My Life – Page 152 – The Dackel Princess

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We got into Boston at about 12:30 AM on November 25th. After collecting our luggage we got onto the shuttle bus to out motel. We checked in quickly, and got to sleep in almost no time at all.

By 8:30 we were up again, showered and packed up our car and headed home. We stopped for groceries, but I was so excited about getting home to see my doggies I could hardly think about buying food!! We got what we needed and then off we went, destination HOME.

We arrived back to our house at 12:45 PM. We had called Emily and had her walk the puppies before our return.

I opened the door with Hubby close behind me, and the joyous, boisterous, greeting that we got, was all we could have asked for and more. They danced, they ran around us, and they cuddled and kissed us. What a welcome!

Hubby and I spent the rest of the afternoon visiting with Emily and Dori and talking about our trip, but we both are exhausted and I think I can guarantee an early bedtime tonight.

You know there are three wonderful things about vacations.

1. The planning and anticipation!

2. The actual vacation and enjoying each day spent doing all that you planned!

3. Coming home!

Cartagena & My Birthday

November 17th 2007

I’m sitting here on our deck as we sail away from a truly nice day in Cartegena, Columbia. It was very hot (90+ degrees F) and humid, but our tour was fun and our drive and tour guide nice.

The day started about 6 AM when I woke up and watched the sun rise over Cartegena. By then I was too excited to sleep, so I woke up Hubby and we dressed and went to the Lido deck for breakfast.

When we got back to our room, there was as announcement on the door reading “Happy Birthday, Maribeth, with three bright birthday balloons. I opened the door and found a lovely bouquet of yellow roses from George and Carole.

Before we knew it, it was time to go down and catch our tour bus for the “Best Of Cartegena” As I stated it was a great tour taking us to two beautiful churches, and the forts.

I didn’t know too much about Cartagena, except what I had seen in the movie, “Romancing the Stone, and of course the things I have heard on the TV about the drug trade. What I found was a large city that had both the rich and the very poor coexisting.

The Best of Cartagena

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

I was also amazed to see how large a city Cartagena is (1 million population). It appeared that there were policemen on just about every corner, as well as the local freelance entrepreneurs. One man followed me all around trying to sell me a t-shirt and even came to the bus and knocked on my window! Hubby told me to turn away and not look, but oh boy, was that hard!

Hubby also took me to a nice jewelry store here and we picked out a pair of emerald earrings. Emeralds are not too rare here and the prices are about 1/2 what they are in the states. We were bargaining with the jeweler and I said, “Today is my birthday, so can you give me a better price?”, and he did!

I must mention here that the Cartagenian’s are wild and crazy drivers. There are very few stop signs, motorcycles weave in and out of traffic and non traffic lanes and might makes right! If I should come here again I will definitely get a driver. Someone who understands the lack of rules on the road! LOL

At dinner tonight we celebrated with some really wonderful food. Both Hubby and I had Lobster Ragu and then I ordered a soufflé for dessert, but I was sad that they had no chocolate cake for me. No sooner had I made my order than the chocolate cake of my dreams appeared and everyone sang Happy Birthday! Besides the beautiful earrings, Hubby had a fabulous bouquet of flowers presented to me at our table. The neat thing about this was that i was not only my birthday, but the Head Waiter’s birthday and another woman’s birthday as well. Yes, good babies were born on November 17th!

Now we are headed toward he Panama Canal. We will make that passage tomorrow. We plan breakfast on the deck and then we will be watching every moment we can as we go from lock to lock, through the Panama Canal.

My Birthday

Today is my 49th birthday. So I thought I’d put together this short video. I hope you enjoy it.

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Leaving On A Jet Plane

Sunday we worked tirelessly, packing, cleaning and rechecking our packing. Finally about 4 PM I was happy with what we’d accomplished and I actually sat down and had a cup of tea. Even Hubby was busy today getting his carry on bag packed, and changing the oil in the car.

The dogs have sensed that something is up and have been a little strange all day. A little clingy, a little fussy, just like a little child.

I managed to get a simple dinner made of a hodge podge of leftovers, which helped to clean out the fridge. Once I got that cleaned up, I finally was able to sit down, put up my feet and sip a cup of my favorite tea.

We’ll probably watch a little mindless TV tonight, like Desperate Housewives, before going to bed. I’m just so tired and I need a good night’s sleep before we begin the traveling to Boston and then San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Monday we will drive to Boston and meet up with our friends, George and Carol. We will be traveling on the cruise with them! We plan a dinner at Durgin Park, and then an early bedtime at a motel near the airport.

Our flight leaves on Tuesday at the ungodly hour of 6 AM! Factoring in time to shower and dress and go through security, I figure we will be getting up in the middle of the night!

Then we fly off directly to Puerto Rico, where we will get on board the ship. We’ll be getting there around noontime, but the ship doesn’t sail until 11 PM, so we thought we might tour around the island a little. George, Carol, and Hubby have all been there before, but this will be my first trip to the island.

Well, I’ve printed up some new pictures of my doggies and have them tucked into my bag. All I need to do in the morning is shower and dress and kiss the babies goodbye.

That’ll be the hardest part about leaving on our trip.

You Got The Socks?

My hair is done, my nails are filed and painted a lovely pale pink, and I tanned for the last time today.

I have done 3 loads of laundry (2 more to go), cleaned two of the three bathrooms in the house, and made a list. A list of what, you might ask? A list of all the things I need to do before noon on Monday. I tend to get pretty nervous packing. I worry about forgetting things.

There was one time we went to Munich and I forgot to pack socks for Hubby. I was shocked to find out that socks in Germany cost $10.00 a pair! After that, I never forgot to pack socks again!

As we get older there are more things to pack, pills, make-up, sunscreen, insect repellent and tons of moisturizer. Remember the days when all one needed was a backpack with extra underwear and t-shirts and you just sort of lived in your jeans? Ha! Those days sure are gone!

So the next 24 hours will be spent counting out the items to go in our 4 large bags!

Don’t worry. I have already packed the socks!

Getting Beautiful

When I was 21 getting beautiful meant that I showered, washed and dried my hair and put on a little lip gloss. My body parts were still where God had intended them to blossom, and my skin was fairly flawless. Because I was running after two little ones I was in good shape and because I tended to take them for long walks and play outside, I had a sun-kissed tan from May until October.

Yes, those were good times.

Now, I must plan on “getting beautiful”. I made the appointment three months ago for the full treatment. In fact they called today to remind me that I was due to be overhauled.

There is, of course, only so much one can do, but I try pretty hard to keep myself up. Of course short of going to Pamela Anderson’s plastic surgeon or going on the people version of Extreme Makeovers, I am sort of stuck with a body that is slowly headed south.

It’s not that I really mind this. It happens to women my age, after all, but when I think of how totally hot I was when I was 21, I feel bad for Hubby. He never got to see me then, or enjoy the wonder of my youth! (LOL)

Okay, I admit it. I wouldn’t mind seeing myself like I was at age 21 just one more time.

Do you think that when you go to Heaven you get to chose your body?

If so, I’m asking for my 21 year old body back!

Odds & Ends On A Monday

Today I got out the suitcases and told Hubby that we just HAD TO start packing. I needed to know if clothes needed to be cleaned, if we had enough underwear, socks and bathing suits. Most of all I needed to know if we were going to have enough room in our suitcases for everything.

Probably not.

I think I will have to get a duffel bag out to carry our shoes and sneakers. After all, now that you have to check your shampoo, hair spray and other stuff like that, I have used up a lot of that room in the checked bag.

We made great progress today and I am so happy that Hubby got his stuff out and planned what he will wear. What a help.

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It was a really pretty day here today and Hubby took some time to practice with the camera. Here is one shot he took from out front yard.

Then I came home from doing my errands and noticed the two pups taking a sunbath on the sofa. They both looked so cute that I grabbed the camera and took these two shots.

Anneliese

Arnie

It’s just a week now and we will be off. Our house sitter is all set to move in and Emily and the neighbors are all set to back her up!

I am so excited!!!

Counting Down

A week from today we leave for our vacation trip to The Panama Canal. I hosted a dinner for all my dog sitters tonight, making manicotti, salad, garlic bread and apple crisp. All low sugar and low salt. And it tasted good! Yippee!!

So now we start the tough part. The thinking and pulling out and folding of the clothes we will pack for this trip. Shoes, bathing suits and rain gear as well. I’ve been trying to get Hubby to commit to making a good list with me, but he is a “last minute packer” and I just know I will need to get after him in order to get his clothes out.

I know pretty much what I want to bring, it’s just a matter of getting it out and getting it folded up. It’s quite a production when you are going to be gone for this long.

I plan to tan as much as I can during the week and on Friday I have scheduled a day of beauty. Hair and nails and hopefully when I get done, I won’t look half bad!

Emily was trying to reassure me today that she will take good care of the dogs and that she will make sure they aren’t too lonely while we are gone. I know she will, but I will miss them a lot, I just know.

The clock is ticking now and I really need to kick my game plan for the trip into gear.

Thursday Thirteen #55

The view of Big Squam Lake (Golden Pond) from the top of Rattlesnake Mountain.

Why I Love Living In My Town

1. I can walk down the street and people smile and say, hello!
2. People care about each other.
3. Our town cares about how the Main Street area looks and keeps the gardens beautiful.
4. The local officials know you and smile when you pay your taxes, or register your car or register your dogs.
5. People know I breed dogs and are always happy to see me with a puppy or with Greta, and they always ask about how they are.
6. The area we live in is beautiful with many lakes and mountains. In fact we live very close to where “On Golden Pond” was filmed.
7. Our parks allow both kids and dogs to roam and run free.
8. We still have Halloween Parades, Thanksgiving meals and Christmas Parties for our kids.
9. We still have good old fashioned neighborhoods.
10. Many of us mentor the youngsters in our neighborhoods.
11. I love the way the town decorates for Christmas and the 4th of July and even Halloween!
12. I love the seasons here. All of them. Even the winter when it snows!
13. I love where I live because it’s where Hubby, Fritz, Greta, Arnie and Anneliese all live!

Weekend Tidbits

Allie asked what the outfit that Hubby selected for me looks like?

Yesterday I mentioned to Hubby that the request had been made, and that I’d have to get a picture of me in it, “some time”. He looked me over, fresh from the shower, hair dried nicely and I had put on some make-up for a change, and said, “Well, put it on now. You’ll look great!”.

So I took off the clothes I had so recently put on, and dressed in my new outfit.

After we got done with my photo shoot, I changed again, and then headed off to do my errands. I needed to get my laptop power plug fixed, so I started there. I dropped the machine off with them and then headed to the Post Office. I grabbed the mail, and then as I was driving by a salon a thought struck me, and so I pulled in.

“Do you have a tanning bed?” I asked.

“Yes” the nice woman replied.

Perfect. Everyone who knows me, knows that I have very pale, fair skin. Can’t you just see me going to the sub-tropics with no base tan? So I started yesterday, and then went back on Saturday afternoon for a little more. They’re closed on Sunday, so my next appointment is on Monday.

I do not go out in the sun, ever without long sleeves and such, but I decided that this once I would do it! I’m using special tanning creme and moisturizing after, so I should be okay.

Saturday I decided that I need to teach the puppies how to take a nap. It’s a very important part of their development! LOL! So I took them into our bed, and after being kissed and snuggled for about 20 minutes they finally settled down! It was a good 1/2 hour nap and then the train went by and all heck broke loose!

I’m making Hubby’s favorite comfort food tonight. It’s called “Scrambled Meat”. You can find the recipe here. I’ll serve it with mashed potatoes. He just loves it, and it is so easy to make. One of those great meals for someone who is a meat and potato lover!

Have a great Sunday!!!