Photos of the Week 7

#52

A day that I don't really want to remember, but will likely never forget . . . nor recover from.

#53
My day started off pretty good when I arrived to my office to find these items on my desk: my new (used) laptop, a 500mm lens that a friend is letting me borrow, and a photography magazine that Jill gives me when she's done reading.

#54
Haircut night, and my hairdresser trying to figure out what the heck I'm doing with my phone.

#55
My new "Dellapple" laptop. Just to make myself feel better I slapped an Apple sticker on the front of the laptop. Still runs like a PC, but at least it's cuter this way.

#56
Karlo leaves town and I resort to pretzels for dinner.

#57
Tina's girls are thrilled to each have their own laptop. They wasted no time gettin' busy.

#57a
I struggled with the photo of the day here so I'm breaking the rules and posted an alternate picture of Tina modeling with a bag we also loved. Luckily I didn't decide to make this too!

#58
I made these awhile ago, but for some reason they are still hanging out in the kitchen and I just happened to be sitting at the counter with my camera today . . . so well-la, my picture of the day.

Dusting Off the Sewing Machine

I wasted no time in tackling my mitten project. I started with a quick online search for 'mitten patterns' and that resulted in me not only finding a printable pattern, but also a nice little video to watch. As a matter of fact, the video was showing how to make the exact same mittens that Tina and I fell in love with. How convenient was that? It looked so easy that I figured I would just give it a try without first consulting Lisa. What could go wrong, really?

Well, if I don't mind mittens that are too small for my man hands, and a few holes here and there, I guess nothing could really go all that wrong. No blood (nor tears) were shed and therefore I consider the experiment a success. Will I ever be able to make mittens that I could actually wear? Probably not.


I was smart and decided to do a dry run before cutting up the precious cashmere, and I'm so glad I did. I sacrificed a pair of flannel pajamas that were ready to be thrown away. I had nothing to lose, except for my time. I printed out the pattern and got busy cutting out the material. I learned the very important lesson here on how crucial it is to be precise with the fabric cutting. And if anybody every tried cutting fabric you will know how nearly impossible that can be.

I had to bring my laptop to the craft room so I could watch that darn video a dozen more times. I cursed a few times and shook my head in disgust at what a terrible sewer I have become. There was a time (way back when) where I actually knew how to sew. I may even have enjoyed it back then, but let me tell you . . . those days are over. I now suck at sewing. I can't even believe that I got as far as taking this next picture. Don't look too closely . . .


Yes, they might be the ugliest and most ill-fitting mittens on Earth, but I did it. I managed to sew that darn thumb and even get the lining inside. At the very least I learned some important lessons:

• My hands are BIG and I should never have assumed that a generic pattern would fit me.
• When cutting the fabric it's crucial to make the pieces exactly the same size. Eyeballing things does not work well in sewing projects.
• Sewing flimsy fabric is nearly impossible.
• Always check the bobbin thread when starting a project because guaranteed it will run out midway through.
• The $52 price tag on the mittens we saw yesterday was a bargain!
  

And the best part of the entire project . . . I got a bonus pair of comfy boxers shorts out of the deal by cutting off all the excess material.

I may just adjust the pattern for my extra large hands, as well as my extremely poor sewing skills, and give the wool & cashmere mittens a shot. But first I need to go back to the thrift shop in search of a wool sweater that I can sacrifice. Stay tuned.

Happy Feet Make a Happy Day

I always said that bad socks can ruin my day. It's really a pet peeve of mine . . . wearing bad socks. It just drives me nuts and distracts me all day long. And along those same lines, it seems like when I wear my favorite socks and my feet are happy, I have happier days. I think I proved that theory today.

Karlo bought me a pair of cashmere socks for Christmas. I spent 10 minutes petting them, caressing them, and loving them, but I never did put them on my feet. I tucked them safely away in my drawer and planned to wear them 'some day' on a special occasion. Because that is what I do. I save things for the future rather than enjoying them every day. Not sure what possessed me to finally wear them today, but I did, and it was great. The minute I put them on my feet I instantly thought about my "Paula's Favorite Things" list and just knew they had to make this year's list. I just love having cozy feet!

I know it's just a coincidence that my great day just happened to coincide with the wearing of the cashmere socks, but from now I will believe that cashmere sock days will be great days. Maybe, if nothing else, that will make me wear the socks more.

What a fun filled day. I spent most of the afternoon with Tina and her girls. We shared some great laughs, enjoyed the most incredible gourmet lunch, and we even had time to do some shopping together. After falling in love with some cashmere mittens, but refusing to pay the $52 price tag, we got the idea of heading to the Salvation Army store in search of a cashmere sweater to cut up and make the mittens on our own. Well, we found the sweater, but now I gotta figure out how to make the mittens. Please stay tuned for future blog posts to find out if I pull it off. Or more realistically, please stay tuned to Lisa's blog . . . whom I will likely have to turn to for sewing advice. Perhaps I should just give up now and commission Lisa for her sewing talents.

From Tina's I went to see Dad and had a wonderful visit. I had planned to stay and have dinner with him, but that didn't go so well. It's Tina's fault. She fed me so much for lunch that I couldn't even imagine eating a bite by dinner time.

The biggest laughs I had all day were showing Tina, the girls, and my Dad my favorite new Android App. Even my Dad loved this one. How could you not? Here's a sample of it that I made for Karlo last night . . .

Vacation Shopping Phase 1

Because I really needed more hi-tech clothing. What is it about vacations that always make us feel the need for 'new stuff?' Why is it that we can't go on vacation and wear or use the 'stuff' that we already own, know, and love? For some reason we are compelled to buy as much new stuff as possible to fully enrich our vacation experience. Good grief. We are nuts.

Yeah, so I managed to convince myself that I needed more fleece for our bike trip. I guess that is because none of the other 45 articles of fleece that I already own would suffice. I even had to buy new gloves, I wanted to buy new tights, and now that I think about it, I really need new bike shoes too. How will I survive without the new shoes? Actually, I'm not even being sarcastic about those shoes. The only bike shoes I've worn in three years have been sandals. I haven't biked in the cold weather in ages and nothing can compare to the comfort of my Keen biking sandals. Now I'm in trouble. I'll be biking in 40 degree temps in sandals. Maybe I just need new wool socks. Uuuugh, it never ends.

My Real Valentine's Gift

For sure this will bore most, but it thrilled me to pieces. OK ladies, this is my super-duper Valentines gift . . .

Isn't it romantic? Oh, and it's not the camera, but all the other stuff. If you look closely at the bottom of the camera you will see a funny looking bracket under my tripod bracket. And hanging off of that bracket is this brilliant little pin. Here's a better (well actually, I shouldn't say 'better' because the photo is horrific) but the angle is better to show off the pin.

Now that pin hooks into the rails of the plastic contraption attached to the nylon belt. OK, this description is getting exhausting and I'm sure I'm losing you. Here's a picture that really sums it all up. I borrowed this from the manufacturer's web site. This is what it does . . .

And I am simply in love with it. I thought I loved the "R-strap" and that worked well for me for the most part. But when I saw this at the photography expo in New York and got to walk around with my camera attached to my hip, I was sold. I decided it was the most brilliant way of carrying a camera. It has a positive lock so the camera is not going anywhere unless I push the little locking lever. I can easily forget I even have the camera attached to me, which is pretty hard to do when it's dangling from a strap around your neck.

In case you're a photographer with a DSLR and are interested in this brilliant little invention, here's the website: http://www.spiderholster.com/. I have the "Black Widow" model which is a little smaller than their original model that was made for pro model bodies and lenses. My Nikon D7000 probably maxes this clip out, but it's perfect for me. Now I just can't wait for the weather to improve so I can actually leave the house with my camera. Too bad I won't get to use it much on our upcoming vacation :-(

The Goulash Dry Run

Karlo and I are participating in a group themed dinner party thing. Every couple that participates has to host a dinner in a particular theme and the guests each bring something to contribute to the dinner, also matching the theme. It sounded like a fun thing to do, at first . . . but then I realized that there are 12 people in the group and holy cow I need to cook for 12?!?!? Then to make matters even worse, the first couple picks ITALIAN as their theme. Uuuugh. How rude. Don't they know that is the only theme I have any chance at pulling off? We are doomed.

So the group collectively decided that Karlo and I should try a "Hungarian" theme. They seemed brave and excited about it so I was willing to entertain the thought. Because I would never a host a party without first test driving everything, I went and found a goulash recipe and bought all the ingredients. I had planned to try this out over the weekend and I guess I got really brave too because I mentioned it to our friends and told them they could join us in the experiment. I made no claims that it would be edible (or chunks of my fingers wouldn't be floating in the dish) and they surprisingly agreed to come over.

The recipe called for the slow cooker to be set to high for the first hour than turned to low for the next 6 hours. Well that was easy enough. Somewhere around the 30 minute point Karlo and I are sitting in the quiet house reading when suddenly our answering machine begins to talk and beep. Apparently our power just came back on! Holy smokes, I didn't even know it was out. How long was it out? I'm not 30 minutes into my meal and things are already getting screwed up. Just my luck.

Well, the day was windy like crazy and I feared we would continue to lose power on and off all day. We had to go shopping so I wouldn't even be aware if we lost it again and if so, for how long. God I hope the food would be cooked. And as a back up and side dish (just in case) we made the most delicious looking array of baked veggies. The labor involved with cutting these things was insane. 30 minutes of peeling and chopping, but it would be worth it . . .


Fast forward to the end of the night. The goulash came out just fine. Everyone loved it and it's a good thing . . . because I COMPLETELY FORGOT TO SERVE THE VEGGIES. All that stinkin' work and I forgot to pull them out of the oven. TWO things to serve and I forget one. Say it with me now . . . "hope ---- less."

Week in Review

Wow, I just realized that I don't remember my last blog at all. No idea what day I posted or what I said. Hopefully I won't repeat myself with this post, but here's my week in review with some notes to go along with them.

#45

What a sweet Valentine's Day. Karlo is enjoying his gifts: a big box of chocolates and a Kindle. One happy guy.

#46
The day after Valentines one of us still had some candy in their heart-shaped box. I wanted to remember both the candy and the cute card. The real gift was much less exciting to look at, but something that I'm thrilled to have. I will blog about it later because I'm sure some of my photo buddies will be interested. I have a feeling it's going to make the "Paula's Favorite Things" list this year. More to come . . .

#47
This is just a cool light that was hanging in the Chinese restaurant that we went to this night. We planned to go to On the Border for Mexican and my heart was set on it, but Karlo and I are not used to the crowds in civilization and we bailed 3 seconds after entering the parking lot. sigh.

#48
This one is kind of sad. I lost another fish :-( I used this napkin to transport my poor dead fish from tank to toilet and before throwing the napkin away I realized the water left a heart shape.

#49
Here's a story . . . I decided to cook a real meal tonight. Not sure what came over me, but I worked like crazy in the kitchen. One of the ingredients was "lemon zest" which always scares me. I had such a hard time grating the peel. It was nearly impossible and I grabbed a tight squeeze on the lemon and pushed down with all my might. The lemon peel still didn't come off very well, but a nice little chunk of my finger did. Hurt like HELL all night - especially after I got grapefruit juice inside the cut. Yeah that was fun. And to make it even worse, the meal was tasteless and terrible.

#50
This night's dinner was much better (although there's another story here that will wait for a future blog). I took a photo of the dish I made and that will be posted soon, but I thought this picture was more fun. Karlo and I just learned how to play Dominos. We had a ball with our friends playing and I can't wait to play again. Must buy these things!

#51
OK, maybe technically speaking I didn't really "take" this picture, but since I participated I figured it counts. Plus, it's a cool thing to remember from this day. My niece Nicole just got a new Mac and we had a lovely family dinner today to get my Dad out of his Hellish rehab place. Nicole and I had a ball playing with her laptop.

Crossing Another Thing Off My Bucket List

I'm crossing something else off my Bucket List . . . not because I've done it, but because I no longer want to do it. For the past two years I've been thinking about taking a special trip around our 10 year wedding anniversary. I had this grand idea of visiting a couple of places that I always wanted to see, all in one trip. This trip was to be a cruise and it would have taken us to both Greece and Egypt. Seeing the Egyptian pyramids is one of those 'once in a lifetime' cool things to do and I thought doing it in conjunction with our anniversary celebration would be neat. But between the economic problems in Greece and the chaos in Egypt I'm re-thinking the entire thing. Not to mention the fact that I know somebody who took this exact same cruise and experienced a terrible storm and some of the biggest waves ever encountered out at sea. No thank you. I think these are all signs that are telling us not to take the trip. I can't even imagine visiting that part of the world anytime soon.

So it looks like I need to fill a couple of slots in my Bucket List. Luckily I bought Karlo a cool book for Christmas.


Looks like I'll have some reading and researching to do to come up with an equally cool adventure - and hopefully one that I don't have to train for.

Brilliant Little Invention

How many shopping reward cards to you have? Anytime a store offers me some sort of special reward program I always refuse. Not because I don't want to get the special good deals, but because I can't bare the thought of cluttering up my wallet with one more stinkin' little card. The only ones that I will break down and carry are the grocery stores and CVS, and now because of my health insurance I have to carry an additional little CVS card. I also have a PetsMart card, but I only use my phone number to access it. No idea where the actual card is.

But now I solved the problem to this pesky card problem. I found an ingenious little smart phone app called Handy Cards that allows you to use your phone to scan the bar code on the back. It automatically stores your information on the phone so when you get to the register at one of your select stores you just open your app and click on the appropriate store. Your unique bar code appears at the appropriate size on your phone and the cashier scans it. Bingo. All your cards stored digitally on your phone and your wallet is that much lighter and uncluttered. I love it! Now I have to run around to every store in town (hmmmm, in Eastford that means 1 - the hardware store) and go and collect all the shopping rewards cards I can find.

Not the Only Blogger

I never got around to writing a blog post this afternoon. That's because I was busy working on Karlo's blog. That's right, Karlo has his very own blog. He's had it dormant for quite some time, but he recently got re-energized to start contributing to it again. I'm so proud of his efforts so far. He has articles written for the next month.

Now don't get all excited. Lord knows none of my readers will want to also read his blog. He's writing about what he knows best – multiaxis machining. I prefer my own specialty of rambling on about . . . nothing in particular, but I am proud of my baby. Today I freshened up his site and added a new page specifically for all the magazines that he's had articles published in. I know you know that he's written a book, but did you know he's also been published in a few different industry trade magazines? Check it out here.

Keep up the good work Karlo!

Happy Valentines Day

Here's another typical Paula & Karlo story . . .

On Friday, Karlo came into my office with a notebook and pen. He was all business, taking notes and asking me if I wanted to go out on a Valentine's date. When I said, "Yes, but of course" he drilled me with more detailed questions and took notes as to my answers. We both determined that the best time to go on our big date would be Sunday night. We planned where to go and what to do. I was so excited! We had another wine tasting planned before heading to a restaurant that came highly recommended up in Sturbridge. It sounded like the perfect Valentine's celebration.

And then Sunday afternoon came. We were both busy with our own little projects. Around 4 PM Karlo decided that he was going to 'go for a bike ride' (this means 'ride the indoor trainer') and I couldn't let him do this alone. 1, because I hate him exercising without me, and 2, because the darn things make so much noise you can't bare it if you're not participating. So we both jumped on our bikes and got all hot and sweaty. Now the big decision was to shower before or after dinner. Karlo offered to make his Hungarian soup and I was thrilled to jump into the shower. I arrived at the dinner table in my pajamas, with wet hair, and no make up on and that's when it hit me . . . Holy cow, SOME romantic dinner. Could I look any worse? We totally forgot all about our big plans for a date. We are hopeless. Maybe we can try again next weekend.

Here's hoping that you have a nice Valentine's Day and don't forget to go our your special dates.

Weekly Recap in Photos

My weekly recap in photos:

#38

I waste time shopping for new bathing suits that I never end up buying. I can't even bring myself to look at the gardening catalogs.

#39

Fired a new batch of glass. Not sure I'm happy with any of the results.

#40

Our bikes remained empty tonight despite the night being a designated 'riding' night. We just plain slacked for no good reason. And it felt good.

#41

We said our final goodbyes to my Aunt Bev today. It was a long and hard day.

#42

Because there isn't already enough stress in my life! We spent most of Friday night in the emergency room of Day Kimball hospital. Good news is that all is well again. Details will be spared. Karlo will already kill me for this much info.

#43
We attended a lovely Valentine's themed dinner party. It was nice to get together with friends and share some good laughs. Too bad my stomach was still recovering from the recent stresses. But I still had a lot of much needed fun.

#44
It took me 3 seasons of knitting (yes, that was 3!) to finish my last scarf project. I finally gave my Dad the scarf that I thought I would never finish. That means it's time to start another project that I may never finish. Look how I matched the yarn to the cover of my knitting book! I would take a picture of the scarf every week, but the length of my progress may not be detectable week to week. Perhaps I'll take yearly photos of it!

Happy Birthday Wishes

Because I know she comes here often . . . Just wanted to wish Tina a very Happy Birthday!

The Rollercoaster Continues

I sure was dreading this day. It started off with my aunt's funeral, an event that nobody wants to endure. I got through it better than I thought I would. That is probably because I go pretty numb inside of a Catholic church. Seems nothing a priest says actually penetrates my ears. I could go to any funeral in a non-Catholic setting, hear people talk (in normal speak) about their loved ones and, even if I never knew the person, I would easily be brought to tears at the thought of the family's loss. But for some reason entering a Catholic church makes me feel like I'm listening to Charlie Brown parents' talking. Wa wa wa wa wa wa is all I hear until the part where I recognize the rituals. Then I instantly spring into robotic action and recite every single word (for be tum) in my head. But I feel almost no emotion and it sometimes makes me angry.

Well, this wasn't supposed to be a sermon on religion. That's the last thing I want to talk about. I just want to express my sadness at the loss of my aunt. It will leave an empty void my life for the rest of my life. A void that is just not meant to be filled I guess. So let's move on . . .

The next stop was to visit my father and I had very mixed emotions about this. On one hand I couldn't wait to see him. I got a couple good reports from Penni and I was thrilled at the news that he was improving. But at the same time, I now had high expectations that I was afraid would not be met, which would have me plummeting back into sadness and stress.

Well, my father was a cranky, grumpy, complaining old man . . . and it was GREAT to see him back to himself! I know that sounds terrible, but it truly was wonderful. We walked into the room and asked how he was. He instantly launched into a rant about being stuck in that awful place and I happily said, "Boy is it nice to have you back Dad." Even he got a good laugh out of it. Up until this point he was so out of it and confused and had such a lack of interest in life that he was just giving up. But now he's back to fighting and complaining about everything. This is a very very good sign.

We were trying to coach him and give him tips on how he can spring himself from rehab. We were trying to get him to understand that he needs to get strong in order to leave that place. So I quizzed him . . . "Dad, what do you need to do to get yourself out of this place?" The correct answer, of course, was "Get myself strong." But Dad's answer was "Shoot myself." Oh boy, let's try this again. I ask him again and this time his answer was, "Shoot somebody else." OK, it's settled. Dad has fully recovered from his fall and is back to himself. My brother and I made a call to speed up his evaluation. I just hope Dad doesn't find any weapons in rehab. ;-)

Cruel and Unusual Punishment

How evil was it to find the catalogs above in my mailbox this week, mid-way through the winter that will never end? I mean really, what are the chances that we can plant anything this Spring? I'm wondering if I'll see grass by my birthday in July. I couldn't even bring myself to open the pages of the gardening catalogs.

But the swimsuit one, well that one I did study . . . every page in fact. I went through it over and over again, dog-earring different pages, picking out different things, and thinking long and hard about what color I want. What a useless waste of time that was. I still haven't actually placed the order and I wonder how many (brand new) bathing suits I already have hidden away in my closet. See, that's the problem. Since I never use them, I have no idea where they are. But for sure they are there somewhere. Perhaps I would have better spent my catalog browsing time by digging through my closet looking for what I already own. sigh.

Well, at any rate, I vow to put on at least one bathing suit during our upcoming cruise. And hey, I may even get completely crazy and go swimming. OK, that may have been pushing it, but I will at least GET WET. That's the goal.

One Stray Picture from Last Week

I blogged a little prematurely last night and didn't include all the photos from last week. Yesterday's photo of the day was taken just after my blog post so I thought I would give it it's own special posting. This picture is called Getting Ready for the SuperBowl.

#37

As you can see I was being realistic with the bottle of Tums nearby. This meal was very exciting for me . . . not because of the big game, but because I was able to eat it without lots of pain. I've been struggling with stress and my IBS attacks, but luckily I finally got some good news (for a change) regarding my father. After days of him getting worse and worse and my stress level getting higher and higher, he finally made some improvement. It's incredible how the slightest bit of good news had such a positive effect on my body. I felt a really nice sense of relief that maybe there is still hope that Dad can live out the rest of his life in a nice environment. Fingers are crossed.

But the good news and happy thoughts unfortunately didn't last for long. My God this year is really getting off to a really sucky start. This morning came the news that my closest aunt, my God Mother, lost her fight to cancer and passed away. At 42 years old I already lost 3 mothers. I'm starting to think that I just wasn't meant to have one in my life :-( As sad as I am to lose her and as much as I will miss her, I am also a bit relieved that she no longer has to suffer with the illness. There won't be a mile of our upcoming epic bike ride that I won't be thinking about her and praying that the money raised will help others fight the evil disease.

Ready To Collapse

Luckily that title refers to me and Karlo rather than our roof. Yesterday was one of the most brutal days of my life, from a physical work stand point. And to think, I've done some ridiculously physically demanding things in my life. My day started out with my P90X work out. Since it was the first day of Phase 2, the program stepped it up a notch. Bad timing. Given the fact that I was having IBS issues and skipped dinner the two previous nights, I thought I was gonna collapse. It took everything I had to get through the hour. And THAT was the easy part of the day.

From there I went outside to supervise Karlo on the roof. He was shoveling 3 to 4 feet of HEAVY snow off our wrap-around porch roof. The snow was literally over his waist all the way around the house. I can not even imagine how difficult that was for him because I only had to deal with a fraction of that snow when I cleared the piles he threw down on the driveway, deck, and dog run. Shoveling snow is one thing, but this was a rain-soaked mixture of snow and ice. It was brutal.

And that wasn't even all of it. I felt so bad that Karlo had to do all this work that I took it upon myself to dig a path to our oil spout (in the event that we needed an oil deliver.) The snow was as high as my chest, it was covered with the heavy stuff that came off the roof, and I had to dig out about 10 feet to get to the oil spout. Yeah, THAT was fun. I would have blogged about this yesterday, only I didn't have the energy. Even my fingers were tired!

I'm starting to come back to life today . . . enough to get online and post my pictures from last week. Here they are:

#31

I was having a really bad day so I reached for some chocolate. What a great little fortune I got in the wrapper. Nothing improves my mood like shopping!

#32
Our office is starting to look like a creepy ice castle.

#33
And speaking of ice, we stayed home this day due to the ice storm.

#34
Ice birds. If you look hard you can see them.

#35
A turkey and a blue jay. (I really needed a longer lens.)

#36
Karlo shoveling off the roof.

I Should Be Ashamed

An interesting thing happened the other day. I've been going nuts trying to track down some property managers in the Hartford area. I really didn't think this task would be a problem. I figured these companies would be plentiful, but they really are not. Or I just haven't been lucky in finding any. After submitting requests to a half dozen different companies I only had one get in touch with me. You would think I would have been thrilled and hired them on the spot. But I didn't.

When the guy first called me he left me a voice mail message. I listened to it no less than 6 times trying like crazy to understand what his name was. How was I going to call him back if I couldn't even come close to saying his name? But finally I got the courage to call without being able to say his name.

It was a difficult conversation of me not really being able to understand the guy. I hate to admit this, but my patience level of dealing with foreigners on the phone is very little . . . especially say when I need tech support for a product that I spent good money on, or a home utility that I pay dearly for. I guess I feel like I'm in the USA, why shouldn't I be able to talk to somebody that I can understand easily, in my own language. I know this not a good attitude and I should be more accepting. ESPECIALLY given the fact that I'm married to a foreigner. This was the big slap of reality for me. I had no patience in trying to understand this guy, I had feelings of "I can't deal with this on a long-term basis . . .there's no way I'm hiring this guy" and (this is the part that was really bad) I felt like I was making assumptions as to his professionalism or level of intelligence based on how he sounded.

That's when it really hit me. The realization of how hard Karlo has it, facing these prejudices every day. This is why he hates to talk on the phone and now I finally fully understand him. The guy is positively brilliant (WAIT A MINUTE - THAT NEEDS A FOOTNOTE . . . In what he does. In the highly specialize high-tech field that he is in, he is probably one of the smartest people in the world. We won't mention his level of common sense for this example.) Anyway, back to my story . . . he is a brilliant guy that gets treated like he's an idiot. I watch it happen in person all the time; in stores, in restaurants, just about anytime Karlo meets somebody for the first time. On the phone it has to be even harder. I really do feel for him and I hate myself for being one of those evil jerks that do this to people like him.

But I'm still not hiring that guy!

Life in Connecticut

I definitely needed this little break for some comic relief today. Thank you Robin for sharing this with me. This pretty much sums up life in CT to a tee at this point . . .

August 15 - Moved to our new home in Connecticut. It's so beautiful here. The lake to the north looks so majestic. I can hardly wait to see it snow covered. I'm going to love it here!

October 14 - Connecticut is definitely the most beautiful place on earth. The leaves have turned all the colors and shades of red and orange. Went for a ride through the park and saw some deer. They are so graceful. Certainly they are the most wonderful animals on earth. This must be paradise, I LOVE IT HERE!!

October 25 - Deer season will start soon. I can't imagine anyone wanting to kill such a gorgeous animal. Hope it will snow soon. I love it here. Those red and orange leaves have covered my yard. Looks like a magnificent multi-colored carpet. HOW BEAUTIFUL. Raking and cleaning up the yard will be an opportunity for invigorating exercise in the cool crisp air.

November 1 - Ah, more leaves and more exercise.

November 8 - Jesus, still more leaves. Guess it's best to wait until they've all fallen before I rake again.

November 15 - Finally, all of the trees lost their leaves and with today's final raking it's over for this season. Chiropractor suggested I use a lawn maintenance service next year. Only four blisters became infected. Should probably remember to use gloves.

November 30 - What the freak? Where did all of those leaves come from? Had a little wind last night and the lawn is covered again. Oh well, they'll just have to wait until spring.

December 12 - It snowed last night, FINALLY. Woke up to find everything blanketed in white. It looks like a postcard. We went outside and cleaned the snow off the steps and shoveled the driveway. Had a snowball fight (I won) and when the snowplow came by we had to shovel the end of the driveway again. What a beautiful place. I Love Connecticut !

December 14 - More snow last night, I love it. The snow plow did his trick to the driveway again. I Love it here.

December 19 - More snow again last night. Can't get out of the driveway. Can't get to work. I'm exhausted from shoveling. Freaking snowplow snow!

December 22 - More of that white shit fell again last night. As if dealing with the leaves weren't bad enough, now I've got blisters all over my hands from shoveling, must remember to wear gloves. I think the snowplow hides around the corner and waits until I'm finished shoveling the driveway. The asshole.

December 25 - Merry Freaking Christmas. More frigging snow. If I ever get my hands on that son-of-a-bitch who drives the snowplow, I swear I'll kill the bastard. Don't know why they don't use more salt on the roads to melt the freaking ice.

December 27 - More white shit last night. Have been inside for three days except for shoveling out the driveway after that plow goes through every time. Freaking gloves got wet and then froze on my hands. Doctor said it was just a mild case of frost bite, disfiguration is probably only temporary. Can't go anywhere, car is stuck in a mountain of white shit. The weatherman says to expect another 10 inches of the shit tonight. Do you know how many shovels full of snow 10 inches is?

December 28 - The freaking weatherman was wrong. We got 34 inches of that white shit. At this rate it won't melt 'till summer. The plow got stuck up the road and the bastard came to the door and asked to borrow a shovel. After I told him I'd already broken six of them shoveling all the shit he pushed into the driveway, I broke my last one on his f--king head.

January 4 - Finally got out of the house today. Went to the store to get food and on the way back I hit a damned deer that ran in front of my car. Did about $3000 damage. Freaking beasts should be killed. Wish the hunters had killed them all last November.

January 21 - Took the car to the garage in town. The thing is rusting out from all the freaking salt they put all over the roads.

January 24, 2011 Plane Ticket purchased for move to Sarasota Florida . I can't imagine why anyone in their right mind would ever live in that God forsaken state of Connecticut.

Life is Getting Difficult

And my shoulder is seizing up. No matter how hard I try to fight it, I think it's gonna take a miracle to keep my back and pinched nerve in check over the next few months. I keep imagining getting through our upcoming so-called vacation, biking in severe pain. As far as I can tell that is not going to be fun. And neither is my life right now.

I've been trying to come up with a blog topic all day. I've been reaching down for an entertaining topic, but my life is consumed these days with unpleasant things. On one hand, I don't want to discuss and document them, but on the other hand, this blog is the document of my life and let's face it, sometimes life isn't always easy. We are definitely in a 'not-so-easy' stage right now and I'm just trying to take deep breathes and deal with one day at a time.

Up until last week I was enjoying all the snow. It was so beautiful walking around in a winter wonderland every day. I just felt like a big kid and it was so exhilarating. But that feeling died last week with the last big storm. My poor Dad has not fully recovered from him fall on the ice and my feelings of being 'a kid' went right out the window. Fast forward from kid to tortured adult, trying to figure out how to care for an elderly parent. The time of life most everybody dreads. Well it has come on really fast and without any warning, like a slap across the face and is now consuming my life. So I will apologize in advance if this blog is not the cheerful and amusing place that it normally is. I will try to retain some humor and positive thoughts regardless of what's going on around me. I will try . . .