I look good, eh?

I borrowed all the cool stuff that Patti had gotten Alana for my tourist picture. Okay, i will confess, I kept the mittens. I scored a pair of pink ribbon ones while we were there.

Shopping With Patti

I will admit that I do not really care for shopping. I will bite the bullet when I have to and take Alana, but it doesn't always go smoothly. Now look at that smile. Apparently Patti has what it takes to make shopping a fun time. Then again, she does seem to do Black Friday like noone else.

TKD...Canadian style

While visiting with Patti I realized that it has been forever since I blogged. So here I go. Time to just jump in with a post.
When we made our plans for our trip to visit Patti and family in Canada, Max had asked if Alana could go to his Tae Kwon Do class with him. Permission was granted by both master instructors and off we went. Little did we realize just how differently our classes were run. I think Alana felt like some sort of exotic, foreign import that the students were watching. She held her head up and gave it a shot.
I had to make it up to her later.

2008 Honda Rebel

My midlife crisis has arrived. I have been talking with a few close friends about learning how to handle a motorcycle for the last few years. Keeping on the lowdown, I did not want to have a lot of people know about it. It started with me taking my first ride as a passenger and went from there. Got my permit a couple of months ago and took the rider's course last weekend. Only female in the class, but the guys were great to me. Armed with my new license and some good advice from some seasoned female riders, I went bike shopping. Knew that I wanted something smaller and light. Used bike, so that it wouldn't be so bad when I dropped it for the first time. Bought my first bike today and took it out for a little bit in the high school parking lot. My 2008 Honda Rebel with 1500 miles. Absolutely perfect shape, so I will feel bad if I drop it. now the goal is to get my comfort level up so that I can head out on the road and enjoy the ride.

Maisie

Maisie has come to join the family. Another dog who looks like she is made out of spare parts. Her tail is always wagging. Such a happy girl. Big head, short legs, big front paws, and long tail. She has won over the staff at the vet's office and settled in at home.

City Boy

My dad is a big fire bug. Nothing like a heaping pile of combustible materials to make him happy. This fall we ran into problems with him being cold while he was out with his brush pile. You see, the city slicker that he is was wearing a sissy coat. Alana and I hauled him off to our favorite outdoors store and got him his first Carhartt jacket and some heated glove liners. Next project will be to get him to wear some rather decent boots instead of his old man shoes.

Celtic Dance

The big night for the yearly dance presentation of Alana's Irish step dance group. She loves her dance. Loves her teacher. Loves being on the stage. Ofcourse, you can't see that in any of the iffy pictures I got. In fact, just about everyone in our group commented on the fact that this year she was not smiling. Whatever it was, she had the best of times with her clan. Maybe she saved all of her smiles for the end.

Josie

1996-2011

We lost another piece of our hearts yesterday. Josie was diagnosed with chronic renal failure and had more time to enjoy life than we had expected. She was the girl who had defied the odds from the very beginning. Left in a box outside the animal shelter one night with her littermates, she was the only one to survive until morning. The staff did not think she would live through the day. I brought he home so that she would be comfortable and loved for her remaining hours...and that would turn out to be many years later.

Almost Spring

Everything is relative. If I just bought tickets to the Red Sox-Tampa Bay game in September then it must be almost spring.
Toronto is usually our game of choice, but since Johnny Damon and Manny Ramirez could be playing for the Blue Jays, it seems that the tickets went faster than usual.
Go Sox!

Check Off Another One

Patti should start chuckling when she sees this one. You see, I started this album over two years ago after our trip to Canada. In fact, I pretty much had this project about 3/4 completed...for about two years. I seriously have an issue with getting some of my projects finished. So, now I can say that I have one more thing checked off the list.

For Monika

Since I seem to be challenged with posting pictures to our proboard, I thought it would be easier to link my friend, Monika to my blog. Here are a few pictures of home. The lower road is paved, but we live further up on the hill and it is dirt. Lots of trees, but cleared around the house. Hope this gives you an idea about my little piece of the woods.

Rather Late Posting

Is it true that better late than never? If so, then I will just go ahead and post about another project completed. You see, I am the queen of unfinished projects. It seems I have the best of intentions, but not the follow through. I even have a list on my desk so that I can cross them off as I complete them. Periodically I throw the list away.Guess I'm better at cleaning up than completing the list (and that says a lot).
This summer I vowed that the decks would get done. Delays occurred. Okay, multiple delays, but the decks got done before the snow fell. Now whenever anyone shovels I am going to get peeved if they ding my beautifully stained decks.

Toby

1996-2010

I haven't updated my blog in forever, but here I am sharing. We lost our Toby The Cat the day after Christmas. I was able to keep him home (he hated the car and the vet more than anything) wrapped in his favorite blanket on my lap by the pellet stove. In a house with two other cats and two dogs, it feels rather empty without him.

We Are Purple

Promotion test today. I seriously do not test well. Started off with blanking on my terminology, but recovered well enough to move along. Moved along to forms where they messed with my head by asking for them out of order. Lucky for me the master instructor corrected this before it totally threw me out of whack. I did manage to get some air for my flying kicks, but was on my toes too much during sparring. Guess I tossed the male person a little harder than he cared for during take downs. Alana usually doesn't stress during testing, but today it was board breaking that did her in. Just lost her focus. Ofcourse, I was the one with the ice pack on my hand. What on earth possessed me to do a right handed break? I never use my right hand. So now we are at our last belt at the intermediate level. Beginning our internship and teaching will be around the corner.

New Toy For Manperson

2010 Harley Davidson Road King

Celebrity All Stars Softball

Last night the local police department had a charity softball game against some retired players from the Patriots or Red Sox. Always a fun game to go to. My favorite this year was seeing Bill "Spaceman" Lee who pitched for the Red Sox in the '70's. The man is crazy funny. Yes, those are work boots that he was playing in. There were some pretty decent plays by both sides and some good ol' goofing around. The son of one of the cops got to be catcher for the All Stars team. If I knew how to play I would have been out there on the field. As it was, I was happy just to sit along the foul line.

Futures At Fenway 2010

Yesterday we made the trip to Boston for the annual Futures game at Fenway. Brought along our buddies Kris and Jason for a day of double header baseball fun. Arrived at the park as the first game was getting started. The best seats yet. So close to homeplate you could hear the umpire bark. Other than the fact that it was hotter than all get-out and Lowell Spinners were losing, it looked to be a fun day.
Sure, there had been some reports of possible thundershowers, but there wasn't a cloud in the sky. We became focused on what to eat. I love Fenway Park, but the food stinks. Had the mandatory hot dog and settled in.
One of the Jamestown Jammers proposed to his girlfriend on camera between innings. The crowd went wild...
and then the rain began....



*sigh* Sure wish I was able to make the game in Toronto.

Patti envy

After reading Patti's blog post about her new, hot sunglasses, I said to myself (see, Patti, I do that too) "self, you should share your new, pretty stuff".
Some of you may be unaware of my like of nontraditional pretty things. I believe I have done a post in the past about my new, sparkly gear.
After having my ribs broken...twice in six months, my physician became rather more insistent that I wear some type of rib protection while sparring. Something about healing slower as you age, early risk of osteoporosis, blah, blah, blah. The master black belt instructor took him more seriously.
My sparring nights now had me wearing the bulky, cumbersome, not so pretty tae kwon do chest/rib protector. I was bubble boy. I adjusted.
Time came to order new gear to supply the dojang. The big boss has become more serious about raising the bar for protective gear. Head gear with face shields are now being worn by some...and I have new, pretty gear. *sigh* If it only came in sparkly purple.

Alana's Day

Alana's birthday is July 6th. Unfortunately, this year her birthday was the same day as my mother's funeral service. We had celebrated a few days early with the family cookout, but being off my game, I never took my camera off of my desk. What is up with that? I am known for being the obnoxious person who is always taking pictures.
The morning of the 6th Alana got dressed nicely to show respect for her grandmother. Hair out of her face; wore a skirt. Not one complaint during the early morning 90 mile trip to her grandparents' town for Mass. Was perfect in church and brought up the gifts.
Burial was 90 miles away at the National Cemetery. The day was now heating up to record breaking temperatures with heavy humidity. There are not enough thanks for a working air conditioner. Things were starting to catch up with my birthday girl. She plugged into her iPod, pulled the hair back, and dozed a little during this leg of the journey.
More perfect behavior at the cemetery. She helped pass out drinks to the family so that noone would get fluid low during the day.
Afterwards we bowed out of visiting with everyone so that we could begin the 170 mile return trip home and try to have a few minutes for Alana to have her birthday dinner. She was back into her "real" clothes and cooling off at the Outback over a huckleberry iced tea.

If I had known

If I had known that this would be the last picture, I would have brought my real camera rather than my cellphone. I would have fixed her hair. I would have done her nails (I always tried to have them look nice for her). I would have smuggled Coco in to see her along with the substitute that Alana got for her. I would have brought her pretty wrap that she liked. There are other pictures. Many of them over the years. Truth is, I guess there are never enough.
Mom