Happiness is....

.... a good wedding DJ. We went to a wedding this past Saturday. It was the 6th wedding we've been to over the past 2 years. (Note - in everyone the groom was a fireman.) This most recent wedding had the best DJ. He played a decent mix of slow songs and fast dance songs. He even threw in some Irish songs. I think the DJ makes a huge difference in how fun a wedding turns out to be. If there isn't a good mix of songs, people are not getting out there on the dance floor and the wedding can be a dud. This wedding was lots of fun in other ways. The whole gang from R-1 just made it fun. One of the best parts was when we got all of the current and former R-1 members and their spouses/girlfriends out in the hallway for a picture. What a hoot!

I never thought I would see it happen...

...but I did! Back in August - one of my "Happiness is" posts was about how it would make me happy to see a tailgating, weaving, speeding car get pulled over. IT HAPPENED! Just this past Saturday! I was headed across the Tappan Zee Bridge and there was this annoying BMW on my tail. I was in the middle lane, exceeding the speed limit but not overly so - after all we were on a bridge (not my favorite thing) and the Tappan Zee to boot. I felt like saying to the driver "Dude, I'm in the middle lane here. You want to speed more, move to the left land and harass them." But, I just held my course, he eventually did his thing, weaving in and out and left me far behind. A few minutes/miles later, what to my wondering eyes did appear - but Mr. BMW (he had distinctive plates too) pulled over to the side in front of a police man with lights flashing. I cheered. My faith in the concept that people got their just desserts was renewed.

Friday Photos

Some more shots from the Christmas card photo shoot - including the test shots and an outtake - aka the "I'm done now - right?" shot.

Happiness is....

....Boomer pics for the Christmas Card! And for Boomer - getting out of the sweater once the pics were done. He was very well behaved while I took the shots. Of course he was. A was standing there with the promised treat if he sat, laid down and stayed. That dog is food driven!! He loves food, hates bad weather. The look on his face this morning when I made him go out to do his business was along the lines of "what did I do wrong to deserve this?" Oh boy did I feel bad. He acted like I was punishing him! I guess I kind of was, because it turned out he had already gone out and done business for A earlier. Oops.

So - here are some of the shots - including one that shows the whole point of the sweater - Boomer is a UCONN Husky fan!

A Saturday Night in a Snow Globe

I spent Saturday night in a snow globe. Okay. Not really. But it felt like it. It snowed in our region Saturday evening. We went to the UCONN football game. As is our tradition since it was the last home game of the season, we sat inside with our friends. We were in the front row of the club seats, so we had this 20-30 foot wall of windows in front of us - looking out at the swirling snow. It seriously felt like we were inside a snow globe. It was beautiful. I felt kind of like a fraud as a fan though - being at the game and not suffering through the elements. But not enough to make me go sit outside! After the previous game, which was maybe 10 degrees warmer, but with a nasty wind, I had a severe headache. I was so glad to be sitting inside.

Now - for the game. The snow made the footing on the field difficult. Surprisingly, it seemed that the passing game was easier than the running game - but bad footing may be the answer. I thought that those little South Florida dudes would crumble in the snow - not so. They gave a good fight. So good they went ahead with 40 seconds left in the game. If you followed UCONN football this year, you would have been saying "Oh no! Not again!" If you haven't followed UCONN football - they lost 5 games this season by a total of 15 points. Every loss came in the last 2 minutes of the game - including the loss to Rutgers when UCONN took the lead with 34 seconds left in the game. Rutgers scored a TD with 22 seconds on the clock. So - back to the USF game. We have 40 seconds. I say to my friend sitting next to me "We can do this. It's been done. It's been done to us with less time. We can do this." And they did! Zach Frazer took the team down the field and with little time left on the clock, Dave Teggart hit a 42 yard field goal to win it. Awesome! Now, it's off to Birmingham for the Bowl Game!

Happiness is...

....bunny chasing. Not for the bunny, for sure, but for Boomer - oooh - happy times! And for me - because it's cute to watch. He doesn't catch the bunny, but he tries. And then after the bunny scoots under the fence, Boomer still looks for him. He goes back around the yard in hunter mode, looking for where that bunny may have hidden. Very cute to see.

Friday Photos

These are not necessarily in order - but here are some shots from our trip to Notre Dame for the UCONN v Notre Dame football game. The winner? As if you didn't know - UCONN! UCONN! UCONN!

Friday Photos

Lots of Boomer, the last roses of the season - and they smelled heavenly - and then a little attempt at being artsy with the grass/leaves. It looks better bigger.

Hypocrisy

Ugh. Hate it. I've dealt with it recently and you know - hypocrisy is just so annoying. You just want to slap the hypocrites upside the head. It's one of those things where I just have to have faith that someday, they will get it. Right now, this particular little group of hypocrites is being all high & mighty, acting so wounded - HELLO FOLKS - you're the sinners, not the sinned against.

Happiness is...

...a day off in the middle of the week. Two days of work and they were busy ones. The new boss started Monday. It's tense. We don't know quite what to expect from him yet. He's voiced some good ideas, but he's also one of those "we can run the Town like a business" guys. That's not really realistic. He's got some pretty common misconceptions about Town employees. I think his eyes will be opened. But for now - lots of extra work and it's tense. I don't think I ever broke a sweat going in to talk to my old boss. I'm sure that nervousness will go away. I hope it's soon.

Friday Photos

Today's photo post is different. I'm showing off some things in my life. Like my new vacuum! A Dyson that is designed for dealing with pet hair. I love it!!

And then there's the new TV. This is when it was first setup - it looks even better now - but so much better than that big ass TV that dominated the room.

Boomer, of course. What photo post would be complete without Boomer! He's prowling his yard - so cute.

A newly finished knitting project. This is a beret I made for my nephew. I think I may call it the #27 hat - since I did quite a bit of work on it during the Yankees' run to World Series Championship #27. In fact, I finished it during the 8th inning of the clincher. A thinks I should put a pom pom on it. I'm not sure yet - so it may not be totally finished. It's my first hat and I'm pleased with it. I did learn that I need some shorter dpns.

#27

How sweet it is! The Yankees World Series Champions once again! I was nervous going into most of the games in this series, but last night, I was calm. I just knew they were going to win it. That doesn't mean I abandoned any of my typical superstitious type activity. In the 2nd inning, while working on a beret for my nephew, I needed to put on my cheaters to see the stitches I was knitting. Hideki Matsui hit a homer. Next, bottom half of the third, I had taken them off when it was just straight knitting. The Yankees didn't score. So - guess what went back on for the rest of the night whether I needed them or not! I finished the hat by the way! That's the second knitted Christmas present ready.

So - some thoughts on the World Series. Chase Utley looks like he might be good looking, but the dude needs a new hair style - Pat Reilly wants his back. Mark Texiera is my 2nd favorite Yankee - awesome in the field, a little tight at the plate, but he delivered some important hits. ARod finally came through in the post season - happy for him, happier for the team. So, Jimmy Rollins - we were nice and let it go to 6.... And Pedro - we're still your Daddy! Andy Pettite! Big game, cool as a cucumber. Mariano - you know if he's in there, it's over. Was Matsui in the zone last night or what. Funny though - those dumb ass Fox announcers said several times how he was just a triple short of hitting for the cycle - as if he might do it. Seriously - have they not noticed his bum knees? I didn't much care for the Fox announcers in general - watched a couple of games with the sound off. I think it is pretty cool that they won at home - though I would have much preferred a 4 game sweep. It's kind of fun to see grown men as excited as little kids after they win. It's fun to hear Frank singing at the end of the game. For the Yankee haters - hate all you want. I love the Yankees.

Happiness is....

...the big ass TV going out the door! This thing has dominated our living room for years. I'm so happy to have it gone! We got a new, smaller TV. The living room looked bigger instantly. YAYAYAY.

It was a rather spectacular crash...

...but seriously I-95 northbound folks - did we really have to slow down to 5 mph to look at it? I hate rubberneckers and lookie-loos. I was actually going to be on time for work this morning! That does not happen often! Seriously! But two unfortunate souls had a mishap on 95 south and there you go - I'm late again. But as I said, it was a rather spectacular crash. There appeared to be no injuries - to people. Cars on the other hand - well, those two are going to need a little work.

Today is election day. Know what that means? Tomorrow there will be no more election commercials! YAY! I have gotten so freakin' sick of seeing Chris Christie's mug on my TV. I don't live in Jersey, but they advertise in the same market. Christie is on his own commercials. Christie is on Corzine's commercials. I have to say, it's been kind of amusing and kind of sad to see Christie's image in Corzine's commercials. You know they are searching all the photos to find the gosh-darned ugliest shots and the ones that make him look his fattest and piggiest. (If you didn't know, Mr. Christie is on the large side and, unfortunately for him, he has a kind of piggy little face.) Then there's all the Bloomberg ads. I think he bought 3 TV stations to air them. Okay - just kidding - but seriously dude - you bought a lot of air time. Tomorrow - we're all done. Thank heavens!

Oh - and say a prayer that I get a decent boss out of this election.

Friday Photos

Is it the last gasp of summer? Amazingly, I still have flowers blooming. Okay - the mums are expected, but I really didn't think the others would still be going. So, here they are doing their best to still bring us color and life. And then there's my boys.

Friday Photos

Happiness is...

....a clean house. If only I had one! Neither A nor I got the neat gene. We're not pigs by any means, but just not neat freaks. The house usually ends up just a bit messier than I would like it to be if someone showed up unexpectedly on our doorstep. Part of the problem is just having too much stuff and too small a house. We'll just have to buy a bigger house!

It started out as a good day anyway

My 30th high school reunion was this weekend. It was fun. I saw people I hadn't seen in 10 or more years. I had fun chatting with people, catching up. Some of the stuff I was afraid of - the kids question - didn't really happen. In fact, I found out there were more of my classmates than I expected that had no children. It was fun. And I think that, relatively speaking, I've aged well. I was tired after and the next morning we had to drive 2 hours to the in-laws for a visit. It was good to see them, but it was such a long day. We had the discussion about the holidays. My MIL wants to do Thanksgiving, which is fine by me. I said I would do Christmas, which pleased the BIL & SIL who go to SIL's family in NJ for Christmas Eve - makes it convenient for them to do both families over the holiday as we are on the way home. So, that's cool. Except MIL still wants to do a 2nd Christmas. I don't get it. I could maybe (though not likely) understand it if she wanted a 2nd Christmas with only her family - seeing as how we expect some of my family to be at our house Christmas Day - but no, that's not it, as she wants to invite my family for her 2nd Christmas celebration. I don't want to do two. Why isn't having all the family at our house good enough? Is it not enough of a family celebration? I just don't get it. Do we not do a nice job? I don't get it. The good thing is that A is with me and does not want to do a 2nd Christmas. But it may be a bit unpleasant for us all to say no to a 2nd celebration.
So, then today started out well. Was in fact going very well. I had to go into work this morning and do some stuff which went well and fast. We went out for lunch, bought a new rug for our living room - such a deal we got! All was good. Then I call my mother. Long story short, when I say we are going to do Christmas she immediately says - no breath wasted, no pause, no nothing "Laurie doesn't want to do that." Well. Okay. Laurie is the sister I had the fight with after last Christmas and she left the dog poop at the back door. She's unemployed and living with my mother. So, I'm not sure how much of this is her feeling awkward being unemployed and not wanting to see lots of people or her still being mad that I called her out on the dog poop. But, now my mother says "and I'm caught in the middle" I feel like saying - "no, you're not, in fact it sounds like you already made a choice." But, I was the good daughter. I told her that Laurie is welcome in our house. Her dog is welcome in our house, but Laurie has to be there to mind the dog. I feel so hurt that the first words out of my mother's mouth when I said I wanted to host Christmas were "Laurie doesn't want to do that." Not thank you, not that would be lovely honey. "Laurie doesn't want to do that." Fine. This may be the last time I offer. Next year, if A is not working Christmas, I will seriously think about going away somewhere for Christmas.

Friday Photos

I've been slacking a little on the photos lately - took some shots, just didn't post them. But I'm back! So we have some flowers, a butterfly - and of course, the Boom Doggie. A note on the big yellow ones - those are dinner plate dahlias. In our growing zone, you are supposed to pull dahlias for the winter. I don't. The first winter they were in was mild, so not surprising they survived. Last winter was horrible and this spring the area was all dug up for the fence and I kind of thought the dahlias were goners. Nope, they were just a little late. And seriously, in October, still blooming!