They're here!

Tami, Katya and Natalia arrived from JFK around 9:45 tonight. Liesel and I are thrilled. After a snack, it's shower and bed time.

Busy day tomorrow as we bring Katya to camp on Sunday.

Bye,

A Happy Grandma Streusel

Rocking in CT

This afternoon when I was bringing something to another dept. where I work, I saw a group of people standing around asking, "Did you feel that?". I didn't know what they were talking about and asked. The response was, "Did you feel the floor move?" I had no idea what they were talking about and when I got back to my dept., there were several groups talking about the same thing. I hadn't felt anything but then I'd been in the supply room which is in the center part of our wing. The co-worker in there helping me didn't either.

I went back to my cube and to work. After all, this isn't CA but CT. About 5 minutes later, we were all told to leave the building. When we were outside, one of the women was on her cell and said that an area north of Ottawa had an earthquake which registered 5.5 and we were feeling the tremors from that. Here we are so many miles away and still felt it.

We were outside for about 45 minutes in the hot sun, temps in the mid or high 80's and high humidity. Thank goodness there was a slight breeze. We then got the all clear and went back inside. Don't know how they knew the building was fine as I can't imagine a structural engineer has been there and gone through the building in 45 minutes.

That was my exciting day at work.

Where does it all come from?

You bring in the mail or print something off the computer. You put a few envelopes or pieces of paper on the kitchen counter. What happened while you went to work? It multiplies! How did my kitchen accumulate so much paperwork? I spent all day going through it. I have lots to shred and put in the garbage. I've filed too. I'm now down to a small pile that needs more time/attention than I have to give it this week. It'll go in a closet to after the Muscovites' visit.

Wow, I've regained the counters. Sure feels good.

Books

I had a coupon for Borders for 40% off one item and it expired today so I HAD to go there tonight. I looked over the display tables near the front of the store, looked over best sellers, Greek Mythology books (for my granddaughter Katya), the sale racks and boxed DVDs. I did buy two young children's books (for a baby shower at work) and a DVD in clearance for myself. I still needed to find something to use the coupon for so decided to buy Katya a Hardy Boys' mystery as she has started reading them. I can't buy any Nancy Drews as I think she's read just about all of them. They had a Hardy Boy mystery that had 3 books in one so into my shopping basket it went.

I know that electronic books are a hot item but I don't think I'd like one of those. I love to browse through bookstores, looking at the intriguing covers, reading the write-up on the back covers and turning the pages.

Are you a paper or electronic reader?

Mushrooms

My lawn now has clusters of little light brown mushrooms popping up. I was concerned about them and called the lawn service that treats my lawn with fertilizer, weed prevention, grub prevention, etc. She told me they are around because of the rains we've had and not to worry about them as they will disappear when we get a dry spell. I was concerned because of my dog but she told me that they are harmless.

Yes, we've had some heavy rains but we've also had gorgeous sunny days so I'm surprised that mushrooms sprouted up. I don't remember getting them before and last summer was a wet one.

Graduation

Today was my cousin's 8th grade graduation. She is a beautiful (inside and out), smart, mature girl and will be now entering high school in the fall and will continue to excel. Her class was small so the kids have formed nice friendships. Not everyone will be going to the public high school in town but to a Catholic high school or area prep schools so they won't see each other on a daily basis.

Our family is very small and I have two first cousins. One is single but doesn't have kids. One is married with two girls. And then there is me, my daughter and her family.

We all were there today (but for my daughter and her family) and my single cousin brought his girlfriend and there 7 of us. It was really nice to be together to celebrate the graduation.

After the ceremony, we all went out to eat and had a delicious meal.

It's hard to believe that at her next graduation, she'll be off to college in two month's time.

Reasons to have a dog

* companionship
* unconditional love
* keep their opinions to themselves
* greet you at the door with a wagging tail
* easy to please
* look at you with their cute faces
* don't care if you put on some weight
* eat the food crumbs that fall on the floor
* faithful buddy
* furry hot water bottle on cold nights
* can keep a secret
* easy to feed as they aren't fussy
* don't talk back
* watchdog - protectors
* and we love them

Berries

I mentioned in a past post about the new discount grocery store in the area and the bargains. Well yesterday I was thrilled to see raspberries on sale for 2 for $3.00 and blackberries for $1 a container. I bought two of each and had one container in my yogurt (1/2 plain and 1/2 vanilla) this morning for breakfast. Tomorrow morning I'll have one container of blackberries. A great way to start my day at work while I'm checking my email.

It's the little things that make me happy.

Cleaning Countdown

Over the holiday weekend, I took the Friday before and the Tuesday after off from work to extend my weeknd, start in on my cleaning and relax. I got the upstairs done and today I did my living room. Next weekend I'll do another one or two rooms and will be further along in my countdown until the Muscovites arrive.

This year I am way ahead of schedule as I started early. I'd planned on doing that last summer before Tami and the girls arrived but unfortunately I came down with the shingles. That put a real hault to the cleaning as I was under the weather.

The reason for all of this is that I like it clean when the kids arrive and I slack off inbetween their visits. Liesel doesn't care how the house is as long as she is fed and with me.

I'm tired and now on the den couch. Liesel buried herself under the down throw and is curled up behind me.

Westport not Westbrook

For two weeks Liesel and I had been looking forward to the dachshund rally yesterday. I gave her a bath yesterday morning so she'd be squeaky clean, soft and sweet smelling. I packed our stuff and off we headed for the dachshund rally.

I'd printed out the directions on Mapquest and when I got to Westbrook, I headed for the Green. The only thing was that I did not recognize it from two years ago when we went to the rally. I kept driving on and stopped at a Mobil station for directions. The attendant was extremely, extremely rude to me for bothering her. Sidenote: I am going to write to Mobil about her as she was horrible and I am a Mobil card carrying customer. I told her how rude she was when she was complaining to a customer that she had better things to do than give directions. A very nice teenage boy told me where the town green was. Off I drove and still did not recognize the place. I stopped at another gas station and showed a man coming out from paying my flyer. He was so nice and told me that I was suppose to be in Westport and that I was in Westbrook. Duh!!!!! I guess when I went to Mapquest, I put in Westbrook instead of Westport as I'd read the flyer too quickly. Both are off of RT. 95 along the CT shore. The dachshund event was from 1-3 and it was almost 1:30 and I was an hour away so I headed back towards home.

Since we had lots of time, I went to the scrapbook store in Westbrook and Liesel and I shopped. She sat in the shopping cart and looked cute and was so good. Then we stopped at the ice cream shop. While I had a root beer float, she had a doggie serving of vanilla ice cream (which was free). I also gave her my scoop of vanilla ice cream from my float. She'd never had ice cream before and loved it.

On our way home, we stopped at my girlfriend's as she and her husband had done some redecorating and she'd wanted me to see it. Their backyard is fenced in for their two little dogs so Liesel had a great playdate and had lots of fun. She is very social and used to other dogs from her Wednesdays at doggie daycare each week.

Fast forward to around 9:00, both of us were on the couch under the down throw watching a TV movie. Liesel was stretched out on her side half on me fast asleep while I rubbed her chest. My buddy.

P.S. I just wrote my letter to Customer Service at Mobil and will call them in the morning for the correct mailing address.

Hot Water Part II

My neighbor the plumber came by this morning to look at the hot water heater and all I know is that whatever he did worked as I had hot water. He was going to stop by later in the afternoon to look at it so I gave him a key as I was going out to do errands. I came home around 5:30 and still have hot water so I'm a happy camper.

Sure was nice to be able to wash my dinner dishes in hot soapy water tonight.

I took today off from work and also did the same last Friday so I had a nice long holiday weekend. It's sadly back to work tomorrow.

I wanted to get a headstart to getting the house in order for my daughter and granddaughters' visit later this month and made a good dent. I also had a night scrapbooking, a day at one of the CT beaches and an afternoon reading on the deck. Good weekend.