Jack – Page 8 – The Dackel Princess

Thursday Thirteen

For Hubby’s birthday on Wednesday I gave him a special gift. A lovely print of a Loon on a lake. We live overlooking a lake where Loons come each year to live, breed and raise their babies. There is nothing as special as listening to the Loons calling to each other.

Here is a picture of the print.

Then we went out to our favorite restaurant Kevin”s Cafe. They have the best seafood in the area. I love going to Kevin’s because the food is great, and Kevin and his staff are friendly and make you feel like family!

So here are my Thursday Thirteen restaurant tidbits:

It was raining and since it is still off season, we ended up having the restaurant to ourselves. This was nice as we were relaxed and could talk about anything.
We each ordered the soup, “New England Clam Chowder”. It’s creamy goodness just slid down our throats. This chowder was even better than my own mother’s (Mel, do not tell Mom this!).
We had a nice glass of wine. Hubby had white, I had a Merlot.

Then our main course came out. I had fried oysters. These came with a chipolte tarter sauce.

Hubby had the Tarragon Scallops.

Kevin, the Chef came out and we chatted with him for a while.
As I have said before, I love this restaurant because you feel at home here.
Soon it was time for dessert. We both got home made Key Lime Pie. Yum!

We were paying the bill at the cash register when I noticed a picture! OMG!
Yes, it was Julia Child and Kevin! My favorite Chef had actually met and spoken with Julia before her death!

Anyone who knows me well, knows that I love Julia Child!
We drove home, in the rain, full and happy.
When we arrived I surprised Hubby with a bottle of champagne. It was a cheap champagne that I used to buy back when we first dated, as a joke. And that was how we ended our day.

So Happy Birthday, my darling!

Happy Birthday, Hubby!!!

Today is my darling Hubby’s birthday! We’ll be celebrating with a night out on the town later on. One of our favorite restaurants is having a “soup to nuts night” and so we thought we’d go there and try that!

I have a splendid present for him that I found several months ago! I’m so excited! I was sure that I would not be able to keep my own secret about this, but I have! Now the day is here. I’ll unveil the present tomorrow!

For now, here is a montage of some of our happiest moments together and some of my favorite pictures of him!

Happy Birthday Sweetheart!

Happy Birthday Hubby!!! from Dackel Princess Maribeth on Vimeo.

Wednesday Hodgepodge

1. Have you ever been served breakfast in bed? Do you enjoy that? If someone were serving you breakfast in bed this coming weekend what would you hope to see on the tray?

I have gotten breakfast in bed. When the kids were young, and then again when my retina’s detached. I love breakfast. I love eggs, pancakes, waffles, etc. My dream breakfast would be this: fresh fruit salad (assortment of melons, papaya, and sweet grapefruit), pecan waffles with real maple syrup, a soft boiled egg, orange juice and coffee!

2. What is one piece of advice you would give a new mother?

Sleep when the baby sleeps, and enjoy every moment of your baby’s life. Dishes will get done later, beds can go unmade. Just snuggle that baby and enjoy every, single, moment!

3. When was the last time you wanted to scream? Explain.

A few weeks ago, I was driving in my car and this person in front of me was driving 20 miles an hour in a 55 mile an hour zone! I couldn’t pass and I WAS GOING NUTS!!!!

4. Can you hula hoop?

I think that at this point, no. I used to do it, but now I think my Hula Hoop days are probably over. I could probably relearn it, but….do I really want to?

5. What is something people do in traffic that really bothers you?

Pick their noses! That is totally gross and I have seen it over and over! Yuck!

6. What do you do when people don’t admit they’re wrong?

It’s not important for me to have the person acknowledge that I am right. If I know I am right, then I can simply demure and allow them to “think” that they are.

7. What is the first thing that comes to mind when you hear the word ‘fun’?

Simple fun, is just playing with the hounds! I love playing with the dogs. Big time fun is going on a cruise. That is my ultimate fun. I even dreamed I was planning a cruise last night!

8. Insert your own random thought here.

Joanne wrote a complete entry in her blog the other day (click on her name and follow to read her post) and talks about how her rehab is going and when she is hoping to go home. Joanne is such a gift from God, and a blessing.

Happy Birthday to my Dear Hubby!!!

Our Anniversary

Today is Hubby and my 23rd Wedding Anniversary. Yay, us! Yesterday while we were skiing someone asked me what was the secret to a happy marriage. I told them…

Marry your best friend. Sex is great, but in the dark days, when it seems like everything is going down hill, you would do well, to be married to your best friend!
Be kind to each other, each and every day, and remember, you are not always going to agree.
Enjoy your children (and grandchildren, the man was older) while you have them. Their youth is fleeting. You can teach them so much when they are young, and they can also teach you.
Love, love, love!

So to my best friend, my love and my husband for the last 23 years, Happy Anniversary! It’s been a heck of a ride though this life!

Our 23rd Wedding Anniversary from Dackel Princess Maribeth on Vimeo.

Oh The Places We Will Go…

So, I woke up on Monday morning to another day filled with snow! Fortunately the snow did not last, and eventually turned to rain, so now our driveway is a mass of slush. Okay, when is spring going to find it’s way to New England? I’m starting to think we’re actually going to have a very late spring.

The only one happy about this in my house is Hubby! He is pretty happy because this means he has at least two more weeks of skiing. The man loves to ski!

After the skiing yesterday and the Taste of the Lakes event, I woke feeling very lazy on Monday. I forced myself to do the usual bed making, meal making and laundry and I even worked for a bit stripping Anneliese’s coat. She has the best coat of the three dackels and really requires very little in the way of grooming. I tell her that she is naturally beautiful!

As I sit here in the cold, damp northeast, my sister and her husband are romping on the beaches in St. Marten! Oh how envious I am! Right now, I would love to be almost any place that is warm and tropical!

I don’t think Hubby and I will be traveling anytime soon. Right now I am planning for our 25th Wedding Anniversary in 2013. Then, I would like to take an eventful trip. One that we can enjoy and remember for the rest of our lives. It’s a secret where we would like to go. Let’s just say, it would be warm, and a truly once in a lifetime experience!

What I Did This Weekend

Our host is Gattina. Come join us and tell us what YOU did this past weekend! After all, you never know when you will need an alibi!

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My weekend was very full. Perhaps more than I’d counted on.We shopped early on Saturday and yet, still got caught in a snow storm. The roads were bad and I was nervous, but Hubby is an ace driving in the snow and we made it home just fine!

It was quite a storm though, which brought more snow, and ice and, of all things thunder and lightening snow to our area! It doesn’t happen very often, in fact I cannot recall the last time it happened here, but the noise was loud enough to wake me from my slumbers and cause me to rush out of bed to get Hubby to turn off our new TV!

All was fine, but it was a fright, so when I went back to bed, I had trouble getting back to sleep.

On Sunday we discovered that Hubby’s 5 year old laptop had gone to computer Heaven. Nothing dramatic, I was able to recover all of his files and email, and here is the great thing.

Some of you might recall that a year or so ago, my Dell computer was diagnosed as being dead. However, after I’d gotten my new Toshiba, I was talking to a computer repair technician who took the one year old Dell laptop in and discovered that the machine just needed one new chip! So, we’ve had an extra laptop laying around for the last 8 months!

May 21 003

I spent most of the day on Sunday programming Hubby’s “new” computer. I’m grateful because we simply do not have the money for a new machine.

Meanwhile the Super Bowl was played and the Green Bay Packers won!!! Yahoo!!!

Furniture & Dishes

I have to tell you all that my husband is a great guy. Not only was he able to fix my chair, but he actually did it in a very timely fashion.

You see, my chair is one of those wide recliner types of chairs called “snugglers”. I got this chair 10 years ago, when I only had one dackel named Shubi. Despite only having the one little dog, she seemed to enjoy taking up all of my chair, thus when it was time to replace my old recliner, I bought this one.

Flash forward four years and I was watching the Super Bowl and I pulled the handle too hard (I am guessing) and the handle came off in my hand. Well, it is a Lane chair and I called the furniture store where I bought it, and they told me it was under manufacturers warranty. They ordered the part, when it came they called and came over to install it.

Six years pass and a few weeks ago, I pull the handle and once again, it pulled off. Well, the chair is out of warranty as far as installation goes, but they ordered the part, and called us when it came in. Hubby picked it up and after flipping the chair over and feeding the wire and screwing it in, well, the chair is once again fixed!

Feeding the wire.

I would love a new chair. Actually, I would like a new set of furniture, but with 4 dogs, and a poor economy it just doesn’t seem like a practical thing to do. So until I either win the lottery or the economy changes, I’m just stuck with the furniture that I have.

Meanwhile, as we worked, Greta waddled off into the kitchen and returned with her favorite bowl. She is hilarious, and tends to do this often.

What Men Really Want

Hubby and I ventured out into the vast madness of Christmas shoppers on Saturday. Hubby and I had decided that we would buy ‘our gifts’ for each other, together. I don’t need very much to make me happy, and certainly a lot of gifts don’t tell me how much I am loved, but I figured I would go to keep Hubby from doing something truly silly, like buying me a new set of pots and pans or something.

We went to Sam’s Club first and started looking at their TV’s. We’ve been wanting to upgrade for a while and today we thought that we would get a TV.

We looked and there it was! Our new TV. We didn’t want to get it….but we couldn’t not get it. We did, in fact, go to two other stores before returning and buying our ‘dream‘ TV.

As we stood in line, several men started talking to Hubby about the TV. I could see he was enjoying talking about our new purchase.

Every man in Sam’s Club wanted that set and it made me happy that this was what we chose to give each other as ‘our gifts‘ for the next three years! LOL!

Did we have our station wagon with us? Nope, the sedan! So we put our new TV in the trunk, tied it down and then I badgered Hubby all the way home to drive safely, so we didn’t leave the new TV on the highway!

We got it home and switched out the TV’s and Hubby worked setting the stand up for this TV. We have a lazy susan on our TV stand and he had to drill new holes for it.

Eventually we set it up and turned it on! We both stopped breathing for a few moments! It was that beautiful!

I still need to figure out how to connect my DVD player to the TV, but the VHS player and everything else is working, and Hubby is one happy man, and frankly, I am one happy woman!

The TV is fantastic!

I haven’t been this excited about a TV since my grandfather bought my parents their first color TV back in 1968! Oh, my goodness! Pure joy and excitement!

People & Places

I wanted to share this short montage of our reunion.

Our Reunion, Columbus, Georgia from Dackel Princess Maribeth on Vimeo.

The wonderful people and beautiful places we visited in Columbus, Georgia!

The Reunion: Part Two

Friday found us heading to Warm Springs, Georgia, for a tour of The Little White House. This was where Franklin Roosevelt went to enjoy the warm mineral springs, as a treatment for his polio damaged legs. In his last days, he was there vacationing and having his picture painted when he succumbed to a massive stroke. In some ways I can’t think of a nicer place to be when I leave this world.

After the museum tour, we were escorted to The Bulloch House in the town of Warm Springs for a buffet luncheon. I am here to tell you all that The Bulloch House knows how to put on a real southern cooking smorgasbord! We ate until were thought we would explode! There was fried chicken, fried green tomatoes, lima beans (a favorite of mine!), corn bread, salad, cream corn, and a gingerbread cake with vanilla ice cream and caramel for desert.

Okay, so I know I have just lost the Weight Watcher of the year award!

Because we drove our own car to Warm Springs, rather than ride on the charter bus, we were able to drive back to Columbus and spend a couple of hours at the Civil War Naval Museum there. Why is there a Naval Museum so far inland? Columbus has a river, the Chattahoochee, and several ironclad ships were built there for the Confederacy. One of them sank just down river and was raised recently (what was left of it) and added to the museum. They have an excellent history of all the ironclads (Monitor, Merrimack, Etc.,) used in the Civil War, with many pictures and models.

Friday night there was a dinner and speaker at the main hotel. He was an officer serving in Afghanistan. The men enjoyed his speech, but I think that many of us, who had not served in the military found it hard to listen to. Still, I admired his bravery and his service to our country.

Saturday morning we had our general meeting, and this is where we decide on future reunion locations. Next year we will meet in Corning, NY and the following year it will be in Pittsburgh, PA.

After lunch we changed into our evening wear and returned to the main hotel for pictures. I wore my little black dress, with bling, and I had done my hair and make up, so I wasn’t looking too bad.

Hubby and I posed for pictures and then we headed back to the Infantry Museum with our friends, Jim and his wife, Gerry.

We arrived before the others in our group, which proved advantageous, as we got a full table to fill up with Hubby’s friends from the old days.

The food and service were spectacular at the Museum, and the program for the night was splendid indeed! Most of us enjoyed the steak, served with mashed potatoes and green beans, and molten lava chocolate cake for dessert!

As we sat in the Infantry Museum, having our banquet and listening to the speaker I glanced around at all those wonderful people that I have known for so many years! It has been a blessing to me to have known these fine soldiers and their spouses.

Our evening ended with our glasses raised and a toast to the good health of all.