Snow Queen!

I’m the Snow Queen. Yep, that’s me. You see every time the puppies have to go outside for, you know, I have to get on my boots, my down jacket, hat, and gloves and take them out on the leash. It’s not that I mind doing this, I don’t, really, but when it’s 9 degrees (F) and the wind is blowing up my bathrobe, I question my sanity, in having 4 dogs, two of which still need to be walked.

Dec 5A Arnie

Arnie

Dec 5A ANNELIESE

Anneliese


Then the little ones come up and start snuggling and kissing me and I realized how much I am loved by these furry beasts, and it makes it all worth it.

We’ve got 12 inches of snow here, which can really do a lot to freeze up a little dachshund foot. In fact as much as they love to frolic in the snow, they also “freeze up”, refuse to move and then I have to traipse through the snow and rescue them! Then they really love me.

Yes, the Snow Queen to the rescue!

It’s Good To Be Home!

It’s the start of the ski season here in New Hampshire. Hubby went off this morning quite early, but I stayed behind as my stomach is still not 100%. Once he was out the door, I lay down on the sofa and little by little the dogs came to be with me.

First Greta climbed on my shoulders and nestled her head by my neck. (A few kisses were exchanged) Then Arnie jumped up and claimed his position behind my knees. He placed his snout on my knees. (He brought his bone with him to chew on.) Then Anneliese came up and snuggled by my stomach, resting her head under my chin. (She just brought herself and was happy to cuddle!) Then, last but not least, Fritz came and slept on the floor in front of me.

I wanted to move, I wanted to shift off of my right hip, but I dared not move, for fear of disturbing the dogs. Soon I just fell asleep, and remained like this for over an hour.

I finally rose and all the dogs stretched and yawned. I made lunch and just after noon Hubby arrived after his first day on skis. He says it was good, although his legs feel like jello tonight.

You know it was sort of nice to cuddle with all the dogs today. I really missed them and it was nice to see that they missed me too.

It’s so good to be home!

I Need A Vacation From My Vacation!

The suitcases are all unpacked, the laundry sorted, and the dogs have decided that everything is okay now and we are not going to leave them.

I got up today, after a full night’s sleep, with the intention of getting the laundry washed, folded and put away. Did I accomplish this?

No.

Why?

Well, it goes like this. You see, while we were on vacation we went places and did things and kept ourselves busy from early morning until late at night. The excitement of being on the ship, kept us going, but on the last day I could feel it coming on…”The Vacation Exhaustion”!

On the plane to Boston I felt my body crashing. There were no pillows on the plane, so while my head bobbled around like one of those dolls, I started to sleep. That half awake and half asleep feeling has been with me ever since.

I thought after last night’s long sleep I would have recovered. However, the two and a half hour nap I took today with three warm dachshunds, told me that I probably have a few days left until I am almost back to normal.

Maybe.

Yes, I need a vacation from my vacation!

Home

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

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!

Nov 17 1cartegena 10

Nov 17 108

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.

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.

Nov 9 003

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.

mb28

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.

**********

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.

Nov 5 003

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.

Nov 5 007

Anneliese

Nov 5 008

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!!!