My Intentions for 2011

Be a better wife, daughter, sister, friend, aunt.
Eat healthier.  Move more.  Lose weight.
Find a great dress for G & R's wedding in Cabo in April.
Read more.
Learn to use the settings on my camera - the ones other than "AUTO."
Make my incentive at work every quarter.
And tons more - get the picture?  I want to do better in every aspect of life.
Consciously.  With determination.
Successfully.

Wish me luck and willpower!

Photos from 2010

Love the different shades of blonde in my hair...

We got a flat RIGHT at the intersection of 80E and 46E.  A stranger was nice enough to stop and help J.

C, the neighbor who's determined to teach me Hebrew!  During the summer, he and the little girls who live next door are waiting for me to get home from work to teach me a new word!

The hallway at work, leading from my side of the building to the opposite side - conference rooms on the left.

An iris from Presby Memorial Iris Gardens.

Love the lighting in this photo!

Trying a little something diffferent with the camera focus...

She was only three hours old and they let me hold her!

J and I took Mom with us for our anniversary dinner!

A field of sunflowers in Sparta, all destined for birdfeed!

Posted this photo before, but I just can't believe I took THIS photo in OUR town!

The strip canoe J is building, and he's LOVING this project!
 

A photo of Mom at a party at C's new house.  Love the laughter on her face!

Is that what they call a front?!? (LOL)

Part of the Shades of Summer project!  These sunglasses were mailed to me, I took a photo of myself in them and emailed it to the woman running the project, and then I mailed them on to the next participant!  Those sunglasses traveled all over the US!

One of four weekends I spent frying the eggplant J grew in our backyard.  It was SO smooth and full of flavor!

A pink sky on the way home from work...

We saw the boat on the Hudson on the way home one day - the photo doesn't do the lighting justice, but it makes me remember just how the light hit the side of the boat...

Took this photo from my office window..

This is maybe one of my top 5 photos of J - took this in AC this past November.

AC in November.

The wall in our hotel hallway...

  

The world's ugliest sofa, finally out of my living room and out for trash pickup!

My 50th  - I think it deserved a toast, don't you!?!?

THE Coca-Cola Santa truck, in the Acme parking lot.

This was a blurry photo of S and M, but I applied a "glow" in photo editing and it looks like it's supposed to be that way! 

Flooding in North Jersey last spring/summer...

My New ^(%)*@#$

I got myself an iPod Touch.  Here's a photo or two, as it is right now...

So far I've only downloaded a couple of things - a comprehensive Dan Fogelberg album, an app for Pandora radio, iBooks (just to try it out - it comes with one free version of Winnie the Pooh), Bejeweled, Facebook and Twitter.  Apparently, according to friend E, I'll be addicted to various apps, both free ones and some that must be purchased.  She's "gifting" a few to me for a b'day present...   We'll see what I get from her...

It's fun so far...

Snow, Snow, and MORE Snow!

They predicted flurries on Christmas Day about a week before the holiday. 
Then they withdrew that prediction.
Then all of a sudden they said we were going to get hit with a huge storm.  But "they" didn't say it very loudly here until AFTER my sister and mom in Arizona called and said the National Weather Service was predicting 8 inches, or something like that.
THEN all of a sudden "they" were saying 8"-12" or 12"-18".
Here's what we got.....

This is the view down the street from our front porch.  That's J snow-blowing our neighbor's sidewalk.

That's my car, after J started clearing it out this morning.

This is the scene out our back door, looking toward Sue's backyard.  That's my daughter's car on the left; it was totally not visible when J first went out to start cleaning up our property.

This is our deck.  That's a normal picnic table with snow up to the tabletop.  And there's about 15" on top of the table.  (Sorry about the poor photo quality - that's taken out the window over the sink so the screen is making it a bit blurry and dark.)

Here's my car again, with the driveway cleaned out a bit more.

This is Passaic Avenue, heading out with J to go to the doctor.  WHICH is ANOTHER story.  I called the service and they said the doctor would be there for appointments after 1pm.  So, 1:30pm is after 1pm so we went.  At 1:12pm.  At 1:30pm we were still the only ones in the lot.  So I called again and THIS time they said all appointments were cancelled.  So I asked why no one called and the service said they probably didn't take the appointment list home, and I said I hoped we didn't have an accident on the way home and the lady said she hoped I didn't, too.  Sort of takes the wind out of your sails when they don't snap back at you...  But I was annoyed.  It's not like I DIDN'T check...

Another view of Passaic Avenue, this time on the way out to finish shoveling Mrs. D's house, and Aunt Em's house.

This is the house next door to Mrs. D.  The neighbor won't snowblow straight through to where J finished shoveling by hand.  Nice guy, huh?  So when we went back J had to dig this out, too, along with the rest of the driveway.  See how deep it is?

A close up of how deep it is...

And here's Mom's house, with C coming out the side door.  She said the roads near her were full of spin-outs, stuck cars, accidents, etc.  Our route there was okay...  One car stuck on our street, and one having trouble getting up onto Passaic Avenue.

Hope you enjoyed the snow.  Hey, P, should "snow photos" be this month's theme??!!??  No?  Okay.  Lets's come up with another one, then...

Christmas 2010, Part Deux!

Some photos from Christmas brunch at my sister-in-law's house...

The proud grandparents...

J, aka Scrooge/the Grinch/my hubby!

 Mr. and Mrs. Grinch/Scrooge!

Cioci Krys and E!





Merry Christmas!!!

Merry Christmas, readers!  I hope your holidays are filled with love and happiness and good health! 

I thought, perhaps, if you're snowed in, or in the process of getting snowed in, that you might enjoy a peek into Christmas at our house...

Here is a photo of our Christmas tree 2010! I decided to go white/silver/clear only this year, except for yes, 3 red ornaments and one brown ornament that will always be on my tree, no matter what the theme that year...  I have a clear red ball with a silver "K" filled with tinsel that my dad made for me when I was small.  I have a red heart that I bought in honor of my dad after he died.  And there are two homemade ornaments that J made with his kids when they were small - one is a painted Santa Claus and one is a gingerbread man. 

This is the inside of St. Catherine of Siena's Church in Cedar Grove.  It's not "our" church and it's not even the church we used to go to for Midnight Mass.  I had a bit of a falling out with the church of my childhood so J and I joined the church of my earlier childhood.  But now we go to non-Midnight Mass at St. Catherine's, at 10pm on Christmas Eve.  To my everlasting annoyance, Midnight Mass is no longer at midnight.  But they still have a half-hour of Christmas carols before Mass and some other man and I sang along with the choir this year!  No one else did, but we did!  This church does have some meaning for us - our nieces got married here, our great niece was baptized here and this is the church J's sister attends.  So even though it's not "ours," we enjoy Mass here...

This is our beautiful baby great niece, E.  Isn't she the cutest!?!?!?  This was Christmas Day, about 1pm, just after she took a little nap, and after her parents opened SO many presents for her!  She got so many outfits and baby toys and books and tree ornaments and...  I got her a cute pink silk dress that they might have her wear at the wedding in April, and a cute purple sweatsuit that she can wear now, and Santa brought her the same toy we chose, but apparently it's the one she chose to play with over all others, so ours will be kept at Grandma's Mimi's and PopPop's...

Here's our beautiful daughter M with her fiance S, in front of our tree yesterday afternoon.  I feel for them.  M is so conscious and thoughtful about spending time with both sides of the family, and S's parents are divorced, too. This means they have FOUR families to try and see on the holiday.  And unfortunately both sides on each side don't spend a lot of time together at all - little to NONE - so they are on the move on Christmas Day.  To make it worse, S had to work!  But we did spend some time with them and that's the best gift they could give us!

Here's a photo of the three of us, taken at arm's length in our library just before M left for S's mom's house!  We lent her our Subaru, and she left her Scion TC in our driveway.  THANK GOODNESS since it's blizzarding now and her teeny sports car is simply a rolling death trap!  At least the Subaru has 4-wheel drive.  She's home, safe and sound, though, after only a brief trip to the gym this morning, before the snow got too bad.

Here's our annual couple's photo.  J already dressed down into a sweat jacket; he's not much for staying dressed up if he doesn't have to, so pardon the mix of casual and business casual we have going in the photo!  Santa brought J a TomTom GPS system, and surprisingly he didn't whine about how he doens't want one of these, and why did I Santa bother bringing him one...  He did ask if I knew how to operate one and well, we'll just learn together!  I got a beautiful pashmina shawl, some gift cards, a Thomas Kincaide mug, and a computer lap desk from J Santa.  I must have been a good girl this year!



More photos to come, as I go through my camera...

Santa came early...

So I bought myself a Flip video camera for my b'day - I needed - NO - I deserved a little something special 'cause it was a BIG birthday - 5.0.  I just can't believe I'm 50 - I literally feel like I'm in my 20s or 30s. 

Okay, maybe I don't feel that way first thing in the morning when I'm struggling to walk upright to the bathroom.  And maybe I don't feel quite that young when I get up from my desk chair at work, after three hours of sitting in almost the exact same position, only to find that my hips HURT.

But for the most part, I still have that young mindset that people who are 50 are O.L.D.  I know they're not, but fifty????!!!!????  Thankfully many of my friends cashed those checks I sent and told me I don't look fifty.  But truly, those small lines and wrinkles?  I earned each and every one of them and I'm okay with them.  And I'm okay with getting older - after all, the alternative is not an option!

Anyway, back to the Flip camera.  Darling hubby reimbursed me for it so it really WAS a b'day present for yours truly!

Then there I was, sitting in front of my computer the other day and something else on Amazon was on sale, an electronic gadget I don't need, certainly not something I ever thought I wanted (NOPE, P, don't get all excited - I didn't buy myself a Kindle!), and I went for it!  I bought myself an 1&&%#)(.  I can't post it here until I break it to my husband.  But suffice it to say it's fun!  Or it will be, anyway, once I tell him I bought it, and then I start playing with it...  Tonight's the night - I'm telling him that I got it, then I can come out of that hidden-present-for-myself-closet!

I know I've been a less-than-stellar blogger of late, but I promise to post some photos, and some updates, over the holiday season - there will be lots to talk about - after all, Santa's coming...

"I am not a Luddite (she said, somewhat defensively), and I do not oppose all change simply because it is change.... Here's my bottom line: There's no way to avoid using energy either to print books or manufacture e-readers, to transport books or to transport e-readers, and disposal issues crop up in both cases, as well, so why would I elect to read in a format that requires additional inputs of energy? Why not just take my book out under a tree or to the beach or read it on the front porch or under the lamp that's turned on in the winter evening, anyway, so I won't be tripping over my dog when I get up from my chair to go to bed?


"It will be a while before all the dust from the new e-reader revolution settles, and the final settling may not come in my lifetime. Meanwhile, I'm watching the dust storm with interest and sticking with my old-fashioned books. As the Water Rat said of his old riverbank: 'It's my world, and I don’t want any other.' "

--Pamela Grath, owner of Dog Ears Books, Northport, Mich., on her Books in Northport blog.

Personally I think Pamela and I would get along just fine!  I'm not anti-e-reader; I'm anti-e-reader-FOR-ME.  Although admittedly you can take your e-reader "out under a tree or to the beach or read it on the front porch or under the lamp that's turned on in the winter evening..."

Merry Christmas, Atheists!

http://www.nj.com/hudson/index.ssf/2010/12/atheists_anti-christmas_billbo.html

This billboard does NOT give me a warm and fuzzy feeling this holiday season.

I am totally okay with you being an atheist.  I wouldn't want to BE you when you die, but okay, if that's how you feel, fine.

And I am totally okay with you having the right to post a billboard questioning the existence of God, or proclaiming your non-belief.

But I DO have a problem with you using images such as these, images so central and core to my belief system, to my faith, on that same billboard.

Want to put a photo of some clouds on it?  Okay.  A sky?  Okay.  A billboard that is text only?  Okay.

But to use those images, images that warm my heart and mean so very much to me?  NO EFFIN' WAY.  I'm not denying you the right to disbelieve.  I DO have a problem with you using those images on your billboard.

If there's a petition to be signed requesting this billboard be removed, I'll sign it.  Create some other billboard, one that does not use religious images, and I'm all for your right to post it.

So... here you go.  To quote the Catholic League:  "the light at the end of the tunnel."  THIS billboard is at the exit of the Lincoln Tunnel, while the one above is at the first.  At least now I have something to look forward to when exiting the tunnel!!