Show N Tell

Here I go again . . . packing my suitcase for another trip. This time I'm headed to Orlando, Florida which may sound fun, but there's very little of that to be had. I'm not complaining. I'm just happy this trip if falling one week sooner than it normally does. I'm hoping that my yoga business is just a bit less crazy and stressful as it normally is during this trip. Fingers crossed.

I'm in the middle of trying to prepare for my trip and tie up all my digital loose ends, although that last one never seems to end because as soon as I post this blog there will be new emails to read. sigh. A couple of days ago I got this neat little idea to share some interesting tidbits that I'm digging up at my father's house. Every time we go over there we uncover some little part of my past and I thought it might be fun, not only to share them, but (of course) to record them. I am aiming for one "Show N Tell" per week and this one is short and sweet. I found this little note at the bottom of one of my old dresser drawers.

Thank goodness the world went digital because it sure does make typos much easier than it used to be in the good old days of white-out. But nothing beats the authenticity of a real typed note!

I have no idea what's in store for Show N Tell #2. Stay tuned for some embarrassingly old photos and such. Should be fun . . .

Week 47 in Photos

#324

Karlo and I somehow managed to wiggle our way back into dance classes, after being absent for over a year. It pays to be friends with the instructor! Not only did we score ourselves a couple of group lessons, but also a private lesson to prepare us for PERFORMING at an upcoming holiday ball. Gulp.

#325

This is the basket of chocolate that has been torturing us all week.

#326

Just a part of the huge spread our company puts out for our Pre-Thanksgiving Feast.

#327

Here we are at the start of the Manchester Road Race. What a perfect day for a run. We had a blast.

#328

It's tradition that I put up the Christmas tree on Black Friday. Also a tradition that I do it all alone :-(

#329

Amazing that two days after Thanksgiving the weather was nice enough to go for a motorcycle ride. What a treat that was.

#330

FINALLY!! This day was better than Christmas morning for Karlo. Our friends came over to visit and help us attack that huge basket of chocolate. Oh happy happy day!

Paula's Favorite Things 2011

It's that time of year again. Time for me to make my list of the best products that I discovered over the past year. These things are not necessarily new, but they were new to me and I loved them so much I wanted to share. So without any further ado, here's my list in no particular order.

These first 3 aren't exactly items to buy, in fact they're FREE. What could be better than free stuff? Both of these first two items are downloadable apps (both for your smart phones, as well as just your computer) and they have been life changing so let me explain.

DropBox - On any given day I touch no less then 3 different computers, and usually 4 different computers. I tried to juggle my digital life between these 4 computers and keep everything straight, but needless to say, it was impossible. I NEVER had the right data on the right computer. I had my blog pictures on my home desktop, but I was at work trying to post a blog. I had my yoga business files on my laptop at work, but now I'm on my laptop at home and I need to access one of those files. Every day I would fight this same battle until I finally discovered DropBox, the answer to my prayers. DropBox is an online storage place that you can access from any computer as long as you're online. It has completely changed the way I operate. No more emailing files to myself on a daily basis. I now keep all of the things that I may need to access from wherever I may be "in the cloud" and much frustration and chaos has been eliminated.

Evernote - Along these same lines is my "data, ideas, lists, you name it, whatever-I-need-to-keep-track-of" filing system. This too was split up and duplicated on several different computers. Only problem with that is that I would add some ideas to my files at work and then get home and not have that info. Enter Evernote. Their slogan is "Remember everything" and this free little utility is the greatest thing since sliced bread. to sweeten it further, I also have it loaded on my phone and ipad. No matter where I am I can make a note and it instantly syncs to every computer I own. This, my friends, is how I managed to keep track of all my photos of the day. I would take photo and whip out my phone and make a note of the day and the subject matter so a week later (no matter what computer I was on) I could post all the photos in the right order from (of course) multiple different cameras. I am carrying all my ideas with me no matter where I am and I couldn't be happier about it.

Mint - Mint has exterminated Quicken for me. This is another free utility that you can just join and log into from any computer. Once you get all your financial data plugged in it will automatically track all of your finances (well, as many as you let it). I have all of our credit cards plugged in and it will log every single purchase. Not only does it just log it, but it's smart enough to categorize most of the purchases for you. Sure it can't do it all automatically, but when you're buying things at a grocery store, gas station, or home improvement store, the categorizing works like a charm. It will save me hours upon hours of sitting and fighting with Quicken this tax season. And it also offers a phone app so you can work on the fly.

Eddie Bauer - It seems that I have fallen for this Eddie guy this year. I bought several things from this store: the most awesome high tech First Ascent jacket, super warm mittens, fleece lined pants for snow shoeing, and the coziest flannel lined jeans, a cool and versatile linen jacket . . . Every single piece of clothing that I bought there this year has become one of my favorite pieces. I simply love this store and plan to frequent it. I can't think of any other store that I've been this happy with everything I bought. Two thumbs up Eddie Bauer!

Downey Wrinkle Release - How come it took me this long to discover a product that magically takes wrinkles out of clothes without the need for an iron? Do I really need to explain the benefits here? I should buy it by the case.

Moroccanoil Hair Oil - Jessica introduced this stuff to me and she called it "hair crack." This is strange because growing up 'greasy hair' was a no-no, but now I'm purposefully putting oil into my hair. I don't know how it does it, but somehow rather than making your hair look greasy, it gives it an amazing shine and healthy glow. Cool stuff.

D7000 - This is my new Nikon camera and it has become the love of my life. I could write a book on it, but I'll spare you. Just know that I LOVE it.

Michelob Ultra Pomegranate Raspberry Beer - Yeah, so it's a girly beer, but even Karlo likes the Michelob Ultras. There are 2 other flavors (lime and peach) that I also like, but the raspberry is my favorite. It's almost like drinking a wine cooler, but not so sweet and doesn't make me ill. With the reduced calories it's my drink of choice. Yum.

Tostidos Artisan Nacho chips - And speaking of yum, the first time I bit into one of these chips I literally yelled out loud, "Oh my GODDDDDDDD, these are the best chips in the world." And they are. Period. Get yourself a bag immediately. My favorite is the roasted garlic and black bean, but there are other flavors as well.

Cashmere Socks - This is just a piece of heaven for your feet. Socks are one of my favorite things and I think I mentioned this before that bad socks can ruin my whole day, while good socks can make my whole day. Nothing beats cashmere and since it's always so expensive, the easiest way to splurge and add some to your life is in sock form. Your feet will be thanking you, I promise.

Fuze Drinks - I have tried every single so-called healthy drink on the market and this has become my new favorite. I'm sure I've tried every flavor and haven't found one that I don't like. The slenderize versions are super low calorie and refreshing, but the thicker fruitier ones, holy smokes, they deserve an umbrella in them! The yummiest drink on the market and amazingly low calorie for how good they taste.

Suave Styling Sprays - You gotta love it when one of your favorite beauty products just happen to be the lowest price ones on the shelf. I have to admit, it was the commercials that sucked me in and made me want to try the new Suave products. They did a great job on the marketing and I have to say, the products back up the claims. I really do like the finishing spray and how neat of a concept to make a dry shampoo. The stuff really works and is perfect for those days when I'm going out on a weekend night and want to push my shower off until later in the day. I spray my hair in the morning with this magic aerosol and it really does clean your hair. What a concept. Would be a perfect companion for camping - or those long weeks with no electricity!

Midnight with a Mystic - This is the book that led Karlo and I into meditation. I blogged about this book on my YogaDudes blog and you can check it out there for more details, but the book was truly life changing. If you're looking for an interesting read this holiday, this would be a good investment.

Rialto Shoes - It's not often that I find shoes that fit me and are truly comfortable. I usually search high and low. I try to buy higher end shoes, I prefer them to be from Europe (where they make them more narrow), and I exhaust myself reading reviews before making any purchasing decisions. But one day I was strolling through Kohls with no real purpose and I stumbled across a pair of shoes that caught my eye. I didn't really need them, but for some reason I couldn't resist them. Best shoe purchase of the year. From day one they have been the most comfortable shoes I own and they fit me like a glove. I tried to buy up every color, but no luck. I will be keeping my eye out for this brand in the future to start my new collection.

No Gray Hair Color Additive - Ever since we moved to the middle of nowhere I color my own hair. The salon is just too far and it takes too darn long to sit in one place while I'm waiting for the color to process. The only bad part of this deal is that the home hair coloring systems are not as strong or good as the professional ones and my grays NEVER really get fully covered. That was until I discovered these magically little tubes of juice. They come in packages of two (you can get them at CVS) and you just drip them into your store-bought hair color and it greatly improves your gray coverage.

What is Wrong With This Picture?

Last weekend Karlo and I attended a local school fundraiser. It was a pasta dinner and along with the dinner there was both a live and silent auction. I just love those. The thrill and sport of stalking the items that you want to win, while outbidding your fellow neighbor is all just so exhilarating. And it really does work out to snag some nice things, especially gifts, and take the charity tax write-off to boot. It's just a win win situation of doing something good for the community while helping your own finances a bit.

Karlo and I both got caught up in the whole spirit of the silent auction. I must have placed a bid on 25 different things. It could have been one heck of an expensive night had I not gotten so distracted by socializing while slacking on the bid stalking. And little did I know that Karlo was off on his own, doing his own bidding. He, of course, is not as savvy of a shopper as I am (given the fact that we went home with items that he bid well over face value on -- but I'm happy knowing it was for a good cause so I didn't give him too much grief). But this next stunt, however . . . this deserves some grief. Can you tell me what is wrong with this picture????

It's a reenactment, of course, and I'm still kicking myself for not taking a picture of the actual bidding sheet. Early in the evening (when I was stalking my desired items) I was paying very close attention to my favorite items where I was getting outbid. Imagine my surprise when I saw this item (which just happened to be a gigantic basket of chocolate that I was trying to win for Karlo) and I saw that I was outbid -- by MYSELF! OK, maybe it wasn't exactly myself. Maybe it was my bird brain husband that didn't notice that the exact same number and name was listed on the line right above the line that he filled out. What kind of ding dong ups the bid on themselves? OMG that one takes the cake for never paying attention to anything.

And here's the best part of the story. Since I was so busy not paying attention to all the things that I wanted to win so badly I didn't realize that somebody (other than Karlo) outbid me on that chocolate. At the last second our friends Jill & Dan put the winning bid down and  . . . you ready for this? GAVE us the basket. I was just stunned by this amazing act of friendship. So now we have this puppy sitting on our counter:

And it's torture because we PROMISED them that we wouldn't open it until they visited us this coming weekend. Yeah, my family wasn't too happy with that deal when they were over last weekend and we didn't break our promise. It's like waiting for Santa to arrive . . . Saturday can't come soon enough. Thanks again Jill!!!!

Splitting Wood

When we moved to Eastford I had these grand ideas about how we would heat our house for free. What a great concept. We have 28 acres full of trees that we can burn for heat. It sounded too good to be true. It was.

The first year we had a bunch of dried wood left over from the previous owner. That gave us a good head start, plus the original wood stove was small and didn't require much wood. It also produced very little heat. The second year we decided to invest in a bigger stove, which of course, required a lot more wood. Poor Karlo spent endless evenings and weekends from the Summer all the way through to the Winter harvesting and chopping wood to prepare for the burning season.

By the third year we decided that it was just far too much work and his time was worth more than the price of buying the wood. That was easy, just get it delivered. All we needed to do that year was stack the perfectly sized pieces of wood in the shed. [Side note: All that stacking of dusty wood gave me an instant sinus infection that lasted for 3 weeks of misery so I paid for that wood in more ways than one.]

The fourth year rolls around and we didn't think twice about ordering more wood, only this time we had to order more cords than the previous year and the extra $1,000 expense came right around the same time as the shed roof repair, the new generator purchase, the new snow blower purchase, the repair bill on the ATV, and one of our vacations. Needless to say the extra grand hurt. So I stood on the deck one day, gazing out at all of our millions of trees and made a comment to Karlo about getting his chainsaw out and taking down some trees to save us money next year. Within two hours of my comment there were a dozen trees down. He wasted no time jumping to action.

And the work has not stopped since. It has been an endless project of cutting and chopping and hauling and stacking all that wood from the backyard to the shed. Now, suddenly, it's all coming back to me . . . the reasons why we decided against Karlo doing all this work. It's funny how you can forget all this in just one short year. sigh. So now I feel guilty because it's my fault he's back in this mess. A couple of weeks ago I decided I wanted to try to help out. I thought maybe I could split some wood too. I walked outside and watched closely as Karlo chopped away.

 

It actually started to look like fun. I wanted to try it too. Karlo told me, "Give it all you got and don't miss the target." That sounded easy enough. Well, here is the result of my efforts. Not only did I nearly miss the target, but 'everything I had' only sunk the axe into the wood a half an inch. Good grief. Chopping wood is apparently not for me. I better stick to hauling and stacking. Lord knows I'm getting pretty good at that.

Week 46 in Photos

#317

This is the lovely picture that we had to take to send to the hot tub manufacturer. It shows the melted wires and the fried circuit board. Yeah, that tub is doing a terrific job of relieving my stress. Just great. With the temps under freezing at night it was a stressful week of waiting for the new circuit board and heater to arrive, followed by a whole lot of work trying to fix it, and refill the tub. Oh, fun times.

#318

I whipped up some homemade white bean and chicken chili and it (surprisingly) came out really good. I was proud.

#319

The fun of the holiday season is starting. We spent a couple hours counting, stacking, and packing YogaDudes holiday cards. The ornaments should arrive next week and we can do it all over again. Yiippee.

#320

Isn't it cute how Karlo and I can never get our teas confused? That strange word on his mug means "Hungary" in Hungarian.

#321

This was on the wall in the restaurant we had dinner in. I couldn't resist snapping it for my Popeye.

 #322

Today's picture was suppose to be of my friend Jill's daughter as she SERVED us dinner at the local school fundraiser, but she was too quick for my phone camera and she escaped the humiliation. Darn it. So I took a picture of happy Karlo with a plate full of food instead.

#323

Moving day. My brother was nice enough to help us haul the big stuff we wanted to keep from Dad's house. Now we finally have the wine barrels that I've been wanting to decorate the deck with and spare washing machine for dog beds, along with some other misc items.

Foreign Fashion

Two years ago I graciously accepted the polka dot tights that Karlo brought me back from Germany. Of course I never wore them, but I figured it wasn't a big loss and he wouldn't even remember buying them for me. But then last year he came home from Japan with a God awful 100% silk old-Japanese-lady outfit. Not only was it ugly and ill fitting, but it was very expensive. Actually everything in Japan is both expensive and ill fitting. Trust me, nothing in that country fits me because I am some sort of bizarre freak of nature there. Women just don't grow as tall as me in Japan. I couldn't bare to wear the entire outfit, but one day I did reluctantly put on the top and sport it to work. I was uncomfortable all day thinking the sleeves were too short and wondering what people were thinking. That was when I decided to enforce the "Please don't buy me clothes from foreign lands (unless you're in Italy)" rule. The next year Karlo went to Sweden and came home with jewelry. Yeah, my rule was working.

But not for long. This year Karlo went back to Sweden. I truly don't expect gifts when he travels. Well, except for gummy bears. He positively is not allowed to go to Germany and not buy me gummy bears. And this past trip did include Germany and I did get gummy bears so that should have gotten him off the gift-buying hook. But for some reason he didn't stop with the bears and was compelled to buy me clothes in Stockholm. He was so excited about his purchase he wrote to me to tell me he got me "something way cool." I couldn't imagine what it could be.

Well, that photo says it all. Check me out! I have to say, this purple Prince-like jacket was much better than the Japanese outfit (and no Tina, you're not getting a picture of me in that). I wore this outfit to one of the Sting concerts and that day is going down in history as the most comments I ever received on any outfit in my life. There wasn't a single person I could walk by at work that didn't have something smart to say. Most of the comments involved pirates, crying doves, and little red Corvettes. But seriously, as much as we joked about the outfit I do think it's quite cool and I'm very happy to own such a unique piece of wardrobe. The greatest part is that Karlo had two of our coworkers with him when he was shopping and they all agreed that the jacket was "totally Paula." At first I wasn't sure what to make of that comment, but the guys insisted that if anyone could "pull off wearing that jacket" it would be me. I will take that as a compliment.

And to put the icing on the cake, I bought this pair of cool patten leather purple pumps to go with the jacket. These replaced those other disastrous purple shoes. I can't wait for Tina's comments on this post . . .

Tree Removal With Karlo

We still have not cleaned the yard from the hurricane and now we have tons more clean up to do from this past snow storm. We will ever catch up? In order to help speed things up a bit I offered to help out.

Here's the scenario . . . Karlo is operating the chainsaw. Paula is driving the Jeep (that will help to persuade the tree to fall in desired direction).

Here's the conversation:

P: Are you sure that tree is not going to fall on me?
K: If we do it right it will be a very slow process.
P: And if we don't do it right?
K: Then it will be a disaster!

Just for the record it was NOT a very slow process and there was some desperate yells of "GO GO GO!!!" coming out of Karlo (which of course scared me to death and sent the Jeep wheels into a spin on the slippery snow), but thankfully it did not result in a disaster. The tree fell just where we had intended with no damage to the shed, the Jeep, or more importantly ME.

I did of course get hurt later on, but that was my own doing. I got into a little brawl with a branch and I think I lost. Maybe I'm not cut out to be  lumberjack after all.

Working Hard

I don't know how I'm ever going to catch up on all my blog stories if I keep skipping out of town for days on end. No sooner did I get back from New Jersey, but I had to take off for scenic downtown Hartford. Of course it didn't much matter how scenic Hartford is or isn't. From Tuesday afternoon until Saturday morning I only spent approximately 10 cumulative minutes outside the walls of the Marriott. It was just a long grueling week . . .

The days were spent in actual business meetings and those flew by. We had over 150 resellers from all over the world in attendance and, of course, they have all sorts of agendas that include talking to the corporate staff. You truly don't get a moment of free time. Even after the business meetings, you never really stop working. It's all work talk, all the time. Of course, the environment for these talks did get a little more interesting. And Karlo might have gotten a little carried away with the constant talking to everyone . . .

 

I got to spend a little time with my buddies from North Carolina. After all, it's been over 3 weeks since we saw each other last and we had a lot of catching up to do. They are trying hard to get me to "embrace my inner redneck" and they were responsible for the Bourbon drinks I was consuming. uuugh.

 

OK, maybe we did get a little break from all the "work." Karlo tried his hand at some downhill skiing.

 

And we even got some swing dancing in.

 

I know it's starting to look like one big party, but some of us actually did some real work . . .

That was my buddy Robin who used to be my neighbor and my co-worker before she broke our hearts and moved away. How cool was it that she got to 'officially' attend the meeting?

After the second night's event (where Robin was busy working while the corporate staff was busy eating and drinking) we attended some after hour parties in the hospitality suites of the hotel. Flash back to college. You walk into the hotel room and are greeting with this:

It was a self-service bar, but good luck if you actually had to 'use' the bathroom . . .

 The best party was the one hosted by the Candians. They always know how to have a good time. I'm just glad I was the one taking the photos ;-)

It started to get harder and harder to get out of bed in the mornings. I think I'm out of practice for these types of events. Our last night was coined the "Fun Night" and it entailed a lot of this:

As you can see it was an exhausting week of work!