Happy 4th of July

Back from vacation and already enjoying another holiday from work (paid,I might add). We had a very nice family gathering in Litchfield, SC. We had lots of good food, lots of laughter, lots of sun, and lots of water. I love this picture of Greg and John. Greg is my family guy - he loves being with family and even agreed to visit a plantation because he would get to spend time with his uncles. I love that!!!! He talks about his uncles all the time and you can tell he just thinks the world of them (who would have thought that!).



We enjoyed a meal of Dad's spaghetti and I know Mom and Dad would both be very happy to know that we make it important to get together. I just wish Joe would think the same way as we do.

More to come later and even more pictures.

Happy 15th Birthday Greg

Hard to believe he is already 15 and we will be going through the driving issue again in one year. It seems like just yesterday Casey got her license. Where has the time gone? I say this all the time - but it's true. It seems a lifetime ago that these young adults were attached to my side all day long. I miss those days sometimes, but when I look at the wonderful young adults they have become, I am so proud of them and love this age as well. By the way, in the picture, Greg is showing how happy he is to get the 1975 Reds vs. Red Sox World Series on DVD (all 6 games).

In other news, Casey is home from college and look how she spends some of her waking time - helping Larry to paint the house. She has been a big help in painting those hard to reach places.

Here's hoping that I will be a better blogger in July. Hopefully I will be able to blog about my new job!

My Ohio Trip

It has been almost 2 years since I was in Columbus, yet it felt as if I had just been there the month before. It is amazing to me how quickly I slipped back into the role of Aunt Joan and sister. I guess that is what family is all about. You can go to far away places and be away for quite some time, but family always welcomes you back and makes everything seem so familiar again.

Loved spending time with Danielle and meeting Andrew. How blessed Jim and Michelle are. I forgot how tiring small children can be. The kids were great, but I realize how hard it must be to have children when you are older. We got to see the Grove City Memorial Day parade. I took 3 pictures and that pretty much covered the entire parade. It was so small that the entire parade fit on 1 1/2 city blocks (small city blocks). However it was stirring when they played God Bless America and the Star Spangled Banner and the requisite candy came flying from a tank (like my Dad's).

A Cabinet Full of Dishes

These are pictures for you Casey. This is the cabinet that Dad brought back from Illinois that is over 100 years old. It is for Greg if he wants it, but after he saw how many pieces in came in he may have second thoughts. The dishes inside are for you to do with as you please. I have shown a picture of one piece so that you can see the pattern. They are beautiful dishes and for dishes that are over 60 years old, they are in remarkable shape. I only found about 3 pieces that had chips or other slight damage. The gold leafing is wearing off, but they still retain quite a bit of it.

On top of the bookcase are the 2 history books from 1890. They are quite fragile but quite remarkable to look at. (I just used remarkable for the second time and I haven't used that word in a long time.) Dad also brought back 2 first edition Dr. Doolittle books and 2 first edition Mother West Wind books. They were added to the collection in the dining room.

These Two Are At It Again!!

The other day I posted the picture of Lucky in Greg's laundry basket. He was so cute and perfectly content to be there. So last night I was turning out lights and accounting for all of the cats being off of the porch when I came across Chocolate. He was sleeping in the laundry basket this time. Lucky was also on the table on top of a beach towel on the other end.

I think these 2 sweeties are more alike than we think. First I catch them on different days eating out of the big cat food container and then I catch them, again on different days, sleeping in the laundry basket. How cute are they? Chocolate has been venturing upstairs more lately and has taken to sleeping on my head some nights. I can tell when he slept there even if I don't see him, because I usually have a stiff neck in the morning. Chocolate seems take up a lot of space on the pillow!

Pretty Pictures

Okay, so this is what we spent last weekend doing. I finally finished my front bed project of taking out the lambs ear and spiky purple things and replacing with azaleas. The balance is much better and I know that I will still have some lamb's ear popping up because the underground root system was quite extensive.

The peas and lettuce sprouted last week and the garden should be full by mid-June. Yum!!!!

Finally, the big project this past weekend was putting up another section of fence in the courtyard. It is amazing how much bigger the courtyard is now. This weekend we will be planting tomatoes, peppers, green beans (up the pole left standing from the previous fence structure), and anything else that we fancy. If we can keep the rabbits and groundhogs out, it should be a nice garden this year.

Another Quickie

What do these 2 pictures have in common you ask? They represent two cute but stinker cats who seem to enjoy eating out of the large cat food container right after I have filled it up. I don't know what is wrong with the bowl of food on the floor or what makes this container so special, but within 2 weeks, I have caught each of them in the container of food as I was filling it.

They are both so darn cute and so concentrated on eating their prize that they didn't mind having their pictures taken.

UPDATE Time!

A few Lucky pictures today. This was his choice of sleeping locations the other day. The basket contained clean laundry and now contains furry laundry!!

On Sunday we extended the fence in our courtyard and while we were doing some weeding, we decided to let Lucky out there. Greg took the picture of Lucky and a bunch of Kitty as well. Lucky was very good and didn't try to go over the fence at all. I think he was happy with his bigger yard area. This week I am going to get the courtyard ready for planting the vegetable garden. Maybe Greg and I can get it done before Larry comes home from Illinois.
Casey, these pictures of one of your favorite trees are for you. The tree was in perfect bloom on Saturday so I took a bunch of photos for you. We woke up Sunday morning to a very windy and quite cool day and a lot of the flowers fell to the ground. The entire yard is coming into bloom. The azaleas will be blooming by the weekend, the apple tree is in bloom, the trees are all green, and the poison ivy is coming out (yech!). The peas, lettuce and spinach have all sprouted and we hope to have a bumper crop of peas when Casey comes home.
Can you tell I love spring? I love fall even more, but it is nice to see life budding everywhere after a cold winter. I even got my winter clothes out of my closet last weekend. Of course, the day after I did that it only reached 50 degrees. Not today though - high of 75.

A Trip Up North

Parent's weekend this past weekend and we got to visit with Casey!!! Yea!!! We got up there around 10:30 pm on Friday and made plans to pick up Casey early Saturday. Saturday we decided to drive through Vermont and stop at a few places along the way. We had a ball, stopping at a store and buying Casey and Larry hats, stopping to feed on Cabot cheese at the Cabot Cheese store, looking at items in a Scottish store, and walking along the Quechee Gorge (how pretty). It was fun and relaxing for all of us.

Sunday morning we picked up Casey after our stop at the King Arthur Baking Store and picking up some goodies and took her to lunch at Applebees. We did the grocery run and a few other things before heading back to campus. Casey gave us a nice tour of Phi Tau and the engineering building. It is hard to believe that her freshman year is almost done. Likewise for Greg, only 30 days of school left. Wow!! Where did the year go?

Couldn't wait until it was in the bowl

This first picture was taken on Sunday April 15 as a nor'easter came into town. Thank goodness it wasn't snow or we would have ended up in double digit snow accumulation.



Isn't he just the cutest? He was doing some seriously chowing down of the cat food as I was filling the kitchen counter container.

Second Varsity Win

Not the greatest photos, but he looked good out there. He and Collin won 6-1, 6-1 and Greg had quite a few aces. It's amazing how fast his game has picked up. I was glad that I got to see yesterday's match. It is probably the last match of the season as rain and Reading Olympics will cancel out tomorrow's match. Unless they make it up next week, he may be done for the season.

In other news, I found out today that I am moving out to the showroom at work on Friday. No I am not selling cars, I am moving because my office area is the first scheduled for remodel. Not looking forward to where I will eventually end up, but there is nothing I can do about it. I may need to speak to Nancy if she continues to dump her work on me all the time.

First Victory as a Varsity Tennis Player

Here he is after his first appearance on the varsity tennis team. He and his partner Collin won their doubles match 6-4, 7-5 and the team made a clean sweep of Christopher Dock. Tonight he played doubles with Collin on JV so that Stephen could play varsity. They won 8-1 in a pro set.

Cute Furry Picture

Great picture of Chocolate sunning himself yesterday when it was 60 degrees out.

Rainy Sunday, Monday, Tuesday....

I am sitting here and listening to the sump pump continuously pump out water from the basement channel. It has been raining all night and day and will probably continue into Monday and Tuesday. This is a Nor'easter according to the weather channel. I guess it could be worse in that it might be snow. Hopefully Casey isn't getting the snow part of this. We have already had to get the ladder out this morning in the pouring rain and fix the gutter on the front of the house. Rain was cascading down the front windows and would be ruining them for sure if we didn't fix the gutter right away. We did and now it is just an incredible amount of water everywhere.

I have to post something wonderful that happened to Greg yesterday. I know it is hard to read but here is what this email from Greg's tennis coach to four of the freshman players says: "I am very impressed with all of your tennis talent, enthusiasm and commitment to the team. As freshman and 1st year members of the team I see your future with NHS Tennis to be very rewarding for all of you. I have decided that Greg's total commitment and dedication to the team has earned him a spot on varsity. We will now have 13 members....You will earn your Varsity Letter by helping your fellow teammates raise the bar on how well all of you play.

Without sounding smug...I believe that it will mean a lot to you and your College prospects by the time you are seniors to be a 4-year Varsity member of a team that will be winning Districts and possibly States by your junior or senior year. Thanks for being such positive, fun to be around players. Coach A"



This is such a great thing for Greg to know that all of his hard work is paying off. He is always at practice giving 100% and listening to and respecting his coaches. We are so proud of him and look forward to more great things from him. I think it is amazing that his coach believes that she has such young talent as to expect a District Title and maybe appearance in the States tournament before they graduate. It is a talented group of freshman and I am so glad that Greg is having such a great time. It is amazing how far he has come in such a short period of time and if you look at his bulletin board you can see what he wrote: "THE BEST HAS YET TO COME". He would probably be embarrassed that I put this on my blog, but I think it speaks volumes of him.

Just a Few Random Thoughts

I found a new favorite movie this past weekend - The Holiday. This movie starring Cameron Diaz and Kate Winslet is such a cute movie. It is probably very predictable to most people and just a regular old movie but something in it stirred me. I liked the relationship between Iris and her next door neighbor and the character Miles. I also thought Graham was a great character with a few surprises. I have watched it twice and plan to watch it again tonight before it has to go back to Blockbuster.

I have been finishing the binding on my blue and yellow quilt. I only have one more side to finish and then it is done. I will definitely have to take pictures. I probably should start a scrapbook of my finished quilts. Hopefully Casey will remind me to take a picture of her quilt when she brings it home this summer. (Hint Hint!)

I finally finished Lesson 1 for the Library of Memories class I am taking at Big Picture Scrapbooking. I spent an entire week organizing my photos and putting them into albums. This is a long term project and will probably take all summer to complete.

I am back on the treadmill after taking it easy for the month I was sick with bronchitis. I actually did 40 minutes last night - none tonight as ironing and other chores had to take a priority.

I am hoping to see an update from Casey very soon!!!!

Things to Ponder

I saw this on K. Smith's blog and thought it was something to think about. I need to start altering my course. Sometimes I just get caught up in doing the same thing day after day. Last week I decided to take a walk around Lake Galena on my lunch hour. I decided to start walking around the lake and after 15 minutes I would turn around and go back to my car and back to work. Those 30 minutes were so refreshing and necessary that I vow to do it more often. By altering my course of lunch activities (usually just running errands), I had a very peaceful and happier afternoon.

I Have Updated - Have You?

Message to Casey - Update your blog!!!!! You got on me, now I am going to get on you about it!!!! Put down the coloring books and crayons and update!!

Picture taken 3/24/07

Saturday's List

I thought of list of things would be fun today!

10 things that irritated me yesterday:

1. Sitting in FB's office and printing emails for 2 1/2 hours.
2. Using over 500 sheets of paper to print said emails (what a waste).
3. Being asked if I had done a few items that I would have done had I not been printing emails for hours.
4. Being told to be back from lunch by 2 so that I could answer Nancy's phone.
5. The look Nancy gave me as I met with MG for 2 hours going over audits that I do monthly (a little bit of jealously on her part maybe).
6. Having to put gas in my car that cost $2.79.
7. Reading in the paper that the CEO of Comcast Cable received $27.8 million in compensation last year while our cable bill continues to rise steadily.
8. Not losing any weight at WW yesterday.
9. Getting my paycheck and realizing that I didn't quite get 80 hours over the last 2 weeks.
10. Getting my paycheck and realizing I had less than 1 hour overtime.


9 Things I am Grateful For

1. My family and the fact that we really enjoy each other (most of the time).
2. My pets and the unconditional love that they give.
3. The ability to get out of bed everyday.
4. The fact that I have a job and can pay my bills.
5. Springtime and all of the beauty of it.
6. Finding a good book to read.
7. Remembering that there is always something to learn.
8. Having my health and the health of my family.
9. Technology - for the most part it's a good thing.

8 Things I Worry About Too Much

1. Money
2. Getting my TO DO list done daily.
3. Weight
4. My kids' future - it's their future - not mine
5. Having a clean house.
6. Honoring my parent's legacy
7. What other people think (sometimes - not that often)
8. What to fix for dinner

7 Things I Ate Yesterday

1. Lite English Muffin
2. 2 lite sausages
3. Lean Cuisine Pizza
4. Grape Tomatoes
5. Fiber One bar
6. 2 FF hotdogs
7. 3 soft pretzel bites

6 Things on My To Do List This Weekend

1. Laundry
2. Vacuum entire house
3. Dust
4. Yardwork - pick up sticks and tear out dead stuff
5. Call John
6. Update blog

5 People I talked to Yesterday

1. Greg
2. Larry
3. Casey
4. Carol
5. Michael

4 Goals for April

1. Finish quilt binding on yellow quilt
2. Scrapbook more
3. Plant peas and much more
4. Get to the dentist

3 Books I read in March

1. The Ultimate Gift
2. Beverly Nye's "A Family Raised on Sunshine"
3. Beverly Nye's "A Family Raised on Rainbows"

2 New Plans for Today

1. Take Greg to a Bowling Birthday Party
2. Hang out by myself - I thought we were all staying home today

1 Thing I Accomplished Today Already

1. Got Easter presents ready to mail on Monday.

Updated per Casey's request

Had a wonderful visit with Casey for the 2 weeks she was home. I miss her and feel surrounded by too much manliness - need my girl talk. I really enjoyed our drive back to Dartmouth on Sunday. Off to Buckingham Pizza for dinner. More to come later.

I'm back now and full of stuffed rigatoni and garlic knots (WW be damned!). Just kidding about the WW part - I plan to do the bowflex workout machine tonight. Haven't exercised very much over the past 3 weeks due to this illness that just won't go away. However, at least now I know it is bronchitis and am happily taking my antibiotics. For the first time in 2 1/2 weeks, my voice is starting to sound somewhat normal and not like I am going through puberty. I think my voice was wearing on everyone around me.

I have to post this little bit of information about motorcycles and head injury as my cousin's husband has been removed from life support following a serious head injury sustained in a motorcycle crash:

Motorcycles, Bicycles, and Head Injury

The increase in bicycling and motorcycling has focused attention on injuries sustained during these activities. Most of these injuries are traumatic brain injuries (TBI), caused by the lack of rider head protection. This exposure of the rider accounts for the particular types of injuries seen during these activities.

• Although the crash scenario often dictates the area of the body injured, fatal crashes are most often a result of traumatic brain injury. Often these are isolated head injuries with no other serious injuries.
  
  
• Fatal traumatic brain injury occurs more often in adults than children, although children are more often injured in bicycle crashes. This simply reflects the greater proportion of children using bicycles, as well as the lack of experience of younger riders.
  
  
• Many studies have documented the particular risk of brain injury when riding a motorcycle. The increased speed of a motorcycle and use in vehicle traffic adds risk of injury far beyond that of a bicycle.
  
  
• Traumatic brain injury certainly can cause death, but it also can cause disabling injury requiring extensive and costly rehabilitation. For many people, a brain injury triggers a significant change in lifestyle and function. Brain injury can vary from essentially minor disability to prolonged dependence on a ventilator to breathe and permanent loss of normal function. These serious brain injuries take their toll on families caring for an injured loved one.

Ron was riding his motorcycle without a helmet when he crashed. Naturally my cousin is devastated and unplugging him from life support has to be the hardest decision that she has ever had to make. Though Ron was an odd person, he was probably the best person for my odd cousin (she had her quirks and I don't believe they were all the result of her own actions - she went through a lot over the years).

In happier news, Greg won his tennis match today. He was playing doubles when his partner dislocated his shoulder during the 2nd game of the match. The kid was taken away in an ambulance and Greg was forced to forfeit his match. He ended up asking one of the kids on the other doubles team to play a match and the kid agreed - so they played singles. Greg won even though it didn't count in the overall match score. He also got a 98 on his big math test. He was in a great mood today.

I hope to update even more this week. I have some nice pictures of my two "little ones" coloring!!!!

No WW Update This Week

WW meeting cancelled yesterday because of the ice storm we were having. Bummer!!! I know that I had probably lost a few pounds due to the fact that I have been sick all week and not able to really eat much. Unfortunately, I haven't exercised either. Last night I did 30 minutes on the treadmill - the first exercise (other than walking) for 10 days. I am still not able to talk without my voice cracking and hope that my voice comes back soon. A week without a voice is not a good thing (though some people would disagree).

You Will Be Seeing Less of Me These Days!!!

23.8 pounds less of me!!! Weight Watchers today and I didn't want to go mainly because I was sick and hadn't exercised for 2 days. Well, I lost 5 pounds. Go figure! I guess having the flu does that to you. It's not like I was throwing up or anything - it's just that I am not hungry. Even tonight, I was only able to eat 1/2 of my hoagie at Buckingham Pizza. Maybe, if I am up to it, this weekend I will take some measurements so that I can track that as well. This 5 pound loss this week was definitely motivating for me. I haven't been feeling very motivated lately and haven't been writing down what I eat. This upcoming week I will do it since we are all exchanging food journals on Friday as a motivator to get ourselves to write down what we eat.

My goal is to be down 30 pounds by our June vacation. I can do this!!

Look Who I Saw!

I spent all day yesterday with Donna Downey. She taught 4 classes at memory lane scrapbook store and I took 3 of them. I took:

• Creative License - where we used scrap materials (chipboard and a grocery bag) and made a 12 x 12 album. I liked the album and would consider doing this again because I liked the way the pages were made.
  
• File Album - loved this little album. A fun photo file to highlight an event or trip. I am pretty sure I will be making another one of these.
• Bookbinding 101 - I am now confident that I can make my own journal. It was a lot of work, but well worth it as I love the finished product.

I will post pictures of all of the finished projects when I get a chance to finish them up. Overall, it was a lot of fun. Donna is pretty cool and I could definitely see hanging out with her. It is amazing to see all of these women who are the store groupies. I met some really nice women and watched the antics of the groupies. I guess this is their outlet and they use this as their chance to be loud and crazy. They were a talented group of scrapbookers and I think they probably all wish they were the Donna D., Ali E., Heidi S. of this area. It's not for me. I am not a very social scrapbooker and prefer to scrapbook by myself. I do love going to these classes and learning new procedures and seeing new projects. I think I will stay with the online classes. I don't think I will even go to CKC this year.

I'm Getting Old

Went to the eye doctor today and found out that I need bifocals. That sucks. I usually only wear my glasses when I drive at night, but I also need them now to see the TV from the treadmill. I sort of had the feeling that I might need them for reading as well since I squint at my computer screens at work. Now that I got the second monitor I requested, my display is smaller and harder to see. I can't change the display because it will affect one of the monitors and not the other. Oh well, maybe I will get some cool looking glasses that make me look smarter.

Looking forward to taking classes with Donna Downey this weekend. It should be fun and filled with lots of funny moments. I still have to get my stuff ready for the 3 classes.

This is how I spent my weekend!!

We visited Casey at Dartmouth this weekend and watched Casey teach Greg how to snowboard and watched her snowboard down the hill. Taking snowboarding for phys ed has been great for her.

Greg enjoyed himself and I think that the next winter trip up there, he should take a snowboard lesson himself.

The last picture is of Casey and I and YES we are on ice skates. We went skating at the pond on the Dartmouth Golf Club. I took a few spills, but it was lots of fun. Greg skated as well, but after one time around, he had enough and went in. The pond was huge and could accommodate many hockey games and skaters. What a beautiful setting it was.

Happy Birthday Mom

Happy 78th birthday Mom! I wish I could spend it with you. I have been thinking about you and Dad a lot lately - probably because of your birthdays. I miss knowing that somebody is always concerned about you. I know if you were still alive, you would be saying "are you working too hard" or "are you getting enough rest" or "you should do something nice for yourself". I don't have you here to say those things to me and I am not very good at saying them to myself. As a result, I don't think I take care of myself as well as I should.

I looked forward to visiting you and Dad because I knew that the entire time I was there you would tell me to sit down and rest or go visit my friends. As a mother, I realize how much you care that your children are doing well. I miss our long shopping trips that culminated in lunch out and then resting in the afternoon and talking. I miss our discussing family history long into the night. I remember that year I came home and you just didn't have the energy to do much shopping. It was the beginning of your health deteriorating and it was hard to witness. In the few years before your death, I remember that we would end up just doing lunch and not much else because you didn't have the energy. We still spent lots of time talking, but not much time shopping. I'm not much of a shopper now, but I loved those trips with you. When Casey comes home in March, her and I plan to take a shopping trip and go out to lunch. I love doing this with her and hope that she enjoys it as well. Now that Mom is gone, I wish I had made more trips to Columbus and spent more time shopping with her. I love you Mom and miss you terribly. There is still such a void in my heart without you and Dad.

What's that white stuff?

Friday night we were out to dinner (El Cactus) and this stuff started coming down. Big ole fat snowflakes for the first time this winter. We have had snow flurries and ice, but nothing that really stuck. Saturday morning we woke up to a nice winter white yard. It still isn't very much snow, but that's all we got. Probably global warming at work.
We spent Saturday at home cleaning and rearranging furniture. I steam cleaned the family room carpet and Greg and I rearranged the layout. We even moved the TV. It looks pretty good and seems almost larger than before. Greg and I figured out the cabling all by ourselves for the TV.

Love that Lucky chose just that moment to walk across the family room. It is a nice feeling to have thoroughly cleaned the room. I think the living room might be next. Not today because we are going to tennis with Greg and the BJs to pick up some items. No Super Bowl plans in this family today.

Weight Watchers update - lost another pound. Total is 19.2. Hope to reach 20 total this week.

Weight Watchers Update

Yesterday was meeting day again and I am happy to say that I lost another 1.5 pounds bringing my total weight loss to 18.2. It really makes a difference in my stamina and ability to accomplish things - I don't tire as easily as I did. Hopefully pictures will be forthcoming. I am seriously in need of pants that fit - mine are all getting too large on me. The 40 minute treadmill walk/runs almost nightly are helping tremendously.

In other news, 2 great things I discovered:

1. I can take still images from the Dartmouth Webcam and add those pictures to my file of saved pictures from Casey's blog. Cool that I will be able to put together a book of photos, blogs, and newspaper articles of her college years.

2. Found this book at the library - Publishing a Blog with Blogger - and will be able to jazz up my blog with new things. Look for exciting happenings here.

Happy Birthday Dad!!

Just a scrapbook page I did about 6 months after they passed away. There are so many things I miss, especially knowing that there are 2 people who care about you more than anyone else. As a parent, I see that now more than ever. So wherever you are Dad, I hope you are with Mom and celebrating your 86th birthday in grand style. I miss you so much.

This is Too Funny!!!!!

When I was a kid, adults used to bore me to tears with their tedious diatribes about how hard things were when they were growing up; with walking twenty-five miles to school every morning…uphill BOTH ways!

Yadda, yadda, yadda.

I remember promising myself when I grew up, there was no way in hell I was going to lay a bunch of crap like that on kids about how hard I had it and how easy they’ve got it!

But now, I can’t help but look around and notice the youth of today!!

You’ve got it so easy. I mean, compared to my childhood, you live in a damn Utopia!

And I hate to say it but you kids today don’t know how good you’ve got it!

I mean, when I was a kid we didn’t have The Internet. If we wanted to know something, we had to go to the damn library and look it up ourselves, in the card catalog!

There was no email! We had to actually write somebody a letter…with a pen! Then you had to walk all the way across the street and put it in the mailbox and it would take like a week to get there!

There were no MP3’s or Napsters! If you wanted to steal music, you had to hitchhike to the damn record store and shoplift it yourself! Or you had to wait around all day to tape it off the radio and the DJ’d usually talk over the beginning and @#$% it all up!

We didn’t have fancy crap like Call Waiting! If you were on the phone and somebody else called they got a busy signal, that’s it! And we didn’t have fancy Caller ID boxes either! When the phone rang, you had no idea who it was! It could be your school, your mom, your boss, your bookie, your drug dealer, a collections agent, you just didn’t know!! You had to pick it up and take your chances, mister!

We didn’t have any fancy Sony Playstation video games with high-resolution 3D graphics! We had the Atari 2600! With games like “Space Invaders” and “Asteroids” and the graphics sucked! Your guy was a little square! You actually had to use your imagination! And there were no multiple levels or screens; it was just one screen forever! And you could never win. The game just kept getting harder and faster and faster until you died…just like LIFE!

When you went to the movie theater there was no such thing as stadium seating! All the seats were the same height! If a tall guy or some old broad with a hat sat in front of you and you couldn’t see, you were just screwed! And cup holders? Yeah right. See that thing at the end of your arm with four fingers and a thumb, there’s your cup holder, you lazy piece of shit.

Sure, we had cable television, but back then that was only like 15 channels and there was no onscreen menu and no remote control! You had to use a little book called a TV Guide to find out what was on and get up off your ass to change the channel. There was no Cartoon Network either! You could only get cartoons on Saturday morning. Do you hear what I’m saying!?! We had to wait ALL WEEK for cartoons, you spoiled little rat-bastards!

And we didn’t have microwaves, if we wanted to heat something up we had to use the stove, or the oven or go build a friggin’ fire…imaging that! If we wanted popcorn, we had to use that stupid JiffyPop thing and shake it over the stove forever like an idiot.

That’s exactly what I’m talking about! You kids today have got it too easy. You’re spoiled. And don’t even get me started about on-demand TIVO, satellite radio, cell phones, camera phones, your sidekick (give me a break), mp3 players and the like! Damn whippersnappers, you wouldn’t have lasted five minutes back in 1980!

Weight Loss Continues

...at a very slow pace. For the past 2 weeks I have only lost .2 pounds each week. I guess I shouldn't complain because it is a loss and not a gain. The good thing is that I continue to walk/run on the treadmill and know that I am gaining muscle. I need to start adding weights to my routine - it would help with mixing up the daily exercise.

So overall, the loss is 16.6 pounds. I'm pretty happy with that considering this began at the end of October and continued through the holidays. We started a new WW 10-week session at work last Friday and I am pretty motivated to lose at least another 10 pounds (1 pound per week). Casey and I are both working out (though separately) and hope to be able to accomplish some good fitness goals (i.e. who is more buff?). Who knows maybe her and I will be able to run a 10K sometime this summer. That is a good goal to work towards. Casey, if you are reading this, I will be looking into finding us a 10K to run sometime this summer. More to come.

Thinking of Some Summer Redecorating

In formulating some goals for the year, I decided that one area that needs a makeover (besides me, the entire house and more) was our screened in porch and courtyard area. I am still working out the details, but I am leaning towards putting in a nice vegetable garden filled with tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, zucchini, beans, and eggplant and turning the porch into a nice retreat complete with comfortable seating, inviting dining options, and just a nice play to relax.
The work doesn't stop there as I would like the hot tub area to be a relaxing area as well with herb and flower barrels, comfortable seating and of course, the hot tub.
I am probably getting in over my head, but I think it will definitely be worth it. I love working in the garden (just like my dad did) and I enjoy summer evenings having dinner on the porch. I have already dragged out my collection of gardening books and checked a book out of the library on outdoor spaces. I think the warm weather we had last weekend started me thinking about spring. It's cold now, but I still am thinking that this will be a great spring project and one that all of us can enjoy.

Hopefully, I won't give up on the project before I even get started. I hope to use this blog as a way to keep me on track and put down thoughts and ideas. My first thought is working out the color scheme for the porch area. I am leaning towards green because I like the color and there is a lot of trim that is green. However, I need some complementary colors as well. Off to think!! By the way, the pictures are in black and white in order to show a lot of contrast when the project is finished.

Weight Watchers 9th Week

Very hesitant to even go to WW yesterday because it had been 3 weeks since the last meeting and the holidays were during that time period. Only 3 of us showed up for the meeting today. I was very surprised to learn that I had lost 2.8 pounds bringing my total loss to 16.4 pounds (even though the WW leader made a math mistake and only has me down for 15.4). I guess all of the nights on the treadmill finally paid off. I'm hoping to be very good all this week so that maybe I will have another loss next Friday (our last class). We are trying to get 20 people signed up so that we can continue WW at work. I hope so as I don't think I want to go into town weekly for a meeting. Besides, I like all of these people at WW. So far I think Debi has 14 people signed up.

See you later Casey

Casey left to go back to college today and I miss her already. She is such a big help around the house and a wonderful person to talk to. I know she has lots of exciting things to get back involved in and some new things as well. I am already thinking of a few things to send her in a care package.

Here is a challenge that was posted on 2Peas. I thought it was interesting.

One last look at 2006...

What did you do in 2006 that you'd never done before? Traveled to another country outside of North America.
Did you keep your new years' resolutions, and will you make more for next year? Don’t think I kept many of them, but hope to do better in 2007.
Did anyone close to you give birth? My sister-in-law Michelle and my babysitter/friend Christi.
Did anyone close to you die? Thankfully no
What countries did you visit? Ireland
What would you like to have in 2007 that you lacked in 2006? Motivation to complete home improvement projects
What date from 2006 will remain etched upon your memory, and why? June 16 because I watched Greg graduate from middle school and receive the highest math award and I watched Casey graduate as valedictorian of her class and give a speech.
What was your biggest achievement of the year? Landing the job at Fred Beans and losing 13 pounds
What was your biggest failure? Not learning to let go of small insignificant things.
Did you suffer illness or injury? Knee surgery on June 15
What was the best thing you bought? The book “The Purpose Driven Life”
Whose behavior merited celebration? My kids
Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed? Parents who push their kids
Where did most of your money go? Bills
What did you get really, really, really excited about? Blogging - mine, Casey's and so many new people whose blogs I read
What song will always remind you of 2006? Ever the Same
Compared to this time last year, are you: Much happier, richer, nicer. I would like to think that I am much happier because of my job change and much nicer after reading The Purpose Driven Life.
What do you wish you'd done more of? Take more pictures.
What do you wish you'd done less of? Complain about what wasn’t done to help me out.
How will you be spending Christmas? With my family – what else is there?
Did you fall in love in 2006? Have always been in love with my husband and kids
How many one-night stands? Absolutely None!
What was your favorite TV program? Project Runway
Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year? Linda - hate is awfully strong, but definitely dislike very much
What was the best book you read? Stacy Julian's Big Picture - changed the way I think about scrapbooking
What was your greatest musical discovery? Soundtrack from Chronicles of Narnia and downloading songs to my ipod
What did you want and get? JAG dvds
What was your favorite film of this year? I have to say “The Devil Wears Prada” which I am watching right now.
What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you? Turned 46 this past year and spent the day at Dartmouth with my family. Went to the Vermont Country Store.
What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying? Seeing my brothers
How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2006? Wearing a belt again
What kept you sane? Long walks with Kitty and my ipod
Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most? None – don’t care for celebrities and don’t care much for public figures either.
What political issue stirred you the most? The senseless killings going on in Philadelphia and the complete disregard for human life.
Who did you miss? My mom and dad – every single day
Who was the best new person (people) you met? My boss Nancy and all of the wonderful people at work.
Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2006 – That everything happens for a reason. Had I not lost my job at the museum I would probably still be there and hating it and being around miserable people.
Quote a song lyric that sums up your year: Suddenly I see, this is what I want to be - KT Tunstall