So much stuff

* We had a good night of music last night. It was open mic at the Bull Run. Each person got three songs. Hubby and I did our usual "wait until the last minute" and didn't practice, so we decided to choose some cover songs instead of doing our originals. And we disappointed people. Apparently, people like hearing your originals. And our friend Rick told us on the way home that we should always please the crowd, even if we think we've sung our songs too often. Lesson learned. * We're going out again tonight to hear music. Our good friends John, Betsi and Jon are playing at the Java Room. One of our favorite venues, and one of our favorite groups to listen to. * Jamie was supposed to have a football game on Saturday and it was cancelled. The other team forfeited....they don't have enough players. Figures. It's supposed to be gorgeous on Saturday. And this will be the second week with no game. Last week was a bye week. We're having football withdrawals. * I had my yearly physical yesterday. All the usual. I still have to go for the bloodwork. I'm curious to find out how my cholesterol is doing. It's been on the high side, and I've been trying to get it down by eating fat-free everything. * I finally talked to the doctor about my insomnia. I've had it for many years, and always just dealt with it cause I hate taking medicine. But the older you get, the harder it is to bounce back. So she gave me some samples of Lunesta. I'm going to try it Saturday night....that way if it makes me a zombie I will be able to sleep in on Sunday. * Since the weatherman says it's supposed to be a nice weekend, we figure on Sunday we'll go to Parker's for breakfast, then find someplace out that way to hike. It's in the south-central part of New Hampshire, if anyone has any suggestions.

So happy with my Hubby

Let me just say I have the most wonderful Hubby in all the world.

This weekend, he went with me on Friday night to visit my (our) grand-daughter.

He went with me to visit my brother on Saturday. On Sunday, he played piano beautifully at the Java Room......

ok - he did not wear a Santa hat at the Java Room this week....this pic is from Christmastime.

Then accompanied me to visit my father. The two of them went right along with going out to Larry's Clam Shack for supper.

And tonight, he made me some shrimp and vegetable tempura - cause we'd tried it in a restaurant in Montreal and I really liked it.

Aren't I a lucky girl?

Emily's New Bike

Emily got a brand new "shiny red" bike. Check it out.

More Montreal.....and photos!

Our "supposed" reason for going to Montreal. To see Jamie play football. She's the quarterback on the left of the photo looking like she's about to be killed. But she got the pass off before they pummeled her! The Montreal Tower. Originally built to for the 1976 Summer Olympics. You take a tram up from the bottom to see the aerial view of Montreal from the top.

Just a few of the millions of gorgeous flowers at the Botanical Gardens.

Hubby loved it there.

And so did I!

There was also a butterfly area where hundreds of butterflies flew around free. One took a liking to me.

Another view of Olympic Tower and the Biodome - and me on the podium after I earned the Gold Medal.

The Biosphere which was the United States contribution to the 1967 Montreal World's Fair. Hubby went there as a child and the Biosphere is about the only thing he remembers. It now houses a museum.

Mont Royal Park is in the center of Montreal. We drove and hiked to the top and got a view of the city from there.

One of the things Hubby most wanted to do was visit this record store again. He collects LP's and is a very intense lover of music. He found some very unusual LP's, including a virgin copy of the Abbey Road Alternate Album by the Beatles. He was excited to get a free cloth bag from the shop because he spent more than $100!

Besides all the museums and restaurants, etc, Montreal is well-known for it's underground mall. It covers many blocks of the city, and is accessible via the subway stops. This is just one of the fountains in the middle of the mall. Once you're inside, you don't really realize you're underground.

Montreal was awesome!

Yes, we are back from Montreal. The trip was wonderful and we had a super nice time despite a couple snags and snafus. Pictures will have to wait until tomorrow, because we took so many it might take me awhile to sort through them all. We left Friday morning in the rain, and hit Burlington, VT around noon.... in the rain. We really just wanted to have a bit of a look around and have some lunch. When we parked the car, we didnt' realize it was a spot reserved for only 15 minutes, so we came back to a ticket on the windshield. Not an auspicious start to the trip! We crossed the border (in the rain) with our spanking new passports. They didn't stamp them! We were disppointed. We wanted stamps. We stayed at the Marriottt Residence Inn in downtown Montreal. I LOVE being a AAA employee. Because I completed a Marriott online training course, I get rooms for a very large discount at Marriott hotels. Our four nights in Montreal PLUS $25/night for parking cost us only $375 altogether! Sweet! Friday night we walked down a few streets (in the rain) to a jazz club. It was very, very cool. They had a guy playing jazz on the piano when we got there and he was amazing. Then afterwards, they had a three piece band and a singer. The music and atmosphere were great. The staff were all dressed up in 1920's clothing. It was an experience. Friday morning we had breakfast at the hotel. (more on that later) Then we walked (in the rain) to the tourist center and bought a 3-day Museum and Transportation Pass. This turned out to save us quite a bit of money. We did find out, however, when we bought it, that the Biodome was closed because workers were on strike. I was disappointed as this was one of the places I most wanted to go. We left there and walked (in the rain) to the Museum of Fine Arts. All I can say is WOW! The place was huge and unbelievable. Their special display was Tiffany glass art. So gorgeous. They had a lamp that would look really nice in our living room! The museum was on both sides of the street with a walkway underground in between. The underground part was filled with artwork as well! We ended out being there for four hours. Then it was time for the real purpose of our visit to Montreal. We went and retrieved the car and went out to Lachine for Jamie's football game. Luckily for us, the rain held off during the game. The team didn't have very high hopes for this game....they were playing a team that made it to the finals last year, and four of Manchester's players couldn't make it up to Montreal. However.........they did great! No, they didn't win. But they did score first, and they lost by just a couple of touchdowns. We've seen improvement in every game so far, which is great. After the game we headed back into town and went to dinner at a wonderful Pasta Bar. The place was packed, and the food was delicious. I noticed some of the same things this time that I did last time we were in Montreal. Most of the women are slim....we didn't see a lot of overweight people. And they dress much nicer than us. I also noticed their shoes. Very few sneakers...mostly very fashionable stilettos, even if they were wearing jeans. I was definitely underdressed! More on Montreal tomorrow..........................

Montreal, eh?

Hubby and I are off to the wonderful land of Canada. Jamie is playing her next football game on Saturday in Montreal, so we decided to stay a few extra days and make a vacation out of it. Let's all hope it works out better than our trip to New Jersey, yes?

Damn those lawyers.

One of the results of our little escapade in New Jersey was that I had to get a police report to send in with my claim for new tires from the State of New Jersey. The police officer had given us a slip of paper with our "case number" on it and the phone number to call. We were instructed to wait until Wednesday and then call and request our report. It said right on the piece of paper that it would cost 75 cents per page. On Wednesday I called and got the most unemotional female police officer I've ever heard. Me: "Hi there. I'd like to request a police report." Her: "Number?: Me: "Number 123456" Her: "Send a check for $5.75 and a SASE and we'll mail it out." Me: "5 dollars? I thought it was 75 cents per page?" Her: "Send a check for $5.75 and a SASE and we'll mail it out." (In a totally deadpan and robotic voice) Me: "Okay......can you fax it to me?" Her: "No." Okayyyyyyyyyyy I mailed the check for $5.75 and the SASE the next day. Yesterday in the mail we received two big envelopes. One was for me and one for my hubby. They had the name of a lawyer's office on them. I opened them with a bit of trepidation. The letter started, "You may have been injured in your recent motor vehicle accident........." And included, for our information, were copies of our police report! If I'd only waited another day or two, I could have had skipped the whole $5.75 and the SASE thing and had them for free.

Cake Boss

One of my favorite shows lately is "Cake Boss" on TLC. It's funny, it's silly and it's actually pretty cool - the cakes this guy is able to make. So on our recent trip to New Jersey, we decided to stop on the way in Hoboken and visit the bakery where Cake Boss is taped. Unfortunately, it was the day before Easter and the place was packed. They had a railing outside on the sidewalk for the people standing in line, and they'd let a few people in at a time. Hubby took some photos of me in front of the shop and then we stood there and debated for a good five minutes about whether or not it would be worth it to get into the line and wait so we could go inside where it was really crowded and try to buy a canoli just so we could say........you know..........that we had bought a canoli at Carlos Bakery. Finally, I asked the lady at the front of the line how long she'd been waiting. 20 minutes. That's not so bad, I said to Hubby.....with puppy dog eyes. Finally, he agreed and we went to the end of the line.........where there was a worker standing there who informed us they'd just closed the line because the shop would be closing!! So.........here's a pic of me in front of Carlos' Bakery.

So much fun to laugh our asses off...........

Things have been very tense at work lately. Our resident PITA is on a roll, going to the bosses to complain about every niggly thing. The bosses love her, as she produces lots of money for the company. I don't want to cross her and lose my job. I found out Saturday that she complained about me again.......and sadly I let her complaints put a damper on my whole weekend. I tried to go into work today with a good attitude. I kept to myself, spoke quietly, and totally ignored the PITA. I was polite to her as need be, but refused to engage in any other kind of conversation with her. I was proud of myself for the way I handled the day........but it does make for a very tense day. What happened at the end of the day, however, was priceless. The PITA had already left. She's out the door at 5:30 come hell or high water. Unbeknownst to me or anyone else, one of the travel agents had gone to the ladies' room. We all thought she had left. So me and the other two girls set the alarm and were about to leave when someone said, "Did Ellen leave?" Another girl said, "She might be in the bathroom." We're all standing there with the alarm beeping and doing the 60-second countdown. One of the girls yelled, "Ellen!" and we heard frantic screams coming from the bathroom. From there on in, it was like the keystone cops. The bathroom door slammed open and Ellen came sprinting out. We yelled "Oh my God, only 30 seconds left!" Ellen ran for her desk to grab her purse as we cheered her on with the countdown. We got out the door before the alarm sounded. I was laughing so hard I had tears running down my face. So were the other two girls. Ellen was not laughing..............

Easter

It was a lovely Easter at my Dad's house. My mom was very sorely missed by everyone there, but Dad put out a wonderful meal and we all enjoyed being together as a family. We ate, we talked, we laughed. And Emily played with bubbles. All........day........long.

Great-grandpa asked for a turn. Emily got quite aggravated with him when he just couldn't seem to blow the bubbles, even when she told him "Use your LIPS, Grandpa!" Finally, she just kept telling him "in a minute".

Everyone else got a turn....Auntie Chris........

And Uncle Nick.

Nick and his lovely Girlfriend Kelly.

Doug and his Uncle Lloyd. Both so handsome with their big infectious grins.

Crazy Auntie Jamie.

And Kara laughing her head off. I think she was high on bubble stuff!

The real reason for our trip to New Jersey

Despite all our car troubles, the real reason for our trip to New Jersey was to watch our daughter play in her first football game of the season. Even though they lost, I'm so proud of her. She's an awesome athlete. This year, she started at quarterback, which adds a bit more terror to watching the game. She's #80.

It could have been worse...........

If I'd written this post on Friday night, or even Saturday morning, you would have gotten a long rambling rant and/or a screaming mental fit. But sometimes, things have a way of working out. Friday afternoon, Hubby and I left to go to New Jersey. Why would we want to go to New Jersey, you say? I would ask the same question. The answer is: It was Jamie's first football game of the season. And we figured, why not? I get discounted rooms at the Marriott, so I chose one near the football field and off we went. The trip down was pretty uneventful until we got about 2 miles from the hotel. It was 8pm - and dark. We were on some sort of three-lane highway with jersey barriers on one side (I see now why they're called Jersey barriers.....they have them everywhere in New Jersey) and stores and stuff on the other side. And we hit the mother of all potholes. We never even saw it coming....just BAM! And we were limping along on a flat tire. Hubby tried desperately to find a place to pull over........we slowly continued on as cars streamed past us, until I finally begged him to stop. We stopped right in the lane and got out. We had not one but TWO flat tires on the driver's side. Not just flat tires....but totally demolished tires with mangled rims. Another car pulled in behind us with a flat tire, and a third car limped slowly past us with another flat tire on his car. I pretty much flipped out......using language my mother would have slapped me upside the head for. The girls in the other car and I got on our phones to call AAA. The police came pretty quickly and blocked us so we wouldn't get hit. And now, here comes the BLESSINGS part of the story: * As I tried to call AAA back to let them know we had to be towed immediately or the police would tow us, they showed up.........five minutes after we called them. * The tow truck driver brought a flatbed for us, changed the other girl's tire, and then offered to bring our car to his garage 5 minutes away and have our car fixed first thing in the morning. * We told him we were staying at the Marriott down the street, and he offered to drop us off there. (Very classy showing up at a hotel with your car on a flatbed.....but hey, it's New Jersey) * At the hotel, we asked about places to eat within walking distance. There weren't any. But they had a complimentary shuttle to a number of different restaurants. We had a nice meal at Ruby Tuesdays with a ride back and forth. * The next morning I called my daughter, who was staying at a different hotel with the team. I said we weren't sure if what we'd do about getting to the game. We thought maybe we could beg the hotel to bring us in the shuttle. Jamie called a few minutes later and said one of the other parents offered to come get us at the hotel and bring us to the game. * The same parent brought us to the garage after the game. * The garage managed to save both the back rim and the back tire ........ although we couldn't believe the tire was salvagable. We had to buy one new rim and one new tire. (dammit, that tire was only a week old!!!!) But it cost us $275 instead of the $500 we were imagining. * Despite our concern about driving on a tire that some strange garage mechanic in Jersey told us was fine, we made it all the way home to New Hampshire without incident. And that, my friends, makes for a Happy Easter.