Once again its FRIDAY!

Woke up and dragged my sick self into work, which wasn't at all bad except my voice was continally getting worse as the day went on. I had lunch with a couple girlfriend's and spent most of the morning "rounding" with our supervisor. Rouding is when management has to sit with each employee for a few minutes and ask questions such as "what do you like most about your job" and foolish questions like that. Dale and I mostly talked about his wonderful family and how he came from Michigan and joined the marines at age 17 and went to Vietnam and about his wife's relatives from Italy. Much fun! Love Dale! I killed about an hour with rounding.

Left work and stopped at Hannafords to grab something for dinner and an elderly gentleman stopped me to tell me that I looked nice. Nicest thing I heard all day, especially when my friend told me that my eyes were droopy and I looked exhausted (all right, when he saw me I had my cool sunglasses on).. but still, kind of made my day.

Has anyone had a chance to watch Planet Earth on The Discovery Channel. It's on Sunday nights from 8-9 but there are many repeats on. Its a must see with never before seen shots of animals and places that I'll probably never ever see. They slow-mo-ed this great white eating a seal off the coast of South Africa.. biggest scariest shark I ever saw...(I never ever want to go to South Africa as well as Australia). Anyway, check it out... I'm off to put my comfy clothes on. I cancelled my Bunco for tonight and will have pizza and watch Ali (love Will Smith so it better be goo) and go to bed early.

Have a great Friday Night Ya'll.....

Under the weather....

Each day I've been thinking that my sore throat would get a little better.."Oh, I'll feel better tomorrow"... It wasn't that bad, just sore, irritated and hurt when I swallowed.. but not really any other symptoms other than general fatigue but I thought if I just kept working out, then I'd beat it.

Well, after a sweaty night of tossing turning and feeling just plain lousy, I called my doc and got an appointment today. The rapid strep came back POSITIVE... so I'm on a z-pack and hopefully will feel better by tomorrow. The beauty of it is that when I came home I gave myself permission to have some soup, a cup of tea and curl up in Bill's favorite lazy-boy chair and watch movies! I watched GARDEN STATE (pretty weird), a life-time for women movie about a white southern grandmother meeting her black grandaughter after a car accident, and Thin Air - about Mount Everest. I haven't felt this relaxed since.......?

Anyway, HI to everyone.. I'll be back and kicking sometime soon...

Day gone bad...

Well my plans to work this morning, then go to the gym, then to the library have been cancelled.

Matt woke up with a voice like a frog and couldn't swallow. He is back in bed and I am home, home, home for the day :(

Later I have to make Day of the Dead Bread with Billy. Only problem is I've never made any type of bread with dry active yeast in my entire life. There is punching involved.. This should be interesting. I hope I can find my missing camera so I can take a photo. He gets 10 extra points in Spanish for making this bread. But we don't have much time because he has drama after school and then has to babysit tonight at 6:45 and from the directions for this Dead Bread it looks like we have to wait hours for it to rise. He's going to call me after school to see if he can leave early from Drama today.

Matt's up and sounding less croaky. Doing his flashcards for tomorrow. The streetcleaner went by. That's always good. Have a great Thursday!

Happy Birthday to my Mother...

"All that I am or ever hope to be, I owe to my angel mother", Abraham Lincoln.

Happy 67th birthday to the woman who got married at 19 years of age, had three children within three years, waited a few to have me, and lastly had my younger brother. Five children by the age of 26! How she did it I do not know.. but I remember dancing in the living room to Mitch Miller albums, taking walks to the local corner store, playing outside in the leaves, eating a full dinner every single night, even as we got older and she worked full time outside the home, we had potatoes, a green vegetable and an orange/yellow vegetable. I remember slices of oranges and apples while watching Happy Days or Barney Miller. I remember trips down to the beach which took a whole day to pack the food for. I remember pool parties and birthday parties and Christmases and Thanksgivings full of family and food and love.

Things haven't been perfect, and things haven't always been easy.. but I always, always knew I was loved. Thanks for the wings Mom.... I Love you tremendously...

Celebrity Meets and Greets!

Jessica and Norma's blogs have recently related some celebrity sightings which got me to remembering some of my own celebrity meetings. Share yours if you have any!

When I was a junior in high school, I had to take a charter bus from Roslindale Square to Brighton to the all-girls private Catholic school that I attended. The busses were always completely crowded, standing room only. My friends and I all loved our old bus driver, Walter, and were always crowded around him at the front of the bus. I was crammed by the door opening and facing out while going around the rotary in Brookline and I happened to look straight out the window at a beautiful navy blue Mercedes Benz and right into the driver's eyes. It was Rick Ocasek from The CARs!!! I opened my mouth and pointed and smiled at him. He nodded his head and smiled right back. I had a great day at school that day!

A few years later, while working as a sales clerk in a NIKE retail store in a certain swanky town, I waited on Jane Curtain (from Saturday Night Live) and fitted her litte daughter with tiny pink Nike sneaks. I sold expensive running shoes to Liz Walker (from the news) She's very very tall. I waited on Barry Nolan from Entertainment tonight and got to meet Danny Ainge and DJ #3 from the Celtics who just passed away. Danny was really nice. I saw Big P***y from the Sopranos at a Springseen Concert. I think that's it.. No major stars, but I got a little thrill nonetheless!

Let the sun shine in!

It feels so good shining through my window onto my keyboard! Yay!

Billy and Matt both made honors again.. Matt was so excited and pleased with himself. I'm glad its cool to be smart :) Conference with Matt's teacher tomorrow afternoon and it is supposed to be 64 degrees here.

Sorry so boring.. but I got nothin!

28 in March!

Happy Birthday to Jessica who turns 28 today! She was my first niece, and my very own little doll to play with. As she got older, she was my little buddy and went everywhere with me, to the mall, CVS, out for walks. My sister always let me take her everywhere and I give her lots of credit for trusting me so much. She used to sit in the basement and watch "This old House" with us when she was about 5. She was so excited to stay up and watch the Michael Jackson "Thriller" video and when she saw it she was scared to death! She had such an adult sense of humor as a kid and was just so much fun to be with. She brought joy to all of our lives and on her 28th birthday, I wish her JOY, PEACE, and LOVE..and a wonderful year ahead! Much Love to our Jessica... Auntie Karen

Brrrrrrrrr....

I don't like the cold anymore. (Did I ever?) It has been frigid every morning. I've been driving the kids to the bus stop for crying out loud! Two girls got in my car and they didn't have winter coats on.. Hello.. its 6 degrees outside. STUPID.

Yesterday, I got Matthew out of school at 11 o'clock to go and get his dental impressions and x-rays. He feels better about the braces since a couple of his friends have told him that they need them too. It was SOOO cold down by the waterfront where we went for lunch afterwards. It was really nice having Matthew all to myself, and talking with him. He's a great kid.

As I was telling Norma today, I have been torn because he doesn't want to play a spring sport. He has always played baseball, but it is so corrupt in our town.. the teams are handpicked and there is so much pressure to win and go to the allstars that he just doesn't want to play anymore. Pretty sad when youth sports is all about winning for the coaches, isn't it? He doesn't care for soccer and was going to try Lacrosse, but isn't really interested and it is expensive to play and to buy the equipment. I think he just wants a break. Just last week when we were rushing somewhere he told me that he doesn't have any time to just be a kid. I guess I need to listen to that and give him a break.

Clocks ahead this weekend everyone! AND it's supposed to warm up!

It's all Greek to me!

My nephew Michael gave me this great cookbook for Christmas. It was a fundraiser cookbook for the music/theater departments. Last weekend, I hosted my BUNCO group at my house and this dip was a HUGE success. They licked the platter clean.. I thought I would share it with you!

GREEK SALAD DIP

1 small container of plain hummus
1 small or medium tomato, chopped
1 cucumber seeded and chopped
1 (4-oz) package of crumbled feta cheese
1/4 cup (or however much you want) kalamata olives, pitted and chopped
4 Tbs Greek salad dressing ( I used creamy greek LITE)

In a 9" pie plate, spread the hummus evenly. Sprinkle chopped tomato, cucumber, feta cheese and olives evenly all over hummus. Drizzle dressing over all of this. Serve with pita chips or wheat crackers or whatever crackers you like. Enjoy

T.G.I.F!!!!!

This was a nice fast week, wasn't it! I can't believe it is already March.. so happy!!! Two of my favorite people were born in March - My mother brings the Spring on March 20 and my very first neice Jessica on March 9. I"ll never forget when she was a little girl and we would say, "Jess, how old are you" and she would put her fingers up and say very seriously "Three in March". How time goes by...

March brings the end of basketball and the beginnings of a new season of bikeriding, rollerblading, walking outside, walking the beach and hopefully, some sunshine! It's a touchy month and you never know what you'll get weatherwise.

Today, it's pouring rain outside.. the kind you can really hear and see, the kind that makes you so happy that you are working from home and drinking hot tea and feeling warm and comfy in your house.

Notes from a Delinquent Blogger....

I don't know where the time has gone :) No, seriously, I just have had nothing to blog about. Pretty pathetic. I've also been a serious GYMaholic. I feel pretty good. I forgot what it was like to actually move your body. Remember, I have a job that you sit on your rump at the computer for 4-5 hours at a time with things in your ears.

I had my fitness profile done yesterday. I was very nervous about it because I thought I'd be a lost cause. I was pretty much fit to excellent in every category (well, fit to excellent within the 40-49 year old age bracket) so I'm not that great. I need work on my back flexibility and I want to bring my body fat percentage down a notch. Chocolate, be gone from thy household!

In other news, Matthew is going next week for his x-rays and fitting for his braces. He is really depressed about getting them. He thinks he's going to be ugly. I told him he could never ever be ugly. He thinks the kids are going to call him names.. so what, I said. Tell them "yeah, well you're ugly" (haha.. I didn't really tell him that but I was tempted).

I had a spaz attack the other night when making meatballs. I put everything in the bowl, breadcrumbs, parmesan cheese, egg, spices, a little water, a little milk, then added the beef. Well, I'm mixing it up and there were all these little hard white things that I was pulling out. What the heck? They were fairly sharp and pointy. I'm thinking, bones? Are there bones in my beef? Did bones get into the grinder. So I pulled these little things out and called the supermarket.. "I think there are bone fragments in the ground beef I bought" Geez, she says, bones don't get anywhere near the grinder...can you bring it in and we'll give you a refund? But of course. But there goes dinner. So I took out the ground turkey, popped it in the microwave and got another bowl ready. In goes the breadcrumbs, egg, cheese, milk.. then I go to add the turkey. As I'm mixing it up, there they are again!!!! BONES??????? Am I losing my mind? Have these always been there and I haven't noticed? Matthew walks in from school and hears me talking out loud and says "let me see".. Mom, that looks like cheese.

Cheese. Grated parmesan cheese. I bought a new kind of freshly grated parmesan cheese and it was hard and pointy.

After I fell on the floor laughing my *** off at my foolishness I cooked up those turkey meatballs and we all ate dinner. Too bad the first batch ended up in the trash. Oh yes, in the midst of my laughter, I called back the supermarket (anonymously of course) to relay that there were not, in fact, bones in the beef.

Did you miss me?