How did you spend your New Year's Eve?

...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!!!

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!!

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

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

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

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....

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.