Happy Birthday!

Happy birthday to my daughter! I stayed up so that I could call her just after midnight to be the first to wish her a happy birthday before she headed off to school this morning.

As I say to myself each year on her birthday, "I sure feel better today than I did ** years ago!" Dread the year that I felt better in labor than in the current year!

Have a great day Tami! Love you lots!

My Evening With The Boys

My daughter's best friend from college days moved to the area a few months ago as her husband started a new job. They have two boys the ages of my granddaughters. My granddaughter is named Katya because of Katya.

Out of grad school, the two couples lived a few blocks from each other in Ann Arbor as Ian & Katya were working in the greater Detroit area law school at the U of Michigan brought my SIL and daughter to the area. The couples saw each other all the time and really enjoyed being near one another. They both had babies 3 months apart. When my SIL finished law school, they moved to Brooklyn and the families have not seen other but for very brief visits.

This summer will be great as they all will get to spend a lot of time together and the 4 kids can renew their friendships.

I'd told Katya and Ian that I would love to babysit when needed. They had not yet taken me up on my offer so earlier this week I emailed that I was free on Saturday night (which is the norm) and if they'd like a night out, I'd love to go over to be with the boys. She emailed back right away that they'd love it.

I had an email on Friday from Ian that the night before when putting his younger son to bed, Nik told him to tell me that he was excited that I was coming over the next night. Sure made my day! When I arrived on Saturday, I got the biggest bear hug from Nik.

The boys had been busy down in the playroom with empty moving boxes and cushions and I helped with the "fort" building. Then I went upstairs to make grilled cheese sandwiches and heat up tomato soup. After supper, we had frozen yoghurt and Nik and I made a cake and baked them in individual foil stars. They did not come out too pretty as it was hard to judge how much batter to fill each one with. They tasted fine though. We watched a little TV and Nik and I played Go Fish. Before we knew it, it was time for bed and bedtime stories.

A fun night spent with two bright, well mannered and very sweet boys. I told their parents to please call me whenever they need a night out or have a school meeting or whatever.

After being there a few hours, their dog even let me pat him. He's shy and not like my dog.

Taxes!!!!!!!!

Tonight's big news on the local TV news is how our new governor wants to raise taxes and guess who will be the hardest hit? Yup, we in the middle class! I am not happy.

Melting

Woke this morning to the sun coming inside my Eastern bedroom window. That's New England. One day it's drizzly and freezing rain and the next it's sunny and 44 degrees (in the shade). That didn't make me want to get up though. My luxury on Sundays is to stay in bed reading - love it. Since I have a dog that is content to snooze in her crate, I can do that. I never bring her up to bed with me on Saturday nights as I want my read and snooze in bed Sunday morning.

Finished my book and got up to my day - starting laundry and make a big breakfast (or should I say lunch).

Everything is dripping outside. If I were younger, had more muscle and not afraid of going up the ladder, I'd be outside scrapping the roof and chipping away on the melting ice in the gutters. Since I am none of the above, I watch it drip and hope it doesn't come inside.

I gave a fleeting thought to hanging out my sheets and towels but the ice on the back side of the deck had a big influence on my deciding to use the dryer. I did go out and shovel the wet, very heavy remaining snow on the back of the deck. That's when I discovered the ice underneath it. Now the sun can melt it so maybe next weekend I can hang out. My mother hung out all winter long so it's what I'm used to.

I gave Liesel a barbecued marrow bone so that kept her amused for a few hours. Once she got all the meat off it, she left it on her mat. I'm sure she'll go back to it.

Hallmark channel has a "Murder She Wrote" marathon all weekend so I've had the kitchen TV on while I scrapbook.

More Snow

Yes, we are getting another storm and it's a two parter again. First we are getting 3 - 6 inches of snow and then it'll turn to sleet, freezing rain and then rain into the second day.

Guess I'll be WFH again with my laptop.

I bet the moms and dads home with the kids will be pulling their hair out.

But, we're getting more snow on the weekend too.

Sure hope my roof doesn't cave in or leak and that the gutters don't either.

This is a winter for the record books here in CT.

Everyone get out tomorrow to buy the necessities - bread, milk and chocolate.

Unexpected Phone Call, Lunch & A Movie

This morning the phone woke me up and a forgotten voice was on the other end. One of my college friends was in the area for her grandson's hockey game and saw the name of my town and gave me a call from the car. She was only going to be in the area for two hours and I couldn't make it as I had plans for later in the AM. We talked for an hour and sorta caught up. What a nice surprise and way to start my day. Chatting with a college friend and my dog was curled up at my feet.

A friend and I met for lunch at her club. There is a deck outside of the dining room and large windows. While sitting at our table, we looked at the fire going in the stone fireplace or out the windows at what was taking place. There was a man out there with a chain saw and some small tools working on a huge clump of snow and making a sculpture. We left before it was done but think it was a bear.

Next was the movies to see "The King's Speech". One word for it - FANTASTIC! I encourage everyone to see it. Wonderful acting and beautiful scenery and costumes. I emailed my friend from London and she said that it was very accurate. I never knew that the King had a stuttering problem and what he went through.

Now I'm home after a haircut and grocery shopping and sitting at the kitchen table with my laptop and watching a movie on the kitchen TV.

Great day. Tomorrow I need to do my year end self-appraisal for work. HATE, HATE, HATE doing those. I've been way too busy to work on it at work so tomorrow is the day. Hopefully it won't take up too big a chunk of my afternoon.

Scrappy Weekend

I finally got back to my Friday night scrapbooking and knowing it was coming got me through the week. Loading the car was challenging as my driveway is sheer ice. I'm quite afraid of ice as that's how I broke my elbow some years back.

Got home late that night and left all my bags in the trunk to unload the next day. I did not want to take any chances of falling.

After being out Friday night, the rest of my weekend was spent in fleece pj pants, turtleneck and sweatshirt. Lazy weekend with reading in bed each morning, cooking a big brunch and meals, scrapping and knitting while watching/listening to Hallmark station movies.

Of course the house desparetly needs cleaning but ... Liesel and I don't care. It's more fun to do what we want. She spent a lot of time on the floor by the heater vent sleeping, watching me or working on her dental chew toy. The life of a dog... Forgot that she has to go out in the bitter cold to go to the bathroom so that's not a good thing. It was down in the single digits during the night and we're due for a few bitterly cold days ahead.