So I'm having a birthday tomorrow :( it's not the big one but it's as close as you can get. I'm not very bothered about it.
really.
But it makes you think about the big one next year. I'm trying to make plans. I've thought about everyone getting together at a rental house in Marco Island (Steve could you get on that?) or maybe at a dude ranch in Central Florida - wouldn't that be fun? Horse back riding. golf. sitting around the camp fire at night getting drunk! Sounds good to me! But I'll keep thinking.
Most of you know that I have a vague goal to be in great shape by my 40th. I've started by using my Wii Fit and I hope to have my Virtual Skipping ropes for my aerobic side (notice that there is no mention of a diet!). So I get on my Wii Fit last night and my BMI has dropped slightly and my weight has dropped slightly and my Wii Fit Age is........................................................ 31!!!! WOW. That made me so happy! 31! Jason laughed and thought maybe the wee white box thought someone else might be standing on it - but you know what? I don't care! it motivates me to keep going! It's actually very fun.
So I come into work this morning and tell Jennifer (my co-worker) that my Wii Fit age is 31! and i'm celebrating to myself as I open up my email. There's an email from my niece (my brother Alex's daughter) and she tells me she and her husband are going to have a baby! WOW! OMG! I can't believe it! I am so happy for her! The excitement is overwhelming - until I realize that that will make me a great aunt!
A Great Aunt? Does that not conjure up images of Old ladies, maybe spinsters that smell like cats? How can I be a great aunt? But come to think of it I've been a GREAT aunt to my nieces and nephews their whole lives (well the ones I see anyway) so it's just a different emphases on the phrase.
No matter what my age (numerically) I will feel only as old as I feel. 39 is not that bad.
really.
Congratulations to Julie and Jonathon. Keep me posted :)
Friday, August 22, 2008
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Adrian Passes
Hi. I know a lot of you have been asking where my blogs have been recently and I have given many excuses. I'm sorry - but it basically comes down to lack of time.
And now I'm writing this short note just to let you all know that Adrian has passed away. If some of you don't remember he is the reason I started blogging in the 1st place. He was so inspirational. Dying of leukemia he always found the time to write and was funny and moving right up to to the end. I am so sad right now. I have followed his story for many months and although I knew the ending before it came it still gets me in the gut!
As the saying goes - Bad Things Happen to Good People (a.k.a. John & Tracey syndrome).
If you want to read any of Adrian's blog click here http://baldyblog.freshblogs.co.uk/
So not to be morbid but in case I don't tell you (my faithful readers :)) enough - I love you all! I believe I have made good choices in my life and if something happened to me I would want everyone to know that I was happy.
I think this is the goal in life. I think that God (if there is one) would just want us to be happy. We have free will to make whatever choice we want to make. Get out of bad relationships! Get out of bad jobs! Have more vacations! Don't stress the small stuff!
Be HAPPY People.
If Adrian can do it as his life slipped away - then you/we have nothing to complain about.
Love you all
I promise to write soon and more often.
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Been a While!
So it's been about 3 weeks since I last wrote :( It's crazy how much you can miss something like writing. When I started this I didn't know what to expect but since then I find myself constantly thinking - "Oh I should put that in my blog" - but things have been so busy recently that I haven't had the time! I'm getting to spend a lot of fun time with the family (they're here for another week) - but I will write all about that once they are gone :D
I was inspired today to make time to write because of a few of things. Funnily enough they are all about people in prison.
1. I just saw that one of the Manson followers has been denied her early release. I can't remember if I brought that up when it was in the news a few weeks ago - but seemingly this woman (who is in for life for stabbing actress Sharon Tate to death nearly 40 years ago) is dying of brain cancer and she asked to get compassionate leave to die amongst her family! She has been denied parole a total of 12 times. This got my blood boiling the first time I read about it. Who does she think she is? Why should a judge allow her any compassion after what she did? I am a believer in the death sentence and I think we have wasted 40 years of the tax payer's money keeping this woman alive, feeding her, clothing her and putting a roof over her head. Since she has a non-treatable cancer - why not just finish her off now and save us a little money? I feel very strongly about this in case you didn't notice. It makes me so mad that there are so many rights for these people that have had no regard for another human being!
This links me seamlessly into my next thought......
2. This morning on the Today Show they were talking about death row inmates that are blogging! These guys do not have direct Internet access but they can mail their blogs to someone on the outside who will then put them on line. Some of them even have their "art" shown on their pages. Scott Peterson (who murdered his wife and unborn child) has his own page with photos of him and his wife, smiling away as if he wasn't the pig that he was.
This situation is a bit different for me. I'm not sure how I feel about this. I can understand the need to write and get things out there but I can also understand the families of the victims that feel outraged that these people have the opportunity to do this while their child / wife / husband / loved one is lying 6 feet under! on one hand you could tell the victim's family just not to read it. The Internet is huge and you could go a whole lifetime without coming across these pages but on the other hand ........... very confusing to me.
3. My favorite radio station "Real Radio" 94.3 "The Love Doctors" were talking about gun control. They are all for people have the right to have guns (like I am) but they were wondering if the person with the gun (Joe Schmoe) could actually pull the trigger when they had to. A listener called up and told a story:
- she was woken in the middle of the night with someone breaking in. Her gun was on the night stand but as she reached for it she heard a voice inside her head telling her that the intruder was her ex-husband (her son's father). She made a quick decision to jump out the window instead of facing off with him (she took the gun with her). She was in the country so there were woods all around and she managed to get away. The reason she decided to run was because she didn't think she could tell her son that she had shot his father! Now, to me that is crazy thinking!!!! If you have a gun - you need to be willing to use it. Even if it's a 17 year old kid that's breaking in! I think no matter the age. If they are breaking in they are on the path to destruction!
Anyway, it turned out the person that broke into this woman's house was in fact her husband. He had someone with him and they both had butchers knives and were coming to kill her. She had a restraining order against him and he was supposed to be in "facility" 3 hours away and she was supposed to be told when he was released!
I know what I would prefer: I would rather tell my child that I had shot his dad than someone telling my child that I was dead!
Well it's good to be back! I'll catch up again very soon
Ciao for now!
I was inspired today to make time to write because of a few of things. Funnily enough they are all about people in prison.
1. I just saw that one of the Manson followers has been denied her early release. I can't remember if I brought that up when it was in the news a few weeks ago - but seemingly this woman (who is in for life for stabbing actress Sharon Tate to death nearly 40 years ago) is dying of brain cancer and she asked to get compassionate leave to die amongst her family! She has been denied parole a total of 12 times. This got my blood boiling the first time I read about it. Who does she think she is? Why should a judge allow her any compassion after what she did? I am a believer in the death sentence and I think we have wasted 40 years of the tax payer's money keeping this woman alive, feeding her, clothing her and putting a roof over her head. Since she has a non-treatable cancer - why not just finish her off now and save us a little money? I feel very strongly about this in case you didn't notice. It makes me so mad that there are so many rights for these people that have had no regard for another human being!
This links me seamlessly into my next thought......
2. This morning on the Today Show they were talking about death row inmates that are blogging! These guys do not have direct Internet access but they can mail their blogs to someone on the outside who will then put them on line. Some of them even have their "art" shown on their pages. Scott Peterson (who murdered his wife and unborn child) has his own page with photos of him and his wife, smiling away as if he wasn't the pig that he was.
This situation is a bit different for me. I'm not sure how I feel about this. I can understand the need to write and get things out there but I can also understand the families of the victims that feel outraged that these people have the opportunity to do this while their child / wife / husband / loved one is lying 6 feet under! on one hand you could tell the victim's family just not to read it. The Internet is huge and you could go a whole lifetime without coming across these pages but on the other hand ........... very confusing to me.
3. My favorite radio station "Real Radio" 94.3 "The Love Doctors" were talking about gun control. They are all for people have the right to have guns (like I am) but they were wondering if the person with the gun (Joe Schmoe) could actually pull the trigger when they had to. A listener called up and told a story:
- she was woken in the middle of the night with someone breaking in. Her gun was on the night stand but as she reached for it she heard a voice inside her head telling her that the intruder was her ex-husband (her son's father). She made a quick decision to jump out the window instead of facing off with him (she took the gun with her). She was in the country so there were woods all around and she managed to get away. The reason she decided to run was because she didn't think she could tell her son that she had shot his father! Now, to me that is crazy thinking!!!! If you have a gun - you need to be willing to use it. Even if it's a 17 year old kid that's breaking in! I think no matter the age. If they are breaking in they are on the path to destruction!
Anyway, it turned out the person that broke into this woman's house was in fact her husband. He had someone with him and they both had butchers knives and were coming to kill her. She had a restraining order against him and he was supposed to be in "facility" 3 hours away and she was supposed to be told when he was released!
I know what I would prefer: I would rather tell my child that I had shot his dad than someone telling my child that I was dead!
Well it's good to be back! I'll catch up again very soon
Ciao for now!
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Blood is Thicker
Family is so important. My family is arriving tomorrow from Scotland and I am so excited. I haven’t seen them in a whole year! I’m sure my nephew Craig has grown (maybe not mentally but certainly physically)
Family is important because it places you. It gives you heritage and lineage and a history to stem yourself from. And although it teaches you what you were born into it does not teach you what you were born to be.
It may allow you to learn what you don’t want to be……….
We all have people in our family that we would prefer to think of as acquaintances. People that you would cross the street so as not to talk to or be seen talking to. We get to an age (usually around 15) when we start making decisions in our lives. Who are our friends? What do I want to do when I leave school? Who influences me? Who do I look up to? It’s also a time, unfortunately, when we turn our backs on family. A lot of that is to do with the fact that up until that age your parents drag you to all the family functions and to visit aunts/uncles etc. when you come to an age where you are making choices for yourself you feel that you would rather spend time with your friends and start to spend less time with family. Next thing you know your cousins have kids, and you don’t know their names and you only see family at weddings and funerals.
I’ve been thinking of this recently because I just found out that my cousin, Joanne, has a 10 year old daughter that has just been diagnosed with a brain tumor! Wow! I used to spend time with Joanne, at dance class from what I remember, and now she has a daughter that I didn’t even know existed. I don’t even know this little girl’s name. How sad. How can you lose track of your own family? An excuse for me could be that I live so far away – but that is no excuse! Not in this day of technology. Not that I want to be involved, per se, in what my family is up to – but I should at least know what the branches of the trees are doing!
My mom just told me that this little girl made it through an 8 hour operation but started hemorrhaging so they couldn’t remove the whole tumor (size of golf ball). A biopsy was made so I guess they will wait til they get the results (in about 10 days) to see what their next step is.
Choices are made in life. How they affect your life is something that needs to be seen. You may feel you have made bad decisions but you don’t know what your life would have been like otherwise (good or bad). Never hesitate to correct a wrong. If you feel that you can. It’s never too late – until it’s too late!
You decide what your life will look like. Will it be thick with family, and friends - that are your family of choice? Or thin with acquaintances that give you nothing in return?
Family is important because it places you. It gives you heritage and lineage and a history to stem yourself from. And although it teaches you what you were born into it does not teach you what you were born to be.
It may allow you to learn what you don’t want to be……….
We all have people in our family that we would prefer to think of as acquaintances. People that you would cross the street so as not to talk to or be seen talking to. We get to an age (usually around 15) when we start making decisions in our lives. Who are our friends? What do I want to do when I leave school? Who influences me? Who do I look up to? It’s also a time, unfortunately, when we turn our backs on family. A lot of that is to do with the fact that up until that age your parents drag you to all the family functions and to visit aunts/uncles etc. when you come to an age where you are making choices for yourself you feel that you would rather spend time with your friends and start to spend less time with family. Next thing you know your cousins have kids, and you don’t know their names and you only see family at weddings and funerals.
I’ve been thinking of this recently because I just found out that my cousin, Joanne, has a 10 year old daughter that has just been diagnosed with a brain tumor! Wow! I used to spend time with Joanne, at dance class from what I remember, and now she has a daughter that I didn’t even know existed. I don’t even know this little girl’s name. How sad. How can you lose track of your own family? An excuse for me could be that I live so far away – but that is no excuse! Not in this day of technology. Not that I want to be involved, per se, in what my family is up to – but I should at least know what the branches of the trees are doing!
My mom just told me that this little girl made it through an 8 hour operation but started hemorrhaging so they couldn’t remove the whole tumor (size of golf ball). A biopsy was made so I guess they will wait til they get the results (in about 10 days) to see what their next step is.
Choices are made in life. How they affect your life is something that needs to be seen. You may feel you have made bad decisions but you don’t know what your life would have been like otherwise (good or bad). Never hesitate to correct a wrong. If you feel that you can. It’s never too late – until it’s too late!
You decide what your life will look like. Will it be thick with family, and friends - that are your family of choice? Or thin with acquaintances that give you nothing in return?
Sunday, June 22, 2008
Mad World
Day 15: The World is completely mad - if you read the news. I try to read the news every day. not just watch it on TV because they never show you the bizarre stuff that I'm going to mention below. Reading about crazy people always let's me appreciate the good people I have in my life. I was reading the other day about one of the women that was involved in the Manson Cult that is dying and wants let out of prison to die with family and friends. 1st of all - how do you get involved in a situation that leads you to what happened back then? 2nd - what makes you think you have the right to die amongst family and friends when you have committed this type of act upon another human being? I don't understand why she's been left to live so long in the 1st place.
There's Something Afoot! - In the past year 5 feet (not in length, actual feet) have floated ashore in British Columbia, Canada, The most recent on Thursday of last week. 4 of these feet have been right ones, the other a left! Some are in socks, while others are in tennis shoes. There have been no news of the ethnicity of the feet and they are testing the one left foot to see if it matches (DNA) with any of the right feet! How bizarre! Another foot was discovered last week but was soon found to be a hoax (an animal paw skeleton stuffed in a sock inside a shoe!!!) So is it a serial killer? Organized crime? Body parts of people from a crash or a sunken boat? Will we ever know? Probably not because if you're not reading it online they won't be telling you on National news! I'll keep you posted!
Tastes Like Chicken!: A man recently in the Czech Republic installed a baby cam to watch over his new born baby. Instead of getting pictures of his baby he could see 2 people locked in a cage. It turns out that people on his street belonged to some cult that ate the flesh off other people. His neighbors had locked their teenage children in a cage and periodically would slice pieces of flesh from them and feed them to other members of the cult. The man with the camera called the authorities who came and saved the children. The cult members also had a camera on the cage so they could watch the enslaved children from other parts of the house - therefore causing a cross transference of images from one home to the other.
lesson learned - if you are using video in your home - make sure the image is encrypted!!!
So I think I've mentioned our friendly racoon before. He comes at night and watches us through our sky light in the living room. Well he came and paid us a visit on Friday night and we managed to get it on video. Unfortunately the video won't upload here so here are some photos. take a look at this "ballsy" little critter. He's certainly not scared of us! I hope our sky light never falls in! :)
Thursday, June 19, 2008
I Can Cook!!!
Day 14: Not words that you would expect to come out of my mouth - but true none the less! I was in the mood for risotto last night, but J didn't feel well and wasn't planning on cooking. So, I made it! It was fabulous (see recipe below). It's been added (by my husband) to the "You can make that again" list - which now consists of:
1. Risotto
2. Australian meat pie
3. Pampered Chef chicken Ring "Thing"
4. Shrimp Pilau.
Woo Hoo! My culinary skills are really taking flight! I think the risotto was a tribute to my friend (he doesn't know it) Gordon Ramsey! Every week on Hell's Kitchen they're making risotto and I was inspired! You should try it cos if I can make it - anyone can :)
Recipe:
Heat 7 cups of Chicken stock
Heat 2 tbs olive oil in saucepan and saute 1 onion (diced) for about 20 mins (over medium heat) - just til golden brown. Take off the heat and add 1/2 cup Balsamic Vinegar. Put aside
Heat 2 tbs olive oil in Large Skillet/ frying pan (medium heat). Add 1 1/2 cups of uncooked risotto rice and stir to combine and heat for 2 mins. Add 1/2 cup of dry white wine (cooking wine). Lower heat to medium low and start to add chicken broth 1 cup at a time. keep stirring until this cup is absorbed. Once it is absorbed add another cup and so on and so forth until all 7 cups of stock are gone. You need to stir continuously and it takes about 20 mins.
Add the onion mix and take pan off the heat. salt and pepper to taste (but don't add too much salt).
You can eat it like that or you could add some cooked chicken and some parmasan cheese on top to serve.
1. Risotto
2. Australian meat pie
3. Pampered Chef chicken Ring "Thing"
4. Shrimp Pilau.
Woo Hoo! My culinary skills are really taking flight! I think the risotto was a tribute to my friend (he doesn't know it) Gordon Ramsey! Every week on Hell's Kitchen they're making risotto and I was inspired! You should try it cos if I can make it - anyone can :)
Recipe:
Heat 7 cups of Chicken stock
Heat 2 tbs olive oil in saucepan and saute 1 onion (diced) for about 20 mins (over medium heat) - just til golden brown. Take off the heat and add 1/2 cup Balsamic Vinegar. Put aside
Heat 2 tbs olive oil in Large Skillet/ frying pan (medium heat). Add 1 1/2 cups of uncooked risotto rice and stir to combine and heat for 2 mins. Add 1/2 cup of dry white wine (cooking wine). Lower heat to medium low and start to add chicken broth 1 cup at a time. keep stirring until this cup is absorbed. Once it is absorbed add another cup and so on and so forth until all 7 cups of stock are gone. You need to stir continuously and it takes about 20 mins.
Add the onion mix and take pan off the heat. salt and pepper to taste (but don't add too much salt).
You can eat it like that or you could add some cooked chicken and some parmasan cheese on top to serve.
! ! ! ! ! F A B U L O U S ! ! ! ! !
So my nephew Scott left today for India. I never got to speak to him beofre he left but I did email him to tell him how proud of him I was. I hope he goes and has a great time and learns a lot about himself! Can't wait til he gets back to tell me all about it.
I hope they have good weather at this time a year down there. I know the weather here has been awful. The daily thunder storms have driven my poor dog to living in my closet. Even when it's not stormy he gravitates back there just in case. What can you do? I've been considering contacting Cesar Millan- the dog whisperer - to see if he wants to come out here and help us. What do you think? Worth a shot? If it was a child I wouldn't hesitate to do what needed to be done so I guess I should.
I really shouldn't complain about the weather too much - the folks in the Mid West are still getting beat! town after town is being submerged along with everyone's property/belongings. Can you imagine that problem in Florida? We are so close to sea level that it wouldn't take very much! It may never dry out! (no big loss for most of South Florida) Hee Hee
In the News: A woman is suing Victoria Secret because she was injured by one of their thongs! Seemingly a decorative heart shaped metal piece flew off into her eye as she was trying to put them on (this she tried to explain on the Today Show without looking stupid - didn't work). Her lawyer says Victoria Secret is selling defective under garments!!!! I say sue them for only showing size 0 models looking good in these thongs! What's a man to expect when his real life wife or girl friend puts these thongs on and looks more like an elephant wearing floss??? It should be more a case of false advertising or deception. These poor men are always so disappointed with real life :(
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Blame it on The Media
Day 12: What happened to my TV? Where have all my good shows gone? I hate the off season of TV. I miss my Desperate Housewives, I miss Grey's Anatomy I miss lots of things :( So don't hold this against me - I blame it on the media...... Last night as a last resort I made J sit down and watch all my old dancing videos! All the way from when I was about 12 thru I was in college! OMG! Bless him! He didn't even complain. Except to mention that no-one had videoed (or saved any video) of him when he was skating in competion! I would gladly have watched that! So he's really quite lucky! It's quite embarassing reliving your past but there was nothing else to do! I say we start a petition.
We need to pay for cable all year round. they should have to provide us with entertainment all year round! We've stopping using Tivo/DVR and I've still seen all the re-runs they are showing now - I don't get it :( The BBC is getting their feet held to the fire right now because most of their news is focused on Southern England even though the whole country needs to pay the same amount to watch TV. What do the people in Yorkshire care about what's going on in London? We should do the same here!
Or maybe I should find something else to do instead of sitting in front of the TV........
My family are coming from Scotland next week for a visit and I can't wait to see them! And Scott (whom I've mentioned before) is leaving for India in 2 days!!!!!!! What an exciting time :) It never fails to amaze me how people travel these days. When I was growing up the furthest we got was an RV park near the beach (in Scotland or Northern England). But those were fun times! 4 kids and our parents squished into a 2 bedroom RV for a week or 2. We didn't even know who Walt Disney was back then! I don't remember the details of those vacations too well - I only have some photos of us smiling - so we must have been having a great time! Right? Why is it so hard to remember the past? The bad times usually make an impact and can be conjured up at any time (unwanted), but the good times are harder to bring forward. It's just a vague feeling of happiness without the details. I heard of a woman recently that can remember every detail of every day since she was 13 years old. She was on the Today Show not long ago and she could pick any day in her life and tell you exactly what happened, what she was wearing etc. (she had it documented in a journal to verify). She said it was like a movie reel constantly running in her head recording what was going on around her. Now that would be a pain! I'm not sure that would be better than not remembering anything - but can't there be somewhere in between? I don't want to go nuts - I just want to relive the fun moments in life.
I think that I need to be more present in the present. More aware of my life as it passes so as not to miss the good parts as they go. More appreciative of what I have and whomever is in my life at the moment instead of it just washing over me (like a TV show).
S
We need to pay for cable all year round. they should have to provide us with entertainment all year round! We've stopping using Tivo/DVR and I've still seen all the re-runs they are showing now - I don't get it :( The BBC is getting their feet held to the fire right now because most of their news is focused on Southern England even though the whole country needs to pay the same amount to watch TV. What do the people in Yorkshire care about what's going on in London? We should do the same here!
Or maybe I should find something else to do instead of sitting in front of the TV........
My family are coming from Scotland next week for a visit and I can't wait to see them! And Scott (whom I've mentioned before) is leaving for India in 2 days!!!!!!! What an exciting time :) It never fails to amaze me how people travel these days. When I was growing up the furthest we got was an RV park near the beach (in Scotland or Northern England). But those were fun times! 4 kids and our parents squished into a 2 bedroom RV for a week or 2. We didn't even know who Walt Disney was back then! I don't remember the details of those vacations too well - I only have some photos of us smiling - so we must have been having a great time! Right? Why is it so hard to remember the past? The bad times usually make an impact and can be conjured up at any time (unwanted), but the good times are harder to bring forward. It's just a vague feeling of happiness without the details. I heard of a woman recently that can remember every detail of every day since she was 13 years old. She was on the Today Show not long ago and she could pick any day in her life and tell you exactly what happened, what she was wearing etc. (she had it documented in a journal to verify). She said it was like a movie reel constantly running in her head recording what was going on around her. Now that would be a pain! I'm not sure that would be better than not remembering anything - but can't there be somewhere in between? I don't want to go nuts - I just want to relive the fun moments in life.
I think that I need to be more present in the present. More aware of my life as it passes so as not to miss the good parts as they go. More appreciative of what I have and whomever is in my life at the moment instead of it just washing over me (like a TV show).
S
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