Procrastinaaaaaation

You have to sing the title of this post to that old song "Anticipation". Remember? They used it for the ketchup commercial? "Anticipa-ation is making me wait.....making me wai-a-a-a-a-ait." But yea....I AM procrastinating. It's my half-day off and I should be doing all the wifely things......housecleaning, laundry, grocery shopping. But I. Don't. Feel. Like. It. Seriously, I will get up and do them. Just as soon as I read, and comment upon, all the back posts of all the blogs I follow. And check my email. And look at my online banking. etc, etc. etc. Actually, I'd like to do some updates from previous posts: * I do love my new red purse. I feel very fancy with it. * I take off my pants at lunch because the cat sheds like a son-of-a-gun and if I sit on any piece of furniture in the house, I'll go back to work with cat hair stuck to my butt. * Yea, the cat's still puking. In fact, I smelled something in the bedroom for the past few days and couldn't find anything......until I looked under the bed today. * My mom finally came home from rehab yesterday. 7 weeks in the hospital and rehab. The woman deserves a medal. * The computer situation is better at work. Not perfect yet, but better. Good thing too. It didnt' take people long to find out we were there.....the place has been busy the past few days. * We've actually had a few days of sunny, hot weather. Today......rain. I'm pretty sure it's because I planned a BBQ for tonight. * The upstairs neighbors have turned out to be not so bad. It definitely is college exchange students working for our local amusement park. But they've been fairly quiet. And we have the AC on at night in our bedroom so that drowns out a lot of sound. * Daughter went to the All-Star game. She did get some playing time, but disappointingly did not get a pass thrown to her! She was the kick-returner though and did get her hands on the ball and got some yardage. It was the experience that counted....and she had fun. I hope that brings everyone up to date ..... any questions......comment!

Go Tomato Red Wild

This is the new purse Hubby bought me (after I carefully told him the style, color and size I wanted). It's to celebrate the fact that I went full time at my job. It's a "Baggelini" which we sell in our travel store. With my employee discount it was about 1/2 off retail. There was olive green, brown, and the bright red. At first I was leaning towards the brown cause it would "match more things". But I really really liked the red. But it doesn't match many things. Finally, I said, "Dang it! I like the red. I want the red. I'm going to get the red. And who gives a hoot if it doesn't match anything?" PS - Am I the only person in the world who takes off her pants when she comes home for lunch? Would anyone like to guess why I do it? Hubby....you can't guess. I think you know why.

Yankee Homecoming

It was a toss-up today whether to go canoeing or go to Newburyport's Yankee Homecoming. The homecoming won out because there was predictions of thundestorms (which did come true) and canoeing and thunderstorms don't mix too well. We went to the Yankee Homecoming in Newburyport because our town of Salem is too lame to have their own. There is NO culture in Salem whatsoever. Not even a theater, no art galleries, nothing. We have to go to other towns to find something to do. Newburyport is about 1/2 hour away along the coast of Massachusetts. Once again we did not bring the camera......sorry! We got into town pretty easily and were smart enough to grab a parking spot on a side street the minute we started noticing that cars were lined up parked on the sides of the road. We walked a little bit towards downtown and came upon a park that had tons of things going on. There was a pow-wow in progress. Indian drums, dancing, Native Americans dressed up in their very beautiful and impressive native outfits. It was situated near a pond where they were playing games with canoes. Tents filled with Native American souviners lined the pond. Then we walked a little further and found the Artists' Area. Dozens of tents housing many, many painters. They were very traditional.....landscapes, seascapes, still lifes. None of them really stood out for me. There weren't any other craftsmen besides the painters. We headed for the waterfront. The area leading towards it known as Market Square had lots of food vendors. Further along we came to the waterfront and sat in the shade of a tree listening to a band while we turned our mouths and tongues blue with raspberry ices. Newburport has a gorgeous boardwalk along the waterfront. Lots of benches to sit and relax and gaze out at the water filled with boats. There's an antique barn at the end of the boardwalk so we went in and browsed for a while. It was a nice afternoon. Extremely hot and very muggy. It felt nice to get back to the car and blast the air connditioning. It was the first time we really needed the air conditioning, and the first time this summer I took a cold shower when I got home to clean the muggies off me.

Oh Dear, Dear, Dear

Dear Work Computer, I really can't remember all the usernames and passwords I need to get on all the sites I need at work. Just because I'm too lazy to go look up my passwords, and I put the wrong one in three times in a row, does NOT mean you should lock me out. This means I have to call IT and admit that I've done it again. Signed, Lazy Office Worker Dear Residents of Salem, NH, Don't any of you work on a Friday afternoon? It's very annoying to have to struggle through traffic and crowds of people to do my shopping when it's my only afternoon off and I have things to do. Sincerely, Cranky Shopper Dear Walmart, When you sell shorts and tops seperately, itw ould be awfully nice if you had some tops that matcht the shorts. Your forced me to walk around and around the ladies' department looking for a top that would match the really cool hunter green shorts I found. Sincerely, Loves, Garanimals. Dear Lady at Supercuts, I came in to get a gift for my sister-in-law. I did not appreciate your "help". When I say "I don't know" four or five times, that probably means I don't know. Just give me what I came in for and let me go on my way. Yet Again, Cranky Shopper Dear Old Lady Outside Kmart, You were seriously just coming out the door of the store and had a good ten feet of sidewalk to cross before coming anywhere near my car. I swear I would never have run you over....I have old ladies of my own in my life and I am always very careful. There was really no reason to yell at me. Signed, Old Lady Lover Dear Market Basket Shoppers, Driving a shopping cart is just like driving a car. Stay to the right. And would you abandon your car in the middle of the road to go off and look at something cool you saw three streets back? No? Then don't do that with the cart either. Sincerely, Careful Cart Driver Dear Mothers, It wouldn't kill you to clean your child's face before bringing them out in public. Seriously, I know it's just Market Basket but they deserve some dignity. While you're at it, keep the little buggers in the cart and don't allow them to go careening around the store. I might "accidentally" hit them with my cart if they run in front of me. Signed, Mean Old Lady Dear Karen, How come you didn't remember to get quarters at the grocery store when it was writtn in gigantic letters at the top of your list? Were you unconciously trying to forget that you have to do laundry this afternoon? Now you either have to 1) get back in the car and go get some quarters or 2) Put off doing laundry until Sunday. I know you will go for option #2 because you are a lazy bum and will not go back out into the mayhem. Sincerely, Lazy Karen Dear Blogspot, I tried to put a line through one word. Why did you put a line through every single word in the whole rest of the blog? And then why wouldn't you let me take that out? I was forced to re-type my whole post. You can just imagine how much I appreciated that. Signed, Tired of Typing Dear Hubby, Thank Goodness we have a "stay at home" night tonight. I'll kick your butt at "Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader?" You promised to make me your mouth-watering fried chicken. And maybe a nice backrub too? Your Everloving Wife

Here are the promised pictures of the new office. Notice the new landscaping. Someone forgot to take the tags off. The travel agency has three desks. We have two full time agents right now and one part time.

This is the MSC (member services counselors) counter. They chose a counter instead of desks. Not sure if I like it because I have to sit in a "high chair" and I haven't mastered the art of getting into it gracefully. (Meaning it slides away as I try to lift my ass onto the seat).

We sell all kinds of great stuff in our travel store. On Saturday Hubby is going to come visit and buy me a "Baggelini" purse as a gift to me to congratulate me on going full time. Thanks Hubby!

There are three financial services cubicles. Two for insurance agents and one for someone doing car loans.

Yes, above the center of the floor is a giant "rotunda-type skylight"! It's awesome! Makes the place so bright and beautiful.

The New Office Is Here!

Nice that I have some time to blog tonight since I came home from a "girl's night out" with my daughter and daughter-in-law and can't watch America's Got Talent because the President is doing a news conference. Let's see.....blog or listen to the president......yep.....blogging wins. So....yes....the new office is done! And the mean, nasty, tail-dragging people in our town's building department finally issued us an occupancy permit. Did you know you must have ALL your landscaping completed before your office can open? Amazing that one day there was dirt and the next day (after a visit from a landscaping company) there are shrubs and flowers and bark mulch. Anyway.....the new office is gorgeous! I will try to remember to bring my camera and take a few pics tomorrow. There is a skylight in the middle....cherry furniture....brand spanking new desks and chairs and carpeting and everything!! Although....I did have to laugh because one of the things we do MOST is make little bound books and they did not buy a new book binding machine. The one we have has a handle that falls off....but that's okay.......our chairs all match. The very best thing is that I will be staying in one place from now on. I actually went to work today without a bag full of items neccessary to work at my job. And...the very, very best thing is that I get to go home for lunch again. No more packing a lunch and sitting inside the lunchroom with no windows. Life is good.

Elton and Billy

Hubby and I went on another exciting adventure this weekend. We should write a book called, "Karen and Tag's Excellent Adventures". We went to see Billy Joel and Elton John in their "Face 2 Face" tour. The concert was at Gillette Stadium - home of our New England Patriots! (Only 11 more days until Patriots training camp!!)

We weren't sure if they allowed cameras in the stadium, so we left ours behind. Turns out we could have brought it in. So instead of real pictures, I am accenting today's blog post with pictures stolen borrowed from the internet.

We left home on Saturday for the 1 1/2 hour drive down to Foxborough. We had rented a room at the Marriott Residence Inn. Despite working for AAA I was unaware that, since it's a residence inn, we would have a full kitchen. We didn't bring any drinks or food with us, which was a shame. That nice kitchen went to waste.

We ate out at Picadilly Pub, which was delicious. Then we left, around 6pm, to drive the five miles to the stadium. Since I want this to be a happy blog, I will refrain from describing the traffic nightmare situation that surrounds Gillette Stadium on a game or concert day. I will save that long rambling rant for another post. Suffice to say we got to the stadium sometime after 7 pm.

It was really cool to be in Gillette Stadium. You see it so many times on TV but don't really think about what it'll be like in real life. We had fabulous seats. They were just about facing the stage, first balcony, FRONT ROW.

The first set, Billy and Elton played together, face to face at their respective grand pianos. They looked pretty small from where we were sitting, but we got close-up views of their faces on the jumbo-tron.

They had the place hopping. We marveled at how amazing it must be to have 50,000 people show up in one place just to hear you sing. (We're lucky if we get 10 people at an open mic, and they're not neccessarily there to see us!)

Many times the audience was singing along. Again we marveled at how cool that must be to hear that many people singing your songs.

After they sang together, Billy left the stage and Elton sang some of his classic favorites.

Yellow Brick Road, Saturday Night, Crocodile Rock, Daniel, Rocket Man - the list goes on and on. He has so many hits it must have been hard for him to choose which ones to sing. Then Billy came on and drove the croud wild again.

Uptown Girl, In the Middle of the Night, Allentown, Anthony's Song, Italian Restaurant and so many more.

We sang along and bopped in our seats and had to get up to dance for my favorites.

At the end, they came back on together. For the final song, Billy put the harmonica around his neck and everyone knew it was Piano Man. The crowd sang so loud my ears were ringing.

It was a beautiful, exciting , fun concert. The music and lights were phenomenal. A memory we'll never forget.

Slip Sliding Away

We brought Emily's birthday present to her tonight and she had a blast! I was a little fearful that the slide might be too big for her since it was supposed to be "3 to 6 years old" but the other one would have been way too small. She loved it

After we played for a little while it was time to go in for pizza! After she was done her pizza she says, "all done" and "down" to get out of her high chair. After she was let loose, she walked over to my Hubby and said "Pepere, down"......so he would get down from the table and go play with her! Then she walked over to me and said, "Memere, down." I said, "Emmy, I still have some pizza", and she said, "Memere all done"!!

Stop the World....I want to get off!

How can it be five days since I've blogged? What's been going on? Let's see.......... My Mom - after being in the hospital for five weeks, she made a false start into rehab, sent back to the hospital for another week and now is back in rehab. She's making progress. Hubby's Mom .......in the hospital! She has diabetes and has sores on her feet and they are cleaning her up with surgery and IV antibiotics......sounds chillingly familiar, don't it???? My Job........our new office isnt' open yet. We were hoping for the 13th....it got changed to the 20th....and I was told today it won't open on Monday....maybe Tuesday. In the meantime......I have been vagabonding around to other offices. The blush is off the rose now, people! It was fun for a week or so....now it's just aggravating. I will be going full-time starting next week, but I've been working about 36 hours the past few weeks, which is pretty darn close to full time and I can feel the difference. Not as much time for mundane things like housecleaning, laundry and grocery shopping. Hubby and I did go out and get baby Emily's birthday gift. We got her a (shhhhhhhh!) slide! But don't tell her, okay? We are bringing it over to her tomorrow night. I promise pictures and perhaps a video or two.

It's Finally HERE!!

SUMMER! Yes, Summer is finally here in New England. We have had the worst weather I ever can remember. The news said we had three sunny days the whole month of June. And I believe it. We also had rain the first couple weeks of July. But this weekend was beeeeeeeeeeuuteeeeeefull. It wasn't HOT. Hot is 80-90 degrees. Hot means putting on the air conditioning in the living room. Which we haven't done yet. Not once. Hot means coming home and taking a cold shower to get the hot/sticky/humidity off your body. I haven't done that yet either. Hot means using the air conditioner in the car. Not once. Yesterday was mid-70's and SUNNY! The beautiful sunshine we've all been craving. Hubby and I were anxious to be outside, so we went over to Winnekinni Castle which is on the shore of Kenoza Lake. We hiked all the way around the lake....about 2 1/2 hours. It was so relaxing. And today we took out the CANOE! Can you believe it? Finally. We went up to Lake Massabesic, about 1/2 hour from our hours. It was so lovely. Please forgive my lack of photos.....we didn't bring the camera. It was a nice, big lake, and very tranquil. We saw lots of sailboats and a few speedboats. There is no swimming in this lake but we spent about three hours paddling around it and didn't see the whole thing. I finally feel like I had a weekend. It was so invigorating to be outside. I hope the rest of the summer will continue like this. We deserve it!

The Girl Goes Crazy

This is the first week I've worked 40 hours. Yesterday was my 1/2 day .....because I have to work 4 hours on Saturday. I really hate the thought of spending my weekends doing mundane household chores, so I planned on doing them yesterday. It's unbelievable what can be packed into one day. Somehow, when I was home a lot more, I found ways to waste my time and got nothing done. Yesterday I did this: * Cleaned the house from top to bottom. Bathroom, kitchen, dusted, vaccumed (is it 2 "c's" and one "u" or the other way around?). Not just cleaned the kitchen, but scrubbed the appliances, etc. Not just dusted but moved things. * Did four loads of laundry. * Went grocery shopping. * Bought some new work clothes. * Went to a certain store and bought/made my mother's birthday gift. (I will have to show you what I made later.....I don't want to give up the surprise.) * Bought birthday cards. * Made a casserole for my son's visit tonight. * Made a birthday cake for my son's visit tonight. * Cleaned out the fridge. What the heck was I doing? Where did I get the energy? Part of it could be that THE SUN IS OUT! Yes!! Did you hear that? The sun is out in New England today. All is well with the world.

Stuff 'n' Junk

Rain, rain go away.......or I'm gonna have a friggin' breakdown! Isn't that how the nursery rhyme goes? We had a decent weekend....a lovely Monday (while I was inside a building working) and today it just poured down buckets. Thunder, lightening......the whole ball of wax. And tomorrow is supposed to be a washout! The only good thing about the rain is that I'm not missing working at summer camp yet. I lived through what I thought was the rainiest summer last year ......although this summer has the potential to outdo it.......and was thankful when camp was over. It doesn't seem so bad to have a real grown-up indoor job when it's raining so hard that we discussed building an Ark. *********************************************************** Our upstairs neighbors moved out a couple months ago. I've been waiting with much trepidation to see who would move in.....praying for a nice quiet little couple who don't wear their shoes indoors. A couple of days ago a girl came out of the building next door and apologized for using my parking space (Hubby was in the process of parking his car sideways behind hers so she wouldn't be able to get out.........just to press home the point that you don't park in my space!!!!!) This girl told us that the local amusement park had rented the apartment for some of the workers who would be working there. HUH???? I don't know if she was serious or making something up because she was embarrassed that she took my space. But there's definitely someone up there. And tonight two young (17 years old???) men came out of that apartment and walked down the street. Then 20 minutes later another young man came out and walked the same way. There's still someone up there.......sounds female. What the HELL is going on???? So being the bitch that I am, I sat right down and wrote to the Management Company asking who is living there, and if the story is true about the amusement park renting it, who would be living there and if they were underage are they being supervised??? ************************************************************ It's really, really nice to go to the grocery store right when it opens at 7 in the morning. Nice parking space close to the building.......nobody in your way in the aisles.....no one in line at the checkout. The only negative thing is they have no food out. The deli, meat counter, fish counter and produce section are all empty and workers are just starting to put stuff out at 7am. sigh........nothing is perfect I guess. ************************************************************* The good news is......I was asked to start working full-time when our new office opens in a week or two. I'll get paid for holidays and be offered health insurance....not to mention that my pay will go up 20% for the week. The bad news is..........I'll be working full-time and will have to adjust to not having any days off during the week. Again......nothing is perfect I guess.

It's Fourth of July?

I guess we kind of skipped Fourth of July this year. Our usual tradition for the past few years has been to to go to the Fireworks in the next town over because they have one of our favorite bands, Beatlejuice, playing beforehand. This year, the town decided not to do fireworks because of the economy. I guess I can agree with that. The $35, 000 they were going to put towards fireworks would pay for a teacher's aide or something. The band, however, still planned on playingon Friday night, the 3rd. So we were still going to go. Even though I had to work on the 3rd. (Unlike Hubby who got to have the 3rd off). As usual, in New England the forecast was calling for ..... can you guess? yep, rain. Thunderstorms. Just as an aside......for the entire month of June we had only THREE sunny days. So the band postponed their concert until Sunday night. We're still planning on going. Instead of the concert, we stayed home and ate Chinese Food (very patriotic, yes?) and watched re-runs on TV. Today, for the fourth we had a gorgeous sunshiny day. Quite surprising. Hubby and I stayed home and did nothing. Which was nice. We have a lovely back yard at our condo building and we seem to be the only ones to take advantage of it. Hubby took his paints outside, I brought my book and we had a nice, quiet, pleasant afternoon. Maybe that's the meaning of Independence Day. Enjoying the lovely weather, some quiet time and the company of those you love.