Deer Friendly Chickadees...

We made another trip up to our lovely free petting zoo tonite.. armed with some baby carrots in hopes of coaxing the locals a little closer.. it worked.. kinda... maybe next time we'll try a little sweet apple... We also made quite a few new friends... so next time we'll take along some sunflowers for them as well.. Check it out..







Later

My New Friend...

So I took a last 2005 vacation day today and spent the day taking a lovely drive through the back roads and hill towns of Western Mass... It was supposed to be sunny out... but actually.. not so much... It was a nice day anyway... Funny tho.. you can drive for miles and still not see as many neat things as you can right in your own backyard... Here's my new friend, that I met just up the road in the Quabbin...



A really sweet baby, and 5 adults... I was even able to get within 10 feet of Bambi... Unfortunately I had the freakin' coffee-hands anti-shake turned on so of course the images came out blurry... I'm gonna have to head back up there again tomorrow and see if I can get a better shot of them... and in the meantime I'm gonna see about getting ahold of Minolta and seeing if it's just me or is it the camera?

Later...

After Christmas and I smell good and CHEAP...

LOVE.. those after Christmas markdowns... unfortunately there's never any money left to scoop up those bargains... ok.. so I did manage to snag a couple of them... how can you not? Red Door perfume (yours truly's signature scent, if I'm not wearing the Red Door I'm not wearing anything!)... Unfortunately I could only find one small bottle.. but 50% off! Woohoo! Same with the little manicure set I picked up... clippers for everything that could possibly need clipping on the human body for a whole $2.43! OH.. and then there's that lovely half price box of Pecan Clusters.. YUM!... Now.. I'll just give it a couple of days and hit the local pharmacies... they tend to eventually go to 75% off their candy and perfume sets... Love it... For those prices I'll hunt thru every CVS in a 30 mile radius for more Red Door... So yeah... I smell good and cheap!

Later....

Merry Christmas from 9 2 Bay...

So here I sit.. on a very early Christmas morning and not a creature is stirring, not even a stupid little angry dog... The kids are still all nestled all snug in their beds, with visions of MP3's dancing in their heads... With Mr. 9 2 Bay in his down comforter and the little dog swaddled in her fleece blankie, I sit and sip coffee while the WB's Yule log burns brightly on the tv.

I sit and watch the sky brighten out over the snowy landscape turning everything an icy blue and that first strip of pink begins to show on the horizon. A moment of quiet and peace before the hustle of the unwrapping, the food, the travel to the in-laws, the visiting and the hugs... The lovely beginning of a wonderful Christmas day.

May the peace and beauty of a Christmas sunrise be with you and yours on this lovely Christmas Day!

Merry Christmas Dear Readers.. Merry Christmas indeed!

Milestones... Get your sneakers on...

Well, we hit another milestone here on 9 2 Bay... No more teenager... that's right the Man-child is no longer a teenager... oops.. did I say "Man-CHILD"? Sorry, we were getting rid of that misnomer weren't we? Geez, and I haven't thought of a replacement yet... Man-man? no.. New-Man? ha.. maybe... How about Man-son? I don't think so... Well.. until we come up with something better we'll just have to go with "the Man-Jeff"...

But I digress... yesterday was "the Man-Jeff's" birthday.. a whole twenty years old.. We had just a lovely quiet celebration here at home... nothing fancy... just a nice chili dinner followed by his birthday cake... Which looked like this, courtesy of the stupid little angry dog:



See.. she gets a little excited when "Daddy" gets home, and the routine is that I let her run outside and greet Mr. 9 2 Bay in the driveway... unfortunately yesterdays greeting took place on that slippery spot that no amount of salt will get rid off... So husband brought cake, dog met husband, husband met driveway, and cake met snowbanking... Oh well... it was still delicious... ugly, yup.. but delicious just the same...

Later...

OH, Johnny.. say it isn't so!

Oh.. who am I kidding... FIFTY-TWO MILLION DOLLARS! I'd mop up the globs of discarded 'chew' from the dugout floor for that kinda money...

Nevertheless... we'll miss you Cowboy!

Later...

Man-child seeking new name...

So, it's official.. I don't think I can accurately call the Man-child - "a Man-child" anymore... The child part just doesn't seem right anymore.. He's been rather amazing lately... stopping at the store on his way home and calling me to see if I need anything, and not a single complaint when I do say "yes, pick up some fill-in-the-blank"... I think the topper was last nite tho... He and his girlfriend headed out to the mall to do some Christmas shopping and before he left he checked with both his father and I to see if there was anything he could pick up for us... Mr. 9 2 Bay handed him some cash and made a couple of requests... and I also made several requests and handed him the debit card (with appropriate sizes - colors - and price limitations)and sent them off with a "If you don't see anything, don't worry about it."...

Well.. lo and behold.. several hours later they returned with several of my requests fulfilled (AND Mr. 9 2 Bay's as well) and handed back my debit card, complete with receipts! HOW freakin' awesome is THAT?? But wait.. it gets better!

After an hour or so of laying in bed unable to sleep, I got up to see exactly how many elephants were in that herd that was running up and down the stairs... As I rounded the corner into the living, what to my wondering eyes should appear? Our giant Christmas tree - AND ALL OF THOSE PRESENTS WERE THERE! Fully wrapped, tagged and bowed, and nicely displayed beneath the green plastic branches of the Hannukah tree! LOVELY!

And so that's that... no more "Man-CHILD"... What a lovely Christmas present!

Later...

I'm an apple...

And here's the tree I fell from... Explains loads of stuff doesn't it?



Everyone HIDE.. she's making those "crazy eyes" again!

Later...

My Life - another example...

So.. did you all read that article about the guy in Westboro that left his car unlocked at a train station only to return and find a 15 thousand dollar diamond ring on his front seat? Yeah... I read it too... Can I borrow this guys life? Come on'.. just for a little while... we already have alot in common.. I too left my truck unattended only to find a nifty Christmas gift awaiting me upon my return! Really... Addressed personally to me and signed "Santa".. OH the joy... the glee... the wonderful surprise... The man-child said I should wait till Christmas to open it but never being one to enjoy waiting for anything I of course ripped the festive paper off that puppy quicker than you can say "POTATO MASHER???" That's right... so some guy out in Westboro got him self a genuine golden sparkler for Christmas and I got a potato masher... and that's just another perfect example of "My Life"... So the moral of the story is "When life leaves you a little surprise, don't get all worked up, just boil yourself some potatoes and take it out on them in style... with a brand new black plastic potato smasher!" The End...
Laura
ps.. Thanks Santa... I guess you really do hear everything. Even conversations with sisters who suffer third degree burns while mashing potatos at my house on Thanksgiving with a fork!

It can't be a Christmas movie - nobody died!

Amazing... one whole Christmas movie and nobody died... nobody got sick... no alzheimers... no dead wife/husband/grandma/grandpa/dog... not a single hint of "I lost my loved one and it just isn't Christmas without them"... How could that be? No George Bailey Financial Ruin... Mom Meredith Baxter-Birney doesn't come back from the dead to set the family right... James Garner's alzheimers' victim/wife doesn't kick the bucket while he hangs out with Julie Andrews as she mourns her own dead husband... Dolly Parton doesn't even have to step in help those poor motherless children...

One nite I actually watched Maureen O'Hara die in two seperate Christmas movies...

It's called "A Boyfriend for Christmas!"... Just a light hearted romp thru the fake California snow with a pretty good Santa, and ok, some pretty bad acting... but hey... NO ONE DIED! I didn't think it was possible to make a Christmas movie without killing off someone...

So.. YEAH... it's an actual Christmas movie and I don't see dead people! Let the Holiday begin!

Later...

3 Looks for Christmas...

So.. we got a little fancy with the Christmas tree this year on 9 2 Bay... ok.. so it was a complete accident that happened when Mr. 9 2 Bay had a little "which end is which on these lights" issue... Frankly.. it turned out so well, we may try to replicate it again next year... Here's a pic... you have to watch it for a few times thru to get the idea, but basically, I was going for a mixture of blue and white lights on the tree this year, with nothing but silver and blue ornaments (yeah.. I know.. it has been dubbed the Hanukkah Christmas Tree!)... Well.. with Mr. 9 Bay's goof on the lights we ended up with a seperate plug for each color of lights.. so now, depending on which plugs we plug in, we can have a blue tree.. or a white tree.. or a blue and white tree! Pretty funky huh? Next year I think we'll do Red and White... OH.. or maybe Red, White and Blue.. WOOHOO..


Cool huh?
Later...

4 Crazy Americans in Amsterdam...

So I never did post any of the wonderful pictures Mr. 9 2 Bay brought back from Holland with him, so we'll rectify that today... So.. what did 4 crazy American men do for 5 weeks in the Netherlands? Well.. Let's take a look and see... OH.. my it seems they took a tour of Madame Toussaud's Wax Museum... How fun! Here they are enjoying some of the Celebrities likenesses up close and personal... (OK, so I blurred their faces so they could.. well.. save face!)

Here's a pic of one of the guys examining the statue of Marilyn Monroe...



Seems he's a huge fan of the blonde bombshell and wanted to make sure he remembered everything he could about her...



OH.. and one of the guys was a J-Lo fan..



Here's another of one of them making really good friends with the Michael Jackson statue!




And last but not least.. who knew looking at all that wax was such thirsty work that they had to stop off for a drink midway thru the tour!



And that's about it.. OH.. there's some cool pics of Windmills and Canals and bikes and War Memorials and stuff... but I really liked this series of pics.. It just is such an explanatory slice of their trip... captured for posterity in living digital color... now I just have to decide if I should get a coffee mug or a mouse pad made out of those Marilyn pics! HA!

Later...

A little snow...

So we had a little snow round here... just about 10 inches... it was coming down at a pretty good clip there for awhile...

Later

The Problem with Plowing Snow...

Is the stuff is freakin' slippery! Just ask this guy... Unfortunately the pic doesn't really do it justice, the truck is kind of hanging there.. nose down... it's gonna take some major horse power to drag that back up the embankment.. and down is not an option either... the boulders just get bigger toward the bottom!

Later...

A Few for a Flakey Friday...

From what I hear, I've got a new family reader... Welcome... it's about time! Only thing is, she claims she's almost done reading the WHOLE blog, and frankly, I don't think so... HEY.. you... look over to the right and scroll down a bit... see the listing of all the months? Those are called Archives... every entry I've ever written since July 2004! Just click on a month... I think you've got a bit more reading to do!

A lovely snowy day here... woohoo.. not that there is such a thing as a snow day for me... hard to claim it was too snowy to go to work when all you've got to do is walk into the back office and log on to the computer... It's a conundrum... Home Office tax deduction.. or never being able to take another snow day... EVER... Bummer!

Here's a little pic so if your down south you can join in on the snowy Christmasy feel around these parts...



Well.. that's about it for this flakey Friday... I'm gonna go see if I can get Mr. 9 2 Bay to light the fireplace and I'll just move my laptop in there and work from in front of a roaring fire... Maybe we'll even get the Christmas tree up today... WOOHOO...

Later...

Learning Curves...

So much for assuming that because the new camera is newer version of the old camera that there wouldn't be much of a learning curve. After shooting a hundred or so pics with the new one with some pretty terrible results I've given up the theory that a Z5 is the same camera as the Z1. It seems to be that "anti-shake" module that is causing the issue... the old camera didn't have it but the new one does, and I've found that (especially when shooting close up) causes the pics to be blurry and very "soft"... unacceptable! Blurry to the point of considering sending the camera back! Luckily it allows you to shut the anti-coffee-hands off! I'll try some long range hyper-zoomed photo's later and see what kind of results I get with and without the anti-shaker, it is more a correction for that type of photo anyway..

Well.. anyhow.. here's the first decent pic I got out of the new bugger... or at least a section of it.. LOVE the 5 megapixel HUGE image size... if you click to enlarge this one you can even see my reflection in the little monsters eyes! VERY cool!



Later...

Frozen pixels...

Woohoo... the new camera has arrived! But I can't use it yet... Why?? Cause it's FROZEN solid... it seems the FedEx man either didn't like the look of my driveway or was just too freakin' lazy to drive on up... I went to their website and did the online tracking thing and saw it said "Delivered"! HUH?? at 2pm!! So.. down the driveway I went to scope things out.. and there was my $269 camera, in a plastic bag, tied to the bottom of my mailbox, sitting in a snow banking, just 5 inches from the road!! DAMN!!!! Can you say "Silver Toilet Paper Award" coming right up, and you better believe they will hear about it too! *sigh...

If it ever thaws out you'll get pics!

Later...

Doing the Walmart Math...

ok.. so there's articles all over the place about Walmart... Love 'em... Hate 'em... Protest 'em... Line up on Black Friday at 'em... it's a hot topic... So ok... There are as many opinions as there are people... so here's mine for what it's worth...

LOVE 'EM... that's right.. I LOVE WALMART... I understand all the arguments.. killing Main Street.. strong arming the production companies for their lowest prices.. etc... but let me tell you a little story...

Mr. 9 2 Bay and I were standing in line at the Wallymart registers on the nite before Thanksgiving... in front of us was a gentleman... rather shabbily dressed... slightly dirty... and missing more teeth than he had left... as he put his 3 giant cases of baby food up on the belt he turned to us and apologized for taking so much time at the register as the cashier was having to scan all 90 mini jars of baby food one at a time... Here was his story... It seems his son, now 11 months old, was a whopping 10 pound baby and came out of his momma screaming for "MORE food" and he hasn't stopped screaming yet.. it seems the little nipper goes thru 4 jars of food for each meal... 4 times 3 = 12 jars a day... Explaining further it seems he was from Southbridge, which is a long way to drive, especially with the gas prices, but having done the math it was still cheaper to do a run to Ware... The cheapest he could find his sons favorite foods in the Southbridge area was $1.09 per jar... times the 90 jars he had, that's $98.10... here at the Ware Wallymart? $.58 per jar times 90 jars, that's $52.20.. a WHOPPING savings of $45.90! Now lets say the guy takes home 7 bucks an hour... He would have to work an extra 6 and half hours to pay for the same food in Southbridge... That's right... I'm no math wiz but I think I got those numbers right... go ahead.. check me on it.. SIX AND HALF HOURS!

Now.. I don't know about you but I would MUCH rather see Daddy at home with the little nipper for those 6 and half hours than out working overtime so he can feed his baby... and don't even get me started on the math where I have to add time to his working hours to pay for the babysitter that allows him to work that overtime to feed the baby... lets just estimate and say he probably would have to do at least an extra 3 hours to pay the sitter...

As we we're leaving the store... there was Mom and the little nipper himself... an adorable little tow-headed bugger, with a smile that was melting the heart of the designated Wallymart greeter...

Yeah... Walmart... a GOOD thing!

Later...

Yeah, I've become addicted...

So, the 5 weeks that my camera traveled off to Holland with Mr. 9 2 Bay was incredibly hard on me. Now, I'm not saying that I missed the camera more than I missed Mr. 9 2 Bay, of course not... but boy.. did I miss that camera! Well, you'll all be happy to know that the problem is now solved! I found a 5 megapixels refurbished Minolta Dimage Z5 at an online auction site! WOOHOO... it'll be here via 2nd Day Air... well.. I didn't actually win my bid, the site also allows you to just purchase the camera outright, OH, I started out bidding... and re-bidding once I got knocked off the listing... and re-bidding again... the bidding was so fast and furious that the auction got extended for over an hour and half... somewhere in there I gave up and hit the "buy now" button.. even their purchase price was cheaper than any other 5 megapixels out there on the market right now, and seeing that this is the Z5 verion of the Z1 3.2 Megapixel Dimage that I already own, I know these camera's are awesome.. so YEAH.. I'll never have to be camera-less again...

So what else have I been up to... well... of course while I was in the auction site watching my bids slowly fall off the board for the camera, I had to investigate what else they have to offer... naturally... so... I now have a new addiction... They have these "Express Auctions"... 20 minutes of bidding and the piece is sold... So what other bargains did I pick up? Well... you've got to keep in mind their shipping is outrageous.. $9.99 per item... but here's some of what I picked up...


Yup.. The topaz is real the diamonds are cubics... but for 8 bucks - how can I go wrong?


How about this diamond ring? For 10 bucks?? Yup.. SOLD...

Unfortunately I didn't think to grab the pics of the $3 Ruby and Diamond earrings or the $8 Topaz and Diamond necklace I snagged but if they come up again you can bet I will!

Can you say jewelery for everyone this Christmas! HA... I love it...

Christmas shopping... almost done...
Bargain prices... wonderful...
Having fun while Christmas Shopping... priceless...

Later

My new motto...

Courtesy of (gasp) Donald Rumsfeld... this is perhaps the most brilliant quote that I've heard in a long time... what is it??

"Quitting is NOT an exit strategy!"

Don't ya' love it... Keep an eye out for the t-shirt!

Later

My Tree...

It's not the best pic, and I'll take a better one once the sun is back up, but here's the Charlie Brown Tree I told ya'll about... Festive, isn't it?

Later

44 Cents later... it's Christmas!

It's beginning to look alot like Christmas here at 9 2 Bay... and frankly if Mr. 9 2 Bay had brought back my media card reader you'd all get a dose of it here, but he didn't, so you won't...

This lovely holiday weekend I spent all of 44 cents to bring to the spirit of Christmas to the house... How much Christmas can you get for 44 cents you ask. Plenty... and here's how... I took a quick 15 minute walk in the woods with a machete and hacked down a couple of mini - Charlie Brown - type christmas trees... brought them into the house... placed them in bud vases throughout the house and then decorated them with blue and silver metallic curling ribbon... Lovely!

So now it's beginning to look alot like Christmas and it's not even December yet... How's that for a change from last year where the Christmas tree went up just the day before Christmas Eve? Amazing! And very very festive... Watch for the pictures once I wrestle my hardware from Mr. 9 2 Bay's sticky fingers...

Christmas tree - free
Curling Ribbon - 44 cents
Pine pitch on the hands - everlasting
The Christmas Spirit - Priceless!

Later...

Food, Family and Fun...

It was a great Thanksgiving... even with the 3 inches of snow... actually that just made it all really pretty... So, we've survived another Turkey Day here at 9 2 Bay... The crowd was a little thinner than I had hoped as both my brothers and their respective "significant others" were missing, but a wonderful time was had by all... I managed to get ahold of that second "set it and forget it" rotissiere and both turkeys were done to a turn (pun intended!)... nothing burned... no-one got upset (which is AMAZING when Mother and I get in the same room never mind try and cook together!)... we had a ball playing "Catch Phrase" for hours after dinner as we snacked on the multitude of deserts and reverse appetizers... SUCCESS!
I LOVE IT!

So now we just have a lovely long weekend to relax and ruminate about the whole lovely affair... my house is actually clean for a change and feels really nice... and we still have a plethora of lovely foods to snack on... now if I could just do something about that turkey smell that fills the kitchen every time the fridge is opened... it's always something...

Later...

Thanks Full....

Ok.. so here's the Thanks listing...

- Brother Ed tops this list for his quick actions during Dad's heart attack, you rock Ed!

- Mr. 9 2 Bay's employer... really... they not only ponied up for the majority of our wonderful Caribbean cruise as a 25 year award for Mr. 9 2 Bay, they also sent him to Holland for 5 weeks, again ponied up with a great Holiday bonus, and now a new job for Mr. 9 2 Bay that will get him off those cement floors and trim his hours by 10 per week. Just not having to get up at 4:30am is gonna be like a semi-retirement for him... WOOHOO!

- The families... we've had some great times and some hard times this year, and everyone of you made the good even better, and the bad more bearable, just with your presence!

- All the members of the armed service... Your dedication and selflessness is appreciated

OK.. and now the Thanks but NO THANKS listing!

- Everyone that preyed on the hurt and suffering down South during and after the disasters - may you get what you so justly deserve!

- The terrorists that target women, children and innocent civilians - may you be reincarnated as one of the 70 virgins awaiting Saddam in the afterlife!

- Cindy Sheehan... you may not agree with your sons choice of enlisting TWICE in the service, but I at least respect his decision to do so. It's hard to argue with a grieving mother, and I can't imagine even beginning to understand your pain, but the least we can do for our children (especially our ADULT children) is to support them in every endeavor that they choose to participate in, whether we agree with it or not. I truely am sorry for your loss but you earn a huge "NO THANKS" for disrespecting his wishes and using his name to fight against a cause that he obviously believed in. Your political beliefs are your own and I respect that - I don't really care what your political beliefs are - I simply say "NO THANKS" as a PARENT, that see's another parent, disrespecting the wishes and memory of her beloved adult child. Whether you agree with another's wishes or not you should respect their right to believe in it.. no matter what! Your not an activist to me, and I may even agree with your point of view, but to me, your just a disrespectful bitch!

Ok.. and that's the "Thanks" part of the Thanks-giving post...

Later...

RIP Sam!

Poor Sam... It couldn't have been easy being the World's Ugliest Dog, and now poor Sam has gone to the great Fire Hydrant in the sky... You can read all about it here..

Poor... poor Sam!

It's gonna be Tryptophan - tastic!

Almost Thanksgiving! Woohoo... and yes... we're gonna have a houseful this Thanksgiving at 9 2 Bay! Lovely... The way I figure it.. the more the merrier, Thanksgiving meal cooking always seems to be the same amount of work and time whether your cooking for 4 or 14... so more family? Bring 'em on!

The build up to the holiday has begun.. I've begun pulling together the shopping list and menu... actually the menu is pretty much the same every year and luckily I get lots of help with this.. each sibling has a 'specialty' that they bring... Anita is squash.. Jeannette is bread... Mom is biscuits... and I'm the Meat Stuffing.. This year we will have a few new added items tho, I'm thinking a nice crisp Waldorf Salad to start things off, a lovely Strawberry Shortcake to finish things up, and a giant batch of Sea Breezes to wash everything down with! Yummy...

So basically I just have to figure out the turkey situation. Last time I did a full turkey in the oven and a turkey breast in my Ronco Showtime Rotissiere... That's right... ordered directly off an infomercial by my lovely in-laws and presented to us for Christmas one year. Well you know what? My guests cleaned up every morsel of meat off that Ronconized Turkey and several went back looking for more only to have to settle for the oven roasted. So I'm thinking I need to borrow one of my in-laws Ronco's so I can do the same this year, only Showtime both the birds! It should work, as long as the in-laws aren't planning on "setting and forgetting" their birds this year as well!

Anyway... so now that the menu is planned and the shopping list is made, it's time to start pulling out and cleaning the "good" china.... and the dusting.. and the vacuuming.. and the mopping... and setting up a second kitchen table... and wrangling up every stray chair in the place... and the list just goes on and on... How did I get into this again? Oh yeah... You volunteered, stupid! Yeah, it's gonna be Tryptophantastic.

Later...

Self Fulfilling Irony...

So you want irony? Have I got irony for ya! Being home alone Friday nite, I decided to have myself a little comfort food type dinner... A couple of slices of nice French bread, slathered with butter, sprinkled with some garlic, and shoved into the oven for a nice toasting. Yum... what's so ironic about that you ask? Well, I decided the only thing better than toasty warm garlic bread would be a little spaghetti sauce on the side for dipping... and I COULDN'T GET THE JAR OPEN! That's right... after my own advice of getting together a Man Bag with an electric jar opener to replace that average man in your life, I was foiled by my own ineptitude at opening a jar of Classico... OK.. so I hand out the advice, that doesn't mean that I follow it.. Irony: you are an evil bastard.

So I sat down to my dinner of toasty warm, albeit dry - garlic bread and tried to soothe my wounded pride. Not an easy task. Although I was able to make myself feel a little better knowing that my manchild was sitting thru Harry Potter 4 in a local movie theatre surrounded by throngs of wiggly children. It really is amazing what a 19 year old Male will do for his date. Somehow knowing that he was suffering too made things a little better. Is that wrong?

Later...

United Commercialization...

Have you seen those new United Airlines commercials... you know the ones... they look like a hand drawn cartoon with piano music behind them... I LOVE those commercials... they so remind me of that old Christmas Special... The Snowman... No.. Not the Frosty ones... this one...



something I haven't seen in OH so long, but I'm pretty sure that I have the VHS and if I don't I think I'll be picking it up...

OH MY.. is that an inkling of the Christmas Spirit?? OH NO...

Later... much Later please...

Get your "Man Bag" ready....

I gotta get a copy of this book!

"Are Men Necessary?" by Maureen Dowd... You can read an article about it here... I've had the answer to this question for a long time now, I'm just sad that she beat me to the book deal!

Now this is in no way to be taken seriously by the man in my life, he knows he's special and doesn't fall into this catagory, but I've always said that the AVERAGE man could be replaced by just three items... What are they you might ask?






And last but certainly not least!



Yes Ladies... for a grand total of under $50 bucks, you too can pull together a handy dandy "Man Bag" with all the items needed to replace that man in your life. And you men thought we were actually talking about plastic ware at all those late nite Tupperware parties... mmmuuwwwwaaahhhaaaaaa.....

Later...

More of Bermuda

Just getting to some of the lovely Bermuda photos that I snapped while dodging the wrong way - crazy moped drivers, on this beautiful island.

Here's a really cool Gargoyle man from outside one of the shops. Of course I shopped him - just a little standard fresco filter.



Definitely "click to enlarge" this one... the "coolness" is in the details on this one!

Laura

Got Gecko?

Bermuda Blue

Bermuda Pink

And last, but certainly not least, a taste of that famous Bermuda Pink.

Later

Some new words....

I think we need some new words on here. I used to do the word of the day and maybe I'll go back to that, but in the meantime, here are some new words for you to practice using...

Pillification - What happens to your favorite sweater after repeated washing and wearings.

Pillivacation - The act of taking those funky little green pills that allow you to get on airplanes.

Pillowfication - The act of drinking a glass of wine with a shot of NyQuil on the side.

Pillofanation - Prozac... Prozac for everyone.

Did I miss any? Send 'em along via the comments button!

Later...

PS.. how could I forget this one?

Pillofelation - Yup... Viagra!

Worlds ugliest carpeting...

Ok.. so a bit of a strange post today... you know how cruise ships are supposed to be all about elegance on the High Seas... Well we certainly had the "High Seas" but the elegance? You be the judge... here's a couple of shots of the carpeting on the Norwegian Majesty. I swear the seasick feeling we all experienced wasn't so much the up and down of the 20 foot swells, but because we were surrounded by yards and yards of this stuff!


This was in the Disco... Club 52! Memorable, isn't it? And I love how it matches the furniture SO well... not!


This one was in every hallway that had cabins. Nope.. I didn't brighten the colors.. or change the colors.. This is exactly what they looked like...

The rest of the ship was no more modern either... which begs the question: "If this ship was built in 1990, where did they find the 20 year old 70's carpeting?" and... "How did they find so much old carpeting?"... OH.. Maybe its because it was too ugly even for the 70's! No doubt!

OH.. how could I forget this one... purple zebra outside the Spa!




Later

There was an October?

A week on vacation always gaurentees a crazy week when you get back but throw it at the end of the month and it just gets crazier... End of the month books and reports are always a task but they just seem worse coming off of a lovely week of vacation. Not to mention the feeling that October was somehow overlooked this year. It feels like we went straight from September to November for some reason... Very sad as October tends to be my favorite month.

Anyway... posting may get a bit scarce around here as I've got a couple "HOT" new business ventures on my plate that will be announced later, you know, once the trademarks and copyrights are all in place, and the details worked out. It's all very exciting and time consuming! But hey.. I love this stuff!

At least it doesn't seem that I missed much while I was off being tossed around a cruise ship in the middle of the Atlantic.

- There doesn't seem to be any news about the woman that was murdered in her home in Ware. Scary to think that the sick bastard that would beat the life out of an 83 year old woman is still out there walking around.

- AMC seems to finally get it that Sunday morning television is better served with a good old Sci Fi movie rather than a morning full of old John Wayne Westerns. They are actually playing "The Day The Earth Stood Still" this morning... yup, the movie I just bought... of course... we finally get in the correct genre' and they start things off with one that I just purchased. Typical.

- The Chicopee Mayor... why is there even a debate or polls asking if the guy should resign? They have the sleaze on tape taking $5,000 campaign contributions in exchange for towing contracts. HELLO?? Am I crazy or does this automatically mean "impeach the guy & put every contract that he awarded during his tenure back up for bid"... OK.. so there is that sticky "innocent until proven guilty" stuff, so maybe instant impeachment isn't quite constitutional, but if the bid process for some contracts are under suspicion, I don't see what the problem would be with a new bidding process on these. Plus.. shouldn't those bids still be part of the public record somewhere? Maybe it doesn't even need to go to 'new bids', just review the bids that were placed on the contracts in the first place... Anyway, the whole thing is just disappointing and maddening... Nobody likes a dirty city!

Anyway... that's about it for now on this lovely mild, foggy November Sunday morning!

Later

Sunset Bermuda

This one was taken on the Sunset Cocktail Glass Bottom Boat Cruise... Yes.. I firmly believe in multi-tasking... even on vacation... saw the sunset, got a Rum Swizzle buzz, saw some fish and coral, and saw Bermuda from the bay... Lovely!

Pristine...

I could have spent days photographing Bermuda - the "stepped" roofs to collect the rainwater... the pastel houses... the palm trees... and even in late October the gorgeous flowers everywhere... Unfortunately I didn't shoot NEARLY as much as I would have liked... there was just too much to do and not enough time to do it in!

Pinkish Sand at St. Catherine's

This is St. Catherine's Beach in St. George. Not the pinkest beach on the isle but pink just the same! We spent Thursday relaxing here, swimming in the aquamarine water and Mr. 9 2 Bay got in some snorkling around the Fort! A truely LOVELY day! That's the old Club Med on the hill - it's been abandoned for around 15 years now and they are tearing it down at the beginning of the year and putting up a brand new resort - it should be really lovely they certainly have a commanding view of the island!

Evening in St. George

Absolutely Lovely!

Tough to post in 15 ft. seas!

Hey All... yup... I'm back... back from where you may ask... BERMUDA! That's right... we hopped another ship and took a lovely ride down to Bermuda... right thru the middle of Hurricane Wilma! So now, we are the veterans of 2 cruises... the first thru 20 foot swells for a day and half outside of Aruba, and now 15 - 18 foot swells off the coast of North Carolina... OH... and you know that coastal storm that brought snow to Boston yesterday... yup... we sailed thru that on the way home with it's 12 - 15 foot swells... it was just great... yup... just FREAKIN' GREAT! It was interesting tho... talked with a woman who was on her 25th cruise that this was the first time she EVER hit rough seas... that's right... TWENTY FIVE perfect cruises until she had the misfortune of booking the same cruise as I did... Well.. at least I still have a perfect record, I'm two for two for gut wrenching - throw you out of bed - glad you listened up at the life-boat muster - cruises...

Anyway... I'm back.. all in one piece from what I can tell... so watch for the lovely pics soon to be posted...

LAND HO and THANK GOODNESS!
Later...

I Can See My Spouse From Here!

You want scarey? Try doing this... Did you know that if you go to your airports website and enter your spouses flight number into the Flight Tracker, that you can follow along with the plane? Yup.. and it auto-updates every 5 minutes! I think I'm gonna stop watching it now though, all I can think of is "What happens if the radar goes out?" How scarey would that be? YIKES...



Later

Holy Screamin' Girly Girls, Batman!

Halloween! I love this time of year... Combine ghosts, ghouls, costumes and candy and it can't help but be a blastfest! The nice thing is television has been jumping on the candy corn bandwagon with a vengenance this year, with several channels having 'spooky marathons' for the entire week leading up to the Holiday... woohhooo...

Of course the SciFi channel is down with the spooky movies, however, they used to do it SO much better... in the beginning years of SciFi they concentrated on the classics.. a whole weekend of Dracula, Frankenstein and the Wolfman (and I have the VHS tapes to prove it!) now though they've gone gorey... Halloween 1 thru 675... basically every slasher movie ever made... uummm.. no thanks.. I like my horror implied... not splattered in fake blood all over the screen...

Even the Travel Channel has gotten in on the scarey festivities, with "Haunting" type shows all week long.... now.. this is more like it.. I'm a blood sucker for some ghosties and ghoulies and no one does it better than TAPS... Unfortunately though, they have also taken to showing that British Ghost Invasion program "Most Haunted"... frankly I think they mis-named it.. it should be "Most Annoying"... Never have I watched a program with more grown men screaming like a bunch of 10 year old girly girls! Geez... guys.. I know your English... but suck it up and grow some will ya! One little fly-by by a bat... a little scurrying of a nearby rat... and their off and running... screaming in that high-pitched, fingernails on a chalkboard, shoot me in the head and put me out of my misery, type voice that could normally only emanate from a prepubescent female that just had her favorite doll ripped from her sticky candy-coated hands! And good lord...DON'T let any plaster fall from that crumbling ceiling cause that will not only set off the horrible screaming once again but it will be punctuated with about 15 ear-piercing bleeps as the sensors continually hit the agro-buzzer to cover the swear words... geez... you signed up for a ghost hunt, so quit running away every time something 'odd' happens, ya' sissies! SHEESH!

And then last but not least... "Dead Tenants"... another Travel Channel gem... Where a couple of women mediums go ghost hunting to help poor families deal with their spirit-infested homes... This one could be a decent show, if I could get past the fact that the couple of times I watched the show it was more "sleep-over" than seance... That's right... The girls actually go to sleep on the job... I wonder if they bring their own Aero-beds or if they insist that the clients provide them? They kind of wander around the house - arms outstretched - and give their opinion of what's what... then it's off to bed... only to awaken in the morning to report that they kind of felt they weren't alone during the nite... riveting! At least they don't snore... or maybe they make the editors cut that part out of the finished products...

Anway... bring on the Milk Duds... the fun size packs of M&M's... the jack-o-lanterns... and I'll warm up the VCR so we can do a review of what REAL Halloween TV used to be... A weekend full of Lugosi, Chaney, Price and Lorre... thank god for VHS!
Later...

An Educational Implosion!

Implode: To collapse inward!

This is exactly what is happening down at my beloved alma mater... STCC... I loved my time at STCC so much, I have enrolled the man-child there... NOW?? Now, I'm not so sure I made the right choice for him...

Here is the latest in the in-fighting going on on campus: STCC: Campus safe

Frankly... I don't care if the fighting is justified... if it's the crime rate that caused the dip in enrollment... if it was the new President that caused it... if STCC made the right choice of a CT Marketing firm... and I sure as hell don't care that STCC has changed their logo! What I do care about is "How well they are getting the job of educating my son done?" and frankly... if your spending time drafting a 2-page "scathing" letter to the President... not to mention the contract negotiations... the budget cuts... the firing of 5 administrators... the increase in tuition... the work-to-rule crap... getting security to escort fired employees off campus... the city being pissed about the statement that it's the crime rate that caused enrollment to drop...

I'm afraid the answer is probably "NOT VERY WELL!"

Well... pre-registration for next semester begins in a week or so... I tell you... I'm more than a little reluctant to re-up the kid on a campus that can't get it's own politics squared away! It's all just another entry on the side of "cutting and running" on the "Register at STCC" spreadsheet!

Tennessee U... here we come?????
Later...

Wilma.

Another hurricane... Wilma... again with the potential to send people back to living like the Flintstones... ha.. get it.. Wilma.. the Flintstones... yeah.. lame.. ok...

The foliage... anyone else notice how yellow it is this year? Maybe tonites frost will help with the lovely oranges and reds on the few leaves that remain. Not that it matters much, my camera is STILL in Holland. Mr. 9 2 Bays two week emergency trip to Holland has developed into a three week trip... Lucky him!

Propane prices... can you say freakin' $2.679 per gallon from Osterman Gas? Can you also say, seeking NEW gas company? I ended up with these guys by default as it is when they purchased Gilbertville Bottled Gas.. Who knows if there is anyone cheaper? But I intend to find out! Only problem is they kind of have you locked in. If you switch propane companies, you also have to switch your propane tank! So that means the potential of a day or so with no heat and potentially a cost associated with the removal of the old tank and the setup of the new. Again, life is hard! In the meantime the manchild has been told to suck it up and put on a sweater! I'm telling you, selling out and moving someplace warmer is sounding more and more like a plan! I'd miss the fall but hey, I can always just schedule a vacation in NH for Columbus Day weekend like the sane people in the rest of the country, peep at the leaves and then beat it outta here before the furnaces have a chance to kick on and start to burn your retirement fund! Yeah.. well, we'll see....

Later...

A Fungus Among Us...

And still more rain... we are all going to start sprouting mosses and mushrooms before you know it... I tell you, it's getting REALLY hard to get out of bed in the morning, and as for going out once you do get up.. forget about it... From what I hear from family there are a couple of church bazaars going on this weekend out in Spencer and I guess some of the sibs are going, me? I think I'm up for a long stretch on the couch, a bowl of hot tomato soup, and the newest DVD "The Day the Earth Stood Still"... how fitting huh? yup... gonna do a little "standing still" myself here... I've seen this movie a thousand times... you know the one.. with Gort and the spaceship landing in Washington DC... it's a classic... as many times as I've watched it there is still one thing that baffles me... The "Spaceman" makes arrangements to show the world the power of his people by making "the world stand still" (hence the title - clever huh?) by shutting down all the power at noon, at which time, he willingly steps into an elevator, only to become stuck like the rest of the world... HA! I guess you can have the intelligence to build a world stopping technology but you still can't tell time!

Oh.. and speaking of movies.. maybe I'll make this a theme and follow it up with a repeat viewing of the movie "Signs"... (spoiler coming, so if you haven't seen it STOP reading right NOW!)... yup... stupid aliens movie day... so you can build a spaceship capable of traveling great distances so you can take over other planets... unfortunately, water acts like acid to you, so what do you do? "Hey, guys, lets head to that planet that is two-thirds water... yeah.. the blue ball over there... Rain Coats?? We don't need no stinking rain coats!" ayup...

Klatu Verata Nikto...

And you thought Squirrels were a problem...

I got these pics from a friend.. don't really know where they came from but if you know who took 'em I'll gladly give them credit here...

So you thought squirrels were a problem at your bird feeder!

Rain, Murder and an Earthquake...

More rain... sheesh... the only bright spot in all this wet is that it isn't cold enough to freeze this crap yet! As it is, the Connecticut was a raging muddy mess yesterday on my way over the Coolidge and from what I understand we could get another 4 inches today and tonite... I'll have to take the camera out this weekend when it returns from Holland and document some of this... High water and colored leaves... pretty! Although with all the wind and rain I can only hope there are some leaves left!

Murder... evil has come to Ware! Some sick bastard broke into the home of an 83 year old woman across from Mary Lane Hospital and beat her to death... from what I've read there was also a fire started, perhaps to cover the crime... How evil do you have to be to do something like this? Unfortunately the answer to that question is VERY scary and leads to answers like "evil enough to do it again"...

An earthquake... seems there was a small tremblor out in Lowell last nite... 1.5 on the scale I believe... I still remember the tremblor we had around here back in 1985... we were living on Pleasant Street in Ware at the time and I remember the whole house shaking... pretty scary and out of control type feeling... the crack that developed in the bathroom wall was pretty disturbing as well! I can only imagine the fear felt in Pakistan this week... What do you do when the ground attacks? These are the type of things that bring control freaks to their knees... there are just some things that won't be controlled... scary!

Later...

Shopping finds...

Here's a couple of forest finds that have been heavily photoshopped...

Camera no, Shop yes

So... my trusty Minolta is in Holland... bummer... I have my old 1.2 Megapixel Olympus but no way to get the low res pics off the card.. So I'm stuck with photoshopping some old pics that I've got kicking around on my hard drive... I suppose I can deal, but it is driving me crazy hoping that my camera will be back before we hit peak foliage... we can only hope! Anyway... here's todays project...

First the untouched original!


Now, the shopped version!



Later...

The Road Less Traveled...

Again, last fall!

Seasonal Rushing...

Fall is late this year due to the lovely warm weather we've been having lately... nope... with the cost of heating fuel, not a complaint in site! So, in a rush of the season, here's a pic of last years peak colors in the Quabbin...

Lonely chairs...

Almost time to put them away for the winter... :(

Gravy in the wine or Why I hate women's pants.

It was a great nite in Western Mass last nite and I got to participate. The Annual Entrepreneurship Hall of Fame dinner was held on top of Mount Tom at the Log Cabin and my dear old friend "The Queen" spotted me a free ticket... Love it... a $125 a plate dinner for the cost of a trip up the mountain... can't be beat... I even ponied up for some new pants... Women's pants at that...

Now.. I'm strictly a jeans and cargo's kinda girl and on top of that I always buy men's jeans and cargos.. that's right MENS... Why you may ask... because of their sizing system... LOVE IT... you walk in, find your waist size, find your inseam size, take them to the register, take them home, put them on, and they FIT! PERFECTLY! Women's pants come in three variations... petite, with a 29 inch inseam... regular, with a 31-32 inch inseam, and tall, with a 34 inch inseam... Me? I'm a 30 inseam... yeah... so petites are 1 inch highwaters on me.. and regulars need to be hemmed an inch or two... What a pain... so I found a great pair of brown mini-plaid women's pants for the party and proceeded to spend the evening stepping on the hems all evening even wearing a decently high heel... Thanks so much... so now if I'm gonna wear them again, I've either gotta hem them or find a seamstress to do it for me.. I'm thinking seamstress... you know... isn't this all backwards? Do men really care if their pants fit perfectly? Women will go through 50 pairs of pants till they find the perfect ones... and yet the men get the inches sizing system... life, and apparently the clothing industry, is cruel.

Anyway.. dinner last nite... it was a lovely affair - seafood manicotti in lobster sauce, lemon sorbet, petite filet mignon in a demiglaze served over wilted spinach and gorganzola grits, and a chocolate rasberry confections for dessert. Lovely right? It was... for everyone at my table... by the end of the meal everyone was watching ME eat... Why? Because I'm me and if something is gonna happen, it'll happen to me..

The manicotti, it was lovely, but they dumped an entire handful of red peppers on mine... did I mention, I hate peppers? Everyone else got 3 or 4 pieces of this hideous garnish, I got an entire scoop... great... let's just pollute the entire dish... thanks so much!

Then came the coffee and the lemon sorbet... which was very good... once I pulled the floating green thing outta my cup! *sigh...

The filet... wonderfully tender and juicy... really juicy... frankly it was still bleeding... I had ordered 'well-done'... so I sent it back... got a fresh cut and when that appeared and I cut into it, people two tables away heard the moanful 'mmooo' as I sliced into the the even redder piece of meat... so.. defeated, I ate the edges and left the cold red blob on it's little bed of spinach to die an unnaturally slow death.

Dessert... eehh.. nothing out of place that I could see, but I'm just not a fan of polluting a lovely dark chocolate with raspberry sugar syrup and kiwi...

And to finish off the meal I grabbed my last few sips of wine... noticed something not quite right, and spotted the giant glob of brown gravy floating in my Chardonnay... damn...

Still being thirsty, I reached for my previously untouched water glass... as I reached across the table - the one fly for miles - flew into the room, exhausted and parched from it's long flight in from Mississippi, did a triple back-flip and dove straight into my glass as we all watched in amazement.

I took my thirsty, long panted and still hungry self out the door and went home. At least I could get home... the one other woman waiting for her valet parked car may still be there... as the valet pulled the burgandy Intrepid to the curb for her, I heard her say... "But I have a bamboo colored Lexus".. HA.. maybe it isn't just me!
Later....

OY...

Yeah... so it's been a busy week. The Red Sox... WOOHOO! A huge flash presentation that needed to be built for a client.. NOW! FIVE newsletters in one week for another client... Mr. 9 2 Bay's three-day-notice of a 2 week business trip to Holland! AND the first meeting of the Man-Childs girlfriend! Life's been a whirlwind and everyone is off to somewhere except for me. Dammit...

The Sox are off to Chicago for the playoff games, it would have been nice if they had taken the AL East, but hey, the wildcard has been the series winner for the past 3 years, so wildcard is nothing to sneeze at....

that Flash presentation is off to Vegas Baby for an educational conference, so my work will make it Vegas before I will, lovely, Vegas has been on the list of places to see for the past year and half.. Oh well.. we'll get there, eventually!

The 5 newsletters are off to New York, Vegas (again), and all across the US, all for music events that I won't get to see... bummer!

Mr. 9 2 Bay is off to Amsterdam and from what I hear they've planned them a weekend trip to Brussels... he's there with 3 of his guys and they have all agreed to make the mission (besides getting the job done that they were sent to do) getting as many stamps as possible in their passports... Hopefully I'll at least get pics via email over the next couple of weeks cause even tho I didn't get to go, my camera did, so hopefully they'll put it to good use and send back some lovely pics we can all look at and I can get pissed that I didn't get to see this stuff in person.

And the Man-Child's new lady friend... an original Oklahomian and now a Hartford resident, she's a lovely girl and seems to be a great match for my son... this is the first girl he's ever brought home, so she MUST be special... we didn't get to spend all that much time getting to know each other, but hopefully we'll get to see each other often. I'm still a little shell-shocked on this one, cause of course I still see the kid as, well, the "kid"... "What is my 12 year old doing with a GIRL?" kind of thing and then on second look.. geez.. he's NINETEEN... and on third look... I'm SO freakin' OLD!...

So that's the week I've had... all kinds of fun things abound.. for everyone but me... me, I'm just working away here, holding down the fort, and trying to comfort a stupid little angry dog that is fit to be tied with strange women in the house and no "Daddy" in sight..

OY!

Love that dirty water...

I don't know what she rolled in... but she paid the price for it!

The coolest Dudes at the Fair...

So we hit the Big E today... OH.. the crowds.. now I remember why we always took a day off from work and went down mid-week.. it was pretty crazy bad.. but not bad enuf to keep us away from the Finnish pancakes.. the steak n' cheese sandwiches... the chowda'... the steak n' cheese... OH.. did I eat those twice.. I guess I did.. the cream puffs with the filling that tastes almost exactly my Aunt Beverly's frosting (YUM!!! It's a German thing...) the fudge.... the candy apple... ok.. so those 2 came home with me for a 'later snack'... But it wasn't all food... only about 80% food... here's a couple of the coolest Dude's we spotted at the Fair.. that's right, I hucked the camera along for the walk.. so here's a couple pics for ya.. I've got to go scrape the melted cheese off the lens cap..

Later

Another Dude...

Stupid Blogger is only letting me upload one image at a time.. your gonna have to scroll... sorry...

Love the leather cuffs...

Evil blossom

I still don't know what kind of flowers these are but they look like if you stuck your finger in the middle of them, you'd pull back a bloody stump!