Val-isms

Lessons learned this year

Instead of the usual New Year's Resolutions, which can sometimes set one up for failure and other negative vibes, I'm looking back over a year that was a very positive one.

• cooking can be a fun part of a holiday and I'm capable of doing it
• moving/packing is a good test of your relationship foundation and we passed with flying colors!
• there is no age limit on having new hobbies/interests - biking is a LOT of fun!
• agreements can be made between exes, where everyone is happy - moving on FINALLY.
• turning 50 is ok

2008 is looking to be a year for building roots, traveling and creating stability.

Have a safe New Year's Eve, everyone!

Last day of vacation

I haven't felt much like blogging this past week.

We've been enjoying our time off together, not so much doing things to prevent me from blogging, but just not in the mood to write about it all.  I guess that happens sometimes.

We have been busy.  As I try to remember it all, I can't.

I read the new Patricia Cornwall book - it was good, but not her best.  I'm currently reading "The Kite Runner" and loving/hating it/can't wait to finish it (should be today!).  It's been so long since I've had time to read, along with having the ability to keep my eyes open long enough to read... I'm loving it.

After spending some time Christmas morning at my ex's to see Sophie's "Santa loot", Linda & I took a nice ride up via back roads to Vermont.  We found a cute B&B and stayed overnight and headed back to civilization the next day.  We had a nice time, though it was extremely eerie to drive and not see any people and everything closed up - - like we were the last 2 people alive or something.  (It's tough to be Jewish on Christmas Day!)  It was about 20-30 degrees colder up in Vermont and they had about a foot of snow on the ground.

After Services on Friday night, there was a small belated birthday party for me at our Rabbi's home with some friends.  It was very nice - dinner and some friendly teasing/age-abuse for me. 

At Services, Sophie turned to me and asked, "If God created everything, who created God?".  We had a nice discussion on the ride over to the Rabbi's home.  We agreed that it was a tough answer to come up with.  She also was adamant that God was a He and when I asked why, she said, "He has a beard."  Seems that she was thinking of pictures of Jesus and when I pointed out that Jesus was not God, she said, "Well, then maybe God COULD be a woman."  She's an inquisitive one, that little 7 year old is.

Linda & I met the Rabbi, her partner and 2 other couples and some friends up at sports bar before the UCONN game in Hartford, against Hartford last night.  We had nose-bleed seats, though 3 of our friends were about 6 rows from the court behind the UCONN bench.  They told us to come down for the 2nd half of the game where we were about 4 rows from the floor - center court on the side behind the UCONN bench.  Can I just say - UNBELIEVABLE???!!!  We could hear Geno (the coach) talking to the girls. 

We could see Jennifer Rizzotti (UCONN alumni and Hartford coach) talking to her kids, too!  There were a few other UCONN alumni players watching the game, too - Carla Berube, Kara Walters, Missy Elliott, to name a few... we will be trying to crash those seats the next time we go up to a game!  Great views!  Oh and UCONN won, too!  We're #1 these days!

I did some work for a few hours on Thursday night, just to check e-mails and do some work that would alleviate the amount of work to be done upon my return on Monday, the 31st.  It felt good to have so many days off in a row.

Linda has a 16-17 mile run today in her training and she's been fighting a cold - barely has a voice today after screaming at the game last night!  She's tough.  She was going to run outside but with the temps at 28 degrees, she's opted for the gym.

Plans for New Year's Eve are to be home with Sophie watching "Mrs Doubtfire" and all trying to stay up to watch the ball drop.  We tried to explain about the ball, but forgot to mention that the ball-dropping is on TV.  After we describe the ball dropping in NYC and how thousands of people stand outside in the cold to watch it, she said, "We won't be able to see it all the way from Grandma's house!!!"  Ooops - forgot that small informative detail of being televised in our description!

Happy New Year everyone - - here's to a great 2008!

Touchingly surprised

Remember how I said that I was in a good place on my birthday?  My birthday was a good one and it was going to be a quiet evening - services where we would acknowledge my milestone birthday during the kiddish part of the service and then celebrate the Yahrzeit  of my Grandma Fay's passing, 11 years ago on the 22nd.

Then movie night would happen when we arrived home and we were all in our pj's cuddled up together to watch the movie "RV".

Well, it doesn't happen often, but it seems that other people were 'planning' this week.  Yes, and making plans about me and for me. 

As I went up to the bima at the time of the kiddish, I had no idea what I would be facing as I looked out upon the small congregation gathered together to kick off the holiday vacation. 

The Rabbi was talking to all the people on the bima (myself included) to find out what things were being celebrated - -  birth of grandchildren, birthdays, etc...  I had just announced my 50th birthday, when I first saw Sophie scurry to the other side of the sanctuary.  Then I realize that I see 2 little faces that I don't normally see at my Temple - - my nieces Maisie & Noa!  Further glancing around, I see my sister smiling at me.'

It seems that my Manhattan kin had planned a surprise celebratory ambush on me at Services, but had run into holiday compounded rush-hour traffic coming into CT! 

It was awesome to have them there - not just to wish me birthday wishes, but to stand with me on the 11th Yahrzeit of Grandma Fay's passing.

We all went back to the house after services and did the kids Hanukkah gift exchange where Sophie was given a beautiful and huge Victorian Doll house with furniture and dolls included! 

It made me feel so special that they felt it was worthy to come to CT to see us, especially when they had a 10am flight to Florida to catch on Saturday!

Saturday, for the CT folks, had Linda (mostly), Sophie & I putting the doll-house together in about 3 hours!  She LOVES it.

Saturday night, we went out to dinner with Yak & Alyce - very nice.

Sunday, Sophie had a play-date with a friend so they could play with the new doll-house.

Today, the sun came out, temps in the high 40's and Linda did her 8 mile run outside in the 'hood, using her new Garmin GPS tracking device and loved it!  I made some green bean casserole and dropped it off at the local homeless shelter.

Sophie is beyond excited about Santa Claus coming, having written a letter to the old man, made some cookies for him to have when he stops in and will be sprinkling 'reindeer food' on the lawn for the flying reindeer to snack on!

I'll be stopping over at my ex's tomorrow morning to check out the goods that she receives...

In the meantime, Linda & I did the customary Christmas Eve thing to do - - we had Chinese food for dinner and we're gonna be home watching a movie.  Tomorrow afternoon, we may go to the movies.   Not much else will be open!

Hope those readers who are celebrating, have a nice holiday.

5-0

A special Friday has arrived.  My 50th birthday.

It hit me this morning that I've actually been looking forward to this birthday.  It's the first milestone birthday where I can honestly look around me and have no regrets - none of the 'wow, I haven't done...' or "I shoulda done...".  Nice feeling.

I'm where I should be emotionally.  I'm with the person whom I love and who loves me.  I have a beautiful and sweet daughter and we're all moving along on a path together torwards a very nice future.

It's just a number.  It's all good.

Shabbat Shalom.

The effect of a simple sign change

I've been told that my driving can be improved upon.   

I've been known to forget where I'm heading to and kind of go on auto-pilot and sometimes end up at places that I shouldn't be ... like work on a Saturday.  Or worse -- forget where I'm actually going.

I am also guilty of doing the 'rolling stop' through stop signs if no one else is around.

To me, a yellow light means to 'hurry up and go through it'.  (Linda claims that sometimes they've already changed to red as I go through them...)

I've always gotten comments that I'd better watch it, or I'll get nabbed one day, on any of these 'bending' of the rules.

To date, I've only gotten 2 speeding tickets and no tickets for anything else in my 34 years of driving.  Not bad for all those bad habits that seem to bother my passengers.

Tonight, Linda called me on her way home from work.  Seems she was pulled over by a cop at the end of the exit we live off of.  There used to be a yield sign there and now it's a stop sign.  Not really sure as to why the change was made, but it WAS made.

And they nabbed her and many other drivers who didn't notice the change in signage either.  It doesn't seem quite fair to make a change like that and not really do anything to make sure people take note of it, but I guess the lawmakers assume that drivers are watching for signs and responding accordingly instead of just going on 'auto pilot'.

Linda was SO mad.  But not because they had changed the sign.  She was mad that SHE, the perfect driver, had been caught and not ME!  She was going on and on about all the the bad things I do and don't get caught and then SHE gets caught because she missed the fact that they had changed a yield sign to a stop sign.  I finally had to stop and ask her if she was going to turn me in to try to get herself off the hook!  A little trade-off to the local police department!!!  I could hear her now... "Officer, listen, if you let me go, I can give you the name of someone who REALLY deserves a ticket!  You wouldn't BELIEVE what she's done and how many violations you could get her for!!"

Of course, I know she loves me too much to really do something like that, but boy, the way she was ranting, I was a little nervous for a little while.

Oh, you're wondering what the financial damage was from this innocent violation?  $124.00  But, as long as it's paid before January 11th, no points will go on her license.

I couldn't help but smile that when I was driving home tonight, there were no police around as I came to a complete stop at the new stop sign at the end of the exit!!!

Whirlwind

There is a lot going on these days.  Work has my head spinning with year end activity.

Holiday luncheons at work and at Sophie's school.  Cookie exchanges.  You can tell it's holiday time.

And it's looking like 2008 will be the year of beginnings in a new way for us... some explaining will be done when the begin date is finalized.  Stay tuned folks - -

In the meantime, there is work to be done and to-do lists to be checked and rechecked.

Celebratin' early

Not that I'm rushing anything, but tonight, Linda & I are going out to a 50th Birthday dinner with 3 other couples. (Sue turned 50 in October and my birthday is next week!)

I've known these people for about 10 years.  Sue & I have become very close over the past 4 years since we've been working in the same corporate park and have lunch regularly.

Guy, Lou, Sue, Ann & I were the 'early birds' when we all worked in Stamford 10 years ago.  We'd all be in the office by 6am, so that we could avoid the rush hour traffic in both the morning and afternoon.   I loved getting up early and being able to get to the office in 25 minutes and then leave by 3:30.  Good times! 

The 5 of us would hit the cafeteria when they opened at 7:30am for our 2nd cup of coffee, as we'd have stopped for coffee on our way into work at about 5:30am.  We had our own private club and they went through the adoption craziness with me, as well as were part of the group that threw a beautiful baby shower for us when we brought Sophie home in 2001.

So it's only fitting that this group is getting together for this special occasion.  Italian food and red wine will be on the menu tonight.  Linda has met these folks a few times, but has not met all the spouses.  I'm sure it will be a fun evening.

Tomorrow evening is my company Holiday party.  With the weather being predicted to being kind of dicey, I'm not sure if it'll get canceled or not.  Linda & I both need something to wear to it, so shopping will have to be going on at some point tomorrow!  After services and the gym, of course.  Linda has to run for 2.5 hours (14 miles!), so I'll drop her off on my way to morning services and then go back afterwords and do my work out!

Sophie has a Brownie's meeting today after school (which is delayed 2 hours due to the snow/ice storm from yesterday) and they're going to a local convalescent home to sing Holiday songs.  She was looking forward to it.

She is going to NYC tomorrow with my ex to see the Radio City Christmas Show.  Then they're going to do some cookie baking for the cookie swap happening at her school on Monday.

Sunday, after Sunday school, Linda, Sophie & I are going over to our friend's home to do some cookie baking with their kids.   JE & Denise have 2 kids from Guatemala.  Their son is a few months older than Sophie and their daughter is 3 years older.  Sophie got to hang out with her last weekend and loved it!  These are the same people we went to cut down the tree with last weekend, so we'll see how the decorated tree came out.

Shabbat Shalom.

Slippery day

What should have been an easy day, turned into what New Englanders refer to as a 'wintery mix'.

Snow, mixed with rain and sleet and temps in the 30's.

We left work about 1:30 today.  My holiday luncheon was post-poned until next week.

It was pretty outside, but we took it very slow.  We left my car at work in the covered garage and commuted home together.

It's been a busy week at work and my blogging has taken a back seat to life.  It happens.

We'll have a nice cozy evening together. 

The Rabbi's 'job'?

The service and dinner Friday night was great.  Despite a pretty snowfall, which made the roads slightly treacherous (it took us about an hour - and it wasn't just about the traffic - from our house), there was a packed house.

The dinner had 300 seated for dinner!  The food was wonderful and we saw lots of familiar faces lighting their menorah's. 

Sophie had brought her new doll from her grandparents- one of those Madame Alexander dolls.  It was from Thailand and had on the native dress and headwear.  She's beautiful and Sophie loved her.  She had her other little dolls with her that fit in a nice case, as well.

At the dinner, she was playing with the doll and taking the head piece off and on.

Both Rabbi's and the Cantor wandered around the room wishing everyone a Happy Hanukkah.

Towards the end of the dinner, Sophie came to us and said that she couldn't find the head piece (you knew that was coming, right?!!).  She was very upset.  Linda & I looked all around the table - under and on.  We asked people around us if they'd seen it.  It had disappeared.

Sophie came over to me and asked with a very serious voice, "Could you ask the Rabbi's, when they're cleaning up later, could they see if they can find my dolls' hat?"

I have to say, that I was unable to control the fit of laughter that came pouring out of my mouth.  I know it was rude and insensitive to laugh at an upset child, but, REALLY.... when the Rabbi's are cleaning up later?????!!!  C'mon.  That's priceless.

When I told our Rabbi, she laughed just as hard.

Oh, and I dragged my 95 year old friend Midge out yesterday at the end of our visit.  She came as a guest to our Kulanu Hanukkah party.  She was in her glory.  Surrounded by gay men, our Rabbi, other friends she knows from the Temple while eating latkes and having lively conversation.  She was the hit!  It was a nice party.

Rededication

In keeping with the meaning of Hanukkah, we will be attending the rededication of our new Temple space this evening.  There will be a special service where our wonderful band will be playing and a wonderful family dinner afterwards.

I've heard it's going to be quite a turnout for all the festivities.  It'll be chaotic, but so wonderful to see so many in our community come together for such a great celebration.  Everyone will have their own Hanukkiah to light and there will be latkes and chicken in abundance.

Our friend Midge was to join us, but she's feeling under the weather this week.  I plan on visiting her tomorrow, if I can't get her to at least come out for the service tonight.

The weekend is, of course, full, but with fun stuff.  Along with some shopping and other chores tomorrow, the gym is on the schedule, as well.

Sat evening we will be joining some Kulanu friends for a Hanukkah 5th night celebration.  Sophie will be with us and will enjoy meeting the host's dogs (golden retrievers) and doing some dreidle playing.

Sunday morning, Linda & I have a class with the Rabbi, where the subject will be on the why to wear Kippah's and Tallit.  Should be an interesting discussion.  It'll be a shorter class, as there is a Children's Hanukkah concert at 11.  This should also be interesting as I've invited my ex to come and told her that I'd save her seats (in case she wanted to bring someone) with us.  It'd be so nice for Sophie if we all could sit together.  Have to see... it's only been 3.5 years... sigh.

After the concert, Linda, Sophie & I are meeting up with some other friends of ours to help them get their Christmas tree!  I know, it's a little crazy, but I've never gone to cut down a tree before and it'll be fun to see everyone and there will be other kids.

At some point, I hope to curl up with my new Patricia Cornwell book (thanks, sweetie!).  Linda will be nice and toastie while out at the tree farm, wearing the new boots she got for Hanukkah last night.

Shabbat Shalom.