Val-isms

Knuckles can be replaced. Who knew?

My Mom has suffered with rhuematoid arthritis for a number of years and it's really affected her; specifically her hands.

It had gotten so bad in her right hand that she really can't move her fingers, which makes it pretty much impossible to do much with it, like hold things.

So, today, she is NYC having surgery on her right hand in which they will replace all 4 knuckles (with plastic ones!) and after 4-6 weeks, her fingers will once again be functioning!

Cool, huh?

Thinking of you today, Mom and looking forward to being your 'driver' in the upcoming weeks.

The big piercing event postponed

Unfortunately, we found out Friday night that there had been an 'incident' that had happened during a play date the prior Sunday with one of Sophie's friends that Sophie neglected to 'share' with us.  So after a little pow-wow between my ex and myself, we decided that a chat with the 'accused' would happen on Sunday morning and that the ear piercing would have to be earned.

I hate when this happens.

I was pretty excited at the prospect of surprising Sophie on Saturday morning when she would think that they were just stopping at the mall to pick up something.  But we'll be able to surprise her another time, I'm sure.

The 'incident' wasn't all that earth shattering.  But the fact that Sophie didn't mention it to us and it's a behavior that involves hitting/physicalness and then showing no sign of remorse or apologizing to a very good friend, it was deemed important in the realm of nipping bad behavior early so that it doesn't become a continuing behavior.

As you can imagine, Sophie was not happy.  It's rare that my ex & I have had to do the sit down thing with her, so when I showed up over there this morning, her first response was, "Am I going to get my ears pierced today???!!"  (My heart sunk) And then when we did share what our topic of discussion was, the tears and excuses and alibi's just started spewing from her mouth!  Incredible how it was all just an 'accident'.  sigh.

She did call her friend soon after our chat and apologized.  They will hopefully see each other at Sophie's birthday party, if not before then.

Sometimes it just sucks being the parent.

All of our other weekend plans went well.  The sorority sisters reunion was a lot of fun - great group of women!  (and the poor husband of the host person was probably wishing that the reunion had been held at someone else's house!).  It'd been 17 years since Linda had seen any of them, and she looked QUITE different back then.  Anyway, it was a great time.

And this afternoon, we went to the GLBT wedding expo and it was a hoot!  Got LOTS of 'pitches' from businesses who are there to make "your wedding day the most special and spectacular day... blah blah blah!"  I have to admit, I loved them all fawning all over us trying to impress us with their various talents!  We'll see about who we call once we figure out the details and costs, etc...

Pierced ears, sorority reunions & wedding expos, oh my!

No excuses.  But here I am.  So just read and try and forget how infrequently I'm posting, ok?!

The week was full of the normal stuff... too boring to mention except for seeing the new Harry Potter movie last night (it was eh, the affects were great, but the books are SO much better!) with Sophie & Linda.

With my ex just back from her business trip late last night, I dropped Sophie off to her early this morning and am looking forward to a busy, but kid-free weekend ahead!

Tonight, aside from going to services, will be spent at home relaxing.

Sophie has been asking to get her ears pierced for a couple of years and after being told she was too young, this summer it became an all out NAGGING CAMPAIGN, since most of her buddies at camp had pierced ears!  I have seen a lot of growth on Sophie's part as far as responsibility goes, so I pushed the cause with my ex and we agreed that she'd be able to have them done before her 9th birthday in August.

The past few weeks has had Sophie either coming up to me, my ex or Linda and pinching our earlobes and then asking if getting your ears pierced feels like that or asking us to pinch her ears to show her how it will feel!  It sounds funny, but after the first 50 times, it gets a bit annoying!  Trust me on this!

So, what she knows that it'll happen sometime before Aug 7th, but not a specific date. 

Well, it's going to happen tomorrow!

I'm going to meet them at the place at 10am when they open.  That should provide good blog material! (This is a child who hates needles and pain!  Perfect candidate for ear piercing, right?!)

From there, Linda & I are heading up to Massachusetts for her college sorority reunion picnic!  )No I don't know which one!)  She hasn't seen any of these people since college graduation, but has recently caught up with some of them in F*CEB*OK.

On Sunday afternoon, we're going to check out the GBLT Wedding expo up in the Hartford area.  Kind of looking forward to talking to some vendors and getting some ideas and contacts for our big day.

Shabbat Shalom.

Weekend recap

UPDATED with a few more pics on Monday morning

Thought the forecast was for rain Friday night and off an on over the weekend, we went ahead with our plans to attend "Shabbat Under the Stars" with our Kulanu group.  About 8-9 of us showed up and enjoyed a very special candle lighting and service followed by a nice dinner.  Sophie kept the camp fire going throughout which enabled the making of s'mores or just toasting marshmallows.

It seemed as if there would be no rain, so we set up our new 4-person tent.  It was perfect - with nice windows and covered entryway even!

Only Linda, Sophie & I, Steve, and Barbara & Alexis were actually 'camping out over night, so everyone else left about 10-ish. 

We'd just finished putting all the food away (there'd been a bear sighting the weekend before!) and cleaned up, the first drops of rain fell.  Within minutes it was torrential!  Everyone scurried into their respective tents staying safe & dry. 

In the morning, it rained again briefly, but by 7:30 when we were awake, the sun was breaking thru the clouds.

I wish I''d had a picture of the 3 of us starting our day, on our backs and each of us with our electronic toys!  Linda & I with our phones (reading the morning news!) and Sophie playing games on Linda's Ipod Touch!  Too funny!

We were up, briefly breakfasted and loaded up in the car by 10-ish and heading home.

Here a few shots from camping:

 

Saturday afternoon, we went on a 2 hour cruise around the Thimble Islands.  These are small (1 house per island in some cases!) islands off the coast of Branford, CT.  It was a picture perfect day and we had a great time!

It was with a group of gay women - 29 all together!  Linda & I brought a bottle of wine, saw people we knew and met some new people.  All in all, a really nice time!

 

Today was spent hanging loose around the house and few hours by the pool.  We'll grill some chicken for dinner and prepare for the upcoming week.

Banking for dummies (US)

I'm thinking that I'm gonna claim bankruptcy and go on Federal financial aid.

THEN while collecting all that 'hand out money', I'm going go to my job everyday and work my butt off and not pay taxes on any of my earnings!  Yeah and then I'm gonna create quite a nest egg for myself and my family and brag to anyone who will listen to me about how much money I'm making and saving!

Oh, wait, I might get in trouble for that?  

Then someone please explain how these banks that we (the taxpayers) just bailed out financially, are now claiming profits of BILLIONS OF DOLLARS?  And they don't have to pay anything back out of those profits?

Are you kidding me?

Absolutely insane.

All in order to count my steps

Since I've joined my wacky, exercised-crazed dearly beloved brother's walking challenge, it meant that we had to get some pedometers (yes, Linda is into the challenge, as well!  It''s a family thing, it seems!  Misery loves company and all that jazz!).

Linda stopped at Best Buy on her way home from work, but they didn't have any.  WTF?

Anyway, we decided to try another store that was closer to home, so off we went this evening.

As we entered the store, I was overcome with excitement.  NOT. 

The first area we hit was the electronics section, which Linda is incapable of passing. It's as if there is a magnet pulling her into it and she has no ability to repel herself away from it!  I follow her as she drools over Ipod touch covers and blackberry phone covers, etc...  

I wander to the end of the aisle to wait for her to follow me and when I looked up I saw a young mother and her toddler walking towards me, I smiled.  She asked, "Do you know where the bathroom is?"  I nodded no and say, "I don't work here."

Finally, Linda & I walk over to the sporting goods area of the store, where we found some cute little pedometers.  They weren't the ones recommended on the walking site, but they were the same price, so we got 'em.

Linda was looking at some other things and I again ended up at the end of the aisle waiting and another woman came by and asked me, "Do you work here?"  I shook my head no and thought, "This is crazy."

Then I looked down and realized that I had on a red golf shirt and khaki-colored khaki's.

I was in Target.  And I was in their uniform.  All that was missing was my name tag!

As we were walking out, Linda couldn't resist some jabs of "Price check, please?" and "Excuse me, do  you work here?" and as we passed the carts at the entrance, she turned to me and said, "You can't leave before those are all straightened up!"

Oh, she's a keeper, that one!

See how easy it is?

I absolutely loved this story and the gentlman needs a great big thank you for just being a kind human being.  That's really what it's all about, now, isn't it?

http://tinyurl.com/modhot

One day, people won't have to make trips like this, but glad that there was a happy ending for this particular trip.

4th of July and a Sunday in the park

The fireworks on the beach last night were great.  Sophie watched them with my ex and we picked her up afterward so that she could sleep at our place last night.

Today had a plan.  But before the plan, there were gifts to give out.

Sophie has begun sewing (there is another post in the works with more background on the reason for this new hobby), and here is her gift for Tommy:

It looks like a cat kippah to me, but what do I know.  Note, the ear holes! 

Tommy could be observant, but clearly, by the look on his face, he's not.

Back to the plan.  Up and out by 8am (ok, really, 9!)

Stopped for coffee and b'fast supplies.

Over to Wal*mart for other supplies and a license.  Supplies... check.  License... nope.

Headed to hardware store, where licenses were obtained.

Arrived at destination at 11:30 - Wolfe park pond.

Beautifully sunny... mid to high 70's.  The pond beckoned us.

Poles were set up with hooks and bait... positions assumed near chairs and big rocks... casting began.

Sophie is a natural fisher-woman.  She has a gentle grace about her and she becomes one with the pole.  However, sometimes, there are issues with hooks getting snagged on grasses along the edge of the pond and lines getting crossed with mine or Linda's!  Cutting of lines becomes the solution.  But all in all, she has great patience and we literally were out there for a few hours before we broke for a late lunch and then fished for another hour, before heading home.  No fish were caught, but we all had a great time on a perfectly beautiful sunny day.

Among the pretty sights in the water... a turtle, a couple of fish and a cute little baby duck who had no fear of humans and proudly swam over to us and walked by us all on the shore, though not pausing long enough to snap a great picture of him, but here he is (look to the left of the big grey rock):

Of course, Sophie is ever fashionable, even when fishing.  Here is the diva fisher-woman now:

 

and with her Mom:

 

And here is the cute ultimate fisher-woman:

 

Here is the lovely Sophie enjoying a well deserved ice cream cone:

 

All in all, it was a wonderful day.  We ended it by going to Red Lobster for some crab legs!  YUM!