Ilanna's Mindless Meanderings

MIA

2009-05-20T12:59:00.000-04:00

I know i don't update much anymore (if at all) but timing and all that.

you can find me on facebook if you are really interested! or just email me!

But for those who want - New baby pics and videos! - http://photobucket.com/mjmgoodale

MIA

2009-01-30T13:13:00.002-05:00

yep - that's me - missing in action.

I know i haven't written in ages.

So first off - any body who wants to see pics - bookmark: http://photobucket.com/mjmgoodale

There you go.

next - there isn't a whole lot going on so I haven't felt the need to write really - It's work, baby sleep and pretty much that's about it.

I am excited though - we're getting new countertops in a few weeks - YAY!!!!! no more ugly formica. :) woohoo! :)

Umm - beyond that - the only other thing I have to share - is my mind boggling at seeing a young toddler (maybe 18 months?) With his ear pierced. Yep, boy, 1 ear. I have no problem with men having their ears pierced - but a baby???

I have issues with female babies with ears pierced.. I think they should be old enough to ask for it. But I can understand the reasoning to do it when they are infants. My issue is, for a little boy - that's a VERY personal choice. it's not an almost 'given' like it is with most women ya know??

Just felt the need to share...

laters!

Rant . . .

2008-11-12T15:05:00.003-05:00

Ok - I need to preface this posting with the following statement:

I want to THANK profusely all of the veterans who have server our country, now and in times past. All of them have sacrificed their own safety and many other things to try and make the world a safer and better place and we can in no way repay that sacrifie. So Thank You!

Now - I just got a call from one of the veterans groups asking for money. I appreciate that money is needed. Sadly the government just doesn't have enough to do what *SHOULD* be done to properly take care of all of those who've come back injured - mentally, and physically.

Now my first question is: if you have enough money to get a call center calling, where else could that money be put to better use? (and granted I don't know if it was volunteer or not . . .)

Next question: Why can't they accept no for an answer? Not everyone has money to spare to give. This is a tight economy. I have a new baby who I have to buy formula and diapers for etc. And too be honest, yes I have a little extra spending money - but I need that for my own selfish purposes to keep my SANITY! Every new parent (heck every old parent too) needs their own entertainments and pleasures to offset the hardwork that is parenting. If I tell you I don't have the money to spare this year, why can't you just accept that and move on?

Today the call really upset me and p*ssed me off. The man on the other end of the phone was in full telemarketer mode - they had their script of what to say when the person says no. He went into a "Can't you just squeeze $20 out of your budget for these men and women who have been injured in the line of duty . . ." etc. Really laying it on *THICK*! - and I'm sitting here going, it's a shame this particular association is now probably NOT going to receive much from me in the future because their practices in fundraising have really upset me. I appreciate all the veterans have done, but that doesn't add an extra $20 to my budget, and attempting to GUILT me into depriving myself or my family of something we need so I can donate to a cause that the government should be paying for anyway is very upsetting.

I just felt the need to get that off my chest so to speak.

Anyways - have an M picture or two to make you smile.

Ok - I know I've been bad

2008-10-31T19:34:00.004-04:00

And everyone wants pictures. I have some video too - but have NO idea how to convert it to something actually uploadable as opposed to the HUMUNGOUS files they are now. :)

So anyway - As of yesterday Mikki is 8weeks old, 11lb 10oz, and 24" long and growing WONDERFULLY according to the dr. She is a happy baby who seems to enjoy Opera. :) Go figure.

I"m doing well - been back at work for about 2.5 weeks, and working with her here at home - not the easiest thing in the world but I'm managing for now until we figure out our daycare situation. Her naming at the temple will be Thanksgiving weekend . . .

Without further ado :) here are some pictures

TAGGED!

2008-10-09T22:58:00.002-04:00

Tag...I'm it...7 interesting things you might not know about me...

I was tagged by Bradley Egel

1. I have visited Bradley's mother store and shopped from her - AND gotten the egel's nest discount. She rocks! :) (wink)

2. I have played many different musical instruments in ensemble including, oboe, flute, piccolo, crumhorn, recorder, drums, glockenshpiel (sp?), marimba, cello, and voice.

3. I was on the HS Rifle team. Actual target shooting. Was good too ;) (When i moved to DE, i asked in the HS if they had a rifle team. I was told "yes, they march in front of the band." - I think they misunderstood... ahh the things I miss about NY. :) )

4. My hebrew name is Yosefa Ilanna. (ilanna means little tree and was used because I was born on Tu B'shavat - kind of a jewish arbor day.) - Yosefa is for my great grandfather, and i was the first grandchild to be named for him. I never met the man but still feel a strong connection - probably because my mother had one with him and her father (his son.)

5. I'm an aquarius. :)

6. I loved to cook before i got pregnant. Then food turned me off :) and now i'm too tired to think about it. Hopefully when the Mik is older i'll start cooking more often.

7. I love shoes - but usually things like Dansko and Mephisto - not Manholo (sp?) etc. I think that much $$ for something that impractical is just ridiculous. Dansko - they are at least good for you (and 1/3 to 1/6 the price of those jimmy Choos and manholos. :) ) I may be a shoe-a-holic - but i'm at least a PRACTICAL one... :)

And I'm going to break the last rule - Not gonna tag other folks on this one cuz well, I'm not sure there are 7 people who even regularly read my blog :) let alone have the time to do this. :) IF anyone wants to - please feel free and put a note in my comments and I'll add your name to the main post.

New Babies are monotonous :)

2008-10-09T11:42:00.003-04:00

But it's good to know my mom is having fun - so more pics to entertain! :)

I found myself but then lost it once again...

2008-10-02T22:56:00.003-04:00

I know i've been MIA - and probably will be for a while - but I figure for those who are curious I'd post an update. :)

We are obviously home now. :) it's been 4 weeks... in fact - 4 weeks and 1 hour as of this writing. :)

Doing well - other than the fact that the child appears to have a black hole for a stomach and doesn't think mommy or daddy need sleep (normal I know. :) )

Anyways - here's a few pics - mom had fun making "collages" :) ENJOY!

(i think hubby's
shirt is prophetic)

SHE's HERE . . .

2008-09-06T14:43:00.005-04:00

I know it's been a very long time since I posted...

But she's here - Our daughter.
M*i *k*h*a*i*l*a E*v*e

she was born at 8lb 4oz and 20" long - via C-section after roughly 17 hours of Pitocin based labor. (where the epidurals kept wearing off. :) ) So - 9/4/2008 - 9:52pm. :)

She's currently in the nicu - was having some minor breathing issues - but she's being weaned off the oxygen as we speak - and is doing well. :)

Including a picture here and if you really you can go here for my album of pics.

I will be out of the hospital - around mondayish... :)

Thanks for all the thoughts and well wishes through out to everyone!

Here we go again....

2008-05-28T08:50:00.006-04:00

I know it's been a while - but I was waiting for updates and stuff. :) silly me. There wasn't a whole lot going on. :)

So - The bad news is I have Gestational Diabetes - Good news is it's mild for now. Need insulin at night but during the day it's all controlled well through diet. Which is the other silver lining, maybe I'll learn to eat better and lose weight after the baby. (or continue - I've only gained about 7 lbs so far with this pregnancy and i'm just finishing my 6th full calendar month.)

Shots in the belly are interesting. :) They don't hurt - and i get to play "scientist" when i fill the syringes. (gotta have fun with this stuff ya know? LOL)

Also - i'm only at a total of 7lbs gained (not counting the initial 10 we thought i'd lost...just being safe.) So YAY!

now - the moment you've all been waiting for i'm sure...

IT'S

A

GIRL!

(and please, let's limit the PINK. It is *NOT* my favorite color... :))

So . . . It's a .........

2008-04-16T11:15:00.003-04:00

So I had this whole plan.

I bought these 2 screaming sling shot monkies - one with a pink cape and one with a blue, then I'd post the appropriate colored monkey to share the news.

Well this of course backfires.

You see - I apparently have a child that takes after mommy and daddy very thoroughly. It was sleeping like I do with one arm behind its head . . . :)

It also was sitting Indian style - (maybe a future yoga instructor? :) ) - the ENTIRE 1 hour ultrasound. Even worse, at one point it moved, and then put its hand down in front blocking the view even further. Stubborn child with a twisted sense of humor I'm thinking.

IN other words, My kid. :) All else is well though, heartrate is 150 - size is right on track . . . :) all good.

But I will share the pics...

here you go: :) (personally my favorite is the "dancing queen" pose on the bottom left.)

The Name hath been REVEALED . . . :)

2008-03-27T14:13:00.002-04:00

That is correct - we have a name for SSSP2. :)
*D*
*A*
*V*
*I*
*D*

*R*
*U*
*B*
*I*
*N*

Now they are going for the hebrew pronunciations on this - so "Da Veed" and "rue vain"

Course apparently suka can't spell real well - and didn't realize that if they were going for "rue vain" then maybe she should have used an actual, i don't know . . . *v* in the name??? :)

Auntie Em paid for the food for said event - paid for 80 ppl. 25 showed up. :)

There's a few other things but nothing so spectacular that I"m going to go crazy with it here - just wanted to share the name. :)

IN other news . . . :)

The dr today confirmed that the breathing issues i've been having are most likely pregnancy related. Going to get some pulmonary tests done next week anyway but he said not worry about it. I think the way he explained it was that the extra progesterone hormones etc make it feel like it's hard to catch your breath, and then add in the extra fluid retention and the pressure of things moving around and we're all good. Now, he also explained part of this was for more oxygenation. The way I explained this to someone (who found it very entertaining) was that You hyperventilate because baby wants to steal more oxygen - Silly little parasite. :)

Baby's heart rate was 152 - so we're good there - BP was fine - and I decided to decline the screening test for the downs and spina bifida and all that. The risk is pretty low - I'm taking care of myself, been on folic acid and DHA supplements for 6 months PRIOR to the pregnancy - so why stress myself with possible false positives ya know? :)

The big reveal ultrasound is going to be on April 15th - in the evening so hubby can join us. :) Hopefully the tadpole cooperates. What's cool is that I get to have a 3D ultrasound. :)

Not a whole lot else happening on the baby front at this point - I'll update you all around 20 weeks :) or if we find out anything significant - (20 weeks is around 4/18)

In other non ME related baby news... Apparently this woman my friends and I know - went into the hospital for a kidney stone last week. She came out with a 7lb 6oz baby boy. She claims to have not known (or in serious denial) that she was pregnant at all. Now I know this does happen occasionally - but usually it's larger women where the belly change isn't as noticeable. This woman was like 5'8" 130. We're not talking plump here. I just don't understand how you don't FEEL it etc... :) Go figure. I told my husband she had a 7lb 6oz kidney stone and told him the kid's name. He thought I was making a joke. :) His eyes about popped out of his head at that news. :) Life is definitely interesting eh?? :)

Suka Spawn - Service Pack 2 - SSSP2 :)

2008-03-17T11:55:00.004-04:00

Yes - you guessed it - the 2nd child has spawned hale and hearty from the Suka. 7lbs or something like that 19" - born on this past saturday.

Of course - they won't share the name - They have decided that they will not tell ANYONE the name until the bris - THIS saturday. (Thankfully I already have an excuse to not go, even if they did bother to invite us - which they haven't. :) )

This withholding the name thing is just another attention grabber of course. Cousin P thinks it is revenge because she found out the sex of A&E's baby (baby clean floor) when SukaStar didn't get to know. (E knew, but A didn't want to so she could only tell people she KNEW wouldn't spill the beans.)

But - I don't think this is the reason. That might be a nice side benefit - but not the reason.

*I* think the reason is because they are planning on a name that is going to stir the sh*t and they are waiting for a nice public and crowded venue where they can make the announcement when the sh*t can be stirred nice and quietly and no one will make a scene.

There are two options.

#1 - John Joe Doe. (obviously not the real name. :) You see - Star's dad passed away when he was around 15 or 16 or so. When P had her son 9 years ago, she named him John in honor of her father - per jewish tradition. But as is typical of my insensitive Auntie Em - she has gone on and on through out Suka's 2nd PG, about how they may name the kid for Star's dad John, and john would then FINALLy have the name. Umm huh??? What about my son John??? "oh - well, this will be the REAL name, because he'll have the last name too . . ."

Can we say incredibly obnoxious?? And of course you know that STar would love to announce that he finally has the name etc - completely insulting his sister. This falls under the same category of "oh, it was much harder for me to lose My parents than for your P to lose your father, because I had them so much longer, it hurts that much more."

#2 - Jim John Smith (finding generic names is hard. :) ) - This would be naming him for my grandfather. Now - TECHNICALLY my grandfather has already gotten the name with baby clean floor. ANd I find it kind of rude that they gave him that name. NOt because I wanted to use it for myself... (which I do but that isn't the reason) - but because her father had JUST died. Jewish tradition says there's a priority - parents get the name first, then grandparents, then beyond. So her FATHER should have gotten the first name and precedence rather than giving priority to our grandfather instead. Water under the bridge. But - Star - He may do my grandfather's name which while I can't do anything about it - will *REALLLLY* upset me. That will also stir the sh*t but in different ways i'm sure.

once i hear any good stories from the bris - i'll let you know. :) somehow i'll announce the name.

***update - So originally as usual Suka's parents said they'd pay for the Bris - but now of course Auntie Em is once again paying for the whole thing and now Star is pushing for an additional party on friday night... plus they want to invite a bunch more people than originally planned... are we having fun yet? :)

In PG news - i'm now 15 weeks and 3 days pregnant. Doing ok for the most part. Still kind of tired, and nausea hasn't completely gone away - but i'm getting better - definitely. My next appointment is the end of this month.

There isn't a whole lot of other stuff going on right now. Going to visit DH's family up north for Easter - I believe there is a 'christening' or baptism involved. (not sure which it is/what it's called.) But we're being named Godparents.

Then next week I'll be going to Quantico to see my friend graduate from the FBI academy. I find it amusing that they are graduating on April Fool's day - but we all know the FBI has no sense of humor. (grin) Just kidding. ;)

And that's all news that's good gnus :) at this point. (thank you Great Space Coaster for the reference :) - never say I don't give credit . . . )

I did promis an update didn't I . . . ?

2008-02-27T09:12:00.002-05:00

Well - I did promise an update - so here goes . . . :)

Pregnancy is all going fine - i'm about 4 and a half days into my second trimester. That's calendar count. My body hasn't QUITE accepted that fact yet - but i'm hoping it does soon. We got to hear the baby's heartbeat at the dr's office and it was pretty cool. :) All seems to be going well with that and my next appointment is at the end of March. (seems SO far away . . . )

In other news - the house in NY was finally torn down. This of course put Auntie Em into hysterics. So she is now going on and on about how hard it is for her etc etc etc. It's been 2 years people. One would think you'd be over the bulk of the mourning phase, and while you still miss the person who passed away - your life SHOULD be functional.

I mean - the Real estate agent wants to clean out the house down south to make it more saleable. So we went through inventory and marked what we wanted. The inventory was then sent to the other sisters as well - and of course - once again - Auntie Em "why do we have to do this?? i can't handle it right now? Why can't we just put everything in storage and deal with it later? It's just too hard . . . " (i'm going to gag now.) It's all about the attention for her. And of course she once again pulls out the old chestnut - that it's harder for her to lose HER parents than it was for her daughter to lose her father - her reason? She had SOOOO much more time with her parents than P had with her dad so the loss is just THAT much more painful. You know what? I think it's much more tragic when someone is taken from you before their time. When i've had a lot of time with someone and I lose them - well they had a GOOD life - why not celebrate it ya know??

Ahh well - typical of the whole ALIT crowd I guess. Suka is due to deliver sometime mid next month - so maybe we'll get some good stories out of that. :)

Otherwise - not a whole lot else is going on - just trying to stay healthy and keep the tadpole growing at a steady pace. :)

Later Taters!

I'm ok . . .

2008-02-19T10:01:00.002-05:00

I know some of you were wondering how i'm doing and I"m doing ok.

Still kind of nauseous - all the usual stuff.

Will probably make a more in depth post later this week after my next dr's appointment.

Bradley's mom - if you read this: the second one seems to fit ok, i'll send the first one back eventually :) and order more of the other one I got too since i'm living in it. :)

HUGS to all!

Drum Roll Please . . .

2008-01-24T16:02:00.000-05:00

So -

One of the reasons I haven't been posting much is because there was stuff going on that I couldn't tell anyone about. And you all know me - I can't keep my mouth shut so rather than post about nonsensical things and try to keep my mouth shut I decided that I wouldn't post about anything.

So lets see - we had good holidays :) As I said on Bradley's blog, our tree is still up and somewhat healthy as well - not dropping many needles at all - I know we need to take it down, but at the same time I hate to get rid of a tree that is still so nice and green ya know? :)

I got some cool stuff for Christmachanukwanzayule this year too... I got a nintendo DS with brain age, and solitaire, and word jong and mah jong etc. Lots of fun to play with. Got some new sweat pants and a new sweatshirt that i'm pretty much *LIVING* in . . . and I *FINALLY* got the bathrobe I'd been wanting for 3 years. The problem is that its ll bean, and by the time xmas etc comes around they are usually sold out. So hubby got smart and took care of it in OCTOBER this year. :) So now I finally have it and I"m very happy. :)

There have been a few minor suka stories but nothing worth major documentation. She's getting paranoid again at the end of the pregnancy. Goes to the hospital like 4 times in a week. Every time she feels a slight twinge she goes to the hospital. she isn't due until mid march. I can't decide if she's paranoid, or just looking for the attention or what? I know some people do need to go in early for legitimate reasons - but she did the same thing with sukaspawn. Nothing was ever wrong - she just went in for EVERYTHING. Weird.

So - I guess i've tortured you all long enough. You probably want to know what the news is. Some of you already know and some of you may have guessed - but here it is:

This is our little blob. :)

I"m approx 7.5 - 8 wks
along.

Heart rate is 157

Due date 9/5/2008

That round blob
that looks like a head
at the bottom is the
yolk sack - peanut
is up above that. :)

So that's my news. Hubby and I are officially Spawning. :)

I told hubby the day he came back from visiting his family for the holidays. He wants to know who the daddy is since i wasn't PG before he went home. :) (well I was, we just didn't know it :) )

Truth is he is very happy about it. Already making puns. Has decided peanut will be born early, so that he/she/it is born on labor day. :)

I'll keep you all posted... because as we all know I can't keep my mouth (or my fingers) quiet. :)

New Post

2008-01-22T08:26:00.000-05:00

Coming soon I promise.... :)

A matter of opinion . . . .

2007-12-14T10:36:00.000-05:00

I know I haven't written much lately - haven't had a whole lot to write about.

Let's see . . . Hubby started a new job this week. No more 1.5 hour commutes! YAY!!! (of course that means more time with him - which could be good..... or bad {wink} [grin])

Umm - our tree is up and mostly decorated - I'll have to take a picture of it to post later on.

We lit our candles every night this year. (But don't worry, my mom and brother didn't get to light theirs this year, so it balanced out on the green end. That story - was just weird... trying to get people to light one less candle for Chanukah to help the environment. I think some of the protesters were right - deal with the trucks first, those are worse by far than a candle that burns for about an hour.) My husband even tried to recite the prayer with me every night. His pronunciation leaves something to be desired, but he's getting there.

The puppies seem to get depressed every time we take off their jingle bell collars... :) I find that amusing as hell.

OH! And today is the first day of Agnostica. Happy Agnostica everyone!

Now... I guess I can start with the nitty gritty.

Not much ALIT news to be honest - the only tidbits I'm hearing are:
1. Sukaspawn at 17 months old is apparently not sleeping through the night for some reason.
2. Apparently SukaStar had to let the weekend 'help' go because she didn't work as hard as Hello. OF course I didn't know they had weekend 'help' - i thought that was Star's job. But apparently they did, and Auntie EM was paying for it!!! (probably out of guilt over Star's illness...)

Now - for my Rant. I find this moderately disturbing and somewhat disgusting. Go on - read it, I'll wait for you to come back . . .

(humming of Jeopardy theme song . . .)

(tapping of fingers . . . )

Ok - back now?? Cool - We found this of course because the article was written by Suka. I was prepared to dislike the subject only because of that, but I read it - and I thought about it - and well, I still don't like the subject.

There are a few reasons.
1. It seems to me, that charity should not require a fashion show, raffles for big screen tv's etc. They frequently do - and that is ok I guess, but to me it isn't something to be overly proud of ya know? I'd rather give a pat on the back to the person who donated the TV. That's a hefty donation. . .

2. They raised $18K give or take. For widows and children in Is. Now - maybe I'm a bad jew for saying this - I don't know - but seems to me (especially living in NY) that there are plenty of things at home that could use that money - don't they say Charity begins at home??

3. I find it somewhat sickening how proud they all are to wear their shirts that say "I can afford to buy my $300 Jimmy's and the $400 Manolo's and my $100 T-SHIRTS, so dropping $100 for a raffle to win a TV I could afford anyway is nothing. . . " and are all patting themselves on the back for the good they are doing - when what they are also doing is promoting how self important they are with their fashion. I mean really... can anyone honestly tell me what makes a pair of Jimmy's or Manolos worth THAT much money? I"m willing to spend $100-$150 on a pair of shoes, especially if they are well made, COMFORTABLE, and will last a while. But I usually try to spend a lot less than that.

4. Wow - people came from ALL the way as far as a whopping 40 minutes to this thing... that is *REALLY * far reaching - let me tell you. (and yet, no one from Manhattan the fashion mecca thought they should come . . . ) MY opinion: They are all Posers....

What do you think?

MINE MINE MINE MINE MINE MINE MINE

2007-11-27T11:39:00.000-05:00

It's like the seagulls from Finding Nemo... Mine Mine Mine Mine Mine . . .

yes folks - we have an ALIT story. :)

Relatively short - but is a good example of what is to come in the future.

Apparenly Star was discussing what he was going to do for his nephews for the holidays and was planning I think to give them like $75, or $75 savings bonds - something like that.

So Suka says, "Make sure they know that Sukaspawn wants Jewelry for Chanukah."

Yup - that is correct. The 16 month old little girl apparently wants jewelry. Auntie em went over there recently, and she had on this gold bangle bracelet. (16 months old folks!) She promptly went to show it off, holding her little fist in Auntie Em's face making her look. Then she saw the gold necklace Auntie Em was wearing and started to grab for it saying "MINE MINE!"

Yup - definitely the Suka's daughter.

And I think she is really working to kill the Star. He's having all kinds of health issues, not being able to eat, losing weight, bleeding where there shouldn't be any bleeding....

I think he's finally going for a colonoscopy - but the stress is really starting to take a MAJOR toll - and can you imagine what will happen in March when the new baby is born???? That and Hello is very quietly looking around for other employment.... that will get interesting - I mean - imagine if she had to actually take care of her children herself.... we already see the influence she has on her daughter and her daugher barely knows her...

Sad isn't it??? Ah well... at least we're really watching from the outside now - not really a part of it anymore... Thank the goddess... :)

They are all nuts... mixed bag... :) macadamia, brazil, walnuts.... :)

all of 'em...

I'm told that my cousin A and his wife E painted THEIR new living room red too... it's like Build a Shrine to B this year apparently....

Ahh well - hope you all enjoyed the story. In the mean time - enjoy this video of my brother's crazy dog. :) (you probably need to turn your head to the right.)

Beginnings . . .

2007-11-07T09:16:00.000-05:00

So -

As I've mentioned elsewhere - I just started taking a class in Macro Photography - so I thought I'd share some of my favorite shots from the first class. Maybe I'll share them through the entire class and see what people thing of the pictures. :)

To start with - my equipment:
Canon Digital Rebel (6.0MP)
Canon 100mm Macro Lens
Canon MT-24EX Flash.

Class on saturday was the first day I'd ever used the flash. It's pretty funky to play with. :)

So - Some of my favorite Pics:

Tree Bark:
I just love the
textures of this
picture.

Rock:
The different
elements in this
picture make it
visually interesting
(IMHO of course)

Leaf:
Very stark on
the background.

Tree P*rn:
That of course
is the first
thing I see.

Less dirty
minded people
see a wrecked
viking long boat
or something
similar.

The Following 2 are my favorites. I call them the "bullet holes" although they are more likely from a BB gun as opposed to a bullet hole.

With Flash

Without Flash
(seems kind of
opposite though
doesn't it?)

All the rules
change when it
comes to Macro.

:)

So Honest opinions everyone - what do you all think of my very first foray into this world.

These were all done on a saturday afternoon, outdoors, downtown, WINDY as heck... :) and
short notice. All experimentation - and *ALL* completely unaltered except for converting them from RAW to JPG and to a better size for web/email.

Thanks in advance!

HAHAHAHAH FINALLY!

2007-11-05T15:57:00.000-05:00

I can FINALLY post some reality without it being Searchable... the cast members of ALIT can sometimes be *SOOOO* accommodating.

So here it is - more than 2 months after it happened -

My stepdad
threw it out -
Thought it
was an ad.

Really looks like
some generic
thing you'd get
in a picture frame
at a store though
doesn't it??

Heck - i know
my cousin well
and it took me a minute to realize it was him in the middle picture.

BTW - more from ALIT - apparently Suka is having a boy. They are planning to name him after star's father I believe. They spent some time really put cousin P down, by saying how THEY would be continuing the name, BY BLOOD. Well P's son has her father's name. But not the last name. Star's son will have the *WHOLE* name first and last - and not just the last name either like Baby Clean Floor. And anyway - BCF has the name - but not by blood (since BCF's daddy is adopted.) Do you believe that obnoxiousness?

So that means 2 first cousins, same generation - will have the same first name. If it weren't so sad - I'd be laughing thinking about that scene in My Big Fat Greek Wedding - when they are roasting the lamb on the spit in the front yard, and they introduce everyone as Nick. I really feel for my cousin P and for her son D who basically gets completely slighted and punished by his mother's decision to be SANE and not live in the midst of all the ALIT garbage. . .

Oh well - that's about all that's new here - OMG 3 new posts in like a week or a week and a half. What *IS* this world coming to? :)

SPORK!!!!!!!!!!!!

2007-11-01T13:09:00.000-04:00

The title has absolutely *NOTHING* to do with this post. I was just feeling silly.

So - last night I worked trick or treating at the mall. We were out of candy by 615. (i started at 545.)

The amount of kids coming back for extras - greedy little buggers. :) I mean one kid, the 2nd time he came by - I gave him another piece because with *SO* many kids I couldn't be completely sure I hadn't seen him before. The 3rd time though, he came by with his mask on this time, and I KNEW it was him anyway - so I told him no.

Sadly - the adults were worse. One woman came up around 540 while I was standing with S (one of our managers) who was handing out candy. She said "I have 2 kids at home in wheel chairs, and what with all of their equipment and having to clean them up and all that, I'm just doing the trick or treating for them." So S gave her a candy. Then 20 minutes later, she came up and gave me the EXACT same story. (It wasn't worth the argument, so I gave her 1 more piece, but I think its sad that the adults feel the need to do that. )

My friend A who is manager of a certain chocolate store had her own issues. Obviously they aren't giving out their own product, too expensive to be honest, and not individually wrapped so not considered safe. So they bought a bunch of candy and were giving it out. A told me she almost punched the woman that came up to her next. They had completely run out of candy (also around 6:15) and the woman went off on A about how rude and obnoxious it was that they ran out of candy so early and how cheap the store was and how they RUINED her child's evening and that she would never shop there again.

umm - This is free candy folks. Would you go off on someone at their house if they were out of candy? (I mean heck, there was one kid I wouldn't give candy to - he was about 15 or 16 and had no costume. Just a bag. I told him - no costume, no candy - unless he wanted to perform to earn it. He didn't.)

But in the long run there were TONS of adorable kids who were there and having fun (and fallling asleep :) )

Now, even though I work there - what is a trip to a bookstore with out buying a book? See what happened was this. . .

I was holding the mini X-mas trees and commenting "Riiight, turn the JEW into the X-mas display." :) So the new guy heard me, started cracking up and then brought me a book to look at.

It was this.

So far, I've only read a little but it is VERY amusing. I am thoroughly enjoying it . . . :)

I love the things they come out with . . . .

Hope everyone had a good Halloween - and NO, the world is NOT coming to an end because I posted twice in 1 week. :)

The bunnies of indecision. . .

2007-10-30T09:35:00.000-04:00

Now - if that isn't a strange post title, I don't know what is . . . :)

The explanation - it is a silly one, but there isn't a WHOLE lot that I really want/can write about right now. :)

Here are the bunnies: (2 of them at any rate)
I know it is hard
to see here, but
you can click and
see it bigger. I
just could *NOT*
decide on what
color to make
the eyes of the
beige bunny.

I had 2 blues,
green, brown,
and red.

Well - Red isn't a good idea. Only if I'm making a bunny for the Monty Python crowd I think.

The Brown was so dark (not that these aren't dark. . . )

So finally I did a green and a blue. (for reference, the fabric 'paint' dries lighter than you see it here. You can definitely see the color difference now this morning when it's dry.)

These were made for a friend of mine at work who just had a new baby, and he also has a 2 year old little boy - so gotta make for both of them ya know?

(Btw, if anyone is interested in having one of these made to give as a gift or for their own kid, PLEASE contact me and we can discuss cost and customizations. I enjoy making these quite a bit. And pretty much any pattern/color I can find in the fabric, I can make.)

Sorry there is no new ALIT news - we are studiously avoiding the folks in NY, for any number of reasons. Not the least of which is that there is stuff going on that we don't want to tell THEM about as soon as they hear it, it will be "woe is me, poor me, what i have to deal with that *MY* family is going through this . . . blah blah blah" when really - they have nothing to do with it.

Honestly - I think my husband is disappointed. Every night he asks if there's any new family dramas and lately I've been saying no a lot. I think he misses his "soap." :)

Other than that - things are relatively quiet here - nothing much to say which is why I haven't blogged much as late.

I am going to be taking a photography class starting saturday for 6 weeks. It is a Macro Photography class, so learning how to photograph LITTLE things. :) You might see more updates if I manage to take pictures of anything really cool. :) Gotta share and get opinions after all. :)

So that is all for now folks.

Have a great day! :)

2 bottles of beer . . .

2007-09-26T08:45:00.000-04:00

Those who know my last name in real life probably appreciate the BAD joke I'm trying to make with the title. . .

So anyway - it has now been 2 years that I've been married. 2 WHOLE YEARS! Amazing isn't it? :)

Things are good and I'm happy, and as I told my husband, No regrets.

Hubby and I went out to dinner at a local brew pub that we like - I had beer cheese soup. I haven't had that in YEARS. That of course completely filled me up so I barely ate my dinner. Which was a lovely rare flat iron steak with green beens and carrots. I stole the horseradish sauce from my husband's appetizer and it was lovely. :) (And lovely again Tuesday night for leftover dinner.) Didn't have much beer though - ironically. :)

I gave my husband the DVD set he'd been wanting and he gave me this:

(Those are MY glasses. I
find that Dronkey makes a
great place to put my
glasses at night, since they
don't fold up. . . )

Hubby has been trying to
find me one of these for a few
years. Ever since we saw Shrek2
in the theatre and he saw
my reaction to them on
the screen. But he's not
as computer saavy as I.

He finally told me a week or 2 ago that he'd been trying to find one for a couple of years. I told him that in the future, if he's trying to find something for me but doesn't want to tell me what it is, he should email my mom or minijaxter as they should be able to find it for him. :)

So my mom then told me that hubby got me something silly. So I said "is it a dronkey?" To which mom played dumb very convincingly and claimed to not know what a dronkey is and got all cute and stuff when she found out. :) she did a good job.

So - there isn't a whole lot of ALIT going on. The only new thing is that Suka is preggo again. We all knew it wouldn't take long after her sister in law was preggo. So now that Baby Clean Floor (BCF) is born, they of course have to catch up. Or at least Suka does.

I realise however that there are those out there who probably don't know why the new baby M is called Baby Clean Floor. I have been remiss and I'm sorry.

Here's the story:

Auntie Em was very distraught when she heard the name they had chosen. "How can they name him that? It's not a jewish name, or a LI name, and it's horrible and how could they do that?" etc etc etc. So Cousin P said "ma, if you're smart - you'll keep your mouth shut about it and live with it." So she did. A few days later Auntie em starts going on with "Oh P, isn't it wonderful? Isn't it such a wonderful jewish name that they've chosen?" P at this point is understandably puzzled. Auntie Em continues "The name... it's really from a hebrew word!" (the word to which she refers, if you take the name from the previous post, put the emphasis on the last syllable and pronounce it REEK you'll have it. - For now i'll just use Reek as the word itself.) "yes, REEK! In hebrew it means SHINY or BRIGHT!" Umm.. ok. Sure.

So a few days later Star is talking to his friend who lives in a certain jewish country overseas. He says "isn't it great how they picked a jewish word to be his name?" and his friend says "umm, star.. . . You do realize that REEK means 'Clean Floor' right?"

Mom confirmed it with another friend of hers, and it is definitely an idiom in the spoken language to mean Clean Floor. It can also mean bright, but not in the way Aunie Em thought . . . more like "oh yeha... realllll bright." Noted with much sarcasm.

So we have a new character to add to the list. BCF - Baby Clean Floor. :)

And I guess in about 5 or 6 months we'll have Sukaspawn the second.

Enjoy!

breathlessly awaiting . . .

2007-08-21T08:56:00.001-04:00

I would say you are all breathlessly awaiting the answer to the previous post, but the truth is I've told most of you the answers anyway. :)

But for those who don't see me in real life or talk to me in real life very often here is the answer - In a non searchable form. :)

Give me an M
Give me an A
Give me a V
Give me an E
Give me an R
Give me an I
Give me a C
Give me a K

Give me an S
Give me an A
Give me an I
Give me an L

Yep - that is the name this poor child will be growing up with. Gotta love it eh?

Hope you all had fun guessing.

In other news related - the new parents are feeling somewhat paranoid apparently.

Before MSH was born, they sent out an email with a URL for the hospital nursery where they post pictures of the newborns. This way everyone could see the baby right away. Well when he was born cousin P called, and A told her he'd send her pics soon. She said, "well I can just go to the website. . . " at which point A FREAKED out about "where did you get that from?? how did you find out about it?? No don't worry E, it's not up there, we made sure it isn't . . . " etc. Very Odd.

My mother and I have decided NOT to go to the Bris this week. We figure we can get the stories and then some from Cousin P. We won't get points for going up, we'll be ignored most of the time, and on top of that we'd have to see KAR who is no longer in the hospital. And while part of me wants to go to prove we're better than they are (cuz you know they won't come down when I have a kid) the other part of me says that going up there for them, knowing they probably won't come down for me is only feeding into their "NY is the only place that matters" mentality. So - No ceremony.

Mom and I may just spend the $$ at the renn faire instead. (we do go there to shop most of the time after all. :) )

I know - 3 posts in the space of a week... what is the world coming to.

If I don't post again - have a great week/weekend folks - and hopefully I'll have some stories for all of you.

CONTEST

2007-08-17T07:53:00.000-04:00

And I'm looking for some really creative answers here. (Jackie you aren't allowed cuz you know the answer already and when I reveal it - i'll do it special so it's not searchable)

Ok - So, the Star's brother (my cousin A) and his wife E became the parents of a 6lb, 20" long baby boy.

He was breech, so he was born via scheduled C-section yesterday (Thursday.)

Now, Since this is all part of ALIT - I find it some what appropriate that E seems to like Soap Style names . . . (No, not Dial or Ivory - you know the Soaps I mean. :) )

The First initial is "M"

The Middle initial is "S"

The Last - well, they can't change the last name and it's normal and I have no intention of really posting it here - but if you want to have FUN with the names the last initial is "H"

I am *REALLY* looking forward to your answers. . . .

When I get a few really good guesses i'll post the name - sort of in code. :)

Good luck!!

It's a dog eat dog world out there . . . . :)

2007-08-13T11:37:00.000-04:00

So - I have a few things to share with you today.

Which do you want first??? Cuteness or ALIT???

Hmm - since I'm not planning to wait for an answer(grin) I'll go with ALIT, so then the coolness and cuteness can wash away the taste.

So - I'm sure you are all wondering what happened at Sukaspawn's 1st birthday party. (since that WAS the topic of my post a month ago.)

Unfortunately, we did not have a full on spy there. No one wanted to share much with us. (heck, when we were in NY the last time with the lawyer, we asked Auntie Em what they were doing, and she said "oh I don't know, something at the house, or at the temple. Nothing big." OF course, cousin P had already gotten the invitation so we knew just what was going to be happening - at least in part...)

So -turns out that Auntie Em who wasn't supposed to be paying at all, ended up paying for all the food. Only about 40 people showed (some snafu about RSVP's i think.) And Suka's parents must have reneged on some of what they promised as there was No moon bounce, No face painter, and No Disney princesses. They had a DJ. Who played all teenagery techno dance music. They paid for a 4 hour party at the temple and everyone had left by 2 hours. Sounds like one hell of a flop to me.

Now - Our trip to NY. We didn't accomplish all that much really except to solidify the divide in the family. We went through the list of items, and a good portion of them are still "missing" and of course Auntie Em says, "maybe KAR has them..." so she won't have to admit where they probably are. The big thing was the Chandelier. That is the one and ONLY item we contested on the list. Auntie Em kept saying "you take whatever you want..." and that is the only thing she flipped over. And FLIP she did. She was like a rabid thing - going from meek and sad and miserable to screaming. I swear I could almost see spittle flying out of her mouth. She went on and on about how hard her life is, and how sick her husband, and she has to deal with this and that and KAR and everything else, and now when she goes to her son's house she can be at home in her mother's dining room and everything is just like it was, with the china etc, and with all of this going on in her life how can my mother care so my about a F*CKING chandelier. Then she put her head on the table and cried. It was impressive to say the least complete with, "you said you were never coming back, and that you had everything you wanted..." - Tell me, do YOU remove light fixtures when a house is up for sale?? Exactly. Shortly thereafter she left the house and went home and refused to finish leaving Cousin A to finish up for her. It's still contested but we will probably never get it because it is already hanging in SukaStar's house. Cousin A even pulled a Tony Soprano. He very deliberately separated my mother and I - and when he had her alone in his car did the "what will it take to get you to give up the chandelier?"

Then he pulled me aside later saying he wanted to ask me something. Next thing I know he's giving me a lecture about how it's all between the sisters and I say things I shouldn't say in front of everyone etc. It was a very nasty and sneaky methodology - and there was a lot of reinforcement to the "you aren't here, so you don't know. " It was a pretty miserable visit to NY let me tell you.

So then we are on to more recent events - KAR is back in the loony bin. Psychiatric ward at the hospital. This time involuntary.

The events as I understand them are as follows. KAR is watching TV. The companion (L) says "come on KAR, we need to get ready for the dr. It's time to get dressed." (she is supposed to go for a neuro workup b/c all the drugs don't seem to help so they are looking for neurological reasons to her issues.) So KAR says No, i want to watch tv. (jerry springer in case anyone is interested.) L says "ok - you have 10 minutes, then you have to get ready." So 15 minutes later L comes to get KAR and get her ready and KAR refuses. Says she doesn't want to. Then she says that she is going to call the police and tell them that L is trying to kill her. And that she will tell them that L treats her so badly she wants to kill herself etc. It's all attention grabbing on her part.

Well - She picked up the phone and dialed 911. Then she hung up. Well you can't do that, because if you hang up on a 911 then they start to worry. . . so 5 Cops show up at the door. At which point KAR is going a bit nuts and saying L wants to kill her etc. And that conditions are so bad she wants to kill herself etc. Well.. that was that. You can't threaten to kill yourself to cops - so it was immediate involuntary commitment. She keeps asking everyone in th hospital what song it is she keeps hearing, but no one else can hear it. (at one point we were told it was Onward christian soldiers, and that she was singing Oh my darling Clementine to try and overpower the voices in her head.)

Are we having fun yet?? Oh and she needs the MRI for the neuro work up - but the hospital only has a closed one, and KAR refuses to go into that one.

LI keeps turning faster and faster eh?

Now on to better stuff.

I got a tattoo this weekend. :) Here's the picture - it's on my Upper Right Arm.

This weekend I was also puppy sitting for part of the day for my brother's dog. :) Here's some uber cuteness for you all. :) She is now 10.5 weeks old.

using Zoe as
a chin rest.

Perpendicular
Puppies :)

Falling asleep
with her head
still up. :)

overboard, underboard, hit them with a board?

2007-07-13T13:39:00.000-04:00

So, in a few weeks we have an auspicious even occurring. Sukaspawn is turning 1 whole year old next month. This of course has sparked a flurry of planning and ideas for what to do.

Now first - what would YOU do for a first birthday party? I always thought (and granted I don't have kids myself yet) that some family a few friends, and a few other kids. Something low key, at home, or some place else kid friendly. Right?

So - Abbreviations - Location#1 = LCC (a country club) Location#2 = BE (Ball room at a religious institution) Location#3 = BS (Ball room at second religious location) Trip #1= HP (a certain chocolate amusement park, Trip#2 = IS (a certain small country in a war torn part of the middle east with religious significance.) Ok - got it? Good.

Ok - so the first idea was going to be a party for roughly 75 people at LCC. I'm still trying to figure out how that could be appropriate but hey... I"m practical. :) This is the most mild of the plans as far as I know.

#2 - Grand Ballroom at BE. With a D. Princess or a magician for 60-70 people.

#3 - "well, why don't we take her where we went on our Honeymoon?" I.e. HP. :) But that idea was nixed because Sukaspawn is too young to eat chocolate. (because THAT is the reason I would cancel a birthday party for a 1 year old at an amusement park....riiiggghhhhttt...)

#4 - "how about we take her to visit IS?" - again, a 1 year old, on a plane for umpteen hours for something she won't remember to a place that isn't precisely SAFE right now....

#5 - We're back to BE. 70+ people involved and D. Princess CinderE.
(I find it interesting they picked one of the Princesses that relied on her man more than the more modern ones.. but that's a psychology lesson for another day.)

Well, that was the current plan until they found out that BE wasn't available due to rennovations. (they don't have memberships at ANY of these locations btw, they just try to piggy back on family members.)

#6 - BS. Big ball room for approx $600-700. 70+ people. 3 D. Princesses, a Face painter, and a Moon bounce, an elaborate luncheon etc.

Apparently, when describing this to the woman at the temple, she looked at Suka and said "are you crazy?? she's 1 year old!" At which point Suka gets upset and Suka's mother takes the woman aside and berates her for being cruel and rude to her daughter and that she owes her daughter an apology etc.

They leave and go to Auntie Em's. Where suka breaks down in TEARS about how everyone is so mean to her and that she just wants to do the best for her daughter and doesn't want to cause trouble for anyone. And that she (this is good) doesn't want to cause trouble with the furniture and chandelier and Auntie Em should just take them back because she doesn't want to be a bother etc. (all done with tears.) At which point of course Auntie Em and Suka's mother calm her down and tell her of course she shouldn't give back the furniture etc and blah blah blah.

Last I heard we are up to option #7.

#7 - Downgraded to the smaller ballroom at BS for $350, and down to 2 D. Princesses. Don't know which ones, and I don't know if the moon bounce is staying and/or the face painter either. And this is all being planned for first week of august.

and You KNOW auntie Em is going to end up helping to pay for it. But when cousin P calls her mother b/c her house is in bad shape, and will require $25K worth of repair she gets "well I guess you'll just have to take out an HE loan." Nice huh?

P also tells her mother that her son will be going to 6 weeks of camp this summer because they can't afford the full 8 weeks. So Auntie Em says "why not come up here for the last 2 weeks?" So P asks what would her son do? And Auntie Em says "Well we'll enroll him in camp up here for 2 weeks, i'll pay for it." So why won't she pay the less expensive 2 weeks down where he'll already be. No, it's perfectly all right to bring a kid to the last 2 weeks of summer camp in one of the cliquiest environments in the world... right - this is a good thing. (EYE ROLL)

And last but not least - apparently Suka was talking to Auntie Em on the phone and the following comment came out: "My HUSBAND says I should have everything I want, because I deserve to be happy." Right there establishing a hierarchy... "he's *MY* husband first, and your son second..." Lovely right?

Oh well - there's your suka stories for the day. Might have more after next weekend when we go back up for final estate settlement discussion type things. I'll let you know.

For now - I will just leave you with some puppy cuteness. This is a picture of the puppy my brother is supposed to be bringing home in another week or so.

OMG i've been tagged!

2007-07-03T10:37:00.000-04:00

It's the first time I've been individually tagged - cool. :) so here we go - Mary Bishop was the one holding the tail to pin on me this time... so without further ado:

Each player lists 8 facts/habits about themselves. The rules of the game are posted at the beginning before those facts/habits are listed. At the end of the post, the player then tags 8 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know that they have been tagged and asking them to read your blog.

1)I played oboe for 14 years and miss it desperately but my practical nature won't let me spend the $$ it would cost to really have one to play.

2) I went to grad school for Theatre Production and ended up fixing computers for a living.

3) I have 4 tattoos and am scheduled for more . . . :)

4) I have a twisted view of the natural food chain - i'm a meat eater, I believe in animals doing as they were meant. I rescued a bunny yesterday from my dog, but it wouldn't have bothered me to know it was fed to a snake. . . (I used to have pet snakes.)

5) I'm an inherently lazy person - the least amount of energy required. :) (one of my favorite cartoons - Count your Sheep - said - "i'm not lazy, I'm physically Conservative!")

6) I Like cars. I'm not a "car buff" per se - but I like nice ones, and I like to be comfortable in them, and i *LOVE* to brag about what kind of deal I got on whatever my latest one is. :)

7) I used to have a motorcycle - and I still have the license.

8) I make stuffed bunnies. :)

(i'm not really sure who to tag - so anyone who reads this and wants to participate - you are tagged!)

:)

CUTENESS!!!!!

2007-07-02T10:39:00.000-04:00

So - i have never seen Mister move as fast I saw him move this morning.

A baby bunny found it's way into our yard. :( And he caught it. On the bright side - baby bunny is doing ok. He dropped it when asked (mostly) though he did still try to play and kept following it. it found it's way into a hole trying to get away from him - but couldn't. It was crying. :(

So I picked it up and brought it inside and put it in a box. And it is now at the wild life rehabilitator being taken care of.

a little scared, a little torn skin - but no blood.

In other news - we rescued the jewelry from NY - at least the stuff we were really worried about. As for everything else - we probably won't get any of it, and we'll just have to live with it. Such is life I suppose. Not a whole lot to report on there - just... rumblings that we may have helped foster. . . and we have front row seats!! :)

Confectionary Prosthetics. . . .

2007-06-11T09:07:00.000-04:00

(I'm going to have to get one of you bloggers to tell me how to see what people search on to get to your blogs etc, to see how much I get off of this oddball title. . .)

I'll explain the title in a bit.

First - I'm sorry I haven't posted in so long. There has been *SO* much stuff going on with SukaStar et al and getting so emotional, that it was just impossible to really blog about.

The 2 mind boggling things. . .

1 -Guess who suddenly has an austrian crystal chandelier in their brand new red dining room, hanging over my grandmother's dining room set???

Yup - they took it - without asking anyone. Hopefully there will be a resolution to this soon.

2 -apparently they are furnishing their entire house by shopping at Grandma's house. The RE agent keeps telling us she finds the alarm off every time she goes to visit and the house is trashed. If they want a bookcase - they take it and dump everything else on the floor.

These are just to 2 biggies - there's been some nasty NASTY emotional stuff on everyone's part of up there, even A&E who we thought were decent - even they are making nasty an insensitive comments... - Guess who won't be getting anything handmade for their baby shower??

At any rate - time to jump topics.. (this will happen a few times today.)

So can you believe - that all of this packaging. . .

Is for THIS??

Gotta love it eh?? :)

Now - to explain the title...

last weekend (not this just past but the one before) me and the household knives were having some arguments. I cut 2 of my fingers on my new Mandolin slicer. Yup - sliced off little sections of my finger tips... that was fun. Then I was using my Kershaw Mezzaluna (DISTURBINGLY SHARP) and I went to clean it and accidentally ran my forefinger over it - with reasonable amount of pressure. So I had a nice 1/2" long cut that was probably at least 1/8" deep. It was bleeding. A lot. So i called my mom to see if i should get stitches - and she said "pour pepper on it." I said "HELL NO!" (my brother did that once, said it burned like 1000 suns, course it DID stop the bleeding... but no.) So she had me put a damp tea bag over it which did help the clot factor and I was able to bandage it. Then i went back to chopping, and nicked the forefinger on my left hand. at this point I had 4 fingers out of 10 bandaged and I handed the knife to my husband and said "your turn!"

So a week later I finally have no bandaids on my fingers but the big cut is still there - though thankfully finally closed all the way. So yesterday, mom and I are laying in bed watching "The Little Mermaid" which she has never seen. My husband (the pun nut) came in and said,

"just in case we have a repeat of last weekend, I decided to be prepared." And from behind his back he pulls and hands to me a Package of Lady Fingers.

I looked at them for a minute and then threw them at him while laughing hysterically at just how far my hubby will go for a joke. My THRIFTY husband spent MONEY on a joke. :) At which point while laughing I couldn't help talking about my husband's idea of Confectionary Prosthetics! :)

Later that night he brought me a bowl of ice cream with lady fingers... (very tasty dessert.)

And last but not least - for the cute factor of the day... We finally cleared the space so the loveseat was easily accessible by those afraid of giant exercise balls, so they are back at their favorite activity . . . (mister in particular)

Suka Stories!!!! :)

2007-05-15T11:52:00.000-04:00

That's right!

I have new Suka stories . . .

So - they finally closed on the house. They have an 80/20 loan - which means the house is *fully* financed and cosigned by auntie em. Now - you have just fully financed a house that's around $700K. So what's the first thing you do with your new house?

a) Move in and relax.
b) Then spend tons of money renovating the house prior to moving in.

Can we guess which one they are doing??? Apparently all of the work is being under the table and paid cash b/c it's cheaper but Star isn't satisfied with the work that is being done.

He claims to have 5 water main shut off valves, 3 thermostats, and 4 circuit breaker panels. And he is bragging about this b/c obviously more is better.

Things they are doing in this brand new house that they just SO loved right. . .

a) New counters in the kitchen (granite we think)
b) New sink in the kitchen
c) Construction of a brand new ISLAND in the kitchen.
d) Replacing ALL carpet
e) Painting and re wallpapering the entire house
f) Finish the entire basement.
g) Re-do the main floor bathroom
h) Since the master bedroom suite is a separate addition, you have to go downstairs and then back up to get to the rest of the upstairs, so they are breaking through that as well.
i) She is Doing the Master Bedroom in Lime Green Toille.

Gods only know what this is all costing. I have to say at least $50 grand.
And they also painted the living room. . . BLOOD RED to match the red in the chairs of the dining room set they "inherited" from my grandmother.

Suka won't move in now because she claims her allergies are too bad with the work being done. So she is staying with 'mom.' Can we say how happy this made my poor cousin when she called to talk to her mother? She calls and suka says "i think she went out" but won't get off her rear end to check. She actually wanted my cousin P to call back and see if Auntie Em would pick up cuz it was too hard for her to go get her.

She says she MIGHT be able to move in when they are working on the basement because that MIGHT be far enough away but she isn't sure.

Meanwhile - this poor child - the sukaspawn. The things they do to that child - in some ways i'd have to think child abuse - but there's nothing we can do for that. . .

So you all heard about he poop puller. so that's number 1.

Apparently there has been no mention of actually child proofing this house. Baby is 9 months old, so one would think you'd want to child proof the house. Apparently not. Why you ask?? Hmm - could it be because the child is not crawling yet? Now granted, 9 months isn't that late for not crawling - some crawl early and some crawl late. However, there is a very specific reason why she isn't crawling yet. It's because . . .

Get this. . . this is too good. . . (sad really) . . .

Apparently, Hello and Auntie Em and everyone else are under ORDERS that the child will NOT be put down. She will be CARRIED everywhere and never to be put on the floor.

They also never feed her in a high chair. She is always held on their laps and fed because Suka claims the high chair back is too straight up and not good for the baby.

I find it interesting that the baby is always smiling and laughing when playing with Hello but soon as Suka walks in the baby starts crying.

The child is getting no chance to develop and learn and grow.

Now, the piece d'resistance.

The other day cousin P called Auntie Em. Suka was there with sukaspawn and Auntie Em was holding the baby. She's talking to P and the baby is screaming. P asks Em "what's wrong with the baby? That's a very angry and mad cry!" So Em says "She wants something I have and I won't give it to her." So P asks what she has and Em says that it's the phone. So P says "So give her the phone! I'll say hi to my niece." Auntie Em says "I can't give it to her, Suka won't let me." And of course P asks her why. The explanation?

.... This is good

.... This is really good. :)

Apparently, Suka won't let her have the phone because she might put it in her mouth, and that would be BAD because . . . .

wait for it . . .

hehehe . . .

The phone is ELECTRONIC!

HEHHE - Enjoy your days!

Life/perception changing things. . .

2007-05-03T08:40:00.000-04:00

PainterGirl is hosting Create a Connection for getting to know you. Thought it might be fun to participate a bit. . .

So here goes - she wants to know: "...what book, movie and song not only changed your life, but also changed the way you thought about the medium. It could have been when you were a child or a teenager or just last week. Anytime in your life."

So - Let's see. We'll start early in age. :)

MUSIC: I grew in a musical household. My mother was a flute teacher and my brother and I both played instruments from Fairly young ages. I think the song that really started my love for music of all kinds and struck a chord (sorry for the pun - been with my husband too long) with me was 30,000 pounds of Bananas by Harry Chapin. I started hearing this when I was very young as my mother was a *HUGE* Chapin fan - and we used to say "how much do you love me?" and instead of big wide arms and saying THIS MUCH, we would open our arms wide and says "30,000 POUNDS!" :) Growing up I would listen to more Chapin songs and a lot of them would spark conversations about politics and history that songs were based on, along with pyschology and thoughts about the education system etc, as well as hearing about relationships in many of his songs. It was a way to learn about life through music.

BOOKS: I was 13. I was a complete and utter couch potato. Would come home from school and watch TV all evening. I would do homework at school so it wouldn't interfere. I started reading at a very young age and was good at it - but it was too much like school work. When I was 13, I went to a bat mitzvah and met a new friend. She introduced me to this book. This is the book that got me started back into a love of reading. It introduced to me an entirely new genre and type of writing and I voraciously read all of her books that summer. Mercedes Lackey is very good at sucking in people. I have outgrown a lot of her writing now and having read a lot more things that are more sophisticated etc, I can see the simplicity in it, and yet, I can reread Arrows of the Queen and that whole series over and over and over and never get tired of them. They are old friends. And now I've spent the last 6.5 years working part time in a bookstore and learning about all the other wonderful authors out there and continuously renewing my joy in reading. And of course, having met my husband at the store while I was working, and us having very similar bookshelves, kind of adds to the life altering joy i have discovered stemming from that one book.

MOVIE: Movies are more difficult. I'm not sure if there is a particular movie that made any drastic changes in thoughts but. . . I have to say that the one movie/series that I can watch OVER AND OVER AND OVER no matter how often is The Mummy and The Mummy Returns. I know they are light, fluffy, action movies. There isn't anything deep about these movies or anything else. But the area ALWAYS entertaining to me - and whenever i'm home sick and there is nothing else on TV - those are the movies I put in the DVD player. I wore out my first set of DVD's and had to buy new copies. :)

here's today's little bit of insight into the mind of Miss Ilanna. :)

***warning - semi gross commentary below!***

In other news - Can I call em or can I call em?! - Just heard that a certain Suka was pregnant. (she lost it.) But i TOLD you all she'd be pregnant before her sister in law gave birth. And I'll bet she's retrying as we speak. (so to speak anyway) Rumor has it that she may have an eating disorder (which could certainly explain so many miscarriages so young...) We are also speculating about a possible munchausen's type thing going on. Though truth is, the girl is just playing house as far as I'm concerned. She was visiting Auntie Em and asked Auntie Em to distract sukaspawn for a moment. At which point (and I and my mother have NEVER heard of this mind you) she used some kind of TOOL to extract the usual diaper filler from her daughter stating that she doesn't "pooh" enough. Umm huh??? I mean if the kid is constipated give her a little prune juice and you are all good. My guess is she is playing with a doll. She feeds her, and then the natural progression is to change a diaper, but she does it on a schedule not on an as needed basis and so decides something is wrong if there isn't anything there. And my guess is this only happens on the weekends, b/c Hello is there during the week. I am also willing to bet it's more often done when in 'public' to show off just how good of a mommy she is being. Ahh well - just had to get that off my chest and well.. it's new Suka story which i'm sure you all await with baited breath. :)

Let's see how long it takes for Auntie Em to have to start paying SukaStar's mortgage considering they bought a house for roughly $700K using an 80/20 mortgage. This should get interesting. (oh and before they move in in 2 weeks they want to repaint and wall paper the whole house, put in carpet and granite countertops - b/c suka says she can't kosher the ones that are there. And of course they want to use all of Auntie Em's contractors... we figure in hopes she'll end up paying for it all. but - for some odd reason... they can't seem to hire them. hmmmmm :) )

That's all for today folks :) I had a great time visiting my friends in TX. We just kind of hung out and relaxed all weekend. Got to see the bats fly out from under the bridge in austin which was neat. Haven't gone through the pics yet to see if any are workable. If I do I'll post them.

have a great weekend folks!

When are we done. . . ?

2007-04-26T13:40:00.000-04:00

Ok - Today's rant is regarding this story on CNN, detailing how the University of Virginia has passed a referendum apologizing for the fact that the school used slave labor between 1819 and 1865.

I have REAL problems with what they University did along with the whole VA legislature that set the precedent. (and I know this isn't the only example)

Why are they still apologizing? I mean - let's do the math. It's 2007. That means it's 143 years since the last year they used slave labor. So for someone to have been one of the slaves working there, figure they started working at age 10 (probably too young but it's a number.) They would have to be 153 years old today to receive this apology. Added to that, people in charge of the school would have to be 173 years old to be here apologizing.

Why people now feel the need to apologize for something that happened a) 200 years ago and b) was the norm for the time does not make sense to me. In my mind, one should only apologize for something they had a direct hand in. (this does not count for things like when someone says they are sick and you say "i'm sorry..." that's empathizing, feeling bad that they feel bad.) These people did not themselves employ slaves and the slaves that were employed are long since dead. There are no more slaves in this country. The more people continue to apologize for something they didn't do, the more they indicate that they are at fault and give power to something that doesn't deserve power. It gives credence to the concept of "we were slaves 200 years ago, so we deserve special treatment and kid gloves now." I *HATE* that concept. You weren't a slave, you didn't suffer the pains and hardships, so why do you get the apology?

Does that make sense?

it's something that just frustrates me to no end. Where are the apologies to oh.. say the jews? We were slaves 3000 years ago. Did the apology time frame expire? Or how about the women who all throughout history had to server husbands and families with no pay or recognition or any say in their own fate, simply because they lacked a certain extremity? Have the romans apologized to the greeks and all other nations they conquered for taking them slaves?

Ya know - in Judaism on Yom Kippur (the day of atonement) people apologize and ask forgiveness. (only for things THEY have done mind you.) If person B does not forgive person a, then A can ask again. If person B denies forgiveness 3 time, then that is now THEIR sin and no longer person A's. To me - apologizing this many years after the fact, for something you were never directly involved in is a sin in and of itself, especially as the victims are not there to forgive you. . .

Just my thoughts for the day. . . .

Sensationalism I can do with out. . . .

2007-04-19T08:38:00.000-04:00

I really hope that no one takes this post the wrong way.

The shootings/massacre/tragedy(whatever you want to call it) at VA Tech is an incident that is heart wrenching and terrible. I truly believe that and feel for everyone who is affected directly or indirectly by this horrible event.

However.

I have to say, that the media's handling of this situation is absolutely atrocious. I mean, last night I was sitting in the bar and a news update came on. "new information about the shootings revealed!" was one headline on the top of the screen. On the bottom "new information about the shooter!". In the middle of the screen - trisecting it was a picture of the man in his bullet proof vest etc holding guns out to either side like some sad parody of a Lara Croft: Tomb Raider cover or something. Did we really need to see that?

It's been 3 days since the incident and the newspapers are still headlining with the story - posting that picture and pictures of everyone grieving and so forth. Can't they let these people grieve in peace? We've gotten all of the information we needed within the first 2 days. It is all so sensationalized and it find that truly disgusting.

What also really bothers me is the concentration on the shooter - all of this information, his picture the constant stream of information about this person. They are making him into a hero for all those other disturbed folks out there. Why aren't they doing a story on mental illness in this country? Why aren't they doing a story on Liviu Librescu, a Holocaust Survivor who died saving the lives of his students. This is the man who should be high-lighted and praised for his selfless actions to save the lives of his students.

Or, how about as Cartoonist Mike Lukovich depicts here are we concentrating on 30+ deaths here in the US that are yes, absolutely TRAGIC and unexpected, and forgetting all about the issues over seas. All of the people dying and fighting a war that most people didn't want in the first place, based on lies, and that perpetuates long beyond when it should have ended. Why are we not paying any attention to those civilian casualties who die daily because they happen to live in a country of unrest?

This is what bothers me the most - the distortion of events by the media, the constant inundation of tragedy and death whenever we turn on the TV. For DAYS on end specials and stories about the incident bombarding us with tragedy and grief and sensationalizing a horrible event.

It happened. And while I feel for and grieve with the families of those students, can't we move on? Aren't there other things in this world that deserve this kind of coverage?

-----------------------------------
And now that the Rant is over. Let's move on to something a little more light hearted.

I bought an ID bracelet last night. It's stainless steel so no allergies. :) But it has this nice EMPTY bar on it - just waiting to be "written" on and i'm looking for suggestions.

I thought about my hebrew name - but they don't have hebrew letters. I could do it in english letters but just not the same. :)

Minijaxter came up with: "In case of emergency, Insert Chocolate."
I was also thinking - since 18 represents life (the word Chai in hebrew means life or 18) doing something like: 18, 36, 72, 144. . . Just keep on living.

What do you all think? (i'm willing to entertain serious and funny suggestions. . . )

I probably won't post tomorrow as I'm leaving in the afternoon for a weekend with my friend - so hope everyone has a good weekend and that you don't let current events keep you from living your own life.

Live it in celebration of those who can't. . .

Long arm of the . . . Mouse??

2007-04-17T08:22:00.000-04:00

Ok - I know it's hard to see - but ...

I found this sticker on - My Tomato. That's right, my husband bought me a tomato so I could put it on my taco, and this is the produce sticker that was on it. My word... DISNEY produce?!

I found this utterly amusing and entertaining and thought I would share it with everyone. :)

In other news I am going to Austin, TX this weekend to visit one of my best friends whom I haven't seen in a long time. (not since she was in my wedding a year and a half ago. :) ) We have decided we needed girl time, so I have a feeling we're gonna leave her hubby behind for a lot of this weekend LOL.

Not too many new things happening. I have 4 more weeks of physical therapy, but doctor is happy with the progress of my knee. I went to the gym with Minijaxter this weekend, and my thighs are still a little sore from the Hip Aduction/abduction machine. :) But it was a good workout, and once PT is done, I think I may try to go to the gym more often. Maybe join up mini's gym and trade out my "pt" sessions for work out sessions. Will be interesting to see if I actually follow up on it.

For ALIT - remember how my mom didn't want folks willy nilly in my grandmother's house? Well they took that to heart, and didn't tell us that they were going in there also to provide maintenance for the boiler. So they stopped that, and now to the tune of $9000, the boiler seized and cracked and died. Then there was some leaks from the nor'easter this weekend into the basement which was discovered while the real estate agent was showing the house. (sigh) If it's not one thing it's another right?

Ahh well - when it rains it pours eh? (ducking the bad joke police....)

Health Care and drama... :)

2007-04-11T10:09:00.000-04:00

So - I found out this past week how frustrating health care in this country can really be. I want to preface this whole thing by saying my insurance company has been absolutely FABULOUS in working with me. The rules though can make things difficult.

I have... an HMO - that's right - the whole primary care thing with referrals and everything else required. Well I didn't like my old doctors (we'll call them OD) b/c it was insane to get an appointment. If I had a cold or sinus infection I would get "sorry, but Dr. J doens't have any appointments until 2 weeks from now. I can fit you in with the Nurse Practitioner." Now - I have no objection to NP's. They do a wonderful job usually. Problem was this place a) overbooked her terribly and b) it sucked to wait 2 hours for a 3 minute cold impersonal visit with this particular NP. So i switched. The issue though: I have 2 specialists right now (Physical therapy and the orthopedist.) So to switch, i needed to see the new PCP on the first of the month and get all new referrals before I could see my specialists that month because the new referrals would cancel out the old, and you can't have 2 PCP's in one month. (or at least you can't visit 2 in one month.)

So I went to the dr my friend recommended. This is A. Small practice, willing to fit you in when you are sick etc. I figured great. Well small means that office manager is her husband and he does EVERYTHING - including taking you back to the rooms, answering the phones, filing etc. SO i go in to see her on 4/2. She agrees to the referrals, it's all good. Thursday 4/5 I call the PT office to see if the referral arrived. (he said it would probably be there the next day.) They said, nope no referral. So i call A. They aren't there until 1030am. So I leave an urgent message with the answering service. 11am and still no referral. The appt is at 1130. So I call back, and get a woman who says she just got there and doesn't know what's going on etc. She says the dr has been seeing patients since 8am, they just don't turn their phones on for a few hours. I argue with her a bit and tell her this is poor patient care etc, and she says "i'll try to write this up now and fax it over, what's their number?" and i'm like - umm.. I don't have it... don't you?? you were supposed to send it over 2 days ago. So she says she'll try to find it and send it over. I leave for PT. I get there, No referral. I call again and the office manager answers. he says "well you'll just have to reschedule the appointment because there isn't enough time to get a referral." At this point i'm VERY upset. the people at PT can't believe what's happening. I argue with him some more and finally say "well i guess i'm going to have to find a new doctor too because you are too much of an idiot to handle simple paperwork." - now... at this point in the regular customer service world the person should say "ma'am i really do not have to take that kind of abuse. If you calm down we can figure out this situation." it's basically a first warning to defuse the situation. is that what he did? no... he said: "well, no you've hurt my feelings. I guess you will have to find a new doctor," and then he hung up on me. One of the girls at PT said she knows this dr (goes there) and while the dr is nice, getting refills and referrals can be difficult. well - in my mind if you can't handle simple paperwork such as a referral, i don't care how good the dr is i'm not going to go there. At this point i'm crying and I leave PT b/c I can't have my appointment without the referral.

I call the insurance company and they are more than happy to get me an exception for my appt on friday so i wouldn't need the referral, and said they would back date a new primary care to beginning of the month. This means i'd have to pay A's office visit fee but i could still switch docs. So i call another dr a friend recommended. (B) They say, shouldn't be a problem call tomorrow for a fit in appointment and we'll get me squared away. So i officially switch and wait til the next day. (friday) I call friday morning and after much arguing, person checking with the doctor and the doctor refusing to help and finally the office manager coming on and saying "we can't fit you in as a new patient. You'll have to wait until mid may for a new patient visit, and oh yeah - it takes at least 7 days for a referral. 7 DAYS!!!!! they claim that they get *SO* many referrals they have to do (only 2 docs in the practice) that it takes at least a week for them to go through unless it's an emergency, and my situation didn't qualify.

There is a happy ending though after all of this stress. I call the insurance company again and explain the situation. I randomly pick a doc off their website. (C) They are in the same building as my PT. I've had good luck with the hospital centers so far (PT has been great) and so what the hell right? I call, explain the situation to the operator. She checks with each unit to see who is taking new patients. They tell me Dr. J is and switch me to that "unit." See - they have a LOT of doctors in the practice, but they are divided into units of only 2 or 3 so there's full staff for every 2 or 3 dr's. So they answer... and this is Good Friday mind you. And not only could they take me as a new patient, but they could fit me in THAT day! at 3pm. wow! So i took the appointment, made the switch and went later that day.

Night and day let me tell you. I got there early to do paperwork. I hadn't even sat back down after finishing the papers before they called me back at 3pm on the dot. The MA (medical assistant) did her own work up and went over my papers an history and then the doc came in about 10 minutes later. She did a very thorough history and exam and then they wrote up the referrals, and handed them to me to take with me as I left. See - not that hard!! :) when i talked to her office staff they were boggled. "7 days for a referral?? that's ridiculous, we ask for 3 days as a courtesy, but 7? And they *CAN'T* have more referrals to do than we do!"

I guess there's a big difference between competent office staff and an office that actually cares about their patients and their health as well as customer service and isn't just in it for the business.

In other news - ALIT progresses with the usual idiocy. Turns out that auntie em is actually cosigning on sukastar's house. Big surprise. They are going to end up SUCKING her dry and in the process cousin P gets attacked and left by the wayside. It gets more and more complicated the longer it goes on - too many details to go into. But one amusing bit...

My KAR(krazy aunt R if you don't remember) has a number of paintings by a very famous dead contemporary artist whom she represented when she was a lawyer. We'll call these Art. :) Suka has the GALL/Chutzpa/cajones to ask KAR, "would you mind terribly if I took one of your Art's to hang in the new house?? it would look so lovely and add so much color and cheer to the new house." Kar may be nuts but she ain't stupid. If Suka 'borrows' art, art will never be returned and she's just scammed a VERY valuable piece. Kar thankfully said no and then complained about it to Cousin P, but i mean - really! The GALL! :)

oh well - I think this post has been long enough. For your pitying cutesy feelings of the day. :) My poor puppy Z hurt her paw. She ripped the nail shell off her nail leaving the quick entirely exposed. So i took her to the emergency vet yesterday. (thankfully only $40 worth since the vet tech did the work and she didn't need to actually see the vet.) and they got her all wrapped up. I was worried about her chewing off the bandage so - the cone was brought out. Poor puppy - walked into walls and couldn't figure out how to fix it! :)

And the Answer is. . . . (drumroll please...)

2007-04-06T18:35:00.000-04:00

A Wood burning Hot tub. Would you believe it??? :)

to me - it looked small - like kitchen bowl size. . . but no - it's a 5 foot wide bowl with a wood burner that heats the water as it goes through the coils and fills the tub. Weird huh?

oh... and it's only $6000. :)

wow - been a while eh?

2007-04-03T14:27:00.000-04:00

I know it's been a while - i'm sorry. :) Haven't had much to say that i could say publicly and didn't feel like trying to organize all the garbage into intelligible form for anyone not living it. LOL

short and sweet today - a little contest of sorts - I'm looking for the best/most creative answer (but currect answer I suppose are ok too) - *NO CHEATING*!!!! :)

Identify this object: Have fun!

As promised...

2007-03-15T08:41:00.000-04:00

Completed pictures of the bathroom

Tub - View 1

Tub View 2
You can see how
he trimmed
the floor so it
would be all even.

The domed
ceiling.
Supposedly
it keeps the
steam more
contained.

The double
showerhead.

neat huh?

And a clearer
view of the
UBERCUTE!

:) so adorable
huh?

hehe

In other news, I gave the bunny to D - and he ADORED IT! he thought it was just
the neatest thing - so I'm all excited.

That's about it new since well.. yesterday. :) Don't get used to this many posts in one week though. :)

Laters!

it's alive!! ALIIIIIIIIIVVVEEE AHHHHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!

2007-03-14T10:48:00.000-04:00

:)

So anyway the project i've been working on is done.

see the story is - my friend B was wearing this blue panne velvet shirt at our friend D's birthday party. As drunk as he was, he was in tactile mode and couldn't stop petty B cuz the velvet felt so nice. :) So i was gonna make him one of my patented stuffed bunnies out of the velvet. But i ran into a few snags.

Unfortunately there weren't enough big pieces to cut the bunny out of the leftovers. and because it's so stretchy every time i cut it the whole thing curled in and malformed etc. So frankensteining the pieces together so wasn't going to work. So while I was at the fabric store I began looking for a replacement.

I found... what amounts to blue polyester muppet skin. :) It's very fuzzy, and fluffy but not in a matted fur feeling kind of way - it's more like "fun fur yarn" if you are familiar with that. And it's very nice to pet. very silky feeling.

So after much shaking and vacuuming of blue fur, and aggravated sewing and cutting etc. :)

it's complete.

I give you - The Great Blue non-velveteen Rabbit! :)

Which way did she go George? Which way did she go?

2007-03-13T14:22:00.000-04:00

I know i haven't been here in a bit.

Not too much has been going on that I can really blog about unfortunately.

The ALIT stuff is really coming to a head with a true fracturing of family going on. Revisionist history, hurt feelings, lack of consideration of other people's feelings etc. Along with setups and manipulations upon the LI contingent's parts etc.

My view of the future, is SukaStar's house falling through, and them ending up living with Auntie Em, or trying to buy my Grandmother's house at a cheap price. Should be interesting to see what happens come May.

not too much else is happening right now. Bathfitters is installing my new tub/shower in the hall bathroom. The Installer is a Kick and a half. From brooklyn, and was a marine for 18 years, and the flirting was on full force. It was a lot of fun. He'll be back tomorrow to finish up.

Here's some pictures of the progress. I"ll post pics of the completion after it's done tomorrow.

Left wall and the Right wall

the lovely soaking tub.

As of when he left, the walls are no longer bare. They are now drywalled with green board. Tomorrow he will install the surround and all of the trim and the domed ceiling, along with the crescent curtain rod etc. I can't wait. I wish i had picture of the old one, i didn't think to take them. The old tub was pretty hideous. :)

I love bathfitters. And as many people don't realize, they don't just lay over top. If the old isn't in good shape, they rip out and replace rather than lay over. Plus, they bring all plumbing up to code and warranty the plumbing with their product for life. This guy, the plumbing wasn't leaking but it had started to corrode a bit, and he didn't like that. So he cut it all out and replaced it with new copper piping. And we bought 2 shower heads with a diverter. So we are going to have y pipe up there with a switch on it, and then there's a massaging shower head, and we also bought a Rain style shower head with an adjustable arm to make it up high so it can work the right way. :) this is gonna be an awesome shower. LOL

The last thing i'm really working on right now is a present for a friend. It's gonna be funny - but it's a pain in the A$$ right now to make, so when it's done i'll post pictures of it too. :)

Your Cuteness factor for the day:

Oh well time to get ready for PT.

Silly? me? no.... you must be mistaken - NA na na na naaaa na. :P

2007-03-02T09:31:00.000-05:00

So apparently I'm in a silly mood today. No idea why - just feeling a whee little bit silly.

hum de hum de hum.... :)

So... silly SukaStar story... :)

Auntie Em was telling them a story because apparently Sukaspawn is starting to get her first tooth. (she was born august 5th, this seems a bit delayed to me but what do i know.) Anyways - she's tell them this story about Star's grandmother and how the tradition went, that everytime the baby got a new tooth, you were supposed to buy the mother a new pair of shoes. well, that's a loaded gun right there.

My mom remembers the tradition a little differently. She remembers "when the baby gets their FIRST tooth, you buy the BABY their first pair of shoes." That seems to make a lot more sense, since by the time of their first tooth, they are probably starting to experiment with crawling and standing maybe (depending on development.) it just indicates another milestone.

So Star takes Suka out to look at shoes, and she picks a pair. Anyone want to guess what designer she picked? I"ll give you a hint: The Devil is near by... :)

Yup - She picked out an inexpensive pair of Prada's. (only $350.) To which - my cousin showed a little bit of improvement and said "umm no, what are you smoking?" I'm told she picked another pair from nordstroms, another designer but we're not sure who. But we're guessing still over $100. :) Now - I am willing to pay over $100 for a pair of shoes. But there are certain criteria. A) i'm willing to pay for certain brands. Namely dansko primarily. Because it is an orthotically designed shoe, that i will generally wear quite a bit. they are worth the money for the most part. b) A good sturdy pair of boots or C) a well built designed dress shoe that is COMFORTABLE and that I will get a lot of use out of. But it's rare that i'm willing to spend that much.

I mean honestly - can someone please tell me what makes a pair of Prada's or Manolo's worth a few hundred dollars??? I have yet to understand that myself.

Anyway, i find that whole story very entertaining. She's now gonna get a lot of shoes that she probably doesn't need. :)

There's other stuff going on, but I may save that for the other location. I"ll let you know if i post there any time soon.

Have a great weekend everyone.

Who knew?

2007-02-22T09:23:00.000-05:00

Your 'Do You Want the Terrorists to Win' Score: 96%

You are a terrorist-loving, Bush-bashing, "blame America first"-crowd traitor. You are in league with evil-doers who hate our freedoms. By all counts you are a liberal, and as such cleary desire the terrorists to succeed and impose their harsh theocratic restrictions on us all. You are fit to be hung for treason! Luckily George Bush is tapping your internet connection and is now aware of your thought-crime. Have a nice day.... in Guantanamo!

Do You Want the Terrorists to Win?
Quiz Created on GoToQuiz

So who knew that i'm rooting for the bad guys? Certainly *I* didn't. This is a very amusing and yet sobering quiz. It's all tongue in cheek but does let you know just how stupid the rhetoric out there really is. Of course the % in this test came from answering questions like, Do you think wire tapping without a warrant is ok?

For a much more thought provoking (and less darkly humorous) post, check out Edi-Tori-als today. She wrote an interesting post about how our wounded and soldiers are treated upon their return from a battle we shouldn't be fighting in the first place.

In other news:

The doc has declared it's time for me to go to physical therapy. So after dealing with allt he various insurance things (friggin' HMO) i'm scheduled to start sometime next week. I also had my very FIRST morning session with the personal trainer. :) Strangely it was not exhausting. i won't say yet that it was invigorating, but we'll give it a little more time. :)

On the ALIT side of things - Star (of SukaStar) is trying to stir the sh*t and got Kar to call basically call my mom and start in on her about things. During a discussion of my mom wanting Legacies for her children from their grandparents (physical ones), she stated to Kar that we would like to have something physical and not just our memories. To which Kar responded "well you just may have to live with only your memories." To which my mother says "excuse me?" and she goes "well if we decide you can't have anything then it's 2 to 1 and you can't do anything about it."

I think war is being declared. My mother who has tried to remain peaceable and fair minded through out this entire ordeal, is fed up. (btw, it will be one year on march 9th) It will be interesting to see how things progress from here. Stay tuned...

"That's some bad hat Harry..."

2007-02-14T12:44:00.000-05:00

So - who can name the movie that quote is from? It's a very subtle line... :) Most people probably know it as the line said during the credits of HOUSE on fox.

Anyways - so i have pictures now of the infamous chemo cap i was working on . It's furry. :) I'm posting them here so everyone can see the silly hat. The first pictures is the hat just on top of a water bottle. The second is on my head. IT's a little tight for me - but not bad. Which is fine - because it' snot for me - it's for children's hospital. (I have a small head anyway)

So without further ado: THE HAT! (talk about Hat Hair... my word... (evil grin) )

Too Hip to be square...

2007-02-13T11:02:00.000-05:00

Or not to be honest. :)

Just thought I'd post pictures of the squares I did for the blanket Rebeka is making.

The green one has a "chai" done in hebrew knitted into it. Chai means Life and I thought that would be a neat and appropriate pattern. The second one is just a heart put into the square. I find it amazing that the pattern shows up better on a crappy 1mp camera phone than it does in real life. :) Both are lovely though. (I think.) The green one is 100% wool, and the pink/peach one is 55% wool, 22% nylon, and the rest is cotton I believe. REALLLLY soft. :) I tell ya, joanns is coming out with some nice yarns of their own.

Right now I'm working on a chemo cap. I'm making it with a fun fur type yarn and Bernat satin worsted weight held together. It will be a thick cap - but will kind of look "hair" which is the idea. I've got about 4" done, just another 2 or so, and then i can start the decreases. I'm hoping it's big enough to fit someone's head. Most likely a child's - but it's my first attempt with a hat. So we'll see how it comes out. :)

And that's about it from this end. Getting a lot of knitting done (at least for me.) I guess part of it is I don't want to get too sucked into any books right now, since I'm waiting for one on Tuesday. (a week from today.) Course, that didn't stop me from buying 4 or 5 books this weekend anyway. LOL

Enjoy your days all... :)

I'm such a geek... :)

2007-02-09T08:49:00.000-05:00

It's true. It really is.

It's not that I fix and play with computers. Though I do do that, computers aren't really new and interesting anymore. Heck i bought a new one 2 weeks ago and I still haven't hooked the bugger up. :) cuz i'm feeling too lazy to untangle all the cables. I guess i'll have to do it this weekend if i ever want to print things again. :)

It's the gadgetness that makes me a geek. I can look at all kinds of things - and it could be a gadget that does ABSOLUTELY NOTHING, and I will ooh and ahh and look at the pretty lights. Give me a kitchen gadget and i'm in absolute heaven. :)

Heck - I can admit it, I want a spinning wheel because it's using a Gadget to make stuff. Just because I can admit the desire, does NOT mean I don't want it any more. It's a nifty gadget. I like gadgets. :)

However, I think the following is really the ultimate in geekiness. I mean there's the geek level that says, "ooh that's a great idea, i dont' need it but i want it" factor. There's the "ooh, i wonder how they got that to do that factor." And then, there's this.

This is Andes Yarn. It's 100% wool. It's not something I would normally choose to knit with. it's also $9.50 a hank. That's expensive if you want to actually make something substantial with it because I think it's only about 150 yards of yarn for that $9.50. It's not super soft and pettable either (like the hank of baby alpaca i bought for $13.50 - a whopping 110 yards, but i had to buy because it was SOOOO soft.)

No. I bought this because of the colors. YOu see how the hank is died? Like they wound it and then just dipped sections of it in the dye? Kind of like tie dying a tshirt. I bought this yarn because i *HAD* to see how it balled up. I needed to see what would happen when you put it into ball form, and see what order the colors come in. I'll probably eventually knit a square or some such out of it, if only to see how it all works up. That is the ONLY reason I bought this. I needed to see what would happen. :) How sad is that?

Now, as Minijaxter said, over at the Knit Knack blog, they are working to create a blanket of hope for someone with lymphoma. I think this is a great idea. I am more than happy to work on making a piece of this blanket. The kicker is, there is a slightly selfish desire to do this as well. :) It means that I can justify buying some yarn i'd NEVER normally buy myself. And then get to try it out with out bankrupting myself. You see - for me, and for babies etc, I always knit with acrylic type yarns. Why? Because they are easy care machine washable and won't felt. :) They are also CHEAP! Like $1.99 for 200 yards. Much more affordable for the hobby and there's some really nice soft ones out there so it's great. *BUT* it does not mean that on occasion i can't try something new right? But as stated before at $9.50 or more a hank, when you need 5-10 hanks to make something, that's a LOT of money. :) SO buy knitting a square or two for the blanket of hope, that lets me justify buying a few different yarns to play with that I would normally NEVER buy for myself to use. ANd since 1 square won't even use UP an entire hank, I only need to buy one, and $9.50 then seems MUCH more affordable. :)

So - I'm a geek. A tactile geek, but a geek none the less. Soon as I ball that yarn this weekend by the way, I will take another picture to show you how it balls up, and then once I knit it - i'll take a picture of the swatch so you can see how it knits too. Just cuz, i know you are ALL as curious as I am. LOL!

have a great weekend!

cuteness factor

2007-02-07T10:51:00.000-05:00

Inspired by mary... :)

aren't they just SOOOO cute? :) lol

it's really a shame they don't know how to get comfortable.

This btw - is the new project i've started. The theory is that i'll make 12 or 15 of these (once completed as a 12x12 square) and make a blanket out of them. Of course, that's only the theory. Then again, as my friend always says "I want to move to theory, everything works in theory." :)

Not a whole lot else is going on here. Just thought i'd share the picture. I would have tried to take it with a better camera than my phone, but my brother borrowed it last weekend, and wanted it for this weekend too, so has not yet returned it. Oh well. :)

Enjoy!

last night's game... :)

2007-02-05T07:53:00.000-05:00

Well. I'm not a big football fan. In fact the superbowl is probably the only game I watch every year. I usually don't even make it through that. But last night - i saw the WHOOOOOLLLE thing. :)

First I want to say, the national anthem by Billy Joel. *THAT* is what a national anthem should be. Simple, traditional, and true to form. No musical exposition, variation or anything else. Just a nice traditionally sung national anthem. I was happy and pleased. (reminds me that I miss BIlly Joel, and will have to make sure I find some of my CD's and make them into Mp3's, or hit the itunes store and load up. :)

The game was very entertaining. For a while I was rooting for the bears. (sadly the only reason for that was that Condi apparently likes the colts, and at that point i figured why not root for her opposite. I had no other team loyalty.) :) During the last quarter though I was rooting for no one. By 12 minutes left in the last quarter, I was saying "ok - no one is allowed to score now." That's because the score reflected my square in the football pool. :) I never win these things so I wanted to win this one. :) Well they listened to me and i won!!! yay!!! :) that's my spending money for the week. :)

It also helps that I was at a very fun party, and seated in a very comfy couch and was NOT giving up my seat. :) At one point I took out my knitting and my seat mate goes "are you that bored?" And i said no, it's really more to a) keep my hands busy and b) keep me from over eating. I only knit 1 or two rows and I think I messed something up because it just doesn't look right, but i'm not particularly worried. IT's a rinky dink little thing. (i'm trying to make a cupcake like minijaxter made for me.) It's so I can try out double pointed needles (DPN's) and see what they are all about and if i could deal with knitting a project on them. I probably could ifi really wanted to, but not so sure I really want to LOL. :)

that's about all for this weekend. HOpe my party hosts enjoy the left over food. (we brought about 5 lbs of meatballs and 2.5 slabs of ribs. Hubby wanted to learn how to make them.) Hope everyone else enjoyed the game as well. :) (and their weekend.)

32 years and counting...

2007-01-31T10:43:00.000-05:00

Well, i'm now 32 years old. Thank you everyone for the birthday wishes - i really do appreciate them.

As Minijaxter said, it was a great party. A lot of my friends came and celebrated with me. The little kids were using the hall way as a slide - they'd run and then slide the rest of the way on their knees. Ahh the joys of "hardwood" floors. :) Lots of screaming early on.

Got to meet my friend's new baby Kara. at a month old, she wasn't very participatory in the evening's festivities, but that's ok. :) The food was absolutely wonderful and went over very well. There wasn't a whole lot of leftovers afterwards. Just extra "toppings" a bit of taco meat and the rice which not too many people had. And the cake? OH MY GOD the cake was fabulous and lasted all of 30 seconds I think.

I got some wonderful gifts and gift cards to favorite stores. My hubby got me some great stuff from LL bean. (love their men's shirts and the jeans. ) mom got me some great earrings with variable topaz.

All in all, i had a really good time and i'm so glad all my friends could join me. Of course, one thing i was really excited about (silly but it's SO me) was the new crock pot mom bought me for the party. I wanted something we could keep the meat warm in, but my 6qt crock pot, supposedly programmable, only has 4, 6, 8, and 10 hour settings. To get it to "warm" mode you have to let it finish a timed cycle first - all of which would have been too hot to keep the meat warm. It's been bugging me for a while, and i've been wanting a new one. So I went to LnT. On line i found this great one that i really liked, but it was backordered and out of stock. They were out in the store too. But I didn't want to spend $30 on a cheap one, cuz then how do I justify getting the one I want when it's back in stock you know? :) So i convinced the manager to let me buy the display model. :) And I actually got compliments on it from some of the guests at the party. It's a really nice crock pot.

Anyways - i was going to post earlier in the week, but monday I didn't get a chance and well, tuesday, i got hit with a tummy bug of some kind and was not in a very verbal frame of mind. I'm doing a bit better today so you get an update. :)

BTW, for those in the know, there is a new update at the invite only blog. :) ilannaprivate dot blogspot dot com. :) enjoy!

Your Salvation, Courtesy of. . . .

2007-01-25T11:37:00.000-05:00

Hello everyone :)

Today- I made a coworker laugh with this:
I love this.

The gentleman who came up with these, Randy Cassingham of This is True is a genius. He has cards too. I love them.

In fact we gave them out at my wedding as one of the favors. They look like the Monopoly card and at the bottom it says "your salvation, courtesy of J, M and Z." (course our actual names are there. :))

He has some great stories and a free weekly newsletter about stupid people :) You should check him out. You can read more about them here.

There isn't a whole lot of stuff going on right now (hence the lack of posting. :) ) My birthday is this weekend. I'll be the meaning of life minus a decade. (i.e. 32 years old.) We are having a big party and it should be very entertaining. We'll tire the dogs out with daycare first so they aren't too rambunctious, and then well have fun. My friend who is a trained chef is doing all of the cooking. He does things like this every year. In order to raise money for his charity, he offers to do chores and such in exchange for a donation to the charity. Great idea in my opinion, so he is doing it for the party this year. Mexican themed is the current plan. Though the way my husband's eyes bugged out after seeing the grocery bill was *SOOO* worth everything. LOL

Also - i photographed a friend's belly dancing thing this weekend. IF anyone wants to see the pics click here.

Not much else going on - but maybe i'll try to get some doggie pics to post soon. Right now though my battery on the little camera is dead and I can't find the charger. :( might have to get a new one.

In a COMPLETELY different subject. I've started back with the trainer this week. it's been 2.5 months since I hurt my knee. knee still hurts but we're working on it. I've also decided I need to do more if i want to lose fat/weight. So starting next week, (not this week as it's my birthday week :) ) i'm going to start (sigh) getting up 20 minutes earlier and riding the bike for 20 minutes before I shower for work. The trainer, instead of coming on tues or thurs at 5 or 530pm, will be coming on wednesdays at 630am. I must be nuts. But a lot of people say the morning excercise is the best. It's also a different mind set. When i get home from work I don't want to have to work more. So i avoid the bike, or the workouts etc. IF my husband has orders to get me up in the morning, then i'll get up - and then it's done and out of the way. And maybe, JUST maybe this will help me get into an appropriate habit and help me really start moving.

Gonna start slowly making diet changes too. Switching to skim milk (been drinking a lot of milk lately.) Maybe have oatmeal instead of toast and butter for breakfast, etc. Things like that. We'll just have to see how it goes. Wish me luck!

For Your Amusement. . .

2007-01-15T09:01:00.000-05:00

(**If anyone wants to see wedding pics, you have to first email me at jleader at gmail dot com and if i'm ok with it, I will send you an invite to where they are posted.**)

First of all - silliness.

For Chrismaka/birthday my hubby's parents bought me the ball winder and yarn swift that I'd wanted. :) So I had them both set up for when the girls all came over for a 'stitch 'n bitch' type evening. We had a wonderful time hanging out for a few hours knitting and chatting and hanging out. Watching mister go for the wine glass was very entertaining. :)

So, i left the swift and ball winder set up after that evening because I never got around to winding all of the stuff I need to wind. (not a huge amount I admit.)

Yesterday I decided to wash my bras. I only have 3 good ones at this point. (they are friggin expensive) So my hubby brought them up wet for me because you shoudln't dry them in the dryer - it kills the elsatic and such much faster...and when you are my size, you can't afford for that to happen.

So i got creative... :)

No long just for yarn! The New and Amazing BRASWIFT!!! :)

hey - you know... it worked. :)

Now...

I'm guessing you all want to know the ALIT stuff. The wedding Extraordinaire that I've been bitching about for the last few months...

well - here goes.

Wednesday night, mom and I head up to Newark, NJ. This makes the trip easier. We spend the night there (after a 2 hour drive) and then drive the last 45-60 minutes in the morning. Less exhausting that way. So we got to Newark around 1230am.

Next morning we head out to LI. I realize that i forgot the AWESOME dress purse I got for the wedding, and so on our way to the hotel we try stopping a few places to find one. Loehmanns was a REAL disappointment... not what that store used to be. :)

We finally get to the hotel in the 2pm vicinity. Mom calls her friend LP who agrees to pick up food for us and meet us at the hotel around 430. This is fine. We figure we can eat and get ready and hang for a while. It worked out really well too. We got dinner because we had no idea what the wedding timing was, and figured, ceremony at 7 we wouldn't get dinner til at least 8 so dinner at 430 is a good idea. So we all get ready and we head out the door around 635. I was so overheated from the shower and running around to get ready (and squeezing myself into the appropriate undergarments) that I was perfectly happy in a sleeveless dress in 35 degree weather. Scary huh? So we drive to the temple. Thankfully it's valet parking.

We go in and check our coats (and the comfy shoes we wore on the way :) ) and say hi to some people. We are directed to the 3rd floor. We get up there and they are serving drinks and butlered Hors d'euvres. (sp?) This means, that the ceremony doesn't start until around 8. (they started directing us in the the synagogue around 745) Then everyone starts coming down the aisle. This was probably the most disjointed wedding party I've ever seen. And it was HUGE. There had to be at least 20 people up on the alter not counting clergy. (and there were 3 or 4 rabbis and cantors up there.) I think the pattern was, if one of the wedding party was married, then their spouse got included too. So if you were married you walked down together with your spouse. If you had a younger child, you walked that child down with you as well. If the child was a little older (around 8) they walked down on their own. If you were single, then you walked down individually. So yes, it was a long processional. There were men and women on various sides. Yes sukaspawn was carried down the aisle. A 4 month old sick baby. (should have been left at home.) She was moderately fussy cuz she didn't feel well, so they were bouncing her around trying to quiet her down the whole time, and the groom was glaring because she was making noise. The best man (the star half of sukastar) had to leave with the baby in the middle of the ceremony to pass her off. Sad huh?

So the ceremony takes about 20-30 minutes. At which point we all file back out and into... appetizers. Yup - a second cocktail hour. Yup - and this was a doozy. They had: A carving stations with brisquet, london broil, and turkey; A pasta bar; a mashed and sweet potato bar with toppings to put in a cup like you would ice cream; a chinese food station; and in the center a cruditee table that was about 8' tall. complete with carved flowers out of potatos and radishes etc. It was... impressive.

An hour or so later, we were then shuffled into the reception hall. (it's about 930 right now.) They immediately start with first dance and then dancing. The $6000 band was very good (not worth $6k though) but also *V*E*R*Y* loud. I think the salads showed up around 10. At which point they came around and took everyone's dinner order. This included cooked to order ribeye steak. Dinner was finally served around 11. Now you all need to remember that this is a THURSDAY night wedding! Soon as dinner was over about 70% of the guests left. In fact a number of them had their meals packed up to take home. (I've never seen that at a wedding either.) Most of the guests missed the cake cutting ceremony which was around 1130. After which they brought out a full Viennese table. (that's what mom called it.) basically it was 5 different dessert stations ON TOP of the wedding cake which they were serving there as well.

We finally left around 1230. Went down to give the valet my ticket and the car was already there. (it was the last one. how sad is that?)

Now i'm sure you want some other stories. There aren't too many because in truth it was an absolutely lovely wedding and the reception was lovely as well (except for the loudness of music and the poor timing.) Well, that and my stomach (and mom's too) are just not designed for kosher food. BLECH! :) (the food was actually some of the best kosher food i've had but still. the replacements they use for dairy etc *shudder*)

So first little bit. We were told that during the picture taking Suka refused to hold sukaspawn. Claimed that the wrap "bound" her arms too much. OY! Later on for the reception, she is the ONLY bridesmaid who dropped the wrap and put on a custom made jaquard jacket in the same robin's egg blue as the wraps. No other BM did this. So of course she had to look different. It wasn't a good choice though because it really dressed it down. Make it look like skirt and jacket not a dress. She also had a fall attached to her hair. Apparently - she'd wanted to get hair extensions but they were going to cost $2000. (that seems kind of high to me but what do I know from extensions? I got good hair to begin with. *evil grin*) So she went to this wig place that does lovely wigs. They even dye them to match. So what does she do? So buys a black fall to put in her hair, and then dyes her own hair to match! Black dye never quite works, always has a bit of a shoe polish look to me. She looked very "vampy." her whole attitude was "look at me, i'm sexy." not quite the effect it had though. Turns out NONE of aunt M's friends like her and they are all worried about aunt M. It's going to be interesting to see how things continue.

What bugged us the most was the baby. Aunt M danced with sukapawn and held her close, facing aunt M and cuddled with her. Star carries Sukaspawn with his arms forming a chair/cradle kind of thing, supporting her from underneath. As much of a greedy sniveling arrogant a$$ that he is, he really seems to love and care for his daughter. Suka though! She carried the child with one around under her arms and around her chest. And that's it. Like a child carries a doll is how she carried this child. Face out so she could "show her off" and not help to her in any kind of loving manner. It just confirmed to us that Suka is playing house and has no real clue. Poor kid has an upper resp infection, and they had her out at the wedding the whole night. And changed her outfit 3 times. After the red satin blob they had her in, she ended up in fancy designer pajamas. (a designer that starts with B and ends in urberry) and the kit is spitting up bits at a time from being carried like that. The kid looked so out of it and tired i felt SOOO bad for this child. My uncle (star's deceased father and a pediatrician) would have had a *FIT* if he'd seen a 4 month old child at a wedding at midnight, let alone a sick one! i truly feel for this poor child.

OTher than that there were no major things that happened. Though I am disappointed. They nixed the waiters with sorbet idea. But there were a lot of people dancing which was nice. My cousin from cali and his wife (cousin is around 60 new wife is around my age) were *VERY* entertaining. They COMPLETELY ignored mom and I, but they danced like Elaine on Seinfeld. No rhythm whatsoever. It was absolutely a RIOT to watch!

Friday we came home and then had our knit/crochet bitch session evening. And then i spent saturday and sunday trying to RECOVER from the trip.

I did get a new toy this weekend though - i got me an ipod nano so I can listen to music at work. :) Hope everyone else had a good weekend!

There's no place like sanity, there's no place like sanity, there's no place like sanity. . . .

2007-01-08T08:50:00.000-05:00

Click your heels together folks. :) we have a new story.

Technically I guess it's part of ALIT as it deals with one of the regular characters...:)

First: A new acronym/name. The crazy Aunt... is now going to be KAR (or kar) for Krazy Aunt you know who. :) OK?

All right... so kar - who used to be a size 4 when she was young, has been ballooning. 10 months ago she was a 16. she has no increased to around a 22, and doesn't want to admit it. She claims to be wearing clothes from a certain store that only carries up to 14/16. My cousin says it's because she wears the SUPER stretchy travel clothes and just stretches them to fit. (shudder)

so meanwhile - they found Kar a black dress to wear for the up coming nuptials this week. Being as she has become blonder and blonder with her hair color (not the best choice really) she has decided that she needs GOLD shoes to go with this dress. Gold... i kid you not.

So she goes to this really high end boutique my grandmother used to buy all of her shoes from (back when she could wear heels and what not.) While there (I still can't believe this by the way) a woman walks in wearing...you guessed it. Gold shoes. Kar immediately gets excited and wants THESE shoes. Supposedly they fit, but with her pychosis who knows? So she buys the shoes off the woman's feet. yup. Used shoes.

Anyone want to guess how much she paid for them?

Nah - i'll just share. She paid the woman $95 for her shoes. Yup, $95 for used shoes off the woman's feet! She gets home and tells her companion the story and her companion looks at the shoes and says "kar!!! You crazy!! you can get these same shoes, same brand and color and everything, over on **** Avenue for $9.99!! Why you pay $95??"

Yes folks. This is my family.

On the flip side. My friends at the bookstore are all laughing at me. i'll tell you why. Shhh... they say i'm turning into a . . .

GIRL!

LOL - that's right. In preparation for this event, I needed makeup. I so rarely wear it that my stuff is all old, and i wanted some new colors so i bought make up. And I bought GOOD make up. :) MAC. but they had the colors and they were SO helpful and helping me to figure out what colors would be good and would work on my skin etc... I've been in there 3 times the last week, buying more stuff as I realized i needed it. Yup... i'm a girl. I even bought *GASP* a pair of pointy shoes!!! (Hush now... they fit and were comfortable and had a good stable heel so my knee was happy) Scary huh?

well - we are at 3 days and counting until the event of the year! (Of course being as it's only the second week of January, I'm sure other events will present themselves.)

I'll keep you all posted!

changes upon changes...

2007-01-04T08:57:00.000-05:00

So - we found out that my aunt M actually asked Suka's permission to seat us at the same table as them. How galling is that?? She asked SUKA if it was ok to sit Aunt M's own sister at the same table. my my - we know who is controlling this family now I think. It's so bad that when my cousin offered her brother J a robe she'd originally bought for their father before he died, J said "i don't know, i have to ask Suka, She may not like it." It's a ROBE For Cthulu's sake.... (couldn't bring my self to use another deity here....)

So then Aunt M tells my mom that she's going to be nice to us and move us to another table, even though before she said "where else can i put you? I only have 3 tables.!"

But we found out the reason we're able to be moved is because Aunt M had 39 ppl and was trying to put them at 3 tables of 12 but then at 3 ppl left over. SO P says "why not just do 4 tables of 10?" Well duh! so that's what they are doing now.

Aunt M also is apparently losing so much weight from stress and being ill etc, that she is down to a size 0 and they are having to still take in the dress. it's a week to the wedding and her dress isn't done yet and she doesn't have the energy to demand the store do what they promised to do or make restitution.

I did make sure to buy a purse that the camera will fit in. :) (also helps that i have a nice tiny little camera. :) )

i'll update you as I find out more.... :)

New year? what new year? Who what when????

2007-01-02T20:19:00.000-05:00

Oy vay...

and what a start to the year it is.

Spent new years eve and day at a friend's house. It was very entertaining. There were a few half naked young women (legal of course) walking around. One of them was SO excited when i guessed her bra size exactly right. she said she loved me. awwww. It's always interesting when you get into conversations about sewing machines with guys and geeks. One of them is designing a program that will print out a corset pattern once it has your measurements. So he's been working on corsets. But we're all geeks too - so we're talking about the servos and the mechanics that might be required to do all the different stitches etc. The things we all talk about when drunk I tell ya. (course I wasn't drunk - though I think i may need to start drinking....)

Why should I start drinking you ask??? Well - when last we left our cast of As Long Island Turns, a wedding was fast approaching and the various ins and outs were getting very amusing . . .

let's see. The band is costing $6000. That's more than ALL of the vendors for my wedding and in fact, i have some friends who spent less than that on their ENTIRE wedding! There will be staff walking around with bowls of sorbet so they can spoon it to the guests who get too hot while dancing... And from what we've heard - the BM dresses are a hideous cold dirt brown color. Suka even had to return hers and order a size UP b/c her boobs wouldn't fit in the bodice.

Now all the annoying stuff. Cousin P's hubby N was all getting ready for a tux, and then when A asked why they responded that he was supposed to be in the wedding party. A then says "oh we decided that you and he and your son would all walk down as a family instead" but they never bothered to tell them before they went to the trouble to get fitted etc. No one can keep anything straight any more. The various fights that are going on about everything is just getting crazy. I can't wait until it's all over.

Of course - why do i really need to start drinking? Our table. Are you ready?

Aunt M and Uncle M. reasonable to deal with. Cousin P and N w/son D. Also - we get along with them no worries. Helper 1 and Helper 2 will also be there at the table with us (in theory.) I like them so no worries. *BUT* that means we also have to sit with Crazy Aunt R (and watch her eat *SHUDDER*) and SUKASTAR will be at the table with us. Mom says she better not end up next to Star because she'll kill him. Suka is ok, cuz she'll just slap her upside the head if needed. (yes i'm bringing my camera.)

Of course then there's the current fiasco of everyone getting dressed everywhere. So of course Hello and sukaspawn will be in the way, so its been requested that they be allowed to stay at my empty grandmother's house while everyone gets ready. I of course ask why they can't just stay home at their house... well apparently sukaspawn is coming to the wedding. But since they aren't accounted for at the table. (infant no biggie, but Hello will be around too) my guess is, they will walk her down the aisle in arms to show her off, pass her off to Hello, and then send her home again. The point of that - I have NO idea.

there's all kinds of other little dramas i'm not going to go into here. But i'm sure you all get the idea. Any suggestions on what a non drinker should start drinking to break herself in? I'm thinking bailey's, maybe amaretto and cream - mild things to start. Then i might just switch to the grey goose!

I"ll make sure to post updates after the fact! (mom and I though will be dressed to the 9's. :) I even bought MAKEUP!!! at M.A.C no less....oooooohhh. :) )

Laters! :)

Per Mary's Request

2006-12-19T13:53:00.000-05:00

The Gingerbread Man

This is the gingerbread man that my mother made for my christmas tree. This one has a "lemon icing" trim and the other one has "vanilla icing" trim. Which means she just used different colors of yarn. :)

The Tree

Here is the decorated tree - as best as you can see. It's a lot of fun with the lights and ornaments. And we had a wonderful party and everyone came and brought the ornaments. It was a VERY full house. :)

Definitions....

2006-12-18T13:52:00.000-05:00

Ok - it's lesson time. :)

For those who don't know - most good Yiddish terms are frequently defined in story form, because that conveys the meaning best.

For example. You've all heard the Laverne and Shirley theme song where they sing "Schlamiel, schlamazel, etc etc Incorporated!"

Well - a Schlamiel, he's a clutz. So he's the guy at the dinner who spills the soup. The Schlamazel though, he's harder to define, so the best definition is, he's the guy at the dinner upon whom the soup spills. See?

B'Shairt... (my personal favorite - though my husband calls it B'Sh*t :) ) is Fated. Meant to be. You go shopping and you find this wonderful pair of shoes that you love, but can't afford them. A few weeks later you go back, and not only are the shoes still there, but they only have one pair left, in your size, in your color, AND they are on sale! see? meant to be.

So the definition of chutzpah is basically, Balls. Nerve. Like Oh my god I can't believe they did that! The story goes, that a boy kills his parents. When he is brought to trial, he throws himself on the mercy of the court because he's an orphan. That's Chutzpah.

Well folks - we have a NEW definition of Chutzpah. We thought it might be the lady who called my Aunt M from florida to say, that my grandmother promised her one of the Lladro statues from her collection, and that she knows Grandma didn't put it in the will, but she did SAY it and she wants that statue. No... we have an even better one. (one that my friend suggests is deserving of the Golden Fist award. :) )

My Aunt R... you all remember her right? She's the crazy one! She always has dinner with my Aunt M on Friday nights for Shabbos. Well my Aunt M had just had a personal medical procedure done (NOT pleasant, but yes she is JUST fine folks) and was not feeling well. Certainly not up to company. So she actually surprisingly said NO to Aunt R. Told her that she could NOT come over for dinner. They were just going to have leftovers anyway, nothing special.

So a Little while later, Aunt R calls back to say she has been invited for dinner over at Mouse's house for Shabbos. So Aunt M is very happy, "see, she can land right on her feet and still have company etc." Well, apparently Aunt R wasn't invited, she invited herself.

To make it worse, she didn't tell Mouse that she was inviting herself. So she shows up at Mouse's house, and it's a little dark. She rings and rings, and FINALLY someone answers the door. Apparently they weren't having dinner. They were all sick and in bed. So she goes into the house, and... here is the definition of chutzpah... you ready?

Not only did she invite herself to someone's house, without telling them she was doing so mind you, not only did she get them out of sick bed to let her in, but she got them out of sick bed and got them to actually COOK french toast for her to have for Shabbos dinner since she was already there!

Now that my friends, that is TRULY an impressive feat.

Anyone want some Snow Blades?

2006-12-11T16:34:00.000-05:00

So the verdict from the doctor is - no more skiing. No more ice skating. No more rollerskating. (sigh) I probably won't pay attention to ALL Of it, but I'm going to give up the skiing at this point.
Oh well - so I'll see if I can sell them for a reasonable amount of money. My ice skates were getting too small for me anyways and i haven't seen them in about 3 years so I'm not going to worry about them for now.

They took a NICE big chunk of miniscus. Unfortunately they weren't able to save it, though they tried. They did the whole repair and then at the end of the surgery the whole thing just fell apart and they had to remove the tear as opposed to fix it. So I will have to continue to baby the knee or I will be likely to get an arthritic knee that much earlier in my life. As a friend of mine says, it's a catch 22. You are overweight so they want you to excercise but you are very limited in the exercise you can do C'est la vie.

Not that much else going on here. Working on some knitting projects and I finished up 5 bunnies over the weekend and shipped most of them out. There some ALIT sukastar stuff going on but it's convoluted and confusing and I'm not sure I've got the details straight enough to write about them yet - so I'll have to hold off for now. I promise some soon.

Laters!

Post - OP

2006-12-04T15:34:00.000-05:00

Well here i am. Post op. :) Knee surgery done and over with. YAY!!! i can actually straighten my leg again which is a lovely thing.

So the doctors went in, and they TRIED to fix the miniscus. Unfortunately, every time they tacked it together and then moved my knee, it just came right apart again. So they ended up just doing the trim which the doctor was happier with anyway. This way I don't really need to go through the whole ACL reconstruction which was not something i was really looking forward too.

So i've been walking around today without my crutches. Not too bad- though right now i'm in bed so I can have my leg up for a while. Working from home for the next week at least and then i'll be back in the office next week most likely. Which is good since the boss' are coming for a visit. :)

i've been doing some knitting. Got the most AWESOME! knitting needles i've ever used. They are Denise needles. They are a circular needle kit, that is just great. For $50 you get sizes 5-15, plus various lengths of needles, end caps, and connectors to make longer needles. You can order sizes 17 and 19 to add to your kit, and also longer cables if you need it. (and yes i already have a pair of 17 and 19's and a 30" cable on their way to my house.) Mom started using them, and has currently adopted my size 15's, and will return them in 2 weeks at my party. At which point i'm sure she will have already purchased a set of the needles for herself. :) They are really nifty. IT's great to have everything organized into one kit, and no worries about whether or not you have the right size needles. Just get it from the kit. If you are using that set for a project, well just take off the needles and put end caps on the cable to hold your work on until you are ready to go back to it. You can even put a different size needle on each side of the cable, so you can knit for different textures. :) I really liked some of the other needles, like the Addi turbos. Which means i probably would have loved the quickpick needles too (which are also a kit like the denise) but the problem is, what makes them SOOO nice and quick? They have a nickel coating. I'm allergic to nickle, so the palm of my hand would break out while i was knitting. (sigh) But the denise ones are plastic and work so very nicely. :) here is a picture of the "chain link" pattern i stumbled upon by mistake.

I'm knitting with size 10.5's with a cotton worsted weight yarn that's coming out really nicely. I also got some really cool alpaca yarn that i was playing with but am not sure what i really want to do with it yet. Trying to make some ornaments as well for our new Chrismachanukwanzika foliage... :)

our party is actually a decorate our first foliage party - so hopefully we'll get a lot of fun ornaments for the holiday season - many of which will hopefully be non breakable so the doggie tails don't knock them all off. :) I guess the fragile ones will go on top.

There isn't a whole lot else going on - i've sewn together 5 bunnies. I did them in a 5.5 hour marathon last night. That included putting on fusible interfacing to make the seams more sturdy and putting cotton batting in the ears to give them a little more "body" :) So they are sewn. Now I need to spend another 4 or 5 hours, stuffing them, sewing up their back seams by hand and then embroidering faces on them. The temptation to draw faces with a sharpie is high, but the samples they all saw were embroidered so I guess it's only fair that i embroider. One of them is the bunny to go with the blanket i'm making for my new Niece in law. :) She was born the tuesday before thanksgiving. Course we didn't find out until that saturday night. M called his brother to see how things were going and P answered "well, not too bad considering. But that's to be expected." M asked what, and P goes "Mom didn't tell you?" apparently he figured their mom would call us, where as M's mom figured that she didn't want to spoil P's news. So we found out a few days later. Oh well.

and that's my story - the gimp is now signing out.... :)

a hunting we will go . . . . .

2006-11-27T13:47:00.000-05:00

Not for animals of course. :)

So i hope everyone had a wonderful Turkey Day? We had a good one. It was amusing though. First, mom and I had been talking earlier in the week. She was having a problem because her oven was going to be in conflict. So i told her that when i lived in WI, my friend k's family used an electric Nesco Roaster to do the turkey. Mom had enver really heard of that and was SOOO excited! She went RIGHT out and bought one. So when i got there around 1230 we started setting the whole thing up to roast her 16lb turkey. So i slathered the turkey with a lot of herbed butter, on the skin and under it. Then put it in the roaster breast side down (lets gravity do it's job and pull the juices into the breast.) Then we added a quart of chicken stock to the bottom to help the basting and let it go. well - the booklet said 4 hours which makes sense for a 16 lb bird. well at 2.5 hours we opened it up to flip it over so the skin can start to crisp etc. And well... the bird fell apart. It was pretty much done. 1.5 hours early. the leg and thigh just pulled off with the entire hip joint with it. So we are theorizing that it STEAMED it which cooked it much faster than roasting. hehehe. So we put it in the oven for a bit to just crisp the skin. So the breast wasn't QUITE as moist as usual but it still came out lovely.

The next day - Mom, S, M and I all went to the camera store. We figured since it wasn't in the mall, and was in a shopping center with not a lot of "gifty" type stores we'd risk it. When we got there, there was a LOT of open parking which was cool. And the store was not too busy which was cool. We went because I wanted a new camera. See i *LOVE* My main camera. It's a Canon Digital Rebel. But it's a DSLR camera. lots of interchangeable lenses etc. The problem with that is that it's really rather awkward to bring to things like parties, and events and stuff when you just want a quick snapshot ya know? So i got this.

The canon Powershot SD800IS. It's so TINY!!! i love it!! so i had to use it this weekend. One thing I did was take pictures of our foliage hunting trip.

This is a picture of the farm.

Pine Valley Christmas Tree Farm - in Maryland

We decided to start our new traditions as a family. (we did not bring the doggies though)

So we got our very first ChristmaChanuKwanzika Foliage to bring home and decorate. We took the wagon up to the field and I managed to hobble around for a while so we could pick out our tree. We found a lovely douglas fir and had the nice man with the chainsaw cut it down for us. Then home we went to set it up. The Green tree looks really pretty with the red walls don't it?

We put the lights on yesterday - I haven't quite worked out the pictures of that with the new camera. We got LED lights and they are REALLLLLY bright so we get this blue HAZE all over the tree when we try to take the pictures. I"ll have to see what i can do.

I a couple of weeks we are going to have our "decorate our first foliage" party. Since we have no ornaments or anything else, we figure we'll feed everyone and they can donate ornaments to our collection and start our traditions.

Meanwhile - surgery is this thursday - here's hoping i'll be walking well again. i'm sure I will post within a day or two after to let you all know how it went. Mom is looking forward to driving my new car to take me to the surgicenter - since she has a sports car that makes it a little more difficult. And we're trying to figure out how we can go shopping while i'm on crutches. I'll update you with more as I know.

A Decision Has Been Made

2006-11-18T20:35:00.000-05:00

And I am now VERY VERY poor...

I took a *HUGE* hit on my beloved Mazda 6. (sigh) Unfortunately the dealer is offering all kinds of cash back incentives on new mazda 6's so old ones (i.e. 1 year) aren't worth nearly what they really should be... Oh well.

So it's paid off - it's gone.

I now have a new car.

A Car i never thought i'd ever be able to afford. When the opportunity to lease it for 2 years for the same amount of money i'm paying now on my mazda loan, i jumped at it. I"ll figure the rest out in 2 years. :)

Here's my new baby:

The Audi A4

pretty isn't it? :)

It's the great pumpkin....

2006-11-17T09:48:00.000-05:00

And just like the great pumpkin it's equally elusive.

you see - i have a problem.

I have a wrecked left knee. I also drive a 5 speed which means a clutch. This means that I can no longer drive my car safely. I might heal in a few more weeks and be able to drive, but I can't guarantee this is not going to happen again. So i'm looking for a new car.

The problem is that i'm REALLY upside down on my current car. Which sucks. it's only a year old, has less than 10K miles on it, and i'm taking a 10k hit on depreciation. I'm hoping it will be less when i sell it to a famous used dealership (name withheld :) ) rather than trading it in. Key is i have to do it before i get the new car, so i know how much "downpayment" i have left after paying off the rest of the loan on my current car.

So now i'm searching for new cars. And usually i absolutely *ADORE* car shopping. Comparing features, and driving them to see how they handle etc. But this time it's not as much fun. i'm having a harder time picking a car. I love my current car which is making it difficult. BUt i can't bring myself to go into an automatic version of my current car, b/c the depreciation is so bad that i don't want to put myself in that same situation again.

So i'm driving a bunch of different things. And now i feel guilty too. Cuz the dealerships are being *SOOO* nice to me. I know that's their jobs and all, but they are coming to my house to pick me up for test drives because I can't drive to go to them.

I'm also kind of frustrated because i really want my mom to go shopping with me, but she can't get up here in the time frame i need to get a car in. We did the next best thing, and she test drove a car down by her that i was looking at up here and i was on the phone with her during the test drive which was really a lot of fun.

One car makes more financial sense than the other 2 that will cost the same in the long run, but i'm not getting a "this is definitely my car" kind of feel. And i don't know if it's because i'm being "forced" to get a car when i didn't plan to, or just that it's not my car ya know?

It's a very frustrating situation. and because i'm on a time crunch as well, i'm feeling pressured about making the decision which isn't helping at all...

So like the great pumpkin - the new car is elusive...
*sigh*

have a good weekend everyone. I'll let you all know my decision once i've made it.

Oooh look at the pretty . . . ZONK

2006-11-09T11:15:00.000-05:00

So anyways...

I went to the doctor yesterday. he says while the MRI scan is not optimal they can definitely see a tear on the miniscus. how bad the tear is they don't know. oh and the ACl doesn't show at ALL on the MRi so it's probably gone too.

So there's the deal:

I will be scheduled for surgery (don't know when yet) for them to "scope" my knee. At that time they will look and see how bad it is. If the tear is repairable, then they will repair it and adamantly suggest I have the ACL reconstructed. The reason for this is that meniscus tears tend to happen more often when the acl is damaged or gone. So they figure, why repair the miniscus without doing the ACL, if not having the ACL will just ruin the fix in the first place? right? make sense? :)

Alternatively, if they can't FIX the miniscus, then they will just trim it back so there isn't a flap to get caught inside the knee joint or under the knee cap etc. At that point it's my choice as to whether or not I want to do the ACL reconstruction, b/c it won't be as critical at that point. And ACl recon is not an easy prospect. Time off of work, MONTHS of physical therapy etc. So not sure how great or easy of an idea it would be for me ya know?

oh well - so that's what going on. Taking abreak from the regular trainer that i use since i can't get a full workout with them right now anyway, and going to use the trainer at the gym that's already got 5 prepaid sessions left for now. Then once i have the surgery scheduled i can figure other stuff out from there. Wheee aren't we having fun?

Not much else going on right now - my brother dropped off his dog, so he could drive down to MD to show my mother his new car. It's a really pretty color from what i could see at night anyway. It's been 6 months since he last bought a car. As he said (and i think this is so appropriate) "some people do drugs, i buy cars." And ya know what? As long as it's affordable, and such then i say go for it - its a lot healthier than doing drugs right? LOL

Ahh well - hope everyone has a great weekend if i don't get around to posting again!

You see what happened was . . .

2006-11-02T12:06:00.000-05:00

So this little trick or treater came to the door, and she was being CHASED!!! yeah chased..umm yeah that's the ticket. By a bunch of teenage boys in skeleton costumers... I pushed her behind me to protect her and the boys knocked me over and . . .

Umm, ok how about... With all the kids ringing the doorbell, Mister got SO excited and ran right past me, and his 75 lb linebacker doggie body knocked me down and twisted my. . .

ummm ALIENS!!!! yeah aliens came and I got stuck in their hatch and in trying to pull me in while I was trying to fight them off I injured...

hmm. yeah. Truth is - I locked the back door, turned around and must have stepped badly. Thus possibly tearing the miniscus in my bad knee. (sigh) yup - I was even wearing good shoes (my sneakers, tied tightly.) I had just finished working out but we didn't do any leg excercises. I just stepped and KabooM! so yesterday I managed to get into see a new orthopaedist as well as getting in the MRI he ordered. So my next appt is wed to find out what the MRI said. If it *IS* a torn miniscus then most likely I will be facing some knee surgery.

Oh the flip side I got the impression that thenew doctor might be questioning the old doctor's diagnosis of torn acl from 3 years ago. Said the knee didn't feel loose at all like one that would have a torn acl. Of course a Torn ACL would explain how the mniniscus tore so easily since those tend to be related injuries. But the LAST doctor is also the one who said "oh, well it's torn, but since you are overweight there's no point in surgery itwould probably make it worse. just live it." And he would emphasize over and over that because my leg is too big they can't see what the problem is etc. Funny THIS doctor didn't mention my size ONCE during the entire visit. So we'll see what happens.

Oh well. If any of you want to come up with any more fun stories for how i could have hurt my knee since mine is so boring - please feel free to share them... i'd love it. :)

long island, exhaustion, and puppy cuteness...

2006-10-30T10:00:00.000-05:00

OY what a weekend.

Mom and I were planning to go to Ny this weekend to kind of cleanup and clean out stuff from my grandmother's house. Take the things we wanted, so that others could come in and get what they wanted as well as getting cleaning crews in so we could try to sell the house. So the plan was, leave friday night and drive up to newark, NJ. Stay in the hotel there and then it's only 1 hour (or less more like 40 minutes) to where we needed to be.

So, I get home from work, and there is this stray cat. He followed me home earlier in the week and tried to come in my house. (I"m sure my 2 monsters would have loved that) and he looked thin and young. But he didn't come back after that. So when I saw him again on friday i decided to snag him. (or her - not sure) He was EXTREMELY friendly and social. WHen i saw him friday, he was sitting at the feet of a woman waiting for her kids to get back from school, and she was holding an umbrella so I guess he decided to get out of the rain. SO i went out with a cat carrier and he got right in. If he was someone's outdoor cat, I would think he'd have gone home - generally they know their ways. If he's trying to get in to other people's houses, I tend to think he was abandoned and has no place left to go. SO i took him to the SPCA here in hopes he could find a good home. They are a kill shelter but they only kill if ABSOLUTELY necessary (such as disease etc.) I tried Humane but they dont' take in strays. While I was there... This poor puppy came out of surgery. Still quite a bit doped up I'd say. :)

So then by the time I got done with that, and mom got here and we picked up the rental car it was late. We needed to get dinner still. It was raining and it was windy, traffic was HORRIBLe, and people were squealing all over. We decided that all that coupled with how tired we were we decided to go up saturday morning. So we left around 830 saturday. Got to newark, checked in had breakfast, and then drove to the island.

So we got to the island around 1230 and picked up my GM's old companion. She had the key to the house. We spent about 4-5 hours there cleaning up and arranging and loading up baskets with what we wanted to take etc. Then we took stuf for Aunt M over to her house. She was leaving for temple, so we stayed with uncle M for about an hour. it was GREAT to spend that time with him. Then Aunt M gets home and freaks out thinking that if we were still there that there must be something wrong. Also with her were cousin A and fiance E. E was all glad to see us and smiling and hugging etc. A on the other hand acted as if he was pissed we were still there. Go figure. Made no sense to us. We think he's really conflicted. He's not doing what he has a degree for, and what he really loves because Sukastar pushes him to think he needs more $$ and all this other stuff. He's so loyal and controlled by Sukastar but is going against himself that we think he doens't know how to act anymore.

So we finally go and get dinner, and then we meet the real estate agent at the house. We start going through and while its better there's a lot left to be done. So we told her she needs to give Aunt M a deadline to get the stuf she wants. Then they'll bring in a cleaning crew, and a tag sale crew and get it all cleaned out and ready to go. once she was gone, then we packed up the car with all the paintings we wanted and our stuff and left to go back to NJ. Now, My grandmother was an artist, so a lot of stuff she did. What we found hysterical is that she apparently made some of her own prints. She made copies of her own stuff so she could hang it in different rooms. LOL. She was certainly a trip! So we get back to newark, and then crash.

Sunday morning we actually get up at a reasonable time (thank goodness for daylight saving time.) We left at 1130. Didn't get home til 4. (FRIGGIN NJ TOURNPIKE!!!!!!) traffic galore. So of course we're exhausted when we get back so mom managed to stay over another night. She'll be leaving shortly.

When i got home I got to see my exhausted puppies. Per Mary's request for more puppy pictures - here you go. :)

And don't forget everyone. Bubbie here says to feel your boobies! LOL

musings and mutterings...

2006-10-24T13:55:00.000-04:00

So there's all kinds of ALIT stuff going on - but it's so disjointed I can't keep track. First sukastar is buying the house, then they aren't, then they are, then they sign a new lease where they are living now with the excuse of "we can't bear to cause strife in the family." Which is BS, cuz what it really means is, "well sh*t, i can't afford to buy a house for $750,000."

it's been insane. MOm and I are going up there this weekend to go through the house, try to figure out what we want, and pack some other stuff away to make it appear less cluttered. Of course it's lovely to talk to the Real estate agent and find out that sukastar has a tendency to leave some dirty diapers in the house after they've stayed there etc... fun huh?

Sorry I haven't posted much though - things have been pretty busy. We have a tech out on short term disability so it's been kind of busy during the days.

beyond that - not much else is going on :) dogs are cute as usual.

Oh and I went to see the PHILLY ROLLER GIRLS this weekend. They played a match against the Gotham Girls - the NY travel team. I think Acumamakiki knows a bunch of those folks. :) It was a LOT more fun than i expected it to be. Once I understood what was supposed to be happening, it made it a lot more fun and easy to get into the whole game of it. Makes me want to try rollerskating again. It's been a few years, and I haven't been ice skating in ages. It's been even longer for me an parallel skates... i used blades for a little bit - but stopping just didn't work quite the same as on ice skates and I almost killed myself going downhill one day. LOL BUt i might have to go out to the rollerrink one day and maybe try regular skating again - see if my knee likes it at all. :)

Oh well - Smooches all! And as Minijaxter says - don't forget to feel your boobies since it's breast cancer awareness month! :)

been a while...

2006-10-18T10:44:00.000-04:00

Sorry it's been so long since i posted.

It's been really busy at work, we've been shorthanded and things are just crazy. ALIT is really starting to heat up with Sukastar. (that's the couple's new nickname btw. Suka and J together will be referred to as Sukastar... Star in bulgarian meaning sh*t)

They are now claiming that they are going to be buying my grandmother's house. This of course is a possibility we suppose but not sure how he's gonna do it. The impression we've gotten is that he might still have good credit cuz i think they put everything in HER name... but where they'll get a downpayment or a 500,000 plus mortgage I don't know - nor how they'll pay it. So there's all the drama around that.

Aunt R is being crazy as ever and really pushing her custody case which is *SO* not good for the kid. She's trying to blackmail Aunt M into writing her a letter of recommendation/testimonial and Aunt M won't do it. What R has on M i know, and doesn't seem all that bad but knowing the psychology here, it's a pain in the rear.

Ande this is all just the tip of the iceberg - i just can't remember all the details right now... it's too much and overloaded. So we're just gonna have to wait and see what happens in the future.

on a silly note. There is a website called www.dogster.com it's like myspace for dogs. ;) there's bio pages with pictures, and buddy lists etc. It's pretty insane. :) Just thought i'd mention. LOL

laters!

Suka Strikes Again!

2006-10-06T08:49:00.000-04:00

So cousin P and her family were up for Yom Kippur. ANd of course suka and J were staying at my grandmother's house so they could be "close to the temple" for the holiday so they can walk it easily since She is SO orthodox.

So P is at AuntM's house and in walks suka. She goes "MooooooMm I need to go shopping in your Pantry so helloD will have some food to eat." Umm. she couldn't bag stuff up from her house? or gee, go shopping? So she asked for basically everything and so aunt M let her have everything. she CLEANED out the pantry taking all the juice boxes that AuntM keeps for grandson D etc. insane no?

So then they are having dinner before the fasting starts. Suka notices that P is wearing a new ring. A diamond band that her husband bought her for their 10th anniversary. Suka says "OH, when did you get that?" and P tells her. So Suka goes "well I want one. J buy me one." (she's done this before with other people. once with E's bracelet - e being cousin A's new fiance.) so A says, "you'll get one when you've been married 10 years." and she of course responds with "well I want one now!" Then she asks P how many carats are in it. P wisely decides ignorance is best, says that she doesn't know and doesn't care. suka says "well, Mine has to have 2.5 carats." of course WHY is asked... she says "well because that's how much is in my Engagement ring, and this way if the band is 2.5 then they'll Match and I can wear them together." P of course asks her why in gods name she'd want to wear 5 carats on her hand. (unfortunately I don't remember the response...)

So then later... P is talking to E about wedding plans. P is saying that E shouldn't worry about her being in the wedding party, she has sisters and close friends, that's plenty. This way P can get her own dress and not worry about things etc. But they want to have D (p's son - he was my ring bearer - he's 8 now i think) walk down the aisle with a couple of other little boys as kind of a mini usher procession of some sort and P loves the idea. So they are talking about it when they hear "ahem" from the couch. They turn and look at Suka who says "what about Princess?" (referring to sukaspawn) so E says "S, she can't walk." (being only 8 or 9 weeks old) and suka goes "well someone could carry her..." of course angling for being part of the wedding party. E said "we'll see..." just to keep the peace but i don't see it happening. Suka of course is trying to drive E to get the most expensive wedding possible. E took P's advice instead (which is good and make P feel better) that she went to her parents to discuss a budget etc for the wedding. P said "once you have a budget then you can work with in it. The photographer I wanted was $4000. That wasn't in the budget so I hired someone else." Suka of course is doing the "oh, you MUST get the flowers from *here* they are they ONLY ones who can do flowers right." It's sickening. I think E (especially being an accountant) will be much more cognizant of budgeets etc and do her best to keep things in check.

I'm told she wants to talk to me about places to register. :) I think that's pretty cool.

Oh well - in the meantime, i've got this killer cough that I can't kick. (nice alliteration no? :)) and i'm trying to cuz we are planning to go to the renn faire this weekend and I don't want to bail. Iknow my hubby is really looking forward to it. Keep your fingers crossed and have a great weekend folks!

** Update: I forgot stuff - mom reminded me. :) hehehe.

First - they were spending the 24 hour holidy at my grandmother's house. They brought with them for sukaspawn:
Their Own crib (not the travel crib that AUnt M bought them, don't know if their is travel or not.)
$1000 Stroller
Electric Swing
Electric Jumper
Bouncy Seat
Every other toy and appliance they could possibly need.

Then when they went to AUnt M's for dinner, they brought most of it with them THERE as well..

Now - financials. hehe. Cousin P was talking to J about $$. She asked how much the nanny was and how much his rent. ($2000 and $2400 a month respectively.) She says
"J, that's 4400 a month! I don't know how much you are making but that's already high, and you then have car payments and insurance and everything else. How are you doing this?" and j says... wait for it... this is classic!.... :)

"I just don't open my bills."

That's right folks - he's ignoring them hoping they'll go away, and even if they don't, if he doesn't open them then he doesn't stress about them. Now of course, he probably isn't getting any calls either, b/c we think he never changed his mailing address so if they are calling (which i'm sure they probably are) they are probably calling Aunt M. And of course, their name is spelled wrong on the caller ID. And we're not sure if they just didn't know how to pluralize their own name, or if they spelled it wrong on purpose to avoide being looked up. Oh yeah. And the phone is in HER name. P was asking him what he was gonna do, that he can't continue not opening his bills. and he said that he hopes to sell that program he started next year for some $$. But i think he's overestimating the value. And anyway - how long would it take suka to go through a couple million dollars? not long i'm sure... this is getting interesting... :)

Part of me is almost HOPING that when we go to NY to go through grandmom's house, that stuff is missing. P seems to think a lot more has been walking out of there of late... and I think the confrontation to find it will be VERY entertaining... :) MWUAHAHAHAHAHA

laters! :)

They're GREEEEEEEEEEEAAAAT!!!!

2006-10-04T13:50:00.000-04:00

Ok

so last night, my husband gets home around 10 or so. (he's taking his massage classes so gets home late 3 nights a week.)

We're laying in bed, hoping to fall asleep shortly. I'm a little out of it at this point. I pull my hair out from under my head and neck, and it kind of hits him in the face a little. NOthing major :) (he likes the long hair, so he'll have ot deal with it :)) he blows it out of the way, and then says "you smell good. Different. Are you using something new?"

So silly me, I ask him what it smells like so I can maybe identify the product. Nothing new that i know but but that doesn't mean anything - he's a guy. maybe he just noticed something i got 6 months ago.

So he says... well.. I know it sounds weird, but You smell like Kellogg's Frosted Flakes.

Such romantic words were never before spoken... :)

day of atonement? or just to kick some a$$....

2006-10-03T12:23:00.000-04:00

Sorry - it's been so long - I was gonna post yesterday which was actually the day of Yom Kippur, but i was SOO slammed at work i didn't have time. (good thing I didn't take off for the holiday eh?)

So... the suka related bit...Suka has declared that she was not going to fast (this is the woman who has stated she is "orthodox") because she is still post partem. (baby is 8 weeks old)

According to Aish.com:
4) What are the laws of fasting for a woman who has recently given birth?

For the first 72 hours following the birth, she is forbidden to fast. Even if both she and the doctor agree that she is strong enough to fast, she must eat.

If she says that she does not need to eat, she should eat only small quantities. If during the fast she feels that she needs to eat normally, she may do so.

If she is unsure whether she needs to eat, and certainly if she feels the need to eat, she should eat normal quantities.

5) What are the rules after 72 hours since the birth?

Between three and seven full days (i.e. from 72 to 168 hours) following the birth, the law is slightly stricter. In every case that she is permitted to eat, she may eat only small quantities, unless there are complications.

If she says that she needs to eat, she may do so even if a doctor says the opposite.

After seven full days she must fast like everyone else unless there is some complication.

7) Is a nursing mother allowed to drink if she fears a lack of milk for her baby? (which of course isn't valid since she hasn't nursed at all)

In almost all cases this is unnecessary, especially today when baby formula is available that can be used as a substitute for a short period. It is advisable to accustom the baby to formula a few days beforehand to avoid complications arising on Yom Kippur. In extremely unusual circumstances when a sensitive baby cannot tolerate anything other than the mother's milk, it may be possible to allow the mother to drink small quantities. Such serious matters should be determined only after consultation with a rabbi.

SO in other words - she doesn't have a leg to stand on re: fasting. Does this surprise anyone? I didn't think so.

In the meantime i'm completely and utterly frazzled at work. It's insanely busy this week, we're short handed on top of it and the local tech here is unwilling to do the "eh we're all XXX we can work together" and is more of "why can't your workflow get it right and stop giving me tickets that should be in your group" It's pissing me off cuz whenever i tickets for his group - I do them. no questions asked. it's ridiculous. You know it's bad when there are 4 voice mails on your phone and you only went to the bathroom. (sigh) Oh well -

Hopefully it will get better soon.

laters all!

bachelorettes and anniversaries...(they can have their cake and eat it too...)

2006-09-25T14:21:00.000-04:00

So ...

This weekend we had a bachelorette party for our friend. It was i have to say a WHOLE lot of fun. WHich is good, cuz it was essentialy the same time of plan they had for MY party, which I missed, so it was good to join in.

First we went to a Moroccan restaurant where it's served family style. You sit at low tables, have your hands washed and eat everything with fingers and pita bread. It was tasty. The bachelorette and others in our group got up and danced with the belly dancers. :) a lot of us had on jingly belts so we jingled every where we walked. :)

We all wore them bowling.

It was very amusing - having us all go bowling and jingling. Then the hokey pokey started and we were all doing that and adding hip shimmies to the moves. There was fun and merriment ( some of it drunken ) to be had - we all had a great time. :) I'm told some of the hubbies and children went out on their own as well... but I wasn't there obviously so not much to say on that. :)

Now - the fun. (you mean that wasn't the fun? Ruh Roh... :))

Yesterday was my anniversary. 1 year down. :) I got my husband a lovely pocket watch from hammacher schlemmer and had it engraved with "24 September, 2006 - A year of time together" :) (I couldn't resist the pun. and he says he loves it so that's good. :) We then went out to dinner at a great restaurant called Mikimotos. Course my husband spells it mickey moto's so when i was telling the girls where we were going during the party, we all started singing, "m - i - c... K- e - y... M - O - T - O - SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS" :) yes we're silly.:)

So i had some sashimi, and then panco and mustard crusted rack of lamb, with scallion mashed potatos, tempura onion rings, and grilled asparagus. It was LOVELY. Then I had banana coins for dessert. ( coin size fried banana wontons with honey and powdered sugar. ) M had a deep fried brownie. (all the desserts were deep fried I think.. :) )

When we got home, M insisted and getting out our wedding cake that was saved. Well - see, we didn't exactly save it properly. we forgot to freeze it before the honeymoon, and by the time we got back we figured it was too late and just kept forgetting to do anything about it - so it sat in our fridge... for a year. :)

We cut into it last night. This is what it looked like:

And yes... he took a bite - from a non green corner. (shudder) I have proof! I took pictures. I wasn't going anywhere NEAR that cake. I'd just had a lovely dinner and saw no need to refund it.

all in all - a fun weekend. :)

Showtunes!!! well helllooooooo D****..... :)

2006-09-22T08:41:00.000-04:00

Yes - Today on ALIT we introduce a new character. . . HelloD. I know - Sounds like a children's rapper or something. :)But no... this is the name of the Nanny on ALIT. The one the Suka and J have hired.

Now HelloD has been with the family for years. She was taking care of my great uncle's wife when she was terminal etc... So she LOVES "mister J" which is one reason she stays to put up with Suka.

So the report from HellOD is as follows:
Suka sleeps until 2 or 3 in the afternoon. Then she gets up and goes out shopping and playing around etc. She comes home in time to be there when J gets home. Then when he does she goes on and on about what a long and tiring day she's had taking care of sukaspawn. He then, feeling guilty that she has supposedly taken care of the sukaspawn all day and had such a long day doing it, takes care of sukaspawn all evening. This is after a full day of work. HelloD has started taking sukaspawn into her room so as to finally give Mister J some sleep finally.

Are we having fun yet? Oh and she finally posted another article for work. (anyone wants it email me and i'll give you the info.) Wonder if J finally grew a pair (small though i'm sure they are) enough to tell her she needs to do some work or they are gonna go bankrupt. We'll see. I guess it depends on how often she continues to write. Most of last year it was one a month. There were 2 in june and then nothing until this week.

ON a completely different brighter note... :) MY 1 year anniversary is this weekend. So Saturday night I am going to a friend's bachelorette party, and then sunday is our anniversary. The bookstore called to see if i could work on sunday. I gently explained what day it was and my manager said "OHH Congratulations, Never mind!"

Training is going well. Mom says that she can tell my midriff is getting a bit smaller. (course her explanation for why is a bit disconcerting. :)) She says she can tell it's small because before it was stretched tight, and now the skin is dimpled which means there's less there... :) Trainer says she can definitely feel that my ankles are smaller. She continues to kick my butt 2 times a week, but now i'm supposed to try and do it to myself an additional time each week. (sigh) We got these really cool weights too to work with. :) The trainer had asked me to get 8 and 10lb weights to have in addition to the 5lb weights we already have. Well, i figure i'm gonna outgrow those fairly soon - and it's a lot of weights to have laying around. So we got the Bowflex Selectech weights. :) they go from 5lbs to 52.5 lbs on each dumbbell. I got them on a sale that they came with the $140 stand for free. They work really nicely.

Oh and I sold the gazelle. :) YAY! for the same price as I sold the broken treadmill. Freaky ebay karma i guess.

Oh well -that's all she (meaning me) wrote for now. :) Have a great weekend everyone!

The Moment you've all been waiting for...

2006-09-18T17:24:00.000-04:00

That's right...

Finally - Pictures of the SUKA!!! :) I came accross the perfect wedding picture to post and you lucky viewers get to see it first. :)

Here it is!

hehehhe - enjoy! :)

Holy Giant Dogs Batman!

2006-09-12T09:59:00.000-04:00

So...i'm on the phone with my mom last night when call waiting beeps. It's not a number i recognize so I go answer it asking mom to hold on. Understandably she hung up after a few minutes. :) Cuz... guess who was on the phone!!! :)

hehehe. I spent 15 minutes on the phone with BURT WARD last night. That's right, *THE* Burt Ward of Batman fame. Now, i'm sure some of you are wondering why I might be talking on the phone to Mr. Ward. :)

It turns out, he and his wife run a dog rescue in California. It's called Gentle Giants Rescue. They specialize in rescuing giant breeds like danes, great pyranese, mastiffs etc. They also do some small dogs and some hairless dogs etc. All their dogs get to live in the house with them. (sometimes up to 60 dogs at once!) Anyways, they have developed their own dog food and I was interested in it. i mean seriously, they have their Great Danes (who's average life expectancy is 8-10 years) living an average of 14-18 years. That's pretty impressive in my book. So i was curious. especially as Mister has always had a umm.. "loose tummY" and both of them are very gaseous. So i've decided to try some new food. I have been using Wellness, but they changed their forumlation after hiring efficiency experts and so the bottom line seems to be more important now.

So I had called Gentle Giants because they only sell on their site, the food in pallets of 4 bags at a time. The pricing is very reasonable, and it's non profit, so all they care about is producing a good healthy food. It ends up with shipping to be cheaper than the wellness actually. :) and one thing mr ward mentioned, is that most Dog food manufacturers forget about things like Heart disease etc and the fat contents tend to be high. HIs is a low 9%. ANyways - i know this sounds like an advertisement, but i'm really just putting down my thought process on trying this stuff. :) So I wanted samples to see if my dogs liked it before investing $200. Well, he called back to tell me they don't have samples, but he'd be willing to let me try 1 bag instead of 4, so i figure mom and I will split it and see. What's nice about this food is it is for *ALL* ages. There is no puppy specific, or senior specific food. Their vet clinic will now ONLY feed this food to the dogs staying with them even though they sell other brands. So i'm thinking what the heck right? :)

but still... I got to talk to Burt Ward...LOL

In Suka news... the Sukaspawn (i just came up with that name, I LOVE IT!) i think is gonna end up the girl in the plastic bubble. Suka is paranoid, won't let anyone near her. The entire time of the event formerly known as the naming no one was allowed to see the baby. baby stayed in a back room in a carriage with netting over the top. There's Purell bottles EVERYWHERE so they can sanitize before picking up the baby every time. they DEIGNEd to let my cousin P hold Sukaspawn, and that only lasted 30 seconds before she started making noises like she was hungy. when P offered to feed her SUka Freaked, grabbed the baby and said "NO she NEEDS HER MOMMY! - she's too fussy, isn't comfortable with people, she's just too fussy no one else can hold her or feed her." Kid is gonna have no immune system. :) and no socialization skills either. I'm supposed to get more dirt this weekend so we'll see how it goes.. :)

In other news - my future physical happiness is on its way... hubby started school last night. ahhh those magic hands will now have education. A beautiful thing! :)

Hope lives on . . . .

2006-09-11T10:16:00.000-04:00

So, everyone is doing remebrances of what happened 5 years ago. This is a good thing. THis is something that should ALWAYS be remembered.

But what I think is even more important to remember is the hope we all have. That drive to move on and live our lives and not be brought low by such evil actions.

We will always remember those who can no longer do this and mourn their loss and what they as people contributed to our society and lives. We will also do as i'm sure they would want, which is to LIVE, with love and laughter and joy in our hearts. To fight evil and hate with joy and tolerance. That is how we win, by not letting them stop us from LIVING.

Today we remember all those who fell, and those who live on in their names.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

I wanted to share with you folks today the blanket/hope chest we received this weekend. My mother in law bought it for us during the family auction at the reunion last year. It was delivered to us THIS year at the reunion.

it's *HUGE* :)
We put it at the foot of our guest bed. It's about 6" narrower than the queen size bed. and about 5" taller. Keep in mind that this is a normal queen size bed, with 2 foam pads, 2 flannel comforters and a spring blanket on it, and the chest is STILL taller by a few inches than the top of the bed. I hope that people can still get around it to the bed... :) The cousin who made it for us said that he'd made one for his wife, but it was too small to hold king size blankets. So he made it bigger. It now has 2 king size flannel comforters in there, a bunch of towels, and our spare sheets for the master bed. IT's got this cool slider box near the top, that you can put stuff in and slide back and forth to get at what's underneath. The box and the bottom shelf are made of cedar. So everytime you slide the box, the ceder smell "refreshes" itself. He also gave us some cedar balls to keep in there as well.

I love it. And it arrived in time for our first wedding anniversary which is in just under 2 weeks. (2 weeks from yesterday in fact.)

Life moves forward. . . and I now have a lovely chest (no giggling you!) to put not only blankets and towels and sheets in, but to put Hope in. . . for our future and yours....

SUKA STUFF!!!!

2006-09-06T13:40:00.000-04:00

oh i gots LOOOOADDDS of new suka stuff.

But here's the deal - those of you who really want to know about it, email me and i'll email you the whole story. (email me at jleader at gmail dot com) it's all written out and ready to go, but it's detailed enough that i'd rather not post it publicly and i don't think blogger does password protected. :)

In the mean time. Not much else is going on here. I have my husband's family reunion this weekend. Gonna bring a stuffed bunny and blanket that I made for a friend's baby. I keep forgetting to mail it to her. So i figure i'll bring it as an example and auction off custom made bunny and/or blanket. See they do auctions every year for stuff that people make or donate. The funds go into a reunion bank account to help defer expenses for the annual get together. Helps pay for food, location etc. Not sure when our turn is - i think in a few more years. But i figured that would be kind of cool. We'll also bring brownies for the kids to bid on and stuff like that. I might even donate one bunny to the kids auction. The kids will be given $500 in monopoly money each, so they can really participate in bidding with their own "monday." So some stuff is a true donation. :) but if i'm making one bunny, it's just as easy if not easier to make a bunch at once then it is to just do one at a time, because then I assembly line them. :)

Oh well - that's all for today. Here is a picture of the bunny and blanket just so you all know what i'm talking about. Always made with 100% cotton flannel and eyes and nose are embroidered on so it's safe for infants and toddlers as well... :)(i am willing to sell them if a gift is needed for a baby shower or something just so you all know :))

pictures and posts and umm... yeah :) can't think of anything cute.

2006-09-05T08:48:00.000-04:00

Hello everyone!

Hope everyone had a good labor day weekend. Mine was relatively quiet as the hubby was away in canada on a Kung Fu Trip. :) So mostly, i just hung around, played with the dogs etc. Though yesterday was lovely (while today is abysmal) and I took my bike out for the first real road test ride since I bought it. ANd I bought it with different tires then i test rode it on, so first ride on these tires. :) It was fun. My brother's friend is gonna buy my old bike too, and it fits her nicely. So i guess, if his 4'10" friend fits that frame well, that would explain why it was too small for my long legged 5'4" body. Although, she did look a bit like kermit the frog from the muppet movie while riding. . . :) she laughed when I said that. :)

I also started some knitting this weekend. I had been working on this shawl called the lace wings shawl. I bought the pattern, but it was designed by regular knitter, and I think it's not written very well. There's mistakes and stuff that make it difficult, and if you aren't experienced enough (which I'm not) it's hard to figure out how to fix them. My mom was saying just by reading it she figured that out, and that she'd have to knit it to fix it. Not worht the effort. :) So at some point I will pick up that nifty yarn again, and try something different. :) Anyways, I have no patience for something with that much pattern to follow. But the yarn is a really PRETTY egyption cotton by King Tut. :) and it's in this lovely vibrant autumn red type color. :)so i'll do something with it later. :) So what i DID start working on this weekend was this:
These needles are AWESOME! :) i love them... :)birchwood, very sharp even in large sizes, very super smooth, and perfect size to just carry with you small projects... they are like 7 or 8" long. Perfect! - perfect scarf size too. :)

Also - As Promised.. Pics of the floor:

Hall Bathroom(see the nifty faucet?)

Master Bath See new counter? :)

Living room(with nifty new rug)

and that my friends I think is about all she wrote. It's taken me about 1.5 hours to get this post done, first with the network down and then with the time to upload pictures so... Later Taters! :)

Mold and Must and Miserable Dust....

2006-08-30T09:03:00.000-04:00

Wow - It's been a while. I didn't realize it had been so long. BAD ilanna BAD! :)

Ok - so i'm here now. I was away on vacation over the weekend (from about thursday on) and wednesday i was trying to babysit a VERY talkative 6 year old while working and so didn't get to post much last week.

So - I went to Martha's Vineyard. It's where my husband grew up and where my inlaws reside.

It is a LOVELY island. And it was being nice to my nature, and being cool the entire time we were there. never topped 75. Course it also rained 3 out of 5 days. Regardless of the weather, we had a good time. Got to relax a bit, we went shopping (always a good thing) and we went to the farmer's market. (brought home 3lbs of local honey and some flavored vinegars.) Got goodies for myself and goodies for my friends. One of the most well known souveniers from MV is the Black Dog. It's famous, t-shirts and clothes etc. I got a pair of sweat pants and a hoodie, both INCREDIBLY comfortable and good quality. :) what's also fun, is the spin offs. One enterprising tourist shop has started printing the "bad dog" items. We got my brother a T-shirt that said something like "Bad Dog Oyster bar, always fresh and steaming!" (bearing in mind that the bad dog is showin as a black dog in a Pooping position. :) There's a few really good ones from there.

We went to the local winery and I bought some wine and other stuff. Course, i'll never drink the wine myself - so it will have to wait until i have company over who will share the bottle. :) i'm sure i can arrange that at some point. :)

We never got to go sailing though - water was a bit too choppy and our tummies were sensitive so we avoided it. That was the DOWNSIDe of the trip. My mom and i have had off stomachs the entire month of august. ANd our allergies have been bad this month. In fact on the way up, mom and I took the train to Providence and met my husband there for the last leg of the trip - b/c we were afraid of being without a bathroom. Anywhere we went on island, we called ahead to make sure there were bathrooms available. I did finally have some lobster the last night we were there, but we were being very careful with what we ate... paranoid even.

Unfortunately the other problem was sinus. I'd been taking advil C&S most of thismonth off and on. I was taking it every 3 hours up there. And for the first time in about 4 years, I had to take claritin. you see...it's an island. ANd it was raining. So there was that in and of itself. The really bad part is that my inlaws house is a Mold Experiments' wet dream. the basement smells like the underside of a dock. I couldn't go down there unless I had a cloth around my face to make breathing easier. The rest of the house is almost as bad. It's 30+ years old, and never had any AC, central ducting, etc. The lack of central ducting is probably the only thing that saved us since it would have blown air from the basement otherwise, but that means no dehumidifying. A lot of people thing AC is just to cool things off, but it actually CONDITIONS and cleans the air too. Carpet is at least 15 years old, as is all of the furniture and curtains etc. So it just breeds and breeds. I sat down on the couch and my eyes began to itch and water. Hubbies allergies started getting really bad too, and mom in law was MISERABle, and it was HER house! She finally admitted outloud that her allergies were worse in the house than out of it, and dad in law said even he sometimes notices. I can only hope they decide to do something about it. She mentioned bringing in a professional cleaning service, but I think they are going to have to strip all fabrics - replace carpet, reupholster furniture, get some new furniture etc. Will have to see.

So you see, all in all we had a very good time, but our heads and bellies were miserable. My only other real complaint is that when we go there on vaca, I sleep in bro in law's childhoold bed/bedroom, and hubby sleeps in his own bedroom. Twin beds. I could accept that before we were married but ....sheesh. Time to clean out the old rooms and make them into guest rooms of some kind. King or queen bed, night stand etc.

I think the next time we go - we are going to see if we can rent a house or something while up there, so there can be more comfort options etc. In the mean time, i'm going to enjoy my COZY sweats this winter, and my zip up hoodie sweatshirt. I'm going to LOVE putting that raw honey in my tea in the mornings. In fact i used some this morning. It was wonderful. Very mild, not overly sweet at all, so I didn't get that weird honey aftertaste from drinking too much. I might have to bring some into work and have it here so I can have more tea during the day. :) I can't wait to try using some of the flavored vinegars in cooking, and seeing the looks on friends faces when i give them their gifts... :)

And now - i'm back at work. :) wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.

Doggies are home. They are like LUMPS. So tired they don't want to move. hopefully they stay that way through the weekend since hubby is going right back out of town to Canada to train with a kung fu grand master one last time before starting massage school. So i get to take care of the puppies - which means no sleeping late. (sigh)

Oh well.

SOON, I promise, I will get pictures of the floors, and maybe some pics from MV. I only took some on the ferry over, and when we went to Gay Head but there are some pretty cool pics. :)

hope everyone had a good weekend, and those on the east coast enjoy the rain this week. :) i'll try to get back to posting more often. :)

I scream you scream we all scream for . . . umm.. well.. hmm... :)

2006-08-16T14:10:00.000-04:00

Ok

So my new mission is to buy an ice cream maker. I used to have one but between various moves from place to place too many parts of gone missing and all that's left is a frozen bowl. :)

And of course counter ande cabinet space is severly limited. (I gots too many gadgets)

So i figured i'd get the one that went on the kitchenaid. All i need then is freezer space for the bowl, and some drawer space for the attatchment gizmo. :)

The reason for this mission is, I love ice cream. But i'm trying to get in shape and lose weight. One goal set for me food wise, was to have only 1 ice cream a week. Well. Hmm. this just sucks. :) and I can't get the sugar free stuff cuz aspartame gives me a headache, and if I get the fat free stuff a) it's hard to find that WITH sugar and b) there's nothing to stop the sugar from being like a hypo injected directly into my blood stream. :)

So - i've decided that maybe i need to make my own. Alter it. Make ice milk instead of cream so i can have flavor and dairy with out being high fat. Or use SOy milk, and maybe use honey instead of sugar. I've got all kinds of ideas on how to alter the recipes. Only one i havne't figured out at the custard base ones, cuz they NEED the heavy cream to make them the right consistency. So i'll have to explore. :)

But i wanted to post and interesting recipe I found here: "Perfect Kithcen by Esseti"

Avocado Ice Cream

While an avocado-flavored dessert may seem strange to North Americans, South Americans have long considered the avocado an ideal ingredient for sweet dessert. Try this recipe and you'll understand why.

Three 8-oz. avocados
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
3/4 cup superfine sugar
5 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
3/4 cup heavy cream

Peel and pit the avocados. Cut them into chunks and purée in a food processor. You should have about 2 1/2 cups of purée. With the machine running, add the remaining ingredients.
Pour the mixture into the bowl of the machine and freeze.
Makes about 1 quart.

now - I love avocados. I LOVE guacamole - and it's got such a nice creamy consistency. And it's a healthy fat, even if there is a fairly high content. But i never thought of using it in ice cream. ya know? But something about this is REALLY intriguing me and I think I should try making it, if only so I can say I did and tried it. Apparently it's very popular in south america.

I guess I will have to let you all know how it came out. Cuz man, if i can't get my ice cream fix i'll be upset. And it's not just the sweet - it's the cream. :) It's the best thing for heartburn/acid reflux. Oh well - we'll see what happens. I have to get the maker first. :)

blah blah blah. . . . . .

2006-08-14T13:45:00.000-04:00

So there isn't a whole lot going on right now. :)

The house battle still occurs, though I think that mom has pretty much decided to stick to her plan and just say no. Probably the best for all concerned. At this point it burns a lot of bridges with that contingent of the family but to be honest, it doesn't really bother us a whole lot. :)

the Flooring continues. They are working on the hall bath now - I think that the master bath is finally done. YAY! :) it looks lovely. there will be pictures soon, i promise!

Went to a wedding this weekend. It was a LOT of fun - and a really gorgeous ceremony. and it was SHORT and sweet - I think from the time the groomsman processional started to the end was less than 20 minutes. And then they did a really cool receiving line idea. Instead of a whole line - they greeted each row of guests as they exited the ceremony area.

The weather was gorgeous and we got to enjoy all of it at the cocktail hour after the ceremony - and then we all went inside for the receptions. It was a lot of fun. I really liked the idea that to get the B&G to kiss, instead of tapping glasses, each table had to stand up as a whole and sing a song with "love" in the lyrics...

I had a really good time - watched my friends get trashed - danced and in general had a good time. though jackie it seems may have broken her foot wearing flip flops while chasing the bride. (not really flip flops, more like "slide sandles" but... still - not good for running.)

I'm also going *NUTS* because I found something out and i can't share it. Once i can i'll let ppl know, but those who know me, know how hard it is for me to keep a juicy secret... hell - i have trouble holding on to a present long enough to wait for the occasion. :)

Then Sunday, i helped my friend sort through some clothes, and then went miniature golfing with my husband and then we went to the mall to get bday presents for his neice and nephew. Then home and dinner and bed.

All in the midst of that day - we were doing the hot and cold compresses for mister's foot. You see he managed to do something to his paw.

Thursday night we went to the vet and had it X-rayed. $220 later, nothing broken. Saturday morning the paw was even MORE swollen and oozing a bit (yick!) So i took him to the emergency vet because the only 2 on duty at my regular vet's office were UNACCEPTABLE. (don't like either of them) And the emergency vet is WONDERFUL. So another $135 later :) my dog is on antibiotics, pain killers, and Benadryl. The current theory is that it was an allergic reaction to a spider bite or something similar. It is going down somewhat. Looks a lot more normal. :) I think the benadryl and compresses are helping which is a good thing. So both dogs are home with me while they are working on the floors. the bulk of the dangerous stuff is done anyway - and they are afraid of the nailing etc.

and that is my life as it stands now in a nutshell. :) pretty boring eh? :)

Whoops...

2006-08-11T11:52:00.000-04:00

I realize i haven't blogged much this week. Sorry about that.

Specially since of course ALIT as reared it's ugly head. Not sure how much i remember since there was so much of it.

The latest is that since my GM's house isn't selling well, they are thinking of renting it for a while, and then maybe selling when the market picks up. There's some rumor that the orthodox in the area are "ganging up" to price fix the housing market. Who knows? But the key to this point is that they are talking about renting to my cousin A and his girlfriend E. While it would be great for them to be nearby my aunt and uncle to help them when needed, it still becomes an equity issue as to who is getting more of the estate, whether or not it's really monetary. Make sense? So there's of course the unconcious manipulation going on and mom just doesn't want anyonein the fmaily to be livng there period. B/c then it becomes them trying to recreate the high holidays etc... it's a complicated mess.

meanwhile - not much else is going on. There's lots of stuff really but i can't really get into it too much. :)

The floors in the meantime look AWESOME!! i'll post pictures when it is ALL done and you can see the finished product. :)they are working on the bathroom right now. :)

have a great weekend all!

Anyone have any frankincense and Myrh?

2006-08-07T09:20:00.000-04:00

Well the messiah has been born. around 3pm on saturday afternoon. Apparently it was a fairly easy natural birth.

When my mother asked my aunt if the suka was going to nurse, the response was "oh please!" :)

And of course she is named after my grandmother. The name is actualy nice but I will refrain from revealing for anonymity's purposes... :) anyone who really wants to know can email me. :) She was stayin in the hospital for a day or so and baby is in the NICU just to be cautious.

Other than that I don't know much.

Will get the seamstress' help with putting the tags in the sweater and send that on in a few weeks. Mom is working on finding something to send as well.

what's funny about the whole thing is...

Mom and I were pretty ill feeling this weekend. really nauseous, couldn't sleep, headaches etc...I told mom that it was probably the messiah coming making us sick. What's funny is, we started feeling better right around when the birth was done. :) Weird huh?

Not much else to report as of now. The floors are being started today - so hopefully i'll have a bedroom to sleep in this evening.

(btw Mary - you might want to visit your local comic shop and look into a series called Civil war and Frontline... all about should super heros be registered and government controlled or not - lot of interesting political commentary you might like - hell everyone might like... :))

Friday Silliness....

2006-08-04T10:30:00.000-04:00

First of all

I just *LOVE these T-shirts. Especially the first one. though I have both. :) hehehe DOOM! The comic strip is also heartily entertaining for those of you who want to waste some time reading... it is definitely worth it. :) I've even met the BF in person and he's a really cool guy. :)
It's silly. MWUAHAHAHA. :)

So, Mom isn't feeling so well today. What's odd is, last night and this morning I had a lot of the same symptoms (just more mild) and no idea why. It could be the weather changes that are happening. We are all sensitive to the barometer. :) *OR* my guess is this is nature's early warning sign that the messiah is coming and we should be prepared. {evil grin} well - it's a theory. And as we all know (and my friend used to have for her signature) I want to move to Theory, because everything works in Theory. :)

Also - if you go to In The Puddle and click on the right hand "vote" button in the comments section - it will take you to an amusing picture. Though if you don't know what FSM-ism is, then go here for more info.

So I dropped off my new skirts at the seamstress last night to have them hemmed up in front (at the waist) since they are shorter in back (due to the butt shelf most likely :)) and the seamstress loved them. So that helps :) but I also found out why they cost so much. I never looked at the tags while at the store - but they are basically sheer handkercheif style skirts over a liner. well theliner is the usual poly. But the entire layered over skirt (both of them) are made out of silk. That explains a lot. Oh well. I just won't be allowed to eat anything (since i'm a slob) :)

Not much else going on here today. I'm just trying to not freeze to death in my office. (my aisle is colder than a lot of the others, noticeably.) and looking forward to going home at lunch to warm up. :) or hell even going outside. I mean you KNOW your office/cubicle is cold, when during the heatwave with temps over 100, you are happy to go outside, and it feels good... sad... really sad. :)

oh well - have a great weekend everyone and if i think of anything more profound i'll post again. :)

the latest delusional amusement...

2006-08-03T11:51:00.000-04:00

So cousin P is talking to her brother J (the suka's hubby) and asking if they'd picked a pediatrician yet. J says "yes, we're going with the folks who took over dad's practice when he died." So P says "that's silly, they are more than half an hour away! why would you choose them?" and J says "well because they OWE us. They wouldn't have had a practice if it wasn't for us, and we want someone who will call us back within 5 minutes, and make house calls and since they owe us we figure they'll do that." Cousin P at this point begins LAUGHING! "J, daddy died 15 years ago. His practice may have been the BEGINNING of theirs, but i'm sure they've built it plenty over the years themselves. They don't owe us anything." - J says "so they won't call back in 5 minutes? I thought they did when your son was sick" P says "I called during office hours! and i brought him in to the office."

Disillusionment can be so much fun ya know? They've also hired a nanny at roughly $2k a month. Full time who will cook and clean. P asks how they can afford this, and J says "well if suka does 2 or 3 freelance things a week it isn't a problem." Of course she hasn't been doing more than 1 a month since the pregnancy. It's too hard to write she says. Of course, P completed her PHD including onsite research, the thesis etc, while carrying around her infant son in a carrier. and she didn't have any help. How hard is it to write a fluff article when the kid isn't even out and crying yet?

Sheer Insanity i tell you. The only saving grace to things like nannies and that, is that at least the child will have some good influences. The nanny they hired is someone who's been in the family helping elderly members for many years and so is a known quantity.

Today is the sonogram - so i'm sure i'll have some news by tomorrow, or if not by next week as to what is happening with the birth of the messiah. :)

Tune in.. .same web time (maybe) same web channel :) MUWAHAHAHAHAHAHA :)

In other news... i'm inflicting my trainer on mom (EC) tomorrow. She will hopefully help design a set of alternative excercises that will work for her and not bother her back etc... :) finally -i get to watch someone else be tortured. hehehehe.

Secret Shame. . .

2006-08-02T11:15:00.000-04:00

I have to admit... I"m strangely, sickeningly addicted to "Walker: Texas Ranger"

hell if I know why. and of course I love ripping the show and the premise to shreds. :) I mean - right now i'm watching, and walker goes "undercover" as a teacher in the high school. So what's his name? Mr Walker. Right cuz that is SOOO undercover. :)

And yet, i'm enthralled. Is it because I just like watching him beat people up? Could be. Vicarious thrills are always good when it comes to violence. :) Maybe it's the Daylight goodie two shoes version of Batman he seems to be. :) (the kick anyone's butt, and amazing 6th sense reflexes) I just don't know. It's a sickness I tell you! :)

In other news, we're currently awaiting news of tomorrow's sonogram for the Suka. She's apparently effacing and they are going to do the sonogram to decide what to do. induce, c-section or wait it out? Of course we think, that the doctor will induce or do the C-section just to finally get her off his charts. :) I think she's been driving him thoroughly nuts for the last 7-9 months.

Crazy Aunt R is up to old tricks again trying to sue everyone and their mother.

and all the usual stuff is all over the place. :)

Ahh well. As long island turns is at it again. :)

Exhaustion thy name is ilanna... :)

2006-07-31T13:47:00.000-04:00

it's been a LOOOOOONNNNg weekend... and i'm wiped. :)

Friday - I took the day off to go shopping with my mom. Mall is about an hour 15 away from me. 45 from mom (we kind of meet in the middle.) And I was looking for clothing to wear to the upcomming grouping of weddings I have. :)

SO we get there around 1030. My cousin met us at around 1145. My cousin left around 245 (we had a light lunch in between) and then mom and I finally left around 515 or so. We're looking at almost 7 full hours. Then I had a 2+ hour drive home cuz i Hit traffic in baltimore.

While at the mall, we went to Nordstroms. I found a couple of really cool brown (so warm) skirts with patterns on them. Both with handkercheif style hems. Then I got a brown sheer button down shirt that comes with a matching brown spaghetti strap tank. I also got an ice blue cowl nect "shell" that works nice. I have a lot of variation options with these outfits which is cool. I also found a nice coat, wasn't planning to get one though. It's a microcfiber suedy feeling outside with a fake fur inside. Very toasty warm - car coat length, nice coat and on SALE. So mom really thought I should get it so I did. (she bought me all the stuff at Nordstrom's. THANKS MOM!) So after deciding what to get we had lunch at the cafe, and then we went back to PAY for our purchases. :) Then we went to look at shoes. CUZ well see, i have lots of shoes, but the one thing I dont' have - is BROWN dress shoes. And you can't wear an entire Brown based outfit and wear black satin shoes. Just doesn't work. :) So i needed some brown dress shoes. but Nordstroms didnt' have anything. It's frustrating because apparently 4" heels are back in style this season, so it's either that or flats. Finding an inbetween isn't easy. So we then went to J. Jill. That's the store i was complaining about on thursday. They have some really nifty stuff. and they cut full! but they only carry petite and regular in the store. Oh well. I was able to try on some XL's and get a feel for what might fit from the catalogue, so I can always order if i so choose. Then my cousin left. So mom, and I started looking to see where there might be shoes. But we'd passed all the main stores, and we were so tired and our feet hurt so we decided going back to the other end of the mall was SOO not an option. So we went to JC penney and then Sears. Sears is where we hit paydirt. :) Of course I can't for the life of me find any of the stuff i bought on line. One pair of shoes was a pair by "Personal Identity" a T-strap wedge pump. The wedge is wide though not like those skinny death on heels type shoes. in a mottled brown leather with cut outs at the toe. really cool. Probably 2.5" maybe? The other pair is a pair of mudds. about a 2.5-3" "wood look" heel, but thick. and it's a round toe pump, but wider round toe, with beige stitching on it. Really cute. Neither of them are great for my back, but i'm at the point, that with dress shoes, it's not worth the $150 to buy appropriate shoes for dress and back, and for the few times i'll be wearing them (and the relatively short periods of time) i'll just suck it up. :)

So after that we got ice cream and then left the mall.

Saturday. Saturday, i had to get up and run some errands in the morning, and then pick up my husband so we could go to a bridal shower. (more like a wedding shower since it was one of those Co-Ed dealios.) It was a lot of fun, was enjoying it. Kind of odd for me though because I didnt' know ANYONE there except the bride and groom really. I didn't realize how little our friend base there overlapped. The only people I would have known didn't come down cuz she's due in like a month to pop out the first kid. :) so I understand her not being there. :) so it was kind of weird. :) But fun none the less. And then we had to leave early, but I won some movie tickets in one ofthe games. From there we went to drop M off to pick up his car, and then meet at friend's house for his birthday party. We then left from there and went to philly to see a reading of "the Tell Tale Heart" by edgar allen poe at the eastern state penitentiary. My friend was wonderfully surprised, as he'd thought it was just gonna be the 4 of us. Then 4 other friends showed up at the house, and then another 7 showed up in philly. :) It was AWESOME. There was some history about the prison, and the psychology, a discussion of the insanity defense and then some discussion about poe himself. It was a really great time. Then back to Delaware for dinner where another 7 -10 people showed up, also a surprise. Took over the entire friggin restaurant. :) it was GREAT! we had a blast there too. Got home around 1030 or so. ANd then I crashed. I slept until 1130 sunday morning.

By then of course Sunday had officially arrived. I went out to the store to pick up some stuff for organizing and what not. You know, I should have taken some before and after pics. We had to start cleaning up b/c our floors are beign install soon. My dresser: took me 3 hours, 3 trash bags, 3 bags of clothes to give away, the dresser is full, and so is my hamper, so no sure what i'll do once I do laundry :) And now that is clean. I haven't even touched under the bed or the shoes, or the closet yet. :) Or the nightstand except to remove water bottles. I filled a nordstrom's shopping bag with bottles to recycle. :) I have to empty them all out first. :) Then i had dinner - and crashed. Only to not sleep all that well.

So needless to say - i'm just WIPED. Add to that the heat. and popping in and out of AC'd stores into 95+ heat and back into AC store or AC car... it is just BRUTAL. and we're to have our heat wave this week. WHEEEEEE. I feel miserable in it. I can only say POOR PUPPIES when it comes to the doggies.

Oh well - good luck to everyone else with the heatwave. :)

Frustrating Fashion

2006-07-27T13:38:00.000-04:00

Ok

So you have a store. their online catalogue carries, Petite, regular, Tall, and Women's sizes. And in just about all styles, all sizes are available. But the store itself, carries ONLY regular sizes and some of them carry petite. Why? Do Tall and large women not count? Do we not exist in high enough quantity that there's no point in carrying those styles in the store? When I find a place that has some nice fashionable things in good sizes, I get excited because it's a nice idea to have a clothing option that isn't a tent ya know? Which then leads me to another rant.

The concept of plus size clothing. Unfortunately the majority of plus clothing is a size 6 pattern blown up on a photocopy machine. obviously proportions are not the same. Plus women are not all butter balls and round shapes. There are boobs and butts and smaller waists etc.

I want to open a store called "boobs and butts and everything between." A store that has different lines, specifically designed for each sizing set.
And JEANS!! no more size 10, 12, 14 etc. No no, we're going to follow the logic that actually is USED in sizing of mens' jeans. Except instead of Inseam, it will be waist, hip and then Petite, regular, MTall, and Tall. :) how's that sound??

Who wants to start the revolution with me??? And remember, this isn't just for us plus folks, but for those short people, and tall people, and people everywhere in between who have size 8 tops and size 14 bottoms... it's a WHOLE new WORLD of clothing!!!

Sponge Bob Edamame

2006-07-25T09:44:00.000-04:00

Ok -

This site has some amusing news posts (short summaries or segments of the post) and pithy commentary on those news stories. One of them is about the Licensing of Dora and Sponge bob Edamame and Edamame pods. Umm.. I'm not even sure what Edamame *IS* and they think this will work for kids? It is certainly and interesting concept, and just goes to show just how screwed up our world is sometimes. :) Spongebob vegetables... :) right, cuz that's what *I* think of when I think of spongebob... then again... mabye it's appropriate, as his apparent brain might be similar to the product "he" is endorsing. :)

I have to say - i just loved Mary's stream of consciousness blog this morning. was very entertaining. I want what she's having. :)

once again, i'm freezing in my office... I don't quite understand it. I have to dress warmer in the summer than I do in the winter. Silly.

so last night - i made lambchops for dinner. I marinated them first for a couple of hours in Vidalia onion honey mustard dressing. THen about 10 minutes before cooking added basalmic vinegar to the mix. My oh my did those come out tasty! Add to that the brown basmati rice and the steamed asparagus and I had a lovely dinner on my own. MY hubby was at his entrance interview for Massage School. He is now officially in as a student and will be starting classes on 9/11. The classes are 3 nights a week for 5 hours a night. I won't be seeing him much for the next 11 months... Oh well - on the bright side, i will then have a trained massage therapist living with me hmmmmmm.... that has lots of potential. :)

To anyone local - the massage school offers on thursday nights at either 6 or 7pm (both times are options I mean), a full 1 hour massage for $30. This is designed to give the students different people to practice on and different body types and issues to work on as well. You don't get to pick the student, and it's first come first serve. (Though I suppose you could call the school to sign up maybe and/or make an appointment) but for anyone who wants massages and can't normally afford the $70 they usually cost... this is might be a good way to do it and help out hubby in the process. :)

Umm - I think the stream of consciousness is probably coming to an end.

Oh wait. :) nope. So Minijaxter has now finished the sweater (MWUAHAHAHAH) and I have the tags. She has made me a couple of swatches so I can practice sewing things into the "sweater" material so I know how best to do it.. machine, hand etc...

Oh and the training is going well. :) I have bony ankles again. :) (instead of tree stumps) and My flexibility is starting to return in the process. I'm also not as tired all the time or feeling as drained usually. This is a good thing. Now i just have to start eating somewhat better and it will go even better in the long run. I'm signing up for another 30 sessions. :) that's another 15 weeks of torture. :) wish me luck :)

Ok - now it's over. Back to work! :) and have a great day folks. :)

I think i need to move away

2006-07-24T16:06:00.000-04:00

From the heavy posting that is. :) lets move onto lighter things. Of course I don't really have a topic in mind at the moment.

Not much is going on really. I saw two movies this weekend. Pirates of the carribean 2- dead man's chest was the first. Then we did a double feature and saw ClerksII right after. I enjoyed both movies for entirely different reasons. Pirates was a great historical fantasy. Fun and energetic, and scary all at the same time. Clerks was just sick - which is to be expected.

Of course this leads to a minor rant.

For those of you with kids (and granted Idon't have any of my own yet) I understand the desire to get out of the house and see a movie or do something away from the house. But if you really need to get away. Get a sitter.

Bringing your 2 year old (roughly) to see a PG-13 movie is just ASININE and irresponsible. There's a reason it's PG-13. SCARY STUFF! I mean really. I honestly think that unless a movie is rated G, then children under 5 or 6 shouldn't even be allowed in the THEATRE, regardless of parental approval.

So yes, when we were watching pirates, right behind us was a couple with what appeared to be a 2 year old. one who was frequently crying and upset through out the movie. Kicking the seat I was in etc. But obviously unhappy with being there, whether or not he was scared of the movie. What p*ssed me off even more, was the parents who kept reprimanding him with "Shut your mouth right now!" So not only did you bring the child to a movie ENTIRELY inappropriate for him, but now you are punishing him and yelling at him for being scared and upset while watching said movie.

Truth be told, i'm an advocate for "childrens only" type shows. They used to do this on long island at one of the theatres i'd go to. It was labeled a "mother's show." It was a specific time that was publicized for parents to bring their children to. Anyone without kids who went to that show was informed that it was a mother's show, and to be aware there would probably be a lot of noisy children etc in the theatre and it is your choice to put up with it.

I know the ratings sytem is really a guideline, but I call upon ALL parents out there to actually use some common sense in taking your children to movies and realizze that PG13 is there for a reason, and should be SOME indicator as to the content of the movie.

Ok - rant over for the moment. I'm curious to see if all of you out there who are parents agree or disagree with me. it would be good to know if i'm speaking out of turn not being a parent myself, or if it actually makes sense. :)

Misunderstandings. . .

2006-07-20T08:51:00.000-04:00

I think a number of people misinterpreted what I was trying to say yesterday.

Based on some of the commentary, many people are mostly concerned with the pictures and how horrible it is that children are signing bombs, and the impression i get is that they feel i'm arguing that this is ok.

What i was trying to say in my blog yesterday, was not so much about the pictures, but more about some of the commentaries I was seeing about the pictures.

I agree - it's horrible. Children should not hate that much. Whether they are justified, taught, or creative enough to come up with it on their own (which knowing children would not surprise me in the slightest - although that doesn't excuse the adults that condoned it) was not what I was trying to address.

Please, go back and read a number of the comments made on the other blogs about those pictures. What was MOST upsetting to me were the generalizations about "religious hatred" being taught, and the concept of things being a religious war. That is truly what bothered me the most.

The truth is the middle east is so screwed up I don't think anyone really understands everything that is happening. (that includes all of the governments involved as well.) I disagree that Israel is a bully. Yes they have one of the biggest and most efficient armies in the world, and yet are such a small country. However, I can't blame them for being prepared for what they see as the inevitable conflicts and attacks. But that is my opinion. nothing more.

Opinions are just that, opinions, and people need to be able to discuss them calmly and rationally and in an ideal world, be open to the other person's ideas. Take them in, think about them, and if there's disagreement calmly explain the points.

I think we all get a little too worked up over things, and if we feel attacked (even if that isn't the intention of our counterparts) we will fight back.

(and yes i'm segueing here.)

I urge everyone, to please try and be aware of what you are saying and how you are saying it and realize that if the other person starts yelling to you or at least responding in an agitated manner, to stop and think about how you've made your comments to determine if maybe, JUST maybe the other person could have construed it as attacking and aggressive. The other person may just be a nut job, or nervy, or an aggressive personality, but just maybe they felt they had reason, and your tone was misinterpreted. I think if we all just relax for a minute, and stop talking over one another and think about what we are all saying, things could possibly be improved...

Think - don't react. (we're not chemical experiments after all ;) )

Politics...

2006-07-19T09:37:00.000-04:00

I really dislike politics most of the time.
Everyone is so dishonest. They twist their words and most people tend to be too lazy to find out what is really happening, base all of their decisions PURELY on whichever TV ad catches their attention, and what their family and friends tend to do. I reiterate. *MOST* people. (b/c people are stupid) The people who tend to read my blog are not. :)

And I will admit - I'm lazy when it comes to politics. I tend not to pay much attention because it annoys me so much. And My mother is such a junky :) as is my brother and they think like I do, that i trust their judgement. So call me a hypocrite.

Today, I was reading on Kvatch's blog, along with a couple of others he referenced, their story with pictures about Israeli children signing bombs headed for Lebanon.

I have a number of issues with this story. And even more issues with a lot of the comments that came out of the story.

I can agree that it's sickening and sad that children are smiling and signing bombs with comments such as "from israel and daniel" or "to Hisballah with love" etc. But this is *SOOO* not a black and white issue. And what i absolutely *CAN NOT* agree with is the commentary that Muslims are raised to hate jews and jews are raised to hate Muslims. that is A) a GROSS generalization, b/c I have friends who are muslim. I am jewish. Neither of us hate each other, nor were we raised to do so. B) jews by nature are not raised to hate anyone (more to wallow in what is our own misfortune. :) ) B) So *NOT* the point of what is going on with Israel and Lebanon and Gaza and everything else.

I think we are all so hung up on the religious fanatics in the middle east bombing everyone that we can't separate any other conflict in the ME as anything BUT religious. Israel's war is a war of survival not of religion. They are a secular country not a religious one. (and please take note, I am *NOT* trying to say that israel is pure as the driven snow, and isn't to blame for some of the conflict. no one over there is without blame. no stone throwing there... at least not legitimately.) How many people have really STUDIED the history of that area? How many know all the things that have instigated this war? how many people have *REALLY* looked at a scale map of the Middle East after commenting on how Israel is trying to strong arm everyone, and then gone "oh sh*t, didn't realize how small Israel really is compared to the rest of the middle east!" Go here to see a map.

When Israel was created, no one WANTED that land. It was barren desert, that's why they said ok to giving it to israel. (yes this is probably an oversimplification, and if anyone can cite sources that prove i'm wrong, please lets start a civilized discussion of it) But then... Then Israel did the unexpected. They built a thriving country. They built irrigation systems and became a real agricultural mecca. Suddenly everyone wants their land back. what's wrong with this picture?

As for children signing bombs, think about it differently. What if we had a war on our home turf, our citizens, children, familes being killed by bombs? OR what if we had a way to send a bomb that would directly target Osama? Would we still think it sick and disgusting to have people signing bombs headed for our deadly enemy? It's very easy to be idealistic when we don't live with war every day.

last but not least, I have not yet been able to find any reference to this on any of the news outlets. Are these pictures even real? Where did they come from? And WHY of all things, are the children writing in english???? That's not their language. They aren't writing in lebanese, which would make sense since they are the recipients (though i don't think they'd be able to read it). Why, when sending bombs from your homeland, would you sign it anything BUT your national language? This screams propaganda to me, to get people fired up against Israel, so that they can then be attacked not just physically with bombs and bullets, but also be morally condemned by people sitting back in relative safety.

I again ask, what is wrong with this picture? You tell me.

**Update: the references are from here: Photo and short story However I believe that the location the girls are from, are LITERALLY on the border with Lebanon and has been bombed/shelled/attacked etc throughout history and are literally on the battlefront. Doesn't mean it justifies the behavior, but I certainly understand it.

There's a reason it's red . . .

2006-07-17T10:12:00.000-04:00

Target is evil...

it is a black hole for money to be SUCKED into at an alarming rate. . .

yes you get to bring things home, but somehow you never realize just how much you've bought. . .:)

This weekend I went shopping. :)

I made the schlep up to concord pike to go to Bed bath and beyond because I had 2 wedding gifts and a shower gift to purchase. Of course beyond the $150 those gifts cost me, I managed to spend another $70 in that store... ;) ($30 for other people) I mean - how can you live with OUT the silicone basting brushes?? HMM??? those regular brushes they get all greasy and nasty, and i figured these would be easier to clean... :) and the marble mortar and pestle! i've been wanting one of those for AGES and it was so inexpensive! :) (you get the idea (grin))

So then, I go to lowes. That was at least a fixed price trip. Medicine cabinet. It was already picked out. the store by me had been out of stock, so i went to the one in the same shopping center as BBB. :) went in, bought it, rearranged my trunk, and had it put in my car. (my trunk is very full at the moment.)

but then... Then there's Target.

See, a few weeks ago, I bought a Tshirt from an online comic called In the Puddle. I really enjoy the comic. But the T-shirt!!! she made it herself.. iron on kind of thing - but it was PRINTEd on the most awesome Tshirt i've ever worn. 95% cotton, 5% spandex for just a little more fitted feel, and super SILKY soft... soooo nice. And that shirt - was from Target. (oh and it was tagless too - very important.) SO of course, while I was right there, I needed to go find more of these incredible t-shirts. I figured, if she's selling them for X amount, with the iron on and a profit, the shirt itself can't cost a WHOLE lot right? :) well I was right, the shirts were only $9. I went a little nuts. I think I spent almost $100 on shirts ALONE! but the great thing about target, it has a drugstore section too!!! so I got the eye cream I needed and some other things, and soap my brother asked for, and THEN i made it over to the electrics section and bought a 4 qt crock pot. (cuz a 6 quart is WAAAAY too big unless you are cooking large amounts. :) 4qt ismuch more usuable when you are cooking for 2 -4 people. and it's red. :) that's cool - bright red! :) so yeah - WAAAYYYY too much money. :) The problem is that target, has all the stuff that walmart has, but seems so much classier. It's so CLEAN! and the people shopping there and the people working there all seem to be happy and with it etc and the prices are all still really good. So you have no idea just how much money you are spending until you actually get to the check out. . . Dangerous store i'm telling you!!!! :)

umm that was my sunday. saturday I did some other errands but more relaxed. I went to the co-op and bought some food and stuff, and I went to the comic shop, and to panera for bread and then had a leisurely lunch while waiting to be told folks were headed over to the new house my friend was moving into. I got called after they were there and most of the way through unloading. Oh well - i went over for a while, and hung out and checked out the new place. It's very nice. :)

Btw - the trainer thing is going well. I can see ankle bone again! :) and my biceps have a little more definition, and according to my bathroom scale, I may have lost around 5 lbs. cool huh?! :) so i'm going to keep going with it - it's a good thing. :)

hope everyone else had a good weekend. Oh and we saw the producers last night. Very funny movie! :)

laters!

bad ilanna... forgot to post :)

2006-07-13T09:03:00.000-04:00

i forgot to post yesterday. Bad me. BUt i was fairly busy at work and looking into things and so didn't get around to it. Alas. :)

So yesterday we were discussing the latest suka plot.

We're goign to knit a baby sweater. a Relatively hideous one. Then we're going to sew in tags from a "designer" item purchased on ebay. :) We will tell her it was one of a kind. And then sit back and enjoy. :) Then there were suggestions tossed around that we should make 2. One that looks "manufactured" and one that looks all tucked and some ragged edges etc. Tell her that the ragged one was used for the photoshoot model, and we thought she'd like that, but didnt' think she'd want her child to wear hand me downs, and so got her a "fresh" one for the child to wear. :) There are various options :) but we may just give it to her with the tags, and not tell her anything and see what happens.:) the item with tags has been purchased already and should arrive soon.

MWUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
i'm so evil.

At any rate, not much else going on here. Just the usual busy evenigns and trying to plan around helping folks out. My brother is pretty much moved in. He just has to move stuff from garage into the house as he wants it, and figure out the set up. And the floors are almost done. (AWESOME!) only the trim pieces are left. :)

Planning for my floor to be getting done near the end of july or early august - looking forward to it. :) SO wasn't as upset when puppy started chewing on the carpet. :) Or when we found the blue ink stains all over from a pen we never found. (he did something with it though :) )

ahh well - boys will be boys... literally :)

:)

OY the DRAMA!

2006-07-10T14:04:00.000-04:00

Ok - so we have FINALLY closed on the house. And oh what a drama it was. :) and truthfully none of the drama was caused by the bro. :) scary!

So... friday morning we head to settlement at the lawyer's office. (P) And my real estate agent (D) meets us there. the buyers of the old house are clients of his as well, so it was all a friendly happy situation. Making jokes, signing things etc. :) settlement on the new house was sched. for 9. Well, by 915 when we finished signing all the paperwork for the old house, the sellers of the new house had not shown up yet. So D calls them and finds out they thought settlement was still scheduled for 2pm. He reminds them of the new time and they say they are on their way.

In the mean time, we are discussing escrow issues. The electrical box had not been fixed prior to settlement and so we had requested $250 in escrow to cover repairs if the seller did not take care of it. Well at one point a few days prior, my brother was talking to the seller (J) and she told him that at one point she had decided to spray paint the firebox of the fireplace. (umm... not a good idea eh?) So we are suddenly scrambling to find out if this is toxic, if there's a problem etc. We put in a request that an additional $750 (total of $1000) be put in escrow to cover repairs if it was found to be a safety hazzard. Instead of responding, the seller's agent (ass) :) decided that the since the paint stores he called told him it would just flake off when a fire was lit, he was gonna go light a fire and test it. Fine by us really since if the house burned down, it was still J's. :) so heburned a fire for 3 hours in the FP and said there were no problems. We still asked for $$ in escrow to be there in case a professional fireplace inspection stated it would need to be professionally taken care of.

So around 1015 seller and her agent show up. Now, you have to picture this agent. He's HORRIBLE. He looks like a cross between a marine and Tony Soprano. He comes in dressed in khaki shorts and a tropical shirt with BAGRAM embroidered on the chest. The shirt is unbuttoned to the navel, with his full hairy chest poking out. And he's wearing the heavy gold chain with cross. He's the epitome of the sleezy defense lawyer. He wouldn't let J speak. and he was AGGRESSIVE!!! She sat there all cowed looking. Sometimes P would address mom and J and mom would answer and then he'd jump in and start talking for her. Most we got from her was a Nod or a head shake. It was insane. So we bring up the escrow issue again. They said that $1000 was extreme and way too much $$. (Please realize that this $$ was in escrow it wasn't a credit. if the fireplace company says 'no problem' the money goes back to J anyway) They only wanted to give us $250. Finally we split the difference at $750 total. 250 for electical and 500 for the FP. Then the argument over who would pay for the FP inspection cropped up. guy was saying OH NO!! this is part of typical homeowner inspection stuff you guys have to pay for it... rather than start an argument D said he'd pay it out of his own pocket just so we could move on.

THen more fun begins - mom is signing all the paperwork. In the meantime P is asking J if "this is her" on some documents. You see the house had been in foreclosure since may 20. (This was never disclosed to us.) We found out later of course, but figured the ass didn't disclose it so as to make sure his commission was higher. (figuring we'd lowball a foreclosure house.) Anyways she confirms it's her. At this point we've signed every thing so P let's us go. D stays behind to make sure everything else goes smoothly. He called me about half an hour later. Apparently, it wasnt just the disclosure. She had a $250,000 judgement against her for a failed business or something. A commercial venture. BUt our guess is the house was collateral of some kind. They never disclosed it, but the lawyer foundi t about 2 days before closing and really scrambled to get everything figured out so the sale could go through. So outside Ass corners D and starts laying into him. Yelling at him because D's clients were talking to Ass's clients and shoiuldnt' have been.. (what is this? a trial or civil suit? I live aroudn the corner I stopped to say hi.) what he was really pissed about was that J opened her mouth and told my bro about the fireplace and he couldn't just shrug it off or get away with it. Then started yelling at D about how the client got NO $$ out of the deal and it wasn't fair to her etc. I think they were trying to keep the judgement quiet so she would get $$ from the sale. But she got NOTHING out of the sale of her house and probably still owes more. Oh well, not our problem. We are in the house fine. THe flooring guys are doing a FANTASTIC!!! job of putting in the new laminate floors. (bellmanflooring.com)
and things are going well. :)

ON another note - I agree completely with minijaxter, it's sad when you can't say what you want for fear of reprisals, and that even when you use pseudonyms etc you feel restricted because of other people. It's a shame. But the new locales of certain folk are in my side bar - under their new names with no reference to their old... :) i'll stick around! :)

*HUGS* to all and thank the GODS that's over... :)

Sorry His Brain is Full. . . .

2006-07-05T09:55:00.000-04:00

This week we close on my "brother's" new house. He's been going a bit nuts trying to pack up his house and get everything squared away. He's only had 3 or 4 weeks to start moving on this stuff. he waited til this weekend to really start moving. He even had the POD for about a week before anything even went into it. So he's got that mostly loaded, but he's still "going nuts" trying to get the little stuff etc. He had a bunch of people helping him and he just takes them all for granted. Specially me.

I was there before 10 yesterday. I brought him breakfast.(no i didn't get any $ for that.) Start working with the junk man while he and his friends get started with packing. Over the 4 hours I was there (i couldn't do much b/c of my knee) I asked him 3 or 4 times, what did he want to do with his bicycles? I hadmy car there WITH the bike rack on it, ready to go, but he kept saying, "I don't know." I finally had to say, "we do the bikes now, or not at all. NOW" and then he got mad at me for taking that Tone of Voice with him. Whatever.

I mean, I"m storing his stuff, hell we got some of our friends to help move the TV i'm buying from him, and they ended up helping him move all of his stereo components too to my house. ANd Gee, they carried all of it inside cuz he was too busy moving his fish, to come over and move his own stuff. So now it's all over the guest bedroom, which we are now goingt to have to clear out for my mother. We put it in there cuz he was supposed to stay with us for the 2 day transition, so we figured he could shift it around then. But no, he won't make up his mind about where he's staying. Then keeps saying he's not comfortable staying at someone else's house etc. It's a load of BS - he can't make up his mind, won't make a decision, and just leaves all the people who are trying to help him hanging in the wind waiting on "his lordship's decisions." Not fair to us. MY husband, one of the most easygoing and helpful men in the world, is getting frustrated and annoyed at his rudeness level.

I came home last night, and wouldnt' talk to my own husband. Not because I was mad at him, but because I was so tired, and annoyed, and frustrated and in pain from sitting around and standing around with no place but a staircase to sit on.

I mean at one point, he asked me or go buy gatorade. So i went to 7-11, and bought a whole box of drinks. I got a thanks from his helpers and an offhand "thanks" from him, but no offer to pay me back the $30 i laid out for all of it. Then he had me order pizza, and I had to order from a place where I couldn't eat the pizza. WHich is one reason I was so miserable when I fianlly got home. I at at 10. I got home at 330. I hadn't eaten anything in between. Only reason I lasted as long as I did was I drank a 24oz gatorade.

He is so focused and centered on his world, that he doesn't care what happens to other people. My husband came to help for a Little while. Didn't want to spend his whole day there. We told bro that, but he suddenly started planning for the use of my husband's wagon. No asking, just planning. it's obnoxious. ANd i'm not fighting back or refusing b/c the purchase is really my mother's, and I don't want to make it that much more difficult for her, and I just want it OVER with.

It sucks when there's a taker and just no good way to stop it. . . SO i'm very frustrated this week. ANd i have a very busy day. I was going to work from home this afternoon but not sure I can now, since I have a customer coming in with potentially a bad HD, so i'm going to need to get her up and running.. however long that takes.

Oh well - hope everyone had a better holiday than I did. . . .

I kneed a cane..... :)

2006-07-03T09:24:00.000-04:00

So Thursday night.. 20 minutes before the Personal Trainer (PT) was due to show up, I'm walking downstairs in socks to get my sneakers (this is why i HATE wearing socks :) ) and I slip. My left foot slipped off the edge of the step and jammed down or did something and my knee POPPED! Now occasionally my knee cap moves in and out of place and it's a minor pop that I can walk off quickly and it's all good. Unofortunately this was a massive pop and my knee swelled up quite a bit later on.

So I called the trainer and said "what do you want to do?" and she said "well just modify the workout, no need to cancel." So that's what we did. We did a seated workout so there was no weight bearing on my leg. What frustrated me though, was that I had finally gotten my bike trainer, and the computer for it all hooked up and hadn't gotten a chance to try it out yet. We decided not to do the bike thursday though since my knee was hurting, and i would have had to go all the way downstairs again.

So, I have an MRI scheduled for friday morning at 730. one hour before i have to be at the lawyer's office for closing on my mother's houses...WHEEE that's gonna be a fun day. :) Hopefully i haven't damaged my knee further than it already was... but it's very sloppy now, and i'm using a cane since i'm paranoid. :) and it stiffens up pretty quick.

In the long run, not riding the bike was probably a good thing. See my mom came up this weekend because I was so excited about the idea of using a bike with a trainer, that she started to remember how much she used to LOVE riding her bike. But she doesn't have a functional one anymore. So one thing we did was go to the bike shop to see if she could find a bike she likes and so she could order a trainer for herself. While we were there i started discussing my issues wiht my bike and trying a few out myself. Wasn't sure though, so we went to lunch went home got my bike and brought it back to the store. Turns out when i bought it 3 or 4 years ago, it was too small. That's why my knees hit my stomach when I ride and my arms are all bent etc. It's a 16. now i'm only 5'3' or 5'4". a 16 is normal size for that height. unfortunately i'm also 5'4" but wear Medium Tall jeans. I have long legs. :) So i've got a new bike. (or will today when I go to pick it up.) A raleigh Venture 4.0. I like the gearing better, and it's a size 18 mens. The mens have a broader wheel base which is better for my longer arms and legs. The women's 19 felt smaller to me than the mens 18. Interesting eh? :) So they are putting on more Hybrid style tires for me, rather than the more "mountain" style that are on that bike now. it's a "comfort" bike - along the same lines as the hybrids, but more towards the mountain side and more "cruising" style. So thicker tires, not as designed for speed or performance. But changing the tires will make a big difference.

So - anyone want to buy a lightly used bike? :) size 16 womens? It's a great bike, and I liked it a lot, it just didn't fit me too well. It's a raleigh C40. :)

Hope everyone has a great holiday weekend, and when i pick up the bike today i'll let you know how it is. :) Mom btw - bought the same exact bike.. :) like mother like daughter. :)

So I was wrong... I have SUKA stories... :)

2006-06-29T10:44:00.000-04:00

These aren't so much as storeies but little "OMG" snippets... :)
We are at 4 weeks til her due date. (roughly)

*So I just heard that My Aunt M has bought her a $72 hooded baby towel. $72!!!!!!!

*Apparently she drew the line at getting the Hand Painted Bibs that the Suka wanted.

*She (my Aunt) has also put down a $500 DEPOSIT on the Layette. Umm, my cousin's ENTIRE layette cost less than that. And they got it at Target. Not Saks.

*It was suggested she get some clothing in yellow or green, i.e. gender neutral colors so it can be used by whatever the next child might be. She said "NO child of MINE will wear hand me downs!"

*My cousin P sent her brother a Father's day card and sent an anniversary card to both of them. SHe told her mother she was doing this so they couldn't claim that P never sent anything. He got the father's day card, but the anniversary card came a little later, and he says they never got it. (which means, it's likely that she recognized what it was and hid/trashed/disposed of it.)

*So now, with 4 weeks left, she is panicking. Every other day, she goes to the hospital for tests. Everytime she sees a little moisture in her underwear, she freaks thinking her water is breaking. I can understand once, maybe twice, but one would think that the docs would set her straight (not that it would help mind you.)
At one point her husband said "you have a doctor's appt tomorrow, why not wait?" and she said "NO! I might be in LABOR by then! I CAN'T wait!"

*On one trip home from the hospital, they couldn't get home. Apparently someone was shot in one of the driveways on their street and the whole street was blocked off because the police were still looking for the shooter. So he checked her into a hotel. Later on though, he had to entice her to leave because she wouldn't go back. BUt he can't afford to keep her in a hotel for the next few weeks ya know? :) This last one I can ALMOST understand... but still.. so go stay with your inlaws or friends...

*And we also heard she didn't like the present my mother gave them for their wedding. My mother gave her a really cool set of good quality kitchen knives. REsin coated and color coded to avoid cross contamination. Good idea for someone who doesn't cook much ya know? And also for someone who wants to keep kosher. She even had knives on her registry. But she complained because "what kind of a gift is KNIVES??" (eye roll)

My mother is having trouble deciding on a baby gift. See, politics dictate that she has to send SOMETHING as a gift. She is Aunt to the father after all. And while my mother usually hand makes things for baby gifts, we can't quite bring ourselves to do that for this child, not to mention i doubt she'd use it since it's not a designer make ya know? She's leaning towards a Tiffany silver baby spoon.. but they've gotten a lot more expensive over the years and she's not sure she wants to spend that much $$ on her. :)

IN other news, I finally got my bike trainer, and it's all set up. Now I just need to get a step stool so I can get on it. It's already up kind of high, but then add 2 or 3" for the bike trainer and I gots issues. :) We'll see how it works tonight when the Personal Trainer (PT) comes for my workout. :)

I'm off work tomorrow, but i have to work monday, and then i'm off on tuesday. This will be a rather jagged holiday weekend. :) but it should be entertaining. It's the last one until we close on the new house. :)

Have a great holiday everyone!!!

An Engineering Success!

2006-06-28T14:00:00.000-04:00

So . . . I was all set to be upset cuz the new trunk style bike rack I bought for my car wasn't fitting. The hooks just did NOT want to go in. Well i decided to try it again, and Low and behold!! It's on. I have it all on and I THINK the straps are tight enough :) and hopefully it won't come crashing off the car with my bicycle attatched.

So this afternoon I will go, with bike "in hand" so to speak to the shop to pick up my new bike trainer. I'm bringing the bike because then I can have them help me "fit" it so it's all set up and configured and stuff. :) plus they'll be able to help me verify if my bike is set up at the right height and make sure it "fits" me properly. I guess that means I'll have to put my sneakers on before going over there so they can guage what it will be like with appropriate footwear rather than my thick soled clogs. :)

I'm also going to drop off hubby's bicycle. it hasn't been ridden in umm. . a few years. :) it's also i think around 22 years old. (he got it in 8th grade) But this way we can get it in riding shape, and if we so choose we can ride around the neighborhood together. :) also in the summer anyway, i can always take my bike over to my brother's house rather than walking :) walking's no fun... :)

Umm not too much else going on here today really. :) dealing with all the minutiae that have to be dealt with re the house and planning certain surprises. He doesn't read my blog but i'd rather be paranoid and avoid him suddenly deciding TO read it :) i'll tell you all about it next week.

It's been a while since an "As Long Island Turns" post but there hasn't been anything new. Of course this could change since i'm currently on hold with my mom and she went to go answer my Aunt M's call. and it's been a little bit - should be interesting to see what happens. I figure we aren't going to hear anything until the Suka gives birth. I think the NY world is revolving entirely around that one event. Should be interesting to see what happens. :)

Night night! (unless something really good comes up then i'll post some more :))

The Terrible Taco Tummy. . .

2006-06-26T10:07:00.000-04:00

So i'm working from home today.

My tummy was not happy with the tacos from last night - so I figured i'd get more work done from here where i'm closer to the rest room in case of difficulties. had me running at least half an hour late this morning anyway so i needed to make up the time and driving - even the 2.3 miles to work would have put me further behind. Specially since I would still hvae to unlock everything hook up the laptop boot up etc. Here my machine was already booted and ready to go. :)

I think my system is getting less tolerant of certain things.

In the mean time it's been pouring here all day... with the occasional 5 minute patch of sun. Course it was lucky we had one of those "dry" spells when UPS came to deliver my brother's new bed. His Pod arrived today too - the move is getting that much more on the way.

The hard thing today was the deal with the piano. I grew up with it. It's a beautiful Cherry mahogany kranich and Bach baby grand piano. keys are real ivory. (most of them anyway) I grew up taking oboe lessons on the bench, and having my mom play Pink Elephants and we'd get all silly. Unfortunately none of us have room in our respective houses for the piano, and the piano is not in good condition. To be honest to rehab it, it would be best to just electrify it. And to just electrify it and then store it until someone has room for it just doesn't make sense. So today I arranged for a piano restoring company to pick it up. Unfortunately we won't get any money for it. But they'll at least be able to use it, or part of it, and i'd rather see that then have the junk men haul it away. Ya know? So it's sad that we are finally getting rid of/giving up the piano, but at the same time, sometimes you have to be practical. And when you think of it, it's kind of our last tie to our lives in NY. Selling this house is going to cut all of the final ties with our lives up there, and the divorce etc. When we bought the house in DE it was a "move of desperation" and we are finally moving COMPLETELY away from that lifetime.

It's not just a new house/fresh start for my brother. In many ways it's a fresh start for all 3 of us.

So i have another session with the trainer this evening - in about an hour in fact. Not sure what i'm going to do for my cardio though> The gazelle hurts my knee, it's pouring outside, and I don't have the bike trainer yet. I'll hvae to see if the trainer has any other ideas that might work. i don't know. We'll just have to see. :)

Not much else going on just the usual trying to coordinate everything - parties, work, trainer, new house, massage appts for Mom and Husband, i tell you - i've missed my calling as an event planner I think. :)

Rain rain go away.... but i think it's here to stay - for a while anyway ;)

ahh well

2006-06-23T08:48:00.000-04:00

I think this might start turning into a 3 day a week thing. I keep forgetting :)

ANyways - i had my second session with the trainer. We did a mild increase in what we are doing. So for example. On monday we did 6 minutes of cardio, and then we did 3 sets of 10 each for every excercise. Last night we did cardio for 9 minutes, and then we did 3 sets of 12 for everything. Next week I think we'll probably add a different excercise in, change it up a little - maybe start using the ball. :) I like it though. it's working well for me. (timing wise I mean, it's way too early to see actual physical results.) Although, while i am a bit sore, i'm feeling pretty good and that's a good thing. :)

However, i'm going to have to do something different for cardio. I have one of the Tony little Gazelles. But it hurts my feet because due to my weight, the suspended pedals have a "push back" effect, so it's like my weight on my feet, plus something also pushing on my feet. That's what it feels like anyway. Not to mention for some reason while using the gazelle which we got b/c we thought low impact on knees etc, but my knee kept popping and feeling sloppy. SO I don't think it's gonna work for me. So i'm thinking that I'm going to go to the bike shop and maybe get a "bike trainer" and actually get some use out of my bicycle. i've had it for a few years now, but don't get to use it much. Excercising outside is tricky for me because i'm so reactive to heat. So this way i'll get some use out of the bicycle. Anyone ever used one of these? :) maybe when it gets cooler moving on towards september i'll start going outside more. If it's out in the open and more easily accessible than buried in the basement, then maybe i'll start using it more too. :)

ALl in all though - I think this has a lot of potential. I"m not dreading the workouts like i used to, and the trainer is really nice. :) And we'll start doing the food journal soon too, which works simply b/c you are embarrassed to write icky things down that someone else is going to read, so it helps you eat better if only b/c someone else is holding you accountable. We'll have to see how it goes. :)

That's about it for today. The house stuff is moving a long, and we settle in a couple of weeks. Have a great weekend everyone!

idiots...

2006-06-21T13:55:00.000-04:00

So even a doctor's note does not get the lights removed. Or changed. They are apparently the "cool blue" that is supposedly better for your eyes. I tried to explain that the color is not that problem but the direct light glare. All they will say is that there is *NO* way the lights will be removed, and that if i have a hypersensitivity to lighting levels there are probably medical avenues that can be pursued. They say these standards are based on what is acceptable to the majority of employees, i have to wonder if they've ever actually done a survey to find out if people are happy with the lighting. i doubt it. Not sure where to go with this next. Will have to see.

in the meantime there isn't a whole lot else going on. Working from home today. :) Doggies are outside barking at the neighbors. dealing with all the fun stress of my brother's move. he's being obstinate and contrary and he has started adding the straw to break the camel's back...I don't think he's going to like where this is going - but we'll have to wait and see.

In the mean time, in other fun with the house - the old homeowner's assoc for the old house is threatening a lien on the house due to back dues, but keeps putting off providing the documentation to prove how much is owed. The RE agent is sicing the lawyer on him to get it since that would be part of closing anyway. We'll see what happens.

Hope everyone is having a better week than I am in some respects. :)