And the Jokes on Us

Tomorrow is April Fool's Day. April 1, 2011 And yep....the joke's on us. So we thought Spring was here??? Well, not so much. They say it will snow. They say we could get anywhere from 6" to a foot. Ha ha ha......what a great April Fool's joke. Isn't it? PLEASE?

What are the chances?

My Dad had some dishes he no longer wanted, so I put them up on Ebay for him. It took them a while to sell, but when they did......what do you think the chances were that someone from the next town over would buy them? Very good, actually! Cause that's what happened....and now we don't have to ship them!!!

Winter Hiking

Hubby and I are gluttons for punishment when it comes to going outside in the "spring". As was quoted by Henry Van Dyke, "The first day of spring is one thing, and the first spring day is another. The difference between them is sometimes as great as a month." So true, so true. The First Day of Spring was a week ago......but it's not spring yet in New Hampshire. Never-the-less, Hubby and I wanted to take advantage of the beautiful blue sky and get outside for some "spring" hiking. I found a place in Wells, Maine called the Rachel Carlson Wildlife Sanctuary. We decided to head over there. I was concerned about it being too muddy on the trails. I shouldn't have been. I should have been concerned about it being too icy! Since it was a gorgeous day, we figured we'd drive up the coast road. First stop, the Hartley-Mason Reserve. Yes, we got out of the car for a walk (a very quick walk) on the beach. I had to resort to my Babushka look, since I hadn't brought a hat and I thought my ears were going to fall off! We continued along the coast road, past Long Beach in York and visited Nubble Light House. (visited it from the car, that is.) Finally found the Rachel Carlson Sanctuary, which turned out to be.......okay. Not very exciting. No animals to be found. (besides a chipmunk and a couple of geese) But the estuary was pretty cool. Hubby and I decided it would make a great place to have a long "float" in the summertime. Just get a tube, and some sunscreen and off you go.

We stopped for a very short walk at Prescott Park in Portsmouth on the way home. And now I'm showered and in my jammies......ready to read my Sunday paper and veg.

Little Pocket Calendars

There are so many things in life that remind me how old I'm getting. I now start so many stories with "In MY day......" I'm also amazed at the fact that my three year old grand-daughter is more proficient with technology than I am. Today I went to a baby shower for a friend's daughter. This friend is one of my group of friends that go out once a month, to stay in touch and visit with each other. All the friends were together at the shower, and we took it as an opportunity to plan a date for our next dinner. And we all reached for our purses to pull out our little pocket calendars and pens. We looked at each other and just laughed. A younger group of women would have pulled out their blackberries, or Iphones, or whatever such devices they use for keeping a calendar. We pulled out our old-fashioned paper and pencil calendars. And our reading glasses. 'nuff said.

Emily's Song

After many times of trying to figure out how to get our song onto this blog, I'm giving in and just giving you the link to Youtube. This video was written and sung by Hubby and I as a gift for our grand-daughter Emily. Hope you enjoy! Emily's Song

First Day of Spring

Happy First Day of Spring! And so far, Mother Nature is not disappointing us. The weather has been WARM (alright.....two days of 60-degree weather and now back to the 40's, but two days in a row isn't bad!). The snow is melting like crazy. I can see GRASS in front yards. In other front yards (mine) there's still a snowbank taller than the hood of my car.....but we're making progress! I wore my "spring" coat to work the other day. No mittens, no scarf. I haven't QUITE seen any buds on trees or early flowers. Not yet. But soon....right? But as all New Englanders do.....I have to pray this isn't just a tease from Mother Nature. That true spring is really here and that we aren't going to get socked by a big ice/snow/ storm in the coming weeks. It's happened before......and I wouldn't be surprised if it happens again. 11PM UPDATE ----- Just saw on the news that SNOW is coming tomorrow. Surprise!!!

Time to say good-bye

Time to say good-bye to our condo. Time to move on to a "big people" house. (hopefully!) I bought the condo we're living in after I left my first marriage. It was a good move at the time. I had some money from the sale of the house and put about 1/2 the price of the condo as a down-payment. And it's served its purpose for 9 years. When Hubby and I got married 5 years ago, I tried to sell the condo so we could get something big enough to house ourselves and the 3 twenty-something age kids still living in our households. That didn't work out. The condo was on the market then for 9 months and there was nary a bite. So we settled in and have been living here for the past five years. Now it's time to try again.....for several reasons: 1) The place is just too darn small. A) I can't have more than 4 people over comfortably for dinner, which leaves out our ever having dinner with all our children at once. B) I can't have any holidays at my house because I can't fit everyone in. C) We have no storage. No attic, no cellar. D) Hubby has lots of "stuff" and there's no place for it. E) I would like to have room to work on projects and leave them out. 2) We have no backyard, and therefore no BBQ's (without our grill and chairs being stolen.) 3) I'm sick of living with neighbors on top of us. A) The kids upstairs who apparently wear tap shoes and dance around. B) The drunken neighbor next door who will someday start the whole condo on fire. C) The idiots who have car alarms. So, we took the big step and put the condo on the market. According to the real estate agent, the hard part will be selling the condo; the easy part will be finding a house. We'll see.

Music makes me happy

As I've said before, Hubby is a musician. Sadly, I am not. I can, however, be a music-listener! Through the open mics that Hubby and I go out to, we've made lots of friends on the music scene.

Now our lives are filled with music. Last night we went to the Bull Run in Shirley, MA where our friend Gayle Picard runs the Bull Run Thursday Night Independent Music Soundstage. Every Thursday night, Gayle hosts an evening of music put on by local singer/songwriters.

This week, we saw a fantastic show by Nate Smith. It was a great night filled with laughter, beautiful songs, friends and love.

Tomorrow we'll be going to a CD release party for good friends Cooper and Kenneally.

It will be their first CD together, and I can't wait to hear it live when they present their songs to everyone tomorrow at the party.

And Sunday, we'll be have OUR band over to practice for OUR gig in May! Yes, the duo of Karen and Tag will be putting on a show in May, along with our back up band.....Tag's brother Doug on guitar, his cousin Ricky on bongos, and his cousin Scot on bass.

Anyone in the area who'd like to come.....join us! It'll be a night filled with fun original songs, music, laughter, friendship and fun.

Boston's Museum of Fine Arts

Hubby and I both had the day off....unusual for us on a Saturday!!! So we decided to take advantage and go on an adventure. We took the train into Boston and visited the Museum of Fine Arts. They just opened a new wing, and neither one of us had been there in many years. Part of the new wing was a giant glass couryard in the middle, where you can get some lunch or a snack. They had a musical trio playing for your enjoyment.

Too bad our coffee table didn't come out looking like this!

Picasso always freaks me out.

Hubby's favorite painting by Gauguin.....I don't know why??

Beautiful, sunny, open areas. Notice the "people" falling from the ceiling!

Everything is presented so beautifully.

Gorgeous rotunda in the middle of the building.

We finished off our day with lunch/dinner at the Cheesecake Factory in the Prudential Center. Yum!

What lit the fire under my ass?

I've been procrastinating lately. Supposed to make appointments, plan events, etc. And I just didn't seem to do anything about it. Laaaaaaaazy. The winter is beating down on us all and making us lethargic. But for some reason, I got up this morning and started doing stuff: 1) Made an appt. for my mammogram. The notice saying I should call to make the appt. has been sitting on my desk for three weeks. 2) Made an appt. for my physical. I have to have one every year because I'm on blood pressure medication and they won't give me a new prescription unless I have the physical. 3) Made an appt. for Hubby's oral surgery. 4) Reserved the tickets from the library for the Museum of Fine Arts, so we can go there on Saturday. 5) Checked the train schedule and marked a map for our Saturday trip. 6) Put in my request for time off in April to go to Montreal. 7) Made a hotel reservation for Montreal. 8) Looked up some places to have a shower for my step-daughter. 9) Emailed my sister-in-law about the shower. I'm usually very much an organizer and planner, but for some reason lately I've been putting things off. Even though it was only about 10 degrees, maybe I feel like spring is around the corner.

Tidbits

We had a "snow-sunshower" today. When you looked outside it felt like we were inside a snow globe, with the fluffy flakes flying around in whirlwinds, and the sun shining through. Odd. Overall, the weather seems to be warming up. And strangely enough, it seems to be making everyone cranky. I've heard of the "foehn" wind....which is a warming wind.....but in ancient cultures it was said to bring restlessness and "crankiness" along with it. I think that's true. Everyone has been cranky, including me. I think a lot of it is cabin fever, and the slight warming reminds us that spring is still too far away. I was covering in another office a couple of days a week for the past three weeks. Although I missed my co-workers in my own office, it was a relief not to have to listen to the PITA every day. My Hubby's niece lives down in the Fort Meyers area and has been going to Red Sox training camp and posting pictures on Facebook. Exciting to think that opening day is a mere month away. Hubby and I are gearing up to put on our first big show. We're polishing off the old songs and writing new ones. The show is in May, and though it seems quite far away right now, I'm sure it'll sneak up on us pretty quickly.

I may have overstated

That whole blog every day in the month of March thing? yea.....not gonna happen. My life just isn't that interesting.