TOWELS

Since when did towels become decorations ?  I always thought you bought towels to dry things with. Bath towels for your body, hand towels for your hands, dish towels for the dishes. But all that is changing.
Tonight I was hanging up the BEAUTIFUL Christmas towels that my sister-in-law, Joan, gave me last year as a Christmas gift. These towels are the nicest towels I have ever owned and I would smack anyone who dared use them on their grimy bodies. I mean, we are talking works of art ! (The towels, not the bodies.) I had forgotten about the towels until we started emptying the boxes full of Christmas decorations. Right there it shows you that I consider these towels decorations and not utilitarian items. If I had planned on keeping them out to USE they would be stuffed in the hall closet along with the other thread bare pieces of cloth that we use for drying. Maybe that is part of the problem. These towels are NEW, where as all my other towels are at least 30 years old. Who goes out and buys new towels (or sheets) when you have a closet full of perfectly serviceable* ones.  (*anything that has less than 3 rips or 5 holes)
Anyway, I folded the new Christmas towels, hung them on the towel bar in the guest bathroom and they look wonderful. But if we have guests I will put folded towels on the bed for them to use because the ones in the bathroom are just for decoration. HOW SILLY !  At least we have hangers in back of the bathroom door for our guests to hang their wet towels. The first time I stayed over night at my other sister-in-law's house on Long Island I had no idea what to do with my wet towel. Ann Marie's bathroom is FILLED with beautiful towels.  There are pink floral ones on one hanger, green ones on another hanger and hand towels galore on little racks all over the bathroom.  But they are all for decoration! So when you take a shower there is no where to hang your wet towel. I finally settled on hanging it on the closet door in the guest bedroom.
I guess we are pretty silly when it comes to practical and pretty. Pretty wins out more often than not so that when people come to our homes they see an illusion. As long as they are looking at the illusion instead of the dust that's fine with me.  

OH THE HORROR

The world has come to an end for Ger !  We got a new remote control for the TV and it is beyond Husband's ability to figure out. To tell you the man is technologically challenged is not even coming close to describing him. He has difficulty turning on a light switch, never mind working this new clicker.
The cable company in our area is going High Def or something and it will require all of us dinosaurs to get a new cable box. That alone set Ger into spasms ! He read the letter and promptly handed it to me and told me I "need to take care of this!". No biggie, I deal with issues like this a hundred times a day. I read the letter, went on line and ordered the necessary boxes. Being very smug while patting myself on the back I figured I had this covered. Several days latter the carton arrived bearing 3 smaller packages containing new cable boxes. Thinking it would just be a matter of plugging the damn things in I didn't even bother to look at them. (The cable company made it sound like a blind monkey could hook these things up while playing a fiddle and eating a banana.) Then Thanksgiving was coming and I was busy with cleaning and cooking so when our youngest child arrived with his family to stay for a couple of days I figured I'd get Kent to hook these boxes up and we'd be good to go. TWO DAYS LATER AND AT LEAST FIVE CALLS TO COMCAST Kent was ready to kill his mother and toss the cable boxes out the window. God Bless the boy, he stuck with it and did indeed get the @%$#%*$ things hooked up and working.
That was the easy part . . . now we have to give Husband the NEW clicker and teach him how to use it without screwing up all the work that Kent has done. On a good day Husband has trouble with the regular clicker that has an  ON/OFF button, a second button for the sound and a third button for changing the channel. If I ask him to turn the sound up or down ONE CLICK he pounces on the clicker like a rat on cheese and smashes at the button until the sound is totally blasting or completely off. (This is how Husband handles EVERYTHING in his life . . . all  or nothing,  black or white.)
So now we have a new clicker that has LOTS AND LOTS of buttons. I could see the sweat starting to form on his fore head. At first he wouldn't even look at the clicker. He told Kent to give it to me and I could figure it out. (OH JOY, I FINALLY get a chance to make the TV decisions!) But then Husband thought about that and decided he really could not sit in front of the TV without the clicker in his possession. It was like taking a pacifier from a baby. Kent very patiently tried to show Ger how to use this new remote but I could see by the blank look on Ger's face that this was not going well. Husband finally gave his son the old standard "Yeh, yeh,  I'll figure it out later" speech and that was that. Two days later Husband has still not gotten it figured out nor will he let go of the remote so we are watching what ever happens to be on channel 9.
Thank God the clicker wasn't left on the Fox News station !

GOBBLE-BURP-ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzz

And how was your Thanksgiving ?  This title of todays blog pretty much sums up how our day went!   It was wonderful and relaxing and just plain Nice !  We had way too much food, what's new? We had lots of time to relax and even take a swim in the community pool. Smith thought that was pretty great and he really enjoyed  the water. The turkey was delicious, the mashed potatoes were creamy and Kristen's 7 Layer Bars for dessert were as sinful as anything but sooooooo delicious. We can diet tomorrow.
Last night we all fell into bed at 9, Smith at 8 and slept like we were dead. Smith was up for his 2 evening bottles but I never heard a thing. This morning the little man came in to wake me at 8:30 and it is the best wake up call ever.  Abby and Kaelin have perfected the art of waking up grandma and now Smith is in training to join their ranks. We all just ate our way through the morning and then went out for lunch around 12:30 with hopes of going to a wild life preserve after that. The weather was warm but very cloudy for the day and we were taking bets that it would rain but it never did. Lunch was a success at the Dune Dog, a shack of a place that has great food and you get to eat outside on picnic benches. The place was mobbed but we finally got a spot after a short wait. Smith didn't mind the wait at all because there was so much to watch. He, like Kaelin, is a true Lawlor when it comes to being nosey and watching people. The little guy just had a ball looking all around. And if that wasn't enough we continued on to the Busch Wildlife Preserve in Jupiter to check out all the animals. Little man had not napped for at least two hours and we really thought he would nod off while walking through the park. Smith had other plans. As nosey as he was at lunch he was twice as nosey looking at the trees, animals and people at the preserve. We saw lots of birds, an alligator, a beautiful Florida panther and the newest addition, 2 Florida Black Bears. I don't know how many of these Smith got to see from his stroller but he had a great time. Kent and Kristen had just as good a time if not better. They kept saying how much they liked the place so I'm sure we'll be going again.
After such a great day out side we decided to treat ourselves to Maine lobsters for dinner. (Does it get any better than this?) We ordered them from a market close by and had them cooked and cracked. Ger picked them up and we all stuffed our selves as badly as we had the day before.

And now comes the winding down part. Smith is asleep for the night, we hope. He was exhausted. I think we will all follow close behind and be ready for a new day tomorrow. The kids will probably hit the road before noon so they can get home and get some things done before their 4 day weekend is totally shot and their waist lines explode. Kent is already swearing that he is not eating another thing for the rest of the year. Kristen was so happy that she had finally gotten into her pre-pregnant jeans but now that is pretty much a thing of the past. But that's what holidays are for.  Family, food and fun and we had all three so I'd say we had the perfect Thanksgiving this year. Relaxed and Restful with lots of LOVE !

GOBBLE GOBBLE

It's the day before Thanksgiving and all through my kitchen
Things are a mess and I am just bitchin'.
The potatoes won't cook and the jello is sticky,
The turnips are burned and the corn is just icky.

The cook started drinking about quarter to one
With hopes that Mojito's would make all this fun.
But its all worth the fuss and the mess and the grievin'
Cause this is the start of the holiday season.

And tomorrow when family arrives at our door,
(Even though legs and back are aching and sore),
We'll thank God for our blessings of family and friend
And wish that these days never come to an end.


YEP, it's Thanksgiving already and I am ready !  Ger and I spent the morning getting set for tomorrow so we can spend the time with Smith when he arrives. This is the little man's first family holiday and we want to make it special.  The fact that he is 4 months old does not factor in to this. It is still exciting. HOlidays are for kids! NO matter what age they are.  The "kids" are staying over night so we will have lots of time to pig out on turkey left overs. (I bought a 20 pound turkey just for that reason.) It's as easy to cook a 20 pound turkey as it is to cook a 10  pound one so what the hey. Kristen will come up and help me make the finishing touches to dinner. She is a HUGE help in the kitchen and we get to drink and gossip at the same time. We'll all be thinking of Kaelin, Keri and Steve in Maryland having a TRUDUCKEN for dinner with Steve's family. Last year they had a deep fried turkey. This year they are having a turkey stuffed with a duck that is stuffed with a chicken. Sounds delicious !  We will just have plain old turkey here.  Then there are the English Lawlor's who won't even have turkey. Not that the English celebrate Thanksgiving any way but when Bridget checked out the prices of turkeys they decided to have something else. English turkeys apparently are a rare breed and cost a small fortune. Hot dogs work fine!
Speaking of the English Lawlor's . . . we got a Christmas card from them because Abby wanted to send Grandma and Grandpa their card early to make sure we got it. She bought a card especially for us and it is a keeper that we will treasure. There is a school picture of Roman enclosed in the card but none of Abby. It seems that school pictures were taken when Abby had Shingles so she missed out on that. Roman's picture is wonderful! He is one great looking kid who is looking really really happy.

Enough loafing around, (I need a refill on the mojito).    HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO ALL!
 Don't forget to thank God for all the blessings we have. We couldn't do it without Him. (HER)

EATING BY EAR

I'm sure you have heard of people who can play a musical instrument "by ear". Husband chooses his food "by ear". It's quite an amazing art to behold. Just ask him if he would like some squash and his answer is ALWAYS "NO". It could be any sort of squash and his answer will always be the same. Ask "why" he doesn't eat squash and he will tell you it is because it "sounds funny". Has Husband ever eaten squash? NO!  Has Husband ever tasted squash? NO! And the reason is because the name "squash" SOUNDS funny. What ever you do don't ask Husband if he wants some Egg Plant. This is a vegetable that Husband will not try now or ever because; "It sounds like something that will grow in your stomach". How a vegetable name that is made up of two simple words, "egg" & "plant"comes off sounding like something that will grow in your stomach is beyond me but that is what he says.  I'm not sure what it is about asparagus that "sounds" funny to him but he won't go near those either. Brussels Sprouts are also a "No No" because Husband doesn't like the sound of the word "SPROUTS". That also goes for alfalfa sprouts and bean sprouts. The man could be starving to death and he will still not eat these foods because of the way their names sound. How Weird is That ?

Certainly no stranger than me writing a blog about it.

Just How I Am Feeling

I LOVE THIS CARTOON !   It is my motto now and forever.  Just when I think I have it all straight in my head the ship sails without me.

Actually life is GREAT these days, even if I miss the boat every so often. We have had a busy week, a good week and the weather has now cooled down again, now that the AC is FINALLY fixed. The 4 hottest days of the season happened this week while our NEW air conditioner still wasn't working. Guy came on Friday and the temps dropped. The down side of the cooler temperatures is that the pool is cool. We have a pool that is not heated. (We only have to walk 100 yards to the community pool that IS heated), but I prefer to brave the chilly 72 degree water in the back yard to do my aerobics. It is a great incentive to move a lot faster !
Tuesday afternoon was the first yoga class and it was all that I had hoped it would be. It is rather odd that the "Queen of Sleep" is studying relaxation but it really is quite wonderful. Stretching and relaxing all in one wonderful hour. I can't wait for this next weeks session. When I booked our quickie trip to Maryland to see Kaelin in early December I booked it to leave on a Wednesday and return on a Monday so I don't miss any sessions. The trip to England in January will cause me to miss a couple of classes but Abby is worth it !
Yep, we're on the road again . . . a pre Christmas trip to Kaelin because she and her family will stay home this year. I think it is great for them (and me too, actually) but I will miss them. Ger made the mistake of saying we could take a trip to see Kaelin before Christmas if we wanted. (He had forgotten we were just there in late October. His lousy memory works in my favor every so often.) That was all it took and I was on line checking out flights.
Then there was the email from England mentioning that Abby had asked K & B if Ger and I could come for her birthday in January. The flight is booked and the suitcase will be packed as soon as it is emptied of the Maryland stuff.
As for Thanksgiving we will have our little man Smith here with his parents, who hopefully are fully recovered from their food poisoning (?) /virus (?) of early this week. They have both been back to work for the latter part of the week and Kristen is talking about making her famous 7 LAYER BARS for Thanksgiving so I guess they are feeling better.
Now I just have to get the menu set in my head for turkey day, go shopping, start cooking and baking and we'll be all set.
I sure do wish I had caught that boat before it sailed without me.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH

I have just wasted the past hour and a half fighting the computers. Not just one computer but TWO computers. (That's what I get for having 2 computers. I get no sympathy there.) I can't even tell you how the day got away from me. It started off pretty good and all of a sudden it is 3 in the afternoon and I haven't gotten a single thing done except raise my blood pressure and undo all the good that yoga did me yesterday afternoon.  I am one Valium away from smashing my head into the nearest wall. And so I will blog! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH  feeling better already.
It's been an interesting couple of days. On Sunday afternoon we went to a great Mexican restaurant in Boca called Uncle Julio's. Food was fantastic and the atmosphere was wonderful. It was a balmy Florida evening, Smith was a real Happy Guy who fell asleep just as dinner arrived and we had a lovely time. WE were celebrating Kristen's birthday on Monday and we were all in a festive mood.
Monday morning the shit hit the fan . . . literally for Kent and Kristen. We got a phone call from the "K's" asking how we were feeling because both Kent and Kristen had been up ALL night spewing from both ends. SICK AS DOGS was the term used by them. I offered to come down to take care of Smith for the day because Ger and I were fine. We had all eaten the same foods so we don't know if it was food poisoning or a "BUG" but what ever it was it had done them in. By noon Smith and I were wiping down his house with Lysol and Purel"ing" ourselves to try to ward off what ever this was. We spent a good part of the day outside with Mookie the dog, who seems to think that I come to visit just to play ball with her. I stayed over night and Smith got in some good grandma time. He was a SUPER good boy and when I left on Tuesday everyone was doing better.
It was a toss up to stay in the house of vomit or return to my house of heat. Our NEW AC is still not working and the temperatures in South Florida are rising. The house is a wonderfully clammy 89 degrees this afternoon so when the computer started fighting me I was in no mood to put up with it's crap. These damn machines are just that, machines. When I am typing on the Apple and it is correcting my spelling as I go along I forget that it doesn't have a brain. But then when I want to find or do something and don't know exactly how to get to where I want to go and the computer just sits there blinking it little cursor at me I want to scream.
But now that I am venting all is falling into place. The phone (that was out for 4 days but is now fixed) rang and it was the AC guys saying they should have the part for the NEW AC by tomorrow morning so we should have cool air by tomorrow afternoon.
See, patience is a virtue ! My mother always told me to learn the art of patience and all would be well. The wall AC unit in the garage is working fine, I'll get straightening up this mess out here so I can then bring the mess from inside into this space and there will a nice neat house, clean clothes in the washer and maybe even dinner on the table. Or maybe I'll just have a drink ! I have a bucket of Mojitos in the freezer left from when Jeanne and Lynne were here last week. Maybe I should just call it quits and relax for the rest of the day.

FREEZING !

I know, I know,  72 degrees is NOT freezing. But I am sitting here with the wind blowing through the bedroom and it is chilly ! Especially since I am sitting here in a wet bathing suit. (Now you REALLY feel bad for me don't you?) Today was water aerobics at 10 AM and the pool was cool. Only 82 degrees! But after 5 minutes we had warmed ourselves up and had a good hour of wonderful exercise under clear blue skies.
It's a good thing it is cool in Florida because we are having AC problems. It has been wonderfully cool for the past week so all the windows are open and the balmy breezes are blowing through. (It is also a great way to dust. The wind just blows the dust off everything!) Because the temperature has been dropping from our summer highs of 90 degrees and 300% humidity we thought it would be a good time to replace the air handler up in our attic. It is 30 years old and the AC company that services it every couple of months has been mentioning that it is on it's way out. That and the ducts really needed replacing. (Remember the other twelve thousand things that we have been replacing in this house? Just add the AC to the list.)  SO, Friday was AC work day. Ger and I both had our fingers crossed after our debacles with the windows and the bathroom shower. The guys arrived early, got right to work and left in the mid afternoon. All seemed to be doing great, UNTIL . . .  just as the installer was leaving he mentioned that they had run into a small problem. The "tech" guy would be arriving shortly to fix it  and then all would be set. HA  HA HA  !  "Tony the tech" arrived around 5 PM, climbed around the attic for a while and announced that all was fixed but that he ran out of freon so that 2 guys would be arriving in the morning with more freon.      HUM . . .
Here we go again?  Is this another "window" job ?
 Let me also stop here to mention that while the installers were working in the attic in the afternoon there was a loud "POP" and all the electric in the house went off for a split second. The computer, TV, clocks and what ever.  We didn't think anything of this until Tony had left for the evening and we realized our house phone did not work. (3 calls to AT&T and their tech guy is coming on Monday morning to fix the phones. Maybe!)
Sure enough, the 2 fellows arrived this morning, closer to noon, and up they went into the attic. An hour later they informed us they had to order a part and would be back on Monday. As Ger pointed out, "Isn't this a NEW unit?" Yep, it is, but you know how every one in a hundred has a problem and we just happened to get THAT unit. Not only is this just plain silly but the one worker today spent at least 15 minutes sharing his health problems with me. I got way too much information about his stomach and bowels and way too little help in fixing the AC.
BOTTOM LINE . . .   I sure am glad I am freezing. Cause if it was Hot and Humid I would be one really pissed off Floridian.

LOCATION LOCATION LOCATION

Now that Command Central has to the bedroom I am not getting as many evenings to write. I moved the new Apple in here because I didn't want it in the garage where the temperature and humidity can get pretty bad. I thought I would baby this new piece of technology and bring it into the air conditioned comfort of the house. The kitchen wasn't private enough, as was the living room and den. The guest bed room wouldn't work because there are usually guests in there. So the master bed room became its home. Trouble is, Husband also resides in this room and he doesn't like computers. Not only does he not like computers, he HATES blogs. I could spend an hour listing the adjectives he has used in describing blogs but that would take too much of my precious time. At the moment he is in the shower so I have just so long to write before my most severe critic arrives. And if you think he hates blogs in general, don't get him started on the blogs of other family members!

I thought that I would get up in the mornings and sit at the computer for an hour to write, pay bills and check out mail but I know that if I sit down I will be here most of the day and there are just too many things to do. Sharon often wonders how I find so much to do but I am never in fear of being bored. There is always a closet to straighten out or a room to rearrange. Today I found out that you can't have blood taken for tests the day after you donate platelets. So that means that on Monday I have to go out again to the lab. Never a dull moment in my life.

Princess Jeanne has been in FL for the past 10 days and I have had the great joy of spending time with her. It's not the same as when Sharon joins us for a "Girls" time out but it is just great being in her company.

Then we had Lynne from NY come down this past weekend to spend some time with us looking for a condo. She started looking in the Jacksonville area only to realize that South Florida is much more tropical. And that's where I live so she would have the best of all worlds. She hasn't decided on anything but she is getting closer to making a decision. There sure is a lot to choose from these days. Prices are at an all time low and the properties are ripe for the picking.

OhOh . . . shower's over, I'll try to get myself back to writing more often. I think there are only 2 of you out there who actually check on this blog but I am feeling guilty for leaving you with nothing to read. But then again, that is probably a blessing in disguise.

NEW BLOG

Don't faint, it's really me! Once again we have been traveling and so the blog has been put on hold. This time it was a road trip to Maryland to see two and a half year old Kaelin. That was the focus of the trip but we had a few side trips tied in. We hadn't seen Kaelin in 2 months and even though we have baby Smith living just 45 minutes away I still need my little girl fix.

Ger and I left here on a Monday and drove to MD with one overnight stop in Georgia some place right off Route 95. We had left later in the day on Monday so we stopped early with plans to take 2 nights to get to our daughters. For two old goats we do enjoy driving and the ride is quite pleasant when there isn't too much traffic. The ride was so easy this trip we arrived in MD in time for dinner on Tuesday.

The best part of these trips to Maryland is the WELCOMING COMMITTEE. As we pulled in Keri's driveway and tooted the horn the front door flew open and a whirl wind with curly blond hair, that can only be compared to our daughter when she was little, came flying out the door yelling at the top of her lungs "GRANDMA ! GRANDMA! GRANDMA!" I think Kaelin was happy to see us. She jumped into my arms and I got the biggest, bestest HUG that lasted all of 5 minutes. Boy can that little girl make my day!

For the next 6 days we spent every waking minute together. We went to "Kid Fit", the library and art. Granny is the official library goer with Kaelin but this week they invited grandpa and I to join them. There was one mom there with a 5 year old, a 3 year old and 9 month old twins. Granny, grandpa and I were all there for one little girl and this poor woman was managing 4 kids. We did end up giving her some help holding one of the twins and then carrying the child out to her car when story hour was over.

We had a great time and we gave Steve the opportunity to get a lot done while we took care of Kaelin. Have I mentioned what a great "Stay At Home" Dad he is? Keri and Steve even got an opportunity to go out for dinner to celebrate Keri's birthday. While they were out Kaelin, grandpa and I got busy making a birthday cake for mommy. Kaelin has a cake decorating book for kids that she carries around with her in the hopes that someone will suggest they bake. Kaelin had decided that Mommy needed a RACE TRACK cake. It was a bit of a stretch for us but we gave it a good try. Mommy was impressed and that's what counts. And what it lacked in looks it made up for in taste.

When we left MD on Tuesday of the following week I managed not to cry but I think Kaelin was on the verge of tears. The girls in this family all take after me and cry EVERY TIME we say, "good-bye". It's always harder when we aren't sure when we will see each other again. This Christmas Kaelin is staying in MD to start her own traditions and Abby and Roman will be skiing in the French Alps. We are very happy for all of them but it will be strange for us.

Did I mention that Abby and Roman and their family left England last week and went spent the week long school holiday in Paris at Euro Disney? They even got to wear their Halloween costumes to the park!

Anyway, from MD we traveled south with a drop down to visit friends in Wilmington, NC. What a great time we had for 2 1/2 days with Jerry and Nancy. We toured the area with a special stop at a NC aquarium right on the coast. The aquarium was also celebrating Halloween with some special exhibits as you can see from the photo. We took a pass on the Bobbing for Apples.

After leaving Wilmington we made one more stop at the Kennedy Space Center which was a delightful surprise! We had been there almost 30 years ago and things have changed quite a bit. We had a great time for over 6 hours there before we had to move on for the last leg of our journey home. After all, Smith was waiting for us and when we got to see him yesterday he had GROWN even more in the 2 weeks we were away. Not only that but he has learned to smile and has the beginnings of a great laugh! He is just the cutest 3 month old if I do say so myself.

And now that we are back . . . ? It's business as usual except for Jeanne having arrived from NY

for 2 weeks at her condo and Lynne arriving on Friday for a long weekend of condo hunting. We are slowly bringing all our Northern friends to the South. It just gets better and better.

In closing, words from our priest on Sunday . . . GO OUT AND ADD TO THE BEAUTY OF THE WORLD ! I couldn't have said it better myself.