Category: Uncategorized

I’m So Excited!

Just a few more days until we leave.
Today my Uncle George and cousin .Janet are coming up to celebrate the holiday. I’m getting fresh Lobster, and corn, I’ve already made potato salad and cheesecake! Should be good!!!
After today I will focus on putting clothes into the suitcases and cleaning the house getting ready for our house sitters. We are so lucky to have a nice couple come and house sit with the dogs when we travel.
I am so excited!!!

Bless Our Troops!!!

I’ve been watching Fox News this morning. And my heart is swelling with pride as I watch our National Guard going into NOLA to help! I saw them carrying ill people to treatment areas. They’ve set up tents and medical triage. They’re passing out food and water and taking care of our own people. I hope next time one of you see a soldier you will remember to thank him/her for their service. God Bless them!

Packing For Our Trip

I have taken out the clothing and started to think about packing. I’ve put this off because like every woman I know, (or almost) I was hoping to lose a few pounds before I left. Ha! I think the stress of wanting to lose weight makes you gain it.
In any case, I got out the clothes and started to think. I need warm clothes, but chic. Now New Hampshire chic are boots, jeans, a turtleneck and a plaid shirt over that. If you are really chic you may wear a bandana, but most people just aren’t that chic, up here.
Well, cruise chic probably isn’t like that, is it? I do own a few things, like a long black skirt, (funeral attire) a creme twin set, (what you wear with the black skirt to the funeral) and black heels (the footwear for the funeral).
Hubby actually took me by the hand and forced me to buy a two piece silk set (Liz Claiborne) which just looks way too fancy to me, but feels so nice on my skin. My friend, Gail, forced me to buy a new Jones New York pant suit which makes me look great, (slim) and hides the weight I am trying desperately to disguise!
They say to pack a swim suit. Hahahahaha!!! Now even though I live near a lake I am so shy that not even my Hubby has seen me dressed in so little since our Honeymoon. I’ll pack one, but it will probably go to Alaska and back and never be used!
Rain coat, jacket, blah, blah, blah. I fear I may go mad, or pack a suitcase that one can’t lift!
Alaska, here I come!

Imperfect

I have come to the realization that I will never be 100% again. Now this is a bit of a shock and something I’ve been fighting for a long time. I’ve always wanted to think, to believe that I was 100%. You know? Everything worked right?
Then I was driving around, (not frivolously, I was doing errands), and it hit me like a ton of bricks. My eye is doing well, I’ve got like 85-90% of my vision back, and that’s good. But it’s never going to be 100%. No matter what.
My elbow, which has had surgery to repair nerve damage, is good, it functions, but has many dead areas and causes my pinkie finger to be numb. Let’s say that the elbow is 75%. Never going to get any better than that.
And this whole medication problem I have, well I’d love it to be side effect free, and do all I want it to do, well that would be great, but this stuff gives me headaches, and makes me nauseous. But I’m functioning at 80%. Which is really good.
Maybe, maybe being less than perfect is okay. Maybe expecting perfection just isn’t realistic any more. Maybe I have to learn to live in this imperfect skin of mine. Maybe being 100% just isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.
Think of the pressure!

I Have Been Tagged By Amanda

The Curse of 7

7 things I plan to do before I die:
1. Breed a litter of Wire-haired dachshunds
2. Travel to Southern Italy
3. Write 1 children’s book & get it published
4. Be a size 8 again
5. Kiss my grandchilds face
6. Cruise the Panama Canal
7. Go on a dark chocolate eating tour

7 things I can do:
1. Cook things from scratch
2. Raise sweet doggies
3. Be a loyal & loving friend
4. make people laugh
5. Write small stories for kids
6. Sing
7. Acquire useless bits of trivia

7 things I cannot do:

1.snowboard
2. math
3. drive large vehicles
4. change the oil in my car
5. chop wood (heck I live in the woods, this is important)
6. sleep on the ground (well I can but don’t want to)
7. believe in myself

7 things that attract me to the opposite sex:

1. Good personality
2. Loyalty
3. a good heart
4. sense of humor
5. Blue eyes (I’m a sucker for blue eyes)
6. strength of character
7. sense of fun

7 things I say most often:

1. Ya know
2. Where’s Greta?
3. What do you want for dinner?
4. Sh#!
5. whatever
6. Oh, really?
7. ya think?

7 celebrity crushes:

1. For appearance Russell Crowe. (I think he is very handsome)
2. As is Jude Law, (although he is a schmuck)
3. I like Hugh Laurie for personality and those eyes!
4. Sean Connery
5. Hugh Grant (eye candy, not substance)
6. Tom Brady from the NE Patriots
7 My Hubby!

7 people I want to do this:
1. Janet
2. Megan
3. Mel
4. Slice of Pink
5. Casey
6. Janet of the Art of…
7. Loup


You Know You’re From New Hampshire When…

You say “wicked” instead of “really.”

Your idea of a good meal is Katie’s Country Kitchen

You drive a Suburu

Half of your clothes are from L.L. Bean

You rather vacation in New Zealand than Florida

Motorcycle Weekend is the highlight of your summer

When you take your yearly trip into Boston, you “pak ya cah in Havad Yad”

“Vacation” means going to Burlington for the weekend.

You go out of state and don’t understand what “tax” means on your receipt

You think of the major food groups as venison, beer, fish, and berries.

You refer to the Patriots as “we”.

You can identify a Massachusetts accent.

You can visit Berlin, New London, Bethlehem, Lisbon, Lebanon and Dublin all in one afternoon.

Down South to you means Boston.

You consider Manchester exotic.

You don’t have a coughing fit from one sip of Ballantine Ale.

You can actually pronounce Kancamagus.

You know what a bubbler is.

Your neighbor throws a party to celebrate his new machine shed.

You go out for fish fry every Friday.

You can recognize someone from Massachusetts from their driving.

You actually get these jokes and pass them on to other friends from New Hampshire.

The King and I

Yesterday was an odd day. I woke up feeling tired and hung over. Now the strangest part is that I do not drink alcohol, ever. I can’t because of medications that I take and so I simply am very good. However, yesterday, I felt like I’d simply gone out the night before and really tied one on. Headache, sick stomach, exhausted, dizzy and the slightest hint of light hurt my eyes.
I made breakfast for Hubby and I and then announced I was taking the girls and going back to bed. I scooped up the dachshunds and off I went. I darkened the room, and found that this still wasn’t enough, so I got out the sleep blinders and crawled in. I slept for 2 hours!
Upon waking it was time to eat again. I made lunch and was starting to feel sufficiently worried that I was not doing well on this new medication. I was also supposed to go out in the evening with my neighbor to see “The King and I” at the local community theater and I was getting nervous that I was going to be too ill to go.
I just sort of did nothing for the afternoon. I somehow managed to blow 4 hours before I had to clean up and get ready for my evening.
I was determined to feel better and so I cleaned up, made myself some coffee and got ready for the evening.
We’d planned to go to a new place for dinner, but after I picked up my neighbor, we drove there, only to find the place “Closed on Sundays” which is crazy, in a summer tourist area.
So what to do, what to do? I know, I said.
I swung around my car and told the car, “You know where to go!”
And with that the car took off for Canoe.
Yes, folks. We went to Canoe. Which you know by now, is my new favorite place to eat. We had Mango, Cucumber Gazpacho Soup, which was fabulous! And then we both had Lobster Rolls for dinner. I had regular fries with mine and my neighbor had Sweet Potato fries with hers. Which were awesome!
I must mention here, that although they have a wonderful and extensive dessert menu, you never get to it because their dinner helpings are so generous and truly fill you up!
We arrived at the play with plenty of time before the show. So we mingled around the lobby, giving us a chance to look at the cast pictures. I was looking at the kids and I noticed a little girl who looked suspiciously like my doctor. Sure enough this is my GP‘s oldest daughter, who apparently has grease paint in her blood.
The play was good and brought back many memories for me. At 4 years old I was the youngest child in the cast of “The King and I” when our Community Theater did this on Cape Cod. I have a few memories of the event. Mostly of washing up after the play and rinsing the black hair dye out of my hair.
At the Intermission I saw my doctor and chatted with him. He told me that his daughter really loves the theater and that last year she played Gretel Von Trapp in “The Sound of Music“. Now this is spooky because when I was 8 years old I was Gretel in our Community Theater!
Of course I cried at the end of the play. I always do. Anyone who doesn’t, has no heart! But here I am in a public place, and all I could think of was that everyone would see and I would die. So I blinked back the tears and kept myself from sobbing and quite luckily found that it was pouring rain when we got outside. So all the water on my face was quickly explained.