Leaving on a jet plane

I am heading out today for a long weekend in the Great State of Maine. I am visiting my friend and former co-worker Karen who has relocated with her family to the north. I am really excited to see her again but even more excited to meet her new baby Eileen Elizabeth: and to see newly crowned Big Brother William: Greg is staying behind to fend for himself and prepare for his own trip next weekend to Texas with his friend John.

So you won't hear from me until next week. I hope you all have a great weekend!

Leaf Art?

Last summer while Greg and I were in Martha's Vineyard we visited this cool little shop that was a mix of new and vintage finds. On the wall was this great vintage educational chart showing the parts of a leaf. We really admired that chart but it didn't seem practical at the time to buy it. We were on vacation, we were on the island without a car so we would have had to carry it around, and we didn't want to spend the money. I can't tell you how many times I have thought about that chart over the last year. Too many to count. I really regretted not buying it. It was such a cool piece and a really great find. Well I brought up that chart to Greg a few weeks ago and he mentioned the he had been thinking about it all year too and also regretted that we never picked it up. So we got on ebay to see if we could find our own educational chart. Nothing came up that was vintage or as cool as the one we had seen. I wondered if the chart we had seen was still available but really doubted it would still be there after a year. Plus I didn't actually know the name of the store. Well after a day of searching through maps of Martha's Vinyard to retrace our steps and reading through different store descriptions I was pretty sure I had found the name and number for the shop (it was called Mix of course). Greg called and sure enough it was the same store and to our suprise they still had the chart hanging up on the wall!

Well after some emails and photos being sent to us we ended up buying the chart and recieved it in the mail while we were in Vegas. Recently we put it up on the wall. We love it and it goes really well with my other plant based photos. Not to mention it is educational!

BSF Update

I have been gearing up and preparing for the new BSF year and was all set to teach Level 3 kids (5th & 6th grade). I was spending a lot of time trying to remember what I was like in 5th & 6th grade. What did I care about, what did I do, what was cool. I came up with lots of fun activity ideas for my 3-4 enrolled students and was all ready for the first leaders meeting.

Well the night before the meeting I got a call from my Teaching Leader and it turns out there is a very great need for trained Discussion Leaders right now. She asked if I would be willing to switch back. I of course have always said I would go where needed so today I spent my day calling my 18(!) group members and making these: BSF name tags! I am a little sad to be leaving the school program but being a DL again will be a lot less work and maybe that is what I need this year. And now for a special news bulletin!

********Attention all ex-BSF leaders***************

An amazing thing happened this year on the BSF front. All BSF leaders are now allowed to wear PANTS to meetings and class night!!!!! I just had to share since this is such a big deal. You BSF girls will know what I mean!

Nutty Pot

With all my sinus trouble I had to resort to using a Neti Pot to help clean and reduce the swelling in my sinuses. You fill the little pot with saline (water + non-iodonized salt in the little bag) then you put the spout in one nostral and tip your head until the water runs out the other nostril. Sounds a little crazy I know, hence the reason my friend Karen calls it my Nutty Pot, but it works. It is an easy, inexpensive, drug-free way to get sinus relief. You can learn more about it and its origins here. I also found this picture online and it cracked me up! Enjoy!

In love with cabinet lighting

Now that my kitchen is all set up and put together I want to highlight my favorite part. Our friend John had installed these great lights under his cabinets at home which I was really impressed with. I asked him to install some for me and while we were in Vegas he and his wife came over and put some in. I LOVE THEM! Here is my kitchen with all the lights on. I actually love them most at night when I turn off the overhead light and leave just the cabinet lights on. They set such a calm and mellow mood. Perfect light to scoop ice cream by!

And here is a shot so you can actually see them. The most practical aspect is that one is over the sink so we can better see the dishes while we wash them. These would have been really handy in our old place.

Thanks John. You rock!!!!!

Kitchen Complete

Last weekend I managed to finish all the decorating and organizing of another room, the kitchen. When my mom was here in July she convinced me I could make my own Roman Shades since I was having a hard time finding ones that fit my non-standard windows. The weekend before I got sick I found out there was a Joann Fabrics on Long Island so I drove out and bought fabric and supplies to make a blind. When I was starting to feel better last weekend I worked on it in little bits between rests. On labor day we hung the shade and some paintings that Greg's Grandma had given him and I deep cleaned the kitchen. Viola, it's done.

Blind up and blind down although it will never go fully down since we have an air conditioner in the way but it could . It is a red woven fabric that does a good job of blocking the hot morning sun. The blind was pretty easy to make but very tedious since you have to always be sure it is square. Now I am going to take what I learned and make one for the office upstairs. In that one I may use dowels at each pleat for more crisp folds.
And here are Greg's paintings from his Grandma's art collection. They were done by a street artist in NYC in the 60s I believe. After his death they started popping up and became more valuable (apparently there is a gallery of his work in the city). They aren't worth a great deal of money but Greg really likes them and we thought their bright colors would go well with our pale yellow and red kitchen. More on the kitchen tomorrow!

Vegas

Welcome to Vegas! We really only had about 2 and a half days in Vegas. We stayed in New York, New York Hotel and Casino (of course) which was toward one end of the strip. The hotel was OK in my opinion but nothing to write home about. It was conveniently connected to 3 other casinos (MGM with the worlds largest bronze statue above, Excalibur, and Tropicana) and had a shuttle to Luxor and Mandalay Bay which was actually very nice because getting from casino to casino can be hard and getting across the street can be even harder (it is 8-9 lanes of crazy Vegas drivers! and very few places to cross). The casinos all look like they are close together but they are all so huge it can take 10 minutes or more to walk between them and then just as long to get from the street to the front door in some cases.

We saw 2 shows while in town. There are 5 Cirque du Soleil shows in Vegas right now so we figured we had better see one. The one in our hotel was "The Sensual Side of Cirque" meaning more nudity and erotica. We decided to see the original Cirque show at Treasure Island. First a side note. Apparently a pirate themed hotel isn't "cool" anymore so Treasure Island is now called "TI". Everyone was calling it that. Kind of stupid if you ask me. Anyway, no photos were allowed at the show of course. It was of a great show just as we expected. The performers were amazing in their acrobatics and abilities. Ours had a bit of comedy thrown in which was fun. There were a lot of naked booties and tight fitting costumes in our show so we were glad we didn't go to the naughty version. I can only imagine what we would have seen there!

The second show was a comedy magic show by Nathan Barton inside of Planet Hollywood Casino (new) which was really cute and lot lower budget than the Cirque shows. It was free so I can't complain. One night we went to Mandalay Bay (very nice. I think I would stay there next time!), and they had a shark reef built into their casino. We decided to fork over the money and check it out. Pretty cool to see actually. I didn't get any good photos inside because of reflections on the glass but we saw lots of big fish and bigger sharks. I did get this photo of Greg in the gift shop. We ultimately decided against the hat!

Other than that we just visited casinos to check out the different themes, ate out at several restaurants, gambled, and slept. Here is the Chihuly ceiling at the Bellagio. Know for its giant fountain show that plays in the man made lake in front of the hotel. It also has an indoor public garden which we visited. They had a "Route 66" themed show.

Here is the Venetian where we had dinner one evening. You can see the Gondola in the background. Our restaurant was right near where the gondoliers stop to sing (good acoustics) so we had to listen to them all through our meal. In Vegas you can have a woman Gondolier. Not sure if that would be allowed in Venice!

Greg and the 1/2 scale Eiffel Tower behind him.

Also outside of Paris was this lovely fountain. I am wearing a jacket because a.) we had just come out of a cold casino and b.) I wanted to keep the sun off my shoulders because I wasn't wearing sun screen. I was dipping my hand in the fountain and the water was so cool I wanted to jump in!

I love the look of the water behind me. Not so much my expression! We also visited the new Wynn Casino and man was that one fancy. Steve Wynn has built most of the present day strip and his namesake is by far the fanciest of them all. I don't think I could afford to stay there. We also visited Excalibur, Luxor, Mandalay Bay, Tropicana, Treasure Island, Harrah and MGM Grand.

Back to our hotel. We didn't end up using the pool at all. The pool in our hotel was not very fancy or nice and had no shade. I just can't lay out in the sun when it is 107 degrees out. I need an umbrella at least. Plus our pool was only open from 10am to 5pm. Not ideal hours if you ask me. I would have enjoyed an evening swim.

Greg in Paris and me at Mandalay Bay. No matter where you went and how different the themes, costumed waitresses and decor were, the machines were all exactly the same. We won lots of money in Vegas. $50, $60, even $90 whole dollars at a time on slots and blackjack but then we gave it all right back like good little tourists. In the end we were in the hole but we went to Vegas with a gambling budget and we didn't go over it so we were happy with that.

I actually wished we had 1 more day in Vegas. We didn't get to visit the old strip or the Neon Museum like we would have liked. We also wanted to visit the Dam but we had a hard time finding someplace that offered tours since we didn't have a car. The casinos aren't interested in helping you find things to do outside of their walls. They'd much rather you stay and gamble. It turned out that the Dam no longer allows tours inside since 9-11 so we would have only been able to walk on the top of it. In 107 degree weather. No thank you. We actually saw a special on the Dam on the History Channel in our room one night so I felt like I did get a tour.

Seattle

I hope I can remember the trip to Seattle. It seems like it was forever ago! We were only there for a few days so we packed as much in as was humanly possible.

First was dinner with my sister and brother-in-law. It is always fun to visit their place and see how it has transformed since the last time. My sister is quite the decorator. I wish I had even half the design sense she does. Rachel has just started a new job after over 10 years working at Sears. She now runs her own Limited (no longer associated with Express, Victoria Secret, or Bath and Body Works) in the Alderwood mall. Drop by some time and visit her. Both Rachel and Chris are doing really well.

Next was Baby Time. I visited with my friends Libby and Katie and their babies. We had 4 mo old twins Imogen and Fern, 11 mo old WALKING Ava, and 5 yr old Rivka. Man was I tired by that night. Ava never stood still for more than a minute (that girl can really truck!), the twins were a little fussy, and little Rivka was a hungry for attention. It was a lot of fun and really good to see my friends again. Katie, if you got any good photos please send one over!

The highlight of the trip was a drive over to Eastern Washington to see my Grandma. She has had 5 small strokes over the course of the summer and the last one really effected her ability to swallow and robbed her of a lot of her facial expression. I hadn't seen her since my sister's wedding 2-3 years back so I was excited to visit. She had a feeding tube put in a couple weeks before my visit and it really made a big difference. She was doing really well.

I also got to see my cousin Michael while I was there and got to meet his wife and step kids. It was a wonderful visit just sitting and chatting with Grandma and making her laugh. My mom had a nice time too which was great after kind of a stressful summer dealing with Grandma's declining health and working with the other siblings on her care.

The rest of the visit was spent split between my family and Greg's. On our last night in town we had dinner with Greg's family and we were lounging around visiting when I accidentally bumped my head against a small wall clock that was above the couch. Not a big deal excep that the clock had a detached facade on top that toppled over and fell on my head. OUCH! I tried really hard not to cry since I didn't want them to feel bad but it hurt a lot. When we got back to my folks house (where we sleep) I had to put ice on it. My mom got a photo of Greg holding the icepack on my booboo while we watched TV!

Next morning we were off to Vegas!

I'm Back and Better

It turns out I did have a sinus infection and after 5 days of antibiotics I am feeling a lot better. I had some trouble with the antibiotic making me feel worse for a while so I missed 3 and a half days of work last week because of it and Sunday was my first time out of the house in a long time. Today I feel a lot like my old self.

Friday evening was when I was finally starting to feel better and so since then I have been working a little at a time on a project for the kitchen. I will have details of it this week. I am hoping to be a good blogger again like I was in early August.

Thanks for your patience!