Random Thoughts

I Want Fondue for Every Meal

2008-10-29T21:28:00.002-04:00

Last month, hubby & I went to dinner at The Melting Pot with another couple and had a very fun and delicious fondue dinner. After doing the lion's share of food prep at a family gathering recently (my poor MIL was laid up with a torn hamstring), MIL offered to take me wherever I wanted for dinner. I chose Melting Pot and we had another yummy, fun meal. Why can't I have dinner like that every night?

My First Camera

2008-09-26T20:18:00.004-04:00

We were talking about cameras tonight and J's little digital camera. He's 8 years old, which was how I was when I got my first camera. It was a Kodak Instamatic X-15F.

I loved that little camera. It utilized Kodak's then new Flipflash technology. More often than not the flash wouldn't fire and that was always frustrating. Somewhere I've got very exciting pictures of our cat Ling-Ling sitting in a window, my mum & dad sitting in very stiff poses dressed in 70s finest fashions, or very low resolution shots of the front of Nana & Grandad's house. Perhaps I'll get Steve to scan some of those shots and share them in another entry. I loved that little camera and would save my allowance to buy the 126 film, a flipflash and then be able to pay for the photo processing.

That little camera has been gone for years. I would love to find one to put on display next to my antique Kodak that I found last summer in an antique shop. Maybe I'll go check out Ebay.....

Back to Normal

2008-09-09T14:45:00.002-04:00

Okay, before you laugh yourself silly at my title--because we all know that I am as far from Normal as possible, I just have to say it's nice to be normal again. J went back to school 2 weeks ago. We're working on getting his back to normal routine consistent, but that's okay.

I, for one, have jumped in with both feet at my daily routine. This time last year, I was struggling every day with what I was going to do and when. This year, routine has fallen neatly into place and I couldn't be happier. It's great to drop J at school and get on with my day the way I want to. It's also lovely to enjoy the peace & quiet of my house once school starts in the mornings. There is no constant barrage of questions, video game requests, etc. It's just nice to have my own thoughts to myself again.

So much so, that I find all sorts of new creative thoughts abounding in my brain. It will be great to start doing some writing on a regular basis.

The Photographer's Right

2008-07-13T17:24:00.008-04:00

Sometimes I am amazed at the genius that business owners exhibit, in order to promote their businesses. Often times I've seen an advertisement in a magazine, a commercial on TV or just heard about a business idea through word-of-mouth and think, "That was brilliant!"

Similarly, I am equally amazed at people's stupidity when it comes their businesses. Case-in-point, yesterday my family & I traveled up to Hillsborough, New Hampshire for their annual Hot Air Balloon Festival & Fair. Both Steven & I were each armed with one of DSLR's, he the Canon 40D and me with the Canon 20D.

It was a pretty day, the fair was busy and we were making photographs of things that caught our interest. Now the fairgrounds have a Midway with carnival rides and games, as well as a vendor faire. We came across this really neat booth where a woman was selling decorative fabric hot air balloons. There was something for everyone, be it for a nursery, a race car fan, a sailing enthusiast, or just a colorful souvenir of a day at the fair and festival. We both raised our cameras to take pictures of these little balloons because it would have made for a great photograph. As soon as the owner saw us with our cameras, she came rushing out and told us what we were doing was illegal and we were not allowed to photograph her work. My husband, being the well-studied man that he is, told her very politely that we were within our legal rights as this was a public place. She started spouting off rather snottily about how she sells these things all over the world and she knows her rights and ours wherever she sells them and we were not permitted to do so. We argued the point with her for a few minutes and finally I said, "You know what dear, we know what our rights are. We could give her some free publicity on our photo and blog sites, but she's too short-sighted to see the bigger picture. That's her problem." We walked away...for a while.

Needless to say, I am not one to take things lying down and walked past her booth and exercised my rights several times. If she wasn't so small minded, I would have normally provided her information & examples of her work for people to enjoy, potentially contact her and purchase. But since she couldn't see the big picture, she won't get any free advertising from me.

Hindsight is 20-20 as we all know. If we had really wanted to push the issue, we should have asked a local police officer to come over and explain our rights to her. We should have also made use of the fact that WMUR Channel 9 of New Hampshire had a reporter on scene to report on the balloon festival, and made our point in the court of public opinion. Woulda, coulda, shoulda....

As I reviewed our photos today I came across the ones I took of this lady's booth and decided to voice my rights for all to see. From now on, I will carry the following document with me to present to an offended party, The Photographer's Right published by attorney Bert P. Krages II of Portland, Oregon.

If you are a photographer or even a person who just likes taking snapshots, keep a copy of this with your camera. If challenged, I encourage you to stand up for your rights.

Peace, Jennifer

Mosaic

2008-06-30T11:35:00.003-04:00

Neila tagged me this morning to make a mosaic about myself. Here goes:

1. Jenn Kastner - bowl5981, 2. Orange and yellow floral cupcakes, 3. Algonquin Park Sunrise, 4. Soft purple, 5. Bono 1, 6. The fluke of a whale as it dives, 7. London from the Stone Gallery, 8. mini cakes taste samples (for a wedding cake), 9. bookshelf spectrum, revisited, 10. Jonathan Livingston Seagull “I am ready,” he said at last. And Jonathan Livingston Seagull rose with the two star-bright gulls to disappear into a perfect dark sky., 11. Cd Art, 12. Driftwood in Ocean Park, Maine

Go to Flickr.com and type your answers to the following questions (one at a time) into the Search Box.

The questions are:
1. What is your first name?
2. What is your favourite food?
3. What high school did you go to?
4. What is your favourite colour?
5. Who is your celebrity crush?
6. Favourite drink?
7. Dream vacation?
8. Favourite dessert?
9. What you want to be when you grow up?
10. What do you love most in life?
11. One word to describe you.
12. Your flickr name.

Choose 1 image from the FIRST page of results, remember the image you choose doesn't have to be exactly what you were looking for - just the image you like best from the first page.

Copy your URLs to the Mosaic Maker here and publish your mosaic to your blog.

I tag Kathy!

Jack from Project Runway

2008-06-25T12:19:00.002-04:00

Sometimes you see something on You Tube that you know you must avert your eyes because of the burning, but this I think takes the cake. I sat and watched all 2 minutes and 52 seconds like a deer caught in the headlights.

Tower Hill

2008-06-17T11:16:00.002-04:00

Hadn't been up to Tower Hill in a while, so my trip up with friends, Kathy & Deb on Saturday was wonderful. They'd never been there and I gave them a guided tour of the place. We were fortunate enough to find this male Eastern Tiger Swallowtail butterfly feasting on the Mountain Laurel in bloom.

Robert Plant & Alison Krauss

2008-06-06T21:48:00.003-04:00

I have loved Led Zepplin's music all my life, from the time I was a little girl, it grabbed me. I've seen Robert Plant on one of his solo tours, and when he's toured with Jimmy Page. So it was a treat when he recorded an album with bluegrass artist, Alison Krauss.

The show was A-MA-ZING! They opened with some songs from their album, Raising Sand. But when they ever launched into Zepp's "Battle of Evermore" I just about passed out! That has always been my most favorite song by them. I find it haunting and beautiful and just incredible. It was a wonderful song last night and I found myself with tears in my eyes during the performance of it.

Lily Belle!

2008-06-02T10:10:00.003-04:00

My sister-in-law gave birth this morning to Lily Belle, weighing in at 7 pounds, 3 ounces (originally reported as 7 pounds, 1 ounce like her big cousin Jonathan, but that was erroneous), 19-3/4" long.

PLAY BALL!

2008-04-22T10:16:00.004-04:00

Back in December, I was able to get us tickets for Saturday's Red Sox game versus the Texas Rangers. The months passed slowly, but all of a sudden, our day was upon us!

Our plan had been to go in at 5PM to watch batting practice, but we also wanted some time in the team store. So we got to the park a little after 4PM. We moused around the store, I got a new hat and Jonathan got a Jonathan Papelbon t-shirt.

About 4:30 or so, they close of Yawkey Way from pedestrian traffic. This allows them to set up the security check points. There we were standing in line waiting for things to open. Jonathan is bored and sitting on the ground because half an hour lasts about 8 hours when you are 7 years old. Just minutes before the gates open, a Fenway Ambassador walks up and asks Jonathan, "Do you want to be the kid who yells 'Play ball!'?" My immediate reaction, "Of course he does!" We explain it quickly to Jonathan and he says, "Sure!" We're quickly ushered through the crowd to another Ambassador named Nina. She had us write down Jonathan's information, our address, age and our seat assignments. She explains they will take a picture of him saying "Play ball!" and that they will try to deliver it to our seats before the game ends, otherwise they will mail it to us. Nina tells us that we'll be allowed to hang out on the warning track within the ropes (basically running from dug out to dug out) while batting practice is going on. Then at the appropriate time, Jonathan will join the honorary ball boy & girl behind home plate while we wait off to the side.

It was so surreal, and because no one can go in and out without permission, it was safe to let Jonathan wander around without us being right by his side. He had his glove with him and had a couple of players sign his glove, and I had bought 2 team packs of Topps baseball cards, so we had those handy when Mike Lowell came out of the dug out. Now, when I bought the tickets back in December I was all excited because they were right across from third base and I really like Mike Lowell. Then he got injured a few weeks ago. Which meant Kevin Youkilis would be playing third base. Because Mike L. was injured, he was in the dug out when the rest of the team was still in the clubhouse. He was doing some interviews and then came out. That's how we got him to sign our baseball cards and I asked if he'd pose for a photo. He was most gracious and said yes he would. If he hadn't been on the DL, that probably would not have happened.

At the appropriate they had the kids line up and we were shuffled off to the side. Now the honorary ball boy & girl were siblings from Fairfax, VA who had been wearing Livestrong t-shirts. Lance Armstrong was throwing out the ceremonial first pitch (he's in town to run the Boston Marathon today). That's how they got picked out of the crowd. Their mom, Laura was videotaping everything. So we exchanged mailing addresses and have promised to send each other our pictures and her video. It was incredible. Jonathan did so well and the Ambassadors said he was one of the best. Apparently kids get up there and get stage fright or are so quiet they are barely heard. Not our Jonathan!

After he started the game we were ushered off the field. As we were walking up the aisle to get to the walkway, people were high-fiving him, congratulating him, and cheering for him. That's when I started tearing up. At one point the foot traffic stopped and a couple about my folks age were telling him what a good job he did and the wife noticed me with tears in my eyes. She patted me on the shoulder and told me to savor the moment. I told her I had hoped my folks were watching the game, but it wasn't likely to be broadcast at home. She said she was a grandmother, so she was proud for him. That was very sweet. We got to our seats and were surrounded by a lot of really nice families. We lucked out in that we didn't have any drunken chuckleheads being obnoxious around us. When the Fenway Ambassador came to deliver the photo everyone around wanted to see it as they had heard what Jonathan had done.

The one drawback of the night was it was cold. I had worn shorts thinking I'd be too warm. It wasn't bad for me, but poor Mr. Jonathan was quite cold and tired by the time it ended. He did get his energy back when Closer, Jonathan Papelbon, came out to pitch the 9th inning (we were up by 2 at that point). Papelbon does this funky dance during celebratory times after games. Because we were right on a walkway, Jonathan got down and danced to Papelbon's theme music (Dropkick Murphy's "I'm Shipping Off to Boston") and that got the crowd all ramped up and giving him more high fives.

The other fun thing, Matthew McConnaghey was at the game, sitting not far from us in the VIP section next to the Rangers dugout.

It's All In How You Look At Life

2008-04-19T11:02:00.002-04:00

A few years ago I never would have posted what I am about to post. Instead, I've changed how I approach the way I look at life.

For instance, a few years back this is how I would look at things:

These last few months we've been trying to get Steve's thyroid nodule diagnosed. It is cancer and he has to have surgery to remove at least part, if not all of his thyroid and the tumor.
My friend Cheryl had cancer throughout her body and died this week. She left two young daughters.
My mother-in-law's psycho secretary quit this week and I was thrown back into working in an industry I haven't worked in for over 17 years.

Now, I look at my life and this is how I see things:

Steve has a very treatable form of cancer and it's the only one not treated by an oncologist, but an endocrinologist.
Cheryl is free from pain and weakness now. She can watch over her beautiful girls wherever they go.
My mother-in-law felt that I had the skill set to get the job done. And I did. I amazed even myself with what I remembered about the job.

It's all in how you look at life. That's the secret to getting you through it.

Lookee! It's My New Brain!!!!

2008-04-11T17:14:00.002-04:00

Check it out! My new brain arrived today! I have long been a PDA kind of girl. My first was a Palm, can't remember what model it was, but it was a handy little thing. Back in the day when Steve worked for Compaq, he bought me an iPAQ 3835. That was nearly seven years ago. Lately it's been a bit dodgy. We tried a new battery, but it still continued to waffle, especially with the change in Daylight Savings Time. That was just ugly in terms of booking appointments and synching them with my calendar in Outlook.

I looked into other PDA type technologies. I was hard pressed to find the technology that did not include a cell phone. It's all well and good to combine the technologies, but I love my little pink Motorola phone that is only about 6 months old. And there are times when I don't want to carry all of my technology at one time. But I did check out a Samsung phone that just didn't do it for me.

Having a Windows interface with Excel was critical. I am a list maker, always have been, probably always will be. Sure enough, my heart and head were led back to the iPAQ technology. Amazon.com got my new iPAQ 111 (a/k/a My Brain) shipped out with lightning speed. So here it sits on my desk, communicating with my Outlook to load all the data in. There have been a few hiccups, but I've yet to meet a new piece of technology where there weren't any.

Ahh, my Brain feels whole again......

Happy Easter!

2008-03-23T20:37:00.002-04:00

Here was our entertainment for today!
How cute are these kids?!

My Ever Changing Aura

2008-02-12T21:39:00.005-05:00

I've been helping some friends interpret their aura photos taken over the weekend and thought I would share mine. I started having aura photos taken almost two years ago.

My first one was on 7/29/2006 at The Grateful Heart in Wickford, RI. It's a great new age book store. At the time I knew nothing about aura photos and had gone into it with a friend.

There is A LOT of red in this photo. Red entering on my left is the Force of Will representing stop lights, warning lights and pushing limits. It represents living life to the fullest and doing things with fun ahead. The high red over my head is also a Force of Will and my urge to achieve results. It represents desire, excitability, domination and passion. Then I give it all back, although it gets a bit muddied on the way out which represents overstimulation, inflammation and imbalance. At that point in my life, I was overwhelmed and off kilter because of a relationship among two other friends.

Picture #2 was taken in August 2006 at a local shop called Taproot in West Boylston, MA.

Lots of yellow and orange in this one. Coming in the energy is cheerful and giving in that yellow tinged with green (hard to see in the scan), but represented an awareness that my ideas and interpretations would be changing and growing. The yellow over my head represented the joy and happiness that I was finding with my new growth, and the curiosity & hunger for new ideas. The orange coming out of my right side shows the world that I am creative and artistic. That people around me see me as an upbeat, happy, capable and creative person.

What is interesting about this photos is I asked my spirit guide to sit with me. Something that when I had my first photo taken, I didn't know to do. The swishing marks you see on my right show a very playful spirit guide who did not want to sit still for a photo. It also may have had to do with the energy in the shop that day, there was definitely a vibration going on that I had to force myself to ground myself from.

Picture #3 was also taken at The Grateful Heart, this one on November 4, 2006.

This one is an interesting mix of the two previous, lots of Force of Will coming in and represented in the now of that moment, but being turned out in a creative and artistic way.

But what was fascinating was the violet "spot" on my left shoulder. About a month before I had this picture taken my friend Kim performed reiki on me. After she finished she sat very quietly at my side while I roused. She had a look on her face and I asked what was up. She then asked me, "I have something to share that came to me while working on you. Do you want to hear it?" I said sure. She said over and over while she was working on me that the presence of two spirit guides came to her telling her that they were named Hal & Don. She asked me if that meant anything to me and at the time it didn't. About a week and a half later I found myself feeling very tired in the afternoon. I had some time before J would be out of school, so I lay down to rest. I fell immediately to sleep, which is not like me at all. In my dream Hal & Don came to me, but not in a way that I had expected. Hal said that Kim had gotten the name wrong and that it was Val, as in my late aunt Val-Val and that Don was her husband Gordon (hence the -don) who had come with her to check on me. She told me that everything was okay and that she was so pleased that J was born on her birthday like Nana had said he would be (Nana had predicted that J would be born on Val's birthday--Val was her oldest child, Mum's older sister--who died at age 57, when I was 19). She also told me that Nana & Grandad were with me but Nana had "assigned" Val to me. I woke up in a complete sweat and very shaken. I immediately called Kim and stuttered into the phone, about the dream. Kim said very simply, "I had a feeling, but couldn't get a clearer picture." I had a real hard time wrapping my brain around this information. So when I sat for this photo, I invited my spirit guide(s) to sit with me. Specifically I addressed my aunt. I said that if my spirit guide was my Aunt Val-Val, to please sit on my left shoulder. The moment I saw the developed photo I started crying. After I calmed down I explained to the owner what had shaken me and she said that she was glad that I had received such a wonderful visit from someone so special. Once I got into my car, I called Kim and again, she was not surprised at all.

Picture #4 was taken at The Grateful Heart on May 13, 2007--Mother's Day.

Again I have a lot of orange and red in this photo with a tinge of violet high over the left side of my head. Guess my spirit guide, whoever it was that day, wasn't interested in being in the photo. But there was a lot of green healing energy coming out of me that day. It is an expression of firmness, constancy and resistance to change (most definitely me), sort of an elastic tension. Possession is regarding as increasing both security and self esteem. This vibration represents the willingness to work to gain wealth in terms of education and cultural attainments. Because it was not a large amount of green energy, it represented some self-doubt that I was going through at that time.

Picture #5 is my favorite. It was taken at The Grateful Heart on June 9, 2007 with my mother, Hilary sitting on my right knee.

Again, before sitting I asked my spirit guides, especially Val-Val to join us. The violet area over the left side of my lap was HUGE compared to previous photos. It was my aunt sitting for a photo with her sister and this is one of the highest vibrational frequency that can be distributed to a person on this earth. The energy above us is a force of will that turned to creativity and having fun.

2008-01-17T07:29:00.001-05:00

The Recipe For Jenn

3 parts Sweetness

2 parts Mania

1 part Genius

Splash of Friendship

Shake vigorously

What's the Recipe for Your Personality?

Good-Bye 2007, Hello 2008

2008-01-13T16:05:00.001-05:00

The last month of 2007 could have been a lot better in many ways. Too many to enumerate here, but I thought I would share how despite the tough times, we enjoyed a lovely holiday together.

Here I am, in all my TechniColor glory (soon to be reverted back to a bubbly brunette shade):

My dear 'ole dad, who after 40+ years at his company, will be a retiree this coming summer:

And then there is the J-Man. When he lost his gap-toothed baby teeth I was sad, but his grown-up teeth are just as gapped as the old ones. Isn't he cute?

Me & Mum, if only my greys would look as graceful & beautiful as hers do.

And then there is Steven. What can I say about a man who tortures Mr. Bill, other than to say, he is all mine girls and I'm not sharing!

Merry Christmas!

2007-12-24T19:58:00.000-05:00

Merry Christmas to all and to all, a good night!

Christmas Music

2007-12-15T22:24:00.000-05:00

I always love hearing Christmas music. At least I thought that I did until today. This morning I got in my car to take my finished quilt top over to the local quilt shop and turned on the radio like I always do. There are at least three stations in my pre-programmed twenty channels that are playing Christmas music full time and have been since at least November 12th. Two of the stations made all the local news broadcasts around that time about how they started the Christmas music broadcasts earlier than in previous years. I've even activated all the Christmas music in my ITunes to play on my Ipod. As I sat driving over to Grafton this morning I realized, "I am sick of Christmas music. Even the Vince Guaraldi Trio's 'A Charlie Brown Christmas'." These thoughts left me feeling like Scrooge. How could I be sick of Christmas music with ten days to go before Christmas? How is this possible? Glumly I decided that it must have been listening to the music so early before Thanksgiving.

While I realize it's a little over two weeks away, I am making a New Years' resolution. In 2008, I will not listen to any Christmas music prior to Thanksgiving. And if necessary, I'll change my car radio pre-sets to something else like Talk Radio or a Sports Talk Radio, so I'm not tempted by the sound of sleigh bells too early!

Merry Christmas.

72 Hours of Insanity, More Commonly Known as My Life As I Know It

2007-11-26T19:44:00.000-05:00

I knew before the weekend started it would be crazy. No, I wasn't going to any Black Friday sales (see previous rant). Friday night we had plans to take J to his first rock 'n' roll concert. We took him into Boston to the Orpheum Theatre to see the Brian Setzer Orchestra. We planned on going in early to have dinner at Fajitas & Ritas. Good plan until we got in, parked and realized we couldn't find the restaurant. This restaurant is on the cusp of the Downtown Crossing shopping area. The same area that night that was having their tree lighting ceremony with a chorus of angelic children singing their little hearts out before Santa arrived. Luckily the Gods were smiling down upon us when we accidentally found the restaurant. No sooner were we seated and placed our drink order when the giant influx of cold, tree lighting observers came FLOODING in. Yay us, we got a table! After filling ourselves with nice hot food we headed to the Orpheum. Now even though it's not the greatest sounding venue, it is by far my favorite place to see a show. It's small with red velvet seats, gilded relief images, a balcony and box seats. It was a great place to see the BSO and we all had a rockin' good time! Saturday morning despite being tired, J & I went to my high school alma mater, Algonquin Regional High School for a tour of the improved school. The National Honor Society student who took us around was very sweet and indulged me in "When I was here, this corridor was the ...... department." I ran into classmates on the tour, including some of my fellow reunion committee members. But I ran into one fellow who I used to be sweet on in eighth grade. Little did I know then that he was gay. He's a love of a guy and he gave me the biggest hug, shook J's hand and said he couldn't wait for the reunion that evening. Saturday afternoon afforded us nap time. Knowing J would be sleeping over at Mum's house, I figured it would be best to have him rested from his wild concert exertions the night before. Right, 4PM, drop him off at Mum & Dad's. Now it's time to get beautiful and look like a grown-up. I had touched up my hair colors after we got back from the tour of The Reeg. So now it was time for spackle, paint and a fun dress with my (bitch) boots. The reunion was a blast. Here it is 2 days later and I still have the sore, swollen feet and knees to prove it. We danced, partied, nibbled bad appetizers and drank extremely watered down drinks but it was great. I saw friends that I hadn't seen in years.

Me, Kimmy and Joe dancing with the crowd!

But what truly touched my heart was a woman who came up to me and said "Hi Jenn. Do you remember me?" I looked into the hopeful face knowing that we'd met before, but my brain failed me when it came to saying, "Of course I do! How are you........?" Instead I pleaded insanity and said I knew the face, but my brain was addled by the warmth of the room and the alcohol. She said, "I'm Rhonda from elementary school. I am so glad that you are here tonight because I've been wanting to say something to you for some time now." Now that's the sort of lead in that you can take one of two ways. One is "Really?" The second is, "Where's the nearest exit and do I have room to defend myself should this get ugly quickly." It turns out that we were in kindergarten together. She had not originally been on the beginning of the school year bus route, but was added in later on. We were sitting together on the bus and the bus driver apparently had forgotten her stop. She was so painfully shy (by her own admission) that she was afraid to go tell the driver and she begged me with tears running down her face to go say something to the driver. And I did. Then I went back to my seat and held her hand to tell her it would be all right. She says growing up she always thought I was a nice person, but it wasn't until she became a mother to a very shy girl herself that she fully appreciated what I had done for her. As she told me all this, my eyes filled with tears and I got a lump in my throat. Heck I'll admit that as I sit here typing this, it's hard to read the screen for the tears that I've got in my eyes. Rhonda gave me a kiss and a hug and thanked me for being such a sweet person who cares about others. That will stay with me for a long time. As will the sore knees and feet from four hours of dancing like a maniac.

Me & My Sweetie

Sunday was a quiet day. Mum & Dad brought J home just after 9:30 AM. He had a wonderful sleep over at their house. He was good as gold and had 10 mini pancakes with 4 slices of bacon for his breakfast. The night before he tried 3 new foods and declared them all delicious. The one real downer of the day, I woke up with a migraine. Never a good thing to wake up with one. Those are the ones that I can barely bring under control, if at all. Steven on the other hand he was starting to feel achey and cold. We were both among the walking wounded. I did manage to go out to the market and pick up a few things, but that exhausted me to no end. So much so, that despite the fact that the Patriots were on, I went to bed around 10PM. I was vaguely aware of Steven coming to bed, but more aware of him tossing and turning than anything. Finally at 2:00 AM he woke me up because he wasn't feeling right. He said that his neck was real stiff and that he felt like something was wrong. Not, "Call 911" wrong, but just wrong. So we wake up J and the three of us head to the emergency room. We spent a little under four hours there with labs and a CT scan to show that he probably has a virus, but because his right ear had been aching for nearly 2 weeks, here are some antibiotics just to cover the bases. We got home this morning at almost 6:30 AM. Oy vey. We all went back to bed with J lobbying to go to school late--yeah, like that was going to happen after missing the last three days of school before Thanksgiving. I set the alarm and got him up later than normal and knowing it would be a tough sell to go to school on time, had stopped at Dunkin' Donuts for a box of Munchkins to have for breakfast since he had been so good at the hospital all night long. Got him off to school, got Steven's prescription filled, bought some yogurt to keep his stomach settled and went home to crash for three hours. This is my life. It's insane. It's fun. It's touching. And it's filled with wonderful people. I am truly blessed!

The Insanity of Black Friday

2007-11-23T11:22:00.000-05:00

I just don't understand why people would want to line up in the middle of the night in the name of a bargain. I'm all for saving a few bucks, but people seem to be losing their bloody minds over this stuff. Yes, the economy isn't great and rising gas prices are eating into people's disposable income, but is that reason enough to forget decorum, manners and a good night's sleep? Not in my mind.

They Still Got It After All These Years

2007-11-19T16:01:00.001-05:00

Even after all these years Duran Duran still has it!

The Holidays Are Upon Us

2007-11-16T11:09:00.001-05:00

The last few years I've let the holidays overwhelm me. This year I went back to my "old" ways and started my Christmas shopping early. My shopping is nearly done and it's less than a week before Thanksgiving. What I haven't bought yet, I've at least planned out and that makes me feel good.

Thanksgiving will be low-key this year with Steve's family celebrating it in Florida. But with my 20th high school reunion that weekend, we're staying put. Plus we're taking J to his first "real" concert next week, the Brian Setzer Orchestra. They are a band I've wanted to see for over 10 years and for one reason or another, I've not been able to. J has loved their music since he was a toddler. I can't wait to see his face when we get to the venue next week.

I Am The Empress

2007-10-21T07:04:00.000-04:00

You are The Empress

Beauty, happiness, pleasure, success, luxury, dissipation.

The Empress is associated with Venus, the feminine planet, so it represents, beauty, charm, pleasure, luxury, and delight. You may be good at home decorating, art or anything to do with making things beautiful.

The Empress is a creator, be it creation of life, of romance, of art or business. While the Magician is the primal spark, the idea made real, and the High Priestess is the one who gives the idea a form, the Empress is the womb where it gestates and grows till it is ready to be born. This is why her symbol is Venus, goddess of beautiful things as well as love. Even so, the Empress is more Demeter, goddess of abundance, then sensual Venus. She is the giver of Earthly gifts, yet at the same time, she can, in anger withhold, as Demeter did when her daughter, Persephone, was kidnapped. In fury and grief, she kept the Earth barren till her child was returned to her.

Fifteen Years

2007-10-20T11:13:00.000-04:00

For the last fifteen years, I've woken up next to my best friend every morning (okay, almost every morning). I have rented to own a clue with him. I've gripped his hand so tightly when we take off and land in an airplane that I've thought one of us would have broken bones by the end of the trip. I've cried on his shoulder. I've laughed so hard that I've snarfed, sometimes multiple times to the point of startling small animals and children. I've melted countless times when he's walking towards me with "that smile" that turns my knees to rubber.

For the last fifteen years, I've been married to my soulmate. I love you Steven.

Creature of Habit

2007-09-23T11:30:00.001-04:00

I will be the first person to admit that I am a creature of habit. I like routine. And I loathe not having one that I can settle into. It took almost three weeks to settle into a back to school routine. And that makes for a very cranky me when life is like that. Now I'm not such a Pollyana to think that every day has to be a carbon copy of the previous day, but it's been a long road getting settled down.

Second Grade

2007-08-28T12:40:00.000-04:00

J is in the middle of his first day of second grade today. I walked him into school to have a quick word with his teacher this morning. It's been fun to see kids from his kindergarten class and see how much they've changed since then. J is anxious about second grade and whether or not he'll be able to keep up. He struggles with reading and writing, yet he's a math & science whiz. But those problems undermine his confidence in himself and that is what breaks my heart. He was a little disappointed to find out that there is no gym class on Tuesdays anymore. I think he was hoping to start the school year off in his favorite subject.

Do You Hear That?

2007-08-23T16:08:00.000-04:00

It's the sound of complete & utter silence--except for the cicadas doing whatever it is they are doing. J is in Boston with Grammy & Grampy today and currently is on a Boston Duck Tour boat. I am really looking forward to school next Tuesday. But more so, I'm looking forward to the peace that will envelope my home for six hours a day.

I've got my list of things that I want to do once school starts. Some here, some outside the house. It will be nice to come and go as I want. Go check out the new age store when the spirits prod me.

It's No Mystery

2007-08-21T14:48:00.001-04:00

It really is no mystery to me as to why I am such a mystery novel junkie. This is the book that started it all. There used to be a book store in Westboro called The Book Corner. It was not unusual to go there on a weekend with Mum & Dad. It was a small bookstore and back in the day, you could let a small child wander the store without fear of predators. Naturally I always went to the kids section first. In June 1977, Dad mentioned that these Nancy Drew books had been around when he was a kid and that he thought that some of his sisters had read some of them. I was intrigued. So on that fateful day a little over thirty years ago, my parents bought me my first mystery novel. I loved those books. I devoured the book, figuring out from the clues what the mystery was all about. It took me a few years, but I went through the whole series.

As I got older, I continued to read some mystery books, but mostly fiction. Then the school years dictated what kinds of books I read for reports.

During the last couple of years I found myself wanting to read something that I could use my brain on. The mystery section called to me in the local Borders. First I found a series by Monica Ferris set in a needlework shop called Crewel World. It is a fabulous series with a wonderful cast of characters. Now I'm to the point that when something bad happens to a beloved character I'm shouting to the book, "Oh no Betsy!" or "Poor Goddy." Since discovering that series, I also found a few other series, the tea shop series by Laura Childs, as well as her scrapbooking series, and the Mrs. Malory mysteries set in a small English village by Hazel Holt.

This past spring I found myself at a terrible crossroads. I had read all my beloved characters stories. Often I look on Amazon to see if one of my favorites has something on the horizon, but back in the spring after reading Laura Childs' Dragonwell Dead, nothing new would be coming out until the autumn. Sigh.

This meant either not reading or finding some new authors. Not reading was not an option for me. My cousin had given me a few Diane Mott Davidson books when her library had thinned out their collection. So I started with the first one, Catering to Nobody and really liked it. I would visit Borders and start at the beginning of the mystery section pulling books off the shelf and reading the first few pages. Either they would grab my attention or they wouldn't. This summer I've discovered some wonderful new (to me) authors Madolyn Alt, Kate Kingsbury, India Ink, Ann Purser and M.C. Beaton (Agatha Raisin series, not Hamish MacBeth--he doesn't do it for me).

Now I start haunting not only Borders, but the local used bookstores for the titles in the series. The Annie's Book Stop in Marlboro has one of the best mystery sections around. One day I hit a treasure trove of 3 Aggie's, 4 of the Kate Kingsbury books in both the Pennyfoot Hotel as well as the Manor House series, and an Ann Purser.

It's no mystery to me why these books make me happy.

Rest In Peace Merv

2007-08-12T23:13:00.000-04:00

Merv Griffin
July 6, 1925 - August 12, 2007

When I was a little girl, the first house we lived in was a Cape-style house. What was supposed to be a dining room was my playroom until I was old enough to have a playroom in the finished basement. The living room, like the dining room, was in the front of the house to the left of the stairway, the dining room to the right. Mum would have the television on throughout the day, but for the most part, I wasn't allowed to watch anything but the occasional cartoon. But when the theme music for The Merv Griffin Show would begin, I would shout, "Merv! Merv!" This was Mum's cue to turn the television towards the dining/playroom so that I could sit and watch this wonderful, entertaining show.

Today I was saddened to see that Mr. Griffin passed away from prostate cancer. The first thing I did was call Mum, who agreed with me that it was ever so sad.

Rest in Peace Merv

Keepsake Quilting

2007-08-09T21:33:00.001-04:00

So this is where I spent a majority of my 38th birthday, at Keepsake Quilting in Center Harbor, NH. And it was a great way to spend said birthday, with my cousin Susie no less!

Last year, when I got into quilting, my aunt Susan introduced me to this wonderful company, giving me a copy of a catalog--the equivalent of giving a small child a catalog to a chocolate factory's contents. My cousin Susie had also seen this catalog. After I placed an initial order, I told her what I had bought and she started poking around their website. Back in April, she suggested that we should meet up there for a day trip. My response, why not go for a whole weekend. And wouldn't that be a fun way to spend one of our birthday weekends? Immediately we started researching area hotels. Our first two choices were already booked solid. Susie found a hotel in Laconia, NH called The Margate and booked us for my birthday weekend. In the months that followed, I saved $20 a week and sold some collectibles on Ebay that I no longer had interest in.

Last week seemed to drag by so slow. We exchanged emails back and forth counting down the number of sleeps until our trip, what we were going to pack, I had lists going of what I wanted to bring. My parents took me birthday shopping for a new Vera Bradley bag and I opted for a satchel in the new Kensington pattern. I now had a nice overnight bag that I would want to travel with. Arrangements were made for J to spend Friday morning with Mum so I could hit the road. Steven would take the afternoon off and most likely, they would head to the boat for the weekend with my in-laws.

Susie & I planned our respective departures to arrive around Noon. My journey would take about two-and-a-half hours, hers about four. Just as J & I were about to walk out to go to Mummy's the phone rang and it was Susie. She was running very late. Uh-oh. I dropped J off and said that I would probably delay my departure, but Mummy convinced me that it was Friday and that the traffic could be horrible. Yeah, good point, better hit the road and kill time up there, rather than be stuck on Route 495.

It was 9:00 AM. My car was packed. I had a basket on the front seat with water, a map book, directions to Center Harbor, my purse and my charged up iPod. I was ready to go! Then Mummy handed me two envelopes, one with my name and one with Susie's. There was a note written on both that said, "Not to be opened until the two of you are together, sitting down with a drinky-poo in hand." And there was a verbal direction, "Do NOT lose those!" Okay! Stored away safely in my purse and I hit the road.

As a side note, I decided that I would put together a little bag of goodies for J, that Mummy would give him after I left. It had fun things like Pokémon cards, a fun pad with markers, stickers, a couple of Hot Wheels cars, a Disney Adventures magazine, Sour Patch Kids and bubble gum among other things. While I was on the road, my cell phone rang and when I answered it I heard, "You are the coolest mommy ever! I got some very rare, legendary Pokémon cards. Thank you for all the fun stuff Mommy!" I was thrilled that he was so excited about his fun stuff.

Traffic, despite it being a Friday, was pretty light when I travelled. I made it to Center Harbor, in two-and-a-half hours just like the directions said. It was HOT there. I had hoped there would be a nice breeze blowing off the lake, but the air was so humid you couldn't see across the lake very well. Susie & I had made a promise that we would not go into Keepsake Quilting without the other, so I knew I had time to kill. I found a great little antique shop called Zinnia Cottage. It was a great little shop full of shabby chic antiques. I managed to find a nice old Kodak camera to display in my office for not a lot of money. I was thrilled at this find. There were no lunch places to be had, except for one that was very dirty looking, so I went into the local supermarket and ended up with the ultra-gourmet Oscar Meyer Lunchables (ick)--beggars can't be choosers when you don't have access to a microwave. As I sat eating, Susie called me to say she was at least another hour away and that I should go into Keepsake Quilting without her. I hated doing that, but since it was so bloody hot, I decided that it wasn't the worst idea I'd ever heard. So in I went.....

I was told by more than one quilter, prepare yourself to be overwhelmed. They were not kidding. I had my little notebook of fabric requirements for various projects with a mind to shop for them. Yeah, right. I decided that Friday would be shopping for the sake of shopping. And shop I did! The store has a desk near the cutting area that you can take a beanbag out of a flower pot and put on top of what you've selected so far. Yeah, I made good use of that.

Susie made it to the store around 1:30 or so. She'd had no lunch on the way and was starving, but was determined to shop a bit before we headed towards Laconia to where the Margate was. Now I should say that I am a colorful person and Susie is a muted, neutral color person. We've both been our respective ways our whole lives. The running joke between us is that Susie needs to embrace her inner purple. While I was sitting waiting for her, she found these lovely lavender filled stuffed critters.

Ultimately she embraced her inner purple with a super soft purple teddy bear and I opted for a sweet white floppy bunny with lavender blossoms in her ears. So Smelly Bear and Stinky Bunny are parts of our homes now! Smelly Bear was feeling shy and would not pose for a photo. I've always loved the scent of lavender and the added bonus to Stinky Bunny is she can be microwaved for 30 seconds and can be used for sore muscles because she's got flax seed inside her to transfer the heat.

Sorry, I digressed into scented stuffed animals when the task at hand is quilting, quilting and more quilting supplies! We both had a good smash & grab as my Aunt Val-Val used to say. While we didn't have drinky-poos in hand, we opened our envelopes together to find that Mummy & Daddy had given each of us $50 mad money, so we could both celebrate my birthday in style! Yeah, that money went quick!

After Susie finished shopping, we got one of the staff members, Gloria to take our photo in the store. I ought to add at this point, that Gloria, Catherine and several other store employees were on a first name basis with us by the end of the weekend! The staff there are a wonderful bunch of ladies and ever so helpful.

By now it was close to 3:00 p.m. and we were both starving--Lunchables just don't provide the nutrition of a meal. So we headed back to Meredith, NH in search of lunch. We ended up at the Mill Falls shopping & hotel area. This was where we wanted to stay, but by April the area was booked up. Next time we'll make our reservations sooner so we can stay there. Lunch was at a fun little Italian restaurant called Guiseppe's. We then wandered around the stores there. I found a lovely glass paperweight for Daddy's birthday. I just knew I'd find the right thing for him up there! After shopping for a while we headed to Laconia to check into the Margate.

We caravanned over to the Margate and it was very easy to find our way. We checked in and were put over in the Inn Building across the street from the main building. That was fine with us because it seemed quieter than being right next to the lake. We were located on the first floor, which made unloading our cars easy. First things first, we looked over our loot. We compared things we each bought, I think probably inspiring the other to buy something the next day! After a while we went across the street to have dinner at the Gazebo Beach Bar. The margaritas were cold and the food was good. Life was good. We finished our dinner and went back to the hotel room, where we got settled in for the night.

The next morning we were up and at the hotel restaurant, Blackstones for the breakfast buffet. It wasn't the best meal we've ever had, but it was cheap & cheerful at $6.95 a person! Then we set out for Keepsake Quilting, with a stop at the Meredith Harley Davidson store. This is where we shopped for our guys. For Jonathan, we both bought him some little toy truck & motorcycle sets.

For Steven I bought a great new bottle opener with a skull on it. Our old Corona bottle had broken a few weeks back and this is a good solid opener and ought to last a while. Susie picked out a couple of shirts for Dennis. While we were there, we got to watch a motorcycle club that had gathered leave for their Saturday ride. It's pretty cool to listen to all these bikes fired up and watch them slowly roll out. After we left Meredith Harley Davidson, we went to Mecca--umm, I mean Keepsake Quilting. With our minds cleared and fun shopping out of the way we were able to think about projects and buy supplies for those projects.

I chose some lovely fall color fabrics to make some table runners with an Atkinson Design pattern called Square Meal. I was determined that I was going to make some Christmas place mats out of some of the fabulous Christmas prints available, but nothing grabbed me int he Christmas fabrics. Instead I found myself drawn to the Oriental fabrics and opted for a nice palette of blues, creams and lilacs to make my placemats out of. Susie also wanted to make some table runners from a book that I have used previously.

She bought her fabrics, we both selected some Medley packs of fabrics that we had seen the day before and had ruminated on for our fabric stash. Once we were done shopping, we went back to the Mill in Meredith and had a fun lunch at The Broken Antler. We poked around the Mill stores a bit more, but it was so hot that we were quite tired by 3:30. So we opted to go back to the hotel for a rest before a nice birthday dinner.

While sitting in the delightfully air conditioned hotel room, we realized that Susie had not purchased enough fabric for her place mat project! Ack! So this time we went back to Keepsake Quilting for our third--yes, third--trip of the weekend. The girls in the store just started laughing when we walked through the doors and suffice to say, we closed the place for the day!

After driving around for a while in Laconia, we had dinner at a Chinese/Japanese restaurant before heading back to the hotel for the night. We went over all of our goodies from the weekend, we sat and read our respective books and my favorite part of the night was when we got silly with Stinky Bunny. Lavender has been one of my favorite scents since I was a little girl.

Our Nana Summerbell always had a little bottle of lavender perfume on her bureau and if we were good, she would dab a bit on our wrists and behind our ears. We had a bit of trouble sleeping that night being on the first floor, we kept hearing the upstairs neighbor walking, running, jumping up and down in their room until about 3:00 a.m.

We were both awake by 6:00 a.m. on Sunday. Saturday I had seen a sign for a local motorcycle ride for charity that would occur on Sunday. Yeah, we opted to get out of Dodge early. We had breakfast at McDonald's on our way to the highway. Traffic was light, thankfully at that time of day and I was back in Shrewsbury by 9:30 and enjoying a cuppa at Mummy & Daddy's.

So what all did I buy? Here are some pictures of "The Haul":

Not Necessarily New, But Definitely Improved--IMO

2007-07-27T16:20:00.001-04:00

It was time for a change of pace. I did the red streaks back in April and what's left was looking rather sad & pathetic. So here I sit with Atomic Turquoise streaks/swaths (I say swaths because there was lot of grey to cover up in the front). I emailed Steve a picture and then called him to see if he had read the email yet, but he's not at his desk--the nerve!

Tried to get Jonathan to take a picture of my new do, but he get taking a close up of my face only. So I had to do the self-portrait in the mirror trick. I think this weekend I'll have Steve do some real pictures of me.

Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows

2007-07-18T10:48:00.000-04:00

Is it time yet? I still have not decided whether or not to go to the Grand Hallows Ball at Borders on Friday night. Part of me wants to go because it's the last one of it's kind. Then the practical side of me says, "It's going to be hot in the store (after all, it is July) and there will be no place to sit while waiting." So there is the sensible side of me dictating that I just go on Saturday morning--then lock myself in my air conditioned bedroom reading all day. And night. And the next day. I really cannot wait to see how Ms. Rowling wraps up this amazing series of books.

I've got lovely memories of these books. Mum & Dad gave me the first three books at once. They had already read them and knew I would love them. I scoffed, after all, they were children's books and I was 30 years old. But they read them. I didn't start reading them until J was born. The evening routine would be get him down for the night, spend some time with Steven, and then go to bed around 9:30. J would wake up for his 10PM bottle, which Steven would give to him. Then we would have a quick cuddle before we both settled in to sleep. And while I'd go to bed early, I would read these enchanting books. Once I started Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone I was hooked. Simply hooked. There's no turning back now.

Wait a Minute!

2007-07-06T13:18:00.000-04:00

Last Saturday I spent the afternoon with my parents and two of my dad's three sisters. They were up for a visit from Connecticut. One of the conversations of the afternoon was about how we have been getting all sorts of wildlife through our yards here these last few months. I've had wild turkeys and rabbits. Mum has had an opossum up on her deck looking in the sliding glass door one morning when she got up, to various birds at the feeders, to a coyote at the edge of the lawn snagging a big of leftover bird suet.

Once I came home I decided to tackle cleaning up the kitchen. I glanced out of the kitchen window and thought I saw a wild turkey. Not an unusual sight, but upon further investigation, it turned out to be a pair of red-tailed hawks. Unfortunately this meant the untimely demise of one of our wild rabbits. Mrs. Hawk was so intent on feeding--there must be a nest somewhere nearby--she was not the least bit fazed when I got within six feet of her and Mr. Hawk. He was patiently standing by, almost sentry like, but he didn't move a muscle while she fed on the poor bunny. They sat there for well over an hour and a half. Eventually, she lumbered off and after a few minutes of looking around, he finished the rabbit off.

It was one of those experiences that was thrilling and upsetting at the same time. I was sad for our little bunny rabbit. It is always fun to watch them hopping around the backyard. But at the same time it was utterly glorious and amazing to watch these two magnificent birds of prey in my yard, withing a few short feet of me. I've always been fascinated by birds of prey, ever since I was ten years old when my parents took me to the birds of prey exhibit at the public library. Red-Tailed Hawks specifically been one of my all time favorite raptors.

For more information about hawks like these, please visit the Vermont Raptor Center website to learn more about their work with these beautiful creatures.

The Family That Gets Sick Together....

2007-07-03T11:48:00.001-04:00

...sticks together. Or at least cleans up the aftermath together. Some nasty stomach flu has taken hold of our home. Ugh. I wasn't feeling great on Saturday during the day, but the boys were fine and they went up to NHIS. They got back around 8PM and J crashed hard in bed. Around 11PM he got up and walked down the hall in tears, crying, "I don't feel so good." Steve's first instinct was to pick him up to cuddle him. Yeah, that's a good way to get covered in vomit. Not only did J hose down Steve, but the wall, the floor, the jackets and our karate gis on the railing, down the cellar stairs, the carpet. What occurred in a matter of a few seconds took an hour and a half to clean up. By the next morning we were all even more miserable. Steve stayed home yesterday, but did go to work today. Suffice to say, J & I are feeling like wrung out dishrags today. The thought of getting in the shower is exhausting me, never mind the actual action of that. Oy vey!

Happy 4th of July folks!

Twenty Years Ago

2007-06-26T11:33:00.000-04:00

Twenty years ago today Steven & I went on our first date. It wasn't planned as such, but it ended up being that. In Worcester on Friday nights, there used to be a thing called Friday Night Cruisin'. It's where local hot rod enthusiasts could get together and show off their cars. It was a cheap night out. A bunch of us went, Keith, Di, little Kevin (driving his Mustang convertible), Steve & myself. Keith & Di ditched us to go say good-bye to a friend who was leaving for the summer. Steve, Kev & I decided to go to the movies and see Dragnet--the Tom Hanks/Dan Ackroyd version. After seeing a late show, we ended up at Harry's diner in Westboro for shakes & mozzarella sticks. Mmm..... By then though, I was flat broke and Steve paid for my snacks. He & I had driven around together all night and there was that spark that was the beginning of love. The next morning, we headed to the Cape to see my grandparents and aunt. Upon our return on Sunday, Steve called me to see if I wanted to go to the Beach Boys concert at the then named Great Woods, down in Mansfield, the next night. I was over the moon. And here we are twenty years later, married for fifteen of those years, more in love than every. Life is good.

Schools Out for Summer!!!

2007-06-15T10:48:00.000-04:00

Yesterday was the last day of first grade. So not only am I the mother of a seven-year-old, but said child is now officially a second grader! Man oh man! That is exciting stuff.

Second grade for me was one of my favorite school years. I had a wonderful teacher Mrs. St. Andre. She looked out for me from being teased by the other children. When I was having a tough day, she would remind me how special I was and remind me of my strengths such as reading and writing. Second grade was also the year that I had to take remedial gym. Yes, you read that correctly, there is such a thing as remedial gym, I am living proof of that. I was so uncoordinated, I couldn't even jump rope like a normal little girl. Ironically, by the end of the year on field day, I came in first place with my friend Jean Cripe in the three-legged race. Second grade was the year I learned how to write in cursive handwriting. To this day, my writing is far from perfect, but it is unique to me.

Surrounded by Color

2007-06-12T09:28:00.000-04:00

I LOVE COLOR!

I've always been drawn to color. Whether it was a box of 64 Crayola crayons, fun pens that I found while on shopping expeditions with Val-Val, or just walking into a scrapbooking store where racks of Bazzill beckon me. I know you can never truly remember a color, but I've got a knack for being pretty darn close. I love colors and certain colors are just me. Brights and soft pastels surprisingly get to me the most. I'm not one for dark or muted colors. Browns & yellows are my least favorite, despite the fact that we painted our bedroom yellow this year--it's a lovely, cheery tropical yellow.

My Baby Really Isn't A Baby Anymore

2007-06-04T09:50:00.000-04:00

J technically does not turn 7 until 2:34PM today, but my baby is 7 years old today. I'm having a hard time with 7. I think it's because 7 years ago I had put the final touches on the Winnie-the-Pooh nursery. I had carefully collected all the Classic Pooh characters. In the last few days before his arrival, I had managed to find Kanga & Owl. It was a lovely feeling to have all those "friends" to look over my sweet baby. We transitioned the room a little bit a few years ago to Thomas the Tank Engine curtains and comforter, along with ALL the Thomas toys known to mankind. Now the train table and Thomas toy box are gone. The Pooh characters are all packed up in a box downstairs to someday be passed along to a grandson or granddaughter. The space theme border is sitting in my office ready to cover up the Pooh border and the fabric I bought from my quilt lady is ready to be turned into curtains.

He's so grown up to me, even with the missing front teeth. He reads, he's really good at math (thank goodness he inherited that from Steven), he is passionate about Pokemon, he holds a blue belt in karate and he's just a funny, funny kid.

Seven years ago I was not a mummy yet. Now I am mummy to a wonderful boy.

Public Service Announcement: Air Travel

2007-04-24T18:03:00.001-04:00

We just came back from eight days in Florida. This required round trip air travel. The following is a Public Service Announcement:

When you are waiting in the terminal for your flight and are unable to control your multitude of children, it really is not necessary to screech their names 75 times each. If you can't control them, please don't fly.
Again, when waiting in the terminal that has too few seats in the waiting area, it is not necessary for you to spread all your carry-on crap over multiple chairs, one chair per person
Regarding personal hygeine, it is a delicate balance. While it is nice to your fellow passengers to actually you know, bathe before traveling, it is not necessary to dump the entire bottle of cologne or perfume on yourself before you leave home or freshen it up in close proximity to everyone else.
Once you've boarded the plane and before you depart the gate, I realize that cell phones are still allowed to be used, but is it really necessary for you to call every one of your business contacts and tell them all about Phase 2 of your latest project, interjecting the words "Phase two" every third word? You really aren't all that important in the grand scheme of things and no one around you cares about how important you think you are.
While on the plane, the people around you don't really want to hear about how your friend is taking flying lessons and survived a crash landing. Really, they don't.
Your fellow passengers, many of whom are children on their way to Disney World (the Happiest Place on Earth), don't need to hear racist jokes. And there is no need to be offended when one of your fellow passengers tells you to shut up because clearly, if you are telling racist jokes, you are an idiot.
While in flight, if the seat belt sign is on and there is turbulence, the pilot and flight attendants really do want you to be sitting in your seat with your seat belt fastened. This is not the time to wander around the plane to talk to your friend who is not sitting with you because you boarded the plane at the last minute. And when the flight attendant politely asks you to take your seat, an eye roll & sigh in reply is not necessary. Really, it isn't.

Okaaaay....

2007-04-24T17:22:00.000-04:00

It's been ages since I've blogged. Imagine the chuckle I just gave myself over my previous post. Yes folks, you have my official permission to smack me silly next time you see me. At the Cub Scout Blue & Gold Banquet I agreed to lead the scout den again next year. I called my Aunt Mary when we got home and gave her a good laugh about it. Her words, "See, I told you that you'd be in it until he's an Eagle Scout." Well, that is a long way off, but oh good grief!

Smack Me Silly If Next Year....

2007-01-22T21:39:00.000-05:00

....I agree to be the Den Mother for J's Cub Scout den. Currently, I'm the Tiger Cub mummy. Including J, there are 8 boys total. Fortunately, because of cold & flu season, we've not had a full house in a couple of months. Yeah, yeah, you gasp in horror as I am glad for plague & pestulance on small children, you too would wish it too if you were dealing with eight 6/7-year-olds. Trust me, I know of what I speak. Don't get me wrong, I am the first one cheering when one of them earns a belt loop or a badge, but they can suck the life out of me faster than you can say "Pinewood Derby". The first thing I did when I walked in the door was to pull out the ice cube tray and cocktail shaker.

It's been a long night, and my glass is almost empty. Got to rectify that situation right now!

What's gone on with my blog? With my life?

2007-01-20T20:58:00.000-05:00

Sad to say, I have lapsed sorely in my blogging duties. Truly pathetic I know. So, you ask, what the hell have you been doing since the end of August?

Cliff Notes version:

September:

Sent my J off to first grade with a big grin on his face, only to have that grin change when he lost one of his upper teeth.
Got to go behind the scenes at the NASCAR race in Loudon, NH--stood within feet of Kevin Harvick, the Cat in the Hat, and Benny Parsons (rest in peace BP, who passed away on the 16th of this month).
Became the den mum for J's Tiger Cub Scout den--Lord help me!

October:

Steven & I celebrated our 14th wedding anniversary quietly--hopefully our 15th will be rockin' in Vegas baby!
Visited my aunts down in Connecticut and shopped while down there for quilt fabrics for J's quilt.

November:

Both J & I tested for karate belts. We both earned our yellow major stripe. Only accomplished one board break with my foot and possibly broke a few bones in my fingers (too stubborn to actually go find out since there would be nothing they could do for that anyway).
Spent Thanksgiving week in Florida at my in-laws new house with the whole fam damnily! You know I need to escape when on Thanksgiving I took the car and went to Wal-Mart for peace & quiet. No. I'm not kidding.
While in Florida, lived a life dream by going to the Kennedy Space Center. One of the few times in my life I felt tiny in the universe while standing under a Saturn V rocket.

December:

Steven finally painted our bedroom a beautiful yellow (Benjamin Moore Mellow Yellow #2020-50)! Can't wait to finish decorating it!

January:

Tested for and earned my blue belt in karate. Accomplished both board breaks for the first time (I RULE!). Took a nasty, uncontrolled kick in the abdomen from an opponent during sparring. Stupid git never apologized.

Partied last night with the karate chicks.

There! Almost five months of catching up in one post! What's next?

Finally!

2006-08-28T12:14:00.000-04:00

It's taken 8 months, 3 karate tests (should have been 4) and LOTS of sore muscles, but I FINALLY broke a board during Saturday's karate test for my yellow belt! Sensei had me start back at the beginning of board break testing, Hammer Fist Vertical strike. It took 3 times, but that third time was a charm and I did it! I doubt that I will have any more problems with that again!

My Quilt!

2006-08-14T11:49:00.000-04:00

Last Friday I picked up my finished quilt. My first quilt (and most likely, not my last!).

What started out as this was magically transformed into this:

Suffice to say I am thrilled that I could make a nice quilt.

It's Awful to Say, But Thank Goodness....

2006-07-29T20:30:00.000-04:00

Last Friday there was an incredible thunder & lightning storm here in central Massachusetts. After it passed my parents called to say they were okay, but a tree in their next door neighbor's house was hit by lightning and they went out of their chairs when they heard it. The problem was it was a 90' tree and could fall on either it's owners house or my parents. Dad spoke with his neighbor and the neighbor said not only were they dealing with that, but all the electronics in their house had blown out when the lightning struck and their TV set had blown up. Yikes! But he promised he'd have the tree taken out. This morning Mum & Dad noticed that a tree company was over giving it all a once over for an estimate. This afternoon, a wind struck up and my parents heard another loud noise. They looked out the window to see most of the tree had fallen on the neighbor's roofline and most of his back deck.

Naturally, being curious creatures, we rushed right over. I couldn't help but stand there and think, "Thank goodness the wind was not blowing towards my parents house, otherwise it could have been their master bedroom anihilated by that pine tree." Then we talked with the neighbors parents who are visiting from Canada. She said another half an hour and her son would have been out on the deck grilling up their dinner. Instead, they were looking to get take-out for the night.

And Now For The Utterly Inane

2006-07-25T10:34:00.000-04:00

J spent the last 2 weeks taking daily swim lessons at the local YMCA. It's a half hour long class and since I'm not a member, I can't go walk the track or on the treadmill. Thus I am forced to sit in the lobby and listen to the inane chatter around me. If there was ever something that would send me over the edge to start binge drinking it might be if I had to spend more than a half hour sitting there listening the most ridiculous of conversations and observing the sociology class that is a typical soccer/swim mom and her offspring.

There is so much fodder in my brain on this, I may have to select just my favorites and reserve the rest for another time.

Musing #1: It doesn't matter how sing-songy you make your voice towards your darling little cherub as they are beating another child over the head. They aren't going to listen to you if you make it sound like Mary Poppins singing "A Spoonful of Sugar". Trust me, they will continue to bludgeon their playmate.

Musing #2: After dropping off your child at the swimming pool, you are supposed to exit the area via one of the locker rooms, not the emergency exit with the sign telling you exit via the emergency exit. Ergo, you have NO RIGHT to complain that the chlorine has corroded the metal door and that you'll get rust smears on your white pants as you butt your way out the door to herd your other children out of the pool area.

Musing #3: The lifeguard is really serious when he tells you to stop your child while they are running around the pool area, despite the numerous signs that clearly state in large red letters, "NO RUNNING!"

Musing #4: The whole lobby does not need to hear how you and your diet buddy are doing eating 2 ounces of chicken, a quarter of a potato and a HUMONGOUS salad for dinner and then wonder why half an hour later you are starving and wanting to eat all the ice cream treats you bought for the kids. And further more, it is amazing how a grown woman can make herself look utterly ridiculous wearing a cropped Hello Kitty shirt with her hair in two on-top-of-the-head pony tails and her yoga pants because "she's going to go work out on the treadmill for two hours" while her kids are in the Child Watch.

All that said, I'm off to the YMCA to sign J up for day camp for a week next month. The one saving grace, I can drop him at 9AM and leave the facility until 4PM. The inane is avoidable.

Happy Independence Day!

2006-07-04T10:16:00.000-04:00

Thank you to all of our American servicemen and servicewomen, whether you are stationed abroad or here at home. You are all wonderful, valuable people. Thank you for loving your country enough to protect it. God Bless you all for protecting our independence.

The UPS Man is My New Best Friend

2006-06-29T21:47:00.000-04:00

Today was just one of those great days to see Big Brown pull up outside Casa de Owen. Not only did he have my Stampin' Up! 2006-2007 Catalog & Idea Books, but also my SU order for my June hostess club and the books that I ordered. Suffice to say, it was a good day and I gave the UPS guy the biggest smile he'd seen today (he said so!). Now I'm in that post-catalog-review haze. My brain is swirling with ideas. I'm trying to figure out what I want to order on Saturday when I can place an order. Oh such a dilemma to have (and Steve & J will be off getting J a haircut, so I'll have the house to myself when I place my order!!!)!!!!!!

Aghast

2006-06-18T19:32:00.000-04:00

My in-laws keep their boat in a boatyard in Tiverton, RI during the winter. It's taken out of the water and shrink wrapped for the winter, then put back in the water for the spring. Once it goes in the water, they keep it at that marina for a couple of weeks for repairs, cleaning, etc. Once the nice weather comes, they cross the Narragansett Bay to their home marina in Wickford. This year, they were in a slip next to a sailboat named Free Spirit. Aboard were four people, three Englishmen and a young woman we would find out was from Newport, RI. Jonathan had fun talking with Molly and Jack (one of the younger men). The spent time talking with him and told him about their world trip that would continue as the better weather arrived. That was early May. This past Friday we had the noon news on when we heard about a sailboat that had left Newport only days before was being searched for by the Coast Guard. Steven & I looked at each other and said, "Naw. It couldn't be those people." Sadly it has turned out to be the very ones. Jonathan told us after we left that day back in May, that he had a crush on Molly because she was pretty and nice.

Apparently the Free Spirit was caught up in the stormy waters that Tropical Depression Alberto had created in the Atlantic Ocean, as it came north. The captain called his step-daughter on the satellite phone to say they needed help. That was Wednesday and the search began with U.S. and Canadian coast guards. This afternoon, the rescue search was called off after no sign of the Free Spirit or her crew.

We're aghast at the realization that we met these people, spent an afternoon chatting with them and now they are all gone at Mother Nature's hands.

Rest in peace
Molly Finn, 19
Jack Bielecki, 19
Jacek Bielecki, 56
Richard White, 34

Your families and friends are in our thoughts and prayers.

An ACK! And a mea culpa!!!!

2006-06-14T22:18:00.000-04:00

As my dear friend Kathy just pointed out to me, I have forgotten my favorite Irishman! So he gets a blog entry all his own. Please forgive me U2 frontman!

BONO

I am a bad, bad party girl.

The Fantasy Men

2006-06-12T14:18:00.000-04:00

There are too many of them to be on my "List" a la Friends, but here's my list (in the only fair way I can think of, so no one man is slighted over another, alphabetically) of gorgeous men that I wouldn't throw out of bed for eating crackers:

Christian Bale
Benjamin Bratt
Don Cheadle
Sean Connery
John Cusack
Patrick Dempsey
Johnny Depp
Hugh Jackman
Jesse L. Martin
Matthew McConnaghey
Brad Pitt
Keanu Reeves
Rick Springfield
Patrick Stewart
Jason Thompson
Chow Yun-Fat

Monday Musings

2006-06-12T14:07:00.000-04:00

School is almost out.
The once sunny day is clouding up.
I'm getting through all the laundry.
I saw an awesome picture of Brad Pitt today.
Tomorrow night I'm going to the movies with my friend Trish to see X-Men 3 (again).
We saw Cars at the movies yesterday (go see it!).
We had a wonderful rib dinner at a friend's house last night with ice cream sandwiches for dessert.
Another week and I'll be back at my karate classes.
Sudoku rules!
Five album covers at Goldstamp to be embossed.
Bottles of Prima flowers lined up on my shelves make me happy.

The Fireflies

2006-06-07T10:17:00.000-04:00

I like children. And sometimes I don't like them so much. Imagine my surprise as I volunteered every week in J's kindergarten class this school year, that I love being a part of the teaching system. With budget cutbacks, there is not enough in the budget to cover assistant teachers every day. So they have relied more heavily than ever on volunteers. I've truly loved working with these 19 children. As the school year comes to a close, I'm realizing that experience is about to end. I've got one more day in the classroom with them and that's it. I'm feeling a bit sad about that. They are all wonderful little kids, each different in their own way. Some I will cross paths with in the new school, but most I won't. I hope the Fireflies all enjoy their future school experiences as much as I've enjoyed this year.

Life is for the Living

2006-06-05T10:15:00.000-04:00

This weekend was a crazy one, yet despite the pressures to put on a kindergarten and a separate family/friends birthday party, it was all good.

My friend Kim spent the weekend with us because of family circumstances. Kim is the one whose daughter, Meggie died 18 months ago. Despite it, Kim is a tower of strength. She is now a child safety advocate and is trying to get a bill passed in the U.S. House (H.R. 1861 The Katie Elise and Meghan Agnes Act). Her outlook on daily living is so different from what it once was, understandably so. We spent much of our time laughing and giggling about silly things, but we also talked about Meggie. Kim shared things with me about the day Meggie died that I never asked about, but was always curious. Kim also spent time talking with my son, who turned 6 on Sunday. He was only 4-1/2 when Meggie died and he's never truly understood what it means when a friend dies. They apparently had a really good talk about it all. Saturday night after a long day of birthday parties and he was in bed, we talked about Meggie and all that has happened as a result. Kim told me every detail of that horrible day in their lives. I sat and cried as she spoke. At one point she asked me if it was too hard for me to hear and I said no. It was hard, but I needed to hear it. As her friend and as a mother, I needed to understand her pain.

Before we went to bed in the early morning hours we hugged one last time. She is one of my oldest friends and we've both had our ups and downs with our relationship--as can be the case with any friendship. What a blessing that some twenty-three years, marriages, children, the death of one of those children, we are still together. What a gift life is that we can enjoy it together. Life truly is for the living through happiness and sadness.

Woozy, woozy

2006-05-23T22:27:00.000-04:00

That's how I feel right now. Woozy, woozy. Cold medicine is a wonderful thing when you have a cold. It may not take care of your symptoms, but heck, you don't care any more. I'm off to Never Neverland!

Scrappin' the Day Away!

2006-05-21T22:17:00.000-04:00

Now just imagine my title set to Chubby Checker's "Twistin' the Night Away!" song and you've now got the soundtrack of my day. I did actually do some domestic stuff like clean the kitchen and run a load of laundry (just not the two other loads waiting in the que). I love days like this when ideas just flow! I've got a bunch of pages done and cannot wait for my Mum to stop in tomorrow so I can show her what my day produced! It's the simple things in life that amuse me. Sad, but true.

Rain, rain go away!

2006-05-16T13:21:00.000-04:00

I think it is safe to say WE ARE ALL SICK OF THIS BLOODY RAIN. I feel bad for the school teachers who are cooped up with the kids with no outdoor recess because of it. Suffice to say, I'm not totally looking forward to volunteering today because they are all going to be insane little kids today. I just know it.

I feel bad for Mama Robin in the tree next to our door. She spends most of her time with her wings spread out over the nest trying to keep her 4 babies dry. Not an easy job, but then again, what mother's job is? Rather than flying off the nest when we go out, she just looks at us as though to say, "Can't you please do something about this?" Suffice to say on Sunday anytime we crossed the threshold, we told her what a good mama she was and wished her a Happy Mother's Day. A little crazy, but that's what the rain does to you after this long (it's either that or grow gills).

Peace, love and sunshine (eventually) to you all.

Five Things

2006-05-14T23:29:00.000-04:00

I've seen this on several blogs and it looked fun:

5 things:

In my fridge
1. Mum's mince beef to have for lunch tomorrow
2. Simply Smart Milk
3. Stop & Shop yogurt
4. Beer, most of which is Steve's, 2 bottles are for me to have shandy's
5. Leftovers that really need to be quarantined

In my closet (office)
1. Secret stash of NASCAR little cars for J
2. Several antique View-Master viewers
3. Two Spirograph sets that I won off Ebay
4. Tote bags & purses (too many to admit to)
5. My mumm's antique Singer sewing machine that I will use to make my quilt

In my purse
1. Sudoku book
2. Wallet
3. My life, I mean my iPaq
4. My Ipod (what is with my I-gadgets man?)
5. Epinephrine pen in case I am stung by a bee

In my car
1. Ipod adapter
2. Pack of tissues
3. Pump bottle of hand sanitizer
4. Two afghans
5. An emergency hammer

On my TiVo
1. Grey's Anatomy
2. E/R
3. General Hospital
4. Top Chef
5. Tonight's series finale of The West Wing (that I cried through the whole hour)

Off to the land of Nod now. Happy Mothers Day (well, for the next 24 minutes anyway) to all the Mothers in my life.

Peace out.

First Quilt Project

2006-05-10T12:10:00.000-04:00

Like I don't have enough to do what with scrapbooking, running my Stampin' Up! business and being a SAHM, I've decided to try my hand at quilting.

Last Saturday, I was waiting to meet my friends Kathy & Deb at Right at Home Scrapbooking. There is a quilt shop in the same plaza, called Quilter's Stash. There was a pretty pink, white & green quilt in the window that caught my eye. Now I will admit, I've gone in before to browse. They almost always have an exhibition of quilts in the back room that I love to ogle. But this little quilt drew me in. It was downhill from there. I bought the pattern book, and a bundle of fat quarters. After studying the pattern book, I decided to go ahead and do it. Here is the pattern:

Monday I went to a local quilt shop and bought 2 more fat quarters, border and backing fabrics, as well as the tools necessary to make a quilt. Aren't these colors great?

The large piece of the yellow fabric will be the backing and the dark purple will provide the infrastructure borders and quilt borders.

Yup, I need another project don't I?

Hot Chocolate in April

2006-04-09T23:06:00.000-04:00

I'm sitting here waiting for Steve to get back from fetching his parents from the airport. They've been in Florida visiting friends for the last 10 days. The weather today was so lovely, but now it feels chilly. The thermometer says it's 35 and I am sitting here sipping on a cup of hot chocolate. It's making me sleepy and I'm thinking Steve will be treated to trying to fall asleep while I snore for a change (it's usually the other way around). But there is just something wonderful about sipping hot chocolate late at night. It just relaxes me and gives me that chocolate fix that I've been trying to dodge all day.

Springtime in New England

2006-03-21T11:06:00.000-05:00

I love spring. I love it for so many reasons, not the least of which is the smell of the air. While the chilly temperatures are trying to dissuade me that it is not spring, it really is the second day of spring. A glance out my kitchen window, just now, revealed 23 robins digging for worms in the backyard. My next door neighbors daffodils and crocus are starting to bloom (sadly, mine are not--but that may be because Steven mowed them last year). With a bit of luck later today I'll pop up to the botanic garden to see what spring has yielded there.

I love spring.

The Ecclectic Ipod

2006-03-13T22:54:00.000-05:00

For those of you who don't know my mummy, she is a technophobe. Slowly we are bringing her--kicking and screaming--into the 21st century (she recently bought a digital camera). But bless her heart, she's willing to at least look at the latest gizmo I had to have, sometimes she'll even go so far as to hold it and try it out. This was the case the other day with my Ipod. I got it for Christmas from my in-laws. Bless there hearts, they don't know how these things work, but they are willing to buy them for us "kids" when they ask us what we want for Christmas.

So I have a 30GB Video Ipod. I love my Ipod. I love being able to sit through waiting times at appointments listening to music I want to hear, rather than lame elevator music hosted by a DJ who sounds like he/she has had way too many Valium to start their day. I love being able to do my grocery shopping with my Ipod keeping me company for much the same reason except now I don't have to hear, "Deli, you have a phone call on Line 4. Dairy, please meet accept delivery at the rear door." Anyway, I digress (I know I do that often, so sue me).

Mum was checking out my Ipod and her response after learning how to browse through it was, "My, you do have ecclectic musical tastes." Yup.

Here is a sample of the musical offerings of my Ipod:

Chopin
Beastie Boys
Metallica
U2 (lots of U2, including the last 2 concerts I attended)
Sarah Maclachlan
Louis Armstrong
Prince
Beatles
Led Zepplin
Brian Setzer
Black Rebel Motorcycle Club
Elvis
Harry Connick Jr.
Cowboy Troy (just that chicken song, see Amanda, I've expanded my horizons to country)
John Kirby
Eminem
Georges Bizet
Beethoven
Don McLean
Tribe (a now defunct, but amazing band from Boston)
Frankie Goes to Hollywood
Gregorian monks chanting
John Coltrane
Norah Jones
Loreena McKennitt
Madeleine Peyroux
The Cure
Pink Floyd
MC Hammer
Paul McCartney
Andrew Lloyd Webber
Stevie Ray Vaughn
Blind Boys of Alabama
LL Cool J
Tito Puente
Nine Inch Nails
Duran Duran
Etta James
White Stripes
Morris Day & The Time
Isley Brothers
Franz Ferdinand
Tommy Dorsey
Ivor Novello
Sha-Na-Na
Lenny Kravitz
Toni Basil
George Thorogood
Mozart (I LOVE Mozart--as said by Gary Oldham in "The Professional")
The Animals
John Williams (boy can that man do a soundtrack justice)
Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy
David Bowie
Will Smith
The Pursuit of Happiness
Mel Torme
Al Green
Ministry
Johnny Mathis
Sly & The Family Stone

Yes, weird and ecclectic. Light on the country, just that one song because it's one of the few that doesn't make me crazy.

Bad, Bad Blogger!

2006-03-13T22:34:00.000-05:00

I've been a bad blogger of late. Life has gotten away from me. I've not returned phone calls, forgotten to reply to emails and sadly, neglected my blog.

So our plans for the weekend to go to New Jersey for our little Sophia's 1st birthday were squashed by J having a very upset tummy on top of his double ear infection. We figured in the end, that the parents of the nearly half a dozen under 6-month-old babies would not thank us if he infected their little ones. Besides, while the Merritt Parkway has a good number of rest stops, I'm sure none of them would have been handy when J needed one "right now!". So we chilled out at home. Such a shame too, as I was feeling rather sassy with my L'Oreal Color Expert Cinnamon Stick hair color & highlights and was looking forward to being in the company of other adults.

One of my favorite movies is on right now, Ferris Bueller's Day Off. My mum took me to see this in high school and it to this day, some twenty-plus odd years later, it still makes me smile and wish I had the courage to ditch school with the finesse that Ferris did. I was a good girl, I never ditched school. Lord I was patheticly good.

That's all for now. The Cosmopolitan that I had is making me nice & sleepy. Love and peace to you all!

Aruba

2006-02-21T11:16:00.000-05:00

The reason we were all in Aruba together was to celebrate my mother-in-law, Candy's, 60th birthday. She is the kind of lady that it is impossible to buy anything for, so we agreed with Steven's sister and her husband that we would all take Mom out for a really nice dinner and that Mom was not allowed to pay! Easier said than done. When the check came, Mom tried to get it before we did. Nice try, but this is our treat!

We had taken them to Ruinas del Mar at the Hyatt hotel. The pool and surrounding gardens area are just gorgeous.

The weather was not the best all week and we only had one really nice sunset to photograph. So here are a couple of different views of that lovely evening.

Like I said, our birthday girl is a hard person to buy anything for. My father-in-law, David, arranged for a nice surprise. The national newspapers of Aruba love to do human interest stories. So David arranged for The News to come and interview the whole family. This is a picture of all of us that was on the front page of the paper. Back row, left to right, Me, Steven, David, brother-in-law Pablo. Front row, Jonathan, Candy, sister-in-law (Steven's only and younger sister) Sue who is holding her daughter Sophia.

Grandpa and Jonathan early one morning. Both of them were early risers while the rest of us were lay-abouts!

Grammy bought Jonathan this very cool t-shirt. Indoors it is just a black & white shirt. Once exposed to the UV outside, it turns fun colors. So here is our little scurvy dog pirate. We had brought his pirate eye patch with us, but he had forgotten to bring it outside with us when we took this picture of him!

Footprints: Mine, Jonathan & Steven

On the Monday, we abandoned the family to go out exploring on our own. Here we are at the California Lighthouse. After that, we drove out to where the Natural Bridge used to be before it collapsed.

We were also fascinated as we drove out to the Natural Bridge that there were little rocks stacked on the ones that Mother Nature had left behind. So I made Steven stop so Jonathan and I could find our own rocks to stack.

One of the things that we worked on while on vacation was teaching our 11-month-old niece, Sophia the concept of SO BIG! She looked at us like we were insane early in the week, but by mid-week she had it down pat. The day after this photo was taken she was looking around, noticing that no one was paying attention to her. So she threw her hands up in the air and of course, several of us responded with "Sophia is SO BIG!" I'm wondering who got trained with this accomplishment.

Here we are, somewhere under the rainbow.

Our little sweet pea!

Me and a Tree Nymph butterfly. This freshly hatched little lady was placed on my hand by Anna from The Butterfly Farm. She took her very first flight off my fingers after Anna was kind enough to take "our" photo.

Jonathan took advantage of a sleeping Daddy to store his toys so that Sophia wouldn't get them while they were on the floor.

The last time we were in Aruba, the lizards, geckos and iguanas totally freaked me out. This time I approached them with a photographers eye. Steven teased me that I finally embraced my inner iguana. Either way, this guy was way cool.

Like sands through the hourglass, these were the days of my life for a whole week.

Quick Update

2006-02-20T21:17:00.000-05:00

Will write more in depth this week--and post the much promised Aruba pictures--but for those who are awaiting my karate test news:

Just Plugging Along

2006-02-15T20:56:00.000-05:00

Lots of stuff going on lately. Trying to get caught up--still--from vacation. Steve is under my gun to finish editing photos. Really, I promise they will get posted here before J graduates college! I think I finally got all the laundry put away from vacation. Oy vey, my boys go through clothes worse than any girl I know.

Karate. J passed his Orange Minor Stripe belt test on Monday. I am testing for my Orange belt this coming Saturday. If I wasn't nervous enough, I found out in class the other night that I have to break a board--with my hand--holy crap Batman! I'm trying to be very Zen about it. I've been sitting with my Ipod listening to the Memoirs of a Geisha soundtrack and meditating, picturing myself breaking the board. No problem!

J also finally got elevated from being an Eel to a Stingray for swim lessons. He's been an Eel for ages. But the time spent swimming in the pool and ocean on vacation really paid off and his endurance is there to elevate him. He's very proud of that.

What else? My rubber stamping class for the town's continuing education department never got more than 1 registration, so that was a bust for this time around. We're going to try again later in the spring and I have been brainstorming how to promote the program more. But my Stampin' Up! business has been going really well and there is the potential for this to be my best quarter ever!

In general, tides are turning and shifting for the better as far as life in Casa Owen. It just seems like things are much brighter and a tad easier. Guess the addage, "Everything happens for a reason," is really true and what doesn't kill you definitely makes you stronger.

I'm just plugging along and very happy about that! Peace out.

Yeah, I'm officially freaking out

2006-02-06T21:25:00.000-05:00

My last post showed me in my karate gi with my beginners white belt. Now I started this session a couple of weeks in, so I figured I would not be testing next week since I didn't complete the full course. Tonight was J's first night back and he was given his testing paper. So I ask Sensei what is the fee for J's test and he replies that it is $35. He sees me with my checkbook then adds, "But you need to write the check to include your test fee for next week." Gulp! What? "I'm testing?" I ask innocently. "Of course you are." "But Sensei, I wasn't here for the full session." "Yes you were, between class and working with the kids during J's class, you're ready." I'm ready. Yeah, I'm officially freaking out and will be practicing Taikyoku Shodan repeatedly every day between now and the 18th (with the exception of the 11th when I'm cropping with my girls up in NH). If I pass my test, I will earn my first color belt, orange. If J passes his test, he will earn his orange minor stripe--yes, he will still rank higher than I will. Oh good grief! Give me strength!

Mighty Warrior, Hear Me Kiai!

2006-02-05T09:14:00.000-05:00

Some of you have wanted to see me in my karate gi. Your wish is my command. Here I am in two poses. The first is Jodan Age Uke. This is a rising block position. The second image is Oi Zuki, which is a lunge punch. Since being on vacation, I'm itching to get back to class. Yesterday should have been my first day back, but J's got a nasty Swimmers Ear Infection from being such an Aruban Water Rat in the pool and the ocean. Will post some of my vacation photos later!

The Road to Hell is Just Down Those Stairs

2006-01-19T10:30:00.000-05:00

There is an old saying, "The road to Hell is paved with good intentions." When Steven travels, I always try to line up a project to keep me busy and make some sort of dent in the house somehow. My intention for this week was to buy a couple more of the Rubbermaid shelving units, set the up in "his" side of the basement and move some of the junk over there that clogs our basement. I had even intended to buy some clear boxes and sort stuff in the basement to sell on Ebay. I will be the first to say I have several hobbies that have fallen by the wayside or have changed direction on, that the casualties of are in the basement (rubberstamps that I don't want to use any more, cross stitch patterns, boxes of DMC floss, etc. ). I would love to arrange them in such a way that I could easily access them and perhaps arrange a packaging area in. When I go to ship a box, I rummage several different areas of the basement then haul it up here. I would also like to have a good sort out of Christmas decorations and make sure that everything I reallly want to use every year is in one place, not four places. I know somewhere "down there" I have ornaments that haven't graced our Christmas tree in well over 5 years that I would have loved to have put up this past Christmas. I intended to make a pile of stuff to go in a yard sale this year.

Did I do any of that this week? Of course I didn't! Between being sore from my first couple of karate lessons and the basement being bloody cold from the single digit temperatures, I did not want to spend any more time down there than necessary to throw a load of laundry in the washer. So I will look forward to this project as it warms up downstairs and Steven heads west again sometime soon!

Until then, my basement is what hell must look like!

Playing Four

2006-01-16T12:21:00.000-05:00

My friend, Stephanie, tagged me this morning:

Four Jobs You've Had In Your Life:
1. Office manager for a construction company
2. Sales girl for a sporting goods shop
3. Human resources recruiter
4. Human resources benefits administrator

Four Movies You Could Watch Over and Over:
1. X-Men 2
2. A Walk in the Clouds
3. Dogma
4. Legends of the Fall

Four Places That You Have Lived:
1. Northboro, MA
2. Westboro, MA
3. Worcester, MA
4. Shrewsbury, MA

Four Tv Shows That You Watch:
1. E/R
2. General Hospital
3. The Apprentice
4. Real World/Road Rules Challenges

Four Places You Have Been On Vacation
1. England
2. Ottowa, Canada
3. Disney World
4. Aruba

Four Websites You Visit Daily
1. Lucky Stars Cattery (the kitten cam is awesome to watch!)
2. Two Peas
3. Various friends blogs
4. Stampin' Up consultants site

Four Favorite Foods
1. Chocolate
2. Nacho chips w/ queso
3. Thai food
4. My mummy's mince w/ minute rice and canned peas

Four Places That You Would Rather Be Right Now
1. London
2. Cape Cod
3. Colorado
4. Anywhere with Keanu Reeves! LOL!

Karate Mom

2006-01-14T14:01:00.001-05:00

J has been taking karate lessons for almost 3 months now. I have sat and watched each of his classes with interest. Now, as you can see from my profile picture, I am not exactly the picture of slim & petite health. I am a believer in the real woman have curves philosophy, unfortunately my curves are not in the best places. So earlier this week I asked Sensei if it was feasible to take his adult class or was I too big? He said that I could do it, as long as I listen to my body and take it's cues for slowing down so I don't injure myself. My next question was, do they make a gi in my size? Yes, no problem. He then suggested that I attend an adult class to observe. I did that this morning, by the way "observe" means actually participate in the class. OH MY GOODNESS! My muscles are screaming right now. Stiffness is setting in a bit. I'm eating my lunch right now and some Advil are in my future. However, I did ask Sensei to get a gi for me and that I would be back on Monday for class.

I am --- Karate Mom! Hear me kiai!

Confessions of a Media Junkie

2006-01-05T11:25:00.000-05:00

I am a self-confessed media junkie. I love TV, music, movies, magazines and books.

My Tivo gets a daily workout that puts my husband's Tivo to shame. And yes, His and Her Tivo's create marital harmony that knows few bounds!

It's not often that I get out to the movies, I think in 2005 I only saw 4 movies in the movie theatre, which is up from the 2 I had seen in 2004. Thank goodness Directv offers pay-per-view. I can just rent it, watch it when I want and not have to worry about getting it back to the video store. The only video store around here is Satan's Playground, um I mean Blockbuster. I have loathed them for years since they are owned but an ultra-right-wing conservative Christian organization. Don't get me wrong, I am probably more right than left-winged, but The Man has no right to make my viewing decisions in what versions of videos I can rent. If I want to rent an unrated, director's cut that is my decision, not that of some holier than thou nutter.

Magazines, I am a sucker for a good scrapbooking magazine. If I'm in line at the supermarket and see a women's magazine touting organizational helps & hints, inevitably it ends up in my cart. I've got a basket down by the side of my chair in the living room full of magazines (and catalogs) that I've yet to pour through. I think a few of them will have to go in my suitcase on vacation with me.

And what can I say about books. I have had a love affair with reading all my life. My two bookshelves in my office are chock-a-block full of books, most of which have been read, some of which haven't. The other night as I sorted out scrapbooking supplies I cleared enough space in front of one of my shelves that I sat down on the floor and had a sort out of books. I have about 15 unread books beckoning me to choose them next. Again, a couple of those will end up in my suitcase for vacation. And let's not even go down the cookbook road. Two shelves bursting with various types of cookbooks. I really ought to, you know, cook with them.

Finally, music. How did I ever survive before I got my iPod Video? I only got it for Christmas, but I have used it so much. It's wonderful. I can listen to virtually anything I want in the car now. I'm not limited to my CD wallet or the pitiful FM offerings. If I want to listen to Sheila E one minute and the Andrews Sisters the next, there is no stopping me. While I'm sitting in J's karate class, I can watch a U2 video or show my hairdresser pictures of our sweet little niece at Christmas.

My name is Jenn and I am a Media Junkie. Thank goodness!

Rest In Peace Velly

2006-01-02T22:49:00.000-05:00

Mercedes E. 1925-2005

This lovely lady was my brother-in-law, Pablo's grandmother. Pablo's family came from Argentina and while she could speak some English, Velly was never comfortable speaking it. Velly is actually pronounced "Welly" short for abuela, the Spanish word for grandmother. Apparently when Pablo was little, he couldn't manage the word abuela and it came out Velly. The name stuck.

I first met his grandmother at my sister-in-law's bridal shower at a SoHo restaurant a month before their wedding. In came this sweet smiling lady, she took my face in both her hands and told me in broken English how I am the mother of a beautiful little boy whom her grandson adores, how I made Pablo & Sue a beautiful family album and how lovely I was. This was particularly poignant to me as my own grandmother, Nana had passed away 3 weeks earlier. So I stood there with tears in my eyes as this woman I never met before welcomed me to be a part of her family when Sue & Pablo got married. She insisted that we call her Velly "like the rest of my grandchildren." Who was I to argue with her?

After that I only saw her a couple of times, at Sue & Pablo's wedding weekend and at Sue's baby shower, where I took this photo of dear Velly. My Spanish is rudimentary at best, but I would try my hardest to converse with her in her native tongue. Thankfully she was a forgiving woman when I mangled her language.

Pablo & Sue were on their way to Long Island on New Years Eve with baby Sophia, and their friends when they decided to stop by her apartment to check on her. When she didn't answer the door, Pablo's friend went in first. He was like a grandson to her and had a feeling that Pablo would be finding her. He covered her up and then told my dear brother-in-law. As you can imagine Pablo's heart is broken. He and Velly were very close and when she was ill a year and a half ago he made all of her important decisions for her care.

Vaya con Dios Velly. Es sido encantador instruido usted.

Tristan & Isolde

2005-12-29T23:20:00.000-05:00

I've always had a fascination with the Arthurian Legends. So much so that I took a literature course in college all about it. I've got several books on my shelf that I have not touched in years. Now there is a movie coming out, Tristan & Isolde. It was probably one of my favorite legends when I studied it in school. Yes, I am a girl and yes, I am a hopeless romantic! Despite that, I'm not a huge chick flick kinda gal. I almost never seek them out in the movie theatres, but might catch them on HBO or occasionally pay-per-view. But this one I think I will go to the movies to see. Something to look forward to!

It's 3AM, Go Back to Bed--PLEASE!

2005-12-25T10:43:00.000-05:00

We had a lovely Christmas Eve dinner with my parents yesterday. Even though we'll see them at my in-laws house later today, we exchanged gifts with them. Steven spent much of the afternoon as he did the first Christmas we were together, with his nose buried in a Calvin & Hobbes book, only this time, it's the full treasury box set. It weighs a ton and my dad was convinced he'd give himself a hernia carrying it into the house. Not something you'd want to drop on your foot or the cat for sure!

After working in the kitchen for most of the day, putting on a nice grilled beef tenderloins, Paula Deen's Shrimp Stuffed Potatoes and asparagus dinner (with Christmas cookies for dessert), and just generally getting the house ready for Christmas, I was totally exhausted last night. I was in bed by 8:30 PM. I read a mystery novel for a bit and then conked out by 9:00 PM!

Then I was awoken at 3:00 AM to the sounds of a certain small person, "Oh my goodness! Santa's been! Mummy! Daddy! Wake up! Santa's been here and you should see all the presents under the tree and our stockings have stuff in them!!!!" I love my boy, but not so much at 3:00 AM out of a dead sleep. We convinced him to go back to bed and get some more sleep. That lasted for 2 hours. At 5:00 AM he started in on his stocking and we again told him to go back to bed--PLEASE! There was no escaping his excitement at 7:00 AM.

So we've opened all of our presents, I have made Monkey Bread for our Christmas morning treat and now both Steven & J are assembling their Ferrari F1 Lego sets (yes, they each got one--gotta love boys!). I'm sitting here debating a third cup of tea. Being woken every couple of hours through the night is taking it's toll on me this morning. I'm also anxious to get my iPod from my in-laws, as Steven bought me the iPod camera attachment, so I'll be able to back up our vacation pictures when we go to Aruba. Wah-hoo!

We'll pop around to my in-laws house with cake, shrimp stuffed potatoes and cookies this afternoon. Can't wait to see our sweet little niece, who was kind enough to bring her mommy & daddy up from New Jersey with her this morning!

Merry Christmas friends!

PS: I should add that Steven went to the scrapbook store in Grafton and got me several things that I didn't have and are way cool. What a good boy he is.

Life Dreams

2005-12-21T09:42:00.000-05:00

Last night I was watching the History Channel about Stonehenge. I am so glad that Steven & I went there in 1998. It got me thinking about Life Dreams. That was a dream fulfilled. I'm pretty impressed with that by 36 I have fulfilled a number of life dreams. I have

- Walked around the stones of Stonehenge
- Ridden in a hot air balloon (twice!)
- Climbed the pyramid at Chichen Itza in Mexico (easier said than done)
- Swam with dolphins (that dream is partially fulfilled, I want to do that one again)
- Seen Faberge Easter eggs

I still have a number of other life dreams to fulfill, among them are:

- See the pyramids of Giza
- Tour St. Petersburg, Russia
- Take a train ride across the U.S.
- Learn to speak Russian

Christmas Tagged!

2005-12-14T09:48:00.000-05:00

Hot Chocolate or Egg Nog? Hot chocolate--Land O Lakes makes one called Chocolate Supreme. Good stuff!

Does Santa wrap the presents or just set them under the tree? Santa wraps his presents in paper with Santa Claus' on them. Non-Santa presents are wrapped in non-Santa wrap.

Colored or white lights on the tree/house? Colored, white is BORING!

Do you hang mistletoe? No, I always worry the cat will get it and eat it. She's not that bright after all.

When do you decorate? Normally Thanksgiving weekend, but this year I didn't get to it until last week.

What is your favorite holiday dish? Beef tenderloin with twice baked potatoes.

Favorite Holiday memory as a child? We almost always spent Christmas on the Cape with my Nana & Grandad. Sometimes my Aunt Val-Val and cousin Susie would be there. One year it was 72 degrees (highly unusual for Massachusetts in December), so my aunt & I walked down to the beach. We sang Christmas carols off key, collected shells and umm, "borrowed" an evergreen branch from one of Nana's neighbors. We put it in a pot of soil, hung the shells and put tinsel on it. Then I had it in my bedroom to decorate my room down the Cape.

How and when did you learn the truth about Santa? No clue.

Do you open gifts on Christmas Eve? Steve & I usually open one, a DVD and watch that together.

What kind of cookies do you set out for Santa on Christmas Eve? My spritz cookies.

Snow! Love it or hate it? I hate the mess it makes, but to look at it makes me happy.

Can you ice skate? I haven't in years, but I used to when I was a little kid.

Do you remember your favorite gift? My gold Celtic cross that my parents gave me the Christmas that I was pregnant w/ DS. Mummy designed it for both my dad and I.

What is the most important thing about the holidays for you? Spending time with our families.

What’s your favorite holiday dessert? My homemade cookies.

What’s your favorite holiday tradition? Spending time with our families.

What type of tree? Live of course!

Which do you prefer, giving or receiving? Both honestly!

What is your favorite Christmas Carol? "Silent Night"

Candy Canes, YUCK or YUM? The first few licks, YUM. After that, YUCK.

Now I tag Stephanie and Karen.

Light a Candle for Meghan

2005-12-04T12:20:00.000-05:00

It's been almost a year since Meghan Agnes Beck left our circle of friends that is like family to us. Next Sunday, December 11th, there will be a candle lighting ceremony to honor those children who have been called home to Heaven. Please join me from 7-8PM and light a candle for this little angel.

For more information on Meghan's story, please visit Meghan's Hope.

God bless you and yours this holiday season.

Bono Here I Come!!!!!!

2005-12-01T19:53:00.000-05:00

OH-MA-GAWD! I'm going to U2 on Sunday. We had only one General Admission ticket for the show. Originally this year I was supposed to see them in May with Steven, but then I got really sick and couldn't go. So instead of 1 spare ticket, we had 2 for that show. He swapped them for our October tickets. Somehow he ended up with a single ticket for the upcoming show and he even offered to let me go on my own. My problem is I have panic attacks in crowds of people. If Steven is with me, then I can reach over for him or have him talk me down. The thought of a concert by myself is an impossibility right now. So I said, "No dear. You go. I'll stay home." Well gosh darn it all if our friend Paul didn't discover he had a spare general admission ticket for the same show! So about 72 hours from now I'll be standing on the floor of the Bank North Garden being showered with red and silver confetti as the first few notes of "City of Blinding Lights" whips the crowd into a frenzy. And this time, I'm bringing my camera!!!!!

Thankful

2005-11-24T21:57:00.000-05:00

As Thanksgiving draws to a close, I want to share what I am thankful for with the world.

I am thankful for....

...my husband
...my son
...my parents
...my other parents (a/k/a my in-laws)
...my sister-in-law, her husband and their daughter
...my cousins, aunts and uncle
...my dear friends

These were taken today. The first one is my little niece & I. The second was the cousins.

I've Been Tagged

2005-11-18T11:53:00.000-05:00

Edited on Saturday morning as I see Amanda tagged me as well. Amanda, mine's in threes, hope that's okay.

My friend Sarah tagged me:

3 names you go by:
1. Jenn
2. Mummy

3. Jemmy

3 parts of your heritage
1. English
2. Irish

3. That's it, I am those 2 things only.

3 things that scare you
1. Being out on the open water
2. Bees

3. Heights

3 Everyday essentials
1. Tea
2. Digestive biscuit w/ my tea
3. Time on my computer while drinking my first cup of tea

3 things you are wearing right now
1. Slippers
2. LL Bean black knit pants (1 of about 1/2 dozen pairs)
3. Socks from the Sock Shop in England

3 of your favorite bands or musical artists (at the moment)
1. U2
2. Big Bad Voodoo Daddy

3. Brian Setzer Orchestra

3 favorite songs (at the moment)
1. Sometimes You Can't Make it On your Own - U2
2. Pon de Replay - Rhiannon

3. Fever - Peggy Lee

3 physical things that appeal to you (in the opposite sex)
1. Eyes
2. Voice

3. Hands

3 of your favorite hobbies
1. Scrapbooking
2. Rubber Stamping

3. Collecting vintage View-Masters and VM reels

3 places you want to go on vacation
1. Walt Disney World
2. England

3. St. Petersburg, Russia

3 things you want to do before you die
1. Go to St. Petersburg, Russia and be able to converse in Russian
2. Swim with dolphins again and as often as possible

3. Kiss my husband at the top of the Eiffel Tower

3 things you are thinking about now
1. Getting DS on the school bus
2. Going to DS's school this afternoon to volunteer for a party
3. Going out with DH on a date tonight

3 stores you shop at
1. Borders Books
2. A Time for Memories in Grafton
3. Target

I tag Jenny next.

The Matrix

2005-11-10T10:11:00.000-05:00

Okay, so I realize that I am like 6 years late in seeing the first of these movies in one sitting. I've long been a Keanu Reeves fan, yet I've never had the will to sit and watch them (probably because I've always managed to walk in on a DVD or TV showing at a gross part and I can't handle gross). But lordy, is the gorgeous Mr. Reeves a hottie in these movies (other than all the plugs and stuff all over his body, especially down his spine).

Last weekend Steve suggested we watch The Matrix. Sounds good. Oh my goodness! I was hooked. I couldn't wait to see Matrix Reloaded, the problem was it was 11:00PM and time for bed. So Tuesday night we watched Reloaded. I'm really hoping there is no Thursday Night Football tonight so we can watch Matrix Revolutions.

Hello, my name is Jenn and I am a Keanu Reeves addict.

So who gets your knickers in a twist?

I Don't Hate Monday (At Least Today I Don't)

2005-11-07T13:57:00.000-05:00

It's Monday and it's not so bad. Yes, being woken at 4:30 AM by my five-year-old who had had a bad dream and wanted to curl up with us wasn't exactly a great way to start the day, but at least we both fell asleep. Granted, having both paper grocery bags rip open as I put them in the car, is annoying but at least the groceries fell into the car and not under it.

The sun is shining. I've got my errands done. I've almost got the house all straightened out after a weekend of no housework. I got a bunch of pages scrapped over the last couple of days. I've got a crop to look forward to on Saturday at one of my favorite scrapbooking stores.

Yeah, I don't hate Mondays.

Borders Books

2005-11-04T10:29:00.000-05:00

We have a Borders bookstore just a five minute drive up the road. That is just a dangerous thing, especially when you've got a 20% off coupon. I stopped in yesterday to pick up the Better Homes & Garden Photography magazine that I had seen the other day when I had no cash on me. Then I started wandering the cookbook section. That's always a dangerous thing for me. Someday when I have a big kitchen with a built-in bookcase for cookbooks, all of my cookbooks can be in one place. One of my favorite cookbook authors is Paula Deen. I love watching her shows on the Food Network. So yesterday a copy of The Lady & Sons, Too! had to come home with me. I've got a copy of her first one, The Lady & Sons and use it all the time. What I love about her recipes is none of them are overly complicated like a Martha Stewart recipe can be, there aren't a ton of exotic ingredients either and the end results always look magnificent and earn rave reviews. She's got a magazine coming out this month and I cannot wait to get my hot little hands on it, I may even have to get a subscription.

Friendship

2005-11-01T17:17:00.000-05:00

Today has been "one of those days". You know the kind of day. The kind of day that has some highs and lows. And no matter what the high, the low just sucks the life right out of you and you feel like you can do nothing right. That's the kind of day I had today.

My high was the fact that I submitted a picture to our local CBS affiliate's web site and they used it. Actually, I had submitted 3 of them and they chose my favorite. Even better.

The low is a friendship that is crumbling away. Nothing I do or say is right with this person. I am constantly trying to be supportive and everything I have to offer is misinterpreted or is the wrong thing all together (unbeknownst to me). I will be the first to say, I don't even begin to know what she's going through. But I try to be supportive or give her something else to talk about and it's not right either. So I will back away and hope that our friendship bonds were strong enough to begin with that they will survive. I'm feeling so shitty about all this, that I sat here and had a good cry. Usually that helps, but tonight it doesn't.

This on the heels of a friend going through a painful marital separation who has told all of her friends she needs time alone. I can respect that, but this is the same person who said to me when I was at the lowest of my depression last year that you need to lean on friends during such times.

So in the last 2 weeks I've felt like I lost 2 friends. Today my outlook is Life Sucks.

Snow Before Halloween

2005-10-30T10:25:00.000-05:00

Yes, we had a smattering of snow yesterday. Unfortunately, none of my pictures came out as it never snowed heavy enough for my camera to pick up the flakes coming down.

The damp weather curtailed Steven's time down at Thompson Speedway yesterday, but the weather is cooperating today and off he went with our Canon 20D, a little cooler packed with food and his spectating racing gear. This is the last regular event of the season before the winter break. Suffice to say, he's excited about going. He's got a number of friends who also attend and they usually all hang out together watching the various racing events. It's what he loves to do and he's always very sad when the season ends and April always seems so far away for him.

Gratitudes for Sunday, October 30th:
- Steven gets to spend his time down at Thompson today
- J's utter delight at the old box of Legos we gave him this morning
- The shining sun today
- My family and my friends
- The smell of autumn being such a wonderful smell

Gratitudes for Friday 10/28/2005

2005-10-28T10:28:00.000-04:00

part of my daily blog entry will be gratitudes. Feel free to add your own in the comment section.

Today I am grateful for:

- J's fever finally breaking in the middle of the night
- Mum bringing me a loaf of warm bread from the market to have sliced & buttered with my tea
- Steven for telling me we are stronger than we've ever been in the face of a huge marital breakup of friends of ours
- SIL & BIL's best friends, Jules and Michael who are getting married tonight
- Sudoku puzzles that help me wind my day down and I'm convinced help me fall asleep better
- That no one was hurt when a sinkhole opened up on a street near us

Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own

2005-10-21T11:44:00.000-04:00

And it's you when I look in the mirror
And it's you that makes it hard to let go
Sometimes you can't make it on your own
Sometimes you can't make it
The best you can do is to fake it
Sometimes you can't make it on your own

I've seen U2 twenty times now. Yes, I am still going on about the U2 concert, over two weeks later I am still on about it. Their song, "Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own" from How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb has been haunting me since the show. The show itself, other than being bloody brilliant was a very emotional one for me on several levels. First we were able to get into the Ellipse just after the lights went down. Suffice to say I spent "City of Blinding Lights" bawling my eyes out, partially due to emotion and mostly due to adrenaline. We settled in and then Bono started talking about his father, who died a few years back. Then he launched into "Sometimes". He stood a mere few feet away from me on the Ellipse ramp, his emotion in the song was raw, he was so into the the words and emotions as he sang. It hit me like Big Papi hitting a homerun for my beloved Red Sox. Tears started coursing down my face and I found myself thinking back to six years ago this month. I was thrilled to find out I was pregnant and then devastated when I miscarried at the beginning of Week 8. Now granted, ten days after my miscarriage, I found out that I was still pregnant and J is our miracle. But I found myself missing our lost son or daughter. And my aunt Val-Val. She died just after I turned 19. That's a whole other blog entry for another day. My child and my aunt pervaded my soul like the song did. I felt their presence in my heart so heavily that night. I know that Val-Val was there to greet my child when he or she made her way to Heaven. Ironically, J was born on Val-Val's birthday, as Nana had said he would. I can't help but think that things happen for a reason. The song hit me so hard and has haunted me every day since. At first, I was sad; but now think that a song like that has so many meanings for so many people. What a blessing something like that is. To be able to reach so many people and so many emotions through a song. Yes, music is truly a blessing.

Thoughts and Prayers

2005-10-18T12:03:00.000-04:00

Today my thoughts and prayers are with the citizens of Taunton, Massachusetts. Currently the whole downtown area is closed down, schools are closed and 2,000 residents have been evacuated from their homes. This in response to a dam that has the potential of failure. I've got the news on and the engineer who works for the private owner of the dam has said some pressure has been relieved because of an increase in the flow of water. Please keep the town of Taunton in your thoughts and prayers today that everyone, from citizens to National Guardsmen to city officials will be safe.

A Lovely Weekend

2005-10-17T15:29:00.000-04:00

Saturday was spent with friends at an all day crop. I got there a little before 10AM in the POURING RAIN, unloaded all my gear with thanks to my friend Paula and her trusty umbrella. Sat my butt in a chair and continued to work on our Disney album from last year's trip. I say album, but when all is said and done, it will actually be 3 albums, one album for every 2 days. Yes, truly sad and pathetic. but it is all important to us, so that's that! By the time I left the crop, just before 9PM, I thought there was something wrong with my vision. What were those twinkly things and that big round bright thing in the sky? I remember seeing something about stars and the moon, on that show Cosmos I think a long time ago. Sidenote: Set my Tivo to record the rebroadcasts of Cosmos!.

Sunday was an odd day in that it vascillated between clear, bright and sunny to dark, cloudy and threatening rain. And the wind was blowing between those two something fierce. We took a little road trip over to A Time for Memories in Grafton to replace my copy of Simple Scrapbooks magazine that had been soaked with milk by accident a few nights ago. And was I ever excited when they told me my Designing with 2006 calendar had come in. Woo-hoo!

The rest of Sunday was low key and involved a home cooked meal, some end of weekend tidying up of the chaos a family of three can create and then a good night's sleep.

Today the weather is still quite lovely and it is wonderful to have windows open all over the house. I had the motivation to clean out the hall closet. Old expired medicines, empty packages, etc. tossed out. Reorganized the rest of it. I love a project like that. It gets worse before it gets better, but when done, you just keep going back to look at what you accomplished.

Today is also our 13th wedding anniversary. We celebrated it two weeks ago the night we went out to see U2. So tonight we'll celebrate with J as well as Steve's folks at our favorite Japanese restaurant here in town.

One final thing, Steven found a picture from the U2 concert and managed to find us in the picture. He labeled us and the band.

Yes, we were inside the Ellipse and yes, we were that close. The ramp just to the right of us is where Bono stood quite a few times that evening, just a mere 3 feet away from us. Suffice to say life was really good that night!

Local Scrapbook Stores

2005-10-11T11:05:00.000-04:00

My cousin, Susie, lives in upper New York state. We get to see each other two, maybe three (if we're lucky), times a year. About a month and a half ago, we planned for her to come out and visit us for an overnight visit.

Like me, she is a scrapbooker and stamper. For some time she's been trying to turn her guest bedroom into a multi-purpose room; keep it as a guest bedroom, but also turn it into a space for scrapping and stamping so she can have easy access to her supplies and take advantage of being able to leave things out to steal a few minutes scrapping. She went to her local scrapbook store and looked at storage options. One thing she came up with was the Cropper Hopper Paper Tote and Cart. I've got one of these totes sitting on my floor. Admittedly more often than not, I pile project boxes on top of it, thus negating it's usability. We got talking about the Tote and Cart. She asked me if I had either and I said just the tote. She then suggested that she could give me the cart for my Christmas present this year if I wanted one. I jumped at the offer. Susie went back to her local scrapbook store and ordered one tote for her and two carts, one for each of us. This was back on September 10th. She was told, it would be in within 10 business days. She called on September 28th (more than 10 business days later) and was told, "Oh that didn't get ordered yet. We'll order it and put a rush on it." The day before her trip out, she called again and was told, "It's on order." She told them that didn't do her a lot of good for the recipient of one of the carts since she was travelling out of state to deliver it during a family visit. This morning she stopped in the store and was told that the owner was not available for at least a week and she handles all that. So my cousin asked if she could cancel the order because after 30 days of being brushed off, she felt it had never been ordered. Amazingly her money was instantly refunded. The woman working snapped at her, "I need to see your frequent buyer card." Now understandably, she shouldn't get the purchasing punches for something she's gotten refunded. The sensible thing would be to count off the punches, pull out a new card and punch for everything she had on the card except the tote & cart purchases. Nope, the employee ripped up the card and told my cousin to have a nice day in a snotty tone. So, my cousin went across the road to Michael's, bought one cart and tote for a lot less money. She said she went in not knowing if they even carried these products, found a helpful staff member who showed her what she wanted, offered to take it up to the register so she wouldn't have to carry it around while she shopped and pleasantly checked her out. She'll go online to order a cart for me and have it direct shipped to me.

Now another twist showing the disparity that some scrapbook stores do or don't get customer service. When Susie was here last week, we naturally hit the store near me. They keep their customer purchase cards on file. They remembered her from a visit well over a year ago, asked her if she had a card. Her reply, "No, I let Jennifer have it written on her card." So they asked her if she wanted to have a card for this visit, again my cousin said no thanks put it on Jennifer's card. Of course, when we went back the next morning for something she "had to" have they said the same thing, but were happy to put it on my card. This is my "home" store and they are good people there. They were happy to do whatever the customer wanted.

I am a firm believer in supporting the little guy. I hate Michael's and Wal-Mart because of their predatory business practices. My Michael's is horrible and I avoid it like the plague. As a result of attitude and mucking about, the store that my cousin tried to shop with has lost all her business. I just don't get it that they aren't bending over backwards in the fight against giant corporations like Michael's and Wally-World.

Things That Go Bump In The Night

2005-10-10T15:07:00.000-04:00

Today has been one of those days and that day started at 3:30 in the morning when we thought a wild animal had gotten into the house. A strange sound woke me up out of a dead sleep, who then woke Steven up out of a dead sleep. So we got J up and then we headed into our bedroom, closing the door to keep everyone in the bedroom and anything outside out of the bedroom. Steve got up at regular time with a big flashlight and investigated the basement, nothing there. Must have been something outside that we heard. Great! Then I can't get the TV setup to work in the living room. Not the end of the world that J has no TV, but aggravating nonetheless. Then I talk to Mum and her car is dead and she's waiting for AAA to come tow her car. This means me going and picking her up and us following the tow truck to the dealership. Not earth shattering, just aggravating and not how we planned to spend our day off from school. Oh and it's pouring down rain something fierce, which precludes doing something outside like going to the playground.

If' you've read my kvetch this far, thank you. It's Monday and like the Boomtown Rats, I hate Mondays.

Stupid Monday

2005-10-10T10:45:00.000-04:00

AGGGGH!!! I give up.