Dinner on the High Seas

Last night we had a lot of work to do (more painting and cutting trim). Karlo insisted that we need to work in lieu of playing, but that was unacceptable on such a beautiful night. I convinced him that we should combine dinner with kayaking to save time and still be able to come home and get our work done. He went for it.

So we stopped at Big Y and bought a little picnic dinner, loaded the kayak on the Jeep and headed to Bigelow Hollow.

I had hoped for a nice relaxing float on the lake so we can unwind and relax in the sun for a brief hour. But things didn’t go as planned. We launched the boat with the wind at our backs and paddled down wind for the entire length of the lake. We even did a little sailing by letting our paddles catch the wind.

Karlo sailing with his paddle in the air.

Karlo warned that we better eat dinner while we could so I tried to hold my sandwich in one hand, while holding my paddle from blowing off the boat with the other and juggled these between sips of my ice tea. It was not easy, nor was it relaxing. Knowing we had a couple of miles of paddling directly against the wind in front of us, I decided not to eat much. Kayaking into the wind is a big ab work-out and I didn’t want a stomach ache. I thought a smarter idea would be to reward myself with the chocolate chip cake we had sitting on the counter at home. I couldn’t wait to get home and have a piece.

While the water was still calm.

We turned the boat into the wind and were faced with 1 foot swells. Every once in a while one of these would land in my lap. Gallons of freezing cold water—in my lap. That was fun! I was so worried about my camera getting soaked and I paddled like a lunatic. The thought of getting home to paint sounded more appealing with every splash of water across my face.

We made it home where I spent the next hour in the shed (the big metal one) painting trim and getting attacked by bugs. Finally, it was time to go inside, eat my cake, get cleaned up, and watch American Idol. You can imagine my disappointment when I discovered the cake container on the floor surrounded by crumbs and chocolate chips ground into my freshly washed wood floor. OMG, I could have killed her. There was no question who the BAD dog was. She is in so much trouble . . .

Happy Birthday to Paula

OK, I know my birthday isn't until July, but I just bought my present!!!!! Check it out.


YIPPPEEEEE!! I just hope Sting doesn't still look like a cave man by concert time.

I’m Not Ready

I am so not ready to start another week. From the minute we got home from work on Friday afternoon till collapsing in bed last night it has been non-stop. I’m completely exhausted and could really use to hibernate for at least one day. But on a brighter note, we did get a lot done.

Friday afternoon we celebrated not only Bentley’s 12th birthday, but the official end of the wood burning season. For those of you that have wood stoves, you can understand why this is a joyous occasion. Karlo vacuumed out the dirty stove and I did my happy dance around the house. I was actually looking forward to Spring cleaning, knowing that the second biggest source of dust was ending. After my happy dance it was upstairs to embark on my twice-a-year closet switcheroo. That took hours and I realized that I own way too many clothes. I’ve made a mental note to reduce the amount of clothes I buy. Feel free to remind me of this if I happen to forget.

Saturday morning started Phase One of operation Spring cleaning. Unfortunately, there will be 4 Phases so we’re not even halfway there, but every phase thrills me as we are getting closer and closer to a clean house. After filling my brand new vacuum bag in one hour I’m thinking maybe the dogs are going to live in our new shed from now on.

And speaking of the new shed . . . uuuuuuugh, what a waste of terrific weekend. That darn shed is sucking up all our time. I can’t even believe I’m reporting this, but guess what I spent most of my Saturday doing? The cleaning was nothing compared to the painting of the trim. Silly me. I didn’t even realize that trim was involved in a shed. And the worst part was that it needed to be primed with oil-based primer = does NOT wash off of anything, and it needed to be primed on both sides. Let’s just say that I was NOT a happy camper – again this weekend. And I’m still not done. Tonight we get even more trim. sigh

There were some bright spots of the mostly-work weekend. On Saturday we took an awesome kayak ride to work out the sore back muscles. And on Sunday we went for a first road bike ride to make the back and neck muscles twice as sore. Oh, and there’s a whole ‘nother story too as we rode without the GPS and got lost. I told Karlo that it just wouldn’t be our first ride of the season if we didn’t get lost. It’s becoming a tradition.

We ended the weekend with a very nice dinner with Dan, Jill and their adorable kids. Finally, we all got to sit and relax and have some fun. Too bad that was so short and we are back to work so quickly.

Workplace Violence

This is the scene in my office this morning. And what is wrong with this picture???? The fact that I'm not the one with the weapon!!! Work has been a bit stressful this week. More to come, if I survive it.

Lunch Conversation

Karlo and I just had lunch together and this is how our conversation went . . .

Paula: “My wrist is turning green. Look.”
Karlo: “Why is it turning green?”
Paula: “It’s bruised.”
Karlo: “From what?”
Paula: “The wall falling on me.”
Karlo (laughing): “That is funny.”
Paula (confused): “It’s funny that my wrist is turning green and bruised?”
Karlo: “No, I’m imagining a fly on the wall listening to our conversation and you all nonchalantly telling me that your wrist is bruised from the wall falling on you. As if this is something that happens every day.”

We both got a good chuckle out of that. I guess it would have sounded pretty strange if two normal people were having this conversation over lunch. But for Karlo and I, it’s just par for the course.

Photographic Blunders

I took a half day on Friday and spent an hour or so all by my lonesome self. I strolled around the yard with my camera and managed to take a bunch of really bad pictures. I guess this was my first DSLR major screw-up and my first lesson on why you should shoot RAW. I forgot to reset my white balance after shooting indoors and took photos outside in the beautiful sunshine with my white balance set to florescent lighting. Ooops. Now you would think this lesson would seal the deal for setting my camera to RAW, but it still didn't. I was able to fix all my pictures in Photoshop so I'm still not convinced I need RAW. But those are very boring and meaningless details for the non-photographers out there. The more amusing side of things is that some of my screw-ups actually turned out sort of cool. Here are three examples of pictures that I almost want to say, "I meant to do that." Check out the cool blue cast effects.

Screw-up #1: Unnaturally cool blue sky

Screw-up #2: Tropical blue water in my backyard pond

Screw-up #3: Not all that exciting, I just like the school of fish.

Who’s Idea Was It Anyway?

The theme for the weekend seemed to be asking the question, “Who’s idea was it to build a shed?” Funny, it seemed like a good idea several months ago—especially when we went shopping for a pre-built shed. Wouldn’t it be fun to pick one out, have it delivered, and watch others set it in place? Ahh yes, now that would have been fun. But instead we decided to build it ourselves. What the heck were we thinking?

My weekend started off great with checking in on the kiln results. But it quickly took a turn for the worse . . . I entered painting Hell on Saturday morning and didn’t emerge from that Hell until Sunday afternoon. Just about every part of my body hurts from the worst painting project of my life. It was horrendous and I swear I never want to touch another roller as long as I live.

I got all 18 boards of rough cut siding painting. Now all we had to do was build the walls and set them in place. A piece of cake. Afterall, the painting was the hardest part. Or so I thought . . .

We took a break from work and had lunch on Sunday and Karlo suggested that we should reward ourselves and go kayaking in the afternoon. All we needed to do was erect the wall he already built. How hard could that be?

Forget hard, it was impossible. What a nightmare disaster. I am extremely strong, but apparently Karlo expects much more out of me than I could possibly deliver. Trying to raise that wall and hold it into place (16 feet in the air, against the wind) and not have it topple off the deck was simply impossible. We were able to raise it up, but keeping it from slipping off the edge was not going to happen. I aborted the mission, with the wall falling down on me in the process. Karlo was annoyed and I was terrified. I literally sat on the decking and cried because I knew there was no way in the world I could help make this happen. And I also knew there was no way in the world the most stubborn man on earth would ever ask for help. So I sat there with tears rolling down my face, praying that our friends Dan and Jill would miraculously stop by just when I needed them. And don’t you know, they did! Within 10 minutes of the incident that nearly broke me, and the wall, they pulled into the driveway and saved the day. Thanks to my guardian angel Dan, we now have three ways in place.

Here's the wall that nearly killed me. Can you imagine holding this in place without it falling over?

Here's Dan helping Karlo raise the second wall.

And here's what we have so far - three walls up. Yippee!

Oh the Thrill

What a fine Saturday morning. Karlo is home after being away all last week and the hounds and I are happy to have him back. Although, I would like to report that I woke up feeling sore this morning. I declared yesterday a holiday (the first day of 70 degree temps) and took half a vacation day. I did nothing but lounge in the sun on the back deck. No working-out for me, just a day of relaxation. And yet, I woke up sore. Now why is that? It's because Karlo is back and after being gone for a week he needed to catch up on his hugs and squeezes = pain for Paula. All his bear hugs and wrestling moves made me feel like a built a stone wall yesterday. Wait a minute, even that didn't make me sore. So you can imagine what it's like to be on the receiving end of Karlo's affections—it's painful!

But on a brighter note, yesterday afternoon I did my first real kiln firing. After 2 practice runs and an emergency trip to the pottery store I thought I was finally ready. I felt like a kid on Christmas morning today. I couldn't wait to run down to the basement and peek inside the kiln. This is what I saw. Everything turned out perfect! What a relief. So who wants to come over and paint pottery with me????

Plant Doctor

I think I need a plant doctor. Does anybody know anything about Rhododendrons? We have 4 big ones in front of our house and they are really the anchors of our front landscaping. They have probably been there as long as the house (10 years) and I fear that they are sick. Two of them look healthy like this:


But two others look more like this:


I also noticed this same affliction happening to several of the Rhododendrons at work so I guess I'm not alone. Is this normal for the Spring? Will they magically come back to life? Do I need a plant doctor?

But on a brighter note, I also found a few of these in the yard today. And that makes me very happy!

Did You Know?

That I have a step-daughter?

Here she is. Her name is Jessica . . . Isn't she the cutest thing?

Time for a reality check. Jess is now 19 years old and looks a little more like this today . . .




Doing her favorite things . . . being surrounded by boys, drinking, and looking sexy. Aaaaahhhhh, to be young again. The worst part is how old I feel when I look at her and think, "She's my step-daughter." Sigh

Happy Easter

Wishing everyone a Happy Easter! And just for the record, I'm taking my card (shown above) as a rain check for things to come . . . Right Karlo?

Scary New Toy

Have you even gotten a new toy that you are terrified to play with? Well, I got one. I have wanted to buy a small pottery kiln since the very first day that I went to a paint-your-own-pottery studio. The thought of being able to paint my own creations at home and fire them into beautiful works of art was completely thrilling. I get sucked into new craft projects so quickly and easily that I sometimes have to rein myself in and not allow myself to chase every fleeting dream.

But this pottery itch never went away and I recently came up with some new YogaDudes projects that involve pottery. Why not start up this hobby that I always loved and make a little money in the process? That would be the perfect situation.

So I bought this little kiln and Karlo spent a few hours the other night setting it up. He welded together the metal stand and got it all ready for me to plug in and, god forbid, turn on. Yikes! I read the instructions over and over and I have to say, I’m completely overwhelmed and scared to try it. Knowing me I’ll own a kiln and still drive to the pottery store to have them do all my firings.

If I do ever get the guts to give it a try I will report on how it goes. I see a lot of disappointment and ruined projects in my future. I just hope I don’t burn down the house. I hope our new insurance company never finds this blog. We are already on the black ball list as far as a fire risk goes. Shhhhhh, nobody tell.

Signs of Life

Seeing as our snow bank just disappeared last week, the signs of Spring are pretty sparse in our yard. We went for a motorcycle ride today and I spotted some daffodils already in bloom; in Eastford. I was so surprised and couldn't wait to get home to grab my camera and walk around the yard, hunting for signs of life. I didn't find much, but here are a few things that weren't still brown. I'm so looking forward to seeing more colors outside.

The Cars of My Life

Yesterday’s blog topic spurred the idea to list all the cars I’ve owned in my life. It’s silly, really, how many cars I’ve had. You would think I was much older by the long list. I thought it may be fun (for me) to have a record of this so I don’t, one day, get too old to remember the complete list. So here are The Cars of My Life—in the order that I owned them, and I'm warning you, this is long.

Ford Mustang – My very first car was a Ford Mustang. For whatever reason, I was hell bent on owning one. I have no idea why and I do understand why my father tried like crazy to talk me out of it. It was a . . . I’m trying hard to tone down my list of adjectives and I just can’t. Let’s just say it was not a good car and I will never own another Ford. Thankfully, I don’t feel too guilty about the abuse I gave it. It had a very hard clutch to push and after hours of dancing at the bars with Tina, my bad left knee didn’t have the strength to push in the clutch. I learned to drive it sans clutch, but that thing needed to die anyway.

Honda Prelude – Based on the fact that I could no longer comfortably drive the heavy-clutched Mustang, I drove it off a cliff (OK not really) and bought a cute little red Prelude with a nice sunroof. It was automatic, reliable, fun to drive, and all around a great car. Kudos to Honda.

Suzuki Samari – While still owning the Honda and still liking it, I accidentally fell in love with the new Samaris. This is probably where my irresistible urge to buy impractical cars started. And that gene must have been passed down from my father because he bought the Suzuki for me without me being REALLY sure I even wanted it. I said I loved it, we test drove it, and the next thing you know I owed it. So I had to sell the Honda. I drove the Suzuki for about a year before I got my nice stereo and enormous speakers stolen and that was when I realized it couldn’t be my full-time vehicle.

Nissan Pulsar – So I picked up an older Pulsar as my second car so I didn’t have to drive the Suzuki into Downtown Hartford. This had to be the worst car I owned – yes, even worse than the Ford (which is hard to do). This car didn’t last long in my life.

Subaru XT – By far one of the coolest and most practical cars ever made. I LOVED this car and would still be driving one if they still made them. It was a turbo charged, 2-door sports car that went into 4-wheel drive with the push of a button. As a matter of fact I could lift the entire back end to clear a snow bank (which came in quite handy in the UConn parking lots). Drove it until the clutch blew.

Saturn ?? – Next was a sports car by Saturn. I loved it so much I can’t even remember the name. Ok, that was sarcasm. I hated it. It was fast and cool looking, but it rattled, leaked, and was terrible in the snow. Didn’t last long. And I’m starting to develop my dislike for American cars.

Kia Sportage – I know, you’re thinking “LAME,” but I bought this vehicle long before they came to New England. I was down in Florida one day when I spotted the first one. It was small and cute and was it a car or a truck? It was exactly what I wanted, a mini-SUV, before I even knew what a mini-SUV was. I’m always before my time. So I bought it and had it delivered to CT. It was OK, but the problem of not having a dealer anywhere near me was an issue. Again, didn’t last long.

VW Jetta – My first taste of German engineering and I have to say, as far as VWs go, I got really lucky with this one. Gave me almost no problems, was reliable, and drove like a dream compared to the Kia.

Mazda Protégé 5 – The only reason I ditched the Jetta was to get a hatchback. You see, I acquired a big dog that needed to be in the cargo area and not on my back seat. Can’t say enough good things about this car. It rocked. Fun to drive and not a single thing went wrong. I sold it to a coworker and I sometimes miss it when I see it in the parking lot.

Saab 92X – One dog turned into two dogs and I was convinced I needed a bigger car. So I went from the hatchback to a mini wagon. Then I decided that the car was too nice to put any hairy dogs into it. Go figure. The Saab was cool, extremely reliable, fast, powerful, but sadly . . . boring. Just didn’t reflect my personality and needed to go.

MINI Cooper – I don’t even need to write anything here. There’s no question about the mini love affair I have with my Coop. Not sure I’ll ever drive anything else. I found my match.

And one I forgot to mention . . . “the Beast.” Karlo bought this bicentenial 1976 CJ7 in honor of my 4th of July birthday. He completely rebuilt the thing and it should have been on display somewhere. We made it part of our wedding and had a ball with it for two or three summers, but the 5 miles per gallon started to grate on my nerves. We sold it and now we have a more modern Jeep to kick around in.

Two Things I Loved . . . Way Back Then

BEACH VOLLEYBALL

MY SWEET RIDE

Beach volleyball was my true love. I'm pretty sure you could find me with a volleyball in my hand 5 days out of the week. I played at least 3 nights a week, plus spent most of my weekends at tournaments on the beach. Boy those were the days . . .

And how cute was my ride back then? I, of course, did the custom paint job on it and even detailed some parts with hot pink nail polish. That's right, I painted with nail polish. I am a firm believer that your ride should reflect your personality and I sure have carried that belief into my 'elder' years.