Val-isms

Halloween 07 and a fond farewell

Here's my cutie pie - aka Sophie -- aka Dorothy:

She looked terrific, but announced that the dress was too short (my modest child!) and that it was extremely itchy!  It was a nice 65 degrees and sunny out - just perfect for the annual Halloween Costume parade around the school.

Unfortunately, the morning consisted of going to the office for a few hours and then attending our friend Jesse's funeral at the Temple.  It was standing room only for this gentle man.  Hearing all the accolades from relatives, his life partner of 50+ years - Bob and the Rabbi, didn't leave a dry eye in the place.

He will be missed.

Stranger things could happen, I guess

Well, in one of the most anticlimactic World Series (yawn) ever played, the Boston Red Sox swept the Colorado Rockies. (I'm not sure if they were aware that there was a game or a series to be won.  Perhaps the games were being played too late or something!)

Glad THAT's over with.  Hopefully my Israeli relatives will get over themselves soon and I'm thankful that an ocean separates us so that I don't have to hear the gloating in person!  I hope my Yankees revive themselves next year and remind everyone who the best team is.

In the meantime, no time to waste.  Let's move on to the next season to wallow in and enjoy.  Womens College basketball!  GO UCONN!  We have our first exhibition game this coming Friday night and I can't wait to see how my girls look.  We have a 6'5" freshman who is supposed to be awesome.  Hope she comes thru for us.   We need someone to push us into the Final Four - it's been a long time since we've been there.  2008 is gonna be the year we return.  I can feel it.

An Ark anyone?

It was probably apropos that Sophie picked out the movie to watch today - "Evan Almighty".  To say it's been storming for the past 24 hours is an understatement.  Though it's a whole better than the fires that are going on in California, it's not real pleasant around here.

We went to services last night and after tucking Sophie in, cuddled on the couch watching "Set it Off".  I'd seen it years ago and remembered it being good, but Linda found it too violent and showing these 4 women to be true idiots.  Pretty hard to do when one of them is Queen Latifah (playing a dyke - a real stretch?  I think not!)and the other one is Jada Pinkett (before she became a Smith!).  It was entertaining, though I dozed in the middle.

This morning, (after Sophie spent the WHOLE night in her own bed WITHOUT once coming in to see us!! YAY!), Sophie & I went to services and Linda relaxed a bit and then ran some errands.  They had the dedication of the new 'chapel' room in our Temple this morning and had a nice ceremony to bring the Torah from the main Sanctuary to the Chapel, which involved us all making a human chain to pass the Torah from one place to another.  I love holding the Torah.  It's a cool feeling.  Like you're holding history.  Special history.  Even for a brief moment.  It's a big moment.

After a little nosh of bagels and coffee, we did a few errands of our own and headed home.

We met Linda at home and she went out for a 45 minute run around the neighborhood as her daily work-out.  She got to try out the new pair of running tights that she bought.  She was hard to miss in the side-ways rain and wind in her neon green bike jacket!  She loves running in the misty rain.

Sophie ate her lunch and I sat with her watching "Evan Almighty" and I have to say I really liked this movie.  Yes, it was corny as Hell and ridiculous in plot line, but the message it presented was excellent.  Sophie was really into it - from the corny funny stuff to getting the message of everyone can make a difference, one random act of kindness at a time.  (A R K - a random kindness - - as the real message of the Noah and the Ark message!)  A feel good movie that I would definitely watch again.

Currently, Linda is out picking up some Chinese food (yes, Mom, from Tiger Bowl!) and Sophie has her friend Abby over for the afternoon.  They're upstairs playing in their 'fort' and Linda picked up some arts/crafts project called "Aqua Dots" that we'll do with them after we eat.

The rain has made the tide waters rise REALLY high, which actually had us moving my Mom's car out of the garage, as the water had risen up onto the driveway to the 2nd garage of the row of garages.  It was pretty gusty out there, though not real cold.  When we walked out on the bridge walkway, we saw a fisherman reel in a foot long striped bass - VERY nice!  Though, he said it was on the small side and threw him back into the very choppy water!

The tide is now going down, but I'd never seen it that high - completely covering the island that is in the middle of the pond and almost coming up to the top of the wall along the front beach!  It was cool and scary all at the same time.  Nature can be like that!

It's supposed to be a nice day tomorrow, but it's sure hard to imagine.

Linda is going on her weekly 'long' run (8 miles this week!) with a fellow Temple congregant who is the Sisterhood President tomorrow morning.  I will go to the gym either then or when I take Abby home today or both.

We are going to a brunch for our friend Midge who turned 95 this past Thursday!  She was at Services last night and was her usual 'What's the big deal?' self!  She's simply wonderful.

Then we're going back to the Temple at 4, as the Brotherhood is sponsoring the showing of the movie "Joy".

In between eating and watching a movie, we hope to get on our bikes for a ride.

Shabbat Shalom.

Another decade... another test

Did ya ever notice how getting older can make you a little grumpy at times?  I'm convinced that no matter how optimistic a person can be and try to maintain to be, the medical profession is out to ensure that a reasonable amount of reality and a touch of uneasiness accompany you on your journey.

I had my annual physical this morning.  I'm not one of those people, like my Grandma Fay, who avoids doctors.  I believe in preventative maintenance in my vehicles, why then wouldn't I believe in that approach to my body?  But I also go into these annual visits with the attitude that things are fine and I'm just going to hear them confirm this.  They might say things like "you should quit smoking" or "You should lose a few pounds", but that's it. 

Well, as I hit my 40's, a new test was added into the normal array of tests and body area pokings.  The lovely mammogram.  Each time I've had this lovely procedure done, I vow that there should be the equivalent machine designed to fully examine a certain part of the male anatomy in such a flattening flattering way, such as this test does for a woman!

Today, as I approach my 50th birthday and I'm feeling so confident, as I'm a losing weight cycle and have been smoke-free for almost 2 years, another test was added to the mix.  I will try to avoid the obvious pun that this is the test for the truly anal person...  (couldn't resist, sorry!)  Anyway, I had no idea how invasive this test really is.  It's considered surgery!  eeks!

When I called to make the appointment, I was told that I the first (??) appointment would be a consult with the doctor and then an appointment would be made for the actual procedure.  So I guess it's safe to assume that it's not a simple 'exposeyourass-view-and-go' procedure!  I'm still trying to remain positive and optimistic about it.  I've heard there is no pain AND on the upside, I'll lose some extra weight!  WOOHOO!  (an extreme way to do it, i must admit, but a lost pound IS a lost pound!)

So... I was told that I've down 13 pounds since last year's physical and all other tests were normal.  I've made appointments for the other tests, so that hopefully by the end of the year, another clean bill of health will be received.

Does anyone know if there is another test to look forward to adding for my 60's?  Ah, never mind.  Don't ruin the surprise for me!

All is well...

The "Wiggle Report" was a good one.  Improvements have been noted by the teacher.  We hope it continues to improve to the point that it ceases to exist.

And it wasn't just about the wiggle.  She is doing really well in all of the other areas that were discussed.  We weren't surprised, but it's always nice to receive reinforcement from an outside source who happens to be an educational professional, no?!

Sophie went costume shopping with my ex and chose to be Dorothy from "The Wizard of Oz", which is a huge improvement on what she had been threatening saying she was going to be - Sharpay (from "High School Musical").  I'm sure she's gonna be adorable and you can bet your ass be sure that there will be pics!

The weather was not conducive to bike riding after work, so we spent a nice quiet evening at home channel bouncing between Suzanne Westenhoeffer on LOGO and "Dancing with the Stars".  Love Suzanne - - funny and cute - what an outstanding combination!

The wiggle report

It's parent-teacher conference time, folks.  Yep. Today at 4:40pm.

I know I'll look back on these first few years of Sophie's education with a fondness and envy that all parents of older children probably will relate to.  The homework of a 2nd grader takes them 10 minutes and the projects that they are working on are fun and for the most part, are done in school.  Though I love looking at the papers that Sophie brings home each day, there is no pressure on the parents to DO anything.

I'm sure there are parents who take this to mean that they really don't have to do anything.

I'm not.  I want to know what she's working on and I always ask if she's understanding things that went on in the classroom that day.  I want Sophie to know that if she doesn't understand something that a) that's ok and b) that she should be asking the teacher either at the time or ask for some extra time later in the day or c) come home and ask me to go over something with her.

I was a very literal child, as I tend to think that most kids are.  If no one says "I will help you if you need help.", then the child will think that they're on their own and if they don't 'get' something, then 'oh well, tough luck.' and then they're lost.  All because they didn't ask a question.

I just assumed, as a child, that it was me.  All the other kids were getting everything that the teachers uttered.  It was that I was somehow not wired correctly and some things just didn't make sense.  But I was way too shy to ever raise my hand in class or go to a teacher after class.

Sophie tends to be shy in some situations but so far, I can see that she does understand most things and from what her teachers have said, she has no problem asking for help. 

She is already showing potential to being pretty organized in her study habits, though not very neat.  She jumps into her homework without being told, but when it's done, putting in the folder and back in her backpack doesn't enter her mind!  I know, she's only 7.  She'll learn. To help with this, I'll nag remind!  (I'm good at that!  Just ask Linda!)

Anyway, I'm sure the conference this afternoon will be fine.  We're aware of a bit of a squirming in her chair at times during the day, but Sophie has been working on controlling this.  Each day when I pick her up, she gives me the 'Wiggle report' - - - "I only wiggled when I read today, Mommy!"  or "I didn't wiggle at all today!!"(this only has happened once!).  Awareness of the behavior to be changed is more than half way to correcting or elimination, right?!!!  (I'm smiling thinking that perhaps there is a 12-step program to this Wiggle issue!)

Hopefully that won't be necessary!

The need to pinch oneself...

Every once in awhile, a weekend happens that makes you wonder what the HELL you ever could complain about... that life is wonderful and you can actually hear birds whistling around your head, like you're Snow White or something!

This past weekend was one of those times.

The dinner party Friday night was a complete success.  The rain stopped for the evening just before the guests arrived, the food was wonderful and the evening was fun and filled with animated conversations.

Saturday morning, we woke up to discover the roads dry and the sun shining.  Off we drove to Kent with our bikes and enthusiasm to a part of the State which, though I would never want to live there, was spectacularly beautiful - especially with the fall leaves turning.  The northwest corner where it hits NY State truly has some stunning scenery. 

There were 30 riders of various levels of expertness and the 30 mile route was a mix of flat and rolling hills to make it both interesting and challenging.  We completed it a little over 3 hours, certainly on the slower end of the riding speeds.  We had a great time.  This ride convinced me that I needed to upgrade my bike to the 'clip-less' pedals and invest in some bike shoes.  There was a nice picnic being sponsored after the bike ride by some sports club that also had a hike going on simultaneously, as we were biking.  Good food and met some nice people.

We arrived home exhausted but happy.  Sophie arrived for her days with us, as my ex is traveling until Tuesday for work, about 7 with gifts.  She has gotten a small plant for Linda and brought me some of my favorite apples (Honey Crisp).  She was very excited with the giving of these things (and I have to give my ex credit for buying the items and allowing her do this!).  We then all cuddled on the couch together and watched "The Last Mimzy".  It was pretty good.

Sunday morning, Sophie made us all breakfast of scrambled eggs and Challah French Toast.  It all was tasty and she was very proud of herself! 

Sophie & I headed to Temple, where she had her "Trip to Israel" during Sunday school.  The kids have "passports" and visit different areas of the Temple where they board the 'plane' for Israel and receive a blessing from the Rabbi for a safe trip, then get welcomed to Israel, and then 'see' various places, sing songs, learn some language stuff, etc...   This is a traditional portion of the Temple's 2nd grade curriculum and the kids LOVE it.  On the way to the Temple, it was the first morning that Sophie actually said out loud, "I'm happy I'm going to Sunday School today, Mommy."  (my heart almost burst!) 

While she was participating in that, I was helping out in the Book Fair.  I met some more nice families and helped the various classes of kids with their 'wish lists'.

While we were gone, Linda went to the gym to do her 'long run' portion of her marathon training.  She had a 7 mile run to do, which she did in 83 minutes!  The woman is incredible!  She felt good.

We had lunch together and then went out to get me some bike shoes and take the clip-less pedals from her old road bike and put them on mine.  It was hard not to be able to try them out right away, but we were expected at Amelia's house at 3:30.

Off we went for a wonderful time just hanging out with Amelia's parents.  We drank some wine and nibbled on snacks while the girls played together.  Then we all had dinner - some delicious quiches.  We didn't get home til about 8:30.  It was a full day for Sophie who actually ASKED to just get undressed and go to bed!  She was asleep within minutes of her head hitting the pillow!

And within minutes of that happening, I put on my new bike shoes, turned on the lights on my bike and headed out in the parking lot to try out the new shoes/pedals!  I thought I had picked it up pretty quick and was feeling pretty smug.  I pulled up to the front door of the house, clipping out of the pedals with no problem and stood there smiling at Linda.  She said, "You will fall, it's just a matter of time!" and I shook my head and said I was gonna go for another spin... I try and take off and somehow my foot gets tangled on the pedal, the bike tilts and down I go!  Linda had to come out and pick the bike off me, so I could get up!  Luckily, I feel into some tall grass along the driveway, so it didn't hurt.  Oh well.  I'm sure it won't be the first time!  I can't wait to get out for a long ride.  Probably not til the weekend, but we'll see.

The latter part of the evening didn't live up to my expectations, however.  Though "Desperate Housewives" and "Brothers & Sisters" were both entertaining, seeing the Boston Red Sox CRUSH the Cleveland Indians was nauseating.  (Apologies to my brother David, SIL Cheryl & their kids!)  Go Colorado!

Short week... another full weekend

I'm off today!  YAY!

But before you say to yourselves... "Lucky Val is getting to do what she wants today, while the rest of us are working.", read on, my friends.

I'm taking Friday off for a few reasons.  I have some house stuff to do (still a couple of boxes to be sorted through and handled) and mainly because I'm having a small dinner party for some of the Kulanu members.  The phrase 'dinner party' is no way, shape or form anywhere CLOSE to what my brother-in-law would be doing for a dinner party.  People are bringing side dishes, salads, dessert and wine, while I'm making the main course, so I guess it's more of a pot luck.

I'm not much of a cook.  I'll admit it.  I'm not comfortable in the kitchen.  I am the person who likes to hang out and talk to the guests - offer them drinks and make them laugh.  I am the person who likes to clean up AFTER I've eaten a nice meal!  So this should be interesting.   

This is Linda and my first dinner party together. 

I had a meeting at the Temple last night, so I didn't get home til about 9:30.  My helpful mate had organized some areas of the house that needed organizing and done some laundry.  These are some of the things that I was going to do tomorrow, so it was a relief to be able to mentally cross off my to-do list.

We opened up the table and found a tablecloth, identified dishes and glassware to use.  I'm getting excited about hosting.

I decided to be kind to one of the members who I consider a friend, who happens to be a vegetarian and prepare a meatless eggplant lasagna.  Have I ever made this before, you may ask?  Um, er, uh, actually... NO.  However, I've seen it being made many times and my plan was to make it this past weekend to try out my technique, but well, I just ran out of time and going to the gym with the little time I had left took priority, so I didn't.  So, I'm doing something that many people shy away from.  Trying out a recipe (taken off the Internet!) that I've never done before on guests.  Nice, huh?!!!  Should be either the greatest evening EVER or there are gonna be a lot of people eating lots of vegetables, salad, dessert while drinking wine!

One of the best features of my parent's house (where we're currently residing) is the deck they added a few years ago.  I was hoping that the weather would mild enough that people could actually hang outside for a bit before or even after dinner.  Unfortunately, the weather forecast is not just rain, but TORRENTIAL rain that will start about rush hour and continue through the evening.  sigh.

I am trying to keep my usually positive out-look on life in order to believe that it'll work out fine.

The update on my training is that I have been good and worked out (Wednesday night) and did it by running/walking outside.  I have to say, it was mild enough to do this outside in shorts and t-shirt, but at 8:15pm, it's VERY dark outside.  I am not a 'fraidy cat usually, but since there aren't that many street lights, the dark areas were kind of scary.  I did a 2 mile loop and tried to do the minutes of walk to run that I was supposed to, but between being too dark to see my watch when I wanted to and it just being plain harder to run outside, I'm sure I didn't do as much running as I should have.  But, as Linda said, the important thing is that I moved.  I was out there for 35 minutes.  Sweating like a pig, but feeling like I did what I had to do.

So here is my "to-do" list:

Town Fair Tires to get my tires rotated and aligned.

Go the dump with the garbage and recyclables.

Get the house ready for guests.

On Saturday, I may try for morning services (depending on how much sleep I get Friday night!).  Then Linda & I are heading up to the Kent, CT area for a 28 mile bike ride with a group of riders.  It's an organized bike tour that goes crosses the Appalachian Trail.  The weather is supposed to be fine by noon, when this starts, so it should be a fun time.

Sunday morning I'll be volunteering at the Temple Book Fair while Sophie is in Sunday school and then later on, we'll be hanging with Sophie and the 3 of us have been invited to dinner at Amelia's home.  We really enjoy hanging with Amelia's parents and the girls are great friends, so that should be a fun evening, as well.

Shabbat Shalom.

The host with the most

No, not me.

My brother-in-law, Jesse.  He's covered (not on the cover!) in the November issue of Food & Wine magazine.

Check it out:  http://www.foodandwine.com/articles/the-definition-of-a-perfect-host

Yes, I've been to one of his dinner parties (still hoping for another invite!) and many of the sTews.  The write up is no exaggeration.  He's an excellent cook and is very humble about it.  I guess that's what happens when you do something that you really are good at, but more importantly, really enjoy doing it.

And it's a 1 for 2 post

1 post for 2 days.  Today was completely insane at work.  No time for blogging.  I'm barely able to get this post done and tomorrow will be just as busy, so here it is folks.

The weekend was great.  We picked up some pumpkins and with help from Sophie's friend Amelia, the girls drew their faces and I carved 'em.  They got into getting the 'guts' out and Linda cooked up some excellent pumpkin seeds - YUM!

Here are the carved pumpkins... however, due to my clumsiness, the largest (and the one that was mine & Linda's) fell off the railing (I had them displayed there for the passer-by people) and smashed to bits.  (Note to self:  pumpkins are not very durable!)

Anyway, it was the perfect weather and location for carving! 

Saturday night we had dinner with some blog friends - Weese and her lovely wife, Sassy and her lovely wife, EB & Maxine, Kitty Litter was sick, but her lovely wife and newborn (6 wks old!) son joined us for a great meal (if not a chilly one - - brrrr!) at Kitty Litter's restaurant. 

Though we were invited to go to a bonfire on the beach, there was no way we were going outside in the arctic air that had moved into CT that evening!  Sorry Tina - - catch us in the spring/summer, k?!!

Sunday, Linda had a little spill on her new bike.  We hadn't even gotten out of the parking lot... and somehow my rear tire got in the way of her front tire and she couldn't get her foot out of the clip fast enough and down she went!  I don't think we were even going 1 mile an hour!  It all happened in slow-mo and was memorable by the fact that some lady saw it happen and kept yelling to Linda, "Do you need a band-aid?!!!" over and over!!! 

Here is the very professional looking bike rider before we went out on the journey that started off badly!

MY big accomplishment happened late afternoon on Sunday.  For those of you who are tracking my 5k training... God bless you!!  I've been on a 9 week training program.  But in the Val-ism style of doing things, I am Val-ifying this process, as well! I started this program in June or July, but due to laziness, moving and injuries over the past 3 months, I have not progressed past the 4 week mark!  In fact, I've repeated most weeks' training at least twice!  I've been in a rut on the 5th week, in particular, for the past 3 weeks!  You see, the 3rd and final workout for week 5 has the person doing a 5 minute walk for a warm-up and then jog for 20 minutes.  Straight.  20 minutes.  The most I've jogged without a break, up to this point has been 10 minutes.  In fact I was supposed to do 2 10 minute jogs with a 3 minute walk in between and I couldn't do the 2nd 10 minute jog.

Well... Sunday I went to the gym for my 3rd and final workout of week 5... AGAIN!  But I was determined.  I had a goal.  I had a plan.  I was gonna jog the 20 minutes.  And dammit... I did it!  I can't tell you how great I felt.  It was euphoric!  I am motivated again towards my 5k training. 

So I'm pleased to tell you that I'm entering my week 6 training!  FINALLY!  My 3rd workout this week will be a 5 min warm up and then a 25 minute jog with no walking breaks.  WOOHOO... supposedly, I'll cover 2.5 miles!  Fortunately, I don't have to do any longer than 25 minutes until week 9.  But I won't think about that right now. 

The thing that I have to remember is that when I first started, I could barely run 30 seconds at a time, so I've come a long way already and it'll just get easier the more often I do it and get my body conditioned to doing it.  Losing the pounds in the process is helping to reduce the amount of what I refer to as the "J2J" factor (Jiggle to jog ratio). 

Tomorrow (Tuesday), I have a meeting with our Treasury people down in Stamford all morning, so by the time I get back to the office in the afternoon, there will be no time for blogging.