My Blog

How did you spend your New Year's Eve?

2008-01-01T08:04:00.000-05:00

...maybe intoxicated at a huge house party?

or at Times Square?

maybe you sat home with you family and made Gino's pizza rolls and nodded off even before the ball dropped?

well...whatever you did I hope you have a healthy and happy New Year.

Bob and I spent part of the evening with our neighbor whose wife just passed away right before the holidays. We went over for dinner, drinks and conversation. Then we came home,watched a bit of TV and fell asleep.

and yes..I did make some resolutions for the new year....eat healthier being the most important, read more and blog more...I'm already off to a good start. I bought a new book yesterday and am blogging already..now to get back to the most important...eat healthier.

I did make some minor changes last year on my way to better nutrition.

i will only by whole grain breads and rice
i only drink soda on occassion ..
no mayo on my sandwiches
i only eat a cheesteaks like twice a year rather than like once a week...
no more whole milk...skim or 1% for my house
eat more fruit and fresh veggies
oh yea...try to get more exercise

minor things but hey we just got started.

so now you uderstand where i'm coming from so maybe to better track what we are consuming I will post our dinners to look at it in black and white. Now I'm not saying we are not going to ever eat anything bad I'm just trying to be a bit healthier.

Without further ado...the question I get asked daily by Bob is now going to be the subject of the majority of my posts ...."What's for dinner?"

(now this question is aksed of me sometimes the night before as I am climbing into bed at 10 PM or at 7:00 AM the next morning or at lunch or sometimes even while we are eating...say it's wednesday and we are eating spaghetti..Bob will ask...what are having tomorrow? Just yesterday we were at Old Navy standing in line to return some things and out of no where...'What are we having for dinner tomorrow?"

I think the first of the year is the only day Bob and I know what we are having way in advance...we have it the first of every new year just like I am sure almost everyone in my entire family does....yes Pork and Kraut....mmmmmmmmm

so..."What's for Dinner tonight?"

Pork and Kraut

Happy New Year!

Christmas greetings!!!

2007-11-21T20:12:00.000-05:00

So. It's been a while...

where the hell was I?

Don't get excited.

it's not like I took a sabatical and went hiking in yellowstone for 3 months or

hit the lottery and traveled Europe for 3 months or

oh...who knows....cruised to some private island and worked on my tan while getting massages on the beach and drinking some fruity, icy drink with an umbrella in it..

no. nothing like that.

but after mucho dinero and ALOT of sweat equity my bed is no longer in my living room..That's right. No longer does the front door open to reveal a Queen size bed and nightstand. We actually have a master bedroom and bathroom...it's been two years of finishing multiple other projects on the house to get us to this point but the time has finally come. I no longer am subject to showering in spooky shower bathroom makeshift pantry room. I now have a bright sunny yellow brand new tub and shower with brand new ceramic tile floor and brand new sink and toilet bathroom. I even get to use my brand new towels that I received as a bridal shower gift 7 years ago in my brand new bathroom. Mind you we still need a brand new window and molding and a mirror and shelving but I don't even give a crap about all that. right now.

About the master bedroom...this was two small bedrooms with a tiny powder room. It is now one big open room with a nice size master bathroom attached. The bedroom is on the side of the house next to the woods and has plenty of windows that face the woods and french doors that lead out to a deck. Sweet! I couldn't tell you how happy I was the first night we actually got to sleep in our bedroom. It is just so peaceful and quiet in my neighborhood I sleep like a lil baby. It's also nice waking up in the morning and seeing 4 or 5 deer right outside the window. I know, not everyone likes to live the way we do but I love it. There's just something about quiet that I absolutely love and cannot get enough of. Maybe it's because i work and have worked in noisy environments my whole life. I'm sitting here now without any TV on, no raido...nuttin...just the hum of the computer, the drip-drip drip of the kitchen sink and a diesel engine running somwehere in the distance. Love it!!!

So to make a super long story real short we made much progress on the house. We are not completely finished. We need to rip out the kitchen and re-do it when the spring comes, do landscaping, the driveway needs to be fixed, etc. etc.

I need to blog more often...maybe that will be a new years resolution for me...blog more...use it as some type of therapy for whatever ails you (me)

So how were the holidays? It was good seeing the family as it always is. I dont get to see my neices and nephews nearly half as much as I used to..and boy are they growing up. oh yea, besides the fact that I broke my parents wood duck and spilled wine on thier carpet, it was festive indeed. luckily it was the zinfandel that i spilled and not the lambrusco. that would have left a nice red stain on thier white carpet. it was purely an accident. it had nothing to do with how much lambrusco i already drank. seriously. i fell shitty about the duck. really i do.

see the duck on the left? that's the now broken duck...the tip of the tail feathers popped right off...see how this all started was the above picture was taken because we were going to hold my parents ducks ransome...like a duck napping...and send them pictures of the ducks at random but we were going to hide the ducks in thier house. I'll have you know this idea was the brainstorm of my husband...we were the mere mortals who were persuaded to go along witb it after killing the entire bottle of lambrusco....so there was no way we could get the ducks into thier bed like my husband suggested without them seeing us or figuring out something was up.

So the brown duck on right...his hiding spot was between the antlers of the mounted buck on the wall. Perfect. The other ducks hiding sopt was on this plastic two tiered christmas decoration from the 1960's that was hanging from a plant hook from the ceiling...so I placed mr. duck on the top tier every so carefully..)see proof below)looks balanced...no?

and as soon as I turned my back the duck came crashing to the floor (tail first) and my nine year old nephew went upstairs and told on me and my sister...so my mom came downstairs to keep an eye on us and then about 5 minutes later i spilled the wine.

That's me cleaning up the spilled wine.

Merry Christmas!!!!

Happy 5th of July!!

2007-07-05T13:50:00.000-04:00

Hope everyone had a Happy Independence Day out there.

Today is the 5th of July and my Dad's 75th Birthday. Happy Birthday to you Dad!

I can't imagine what the world will be like when I am 75. I must have heard those ya know when i was a kid we didn't have T.V. stories like 1,000 times and now you have the world at your fingertips by carying around a cell phone. What will my stories be like??? ya know we only had a dial up modem when I was a teenager.....

Here's some memories of my Dad from 33 years:

He worked alot!

I guess when you have 5 kids to feed you have no other choice. I remember him working 7 days a week for what seemed like a very long span of time. He worked in a hot, dirty old machine shop making parts for aerospace defense (fighter jets and whatnot). Not a very glamorous job but an important one and one that paid the bills and fed his brood.

He took us on cool vacations. Here's a few:

We always went to the Jersey shore for a couple days each summer. Then there was the trip to Canada. We stayed in cabins on the St. Lawrence River, went to Thousand Islands and Bolt Castle. On a seperate trip we went to Niagra Falls. We went up the pocono's every year. We also went to Hilton Head South Carolina and Disney World. I guess since I am the youngest I went on more trips than any of the older siblings. When they got older they tended not to go so much. I guess the party's they had at my parents house while we were away were more fun.

BBQ's/Parties at our house!

You name the summer holiday - we usually had a few realtives or a few relatives, neighbors and half of my Dad's work at our house for something; Memorial Day, 4th of July, Labor Day, his birthday and my mom's birthday (her b-day is 7/2 she turned 68) for a couple years every summer it was a graduation party. So it was swimming all day for the kids and drinking all day for the adults. (There was always a keg in a barrel right outside the porch). I used to love swimming at night. We had colored lights in the pool. Oh yea! Way cool! We used to swim so much the ends of hair would turn green from the chlorine. Anyway...if you lived in my neighborhood and you just happended to drive by our house during one of these parties you could usually find one of my Uncles' or my Grandfather napping under a tree with a beer next to them. I have the pictures to prove it. Ahhh, Good times!

The Father/Daughter Dinner Dances

What? Exactly. Every year my high school would hold a semi-formal dance on a Saturday night where the girls brought thier dads for dinner and dancing. Everyone got all dresed up, got pictures taken, ate dinner and danced the night away. I never thought my dad would go for something like that so Inever asked him my first year year of high school. Then the next year I asked him if he wanted to go see what it was all about. He must of had a good time...when we left he aksed me when the next one was going to be held. And so for the next two years, once a year, my dad and I would get dressed up, get our pictures taken, eat and dance the night away. I also have the pictures of this to prove it. More Good Times!

Just a few bits and pieces from my memory bank.

So we had a surprise 75th Birthday Party for my Dad and I spent the 4th with my parents and went out to lunch. I wish I could have done more more like take him on a nice vacation or something like he did for us all those times.....maybe one day soon...

Hot Stock tip

2007-03-08T20:30:00.000-05:00

Buy stock in any company that makes comforters. Particulary the ones sold at Wal-Mart. Yes, comforters 6 AND 7 bit the dust.

Last Tuesday I came home to white fluffy stuff all over the floor. So I head back out the door to Wal-mart. Not wanting to spend anymore money than I already have on comforters..I got the cheapest, crappiest comforter you could expect to get for $20. Ya know, the kind that are on beds in hotels (or the ones I stay at anyway). Come home from work on Wednesday and it was like deja vu....white fluffy stuff all over the floor and me heading back out to Wal-mart for another comforter. When I walk in the door the employees are like "look, the crazy comforter lady is back again".

So now the destructive but oh so cute poochies are being crated for the 45 mins. they are being left home alone and destroying comforters among other things. Here's a few just for shits and giggles: a couch pillow while I was in the shower, a bed pillow while we were sleeping, another pair of my shoes, two pairs of my slippers and oh yea...my spider plant was pulled out of the planter and tossed all about the house leaving potting soil all over the house including tables and the couch. Sons of bitches.

A day in the Life

2007-01-27T17:23:00.000-05:00

Ahhhh...solitude. A weekend alone. Me and the dogs. Love it.

Bob is gone ice fishing for the weekend and I have the house to myself. Don't get me wrong I love spending time with my significant other, but I also like to just be. Know what I mean?

So what did I do?

Well, Bob had made arrangements for me to go pick up a truck load of firewood at 9:00 A.M.. Thanks. No biggie though. Wood is good when you want heat besides the propane gas heat, which is too dam expensive nowadays. SO we opt to burn wood in our wood burning stove. It's so freakin cozy too. So I arrive at the old "log yard" (as the owners wife put it when I was asking her how the hell I get there) and was greeted by an older man that had very weathered wrinkly skin probably from chain smoking he was doin all the while I was there.

Wood man: "G'mornin, You here for the wood?"

Me: G'mornin, well yes, I am.

Wood man: Back your truck up and we'll start loading it for you.

Me: K.

I paid him his dough and we made small talk as I drove him out to the gate so he could lock it back up. Nice feller. Kinda looked and reminded me of my mom's twin brother.

So off I go back to base camp. I let the happy but wagging dogs out to run while I start stacking my future warmth. I get about half of the truck stacked and decide I better get to the food store. The cupboards are bare.

Next trip: Food store. Nothing really exciting at the food store..just alot of food waiting to be purchased and me trying to be ever so frugal. I think I did pretty well this week. Alot of stuff was on sale. Back to base camp again to unload my future meals. Again, letting the happy butt wagging dogs out again to run. It's about 1:30. I decide I better eat something since I haven't thus far. I bought those $.29 cup o noodles..or whatever they are. I got won-ton flavor. eh. It was something.

Then I decide to head to Zern's. Zern's is a big indoor flea market with a plethora of food stands, amish baked goods, butcher shops and THE BEST place to people watch. My first stop for the day was the "Outlet Grocery Store". Here you can find out-dated food stuff, banged up boxes of cereal and things to terrifying to even mention. I go here to buy my shampoo, conditioner and hand lotion. NO FOOD EVER!!! I mull over the selection and make my purchases. $4.12 for Pantene conditioner and Dove hand lotion. Now that's a bargain.

Next stop is the butcher shop. Not for those big red slabs of marbly fat laden steaks. I want JERKY. They have the largest selection of jerky this side of the Mississippi. Today I purchased Hickory Smoked Turkey Jerky.mmmmmmm. Your mouth is watering...isn't it?

Hmmmm...where to next? I take a quick jaunt around looking for any new stores, checking out the designer knock off handbags all the while the smell of fresh roasted peanuts is permeating the air. I decide I've had enough. It was pretty crowded there today. So I stop at the produce stand and buy myself some fresh cut carnations to spruce up the old homestead.

I've worked up quite the appetite now. Let's stick with the whole Oriental theme and get some Chinese to take home. So I get more won-ton and the Dragon and Phoenix. General Tso's along with Spicy shrimps. Exactly what i wanted. So I am waiting for the man to make my grub when in walks a fellow of mexican? decent. He must have been a regular cause the chinese guy at the wok was like..."Hello, Amigo!" A chinese guy speaking spanish. Sounded weird.

I head back to base camp yet again whilst nibbling on my turkey jerky. Pretty dam tasty. Now I have my whole evening to lay by the fire, eat my food, and flip through the TV channels.

My kind of day.
It's good for my soul to do this on occasion.

Katiedid

2007-01-21T18:42:00.000-05:00

Hello bloggers!

Time to get my not so creative writing juices flowing again and post something.

Today it will be about one of my nieces...Katie.

She competed at a Mini-Meet this weekend and she did
a great job:
Third place on the vault
Second Place for floor routine
First Place on Uneven Bars
First Place on the Balance Beam

She had overall high score and was awarded the Gold Medal for her Level!

That's right...Gold Medal biatches. Such a proud Auntie I am. Here are some pics for your viewing pleasure...

Funny..she looks really tall upside down

and there she is getting the gold.

Such an accomplishment since she does not practice year round and was competing against girls who compete year round and compete in different states etc, etc,.

Who got the gold? Katiedid...he he

It's the day after Christmas and....

2006-12-26T19:36:00.000-05:00

I'm as stuffed as the Christmas Goose.

The Godfather of Soul has passed away ..R.I.P.

I have walls, a ceiling and a closet in my bedroom.

I don't have to go back to work until next Tuesday.

Carl was here.

I need to start working-out again.

I got a beautiful necklace from my husband for X-mas..

The holidays were nice.

my 13 year old nephew is alot taller than me already.

I can't stop eating junk.

I have the remote for a change.

I want another cookie.

I'm watching CLassic VH-1.

it rained today.

we cooked out on the grill today.

I'm tired.

the dogs are sleeping on the bed...

the S&P is up +6.41

it's 46 degrees outside.

these are just some observations from today.

New job update

2006-12-04T19:38:00.000-05:00

My titles are so creative.. I just can't stand it.

Come on...gimme a break I've been working hard, it's like 8:00 and I just sat down after washing dishes (by hand), doin laundry, making lunches and unloading a truck full of firewood.I'm a bit wiped right now.

Alrighty then..

So I started my new job at the end of Oct and so far so good. It's a really good company and the people there are super nice and patient with me. I have no clue as to what is going on in the manufacturing world but am learning, I think. Or they are making me think I am.

It's pretty laid back too. One plus is I get to wear jeans everyday. YAY! I think I gained about 10 lbs. since I started cause they are always buying us lunch or dounuts or something.

I'm constantly busy so the days fly by, which is another bonus. My boss is pretty cool too. One month down and only 30 more years or something to retirement.

We just had the annual Christmas party over the weekend, which was a total drunk fest. I took it easy. I've only been there for a month and didn't want to cause a scene or anything. Maybe next year. Although, I heard one of the employees caused a scene after hours and I think may have gotten arrested...he he he. What do you expect after a 6 hour open bar? They did pay for rooms for people to stay over, which is also nice and less liability for the company, of course.

Happy Holidays!!!

UGH!!!!!!!

2006-10-27T19:52:00.000-04:00

Much to my dismay.. I go back to work on Monday October 30, 2006. My last day of work was April 28, 2006. I had a job that I really loved mainly because of the great people that worked there. I was there for 8 years and they became my 9-5 "family".

So then my boss goes and sells his company to go "public" (at least he swore that's why he sold it). It was basically a way for him to retire but he will never admit it. He told us they couldn't agre on his contract yadda yadda yadda. The same day he walked out the NY company he sold out to came in and told everyone we had 4 more weeks of work left and then we would all be laid off and oh yea...That was our severance package. Isn't that f'in great? We get to clean up 35 years of shit that was packed in that office since he never threw anything away. Throwing stuff away wasn't so bad. It was coordinating where the 300+ files went. Our clients got dispersed to two companies that were also bought out by the NY company.

My last 4 weeks there was the most miserable time of my life. It was so sad. What was more sad was that my boss couldn't be honest with us. I was his assistant for 5 years, you would think a little honesty would be in order. I mean after all the bullshit stuff that I did for him. Personal stuff. Like getting him concert tickets. You would think it would be an easy task, and normally it would be for a "normal" person. Hell, if he wants to pay me good money for doing this stuff and not my normal work...sure..I'll do it. This kind of thing would take up more of my day than almost anything else. How? Well, you never called and just ordered tickets. Oh, no, no. You called and got comparison prices. Not from one or two ticket brokers. He wanted 5 different brokers called. Needless to say, these guys hated when I called. So then I get all these seats and prices, write them all up for him along with a seating chart for wherever the show in question was going to be held. Sometimes this would continue into the next work day as well. He would take it home and think about it. I mean, come on...ya know? Then he would be like do you think you can call the brokers back and see if they can do better on the prices. Uh...sure. Here we go. First of all, when you want like almost front row center seats and you are going through a ticket broker...yes, these seats are going to cost you about $250 a pop. But, when you have millions of dollars...just order the dam tickets already and stop making such a production out of it and wasting my time with pointless phone calls. I mean, I did have his clients to tend to as well. So after two days of going back and forth with brokers and changing seats and trying to get them lower on their prices he would just end up giving me his credit card and saying OK..get me 4 of the $250 dollar a piece seats. Bastard. Couldn't give me a good raise though could ya?

The best was when he was going to Florida and just got a brand new Razr phone. It was like working for the absent minded professor. So when he would be out of the office for a couple days I could always reach him on his cell phone. I normally only called him when it was extremely urgent. He would call me at least once a day. I believe this particular trip he was flying out of Philly Wednesday and returning to the office on Tuesday. To not hear from him for one day...no big deal. So no phone call from the boss at all on Thursday. I was expecting one most definitely Friday morning. He would usually call in just to see if any of his clients called for him. I believe this was one of those times where I had to get an answer from him so since he never called me early Friday morning.. I call his cell..didn't even ring..went straight to voice mail. Oh, he must have forgot his charger. That happened alot. So Friday comes and goes and no return call. This is getting weird. People are asking me questions..."didn't he call you?", "Doesn't he normally call you?", "Did you call him?", "He didn't call you back?," "Do you think he's ok?" Uh..no he didn't call me...yes, he normally calls me...yes, I did call him....no, he didn't call me back..I'm sure everything is ok. He probably just forgot his charger. So he finally calls in late on Friday. "Oh hey, Kell, I must have left my cell phone at home." Oh ,Ok that explains it.

So he comes in the office Tuesday morning with this list and puts it in front of me on my desk.

Former Boss (FB): Oh, Kell, I lost my new cell phone.
Me: I thought you left it at home.
FB: I though I did too. But it wasn't there when I got home. So I must have lost it.
Me (looking at list that is titled "Philadelphia Taxi Cab Company's"): So what is this?
FB: Well, I must have left it or lost it in the cab. It's so skinny it must have slipped out of my pocket int he cab.
Me: OK...so what's this 3 page list about?
FB: I need you to call all the cab companies in Philly.
Me: (Spitting coffee out of my nose thinking this is a joke a very funny joke)...."Your kidding......right?
FB: no. I need that phone back. All my contacts are in there. I am lost without it.
Me: Well, what color was the cab?
FB: I'm color blind remember?
Me: Oh...yea.
FB: Can you get started on this now..it's an emergency.
Me: (in my head) Oh. sure ..let me call the 50+ cab companies and put aside the transfer paperwork for $1 million that we are trying to transfer over....dumbass and furthermore have your freaking girlfriend do it) Sure..I'll get started on it right now.
FB: Let me give you some info. that I do have. The driver was a super nice guy with a long white beard who was planning a trip to Vegas with his wife.
Me: Anything else?
FB: No, that's it.
Me: Well, didn't you call a cab company to come and pick you up?
FB: No, the cabs are already lined up outside of my penthouse in the morning and I just get in the next cab in line.
Me: Alrighty, then. That doesn't help me at all. Thanks. Go away now before I explode please.

Here we go:
cab company #1
Me: Hi, I am calling for my boss who thinks he may have left a Razr cell phone in one of your cabs. Do you have a lost and found?
Nice Lady: Well, hon if a cab driver finds anything in thier cab at the endof thier shift they are required to turn it into the Philadelphia Parking Authority.
Me: Oh, really. (thinking...great one more phone call will do it) Thanks so much for that info. Do you have that number?
Nice Lady: Yes, let me get it for you. I gotta tell you though..cell phones lost in a cab are usually found before the cab driver finds it and ends up in someone elses hands.
Me: Thanks for all the info. I do appreciate it.
Nice Lady: Your welcome and good luck.
Me: Thanks.

Phila. Parking Authority Phone Call:

Lady who sounds like she smokes 5 packs of Marlboro reds a day (Reds): Philadelphia Parking Authority
Me: Hi, I was wondering if any cab drivers turned in a Razr cell phone in the past week. my boss thinks he left it or lost it in a cab
Reds: Let me check.
Me: Thanks
Reds: No, no one has turned anything in yet, butI'll take some info. from you in case they do.
me: Great.
Reds: What cab company was it?
Me: I....don't know
Reds: Did he call the company for a cab?
Me: No....they were lined up outside his penthouse and he took the next available. I do know that the driver had a long white beard, was super nice and was plannig a trip to Vegas with his wife.
Reds: Oh..well, what color was the cab?
Me: Uh...here's the real kicker.....he's color blind.

Ok..at this point she and I were giggling a bit about the whole thing. Both of us knowing that if he did indeed leave it in the cab, the chances of that new phone staying in that cab and actually being turned in was a shot in the dark. But, when I said he was color blind...oh boy, did she lose it. It was one of those raspy, infectious laughs, which made me start laughing hysterically. If I didn't start laughing I would have started crying. So now I have tears running down my face. She finally gets back on and apologizes.

Reds: Sorry, hon. I don't mean to laugh.
Me: No. no. no. It's perfectly Ok.
A voice coming from Reds office: You should't be laughing at someone like that.
Reds talking to mystery voice: It's ok..she's laughing too!
Mystery voice starts laughing
Reds: I'll take your name and number and if anyone turns anything in.. I'll call you. (still giggling a bit)
Me: ok. thanks so much (still laughing as well)

FB: what's so funny?
Me: Oh. nothing. I do have good news.
FB: Did you find it?!!!!
Me: No. But all cabbies are required to turn anything found in their cab to the Phila. Parking Authority. So I don't have to call the 48 other cab companies on this list.
FB: Oh. Were you able to track down the driver?
Me: uh...no. I was tracking a cell phone...not a driver.
FB: oh.. well I wanted you to try to track down the driver.

I guess he could tell I was starting to get extremely annoyed with this crap...so he took his list and let me get back to work. So all day Wednesday and Thursday I had to listen to him ..."I know that cabby turned my phone in.. I just know it... he was so nice". " I can't believe no one called you about it yet". and on and on and on about that damn phone.

So here we are on Friday..typical Friday. Everyone's rushing around trying to get last minute stuff done before the weekend. I finally get some pending issues done. It's about 4:30. I leave around 4:45 to get a jumpstart on the traffic. I did have an hour commute and Friday afternoons were a bitch on the turnpike. Getting out before 5 on a Friday was a must to make home in an hour. If not, I would sit in traffic. Sometimes, it would take an extra half an hour.

So here comes former boss with that f'ing list in his hand coming around the corner to my desk.
oh-no.

FB: I know the Phila. Parking Authority said all cabbies are required to turn all found articles in at the end of their shift BUT would you mind calling the other cab companies? I just know that cabby has that phone.
Me: (looking at big clock on wall): Are you serious...or is this a joke?
FB: I need that phone!
Me: ok ok ok
FB goes into his office and shuts the door and I'm sitting at my desk in disbelief.

Now, I would do alot of personal stuff for my boss not like pick up dry cleaning or anything but this was really pissing me off. Enough with the f'in cell phone already! Just but a new one, cheap ass! Alright, well since he could tell in his office when I was on the phone.. I couldn't just out and out lie..he would know it. So I made sure I picked up the phone so he could see my extension lit up for then next 15 minutes all the hile I was just sitting there crossing the cab companies off one by one while checking my messages on my home voice mail. Of course, there was no way I could talk to 48 other cab companies in 15 minutes..so I had to just come up with things like...company no longer in business... no one answered....etc. etc.

So 4:45 rolls around..FB is still in his office with door shut... I crossed off all the companies on my list, made up excuses..whatever and left the f'ing list for him..with a sticky...NO ONE HAS YOUR CELL PHONE!!!!

Monday morning FB comes in

FB: "Guess what?"
Me: What?
FB: I found my phone.
Me: Thank you Jesus! Well, where was it?
FB: Turns out the Cabby found my phone and turned it in to the closest Verizon store.
Me: And it took them over a week to call you?
FB: No, they called my house phone the Friday after I was in the cab but I never check my house phone messages. No one ever calls that number besides solicitors. Everyone calls my cell phone. For some reason I decided to go through my home phone voice mail over the weekend. (boss exits stage right)

But for some strange reason... I loved that job.

Something you don't see every day

2006-09-14T10:15:00.000-04:00

I don't know about you but I have never witnessed a mouse nursing it's young. Ray, the kid that helps Bob cut grass, was dis-assembling our homemade smoker and came across this . The mouse was terrified and kept trying to hide. So we snapped a couple pictures and let it do it's thing.

Unsung Heroes of 9/11

2006-09-13T18:28:00.000-04:00

A tribute to man's best friend......I thought this made for very interesting reading. I didn't read the actual article. Just the quotes from some of the volunteers about thier loyal companions. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

http://dogsinthenews.com/issues/0109/articles/010915a.htm

2006-08-17T16:06:00.000-04:00

Drywall

2006-08-09T13:39:00.000-04:00

yea... so here I am all covered in drywall dust.

Since I am out of work for the summer I am more than happy to help with any home improvement projects that I can. We are having a new roof put on so we have a dumpster here at our disposal. Might as well fill it while we have it.

About the roof:

The roof looks so good. They have to come back on Saturday just to finish it up. The roof has been on hold since May. Bob used to do roofing on the weeekends way back when. So he figured him and a couple of buddies would do it. So back in May he buys shingles and tar paper and other roofing stuff. His buddies with hammers and work belts in tow were arriving on Saturday morning. Bob comes home Friday with really bad pains in his head and a rash on his chest that looks like a small patch of poison ivy. uh-oh. Let's make a long story short here. The day Bob goes to buy shingles for the roof he gets em. Let 's say a double dose of shinlges. Or shingles 2 for one. Yes, he gets shingles on his body too!!! Find the irony in that. I mean has that ever happened to anyone else?? If it has....I wanna know. So the rest of the roof is being done by hired hands.

Back to the drywall:

So I get to take down more drywall. Swing a hammer into a wall??? Sounds like fun to me! Last time it was the wall. This time it's a ceiling. So I put on my work clothes. Better get safety goggles. Safety goggles... good thinking on my part since it will be falling into my face. Oh yea..I need work gloves. Well, I can't use mine since the dogs chewed em up. Guess I'll have to resort to using Bob's waytoobig formyhands work gloves or should I say glove. Yes, one of our loving dogs also got a hold of Bob's work gloves. Bob had two pairs ya see but the dogs chewed up two right handed goves. So I'm left with two left-handed gloves and I'm right handed. Being ever so safety concious I wear one left handed glove to get the job done. So I begin. Oh yea... forgot how dusty this crap is. Better grab one of those respirator things the guys were wearing when they pulled the insulation down or out or whatever.

Respirator...check. Hammer...check.....stepstool....check...one left-handed work glove...check.. 2 dogs that have to be with you no matter what you are doing......check. Finally ...safety glasses....check. I found that safety glasses and respirators do not work well together. You see evertime you breath it fogs up the lenses of the safety glasses. A dilemma. Respirator or safety glasses. I went with the safety glasses.. for most of the time anyway. Maybe not a wise choice but it's not like it was asbestos or anything. Just some drywall dust to coat the lungs.

It didn't take too all to long and it was quite theraputical. Now all I have to do is take it by wheelbarrow load by wheelbarrow load down to the dumpster. Gotta bust out the shop-vac too to get up all the tiny little pieces that did not land on the tarp.

One more thing off the long list of things to do.

Introduction

2006-08-06T12:02:00.000-04:00

So this is it. The beginning of my very own blog. I thought an indroduction might be the best way to start.

So here goes....

My husband (Bob) and I moved into our very first home in Feb. of 2005. We were renting a condo in good old suburbia when our landlord decided he wanted to sell our unit. So us, not wanting to buy the condo, went off on our house search. Bob had two requirements for our house:

1. At least an acre of land
2. A garage

Alright maybe three requirements : get out of the hustle and bustle of the suburbs, which was probably the number one requirement for both of us.

So we found this Cape Cod (in need of some TLC), which is nestled at the foot of a mountain in the woods, on over an acre of land and has a two car detached gararage. It's also in a County park that has a huge resevoir and another lake. Both within a 2 or 3 minute drive. We'll get into the TLC in some later posts. Way too much to go into right now.

Bob being an avid hunter and fisherman was jonesin for a puppy. A hunting dog. A bird dog. So in May of 2005, we got her. She is a German Wirehaird Pointer and is cute as a button. See below if you don't believe me.

Penny is her name and hunting is her game, seriously. Why just the other day, I'm calling for her to come to go inside and she ain't comin. So I have a look see to see where she was or what she was doin and there she was locked on full point down at the rocks in front of my house. "Hmpfh....wonder what it is?" So I make my way down and sure enough there it is a turtle stuck in the rocks. I safely put the turtle by the creek across the street from my house.

Anyway, just look at how cute that face is. Now I ask you, how can you get mad at that face after she chews up two comforters, the heel off your favorite pair of shoes, Bob's hats, so many other things I can't even remember and a $50 pair of pants. That's right a $50 pair of brand spanking new, never-been-worn, tags-still on em pants. Now, I never spend that much money on clothes. You did read the part that our house is in need of TLC, didn't you? So I try to be as frugal as I can but this very day whilst out shopping I decided to splurge. I bought other things too that day but stuff that was on sale. Everything was still all folded nice and new with tags still on in The Gap bag that was on top of her cage/crate. Running around trying to get down to suburbia for my dentist appointment I noticed the bag on the cage, looked at the then 2 month old Penny already safely nestled away in her crate and thought hmm.. maybe I should move The Gap Bag. Then I thought there is no way in hell she could do anything to that. Besides the holes in this crate are seriously like 4"x4". What could she possibly do?

Let me tell ya...I get home like three hours later open the front door to the house and see literally thousands of the tiniest little pieces of the blue The Gap bag all over the floor and in her cage. There was nothing left of this bag. Nothing. All the other clothes were still folded nice and neat on top of the cage except, you guessed it, the $50 pair of pants. These pants somehow ended up in her cage with her with chew holes in the cuff of the pants and one about the size of a quarter in the front, right on the thigh area. Yes, I was extremely pissed off about the whole thing but she was just a pup. Now I look back and think man, I wish I would have had a video camera set up just to see her tugging and tugging and tugging on this bag and ripping it to shreads. At least I can look back on this and laugh now. As for the pants, the one terrific woman I worked with at the time fixed the pants as best as she could. You can hardly tell there was a hole there.

So there is one of many stories I have about her.

Moving on in this introduction...

April of 2006 I get laid-off. Can you believe it? I never thought the day would come. After 15+ years of consistently being employed, I get laid off for the summer. And I have a job to go back to in September. How cool is that? I may go into this story in further detail in an upcoming blog. Seriously though being laid off in the summer, at least this summer, is nothing to be jealous of. There were beautiful spring days in May when I got my garden planted but then it went to terrential dowpours for two straight weeks and then scorching hot for like two weeks. So I've been in the house for like a month with the two dogs. Two dogs you ask? I only remember you mentioning Penny.

Two days before my sabatical began for the summer we got him. Him being Travis, which is Penny's brother, as in litter-mate. How were we so lucky to get her brother? In a nutshell, the breeder had him to use as a stud dog. Then the breeder fell ill and wanted to get rid of him so lo and behold we took him. Meet Travis:

He was basically a one year old puppy when we took him in. He only knew one command at that point but after some direction from his pack leaders he is doing wonderfully and has made himself right at home. He is truly a really good dog.

He only had the opportunity to chew up one comforter. One BRAND NEW COMFORTER. The week prior Penny had just got done ripping apart comforter number two.

So two dogs, one cat, and four comforters later here I am collecting un-employment and writing a blog about stuff that I feel is blog-worthy.

Well, that's it for this blog entry. Not much of an introduction. It's more of just to bring you up to date. So now you have some background for future entries into this blog o' mine.