Love in Cabo - the pool and rehearsal dinner

We ran out to the pool as soon as we got our luggage, which really only took a few moments.  Although J wanted to get out and about so we didn't wait - he had to take a picture of me on the premises in my yoga pants/travel outfit...  not the most flattering clothes I own but comfortable for 6 hours on a plane...

We got our luggage and immediate went to claim some poolside lounges.  There are several pools on the property:  a few adult-only pools for those rich old fogies who prefer cigars, peace and quiet, and no kids.  Us?  Not so much.  We went right to the main pool where our group was hanging out and staked a claim on two spots.  J started to turn one of the lounges to face the sun and Ernesto ran over and told him not to move the chairs, that he was there to do that.  Of course J said, "No, that's okay" and Ernesto almost had a stroke making sure J didn't exert himself in any way...  "NO, Sr. Salvetta, I will relocate the lounge for you!"

We settled in, slathered ourselves in either dry oil #4 or a combination of that and SPF 15, SPF 30, and SPF 50 (for my face) and my clear zinc oxide.  They brought over a bucket of ice with water and spray Evian cans to mist ourselves if we became too warm...

I have vowed to never take a bathing suit photo with my sister-in-law and/or my niece.  You think TV adds 10 pounds?!?!?!?!?!?

At around 3:30 we went back to the room to shower and get ready for the reahearsal dinner.  It was being held on the beach at The Office, a restaurant P and B found the last time they went to Cabo.  Here are some photos from that evening's dinner...  The waiters were AWESOME!  They not only provided a high chair for the baby, but when they saw she was sleeping in her mom's arms, they put two chairs together, brought over 6 Mexican blankets, and made a little crib for her so she could rest until she woke up for dinner.  Look how cute she looks sleeping in it...

I need to learn how to pose - 9 times out of 10 I stand in THE most unflattering position...  Trust me when I say I truly didn't look that heavy in this new dress...

My sister-in-law on the left, mother of the groom, and mother of the bride on the right...

The table at the rehearsal dinner, on the sand, with torches all around us, too...

This was the "crib" the waiters created for E...

Here's a photo of the bride and groom - we love you, R!!   (And G, too!)

That was one GIANT mojito!

J and G (the groom) - they may not look alike, but personality-wise, they are SO much alike!

The baby and her mom - she was in a GREAT mood when she woke up from her power nap!  To be honest, she was an angel that whole trip - not a peep out of her on the plane, not on any of them, not in the airports when we were delayed, not during our layover, she's the BEST!

I'll do another post of wedding pictures...

Love in Cabo - upon arrival

On Thursday April 28 Friday April 29th we left for Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, to attend the wedding of our nephew.  They decided on a destination wedding.  I've never attended a destination wedding before but let me say here, I would SO do it again!  We stayed at Las Ventanas al Paraíso. 

We are a Motel 6 sort of traveler.  As long as the sheets are clean, along with the shower, and there are no critters with more than 2 legs sharing my space, I'm okay with the room.  A comfortable bed is negotiable, since we're usually there en route to somewhere else.  This resort, though, is beyond anything I've ever experienced in my life.  You're greeted on the open air reception patio with a shot of margarita, and then you're escorted to your suite.  We paide $575 per night, plus 25% tax.  This is so beyond anything we've ever spent before, and that was the wedding rate!!!  But as God is my witness, I'd spend it again!  The gentleman greeted us by name (we'd never introduced ourselves!) then took us to the room.  Here are some room photos:

Every single employee referred to us by name.  My sister-in-law is convinced we're videotaped upon arrival and when we confirm our identities, the employees then view the video so they know who's who.  How else can you explain that Ernesto at the pool called me Sra. Salvetta when I walked out there to sit in the sun and tan burn for the wedding???  How else can the gardener call me by name?  Not the two cleaning fairies butlers assigned to my suite; they know who's staying where, of course...

The next post will be photos from the pool, then the rehearsal dinner.  Then I'll post wedding photos, and finally pictures from our Sunday departure breakfast.

For the record, more than a few of us were overheard saying we could get used to this kind of treatment:  the white glove service, the coffee service on the patio first thing in the morning, the iced water bottles next to the pool, along with iced spray cans of Evian for when we sweat perspire...  Oh, I also have to tell you that our flight down on Thursday was cancelled due to weather.  THE HOTEL DID NOT CHARGE US FOR THE ROOM.  You're talking about 23 people who didn't make it to the hotel in time for the welcome dinner on the first night.  23 people paying, MINIMUM, $800 dollars per night.  Do the math!  And the welcome dinner?  They didn't charge my nephew for the peopl who didn't attend EVEN THOUGH FOOD WAS PREPARED FOR US AND THE AREA WAS SET UP FOR US.

THAT, my web-friends, is customer service.  I would HIGHLY recommend Las Ventana - click on the link above and take an advance look, if you'd like, but I'll be posting my photos tomorrow (or later tonight if we get home early enough)...

My Boyfriend Does My Makeup

Dooce thinks O should have his own show - I agree. They are so cute!

An amazing 3 minutes 46 seconds

I'm a fan of Dooce - she seems to find some of the most amazing music, a lot of which while it isn't my "style," is worthy of a few minutes of my time...

THIS?  This was definitely worth it - not only music from Yo Yo Ma, but dance by Lil Buck.

Have to admit, "Lil Buck" is not what I would have expected.  But I'm still picking my jaw up off the floor.

Yo Yo Ma and Lil Buck

Thank goodness it's over!!!

For the past two weeks I've been planning a surprise party for my husband - it was his 60th birthday and I thought that deserved something a little special...  To make it that much better, too, his friends D and A came down from Massachusetts for the party!  He teared up when he saw them.  I'm so grateful they took the time to come down for the party; the only thing that would have made it better is if we could have spent more time with them...

J and I talk about EVERTHING and for the last two weeks, since I last-minute-decided to throw this shindig, I've had to watch every word that came out of my mouth.  "Maybe I'll call T to join us for b'fast tomorrow..."  My instinct is to say, "Don't bother, he's in PA this weekend."  "How do you know?"  "He texted me to RSVP for your party."  Nope, that would have certainly spoiled the surprise...  "M called."  "Oh, where is she?"  "On Rte 3 en route to Bromilow's?"  "Why?"  "To pick up your chocolate motorcycle lollipops, the favors for your party."  Nope, probably not a great conversation starter unless I wanted to spoil the surprise... 

I HATE lying.  I know it wasn't really lying; it was just avoiding saying certain things.  Even his friend K struggled not to slip when they were talking.  D's birthday is a few days after J's - he wanted to call when we weren't home so HE wouldn't slip and he was planning on screening his calls when J called HIM so he wouldn't slip then...

That whole surprise thing is stressful.  Maybe had I started planning it earlier, I'd have been less stressed, just concerned with not slipping rather than worrying about every last minute detail...

Wish you all could have been there.  Rather than tell you all who was there, it would be easier if I just post some photos and add some captions....

Introducing... 

My handsome nephew J and my beautiful niece A... now if only he had smiled, with his eyes AND his mouth!

 My beautiful mom and J again

 My niece T and my darling daughter M

Our friends from Massachusetts, D and A

Our friends E and T - T was one of our best men at our wedding (we had 2!  Best men, not weddings!)

My sister C and her beau T - I think almost every photo I have of them is in a similar pose!

My niece C and my sister-in-law P

My great niece E and me - isn't E gorgeous?!?  She is SUCH a good baby - not a peep out of her and she was up WAY past her bedtime...

E and my daughter - how I wish the picture was clearer...

Me, J and M - nice family photo!

A and me in one of those self-portrait photos you take at arm's length...

E and her great uncle, the b'day boy himself

Courageous, the movie

Watch the trailer here:  http://www.courageousthemovie.com/

Apparently the Sherwood Ministry, from the Sherwood Church in Albany, GA, has produced several independent movies in an effort to expand their outreach, but I've only seen one:  Courageous is due in theaters September 30.  My sister got advance screening tickets from one of her sales reps and asked me to go along.  The screening was intended for local ministers and while I thought for a moment I might feel a bit out of place, the audience was a bunch of people from several walks of life, all who believe in the value of a father's place in the family.

The movie is about 5 men, 4 friends who are police officers, and one Hispanic man who's a manual laborer struggling to keep food on the table and a roof over his family's heads.  They become friends, the 5 men.  One of them suffers a tragic death in his family and struggles to come to terms with his loss.  During that struggle, he thinks about a quote by his sheriff:  that a high percentage of children without a positive father figure/role model eventually wind up doing drugs, committing crimes, walking away from their own children...

These men resolve, in a beautiful family ceremony, to be there for their children, to guide them, to teach them, to show them the way to God, to love them...

The movie follows their lives through loss, success, tragedy, and just the every day.

Sure, there were a couple of too-easy conclusions to some of the situations, but I LOVED THIS MOVIE.  I was lucky enough to have an awesome father, a tremendous mother.  I grew up confident in their love and support, knowing what was expected of me, what they hoped and prayed for me.  I have two sisters who will most likely agree that we had a pretty Leave It to Beaver/Father Knows Best sort of childhood.  We were loved, protected, guided.  I BELIEVE that not only should fathers step up, PARENTS should step up.

But the purpose of this movie was to show how important it is for a father to be there for his family.  It was an inspiring, powerful movie.  At the end we found out that the movie was created by the Sherwood Ministry.  The "stars" are not actors, the writer acted in the movie, people in church and in town donated a lot of the set props, the actors are "just people."  They did a tremendous job, and quite honestly, I'm eager to see some of the other movies they did, too.  Apparently their last movie, Fireproof, was the #1 independent movie of 2008.

Tomorrow is J's Birthday...

... so of course, in the grand tradition of our family, we extend birthdays at least one day, maybe five (of COURSE that's not a hint of any kind!)...  Here are some photos from our 1st b'day celebration...

Grand-niece E's mommy made b'day hats for Uncle J and for the baby...

The cutest thing is when he's in the room, she has eyes for no one else.  Well, it's cute, but rather annoying since I'm totally addicted to her smile and love when she looks at me!!!

Apparently since she just turned 9 months old, she can have sugarfree icebox cake with Cool Whip, but she can't have any ice cream to celebrate J's b'day...  No dairy until she's a year old.  (Because I suppose, you can be allergic until the 365th day, but on the 366th?  All clear!!!)



Keeping a Journal

Ali Edwards posted this on Facebook. I think, despite how much I love my husband, that I sort of fell for this guy...

I promised you a photo or two...

I promised you a picture of the banner J made and hung up in the doorway of our room while I was away...  I got home and there were hearts on the front door and on the inside French door, and this banner was hanging in our bedroom doorway...

And just 'cause she's too cute, I can't not post a photo of my baby grand-niece...  (Don't pay any attention to the bad grammar OR the bad photos of me - just look at how absolutely ADORABLE she is!!!)

Why Publishing is a Unique Industry...

Publishing: 'Not Like Any Other Business'


"When people say publishing is a business--actually it's not quite a business. It's part gambling and part arts and crafts, with a business component. It's not like any other business, and that's why when standard businessmen go into publishing and think, 'Right, I'm going to clean this up, rationalize it and make it work like a real business,' two years later you find they're bald because they've torn out all their hair. And then you say to them, 'It's not like selling beer. It's not like selling a case of this and a case of that and doing a campaign that works for all of the beer.' You're selling one book--not even one author any more. Those days are gone, when you sold, let's say, 'Graham Greene' almost like a brand. You're selling one book, and each copy of that book has to be bought by one reader and each reading of that book is by one unique individual. It's very specific."

--Margaret Atwood in an interview with the Globe & Mail.

I haven't read much by Margaret Atwood, but this quote will make me check her out!  It was published in Shelf Awareness on March 21st, and I had put it aside to post here, but I'm just getting around to it... 

When I first joined the publishing industry, after several years in the independent bookstore world, I learned that there were really only 300-400 people in publishing, and they all just moved around from company to company, position to position.  I clearly remember the day one of my sales reps changed companies -- I felt so much a publishing insider 'cause I could track him from one company to another!  I was working for a woman, at the time, who'd been in publishing for a few years and seemed to know everyone who was anyone, but it turns out that all it takes is a few years in the business and you, too, could "know everyone."

I've been in publishing long enough, too, to have seen how it changed from "publishing" to "a business."  Big companies swallowed up small companies.  Instead of moving up to an executive position from a lowly sales rep position, bean counters were hired from outside our industry to turn publishing into a profitable business.  That's when we lost a lot of the passion in publishing.  Back in the day, when there were a lot of small, independent bookstores, before B&N took over the world, the employees in those indies knew books.  They knew authors.  They knew their customers.  There were several employees in the small bookstore in which I worked.  We knew who to call when the new so-and-so came in 'cause that customer would be in the next day to get it.  We knew to put away all the new Harlequins 'cause Ms. XYZ would be in to pick them up, no matter the cover, no matter the author.  We knew if something would sell the minute it was pulled out of the carton, and we knew who would buy it.

Today?  Not so much.  Sure, if you ask B&N management if their store employees know books, they'll say yes.  And to a certain degree, I guess they do.  But they don't know me.  Hell, I'm in there once a week and the employees, not a one of them, would recognize me if they were about to run me over with the book cart.  They don't know who I read, they don't know who I won't read, they don't even know my first name! 

That's a business.

That's NOT publishing.

100 Titles I May or May Not Have Read...

I'm not sure where this book list came from, perhaps the BBC?  I found it on Jana Laurenes blog...  I'm going to boldface those I've read, and italicize those I've started but never finished, just like Jana did...  Thanks for the idea, Jana!

1. Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2. The Lord of the Rings - JRR tolkien
3. Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4. Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
5. To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6. The Bible - does it count if I've heard almost the entire thing in church over the past 50 years, and read so much more of it?
7. Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8. Nineteen Eighty-Four - George Orwell
9. His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10. Great Expectations – Charles Dickens
11. Little Women - Louis M. Alcott
12. Tess of the D’Urbervilles – Thomas Hardy
13. Catch 22 – Joseph Heller
14. Complete Works of Shakespeare - I've finished quite a bit but by no means have I finished the "complete" works!
15. Rebecca – Daphne du Maurier
16. The Hobbit – JRR Tolkien
17. Birdsong – Sebastian Faulk
18. Catcher in the Rye – JD Salinger
19. The Time Ttraveler’s Wife – Audrey Niffenegger
20. Middlemarch – George Eliot
21. Gone with the Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22. The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
24. War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25. The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – Douglas Adams
26. The Road – Cormac McCarthy
27. Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Fostoyevsky
28. Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29. Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30. The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31. Anna Karenina – Leo Tolstoy
32. David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33. Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34. Emma – Jane Austen
35. Persuasion – Jane Austen
36. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe - CS Lewis
37. The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38. Captain Corelli’s Mandolin – Louis de zBernieres
39. Memoirs of a Geisha – Arthur Golden
40. Winnie the Pooh – A.A. Milne
41. Animal Farm - George Orwell
42. The da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43. One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44. A Prayer for Owen Meaney – John Irving
45. The Woman in White – Wilkie Collins
46. Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47. Far from the Madding Crowd – Thomas Hardy
48. The Handmaid’s Tale – Margaret Atwood
49. Lord of the Flies – William Golding
50. Atonement – Ian McEwan
51. Life of Pi – Yann Martel
52. Dune – Frank Herbert
53. Cold Comfort Farm – Stella Gibbons
54. Sense and Sensibility – Jane Austen
55. A Suitable Boy – Vikram Seth
56. The Shadow of the Wind – Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57. A Tale of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58. Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time - Mark Haddon
60. Love in the Time of Cholera – Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61. Of Mice and Men – John Steinbeck
62. Lolita – Vladimir Nabokov
63. The Secret History – Donna Tartt
64. The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65. Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas - not sure if I ever finished it
66. On the Road – Jack Kerouac
67. Jude the Obscure – Thomas Hardy
68. Bridget Jones’s Diary – Helen Fielding - saw the whole movie, though...
69. Midnight’s Children – Salman Rushdie
70. Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71. Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72. Dracula – Bram Stoker
73. The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74. Notes from a Small Island – Bill Bryson - read other Bryson titles, but not this one
75. Ulysses – James Joyce
76. The Inferno – Dante
77. Swallows and Amazons – Arthur Ransome
78. Germinal – Emile Zola
79. Vanity Fair – William Makepeace Thackeray
80. Possession – AS Byatt
81. A Christmas Carol – Charles Dickens
82. Cloud Atlas – David Mitchell
83. The Color Purple – Alice Walker
84. The Remains of the Day – Kazuo Ishiguro
85. Madame Bovary – Gustave Flaubert
86. A Fine Balance – Rohinton Mistry
87. Charlotte’s Web – E.B. White
88. The Five People You Meet in Heaven – Mitch Albom
89. Adventures of Sherlock Holmes – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90. The Faraway Tree Collection – Enid Blyton
91. Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92. The Little Prince – Antoine de Saint-Exupery
93. The Wasp Factory – Iain Banks
94. Watership Down – Richard Adams
95. A Confederacy of Dunces – John Kennedy Toole
96. A Town Like Alice – Nevil Shute
97. The Three Musketeers – Alexandre Dumas
98. Hamlet – William Shakespeare
99. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory – Roald Dahl
100. Les Miserables – Victor Hugo

Home Sweet Home

I was SO darned happy to get home from my business trip, you have no idea!  I missed my husband, my bed, my shower...  Any my husband missed me, too.  So much so he put up a sign to welcome me home; I'll post a photo once I get it uploaded to my computer.

The trip home was tough - lots of turbulence.  It didn't make me sick, but apparently it really bothered my boss.  He commented the next day that he can handle turbulence that makes the plane rise and drop, but that side to side movement at the same time?  Not so much!

I came in on Wednesday evening.  Just in time for snow lightning and thunder and lots of icy slush on the ground.  And me in my flat work shoes and no boots.  Managed to step right into a cold puddle of slush outside the airport, and again outside the house.  COLD!

Finished the work week by working from home on Friday.  I had a doctor's appointment with a geriatric rheumatologist at 10am.  Yea, I didn't know he was a geriatric rhematologist when I made the appointment.  I was the youngest patient in there, and at 50, that's not saying much!  After a thorough review of my medical history and my symptoms, the doctor recommended a cortisone shot.  I know that J is anti-cortisone shot so when Dr. L. recommended one, I told him I wanted to call my husband first.  So I did.  And I explained that the doctor was convinced the injection would alleviate the swelling in my bursa that was, in his expert opinion, causing my hip pain.  Ultimately I decided to try the shot.

And OH.MY.GOD.  I'm walking almost normally again!  I've already made an appointment for the other hip, and if I need another shot, I'm going for it.  I haven't walked so comfortably or climbed stairs with so little pain in almost a YEAR.  I am going on the record right now:  this shot helped me.  I don't know how long this will last; the doctor thought this could conceivably "cure" the problem by reducing the inflammation.  I can't even imagine - but I'm going to give it a darn good shot.  Or two or three...

Well, have to go and update my iTouch - will be back later this week, hopefully with more photos...

In Wisconsin, by way of Chicago

So if we were just a few miles north of Madison, we'd be getting 12" of snow.

Instead, it's 35 degrees with a REALLY chilly wind off the lake.  And it's raining.  A cold, cold rain.

And to make me SO happy to head home, 4"-8" of snow are due in NJ tomorrow (in the lake area) and up to 3" or 4" at home.

It's the end of March, for cryin' out loud.  It is officially spring.

As much as I love snow, it's time for spring.  It's time for crocuses, buds on the trees, sun, warmth, a long, tall, unsweetened iced tea on my front porch, in the porch swing.

It's time for the snow to go bye-bye.  Until next winter.  Not forever.

I was a bit worried since one of J's after-school workers was in WI last week and said there was still snow on the ground and it was cold...  I saw snow, but really only in about 2 or 3 patches; I saw a lot more flooding, as if all that snow melted and the water table was just f.u.l.l.  Plus they've apparently had some rain, too, at least these past couple of days...

So tomorrow I'm due back in Chicago for a 4:05pm flight home.  Thank you, God!  I do love to travel, but I miss my husband.  I'd prefer to travel with him, not leave him at home.  We both miss each other a lot.  Just knowing he's in the house, nearby, is comforting to me.  Having to sleep in these huge beds in the hotels just makes me miss him that much more.  Waking up in the middle of the night, realizing he's not just in the bathroom - that makes it harder to fall back asleep.  I miss knowing he's there, next to me. 

I'm a teeny bit worried about tomorrow - I have no book to read on the plane.  I might have to visit Hudson News in the airport and pick up a little something...

Counting down to HOME!!!

Need a dock???

This is what our dock looks like down, post-iced-over-lake.

Wanna buy it? Best offer gets it. Pick up only.

No takers?

Okay. It's firewood next year!!!

I'm traveling this week (to Chicago and Wisconsin) so J's job is to call a couple of dock guys and see if they can come out and take a look and give us at least an idea, even if all we decide to do is replace the one that was there. Although we are thinking about expanding it to be about 20' long by 10' wide for the biggest part, and u-shaped with only a 2' or 3' wide by 20' long for the other long part of the U. And we're thinking about spacing it to accommodate a pontoon boat like this one:

We're hoping to get one used here at the lake at some point in the future. 

We certainly don't need it now, since we don't have a dock...

But I can imagine it...  wind in my hair, sun on my shoulders, book in my hand, iced tea at my side, lounging on my lounge chair in the middle of the lake on my pontoon boat, or if we're lucky and get the version of the boat that has two built-in lounges....

Welcome to my retirement, boys and girls!  Hope you have as nice a time as I plan to...

Now if only I could win that MegaMillions/Powerball...

Some photos I took these past few weeks...

I did it!  I used an overlay in Photoshop Elements 8 and managed to do it right and save it so I could print the photo WITH the overlay!

To say nothing of the fact that this is my all-time FAVORITE photo of J - I see such love in his eyes as he looks at me...

On my iTouch I have a couple of photo apps that will alter photos I take - this Instagram filter makes the stack of games at school look like the photo was taken in the 70s - love that vintage look!  (From now on I'll have to keep track of what app/filter I use...)

A self-photo of me and my camera...

A photo of the lake, frozen over this past February; took this one in Instagram (no idea which filter, though)

Here's a shot from my office window - another Instagram photo of the NYC skyline

And another...

When I went up to the lake this weekend, before J and I took ill, we found that the ice took out our dock.  I'm going to call our insurance agent to see if it's worth putting in a claim, and how much our premiums will increase...

Here she is, Princess E - this photo was taken last Monday...  isn't she just darling?!

She crawled for the first time the hour before we got there.  Her daddy got it on video and he tried to get her to do it again for her Cioci Krys - and she did!!!

My aunt's family is okay.

Thank you, God.

My aunt is Japanese and we've been wondering if her family is okay (she lives in Colorado Springs).  My cousin called her (he lives nearby) and it turns out that, luckily for her and for the family, she has no friends or family in the affected areas of Japan.

Which means that much more of my prayers can go to random strangers in that country who SO need them.

Tomorrow I'll be doing some research for a charity I can donate to - we have an office in Tokyo and thank goodness, they're all okay, too, although they've closed the offices until Monday or Tuesday of next week.  Our company will be matching our employee donations so I'm going to try to make a good one to contribute to the grand total.

It feels good to work for a company who cares.

What this week looks like for me...

Work:

• Prep for my trip to Chicago and Wisconsin next week
• Volunteer at school on Tuesday
• Catch up on new title submissions

Play:

• Catch up on photos for Project Live
• Pack up a project for Friday, just in case
• Prep for next week's crop day
• Watch Ali Edwards video

Home:

• Eye doctor Tuesday night
• Laundry
• Clean house (1st, the bedroom!)
• Create a meal plan for the week
• Shop Rite with Mom for this week's food shopping

I'm sick, too...

We started out at 7:15am and went to the lake.  I went to WW and Jack went to the Walmart to get Mucinex-D.  When I came out of the meeting he was napping in the car.  The Walmart pharmacy didn't open until 9am so he couldn't get the medicine he needed.  He insisted on getting me breakfast at Panera, then we drove to the lakehouse and dropped off the cabinets J built for the new basement pantry area.  Then we left to come home.

I suggested he go to the Immedicenter but he said, no, maybe later.  Until we got within 20 minutes of home and he decided we were going straight to the doctor.  They prescribed another Z-pack and Flonase, then suggested gargling with hot/warm salt water and some steam therapy with either an inhaler or a bowl of hot water and a towel.  He felt so bad that he wanted me to drop him home before I went to CVS to pick up his prescriptions.

I had made plans to go shopping with E and he insisted I still go.  He didn't want me to stay home and get infected.  So I went, and all I bought in 4 hours of power shopping was a can of dry shampoo.  Better luck next time...

I got home and he was awake, so I warmed up some homemade chicken soup, which he managed to keep down even though he was a bit queasy.  He slept in M's room because he didn't want me to get whatever it is he had.  I really don't like sleeping alone; it just doesn't feel right... 

Then my nephew called at 11:30pm to say he had a flat tire up the block from me, and he needed a lug wrench.  So I took it up there and waited until he changed his tire; one guy stopped to ask if we needed help, and then the local police patrol stopped, but J was almost done at that point.  I followed him home to make sure he got there.  I was a bit suspicious that he might leave after I did to go out again, but according to my sister, he stayed in for the night.  Call me a prude, but getting home at 12:30am is late enough; there's no need for him to be out until 3:30 or 4:30 in the morning...

Anyhow, all day yesterday I was getting pains in my left ear.  I've never had an earache and personally, I hope I never have another one.

I got up this morning, and MY HAIR HURT.  J told me that was a hangover, not an earache, but since I don't drink, that would rank up there with another virgin birth!  I have never ever thought my HAIR could hurt!!!  But it truly does!  The nurse practitioner I saw at the Immedicenter this morning (yes, indeed, today I went to see someone there!) said it was probably just my scalp was inflamed from the ear infection she can't swear I have because it all looks clear in there.  My throat is a little red but there was no indication of strep.  She did a throat culture anyway and will call me tomorrow to tell me if it came back positive or negative.  And she started me on an antibiotic even though she can't swear I'm positive for strep, and if she hadn't, I'd have begged her to, even though I'm not big on antibiotics unless I'm really sick...  For crying out loud, MY HAIR HURTS!!!

The medicine is making me really thirsty, too; my lips feel like they're cracked and chapped, even though I don't think they are, at least not yet.  I've been drinking loads of liquids today since my visit to the doctor...

I have to be sure I'm well 'cause next Monday I leave for Chicago and Wisconsin.  Yay.  Note the enthusiasm.

Well, I'm off to get another drink of something - I'm really, really thirsty!!!

Sending prayers to Japan...

My aunt is Japanese.
My cousins are 1/2 Japanese.
They have relatives there.
They have relatives there who may (or may not) have suffered in this massive earthquake and tsunami.
I'm praying for my family.  And for their family.

And I'm praying for the many, many people in Japan I'm not related to.
I'm praying for their survival, their safety, their families, their grieving, their recovery.

I'm praying a lot today.

Reading Experience 'Shattered by the Presence of a Mob'

Reading Experience 'Shattered by the Presence of a Mob'

"I'm reading a new book I downloaded on my Kindle and I noticed an underlined passage. It is surely a mistake, I think. This is a new book. I don't know about you, but I always hated underlined passages in used books.... And then I discovered that the horror doesn't stop with the unwelcomed presence of another reader who's defaced my new book. But it deepens with something called view popular highlights, which will tell you how many morons have underlined before so that not only you do not own the new book you paid for, the entire experience of reading is shattered by the presence of a mob that agitates inside your text like strangers in a train station.


"So now you can add to the ease of downloading an e-book the end of the illusion that it is your book. The end of the privileged relation between yourself and your book. And a certainty that you've been had. Not only is the e-book not yours to be with alone, it is shared at Amazon which shares with you what it knows about you reading and the readings of others. And lets you know that you are what you underline, which is only a number in a mass of popular views.... Conformism does come of age in the most private of peaceful activities--reading a book, one of the last solitary pleasures in a world full of prompts to behave. My Kindle, sugar-coated cyanide."

--Andrei Codrescu on NPR's All Things Considered

PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE tell me you can shut this feature off!!!
This would drive me up a wall!
I LOVE to underline and comment in some of my books, not all of them, but someone else's highlights???
They're of no interest to me.
I wouldn't want them to skew my reading of a book that's completely new to me!!!

100 things about me

1. I am addicted to reading.
2. I finally learned I have some artistic talent at the ripe old age of 43.
3. I love babies.
4. I take pride in my work.
5. I'm registered as a Republican.
6. I love unsweetened iced tea.
7. My favorite colors are purple and green.
8. I really believe time goes more slowly at the lake house.  That's why weekends seem longer there.
9. I would like to visit Paris.
10. I skipped senior year in high school to attend the University of Delaware as a Freshman Honors Student and graduated from there in 1981/1982.
11. I used to be smart.  (See #10)
12. My husband built me bookshelves in our library for a Christmas present several years ago.
13. I would have gotten engaged on July 3, 1998, instead of July 4, 1998, IF I had let my then-boyfriend win at Rummikub.
14. I love to drive.
15. There were only 107 people at our wedding, including the bride and groom and our attendants.
16. I've made some wonderful friends on the internet.  (Hello to all of you!)
17. I miss my dad every day.  He died March 16, 1987.
18. I became best friends with my best friend on January 30, 1978.
19. I love snow.
20. I am VERY myopic and have a bad astigmatism in my right eye.
21. I was 30 years old when I had my ears pierced.
22. Amethysts are my favorite gemstone.
23. One of my favorite books is Anthem, by Ayn Rand.
24. My favorite singer/songwriter is Dan Fogelberg.
25. I love everything about the Christmas season.
26. I could watch What Not to Wear all day, every day.
27. Along with House Hunters.
28. I have owned 4 cars in my entire life.
29. I have a stepdaughter and a stepson.
30. I love pizza.
31. My childhood dog was a Samoyed and her name was Belle.
32. If I could be half the mom my mother is, I'd consider myself a HUGE success in the parenting thing.
33. I've only had one real boyfriend in my life and I married him.
34. I love computers and gadgets like my GPS, my iPod Touch.
35. I go to Weight Watchers, but I don't stick to plan very well.
36. I would like to take a class in photography when I retire.
37. I'd like to retire.
38. I'm a Harry Potter fanatic.
39. I love riding on my husband's motorcycle with him.
40. I like wood floors SO much more than I like rugs and carpet.
41. I used to like gold more than I liked silver, but now I don't have a favorite.
42. My baby grand niece has me wrapped around her tiny little finger.
43. My favorite cake is yellow cake with milk chocolate icing.
44. I miss my sister and wish she didn't live so far away.
45. I spoke only Polish until I was about four-and-a-half, except, I guess, with my dad, but I can't speak a word of it now!  (But I can understand most of what I hear if I concentrate.)
46. I love scrapbooking.
47. I don't like NYC and would avoid going there if I could.
48. I like love to eat.
49. I remember watching Romper Room and Wonderama as a child, on our black and white television.
50. I'm 50 years old!!!!  (It just doesn't seem possible!!!)
51. Coffee, not tea.
52. I love my dentist!
53. If I miss church on a Sunday, it just feels like something is missing, and not right.
54. My dream car would be a Turbo Lotus Esprit from the mid-1970s, in yellow with a black interior.
55. I bought a cross ring the day my dad died, and have never taken it off since then.
56. I volunteer every other week by reading for a 2nd grade class at my husband's school, for a Read Aloud program my company sponsors.
57. I leave my Santa Claus collection up year round.
58. I've only had four full-time jobs in my lifetime, and one for only two months, and only 2 part-time jobs.
59. We attend two different churches, one at home and one at the lake on weekends we're there, but we're only registered at the one near our primary residence.
60. I'm Catholic.
61. I was a microbiology major for the first two years of my college career.
62. I'm really quite shy and modest.
63. I can remember not having to dial an area code unless it was for long distance, and I can also remember telephone numbers that sounded like this:  (PI)lgrim3-7407.
64. The first LP I bought for myself was the double Saturday Night Fever soundtrack.  It cost $11.00 and that was more than HALF my monthly allowance in 1977.
65. I'm a homebody and would rather be home than away.
66. I love to window shop.
67. I had only two rules in my house for my nephew and my niece:  no whining, and pay attention when I speak to you.
68. As I get older, I truly think I suffer more and more from some sort of seasonal disorder.  I NEED some sunlight!!!
69. I hate the Twilight series.
70. I'd like to take a cooking class when I retire, too.
71. I love notebooks and pocketbooks and can buy one at the drop of a hat!
72. I spend every Monday night at my sister-in-law's house where we gossip and drink coffee and eat dessert.
73. Irises are my favorite flower.
74. I like to fly.
75. I'm not a big stew person, although I like soup once in a while.
76. I had an emergency appendectomy in January, 1969, and back surgery in July, 2001.
77. I'm 1/2 Polish, and 1/2 American (of Dutch, British and Lenni Lenape descent)
78. When I was a freshman in high school, my dad picked me up one day dressed as Santa Claus!
79. I never went on a real "vacation" until I was about 13, and that was to Washington, DC, and Longwood Gardens with my family.
80. We spent a couple of weeks each summer in Seaside Heights, NJ, while my dad stayed home and worked, or took his vacation and painted the house or did other jobs around the house.  He'd come and visit on weekends.
81. I got Cs in gym class until the semester I cut class, and THEN I got a B.  And then I married a gym teacher.  Go figure.
82. I worked in a photochemical company for 5 years - wonder if I glow in the dark?  This was WAY before we took so many precautions with hazardous chemicals...
83. My wedding dress was the first one I tried on, NOT the one I dreamed about for years before I got engaged!  (THAT one looked AWFUL on me!)
84. When I retire I want to learn to quilt.
85. I make awesome cole slaw with my mom's recipe.
86. Thank God for that show, Hoarders.  It makes me feel better about my pack-rat tendencies.  I'm nowhere NEAR as bad as those poor people!
87. I make better quick and easy chicken soup with pre-cooked rotisserie chicken than I do chicken soup with a fresh/raw chicken.
88. I don't like to cook meat - I like it well-done and I tend to think "it's a bit too pink" and then I leave it in a little longer and it becomes shoe leather!
89. I like cold chocolate milk more than hot chocolate.
90. My favorite Starbucks drink is an iced caramel macchiato.
91. Dogs.  Not cats.
92. I love to play slots at the casino!
93. I don't like lobster.
94. I can't wear heels higher than 2 inches or I'm sure I'd twist an ankle!
95. Speaking of ankles, I love ankle bracelets.  And I never thought I'd like toe rings, but I do!
96. My favorite weekly crime show is Criminal Minds.  I will rearrange my schedule to be home to watch it.  And the other show we refuse to miss is Castle.
97. I would leave my husband for Clint Eastwood.  I'd come back, of course, but I'd have to go!!!  He's a god!!!
98. My favorite engagement ring setting is a simple Tiffany setting - and that's what J got me.
99. I like salty snacks better than sweet snacks.
100. Mojitos rock!!!

Want vs. Need

1. I NEED to win the lottery.
2. I need to not work.
3. I need to be able to sleep past 5:45am.
4. I need to be independently wealthy so that I can do #1, #2, and #3.
5. I need to lose a couple of difficult customers and perhaps "need" in numbers 1 through 4 could be changed to "want."
6. I need to be a better housekeeper.  (I most definitely do not WANT to be a better housekeeper.)
7. I hope to be a better daugher, wife, sister, aunt, friend, cousin, employee.
8. I need God to smile down on me and help me to achieve numbers 1 through 7.  I know I can't do it alone.

Went to a bridal shower yesterday...

My nephew (on hubby's side) is getting married in April.

In Cabo San Lucas.

Mexico.

And we're going.

YAY!YAY!YAY!YAY!YAY!YAY!YAY!YAY!YAY!

Yesterday was the bridal shower for his fiancee R.  We love R.  She's so nice and he's so happy with her. 

The shower was at a restaurant named Jane in NYC.  I really wouldn't voluntarily go to NYC on a Saturday for very many people, but R is one of them!  The food was great - here's what we got to choose from:

Starter

Mushroom Soup - Portobello, brandy, truffle oil

Seasonal Fruit Salad

Main Courses

Shrimp Risotto - lemon, chervil butter, lobster broth

Steak Salad - organic arugula, goat cheese, red onion, beefsteak tomatoes, shoestring potatoes, balsamic vinaigrette

Egg White Scramble - sauteed spinach, goat cheese, mixed greens

Sides for the Table

Spicy Garlic Broccoli

Rosemary Fries

Desserts

Profiteroles - espresso ice cream, caramel and chocolate sauce

Warm Apple Tart - puff pastry, cider caramel, vanilla ice creaam

Mimosa, Bloody Mary

juice, fountain soda, coffe & tea (they also had green iced tea)



MMMMMMMMMMMMMMM GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD!!!  (I boldfaced my choices!)

Here are a couple of photos from the party...

The gifts

The bride (R is in the middle) with her bridesmaids

My dessert - I could have eaten 3 plates!

The clock we got her (along with the hamper she asked for - see that HUGE box behind her head!?)

R with my nieces (the groom's twin sisters) and their cousin-in-law (K) on the right, along with the ribbon bouquet they made with the ribbons from the gifts

The party ran from 11:30 to about 2:30 - we got home around 4pm-ish, after we packed the cars to bring all the gifts back to NJ, made our way through Holland Tunnel traffic, etc.

It was a fun party, not without a little grandma drama (she's 95 and a little too used to being the center of attention), but all in all we had a great time and it was a lot of fun spending time with my nieces and my sister-in-law and meeting the bride's friends and family.

Welcome to the family, R (almost!)!!!

I'm not a size 10.

Apparently if you want to buy a nice floral gown for a beach wedding, you have to be a size 10.  Or smaller. 

If you go to Bloomingdales, though, and are willing to spend $600 or more, you can be a size 12, because that's the largest size some designers will allow.  When I told the lady that I was a 12, 14, or 16, depending on the designer, she said, "Well, this designer only goes to a 12 and that won't fit you."

Really?

THEN she said, "What about this dress?"  And she pulled a navy blue, OLD grandmother of the bride dress off the rack on the other side of the aisle.

My response?  "I DID mention this was a beach wedding, right?  And I'm 50, not 85."  She hung that dress right back on the rack and didn't try to help me anymore.  (I think SHE was about 85!)

Now I'm not sensitive about my age or my size, truly, I'm not.  But it's completely unacceptable that I can't find a dress to wear that is floral, is not made of heavy textured satin, and doesn't cover me up from head to toe like I'm wearing a nun's habit.  I'm really not into letting it all hang out, but I was hoping for something bright and cheerful, maybe a bit tropical, and a little floaty...  Something along the lines of this dress (although I'm not a big fan of the one shoulder look)...

(Yes, we veered away from a short cocktail dress and most of the women are looking for fun, bright long dresses, so I thought I'd look, too.)

I went to Sax's Fifth Avenue, knowing full well that when you wear designer clothes, I could easily be in a higher size number than when I buy off the rack at Target and Walmart, or Dress Barn and Annie Sez.  The dress could be a size 52 if it looked good on me - you're looking at ME, not the size tag!  The very nice lady brought me about 8 dresses to try, in 14s and in 16s.  Dresses that she had to bring to me FROM THE STORAGE ROOM.  They don't keep dresses in those sizes on the racks!

ARE YOU KIDDING ME?  This is America!  The average size of a woman in the USofA is NOT 6.  And while I did find a sort of nice dress there, it was black and white and I'm just old-fashioned enough to not want to wear something that looks too white to a wedding...  And surprisingly, several of them looked quite nice but just weren't appropriate for the event.

So we went to Macy's and I tried on a couple of dresses that were, well, okay, but a little formal for a beach wedding.  Perhaps if the wedding was going to be in a banquet hall somewhere, they'd have been acceptable.  Actually, they'd have been great for that type of event.

But we're going to be barefoot on the beach, for crying out loud.  I don't want to wear satin or taffeta.  Especially satin or taffeta all the way up to my neck and on my arms and down to my ankles.

My sister-in-law found a dress that she brought into the dressing room for me to try on, and I did.

And I bought it.  Even though it was short.  I can easily wear it with gold flat sandals that I already own, and it's more than appropriate, with a cream background with gold and bronze and sort of a muddy brown print...  Sounds a bit dull, I know, but it looks cute on!  Here's what it looks like:



(Truly, in real life, it's much less white, and much more cream - I think it's my yellow-ish walls that make it look so white-ish.)  It's much more shapely when it's on me!!  To top it all off, it was $101.40, on sale, and I had a $50 gift card, so - do the math - it cost me $51.40.  And it comes with a matching scarf, too.  LOVE it, and it's appropriate; IF I can't find a long dress I'm wearing this one.  (My SIL and my niece loved it on me, and hubby said I looked pretty in it, too - SOLD!!!)

Anyway, just got back from the shower - will post some bridal shower photos later...  Gotta start dinner...

So far, one dress...

Okay, it doesn't fit, it's a little too big.  I had to hold it up so I didn't wind up flashing the internet...  but so far, this is my favorite dress for the wedding.  I really would prefer a brigher print, and I'm still going to look for another dress, but this one is in the running.

I know it would look a lot better with a tan, and without my sock peeking out at the bottom, and of course, if it fit, but I like it.  It feels comfortable.  It feels like me, rather than me dressed up.

Will keep you posted.

(And by the way, all of you who gave me great advice on those short cocktail dresses?  Thanks.  But now it seems the family is leaning toward longer dresses.

Of course, if I can't find one...

Received two orders today...

... two orders containing some of my favorite things... scrapping paper, stamps, alphabet sets, brads, buttons, labels, and rub-ons based on "The Classics" - The Three Musketeers, Pride and Prejudice, The Wizard of Oz, The Ender, et cetera, et cetera... How could I resist???

And what did the other package contain? Books! The Pioneer Woman: Black Heels to Tractor Wheels - A Love Story, by Ree Drummond, .and The Gifts of Imperfection, by Brene Brown. I can't wait to start them!




J is building some cabinets for me for the basement at the lake house.  They're not for the summer kitchen, per se, but for the pantry and a counter for the microwave.  There will be some closed in cabinets so that the canned goods don't get AS dusty when he's working on one of his projects in the big room...

We put together the frame of the floor to ceiling pantry today.  Tomorrow he'll start working on the smaller cabinet.

I'm going to the mall with my sister-in-law tomorrow, to start looking for a dress for her son's wedding in Cabo San Lucas in April.  I'm going to start tomorrow with a visit to WW, then a bagel with my hubby, then I'll run home and shower before we start shopping.  Maybe I'll be able to talk P into lunch while we're out shopping...  I'll check Bloomingdale's, Lord & Taylor, Macy's, etc.  If I can even try on a few dresses and get some idea of styles, colors, prints and patterns...

Sunday we'll got to Shop Rite, Mom and I will, after breakfast with J's Uncle Johnny.  Breakfast at the little coffee cafe in the Shop Rite, actually.  (They have some yummy flavored coffees - J really enjoys the Amaretto flavor, while I usually opt for the Chocolate Raspberry.)

I have about 2 or 3 hours of housecleaning to do, too, which I'll probably do after the mall.  A load or two of laundry, clean off the coffee table, match up the dental insurance and send a payment to Dr. M., and then start sorting through our tax paperwork so we can submit our tax returns.  (Yea, sounds like fun, right?!?)

Want to do some reading tomorrow, and some scrapping.  Ordered some photos tonight, for pick up at Costco tomorrow.  I ordered a real cute one of E in J's camo hat.  I chose to print 4 wallet-sized ones so I could use it in my Project Life book...  I have to remember that I have other page protectors that I can use for vertical 4"x6" photos...

Well, it's 10:43pm and I need to just finish my coffee and relax before bedtime...  Talk with you tomorrow...

I feel helpless...

A dear friend of mine, who I met through J, is having a very tough time right now. 

For as long as I've known G, her mom's had a heart condition.  She's 85 years old (her mom is), and it's really quite simple:  it's just not as easy to recover from an attack as it was 10 years ago, or even last year.  She gets bad more quickly, it seems, and it takes longer for her to recover, and she never quite gets back to where she was post-last-episode.

G is having a real hard time dealing with the fact that her mom is, well, she's dying.  There's no other way to put it.  This morning I called and left a message at G's house, just to say hi, we're thinking about you, we're going to be around this weekend, if you can spare an hour...

She called me this afternoon.  She cried.  G is such a strong woman.  To hear her cry and say that she doesn't think her mom will make 2 more weeks - well, it broke my heart.

We forget that strong people hurt, too, and for some reason, when we realize it, it seems bigger and worse than for other people, or at other times, or under other circumstances.  She's so worried that there's so much to do:

1. decide hospice vs. no hospice
2. pick out a dress for her mom to wear
3. sign her mom's new lease vs. not signing
4. if she doesn't sign, she has to empty the apt immediately
5. if she does sign, and her mom dies soon, she has to empty the apt immediately
6. what if there is money in envelopes hidden around the house? she can't leave others to clean the apt
7. her brother doesn't get it - he doesn't realize his mom is dying
8. G's husband ate a PB&J sandwich for dinner the other night (the end of the world, according to G - I was quick to point out that M is an adult and if that's what he made for himself, that's what was okay with him)
9. etc.
10. etc.
11. etc.

She's overwhelmed with thoughts of what she needs to do, what she should do, what she doesn't have time to do, what she can't do.  She's angry because her brother won't take vacation time he doesn't have (he just started a new job a month or so ago) to spend time with their mom now, before she's gone.

Her mom's wishes are to be revived no matter what.  Although, she said, if she's on a respirator and there's no hope, then let her go... 

But G is worried about THAT, too - "if she's on a respirator, I could never pull the plug."

I let her talk.  I let her cry.  I sympathize.  I cry, too.  I tell her how much I wish I could help her.  I tell her to call a mover NOW, move her mom's stuff into her parlor.  Fill the damn room with all her mom's stuff and get rid of what she doesn't want NOW.  If you know you want the new recliner, put it where you want it in your house.  If you know you don't want the rickety old dinette set that you've been trying to replace in her apt for the past 5 years, toss it.  Go through her things later, when you have time.

IF you're positive she's never going to come home.  Because I know her mom.  If she rallies, and if she can come home again, and she finds out G gave up her apt, OOOOOHHHHH, G is in trouble!!!! 

And you have no idea how much I HOPE G gets into trouble with her mom again soon!!!

From Shelf Awareness, today's issue...

'Imagining the 21st Century's Digital Bookstore'


"As more and more Americans choose to order books online, or to switch to e-books, they don't need to patronize physical bookstores any longer. But any sales person ought to know that need and want are two different things.... I can find a much larger selection of books by firing up my Web browser than heading over to my local Borders, which is among those scheduled to close. I don't need that Borders in order to find and buy the books which interest me.

"But, as an enthusiastic reader, I want to have an excuse to get out of the house once in a while and spend some time alone with fresh books and magazines. My middle-school, book-worm daughter wants a place to hang out with her friends after school. No, we don't need a physical place to buy books any longer, but we want that alternative.... While it's nice to daydream as a consumer about the type of bookstore I want to see in my neighborhood, for publishers, a functional 21st-century physical bookstore isn't just a want, it's something we will continue to need."

--Robert Niles in his Online Journalism Review article, "Imagining the 21st Century's Digital Bookstore."

See?  Yet ANOTHER need vs. want discussion...  that applies to so many things in my life:  do I really NEED another muffin?  do I really NEED another set of scrapbooking stamps?  do I really NEED to buy that magazine?  (Yes.  Yes.  And yes again.)

Weddings

I had the most perfect wedding.  The only thing that could have made it better would have been my Daddy alive to walk me down the aisle.

Oh, and I admit I wish the church had air conditioning.  It was the freakin' HUMIDEST day of the year!!!  (Yea, I know that's not a word - it's all for effect!)

But this wedding here?

http://www.stylemepretty.com/2011/02/24/brooklyn-wedding-by-weddings-by-two-bespoke-affairs/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+typepad%2Fstyle_me_pretty+%28Style+Me+Pretty%3A+The+Ultimate+Wedding+Blog%29&utm_content=Google+Reader

Okay - they win.  A wedding in a library?  A historical society's library, no less?

I've died and gone to heaven...