What is Wrong With This Picture?

This past weekend I was very happy to be lounging around in my new Snoopy pajamas. I remember the squeal I let out when I opened them on Christmas. I can’t think of many things that warm my heart like the sight of Snoopy. Karlo doesn’t understand this concept and wasn’t too happy with me when I removed a beautiful and sentimental piece of Croatian pottery from our display cabinet to insert my new Snoopy platter. He questioned whether I was going to buy an Elvis painting for the house too. If you find something in your life that makes you as happy as Snoopy makes me you should surround yourself with it.

So why was I staring at myself in the mirror one night questioning this theory? Here I was, in my “I love Snoopy” PJs, getting ready for bed. I was inspecting my recent hair coloring, applying my anti-wrinkle crèmes, and marveling at the fact that I was doing these things while standing there in children’s pajamas. Maybe Karlo is right. Maybe I am crazy!

I Must Have Been Very Good

I must have been very good this year because Santa brought me everything I wanted—including fish. See . . .


Not sure my guppies will be very impressed by their new tank mates, but at least my Christmas stocking didn't stink like Karlo warned me would happen if my 'fish wish' came true.

All in all we had a great Christmas. As usual, the dogs got spoiled on Christmas morning and watching them just made my day.

First they opened their presents.

Then they got treated to some bowls to lick.

Next it was time for some happy back rubbing. Notice the blurry tail in action.

And finally it was time for some posing for the camera.

I'm happy to report that I got a jump on my 'green Christmas' plans. So far I made 14 cloth bags (in addition to the ones I bought pre-made) and the best part is that I used scrap fabric from my quilt-making days. Nothing says 'green Christmas' like recycling old fabric instead of buying and throwing away lots and lots of paper. I'm very proud of myself!

I’m Dreaming of a Green Christmas

Next year I’m planning on making a lot of changes to simplify my life and one of them includes cutting down on the amount of time I spend wrapping Christmas presents. Not only is my new solution a time-saver for me, but it’s also much better for the environment. At the end of the holiday season last year a friend suggested making cloth bags for gift giving. She has been making some every year and now has enough to give everybody on her list a gift inside a pretty cloth bag. She asks for the bags back at the end of the present opening bonanza and is not contributing one piece of wrapping paper into a landfill. It sounded like a great idea and I had every good intention of making a couple bags per month so that I would be all ready for this Christmas. Needless to say, that never happened. But the good news is that I found some great cloth bags at Ocean State Job Lots. What makes them so great? The fact that they are already made and require no time or effort on my part. They are nice and big, include a drawstring for easy opening and closing, and they even have a name card holder. You can easily slip in new cards every year. I’m thrilled. I bought a bunch of them for next year and plan to buy even more the next time I get anywhere near the store. I’m almost looking forward to how easy the burden of wrapping presents will be next year, not to mention how much easier transporting all the gifts will be. So if you get a present from me in a pretty cloth bag, don’t forget . . . I want the bag back! Consider doing yourself (and the planet) a favor and stocking up on your own supply of cloth gift bags.

Winter Photos

Just for the record, we took a ton of pictures this weekend. You are just going to have to take my word for it because I didn’t get around to uploading them this weekend and forgot to bring my camera to work. All I have to share is my two favorites. Here is Peanut catching snowflakes off her tongue.

There is a story behind my next picture . . . I told a co-worker about my grand plan to recreate the Peanuts Christmas tree scene. Only problem was that I didn’t have a plain red ball ornament. A couple of days later I found a red ornament hanging from my overhead cabinet at work. How thoughtful! This coworker left me the ornament after hearing my story. And within 4 hours I managed to SMASH the darn thing all over my desk. I went to open the cabinet and the poor little ornament went crashing to my desk. Remember that scene when Charlie Brown shouted UUUUGGGGGHHHHH when he thought he killed the tree? Well that was me when I looked down at the shards of ornament and knew I killed it. I felt like such a jerk, but I fessed up the coworker. Low and behold the next day I found another ornament on my desk. This time it was wrapped in 6 layers of bubble wrap. What a riot. I couldn’t let him down. I was determined to come to work today with this picture:

Karlo and I hunted around the yard for the perfect little tree. Our first plan was to dig a tree up, put it in a pot, and bring it into the house. But with the ground frozen solid we decided to just decorate the tree outside. Karlo went and hung the ornament on my favorite pick and nothing happened. The tree didn’t droop at all because it was frozen. I told Karlo to ‘help it out’ and he proceeded to bend it. SNAP. There went half the tree in a solid break. So much for not wanting to kill a tree.

In the Nick of Time

Have I ever mentioned how much I love my car? When I made the decision to trade in my all-wheel drive, practically new Saab for one of the most impractical cars on the road I was definitely thinking with my heart and not my head. The closer and closer winter started to approach the more I started to imagine getting the MINI to and from the highway. If you ever visited us at home you would understand this potential problem. 95% of the time Karlo and I travel together in the trusty (and now 4x4) VW Golf, but that other 5% of the time started to terrify me. Who exactly am I going to call to come and drag me out of a ditch if Karlo is away? And even worse than that . . . What if I hurt my poor MINI? I couldn't bare the thought of it.

Taking all this into account, we decided to make a purchase. Here are the Top 5 Reasons We Bought Another Jeep:

1. I was too cheap to buy the extra set of snow tires for the MINI - great logic there, I know!
2. Karlo's shoes are too big to drive the MINI.
3. We didn't want the third garage bay to go to waste.
4. Karlo needed even more reasons to spend all night in the garage.
5. And lastly . . . It's a Jeep thing! You wouldn't understand. (Ripped off from the Jeep catalogs - not my words.)

Here's our new pet in this morning's sleet. I haven't named it yet.

Christmas Letter 2008

It’s that time of year again. Time to decorate the house, buy & wrap presents, send holiday cards, and reflect back on the last 12 months. I resolved that I would skip this year’s Christmas letter due to time constraints and too much on my “To Do” list. But the need to look back and document our year is overwhelming. It seems time is moving so fast these days that the events of our lives whiz by too quickly to really appreciate. My Christmas letter forces me to relive our year — at a much slower pace.

The first six months of the year were just about completely consumed by Karlo’s book project. We had no idea of the magnitude of that project when the idea of “writing a book” struck. I’m still not sure how we survived it. It was a long, slow, and very challenging process, but we endured. Karlo’s new book hit the streets in October and his is now a famous author!

We were privileged with a visit by Karlo’s mother for the entire month of April. It was so nice to spend time with her and hear all kinds of amusing stories about Karlo’s childhood. The language barrier wasn’t nearly as bad as I thought it would be and it gave me a chance to get to know my mother-in-law. The extremely unfortunate part was that we lost her shortly after that visit. We are so very grateful for the time that we did get to spend together.

Just before Spring I decided to start a 3-month training program to get us into great shape. Karlo, being the good sport, agreed to endure this program with me and together we spent 90 days torturing ourselves. The end result was an enormous sense of accomplishment and some new muscles to boot.

One big milestone of the year was me turning 40. This may have been the motivation behind that killer workout routine. The big day came and went and I have to say, not much feels different.

As usual, we took a few trips throughout the year. We spent one week in Washington where we hiked at Mt. Rainer, went boating in the Puget Sound, took a wildlife safari, and shopped and strolled in Downtown Seattle. One solid week in the Pacific Northwest and no rain. That was amazing.

Part of my birthday present was to do something that I always wanted to do . . . attend ballroom dance camp. I still can’t believe that Karlo agreed to this. We foxtrotted, tangoed, waltzed and rumbaed our way through five straight days and nights of dancing. It was my dream come true. We still aren’t very good dancers, but we had fun and made new friends.


In October we drove down to Virginia to visit the previous owners of our house, who just happened to turn into wonderful friends. Before visiting their new palatial residence we spent a few days hiking and biking (the motor version) the Blue Ridge Parkway and Shenandoah National Park. It stole my heart and now I want to move to Virginia.

And as usual, I’m writing this letter on an airplane (the only time I got to relax all month) coming back from a business trip to Orlando. Karlo and I were lucky to get the same assignment and travel together. It sure does make business travel more enjoyable.

I can’t believe how quickly the year went by. We are very fortunate to have enjoyed the past twelve months and find ourselves in good health, some money still left in our 401K, and still very much in love. We wish all of our friends and family the very best in the upcoming New Year.

Merry Christmas!
- Paula & Karlo

Scenes From Home

I had planned for today’s blog posting to be my annual Christmas letter, but since Karlo accidently took the notebook that I wrote my letter in, I need a Plan B. Instead I’m going to share my day with you. It’s been quite the exciting day here at home.

The long awaited chimney work began today. I have a team of very busy guys running all over the house and up and down the roof. It’s been non-stop noise, but the end result will be that we can burn fires in our woodstove without the high risk of burning the house down. Well worth a day of noise and mess.

So far no holes in the stone wall.

The driveway.

To take a break from all the noise the dogs and I went for a walk to check out the water level of our little river. I couldn’t believe how mild the weather was so I brought my camera along.

The river was up as high as I’ve seen it. It was so pretty with all the rushing rapids.

I even found some new water features that weren’t there the last time I hiked.

A section of our trail used to go right between these two trees, but it looks like one of the last storms did the big tree in, which in turn took out the little tree. How sad, but lots of fire wood there.

The dogs enjoyed lounging in the yard while watching the workers on the roof.

I got a rare shot of Bentley with his ears up as the sounds of drilling got his attention.

Barely Hanging In

This is has been a very challenging week. The stress level is always high, the work load constant, and the nights sleepless. As I laid in bed, wide awake, the entire night last night I struggled to figure out what the date was. I have enough trouble trying to remember what day of the week it is, never mind the actual date. I had to wait until morning to discover that I missed my niece’s birthday by 2 days. Good grief! Sorry Nicole. I hope you had a wonderful birthday.

My blogging has been non-existent because of all the time I’ve been spending processing my YogaDudes orders and the fact that nothing here in Florida has inspired me. The only photos I attempted were of food and most of those were a disaster due to my crappy camera. Yes, yes, I know . . . I just bought a new one, but like I tried to explain, I don’t deserve it because I’m too lazy to carry it around.

My days are consumed by the trade show and my never-ending quest to find MINI goodies. So far I only found an actual car, but no cute stuff to buy. I guess that’s a good thing. I did have an amusing conversation with the drag race car driver that works in our booth. He said, and I quote, “I could never drive a Cooper. I would kill myself in one of those. They go too fast and turn to good.” I just had to laugh. But Karlo did point out the fact that dragsters only go straight so that made it more understandable.

One more day of work before we fly home. We are both anxious to get back to CT. Hopefully our house didn’t float away and our dogs didn’t drown.

Greetings From Orlando

We arrived in Orlando yesterday after a very (and gratefully) uneventful journey. No travel dramas to amuse you with. Although it makes for pleasant travel, it makes for boring blogging. I don’t even have any trade show booth set-up horror stories. So far everything is going great in Florida. I wish I could say the same for my business at home. That is not going so well and it’s the cause of great stress. Every time I come to my computer I find more orders and more work to do and blogging is the last thing on my mind. I am so incredibly thankful to have my new buddy Robin at home, playing saint, and helping me out with some of the orders. So now, in addition to the stress of the orders that we can’t ship out, I have the added guilt of making Robin do all this work. Never fails, I can never leave home without guilt. I sometimes wish I never had to leave home. Sigh

Tomorrow is our day off and the forecast is promising temps in the 80s. I will be happy to just lounge by the pool and try very hard to relax and not think. I could really use day to decompress. I hope it goes as planned.

Sorry for the lack of pictures. I’ve been concentrating on this week’s Dig Our Pics theme which is Food & Drink. Gives me a good excuse to order dessert and exotic drinks with dinner. Maybe tomorrow I’ll take some non-food-related photos.

A New Addition to the 40 Club

Welcome Tammy . . . and Happy Birthday!!!!

Will I Survive?

This holiday season is trying to kill me. We still have three weeks to go and I’m not sure I’m going to survive. The house decorating went smoothly and the Christmas shopping even got off to a good start. But something happened along the way and chaos broke out. I am working just about every waking moment of the day. Between my real job, my freelance jobs, and my side business there just aren’t enough hours in the day. On top of that, I’m getting requests from more people to do more work. I’m just about to my breaking point.

Last night I got an order for not one, but seven items that I didn’t have in my inventory. I still have a lot of handmade items for sale (which seriously needs to change) and the smart thing would have been to contact the customer and explain that we sold out of that item. But I knew the purchase was for Christmas presents and I felt like Chris Cringle. I couldn’t let her down. So I proceeded to spend half the night hand-making these items. I need my head examined. I ran back and fourth between the office (where I was printing out shipping labels and packing the rest of the orders that came in) and the kitchen where I had the counter covered with paper, scissors, glue, paint, wire, etc.

Poor Karlo came into the house after two hours of chopping wood, hungry and ready for dinner. Dinner? Who has time for that? The poor guy had to make himself some eggs. I felt terrible. I really need to figure out a way for my side business to stop ruining my Christmas holiday.

It would be nice if my upcoming trip to Florida could serve as a nice break for me, but I know that I’ll be completely stressed about the orders coming in and not shipping for a week. Every time I check my email my blood pressure will rise. Well, at the very least maybe my skin will get some much needed sun exposure. Hopefully some of next week’s postings will include sunshine and palm trees, but very few. Most of the time I’ll be trapped inside an air conditioned convention center – wearing fleece.

Getting Ready for the Snow

Notice anything peculiar about the back of Karlo’s car? How many 4x4 VW Golfs have you seen? This is Karlo’s way of preparing for the snow. He converted his little car into a 4x4 . . . by sticking on a shiny metal sticker. So I guess we’re all set now. Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow . . .

How’s This For a Quote?

Karlo and I had breakfast together this morning in the office. As I was at the water cooler filling up my glass he came over to me and swatted my bony elbow with his big heavy coffee mug. You could hear the sound of my bone resonating off his cup through the entire kitchen. I just glared at him with big eyes as if to say, “Why on earth are you HITTING me?” He laughed and said, “I’m sorry Babe, I forgot you are a girl.” He forgot that I’m a girl! He forgot that his WIFE was a girl??? Was he married to a boy before? Should I develop a complex that I look like a man? I’m even wearing a skirt today! Considering how much physical abuse I take from him on a daily basis I truly wonder how his poor brother ever survived childhood. He had to be one tough kid. Maybe I should ask Santa for protective boxing gear.

One Day of Bliss at Home

Not long ago I came to the realization that since we've moved to Eastford Karlo and I hardly spend any of our free time together. Back in Andover we spent nearly every waking moment together, minus the little time that Karlo spent on outdoor up-keep. But now I almost never see him. The grounds take an enormous amount of his time. He spends hours upon hours cutting the grass, chopping wood, and fixing all his necessary equipment. When he does come inside, he can usually be found in the basement tinkering with his motorcycles, ATV, or now with the new router. Despite the fact that I NEVER find myself without a dozen things to do in the house, I still miss my husband.

To remedy this problem, I decided that it would be fun to pretend that we were ‘going away’ when in fact we were staying home — a sort of ‘vacation at home.’ This is something that I always wanted to do, but never did. So we deemed Saturday as our ‘vacation day.’ No chores were allowed and we were to spend the entire day together, as if we were on vacation. After all, we live in a nicer place that we would ever stay in on a real vacation so why not enjoy it?

Saturday was the best day we’ve had since we moved in. We lingered in bed later than we normally do with no pressures of having to get up to get busy on our projects. We did yoga together and then enjoyed my now-famous Belgian waffles. I even baked some bread! We took a nice leisurely hike with dogs, sipped tea in our sitting room, and played some pool. We even went out to stroll around downtown Putnam after dark just to test out my camera. The night ended with a some cuddling on the couch in front of the fire, a big bowl of popcorn, and a chick flick. I never wanted that day to end . . .

I had my new camera at my side for most of the day, not only to document this very rare occasion, but also to test it out. I uploaded a few pics from the day, with captions either explaining what we were doing or camera specifics.

Click here to view the slide show from the glorious day. If you want to read the rather long captions you may have to increase the seconds delay.

I look forward to our next ‘stay at home weekend getaway.’

My Unexpected Grateful List

Yesterday I asked Lisa if she was going to suggest a ‘list’ for us to blog about. She said she couldn’t come up with anything other than a list of Things to be Grateful For and she thought that was a cop out. I guess she was right. I mean everybody is essentially grateful for the same things . . . We are grateful for our good health, the roofs over our heads, our family & friends, the jobs that pay our bills . . . . boring. So I decided to come up with a list of some unexpected things that I’m grateful for.

1. I’m grateful that I’m never expected to pick up dog poo.
2. I’m grateful that Karlo watches Charlie Brown specials with me.
3. I’m grateful that Karlo only bruised my rib and didn’t break my back.
4. I’m grateful that our doggies love me more.
5. I’m grateful that Karlo agrees that popcorn and ice cream is a perfectly acceptable dinner.
6. I’m grateful that my artificial Christmas tree doesn’t make me break out into hives (like real trees do).
7. I’m grateful that Karlo will watch What Not To Wear with me and then pretend that he’s Clinton when we are shopping.
8. I’m grateful that Karlo dances with me despite the fact that he has to wear ‘gay’ shoes.
9. I’m grateful that the FedEx and UPS guys know where Eastford is.
10. And mostly, I’m grateful that my family doesn’t expect me to cook a turkey. In fact, they would probably be more terrified to eat it than I am to attempt to cook it.

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

Happy Charlie Brown Special Day

Almost as exciting as the holiday itself, tonight the Charlie Brown Thanksgiving special will air. I’m not sure what I like more, watching Snoopy on TV or celebrating the actual holidays. I can’t think of many things that warm my heart more than Snoopy does. When I was decorating our Christmas tree this weekend I couldn’t help but think about my father’s never-ending question of, “When are you going to grow out of this Snoopy thing?” I think it’s safe to say the answer to that question is NEVER. Not one part of me felt childish or silly as I hung dozens upon dozens of Snoopy ornaments on the tree. I thought back to all the spectacularly decorated trees that I’ve seen in high-end department stores or classy hotels. I always marveled at their beauty, but I wouldn’t trade them for my Snoopy tree. Nothing beats a Snoopy tree!

I’m So Ashamed

One of the more exciting parts of my weekend involved my new camera arriving. I’ve been trying really hard to hold back from buying another camera for a long time, but I finally caved. I decided to sell my old one on eBay and since it successfully sold (for more than I expected) I treated myself to a new purchase. I’ve been chatting with a cyber friend regarding me buying a real DSLR. She insists that I should and I my response is always, “I don’t deserve one.” Not because I think my photographic talents don’t warrant a ‘real’ camera, but because I know myself better and I know that I won’t use it enough to justify the expense. Here’s a great example . . . I got my brand new camera, couldn’t wait to play with it and learn all about its features, but notice the great pictures at the top of this blog to show off its capabilities. That’s right, I’ve got nothing to show for it. Didn’t take a single picture. OK, maybe I took one, but it wasn’t very good and only sent it to our publisher (don’t ask).

It’s downright depressing to get a new camera in November. It has to be one of the dreariest months of the year. Everything is brown and dead outside. Nothing is pretty. Not to mention the fact that it’s too cold for me to be outdoors without mittens on. So my new camera is going to hibernate for a while before I really break it in. But in case you’re curious, this is what I got:
I’m hoping to use it to get some great action shots of the hounds snoozing this winter.

Thursday’s Highlights

Yesterday was a busy day and I didn’t get a chance to blog. What was I doing? I spent a couple of hours playing with an early Christmas present. My career Santa brought an early delivery. I got the new Adobe CS4. Probably only two of my loyal readers even know what that is. It’s new software and being the software geek that I am, I got totally sucked into it. The day flew by.

In addition to my new software, I got some other new items yesterday – not quite as exciting as the software and not quite ‘for me.’ My Mini also got an early Christmas present and is now sporting four new tires. I can’t think of many more un-gratifying purchases. I really dislike spending lots of money to replace something that I already had. If you’re going to spend a few hundred or even thousand dollars, you should really get MORE than you had before. But in this case I feel like I just lost $400 out of my wallet. I can’t tell the difference between new tires and bald tires and let’s face it, that car will see as little snow as possible so I don’t think I’ll actually ‘feel’ the difference. All I felt yesterday was the annoyance of driving back from the shop and having one of my warning indicator lights start flashing on the dash. Come to find out it was the “your tire pressure is too low or you have a flat tire” indicator. Now should THAT happen with four new tires professionally installed? Uuugh. Luckily Karlo fixed everything so I didn’t have to drive all the way back.

And lastly, last night was our big meeting with the wetlands commission. Just like the tire purchase couldn’t be anymore un-gratifying, enduring that meeting couldn’t be any more unappealing. Firstly, the room was freezing cold and I had to sit my boney butt on a metal folding chair until they called us up. It was boring as can be to sit through some engineer’s presentation. The whole while I’m thinking, “Are we expected to give a formal presentation?” The good news is that we were not expected to give a formal presentation. The bad news is that we are ‘guilty by association.’ Their first question was, “Is this the former Holtzshu residence?” My first thought was, “uh oh, we’re in trouble.” Let’s just say that Rick didn’t make many friends on the wetlands commission and our pond caused 2 years of grief to lots of people. Can they really hold this against us? I did my best to charm them all and now we wait . . .

Karma

Do you believe in Karma? I think I do. There is at least some sort of mystical balancing system in the universe. For instance, within two weeks of stealing Karlo’s new iTouch, I lost my Sansa MP3 player. The universe was trying to tell me that I’m either not meant to own more than my fair share of MP3 players or I shouldn’t have stolen Karlo’s new toy.

My latest brush of Karma is even stranger. A few weeks ago I made a purchase on Ebay. I bought a wholesale lot of necklaces – blanks that I can add my own pendants to. I bought this lot along with several other products from the same seller and although all the other products were fine, these necklaces were very disappointing. Almost half of them broke when I tried to work with them. Instead of writing back and demanding my money back (like I should have) I went to the store and bought some special glue to fix them myself. I also left some neutral feedback on Ebay. It wasn’t negative feedback, just neutral, but I did state my disappointment with the quality of the product. I gave the seller good marks for quick shipping, communication, and whatever else was on the report card and yet I still felt guilty for my small complaint, which was crazy. What is the point of this rating system if you’re not going to be honest?

Two nights ago I went into my craft room to gather all the broken necklaces to repair them. I had two piles on the table – one pile of ‘broken for sure’ necklaces and another pile of untested ones. I knew that half of the untested ones would break so I figured I might as well grab those now to test and fix them all at once. I went from the craft room, to our bedroom, to the kitchen to get busy. Only problem was that when I arrived in the kitchen I only had one pile of necklaces. The untested ones disappeared somewhere between the second and first floor of the house. What the . . .?? I retraced my steps and combed over every inch of all three rooms. I even added a few extra rooms that I swear I didn’t enter. Two nights of searching and I still haven’t found the necklaces. All because I complained on EBay. I am going to be very careful about everything I do from now on. This is getting scary.

Top 5 Favorite Magazines

This week Lisa suggested a Top 5 Magazine list. I think I can handle this one. Not sure I can rank them in order because I love them all equally. Here they are:

1. Yoga Journal – When I originally subscribed to this magazine it was more for research purposes. I thought I could use some material for my YogaDudes website and blog. But lately my love for yoga has grown and now I savor every article and explore every ad. It always offers something uplifting.
2. Body & Soul – This is just an all around feel good magazine. I love that it always talks about ways to live a better, healthy, and more fulfilled life. I’m always interested in the products they showcase and the tips they offer.
3. National Geographic Adventure – Made for Paula & Karlo, this is really our printed Bucket List in magazine form. I love opening the pages to all kinds of wild adventures and wonder what we will do next.
4. National Geographic Traveler – Another great source for Bucket List ideas. Not only do I love to read about places to travel to, but I truly appreciate the awesome photography that nobody does like National Geographic. I savor every page.
5. Outside – This is our very dangerous ‘gotta have this cool new gear’ magazine. Not only do we need ideas of where to travel and what to do, but we also need to keep on top of all the cool things that go along with adventure sports.
6. And just to add an additional one that will surprise you . . . just because Karlo and I were just talking about this over the weekend and laughing at the fact that I love to read his Popular Mechanics magazines. I really think I should have been born a boy!
   

Isn’t it amazing how much you can tell about a person by their list of favorite magazines? And the best part of subscribing to all these magazines is the cool “Happiness Collages” that result from them. I recently got back to making one collage for every magazine that I get every month. This is the best, most relaxing, most uplifting thing that I do for myself. One of these days I’ll scan some of my favorites and share.

Paula’s Favorite Things 2008

It’s time for my annual “Oprah’s not the only one that gets to make a favorites list" List. This is a fun exercise every year. It makes me look back and try to remember the items that stood out and made my life happier, easier, or more comfortable. And since I love to share when I find something that I really love I’m going to share with you “Paula’s Favorite Things of 2008.”

1. I was going to add “in no particular order to the end of the last sentence, but I just couldn’t. The number 1 (material) thing that has made me the most happy this year has got to be my car. I have an unhealthy love affair going on with my MINI Cooper. Now I know this is not going to help you with your Christmas shopping, nor are you going to run out and buy one just for the heck of it (although you should) but my favorites list of 2008 simply could not be complete without my MINI on the top of the list. I’m not going to list all the things I love about it because I don’t have all night. So now . . . in no particular order here is the rest of my list . . .

2. Ten Minute Trainer DVDs by Tony Horton – After completing my 90 days of Hell workout last spring I was pretty sure I never wanted to hear or see Tony Horton again. But he masterminded the best workout routine in the world. It’s literally 10 minutes a day and it kicks booty. Gone is the “I don’t have time to work out” excuse. These videos are awesome and I love them to pieces. I highly recommend this program to anyone wanting to add exercise into their busy lives and really get into shape.

3. iTouch – For a while I had a little bit of a love hate relationship with the iTouch, but now I’m starting to really like it. It mostly either sits on the couch, and allows me to surf when Karlo is watching ‘boy TV,’ or sits in another “Paula Favorite” to provide our house with some tunes. Great little gadget for many different reasons.



4. Which leads me to the Bose SoundDock Portable. Now that I have it, I can’t imagine life without it. The thing sounds amazing, is surprisingly compact, and the best part . . . you can unplug it and carry it anywhere you want to go. It’s got a super duper rechargeable battery pack that can play for hours. When you plug it back into an outlet it gets busy recharging itself. Oh, and it charges your iPod too. Simply brilliant.


5. This may surprise some, but my new waffle maker has officially made it to my Favorites List. So far I’ve used it every weekend and have yet to screw up a waffle. The thing is truly “Paula-proof.” I love it.



6. And here’s another surprise addition to the list . . . Simple 123 One Dish cookbook. This is the only cookbook that I use and may be the last one that I'll ever buy. It is the perfect cookbook. Not only does it show a picture of the finished dish (which is a must for me), but it also shows pictures of the ingredients. OK, stop laughing. This is VERY handy for me. All the meals are prepared in just one dish, which is another key prerequisite for any meals I make. So far I’ve made dozens of different dishes and almost all of them came out edible. Well, actually they almost all came out really good.

7. The Dana Owens Album — Has anybody ever heard of Dana Ownes? How about Queen Latifah? Well, it’s the same person. The pioneer of women’s rap has completely changed her image for this CD. If I had to compare it to something I would say it’s a female version of Harry Connick or Michael Buble. She sings soulful, jazzy ballets that I just adore. Please check her out and give some songs a listen. Now this would make a nice Christmas treat for yourself.

8. Harmonic Wealth — A complete stranger recommended this book to me via a comment on my YogaDudes blog. I was curious enough to check the book out on Amazon and it took me less than a minute to decide to buy it. Halfway through reading the book I made Karlo promise that he would also read it. He did and we both agreed that the book was life changing. I highly recommend it. Two thumbs up, 5 stars. If you want a more fulfilled, happy life, buy the book and read it with an open mind.


9. Avon Face Perfector —OK, so maybe it doesn’t make your face ‘perfect,’ but I can attest to the fact that it greatly improved my dreadful skin. This stuff slides over your face like a silky glove, smoothing and glowing as it goes. It’s not often that I get suckered into these sort of beauty items and think they were worth the money, but this time I was pleasantly surprised . . . by both the price tag and the results.


10. Garmin Nuvi — This isn’t our first year with a GPS so the novelty of having one isn’t all that exciting. However, this particular GPS has been terrific for us because it’s very compact and has great battery life. Not only do we use it on our cars, but also on the motorcycle and our bicycles. Can’t tell you how handy it’s been on our bikes. We are still mostly lost around the Quiet Corner of CT and this thing has been a God-sent.

Merry Christmas

Who wants a free photo book from Snapfish? That's right, you can follow the link I'm about to give you for a totally free (I'm sure you'll pay shipping) 8" x 11" 20 page custom photo book. What a deal. This is a limited-time-only Oprah deal. I think you have until the end of this week to claim the free book. This could make a great gift for family members on your list. And it's my gift to you. Enjoy!

Use this link to make and order your free book.

Decisions, Decisions

I really hate decisions — even small decisions like what color shoes to wear or what to order for dinner. Now Karlo and I have to make a big decision and I'm not happy with any of our choices. We have a little ‘issue’ with our chimney . . . if you can call a cracked flue making it completely unsafe to burn fires in our brand new wood stove an ‘issue.’ It’s more like a catastrophe as far as I’m concerned. We made a pretty big investment in the biggest and best wood stove we could find for our kitchen. We installed it about 3 weeks ago and since then I’ve been strolling around in a t-shirt, complaining that I’m too hot. Just a couple of days ago I was telling Lisa that you should be careful what you wish for. I so desperately wanted the house to be toasty warm from our free fuel. I got exactly what I wished for — big time. Then, within hours of complaining to Lisa that I was actually too hot in the house, we get the bad news that the chimney is need of repair. How ironic.

At first my biggest concern was the timing. How long would it take to find a chimney /mason guy to fix it? Every day that goes by we are just wasting oil when we could be burning wood. We were fortunate enough to get our first estimate last night and this is where the decisions come in. Our choices are terrible and all entail a lot of money. I’m trying to decide what’s worse . . . the huge bill right before Christmas, or the fact that we will potentially need to bust a huge hole through our gorgeous stone fireplace to access the damaged area. I am just picturing the destruction and the DUST. I think I’m going to cry.

Ba Humbug

I just wrote to Lisa today to tell her that I haven’t started my Christmas shopping yet and I really don’t see me getting any Christmas spirit this year. As usual, I’m too busy and too overwhelmed with all the things going on in my life to really enjoy the holiday. I think maybe she was trying to help me with the lack of spirit when she suggested this week’s Top 5 List. I am supposed to list my top 5 favorite Christmas movies and this is embarrassing, but I couldn’t even come up with five. Sure I could just copy Lisa’s list, but I truly don’t even know the difference between Miracle on 34th Street and A Wonderful Life. I can just see Lisa cringing. I’m not even sure if those are the correct titles! I think I might have seen one of those two movies before, but I can’t remember. And if I did see one, I was forced into it. Unlike Lisa, I have no appreciation for old movies. I’m not sure exactly what turns me off, but I just don’t like them.

There is only one Christmas show that I can honestly say that I LOVE and NEVER miss, and that is the Charlie Brown Christmas. I torture Karlo with that one every year. I can’t get enough of the sound track and just about memorized all the words of the show.

Other than that, I have been known to watch and enjoy Rudolf and The Year Without Santa. Is that the one with the Heat Miser and Cold Miser?

So my list includes 3 shows, not even movies. I guess I need Christmas movie counseling. Perhaps I should make an effort to watch some of the 25 Days of Christmas programs on cable TV. Lisa, you will have to coach me on what to watch, but nothing black and white, please. My goal is to have five favorites from next year!

Did Anybody Notice?

Did anybody notice my new blog header . . . and my play on 'the space between my ears?' OK, so maybe they are not my ears, but those ears do belong to me. Karlo will argue, but they are so mine.

Weekend Stories

I was hoping for a blog assignment from Lisa today because, despite the fact that the weekend just ended, I didn’t have a story lined up for today. Not sure how that happened. I guess I just don’t have much time to think these days. I did have a nice weekend and now that I think about it, I guess I do have some stories.

Friday night was a fun night. Karlo and I went to rescue Sue and Dan from their broken pocket door. Karlo saved the day, as he always does, with his handyman skills. To thank us, Dan treated us to a very nice dinner at the Marlborough Tavern. That was my first time there and it was great. The only downfall of the night was all the laughing. It still hurts for me to laugh, cough, sneeze, or breathe deeply and being around Sue was definitely hazardous to my health. The best part of this story is that, after hearing how I injured myself, Sue was all for a flipping demonstration. I stood in the parking lot, clutching my sore ribs, as Sue got her first (and probably last) flip from Karlo. She is a brave girl.

My Saturday night story is a disaster and writing it will probably just upset me. In a nutshell, we drove down to Mohegan Sun to meet a different Sue to see Tower of Power perform. I got all gussied up and was excited to see the show. However, things didn’t go as planned. That place was a total nut house. We drove around the parking garage a dozen times before we finally headed all the way up to the roof in search of a parking spot. Somehow we took one wrong turn and ended up instantly on the highway with almost no way of getting back. The only way back was to make a U-turn and apparently we were not the only ones that made this mistake. There must have been 100 other poor saps in line waiting to turn. With the amount of patience we have it took us less than 2 seconds to decide we were ditching the whole thing and driving all the way back home. A total bust of a night.

Wrapped in Red Tape

I have entered into bureaucratic red tape Hell and I’m ready to throw in the towel. Remember this little project of Karlo’s? The one Tina thinks will be a giant water feature . . .

Well, we were planning to put an adorable Kloter Farms shed on the hillside, overlooking the pond. Not only do we already have a deposit on the shed, but Karlo has already dug and picked his way through solid rock and poured the concrete footings. I know we never should have done ANY work before getting the building permit first, but once Karlo gets an idea in his head there is no stopping him.

We went to the Town Hall a couple of weeks ago to get the permit. But, of course, it couldn’t be that easy. It appears that we are in violation of the wetlands because the structure is too close to our pond. And so the fun begins.

I am honestly losing my mind, and my patience, with this incredibly confusing and difficult process. Given the fact that the Town Hall is only open a handful of hour per week and the employees only return emails every other full moon, I can’t get any assistance. All I know is that I have to submit the 20-page application before November 14th so that I can plead my case in front of the committee on the 20th. The Town Hall is only open late two nights per month, the next one is next Tuesday, and I just realized that it’s a holiday. It seems the planets are realigning to prevent us from having this shed, yoga/dance studio. I am so very close to just giving up and forgetting the whole thing. Sigh.

Santa Came Early

And I'm thrilled with what he brought! This purchase was way overdue and now that I've had it for nearly 20 hours I don't know how I lived without it. Lisa has been complaining for years that our house was way too quiet. And she was right. We never have music playing. We don't even play music in the car! Every time I put the radio on, Karlo shuts it off. I just got so used to sitting in the quiet that I never noticed the deafening silence surrounding me.

But NOW . . . wow! Now I have music filling the house and and it's so incredibly nice. Last year I bought a system that steams music from my computer to our surround sound, but that was just too much work. After all, I had to turn the computer on AND turn on the surround sound speakers. You can see how that took way too much time! After winning the free iTouch (and never really using it) I realized that it's a pain to charge it. Every time I plug the darn thing into a computer it wants to sync itself and I hate that. Precisely why I've avoided Apple all these years. Anyway, I started researching speakers with a cradle, mostly just as an easy means of charging the iTouch (for my couch surfing).

After wasting hours researching all my options online I decided to drive to a 'real' store – what a concept. It took me less then 1 second to realize that when it comes to speakers you get what you pay for and nothing compared to the Bose. An easy decision to make.

I set it up last night, (plugged it in), set the iTouch in it, and felt like I went to Heaven. I got so excited and inspired hearing all the Police tunes that it made me pick up the bass, after not touching it since last January. The good news is that I actually remembered how to play. The bad news is that the darn thing is so heavy and the weight of it on my hurt rib was unreal. I'm more sore today from my bass playing last night, but it was worth it. I love my Bose and I realize now how much I've missed music.

I Feel Much Better Now

Maybe not physically, but I mentally feel better. You see, over a week ago Karlo and I went out dancing. We had a grand ole time dancing the night away, but when I woke up the next morning it quickly became apparent that something was wrong. When I took a deep breath, tried to yawn, or heaven forbid, sit up in bed I got a deep stabbing pain under my ribs in my upper chest. I told Karlo that if the pain was on the other side (my left side) I would be convinced I was having a heart attack. What on earth happened to me while sleeping?

Later that day, after realizing that just about everything hurt me, I decided that I must have pulled a muscle dancing! I never mentioned it earlier because how embarrassing it THAT? I pulled a muscle . . . dancing? Just a few months ago I was in the best, strongest shape of my life and here I am sore for 10 days (and not improving at all) from what I thought was dancing. I couldn’t bare the mental anguish. Yesterday I drove Karlo's car (VW) to get some groceries. Putting the car in reverse was almost impossible and took everything I had to use both hands to push the stick shift down. Lifting the groceries nearly brought tears to my eyes. I was ready to slip into depression.

But last night, while at dance class, I realized that lifting my right arm up and down to do the swing moves wasn’t hurting me. Seems if that was the thing that hurt me in the first place, it should hurt to do those same moves. That was when it hit me. I suddenly remembered our night of dancing. Karlo got a little excited and decided to flip me a couple of times. It’s been a long time since I got flipped and wasn’t prepared for it. Thinking back on it, Karlo does remember that my second flip didn’t go as planned and now he thinks that he most likely cracked one of my ribs. OK, this is making much more sense now. I feel much better knowing that Karlo BROKE me rather than I’m just too old and out-of-shape to dance.

In the Spirit of Election Day

This is the best political debate ever. In case you are undecided, maybe this will help:

My Favorite Vacations

This week’s suggestion from Lisa is to write about our favorite vacations. I could write a novel on this subject. Hey, wait a minute . . . that is exactly what I plan to do some day!


1. I think my favorite vacation of all time was our sailing/biking trip to Croatia. The picture says it all. I can’t think of anything I would rather do than ride a bike through some of the most beautiful scenery in the world. The climate was perfect for me, the days were leisurely (well, compared to most vacations), I got the perfect amount of exercise, and every day was a different adventure.


2. My second favorite vacation also involved biking. This vacation was actually two parts and the longest vacation I ever took. The first week was all biking and we biked through Germany, Switzerland and Austria around the gorgeous Bodensee Lake. Everything about it was perfect, the scenery, the weather, the biking, the food, and the company (we went with two brand new friends and had a blast). 


During the second week of this trip we stayed in a villa on the side of cliff overlooking Lago Maggiore in Cannobio, Italy. This was very unusual for us – nothing but relaxing and sightseeing. It was a nice break after all the biking and the scenery (and food) was outstanding.


3. Is it bad that I’m ranking our honeymoon third in the list? For our honeymoon we spent 3 days touring Barcelona before boarding a ship for a Mediterranean cruise. Not only did I love Barcelona, but all our ports of call were beautiful. I especially liked Tuscany and plan to go back there for sure. One of the highlights was the Tuscan feast at the farmhouse pictured above. Abundant and delicious food, complete with a donkey walking across the room. What an experience. The best part of cruising is the variety of things to do and see each day.


4. Next comes Utah and this includes Zion National Park, Bryce Canyon and Lake Powell, all of which were spectacular. Zion will always hold a special place in our hearts. It has taken over as our number one favorite national park. The photo above is Zion Valley. This was a solid week of outdoor adventure through some of the most remarkable landscape I’ve ever seen. As much as I don’t like going back to places I’ve already been when there’s so much more world to explore, this is a definite to revisit.


5. Back to biking trips. We took a week-long bike tour of the Canadian Rockies. And this wasn’t just a bike tour. It was billed as an adventure tour. Although the weather didn’t cooperate for our hot air balloon ride, we did manage to go white water rafting, sea kayaking and sail plane soaring. Talk about a different adventure every day. The terrain was tough, the temperatures varied greatly, the wildlife was everywhere, and the sights were amazing.

6. Yosemite has to make it on my list. One year we went from Lake Tahoe (which is also worth a great mention – loved that place too) to Yosemite. We happened to luck out with the best waterfalls in decades. I guess timing is everything when you visit Yosemite and we hit the jackpot. The picture above is just one of the many waterfalls that we hiked up. Lots and lots of hiking and climbing on this trip. Loved every minute of it.


7. I had to trick Karlo into this trip. We actually flew into Las Vegas, but I couldn’t tell him that. I called this our “Southern Nevada” trip because there is no way I could get Karlo to Vegas for vacation. We did slip into the evil city for a couple of nights, but this was another outdoor adventure filled with hiking, rafting and riding ATVs. We loved it.


8. Just this past year I fell in love with Virginia. I can’t believe how quickly I fell for this place and how ‘at home’ I felt. The week was perfect and included awesome hiking and what has to be THE BEST motorcycle rides in the country. The best part about this place is how close it is to home. Can’t wait to go back.


9. And speaking of close to home and stealing our hearts, we fell so hard for Maine after our first vacation to Acadia National Park that we bought land (and a house) just to be closer to it. We still have the dream of having a second home and partially retiring to mid-coast Maine. So much beauty, so many outdoor activities, such a nice lifestyle. I heart Maine.


10. One of the most fun vacations was to Washington State several years ago. I was on a business trip and Karlo flew across the country to spend time with me. Not only that, but my friend “CA Sue” also flew up and the three of us had a ball. We took the ferry over to Victoria, BC and rented scooters all day and strolled around island. In addition to that, Karlo and I spent some time alone hiking Mt. Rainer. That is the closest you can come to Heaven while still on earth. We had the perfect day and the perfect hike. Sue and I also had some alone time and strolled through Seattle, shopping at Pikes Market and taking in the sights of the city.

Now where will we be off to next?