Food Overload

I think I'm going to need to diet after a month of eating Karlo's mother's home cookin'. I am in a constant state of feeling stuffed. And I've also been slacking with the photos. Last night we had Paprikash, which is basically Hungarian goulash, but less soupy. I'm not a big fan of beef and only had a tiny mouthful of the meat, but the potatoes are to die for. YUMMY. The night before we had an interesting concoction, but without Karlo here, I can't even come close to remembering what it was called. Apparently it's the staple to the Hungarians' diet. It's like pasta to an Italian. Actually it is sort of pasta. Pasta noodles with potatoes, mashed beyond recognition. It was unreal. I loved it and would be happy eating it every night, but talk about a carb overload. Wow, too bad weren't not biking yet.

Tonight, it's going to be Cockaslavish (I hope there are no Hungarians finding this blog because they will be in hysterics looking at that word I just typed). No idea how to spell it, but that's what it sounds like. The literal translation is "Rooster soup." Don't worry, we're not going to hunt down any roosters out here in the woods and sacrifice them for our dinner. It's just the name. No actual roosters will be harmed. And we are not even quite sure that we have the right ingredients. It's still somewhat of a mystery what is needed to make the sponge-like objects that float in the soup. After inspecting every box in both the baking and the pasta isles at Big Y, we took our best guess. I almost had to call Lisa for help, but I couldn't even formulate a question based on the sketchy description I was getting from Karlo. Tonight will be very interesting to see what materializes from the mystery wheat powder in the box.

The funniest part of our shopping trip was that Karlo's mother said that our quarter carriage full of food (approx. $75) was enough food for two weeks. Now, either she truly is a magician or she has not feed Karlo in a very long time! This I have to see. If she can teach me how to feed that man for $100 every two weeks, I will be very impressed.

The Magician Cook

It’s official. Karlo’s mother is a magician. She managed to create the most delicious dinner with nothing in the house. Her only one request was for a potato and, of course, we had none. With nothing more than some chicken and oil, this dish magically appeared on the table when we were done with our workout.


It was so tasty. This is the homemade ‘tarhonya’ that I eluded to yesterday. Karlo’s mom made it and brought no less than 12 pounds of it with her. (Hmmm, she must have known she would need to bring her own food if she wanted to eat in our house!) It’s sort of like pasta, but heavier. I think I’m in love. Karlo has attempted to make it in the past (not the actual pasta pellets – just the prepared dish), but it never tasted this good. As we were upstairs working out last night, we could smell dinner cooking downstairs. As soon as I changed and came down, dinner was waiting for me on the table. I can get used to this! Last night this was especially helpful since I don’t have time to make dinner between our workout and my dance class.

I also mentioned the knitting project yesterday and I wanted to share a picture of the adorable little sweater and bonnet that Karlo’s mom made for her grand daughter. Isn’t this amazing? I can’t even say that I aspire to this level of knitting. I’m not even going to get that idea in my head. I’ll be a scarf maker and that is the end of it.

Welcome To America

Sorry I didn’t blog yesterday. Time is getting away from me. I spent most of yesterday afternoon in a Mac warp. I’m just now starting to really use the new Mac and it’s been quite the rocky transition. Luckily, Lisa is only an email away and has the patience to answer my stupid questions and listen to my rants. And it’s a good thing, since I can never reach my cousin when I need him! This is my first blog posting from the Mac.

My day wasn’t nearly as busy as Karlo’s though. He had to drive to Boston to pick up his mother from the airport! She’s now here with us and I believe this is her first trip the US. She’s been to Canada many times, but never to the States. She will be staying with us for the entire month of April, and by then, I should be fluent in Hungarian and at least know how to make some goulash. OK, we all know neither of those things will really happen, but it’s fun to think about.

Actually, now that I think about, I will probably be a worst chef by the time she leaves. I have a feeling I won’t be doing much cooking this month. Last night she already announced that she’s making dinner for us tonight. I’m not quite sure how she can confidently say this before looking through our fridge and pantry. She must be a magician! I can’t wait to see what she whips up.
I would be more than happy to just eat the treats she brought us. Check these babies out:


Not sure what they are called. All I know is they are yummy. She also brought some homemade raspberry jam, my favorite waffle cookies (I hate to admit this, but I like them even better than the Italian Petzls) and literally 12 pounds of something that I can’t even begin to try to spell or explain. No wonder she got caught up in customs so long.

Stay tuned to tomorrow’s blog to see the amazing things my mother-in-law knit for her new grand daughter. If nothing else, I will be a better knitter by the end of this visit.

Cranky Old Married Couple

No, not me and Karlo . . . Our dogs have decided that they hate each other. They are worse than an old crotchety married couple. The arguing at nighttime is becoming an issue. Those buggers normally let out a half dozen full fledged barks throughout the course of every night. They are usually timed with one loud bark every hour, so that they wake us up just after we finally fell asleep after that last altercation. I’m trying to devise an invention where I can record my voice yelling at them and have it play in their room, loudly, every hour so I can wake them up for a change. That’ll teach them!

I found it strange that the past two nights have been much quieter than normal. Both nights there was some arguing early on, but then things got quiet for the rest of the night. And don’t you know, both mornings we go downstairs to find one dog in their room and one dog out in the garage. They have taken to sleeping apart. What a riot. When we got home yesterday afternoon Bentley couldn’t wait to run upstairs into the house. As a matter of fact, he skipped eating his dinner just to get upstairs. Meanwhile Peanut ran under the stairs. Bentley just wanted to get as far away from Peanut as possible and she was more than happy to oblige.

This morning, Karlo found Peanut in the garage all by herself. It was obvious that she just woke up and spent the night alone out there. After they came back inside from doing their business, Peanut treated herself to the bed in “their room” and therefore Bentley stayed in the garage. I’m wondering if they will be contacting a doggie divorce lawyer soon. What happened to our happy household?

And then there’s the cute duck couple that I mentioned a couple of days ago. Remember them? They look so peaceful, swimming together on our pond every day. Well now even THEY are arguing, squawking up a storm in the morning. I’m ready to shoot them. I need to find an animal relationship counselor and soon.

And on the subject of biking . . .

This is the best ad ever! You may only be able to fully appreciate it if you've spent hours in the saddle, but none the less, you gotta love it.

The Best Sign of Spring

Easter didn't really feel like Easter. It might have been because we didn't celebrate and instead cleaned the house and worked on the book. When I remember Easters from my childhood, I remember walking to church in my new spring clothes, and I always remember the yellow and purple flowers in bloom in our front yard. I have no idea if Dad's flowers are already starting to bloom, but Eastford looks deader than a doornail. We are so far from anything sprouting. Karlo thinks that his mother is going to get to see everything bloom during April. I think he's going to be disappointed. I remember it getting to be Memorial Day before we got leaves back in Andover. In Eastford, it may be the Fourth of July before we see signs of life.

But with that said, it is nice to take my evening showers and get to look out at the pond in the back yard. The other night I was washing my hair and watching a new duck couple that has taken residence in our pond. The extra day lights is so nice.

And now we are starting to wake up to the sounds of birds chirping. It's still pitch dark, but the birds are out there singing. I like that.

And the best sign of Spring, I just saw today . . . the first street sweeper cleaning the sand off the roads in Tolland. It won't be long before it's safe to get out on two wheels again. Yipppeee.

Great Friday Phase 2 Completed

It's an Easter miracle . . . I found new black sandals. I wasn't going to risk ruining my glorious day by shoe shopping, but I couldn't resist popping into DSW on my way to Hartford. The first 30 minutes was pretty rough. I didn't shed any tears, but I muttered a few curses (on Good Friday- now I'm going to Hell) and tried on no less than 50 pairs of sandals - wait, make that 60 pairs. I undoubtably tried on every SINGLE pair of sandals in the entire store. I was exhuasted by the time I found this last pair. I wasn't even picky about style. If they FIT, I was buying them - no matter the look, or the price. I was determined.

And low and behold, notice the name on the box — "Italian Shoemaker." Last week, Lisa and I were chatting about my shoe problem and I told her that the only pair of perfect fitting sandals that I own are made in Italy. I was convinced that my Italian feet needed Italian shoes and I strongly considered flying to Milan to go shopping :-) Lisa squashed that idea like a bug and I told her that she's a party pooper. DSW sure wasn't as much fun as Milan, but at least they sell shoes made in Italy. From now on I'm cutting right to the chase and will ONLY try on shoes made in Italy.

Spring can hurry up and get here so I can wear my dreamy new black sandals.

Phase 1 of Great Friday Complete

Multiaxis Man to the Rescue

Sorry, I couldn't resist.

Zombie

Thank goodness today is actually a Friday for me. I’m already exhausted and it’s not even noon yet.

Karlo took off this morning at 2 AM for a 6 hour drive to somewhere in upstate New York. It’s not uncommon that I don’t know where he is when he travels. It’s exhausting to try to keep track of his whereabouts. I slept intermittently between 10 and 2, and not at all past 2:00. I was worrying that the alarm wouldn’t go off and worrying about him driving in the middle of the night in the driving rain. Can you imagine getting up at 2 AM to drive 6 hours and then work in a high pressure situation for 9+ hours? I certainly can’t. I can barely function after lying in bed awake all those hours.

The reason Karlo left was because a company called him in a panic a couple of days ago. Apparently they were having a multiaxis emergency and called upon the multiaxis superhero. Without more than a day’s notice, Karlo put on his blue tights and red cape and flew up to their rescue. When it rains it pours. As if he doesn’t already have enough going on.

Now I’ll be all alone on “Great Friday.” Not the great day that I imagined, but it may not be so bad. I’ll still color my eggs. Maybe Bents and the Nut will help. Then I think I’ll play the Easter Bunny and share some eggs with Dad . . . in order to get to Dad’s I’ll have to drive through Manchester . . . past the mall . . . I see some shopping in my future. All the recent book editing deserves a little shopping. It will be a “Great Friday” after all (unless, of course, I try on any shoes!)

Penni, are the Romano boys making the cupcakes this year?

Distractions

I haven't been able to put much thought into an amusing blog posting today. Sorry about that. I am a bit distracted by many other things . . . Mostly copying my bazillion gigs worth of data onto the new Mac. Yeah, I know what you're thinking . . . The Mac is no longer "new." But I JUST got it back and that's a story so long, I can't even begin to tell it.

I'm also distracted by new groovy new Jack Johnson CD. These days, there are so few artists that I am willing to run out to buy their CD. And by "run out" I, of course, mean "purchase online." I may be willing to download a single or two from many artists, but there are just a small handful of artists that I don't even need to hear one song, and I'm committed to buying the CD - the actual CD that comes in a case. Does anybody actually do that anymore, or is it just me? I have to thank Lisa for introducing me to Jack. I must have asked her every single time I visited her at home, "Who is that playing?" And every single time she told me "Jack Johnson." Funny, of all the millions of songs Lisa owns, she always had Jack playing when I visited. You would have thought I would have bought myself the CD, since I liked him so much, but it took Lisa to finally buy it and give it to me. Jack as been second, only to Sting, since. Thanks Lisa!

Any my last (painful) distraction of the day is Karlo's book. I'm supposed to send the first 6 chapters off the publisher this week, and since I don't plan to leave the house on Friday, I better have it ready to mail tomorrow. Am I ready for that? Of course not. I can see a fun night ahead of me - not!

I’m Crushed

I have always loved Pierce Brosnan. I loved everything about him . . . he’s my image of the perfect man. Yes, yes, I love Karlo too, but let’s face it – living with any man makes him much less than perfect. Pierce has always been my dream guy. I always thought he was tall, dark, handsome, sophisticated, strong, witty, a gentleman, well dressed, the accent . . . I can go on and on.

But last night I realized it’s not Pierce that I really love – it’s the James Bond character — The sexy mystery man that can do anything and beat anyone. Karlo has always been a big fan of the Bond movies and I have happily watched them over and over with him. I’ll watch Pierce any day. Or at least I thought I would.

Last night crushed my idealistic image of him. We watched a terrible movie called The Matador. Gone was the handsome British spy that I once adored. In his place was this cheesy, low life, bad guy that made me cringe. I simply could not believe it was the same guy. I think Karlo enjoyed watching my perfect image of him get shattered.

He went from this:

To this:

A nice reminder that to really determine a person’s beauty you must consider so much more than their physical appearance. After all, I was still looking at Pierce – the same guy that played James Bond. But it was all the other qualities that made me really like him so much. Take those away, add some bad qualities, and he was just this icky guy. A true lesson that beauty is not only skin deep.

And now I’m on the hunt to replace Pierce as my favorite movie star . . .

Signs of Spring

Spring is getting closer. Some of these signs of Spring showed themselves this weekend and they include:

• Most of the snow piles have finally disappeared from our lawn. We still have a couple pesky piles sticking around, but for the most part, our yard is snow free.
• Our pond is no longer one big solid block of ice. This weekend, for the first time, it completely liquefied. It’s so nice to look out back and see the trees reflecting on the water instead of a big iceberg.
• I spent hour in tears shopping for sandals. It’s that time of year again — the dreaded sandal shopping. I despise it. I can’t tell you how many pairs of black sandals I tried on . . . every SINGLE pair in both Kohls and Famous Makers Shoes. Not ONE of them fit me. The shoe depression is starting to sink in again. Why is this so difficult? I think I would rather go to the dentist than go shoe shopping!

Dream Collage vs Happiness Collage

Did anybody take my advice regarding making collages from magazines? Remember when I decided to cut out all the things that catch my eye in the magazines I get in the mail, paste them in a scrapbook, and then get rid of the darn magazine so as to not clutter up the house? No, you don't remember? Oh sure, if Oprah suggested it, everybody would be doing it! I'm gonna have to call Oprah . . .

I have suggested to several friends to make a Dream collage. Wait a minute, come to think of it, Oprah DID steal that idea of mine and did suggest it on one of her recent shows. Dream collages are great, but I can see where they can also be challenging. Two of my friends are struggling with them right now. Many people don't really know what their dreams are. You would not believe how many hits this blogs gets because people are typing "Bucket List ideas" into Google. Many people want big life dreams, but they don't know where to get the inspiration from. That's where I come in, I guess. I have enough dreams and inspiration to go around and share with everyone.

So back to my collages . . . The two friends struggling with the Dream collages are both finding it hard to find things that really inspire them to add to the collage. And I guess it feels like a big commitment to add something. But my new idea is more like a Happiness collage and it's much easier to do. I just flip through my magazines and cut out anything that I like. Sometimes it's pictures that make me smile (dogs, flowers), sometimes it's pictures that inspire (tough yoga poses that I want to achieve or beautiful nature scenes) and often it's words or phrases that speak to me. It's all very non-committal. A nice benefit is that I feel like I'm saving 'the good stuff' from the magazine, so I can easily pitch it afterwards. But the best part is looking back at a few month's worth of my creations. I love to flip back and see what inspired me in month's past. Every page is uplifting and makes me happy. And finally, the whole process of doing this is fun and relazing.

I’m telling you guys . . . You need to try this. And for those girls that come to my annual "Girls Day" party, you better start saving up some magazines because we're going to do this project together. Everybody will leave my party happy, dammit!

Here are my last three months of Happiness collages. You can click on them to bring up bigger images.

I Love Fridays

Saturdays used to be my favorite day of the week, but now I think Fridays have taken over as the best day. With our work-out schedule and other extra curricular activities, my weeks are getting very draining. Between my dance classes, meditation classes, YogaDudes work, hours of P90X, and book editing, I’m simply exhausted. Take yesterday for example . . . I was busy at work all day, did a tough weight lifting session at lunch time with Karlo, left work a little late and scrambled at home as a result. We did our one hour of P90X, and that barely left time for me to scarf down a frozen burrito (microwaved first, of course) before I had to leave for my . . . ready for this? . . . country line dancing class.

How embarrassing! I still can’t believe I’m taking this class. I HATE country music. It’s painful to my ears. But my neighbor informed me that this was happening in Eastford. Yes, that wasn’t a typo. The classes are being held in EASTFORD. I didn’t think anything went on in this sleepy town. How could I resist? So I went out and met some ‘town folk” . . . kind of scary. And it wasn’t all bad. I did my own thing. Have you ever seen a hip hop country line dancer? Well, that’s me! Tina, where are you when I need you? We would be the stars – just like old times!

After getting back from class, I had just enough time to take my shower and meditate before I fell asleep on the couch. The only night (since the start of P90X) that I stayed awake until 10 PM was the night we ‘sprung ahead’ - which means I actually only made it until 9 PM that night. How pathetic. I need a break.

So here we are at Friday and I’m thrilled. No P90X today. How glorious. Tonight, I’m going to leave work and go home . . . period. Nothing scheduled, no chores, no deadlines, no nothing. I can’t wait. Fridays are the best.

I reminded Karlo that next Friday is Good Friday and he, still confused about holidays, questioned, “Why is it good?” My answer was, “Because we don’t have to go to work.” Then I realized that we also don’t have to do P90X and then determined that it should be called “Great Friday” instead.

Kissing Moose

I have been on a moose hunt for the past 10 years, desperately trying to catch a glimpse of one. I've frequented Maine (where supposedly they are plentiful - but I still think it's myth to get sucker tourists there), I've hiked and biked through upstate NY and New Hampshire, where you'll see "Moose Crossing" signs everywhere, and yet still no sightings. After spending 7 hours biking straight through the Adirondacks, I had a severely sore neck from looking back and fourth to each side of the road, peering into the woods trying to spot a sign of wildlife. Nothing!

I think I will add "see a moose" to my Bucket List. And while I'm struggling just to catch a mere glimpse of one through the woods, some lucky bugger managed to take the photo above. That is so not fair.

Want to Make Your Brain Hurt?

Try reading some of Karlo's book. My days and nights are consumed by editing his manuscript. Just to give you an idea of what this is like, I'm going to give you a taste. Here's a typical paragraph:

"Measure your A-axis diameter and multiply it by Pi. This will be the circumference. Draw a rectangle where the Y side is the circumference and the X side is the length of the part. Create your cut geometry inside this rectangle. Create a 3-axis toolpath XYZ and activate axis substitution by defining your A-axis diameter first. On a Bostomatic controller, for example, this is achieved by adding two lines of code . . . "

I'm not even going to give you the lines of code he refers to. Did you all understand that? Can you IMAGE reading and editing this stuff, over and over, day after day? So, are you all still excited for the book to be released? Hmmmm, that's what I thought.

I will be amazed if my brain doesn't explode before this is all over and done with.

Oh the Dread

This afternoon is my appointment with an accountant. It's that awful time of year again - tax time. I hate it. I especially hate all the commercials that come on TV in the Spring with all the suggestions on how to spend your "tax rebate check." I want to scream. It feels like they are rubbing it in our faces that some fortunate people actually get money BACK. I don't want to hear about it. I can't remember the last time I got money back. I was probably still in college. Sigh.

Today I'm meeting our new account. I had to fire the last incompetent idiot after he made a terrible mistake on our returns two years ago. I won't even go into that nightmare, but the expensive repercussions came just after we moved into our new house. The last letter you want to get in the mail (after you dished out all kinds of money on new house goods) is from the IRS, informing you that you owe lots of money including interest and penalties.

I hope I like this new accountant. I hope he puts my mind at ease. I hope he manages to make my side business look profitable so that I don't get audited. I hope he tells me that our huge mortgage is going to solve all of our tax problems. Maybe he's the tax fairy. Oh wouldn't that be nice . . . .

Lost Hours

I don't think I'm too happy with daylight savings just yet. And is it me, or does it seem to be happening really early this year? It's too soon to actually enjoy the extra hour of daylight. It's too cold to really do anything outside after work. And instead, we have to wake up in the complete darkness. I hate that. It's hard enough to get out of bed, but when it's pitch dark outside, it's even harder. And to make matters even worse, I forgot to reset the clocks on our programmable thermostats so our heat never kicked on this morning. We had to get up and get dressed in the cold dark. Boo hoo.

And not only did we lose an hour from pushing the clocks ahead, but it takes me an additional hour to reset all my clocks and WATCHES. Why do I own so many darn watches? And that doesn't include how long it will take me to figure out how to change the clock in my car!

I'm blaming the whole blur of a weekend on the 'springing ahead.' It went by too fast and I feel as though I didn't do enough. Can I have a redo?

Long Legged Chicken

Hmmm, that is exactly what Karlo calls me so I guess this is fitting.

Phase 1 Complete

Today is my official “rest” day, as I’m in between P90X Phases. Yesterday was the final day of Phase 1. This means I’m one third of the way there. It also means I’m that much closer to the really hard stuff. Great! After just 4 weeks, I can really feel a difference in my body. I’m already much stronger (and I was strong to begin with). I feel toned everywhere and my cardio conditioning came back quickly. I’m also getting crazy spring fever and anxious to get back on a bike.

And this will be obvious if you find yourself in our house anytime soon. I have a growing pile of new biking gadgets taking over the hallway. So far I bought new shoes, a new jersey, a Camelbak, water bottles, sunglasses, and even pedals for a bike I don’t even own yet. Oh yeah, I’m even considering purchasing another bike . . . because the three I already ride just aren’t enough.

I didn’t even realize that this weekend is the official “Spring Ahead.” Is it me, or does that seem really early this year? In the short term it’s actually going to stink because we will be back to getting up in the pitch dark. I hate that. And we will also be stuck indoors working out so the extra daylight isn’t really all that exciting. But soon we will be done with the training hell. We’ll be back out on the road (or in the woods), breathing in the fresh air, and soaking in the sunshine. I’m ready!

The Wonderful World of Pets

Good news – I think I finally figured out the mystery behind my croaking sucker fish. I lost ANOTHER algae eater this past weekend. I went to PetsMart and I literally asked the sales girl (luckily, it wasn’t that evil old witch that told me I couldn’t buy anymore fish) . . . I asked if they had a “Frequent Sucker Fish Buyers Program.” I thought perhaps I could get bulk discounts or perhaps get a new fish automatically mailed to me every month . . . something! The sales girl was amused by the question and when she asked me further questions about my tank, I decided to tell the truth. Normally, I always resort to lying to fish salespeople at PetsMart. I gotta do what I gotta do to get my fish! But come to find out, I probably don’t need a sucker fish. That thought never occurred to me. She asked me if I feed my algae eater. FEED him? I’m supposed to feed him? She explained that if I don’t have enough algae in the tank then you need to buy special food for them. So my question of course is, if I don’t have enough algae, then WHY am I buying an algae eater in the first place? Problem solved. I bought a pretty white fish instead and named her Snowflake II.” All is good in my tank again.

Bad news – I’m ready to shoot my dogs. They have become a crotchety old marriage couple. They used to be in love. Here let me prove it . . .


And now they can’t stand to be near each other. Constantly arguing and screaming at each other. They are driving me nuts. I am seriously considering putting up a partition in their “bedroom.” I can’t tell you how many times they wake me up during the middle of the night with their arguing. And then there’s last night. Because Karlo is away (there’s always something) Bentley decided to howl at God knows what. It wasn’t just one yodel. He broke into a half dozen blaring howls. He has NEVER done this before. There are a very specific set of things that make him howl: when he sings back at me singing to him; when I play the bass; and always when the phone rings. Outside of those times, he has never howled for no reason. So what on earth was he doing last night? I was too afraid to go and find out. So I laid there sleepless for the rest of the night wondering. I think we need a sound proof doggie addition soon.

Show and Tell

I have some pictures to share with you today. First there’s my crazy nephew. Let me just say this . . . my brother is not happy. He thinks his son now looks like a freak. And I guess he’s sort of right, but it’s all good fun. John dyed his hair blue and cut it into a Mohawk (but not necessary in that order) for the state championships next week. I think this is for swimming. I assume swimming because he has to wear a hat when he’s playing in the marching band and that wouldn’t make any sense. So here’s my wild nephew with his blue hair. Don’t worry Angelo, it’s only temporary. I think he looks pretty cool.


Then there’s some other news that I completely forgot to share. We have a new niece! Don’t worry Nicole, you will always be my favorite niece. But, let me introduce you to Tyleena. Isn’t she cute? This is Karlo’s brother’s new little girl. Half Hungarian, half Cambodian. What a doll.


And this last picture . . . well, I just have to share this. My soon-to-be-neighbor Robin sent it to me today and I laughed out loud so hard that it hurt my neck. It's a sign that you're driving too fast. Reminds me of all the times that poor Bentley fell off the seat (back before we drove hatch-backs or SUVs) and got stuck on the floor between the front and back seats. The poor dog would be laying there moaning and groaning and I couldn’t stop laughing. Dear God, I’m evil and will probably be reported to the authorities after this post. But it wasn’t my fault. Karlo is the bad driver.

Happy Birthday CA Sue

After forgetting to post a birthday wish to Sue ON HER BIRTHDAY last year, I couldn’t make that same mistake again this year . . . (especially since she called to remind me yesterday). And I guess this is the perfect time to tell an amusing little story about the significance of Sue’s birthday . . .

Six years ago, Sue called me up the morning of March 4th to give me some big scoop. Sue is always great with fun stories and great scoop and this morning she was bursting at the seams with a story for me. This particular day was a Monday and Sue had run into a coworker of mine in a casino in Tahoe. Now, what were the chances of that? As she sat across from this guy she couldn’t help but thinking he looked familiar. They eyed each other for a few minutes until finally one had to ask the other, “Do I know you?” It didn’t take them long to figure out the connection – they both knew me.

Well apparently this coworker, Doug, also had some juicy scoop that was supposed to be a secret, but he figured it was safe to tell a friend that lived 3,000 miles away from me. Little did Doug know that Sue and I spoke nearly every day. So he lets on that he knows that “something big was going to happen real soon” between Karlo and I. He wasn’t specific, but how hard was it to guess?

So Sue called me at approximately 5 AM West coast time the next day to tell me that she had an informant tell her that Karlo was going to propose and soon. My reaction was that she had lost her mind. How on Earth would my coworker know this information? Karlo was not working here at the time and why would he tell anyone I work with?

Well, two hours after that phone call Karlo arrived at my office to say goodbye, as he was leaving for another business trip. He was all dressed up in a suit (which was very strange) and he was nervously pacing around. I still wasn’t putting two and two together. Don’tcha know . . . he proposed! I’m not even sure if I officially gave him a yes before I had to grab the phone and call Sue with the news.

So you see, Sue never forgets to call me to wish me a happy engagement anniversary because how could she ever forget that? Happy Birthday Sue. Hope you have a great day.

Walking On the Moon

Did you sing that title? And that famous bass line . . . bum bum bunmmm bum, bum buuuummmmm. I felt like I was walking on the moon this weekend. In fact, I cracked myself up so much I could barely walk. We went out and played in the snow on Saturday. First we tried to go skiing, but that was pretty much a disaster. So we ditched the skis and I took my maiden voyage in my new shoe shoes. I did pretty good and only fell once. But towards the end my feet kept falling out of the shoe shoes. So after walking for approximately 45 minutes with the shoes on, I slipped them off and decided to just carry them back to the house.

Well, when I tried to take my first few steps I couldn’t stop laughing. I looked EXACTLY like Bentley did the first time we put boots on him. He would put one foot down and then immediately pick it way up in the air and put the next foot down. That one would come flying up in the air and this continued for a few minutes. He looked like a puppet and somebody was jerking on his strings, pulling his feet up unnaturally high. Well, that was me and I couldn’t stop it. The snow shoes were so heavy and my legs got so used to walking in them that when they were off, I kept pulling my legs up as if they were still on. This resulted in me looking like I was a marching cartoon character. It really did feel like anti-gravity and I was walking on the moon. What a riot.

A few pictures from the weekend can be seen here.