A Week in the Life...

My life is boring. And never have I been more convinced of that than this past week!

I am supposed to be taking numerous pictures each day of "my life" - my boring, ordinary life that's just like every one else's boring, ordinary life who's participating in that same project. What project, you ask? Visit Ali's blog; she started this whole deal.

So there are thousands of women, scrappers all over the globe, participating in this project. There's Cathy Zielski - here's a link to HER blog. The other day? She took 192 pictures.

1.9.2. One.hundred.ninety-two. CXCII. (Is that right?)

192 pictures? I'm struggling to break 10 in a day!!! I know I'm supposed to take photos of "my every day." And I tried. So, in words (photos to come at a later day!), here's a typical week:

• picture of my breakfast
• picture of me dressed and coifed for work
• picture of my desk
• picture of PC screen
• picture of a representative project on my desk
• picture out the window of my office of NYC hidden by fog
• picture of my lunch
• picture of my dinner
• picture of J
• picture of us watching TV
• picture of my breakfast (which, btw, IS.EXACTLY.THE.SAME.AS.YESTERDAY'S
• picture of me dressed and coifed for work
• picture of my desk
• picture of PC screen - oh, wow! Different shot!
• picture of representative project on my desk - I do the same thing every day, people, so this looks the same as yesterday's, too!
• picture out the window of my office of NYC NOT hidden by fog
• picture of my lunch - different salad, but salad, nonetheless
• picture of my dinner (Oh, this picture is of an empty plate 'cause I forgot to take a photo of the dinner itself!)
• picture of J doing something a little different, maybe changing a tire rather than cleaning the basement
• picture of us watching TV (hey, it IS a different show!)
• and on, and on, and on
• and to shake it all up, OH! I did laundry one day!!! Wanna see photos of my clean socks?!?

This is going to be ONE.BORING.PROJECT.

To prove it, I'll post those pictures later on... I'm going to take photos for two weeks, in the off chance something interesting happens to me, or around me, next week...

It's time...

... to get serious about my health.

I went to the doctor Tuesday for a cystoscopy. Thank goodness there's nothing seriously wrong - just what they call "benign essential hematuria." (If you're really interested you can look it up - it's nothing serious. In fact, I don't have to go back for a follow-up for, and I quote, "10 or 15 years.")

But now I have no excuse. I have no excuse to not take care of myself. I have no reason to "take it easy until they find out what's wrong..."

So today I had fruit for breakfast, salad for lunch, and a slice of pepperoni pizza for dinner. I had 20 ounces of vitamin water, a medium iced coffee, and a few sips of J's coke at dinner. I'm going to go and grab a bottle of water in a couple of minutes because I still need some more liquid for the day.

I'm going to start walking more, moving more, eating less, eating better. I'm going to inflate my exercise ball and start using it for some exercises I read about that are supposed to help reduce the pain in my hips that I've decided comes from the early stages of osteoarthritis. I have early arthritis in my pinky fingers. My hips hurt when I sit for a length of time and then get up to walk. They hurt more when I go upstairs, trying to move my own weight against gravity, then when I go downstairs, with the help of gravity.

I'm simply too young to be slowed up by arthritic symptoms that I only have because I'm too lazy to do some slight to moderate exercise. And I know myself: once slight becomes moderate, I actually begin to enjoy it anyway. It just takes a while for me to "get into it." Deep down inside, readers, I'm just plain lazy.

So with your support (send those good wishes my way, please!) I'm going to try. I'll keep you all posted!m

A Week in the Life

I'm doing it.
Again.
A Week in the Life.
Go visit Ali's blog here to see what it's all about.


Well, at least I'm going to give it my best shot!!!

In Baltimore...

I'm sounding like a broken record, but I'm really missing my hubby. It's his birthday, the first one we've ever spent apart, and I'm hating being three states away when he's home celebrating (NOT!). I've called him several times, and I say "Happy Birthday, Hon!" every time he answers the phone and "I miss you" every time we hang up.

I left him a "Wish I was home with you" card on his pillow. Corny? Maybe. But he always leaves me a card to tell me how much he missed me when I'm away (there'll probably be one there when I get home tomorrow) and I DO! Wish I was there, with him.

The hotel is nice; I'm staying at the Sheraton Baltimore Center City. I have a single room with a queen-sized bed, a beautiful upgraded bathroom with a full shower (no tub!), a nice pedestal sink with a chrome frame, and some morning coffee in the room! Even though it's Starbucks (and I'm not a huge fan - it's a bit too bitter for me), I'll enjoy a cuppa tomorrow morning AT 5:30AM. We're leaving by 7am for Hoboken - boss is driving and he has an 11am meeting.

Oops - Dancing with the Stars is coming on -- well, it just started, and I took a bit of a break from this post to watch the intros... And then, one of our new favorite shows, Castle, is on! It's not award-winning television, but there's just something about the interaction between the two main characters that reminds me of Moonlighting: some sexual tension, some fun facial expressions, I don't really know what it is that I love about the show (the writing is pretty good -some of the lines are great!) - but I DO love it and I have to be hunkered down with my iced coffee to watch it in a couple of hours...

See ya soon!

Some miscellaneous photos...

As promised - TOTALLY miscellaneous photos, with no rhyme or reason other than they were taken recently...

The first day this year we were able to sit outside and enjoy the sun without being cold. I was playing around with the camera trying to get a new portrait photo and got this one - I like the variation in color in my hair. Just wish the roots wouldn't come so often... Here in NJ we have suffered from lots of flooding. This is a block or two away from my girlfriend's house in Lincoln Park. That is one of the most hardest hit areas any time there is flooding in the Passaic River. The storms have been gone for two weeks now and this water is still standing in the woods near her home. The water table is so high that there's nowhere for the water to go. This year will be a bad year for mosquitos... Allergies are already bad - Branchbrook Park's cherry blossoms (all 4200 trees!) are now in full bloom. All those brides hoping for photos under the flowering trees will be S.O.L. in a week or two since the flowers are 2 or 3 weeks early...

I showed you a photo of my new window seats already but here's one with the middle piece in place. The two end units have baskets that load in from the front; the middle one lifts up for closed storage. Going to be filling those puppies today!!!

On the way home from looking at the damage from the flooding last Sunday, we heard a terrible noise when we pulled onto Route 23 South. Here's a photo of our tire. I didn't take a picture of the cars whizzing past us at 60mph, on either side! We were pulled over in the worst possible place - right in the triangle between the entrance ramps for Route 80 East and Route 46 East, coming south on Route 23. Anyone who knows this area knows just where we were! Thankfully a nice construction guy with emergency flashers pulled up behing us and helped by putting on his lights. He even helped J with the tire, even though he was almost already done...

This year's friends: Fred and Ethel! They're sitting on the dock in this photo but we just found out this morning they laid, she laid an egg in our neighbor's flower bed. And he's doing some major landscaping and says he "hopes they don't disturb her too much when they move the wall." Guaranteed they will; I just hope she doesn't abandon the egg...

That's it for now - gotta go do my self-appraisal for work - yes, even though I'm on vacation I have work to do!!!

I know I owe you...

... photos and stories and more trivia than you'll ever need... After all, why would you bother to come here if you weren't expecting to read something new...

So, what sort of unimportant, trivial crap can I share with you here on my blog? Oh, there's plenty of that stuff! But important, fun stories that will keep you coming back?

Not so much.

Here's something that will matter not at all to you, but it's a big deal to me:

I am leaving on Monday morning to go to Baltimore for a conference. It's a short trip, just one night away from home. Not that big a deal, you say? You're right. But Monday is also my hubby's birthday and I REALLY.DON'T.WANT.TO.BE.AWAY.ON.HIS.BIRTHDAY.

When I told him I had to go, his response was, "That's okay, it's not like I'm a kid or anything."

But he said it in such a manner that I know it DOES matter. We love spending time together. We really enjoy each other's company. I'm sure there are days that he's not that thrilled with hearing another one of my stories for the umpteenth time (my mind is going - sometimes I tell the same story over and over... Are you sure I didn't mention I was going to be away...). I'm sure there are days when I'm in a cranky mood and taking it out on him that he'd actually prefer I was in Baltimore...

But it's his birthday. That really sucks. Darling stepdaughter said she's coming over with him to go to his sister's for cake and he tells her, "That's okay, you don't have to." He doesn't want her to have to drive back to her new apartment late at night - she recently moved about 10 miles away; she's not 2 miles down the road anymore. I know she's planning on just showing up anyway, but he's playing the loner already... Tonight his sister told him to come for dinner on Monday - "Nah." "We'll see."

He's not big on being the center of attention. And Lord knows he doesn't want to put anybody out. So much so he'd rather spend his birthday alone if I'm not here.

NOT AN OPTION, hon, are you listening?!?!?

I'm going to call him while he's at his sister's (I'm determined he's going to go!) so we can sing Happy Birthday together... and of course I'll call him later at night, before we turn go to bed...

I'm only going to be away for one day, but already IT SUCKS!

And on another topic... Does anyone have one of those "skins" for their laptop? Do I need one? I've looked at one or two websites - not too thrilled with the designs. Can anyone recommend a site where I can buy one that looks, well, more like "me" than some of the ones I've seen so far?

It hit 92 degrees here in NJ yesterday. YUK, that's all I have to say. That's just WAY too hot for early April. I'm hoping for a spring, even a short one, but to go from winter to summer? Uh-uh, not acceptable!

Well, it's late - gotta go sleepys now since we're getting up early to leave for the lake tomorrow morning. Toodles!

Happy Easter!

God bless you, one and all!
I'm off for a couple of days, with hubby, up at the lake.
Will catch up on blogging and posting and reading tomorrow and Tuesday!
Hope you had a lovely day!

Yay!!

My nephew just got his first job.

We've been, quite honestly, a bit worried about him. He's been without direction, a bit lost, starting college, dropping out, applying for jobs but not following up on them, sleeping all day then going out all night and coming in during the wee hours of the morning, listening to music but doing little else of anything...

His mom's boyfriend offered him jobs a few times, but J never took advantage of the opportunity before. THIS time he did. And when he called me today to say he starts on Monday, well, he was SO excited! He even said to me that I "missed how excited [he] was when [he] found out!"

It's been a looooong time since I've heard such enthusiasm in his voice. A looooong time since he sounded like he cared about something other than AC/DC and whatever other heavy metal groups he's currently listening to... A looooong time since he's sounded as if he wanted to do something other than sleep the day away.

Can I ask you all a favor? Please pray for him. Please pray that he finds his way. Please pray that he listens, does well, and keeps the job. It's seasonal, so it's not permanent, but it's good. For now. For spring and summer.

Please just pray he does well enough to believe he can do well.

Listen to Past Shows | Ric Edelman

Listen to Past Shows Ric Edelman

If you do nothing else, listen to the first five minutes of this radio broadcast. Just click through to the 3/27/10 broadcast. Ric addresses the direct costs of the new healthcare legislation, in dollars and cents. Costs to you, costs to businesses.

THIS is why I did NOT want this plan to pass, in its current form.

I have no objection to working together, both Congress and the people and businesses of the United States, to come up with a plan to help those who, for reasons beyond their control, cannot help themselves at this time.

I do NOT believe in a giant welfare program for people who do not want to help themselves - that hits a little too close to home for my comfort.

There are certain things I have no problem with - a tax on tanning salons, for instance. That's a luxury, whether or not you believe in them for health reasons, and if I have to pay a tax when/if I use one, so be it.

I DO have a problem with a 62% increawse in Medicare payroll tax in 2013. I will still be working and this DOES affect me, directly.

I DO have a problem with a NEW 3/8% tax on investment income, which includes divident interest, rental income, capital gains - I already pay taxes on this income.

I don't have a problem with a flat $2.00 surcharge on my insurance plan. I'm paying my premiums already and this will not take food out of my mouth or clothes off my back, and it is a way to generate some incremental money that can be used to supply care to people who need it.

Which brings up another point: health insurance is not a right. It is a privilege. If you pay for it, you can have it. If you can't afford it, you are not tossed out into the street without healthcare. You can go and get care in any hospital, which is obligated by law to provide it to you whether you have insurance or not. And of COURSE, those who go into ERs for a cold or the flu increase costs to those of us paying for those same services. THIS is where we have to come up with some sort of alternate plan. BUT to arbitrarily pass this bill, in its current form - NO EFFIN' WAY. I am against it and will be until it's in a form that works for all and penalizes none.

I do NOT have a problem paying sales tax on medical devices and I thank them for excluding eyeglasses, contacts and hearing aids. This is another way to earn a little extra money for the program. If this is ANOTHER 2.9% tax, on top of my current sales tax, which is 7%, then YES, I DO have a problem with that. Why not address the current tax code and direct current sales tax incurred on medical devices, and paid for by me and everyone else who buys them, directly to healthcare for uninsured people?

For employers with 50+ employees who do NOT provide healthcare for said employees, there will be a $2000 fee PER EMPLOYEE to be paid to the government. ARE YOU KIDDING ME????

Due to the elimination of any government subsidy to employers for providing retirees with prescription plan, there are seniors who will not have access to a prescription plan???? Those people are on limited incomes - can my mother afford her medication without some sort of prescription plan? NO! Will I be able to? NO? Will my husband? NO.

I am currently punished for being in relatively good health; regardless of how much I spend out-of-pocket, if it is $1 shy of 7.5% of my AGI I can't deduct it. And that's going UP to 10%!!!

Thanks to Ric Edelman for putting this out there. This broadcast should be played everywhere, aired everywhere, so people can really hear what they just voted into being.

Using Picasa

So I tried to load Photoshop Elements 5 on my new laptop and something happened. I had to remove it and wait hours while the laptop checked itself and finally decided it was okay.

So I decided to use Picasa instead, at least for now, as my editing tool. Here's my first attempt to manipulate a photo. The first one is just how the picture came out. The second one is what I did to it in Picasa.

Hmm... I got to improve our skin tones, and add some text, just for fun. I like it! Not that I'll get rid of the original, real us, but...

Surprised by politics...

I went to a scrapping event last night. There were 9 of us, I believe, just sitting around talking about organizing our scrap stuff and organizing for a crop, and at the end of the night, one of the women made an off-the-cuff comment about BO. We weren't talking politics and no one had asked a question about the recent healthcare plan...

The comment wasn't derogatory or mean, but it was quite obvious that she's not a fan of BO or of the plan.

What surprised me was that all of a sudden, with the exception of one woman who simply said nothing at all, every single woman there made a comment that they were against the healthcare plan that just passed.

This is not a rant against the plan. This is not a rant against BO, although I could go there in an instant if I wanted to! I'm not against reform, per se; in fact I think tort reform and insurance industry regulation is absolutely required, but what surprised me was the wild assortment of women in the room:
older, younger; with children, without children; with pre-existing medical conditions, without; with young children, with older children, with children out of the house and on their own already; women who owned their own homes, women who were renting; with mortgages, without; with debt, without; women whose husbands were working multiple jobs to keep afloat, women whose husbands were unemployed and looking for a job; women benefiting from government subsidies because they needed help, women just working and paying their taxes and collecting not a dime of assistance for anything; women who are Democrats, women who are Republicans, women who are Independents...

A real, honest-to-goodness cross section of female Americana. And none of our Democratic representatives listened to us.

Thanks to our Republican representatives who voted with us.

To our current Democratic representatives: enjoy your jobs until election day rolls around. I'm not so sure you'll be there for another term!

And I'd like to take a minute to address anyone reading this whose knee-jerk reaction is to defend BO and the healthcare plan and go off me in the comments: it's not necessary.

I didn't write this to beat up on BO. I'm not here to criticize the plan. I don't want or need to be "taught" by you that I'm wrong. I have an opinion and I'm entitled to it. This post is simply a comment on the wide assortment of women who got together for reasons unrelated to politics and, surprisingly (to me, anyway!), despite their politics, found that they all had some other things in common - that there are a lot of opinions and beliefs that cross political boundaries, that you can be one thing and think another, that they truly believe in something, and that they now know for sure that their representatives aren't representing them!

An enlightening evening...

The World's Best Book Tour!

As much as I've always thought Alaska and Paris would be my two most favorite dream vacations, I think I've come up with a new one...

Imagine me traveling the world to see the most spectacular and most beautiful libraries... Now THAT'S a dream vacation (for me!)!!!

Click on these two links to see some absolutely stunning examples of the world's most beautiful libraries...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/01/22/the-most-amazing-librarie_n_432126.html?slidenumber=IvNql0eBitk%3D&&&&&&&&&&&

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/02/22/the-most-amazing-librarie_n_469484.html?slidenumber=GZvrQ1MHPCs%3D&&&&&&&&&&&

Here's something you all might not know about me... I collect books on books.

I have books about libraries, books about collecting books, books about how books are made, books about books since the first days of the Gutenberg Bible... I am lucky enough to have fallen into a career that allows me to be surrounded by books or book-related "stuff" all during my working day... I'm even luckier that my husband accepts my obsession with books, understands that I'd rather read than, well, do almost anything! I read at stop signs, red lights, the dinner table (although I try REALLY hard not to do this - we have little time enough together as it is, so 99 times out of 100 I wait until he excuses himself to go do some work around the house - he's a much faster eater than I am!), in bed while we're watching TV, on vacation, on cruise ships, at work, on airplanes, at the lake...

I can spend hours in a Barnes & Noble, just browsing, or actually sitting down with a cuppa joe and reading a book while hubby does the same (sans coffee!). In fact, he's usually the one who suggests we go to B&N for a couple of hours - date night, if you will! We grab a table, a stack of books and/or magazines each, and go to town!

In fact, one of the nicest things he's ever said to me, and I'm sure I've posted this here at least once, is that he's never read so much in his entire life as he has since he met me! Now I can die happy!!!

I've decided that once we/I retire, one of the things I want to do is volunteer in some capacity with a library or a literacy organization or at a school, if that's an option... I volunteer now, through work, as a reader for a second grade class in J's school. Every other week I go for an hour to read to the kids out loud, and do some book-related activity with them after the book(s) are finished. I want to do something like this later in life, when I have more time... If I can find a part-time job that actually pays me to do something like that, all the better... Perhaps I can work with RIF or Literacy.org in some way... reading when English is your second language, improving reading skills, something...

Anyway, if I win the MegaMillions some day, I think I just might have to visit a couple of these libraries... Take a few minutes and browse through the two slideshows... Some are just unbelievable!!!

It Feels Like Summer!

My face feels like that first day of summer when you get a little color and your skin feels warm and tight. Oh, wait! I was outsided today, sitting in the sun, hoping to get a little color! And then we went out on the rowboat for a little putt around our part of the lake. Of course, in the sun, I couldn't read any of the settings on my camera so the picture was taken in black and white... Too bad they don't have a button to go from b/w to color, like they do to go from color to b/w...

This picture is of Jack checking the rowboat out - I refused to get into it until he took it out for a spin and came back safe and dry. It's a rowboat he got as a trade for a kayak he got rid of and we'd never put it in the water... I wasn't taking any chances...

While the air was cool (glad I was wearing my sweatshirt, especially when I got splashed a little by the not-so-warm lake water!), the sun was so warm and welcome. After the snow and rain we've gotten these past several weeks, the sun looks that much MORE awesome!

So I just got off a webcam call with my sister in AZ. I must say I love being able to actually SEE my sister; we don't get together for years at a time so this is a way for us to "be" with each other while we're thousands of miles apart! (Shh, there's a rumor she might get to come east this summer for niece A's graduation... barring any acts of God, hurricanes or tornadoes or unexpected expenses...

Well, gotta run and feed the hubby - it's dinnertime and he's only had lunch all day...

I am now the proud owner of...

an HP laptop!

Although far from my dream machine (I would have loved a faster processor), it will have to do. Hopefully once I get online and see how fast it is, I'll be pleasantly surprised. Although from what everyone told me, I should have held out for the faster processor.

Unfortunately I got a $1000 bill for propane for the lake house. The lake house we've kept at 45 degrees since October. The lakehouse we spent two or three days at since then, days when we ran the heat up to a whopping 65 degrees until it went off when the woodburning stove or the room heater heated up enough to shut the heater off.

That $1000 was NOT expected; I was sort of thinking $700 or $800, so there goes the extra $200 or $300 for the upgraded laptop...

It does have the memory I was looking for (4GB/500GB) and I bought a wireless router - useless, by the way, until we get internet back. Internet, TV, and phone have been out since Saturday night, thanks to Mother Nature's hurricane-without-a-name! (That's what the weather stations are calling the storm - 75mph gusts = F1 hurricane!!!) I did call the house and the machine answered so I'm hoping that's a good sign, that all things cable-related are back up and running. We were lucky enough not to lose our electricity; neighbors on the street behind us have been without electricity since 6pm on Saturday night, and they have children and lots'o'food in their refrigerator and freezers.

I wonder, all you techy readers, if I can upgrade a processor later on... or is it simply cheaper to get a new laptop in a few years...

Well, gotta run - am posting this during working hours so I don't want to spend too much time on it...

Later, dudes!

Color

This is fascinating!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xl1lLze5ZpM

Voting in a Special Election

Pardon me while I climb on my soapbox for a moment.

Regardless of your party affiliation - you should be registered to vote!!! I don't care if we agree when it comes to politics. You are entitled to your own opinion, as am I. I hate the crap that your vote cancels out my vote - if you don't vote, you haven't got a leg to stand on when you complain and cry the blues that you don't like the way things are being run.

Yesterday there was a special election held in my hometown. My mom asked my sister to take her to the polls so she could vote.

I talked to Mom today and she was complaining that when she went into the booth to vote, they had combined the two issues into one: she had only a single yay or nay vote. So she voted, and the fact that the issues were combined forced her to vote only one way and that changed the entire election for her.

Take a look at this: http://www.essexclerk.com/election/ElectionFrame.html

In a town of 48,000+ people, there are 27,964 registered voters.

In this election, only 2,278 people bothered to vote.

8.15% of the registered voters.

I find this COMPLETELY OFFENSIVE. Have you no civic pride, people? Don't you realize that your vote REALLY DOES COUNT? Here's the perfect example: both issues were defeated by 110 votes. 110!!!

If another 10,000 voters voted, the results could have gone in the opposite direction. Hell, if 111 more people had voted, we could have had a different result!!!

Aside from the fact that money for the high school and for the town's stadium was voted down, ONE of those issues might have passed if the Board of Elections hadn't combined them on the ballot. The advance ballot that was mailed to my mom clearly had them separated out, she said (admittedly I didn't see the ballot). This would have allowed her to vote for or against each individual expenditure and one of them might have passed! But by combining them, voters were forced to choose all or nothing. And obviously "nothing" won!

I will freely admit that I have not voted in every single special election since I turned 18. Sometimes I was out of state and quite frankly, at that young age, I didn't care about budgets and taxes. But since I grew up, since I realized that it's MY MONEY all these elections are spending, I haven't missed a one. NOT.A.ONE. Not in years and years and years.

And I won't miss one, either. I guess I'm not like those other 25,686 Bloomfield voters.

Yea, I'm talking to YOU!

The Dance

Okay, I admit it. We had a much nicer time than either of us anticipated! We knew we would have a good time with each other, but we weren't really sure we'd have a good time in general! J isn't big on socializing just to do the right thing whereas I've been in business long enough to know sometimes you just have to pretend you're having a good time! But this time we did! See?

[I look at this picture and I think, "He's really having a good time!" So many of our photos, when we're out with others, seem forced. He's just not a good, "Say cheese!" kind of guy!]

Several restaurants in town supplied the food; it was an all you can eat buffet. There were several pasta dishes, some Chinese food and some spring rolls, mini sandwiches, salad, eggplant parm, sausage and peppers, etc. We ate 'til we couldn't eat any more, and we never even made it to dessert! We sat and ate, and talked and laughed, then J decided we should dance. Now I can fake it through a slow dance (although I have a nasty tendency to lead), but I really hate to dance fast. I ain't got no rhythm and I always feel as though I'm just flailing around out there, looking foolish and dancing so far off the beat that I have to be throwing everyone else off, too!

But we did. Dance, that is. Fast dance, to be precise. Here's proof (and please, no comments about how that is the.most.unflattering.outfit.imagineable. I didn't realize my chest looked SO big and so low! Obviously I need to be fitted with better undergarments!):

It was SO hot in the Elks club, at least after we danced! I have to remember (a) don't ever wear that sweater combo again, and (b) don't ever wear a turtleneck when you plan on dancing. (Although, if you remember, I had no.intention.of.dancing!)

Anyway, we had a blast! We had planned on eating, smiling and leaving around 9:30 so we could be home in time to watch our favorite Friday night TV show, Numbers.

We stayed until 11!

THAT, my friends, shows exactly how much fun we were having! We didn't leave! And some of you out there know us well enough to know that when we want to leave, we leave, and there ain't no stoppin' us!

Anyway, I suppose I should probably go and do some work, since it's 10:28am and I'm on the job! More later! Toodles!

e-books vs. books in print

From the March 8th edition of Shelf Awareness, Volume 2/Issue 1131

In the Globe and Mail, Russell Smith lamented the effect of e-books on personal book collections, writing in part:"So we lose forever the pleasure known to humanity for 500 years of taking a stroll up and down the aisles of someone else's brain by perusing their bookshelves. Gone will be the guilty joy of spending a rainy afternoon at a cottage with the remnants of someone else's childhood: their Nancy Drews, their 1970s National Geographics. Without bookshelves, you will never know the warning signs contained in the e-reader of your handsome date--you will not know for months that he is reading The Secret and Feng Shui for Dummies, even if you stay over. You will never be able to ask, as casually as you can, 'Did you like this?' as you pull down, as if fascinated, Patrick Swayze's autobiography."

And another article I enjoyed in the same issue...

Here's a nice story about nine-year-old Molly McArdle of Berkeley, Calif., as told by her father to Andy Weiner of Abrams:
"Molly was looking at my DVD box of Ken Burns's Baseball. She looked at the back and said, 'This is wrong.' I asked her what was wrong, and she said, 'It says that baseball is America's national pastime. America's national pastime is reading.'
"Weiner added that "Molly's heart was broken was Cody's closed, but she was restored when Books Inc. opened near where Cody's had been."

My new window seats

So my sister has encouraged me to post a picture of my window-seats-to-be. Unfortunately I don't have a good picture of them; the photo will look much better in my bright sunny sitting room this weekend; I'll post new pictures next week! But here's one:

That's two benches, lined up one next to the other, currently in our library, but soon to be relocated to the sitting room at the lake. I am SO very proud of how well I lined up the dragonflies on the fabric - check out the front of the 2 cushions! Of course, when we take these to Hopatcong, and put them in place in the sitting room and measure for the 3rd unit that goes inbetween these two, you KNOW I'll never get the fabric to line up so well... I bought a little extra, just in case, and I hope I can make it work. The middle unit will be closed, with a lift-up lid for closed storage. And yes, I did manage to find more of the same baskets to fill those 3 empty spaces... Another story that I should share...

Okay, here goes... We found these closed fabric storage boxes in WalMart. I suggested we buy the four we needed because, you know, they won't be there when I need them in two weeks. "No," Jack said, "don't waste your money, they're new, we'll get them later. What if you find baskets you like better somewhere else?"

I KNEW he was wrong. I KNEW I should have bought them that day. But I didn't. And he built the window seats to fit those baskets.

And then I went online to order three more to be delivered to the local WalMart and there were none available online to order! I checked around and the only store that had any in stock was North Bergen, so we went there last night, on a mission. We walked in, went right to homegoods, and searched high and low until we found them. There were five left, one unpackaged. I bought four. I have one extra that I can actually store inside the closed seat, in case I need one. Thank goodness I got them!!!

Sad news on the work front: today is the last day my friend E will be working here at our unnamed publishing house. She's moving on to bigger and better (hopefully!) things at another company which will be referred to by its initials: WG. They offered her $20K more than she was making here, a "life-changing number," in E's words. Heck, yea, it's life-changing! That's MORE THAN $1000 MORE A MONTH!!! What I couldn't do with that kind of raise!!! Anyway, we'll miss you, E!!!

Went to the W Hotel here in town to celebrate her new job. I'm just old, folks, just plain old, and it has nothing to do with my chronological age. That hotel is dark, with dim lights, modern furnishings, and I just didn't like it. I did like the Mango-Pom drink I had, not too tart, not too sweet! I didn't see the rooms, of course, but I'm just not that into dark and dim and yuppie...

Well, gotta run and do some work before it's lunch time! Later!

Not too much is going on here in NJ...

Actually, it's kind of boring here in NJ...

Although hubby and I ARE going to a dance at the Elks club tomorrow night... Yea, you're as surprised as I was when he announced he'd bought tickets! Apparently J is feeling as though we don't "do anything" and I "deserve to go out once in a while."

And he chose a dance?!?!?

But seriously, we'll have a great time. We always do. No matter what we do, if we're together, we have fun! All the school folk are so excited that we're coming; they've been stopping me in the hallway to say they can't believe I got him to go! When I tell them it was HIS idea, they're floored! It's nothing formal, jeans or work clothes are okay, and it's all you can eat and all you can drink (wine, soda, beer, coffee, with a cash bar). I'm looking forward to it! I'll try to remember to take some pictures! It's a pretty wild crowd, from what I understand!

We're going to be at the lakehouse this weekend, installing two of my three window seats and measuring for the third. Oh, wait, I forgot to mention that J built me window seats to go under the three windows in the sitting room! We bought some fabric and made cushions - a real pretty maroon-ish color with gold dragonflies that match the gold accent wall behind the bookshelves. Once we decide what to do with the fireplace surround and then put some other furniture in that room, it will be DONE!

Then we can start on the kitchen and bathroom downstairs! And the new dock we need outside... But none of that can be done until we have our final inspection, which we'll do this spring. Then we'll start working on a plan for the kitchen/bath remodel and start getting the permits and supplies, etc., and it starts all over again!

My friend E leaves our company tomorrow for what she hopes will be bigger and better things. At the very least, her salary will be about 50% bigger and better! A "life-changing number" was how she described the increase! She'll be commuting from NJ to Brooklyn every day, which is enough to put me off the job, but I'm not her and she's not me and she's younger and commuted into the city for her entire college career at NYU, so she's okay with it. Me? Uh-uh, no way, Jose! Not even for that kind of salary bump!

So my job will be less one friend, which makes me sad, but in a way will force me to expand my friend horizons a bit, too. With a built-in best friend at work, it wasn't really necessary to be friends with anyone else; I was okay just being colleagues. Now I'll make some new friends...

Unless I win the MegaMillions at which point, internet-pals, I'll be traveling the country to meet you all in person!!!

Laptop Update

Well, Krysss (one of my readers! Yay, I have another!), I haven't gotten my laptop yet.

I sort of decided one day to just buy one of the HPs in Costco and narrowed it down to one of the three they had there. Then I paid for it, and then it was out of stock and then they credited me for it. And that sucked.

Then I started asking the IT guys at work. We have quite a large IT department and apparently it's like your favorite flavor of ice cream: every one of the guys I talked to had a different opinion!

So now, desperate as I am to get one I'm going to do a little digging on the Dell site and finally make a decision. My problem is that I always assume "as is" isn't good enough and I start upgrading and my custom laptop goes from a base price of $849 (which is within my budget) to oh, I don't know, $1200, $2300... and then I get discouraged and I stop and another week goes by without a laptop!

An internet friend just got a Sony Vaio and said her hubby got if for her after a lot of research. So I ask Tony at work about it and he doesn't like them, they last 2 years and then they have to be replaced. No way, Jose! I'm not buying another one in 2 years! When I get this it has to last at least 5 before I can even begin to think of going through this again!!!

Anyone of my 12 readers have an opinion about what laptop I should buy? Here's some of what I'm looking for: 4GB/500GB, a pretty good processor (I'm not a gamer but I will be adding Photoshop and I don't want to wait minutes for my photos to open!), a screen somewhere around 15"-17" (I'd LOVE the bigger screen but don't want to spend that money and then I have to worry about a case; apparently it's not so easy to find a laptop case for the 18"+ screens...), reliable, Windows 7 (64-bit), and Office Professional (2010 if timing allows).

Suggestions?

A Library to Dream Of...

OMG!!!
I am totally in love with this library!
And the story behind it? Awe-inspiring!
PLEASE click on this link and enjoy the pictures and the story!!!
The Daily Adventures of the Hillan Family

I'm an Organizer and a Creator

Who'd 've thunk it?!?!?

I went to Careerpath.com to take the Dewey Color System test. According to my results, I'm an Organizer first, and a Creator second. Here's some of the test results (and I agree with anything highlighted in red ink!):

"The Dewey Color System® is now the world's most accurate career testing instrument. This report based on your personality traits indicates your two most enjoyable day-day-day occupation skills. It’s a summary of the full report, the Color Leadership Evaluation 5.0.

"Best Occupational Category
You're an ORGANIZER
Keywords
Self-Control, Practical, Self-Contained, Orderly, Systematic, Precise, and Accurate
These conservative appearing, plotting-types enjoy organizing, data systems, accounting, detail, and accuracy. They often enjoy mathematics and data management activities such as accounting and investment management. Persistence and patience allows them to do detailed paperwork, operate office machines, write business reports, and make charts and graphs.
ORGANIZER CAREERS
Suggested careers are Administrator, Secretary, Printer, Paralegal, Building Inspector, Bank Cashier, Private Secretary, Statistician, Operations Manager, Financial Analyst, Bookkeeper, Medical Records Technician, Developer of Business or Computer Systems, Clerical Worker, Proofreader, Accountant, Administrative Assistant, Banker, Certified Public Accountant, Credit Manager, Store Salesperson, Actuary, Dental Assistant, Business Education Teacher, Food Service Manager, IRS Agent, Budget Analyst, and Underwriter.
ORGANIZER WORKPLACES
Your very careful, conscientious, conservative nature gives others the confidence to trust you with handling money and material possessions. Structured organizations that have well-ordered chains of command work best for you. [I totally agree - I HATE having 50 bosses! - a direct slam at a previous employer! - krys]
Suggested Organizer workplaces are large corporations, business offices, financial lending institutions, banks, insurance companies, accounting firms, and quality control and inspection departments.

"2nd Best Occupational Category
You're a CREATOR [NEVER would I have picked this word out to describe myself! - krys]
Keywords
Nonconforming, Impulsive, Expressive, Romantic, Intuitive, Sensitive, and Emotional
These original types place a high value on aesthetic qualities and have a great need for self-expression [This is VERY new to me! - krys]. They enjoy working independently, being creative, using their imagination, and constantly learning something new [I'm a HUGE fan of learning new things! - krys]. Fields of interest are art, drama, music, and writing or whether they can express, assemble, or implement creative ideas."

So, who'd 've thunk it? Not me, that's for sure! A creator??? I'd find that amusing had I not just spent over $100 on art journal books and magazine, were I not obsessed with learning to create art for my art journal class, and had I not recently discovered that, indeed, I CAN express myself visually...

Happy Heart Day!!!

Happy, Happy Heart Day to my very own Valentine!

Hon, you are the BEST husband, a PHENOMENAL father, an absolutely WONDERFUL son-in-law - all in all, you're pretty much PERFECT!!!

I am so very lucky to be married to you, even on those days when you annoy me, but more importantly on those days I annoy YOU!! (I know there are more of those than there are of the other!)

Please know that I love you with all my heart, and I always will, forever and ever.

And when I sometimes forget to show you, it doesn't ever and won't ever mean I don't love you, it just means that I'm being a bit selfish that day. I promise, though, that soon enough I'm going to realize just how rotten I was and I promise I'll make it up to you!

Thanks for 10-and-1/2 years of married bliss, and 20 years of togetherness!

Love you THIS MUCH!!!!

Where Women Create & Knitterly

There's an awesome blog about women's studios: Where Women Create.

Today I read her blog post about Knitterly, a yarn shop in Petaluma, CA.

I don't knit and barely can crochet, but if I'm within 50 miles of Petaluma, I'M THERE!!!

The store is gorgeous! And they're giving away a surprise package to a random poster. By posting on Facebook, Twitter, and on your blog, you get a few extra chances to win! I'd love to win this for my mama!!!

I'm over at a new blog, too!!!

So if you're interested take a meander on over to BookTeaCatDog. It's a blog co-authored by my two sisters AND yours truly...

We're not the most interesting people in the world, I admit, but I have to say Middle Sister is an awesome author(ess) and I LOVE her writing style! You will, too!

Little Sister hasn't contributed to the site yet, but we're hoping to see a post from her soon...

I don't know how I'm going to keep track of what I post where, and I sure don't want to lose any of my readers so I'm hoping you'll add our combo blog to your blogroll if you're following me... :-D

Might I also refer you to The Mossy Nest, my middle sister's personal blog, and Tea in the Parlor, her tea-related blog, if you're interested in tea and tea cozies...

And feel free to visit Little Sister's new site: Must Luv Pets. She has a real cute video of her puppy and one of her cats - it's a must see!

The cutest pets ever!

Okay, click on this and you'll see my sister's pets, her Westie and one of her kitties (the mama one!) getting along like a house on fire!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7yoNEYJ5IM

And Miss Hope, Duncan is still promised to your Prissy!!!

My Word for 2010 (Thanks to Spell with flickr)

You may have noticed the addition to my page, up there, above the boring "About me."

Declutter.

I posted about this previously.

So far I've made two donations to the VietNam Veterans Association, and seriously? If it isn't nailed down, it's fair game! Clothes, small appliances, home decor, books I really don't think I'll ever look at again, stuff of all shapes and sizes...

So far, though, you'll all be glad to hear, Jack's made the cut! He's a keeper, I know, and I can joke about it, but I would never, ever get rid of him!!! I'm one lucky girl! (And no, he doesn't read this blog, so I'm really not kissing up for any reason!)

If I could, I would seriously give thought to emptying my house and starting over from scratch. From colors and trim to cabinets and furniture - I'm craving a clean, uncluttered, bright style. I absolutely ADORE natural wood, but to lighten up my house and in turn, make ME feel lighter? I could live with bright white trim and lots of contrasting colors like yellow and orange and red and green and blue...

I'll keep you posted on how much I "lighten my load" since it's a real priority for me this calendar year!

Updates

You know, I'm looking for a laptop now, muddling through recommendations from people I know and complete strangers... If I had one, and if I had a wireless router set up in my home, I could have uploaded a picture of my bedroom for your entertainment (put those dirty minds away!).

We stopped at Wal-Mart on the way home yesterday and I decided that I needed to - da, da, da, dum! - ORGANIZE.

So I bought a shoe bag for the back of one door and two Sterilite plastic drawers for the bottom of my closet. I'm most definitely NOT a shoe girl, but somehow I've accumulated, oh, I don't know, 50 pairs of shoes??? Some are winter, some are summer, some are dress-up, and they were all either (1) on the door-mounted shoe rack, (2) in cardboard shoe boxes or plastic shoe boxes piled up on the bottom of my closet, (3) tossed willy-nilly around the bottom of my closet so that I have to crawl inside to find a matching pair, or (4) the three pairs I wear on a regular basis are out in the middle of the room, in front of the dresser, right where I stumble on them whenever I walk around the bed to get to my side.

We're in Wal-Mart and we're shopping separately (we both have cell-phones now so he's allowed off on his own - I'll always be able to find him now!) and I have a basket full of plastic drawers, shoe bags, racks, saline and shoe inserts for my owey heel. I run into my dear husband in the housewears department and he says, "What do you have there?" just as I say, "I've decided to organize my shoes."

His response? "You have too much stuff in your closet - it's a waste."

So I got annoyed and then when he said to get a shoe bag and put it on his closet door I said I'm going to oganize my closet but that doesn't mean take over yours 'cause you always throw in that I have one drawer in your dresser so I'm not using your closet... (Did you notice that awful person/tense switch?!?!)

Then while I was stomping around the store for the remainder of my shopping trip, I realized something: we each have two closets, one in our room, and he has one in daughter's room and I have one in son's room, but he ALSO has daughter's giant IKEA freestanding closet. And we each have one dresser/bureau. So he actually has MORE closet space than I do! And he has the nerve to complain that mine is too packed??????????

Anyhoo... I pulled out ALL.THE.SHOES.IN.THE.BOTTOM.OF.MY.CLOSET.

Oh, dear Lord! The room was a MESS to the nth degree!!! But I got them all back inside, summer shoes in the two plastic drawers, boots standing on the right side, and only 4 plastic shoe boxes stored on top of the two drawers with special dressy, strappy shoes that I wear once or twice a year in their own boxes.

And I moved a couple of clothes around and made it a bit less crowded, decided to donate a few things that gave me even more room, AND got it all done literally 1 minute before he decided to come upstairs and be done for the night! I had JUST sat down on the bed and sighed out loud, when he came up the stairs!

I'll have to take a picture of my shoe storage and post it here some day, just for giggles! And 'cause I'm darn proud of it!

Oh, and I hung the shoe bag on the back of the bathroom door so I can store the stuff that accumulates on top of the sink in it and only have my toothbrush holder on the sink so it looks all clean and neat in there instead of how it usually looks...

Cabbage Soup

So several years ago I ran across the Cabbage Soup Diet. It was created for overweight heart patients so that they could lose a quick number of pounds before surgery. It's NOT intended to be a diet anyone follows for a length of time; it could most definitely lead to malnutrition if overdone.

That said, I followed it to the letter the first time I did it and lost 11 pounds in one week. 11 pounds! Oh, did I feel awesome! It's basically water weight you lose, and it comes back on when you revert to your old eating habits. But it proved to me that I could afford to lose the weight so later on, when I was ready, I joined Weight Watchers.

Now over the years, though, I've tried the Cabbage Soup Diet again, feeling at times like I needed a quick diet fix. I couldn't do it. The basic premise is that for one week you are only allowed to eat the soup and a few other items: for instance, the first day is fruit and soup, no bananas. The second day is vegetables and soup, no potatoes. The third day is a number of bananas and soup, no other fruit, and so on. (I'm not sure I got everything in the right order; if you want a copy of the diet, contact me in the comments and I can send it to you.) What I discovered the second time around is I like texture in my food. I would have gnawed off my own arm to eat something crunchy, like crackers or potato chips, instead of spending a week not having to chew anything!

Anyway, Jack likes the soup. He's a soup person, and surprisingly, a bucketload of cabbage soup doesn't do anything gastric to him other than, and I quote, "give him energy." Pardon me, but WTF??? Energy? Without eating any food??? Not this girl!!!

But every once in a while he begs me to make the soup, and I do. And I did. On Sunday.

And surprisingly, this time around, the soup tastes good to me. I think I must have overdone the black pepper last time, like put it in and forgotten I had and doubled it, because all I remember from the last batch is I hated it!

Sunday's pot is quite tasty, if I do say so myself. So we'll be doing cabbage soup until it's gone, not to the diet extreme, but along with regular food. And I'm looking forward to lunch.

And it's only 8:13am.

Horrors in Haiti

I don't know what to do.

I've donated money. I've brought foodstuffs in to church where they're collecting canned goods to send to those poor people.

It's not enough.

It's days like this that I sometimes wish I was a go-getter, someone who would really get off her butt and do something.

My heart bleeds for these people. I cry as I watch the news reports. I thank the Lord that none of my family is there, but at the same time I feel for those total strangers as if they were family.

When they find a survivor, a young child, or an older woman, I cheer, buoyed beyond belief that another person beat the odds. Could I live seven, eight days without food and water? I truly don't think so, so used am I to opening the cabinet and grabbing a diet Dr. Pepper and a breakfast bar whenever I feel like it (forget about "when I'm hungry").

We are truly spoiled, here in this great USofA.

I, for one, will try my best to appreciate what I have, do with a little less, and give a lot more.

THAT is one thing I can do in honor of those in Haiti.

Prissy is just so cute!!!

Okay, want to see a picture of a cute puppy named Prissy?

Go to my friend Miss Hope's blog post: Hope from the Edge.

OMG - that has to be one of the cutest puppies of all time!

Hey, my sister has a Westie who'd love a cute little girlfriend, Miss Hope, and long distance is the ONLY way I'd go for some puppy love when they're this young...

His name is Duncan and you can see a picture of him right here:

Haiti

Please do whatever you can do to help those poor people in Haiti. I spent a few moments today at lunchtime watching some video on CNN.

I cried.

I made a donation to the Red Cross and my company is matching any of our documented donations as long as they're made by January 31. I'm so glad I work where I do.

If you pray, please pray for Haiti.

If you send good wishes or positive thoughts, please send them winging to Haiti.

If you believe in anything, please ask for help for Haiti.

Words to Live By...

I read childsplayX2 on a regular basis. Yesterday's post, Fear Can Suck It, is IT, man! Every one of us, with or without kids, should read this and take it to heart.

I would print it here so it's easy for you to read, but it's copyrighted so go to this blog post and read it and know that this dad, who loves his children so very much, really should make your list of "Blogs I Read on a Regular Basis."

That last paragraph ROCKS! And the idea of realizing all I can be??? AWESOME!

I don't know what's happening to me...

I'm well aware that when I eat bad things, I gain weight.
When I don't exercise, I don't lose weight.
When I eat late, I gain weight.
And Jack has been so good about helping me.
Until this week.
All of a sudden we're having coffee and snacks around 9pm.
THIS.HAS.TO.STOP.
TODAY.
TONIGHT.
Maybe tomorrow (there's some pumpkin pie left!)

I'm already failing...

Did you read my last post? About how I'm going to De-Clutter my house and my life?

Well, we got off to a great start, and haven't touched those Rubbermaid buckets again! But I'm going to do it, I swear I am.

Although we did get rid of about 3 pounds of candy by giving them to our dear daughter - she's enabling the chocoholics she works with by bringing the chocolate in for them. She says it's like watching starving animals attack!

Yesterday was my little neighbor baby's 2nd b'day - Happy B'day, G! I called to leave him a message on the phone and his mama called me back and I got to wish him a happy b'day on the phone! And he sang Happy B'day back to me, and he said hi and bye to Jack. He's so darn cute!

Next week is going to be a tough Weight Watchers week - here's what it's going to look like:
Tuesday - dinner out (work event)
Thursday - dinner out (scrapping event)
Friday - dinner out (work event for Jack)

Yea, I know, I can eat healthy when eating out. But I don't. It is what it is, folks. And this week I'm already bloated which means that this Saturday my weight will be up, and NEXT Saturday it will be up (even though I'll be losing the bloat by the end of next week) - I HATE watching my weight!

So here's what I'm wearing today...

I made a mini-resolution to myself to try not to wear jeans to work except on Fridays. We don't have that rule, but I have a tendency to, well, not look my most put together when I wear jeans, so I figured I'd try for 4 of 5 weekdays... And so far this year, I've managed.

BUT today I got up, put on a pair of new black pants that had been hanging in my closet for over a year, a Pucci-inspired blouse (black, lime green, cranberry, brown, orange and blue - it's nicer than it sounds, I swear!), a black sweater (thanks, hon, for my Xmas present!), and (unfortunately) dark bronze shoes. Which of these things just doesn't belong? Yes, the dark bronze shoes - but there's a reason for that fashion faux pas - that broken toe I had since Thanksgiving? My black heels are just a tad too tight and too high to wear yet, so I figured, who's going to really care about the fact that my shoes aren't quite going with the rest of my outfit? Certainly not me.

Until I got out of the car in front of the building and realized my pants are not black.

They're navy blue.

A really noticeable navy-blue-that's-not-black.

So I'm really self-concious about how I look today... Oh, well, maybe someone will submit me to What Not to Wear!!!

De-Clutter

You know, there are many blogs online where you can register your "word" for the year, try to "live" your word. And most wonderful, thoughtful, deep people are choosing words like "nurture," or "story," or "blessing," or "peace," or "hope."

Me? Not so deep. My word is De-Clutter. Capitalized just like that. Hyphenated just like that. Emphasis on the "De."

My house is full of stuff. Important stuff, sure, stuff that neither Jack nor I would want to lose or give up for all the tea in China.

But it's full of a lot of other kinds of "stuff." Stuff we don't need, don't want, never needed, shouldn't have kept, shouldn't have bought, should have passed up... Get the picture? "Stuff" that's making me short of breath, "stuff" that's overwhelming me, "stuff" that's collecting dust, "stuff" that needs to be De-Cluttered. Now. ASAP.

When I cleaned for the holidays, I took lots of "stuff" that didn't belong on the first floor, in the living room, kitchen, dining room or library, and dumped it into Rubbermaid bins and piled them high in the computer room. I promised myself I'd go through them with a hard heart and throw out or donate whatever didn't have a home and/or whatever I didn't want/need. Jack and I dipped our toe into the De-Cluttering project on Saturday. We started a bit of cleaning, and so far I have two small boxes/bags to be donated to the VVA (they pick up at the house and they take clothes and small household items). We didn't overtire ourselves, just puttered around for a half-hour or so in the middle of the afternoon, and BOY-HOWDY, did I feel accomplished when I saw two bags of trash and two boxes/bags for donation!

2010 is going to the be year I De-Clutter. I will be De-Cluttering my life, my house, my bookshelves, my drawers, my closets, whatever can be De-Cluttered will be De-Cluttered.

I swear. I promise. I pinky-swear. (Yup, this is for real, folks!)

It's 01/01/10!

Thought I'd mess up those numbers, didn't you?!? (Confession: I did. The original post title read 'It's 01/10/10!")

Sometimes I make resolutions. Sometimes I even announce what they are. And I never manage to keep them throughout the new year.

But I'm going to try again. Here goes:

1) This year I'll try to eat better and exercise more. (An easy resolution since we just knocked down our universal and gave it to my sister-in-law, who's a personal trainer. Yes, and I'm still x# of pounds overweight and too lazy to exercise!)
2) I'll try to scrap more and make more homemade cards. (I'm off to an okay start on this one since I made a b'day card for my cousin-in-law, and a Bar Mitzvah card for our neighbor's son today, and I'm hoping to make a couple of thank you cards tomorrow or Sunday for some of great gifts I've gotten this holiday season!)
3) I will try really hard to be a better wife/mother/daughter/sister/aunt/cousin/friend/employee. (Please fill in whichever one applies to you!)
4) I will try to purge and organize my home and my life. There is too much clutter, of the "stuff" kind and the mental kind in my life and I need to just clear it all out so I can breathe.
5) This year we will make out our will. We have stuff that needs to have a home post-us and without a will there could be some trouble so we will move forward with this project this year.

And that's all I'm posting here - there are a couple of other things, some more important than what's in black and white here on my blog and a few that are quite a bit more frivolous, but I picked a few that mean something. I figure there are at least two of you out there reading this blog that will hold me accountable...

Some holiday photos were posted on Facebook - haven't downloaded them to my desktop yet so I didn't post them here yet, but I will. Soon.

Merry Ho, Ho, Ho!!!

Photos will come later this week, when I can sit down, go through them, and find one or two that are in focus, illustrate the joy and happiness of our holiday, and don't make me look like I've eaten six meals a day for the past three days! (Although, yay, me! I was DOWN 2.4 lbs at Weight Watchers yesterday!)

We spent Christmas Eve here at my house, with my sister C and her 2 children (who were 1-1/2 hours late), C's boyfriend T and his son R, and my mom. Our neighbors stopped by to say hello and deliver some gift cards - you were ALL WAY TOO GENEROUS! I have a lot of shopping to do on my week off!

We went to Christmas Eve Midnight Mass at 10:30pm. (Does that bother anyone else like it bothers me? Even the Pope celebrated Midnight Mass at 10-something pm. That really ticks me off!)

On Christmas Day we woke up, I put the ham in the oven, all 13.89 pounds of it, we showered and waited around for DSD M to come up from her mom's. We went to my sister-in-law's house where we watched them open their presents - they were late this year! Then we snacked on bagels and cold cuts for a quick 1/2-hour and Jack and I and M returned home by way of my mom's to pick her up, and we opened presents, then ate dinner. M's fiancee S stopped by en route to his dad's house so we got to celebrate with him, too, for a little while.

Santa was very good to me - lots of little presents, with many to open, just the way I like it! I don't want one big present that ends the day as soon as it begins! I'd rather get a bunch of stocking stuffer gifts, all wrapped and put under the tree for distribution and unwrapping, so that Christmas lasts a long time!

Come back and visit in a few days, when I post my pictures!

Miss you all and wish we could have celebrated the holiday together!

Christmas Paperback Trees

I made one of these! (If you go to the original page you can see the awesome glitter on the edges of the trees!) I will take a picture of mine and upload it here next week (well, sometime after the holiday!). LOVE this idea! I just happened to have a trashy romance novel just lying around that had no socially redeeming characteristics, and lo and behold! It became a treasured holiday decoration!!!

http://wendysmedley.typepad.com/possibilities/2009/11/kayla-aimee---sample-lesson.html

1/2 an Hour to Christmas Vacation

It's 3:25pm on Tuesday, 12/22. My Christmas vacation starts at 4:00pm. I'm off until Monday, 01/04/10.

I never took a vacation like this until last year. It was the first time I was off the entire holiday season with Jack, the first time EVER, actually. And I LOVED it! I really liked not knowing what day it was 'cause I didn't have a computer in front of my face 8 hours a day. I liked trying to figure out if I had to be anywhere that day 'cause I didn't know what day it was!!!

I'm so looking forward to having to arrange my day around Live with Regis and Kelly, The View, Dr. Phil and all my evening shows, Castle, Criminal Minds, CSI New York, The Mentalist, America's Funniest Home Videos, Extreme Home Makeover, Desperate Housewives, and Brothers and Sisters. And I hope to be in front of the TV often enough to watch any episodes of HouseHunters I may have missed, and to find out exactly when they're airing What Not to Wear. Say Yes to the Dress is another favorite.

I know. You're disappointed in me. No Public Television, no History Channel (unless there's something good on) - just lots of junk TV and HGTV and TLC. For variety we'll throw in some Food-TV and Discovery, and who wouldn't want to watch something on ABC Family?!

Don't worry - Ms. Book Addict has a stack of books up at the lake just waiting to be read, and I hear some scrapping projects calling my name.

But I have to admit, I'm looking forward to rotting my brain - nay, I'm planning to rot my brain from tonight at 4pm until 8:30am Monday, 01/04, except for a few hours daily of actual thinking and planning (just so I don't forget how!).

Might even try a couple of recipes I've always wanted to try...

Well, it's 3:36pm and I have to go and work for the next 24 minutes!

More over the holidays! Happy Christmas to All!!!

Two-and-a-half more days...

... until I can start wearing real shoes, without my favorite fashion accessory, the black broken-pinkie-toe-boot!

The doctor had told me to wear it 2-3 weeks. I went with 3, to be safe. Yesterday and today, it really feels good - a bit stiff, but less painful and I seem to be walking more normally.

I finally got a tree - 7-1/2' and artificial, but it's not.a.pigmy.tree!!! I was so tired of small live trees to replant at the lake or my little 5' tree... I'm a Christmas person and I wanted a Christmas TREE! Not a Christmas bush!

I'm in the midst of decorating it - will post pictures when I have them!

We'll be at the lake over the holidays - I'm off from 12/23 until 01/04 (YAY!) and will be shopping for a laptop, using a borrowed one in the meantime! So I'll be online over the holidays!

Well, gotta run! Toodles!

BORING!

So nothing is really going on...

I'm still limping.

I'm nowhere NEAR done/started with my Christmas shopping.

OH!!!

We bought a Christmas tree last night, so I'll be doing some decorating this weekend!

AND we went to the N Family Christmas Party this past Sunday. The 50th year in a row (I've only been going for about 15 years...)!!! One of the cousin's sons put together a slide show, about 150-200 photos of the family dating back to the early 1900s. Considering the youngest aunt is 80, YOU do the math!!! There were photos of her as a baby, and photos of her parents when her oldest sibling was born!!!

I swear. I could have sat for five hours and watched that slide show! I only wish there were 500 MORE photos for me to look at!!

Remember way back when, I mentioned that I was working on a Christmas photo album, sort of a scrapbook of December? (Or at least, I THINK I mentioned it...)

Yea, right. No way. I've printed out all the prompts. I've not taken a single photo, except for maybe 4 or 5 at the party. I have to take a picture of my decorated limping shoe, too, and start - better late than never, right???

Well, gotta run and do some more online shopping - if I don't get it online this year, you're most likely not getting it at all!!!

Have you ever???

Copy, paste, and bold what you have done!

Have you ever.....

1. Started your own blog
2. Slept under the stars
3. Been to Key West, FL
4. Vacationed in Hawaii
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than you can afford to charity
7. Been to Disneyland/Disney World (both of them - lucky me!!)
8. Climbed a mountain
9. Held a praying mantis
10. Sang a solo or played a solo
11. Bungee jumped
12. Had an uncontrollable giggling fit at the worst possible moment
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea
14. Gone rollerskating
15. Adopted a child
16. Gambled in Vegas
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty
18. Grown your own vegetables
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. Slept on an overnight train
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitch hiked
23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill (when I was younger, that was the ONLY way I took a sick day!!! Now I have to waste them when I'm actually sick!!!)
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb
26. Gone skinny dipping
27. Run a Marathon (yea, right!)
28. Worked at a Cannery or Welfare Farm
29. Seen a total eclipse
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset
31. Played an instrument (does it count to have taken piano lessons for one month?!?)
32. Been on a cruise (several!!!)
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors
35. Seen an Amish community
36. Taught yourself a new language
37. Acted in a play or performed on stage (in elementary school)
38. Been to Italy
39. Gone river rafting
40. Seen Michelangelo’s David
41. Sung karaoke (and I never will!)
42. Seen ‘Old Faithful’ geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
44. Gone water skiing
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance
47. Had your portrait painted
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Been to Japan
50. Rode a horse
51. Gone snorkeling
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Sailed a boat (not sailed, exactly, rowed and motored - does that count?!?)
54. Gone to a drive-in theater
55. Been in a movie
56. Surfed
57. Started a business
58. Visited the Great Wall of China
59. Lived in a foreign country
60. Delivered Meals on Wheels or Served at a Soup Kitchen
61. Snowmobile or snow skiing - I went snow skiing once, and that was enough!
62. Gone whale watching
63. Got flowers for no reason
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma
65. Gone sky diving
66. Gone ice skating
67. Bounced a check - I was in college
68. Flown in a helicopter - no, but I really want to!
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy - I have my stuffed bear and my stuffed leopard from my dad
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten caviar - yes, but I didn't like it!
72. Knit, crochet, sew, or quilt
73. Stood in Times Square
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job - yes, they closed the company down
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London
77. Broken a bone - I'm wearing my special, attractive boot right now!!!
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle - not a speeding one...
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. Published a book
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had your picture in the newspaper or been on TV
86. Visited the White House
87. Been stung by a bee
88. Had chickenpox
89. Saved someone’s life
90. Sat on a jury
91. Met someone famous (Sarah Ferguson, Nancy Reagan, Ann Margret, Donald Trump, Danielle Steel, Stephen King, Clive Barker, Vanna White, Richard Simmons, Jackie Collins, and a whole bunch of famous authors)
92. Joined a book club
93. Had to put someone you love in Hospice Care
94. Had a baby
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake
97. Been involved in a law suit
98. Eaten sushi - California roll, only, and I didn't like it!
99. Won the lottery - not the MegaMillions, well, not yet anyway! But a few dollars here or there!
100. Read an entire book in one day - just one??? Heck, yea!! That's easy!

Pick Me, Stephanie, Pick Me!

The Mother of All Giveaways

Oh, would I just LOVE to win this contest!

Stephanie Howell is a mom, a scrapper, and a military wife. She's a good person, a good mom, a good wife. I've never met her but do you want to know how I know? I read her blog, http://stephaniehowell.typepad.com/.

This week she's doing a contest, along with 10 other awesome bloggers, to give away a Craft Desk from The Original Scrapbox (oh, would I love to have one of those, too!).

By blogging about it, and in turn, letting you all know about the contest, I get a couple of extra entries! Hope it works!

The other bloggers who are participating, by the way, are:
http://lifeaslou.blogsome.com/
http://www.vanillajoy.com/
http://priscillastyles.blogspot.com/
http://capadiadesigns.blogspot.com/
http://craftymakes.blogspot.com/
http://nicholegiles.blogspot.com/
http://auntiethesis.blogspot.com/
http://parkcitygirl.blogspot.com/
http://lovelylittlehandmades.blogspot.com/
http://elizabethkartchner.blogspot.com/

Am off to post my contest entries!

One down, nine to go...

So I have 10 toes. If one's broken, and it's only my right pinkie toe, I don't really need it anyway, right? I have nine more! In fact, my sister said they could amputate it and I'd never even miss it!

Jack's Aunt Anna died last Monday. Because of the holiday and traveling issues (a lot of her family had to come from Texas), they delayed the wake and funeral to Friday and Saturday. My first thought was that although we'll miss her and it's terribly sad that she died, and sadder still that it's over a holiday that her family has to deal with this loss, she's finally with Uncle Nat and maybe, just maybe, she's not so cranky anymore. She's been one unhappy camper for the last eight or nine years, ever since her husband died. She missed him something fierce. So now, even though we've lost her, she's back with Uncle Nat and she's finally happy again.

Anyway, the wake was Friday night. We went to the lake and came home early to shower and get ready to go and pay our respects. That night I asked Jack to wake me at 7am so I'd have time to shower and get ready for the 8:30am service at the funeral home without rushing. I overslept. I'd like to blame Jack and say that he didn't wake me after the alarm went off (which I ignored 'cause it went off at our usual 5:50am and he shut it off), but he says he woke me and I said, "Okay, just another minute" and proceeded to sleep another 20 minutes or so.

I got up and when I realized how late it was I started scrambling and somehow I was taking a step forward with my right foot at the same time that I was pulling the bedroom door closed toward me. OW! I went right to my knees!

But being the trooper I am, I powered on and showered, dressed and drove to the funeral home. We went in separate cars 'cause Jack wasn't going to go to the repast after the cemetary service, and I was. By the time he changed his mind and we were en route in two cars to the repast, I was realizing that my shoe was feeling a bit tight. I sat down at the restaurant, ate a good meal, socialized with the cousins, and when we were leaving around 2:30 or 3:00, I decided it would be a pretty darned good idea to visit the Immedicenter and have them look at my toe.

I'd always hoped to hear "Congratulations, it's a girl!" rather than "Congratulations, you have a broken toe!"

But after three x-rays, it was confirmed. I broke my toe. And as I'm sure we all know, you can't do anything for a broken pinkie toe but buddy tape it to its neighbor and hope for the best. So I'm taped, and she did give me a very attractive black boot to wear for two to three weeks. I'm stylin' now!!!

Anyway, other than that, Thanksgiving was nice. Mom was home but spent the day with my sister at said sister's boyfriend's house. Just to play with her head, I told her we were all waiting dessert for her, and why didn't she ask C or T to drive her to my SIL's house? After a VERY brief moment of silence, she said she knew I was pulling her leg and she moved on... Well, I thought it was funny!

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday - lots of family, food and fun, and (private joke to come!) I sure hope your oven worked and your pies remained intact!!!

Happy Turkey Day, in advance!!!

Today is the day before Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays of the year, primarily because to me, it's the start of "The" holiday season! Here's how it goes:

1. Thanksgiving - November 20-something
2. My birthday - December 18
3. Christmas Eve - December 24
4. Christmas Day - December 25
5. New Year's Eve - December 31
6. New Year's Day - January 1

I start at Thanksgiving weekend - writing out Christmas cards and decorating the house. And it really doesn't ever stop until it's time to take the decorations down on Valentine's Day. (Just kidding, although some years my fake tree has stayed up for quite a long time into January simply because of time constraints...)

I'm almost never in a bad mood in December - how can I be? I love the cold, I love snow, and I love Santa! And December has all three, most of the time! This year the weather has been a bit strange - it was almost 60 degrees the other day - who knows whether we'll get some winter weather or not this year - I hope we do - but I'm afraid Santa might be wearing Bermuda shorts as he comes down our street this Christmas Eve!

Well, gotta run - time to start the cooking!

Happy Thanksgiving to you all!!!

I apologize in advance.

I'm sorry.

I'm just not a Twilight/New Moon fan (sorry, Miss Hope!).

I haven't seen the first movie, won't see the second. I'll probably watch them when they hit TV or someone I know lends me the video, just to see what all the hoopla is.

I read the first book. And I read the second book.

And I just wasn't thrilled.

Here's why (and I really do have real reasons!!!):

These books were written for teenage girls. While I admit that Stephanie Meyer did a great job of putting Bella's typical teenage angst into words, I have a BIG, HUGE, MONSTROUS problem with how much of this appeared in the books:

• "I'm not pretty enough for Edward."
• "I'm not smart enough for Edward."
• "He's so much better than me."
• "He's so much more handsome than I am pretty."
• "He could never like me."
• "I have nothing to offer Edward."
• "Why would he like me?"
• and on and on, ad nauseum.

Again, teenage girls feel this way on their own. I didn't see enough of the epiphany in the books, the times that Bella realized that yes, damn it, she IS good enough to date Edward! He's pale and sickly looking, for crying out loud! (Sorry, I digress!)

I would rather Ms. Meyer addressed Bella's insecurities but made the thrust of the story how she realized that yes, indeedy, she WAS good enough, smart enough, pretty enough, for Edward. That she had BUCKETLOADS to offer, that any young teenage vampire (or normal human) male would be lucky, honored to be her beau!

Bottom line, I just wish there was a little more emphasis on helping teen girls NOT feel so inferior or not good enough, instead of overwhelming the reader with her inferior status!

Yea, I get it, I know how the stories end. But it takes 4 LOOOOOONG books to get there, and quite honestly, speaking as a HUGE Harlequin romance fan who really believes in the happy ending, I like stronger girl characters in my stories, not such wimpy ones.

I'm officially overwhelmed!

I'm taking three online Xmas scrapping classes - and I can only scrap on the weekends! I will try my darndest to keep on top of the photos and the journaling and the note-taking and list-making, and hopefully I'll be able to have a finished product at the end of the season (or, let's face it) at the beginning of the next season!

Spent all weekend in the hospital with my husband's 93-year-old aunt. Aunt Fanny literally looks like she's in her late 60s or early 70s. My girlfriend has a theory that being cranky keeps you young!! She's been falling a lot and refusing to use a scooter or a wheelchair - why? Because in her youth she made fun of people in wheelchairs (according to the rest of the family) and now doesn't want to be on the receiving end of what she dished out years ago! If you can't take it...

There's also some tension in the family among some relatives of the husband - I think it will all shake out in the end and resolve itself, but suffice to say that some people should just butt out of other people's business!!! 'Nough said!


My niece C is 8 weeks along and her due date is June 28th. How exciting!!! I think I'll have to do some baby shopping this weekend!!! Or even tonight before we see her, if I can squeeze it in...

One photo I owe you...

Blackberry Mint Tea, poured over ice.

I have nothing else to say but, "MMM, GOOD!"

We ate in Alexandria at the Jamieson Grill in the Westin on Courthouse Square.

I did everything but lick the plate.

I had the Salt and Pepper Calamari for an appetizer. Now keep in mind that (1) I don't eat the tentacles, and (2) I only eat it fried with spicy sauce for dipping. They delivered a platter that looked a bit light in color, and I was worried it wouldn't be cooked all the way through (to me there's nothing worse than under - or over - cooked calamari). My God, I wished I hadn't offered to share with my boss and my client! It was SO delicious, tender, served with smoked salt (for dipping) and green peppercorn aioli. I chowed down and ate it all. Except, I admit, the one tentacle they included on the platter...

Then for lunch I had the Jamieson Crab Cake Sandwich: a "crispy crab cake , old bay aioli, buttery brioche roll." It was too small. Not in real life, just for my appetite once I tasted it! It was the perfect size for lunch if you wanted to be full but not feel guilty for overeating. But it was so delicious that I wanted it to be twice the size!

And the star of the show, as pictured above, Blackberry Mint Tea, sold under the heading "Healthful Tonics and Teas." It was served hot, steeping over a pitcher of ice, with a glass of ice and a shot of simple syrup to sweeten it, if you so desired. I didn't personally find it necessary to sweeten the tea (I had it both ways, with and without the syrup), but then again, I'm an "unsweetened iced tea" sort of gal. I SO regretted not bringing my camera; I really wanted a picture of the way they served it, on a bamboo tray... Thank goodness Andi, my client, apparently never leaves home without her camera so she shot it and forwarded it to me this weekend! (And check out the teabag! Instead of a boring 'ole tag, it's a silk bag with a fabric tea leaf on the end!)

It takes so little to make me happy: food, drink, good company...

More later this week!

I'm going to be an aunt!!!

My niece C on hubby's side just announced she's pregnant!

YAY! She's newly pregnant; her doctor hasn't even seen her yet. He said to wait until she's at least 9 weeks pregnant. I think she said the online calendar/calculator put her due date somewhere around June 26th-ish so she's, what, minutes pregnant??!! But we're happy for her, that's for sure! Nervous for her, but happy! She had to immediately go and get the swine flu shot which scared everyone, but it's definitely recommended for moms-to-be. She catches colds so easily - with a headache on Tuesday she couldn't even take an Advil...

Already asked her if I could be called "Cioci" by her baby, instead of Great Aunt Krys (which, thankfully, C knocked right out - "you'd NEVER be Great Aunt anything, Krys!") and she agreed. Thanks, C!!! I have such great warm memories of MY Cioci Eliza and I still get a special flutter in my heart when my sister's kids call me Cioci - a new baby to call me Cioci?!?!? Yes, please!!!

My sister-in-law is thinking about what she wants the baby to call her - she does NOT want to be "grandma." AT.ALL. Personally, I like "grandma" but still want to be Babci if my stepdaughter ever gets pregnant. Babci is grandma in Polish - no idea what Jack would want to be called... he's still getting used to "his" baby being engaged - a grandbaby? We can't even conceive of that right now, in our house! (Well, HE can't!!!)

So swamped at work that I haven't had time to post any photos; I know I owe you a few... Will get to it when I can (maybe this weekend???)...