition to any garden...and I'm sure they look cute running around in my yard....hopefully the dogs don't think "snack" when they see them! This will be a test to see how often Mike reads my blog...I'm sure as soon as he reads this I'll be hearing him "No way! No more pets!", to which I will respond, "They're not pets, they are a "green" (I will make ghost quotes with my fingers when talking to him) pest control method and will keep the dogs and kids free of ticks as well as mosquitoes away from the pool area"...who knows if all that is true, but it sounds good!

Hope Springs Eternal.....

2009-04-05T11:39:00.003-04:00

I hope everyone had a fun-filled April Fool's Day...no Tom-foolery here, though. I tried to think of something to post that would be a real "gotcha!"...something like, "Sorry, people, I will no longer be blogging"...but I was too afraid I would get a lot of dead air space as a response! I enjoyed watching some co-workers pulling little pranks on each other, and Bethany, my 8 year old, kept "falling down" and then calling for me as if she was hurt, only to roll over in hysterical laughter when I came running to tend to her.
Spring is here and the weather seems to be ready to follow...we had a nice storm roll through here on Friday with downpours, lightning and thunder. I don't particularly care for all the rain that typically accompanies our New England Spring; I do, however, love this season for all that it promises. For those Christians out there, Spring usually means Lent and Easter...for some this means a time of re-birth, renewing your faith...for others this means chocolate Easter eggs and hot-cross buns! For me it also means everything begins to grow again - my Jonquils and crocuses are all in bloom, my rose bushes are starting to show the signs of buds coming. (notice these are all plants that do not need a whole lot of work....I kind of just get to enjoy them each year). We have tried to plant flowers that will come back year after year, although last year we tried our hands at planting annuals. I have to say, I really enjoyed them. Nothing major, not a huge garden or anything, but you may remember that Big Fat Froggy made his home in our little flower garden all summer. So I had this brilliant idea since we are on a tight budget, that maybe we could actually grow some veggies this year as well and save money at the same time! You can stop laughing now...I understand this may sound funny..I can't even cook so why would I think I could actually grow food...but I'm serious. Serious enough that I did a little (and I mean very little) research online, we bought a bunch of seeds and we are going to give it a shot. Most of the seeds can be planted right outside once the chance of a hard freeze has passed (probably early May), but the peppers needed to be started indoors. No problem. I had actually bought a bunch of starter stuff at the end of last season as I thought it would be great to harvest seeds from last years marigolds and pansies and grow them for this year. Whoa....back up the bus...I can see all your eyes rolling in unison...I agree it's quite ambitious for someone who claims to never have time for anything...but I've been on this "going green" and "living off the land" kick...so why not? I know, I am quite skeptical myself...especially after almost all the marigold seedlings got this white, fuzzy mold on them and died. But the peppers are giving me hope:

Look at these little beauties! I'm so proud...of course I can't remember which ones are green peppers and which ones are red, and who knows if they'll ever survive long enough to make it into the ground...but it's Spring, and I'm hopeful!
I read an article about a family who moved from Florida to a cabin in Vermont to live off the land and the article was about how they had no experience with chickens but decided to buy about 40 chickens and they now have all the fresh eggs they could ever want. How cool would that be? I said to Bethany, "what do you think about raising chickens in the back yard?"...I thought she was going to spontaneously combust right there - she was so excited and of course she would get up at 5am to feed them and it will be really great. I thought it would be great too, and then I remembered we're not independently wealthy and there would be no staff to look after the chickens if we go camping for a weekend, and no staff to clean the chicken area....and we all know who would get stuck with that job. So I almost felt bad telling Bethany we would not be raising chickens...this didn't stop her from telling Mike we were going to raise chickens...at which point he turned directly to the only one who could have put this idea in his daughters head...and asked me if I was crazy. It could be fun....

They're Too Cute To Strangle!

2009-03-31T20:46:00.002-04:00

Today I had one of those moments when I have to think back to when our dogs were tiny and cute....that way I won't try to sell them or give them away. I happened to be the first one home today, which is unusual. Our dogs are locked in the kitchen when no one is home so as soon as I came through the door, I started calling to them and I could hear their nails clicking excitedly on the kitchen floor as they started doing their happy dance. This continued until I got to the kitchen entryway....then I stopped in horror and grimaced as my lower jaw hit the floor. My dogs do not generally steal stuff and chew it to bits, they do not gnaw on our table or chair legs, and I like to think that at 5 1/2 years old, we have seen these habits all but disappear. Maybe that's why I was so shocked to see tons of tiny, empty, silver tins in various crushed positions...all over the kitchen floor....along with a complete coating of crushed wax pieces. My dogs ate a bag of 50 tea light candles. There probably wasn't 50 left in the bag, maybe 30. They didn't eat the wicks b/c also lying among the wreckage was a ton of wicks with the little metal circle at the bottom of it. But the wax....it was everywhere...and stuck to the floor when mixed with enough dog drool. And in case you are wondering....the wax is passing through their system nicely.....so I'm just trying to remember back when they were little and cute and you couldn't possibly get mad at them:

These photos are actually from the night we brought them home...I think Bethany was 2yrs old and those puppies! Mike certainly couldn't resist...

These almost look like the faces they were giving me this afternoon!

It's All About The Price....

2009-03-29T23:34:00.003-04:00

I know it's hard to believe, but when I'm not blogging, playing with my kids, yelling at my kids, working full time, reading a good book, etc....I like to read magazines. All kinds. Funny thing is, I really can't afford to subscribe to them, so I get a lot of my Mom's cast offs. Somehow she got a whole bunch of free magazines from points from one of her credit cards, so I now get Money and Entrepreneur as well. This is great, except I don't have time to read them all, but I can't throw them out unless I have at least leafed through them cover to cover. I will actually get anxious if I have to put one in the recycling bin without ever having opened it...I mean there could have been a really good website in there, or a great tip on how to get the stains out of something I don't even own...or at least not yet! Anyhoo, the magazines are always the same, Woman's Day, Money, Family Fun, Entrepreneur, Sports Illustrated, ESPN and Kraft Food (which is really good and free...sign up at their website!)....but somehow an "In Style" magazine made it's way into my house. I'm not that familiar with the magazine, but it almost seems like a "Glamour" magazine for adult women...yes, ladies, Glamour is for the teens! So, of course I have to read through it, although there is more looking than reading. After reading through it, I can see why I don't read these kinds of magazines. They are meant for the female millionaire, or wife of a millionaire. I'm not kidding...clothes that cost what I take home in a week, or a month! Then I came across this page:

You probably can't see the fine print, so I'll tell you all you need to know. The black spider web ring is $1200, the gold circle pin is $1500, the green flower ring is $6600, the raven ring is $7750 and the gorgeous lizard and pearl ring...................$17,400! Seriously. I won't even tell you what percentage of my yearly pay that is. AND it gives a phone number after each price in case you can't wait to call right now and order yours! I really think that even if I had a ton of money I would buy this type of stuff. People are going hungry, yet somewhere, someone right now is saying to themselves....where is that phone? I need one of these for the country club dinner this weekend! I won't go into the article about designer Robert Cavalli's yacht and all the REAL fur he has just laying around to snuggle up in. I thought real fur was a no-no and had been for years...but apparently the rich still buy it secretly by the boatloads...no pun intended!

In all fairness the magazine did have 2 pages with 17 ideas to help out different charities. I'll list some here:

Pantene Beautiful Lengths (www.beautifullengths.com) - donate your hair and they create wigs for women undergoing cancer treatment.

Keep A Child Alive: Text 90999 with your mobile phone and you pledge $5 to help keep children of AIDS alive in Africa.

Lance Armstrong Foundation: The reason I personally like the whole "Livestrong" line is because the proceeds benefit all types of cancer...you don't have to pick one or the other. This particular article was highlighting a new line of Livestrong active wear coming out. (www.livestrong.org)

Volunteer at a local ASPCA shelter or actually adopt a pet.

I think I'll stick to my low-cost mags in the future!

Barefoot Is A-OK With WalMart....

2009-03-28T21:45:00.002-04:00

Since we are on a serious budget at the moment, and Walmart...excuse me, that's "Super Walmart" has the cheapest prices on a lot of items, I have been there quite a bit in the last month. The problem is, the only time I can make it there is during my lunch time from work, after work or on weekends. It is just so crowded all the time! Even driving in to and out of the parking lot gets me anxious. My husband got me to start parking way away from everyone else, and it does help.

So tonight we needed to go to Walmart. This was a special treat as all 4 of us were going - me, Mike and the girls. Special treat means I will be aggravated within 10 minutes of being in there because of all the stupid people I know I will encounter, Mike will be aggravated within 20 minutes b/c the girls will have started either arguing or competing about something. Then it will escalate to one of us yelling at the girls in the store, and there you have it, we have now turned into the exact people we wanted to avoid at Walmart. The minute I get in that store, though, I want to just crash my carriage through all the "clutter". (For those of you who like politically correct baloney, you might want to stop reading.) By "clutter" I mean, people who feel it is necessary to wear their pajamas, along with their slippers, to Walmart. I guess in a way, it's a good thing. Almost like a uniform for the stupid people; they might look normal but then you look down at their fuzzy slippers and "oh, I'll just go around the other way". Tonight we had an extra special visit as we saw a woman, with a family, walking around in the grocery aisles, barefoot. Now before you go saying maybe she is homeless and can't afford shoes, I think if they pawned some of the gold they were wearing, she could go and buy at least a $5 pair of Keds knock offs in the Walmart shoe section. Now after getting almost everything on my list - I don't know why I thought I would be able to get Edamame at Walmart? - we headed for the register. The line was particularly slow in moving - we probably waited about 20min in line and there were only 3 people in front of us - and Mike says, "Is this where people come when they don't make it as cashiers at other stores?", which is when I gave him my "don't be rude" eyes. For the piece de resistance, while waiting in line, we got to watch 3 shoplifters get read their rights, handcuffed, banned from Walmart and thrown in the awaiting cruisers. When Mike mentioned they would be banned from Walmart, Bethany looks at me and says, "Mom, you should steal something because you would love it if you were banned from Walmart!" Hmmmmm.....

So What If You're Late...Take Time To Enjoy....

2009-03-26T22:16:00.004-04:00

Every weekday morning I have to drive my genius across town to her smart school. No bragging, just the facts...ok maybe a little bragging. The next street over from ours happens to dissect a lake at one point and it's right there, every morning that the sun is out, we get to enjoy a wonderful view. It's just very serene and peaceful...all the ice has melted, the sun is just getting into the sky and lately there is steam coming off the water. What a treat. Especially when the swans are in view as well. Yesterday there was a very large swan that was just coming out of the water by the road when we were driving by. There were no other cars so I stopped. He stretched his body and neck up tall and spread his enormous wings out wide. Only for a second or two, but he was magnificent. Unfortunately for me, I had no real camera and my cell phone had died so I didn't even have a cell phone camera!

So today I decided I would never leave the house again without my camera. Again we had great views so today I was prepared. We actually stopped, turned around, I got out, took photos, turned around again, took more photos. Nothing compared to yesterday, but it reminded me to stop and enjoy once in a while...so what if it makes you 5 minutes late?

I would have liked this photo if it wasn't so centered but I was trying to focus and make sure no other cars were coming at the same time.

I love this photo for the reflections.

Java Time, Unwind Time, Me Time....

2009-03-26T22:07:00.002-04:00

This here is one of the things I miss most about being home on furlough last week....and one of the things I look forward to every weekend. Brewing some coffee and making myself a nice, big cup in my favorite coffee mug with raw sugar (partially seen in the background). We bought a pair of these mugs at one of our favorite stores called, "Santa Fe North" located in North Conway, NH. I love unique Southwest items, but particularly the character shown here, Kokopelli. He is a mythical, flute-playing and somewhat mischievous character of the Native Americans. I always thought he was specific to the Hopi Indian tribe, but not too long ago I believe I read something saying many tribes had Kokopelli in their stories. So I guess I'm not really sure since I'm not an expert. No, I don't suddenly want to play tricks on my family after using the mug, but something about the mug itself relaxes me...weird, huh?

Aunt Edamame And The Fitness Game....

2009-03-25T22:36:00.003-04:00

Do you consider yourself fit? If you do, then you probably don't need to continue reading.... I read an article in Reader's Digest about what it means to be fit at 40. I can hear the groans out there already, and I normally would be right there with you, however with 40 ready to kick me in the ass in 2 months, I've realized the need to be healthy. OK, I guess one always knows one should be healthy so I didn't just realize this fact; I'm just saying it's only going to get harder....so who's with me?!!! (cricket, cricket) I thought so...tough crowd. Ok, ok, I can understand your hesitation so here is a website from the President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports to take a fitness test: www.adultfitnesstest.org. I just took a look at the website, but I haven't done the test yet, although I will let you know when I do. The Reader's Digest article has goals for healthy 40 yr old men and women...I'm only going to give you the stats for the women...screw the men - they skip their cookies one day and lose 10 pounds!

Push ups: women should be able to do 33 (on knees) without stopping

1.5 mile-run: women should be able to do it under 12 minutes - this would be tough for me - kind of like "I don't cook", well "I don't run"

Half sit ups: women should be able to do 60 in one minute - piece of cake...did I just say cake?

Sit and reach: women should be able to reach 9 inches beyond their heels - can someone explain what the hell this is to me? Where am I supposed to be reaching and how am I positioned that I am reaching beyond my heels?

The website does look promising, but the knee-ups while running with 9 inch heels do not!

I recently discovered a food that could help you on your road to fitness. It is spelled edamame, but who knows how one is supposed to pronounce it. From what I have read it is soy in its natural form. It looks like oversized pea pods, although I bought it shelled and frozen. I just boiled it, put some Olivio on it with salt and butter and it was delicious! I thought it had almost a nutty flavor.

Then today I added some cold, left-over edamame to a pasta salad I had made. Very yummy!

This is supposed to be a super food...really healthy for you, although I'm not an expert on food, as we all know. Many of you are probably reading this saying, "I've been eating that for years! What's the big deal!" Well if that's the case smarty pants, please send us how you prepare your edamame. I have a feeling I'll be adding it to everything...."Mom, what's this in my cereal?"

Cell Phone Coupons, Online Zen And More!

2009-03-23T22:01:00.002-04:00

So I realize I took a little break here, but I was on furlough last week...which I thought would mean I would have more time to post some good stuff...however, my inner domestic diva was out of control! It was my daughter, Jamie's birthday on St. Patrick's Day (ugh how I wish I could have held her in just a few more hours and she would have been born on the 18th!)...we are not Irish at all, but even I grew up celebrating march 17th in a big way....I can't even imagine if my birthday was on St. Patrick's Day. OK, let's not think about when she is older just yet! Anyway, she turned 12 and had a birthday slumber party with 7 other girls. I spent most of the week doing laundry, cleaning, baking and yes, even cooking! nothing fancy, of course, because we all know I can't cook! Anyway, WAY too much drama with 8 - 12 yr olds running around. Never do that again!
The serial breast feeder made a surprise appearance at mass this past Sunday and sadly, there was no breastfeeding involved. Oddly, the baby really doesn't look like it has grown since last year...I'm glad I didn't have to witness any breastfeeding, however I never get tired of watching unsuspecting church-goers expressions when it happens...in the front pew! You realize I'm going to get reprimanded by several people at church for this posting now...you think I'm joking!

Moving right along, I have a couple of fun sites and a couple of frugal sites. It's all about options today...what's you're mood? Fun or frugal?
FUN SITES:
The things we can do with our cell phones these days!
www.cellfire.com - once you sign up for free, you can download coupons onto your cell phone, then bring them up when you are at the store and they just scan the code on your cell phone screen! The site has a section where you tell it what model cell phone you have, and it will tell you where to go on your phone to download their application! It's free, however you will probably incur data charges - so it recommends use with unlimited data plans.

Bad memory? Call Jott at 866-JOTT-123 and dictate your reminder - the service types it up and sends it to you as a text msg at the time you tell it to - service is free, text msg rates apply.

This is kind of funny because it seems useless, but I can picture drunk people using it. I have not tried this, so don't hold it against me if you try it and it doesn't work. If you hear a song on the radio that you want to know the name of, dial 866-411-SONG and hold the phone up to the music - the service identifies the song and sends you a text msg with the details. This costs 99 cents per song or you can sign up at www.411song.com for bigger plans.

No GPS? Dial DIR-ECT-IONS (347-328-4667) and tell them where you are and where you want to go and they will send you a text msg with turn by turn directions! Service is free, long distance charges may apply.

Want to feel less stressed? Or at least that's what I read about this site: www.myinnerworld.com. I did register, it took a few minutes and there is nice, relaxing music to listen to while you are exploring your inner self, but I found some of the stuff a little hokey. I did find some tips on feng shui (or however you spell it!) since that interests me, but I'm not sure how much I'll actually visit the site.

A quick read...read of your color that is! www.colorstrology.com lets you know your color based on the month you were born and gives a short couple of paragraphs on what it says about you.

Coupon crazy? I read a heartwarming story about the 2 women who started this website so I thought I would try it out: www.hotcouponworld.com. I found some coupons, but it was downhill once I tried to print them out. I had to download a special application just to print them out and then it wouldn't work anyway so I had to uninstall it. That frustrated me enough for today. Although they also have a website www.organicgrocerydeals.com that looked a little more promising....I just needed to shut down so you can check it out for me and let me know if it's worth it...thanks!

Martha Stewart Time Warp....

2009-03-16T21:52:00.005-04:00

So taking a look back a recent posts, I can see I have somehow ended up in this other dimension where I cook and bake and try to be all domestic-like. I've definitely taken a bit of a departure from my modus operendi, but I'm making my way back....right after this post. Again, I blame www.thepioneerwoman.com and www.bakerella.blogspot.com - everything they do is made to look like the kitchen-impaired (that would be me) can do it so I get these crazy ideas in my head that it would be fun...yes, I get ideas that baking and cooking would be fun....this madness has to stop! After this....

So bakerella is famous for her cake pops and if you go to her blog she has tutorials on how to make them. They are simple, in theory, to make. I tried it out so I could being some as treats to Bethany's class today...here's how it went.

You start by mixing crumbled up cake with frosting then forming it into balls. Mine were not perfecting looking balls like you would see on bakerella's blog and mine were all different sizes as well - no size or shape consistency for me. Then you dip a lollipop stick in melted chocolate and stick it into the cake ball and leave to set....

Now I should mention here that these should have been on wax paper, but of course I had none. Once the lollipop sticks are in, put them in the freezer to set. Once set, melt chocolate, dip the balls then tap to get rid of the excess. This is where I think I went wrong. I think I got rid of too much of the excess. Or maybe it was because mine were not perfectly round....but once I dipped mine, they were a little lumpy:

I put sprinkles on to try to take away from the lumpiness. Bakerella makes ones that look like little cupcakes on a stick....very cute, but I didn't have any other color melting chocolate other then white or milk, which you need to make them look like cupcakes. Of course I didn't have much cutesy stuff to decorate them with besides sprinkles.
The other issue I had is that once you dip them, you are supposed to have a block of Styrofoam to stick the sticks in while they set. The closest thing I had was the lid to a Styrofoam cooler, which kind of worked. Ya want to know what worked even better? The second sheet cake I had baked and had cooled...i just stuck the sticks right in it! Worked like a charm....but see how lumpy they are? Maybe next time I'll figure out....I mean if there is a next time : )

What A Bunch of Know-It-All's....

2009-03-16T21:08:00.002-04:00

So I'm home on furlough this week...can't remember if I mentioned this previously that the company I'm working for has done layoffs and everyone who is left (thankfully I'm one of them) must take 2 weeks furlough...this is one of my weeks. While it will really hurt when I don't get a paycheck for this week....I have a long list of projects I've wanted to tackle but never have the time - unfortunately I don't realistically have time for all of them. Top of my list was to do something special for each of the girls this week and seeing as I'm not usually able to go to any school activities, I thought I would help out at each of their classes one day this week. Bethany, my 8 yr old, was thrilled and couldn't wait. Jamie on the other hand grew wide-eyed and thought I was joking...no she wanted nothing to do with me being at her school....I guess I would have been embarrassed in 6th grade too. So today I spent the afternoon with Bethany's class. Now you have to realize it is a class of 14 advanced students. Half are 3rd grade and half are 4th grade. You would think it would be such a pleasure to teach or be with a class full of advanced students, the problem is...they are a bunch of know-it-alls...literally. Several times in my short appearance is was corrected by one or another of the students so then I just observed. When one student commented on how quiet it was because they are usually all talking I said maybe it was because I was there, then he asked whey I wasn't talking. Because I'm a dumb ass, smarty pants! I would have felt bad, but I witnessed one of the students arguing a point with the teacher...she has to deal with it...at least I could just sit back and keep my mouth shut!

Just Face It, Funny Feet!

2009-03-14T22:29:00.002-04:00

It has been very stressful where I work lately...I may have mentioned this previously...so last week I came home, stressed as usual, and was greeted with this sight....my 8 year old really makes me laugh at the right time...sometimes. This was just what I needed to get out of my funk that particular day. I mean really, how could you not smile at this? Then there are times when she keeps me on edge....like last Sunday at mass. It was the 3rd grade CCD class mass...so most of the 3rd graders took part in the mass. Bethany got to do the first reading....she had been practicing for a week and I knew she would do well....however....Bethany has this habit of breaking into a British accent now and then...just because she thinks it's cool. She might go a whole day speaking to me as if she came off the plane from London. Then there is her Elvis impersonations....she does pretty well actually. So when Bethany got up to the podium at church and started her reading, I was waiting for it and for the lecture I would get from my parents and her teacher afterward....I mean it was different when she was a 6yr old in the youth choir and broke out in an air guitar in front of a packed house for the annual Christmas concert....at what age will people start saying she is rebellious instead of "that was cute"? To my surprise she ended her reading without sight of another accent - and I dare say she was the best reader out of all of them - but I could be biased. Of course she got a wild case of the hiccups after receiving communion...when it's nice and quiet...so a bunch of 3rd graders were giggling every time she hiccupped.

Orange You Glad It's Tropicana?

2009-03-14T22:24:00.003-04:00

This is genius! I bought Tropicana OJ a couple of weeks ago and the packaging was new - I mean I noticed the design on the carton was different, but nothing else. Then the next day when I went to open the carton, I couldn't believe I was looking at a mini-orange! Creative genius! In this economy I'm sure many businesses have to think of ways to get people's attention...of course I didn't notice it until it was already in my house....but isn't it cute? Aside from that, I wonder how much money it cost them to make orange shaped caps v. the old ones?

The Pioneer Woman and Bakerella...a Daunting Duo

2009-03-11T21:50:00.004-04:00

Really, what was I thinking? I blame it on another blogger www.thepioneerwoman.com who I read. She had a piece about a baking blog: http://bakerella.blogspot.com/ and between the Pioneer Woman making EVERYTHING look easy and bakerella making EVERYTHING look yummy...I got caught up in thinking I could just jump right in! You have to check out both their sites - they make me want to be a better blogger....and baker....and photographer...and, well you get the picture!
So, back to my cake.....
In response to a few comments on my lovely fondant cake posting, and again I emphasize that I AM NOT an expert on anything that has to do with food, however I can tell you what I've read. Regular fondant, and by regular I'm guessing I mean the kind smart people buy from the store that is already made for you, does not taste very good and I believe I read people peel it off sometimes. However, I also read that they sell stuff you can use to flavor the fondant, so that would be helpful. Now the kind I made is made from powdered sugar (YUM!), mini marshmallows (double YUM!) and water so it tastes pretty good...but also remember that under that thin layer of fondant is a boatload of butter cream frosting (sugar overload!).
For another reader, as I already confirmed, I know I'm not the Ace of Cakes! Nor do I want to be...however I think it would be really cool to spend a day in their baking studio - Duff rocks!
And lastly, for that clean freak out there...I promise to clean the grout between the tile on my kitchen table....because I just have so much time and nothing else to do!

Fondant....Friend or Foe?

2009-03-09T20:29:00.016-04:00

OK people, prepare to be amazed! I did some baking this past weekend (stop laughing) and some of it went surprisingly well...some of it, not so much. As most of you well know, I don't cook and baking, as far as I'm concerned, is cooking. However I have dabbled here and there when I find something I think is cool, or, as in this case, I WATCH TOO MUCH TV AND THINK I CAN DO ANYTHING! I love the show "Ace of Cakes"...they make amazing cakes and more importantly, they make it look sooooo easy! My first mistake was to even entertain the idea that I might possibly be able to make a beautiful fondant cake. Well, I knew we were celebrating my Mom's birthday yesterday and since we are on a very limited budget at the moment, and since my Dad said he would buy dinner and I could take care of the cake....I thought, "why not?". So I spent Friday night online, reading about using, making and decorating with fondant. You Tube has many awful, deceptive videos of people showing you how EASY it is to use fondant. By the time I finished watching and reading everything, I was ready to start my own fondant cake business! It was so simple...I mean I know I hadn't even made the cake yet, but it was so easy....right? Well it took me two days to make the cake and by the time I was done (literally an hour before my Mom arrived) I never wanted to see fondant again....until the next cake! I'm going to take you through a quick journey of my fondant follies. The first photo is actually one of the highlights of my weekend with fondant. A mini fondant rose...which I made! Do you believe it? I still can't believe I made it...I will show you how to make it later. I started by making the cakes - my Mom loves chocolate cake so that's what I made. Somehow I made the determination it would be round...from what I read it seemed it was more difficult to smooth the fondant over the corners of the square cakes. Also somewhere along the line, Jamie and Bethany became consultants on the cake project and they decided it was going to have 3 layers. Those girls, they really know how to challenge their Mom....and they know how to make me laugh....the eggs were innocently sitting on the counter one minute...I ran to put a laundry in, and when I returned....

I did a double take and then heard the giggling down the hall. Comic relief is very important when I cook and I'm sure they could see I was in need of some. I get too serious when I cook - I guess it's because I don't cook, so when I do, I have to follow every direction to the letter - I'm not very good at improvising...

For example, one of the videos I watched had someone making a layered fondant cake - each tier had two layers with butter cream frosting in between all layers. So here are some of the tiers for my cake. Those 2 big cakes are the 2 bottom layers and one of these small cakes was sliced in half (I cut the top half off), frosted then put back together and frosted again. I didn't end up using the other small cake - in my fondant delirium I was actually going to make a separate mini fondant cake for my Mom to take home....yeah...right.

Here are my 3 tiers, each with two layers. It doesn't matter that there's all kinds of chocolate cake crumbs in the frosting because it's going to be covered with fondant so no one will see. I was very generous with the frosting - and many of the videos and articles said it should be butter cream frosting - I have no idea why but who the hell am I to question it, right? So I frosted once, put in fridge for a few hours, removed and frosted again. Saw it on YouTube....that's why.

Now there is a canyon of a gap here between photos. I tried to spare you the whole, "Fondant is so expensive to buy, I'll just make my own" segment. Really, I can't tell you how many liars are on the web saying how EASY it is to make the marshmallow fondant...how EASY it is to use...blah blah blah. I made 4 different batches....one of them I kneaded it by hand. You have no idea how sticky this stuff is...then realizing you forgot to get a piece of plastic wrap before you started kneading so now you have sticky fondant all over the plastic wrap box, not to mention the plastic wrap itself. I learned a lot about fondant this past weekend. It is NOT my friend was the #1 thing. Others are: wrap the fondant unless cutting a chunk off, do not put in the fridge, it takes FOREVER to kneed in the tint color, once you cut designs out of fondant, use them very soon....as they will harden and then break when you go to put them on your cake...or so I heard...cuz I wouldn't do that, being a fondant expert and all.

So earlier in the day, the girls decided the cake would be shades of blue so those are the tint colors we bought. It comes in a gel - don't try to use the food coloring you buy at the grocery store - those are water based and will change the fondant and you might not be able to use it....or so a high school girl told me at the store. She was buying fondant stuff too and seemed very knowledgeable. I probably watched one of her YouTube videos....

So, it's now almost midnight and Bethany has stayed up with me kneading and rolling out the fondant and we finally have all three tiers covered. We rolled it out too thin so it doesn't look all smooth and pretty like it's supposed to. I have cursed so much that even though we aren't at church Beth is praying for me. She actually got the little massage thingy and was messaging my back while I was working...telling me to relax, it'll be OK. Then, after I thought I was all done, Bethany, in a very scared voice, pointed to the side of one of the tiers, the side I couldn't see from where I was standing. Poor thing, she looked like she was afraid my eyes were going to start shooting flames. But there it was, a big 'ol gap where the fondant was not covering the side of the cake. I wrapped them in plastic and called it a night. I had no energy to deal with it right then and there.

I apologize for the lighting/big shadow in this photo - I was all about the cake and not so much about the photos at this point. Jamie and Bethany have helped me tint and cut fondant ribbon for each tier. This was my fix for the big gap on the bottom tier where there was no fondant...brilliant! Now, you can see all the flaws. My fondant is bumpy, the ribbon is uneven. This gave me great stress, but this is the sacrifice in allowing the girls to help me with the cake. I do it because I want the girls to have fun and I always think I will enjoy doing this stuff with them, but truthfully, I think I'm just too anal and it stresses me out. I can laugh about it now, but at the time I was wishing there was a champagne fountain on top of this cake!

Here are the fondant flowers the girls cut out...I bought a 3 piece set for $2.50 at Michaels. It had 3 sizes so you can layer them, which is what we did. Unfortunately we left them on these plates like this for a while and when we were ready to layer them and put them on the cake they were hard. The petals on some of them cracked and broke or threatened to brake...thankfully I also read online if this happens to take a small bit of shortening and kind of message the fondant back together....and it worked!

OK, now I'm going to show you how I made the mini fondant roses. Start by rolling a small piece of fondant into a ball. That's my finger so you can see about how big...and actually you could go smaller...but you kind of figure it out as you go along.

Ooops! this step and the next one are swapped, but that's OK. You flatten the fondant ball in between plastic wrap so it's like a thin pancake. To start the rose, you roll the first "pancake" as shown in this picture...just roll it up like a rug.

This picture didn't come out so good, but this is the ball of fondant, flattened between plastic wrap. Not sure why, but so sayeth the YouTube video and we all know I have to follow directions, so just get a piece of plastic wrap!

Now just keep flattening balls of fondant and layering the "pancakes" around the original rolled up one. I probably used about 10 "pancakes" for each rose. Tedious, yes. Amazing, yes. Hard to do, no.

I only made 6 for my Mom's cake due to time constraints, but they are really cool.
So we layered the cut out flowers and bought silver dragees - no idea why they are called that - basically they are silver, edible balls used as baking decorations - to put in the center of the flowers. Use dabs of water to make fondant stick to itself - water makes it start to disintegrate I guess...so to stick the flowers to each other and to the cake, use water.

Here is the finished product:

The layered flowers did a nice job of hiding many flaws.

My Mom walked in, oohh'd and ahh'd over it and promptly broke off some flower petals and ate them! Bethany could see the flames coming out of my eyes and ran....literally the cake was finished an hour before my Mom destroyed it. Yes, it was her cake, as she so cleverly pointed out, and yes, it was her birthday as she again pointed out. Ugh.

Here is the cake after Bethany got to it and lit it all up for her Grammy.

Those people on YouTube are fondant wizards with the way they make it look so easy. I didn't do too bad for my first time, but Ace of Cakes I'm not!

Hopping Down The Bunny Trail....

2009-03-04T21:55:00.003-05:00

I took this photo this morning when Jamie and I were sitting in my car waiting for her bus at 7am. We just had a big snow storm 2 days ago and you can just make out bunny tracks across this person's front lawn. I took this with my handy dandy cell phone camera - just to show you I am a little tech savvy....ok not really I just thought it looked really cool. Cool...that's funny because it was 9 degrees while we were sitting there in my car!

Texting For Idiots....

2009-03-04T21:43:00.002-05:00

Now even though I have this fancy blog, believe it or not, I'm not all that tech savvy. I know, I know, it's hard to believe, but it's true. This goes for all kinds of gadgets in the tech realm. For example, I think I was the last one on earth to get a cell phone that had a camera on it...I thought I was so cool. But my biggest downfall has to be texting. At first, I didn't understand what the point of texting was. I mean, just pick up the phone and talk to the person! It would take me 1/2 an hour to type on my tiny little cell phone buttons what I could say in 30 seconds! Really, please...just call me! Texting seemed like it was for the "younger" crowd...every time I saw someone under the age of 30 their fingers were flying over the cell phone buttons like some magical wizards. Every once in a while they would pause, maybe laugh, then the dancing thumbs would begin again. Then it hit me. The reason texting is so popular is because it's the adult version of passing notes in class! When do people text 90% of time? During meetings when they are not supposed to be making calls, at their desks when they shouldn't be making personal calls, during movies, dinners and all kinds of other situations that see talking on a phone as rude. Right? Well, for those "texters" out there....if us "non-texters" catch you texting during any of these times....it's still RUDE!

Laugh, And The Whole World Laughs With You...

2009-03-02T19:41:00.009-05:00

OK, I forget that the posts go in by the date/time you write them, not when you post them...so this post was supposed to come after the next post...anyway Mike and I went away and had some good laughs during our little excursion (I say little because I don't even think we were gone for 24hours!), most of the laughing at my expense, of course! If you don't understand something I refer to, read the next post and it should make sense. If not, can't help ya! So I need to give you a little background here. Last week I went to JC Penney to check out the Sale racks and I got a nice suede and faux sherling type winter coat - the suede is probably faux too, I have no idea. Anyway, it has a hood, etc. and I've always wanted one. It was orig. $200.00, marked down to $29.99, and I got 15% off, plus I had a $10.00 coupon (the coat wasn't the only thing I bought, but WHAT A BARGAIN!). So of course I had to wear my nice new coat for our trip. We took all back roads and stopped at some out of the way pottery galleries...most of them we walked around shocked by the extreme prices but pretended to talk about where we would put the pieces in our house to make it seem like we went to these places all the time. I am interested in pottery, but only to see if I can replicate what they do. We stopped at a custom jewelry place (because it was next to another pottery place) and went into the chocolate shop (because they were giving away free samples!) - although we did buy fudge to go! We finally get to Provincetown, or P Town as we all call it; we park the truck and I'm getting out so we can finally go and eat when Mike looks over at me and starts laughing hysterically. He comes over to me and proceeds to carefully rip the PRICE TAG off that was hanging out from under one arm!

Can you imagine all the people in those galleries that were laughing at me! That was great!

Here is Mike as I was finding things to take pictures of around our table...

Here is Mike after I came out of the ladies room and explained that the soap dispenser was located on the wall, far above my head (who puts soap up that high?)...if that wasn't bad enough, it was a defective dispenser! When I finally managed to position one hand under the dispenser while using the other hand to press the front in, it actually squirted straight out....right on to my shirt!

This was a lovely, stained packet of Equal that was in the sugar dispenser. Like someone spilled coffee on it and they stuck it back in with all the rest hoping someone would still use it! Sorry this one is kind of fuzzy but I think you can still make out the brown stain. Funny thing is, when we had breakfast at our resort, there was a sugar packet with the same issue there - sorry no photo. Isn't that weird?

After we left this restaurant and went to a few shops, we were about to leave when Mike decided he needed to use the little boys room. We happened to be parked right near public bathrooms (the aforementioned very clean bathrooms). When Mike came out he said the guy that came out right before him had ducks all over his pants. I said it must be a Cape thing. Mr. Duckpants got into a late model Mercedes and was driving in front of us much of the way to our resort and I dare say Mr. Duckpants was drunk the way he swerved all over the road.

OK, I had a few beers in me now so I was a little slow getting the camera out. There was this HUGE swan in the middle of the street and that old guy in the photo went out into the road to get the swan to follow him - I don't know if it's his pet or what, but it followed...and it also shrunk down to normal size....I'm serious, it was HUGE!

This was the Espresso area in our room. Mike picked up the tiny cups and was like,"what the hell am I gonna do with a sip of coffee?" Then he saw it was an espresso machine and he was bummed....

This is just a funky carving in the middle of a parking lot for a small shopping plaza...kind of weird, but kind of cool. I could see us saying, "you know the bagel shop I mean, the one near the eagles"...."Oh, NOW I know the one you mean"....

A Little R&R For Me & the Mr....

2009-03-01T20:47:00.012-05:00

So I subscribe to this travel newsletter kind of thing from Travelzoo.com - every week they email me with the top 20 best travel deals. I don't know why I sign up for it and I don't know why I even bother to look at it because 99% of the time I look at everything, sigh, and say, "wouldn't it be nice to go to these places?". But a few weeks ago there was a deal for this great resort in Chatham, MA, which is the elbow of Cape Cod, in case you didn't know. The Chatham Bars Inn is very luxurious and you definitely feel pampered there. So, after checking with Mom and Dad to make sure they could watch my lovely children, I booked one night. I wish I had booked more, but it was much needed alone time and we did have fun. I think I enjoy our time together most when we are laughing and thanks to Mike getting good news with his test results this past week, we were able to do a lot of laughing. So here are some of our highlights:

This is a typical shot around the dunes down in Provincetown. Yes, Provincetown has a high population of gay and lesbian people there, no way around it, but it also has some of the best views, food and beaches. Of course it being February and about 30 degrees, we could only enjoy the first two.

This was taken from our table at a restaurant I'm sorry to say I didn't get the name of, but it's right on the pier across from the parking and a public restroom (very clean, according to Mike). I had a wonderful lobster roll and Mike enjoyed a Fisherman's type platter with fresh scallops and clams.

This was half of our room - nice corner fireplace...sorry it came out a bit fuzzy...the other side has a huge flat screen, bureau, fridge, bathroom, espresso area and closet.

This was the view from the main house, where we had breakfast the next morning. It was snowing so you probably can't tell that it's actually looking out over the ocean.

This is looking across the wide, rambling front patio that stretches across the front of the main house. Wonderful in warmer weather....it was a bit windy and cold (24 degrees) this morning!

The Chatham Lighthouse - no explanation needed.

This is across from the Chatham Lighthouse. The snow was literally pelting us sideways...actually make that...pelting ME sideways. Mike sat in the truck and watched while I took photos.

Anyone familiar with Cape Cod knows there are only 2 ways to get on or off the Cape...2 bridges, The Bourne Bridge and The Sagamore Bridge - they are identical. This is the Bourne Bridge.

And so we returned home...a little more relaxed. Highly recommend it.

Stylish....Who Me?

2009-02-26T22:41:00.003-05:00

I have been meaning to show you this...isn't this adorable? This is a normal college-type notebook that has been snazzed-up by my good friend, Eileen. She actually embroidered the "K" onto the material, used pink, velvet ribbon for the 3 stripes and brown, polka-dot ribbon for the bows, which are tied through holes she punched in the notebook cover. I told her she should make these and sell them...I LOVE mine and take notes for my projects in it. Really I just want to walk around holding it because I think it's so damn cute! My girls know I had better not see their hands on this item or it's to church for punishment....I mean to their rooms!

Emotional Daze....

2009-02-26T22:24:00.002-05:00

I couldn't even think of what kind of photo to attach to this posting - that's how fried my head is right now. Is there such a thing as chapped brain? ya know, like chapped lips?

Anyway, some of you may know, and some may not, but Mike is a cancer patient. He finished treatment in May of 2005 and you have to continue follow up testing for 5 years before they will cut the apron strings. So we had been coasting along since he finished treatment, loving life, every test came back fine...until last summer. Then they found something on his liver and it was as if our whole world came crashing to a halt. Now they told us it was probably nothing and they really weren't concerned so we shouldn't be concerned....yeah...riiigghhht. Any of you who have had cancer or have someone close to you with it, when they first say the "c" word, it's a terrible feeling. You know you hear all the time about people having it in one place, successfully treating it only to have it come back somewhere else in their body. Mike had a particularly rare type so they really couldn't tell us any stats on it coming back or not, or infiltrating other areas of the body. So understandably we have been walking in egg shells since his last test in the Fall. This week he had another set of tests and this morning we got the good news that it is not cancer and he is fine. Relief washes over me every time I think about it.

As if this wasn't emotional enough, my place of employment, as so many other companies during this economic crisis, had to do layoffs today. I was one of the very fortunate ones who is able to keep their job. I am very thankful for that, but it is sad to know these people we have worked with and joked around with are out of a job. When I saw one of the HR women who had the awful task of delivering the layoff news to employees, she looked like she wanted to cry. That has to be the worst part of being in the HR department.

I have some great websites for job hunting that I will put together for another posting...but not tonight, I need to chill.

Faithful Reading....

2009-02-25T21:45:00.002-05:00

Welcome to the book portion of the program. Please be seated - this will be quite a ride.
Now most of you who read my blog regularly can tell I am not a good, practicing Catholic. I take jibes at the church at times and the people I find at mass. But I have my reasons - ones I don't need to share, and ones that I can share. I will readily admit that I don't believe in many of the things the Catholic church believes in (is it getting hot in here?). I don't see a problem with birth control - and I don't see a problem with divorce (I don't feel divorce should be an easy out, but there are circumstances where divorce is the best option and people shouldn't be persecuted for their mistakes). I do feel you can pray and connect with God without being in the physical church - the church says "wherever 2 or more gather in my name I will be there". Hello? What about people who pray silently to themselves wherever they happen to be? God doesn't listen to them? That doesn't make sense - "Go find a buddy and then we can talk" - I can't picture God saying that. I really don't understand why women can't be priests and why priests can't be married - just doesn't make sense to me. I definitely feel there is a God and I feel comfort when I pray to him/her - kind of like free consolation in a time of need. Anyway, I could go on and on. Recently I was sent this book to read and my first thought was, "Great. A religious story about discovering God." Then I started to read it. Hold on to your seats people because this book is unbelievable. Just the content alone - I know many people don't like to hear about bad things that happen in other countries - it happens over there and doesn't affect us so what are we supposed to do? I guess this book gives a bit of a wake up call to all the regular "Joe's" like me out there not to take everything for granted. What this woman went through during the Rwandan holocaust is just so unreal. The other part of the whole story is how her faith changed and grew during some of the most intense moments in the story - times when I think I, myself, would have packed it in and admitted defeat. Clearly - and if this story is true I have no doubt - that her faith had a direct bearing on miracles that saved her life. More than once. I know, it sounds crazy and I can't even believe the words as they are coming out of my mouth. Since reading this book I have looked at faith, in general, in a different way. I mean, you always hear people say, "I'm praying for your recovery", or "We're praying for them during this difficult time", etc. But what if you could change the outcome of situations by having faith so strong that God would intervene for you? I never really thought that having strong faith could change one's life. I always thought of it more as a fast-pass to heaven, but not really affecting anything while I was still among the living. Read the book. Let me know your thoughts. It has definitely had an affect on me - I haven't quite figured out to what extent.

It's My Blog...And I'm Bragging

2009-02-25T21:22:00.002-05:00

Yes, I know I brag about my kids, but what parent doesn't, right? I'm sure there are plenty of people out there who listen to me go on and on about how smart my kids are and always get A's and A+'s and blah, blah, blah. They probably think I embellish their accomplishments and roll their eyes behind my back (ok, maybe that was a bit on the paranoid side...story for another time!)...well I'm here to tell ya, people, I have proof! Jamie came home two weeks ago with this official-looking envelope and a few official-looking letters inside. She has been recognized by the United States Achievement (she definitely doesn't take after me, I just had to look up how to spell that!) Academy as a National Honor Student! Ok, now, settle down...enough of the "Ooooh's" and "Aahhhh's"....once you've had a chance to think about it, what that hell does that mean? Obviously it's quite an honor to be recognized for academics...but I had never heard of this "United States Achievement Academy"...so I googled it. It seems to be an organization whose sole purpose is to recognize smart kids and offer them a chance for grants and scholarships. And it says it will look good on their college application...I'll take it! We get a nice hardcover yearbook with Jamie's photo and stats in it. I promise I'll take a pretty picture when we get it so you can all drool over it...

Click For A Cause.....

2009-02-23T22:18:00.003-05:00

Please click on the link below and you will see a purple button on the screen that says "Click Here to Give - It's Free" and it helps pay for the care of rescue animals.

http://www.theanimalrescuesite.com/clickToGive/home.faces?siteId=3

We Are Not Nanny-Worthy...

2009-02-23T22:13:00.003-05:00

So it wasn't until this past weekend that I found out which house near me has had the SuperNanny there for the past few weeks. Why can't it ever be a normal family that gets her help? Oh Nooooooo. It has to be a huge colonial on the lake...not that I'm judging or anything, but very rarely do you see regular Joe's family on shows like that. Now I can't wait to see the episode on TV...when the kids are all screaming at the Mom and each other I can laugh and say, "That's what you get for having a nice big house on the lake and being able to stay home with your kids!" What?

Winter Sunsets....

2009-02-23T22:08:00.002-05:00

There's nothing like winter sunsets. I actually took this photo with my trusty cell phone camera - not bad, eh? I was recently reading about how to photo shop photos to be these great works of art and there is definitely something to be said for it, but I felt like this whole time I have been admiring these two bloggers photos b/c they are so amazing...and in reality they are photo shop amazing. I'm sure if I had photo shop mine would be just as amazing...and I'm going to keep telling myself that!

My Secret Life As A Greaser....

2009-02-21T22:41:00.004-05:00

Tonight on TV...I forgot what channel it was on...was the original movie, Grease. Now, I don't know if other kids grew up like me and my friends, all wishing we were Sandy and reciting all the songs from that movie, but every time I watch the movie, it brings back great memories. When I was in middle school, my friends and I put on the play and I played the character Rizzo. Now I'll be honest, I had not seen the movie before I did the play so I didn't realize what an unsavory character she was until months later when I actually saw the movie. The best part was learning all the songs and dancing. So, or course, when I see the movie on TV I join in with all the singing, much to my daughters dismay. The actually forbid me to sing so I resort to lip synching. It's such a fun movie but my daughters view it through different eyes...maybe it's a generation gap...maybe my 8 year old is just too old for all of her 8 years. As you may know the movie ends with a great, pump you up type of song and Sandy has been transformed into a sexy hot mama in skin tight black and Danny is also in all black...all the characters are singing and dancing and it makes you feel good. What is Bethany's only comment? "Doesn't black attract the sun?" I gave her a look which was met with a serious, "What?"....sometimes she makes me feel like she's the Mom....

If It's Free, It's For Me....

2009-02-16T22:41:00.002-05:00

Howdy folks and welcome to the next installment of "helpful Hints and websites"! Today's websites are all about saving money, and who out there in this economy can't use some ideas on saving money?
OK, so the first website www.swapathome.com looks rather interesting. I like the idea of posting items for free and receiving items for free (ok, really you pay with virtual coupons, but they're not real, so really things are free), you just have to pay the shipping. While the website is set up nicely and I did look through some items, I think I prefer www.freecycle.org because on this site you join your local group and everything is pick up locally - no postage involved. Two other swap-type sites, www.swapace.com and www.swaptree.com were listed in the same article, but I didn't find either of these sites very enticing - I saw an apartment in Sydney, Australia listed for $670,000.00AU on one of these sites. No bargain there!
Lastly for today's installment I read about some interesting ideas on saving money on www.thriftyfun.com. It was one of those things where I clicked on the headline "Cut cable with Hulu.com" which led to another article about saving money on www.tiphero.com which led to other articles, and so on, and so on. Definitely some money saving tips on thriftyfun.com although you may have to search around for what you are looking for...in the end it might just be worth it!

2009-02-16T21:46:00.002-05:00

Happy belated Valentine's Day! I had quite an enjoyable day on the 14th. We normally take the girls out for Valentine dinner every year. This year, however, our oldest daughter had a birthday slumber party to go to...who has a birthday party on Valentine's Day? Better yet, what parents want to encourage a houseful of children on Valentine's Day? turns out, the girls birthday is Valentine's Day so I guess it was appropriate. Anyway, Jamie had to leave in the afternoon so Valentine dinner had to be moved to Valentine lunch. We have been trying to eat at one of the new Red Robin restaurants since they came around our area about a year ago, but every time we attempt it, the amount of people waiting to get in rivals the lines at WalMart on Black Friday...so we just drive on by. This time we had a plan...or at least Mike had a plan. We would get there when it opened at 11am...in like Flynn. We didn't eat breakfast so we'd all be nice and hungry for our first Red Robin gourmet burger experience. The closest Red Robin to us is at the new Patriot Place at Gillette Stadium so we headed out and literally walked up to the front doors of the place just as they were unlocking them. Cringe. I felt kind of funny...but within 1/2 hour the place was packed. Really good burger...I had one called the Royal something or other. Regardless, it had enough calories to keep my body going until mid-week! Did you know they offer bottomless fries? We all had a great meal...we got home with just enough time for me to have a nice little nap before taking Jamie to her party. It was like Thanksgiving! I stuffed myself and then had a nap! We don't really exchange gifts, Mike and I. We usually get the girls the current Valentine webkinz and just cards for each other. I got him one shaped like a heart - only because it played the song "I swear" when you opened it. Unfortunately Mike didn't remember that was the last song we danced to at our wedding. Oh well, my parents came over for dinner and we ended up playing Wii bowling with them. Lots of laughs and overall a really great day. Hope yours was as well : )

Free Fun Sites.....

2009-02-13T00:08:00.002-05:00

Ok, I found two websites that could help you pass time aimlessly and unproductively and one that could actually provide entertainment, depending on who is involved. Should you crave to sit at your computer and play free game online, check out www.shockwave.com and www.popcap.com to play game for free. I have played "Insaniquarium" on the Popcap website before...pretty entertaining actually...
I also have a website here that says you can sing along karaoke style with songs you choose off their website. I did not register on the site, but it says you can do this for free at www.karaokeparty.com and who doesn't want to sing along like Elvis? What? I know I'm not the only one....

So until the next installment....sing a tune, enjoy a cookie and invigorate with a coffee bar!

Interesting Websites.....

2009-02-12T23:50:00.002-05:00

I didn't want to call it helpful hints again because I guess a lot of what I'm finding are cool websites....now don't these cookies impress? They are decorated with such detail! I'm not sure I would ever be able to eat them! Stop laughing.....ok, you're right....but I would look at them for a long time before I ate them! You can buy them at www.sunflowerbaking.com. Find these cookies under the "custom work" section.

Helpful Hints Part Two....

2009-02-12T23:27:00.003-05:00

OK, so it didn't work out so well that I go through a few of these helpful hints a day...sometimes life just happens all around me and it's better for me to be curled up on the couch with my girls rather than at the computer. Sorry, not saying you all aren't important to me because obviously without you, I would have less of a purpose, but sometimes you have to wait.

Anyway, the next few pages I pulled from one of my folders has all kinds of beauty tips type of tidbits. So I'm picking a few to share with you. Now, I may not have mentioned this before, but I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the smell of ground coffee. I need to get one of those tiny little Tupperware key chain containers they used to give out at their parties and carry some ground coffee around with me. I genuinely think I would be a happier person all day long. Can you see it now? At my desk sneaking whiffs from my Tupperware when no one was looking? So any products that incorporate coffee is worth taking a look at in my book. The photo above is "Brazilian Espresso Luxury Scrub Bar with Cocoa Butter and Essential Oils"....I want to make this bar my friend. It sounds so indulgent...and only $7.50! Wait, it's a bar of soap...for $7.50? Yikers...that is indulgent! But it would make a great gift for someone....kind of late for Valentine's Day...but Mother's Day is right around the corner! You can get it at www.naturalhandcraftedsoap.com and make sure to tell them I sent you....maybe I'll get a freebie! Another site that has luxurious coffee products is www.bodycoffee.com. Their coffee bar is $8.00, but I found something on their site that made coffee beans sound quite decadent: "Our invigorating Body Polish captures their magic (magic beans!) with a unique blend of Dead Sea Salt, ground coffee arabica, essential oils and herbal extracts". It almost sounds sinful! And all for the low price of $38.00! Not joking...again, would make a good gift, but I would probably never spend that on myself!

Choked By Helpful Hints....

2009-02-09T21:44:00.002-05:00

I may have mentioned previously how I love to read magazines and often find helpful tips or websites in them. I don't want to keep the whole magazine, so I've been tearing out the pages with interesting bits on them and keeping them in a folder so "some day" when I have time I can go through them all and see what might be really useful. Well, I have several folders now and if I don't start weeding through them Mike will throw them out and well, that will just give me a heart attack because just maybe there was one little website or hint that would have changed my life or told me how to magically organize my kitchen....ok maybe not, but I am going to start going through them and posting anything useful I come across....I figure if I can go through a few a day, I'll have them gone in no time...so be prepared! Fair warning!

OK, first one, not so bad http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/gallery/ great ideas if you are creative. I'm not big into scrap booking, but I like websites that let you get creative ideas when you need them.

OK, next one, not so bad either. http://en.childrenslibrary.org/ You can actually go on this website, choose a children's book and read it right there, online. Nice if you can't get to your local library, but limited selection...the great part is they have books from all over the world...you can actually click on a country on a globe and it will show you books from that country! Interesting concept.

Next one is great. http://familyfun.go.com/ Family Fun magazine is always filled with great ideas and recipes and their website is no different. Check it out for all kinds of great stuff!

Here's a free contest you can enter (although you have to give your name, email and a phone# so if you start getting emails as a result, don't blame me!): http://zipinstallation.com/v/wwm/ enter for a chance to win a 42" LCD flat screen HDTV and installation.

OK, wow, there's about 30minutes I'll never get back. I just went to www.hes.lbl.gov and you enter all this information about your home - really, it took me about 30minutes, maybe more - and I didn't even know some of the answers - I could care less how many inches of insulation are in my basement or what the insulation is rated - after you enter all your information, it calculates how you could save money with particular upgrades to your home or appliances. It said it could save me a whopping $180 a year....that's about 50 cents a day.

Stay tuned for more interesting tips or websites! (or not so interesting...but you can suffer along with me!)